Vamos a la Playa......;)

Hola hola!  Another wonderful week in La Esperanza, Coatepeque, Guatemala!  This week was... how did I put it that one time... something about rainbows and butterflies and sunshine....?  Well this week was not that.  Mission reality check for the entire world... missions aren't easy.  Sometimes you contact for 6 hours straight in the rain and have 1 lesson.  But there's no such thing as a bad day in the mission.... there are good days and there are BETTER days.  We just work as hard as we can to have more better days than good days.  And every once in a while we get a best day. :)  Those are increíbles. 

Roomie love! Our neighbors brought over 35 bananas, not sure why.  We made smoothies!  I love these girls so much!  Living with 4 is a life saver.

It's the less than the best days that really make us count our blessings.  I was reading in Romans this week, chapter 8 verse 31... this brought me so much comfort.  If God be with you, who can be against us?  I have the name of the most powerful and loving person ever on my shirt.  I have no reason to be sad, ever!  I know  I've said this before, but when  I'm having a hard time I just look at the pic of my sweet family in my scriptures and remember that at least I've got those wonderful people forever and ever!  And for those who don't have that eternal family quite yet, like a few of the jovenes we were preparing for baptism but couldn't get permission from their parents, there is hope.  Never forget what it says in Romans 8:38-39.  The Lord LOVES us.  He WILL help us!  I know that these sweet little ones will get the opportunity to be baptized one day, but I also know that nothing can separate them from God´s love, nothing!  Never lose hope, learned a lot about that this week. 

A sweet family we are teaching referred by some recent converts. They may be baptized next week!

in other news, we contacted alot this week! ALOT.  Ha and we taught in some hilar places.  My favorite being a panaderia!  Haha yeah we def taught in a place where they make the oh so delicious pan dulce, too bad I saw how they make it... I may or may not be turned off from pan forever.  Let's just say sanitation isn't really a precaution here!  Ick!  But it smelled yummy :)  Another place was a carpinteria.  I felt all sorta of close to the birth of Jesus.  The smell of wood, it was lovely.  And the last one... my least favorite.... in a slaughter house, or should I say slaughter yard?  Yeah we found a menos activo who kills pigs for a living.  Luckily we showed up AFTER he killed the pigs but nonetheless they were sitting there, the pig carcasses, yes more than one.  And he was just hacking away at them! breaking bones ripping off feet.  And the worst part was when I looked over at the tree and saw the intestines and liver hanging on the tree!  What...... is my life a horror movie!?  He had blood all over him and wanted to shake our hands!  I could have puked!  Let's just say I RAN out of that house, we are going back another day AFTER work!

So people, the church is true everywhere and mas o menos it's the same all over the world!  We had the primary program this week! AH!  It brought our asistencia up so much!  SO MUCH!   Miracles!  But the greatest miracle in this sweet primary program was when my baby boy Jerico got up and shared his testimony and D&C 112:10.  Oh my goodness there goes my heart!  I love that sweet boy!  We had a lesson with him this week and we were reading the scriptures and we read 1 nefi 3:7.  So I was like okay Jerico what does iré y haré mean?  And he was like hacer caso?  That means to be obedient... and I was like YESSSSSS!!!!  My sweet convert gets it!  And he has officially made himself the ward greeter.  He goes around and shakes everyones hand and kisses all the women on the cheek. Sometimes I let him because I just love him so much!  Oh and in the lesson we marked the scripture so he could share it in FHE.  Ah, be still my heart!  I love my converts here.  They are my very best friends! :)

This week we made some food, of course!  Ha weren't you all waiting for this part of the email?  I know you were!  I taught the relief society how to make cinnamon rolls this week!  

We had so much fun!  And they loved them!  Maybe I'll bring the cinnamon roll to guatemala!  Also we made fetuccine alfredo for the bishopric!  Oh my I love pasta.  

my alfredo sauce turned out a little clumpy but I just told them that's how we eat it!

I love the food here but sometimes I miss some good pasta.  But it was so weird to eat without tortillas.  I like need tortillas when I eat anything now!  Oh Gautemala, what have you done to me! :) 

burnt the garlic bread. Like mother like daughter!

Funny story, when Guatemalans are drunk, they have the gift of tongues!  I'm not joking they can all of a sudden speak English!  So this man was asking us what the word procrastination means.  And then he started talking to us and was like oh your name is Sister Moore!  Wait what?  It's so weird to hear someone call me Sister Moore!  Sorry but my name is HERMANA Moore. :)  Always and forever. I love this language; but we have met a ton of English speakers lately!  That's always fun! :) 

So today we had a really fun p day!  We went to the beach!  

