Happy June!

Wow! Is it really already June! How are we already half way through the year! To crazy!

"Yo Soy"

Just thought that I would share with you something funny that happened this week. While we were contacting a house this week, my companion goes to introduce herself and says "mucho gusto. Yo soy hna. Loo" jajajaja I dont know why she said that, but the funny thing is that this is the second time! jajaja

Contacting Testigos?

So on Wednesday, my companion and I leave the house and head to an appointment that we had with a less active member. No sooner did we leave the house, when we see two jehovah´s witnesses walking our way. Here in Chichi is it a really common thing to see a ton of JW´s. In fact, a ton of people get us confused and always think that we are JW´s.

Anyways, usually the JW´s are not friendly at all, however the two we saw this day were new and what do you know! They asked us if they could share a message with us and we said that it would be okay. 

They then proceeded to ask is who controls the world?? and we answer God.. to which they quite frankly tell us that we are wrong and that the devil actually controls the world jajaja they then proceeded to share a couple of scriptures with us but from there bible...

My companion and I thought that it was so funny that they think that the Devil controls the world. How can that be if God created the world, and if the devil controled the world why would he allow them to be here in Chichi preaching what they believe... it was funny.

In the end, my companion and I asked if we could share a message with them and gave them a pamphlet of the Restoration. Who knows if they actually read it or not...

Katerine

Katerine is 11 years old, and has been attending church for like 3 years, and so desperatley wants to be baptized but her mom never gives her permission to do so. No matter how many times she asks.

Tuesday we went to go and talk to the mom to see if we could get permission.. unfortunately the mom said no, although she did gives us permission to start teaching her the lessons. Something that she has never done before and quite honestly a miracle in itself.

Kariely

So Kariely is the sister of a less active member, i dont know if you guys remember, but the dad is inactive and a returned missionary?

Anyway, my companion and I this week were talking about whether or not we needed to leave Kariely behind because she wasnt really progressing because she could never come to church. Or the dad never gave her permission to come.

Sunday morning her mom called us telling us to come by and take her to church! yes! The dad never came home so she took it as an opportunity to send Kariely to church! IT was great! An answer to my prayers!

Eddy (Eduardo Alejandro)

So this is the investigator that we have been teaching for a little over a month now. And on Saturday we had a lesson with one of the members from the ward as well as the elders, who decided to come with us.

We went in with the lesson plan to talk about how he could recognize the spirit and that he has received an answer that what we are teaching is true. Because he has changed a lot since we have started teaching him!

The spirit was really strong during the lesson and he himself was able to understand that he has received an answer. At the end of the lesson he told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and wants to be a missionary like us! Even though he is 37 years old jajajaja But he has the desire to share the gospel.

And if he comes to church the next two sundays he will be baptized on the 20th! Which my companion and I are really excited for! Please keep him in your prayers!

Thank you for all for your love and prayers!

Hermana Loo

With the Itzep family. Remember that I told you guys that the dad had died unexpectedly leaving the mom with her 7 kids. This is the family that doesnt have a lot and that when they moved houses all that they had fit into the back of a small pickup! 

You never know how much good you do!

Slow week?

This week seemed to be a little slower and harder and a little more uneventful. Thursday and the rest of the days following we couldnt seem to find anyone home! For example, Friday every appointment that we had fell through! And I mean every single one. And all of our backup plans were a bust too! I dont know where everyone went! 

Sunday, Sacrament meeting started at 9:30 when it was actually supposed to start at 9... only in Guatemala. Hora chapina! There was a huge politcial parade that blocked the main street so there were no cars or tuc tucs passing by. And everyone is usually late to church and with this parade at 9 o´clock only the elders, the branch president, and my companion and I were in the chapel jajajaa puchica!

And of course, the rain! It is officially the rainy season! Which means that I have to start getting used to being wet all the times, and wearing my boots. Which confuses the people here even more because know they definately think that we are Jehonva´s witnesses jajajaja once again, Puchica

Elena

Although a lot of our appointments fell through this week we did contact a ton of people on the street, for example Elena Pixcar. 

