Happy Easter!

FHE with those jelly beans that have a good flavor and a bad flavor ...
well, I got skunk ... and man, that was rough!

This is the iguana that we ate!

His name is Ricardo, but he lives in Zacapa.
He is a cousin of one of our investigators, but he is super!

Holy (Easter) Week Missionary Work

Okay, so these pictures are because there was NOBODY here in Los Amates, 

so we "contacted" lots of random things!

Yes, I am standing by Goliath ;)

Week 28

HOLAAAAAA!!!!

Well this week was an interesting one!! This week was Semana Santa (Holy week)! And everyone, I MEAN EVERYONE, went to the rivers, lakes, beach, anywhere with water! ;) Los Amates was the deadest I have ever seen. Starting Thursday Amates was desolate! We were convinced that only the Elders and us were here! :) And yesterday to celebrate Easter (which nobody here celebrates...) We ate hard boiled eggs! :)

Um, I ate Iguana this week... Don´t worry, it tasted like chicken! (that´s a lie, it did not taste like chicken.. haha no, it tasted like Iguana...)

This week we spent a lot of time reading from the Book of Mormon with Fernando and Wendolly. It is amazing how true the Book of Mormon is. We have loved being able to explain to them the stories of Nephi, Sam, Laman and Lemuel! 

We had a Family Home Evening with the Rojas Family! That was great. And afterwards, Giovanni, who is always joking around with us and making fun of us, said ¨thank you, this is the first time we have played a game together and talked about the Gospel.¨ That made it so very worth it. 

We have been on the look out for another house to have the Church in.. The Elders house is just too small. It is such a good problem to have! We are always standing in the back because there are so many of us!! :)

This week I have been studying in Ether, and I love the story of the Brother of Jared. But MAN, I cannot imagine being in a boat (¨tight like unto a dish¨) for 344 days! And they were happy!!! It says that they sang and praised God while in these boats! Man.. better hope that the people in your boat could sing well... or you´d sure have to pray to learn to love the voices of the others! :)

This week I am ponderizing Mormon 8:37  ¨For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.¨ I would like to invite you all to focus a little more on the needs of others this week!

Love you all!! Hugs from Guate!

-Hermana Garrett

Week 27

Hola todos!!!

This week went by super fast!! Here is the low down of what we did:

-Had a zone conference in Puerto Barrios. It was super powerful, and was all about being examples all the time. We are always shaping the ideas that others have about "Mormons," are we truly acting like Jesus Christ? Are we really doing what He would do? My companion and I have been focusing on these questions this week. It has been super great for us to notice where we need to change!

-Maria has been reading lots in her Book of Mormon. Before, she had a hard time reading. She stopped going to school after 6th grade. But now she is a great reader! She teaches us something every time we ask her what she learned. Her simple testimony is an example to me. She is wonderful! And we are really hoping we can get her and Christian married this week!!

-Argentina and Luis are going to get married April 8th!!! Argentina is doing better than last week, and is really starting to develop her own testimony!

-We have started to teach Fernando and Wendolly separately. We visit Fernando in the morning while Wendolly is at school, and then come back in the evening to teach Wendolly and Nora. Fernando understands a whole lot more than we thought! He almost made me cry in our last lesson. We were talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and that we can talk to Him through prayer. Fernando started to talk about how God listens to every prayer. The faith of children is amazing. It is something we can all be better at.

-The church has made an amazing video for Easter. If you haven't seen it, you need to. We have watched it with many of our investigators, and it has been so powerful. 

Ponderizing: Mormon 5:21 After our lesson with Fernando, I was reminded of this scripture. And I love how we know that God really does hear and answer every prayer.

Love you all lots!

-Hermana Garrett 

Week 26

Buenas!!

So first off, last week on Pday we ate a giant pizza with the Elders! We found a place in the mercado with pizza and milkshakes! I almost cried it was so good! The owner is from New York.

On Monday we had family home evening with the Arroyo Family. We watched the Joseph Smith movie. It was so powerful and all ended up in tears. The last few weeks we have had lots of people talk bad about Joseph Smith, and it was such a powerful evening. We bore our testimonies through our tears about the reality of Joseph Smith. It was a memorable night.

We started teaching tithing with marshmellows! It is ¨super sweet¨!! Everyone loves marshmellows! We also made pie de queso... cheesecake! That was a sweet night! :)

Well this week we met with Christian and Maria, and they officially decided to get married! So this week we went to the Muni to get them and Argentina and Luis appointments, and they don´t have openings until April 8th! Both couples have baptismal dates for the 26th of March. We are praying super hard that we will find an agency or someone who can marry them this week!

Argentina has started to have some problems at work, some people started making fun of her. She almost cried telling us about it, but we were able to, once again, talk about Joseph Smith and how we will always have to stand up for what we believe. And sometimes we stand alone.

This week we made a game with José. We are all trying to be more patient, with one another and other people. Well we took and egg and named it paciencia, and if someone did or said something impatiently, they got the egg, and then they would give it to one of the other 2 if they did something impatient. It was quite humorous as we passed around this egg! We became very aware of our weaknesses. 

This week I read the book, Our Search for Happiness by M Russell Ballard. It is such a great book. If you haven´t read it, that is your homework this week! It will bless you. Then share this book with someone that has questions about the church! It is an easy read. 

Ponderizing: 4 Ne 1:16. I love this. That there could not be a happier people. I am trying to be as happy as possible. It is a choice, and daily we can choose how happy we will really be. Outside forces don´t have to change our attitude!

Love you all so much!!

-Hermana Garrett

Week 25

Buenas!!!!!

So this week was a great one! We had a meeting for new missionaries in Zacapa, and a Zone conference! Our capacitación for new missionaries was great! We did lots of practices that really helped us this week. The Spirit was so strong! And in the Zone Conference we talked about when the Savior asked: Do you love me? Everyday we can show the Savior and Our Father in Heaven that we love them through our actions. 

We also did some exploring!! We went up to La Pita which is up towards the mountains! We had a lesson up there with some people we contacted into. The lesson went well, but they are very involved in their religion. BUT we saw a crocodile! YES a crocodile! That was pretty cool! And we ended up walking for an hour until we found a bus, but that is another story!

Updates!

-Wendolly and Fernando accepted a baptismal date! 8 April! Their moms birthday!

-Only one elder from the zone has transfers!

-Had another super great lesson with José about the Book of Mormon

Alvaro!! Yesterday he fasted, and he came to church!!!! After 6 weeks of working on him, we finally got him to come, and he had a great experience!!! We had a practice on Thursday to help our investigators who hadn´t gone to church, and we applied it to him, and IT WORKED!! ;)

Christian and Maria and Argentina and her daughter Argentina are progressing super well! They are all on track for a baptism on the 26th of March!! 

Saturday the Elders had a baptism for a steller family! They are amazing, and are already helping us so much! They have had many Family Home Evenings in their home the last few weeks with our investigators. We were able to have 11 of our investigators at their baptism. It was amazing. They all had a great experience!!

La familia Arroyo is still doing amazing. Roy blessed the sacrament yesterday, and it was wonderful.

Ponderizing:

Luke 5:11 We have been asked to forsake a lot. I like comparing these 3 scriptures. Matt 4:19-20, Mark 1:18, and Luke 5:11. The wording is just a little different, but it makes all the difference. We can leave our nets, forsake our nets, or forsake all. The choice is ours. How much do we love the Lord, enough to forsake everything?

Well that is about it. Love you all!!!

-Hermana Garrett