Tilapa, Guatemala

And the border of Mexico! ha!  I almost touched Mexico!  But instead I just took a pic at the border.

 I didn't cross the line!

  Dang fetch it was hot there.  Then we went to the beach and cooled off a bit........................ HA!  Jokes, did I scare you a bit there?  No we did not get in the water, duh, but we did enjoy a nice ocean breeze.  

We built sand castles and collected seashells and then ate sea food.... haha I know what you're thinking, mom.  I hope I don't get sick.  All I had was ceviche.... its like salsa with shrimp in it!  So I'll uh.... let you know how that one goes!  But I'm really content right now, great p day.  I'm sun burnt and sandy but really happy. :) 

a lovely dock at the beach

Learned a lot this week, but I'm excited for this coming week. I'm working on having faith unto miracles.  Faith is such a simple thing, but it truly can move mountains! 

Well all, I adore you!  Thank you for your sweet emails and pictures, they make my day! 

love love love,

Hermana Moore 

Sweating In Coatapeque

Well, good news, winter is over! bad news, summer has begun.... and it won't end until NEXT SEPTEMBER.  Oh my gosh.  I thought I hated the rain but wow now I realize it was a nice refresher everyday.  We just sweat all day long here.  Literally by 10:15 am I'm like did I really just shower two hours ago?  It feels like I just went swimming!  But, I'll learn to love it... right?  Pray for me?

This week seriously FLEW by. I cant believe it's already over.  It still feels like last Monday!  But here we are, time is flying by and I just gotta run with it!  This week we had a lot of cool things happen.  

We learned how to make Papusas!

Papusas cooking on the stove

Finished product 

We had an activity in our ward this week, we worked super hard on it and it just didn't go as planned.  But we just roll with the punches here so it ended up being super great!  That is something I am learning from my sweet comp, Hermana Fusi, she just rolls with everything!  We are stuck here for an hour, hey no big deal let's become best friends with everyone here!  

pie eating contest at our activity

Just live life to the fullest as it comes to you. So at our activity we ended up just playing basketball and volleyball with the people that came but wow, people came!  And they stayed!  We had almost 50 people there!  That's almost as much as sacrament meeting here, so that was a small miracle!  

That's my Bishop on the left.  He reminds me of Uncle Darin

So we are playing volleyball when all of a sudden I turn around and a FAMILY I don't know walks in.  What the what?  So we go up and turns out we had invited one of their sons to the activity just randomly in the street one day... so the whole family came!  AHHHHHHHHH.  So we contacted them yesterday and now we are teaching them!  They rock!  So yeah the activity was a total success, because we got a family out of it!  I'm still baffled! :)  It doesn't matter that it didn't go according to plan, everyone had fun!  I'm really learning how to let go here in the mission!  Getting all Hawaii like Tim, hahaha! 

Oh and a funny note, that family that we found at the activity... turns out I had talked to her before! When we got to their house, according to their directions, it just happened to be the first door I had ever knocked on here in the mission.  I'm not kidding!  Things are coming full circle here in Coatepeque! Haha and funny thing, the street they live on has a grafitied wall that says "death wish".  You can imagine how excited I was to go down my first street contacting on my first day.  I just laugh at it now! Nothing scares me! 

Another thing we did this week was do an area attack in another ward in our zone!  All the missionaries showed up at their chapel at 6 am on Wednesday and then we had breakfast and then we received our "new companions"!  They had a bunch of youth from their ward come to do divisions with us!  

So we were assigned this joven named Browlio!  This kid is pilas!  That means super smart!  We contacted up a storm and even picked up another companion on the way!  He is a recent convert!  We had a great day with them! :)  I'm so excited for the people heading out on missions!  I heard that Natalie Bullough just got her mission call to Quetzaltenango Guatemala! Wow!!!!!!!!  That sweet girl has always impressed me so much!  I'm so excited for her!!!!!

SO I'm a little sick, I stayed in another hermana's house for divisions and it was super humid and moldy, and I'm blaming that on my sickness.  I have this great cough that just gets worse when I'm in the street or contacting.  It's really great.  Good thing Guatemala has no laws for eco friendly fumes, theres so much crap in the air!  But I'm slowly but surely getting rid of this tos, that's cough. 

This week we had lunch with the sweetest woman.  So humble, so much love for us and the Savior!  I adore this sweet woman!  She's a little one, my comp got a hilar pic of me and her.  She comes up to me rib cage, no joke.  

Proof that I'm a giant out here!

They like begged us to come over for lunch.  They have nothing, but they helped us!  So sweet!  I need to learn to be more like them, just so willing to serve!  I love sweet Hermana Alisia!

