HOLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! Ok so this has been another loco moco week!! Guatemala does not disappoint!!! Ay yay yay.... hopefully, I will have time to write all that happened...ok first of all, DAD yes, STOP praying that the Guatemalans will humble and soften their hearts!! Yesterday, another tropical storm hit and it was UGLY!!!! Seriously, every day, I’m here I really think the world is going to end. It’s been nuts!!! Rain, rain and more rain, and it’s FREEZING!!! But, prestos todos prestos the church is true!!
The people say that the weather is the worst it’s been in a long time and that the rainy season won’t end this year til November!!! Noooooooooo!!!! Normally, it ends about now, but things have just been getting crazier and crazier!!! Seriously, it really is NUTS!! But it makes the work really interesting and difficult because the people say, si Dios quiere, no llueve!!! Or if Dios wants me to go to church or if your message is true, it won’t rain!! haha. That’s the kind of stuff you deal with here. I’ve actually learned to just try to laugh and love.
But yeah.....WE HAD OUR ACTIVITY....BIG WEDDING!! And it was a great success. It was this Saturday and over 40 couples invited other couples.... So there was about 80 couples that came.... 40 non-member family references!!! WOOOHOHOOHOHO!!! We were sooooo happy. So what we did and what I’ll be doing this whole week is we had every person that entered take a picture in front of the flowers and cake and we had them sign like a memory book with all their dats. And this week we will print out the pictures and go to every one of these houses to drop off the picture and share a message with the member family!!!!!!! I was SOOOOOOO happy and just feel like this is going to really help us TON!! But it was really nice. The people got married....ha-ha. That was soooo funny, ate food, cake, and then there was a dance after!!!! Goooood times.
The people had a blast. Now the hard part will be, getting them to come and feast upon the good word of God and not just the free food at the boda!!! This week will be KEY!! But the wedding was a success.... great activity hope to see fruits!!!! But oh man leading up to the activity was nuts.
I told you that Hermana Guaranda has been really sick. And things did not get better!!!!! This week she almost died on me it was the scariest thing of my life!! Without fail, after any meal she barfs and pooos and its ugly.... but the results of her test from the capital didn’t show anything. She doesn’t have worm parasites, just bacteria so she’s just been taking meds for that. But this week, we left our cocinera’s house and we were walking and she just like stops and is like shaking. Shaking. And I was like Hermana Guaranda...and she told me Hermana Garcia, I am going to faint!!!!!
Oh my goodness, I seriously looked at her and knew she meant it and just thought ¨what the heck am I going to do¨ She just starts crying and I’m just trying to think in sort of a state of panic. It was sooo scary. Luckily, we were next to a member’s house so we rushed there she lay down and was just shaking and crying. I left the house with their daughter to go run and find a phone and I called my president and we were rushed to the capital. CRAZINESS!!!!!
We went and she took blood tests and what not and know is doing better, were just waiting for the results of the doctors to figure out what the heck she has because its been weeks now, and she is still sick. They think that she has ulcers because of all the stress and what not, but nobody knows!!! Just pray that all will be ok with her. But daaaaaang. They think that I curse my companions because I always get the sick ones!!! The crazy stories. Blood gushing out of ears, fainting by the wayside. Ay yay yay!!! Craziness. But poor Hermana Guaranda seriously. She tells me everyday, “Hermana G, I am about to break to the verge of contemplating just picking up the phone and calling quits”. But I know she won’t!!! She’s strong!!! But just from everything!!! Her health, family, and just the work and experiences we’ve had these couple changes has just been crazy!!!! So I’m really just trying to do all that I can to be strong, but seriously sometimes I feel the same. Just like cracking. We just go home and start crying because it just gets overwhelming. But man hopefully something will happen from this activity!!!!!!! We’re praying!!! And well be able to BREATH!!! But yeah, the mission has been one crazy ride!!!!!
Oh yeah, yesterday we were street contacting and I was talking to this lady getting her number, address, what not and some creepy guy came and kissed me!!!!! And Hermana Guaranda whacked him with her umbrella!!!! pahhahahah. Mission stories!!! Don’t worry dad, I’m ok and he didn’t do anything else just kissed me on the cheek, but it was crazy. Actually this week, Hermana Guaranda almost killed two guys this week. We were having a bad day, walking in a storm, and like always this guy starts just screaming at us telling us that we need to repent and that we were going to hell and Hermana Guaranda just lost it and starts screaming back and with her umbrella a start going after him to like fight and I just was like what the heck??? I started screaming HERMANA STOP! STOP!!! And literally had to hold her back and just talk with her and tell her you cannot do that!!! Or were the same as him!! But she just lost it and was like enough, enough, enough!!!! But geeeezzz, In Chimal it gets crazy!!! The mission definitely has not disappoint!!! I have had crazy experiences...both good and bad but no matter what happens, I seriously just try to remember that this is the Lord's work and that I am here for a purpose.
