Hairy Legs = Sinning

This weeks email will be way better.  I promise!

First of all...I don't have changes. WOO!!  I'll be here until July 10th at least.

So lately Hermana W and I have decided to take a stand against the racism in our area.  People always call us white girls (Which I honestly had stopped noticing until Hna W came here fresh from the States.)  So one day we set a goal, that if 10 people yelled white girls to us on the street we would buy ourselves McFlurries and fries (Guatemala is awesome because they have coconut chocolate McFlurries with real chunks of coconut...and McDonalds delivers).  And sure enough we reached our goal.  So that night we proudly ate our Mcflurries and talked about how fat we're getting, just like American girls should.  So take that racism.

We also had a crazy discovery this week.  So there are two parts of our area that are seemingly close together but the way the roads are set up it takes like 40 minutes to go between the two.  We always had this feeling that there had to be a faster way.  So this week we did some exploring and sure enough there is a very secret path.  This is how you get from point A to point B on the path...  Enter this nice neighborhood.  Go down to the last street to a random sketchy fence.  Hope that the fence is unlocked.  Walk through the super tall tic infested grass.  Jump over the gutter.  Step over the barbed wire fence.  Walk through someones front yard.  Open your umbrella to scare away the crazy pack of dogs.  Walk past a bunch of kids playing soccer in another little street of houses.  And walk out of the path on the other side of the neighborhood like you live there, so no one gets suspicous. We were so excited when we figured this out.  Its quite the adventure everytime.

This week was also a little sad because I saw 2 Broncos hats and a Rockies shirt.  Come on Colorado people. Keep your sports gear!  But then I saw a very confident teenage boy wearing a 'Number 1 Grandpa shirt' and that made me feel better.

Hna W and I have been finding so many ways to keep ourselves pampered.  For example, my ingrown toenail has been really bad lately so now I get to soak foot twice a day.  We just call it my pedicure.  We've also been really lazy about shaving our legs.  But last night we had the realization that we need to get better at that.  If we don't shave our legs, we are not as aerodynamic and we can't walk as fast.  If we can't walk as fast, we can't have as many contacts and lessons and we're not as diligent.  If we're not diligent, we're sinning.  So we came to the conclusion that if we don't shave our legs, we're sinning.  Sister missionary beauty tips at their finest.

Sunday was a cool day in our zone.  It was called Dia Blanca or White Day.  Everyone who had baptisms went to the stake center.  The stake president had a really cool presentation and it was so amazing to see all the converts in white.  It is such an awesome experience to see the members of the whole stake come support us.  Just goes to show how necessary this work is.  I love it.

Thanks for all your love and prayers!

Hermana Haymond

a colonia in our area.  we have tons of investigators here

Us eating Coconut Chocolate McFlurries and fries.  Mcdonalds delivers here.  Its the greatest.

B!!!
Shes 18 and so cute!  Her boyfriend (now exboyfriend) introduced us to her.  Shes awesome

dia blanco!

we decided we're going to try a fun fruit every pday

this one was pretty good.

this one is super good!  Its like a giant pea pod with little fuzzy fruit in it. its like banana cotton candy  

this one is good too.  kinda like a pearish taste

Our district!!

Ah

There's not much time today.  But I'm doing good.  Every day is so fun with Hna W.  I'm sure she explained our funny adventures this week on her blog... Loving the Lamanites.

Last week we had our last interviews with President Brough which was so sad!  It's really hard for me to picture this mission without him but I'm excited to see what happens with the new President.

One night after planning Hna W and I had some extra time.  So we watched the DVD the restoration and played 'What language is it?' That DVD has like 20 different random languages so we took turns guessing which one it is.  I guessed Taglog and Cantonese on the first try.  Woo!  Oh the things we do for fun.

I'm trying to think what else we did this week.  But I can't think of anything besides how little time I have left to write. 

We're always seeing lots of little miracles, like finding old investigators or having extra lessons with members or finding people we've been wanting to teach for a long time.

Thanks for all your love and support!  Keep praying for me.  I need all the help I can get. 

Love you all!

The Challenge

First...I want to see where everyone is in the Book of Mormon challenge that I made before I left.  It was to read one page of the Book of Mormon everyday and finish by the time I get home.  Everyone should be at least half way done!  What have you learned?  If you haven't started (or if you started and forgot about it), it's not too late!  Since I'm half way done, read 2 pages every day.  It's not that much!  Maybe 10 or 15 minutes every day.  Whether you don't know what the Book of Mormon is or you've read it 100 times, 2 pages each day from that book will change your life.  There is power in those words!

It was really fun to talk to the family on Sunday!  I feel like I was really boring and didn't say much.  But I hope it was fun for you guys.  It still feels so unreal.

