We're Orphans!

Yep.  Hermana G and I are all alone now without our mom.  Hermana H left last week.  We were expecting a new comp but it's just us two.  We are so so excited to be together still.  I love her to death.  There were a few days last week where things weren't going as planned.  But we were working our hardest and we knew they were out of our control.  It was hard not to get down on myself and think that we can't do this because we're new.  But that's not true.  We're working hard and being obedient with exactness so we know the Lord won't let us fail.

Tomorrow we have our Christmas activity with some other Zones!  We get to go to the temple (at 3 am...but still SO exciting).  Then we're going to hang out and eat lunch.  And we're having a devotional from the mission president of President Brough!  That will be really really cool!  And we get mail.  Woo!  It will be a good day.

So Hna G and I have been in the field long enough now that we've noticed a trend in the excuses people have not to talk to us.  Here are some of our favorites.  'Fijase que...

-we work.'  Hm...this is really a unique situation.  No one in the church has a job, so we're going to let you off the hook.

-we're Catholic.' So are the rest of our investigators.  This message is for everyone!

-I have to burn my trash and take a bath.' Hands down our favorite excuse so far.

I love talking to people all the time.  They make me smile.

So this week in our little pueblo there have been a lot of festivities.  I don't know exactly why, but this weekend was insane.  There was a huge festival with a concert and a lot of little stands.  And one night we were trying to get home because it was like 8:55.  Then in the distance I see a giant cloud of smoke.  Then little flickery candle lights.  Then a giant herd of people in really scary masks walking towards us (kinda like the Burger King guy).  A procession of people with incense and costumes and chanty thing was right in front of our house!  We were just laughing so hard!  Of course this would happen to us.  It was so terrifying and so funny at the same time.  We couldn't stop saying 'Oh no..OH NO!' as the mob got closer.  The emergency hand book says to go straight home and call your district leader if there's a public unrest.  We joke that we should have done that.

There were one or two more processions this weekend.  As creepy as it was at moments, the town looked cool. Everyone washed the street outside their house and decorated it with flower petals and balloons and lots of cool stuff!  It was hard to find people to teach in their houses because everyone was out, but it was an interesting sight.  

Things are a little rocky right now as far as having investigators that are progressing.  But we are working so hard.  We've been working on getting our faith up.  We set a goal of 3 baptisms at the beginning of the month and sometimes I think, well it's okay if Heavenly Father has plans for us besides getting these 3 people converted.  But no!  It's not like that.  That goal of 3 new converts is revelation from Heavenly Father and we just have to have the faith that He will help us meet our goals.  I'm excited to see all the miracles we'll have these next few weeks.

And since it's almost Christmas, just don't forget to make Christ part of your life.  Center your family around Him.  Center your life around him.  It's so incredible to see the impact that a spark of faith in Christ has on people.  My favorite thing to do as a missionary is to tell people that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them.  The feeling I get when I look someone in the eye and say that is indescribable.  If you don't believe that, let yourself believe it and feel it this Christmas.  Give yourselves for Christmas.  Find your testimony.  Bear your testimony. I love you all so much and hope everyone has a good week!

You have a Heavenly Father who loves you so much more than you can imagine.  Believe it and let it change you.

Thank you to the nice sister visiting Alexis' area who emailed me (Jenn)this
picture of Alexis and the other Hermanas when they past them on the street. 

                                                    

Done With Training!

Ah!  I'm done with training!  I really can't believe I've been in the field for 3 months already.  And Saturday was my 4 month mark from when I left.  It has gone by so fast.  I can't even explain!

Twelve Days of Christmas is going so good! So far our song goes like this...

10 little nice things

9 silly pictures

8 lessons with members

7 new investigators

6 references received

5 Dominoes (pieces of pizza)

4 Quetz for English

3 Choco dips (ice cream cones from McDonalds or choco muffins...we had both)

2 singing contacts

and a testimony in sacrament meeting!

And everyone should be so proud because I have really really big stickers now in my book for completing my training.