Seriously, it is probably the most humbling experience of my life and each day I just am trying to do my best to learn what it is that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me...There is sooo much I am just trying to be calm and just learn whatever it is I’m supposed to. Don’t worry about me; we really are in the Lords hands. I can feel that! And KNOW without a doubt that that is true and that this really is the work of the Lord!!!!! I know that!! And for that everything that we go through really is for a purpose and helps us to come closer to Him!! I love Heavenly Father, the Savior and this gospel with allllll my heart. For this, I am here!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully, I can help others feel the same!!! I looooove you all with allllll my heart!!!!!!! The Lord loves you more!!!!!!!! Please have a good week and take care!!!!! Prestos todos prestos...the church is TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana G!
Hermana Alise Rei Kahululani Garcia served in the Guatemala City Central Mission March 2010 - September 2011 for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
First Companion MTC and CCM, Hermana Williams
Throw rocks, reject us; I have been soooo blessed...I can afford to love you!
HOOLLLAAAA best family in the world!! I hope all is well back at home. I really do think and pray for all of you everyday and just thinking about you all at home makes me start crying because my heart is just filled with so much love and happiness......I seriously cannot express sufficiently in words how much I LOVE you all and how much your love and support means to me!!! The world!! Mom, dad, Grandma, grandpa, Auntie Reenie, everyone I read your letters daily and although we pass through some really interesting things here in Guate, just knowing that I have a family who loves and supports me gives me all the strength I need to just keep going!!! Chin up!!! Its only a year and a half, but the blessings are eternal!!! The church is true....I do have a purpose of being here in Guatemala!!!!!
This week, hmmmm, what happened? Nothing really crazy!!! Hermana Guaranda and I just sat down and really talked, took a deep breath, offered our hearts in prayer to God for help and guidance on how we can change things in our area. Things are not the best, but I seriously am so set on the fact that I only have 1 and a half years....well now one year to do this mission thing and I just don’t want to come home with regrets or feeling like it wasn’t worth it!! Sooo, I am just trying, trying, trying to just keep going!! But talk about a stretch!!! haha.
Sooooo, this week Hermana Guaranda and I have been brainstorming things we can do to help the work to grow. Right now, we are planning an activity a noche de matrimonios. Pretty much it is a big wedding!! Food, dancing, big cake, and extremely elegant. And what’s going to happen is that its free for all the members in the ward... well really its for the married couples...the kids are going to be in another room with the jovenes doing something else....the catch is that they have to bring a non-member MARRIED couple or they cannot come!! And the purpose is just to like grandpa said....fall in love with the church.
It’s going to be a formal so people are going to dress up and yeah....the activity passed with the obispado, soooo ,we are just now trying to excite all the members to DO SOMETHING!!! Free food, and they can dress up and get all cute, and we can find MARRIED people!! Oh haha also there is going to be a lawyer there so our investigators who want to marry can marry there for FREE!!!!! That may sound crazy to all you, but here people are soooo excited for that because they cannot get married because of the money deal.
SOOO, hopefully this will bring in some positive people. We are seriously trying to do whatever the heck we can!!! Also yesterday, we started something else. We invited all the youth and young single adults in the ward to come eat breakfast in the church at like 7 in the morning. We cooked everyone breakfast and the catch was that after breakfast we wrote the names of all the people we were teaching, less actives etc who we wanted to come to church and we did divisions and sent all the youth out to get these people.....it was semi successful! only like 6 youth actually showed up...not very good...I think because it was sooo early in the morning and we can advertise better but we are going to use it and try to just get AS MANY PEOPLE as we can involved in missionary work and to help us.....because something has got to change!! The question....HOW?? More ideas....let me know!! Seriously willing to try anything!!!
