Sent: Mon, May 24, 2010 8:45:30 AM
Subject: HOLLLAAAAAA!!!!!Hola Familia!!!!!!!!
Hola Familia!!!!!!!! OKKKKKKKK so this week has been CRAZY! Definitely, the craziest yet on the Mission. It is definitely a roller coaster ride and I am trying to hold on. I’m not going to lie I’ve had a lot of breakdowns this week where I come home and just start laughing and crying at the same time. It is kinda hilarious, but crazy! I can honestly say that I have never felt so weak in my entire life! It’s crazy. But I am holding on and I think of all of you at home praying and supporting me, and that gives me strength to keep going!!!! So remember, when Hermana Badham warned me that don’t worry if for the first change, you have breakdowns and honestly feel like you can’t do it...You can! I’m starting to realize what she was talking about!! haha. Guatemala does not disappoint!!! It is rough. I just feel like I’m still in a state of shock where I really don’t know what to think. It’s crazy, but my companion told me not to worry. She still feels that way. It’s hard to explain, it sounds crazy but now that I’m here I can understand why that would be. I’m just blessed because I have a great companion and we have a lot of fun and good solid people that are progressing....without these things I think I’d go absolutely crazy too!! Haha.
So I told you that the rainy season started last week. AHAHHAHHHAAAA!! The rain is just absolutely crazy. I seriously have never seen anything like it. Hermana Buterbaugh said the rain is like 10x worst here in the mountains than it was in the city. It’s seriously crazy! I swim home every night and cross rivers and lakes to get around. The water is up to your knees and all the roads are dirt so it just gets really ugly. Going home every night is adventures that I don’t think I will ever forget!! Auntie Reenie, I have been learning to call on the hand cart angels to pull me!! haha. I have seriously grown so much love and respect for the Pioneers. I honestly don’t know how they did it!! It is amazing!! I just try to think of them and all they had to do and then I think of all of you at home and it makes me just laugh and keep going but things get a little crazy here in Chimal. Adventure fo sho!! It’s really hard too because the houses we teach in are made of tin and tin is like a microphone for the rain so it’s really difficult to teach because the rain is SOOOO loud. It’s just crazy. I honestly feel like I’m in a weird dream sometimes. It’s surreal the situations I’m in every day. Like it doesn’t seem real...It’s crazy. Hard to explain, but yes.
Second, my companion is extremely ill. She has been booing…mission term for diarrhea and barfing her guts out...poor thing!! She can’t eat anything because every time she eats she immediately has to barf or boo!! It sounds like death in the bathroom I feel so bad for her...but she is a fighter! This is her last change so she’s determined to just go all out, and leave it all on the field....haha you see the cheerleader in her!! haha...so great!! But I feel so terrible for her. It’s rough. They say she has a virus and the scary thing is that this is happening to a lot of the missionaries right now. We share our ward with the two zone leaders and they have the same thing!! I’m ok, I have boo a lot, but I’m okay!! It’s just so sad to watch my comp. We have to both go to the city this week to be tested because there is some weird virus going around....its crazy!!
Then, it’s just been hard because a lot of people that we had high hopes for have been falling through. We were so excited because we were going to set a baptismal date for this girl, Estela who seemed really positive. She is about 24, has a daughter and just had some really terrible things happen to her in her life and with her husband. He was just a terrible man and when we came and talked to her the first time she told us Thank you Thank you because she had been praying to God to send her people that could teach her how she could follow Christ and be happy!! And then we show up and she said she knows we were an answer to her prayers. She kept her commitments, read in the Book of Mormon every night, actually remembered stuff, came to church...PILAS!!!!
