6 weeks out!

Can you believe that today I started my last change of my mission! I cannot believe it! Only 6 more weeks. I dont know where the time went. It feels like not to long ago I was just coming out of the CCM or finishing my training. CRAZY

Shower

Good ol´ Guatemala, the water in our house ALWAYS goes out, during the day, in the morning, at night. It really is quite unpredictable! And on Saturday morning it went out, and of course right as we were getting ready to shower. We thought that it wasnt going to be that big of deal, that it would come back on after we were done with our studies. But NOPE. So we had to go in the morning without having taken a shower, which you know for me was just NOT acceptable. It really just kind of sucked, a lot. And all I could think about was how I wanted to take a shower. Luckily, when we came back to eat lunch the water had come back on, so we were able to shower while we were making lunch! Thank goodness, cause if not that would have been just nasty. 

Esmeralda

So Esmeralda was an investigator that we started teaching last week, she is pretty cool and when we talked with her about Joseph Smith this week she totally understood and accepted it. She even talked about how God doesnt show himself to just anyone, so the fact that Joseph Smith saw him must be a sign that he was a chosen one of God, even a prophet.

She is really cool, but also really evangelic and her husband who is not very friendly at all may become quite the stumbling block, so please pray for her and her continued progression!

Walter

We finally were able to find and teach Walter after such a long time of not seeing him. He is still really pilas and has so much potential! The last time that we visited with him, i think like a month ago, we left him a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet of the Restoration. And when we went back yesterday he had read both! Before starting the lesson all he said was, "so, what do you have to teach me today?" When we finished the lesson, reviewing the restoration, we asked him what he thought about it all, and he was just like, it sounds pretty good and right to me. What do you guys think? jajaja it was pretty funny and cool at the same time. We invited him to church, to pray and to read and he said that he would do it. So I am excited to see how he progresses. Please pray for him and his continual progression!

Manuel Mejia

Last but not least, we got Hno. Manuel, who is the one that is hard of hearing and the dad of the bishop and a bunch of other members here in Olinte. We had two lessons with him this week and sometimes he has good days where he remembers a lot of what we are teaching, saying and what we have taught, and sometimes it is a little more of a struggle.

But on Sunday, it was definitely one of those better days. He said the closing prayer and seemed to be getting everything that we were teaching. It was cute though, because in his final prayer he asked the Lord to help him the remember the things that we are teaching, and for patience, as he knows that it is not the easiest thing screaming so that he can hear us :) But he is really cute. 

He even rememberd his baptismal date. When we asked him if he remembered what was going to happen the 28th of November he just smiled and said, "me voy a bautizar" or "I am going to get baptized!" yay! he rememberd it was so cute and his kids are so excited for him.

It is something really special to see his progression. To see someone as old as he is, about 81 I think, who has never wanted to ever listen to the gospel, go to church or get baptized, have such an interest. He has even been saying his prayers to recieve forgiveness of his sins and to know if this is true. I mean, his entire life he has never wanted anything to do with the church, but now he is so willing to listen and to change! And he remembers every appointment that we have with him and is always there, ready and waiting! 

I ask that you also keep him in your prayers! and pray for the same things that he did, that he can remember the things that we are teaching him! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and your support, I could not have asked for a better support group!

les quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

rain, rain go away! Come again some other day...
when I am not here! jajaja

Keep on Trying and Finding

So, we seem to be dropping people as fast as we are finding them. We are really doing are best to try and find those people who the Lord has prepared to receive the gospel and who are ready to make and keep their commitments. So we just keep trying to find more and more people to teach that will have a real change of heart. This week was good though as we were also able to change the way we plan to be more effective during the day and meet the goals that we set. 

Hide your kids, hide your wives AND hide your husbands

OKAY, FIRST OF ALL I AM TELLING YOU THIS NOT TO FREAK YOU OUT, I AM SAFE SO DONT WORRY!!

There is a loco suelto here in Guatemala. Some guy from the states who has been asaulting missionaries, so for this very reason me and my companion have to be inside earlier then usual, before it gets dark, It kind of sucks because nighttime is when we find a lot of families at home, but I guess it is what it is. 

I think that it is funny though cause this guys is like shorter then I am and weighs less then me or about the same. Sometimes it makes me and Hna Feliz laugh cause we just think that we could take him, you know a poly and a black girl, like could he really take us down? jajaja

But our instructions are to be inside before it is dark unless we have a priesthood holder with us who can walk us all the way to our home, and whenever we see a gringo we are to run and hide jaja the members are really worried about us and have been looking out for us, and going to appointments with us at night if we need them too. 