Editor's note: So I enlarged the picture above to get a good look at a typical Guatemala kitchen and noticed a little friend crawling up the cabinet below the green pot.  I emailed Erica about it and she responded that yes, it was a cockroach and "Welcome to my life....morning, midday and night!"

She wants us to come back again before I have transfers, I'm so excited!  I wanted to make them something special!  It's just her and her grand daughter that live there.  The rest of their family died!  So sad; but they are so strong!

Our relief society is doing classes on how to make cakes and we participated this week!  So fun!  I learned how to make cakes with my hands, no beaters necessary.  So funny being covered in dough up to my elbows!  

And what a workout!  But it was fun!  And I learned how to make a yummy cake! Next week I'm teaching them how to make cinnamon rolls! :)  I'm way excited! 

In terms of p-day activities today.... I went SHOPPING.  In a real deal mall.  In a store like Forever 21! Ah I about died!  Then we ate in a food court.  Oh my goodness.   People.... appreciate fast food for me.  I only eat cereal and yogurt here. and tortillas. and chicken. hahaha  But I miss me some Cafe Rio sweet pork salad! :)  Oh and this morning I washed ALL of my clothes. yep. all of it.  It took two hours and now my knuckles are raw.  Everyone, go give your washing machine a hug!  A BIG HUG!  I'll never complain about doing laundry again. :) 

I actually wrote some letters today so if your lucky, look for a letter in your mailbox in like..... 6 months! :)  By the way, I love receiving letters, so write me! :)  I'll write back! :)  Who knows if it'll ever get there but here's hoping! 

So funny thing that happened this week:  I am famous for my rain boots in this town. HA!  We contacted a family the other day and it had been raining just a little and they let us in.  But in a few minutes they asked me where my rain boots were.  Now understand that I've never met these people before... they were like yeah your big green botas! HA!  They said they've seen me around town in them and they were always so fascinated by them!  Well yeah they are the size of their youngest child! hahahaha.  That cracked me up.  But I think they like them because they always ask me where I bought them! 

Christmas is here already!

Oh and goodness gracious, tomorrow marks 5 MONTHS OF ME BEING ON MY MISSION!  Wow.

Time flies when your working hard!

Anyways, I love you all!  Dearly!  Praying for you always! :)

love love love,

Hermana Moore 

Fiebre, Fiambre and Food Food Food!

Wow, another week - another p day! :)  This week I was looking at the pictures I took and wow, they are ALL of food.  Welcome to my life. haha  Will you all still love me when they have to roll me off the plane in a year??  But really this week was all about food!  First off, to explain the title of this email since it is in Spanish... fiebre means fever! yay. yep.  So here is the story.  People fed us street food which is against the rules...  I learned this week WHY it is against the rules.  I spent the whole night puking. woooooo.  Good thing there was a bucket in the bathroom, that's all I have to say.  Grossed out yet?  Get used to it!  We in Guatemala people!   But one amazing thing was I got my package from you guys that day.  So I woke up after sleeping all day and there were brownies and gold fish and love from home!  I about died!  Thank you thank you thank you. I love you all too much! :)  And tell Natalie Jensen she is such a cutie!  I love her little letters! :)  But I was down for a day this week with fiebre and you know... all that comes from food sickness.  So I'm never eating chuchitos ever again, until Navidad. everyone tells me that all people will feed us during Christmas. great! 

(note from the editor:  I'm assuming chuchitos means street food?)

divisions with Hermana Maye in a house made of mold, now I'm sick.  I blame this house!
I spent Halloween at this house.

Next thing,  FIAMBRE.  Okay fiambre is bigger than Thanksgiving in the United States. these people LOVE their fiambre!  Fiambre is basically a meat salad.  Not joking.  There are 4 types of sausages, 4 types of lunch meat type things, chicken, steak, ground beef, you name it.  It's in fiambre!  Oh and hot dogs, don't forget those; but they put that in everything anyways! haha.  So it's all the meat, then with every type of vegetable that you would ever want to keep in a jar of vinegar.  So imagine a salad bar and the meat section of the supermarket got together and threw a party, that is fiambre.  

Anyways, EVERYONE raves about fiambre.  And lucky us, we had it twice this week!  It's a delicacy here, because its pretty expensive.  So we had it with the Guinacs and then with Hermana Baechli the next day.  

