February 10, 2014

Happy Birthday to my Madre

Even the Latinas like Seattle!

My Mom and I are getting Pedicures in 10!/2 months

WOWW:... Can I just say I am soo happy to be here in Guatemala! Most of the time.. this week was a little odd. 

TMI.. readers disgression advised.

On Thursday, we were walking to an appointment with a new  investigator, when all the sudden I heard a pig.. that part is normal, there are lots of pigs here, but this one was SCREAMING!!! It was screaming so loud, so I looked over to see where it was coming from, and I saw a pic with rope tied around its feet, and legs, and two people hauled it onto a table. I thought, oh thats why its screaming, its arms and legs hurt! But then I saw next to where they layed the pig, another pig.. only this one wasnt moving.. it was dead. OH.. this is why the pig was screaming, it had just heard its friend die, and now it was laying next to him, knowing what was about to happen. I quickly looked away after i saw the people pull out a dull machete. Looking away didnt help because I heard a scream that I never want to hear again in my life, a scream that probably would have broken windows if there was any around, for about 45 seconds as they slowly cut off the pigs head. I covered my ears but that did nothing. I made the mistake of turning around, only to see blood pouring out of its body.. and i mean POURING. Literally right after I saw that, we turned into the house of the investigator. My stomach was down to my feet and I wanted to cry.. i was in no way ready for a lesson. Luckily, I didnt really have to teach that much,

This guy and his wife we had contacted the other week. They told us we could have a lesson with them and pointed in the direction of their house. Turns out, they lied to us about where they lived, probably because they actually didnt want us to come back (my comp is pushy and almost always gets them to say yes haha): But, being the often rejected/lied to missioaries that we are, we knew what to do, asked arounf, and found them. This guy played it off at the beginining like he didnt have much experience with religion, but turned out to be a bible master. Honestly, I still have a lot to learn about the bible, but LUCKILY, Hermana Escoto is the best and defended everything he threw at us. We tried teaching him, but he wouldnt let us. He went on and on about things we already knew.. and we just sat there. After about 40 minutes of this, we got a LITTLE bit of teaching in. I ended up arguing a little with him about a subject I knew to be true but he was blinded and tried to tell me it wasnt, so i let hna escoto take over because i knew I wasnt the one to get through to him. At one point, before we left, I invited him to chruch, and he asked when, i told him Sunday from 9-12, only 3 hours. and he replied with "wow, thats sure not very much time to dedicate to God" and i laughed.. cause he was serious, and in the states 3 hours is so much to other relegions! We spent two hours with him, most of it was him talking. He said we could come back.. I need to study the bible more!

One great thing about being in a different country is that I dont know the bad words: In the states I heard them alllll the time, and here I dont want to learn them, and dont recognize them on the streets. I didnt realize how lucky i was until i got with hna escoto. She is always covering her ears and saying, "ah que malo!" Then i appreciate being here more, its so refreshing! 

Our miracle this week:

Last week we contacted someone in the street, and there was another guy there too, just listening. When we were about to leave, the other guy said we could come visit him, so we made an appointment for the following week. I hoenstly had forgotten about him until the day of the appointment. We went to his house, taught him about Faith, Repentence, Baptism, The Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We asked if he would like to be baptized and he said yes! What! Miracle! He came to church yesterday and is getting baptized this saturday! I know that Heavenly Father has people waiting to hear the gospel! Be member missionaries!

Pic 1. hna escoto with her new seattle shirt!

pic 2. sister missionary tan lines..

pic 3. happy birthday clowny!!! Its my moms bday today!

February 3, 2014

AH.. Today is a great day to be alive, and I bet its amazing in Seattle right now! Last night I had a dream that we wrote our families at 4am and you guys didnt tell me who won, so I didnt know! Today, my district met at the church at 11. There is an Elder, Elder Saunders, who is a HUGE Broncos fan. I didnt want to know who won until I read my emails, so I walked in, looked at him, and said If you know anything, dont tell me! And he kind of smiled, then the elders started laughing and my zone leader comes up and tells me the score, I thought the Broncos had won. Then they told me THE SEAHAWKS DESTROYED THE BRONCOS!!!!! dhsdklghsdkghsdkgjh I cried, danced, sang. Wow, i bet Seattle is freaking out! Ah, I am so proud of the Seahawks!!! And to make it better, as we were walking to the internet cafe, i passed a man in a Mariners shirt! (its the little things:)) Watch them win the World Series this year haha

Anyway.. The mission.

