Name That Band

Hna W and I are just having too much fun here.  We have seen so many miracles with our investigators.  Its so clear that Heavenly Father needs these peoples to be baptized really soon!  People are getting work off to come to church, quitting smoking over night, finishing divorces to get married to their new spouses.  It's incredible!  I am so thankful to be on Heavenly Father's side.  Otherwise none of these things would be happening.

Exciting things always happen right after I write home.  Last Tuesday we were were knocking a door.  We didn't know who lived there but our plans had all fell trough so we started knocking.  I'm just standing there waiting for someone to answer when I feel a sudden sharp pain in my calf.  I look down and there's a dog.  I freaked out and started shouting to hna W 'That dog just bit me!  Go!  Go!  Come on we have to leave!'  over and over again.  This random dog had come up to me out of NOWHERE!  It didn't bark or growl or anything!  Just slowly walked up to me, bit me, and slowly walked away like nothing had happened.  And, being the overly happy missionaries that we are, we just started laughing once we got to safety.  So we called the nurse and after things calmed down I could see that it really wasn't that bad.  It really scratched me with its teeth more than anything.  But it was hard enough to bruise and draw blood.  So, to make sure I didn't have rabies, we went back to the house where we saw the dog, found the owner, and asked if it had been vaccinated.  He said yes and everything was fine.  But we taught him (he mostly accepted because he felt bad) and he's pretty positive!  So we decided that dog was inspired.  Why would a dog bite me just enough to talk to the owner, but not enough to impede the work?  So that we could baptized the owner of course!  But I'm fine.  We're pretty sure the dog is healthy.  We just have to go back today to make sure the dog isn't dead, because if so I will probably be dead soon too.  Just kidding.  I'd probably just have to get crazy shots and that's basically like dying to me.

Last week Hna W and I invented a game called name that band.  We say things we see on the street that we think would make a good band name.  Some of my favorites are  Four and a Half Soles,  Abandoned Diaper, Sandy Doo, Dirty Sugar Bags, Discarded Popsicle Stick, Smashed Pig Head, and Flies on Trash on Rat Guts.   

It's been raining a lot lately. I love it!  The streets flood here super easily.  We had a meeting at the church on Friday.  We went in to leave our backpacks and when we got out THE WHOLE PARKING LOT AND THE STREET WAS FLOODED!  We walked through it being super brave and invincible like all missionaries are.  But then looking back we realized that all those hilarious band names we had seen earlier were floating in the street.  It was basically a huge stew of garbage.  Even the neighbors wouldn't get through it to leave their houses.  It was crazy!  (I really hope Grandpa Haymond survived reading this email up to this point without passing out. Dog bites, trash on the ground, and his oldest grand daughter walking through sewer water.  I'm sure he's so proud of me)

We're also teaching this cute little kid!  He's so pilas and always has his Book of Mormon and his pamphlets ready to go.  But Sunday we were teaching him about Baptism and repentance.  SO I asked him 'Have you ever heard of repentance?'  He confidently said 'Yeah.  That's when there's a man and a woman and they become boyfriend and girlfriend and then they...'  I quickly cut him off and tried so hard not to die laughing.  We explained what repentance was and he finally got it.  Then we showed him a picture of Jesus getting baptized.  It has John the baptist with his arm to the square about to baptize Jesus.  SO I asked the kid.  What's happening in this picture.  He said 'Jesus is respecting him.  Wait no...He's healing him.  Wait no...That guy is hitting Jesus!! Why is he hitting him!!!'  He was freaking out because to him it looked like John the Baptist was hitting, not baptizing.  We had to try to explain what was going on without totally busting out laughing.  this kid is hilarious.

I'm so thankful to be serving here with such amazing missionaries and investigators and members.  I love it!  Thanks for all the support and for keeping me happy!

Love you!

Hna Haymond

It looks so wimpy in the pictures.  I debated not even sending them home
because you cant even see it.  But this is me with my dog bite.

It rained a little bit Friday!

M who got baptized the 15th!

M who got baptized the 15th!  Her and some of the the young women

I Can Never Really Complain

It's been another good week.  I can really never complain.  There are always things to keep me happy.  This is just a happy calling.

Sundays are the most stressful day of the week.  We have to make sure all the investigators get to church and all the converts.  And its the last day to meet our goals for the week.  And we have to talk to all the members at church to see when they can come help us.  It's just crazy.  Not how Sunday is at home.  So to help us cope with the stress we are now calling Sunday 'PDay Eve.'  It just makes it sound so much calmer.  And it's funny because it totally works.   Pday eve goes way smoother than Sunday.

Yesterday I tried on the jeans I brought here and they still fit.  So that's a huge accomplishment.  We'll see how long that lasts.