Most Gringos hate it but I actually liked it!  It wasn't my favorite thing in the world; but with tostadas, anything is possible!  I'll have to make it for you when I get home.  I think Dad would really like it.  I liked it all, except the black sausage... sausage just shouldn't be black?  Who knows.  And the second time we ate it we just smothered it in salsa dulce, or ketchup, and wow.... improvement! hahaha. I'm a ketchup person now, and a chile person.  I'm a huge spicy food fan.  You can't really not like spicy food and live here.  It's like a sin.  Almost as bad as not eating tortillas.  It's the santo tortilla! hahaha not kidding. :)

One more thing about food, I baked a lot this week!  We made cinnamon rolls for our district meeting and it felt like I was home again! ahhhhh. :)  

Also we made a cake for the baptism this weekend!  A lady in our ward wanted to teach us how to make carrot cake!  So we did!  This woman is passionate about baking, she doesn't need a spoon, she uses her arm to mix that thing up!  Inspirational!  I'll never use a mixer again! 

So this week, Nehemias got baptized!  

At least we think that is his name, he spelled it Nemias; but I am positive it has an h!  He is this awesome kid who two weeks ago came to his friend's baptism and after the service he was like, Hermanas... I have to get baptized!  So he did!  Sweetest kid!  He has such a desire!  And wow, the hombres jovenes basically did the whole service!  They gave the talks, the prayers and they were the majority of the people there!  We have some rockin youth!  In 3-4 years this ward is going to send out like 10 missionaries, and they are gonna change the world!  

The baptism was great, I have been so incredibly blessed this month with people who are just so ready.  It makes this work so much easier when we just find the people who are ready! :)  I feel like my faith has grown so much this month.  I cant wait to echar fuego in November!  We got some big goals and we are going to work HARD!  This month is going to rock :) 

(Editor's note again:  I discussed the two words "echar fuego" with my Hispanic coworkers and they had never heard that and thought it was a Guatemalan expression for working hard?)

Funny stories of this week: I taught a lesson fearing for my life the entire time... there was a turkey the size of Ollie, our old dog, strutting its stuff right next to me.  I thought he was going to kill me! Turkeys exist outside of zoos.  They actually exist in houses too!  Freakin turkey.  So ugly.

random picture of foot tan lines!

Also,  I'm feeling good about my after the mission marriage prospects!  A man named Francisco declared his everlasting love for me this week.  It was quite magical.  We only knew each other for 2 minutes before he boldly declared, "Estoy enamorado con usted"!  (I'm in love with you!)  I figure after the mission if nothing else works out, I can always come back for this 80 year old drunk man with one foot.  The future is bright! 

When we were cooking cake I was attempting to grate carrots, zesting lemons anyone?, and I cut myself. so I was like "Ow"!  Then Jerico goes, "Porque llora la Gringa así"?   Hahahahahahahahahaha This kid.  I love him!  Basically he was like, "Why is the white girl crying like that?"  He is 11.  He is so funny!  Love my baby boy! :)

making carrot cake with two of my favorite converts, Natividad and Jerico

Other news..... I'm losing my hair!  Woooo, yay for stress.  I'll come back fat and bald!  Like I said, the future is bright!

But really, I'm loving life right now.  It's just wonderful being on the Lord's errand.  Thanks for all the love and emails and packages and letters.- they get me through the hard days! :)

love love love,

Hermana Moore 

Families Are Forever

HOLAAAA!!!!!!! what a week!  I just feel like  say the same thing every week, that this week was amazing and it went by much too fast!  So biggest thing that happened this week...... MY FIRST FAMILY BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.  

And wow, it will not be my last if I have anything to do with it. Baptizing families is like having ice cream with 5 cherries on top; because the whole gospel is focused on families, so when you teach families, and then baptize them, its just so .... natural?  It just feels right.  That is how its been with the familia Giron. So this Saturday Luis se bautizò!  We also had the baptism of Marisol, she is the older sister on Jerico. :)  But back to the family. I ADORE this family. I seriously... I just can't even describe it.  They are like my best friends.  The baptism was beautiful.  These people are incredible!  The Giron familia invited some friends to the baptism, as in they gave us references and brought them!  The people they brought, a family!  Who doesn't go to a church!  It was like Christmas morning!  They brought them to church on Sunday too and now we are teaching them!  Oh my incredible member missionary work!  After the baptism we were all talking and Luis, the husband, was like only 11 more months until we can go to the temple together, I'm counting! WAIT WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS?  They are amazing!  We gave them a pic of the temple and they put it on their wall!  I'm getting them to the temple and  I'm going with them in one year!  I'm doing it!  It's funny when I was in the MTC I was like, okay I've got roughly 4 months to find a family, baptize them and then go to the temple with them before I have to leave Guatemala. And bam!  The Lord is a God of miracles.  When we are worthy and willing to work, He truly makes us His instruments.  How grateful am I for that!  Then Marisol se bautizò tambien!  