Like every single week, what a crazy week! I just read Hna. Minnick's email, and she said the same thing. I realize that as a missionary, life is crazy. Also, full of the most ups and downs you can imagine. Our hearts are broken everytime a person or family we come to love, doesnt want to accept our message, but they are mended when we are led to new people that are excited to learn that Christ came to the Americas too. 

Examples of broken hearted days:

We have been teaching a family that we have really come to love. There is William, he just turned 8 and is the CUTEST! Heidy 14, Carol 17, and Douglas 18. (the parents never join in our lessons but are really kind). Heidy has come to chuch with us a few times, and is really shy. William, like I said, is the cutest!! He loves to sing hymns and answer questions. Carol likes to listen to us, and her and Heidy always laugh when we try to teach (kind of annoying, but they are teenage girls) and Douglas is super cool. We found them my first day here, and have been teaching them ever since. But, they told us they dont want to be baptized:( It literally says in the bible, in Juan 3:5, that except you are born of water and the spirit,  you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.. how do you explain that to people who dont want to hear it?

Broken heart story #2.. This week we found a cute family of three brothers. (their names are Edgar, Eduardo, and Fransisco Gomez.. i almost laughed when they told me their names, it doesnt get more latino than that!)

Their parents are only home saturday and sunday because they work, so its the three boys. Edgar has 18 years, Eduardo has 12 years, and Fransisco has 8 years. 8 year olds are seriously so cute!! They were super cool and wanted us to come back and teach them. Our first lesson with them, Edgar said he wanted to be baptized and we asked why, and he said he wanted to be an example to his little brothers. Isnt that the cutest?!! We talked about thats why Christ was baptized too, to be an example. This is where it gets sad.. he starts school this friday, and he has school friday and saturday in Xela, and comes home Sunday afternoon AFTER church!! So he cant come to church with us!!! :(((( We fasted that he will be able to come to church so he can get baptized. Please pray for Edgar!!

Our hearts being mended:

Last week we found a family and the dad said his daughter wanted to play soccer at a school in the states. I asked what school and he said BYU! ummm. ok thank you spirit for leading us to them!!! We met her this past week when we were teaching her cousins that we had just found. Her cousins wanted to come to chuch with us but she didnt want to. Then i brought up how her dad said she wanted to play soccer in the states and asked her what school, she said BYU. I told her i lived right next to BYU before the mission and that is was a church school, and a REALLLY good college. She perked up. She didnt know BYU was a school of the church, she has the BYU channel at home and liked watching the sports. After she found out BYU was affiliated with the church, she wanted to come to church with us. The three of them came with us yesterday. God has a plan :) 

I have become a professional ant terminator this past week. After i found them in my bed (only my bed, not my companions), i went a little crazy and began killing all the ants i saw for the rest of the week. They enjoy being in the kitchen, so i put together a cocauction (i dont have spell check.. how do i spell that?) of bleach  kitchen cleaner, and water. When i put it all over the counter, the ants die! But after they die, they multiply! The most accurate example is from the movie Hercules, when he slays the dragon with multiple heads, and it keeps getting more heads. We keep havingmore and more ants! Sometimes i leave the dead ants on the counter for a while in hope that the other ants will get the message and stay away.. doesnt happen.

Anyway, LOVE YOU!}

                                          Typical way to carry your baby

                                          My Companion

                                          Kitchen

                                          Kitchen on left/Study area right

                                          Our Balcony

                                          Our Laundry facility/Balcony

                                          View from apartment

Updating Jaclyn's pictures to Blog

Guatemalans name trucks after me!

                                                        We made the Christmas Tree

                                               People like to put their dogs in the window.

                                                       Typico dress a member gave me.

                                                          Pizza at the Hodgemans

       I would sing to this Catholic lady Berta all the time, because my Mom like to talk to old people.

