Ya es Marzo..¡Bautizemos pues!

I've been kinda sick lately.  I have a terrible illness called gripe (aka a normal cold.  but everyone freaks out like I'm dying.  Random people on the street will say to me 'Oo..Esta mala de la gripe.'  Yes.  I have a cold.)  I feel fine to keep working and everything.  But it's been kinda rough because I cough SO much at night and I can't sleep.  It's wearin me out a little.  But there's no better cure for gripe than more hard work!

Last week I had a very unexpected test of my Spanish.  And unfortunately I did really well.  We were sitting eating lunch and the Sister that feeds us was talking to her mom.  I just kept eating and didn't think much of it.  But then I figured out that they were talking about how she donated blood that morning.  They were going on and on about needles and how she felt and what happened and about all the other people who donated blood too and how she still had the little mark in her arm...AH!  I about died.  I jumped up and started freaking out in my head.  I told them that's my biggest fear ever!  So she tried using bigger words that I didn't know, which helped a little.  But it was too late!  Ah!  I felt sick all that afternoon.  Worst timing ever for the language barrier to fail.

This week was kinda crazy.  We had divisions with the training sisters (which is always awesome.  I learn so much!), a big meeting with President Brough and half the sisters in the mission to learn about weekly planning, a big weekend, and a temple trip.  Lots of big things.  But it all worked out good!

We had a wedding and 3 baptisms this weekend!  It was a crazy, stressful, beautiful experience.  I love baptizing families, but weddings...not my favorite.  Everything was running late and no one was showing up and there was lots of stuff that was out of my control and I just had to sit and not freak out.  But it turned out good!  They were really happy!  Thanks to the members it wasn't too awful.  I also learned a lot from the baptisms.  I mostly learned that I am the worst baptism planner ever.  I forgot so many little details and our speakers didn't show up and..ah!  Very stressful.  But I just prayed that I'd be able to enjoy the moments when they went into the water.  And Heavenly Father really did help me on that one.  It was such an awesome experience.  The actual baptism is so simple.  It's over in seconds.  But the quiet and peace and love that I can feel seeing Heavenly Father's children take one step closer to returning to Him is incredible. As missionaries we get to see them all in white.  I look at them and think about the kind of people they were when I met them.  I think about all that they've been through, all the changes they've made to follow Christ, how they've allowed the Atonement to help them.  All dressed in white, I get to see a glimpse of the potential that they have as Heavenly Father's children.  It's amazing.

Thanks for your love and for thinking of me!  Keep praying.  I need every blessing I can get because we have to fight this month.

Love you all!

Hermana Haymond

 Zone temple trip

                       

 Hermana Haymond and Hermana V at the temple

                                                         

  Wedding of W & M

Signing their marriage document thing.

weddings here are really official.  not all fancy and cutesy.  its them sitting at a table listening to a lawyer read their rights and obligations.  then they sign. and ya estuvo

Baptism of P

P with her brother who baptized her

Baptism of W & M

Alexis looks very happy to see so many people wearing white!

Surprise!

We're going to the temple as a Zone tomorrow, so we're writing today instead.  Surprise!  Happy early email!  I'm super excited for the temple though.  It will be nice.

Sorry to disappoint but here closer to the Capital there aren't as many funny shirts in English.  But lately I've noticed a lot of knock off American brands that make me smile.  We were teaching a guy with a 'Nike' shirt on.  It had the logo but I could just tell it wasn't really made by Nike.  It had a bunch of random English words like 'Nike. Sports.  Since.'  The ´since´ made me laugh.  Whoever made it probably got that from all the shirts that say '...since 1982'  thinking it would make sense. There is also a ton of fake Hollister and abercrombie stuff.  I've seen 'hollister' baby onesies and really beadazzley non-abercrombie looking 'abercrombie' shirts.  Yesterday I saw an Aeropostale tee shirt with the American Eagle eagle on it.  Every single pair of jeans has the Hollister seagull on it sewn very convincingly on to the pocket.  It's super funny.  I always point out the real American clothes to Hna V.

We must live really close to the airport because there are always planes flying really low.  I don't like it.  It always makes me think 'Oo I wonder if that plane just came from the states!' or 'Hey next time I'll be on a plane I'll be going home.'  So I sorta hate that.

I'll try to send more pictures. There's just not a ton of stuff to take pictures of by our house.  And I don't wanna carry my camera around all the time.  I'll try to get more creative.

Fun fact we have cockroaches in our house.  I don' think I've mentioned that yet.  They don't bug me much.

Every once in a while on my mission I'll hear a TV show or a movie as we walk by houses or from the neighbors houses in our lessons.  It's the weirdest thing to hear it in Spanish.  Some of the funniest ones to hear in Spanish so far are the mice on Cinderella, Phineas and Ferb, Jake and Finn, the Chikmunks, and the voice of Abby Lee on Dance Moms.

So the whole Rice Krispie Treats thing is a huge success.  Presenting the prize in front of every one is the key.  The whole ward sees that someone is getting immediate, delicious blessings for helping us.  Right after church people come giving us references or explaining their excuses for why they haven't been able to help us yet.  It's awesome!

It's been a really good week.  Thanks to the help of the members we had a lot of investigators at church Sunday.  We also keep seeing little miracles with the recent converts who haven't come for a long time. We are preparing 6 people to be baptized next weekend!  It's going to be a miracle but Heavenly Father will make it happen! 