This week, as always, was filled with adventures (aka inconveniences and trials that we turn into fun things).  On the top of the adventure list this week would be getting lice.  SO GROSS!  I know.  We found out that all of us 5 sisters in our house had it!  It was horrible!  The nurse and mission president's wife were freaking out.  We were freaking out.  It was bad!  But it's okay.   I'd be way more grossed out and upset about it if I wasn't living in Guatemala.  Things happen.  There's even a special shampoo here called Adios Piojos (goodbye lice), we thought that was hilarious.  But we have made so many jokes making fun of our lice problem.  It's really lightened the issue.  We've really gotten a kick out of yelling 'We have lice!' in English to the weirdo men who flirt with us on the streets.  So that's the adventure of the week.  No one worry. 2 bottles of adios piojos and way too many jokes later, we are lice free!

I found out Monday that I'm staying in this area with Hermana G.  I'm soo glad I'm staying!  I love the people here and we have found some really awesome investigators this week.  I know that Heavenly Father is keeping us here for a reason. I am so excited to spend Christmas here and to stay in an area that I love.  But I'm even more excited to find the people who need my testimony specifically these next 6 weeks.  I cannot explain how thankful I am to be a missionary.  I have never been happier.  I'm sure hard times are right around the corner, but I'm so excited to see how they'll help me grow.

Thanks for everything!  And Love you all!

                                     

   Here is Alexis with her zone.  So many Hermanas!

The Things We Do For Stickers

Hello everyone!  Sorry I was all stressy last week.  It was a crazy day!  So my companions had to go to the capital so I was in our area with the other companionship.  Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  We were walking to the buses to get back to our area for lunch and our appointments.  And this week they raised the bus price and apparently people we're not willing to pay so the buses JUST TO OUR AREA were shut down.  Someone said there was a little bus coming in 5 mins.  So we waited 5 mins, then 10 mins, then 30.  So we finally decide to take a little taxi, which is a lot more expensive but we couldn't waste any more time!  We go and eat lunch and I try to call some of our planned appointments to tell them we couldn't make it, but their phones weren't working.  And we called the member that was going to be my companion for the day and of course, her phone wasn't working either!  Finally we meet up with her and pass by our house and see a note from my companions.  They had come back from the capital but couldn't get a hold of us.  We had just missed them!  So I'm panicking not knowing where my comps are.  All the little kids are telling me 'Oh!  The other Hermanas are looking for you!  They just passed by!'  Ah!  It was so frustrating knowing I was so close and yet so far.  But I finally found them.  It wasn't that bad now that I write it all out and think back on it.  But there were just sooo many unplanned things that were out of my control.  And I missed my companions.  But it's okay!

Thanksgiving was great!  We went to lunch at a member's house in our neighborhood. She's from Canada so she knows more about Thanksgiving than anyone else here.  She made all kinds of good Thanksgiving food like green beans and potatoes and rolls and AMAZING chocolate cake for dessert.  It was sooo good!  We had to explain some things to our roommate from Honduras.  She didn't know what things like gravy were.  How weird, huh! And it was super funny because there's a Guatemalan lady who works in the house we were eating.  And she sat down to eat with us then jumped up and said, 'Oh wait!  I brought tortillas!'  She ran and heated them up for us.  Because what's Thanksgiving without tortillas!  We had cute little papers to write down what we're thankful for.  It was like something we'd do at home.  But I realized that I'm thankful for a lot of different things this year since I've been able to live here.  Some of them are kinda funny because I never would have thought I'd be extra thankful for these things.  But a few of the things I'm thankful for this year are...

-paved roads

-tortillas

-not sleeping on the top bunk

-carpet

-peanut butter

-the fact that there aren't dogs everywhere in the states (side note:  I have decided that if Guatemala was a book it would easily be Go Dogs Go.  There are literally dogs of alllll kinds everywhere.  There are dogs on the roofs and at church and following us around.)

-being able to get out of bed in the mornings

-arroz con leche

and of course I'm so grateful for my family and friends.  And most importantly the Gospel.  Hands down the biggest blessing in my life!