This morning we found 3 REALLY BIG zanpopos de mayo (the bugs we're going to eat).  So we've gotten a good start on that.  It's always so exciting when we find one.  Sometimes it happens during lessons and we have to stay calm and wait until after to get it.  I hope we can cook them soon though because changes are coming and I'm getting hungry.

Yesterday we had an adventure (when do we not have adventures??).  We were doing our personal study like always and all of a sudden we get a phone call.  I answer and it's an Elder from the office saying 'Hermana Haymond.   This is an emergency.  You need to be in the Church office building in 40 minutes.'  Turns out that Hna W was never taken to finish her visa info while she was in the CCM.  So we spent most of the day doing that.  It was kinda crazy, but we made it fun.  On the way there we were freaking out and saying 'T minus 13 minutes until you get deported.'  But she didn't get deported.  Thank goodness.  I don't think I could handle another mini missionary right now.

Rainy season has officially started.  It's so great!  I've missed the rain!  I'm always praying that I don't get sick of it by the time I go home.  About 2 weeks ago we were knocking doors in this really skinny ally way and it started pouring!  It went from clear skies to flash flood in about 10 seconds!  When it rains like that the streets just turn into rivers, and it's even worse in the allies where there's no where for it to drain.  So there we were drenched in this crazy little hidden street of Guatemala with everyone rejecting us, and we were as happy as could be.  Hermana W, being as awesome as she is, just started busting up laughing.  She so cleverly pointed out that in this mission, we are NEVER dry.  We're either sweating like crazy or drowning in the rain.  It's so true.  But I'm glad the rain is back.  It feels good to suffer a little more.

Lately we've used a really awesome Mormon message to help investigators and less actives and members and everyone.  And it really helps me too!  I think in English it's called Thanks to Him.  Everyone should watch it.  Or maybe even have a Family Home Evening about it.  It's really short but super powerful about how Christ give us hope.  Hope to do the impossible.  Hope to have new beginnings.  Hope to be happy.  Hope to be resurrected.  I really love it.  It talks about how we can have new beginning time and time again thanks to all that the Savior gave for us.  It applies to everyone.  We've seen it motivate a family who hasn't been to the temple and stopped going to church.  We've seen it help an investigator who doesn't quite feel good enough.  I've seen it help me remember my own conversion.  I know that Christ never gives up on us.  We can rely on Him time and time again.  Watch the video and seek Christ! 

Love you all!

Editors note- I think the Mormon message she is talking about is called Because of Him.  

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Turns out my camera has a panoramic option.  
This is me embracing my area on our roof yesterday

this is what our residencial looks like from our roof

Livin' on a Prayer

Whoa.  I'm half way there!  I cannot believe it.  It's so sad!  I have so much more to do and so much more work and there is so much more that I need to become.  Hna W is always talking about how fast time is going and I just tell her that she has no idea.  Before I know it I will be home.  And honestly that's so sad to think about right now. I love my family.  But I love these people and this work too.  There's so much more I need to give.  I'm just thankful that I have this opportunity and I'm thankful for all that I've learned these last few months.

So Hna W got a watch a while ago and somehow set some kind of mysterious alarm.  We have no idea how to fix it.  So we decided that whenever it goes off we have to go to a tienda and buy ourselves a treat.  It went off 3 times just now, so after this we will have to buy 3 treats.  Woo!

We havent seen any scorpions lately.  But I saw fireflies for the first time yesterday!  It was so crazy!  Everyone thought we were nuts because Hna W hasnt ever seen them either.  They're so cool! Like a little strobe light stuck in a bug.

We're teaching a lot of really great people right now.  One of which is a sweet old lady.  W're afraid that she's only going to get baptized because she loves us so much.  She gets SO excited every time we visit her and always sends us off with a box of juice from her tienda.  It's the cutest most hilarious thing ever. 

Things are going so good as always.  I love what I'm doing.  Everyday we come home and talk about how it was the best day ever.  It just keeps getting better.  I'm so thankful for it because I know that not every area or change or companionship or mission is like this.  I will never be able to pay Heavenly Father back for all the blessings I've recieved on my mission.

Thanks for everything!  Can't wait to Skype you guys on Sunday!!!

Love you all!!

Hermana Haymond

Zone training meeting today

There are these giant ants here with wings.  AND THEY EAT THEM!  They're super expensive.  But you can make a paste our of their little rear ends and put it on tortillas.  Its super good apparently.  We're collecting a bunch to have a sister make them for us

One of the girls is a member.  We're working on baptizing her sister

I think I've seen this in the states.  But they were teaching us how to play this game where you jump in and on and outside on the ropes and see how high you can get.  That probably makes no sense.  They also gave me an orange.

Oh so gracefully playing this game.  it was quite an adventure in our skirts.  They thought it was cool because we're so tall.