But ahahahahahahahh, sometimes, it is just so hard and frustrating! Probably the most frustrating thing when you just try and try, pray and pray and just do all you can in your power to love people and help them, but they throw rocks at you, and just trample your heart....Its hard, but just think of how the Savior felt? So we are holding on and relying on the Lord!! It’s funny because recently I have just been reading my patriarchal blessing, my setting apart blessing that grandma sent me, and Joseph Smith history to find comfort and it seriously has been so eye opening. But haha I dont know how I wasnt scared after Uncle Bode set me apart.....Were you all there??? Its crazy!! haha!!
Seriously, I read it and just started laughing thinking The Church is TRUE yo!!!!! UNCLE BODE knew!!!! It just talks and talks about being COMFORTED and about the trials I will pass through for the Lord and that the Lord will give me the strength to overcome the harsh weather and climate conditions, sicknesses, and will help me to love the people that I have been sent to teach. I seriously thought, WOW!!!! How crazy is that??? Honestly it was way cool!! But seriously DO NOT worry about me, because I am okay!! The Lord really does help me!! And your prayers and letters help a ton too!!! Me, and my companion, love each other and that is a HUGE blessing!!
Despite everything, I honestly do love my mission and am so grateful for it!! I am learning so much each day and just feel overwhelmingly grateful for all the blessings the Lord has given me. My life has been sooo blessed. I cannot believe it so whenever people reject us or do stupid things, I just think....I have been soooo blessed I can afford to love you! haha. Mom taught me that. I honestly couldn’t imagine living in these circumstances!! And when I think of things in those terms...it works!! I feel love!!!! haha. Sometimes, I honestly am just in shock when I hear of the trials of these people. Their struggles, their worries.....To feed their kids, that their house wont fall down with the rain, that they can buy medicine so their children don’t die, that their husbands wont get drunk and kill them at night....CRAZINESS!! And seriously it is just so humbling.....I mean All I got to say is....Well one time, my parents took me on a vacation to AFRICA and I got pimples on my face and it hurt and I looked ugly.....what you got??? haha!!
Seriously it blows my mind, but honestly I just feel so, so, so, SOOO blessed. I can hardly believe it so each day I just wake up and testify to love, and just try to love people and do my very best!!! I am just so grateful really for everyone and for all your love, support and PRAYERS!!!!!!! Seriously, I cannot even say enough how much it means. Dad, go to sleep I am fine! You really are the best father in the entire world!! And Heavenly Father really does hear your prayers....promise! MOMMY, I cannot say enough how much I love you. All my comps want to meet you! David, Andrew and Chris, be good! Grandma, grandpa, aunties, uncles......Love you all SOOOOO much!!! The church is true.....PROMISE and THAT is what makes everything worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With all my heart, prestos todos prestos....I gotta go, but the church is true!!!!!! Until next Monday.........sending all my love!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana G!!!!
This week, hmmmm, what happened? Nothing really crazy!!! Hermana Guaranda and I just sat down and really talked, took a deep breath, offered our hearts in prayer to God for help and guidance on how we can change things in our area. Things are not the best, but I seriously am so set on the fact that I only have 1 and a half years....well now one year to do this mission thing and I just don’t want to come home with regrets or feeling like it wasn’t worth it!! Sooo, I am just trying, trying, trying to just keep going!! But talk about a stretch!!! haha.
Sooooo, this week Hermana Guaranda and I have been brainstorming things we can do to help the work to grow. Right now, we are planning an activity a noche de matrimonios. Pretty much it is a big wedding!! Food, dancing, big cake, and extremely elegant. And what’s going to happen is that its free for all the members in the ward... well really its for the married couples...the kids are going to be in another room with the jovenes doing something else....the catch is that they have to bring a non-member MARRIED couple or they cannot come!! And the purpose is just to like grandpa said....fall in love with the church.
It’s going to be a formal so people are going to dress up and yeah....the activity passed with the obispado, soooo ,we are just now trying to excite all the members to DO SOMETHING!!! Free food, and they can dress up and get all cute, and we can find MARRIED people!! Oh haha also there is going to be a lawyer there so our investigators who want to marry can marry there for FREE!!!!! That may sound crazy to all you, but here people are soooo excited for that because they cannot get married because of the money deal.
SOOO, hopefully this will bring in some positive people. We are seriously trying to do whatever the heck we can!!! Also yesterday, we started something else. We invited all the youth and young single adults in the ward to come eat breakfast in the church at like 7 in the morning. We cooked everyone breakfast and the catch was that after breakfast we wrote the names of all the people we were teaching, less actives etc who we wanted to come to church and we did divisions and sent all the youth out to get these people.....it was semi successful! only like 6 youth actually showed up...not very good...I think because it was sooo early in the morning and we can advertise better but we are going to use it and try to just get AS MANY PEOPLE as we can involved in missionary work and to help us.....because something has got to change!! The question....HOW?? More ideas....let me know!! Seriously willing to try anything!!!