This girl and her two siblings are results of MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK!  It's all about working together people, all about that!  She took a little longer than her siblings but it didn't matter, when I saw her face after she got baptized, wow. she was beaming.  That sweet girl!  She is one of my soul sisters.  I hope I can see her again later in life when she has a family and is serving in the church!  Today is her 16th birthday, we are bringing her a cake :)  I love her!  Oh my. I never quite imagined just how in love with these people I would be.  I just adore them.  Who knew I had so many soul siblings here in Guatemala!

So for the baptisms I made a cake, as usual, but since it was my first family I went above and beyond and made TWO cakes!  Hahaha really I just wanted to make a piña cake and then people asked for chocolate too!  So I tried pineapple upside down cake!  Yum!  

Welcome to the Jungle!

I´m here again, another week has passed!  This week was kind of long but it's just because there were LOTS of changes. Like this week, I ended my training... I´m a real deal missionary now! haha  Well I was before but now I know what I´m doing, or so they tell me? haha jokes. 

So another change this week, I got a new companion!  

My new comp is Hermana Fusi and she is Tongan! She is super awesome, she is really different from my last companion but so incredible too! We are really going to focus on bettering our ward relations this change. This ward has such great potential, it just needs a little boost!  But with that being said, I adore my ward. I never want to leave! ah! So yeah, new comp and it's gonna be an adventure! We are both so ready to work work work! :)

Can I just talk about the best thing in the world that happened this week? JOSÈ GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!  

People, you don't even understand how incredible this is. I have been working with Josè since my first day in the mission!!!! Like literally he was the first person I personally challenged to baptism... and 3 months later he finally made it!   It's been quite the rollercoaster with this kid but wow, it was just full of miracles. He is a stellar kid, he is 15 and after he got baptized he was like, Hermana Moore I am going on a mission in 3 years, I'm counting!  Ahhhhhh brings tears to my eyes!  

One thing I LOVE about the youth here is that they alllllll want to serve missions.  They realize how crucial this work is! ah!  So Josè got baptized and it was one of the happiest things ever. :)  This kid is going places. We got some pretty hilar pictures.  

This pic is my favorite.  We have a love/hate relationship!

Then after the baptism one of our investigators came up to talk to us. His name is Nehemias and he is a friend of Jose, Jose actually brought him to church for the first time! So anyways Nehemias was like Hermanas can I talk to you?  And we are like.... yeah!  So he was like,  Hermanas I want you to give me the baptism talks. I want to get baptized, next week!  I'm home all the time, you can literally come over WHENEVER.  I was just like wait..... deja vu???  This literal same exact thing happened last week with Jose!  The baptism bug is going around people!  So I like started crying and I'm like yeah we will teach you and come to church tomorrow! ah!  So look for his baptism in the next couple weeks :)  The spirit at the baptismal services is just indescribable.  It's my favorite thing to do on a Saturday night :)  Lucky us, or should I say blessed us, we have a baptism this Saturday too! MY FIRST FAMILY WILL BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY.  I can't even describe to you how happy I am.  The mission is just like a pot full of joy and gold and sprinkles and butterflies.  That is how I feel about my Saturday nights.  Before the baptisms I feel like a chicken running around with my head cut off, but its all so so worth it!  

Making cookies and cakes for the baptism

For all those reading, stop what you are doing right now and go call the missionaries.  Offer them your help!  Invite them over and then invite non members!  Help them out and then send them home with a chocolate cake, preferably the one from Costco.  Love them so much and show it by giving them references and then offering them to teach them, in your house!  I just have such a testimony of member missionary work.  It's the only way!  All of the baptisms I have had have been a result of that. INVITING PEOPLE TO CHURCH!  You have so much power my friends!  So much!

Okay I'll step off the soap box now. :)  So let's talk about the title of this email... Wanna know what I did this morning?  I went zip lining.  Through the jungle.  In Guatemala.  With all my friends.  

And now I get to go preach the gospel.  People, this is better than paradise... like is this even real life????  I don't know how or why but I feel like I am swimming in blessings right now.  And luckily Aunt Amy sent me the best package ever full of bug repellant and other bug bite related goodies, so I didn't get eaten alive in the jungle!  

Thank you Vercillos!!!!

But really, I went zip lining and it was so incredibly fun!  

At one point I was just like zipping through the jungle, there was a waterfall beneath me and the sun was shining.  

Yeah you could say I'm pretty content. especially because tonight we have a noche de hogar with all of our investigators and our ward mission leader!  Life is great!