We thought for sure we were going to baptize her. Then we show up at her house and there was just a different feeling. IT was so weird. We asked her what was wrong and she told us that she couldn’t listen to us anymore!! We were shocked and asked her why and she said that a couple of her Evangelical friends who she hadn’t seen in YEARS just randomly decided to show up at her house after years and years. She was talking to them and told them how we were teaching her and they just freaked out!! They told her all this crazy stuff about us and said she’d be ¨cast off¨ if she listened to us and they just told her all these crazy things. I couldn’t understand everything but they just said crazy stuff about how we don’t believe in the bible and weird things. So she said, we’re nice people, but that they are right and she couldn’t listen to us anymore!! We bore her a solemn testimony, but she was convinced that this was God answering her prayers and she’s going back to the Evangelical Church. I was like actually I’m pretty sure that was the devil, honey! But it’s crazy how that works. It’s a testimony to me of how true the church is that the devil will try that hard, but, I just felt so sad. Then a lot of people were standing us up. This other lady, we built her a bathroom, then the evangelicals came and built her an extension to her house...And we had to push back one of our baptism dates because our investigator’s evangelical neighbor keeps coming over and telling her stuff about us so she has doubts now. The Evangelicals here have the most power and they hate us so it’s really hard. But this lady and her family, I think they will be ok because she told us that she still believes and loves the Book of Mormon and feels the spirit when she comes to church....So were working with her, but I think she will be fine!! She still has a date. But ahahhahaahah, it is rough. Just a combination of everything just feels overwhelming at times. This is definitely the hardest thing just because I’m starting to feel the reality of the dark side and with the whole language barrier, culture barrier and just trying to get used to the poverty and this way of living and eating is just rough!! Heavenly Father honestly is stretching me in every way possible, but He does give me time to breath, smell the roses and reminds me why I am here.
So last week, I told you about my golden family. I just LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEE them to death. So all this was happening and it was just a rough week and we went to their house Saturday night for a lesson. And at the end of the lesson we were about to close and were bearing our testimony and the dad, Rosalio just stopped us and said I have something I want to tell you. I’m not going to lie; my heart just dropped because I was so scared that he was going to change his mind because of everything that had been happening. And he started off by saying that when he accepted his baptismal date, he felt it was true and good but that he still had some doubts. And I was like OHHHHH NOOOOOO! He said that these past couple days he started to have doubts if everything we taught him was true. And then he said, but I just meditated and just really thought about everything, and looked at the fruits and prayed so hard to know to really know if it was ALL true...and he paused and I pretty much pooped in my pants!! He looked at us and said...And I am absolutely convinced!!!! He said I can’t even describe to you the feelings that I felt when I mediated and prayed about everything you have taught me!! Oh my gosh, tears just started pouring out of my eyes. He said, and reminded us for a long time he had strong ganas or desires to attend church as a family but he couldn’t find one that he liked. He and his wife talked about how maybe someone will just show up and invite us to a church!! Funny huh....But he said NEVER EVER would he have imagined it would be in this way. That WE, would come from different countries, speaking different languages and would give up everything, our whole life to come bring the gospel to their family. He just said he never imagined it would be like this. He told us that we changed his family forever and that his family is convinced they will endure til they can’t endure anymore, because this is the truth!!! And then he said, I don’t know what else to say but Thank you. Thank you! And he was so touched that he started to cry and then the wife cried and you could imagine me and my comp. I was just squeezing their little son and just crying. And it really just hit me!! This is why I´m here!!!! This is why I cross through lakes, rivers, and thunderstorms everyday, this is why I put up with rejection, this is why I boo my guts out, and this is why I eat bad food! This is why I left my life and my family for a short while....So that other families can be together forever!!!!!!!! The gospel is TRUE!! Families are forever and it is as we live the principles of the gospel that we truly are happy. The gospel is soooo true! And seriously this makes everything, everything worth it!!!!!! It’s hard, but I am so grateful to be part of this most important and great work!!! Thank you thank you everyone for all your support and prayers. It was much needed and seriously is what pushes me through!!! The only thing at times! But I love you all soooooo much! Prestos todos prestos.....the church is TRUEEEEE!!!!
Love,
Hermana Ali
First Companion MTC and CCM, Hermana Williams