So this last 6 week change has gone by soo fast!  I only have one week left of my in field training!  How crazy is that!  It really have been a very magical 12 weeks thanks to my amazing trainer.  So in the first 12 weeks of your mission you get a little booklet with goals you have to complete each week.  And Hna H gives us stickers in our book for each goal!!  And since this is the last week of our training we kinda ran out of goals.  But we still wanted stickers of course.  So Hna H made more goals for us.  Really awesome goals.  She made some secret goals that she only told us we got after we completed them (like getting more contacts than her in one day), bonus goals (like contacting 5 couples making out with the Law of Chastity pamphlet), and these last few days of training we're doing '12 days of Christmas' goals.  Hna H even made up a song to the tune of 12 days of Christmas that she sings every morning so we find out our goal for the day. We started Dec 1st, so this is what we know of the song so far...

'On the third day of Christmas, my trainer made me do...

3 chocolate muffins (we always buy muffins on the way to district meeting)

2 Singing Contacts (This was a blast.  We had to contact a bus singing and it was awesome.)

and 1 testimony in sacrament.'

Yep.  My trainer is the best ever.  So the lyrics of our contacting song were so great!  It's to the tune of that primary song 'I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints.'  It rhymes in Spanish but will only make sense in English so I'll write both...  

Soy de la Iglesia de Jesus Cristo De los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias

Yo se quien soy yo, Un hijo de Dios.  Ustedes tambien.

Compartimos un mensaje de Cristo, y un profeta viviente.

Este evanglio cambia vidas, y vamos a pasar sus sillas

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

I know who I am, a child of God.  You all are too.

We share a message of Christ and a living prophet.

This Gospel changes lives, and we're going to come by your seats (to write down their addresses and teach them.)

It was a huge hit.  We got lots of smiles. Oh...The things we do for stickers.

We don't have a ton of investigators who are progressing right now which could by frustrating but we are trying our hardest and still seeing miracles.  We had a really cool experience with a lady Sunday night.  It was late and we were already done with all our plans so we knocked a door we taught once.  A lady answered and  said she didn't have time but I talked her into a 5 minute lesson.  We just explained prophets really quickly, it wasn't anything too special during the lesson just all the normal principles we go over.  But after the closing prayer we looked up and she was just bawling.  We felt like we shouldn't say anything, so we just stood there for a few minutes with the Spirit so strong. She said she felt good and we bore testimony of how we don't know her problems but Heavenly Father does and He loves her.  I challenged her to be baptized and she accepted.  We didn't say much and neither did she.  All she could say was gracias.  We have no idea what happened, but we know it wasn't us that touched her.  We didn't do anything special.  The Spirit just works through us and leads us to people in the moment they need us.  We're going back to visit her tomorrow.  It was such a cool experience because we could feel Heavenly Fathers love for her so strongly.  Our message is so powerful because it's true.  I love how faith in Christ and His restored Gospel touches people and changes their lives.  I'm so thankful to be a missionary!

Thanks for all you guys do for me!

Love you all!

Hermana Haymond

Another week in Guatemala

This Volcano has been puffing lots of smoke this past week!

First of all some shout outs.  BRANDON!!!! Congrats on your mission call!  Portugal is way lucky.  I'm so stoked for you.  And Sadie and Chase, I got your letters!  Thanks so much!  I'm glad you're both doing good.  And thanks for the dear Elder, Mom!  Ah!  Thanks for all the support guys!

I feel like there are still some questions that I got in dear elders that I haven't answered.  Sorry!  I'll try to answer them really quick...

I don't give out a ton of my stickers actually.  Because if I give one then the kids want them every time and I just don't want to be the sticker lady.

Church is really interesting.  Our branch is small and fairly new.  So people are still getting the hang of how to handle callings and such.  It's hard to coordinate things at times and the responsibilities fall on us a lot.  But it's fine.  We like to help out!  

And it's really not that bad having dinner at 9:30.  Sometimes between lunch and dinner we stop and get some bread from a bakery really fast or something.  But otherwise it's just normal now to eat late.

It's still super nice here!  It feels like perfect May weather.  Some people think it's cold.  But it's not when you're from Colorado.

This weekend our stake had it's very first stake conference!  They split the area a few months ago.  But it was cool to be a part of.  They watched a broadcast with President Eyring and Elder Scott.  They spoke to all the stakes in Guatemala.  How exciting!