The World Cup started this week.  We don't read the newspaper or watch tv or anything.  But the second it started we just knew.  Everyone is always talking about it.  There are brackets you can buy to track the scores and how all the games are going.  Everyone has their favorite teams and watches the games.  Nothing SUPER crazy has happened yet.  Mostly just people talking about it.  It's super cool to be here for it though.  EVERYONE loves soccer.  Hna W and I are thinking that we should coincidentally wear red white and blue the next time the US plays.  We've also considered getting really excited when we hear that Germany wins, just to make people think we're from Germany (Peoples guesses are always USA, Germany, and Russia, when they ask where we're from).  I thought we wouldn't be able to get any lessons in during the World Cup but it hasn't affected the work at all.  SO that's really lucky. I'm sure it will get crazier and crazier though.

Hna W and I are always happy, even when we're miserable and suffering.  Its really quite a talent we've developed.  The other day it started POURING rain.  Like the streets turning into rivers kind of rain.  It was awesome.  But as we were waiting to cross the street a car raced by and splashed us.  We just laughed.  I've decided that trying to stay dry on rainy days here is like trying to stay dry on those amusement park raft rides.  Not matter how hard you try, you just end up soaking wet in clothes that aren't meant for getting wet.

Sunday was the baptism of the girl who just got permission from her parents to be baptized.  It was so awesome! (I can't send pictures today for some reason.  But she's so cute!) It's soo cool to see how necessary baptism is.  She had been going to church for almost a year and goes to seminary and knows lots about the Gospel.  She's super obedient and humble.  Just an all around good person and a good example.  But after she was baptized she just looked so happy!  It's cool that even someone who is practically a member of the church gets that glowy look after being baptized.  I loved seeing that.  

Thanks so much for all the emails and love!

Love you all!

Hna Haymond

A Good Week!

me this morning.
President Brough and Hna Brough and their daughter came to our zone meeting this morning because we were the most successful zone in the mission in May!  Woo!  But this will be my last picture with them.  Today we talked about loyalty and how we are loyal to the Lord.  It doesnt matter who the mission president is.  We do what he says and we love him because he's called of the Lord.

Last week was soo good!  It actually had some really hard moments.  But it was good.  We made up for all the short comings we had 2 weeks ago.

Hna W is just silly sometimes.  She learned a lot about plants this week.  One day we saw an aloe plant and she told me about this really good lemonade she had once with aloe in it.  So I plucked off a little piece of aloe just to see how you would put it in lemonade.  But she comes up, sticks her finger right in the juice oozing out, and proceeds to put her finger in her mouth. She immediately had this horrible look on her face and started freaking out saying she had just eaten poison.  I, being the supportive companion I am, just started laughing.  Afterwards we talked about what we learned from that experience...don't eat strange plants.  Then yesterday I heard her give out a little shout of pain when we was walking behind me.  I stopped to see what happened and she told me she touched a spikey leaf.  I told her to be super careful touching leaves because there are some that are poisonous (for a refresher about how I learned that please see my email from my 2nd or 3rd week in the field, when Hna Godfrey and I thought we were going to die when we got shocked by scary plants on our way to get lena.  I think its called chichicaste).  Be careful of plants like that one, I said as I pointed to the very plant that made Hna Godfrey and I think we were going to die.  She then started freaking out again because, of course, that's the one she had just touched.  For the next 30 minutes she described the exact same terrifying symptoms that I experienced.  It was just funny to think that I was just like that in my training.  Hna Wise will be a plant expert by the time she gets home.

One crazy thing that happened this week... hmm... well I'll probably talk about these in my blog email.  But on Weds  our appointments were falling through and I was trying to figure out what to do.  I felt like we were in that spot for a reason.  Then I hear guitar hero music and something just tells me follow the music.  So I listen super close and find the house where its coming from, thinking its going to be some punk teenage boy.  But no!  A 40 something year old dad answers the door with the guitar around his neck in his jammies!  I was like what the heck.  But he turned out to be SUPER positive.  He and his wife came to church on Sunday.  Which is awesome!  People almost never come to church after only 1 or 2 visits.  But it was just so funny.  Who wouldda thought that the grown man playing guitar hero would be so pilas?  Heavenly Father. That's who.

We have also been using a new finding strategy lately.  There have been a few times where we REALLY have to go to the bathroom and there are no members around.  So we knock a strangers door and feeling sorry for us, they always let us come in and use the bathroom.  But we've decided we need to do that more often and just say well now that we're in your house, will you listen to a little message of Jesus Christ (...and come to church...and be baptized).  I'll keep you up to date on how that works.

There are two of our converts who have started liking each other.  And it's just so funny because they're both shy.  BUt we're 99.99 percent sure that theyre in love and will get married.  We always invite one to visit the other with us so they can help eachother stay strong at church.   And they are always just too happy to accept.  Its so cute.  It reminds us of that quote from the office where Michael is like 'It's like all my kids have grown up and married each other.'  That describes our feelings exactly.