But ahahahahahahahh, sometimes, it is just so hard and frustrating! Probably the most frustrating thing when you just try and try, pray and pray and just do all you can in your power to love people and help them, but they throw rocks at you, and just trample your heart....Its hard, but just think of how the Savior felt? So we are holding on and relying on the Lord!! It’s funny because recently I have just been reading my patriarchal blessing, my setting apart blessing that grandma sent me, and Joseph Smith history to find comfort and it seriously has been so eye opening. But haha I dont know how I wasnt scared after Uncle Bode set me apart.....Were you all there??? Its crazy!! haha!!
Seriously, I read it and just started laughing thinking The Church is TRUE yo!!!!! UNCLE BODE knew!!!! It just talks and talks about being COMFORTED and about the trials I will pass through for the Lord and that the Lord will give me the strength to overcome the harsh weather and climate conditions, sicknesses, and will help me to love the people that I have been sent to teach. I seriously thought, WOW!!!! How crazy is that??? Honestly it was way cool!! But seriously DO NOT worry about me, because I am okay!! The Lord really does help me!! And your prayers and letters help a ton too!!! Me, and my companion, love each other and that is a HUGE blessing!!
Despite everything, I honestly do love my mission and am so grateful for it!! I am learning so much each day and just feel overwhelmingly grateful for all the blessings the Lord has given me. My life has been sooo blessed. I cannot believe it so whenever people reject us or do stupid things, I just think....I have been soooo blessed I can afford to love you! haha. Mom taught me that. I honestly couldn’t imagine living in these circumstances!! And when I think of things in those terms...it works!! I feel love!!!! haha. Sometimes, I honestly am just in shock when I hear of the trials of these people. Their struggles, their worries.....To feed their kids, that their house wont fall down with the rain, that they can buy medicine so their children don’t die, that their husbands wont get drunk and kill them at night....CRAZINESS!! And seriously it is just so humbling.....I mean All I got to say is....Well one time, my parents took me on a vacation to AFRICA and I got pimples on my face and it hurt and I looked ugly.....what you got??? haha!!
Seriously it blows my mind, but honestly I just feel so, so, so, SOOO blessed. I can hardly believe it so each day I just wake up and testify to love, and just try to love people and do my very best!!! I am just so grateful really for everyone and for all your love, support and PRAYERS!!!!!!! Seriously, I cannot even say enough how much it means. Dad, go to sleep I am fine! You really are the best father in the entire world!! And Heavenly Father really does hear your prayers....promise! MOMMY, I cannot say enough how much I love you. All my comps want to meet you! David, Andrew and Chris, be good! Grandma, grandpa, aunties, uncles......Love you all SOOOOO much!!! The church is true.....PROMISE and THAT is what makes everything worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With all my heart, prestos todos prestos....I gotta go, but the church is true!!!!!! Until next Monday.........sending all my love!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana G!!!!
Hardest Week Ever! Heartbreak After Heartbreak! Love the Missionaries!
Hola!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so I am.................STILL in Chimaltenango and with Hermana Guaranda!!!! Hooray!!!!! I am very excited. I guess my work in Chimaltenango still isn’t done yet!!!! I am glad to hear that all is well and that Andrew started school. Yippeeee!! Hope Andrew LOVESSS it and lives it up because soon he’ll be in Nicaragua swimming through sewers like me.....yaahhhahahhahhyy!!!!!!! haha. Nah, but really hope all is well with everyone!!!
Ok so this week, I hit my wall!! It was such a hard week for me and I broke down and cried for 3 hours straight...no joke! But I feel a lot better and am still determined more than ever do just give all I can to the Lord. Ok sooo, why did I break down. It was a combination of things. This whole change has been really hard for us. Sicknesses, Hermana Guaranda is STILL sick and poor thing just barfs and poops her brains out. It is ROUGH!!! We are going to the capital Friday to kill these animals that she has in her stomach or whatever the heck is going on. I got sick before her, but mine was for like one day I felt like I was going to die and then after that I only have diarrhea. I don’t feel sick, but I have forgotten what it is like to just normal go to the bathroom. I am SHOCKED everyday at the things that come out of me. I know that sounds gross and I am so sorry but I gotta be real. I just think WHAT THE HECK!! THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!!! but hey I’m not barfing, don’t have a fever anymore its just a never ending cycle of constant diarrhea!!!!!! But
Hermana Guaranda just cries and cries because she just feels so, so sick!!
