Week 75

HEY EVERYONE!!

Well this week went super well! Here are some of the highlights!

-Monday: We had a great Family Home Evening with the Garcia family! The dad isn't member, but has been coming to church the last 4 weeks. He asked a lot of great questions, and we are hoping to be able to see some more progress with him in these next few weeks!

-Tuesday: In the morning we were really focused on finding some new people to teach. We were knocking on doors when we found Maritza! She is great! She is 27 and lives with her husband (they aren't married) and her 7 year old son. She was the only one home, but was so very receptive! Although she was raised Catholic, she was asking us many questions about the Saints, the Virgin Mary, and about prayer. She had been raised in the church, but she said that she really didn't know why she did many things, and she didn't understand a lot of things. So we are going to keep working with her and her family!

-Wednesday:Well we went with an hermana named Yesenia. She is also super great! She is the one that last week when we went with her she was super nice and it seemed like she had been waiting for us. Well we went with her and her son Lester! Lester used to go to church with some members, but hasn't gone in some time. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and after when we invited them to pray to know if what we had taught was true, hermana Yesenia said "Well I know this is true!" we asked her how she knew and she had a hard time saying exactly why but said that it made sense and that she felt good about it. We explained that it is through the Spirit that she had received that confirmation that it was true! How wonderful is the Holy Ghost?! Then in the evening we had the BEST English class ever!! So between our 3 companionships here in Chiquimula we all take turns teaching the class, and there are about 15 that normally come! And some had come from almost 45 min away!! None of them are members, so I took advantage and using pictures, explained a little about temples, about how we believe that we can be together forever, and then a little about what we do as missionaries! It went so well! 

-Thursday: We had divisions in Esquipulas! It went well! It also made me thankful for my area! :) 

-Friday: A sister from the ward took us to visit some less actives that we didn't know. It went well and we were able to visit with them. And then in the evening we went with some recent converts and while we were outside waiting for the sister to change we started to play soccer with some of the kids! It was all fun and games until someone got hurt, and then it was just funnier! haha I was running for the ball and when I went to kick it (thanks to all the dirt, little rocks, and my wonderful shoes) I completely biffed it! And ended up on my side dying from laughter! But I have a nice big reminder of it on my knee and elbow! And it was right as the sister was coming out to tell us we could go in, and right as a big group of teens walked by! Everyone was laughing :) Good memories!

-Saturday: We were running all over the place helping the Elders get ready for their baptism. But then in the afternoon we were able to find a less active sister and she was very open to listen to us, and she said that she will come to church next week!! And her daughter hasn't gotten baptized yet, so we are going to work with them both! 

-Sunday: We went with a sister again to visit some less actives. We went to some houses of people that normally don't open up to us, and when we went with this sister they all let us in! So my challenge is for everyone to go with the missionaries to visit less actives! Maybe the missionaries will have more success with you there!!

Ponderizing: John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. "This is my motto for the next few weeks - As long as I am in the (mission), I am (a) light (in) Chiquimula." I think we can all change the words in this scripture to make it apply to us all. And we can all keep being lights to those around us!

Love you all!

-Hermana Garrett

Valentine's Day Suckers and Food

Volcano

Week 74

HEY HEY!!

Can´t believe it is Monday again! This week sure did fly by! It started out with some sad news. Remember Byron in Asuncion? The hermano that was changing so much? Well on Monday they informed me that he passed away. That was really hard for me to accept for a few days, but I got permission to be able to call and talk to Ana Maria, and it helped me a little. The good thing is that now he is in a better place, and can still keep preparing for his baptism! It sure made me thankful that we have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and that we had taught it already to both of them.

Then well as far as our area goes here, everything is going swell! We really are seeing many miracles! One of which happened on Thursday! We had a meeting in the church building in the center of Chiquimula, and afterwards we went to eat lunch, and we were getting ready to order, when a lady came over to our table and asked what we were going to ask for, we told her and then she said that she was going to pay for our lunch! Before we could say anything she went to the bathrooms, and while she was in there we wrote her a little note. Then she came out of the bathroom, and we ran over to give her the note and give her a hug as she was leaving. We couldn't quite tell if she was a member, but in this moment she was our little angel! :)

