November 11, 2013

Friends: I changed my mind. Email me and i will send you hand written letters:)

Hello!! Its been a good,bad,funny,disappointing,miracle kind of week. You know, the usual. SO I have this awesome investigator Sonia (she's the one who had been robbed like 7 years ago then missionaries helped get her a bunch of things for her house, then she went to church and took the lessons but got sick and stopped going) Anyway, she is so awesome, I love her so much. She lives with her daughter and two grandkids in this little apartment. A lot of people here in San Marcos are pretty wealthy, but you still have your poor families. Her family is VERY VERY poor. She was supposed to get baptized on Saturday, but her sister passed away two days before, and she went to Xela (shayla) for the funeral and couldnt make it. Her daughter and grandkids couldnt go because they had probably spent all they had on the bus ticket down for Sonia. We were so sad for her. Sonia is seriously the sweetest person. On Sunday we went to pass for a reference who said she wanted to go to church with us, but her grandma answered and didnt look happy to see us, and told us her granddaughter was "at school" which was a big fat lie. So we went to church with no investigatos. Hermana Nielsen plays the piano and can see the whole congregation, so after the sacramanet was passed she sits down next to me and said "Hermana Sonia is here!" WHATTTT!! She is the best person in the world. She has sooo much faith. Its people like her that remind me why I am here serving a mission, she is such a great example to me. She wasnt supposed to be back from Xela yet, but she didnt want to miss church. She always brings her 9 year old grandson, Pablo. They were both there. We were so excited to see them. SHe was so sad she missed the baptism on Saturday and really wants to get baptized this week, WITH her grandson! Tender mercy. Everything happens for a reason. They are so excited to get baptized together. His mom and sister want to get baptized too, but havent been able to make it to church yet. They are both coming next Sunday though. 

Pablo is so funny. He is kind of a different kid, is 9 but acts 5, but hes so awesome. He LOVES church, but I always have to bribe him with things like punching balloons (thanks mom!)  to go to his own class instead of staying with us. I love their family so much.

So here in Guatemala everyone greets everyone with a kiss on the cheek. Except the missionaries. We kiss the girls and shake the hands of the men.  Anytime we go anywhere, especially a church or mission activity or meeting, we have to kiss and shake EVERYONE'S hand when we get there and when we leave. If we see someone we know in the store or the street, we go over and kiss them and say hi. Ok, you get the picture. So the other day, Hermana Nielsen and I are walking home for lunch, and we say hi to these girls we were about to pass (we say hi to EVERYONE). One girl looked excited like we knew her, I assummed she was in our stake, so i kissed her cheeck and hugged her, then Hermana Nielsen, looking super confused, kissed her too. THen as we were walking away we realized.. we dont think we actually knew her at all, and she was probably thinking, i just kissed the two white girls.. oops

People die their chickens here. Its really weird. I dont completely understand why, i just know the green one is a boy and the pink one is a girl! We went to a members house in our ward for a Family Home Evening, and since i usually don t have a lot to contribute to the lesson, i pull out my balloons so the family knows i exist.

People LOVE looking at our pictures here. I carry around pictures of my family, and they LOVE looking at them. The other night we were at Noche de Hermanamiento (tuesday nights the ward gets together at the chirch and a different family teaches the lesson each week) I pulled my pitures out to show this lady in my ward moms hair (cause her dad was an albino, so she is  white and has the same hair as you Mom! grey infront and everything!) then EVERYONE came over and looked through all of my pictures. Its so funny, they especially love the pictures of Gavy and Porter because they are blondies with blue eyes.

The Hodgemans are the best. As always, I dont know what i would do without them. They are my parents away from home. They feed Hermana Nielsen and I on sundays. Last night it was cheese burgers and icecream cones and cookies. I love them!

I love  Guatemala, spanish is coming along. Somedays I realize I know how to speak spanish, then i plateu and dont learn anything new, then the next week i realized i can speak even more. Im not great, but its getting better and I can understand soo much more!

I hear the Jazz are doing awful... i guess its a good year to not watch basketball.

I hear the Seahawks are amazing. Im not suprised at all. They're from Seattle!!