I FORCED her to take a break and come home and sleep. She didn’t want to, but I told her sister, I know you want to work. I do too, but soon you will be preaching the gospel to the spirits in the spirit world if you do not rest your body!!!! So that has been hard. 2. We are in August and in the PEAK of the rainy season!! I think this is probably why we are sick because all the missionaries are right now. I’m not even joking; we SWIM through sewers....literally. It is disgusting and I can’t lie whoever said that would be fun.....LIED!!!! For some parts I enjoy the rain because it is like Guatemalan Lysol. It kills 99 % of the odors here. I promise, it doesn’t stink half as bad when it rains, but still the germs and diseases and animals in the water still kill you and tin shacks plus rain are not a good combination for powerful lessons and whoever said that people let you in more when it rains....that hasn’t been the case for us.
We still have been struggling so hard to get good positive investigators....its hard. We’ve had the most interesting rejections people yelling at us, throwing the Book of Mormon in our face. The other day, these people started throwing rocks at us. Don’t worry. Not big rocks to kill us but were shooting rocks at us. I think it was from a sling shot because it was pretty hard. None of them hit me, but they hit Hermana Guaranda. It was pretty interesting, but kinda funny Also, Our investigators and recent converts are passing through hard times. Women that we visit are getting abused. We come to the lessons and their faces our completely bruised and cut. It seriously shakes me. You all know that if there is one thing that just BUGSSS and gets me is abuse! I tell my companion all the time because I don’t think she understands. I told her I have problems with this...when i saw the movie enough I couldn’t sleep for like 3 months. It freaks me out and I am in the land of abuse and it literally shakes me. My body is completely covered in bites. My stomach looks DISGUSTING. It has completely scarred because these bugs here are out of control. I never sleep the whole night through because these bugs literally KILL me!!!! But I was thinking maybe this is Heavenly Father’s way of telling me that No more Bikinis!!! Bikinis are BADDDD!!! haha.
Seriously, I have scars all on my body. it is ugly and Hermana Baldwin told me, Isn’t the mission so fun!! haha. We are lucky because our beds are new and there are people who don’t even have beds. Everywhere in the mission no matter where struggles with this so yayyayayay just gotta suck it up and LOVE it!!! This week also Angelina....oh sooooo sad, her testimony is as firm as ever that’s not the problem, but the government came and took Pablo from her!!! Apparently there are like spies, not really spies but people who watch the children in the street and look at the situations of the people, and if they feel it is a bad situation they take the kids and put them in this home. Well they came and took Pablo because they said that Hermana Angelina couldn’t support her kids and so they took him and her other kids cant leave the house because they are threatening to take them too!! Can you believe that!!
It was the saddest thing ever, but she is just fighting to start her business and figure things out so that she can have her kids. I’m not joking it was the saddest thing ever, but her testimony is as firm as ever and that is something really powerful to see. Soooooo, this week well this change has just been hard and I’ve truly been doing my very best to just be strong, have faith, especially for my companion. But Monday, i hit the wall because on top of all this my family, the familia ajquiy garcia.....I’m going to start crying just writing this decided to leave the church!!! My family! The family we baptized my first change the most pilas family in the world!!! Whenever we have hard days, we just go to their house because we feel happy because they are sooo pilas. But ijgejfle ejfjermfei.
Okay, so about two weeks ago it all started!!! Hermano Garcia is passing through really hard times financially. Struggling and paying tithing is really hard for him. He was doing it but like all of Guatemala, it was hard. But yeah, he told us that that was something really hard and we just did all we can to encourage him to do it and PROMISED the blessings that come from that. BUT then he’s just been bombarded with Anti-Mormon evangelical information. Visitors from his work who are strong evangelicals came over to SAVE him and have given him all this crazy information about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and WHY our religion is wrong and that has just left a lot of doubt with Hermano.