She is someone whose door we had knocked on before and whose daughter told us that she was busy. When we went to go and knock on it the second time the daughter told us again that her mom was busy. So we started walking away, only to get like 10 steps and have the daughter come running out the door telling us to come back, that the mom, Elena, wanted to talk to us.

Apparently, Elena felt a little bad that she had rejected us twice and decided to listen to us and let us in! It was such a cool experience, to see the spirit working in this lady and I am excited to start teaching her!

Bebida con mosca?

Well, here in Chichi we never really have members feed us, so whenever we do it is such a blessing for the both of us! On Saturday we had lunch with a less active member, whose house is always just full of flies! i mean there are just so many everywhere, however, this is something that has become normal for me so I really didnt think all that much about it!

At the end of the meal, my companion went to pour out the drink into our glasses and you know what happened! As my glass was almost full out pops and dead fly from the pitcher and there it goes into my drink! mmmm que rico! I wanted to throw up! There was no way that I was about to drink that so I was just thinking and watching this member and trying to think of a way to get rid of it.

I ended up pouring it into my empty bowl of food and then going immediately to the sink to go and wash the dishes! It was quite the success and I am just glad that I didnt have to drink it! Because that would have been just gross!

Well, like I said this week seemed pretty uneventful! And it was a little slow! But I am excited to see what this next week will hold in store. And to get the work here moving in ChiChi little by little! Thank you for all your prayers, love and support! YOu all mean the world to me and I miss you so much!

Have a great week!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

Contacting these little girls this week who were so cute and just wanted to sit and talk to us.

Lots of Experiences

So this week was a really interesting week, for me at least I felt that we had a lot of ups and downs, some good days and some not so great days. But this is missionary life!

Hermana Loo!

Okay, to start off I always have a ton of random teenage boys yell my name, "Hermana Loo!" and they are people that I dont know or have a single clue as to who they are! jajajaja and it is always at night when we are walking back to our house, and they pass by in cars or on the other side of the street jajajaja I have no idea who they are or how they know my name! to weird...

Contacting.. gotta love it!

Okay, so this week we also had some interesting contacting experiences

first, a lot of the times when we are contacting people we of course ask them there names, and it never fails that we always have a ton of people take a really long pause after we ask them this question, as they try to come up with a name jajajaja and it never fails that they always tell us that there name is Juana, Tomasa or Maria jajajaja oh really? How original jajajaja

second, this week while we were contacting we asked someone for there name as well and she replied and said "no hay nombre" or there isnt a name, I dont have a name jajajaja okay... it was just to funny!

And lastly, while contacting a reference of a member we walk into the store of this reference, and the guy who is there working is just sitting down, watching TV and we can clearly see this, so we ask him if he has time for us to share a short a message with him, three minutes or less. And you know what he tells us!? That he is busy jajajaja and when we asked him what he was doing, he couldnt think of a lie and so he just said "no se" jajajaja or I dont know! oh man, it was all I could do to just not start busting up laughing jajajaja some people....

Tomas Giron

So on Wednesday we had a lesson with Tomas, and it was kind of a do or die lesson, where we were going to try and see what his intentions were and if he really had the desire to know the truth and be baptized.

What was sad is that he told us that he was not ready to be baptized and would not be ready this month, nor the next, nor this year! So of course we told him what our purpose as missionaries was and we were really blunt with him, and he totally understood, but we will no longer be visiting him...

It was really sad for me, and this is one of the things I really have not gotten used to or like about the mission, when we have to drop investigators. But it was the right thing to do so that we can find more prepared people. It was just sad for me and quite honestly I was a little heart broken! The truth was and is right in front of him, his salvation, but he is not ready to accept it! WHY!? This is definately one of the harder things about the mission. My companion and I were so bummed! He has no idea what he is mission out on! How many blessings this gospel can bring into his life! But he has his agency, I just hope and am praying that one day he will be prepared to accept what he knows to be true!

Power of Prayer

Okay, at first I was a little hesitant to share this with you guys, just because I was thinking about my mom and how she might freak out a little bit about it. But then I thought, what the heck! The experience and what I learned was 100 times more valuable jajaja

So... Saturday night my companion and I return home at the end of the day and we go and start planning for Sunday, and after we finish I go into the room where all of our clothes are and I find the window pushed in and on the ground, like someone had broken in! 