After the baptism we had a bachelorette party, hahaha don't judge.  There is a girl in our ward that is getting married this weekend so it was a relief society activity!  We were in charge of games.  My comp is like the queen of games!  She rocks!  We had so much fun and then they did a game where you design her a dress out of newspaper.  These ladies are incredible!  

My abuelita (grandma) out in the mission field

I'll send a pic of the finished product! She had paper earrings, flowers, bracelet and shoes.  The whole shabang!  Then they send us home with food and cake.  I was pretty dang happy. :)

In our little house we have another new companion too, Hermana Lopez!  She goes home this next change.  We are all so happy we love being together so we took lots of pics!!!!! :)

People, life is good, the church is true, and I LOVE ALL OF YOU!!!!!!

Keep doing what you're doing and keep writing me to tell me about it! :)

love love love,

Hermana Màs, Amor o mi favorito Moore

Look! I made the family favorite: Macaroni and garbanzos!

Miracles Happen Once In a While.....

Hola hola!  Wow what an incredible week!  It was truly full of miracles!  So there is so much to talk about from this week!  It went so fast, but at the same time, so much happened that it feels like a whole month passed!  So first things first, we moved!  Our old house was basically a swamp hole. so humid and full of moldy walls, we HAD to move!  Monday night we packed up all our stuff in a pick up and drove down the street to our new beautiful, amazing house!  It's incredible.  It's off the main road but back a ways and up.  So it's super cool and there is always a breeze in our house.  It's actually kinda cold at night.  Maybe send me some hot coco mix! :)  But it is upstairs above a restaurant!  Get this, it's a crepe restaurant.  Yeah that's real!  They sell American food and crepes!  And its super cheap!  And the owners speak English!  And as if it couldn't get any better, they owner gives us free peach cobbler and calls me Peach!  Heaven is a place on earth and it's our new house.  Our neighbors rock!  They take down our laundry when it rains and they are so sweet!  It's a pretty big house so we were talking with some other sisters and they decided to move in with us!  It's basically the most fun thing ever!  It is me and my comp and then Hermana Cruz and Ostler!  I actually had lunch with Hermana Ostler at BYU one day before I came out to the mission so it's been super fun to be with her!  We basically all just eat a lot and laugh a ton! :)  The house is amazing and it has the best view!  I'll send pics but it's like a painting.  

The other day I woke up early because I couldn't sleep so i decided to do laundry.  Our pila is outside and it faces the most beauitful view!  I did laundry while watching the sun rise over a volcano and the jungle.  Is this real life!  Yes, it is!  Oh I just love it here.  

This week was so incredible!

so we had a successful activity this week! Ppeople, do you hear me, we had a successful activity!  Our ward is great, but activities are its weakness.  So we planned a breakfast for the relief society and wow. WOW! it was amazing!  The key we have found is to ask everyone to bring little things, like oh she's bringing just a pot of beans, and she's bringing a thing of tortillas. and so on.  We brought and made the fried platanos. HA!  We bought way too many, like 40 lbs worth.... and we burned the first batch.  Flat out black.  Then our beloved yoici came to our rescue and made the rest!  I would say I learned how to make fried platanos this week but....  I learned how to burn them! ha!  

But we had a whopping attendance of 16 sisters! now before you say oh that's not that many... understand that the Sunday attendance in relief society is around 15.... so we rock!  It was truly a miracle.  We got to eat great food and we had leftover platanos all week!  I've now eaten them fried, boiled, in smoothies, in hot chocolate, plain, frozen, you name it!  We had to get creative because they go bad fast!  But now that  I live with a Nicaraguan we have lots of new fun ideas to try! 

So more on food this week, I officially learned how to tortillar this week by hand instead of the machine!  We were teaching our recent converts family and she makes tortillas for a living!  So I decided to give it a try, let me just say, hand made tortillas taste a trillion times better than the machine ones.  I'm never going back to flour! ha!  

Another funny thing that happened in a lesson this week, we taught a basically deaf man, not completely.  I basically yelled the first vision!  And the prayer. that was hilar.  I started laughing at the end because here I am screaming and home-boy can't even hear me!  Missions are comical.

