GUATEMLA IS CRAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYY yo!!!!!!!! hahahaha. That’s all I got to say. This week has been another crazy jammed pack week where when I think about what to write, I don’t even know because its just all craziness. My mission has far succeeded my thoughts, expectations....It’s just crazy!!! I’m still waiting, for someone to come and wake me up from this dream. haha. Honestly, I wasn’t fully prepared for what Guatemala had in store for me. hahaha. Wow!!! Sometimes I really think to myself....Wow!! Mission calls are inspired, right? And, this is what Heavenly Father had in store for me!!!!! WOOOWWWWW!!!!!!!! He must know us a lot more than we know ourselves! Because I NEVER, EVER, would have EVER imagined this for my life right now!!!!!!! I really don’t know how to express everything I feel. Let’s just say la mision esta loca!!!!!!! haha. But at the same time soooooooooo great because the church is true!!!! How crazy is that?? For this, EVERYTHING is worth it!!!
Thank you all for your prayers!! My health is a lot better this week!!!! Testify to love, because that was rough!! But now, my companion is sick!! Poor thing!! She is not doing well; I think she caught it for me. She’s been barfing, fevers, headaches....the whole thing!!! It sucks!! I think it’s either the change in climate that got us. I don’t know all of a sudden it just has been sooooo cold!! Well not Japan, or Russia but it is cold!!! We need to bundle up. Seriously, that jacket that Auntie Ani sent with me before I left saved my life!!! It’s soooo warm and I love it. But I think if I’m still in the mountains November/ December I’m going to need to go buy warm clothes because it is definitely cold here in these mountains!! But don’t worry about sending me anything. I am fine and clothes here are extremely cheap so don’t worry!!!! But yeah, my comp got sick, but is a trooper and despite all of that, we are having a blast!!! I looooooooooove my companion. Seriously. She is hilarious and just so loving and we get along really, really great!!! She apologized to me because in the beginning well I didn’t know this but she was a little grumpy because she did not want a gringa companion for anything!!!! haha!!!! I don’t know a lot of people here don’t like gringos so we have to be really careful, but she said she wants to call you mom because my mama did well. President told me that in her letters to president she writes, ¨President please don’t take away my gringita!!!!!¨ That made me soooo happy because this change has been rough with just a lot of disappointments, but despite all this I can honestly say Its been a great change!!! We learned so much and honestly have a BLAST with each other and have learned you just gotta laugh, laugh, laugh or you will go crazy!! Ice cream is necessary, and no matter what happens the church is true!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I don’t know what’s going on, but we are having the hardest time finding positive progressing people!! And it just has been rejection, rejection, and craziness!!! The other day we were running and something told us cross the street! So we were like cruzemos! cruzemos!! And then this guy out of nowhere came running from behind saying REPENT!! REPENT!! REPENT!! It was the craziest thing! Or well be walking and people will shout crazy things at us about the Book of Mormon or just crazy things. I sat next to this lady on the bus and started talking to her and she told me that her husband just died, and she is in desperate need of help because she has no job, she cant feed her kids blah blah blah....I seriously in my heart said, ‘Thank you Heavenly Father¨ because I felt so strongly that I was led to sit next to her...than I started sharing a little about our message and she just started practically screaming, going off, it was crazy!! NOOOO!!!!! I don’t want your stupid message she told me, I need money!!!! I told her I didn’t have any money and that the only way I could help her was to help her to know Christ. I started bearing my testimony about Jesus Christ and our great message and she is ¨Christian¨ strong evangelical and she just said NO! NO! Don’t talk to me!! And started telling me if I were truly Christian, I would give her money because that’s what the bible said and it was so embarrassing because she was practically screaming and my comp was behind me just laughing and then she scooted as far away from me as possible and practically started hugging the wall of the bus!!!! pahahaha! It was crazy!!! But that’s what we deal with everyday!!!! But I’ve seriously learned that you just gotta love and embrace everything!!!! But sometimes, I need to read the letters that you write to me, just to remind myself that there ARE people in this world that love me!! haha.