Jose y Paulo

So, we found these guys like mil años ago but we finally got the chance to talk and teach them the Restoration. We can only find them on Saturdays so there progression is a little slower, but they are really receptive and understand really well. And during the lessons the Spirit is there so strongly. I mean, I just feel calm and at peace. And even though they are both young and like to joke around, I feel like they understand that what we are sharing is important and that they need it in their lives, that they need to draw closer to God. So please pray for them! That they may be able to pray and feel the spirit to feel the truthfulness of this message and come to church! I have high expectations for them!

Turn up the volume!

This week we started teaching the dad of a family here who is really old, like 80 something I think. So needless to say he cannot hear very well, so we have to like put our chairs directly in front of him and then half scream at him so that he can hear and understand what we are saying. What is even funnier though is that his kids, who are all RM´s, who sit even closer to him then we do repeat what we say literally screaming into his ear jajaja but hey! He gets it and understands and can hear so i am not complaining jajaja

His entire family, kids, grandkids, ex wife, are all members but he has never had the desire to learn or become a member of the church until now. This is the first time in his entire life that he has accepted missionaries to come over and teach him. We put a baptismal date with him and he accepted it if he comes to know the truth. We still have a long way to go with him though. So please pray for him, his name is Manuel Mejia!

I love you all so much! thank you for all of your prayers and support!

los quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

GUATEMALA! 

Learning from the scriptures

Randoms from the week

1. So we had some more adventures with bolos following us around this week. One of them wouldnt leave us alone and kept following us. When we crossed the street, he did, we would try and go into a store to get away from him and he would follow us! Like dang leave us alone. Finally we went and talked to some members at their store and he went into another store so we had to duck into the milpa (corn field) and sprint through it to get away from him, and then like 3 nights later some bolo in a bike came up on us and was trying to follow us as well. NO! get away from us! And then Saturday night we saw this one bolo whose car had just stopped and he wanted us to help him push it down the hill so that it would start up again jajaja I am not sure if that is instigating drunk driving or not? But Guatemalan Police dont even care anyway.

2. It has been raining here pretty consistently and there are like huge potholes all over the road here, so it is pretty hard not to get splashed as we are walking, and this week was no exception. Except we got absolutely showered by this one bus that was driving way to fast (of course)  and just showered us when it hit this huge pothole. and then less then 5 minutes later we got showered yet again by another bus. awesome. I love Guatemala! 

3. We went and visited Susi this week, and her daughter said this prayer that was hilarious. Her name is Valentina and she is like 5 years old. But in her prayer she asked for God to bless all the kids that eat dirt cookes, and dirt sandwhiches and drink dirt jajaj umm what!? Where did you get that from??? And then later Susi explained that she always prays for the children in Africa. I just looked at Hna Feliz and started dying of laughter. 

Personal Study

So I started reading the Book of Mormon again from the beginnin and have been learning a ton of course! There were a couple of things that I really like that I wanted to share with you guys, 

1. The importance of the Spirit. I was reading in 1 nephi 11 I think, where Nephi is being taught by the Holy Ghost, and it really made me think about my own worthiness of the scared gift of the Holy Ghost. Thinking about if I am worthy of his companionship? If I am humble enough to receive his counsel? If I am willing to follow it when I receive it? Do I even recognize when the Spirit is trying to talk to me? Do I strive to live worthy of his companionship everyday? There are so many things to reflect upon, and I realized how much I could change to be even more worthy of the Holy Ghost. I invite each of you to think and ponder upon these questions and your own worthiness. And if there are things that you need to change, then do it! The Lord will help you and we will be so much more blessed in our daily lives as we have the sacred and constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

2. I was also reading yet again in Nephi when he goes into Jerusalem, and finds Laban drunk, kills him and then puts on his clothig and goes to Laban´s treasury to get the brass plates, but what struck me was how Zoram, Laban´s servant recognized Nephi as Laban because of the clothes he had on and because he had Laban´s sword. And then that got me thinking, all of us who have been baptized have taken upon ourselves the name of Christ, but do those around us recognize this as well? Can they see the "sword" and "clothing" that we have on? Do they recognize us as servants, disciples and representatives of Jesus Christ? If we remember the words that the prophet spoke to us this last conference we will remember that he called upon us to be examples of the believers. And I extend this same invitation to each of you. As we partake of the sacrament each week we promise to always remember Him. Do we know what the fully entails? Are we remembering him each day? these are just some things that I thought about this week, and helped me realize the things that I can change and do better at. 

I have come to have a real love for the scriptures, studying them and learning from them. And I invite everyone to do the same, to get into a regularly studying the scriptures. There is so much that we can learn from them.

I love you all so much and am so thankful for your support and prayers! 

los quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

Only in Guatemala do you get lost in the mountains
and then walk through random fields to find your way down! 