Okay I'm running out of time so time to talk about conference miracles! conference was incredible!  We got to watch all but one session in English! blessings!  On Saturday we were running around between sessions to get investigators to conference.  It was 1:55 and we were a good 5 miles from the stake center with 6 investigators, no car and 20 minutes from the nearest bus route.  I legitly started crying.  I can't miss conference!  Then a member pulled up with his car and took the investigators to conference! There wasn't room for us so we took off running.  Yeah running up this huge hill in our skirts!  2 minutes later the sweet hermana Baechli, the 87 year old from our ward, pulls up in her car and says get in, we are going to conference!  How she knew we were there, I'll never know!  More tears, as you can imagine!  We ended up getting there right as our investigators pulled up.  We sat them down just in time for the first talk! success! miracles! oh my.  

happy companions

That night after conference we were with our favorite little family that we are teaching, stay tuned for next week on that one!, and the husband wasn't there... so we were like, oh when will he get back because we wanted to teach you all together!  She was like, oh not for a while.... then we hear a knock knock knock on the door, it was him!!!!!!  Wow talk about perfect timing.  The Lord is in the details!

Sunday we experienced the greatest miracle, by far the greatest moment of my mission thus far.  We were bringing our sweet family to conference, we showed up at 9 am before conference and they are all sitting there ready to go.  But something is wrong!  They can't find the little one's shoe!  Which of course means none of them can go!  I'm like what no!  It's just a shoe!  I will carry her!  But nevertheless they were like no, we can't now!  So we start scouring the house for this shoe.  Then I get the thought, you need to pray with them.  I'm just like no it's a shoe they will think I'm silly.  So we keep looking and still nothing.  Then the thought comes back, stronger this time, PRAY!  So we sit down with the family and offer up a prayer.  I felt kind of silly but then I decided to have faith!  We started looking again and not even 10 seconds later Gabriela found the shoe!  She found it in the canopy and was like, I looked here already and it wasn't there!  Miracles people!  After that, we all walked to conference!  Us and a FAMILY! wow! WOW!  Sometimes we need to just allow the Lord to show His power in his way. We always need to heed promptings!  Like the other day I felt prompted to bring my flashlight out with us and I didn't.  Then we taught a lesson in the pitch black darkest day! The flash light would have helped a ton!  So basically, always heed promptings, no matter how small they are. the more you heed them, the mote you'll get!!!!!!!! :)

We are working with the most incredible investigators right now and I feel so incredibly blessed!  I wish I could tell you more about them but  I'm out of time! next week! 

I want to challenge all of you, ALL OF YOU reading, to pray for a missionary opportunity. just one missionary moment between now and Christmas!  This was a challenge in conference but I'm re-giving it to all of you!  Ask and you will receive!  Then tell me about it!  That's really ALL I want for Christmas, tell me about your missionary experiences. the world is ready for this Good Word!  You have it!  Share it with everyone you know! 

I loved the talks by M. Russell Ballard and S. Gifford Nielson!  So incredible!  Conference was the most amazing thing!  I feel honored to be a part of an 80,000 strong army.  It is a comfort and there is such power. 

We are officially in winter here, rains everyday from 3-8 now.  It's insane but I'm loving every minute. This work is so much more fun and amazing when we find the people who are truly ready to hear! I am so SO EXCITED for this coming week.  It's gonna be an incredible one.  Pray that everything goes as planned! 

well, I love all of you!

A wedding, some baptisms and a trip to the temple

OH MY GOODNESS. this week was the most difficult yet incredible week of my entire life! of my existence!  People, missionary work is the best job in the universe!!!!!!!!

So its funny, normally I love the week days and don't really like the weekends, they always seem to be harder... but this week it was the opposite!  It seemed like everyday this week we were out of the house at like 7:30 am and back by 8:30 pm, just running around all day long trying to get papers in order and setting up everything.  All week we were preparing for the wedding of the Giron family and their subsequent baptisms!  Yeah, Friday we had a wedding and 3 baptisms!  Man I thought one baptism stressed me out, I had no idea what to expect preparing for 3!  

Making cookies and cakes for the baptisms

All week we were running to government offices with our family taking out birth certificates, DPI´s, which is like a license here, and tons of other stuff.  I officially hate the Guatemalan papers legal system.  Hate it!  Turns out government offices are no fun in every country!  

Buuuuuuttttttt..... VALE LA PENA.  That means it's worth it!  Truly, truly, truly this week was hard, like  I've never worked harder in my life.  And it rained harder than ever. but nothing will ever compare to seeing their faces as Gabriela and her son and my sweet Natividad walk out of the waters of baptism. and when they got confirmed on Sunday, nothing will ever compare!  Gabriela´s now husband is next!  

The wedding license!

We are gonna get him baptized this week or next, and then they can start their journey to being an eternal family!  They are so excited to be able to go through the temple one day. and now that they are married, they are well on their way! I don't know what I have told you about the familia Giron, but I'll tell a little bit here. Gabriela and Luis are married and have 3 kids.  Nelson is 12 and Michelle and Leah are little tikes!  

