More Crazy Food

I'm happy that I'm with Hermana Ramos again. She really helps me a lot. She's really smart. Eunice made it to church this week!!!!!! We were super happy!! I feel relieved. We needed this. She's doing great. She's always asking when we're going to pass by the house again. If there are activites and everything. She really enjoyed the young adult class that she went to. She's scheduled to get baptized the 5th of October! Hopefully everything goes well and she's able to progress. Seibi and Glenda didn't make it. We called the night before to confirm but the morning of they didn't answer the cell phone.... We were really disappointed because they're super nice and willing to read and everything. I don't know what happened but we'll find out this week when we pass by.

We haven't been able to meet with Marybel. We called her cell phone to set up an appointment but she didn't answer so we're going to pass by this week. Diana was able to go to church this week. sigh of relief. She really wants to join the church but we still have the problem that they don't live here so we can't meet with them much. It's a little complicated right now. I don't think that Maritza wants to join the church. I think she likes the church but doesn't have a testimony of it. She doesn't come to church on Sunday.

 We did find someone new this week. We went out to Chinautla. The cool pueblo that's in our area and we found Aurelia. She's super animated to learn more about the church. She had been praying the night before to receive a response from God that he loves her and that he isn't ignoring her. And we showed up the next day. We put a date for her to get baptized. It's a little far away. It's for the end of the October but it's also because it's a little hard for them to come to church here because they need to take a bus to get to the church and it's like 20-30 minutes in bus on a crazy road. We'll see what happens.

Ok, here's a few crazy things that have happened. I forgot to tell you that a member here in the area gave us caviar to eat one time. I couldn't help but think about Finding Nemo and those poor fish eggs that we were eating..... We've also eaten something called revolcado. Basically it's the skin and flesh from a pig's face. But I've eaten it three times now. And it's Hermana Ramos's fault. The first time was before she got switched from Los Olivos and we ate with a member. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't something that i liked. The second and third times were here in Martinico. She showed up here and thought that the lady just prepared it poorly in Los Olivos so she asked for more here. But then I show up and the lady that cooks our food made it for us.....I didn't like it this time because it had pepper, but I ate it. The third time was with another member, Lucky, and she made it well. Wow miracles happen.

Another thing. When we were in Chinautla Hermana Ramos decided to help some ladies that were washing their food in the little stream. She was going to carry part for them but it fell. It was chicken's heads.....so we collected them all, washed them again, and then brought them to where they were cooking. So I touched chicken head. Something that I thought I would never do in my life...wow haha!!!

So we had transfers this week. Elder Richins went home!! We were sad but happy for him. There were three other elders that left our zone. But guess who came back. Elder Morán. I don't know if you remember him. He was in my first district with Elder Bronson. Then he was district leader for a short time. Well he's back. It was pretty cool. We're all back together again in the same zone. We never thought that would happen. Crazy!!

Also Hermana Cruz went home. It was sad.  I'm going to miss her.

Transfer Results

Things are going well here. Maritza is coming along. We're hoping to put a date with her again. She doesn't come to church though so we'll see how that goes. Carolina has kind of fallen through. She doesn't read the scriptures. I understand that she's super busy because she's a single mother and is trying to do everything but she doesn't realize how the church can help her. How reading the scriptures and praying everyday can help her so much. She knows that she needs something more but it's just hard. We haven't seen Diana the last week...It's a little disappointing but we're going to call her this week to find out how it's going with the house hunt and if she's going to be here soon.

We found some new people this week. We do have one person with a date to get baptized. Her name's Eunice and she searched us out. We found the dad this week and he's an old investigator and he said that the daughter wanted to find out more about the church and then she passed by our house to put an appointment with us to teach her. It was crazy but hopefully things go well with her. She wasn't able to go to church yesterday because of an activity in the school but she said this week she's go. We also found someone else, Marybel. She's has several missionaries in her house but a long time ago. We were able to teach her and she's really receptive to the message. And Seibi and Glenda are coming along well. They're really willing to read, go to activites, and everything. There was a little bit of a confusion yesterday for when the church started so they weren't able to go but they said definitely the next week.

We don't have transfers this time. I thought the same that Hermana Ramos would go but nope. So we've got some more time together! We're going to have 5 tranfers together unless we have more time after haha! It's crazy but it's good. I'm happy! And Hermana Cruz is going home this week...I'm a little sad! I love her tons and I'm going to miss her but this is how it goes.