This rainbow was so pretty and so clear, I have never seen one like it!

and then the last one.. some bolo sleeping on the side of the road.. typical Guatemala!

This volcano is always spitting out smoke.. scary!

Conference Weekend!

So I ABSOLUTELY loved conference! It was amazing and I learned so much. I think that the two things I learnt and loved were the ponderizing and asking the Lord in our prayers and then listening to the Spirit answer the question "what wilt thou that i do?" LOVE LOVE LOVE conference and cannot wait to watch it again in 6 months, and in english! Because watching it in Spanish is just not the same!

So this week I havent had any interesting nurse experience, luckily not very many people called me. I am only in charge of the Latinos, there is another nurse that all of the gringos have to call so that is good. But I just feel like the Latino´s never know how to take care of themselves, like they have never been away from home or their mom´s, so they have no idea what to do with something as simple as a cold and get freaked out when it doesnt go away after like 2 days. Well, it does take some time and its cold and rainy outside so don´t freak out. Come to think of it I have a lot of people call me with cold´s that they have had for like a month but havent done anything to get rid of it. Like it aint going to be magic jajaja or an elder call me freaking out cause he had a cold and his nose was stuffed and he didnt know if that was normal of if something else was happening to him jajaja oh brother...

Helping Bolos

So, we are finishing up the day Saturday night and as we are walking to the house we find this nice phone just laying on the ground. We decide to see if we can call someone to see if we can figure out whose it is and they can come and pick it up but the phone doesnt have any saldo(?, not sure what this is in english). So we just put the phone off to the side and start walking to our house. No sooner are we at the top of our hill do we see these two dudes who are looking for something, and we ask them what they are looking for and they tell us a phone. Well it is oh so clear by their smell that they are drunk, but we decide to help them out, cause although they were drunk they were nice, and we help them locate the phone where we had left it. and the entire time the bolo is just saying, "es porque ando un poco tomado" really!? I hadnt noticed.. Oh Guatemala. gotta love it!

Susi

Susi is an old investigator that we had stopped visitng for awhile cause she wasnt coming to church. She always sat and talked with us and always talked about how she wanted to come to church but just never did it. But we decided to go back and visit her again this week.

It was a good lesson and I was able to realize that we need to keep teaching her. She has a really strong desire to come to church and to learn more but her husband can get a little grumpy and the one time she came to church he wasnt to happy about it, so he is kind of holding her back from going. So please keep them both in your prayers so that he can soften his heart and they both can come to church together!

She also told us about these catholics that contacted her and wanted to visit with her, how they were telling her that they were the true church. But something really cool happened, she said that as she was talking to them she didnt feel anything, not even the desire for them to continue teaching her and she told them just that. She then said it was nothing like how I feel when you guys are here or when I read the Book of Mormon and understand it! yes! The Holy Ghost really can touch hearts!

Familia Pascual Perez

We were also able to go and finish teaching this family the Restoration. The hermano was still a little confused, but I think that we were able to get him to understand that he needs to pray so that the Lord will be able to solve the doubts that he has. At the end of the lesson we asked him what he would do if he came to know that these things are true, and it was pretty funny cause he was just like, oh we would go to the mormon church, my wife and I would get married and we would all get baptized! But he said it with so much enthusiasm that it just made me smile.

We still have a lot to work on with this family and helping them to really understand everything that is going on and we are teaching them. But at least they are willing to learn and listen and they are willing to change if the Lord so commands them to do so. 

But please keep them in your prayers as well. 

Sherlie and Antoni

So, these guys continue to progress and suprise us. They have a lot going on though and are always really busy! But we were able to put a baptismal date with them and they understand perfectly what they have to do in order to receive an answer and be ready for their baptism. We left them with a Book of Mormon and have started to read it together! woohoo! That is just great. They are both really young but they are seeking for knowledge and so it is so fun to teach them cause they just soak everything in and understand it. 

Please pray for them. That they will have the desire to learn more, that they will read their Book of Mormon, that they will pray and recognize the answer they will receive from the Holy Ghost!

I look forward to continue to work with them this week!

Well, that is it for the week. We are starting to pick things up again, but still even with all of these investigators that we have we still have a long way to go for them to understand the significance and importance of everything that we are teaching them. But I know that when I am being obedient, and teach with the and through the Spirit, the Spirit touches hearts and can change lives! I love being a missionary and i love sharing this gospel with the people here in guatemala, being an instrument in the Lord´s hands in something so special that I just cannot even begin to even explain it with just words. It is not always easy but it is always worth the effort. And I am so thankful for each of you who have been supporting me every step of the way!

les quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo (aka Hermana Lulu)

A little birthday celebration that we had for Cristian,

a recent convert, with some members of the ward here.