Out With A Bang!

A little girl braided my hair and it looked absolutely awful!

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE WEEK.  This week was a rainy insane week!

Welcome to humidity

Every morning starting at 5 am we heard marching bands practicing because today is the day of parades in Guatemala, aka INDEPENDENCE DAY GUATE STYLE.  Goodness gracious these people are proud to be Guatemalans. :)  I'm proud to be Guatemalan too, I adore this country. and their choices of marching band songs! :)

Anyway this week flew by.  It FLEW. probably because everyday we were working so hard with the familia Garcia, but it was so worth it because on Saturday night they were baptized:)  I want to tell their story so here goes :)

There were so many people who were involved in their conversion, I can't take credit for anything, it was a group effort, like they say, it takes a village, or a whole zone to baptize a family :)

Two months ago we had an activity in the central park of our town where we displayed artwork from the chapel.  I think that's allowed haha, and we contacted a lot of people with the ward members.  I was talking to someone when my comp came over and said hey the zone leaders want us to go talk to a family they just met that is really positive, so I'm like okay duh lets go.  That was when we met the familia Garcia.  I remember being so impressed with them because it was the mom, dad and 7 kids all out in the park just spending time together.  They told us they would go to church the next day.  They didn't and we didn't end up seeing them again till like one and a half months later.  But the cool part is what happened before we even met them.   Hno.  Carlos, the dad, had been walking through the park when he saw a bunch of art, he thought it looked interesting so he called his wife and said bring the kids down I want to show you guys something.  Little did he know that at that exact moment his wife had been on her knees praying beside her bed that her husband would be converted.  She told us that she was praying and asked for him to be converted into whichever religion, la mormona, los testigos, catolica, she didn't care, she just wanted him converted!  She packed up the kids and headed down to the park.  She said she stopped on the corner and saw her husband talking to a missionary, our zone leader,  Elder Crookston, and she just thought okay Lord, let it be the Mormon Church, convert him to that church!  Then we met them a few minutes later.  We lost contact with them for a while until my new comp one day found our bag of references from that activity and was like let's give it a try!  So we did and by some miracle a wrong number led us to the right number, we were put in contact with Angelica and the next day we met them at their house.  They have a big set of stairs that are really steep that lead up to their house and I remember the first time I saw them I just thought, I wonder if this will be the first of many times I'll go up these stairs, little did I know then :) We began to teach them and everything just fit so easily to their family.  Three weeks after that day they were baptized. :)  One of my favorite memories with them was this week when we brought them their baptismal clothes and they were trying it on.  Karina, the 13 year old, saw her dad and just went, you look like an angel daddy!  He was so cute he was like so will we walk down to the baptism in these clothes or change there?   Karina goes, walk?  No you'll fly down there daddy!  You're an angel after all! :)  This week wasn't easy at all for them, we passed through a lot of tears and long discussions with them but in the end, they were baptized, and their future is so bright!!!!!!!!!! 

On Sunday I was sitting up with them waiting for their confirmations and the bishop passed by me and was like,  "Tranquila Hermana Moore, not too happy!"  Hahaha, I couldn't help it, I was beaming ear to ear!  There is nothing better than baptizing families.  Nothing! :)  My comp and I sang a fun musical number at the baptism, p.s. my comp is an amazing singer!  We sang the words of Cuando Hay Amor (or love at home) to the tune of Israel Jesus Os Llama (Israel Israel God Is Calling).  It was a nice arrangement and we all felt the Spirit nice and strong.  Sweet Hno. Rolando told me that I have the prettiest singing voice in the world, granted I could be tone deaf and he would probably say the same thing, I just love the stars in his eyes that the Gospel has brought him.

This week we worked a lot with ym convert Abelino.  He was a convert that we worked with for month and once he finally got baptized he just changed his life entirely!  Now he goes out with us a lot and always gives us references.  It makes my heart feel so happy. 

Look who found me!  Old converts! I cried! 

They ran up to me screaming Hermana Mooooooore!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh other fun things, this week our whole mission went to an amusement park called Xetulul, we made our goal as a mission in terms of baptisms so president treated us to a fun day at XETULUL. Look it up.  It was as classy as Disneyland but in the middle of the jungle.  When I was on the rollercoaster and we went down the big hill and I was over a jungle I just about cried.  I'm pretty sure I'm the luckiest girl in the world :)  It was such a fun day and I truly just love being a missionary :)

The giant Mayan Temple at Xetulu

The San Fran girls were unforgettable!

On the rollercoaster!

Thats all I've got time for.  I learned last night that I'll be having changes from this area on Wednesday, not sure where I'll be going but I know it's what the Lord wants.  I'm pretty sad but I know that great things are on the horizon! :) 

Look who's working out again!

Made a healthy breakfast.

love love love,

hermana moore

p.s. Something that saved me this week was 1 Corinthians 12.  Best chapter ever. :)