The weather is a little weird right now. It rains and pours (a ton!!!!!!!) and then it's super hot during the day. Yeah I believe it that we're in a drought right now. Hermana Ramos said that she remembered that it rained a lot more last year. Yep Hermana Ramos is going to complete one year in the mission on Sepetember 21st! It's crazy! She said it was a lot colder as well. We'll see what happens this month. Hopefully it won't be too cold!

Love you tons!!!!!!!! Be safe!

Lots of Investigators

We found some new investigators that are pretty interested. Saibi lives here but her sister and mom are here visiting. The sister Glenda will be here for a little bit of time but the mom's going to head back home soon. So we're going to work with Saibi and Glenda. We were able to bring them to the Relief Society activity this last week so hopefully everything went well with that. We're going to visit them again this week to find out how they felt and everything.

We're also teaching someone that was our date to get baptized but she fell through in like the first week. Her name's Maritza. She works for her cousin. And her cousin is Marybeth the wife of a soccer player. His name is Armando or El Abuelo and he plays for Las Cremas that's a team here in Guatemala. He's super cool and even more cool because he's a member of the church and he converted his wife and now the cousin is going to convert. It's pretty awesome. I'm hoping to buy a shirt for the team so that he can sign it for me. But they're all super nice.

As well we're teaching Carolina and her 4 children. The father died like 4 months ago or so. It's hard to teach her because they're always super busy but we're focusing a lot in the Book of Mormon so that she can have that convertion in her life.

And we're teaching a lady that I really enjoy to be with. Her name's Diana. Her husband is member but something happened in her life that she hasn't told us that has made her want to change. Her family is super important for her and she really likes the church. But she isn't converted so we really need to work with this. And she isn't married and doesn't understand why she needs to be married to be baptized. She wants to marry her husband but wants the marriage of her dreams but they don't have the money right now. But we feel that if she has that convertion, she's understand why she needs to get married.

Yep these are ones that we're really focusing on right now.

Today we went to the central market and bought stuff. It went pretty good. We were a little bored but we were able to take pictures and Hermana Ramos and I visited a few touristic buildings and took pictures. It was awesome

Well I hope you all have a great week!! Love you tons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya me voy mucha!! jajajaja

Activities and Cow Tongue

The activity went really well!! The highlights are these. The high priests did a Rocky Balboa type thing. But it was also gospel based. they had two people that were going to fight and they showed a film before the fight. The two preparing to fight. One "Rocky" listened to the elder missionaries and learned about the gospel. the other trained and practiced. So then they came out to fight and of course "Rocky" won. hahahaha it was great! The Relief Society did a dance. It was to Book of Mormon Stories the primary song but in rock. haha it was awesome! They did it as a kind of husbands do you know what your wives do when they're home alone.... haha! The YW did a belly type dance but it wasn't like suductive type. They did really well for not having much time to prepare. And the YM did a skit for The Avengers but they convert to the gospel or something like that. We had more than 200 people! It was awesome and crazy!!! We the sister missionaries of course were in charge of the food because it was a mission activity. We ended up doing bread with ham, mayo, and ketchup and luckily it all went well. The others sisters helped us as well to put it all together but it was a little stressful to get all the food and everything. Wow I don't know how the leaders do all the activities. But it all went well! And we're happy.  

Also this week I ate something weird again. I've eaten the cow's brain and this week I ate the tongue. That's right the tongue. It was better than the brain but it was still a little weird. It was really smooth meat and I was just imagining the tongue in my mind as I was eating it....this was thanks to Hermana Ramos as well. Wow I really eat a lot of weird things when I'm with her. But I tell her that I always eat them just so that I can tell you guys after that I ate weird things haha!!!

It didn't rain this week but we were super busy with the activity and all of the plans and everything. We do have a really good family that we're teaching. I don't remember if I already told you but it's the family Bariento Gevara. They're awesome. Evangelists but not like strict in following it. They send up texts every once in a while to let us know that they love us and are thinking about us. They're reading the Book of Mormon and are doing great! We're super excited for them! We'll see what happens this week.

Sadly I don't have pictures of the activity because of course I forgot my camera.....

I hope you have a great week and I love you tons!!! Miss you!!!!

