Monday, March 25, 2013

Hola de Hermana, 25-3-13


Hola mi familia asombrosa!

I love you all so much!  I can’t believe there are just 24 days left!  Huck nearly killed me when I read that, I haven’t been counting!  Time is just flying so fast.  

It was a little sad yesterday because the two ZLs had to help bless and pass the sacrament, and we want so bad to help the branch baptize or reactivate the three more priesthood holders they need to become a ward.  Remember when I was reading like mad the Hardy Boys mysteries and Nancy Drew series in elementary school?  Wednesday night I dreamed we were desperately looking for potential priesthood holders to baptize, and we ran into Joe and Frank Hardy and one of their friends.  And we learned that they already had three church asistences, so we were able to baptize them the same day!  What a miracle blessing!  jaja, now if we could just find some real people...  

Today I stood up in front of the bus we were taking to Toto and gave a two minute review of Christ coming to earth to save us, and him teaching that to be saved we need to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost (I actually forgot to mention that part) and endure to the end, and that to help his children do so, God has always called prophets to teach his word, and would anyone like to learn more about how God has restored his church with a living prophet today?  I was shaking, and almost crying, but I´m so glad I did it!  It was so funny after because a man got up and gave me his seat, and then took his Bible and started preaching from Psalms after the bus got going...  jaja

Please pray for Elmer and Cesar, two young adults.  Please pray that Sonia, who had her baby, will be able to marry and her husband baptize her.  Please pray that the old investigator, Rafael, that we found and his family will progress and want to be baptized.  

This week I´ve thought a lot about our Savior carrying His cross to Calvary.  I´ve thought about what it means when he asks us to carry our crosses.  I love the Joseph Smith Translation of Mathew 16:25-27

And now for a man to take up his cross, is to deny himself all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and keep my commandments.

And I´ve thought how the very Son of God did not allow himself to do anything that was not worthy of God.  He allowed himself to undergo every privation and suffering so that He could fulfill the will of His Father.  And He was able to do so because He perfectly believed His Father.  Sometimes we don’t know why we are where we are, but we can trust that we are where God wants us to be. And that we are doing the work that He wants us to do when we feel the Spirit.  

And we need not fear changes in our lives, be them a transfer in the mission field, coming home from a mission, or changing universities, or graduating or getting married or changing jobs.  It is the finish of one mission and the start of another.  Even Jesus Christ finished missions and started others.  

...and they never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it.  ---Alma 27:28

I love you family!  You are all doing a great work, and through Christ and His Atonement we can have the joy and hope and peace that ALL things are possible to him that believeth!  And that we truly are participating in the greatest work in existence.  I love you! I pray for you!  And let us enjoy every moment that we possibly can!  HAPPY EASTER!!!  

Hermana Ivy [-]

Monday, March 18, 2013

Hola de Hermana, 18-3-13

Hola mi familia increible!

We had a good week, even if the dats weren´t as incredibly high as our first.  We were surprised by three meetings in Xela.  Wed a trainers meeting, Thursday group interviews with the Pres (an effective new invention with having so many missionaries, it was more of a pep talk than an interview, but we felt the Spirit), and Friday Hna S got to go to the temple with Hna V. 

Our birthday was nice.  Hna S and Hna G surprised me with a piñata, and we went and cooked spaghetti (hecho por Hna S, it was VERY good) with the family of Carlos and Luis.  Hna S had also brought back a cake from Xelapan.  We went with a less active grandma who knows the family with her grandkids, and they had a ball blowing up all the balloons mom sent in the package.  It was a very fun party. 

Our fecha with Carlos fell through as we found out he works domingos (so we´re working with them with that).  But we found an old investigator in the area book who had three asistences, and last night we put a fecha with him for 30 march.  Please pray for him because he has a couple issues to work through! 

Elmer also is pilas, (okay, I THINK that work translates to really smart and hardworking, they only use it in Guate).  We want to put a fecha with him also for the 30th.  Please pray for him!

Sonia is the about-to-give-birth-any-moment-wants-to-get-married companion of a less active Selso.  We went with them Saturday night and she told us she´d like to go to church but hasn’t felt well at all and doesn’t sleep well, so our mission leader gave her a blessing, and Sunday morning, she came out all bright-eyed and told us she slept soundly all night!  They both came to church and enjoyed it, so now we just have to figure out how to get her paperwork so she can get married. 

I love you family!  I can’t believe how fast time is flying!  Please share your light and testimonies with everyone!  This is the Lord´s work and it´s the most important on earth.  LOVE YOU TONS!

Hermana Ivy [-]

Fotos of us in Xela eating McDonalds, don’t know if you can see the green mango ice cream (the seasonal flavor right now).  Us with Luis´s family and me with the broken piñata.  It was fun.  






Monday, March 11, 2013

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

Monday, March 4, 2013

Hola de Hermana, 4-3-12


Hola mi familia asombrosa!

I´m being transfered!  It´s not a huge surprise.  Hermana W is going to train, and I found out that I´m being transfered back to Xela!  In the other stake, Xela Oueste, in Los Jardines.  Its a big ward with it´s own chapel, and it´s a lot like Calvario in that it´s mostly houses and city.  Before my mission I used to think I was going to serve in farmland, and a lot of times I still crave fresh pure air, but now I know I´m grateful to work in areas where we can work efficiently in smallish areas.  I´ve heard Jardines is bigger, but I still will be able to travel in the area efficiently whereas in rural areas sometimes you have to visit the areas in parts, one day here and another day there.  Both my current District Leader and one of my Zone Leaders just rave about my new zone, so I look forward to going there.  

I´ve also found out that I´ll be in a trio again!  I´ll be joining Hermana S from Argentina, who two weeks ago started training a sister missionary who is here temporarily waiting for her visa so she can serve in Mexico.  I´ll be the senior companion and we´ll be training her together.  It is also weird to think that I won’t be starting from scratch, that there is already a foundation to work from because we aren’t opening the area.  

I was stressed about how I would be able to do what is necessary in just six weeks.  And then I realized that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, was only in Jerusalem for six weeks with all the rest of his mission in Israel before his ascension to Heaven and ministry to the Americas.  That gave me hope and peace that I´ll be able to do what I need to in Xela in the six weeks I´ll have there.  

The baptism with Kevin fell through.  But we´ve put the baptismal fecha for him for this Saturday.  And we pray Carmencita will be ready too.  I know God loves this family very very much.  And I hope I can come back to Guate when they go through the temple a year from now.  We also saw a lot of tender mercies in the work and I know Hermana W is going to have a great start with her mission daughter.  

It has been such a privilege to serve here!  I feel so close to many of the people, and know I´ve made a difference.  And they don’t know just how much of a difference they have made in me.  Serve missions!  Share your light and testimonies of our Lord and Savior!  And the heavens will open and you will be blessed with the strength and peace and happiness that your souls are seeking and the sustenance that your earthly tabernacles of clay are needing.  

I testify that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives! Our earthly missions are so precious and short.  Use every moment!  And I´ll see you before you all know it!

LOVE YOU TONS!

Hermana Ivy [-]