Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Grandma's Love is Never Ending

It's been another great week!  Tomorrow I will be done with my first change (my first 6 weeks) out in the field.  Which means I've been gone 3 months!  Which means I'm halfway done with my in field training!  I don't know about you guys but this has FLOWN by for me.  Ah!  Crazy.  I'm still loving it!  I am really really blessed because there haven't been any days that I don't enjoy.
So I think I need to have a segment of my letter each week for funny tee shirts here.  Everyone buys their clothes from this place with a ton of donated clothes from the states.  And because of this a lot of people have English sayings or American things on their shirts.  And they have no clue what it means.  I've seen quite a few 'Seniors!' shirts from people's last year in high school.  Which wouldn't be as weird if it wasn't on an old man in Guatemala!  And one teenage member always wears a shirt that says 'Come at me bro!'  And finally...my favorite so far.  We were talking to a youngish mom aged woman and it was so hard to keep a straight face because she had a sweater with hearts that said 'Grandma's Love is Never Ending'.  It always gives us a good laugh to see all these random shirts.  I should start collecting them.

We found a lot of really pilas people this week! (Pilas in spanish means battery, or hard worker, or baptism font.  So when we find someone who is 'tan pilas' it means we found some one who is SO ready to learn about the gospel. And if a missionary is pilas they're hard workers.  Fun fact.) But we found a few people who came to church this Sunday and are really excited to learn the gospel.  
We also started teaching this woman in English!  It's the weirdest thing ever.  My Spanish is still terrible, but I'm to the point where I have to think about how to put sentences together in English, especially when I talk about church stuff.  I contacted someone in English once and it went like this... 'Hola..Hello..Hi.  How are you?  I'm Hermana Haymond.  We're......missionaries.....from....The Church of...Jesucristo..de los..of Latter Day Saints.  We...compart...we share a message....of Jesus Christ and how....God has called un profeta...a prophet.  Can we pass by your house...to share con....with you?'  I really cant speak anything at this point.  I can notice a huge difference in my Spanish though.  I can understand almost everything people say to me if I'm expecting them to talk to me.  If a random person comes up to me and starts talking when my brain isn't quite ready it's a little rough.  But I can almost always get the gist of it.  And I can express myself a lot better now.  It's not just the same kind of sentences over and over.  It's getting closer to what I'd actually want to say in English.  So that's kinda cool! I love Spanish!
I feel bad because there isn't anything super eventful to write about.  I'll try to write interesting things down as I go this week.  But thanks for all the support.  It's always fun to hear about home and see pictures and stuff!  I just want to bring everyone back here someday because pictures and letters just don't do anything justice!  At least once a day I have a moment when I think, whoa I'm living in Guatemala.  It's really awesome.  It's so so different in so many ways.  But I really am happy!  It's such a privilege to have this calling.  I love where I am.  I love what I do.  I love the people.  And I love this Gospel more than anything.  It's indescribable seeing how it clicks with people and how it blesses people lives and lights up their personality.  Ah.  I'm so blessed.  I will never live up to the calling I have as a representative of Jesus Christ, but I am trying to get closer every day.  I know this Church is the only true church on the earth.  There is nothing else that could bring me so much joy when we're walking miles everyday in the rain, teaching stubborn people, waking up at 5:30, being sick all the time.  It's all worth the message we share.

Love you all!