So we saw a HUGE miracle this week.  There are 2 jovencitos that haven been going to church for a year.  But their mom has never given them permission to get baptized.  But this last week, out of no where, she FINALLY decided to let them get baptized.  They are so happy!  I seriously could not believe my eyes as I watched her sign permission.  I know that there are SO many missionaries that have fought for this that will be so happy!  It's so cool to see stuf like that. THeyre such strong little teenagers.  They never gave up faith.  Every single rejection and investigator that stops progressing is so worth seeing baptisms like these ones.

Love you!  Thanks for all the support!!

Hna Haymond

fruit of the week.  looks like this on the outside.

but then its like this on the inside.  bright red.  its kinda like a cantelopey taste.  but sweeter.

I made a super crazy rice krispie treat ball for a little 4 year old member who lives on our street.  It was her b-day yesterday.

I checked eating zampopos de mayo off my bucket list this week!

This week was kinda rough, but also really good.  Hna W always keeps me happy, even when we're falling behind in our goals.  I'm so grateful for that!

I checked eating zampopos de mayo off my bucket list this week!!  It was so exciting!  I think I had told you guys about how there are these giant ants with wings that are only here in may called zanpopos de mayo (turns out they're here for longer than just May, but then they turn into zanpopos de junio, as a little girl from the primary so kindly explained to us).  They had told us that you can eat them and they're super good.  So, on Friday we went to a members house for lunch and their daughter had found a TON.  They taught us how to make them and we tried them on tortillas with salt and lime.  Oh my gosh.  It was so good!!!  It tasted like chicarron or maybe burnt popcorn (which sounds gross.  but it wasn't gross.  that's just the closest thing I can think of that it tastes like.)  I'm definitely going to have to do send a 'How To' on this one.  It was hands down the weirdest thing I've ever eaten but it was delicious.  I ate bugs and I liked it.  I'm not even ashamed.

Speaking of trying weird foods...yesterday I found a new favorite food...curry!  Hna W's parents sent her some and she made it for us yesterday.  It's so good!  We decided to turn it into curry chapin style.  So we bought some tortillas at the end of the night and put curry on our tortillas.  It was SO good!  Just funny that I had to come all the way to Guatemala to try curry that was bought in an American grocery store.  We'll have to try zanpopos de mayo with curry.

Yesterday I almost felt like it was snowing, which was so weird!  A storm came in and it was cold (and by cold I mean like normal spring weather in Colorado.  I'm going to die coming home in February.) and rainy.  And it was Pday so we just took it easy for a while.  It felt like it was a snow day or something.  It made me happy!  It was just hard for my brain to accept the fact that it was cold, like at home, but I was still in Guatemala.

There're one street in our area that is just so PILAS!  It's crazy.  Everyone we teach on that street progresses and gets baptized.  And since there are more members, they have more and more support.  It's so cool!  We decided that there's only one explanation.  We're really pretty sure that the Anti Nefi Lehits must have buried their weapons there.  That's just what makes most sense.

I have a surprisingly long time left before I have to get off the internet.  So I'm trying to think of what to say.  I'm not used to not panicking while I write my big letter home.

Yesterday someone asked me where I was from and I asked him what he thought and he said Russia.  So that was kinda funny.

We also have a question.  So here, people salute each other by kissing each other on the cheek.  But what do we do in the states to greet each other?  Hna Wises first guess was bow, but that cant be right.

The world cup starts soon.  I don't know if it's like this in the states, but here there are World Cup promotions for EVERYTHING...phone companies, candy companies, ice cream shops, McDonalds (oo.. sad news.  coco chocolate McFlurries aren't sold at McDonalds anymore.  We'll have to get more creative with our racism strike.).  I'm sure that it will get super crazy here.  It will be a miracle to get lessons in I'm sure.

This last week we saw a huge miracle.  So in March, a little girl got baptized that I was teaching.  Her mom wasn't ready to get baptized then, and that always worried me because I didn't want it to be hard for her to get to church since she's the only member.  Her mom slowly stopped wanting to listen to us and I had always felt really uneasy about it.  But last Sunday the mom came to church!  And when we taught her she accepted to be baptized!!  It was such a miracle.  It really helped me see that Heavenly Father has a reason for everything.  I didn't feel comfortable just baptizing the little girl, but it obviously had to happen so we could keep in touch with that family.  Its so amazing to see how the mom has changed and is ready to receive these blessings.  I'm thankful that Heavenly Father knows better than we do and always helps us have good, lasting fruits of ourlabors.

Thank you for all your love and emails and packages!  Its fun to hear from everyone.

Love you!