January 27, 2014

Sometimes dogs in Guatemala are diseased.  This dogs ear is literally dissolving, but he's still kicking!

My companion and I at our super nice Mall.

Sometimes we match!

Go Seahawks!  

So yesterday I thought it was Superbowl Sunday, so I wore my bright green shirt and fluffy skirt.  Later I realized that it's next week!

My companion Hermana Escoto from Honduras.

A lady in our ward made the dresses.

Like my dress?  It cost about $12 US dollars.  Thats after picking out the fabric and a lady in my ward making it!

View from my front door.  Not too bad!

My cool Bishop!

The skirt and shirt the girl is wearing are mine.  Notice how they drown her?

On January 18th we had a wedding then baptism.  He was a member, she wasn't.  So cool!                  His name is Yac, but pronounced Jac, woo hoo!

Lots of things here have American flags.  The other day in a Tuk Tuk.  The other day, a Tuk Tuk had an American Flag.  I told him I was from the states.  He didn't make us pay.

I ran out of money a week ago because Tuk Tuk's are so expensive.  But aso because I also buy cute Guatemala things like these..:)

Hola! This week was seriously a great week! My comp got sick with what i had on my birthday and was dead for a day and a half, so we were home for half a day on friday, which is hard because we cant work and our area is HUGE, but it turned out to be a really great day. I probably should have been studying spanish, but i ended up studying Preach My Gospel and studying the scriptures. Brianne put music on my ipod from Nashville Tribute Band (which is seriously the best mission music ever) So with the combination of that and the scriptures, i felt the spirit so strongly. I studied a lot about the atonement and Christ. I seriosuly LOVE Alma 7. Especially verse 12. It is talking about Christ and says "..and he will take upon him their infirmities..that he may know how to succor his people." Succor means "to run to the aid of". He litterally suffered, so that when we feel alone, unworthy, broken, if something tragic happens, if something bad happens, he would know how to help us, to comfort us, so that he can run to our aid. It is so hard for me to imagine sometimes how someone could love us so much. But he did.

I also listened to a talk by Elder Holland called "Saftely for the Soul", its basically his testimony about the Book of Mormon.. he is seriously a man of God. After listening to his talk, twice, I took out my english scriptures and started reading in Alma where i had left off, i had a sudden desire to read the Book of Mormon as fast as I could. I really love the sons of Mosiah, they are such great example of men with faith. In alma 17:9, they fast and pray for many days so that they would have the sprit of God with them, to help them convert the Lamanite people, and they were answered with a wardning that they will suffer much affliction, and that they need to be patient, but if they were patient, they would baptize many. In ALma 20:29, it talks about the sons of Moshiah being imprisioned, and suffering great affliction, hunger, thirst, fatigue, for many days, but says "nevertheless, they were patient in all their sufferings." How many times, when something bad happens to us, do we complain and murmur, and ask God why these things happen to us? The sons of mosiah, for many days, were greatly afflicted, but never once did they murmur. And as promised, the Lord blessed them. ALma is the best.

This week we went to a small town in our area, its so cute. When we were leaving, we saw two little girls we knew and they ran up to hug us, then they brought a friend, and asked me to speak english. I told them i couldnt because i was from Honduras.. they beleived me, but eventuially i spoke some english. Then a little boy came up and wanted me to speak enlighs, but i told him i couldnt cause im from guatemala. He believed me too. More kids kept coming up to us and we gave them the same story. We strated giving a few of them pamphlets to give to their parents, then ALL the kids wanted some. More and more kept coming until there were about 20. When i tried to leave they all grabbed onto me and followed me begging for pamphlets! It was so funny, i looked over at my comp like "help me" but she was laughing so hard she coldnt do anything about it, and i was laughing and couldnt break away. Finally i broke free and ran up on the side walk and called "niños, niños!" (children, children) we have no more pamphlets, but we have more at the church on sunday at 9! They said they would come (none of themdid cause its super far away from them) but it was a really funny day.

also, i thought yesterday was the superbowl and even saw a guy with a seahawks jacket!! (he had no idea what the seahawks were.) till next week:)

hna terry