Hola de Hermana, 11-3-13

Hola mi familia increible!

I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by!  They did not send us to Jardines but we are opening up our area as hermanas in Totonicapan (Dad, I look forward to seeing how you refer to this like you did with HueyHuey...), in San Cristobal.  It's somewhat hilarious because, like we shared our area in Calvario with another pair of missionaries, we share our area with the ZONE LEADERS, Elder M from Texas and Elder C from LYMAN WYOMING!  He says he has met Grandma and Grandpa!  They are good teachers and great leaders, and I am grateful that we’re determined to work with them and not have a competition.  They have been very generous by giving us references of their old investigators. 

I LOVE IT HERE!  The area is HUGE, 30 minutes or more from one end to the other by bus.  Lots of fields, small houses, big catholic churches, and even villages where we are prohibited from entering because the people are too scared and apprehensive of missionaries or white people. Remember the three wheeled rickshaws from India?  Well here we also catch rides from TucTucs, rickshaws, when we need to get somewhere fast. 

Hermana S and Hermana G are great.  Hna S is from Argentina and leaves the cambio after I do and isn’t baggy.  Hna G is actually from the coast here in Guate and waiting to go to Peru.  We’ve had great experiences this week and I’m grateful we have the goal of having baptisms in the waterfalls in our area our last weekend of this transfer.  PLEASE pray for us!  I want so bad to baptize a family in those waterfalls.  And this next five weeks are going to go by faster than Guatemalan buses on the highway (dangerously fast). 

Our very very first day we helped a lady pull weeds, and after asking if she knew anyone who had lost a family member and needed a message about Christ, she directed us to Luis, who lost his wife a week ago.  His 17 yr old son Carlos answered the door and said we could come back.  We did, we had a short powerful lesson about Christ overcoming death, challenged them to baptism, and without waiting for us to direct him the question Carlos emphatically spoke out SI!  He and Luis are reading their lectures in the Book of Mormon, and we are trying to help all we can.  Please pray for them and Carlos’ two younger brothers, Alfredito and Angelito.  They have special needs, and are very sweet.

I also took a tip from an Elder B in Huehue, taking peanuts to a corn grinder and he turned my peanuts into Adam’s Smooth Peanut Butter!!!  It tastes so good! 

We are working, I am trying to listen, and I’m so grateful to come out from Prado with Hna W, here with desires to be obedient.  Please pray for us, that we’ll be able to understand and love each other, and even up the momentum that we had our first week.

I LOVE YOU ALL TONS! 

Hermana Ivy [-]

Fotos: Me and Hna W with Ivan and Kevin.  They are going to be great missionaries when they decide to read the Book of Mormon!

The gorgeous Catholic church by our house try to see the cliffs on the right side