Things are going great here and we're picking up steam but the first week was a little rough. After you called or emailed the secretaries to see if I was alright I got a call from them and I just started crying after haha it was just a bit of a rough day and when they called saying that my mom all the way back in Utah was wondering how I was doing it was exactly what I needed in that moment and really built my testimony that God really loves us and looks after us. But I did start crying and it was on the bus haha and I felt a little silly but it was a really good learning experience. More than anything I just didn't really have the spirit with me. We hadn't had our personal study since we had to be at the church early and i don't really know but I just want to tell you that I love you and Dad and all that you guys have done and do for me and all the other kids. Things are going good here now and we're picking up steam.
So, I wrote the office prob more for me, but it turns out it was just what he needed to let him know of God's love. That made me feel better about being over anxious to hear from him. :) Then we figured out how I could log on to his account and I saw pictures. This one was my favorite and made me cry for the first time in 7 weeks (I've been okay after making it through the first week). Love this boy, look at that missionary glow!
It's a good day to be a missionary's mom!
________________________________________Subject: WEEK 8 Picking up Steam!!
Week 8
Good Morning Utah! So this week has been really great. There's always ups and downs though and I had my first cry of the mission but it has happened so many times where our appointments fell through and it led us to either someone we found knocking doors who is less active or someone who totally wants to hear more about our message. Like so many times it's kind of unreal. God can only work through us when we do everything we're supposed to though. That's probably been the biggest lesson learned this week. It's hard to reopen an area especially when there hasn't been a baptism here since February but we have been working hard and are starting to pick up some steam. We have two baptisms lined up, Megan and Fernando. Megan is the girl who is 9 and we've been working a lot with their family. They are awesome. The mom is super active but the dad has been inactive for a little while but is getting better and we're gonna keep working with them so they can go through the temple. So we thought we'd have to reactivate the dad so he could baptize Megan but since her mom is solid and Megan has been going to church for a long time we can baptize her this month! So Megan's baptism is this Saturday and we've been working hard to get all that ready and I'm really excited for them.
Then Fernando is also going to be baptized on September 16th, in the morning before church so his parents can come. Boy do I admire that kid. He's 13 years old and no one in his family are members. He's been going to church for 8 years with his uncle who is in our ward here in Lo De Coy. His uncle Sergio is a convert too. Haha I almost wrote tambien. That keeps happening where I think of Spanish words instead of English words when I'm writing. Probably a good sign. Anyways so his uncle is a convert too. Sergio's wife jokes that he is her Eternal Convert haha. Fernando is a super awesome kid and has got a bright future ahead of him. I hope he and Wesley are mission companions in Argentina in 5'6 years. So yeah it's way exciting! We have 2 baptisms lined up both because of members. I mentioned the Susan Fulcher Story last week and seriously go and find that if you're getting ready for a mission or have you're parents find it and send it to you if you're already on a mission. It's all about working with members and how to get members more involved in the missionary work. Members are seriously the key to getting solid investigators but you have to gain the trust of the members first. Anyways enough about that but go find that story and read it.
Yesterday we had interviews with President and Hermana Shumway which we have once every change. It was fantastic. They're great people and I can't wait for multi'zone conference next week. I learned We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet in the CCM on piano. Not the simplified version by the way haha and am going to play it next week as the intermediate hymn for the conference which is with our new Area President so no pressure there. I'll probably be spending the rest of P'day practicing.
It rained really hard this week a few times, and boy were we glad to have out caps! They kept us mostly dry. Except for our knees down which got completely soaked. Some streets here don't have gutters or drainage systems which is where we were when it started pouring and it was litterally like the Narrows!! Like no joke I felt like I was on high adventure again. The street was on a hill and was seriously a river. My shoes dried out after a day underneath the fan haha but so the next day I decided to break out the rain boots, which are not the most comfortable thing in the world. Dansko shoes are the most comfortable thing in the world though. Highly recommend them. Plus they have a 2'year guarantee. Anyways so I decided to break out the rain boots and ended up switching to my regular pair of shoes, the pair that wasn't wet, after lunch because the boots were just super uncomfortable and it didn't look like it was going to rain anyways. So now I have some blisters on the back of my feet from the rainboots I'm pretty sure but they're healing quickly.
A little more about Elder Aquino. He's from Peru and was baptized at 14. He's a convert which I think is so cool! He has two sisters and one of them was baptized with his mom right before he left on his mission. He says was baptized at 14 but wasn't active until 18 and then 6 months later was shipped off on his mission. He's a great guy and a really good missionary. I don't know if I could have asked for a better trainer, especially since I am forced to speak in Spanish in order to communicate AND Peruvians are said to have the most pure form of Spanish. So I'm pretty lucky I'd say.
We eat a lot of pasta around here. The other day Elder Aquino put in a bunch of the random spices we have and that was some picante )that means spicy= pasta! I couldn't finish it and neither could he. Other than that he's a pretty good cook. He made tortillas with beans the other day. Yum. Ya know beans aren't actually that bad. Especially if you have tortillas or rice to help get it down. I think though that I've eaten more beans in these 8 weeks in Guatemala than I had eaten in my 18 years of life before the mission.
Here are some pictures but I didn't have time to label all of them and they aren't really in order.
1 - Us with President Shumway
2 - Elder Aquino and I before we left our apartment the other day. (Pic at top of this post) That was a good day. Every day is a great day to be a missionary!
3 - Picture of our desks
4 - Our sleeping quarters
5 - The shower. Last week I figured out how to make the water hot and that has been SUCH a blessing! Not looking forward to when-if I go outside the captial where you have to shower with a bucket.
6 - The room where we exercise haha we have a disk and a little portable dvd player thing and so for exercise we do P90X and it's actually pretty sweet.
7 - Our white boards and desk of folletos )pamphlets= and Books of Mormon. We found a family that speaks Kekchi - idk how to spell it. Maybe its QueQuchi? (Tiffanie here, it's Ki'che', or Quiché in Spanish)
8 - Pictures of all the prophets up on the wall with little bios which I really like.
9 - We ran out of the little bags of water we had to time to break out the water filter. That water filter is pretty nifty! You just put water in and it goes through this thing before it comes out the top and then it's purified! I thought I was gonna have to start boiling water every morning!
10 to 14 The glorious bean tortilla platter. It's bean mush basically. You can buy it in bags and it makes it easier to eat since you don't have to chew. I think I like the bean mush better than plain beans. I'm pretty sure I actually ate more of those than Elder Aquino did that night haha I'm becoming Puro Chapin.
Haha sorry I actually ran out of time to upload the rest of the pictures so I'll make sure and send those next week! Things are going great here.
Also p'day is Monday for just next week.
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