Of course, i call my companion and we both just start freaking out a little. Really freaked out that someone had been on our house or was still there! So we can a check all of the rooms, well the two rooms that we have jajajaja and then check to see if we still have all of our money, and everything is where it belongs, nothing gone, no one in our house.

So, we then go and talk with dueño of the house, who tells us that this has happened before to the house beneath ours and as we are talking with him we all remember the bird that is always pecking at our window and running into it. And then we also realize that the window is only held in place by little dots of glue, not sufficient at all and only in the corners. So my companion and I calm down a little bit but still a little scared out of our minds! And really, all I wanted was my dad jajaja

So I was a little nervous about how I was going to be able to go to sleep! But I prayed for comfort and that I would be able to sleep and get the rest that I needed adn I was able to sleep through the night without thinking about all that had happened. It was truly a blessing and a testimony builder to me! To know that God really does listen to our prayers and that He answers them! I am reminded of a scripture in Alma 17:10 that says,

And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them withhis Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And theywere comforted.

The Lord listens to our prayers and answers them! Remember that He always knows what we stand in need of, but we have to be the ones to exercise our faith in Him and ask for help!

.... however, today as we were getting ready to go and do a pday activity I went to go put on my converse and you know what... they were gone! Someone had taken them! so... maybe someone was actually in our house... ahhhhh!!

p.s I am sorry if my English is horrible, my dad tells me that it is jajajaja 

Les quiero mucho!  

Hermana Loo

p.s. my camera is not connecting to this computer so I cant send you guys any pics... next week though for sure!

Hello Humans!

I hope that everyone had a Happy Mother´s day! I know that mine was great being able to talk with my family! And I wish that I had the time to talk to each and everyone of you! But nevertheless I hope that everyone had a great day!

So my week I felt was a little uneventful, we had a lot of activities going on in the church and then I also got sick, which put a bit of a kink into the work this week...

Hna. Mercedes

So this Hermana was one of the pioneers of the branch here in Chichi and is just awesome! She is always willing to go out and visit and contact people with us. And is always willing to give! No matter how little she may have!

While we were out on visits with her this week we stopped by the market real quick to buy some rain boots for my companion. The guy who we are buying them from asks hna Mercedes if we are her kids jajajaja and she replies that we are jajaja and he totally believed here! It was to funny! Like the height difference between the three of us is drastic. Hermana Mercedes thought that it was particularly funny that someone would think that a gringa could be her daughter jajajaa. Although, I guess I really don't look like I am from the states at all!

Mother´s day activity

Saturday night we had the mother´s day activity in the branch, and we were in charge of the decorations. But it was a lot of fun! Although made me miss my own mom and made me so much more excited for the call that I had the following day! 

But there was a lot of food, games and dancing of course! Latino´s love to dance let me tell you jajajaja

Eduardo Alejandro

Okay, I don't really remember if I told you guys about Eduardo who is our investigator before, but he is someone that we found about 3 weeks ago. And has such a strong desire and really has true intentions to know the truth. He ALWAYS follows through with the commitments we leave with him and always reads more then what we assign him to read in the Book of Mormon! He is seriously progressing so fast and rapidly! 

He came to church yesterday and felt the spirit so strongly, in fact, during Sunday School after we had watched a video of one of the talks that a 70 had given he started crying because he felt the spirit so strongly! The Lord really is preparing him and touching his heart!

We challenged him to be baptized on the 30th of May and he accepted abd every lesson we have with him he always mentions his date and how he has 30 or 25 or 24 more days to receive and answer! I truly believe and know that he is one of the Lord´s chosen and prepared! But please pray for him! That he can receive and recognize his answer and that he will have the courage to act upon the answer that he receives!

I am so very thankful for the time that I have to be a missionary! For all that I have learnt and for the support that each one of you has given me! I am so thankful for the strong support system that I have behind me and for the family that I have!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

Decorating for the Mother´s day activity 

Lunch with the familia De Leon! 

Is it really already May???

Well, first of all, Happy Mother´s day to all of the Mom´s! You guys are seriously the best and have such a strong influence on all that surround you!

Welcome Rain!