Sharon and Mishel

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Alba and Karen (from Los Olivos)

A Good Week

Things were good this week! So my area is bigger than Los Olivos and we walk more but it's a lot more level so we don't feel like we walk as much. Something funny is the house that we rent. The lady that owns the house has a virgen Mary in the front yard....and it's kind of big haha. It's all good though.

This week it rained a lot and it was a little hard to get out to work but we did alright. David is doing pretty good. We're not sure how really commited he is to investigating the church but he says so to the girlfriend and the mother. We'll see what happens. Carlos we haven't been able to find because he's only at home Friday in the afternoon until Sunday at 1pm. So that only gives us like Saturday to visit him but something always comes up. But we aren't going to give up on him.

We have a cool activity planned this Saturday. A talent night. It's going to be cool and hopefully the members will invite lots of people to come. I'll let you know how it goes and I'll send pictures as well. :) Congrats to Mandee who just got married even though she's just a patoja. Happy Birthday to Hayley, Rauna, and Lacey!!!!!!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!

New and Newer Investigators

This week went pretty well. A little crazy but good. We had our interviews with the President this week. Every transfer we either have interviews or we have zone conference so this transfer was interviews. They went pretty well. Everyone’s been getting a lot of sincho but it's necessary sometimes. We weren't able to put a date with Carlos for baptism because he's sick. Some people beat him up months ago and he's going through therapy. When he came to church a member came and picked him up in the car and then he had a wheelchair in the church but then when he went to the doctors he wasn't feeling to well and the doctor said that he can't go to church because it's too much stress and everything for him and it's make it so that he has more time to recuperate. So we can visit him and teach but we can't put a date....but it's all good. We're going to prepare him so that when he's ready he can get baptized.

I can't remember if I told you about David. He was an investigator in Los Olivos that we thought was golden (when I was companions with Hermana Ramos) but then he fell through and everything but we found him again and the family of his girlfriend just changed their house so that they live in our area. Like a street away from us! We're super excited and he wants to start up with the lessons again. He wants to marry his girlfriend and he wants to do it right with her. We're super excited to work with him again!!

I can't believe that summer's ending! It's crazy. I'm just a school year away from coming home haha. And I used to think the school was so long but I feel like it's going to pass by so fast!!!

This week we went to a part in our area that's called Chinautla. It's like 30 minutes in bus or hitchhiking haha. It's super pretty. It's like a pueblo. The people live in the mountains and they were the native clothes. It's really cool. The people are super nice as well. I'm really loving my new area. It was a little hard at first because it was my first change but I'm getting used to it now. Hermana Ramos and I are working well together. We're enjoying this time that we have together again.

I hope that everything goes well for you this week. Hopefully not too crazy! Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My "New" Companion and Area

So this week was crazy. When we got the call to pack we packed almost all night on Sunday so that we would have more time to get everything figured out with the house and stuff. And we weren't really tired that night. Monday was alright. Tuesday was crazy as we ran around visiting people, dropping off pictures, telling them that the elders are going to visit them. It was nuts. I only cried at one house but I was really sad as we visited these people. I miss them. The members and investigators were amazing people. I love them tons. Then Wednesday we had the transfers. My new area is called Martinico and the news that you're waiting for.....my new companion.......is....... Hermana Ramos. again. Yes I know it's crazy. I didn't believe it. We showed up and Hermana Ramos came out to help me with my stuff and she told me that she was my new companion and I didn't believe her until I asked and found out for myself. It's crazy. We didn't feel like it was real. I do have to say that I was a little worried at first because she was my trainer and I thought that maybe she'd treat me like I was still a baby in the mission but we haven't had any problems. I'm happy for this because I really grew a lot with Hermana Cruz. I really miss her but I know that I'm here for a reason. So far I like my area. There's parts like Los Olivos, residential, and there's parts really poor like the area of the elders. But it's really cool. So far I don't really know many people. We have one investigator, Carlos, that we found this week and he came to church. He's really receptive to the gospel and we're going to put a date with him so that he can get baptized. I also know a family, members, that they cook our food for us and we pay them. The lady cooks amazingly well. I love her food. The food here is so good. I'm enjoying this change and the transfer has been a little easier with Hermana Ramos. I do miss Los Olivos. But I'm working hard.

I love you all a ton! Be safe!!!!!!!!!!