So for the past two weeks they haven’t come to church and we’ve been visiting them and talking to him and trying to just clear up these stupid doubts he has. Really it is soooo dumb, the things they say and the way they interpret the bible. But I swear they like possessed Hermano Rosalio. there is such an ugly spirit in that house when normally the spirit is so strong and I just keep trying to help Rosalio, because really it is only him, remember the feelings that he felt when he started coming to church, prayed, read the Book of Mormon etc because I know he felt it!! I told him that his real concern is whether Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he NEEDED to read the Book of Mormon more, everyday and really PRAY to know AGAIN if it were true. But he is so angry with everything because he thinks that we fooled him. And finally Monday night, we went over and it was the same thing and he flat out told us. No more. No more. We cannot believe anymore in this and this man and we will not go to the church.
Family, I cannot even explain to you what I felt. The worst, saddest, most depressing feeling of my life.....I broke down in complete tears I could not hold it in. And my comp and I were just silent. I just expressed all my love I could for them and bore my heart, my most sincere testimony of the reality of the gospel and he literally told me that’s good that you believe that....leave and don’t come back!!!!!
MOM, that broke me to the point I cannot even express in writing. I just wanted to shake the devil out of him. Seriously, it was UGLY. It is the saddest and the worst feeling in the whole world. I CRIED and CRIED and CRIED for three hours straight and writing this makes me cry some more. That was like my family here. the most amazingest family in all the world and seeing Rosalio like that and seeing all his family surrounded as he was just bashing Joseph Smith and the church because of stupid things that the devil told him, literally BROKE ME!!!
I went home and just cried, cried, cried, and just felt the combination of everything just fall upon me where I felt hopeless....ready to just give up. It was just the saddest thing. But my comp told me in the night because I was still crying and crying. Hermana Garcia, you cannot get discouraged because I look up to you so much. You are my example. She started crying and said you cannot get discouraged. You can’t! But that night we just stayed up crying and hugging each other. But at that point, I honestly just felt hopeless, empty just pure sadness. I cannot even explain it and just like a complete failure. It literally freaks me out that I have only a year left of my mission.
Trust me, not because this is the funnest thing in the world and I never want to leave but just because I DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME feeling this way just like a complete failure and empty. I thought really hard about everything and it’s just so hard. I’m trying so hard to just love these people, love everything. I’m trying to just give these people my whole heart, everything I got and it just feels like they just throw it back at my face and throw rocks at me! It is so, so hard at times, but I can honestly say that I am here for the right reasons and pushing through because
I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
I know that what I’m going through is not even an nth of what Christ suffered for us or the prophet Joseph Smith and the early pioneers. I don’t know how they did it.....honestly. But seriously, each day I reanalyze myself and ask myself through all of this....how much do you believe? How much faith do you really have? And, I can honestly say that with all my heart, with everything I am and I can give, I honestly BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!!! I don’t doubt, that this is the work of the Lord and that the Prophet Joseph Smith really did restore the Lord’s church. I KNOW the Book of Mormon is the word of God and for this reason I am just trying my best so that others can know that too. But, it is really hard, way more than I expected. I neeeed loooooove!
Love the missionaries everyone please. But honestly, I believe so much that this is the work of the Lord and for some reason, I have no idea what it is I’m supposed to be here in Guatemala. I trust that the Lord will show me and let me know if I just continue to try. Above my bed, I wrote, “The church is true!!! Why not miracles?” I just do not want to leave my mission feeling this way!!! Because if I do it is because I failed because I know that Heavenly Father is helping me and supporting me. Otherwise, I would’ve already been lying on the beaches in Hawaii or eating free food at the Canon center with Andrew.
The Lord does not fail us, but sometimes we fail ourselves. I am seriously doing everything in my power to not fail and to just keep going regardless of what I can see or feel. The church is true and that’s why missions are hard!!!! I never expected this, but regardless of everything I can honestly say that I am SOOOOO grateful to serve a mission and Heavenly Father and that Texas is not the best mission! There is a reason I’m here in Guatemala.
Family, seriously just writing this letter, gives me the motivation I need to just keep going. I cannot even tell you how much I love you and how much all your love and support means to me. I LOOOOVEEEEEE you all with all my heart, and just thank you, all for everything. The church is TRUE and for this we have to keep going!!!!!!!!!! With all my heart I love you!!!!!!!!! Prestos todos prestos forever the church is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok so this week, I hit my wall!! It was such a hard week for me and I broke down and cried for 3 hours straight...no joke! But I feel a lot better and am still determined more than ever do just give all I can to the Lord. Ok sooo, why did I break down. It was a combination of things. This whole change has been really hard for us. Sicknesses, Hermana Guaranda is STILL sick and poor thing just barfs and poops her brains out. It is ROUGH!!! We are going to the capital Friday to kill these animals that she has in her stomach or whatever the heck is going on. I got sick before her, but mine was for like one day I felt like I was going to die and then after that I only have diarrhea. I don’t feel sick, but I have forgotten what it is like to just normal go to the bathroom. I am SHOCKED everyday at the things that come out of me. I know that sounds gross and I am so sorry but I gotta be real. I just think WHAT THE HECK!! THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!!! but hey I’m not barfing, don’t have a fever anymore its just a never ending cycle of constant diarrhea!!!!!! But
Hermana Guaranda just cries and cries because she just feels so, so sick!!