Ah!  I'm so sorry!  This day has been kinda stressful so I can't really think of much to write about.  Boring...I know.  It's stressful having people's salvation in your hands.  But every good lesson we have, every hard working investigator, every investigator we have at church, every person we baptize is worth all the other moments of stress and hard work.  Heavenly Father always gives us miracles and He let's me be happy despite of all the little difficulties.  So that's good.  

Love you all!!

¿Que es la verdad?

Alexis said she loves these giant leaves and gets so excited when she sees them.

It's been yet another really awesome week!

One morning we got a call saying that no matter what our plans were we had to teach two recently baptized people and sing the hymn 'Que es la verdad' and teach them about the Family A Proclamation to the world.  So we started our first lesson with a convert and it became apparent very quickly that we had no idea how the hymn went.  We asked everyone in the house and no one knew.  We tried to sight read it (for me this means just guess the notes and hope you're sounding how everyone else sounds)  but we failed at that.  Later we tried to sing it to the tune of I am A Child of God.  Genius idea right!?  Almost.  The words went with the tune perfectly, until we got to the last line.  We had to squish in like 4 words on the last note because it didn't match up!  It was horrible!  We were like what are the odds that none of us know this hymn!  The lady we were teaching was very unimpressed and told us we really should study and practice the hymns first.  But we were just cracking up. So now we sing the words 'que es la verdad' to every tune possible.  We think we're hilarious.  (I, Jenn,  google translated the title of the song and  it translates to "What is the Truth"  So maybe it might be "Oh Say What is Truth" is our hymn book?)

So almost every Monday we go to this place called the paca.  Its basically the mall of all thrift stores and its awesome!  We get really good stuff so cheap!  Yesterday I bought 2 shirts for 1 quet, which is like 15 cents in the US.  So that was fun!  At the paca we always find hilarious stuff.  Yesterday I found a bib that said 'Happy Hanukah'.  I was sooo close to buying it.  How random!  If you want a Hanukah bib, come to Guatemala.

We had a baptism this weekend!  It was so awesome!  He is just a sweet little old man.  He has such a strong desire to do whats right and follow Christ.  He's one of the brothers that is so fun to teach because he's like a little kid.  It was so exciting to see him get baptized because last week was rough with him and one lesson he got really mad and said he didn't want more.  But he realized that wasn't how it really was.  Now he is just so happy!  He was wiping away tears when he got confirmed on Sunday.  It was so sweet!  He's going to be a faithful, hard working member.  He's awesome!  That was incredible.

This week we really saw how Heavenly Father help´s us meet our goals when we're working hard.  There were a few days where we were walking a lot more than we were teaching.  We'd only have 3 or 4 lessons in one day which is really low for us!  Then we had days like Saturday where we found 18 new people to teach in just a few hours! It was incredible!  Some days are a little rough, but then we have days full of miracles.  It's so good to know that when we're working hard, we can have the assurance that Heavenly Father will help us get done what He needs.  I'm so thankful to have this experience.  If Heavenly Father really needed to, He could convert everyone without missionaries.  He could send angels and make everyone have an Alma conversion.  But no.  He let's us as missionaries have the privilege of helping people.  And through this we get to learn and grow too.  Its just so humbling to think about.  I love this!

Thanks so much for everything!

Love you all!

Hermana Haymond

I asked Alexis to send pictures of the inside of their apartment so here is a picture of their beds, the bucket shower, and her desk.  She said the beds are messy because they were washing the bedding.

It's that time again!

It's that time again.  Time for the Tee Shirts of the week!!!

-On a 3 year old little boy ..."Future President" with an American flag

-"Bingo Tuesdays!"

-And a purple shirt on a grown man..."Put on Your Big Girl Pants.!"

On that note...this week had it's surprises, but was still good.  Yesterday was really fun!  We played futbol with one of our recent convert families.  We played with kids and their moms on this huge dirt field.  They all got so into it!  Moms were pushing and kids were so serious!  Our team won.  Ah!  It was like indescribable.  Playing soccer on a dirt field in Guatemala...I felt pura chapina!

So I've been thinking a lot lately about the things that feel normal that wouldn't feel normal if I wasn't a missionary in Guatemala.  For example...