Our Valentine's day was very normal. They don't really do much here to celebrate it, but our 9-year-old investigator gave us suckers (that is what we are holding in the picture!) His name is Wenderley! He is a hoot! He is always asking us crazy questions! Like this week he asked us what weapon did God have in his battle against Satan? And who is the Father of God? We taught him the 10 commandments this week, and he is so pilas (awesome) that he learned them all! Well this week as far a crazy things that happened, we found a centipede outside our bedroom door, and later a scorpion in the hallway :) But we are now pros at killing those types of things! :)

Yesterday we watched a little bit of Meet the Mormons with an investigator named Rigoberto. He is basically a member, he just needs to get baptized. And he knows it. His wife and 2 daughters got baptized about 6 months ago, and he says that he is waiting until he knows for certain that it is the true church. BUT HE ALREADY KNOWS!!  Well we watched a part of the movie, and left it for them to finish, so we will see how he feels after. But if anyone has any ideas of what we could do with Rigo, we are up to suggestions!! He reads everything that we leave him, and loves going to church! We have left just about every scripture that there is… So help us! :)

Then today went to a volcano in Ipala! That was legit!! We played soccer, so I was super happy! And this whole week we have been making the t-shirts for today, so we were very excited to not have that project anymore!

Ponderizing: D&C 29:34

Love you all!                           

Hermana Garrett                                    

In with the New

Out with the Old

Week 73

Wow, so this week flew by! I am in my new area, and am loving it!!! Oh how I missed it! Dirt roads, colorful houses, friendly people, and BUGS!! haha But honestly everything is going well.

Sorry I don't have too much time to tell you much of what is going on, but I will tell you that we had a conference with Elder Rasband, and it was just about the best thing of my whole mission. Maybe my life. It was so wonderful. And I learned so much! He gave us (well me...) a little bit of sincho (belt?)* when he said that we should not be whiners... especially when it comes to transfers. And if we whine, we are mocking God. I was like, oh okay. I am not going to whine anymore! 

And well his wife talked about how we need to smile and enjoy every moment!! And we also got to hear from President Duncan, and Elder Craig Christensen. It was just wonderful! And I got to lead the music! I was freaking out with an apostle behind me!! haha 

Well I sure do love you all! Have a great week! 

Ponderizing: Matt 17:20-21

*EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm assuming this is a phrase to refer to being reprimanded

Breadmaking

Zone Meeting & Concilio

Week 72

Wow, this week was a crazy one! Here is the rundown:

-Monday we had family home evening with 2 families! And they both gave us dinner! AYE! But both lessons went super well (They are both families that are re-activating)

-Tuesday we had Concilio, and it was crazy! There were many many changes (now we have an hour to email.. before it was 75min, and we only go to the temple 2 times in the year...). But after Concilio we went to visit Byron and Ana Maria, and they were so excited to see us. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, and they were already asking about church on Sunday! And then we also found an Hermana that we hadn't been able to find in a long time! Then later in the evening we were finally able to visit one of the converts in our ward, and she was so excited to have us in her house. She is from Coban, and is so sweet! She is very active in church, but is always working so we haven't been able to find her.

-Wednesday we had our last zone meeting for this transfer, and then in the afternoon we went with a family that we have been working with to help activate, and the lesson went so well, and then they asked us to come back on Sunday to have a family home evening with their family. Then in the evening we went with the Taracena Jacinto family and we did an object lesson with them and it went so well!

-Thursday we finally found a family that we have been looking for since December! The lesson went so well. They were very open and told us how they had felt like the missionaries were so focused on just baptizing them, ready or not. So they stopped visiting with them. Sad right? Well we were able to talk with them, and they said that they are willing to meet with us again.

-Friday we visited a family that we had stopped visiting for a while because they weren't making much progress. Well when we went with them they were so excited to see us and said that they had missed us a lot! They say they are going to start going to church again!

-Saturday we made bread with the stake president's wife, and afterwards we gave some loaves to our less actives that we are working with. Then we had an awesome experience. We were walking to one of our appointments when the phone started to ring. We answered it and a man told us that he just saw us pass by, and that he wanted to talk to us... we were a little creeped out, but in that moment he pulled up behind us. He started telling us how about a year ago he was visiting with the Elders but that he had problems with his wife, and in the end he couldn't get baptized. But he started to cry as he told us that he is ready to start again. That he misses going to church and being close to God. We set an appointment for this week, and are looking forward to see his progress!!

-Sunday we had a wonderful lesson with the Grijalva family. And then in the evening we found out that I am going to have transfers to Chiquimula! I am looking forward to being able to explore another part of Guatemala and find more people!!

Ponderizing Luke 18:27

Love you all!!