I FORCED her to take a break and come home and sleep. She didn’t want to, but I told her sister, I know you want to work. I do too, but soon you will be preaching the gospel to the spirits in the spirit world if you do not rest your body!!!! So that has been hard. 2. We are in August and in the PEAK of the rainy season!! I think this is probably why we are sick because all the missionaries are right now. I’m not even joking; we SWIM through sewers....literally. It is disgusting and I can’t lie whoever said that would be fun.....LIED!!!! For some parts I enjoy the rain because it is like Guatemalan Lysol. It kills 99 % of the odors here. I promise, it doesn’t stink half as bad when it rains, but still the germs and diseases and animals in the water still kill you and tin shacks plus rain are not a good combination for powerful lessons and whoever said that people let you in more when it rains....that hasn’t been the case for us.
We still have been struggling so hard to get good positive investigators....its hard. We’ve had the most interesting rejections people yelling at us, throwing the Book of Mormon in our face. The other day, these people started throwing rocks at us. Don’t worry. Not big rocks to kill us but were shooting rocks at us. I think it was from a sling shot because it was pretty hard. None of them hit me, but they hit Hermana Guaranda. It was pretty interesting, but kinda funny Also, Our investigators and recent converts are passing through hard times. Women that we visit are getting abused. We come to the lessons and their faces our completely bruised and cut. It seriously shakes me. You all know that if there is one thing that just BUGSSS and gets me is abuse! I tell my companion all the time because I don’t think she understands. I told her I have problems with this...when i saw the movie enough I couldn’t sleep for like 3 months. It freaks me out and I am in the land of abuse and it literally shakes me. My body is completely covered in bites. My stomach looks DISGUSTING. It has completely scarred because these bugs here are out of control. I never sleep the whole night through because these bugs literally KILL me!!!! But I was thinking maybe this is Heavenly Father’s way of telling me that No more Bikinis!!! Bikinis are BADDDD!!! haha.
Seriously, I have scars all on my body. it is ugly and Hermana Baldwin told me, Isn’t the mission so fun!! haha. We are lucky because our beds are new and there are people who don’t even have beds. Everywhere in the mission no matter where struggles with this so yayyayayay just gotta suck it up and LOVE it!!! This week also Angelina....oh sooooo sad, her testimony is as firm as ever that’s not the problem, but the government came and took Pablo from her!!! Apparently there are like spies, not really spies but people who watch the children in the street and look at the situations of the people, and if they feel it is a bad situation they take the kids and put them in this home. Well they came and took Pablo because they said that Hermana Angelina couldn’t support her kids and so they took him and her other kids cant leave the house because they are threatening to take them too!! Can you believe that!!
It was the saddest thing ever, but she is just fighting to start her business and figure things out so that she can have her kids. I’m not joking it was the saddest thing ever, but her testimony is as firm as ever and that is something really powerful to see. Soooooo, this week well this change has just been hard and I’ve truly been doing my very best to just be strong, have faith, especially for my companion. But Monday, i hit the wall because on top of all this my family, the familia ajquiy garcia.....I’m going to start crying just writing this decided to leave the church!!! My family! The family we baptized my first change the most pilas family in the world!!! Whenever we have hard days, we just go to their house because we feel happy because they are sooo pilas. But ijgejfle ejfjermfei.
Okay, so about two weeks ago it all started!!! Hermano Garcia is passing through really hard times financially. Struggling and paying tithing is really hard for him. He was doing it but like all of Guatemala, it was hard. But yeah, he told us that that was something really hard and we just did all we can to encourage him to do it and PROMISED the blessings that come from that. BUT then he’s just been bombarded with Anti-Mormon evangelical information. Visitors from his work who are strong evangelicals came over to SAVE him and have given him all this crazy information about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and WHY our religion is wrong and that has just left a lot of doubt with Hermano.
