you are hereby called...: March 3, 2014

Wow what a week! But what a great pday!!! I found out my very best friend had her beautiful baby Lillian!! (Aubrey when the heck did we grow up?), my family is going on a two week hawaiian cruise (you could have left that out, thanks guys!), mom went to the primere of a movie I was blessed to work on right before the mish, life seems good in the states!

As for life here in Mazatenango, Guatemala, things are seriously insane. They have this huge week long "carnival" that is happening right now. Its not like your regular carnival, its nuts. I honestly dont know what goes on because we are being imprisioned in our houses for the next few days, and after im done writing we have to go back to our house for the rest of the day because its "dangerous" because everyone is super drunk.

But anyway, the misson is great because you always get to see a ton of miracles! You´re always on the verge of tears either because people are rude, wont accept your message, because you see people change for the better, and of course when miracles happen.

Our miracle this week is Ana:

We met Ana a few weeks ago and began teaching her. She wasnt ever that positive, and was never super excited to see us. She has a pretty rough home life, her dad died a while ago and her mom is dying of diabetis right now. Her siblings arent great examples, shes pretty poor, and all of the above. We had been teaching her the regular lessons that we teach to people we first meet, but she wasnt that interested. FINALLY we were inspired to change the lessons and talk more about her rather than the gospel. We asked her about her goals in life, and she literally didnt have any. That was really sad. We shared with her goals we had for our lives, and asked her again. She still didnt have any. We asked her what kinds of things she liked to do, and she finally opened up a little bit. She loves kids and would like to work with them (she is really good with her cute nephews), and she also likes to draw. We helped her set goals, then asked her if she was happy. She thought for a minute, then shrugged and said yes. We asked her again and she said yes. Then we explained to her what she could have in life. I learn sooo much about Christ and the blessings of the gospel when I teach people. When I meet people like Ana, I realized how lucky I was to grow up with such a strong foundation in my life. We told her how her future family can be, the things she can learn in young womens, and that she can have friends with good morals! She seemed really interested and agreed to go to Young Womens the next day. She promises to do things a lot, and many times decides not to, so when we went to pick her up Wednesday night, I was more than suprised that she was ready to go. The Young Women did an AMAZING JOB of welcoming her, and the next day when I talked to the YW President, she said that Ana was going to their temple trip on Saturday! We visited Ana again on Friday, and she was so different. She was smiling, and excited to show us pictures she had taken with the girls at YW. Her face was different too, not only that she was smiling, but she had a spark in her eyes! (i know that sounds so clique, but its the truth!) there was something different about her and I know that spirit was working in her. She told us that she was going to the temple the next morning too and couldnt wait. The next day was saturday, and at about 6:3o we passed by the church to use the bathroom. The elders had a baptism so we peaked in the room and saw Ana with one of the YW at the baptism! We decided to stay for the baptism and talked to Ana after. She LOVED the temple (she could only be outside, but she loved it!) She showed us a bunch of pictures she took infront of it, and the flowers, and pictures with sister missonaries that serve at the temple once a week. She liked the baptism too. Ana is way different than she was a week ago. I know the influence of the spirit, young women in the ward, and the temple are all helping her realize her potential in life, and I am so excited to be part of her experience!

We had lunch with a lady named Hna. Iris on Wednesday, shes a memeber of our ward. She sells food in the street, so we ate with her there. She told us her husband isnt a member and wants nothing to do with the missionaries. She said she had tried several times to invite them over to talk with her husband, but he is always really rude to them and walks away. This made me a little afraid to talk to her husband if I ever met him, but at the same time, I was totally up for the challenge of teaching him. We were sitting there chatting, when all the sudden her husband walked up. He cheerfully said hello and we introduced ourselves and started talking to him, he was really happy to meet us! We asked if we could come by Monday night for a family home evening and we said yes!!

What..After he left, we were a little confused, and so was his wife. Tonight we are going to their house, pray for us!

Other miracles, a family we have been teaching came to church on Sunday:)

I love my zone

A missionary couple visited our ward and brought peanut butter for me and elder keller (cause we are white haha). I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER MORE THAN EVER HERE!