I still love what I do with all my heart.  It doesn't ever get easy.  Sometimes (specifically at 5:30 am) its not even fun.  But I love it with all my heart.  I know I'm where I'm supposed to be, and I love where I am.

Thanks for all the love and support!

Hermana Haymond

Alexis with Hermana G her CCM companion outside the church today at district meeting.

Alexis with her companion Hermana V who is from Hondorus

Only 1 year left :(

"Elder Quentin L. Cook speaks to 970 missionaries from missions in Guatemala City."

Alexis is the head looking up behind the girl with the pink sweater on the first row.

Here is a link to the article in the church news about his visit to Central America
http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/64386/Central-America-Hastening-the-work-of-salvation.html

I have officially completed 6 months...WHAT!?

I bought new shoes yesterday from the paca (aka thrift store...aka only stores here).  They're really cute! Actually, I know that they're not cute in real life.  But as far as missionary shoes go, they're cute!  They were only ten bucks.  The pacas are funny.  The worker at first handed me a pair of the exact same shoes same size and condition and everything.  Then I looked over and saw the ones I bought.  They are EXACTLY the same, but the ones I bought are half price.  These are my third pair of shoes on the mission so far.  Hopefully they last!  It's nice because they're already broken in and ready to go!  I'm excited.  I need a change of tan line  (tan line or dirt line...we'll find out in a year.)

Yesterday I saw a bus with a Guatemala license plate AND a Utah license plate.  It was yet another moment where I had to do a double take.  My thoughts were 'Oh cool!  They're from Utah....Wait a second I'm in Guatemala and that license plate is RIGHT next to the Guatemala license plate on a huge decked out Guatemalan bus.' I love it!

We have our own pila at our house so we wash most of our clothes by hand just because its faster than sending it to be washed.  I really like it actually.  Its relaxing.  It takes me about an hour to do all of my laundry.  I want a pila in my future house.  They're handy!

There's a rule in our mission that we have to go to seminary and institute with the recent converts for their first time.  So last week we got up at 4:30 to get to 5 am seminary.  It was so awesome!  Hna V wasn't so pumped but I loved it!  Never in my life did I think I'd be going to seminary at 5 am in Guatemala! Luckily my brain was awake enough to understand the Spanish.  We have another that's going this week, so we'll be up bright and early again!  Woo!

To get the members more excited about helping us, we started a competicion in the ward.  All of February we're going to see who can help us the most with visiting investigators, bring people to church, giving out Books of Mormon, etc.  We give out prizes every week.  The prize this week was 'a North American dessert'...Rice Krispie Treats.  Super exotic.  We were in Relief Society and I was presenting the prize to the winner of week 1.  Everyone kinda looked at me like 'Oh great.  The gringa tried to cook. That's sweet.'  But then they tried it and were freaking out!  'QUE RICO! These are so good!  How'd you make it?  You had to use caramel didn't you? How do you get it like that'  Uh...No.  I made it this morning in the microwave.  Welcome to cooking from the states 101.

We are so blessed to have such great investigators right now.  We'll have 2 baptisms Sunday of really pilas people!  They're cousins.  Our last visit with one of them, she straight up asked us when she could get baptized.  She knows all of the interview questions.  She's amazing!  We also had a third visit with her super pilas cousin Thursday and she started off by telling us that she knew everything was true and how she was telling people that she knew she was in the only true church.  At the end of the lesson she basically challenged herself to be baptized. It's seriously such a blessing to get to meet such amazing people!  I love it!  Those little moments of seeing people change are so worth all the rough patches.

Love you all!  Thanks for everything!

     Alexis' desk in her apartment

New Shoes

                                             

 The pila where Alexis' washes her clothes

                                             

We're not going to talk about football

Not for any reason in particular, but I'm very thankful that I am in a country where no one cares about football.  Just a random thought.  (I'm sure I'll be seeing lots of Broncos Super Bowl Champ jerseys here soon.)

Things are good with Hermana V.  We're becoming better friends everyday! It's fun having a Latina  companion.  The other day during exercises she tried to jump rope for the first time which was so cute!  And last night we were teaching each other tongue twisters and really hard words to say in English and Spanish.  How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood is basically the funniest thing the people here have ever heard. I learned to say the word for ear nose and throat doctor, which just sounds ridiculous in Spanish.  I'm not even going to try to spell it on here, so that can be your homework to look up.

Today was a big day in our mission...WE GOT CELL PHONES!  We're the only mission in central America to have them.  So if no one else gets them this year it's our fault.  But it's so exciting!  I don't even know what to do with it.  I feel like I'm sinning just holding it But it really will help us work more effectively, especially with the members.

This week I spoke with a lawyer in Spanish over the phone to coordinate a wedding.  Talk about the gift of tongues.  I'm sure I couldn't even speak to lawyers in English to save my life.

I always think of really good things to say but then I forget them when I'm writing.

We had interviews with President Brough today.  I can't even explain how amazing he and Hermana Brough are.  I wish that everyone could serve in this mission just to have them be a part of your life.

When Elder Cook spoke, he left us with some really powerful blessings and promises.  He specifically said that the people here would have their hearts be softened even more and be more prepared to hear the gospel.  This last week we have already see that in action.  The Lord gives people problems and needs so that the people will need Him.  It's such a blessing to get to be His instrument in bringing these people light into their lives.

Be praying for 400 baptisms in the mission in March.  It's going to happen!  I know it!

Thanks so much!

Hermana Haymond