So for the past two weeks they haven’t come to church and we’ve been visiting them and talking to him and trying to just clear up these stupid doubts he has. Really it is soooo dumb, the things they say and the way they interpret the bible. But I swear they like possessed Hermano Rosalio. there is such an ugly spirit in that house when normally the spirit is so strong and I just keep trying to help Rosalio, because really it is only him, remember the feelings that he felt when he started coming to church, prayed, read the Book of Mormon etc because I know he felt it!! I told him that his real concern is whether Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he NEEDED to read the Book of Mormon more, everyday and really PRAY to know AGAIN if it were true. But he is so angry with everything because he thinks that we fooled him. And finally Monday night, we went over and it was the same thing and he flat out told us. No more. No more. We cannot believe anymore in this and this man and we will not go to the church.
Family, I cannot even explain to you what I felt. The worst, saddest, most depressing feeling of my life.....I broke down in complete tears I could not hold it in. And my comp and I were just silent. I just expressed all my love I could for them and bore my heart, my most sincere testimony of the reality of the gospel and he literally told me that’s good that you believe that....leave and don’t come back!!!!!
MOM, that broke me to the point I cannot even express in writing. I just wanted to shake the devil out of him. Seriously, it was UGLY. It is the saddest and the worst feeling in the whole world. I CRIED and CRIED and CRIED for three hours straight and writing this makes me cry some more. That was like my family here. the most amazingest family in all the world and seeing Rosalio like that and seeing all his family surrounded as he was just bashing Joseph Smith and the church because of stupid things that the devil told him, literally BROKE ME!!!
I went home and just cried, cried, cried, and just felt the combination of everything just fall upon me where I felt hopeless....ready to just give up. It was just the saddest thing. But my comp told me in the night because I was still crying and crying. Hermana Garcia, you cannot get discouraged because I look up to you so much. You are my example. She started crying and said you cannot get discouraged. You can’t! But that night we just stayed up crying and hugging each other. But at that point, I honestly just felt hopeless, empty just pure sadness. I cannot even explain it and just like a complete failure. It literally freaks me out that I have only a year left of my mission.
Trust me, not because this is the funnest thing in the world and I never want to leave but just because I DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME feeling this way just like a complete failure and empty. I thought really hard about everything and it’s just so hard. I’m trying so hard to just love these people, love everything. I’m trying to just give these people my whole heart, everything I got and it just feels like they just throw it back at my face and throw rocks at me! It is so, so hard at times, but I can honestly say that I am here for the right reasons and pushing through because
I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
I know that what I’m going through is not even an nth of what Christ suffered for us or the prophet Joseph Smith and the early pioneers. I don’t know how they did it.....honestly. But seriously, each day I reanalyze myself and ask myself through all of this....how much do you believe? How much faith do you really have? And, I can honestly say that with all my heart, with everything I am and I can give, I honestly BELIEVE!!!!!!!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!!!! I don’t doubt, that this is the work of the Lord and that the Prophet Joseph Smith really did restore the Lord’s church. I KNOW the Book of Mormon is the word of God and for this reason I am just trying my best so that others can know that too. But, it is really hard, way more than I expected. I neeeed loooooove!
Love the missionaries everyone please. But honestly, I believe so much that this is the work of the Lord and for some reason, I have no idea what it is I’m supposed to be here in Guatemala. I trust that the Lord will show me and let me know if I just continue to try. Above my bed, I wrote, “The church is true!!! Why not miracles?” I just do not want to leave my mission feeling this way!!! Because if I do it is because I failed because I know that Heavenly Father is helping me and supporting me. Otherwise, I would’ve already been lying on the beaches in Hawaii or eating free food at the Canon center with Andrew.
The Lord does not fail us, but sometimes we fail ourselves. I am seriously doing everything in my power to not fail and to just keep going regardless of what I can see or feel. The church is true and that’s why missions are hard!!!! I never expected this, but regardless of everything I can honestly say that I am SOOOOO grateful to serve a mission and Heavenly Father and that Texas is not the best mission! There is a reason I’m here in Guatemala.
Family, seriously just writing this letter, gives me the motivation I need to just keep going. I cannot even tell you how much I love you and how much all your love and support means to me. I LOOOOVEEEEEE you all with all my heart, and just thank you, all for everything. The church is TRUE and for this we have to keep going!!!!!!!!!! With all my heart I love you!!!!!!!!! Prestos todos prestos forever the church is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Hermana G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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