Hola! Hello!

Diablos and Monos!

So there is a tradition here in Guatemala, and specifically in San Cristobal where men dressed up as diablos leave throughout the day and night and roam the streets... really don't understand it at all but it is a tradition that they have here to celebrate the devils birthday or to just celebrate him in general. Anyways, it is really weird and quite simply scary.

So there are monos and diablos. And the monos dress up in just really weird costumes and go around asking for money. Or rather shaking a jar in front of your face, because they don't speak, just grunt. And they also carry around whips in their hands, so that if you don't give them any money they whip you.. and hard... and it hurts!

The diablos leave with only underwear on, so basically nude. And they paint there entire bodies! SO when they find people on the street they slap them or get there clothes all dirty with paint! Now the diablos are even scarier then the monos because they are abusive!

Both the diablos and monos leave with masks on, of the devils face. and they just run around acting crazy, and well...like devils.

But don't worry, we have permission to enter into our houses early whenever they leave. Thank goodness!

The only thing is that on Sunday Hermana Canales and i wanted to go to the Christmas devotional and got a ride from a member to go to the church. But when it ended we walked back to our house with the elders, which is about 15 minutes walking. However, on our walk back we ran into both monos and diablos! I was so scared but nothing happened thank goodness!

Oh... Sweetie

SO everyone in the mission all got flu shots. Because apparently here in Guatemala around this time of the year there is a nasty flu that goes around. So the nurses came and gave us all shots!

But before we got the shots we had to fill out some paperwork. Just simple stuff like allergies, etc. Anyways, this paperwork has both a Spanish and an English side. 

When i finish filling out the paper work, on the English side, i hand it to the nurse to which she replies;

"Oh sweetie, you filled out the English side, but on the back its in Spanish..." jajaja

at this point both the elder next to me and i just start laughing so hard. And this poor nurse finally realizes why we are laughing and says .." oh, your Loo" jajaja to funny. Yeah i filled out the English side ...  I AM NOT LATINA!

But it is funny because every time anyone asks to see pictures of my family or when i show them pictures they always comment on how we look like pure latinos, especially mis padres jajaja. and whenever i talk on the phone whoever i am talking to always has to ask if it is me or Hermana Canales jajaja ... to funny!ç

Zone Meeting

So we also had our zone meeting on Wednesday and we talked a lot about contacting and how to do it. Which of course included a lot of role plays... yay! No but it was actually really good and helpful and also really fun!

One of the ways that we talked about was how to contact people on the bus. But what was even cooler was that about half of our zone has to take buses to get back to their areas. And after the meeting we were almost all on the same bus. And all sitting next to different people.

SO there was about 10 missionaries, all talking about the gospel to a bunch of different people. It was seriously so awesome to see! There were pamphlets and pass along cards being handed out everywhere! 

Such a cool experience to be a part of and to witness. Putting into practice what we had just learned! And contacting nearly an entire bus!

Hope that you all have a great week and continue to spread the Christmas Spirit! What a great time of the year it is to share the wonderful gift of the gospel. and of course to remember why we celebrate Christmas!

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Hermana Loo

Brizna got her temple recommend!

She can now enter into the temple and do baptisms! So exciting!

With Sandra and Fernanda!

These pictures dont really do it justice but this is a funeral...

Really just a bunch of people dressed in black walking on the street...

Super... slowly 

Okay so these are diablos and monos!

Most of these are pictures of monos...

They are so scary and creepy!