But hmmmm que mas.....Well like I told you we found a family that showed so much potential...all was well....we taught them pretty much everyday this week and they were pilas!!! Well the wife still is pilas!! But I have no idea what happened!! The husband showed such potential. Read everyday, had good questions really the problem that we saw was that he worked Sundays and really this family is poor so if he doesn’t work, they don’t eat!! It’s a hard situation, but we encouraged him to just Trust in the Lord!! And he understood the importance of the commandments and what not, but we went over to their house Saturday and I guess the husband just went crazy and just straight up left the family!!!!! We showed up and the wife was just in tears, crying hysterically because she told us that her husband left!!!! She is super pilas and she talked to him about how he needed to trust in the Lord and that if they wanted to change, they needed to do their part!! This lady is pilas with super faith. In one week, she is already in Alma in her Libro de Mormon and just looooves it!! She told her husband, God will help us; we need to listen to the hermanas!! And the husband just snapped, went crazy, tore up the apartment, threatened to take their kid, and left!!!!!! I couldn’t believe it and I seriously just felt so bad, because I just thought; ‘Did I cause this? She was just in tears, but despite all this she showed up yesterday at the church with her kid!!! SUPER FAITH!!!! She just told us, I need to make a change for my kid!! She’s had a very hard life, was raped as a kid by her stepdad and abused, but is truly trying to seek for a change. It seriously is heartbreaking.
Seriously the stories of these people here are CRAZY!!!! Guatemala is a crazy place. All the people we meet everyday, I just cannot even believe their lives and the stories that they have!!! I don’t think I’ve met a women yet that in some way hasn’t been abused!! I’m not even joking!! For all the people, but especially the women their lives are sooo, soooo sad. It seriously makes me just cry, because I cannot believe what the woman have to put up with here. I get so angry sometimes, and it’s funny because I can feel myself turning into my mother and I seriously feel moms presence with me because I just gotta tell my sisters here straight!! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!! Sisters, DO NOT let your husbands disrespect you like that!!! NEVER EVER, EVER!!!! And I just go on my female power rants, and sometimes people are shocked by my ideas, but I seriously everyday just feel my “Lisa Garcia” coming out because I just cant believe what these women put up with and it honestly makes me so angry!!!! Sorry dad, I think my mission is turning me into even more of a female power man-hater type of girl!! Just what you wanted!!!!! But seriously, that’s one thing about Central America that drives me crazy is that the worth of females here is like nothing!!!!! But, everyday I do my best to empower my sistahs here!!! And it’s funny because my comp is the same way she is a very strong woman!!!! She said South America is very, very, very different than Guatemala. When I asked the difference she said that Guatemala is a lot more poor, the poverty in Central America is a lot worse and that the woman are stupid!! haha. But oh man, seriously its crazy!!
Wow!! I’ve just been babbling and just realized that my time is going to end, but family please know that I loooooooooooooooooooove you all soooooooooooo much!!!! In my prayers at night, I break down in tears because I cannot believe how blessed I have been and seriously my biggest blessing is my family and the support that I have!!!! It is without words!!!!!!! I looooooooooooooooooooove you all with all my heart I cannot nearly express it in writing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. for all your love. and support, ESPECIALLY in this time of my life. It means the world!!!!!! Seriously, no matter what, my testimony of the restored gospel has been strengthened that without doubt I can say I KNOWWW that this church is true. That God lives and loves and only through this work, can our brothers and sisters return to live with our Heavenly Father and that we can truly have happiness in this life!!!!! So gotta keep going and help my brothers and sisters out!!!!!!!! I seriously love Heavenly Father. He is amazing and feel His presence stronger than ever before in my life!!!! I am coming to know the Savior in a very real way and that just makes everything worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i loooooooooooooooooove you all!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything!!!! prestos todos prestos.....the church is true!!!!!
First Companion MTC and CCM, Hermana Williams