Okay, well May here means the beginning of the rainy season! Lucky me! And this week was no exception! The rain came.. and hard! Needless to say, that this week I was wet almost all of the time. The streets here are not designed very well so all of the rain just floods together in a pool of water and makes it impossible to walk anywhere!

In the morning of course, during our studies it is always nice out and doesn't look like it is going to rain. But of course, as soon as we are ready to leave and step out of the apartment it started to pour! Welcome to the mission! This is the first rainy season for my companion so she is experiencing all kinds of new things jajaja

Divisions!

On Friday and Saturday we had divisions with the Hermana leaders and I got to go to Toto, my old zone! But i forgot how cold it gets in Toto! I was dying! Although it was a blessing because it never rained! 

At night an animal entered into the house and was rummaging through the trash that was outside and then Saturday morning we had to go to the hospital to visit a member from San Cris who was sick. But seriously, hospitals just freak me out so much! 

But divisions were good and i was able to learn so much from them!

Atonement

A question for you all ... How can I have or obtain more love for God?

This is a question we had someone ask us during one of our lessons this week and at first my companion and I were trying to explain to him how, but he just didn't seem to be understanding or getting it. And then all at once the thought about the Atonement came to my head! And I shared with him that the more he learns about the Atonement and comes to understand it the more love he will feel for our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

Which got me thinking even more about the Atonement, and if I really understand it. What was even better was that immediately after this lesson, I had my personal study and what did I study.. of course the Atonement! And as I was studying I was able to feel the spirit so strongly and the love that my Savior has for me! 

I know that although we will never be able to fully comprehend how the Savior did what He did or how He felt we can learn and understand better why He did what He did. And as we learn and study the Atonement the love and appreciation that we will feel for the Savior will increase, and we will have a greater resolve to do what is right and to share the gospel with all those around us!

I am so thankful for my Savior and the sacrifice that He made for me! It truly is a wonderful gift that He has given us, a gift that He was willing to give because of the immense love He feels for each and everyone of us!

I love you all so much! Thank you for being such an integral part in my life and for your constant love, support, and prayers!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

its raining, its pouring!

We are progressing!

Okay, so random thought or experience. While walking with the elders this week to a dinner appointment they were asking us what it was like to walk in the street at night. No sooner did they ask this when a car passed by us making yelling at us and making kissing noises calling us "mi amor" and things like this. The elders just started laughing and thought it was so funny... we just had to tell them welcome to our lives. I am glad that they thought it was funny because for us it is just disgusting. anyway...

Grateful for service

Monday night we provided service for a less active family in the branch who are just starting to get reactivated. They were moving houses so we went to help them back up their stuff and move it to the other house. Which is really more of just a room with four walls and half of a roof... not much of a house at all.

But the sad thing was that this family of 8 could fit all of their belongings in the back of a small pick up. It made me realize just how blessed we are with everything that we have! Made me especially grateful for my dad and all of his hard work, everything he does to provide for our family.

We are so blessed to have what we have! The food we have, the clothes, the cleanliness! And the safety and security. I cant tell you how many times I have heard stories of the police being drunk in the street... we really have been given so much!

Mi Sueño

So I had a dream this week about a less active member and her family who I have only met once. Her name is Adriana de Leon and she is inactive, although her parents and siblings are all very active in the church. 

Anyway, without knowing their family at all one night I had a dream where my companion and I were with her family in the church. I woke up the next morning thinking about her and her family and ran into her like 3 to 4 times on the street. Which is out of the ordinary.

So I told my companion about my dream and we went to visit and talk to her, more then anything to invite her to come back to church and bring her husband, who is a non member. As I was talking to her I felt the spirit so strongly guiding my words. However, after all was said and done she said that her and her husband are fine where they are. I was a little disappointed, especially because i could tell in her eyes that she wasn't truly happy. But i couldn't do anything about it, just invite her to come back and hope that one day she will realize what she is missing out on.

Jose David

Jose David is an old investigator that I taught with Hermana Rodas my first couple of weeks here. He works 7 hours away from here and only comes to ChiChi every 15 days. But he called us this week letting us know that he was in town, so we scheduled an appointment to go and visit him. We decided that although he has had all of the lessons, that we would talk about the Restoration with him again. and you know what! He told us flat out that he knows the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the church is true! It was so exciting to hear and the spirit could be felt so strongly!