-Talking to old men with machetes

-Talking to strangers in general

-Seeing the sun set behind a volcano every day

-Showering in a bucket

-kissing people on the cheek (that's how everyone greets each other here)

-wearing a skirt (someone asked us if we've worn skirts all our lives.  they were surprised that we actually wear jeans in real life)

-Waking up at 5 am and going to bed at 10:30 pm

-Eating tortillas with everything

But there are somethings that I don't think I'm ever going to get used to.  Like the fact that I'm actually in Guatemala.  At least once a day it hits me how lucky I am!

Being a missionary has really made me love obedience.  I LOVE all the rules we have.  That sounds really weird.  I know.  I never thought I'd say that, but it's true! Of course we have to obey the commandments, and we have the rules in the missionary hand book.  But we also have lots of other rules that President has set as a mission.  A lot of them are little things that might not make sense to a lot of people, like not eating during studies.  Sometimes we have rules for safety or to have the Spirit.  But more than anything they bring miracles.  When we obey the commandments we obligate God to bless us.  It's the same with all our rules.  The more rules we have, the more we obligate God to bless us with miracles.  This work is hard and I need all the miracles I can get.  I could never bring myself to break a rule, no matter how small.  I can't rob myself, my family, and my investigators of those blessings.  It's hard to put into words.  But my testimony of obedience has grown so much!  I'm so thankful to have learned what I have.  I know that all that I've experienced and learned will help me for the rest of my life.  I'm so blessed to be here and have these experiences.

Thanks for everything!

Hermana Haymond

Alexis loves the children there

Playing futbol with the Familia H

She looks so tall next to these Guatemalan women!

Chicote con Satanas!

Alexis received a USB converter for her SD card in her camera thanks to her CCM companions Mom so Alexis sent us lots of pictures this week!  Thank you Susie for getting that for her and to her, your awesome!


Hermana Haymond in the Capitol



Alexis with her comps and the other sisters in their apartment

Halloween was just a normal day here.  I only saw one person in a costume.  The big day here is the day after Halloween, Day of the Dead.  It's kinda the same idea as memorial day.  Everyone buys these little kites and flies them.  So that was really cool to see!  We bought some little ones just for one quet for the memories.

This week President Brough is having us do a 'Semana Perfecta'.  This means that every missionary in the mission meets our goals of exelency.  And each day there are different things to focus on.  Like last night we tried to have as many lessons in the house of a recent convert.  Today is to contact as many families as possible.  There are different challenges and goals every day.  And every companionship in the mission HAS to baptize.  Otherwise it would not be a semana perfecta!  We have two baptisms on Sunday.  They are awesome!  They're two guys in their 50's or 60's.  We started teaching them separately but then we found out they're brothers!  How funny is that!  They are soo fun to teach.  They're both so excited to learn about the gospel.  It's seriously like teaching Primary kids every time.  We have to keep them on topic and make sure they're understanding.  It's so precious!  We were explaining how this week before their baptism Satan is going to attack and try to make them not get baptized because they're so strong.  And one of them said 'CHICOTE CON SATANAS!'  Which basically means I'm going to show Satan what's up!  Idk how to explain chicote in English but it's a good word to use.  It was so funny though!  This little old chapin guy.  Ah!  I love teaching them.

So being in a companionship of 3 white girls, we get a lot of interesting comments.  A lot times the men try to yell things in English to us...Or at least they think they're speaking English.  The funniest attempt at a pick up line we've heard yet was this one guy yelling 'Do you espeak inglish?  Good good!  Lady!  INFORMATION!'  And he just kept yelling 'Good good! Information!'  Out of all the words in English to yell you pick 'information'?  Gosh. The people here make me laugh.

Sorry this email is a little shorter.  But hopefully the pictures make up for it.  I'm still happy.  I know I always say that but I really do mean it!  It's so cool to feel just a teeny bit of the love Heavenly Father has for His children.  Sometimes I'm so focused on how much He loves everyone in Guatemala, I forget that He feels the same way about me.  It's just such a powerful thing to think about.  I just wish everyone could feel just for a second how much He loves us. It changes lives.  I'm so blessed and can see the miracles every single day!  Thanks for all your prayers!