Baby Leah

So we contacted them one night on the street and bam!  These people were so prepared.  This work is just so much easier and incredible when the people are prepared like that!  Before her baptismal interview Gabriela was telling us why she wanted to get baptized.  She told us how she attended a different church for a few years and they told her she had to get married and baptized too, but it just didn't feel right.  And she said from the first step she took in to the church building this has just felt so different.  Like she knew it was true all along! She and her son have just never doubted!  They have SO much faith!  Helping them in this journey has been just an incredible blessing!  

three baptisms!

My other sweet recent convert, Natividad, is 13 and is the older sister of my first convert Jerico!  She is the single sweetest little girl besides my sweet sister.  She reminds me so much of Jilly it's not even funny!  She also has never doubted.  She just has so much faith and was so willing to change!  She knew that baptism was the first step of the rest of her life!  And now that she is baptized, wow she is diving head first into the church!  She already started personal progress!  It's been incredible helping her too. :)

Nativdad in the white dress with her family

So basically, missionary work works. The Lord IS preparing people for us to find.  I know that now.  I have never been happier in my life! 

My first little convert, Jerico

Wanna hear about another miracle?  Alright I'll tell you!  So after the baptism I was standing with my comp and we were just beaming.  After baking all day and chasing down investigators and members to come to the baptism, we had like over 40 in attendance.....score!  We were pretty satisfied. then our old investigator Jose came past us and motioned for us to come over.  We started teaching him my first day here in Guate and he has been going to seminary but is just afraid of getting baptized for some reason. so we stopped teaching him a few weeks ago because he wasn't progressing.  But he came to the baptism with some of his friends who are all members.  So anyways he motioned for us to come over. We walk over and he just is looking around and looks all nervous and we are like what is going on? He goes, I was wondering if you had another one of those forms for my dad to sign for baptism because I lost the other one.  We are like.... yeah we have one..... and then he's like hermanas, I want to get baptized.  I'm ready now.  Can I get baptized tomorrow? OH MY GOSH.  I legitimately just started crying.  My jaw dropped and we were just floored.  This kid has had a change made in him and now he finally realizes it!  He has always been ready but now he has the desire!  So we couldn't get the baptism ready this weekend but he is getting baptized this Saturday, and he is telling everyone! he has invited so many people!  Miracles happen and they happen in the Lords time!  Sometimes we need to just learn patience!  He must have had a spiritual experience during the baptism because he was just so different! He just stood outside for a while and looked at the sky, just by himself.  The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)

Then after all that, the next morning at 6 am we went to Quetzaltenango with our ward!  

We asked the mission president if we could go to the temple with our ward because a sweet girl, Migdalia, who always accompanies us, is going through for the first time!  When he heard we had 3 baptisms he was like, heck yes!  So we got to go to the temple!  

People, this is unheard of here!  Like we are so blessed to be able to go!  So I got to know Xela!  Wow, what a beautiful town!  It is so much cooler there, everyone was in parkas but I was like, hey people this is a beach breeze! hahahahahah.  The temple is ridiculously beautiful.  

We got to have breakfast and lunch in the temple cafeteria and meet so many people!  We did a session and snuck into a sealing!  The whole time I thought about my sweet Giron family and how I am going to bring them here in one year!  Mark my words I will!!!!!!! :)  Then we got to go to the famous Xelapan, pronounced Shayla pan.  It's like the greatest panaderia ever. :) so it was like Christmas for me!  I bought so many good things!  Sweet Migdalia was my personal assistant telling me all the best things to get!  This girl is seriously one of my best friends!  She is going to be the greatest missionary Ecuador has ever seen!!!!!!

Our ward has definitely caught the missionary bug.  The family that first brought Jerico to church is now consistently bringing him and his two sisters to church and activities!  They have two baptisms and one of the way!   They keep giving us references and asking to go with us!!!!!  In sacrament meeting yesterday everyone bore testimony about the joy of missionary work.  I guess it was the 3 confirmations and the joven  (youth) in our ward who opened his mission call in sacrament meeting that got it all going!  Isn't that cool ?  They open their mission calls in front of everyone in sacrament meeting!  So cool! :)  I have seen such a change in this ward over the past 12 weeks.  I think it all really depends on our perspective and the amount of love we are willing to share.  I truly, truly love these people.  They have helped me grow so much and I truly feel like they are my family!

well, I think thats it.  Tons of pics this week so I hope you enjoy it!  Off to work work work!  Love you all so much and thanks for the prayers.  I felt them this week! :) 

love love love,

Hermana Amore. :)