Although, of course the challenge is that he is not here during the weekend. But yet another miracle that happened this week that helped us with the solution to this problem, is that a member in the branch has a friend who lives in the place that Jose David works who is a member! And so we are going to get in contact with him so that he can invite Jose David to church! The Lord always provides a way!!!

Tomas

Last but not least, good ol tomas! I told you guys in my last letter that he has a smoking problem, but has the desire and intention to stop! He understands that he needs to do it and why it is important to do so!

We talked with him more about it this week and the elders came with us and gave him a blessing so that he would receive the strength that he needs to leave the cigarette behind. 

And on Sunday, even though he had told us that he wasn't going to be able to make it to church, he surprised us all and came! And without and cigarette´s in his pockets or the smell of smoke on his shirt! It was so exciting and just a testament to me of the power of the priesthood!

Please continue to pray for him that he will be able to stop and will continue to have the desire to be baptized!

Each week the work here in Chichi gets better and better, and as a result I get more and more exhausted jajajaja but the reward is always so worth the effort!

Thank you for you continued prayers and support!

Los quiero mucho!

Hermana Loo

Okay, something that I realized is so normal to me now but will probably be so disgusting to you guys... these are the places where everyone buys there meat... there are always a ton of flies and the meat is just out in the open all day! mmmmm que rico! jajaja

Finding and Challenging!

SO this week my companion and I have really focused on finding people that are going to progress and accept our invitation to be baptized! and you know what! We did find people! In fact, we now have 2 investigators who are preparing for baptism and are prepared to be baptized if they receive and answer from the Lord!

17 Miracles

On Friday we planned an activity in the branch, and it was just to have a movie night outside of the church! Which was a lot of fun, unfortunately not very many people came. It is really hard to motivate the families in the ward here. There is really only 2 families that want and our willing to help us out. But we did have some investigators come and watch the movie with us which was nice!

We had planned to make tacos.. which arent really tacos like what you guys would think but really like tostados or something think like.. jajaja whatever. They took a long time to make but were really good! 

Kariely

So Kariely is one of our new investigators, she is the sister of a less active member and her dad is ex communicated... but she has a strong desire to be baptized and so went to her dad to ask him and you know what.. he just completely ignored her! ugh! so frustrating! So my companion and I went and visited him in his mechanic shop because we figured that he could not just ignore us.

So we went and asked him for permission and quite easily he said yes! Which got us really excited. Knowing that we could start working with her to prepare her for her baptism. But on Sunday, she didnt come to church, only her brother.. and when we asked him why he said that the dad didnt give her permission to come! and only a day after he had givien us permission! What the heck! I really dont understand there dad, who is a returned missionary but now wants nothing to do with the church and treats his family like trash!

So please pray for them. Pray that the dads heart may be able to be softened. that he can see the desire of his daughter to be baptized and allow her to come to church!

Tomas Giron

So this is the investigator that I have been talking a lot about. Who is an older guy but who loves the lessons we have with him and is progressing.

This week, we decided that we needed to read the Book of Mormon with Him, as he will never progress if he never reads! SO we went and read 1 Nephi with him. And he absolutely loved it! And said that the Book of Mormon is full of "Beautiful things" but in Spanish of course jajaja

We had another lesson with him this week and talked about the word of Wisdom! becuase he has a smoking problem. He had a drinking problem before but stopped drinking and turned to smoking instead... so we thought that it would be time to talk with him about this...

And after the lesson we challenged him to stop smoking and he said that he would be baptized if he receives an answer that Jospeh Smith really was a prophet of God and that he really received this commandment from God... the unfortunate thing was that he came to church on Sunday with cigarette breath.

But I know that it is a process and just ask that you guys can also pray for him, that he will recognize his answer and come to know that this is the truth and that he will also have the strength to stop smoking.

The work here is really moving forward and I am so excited to see what these next few weeks will bring! Thank you for all of your prayers!

Les amo mucho!

Hermana Loo

Making tacos... 

This is how they make and where they cook all the tortillas!