Póngase PUMPED!

more pics of santo domingo

This week was so spiritually exhausting.  But first, I have noticias...Yesterday Hna E and I found out that we are going to be staying here together for one more change!  Yay!!! It's been a fun companionship.  I'm glad we're staying.  There's lots of work to do and we are just pumped.  (That's the latest word I've taught to Hna E in English.  I always tell her 'Póngase PUMPED!'  Yay for English.)

But this week was rough.  Looking back it was rewarding too, But still rough.  We had 2 people set to be baptized on Sunday.  They live on opposite sides of our area.  But we were 100 percent sure they were getting baptized so we ran all over our area everyday to keep visiting them and make sure they were doing good.  We barely taught other lessons.  It was just nuts.  And all kinds of problems came up and they decided not to get baptized.  But Saturday we were running like crazy with lots of faith that they would still have their interviews for their baptisms.  It ALMOST worked out, but at 8:55 pm on Saturday we still didn't have any baptisms ready for Saturday. I was so sure we would baptize on Sunday.  So we went and looked for an eternal investigator who comes to church every week.  I challenged him to be baptized in his doorway.  And......he wasn't ready to get baptized either.  I was so discouraged Saturday night.  We worked so hard and we had so much faith. I felt like we did everything we could and I just didn't understand.  Sunday I was sitting waiting for church to start and I was feeling kind of down.  But all of a sudden walked in a family of converts who hasn't been to church for months.  When we last visited them they were not very happy and it was really clear that they don't have strong testimonies anymore.  But they came to church by themselves!  NO one could believe it.  The family was bawling all of sacrament meeting and they were so thankful for our visits.  

It was a good lesson for me.  It was not the miracle that I had been praying for.  It wasn't even the miracle we had been working towards.  But it was an even bigger miracle than having 2 baptisms.  It was a good reminder that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.  It was SO good to see that family in church.    Ah. trials of our faith are just exhausting.  But you've gotta love it.

So that's my story for the week.  It's probably not as cool in the letter as it was in real life.  But we're just pumped for more miracles.

Love you all!

Hna Haymond

Familia L.  a family of less actives. This family...tries my patience so much.  but I love them!  

So we always do practices during companionship study (but this picture was taken after a long day in the rain).  So lately we've been using a balloon that we got at the grand opening of Little Ceasers.  It just makes things way more fun. We're just worried about how hard it will be to baptize him by immersion.

the foto shoot with the balloon was super inspired because the
next day we found our investigator deflated.

We had cleaning checks last week.  It went fine.  But this is us cleaning.  hna E was happy.
 She is just a little punk!  I can't even describe her.  She's so funny!

My district eating Little Ceasers yesterday

Obedience with exactness.  Don't touch the Elders.

Flyer for the baile de las abuelitas that I found on the bus.

Biggish spider!

Baile de las Abuelitas

Last Friday we had a meeting with all the hermanas from the mission.  It was so fun but way different.  I realized that missionary work is not a girly thing.  Because this meeting just felt so foreign.  It started with lots of squealing and hugs as everyone saw their old companions.  Then we had muffins for breakfast.  We did an activity to see who could find a sister who has 4 siblings, and shares the same birthday month as you, who is in your old zone, etc.  Then we sang as sisters in Zion and heard talks about how much Heavenly Father loves us and how great our worth is.  Then we had to find someone we didn't know and give them a bracelet.  Then we ate salad for lunch.  It really seriously was an awesome day!  I love seeing all the sisters.  But it was hands down the girliest thing I've done in a year.

Sunday was a big day here in the area.  Apparently every year a marimba band comes and they close down the high way so a bunch of little grandmas can dance in the street.  We just walked by really fast but there was a huge crowd.  And the grandmas were dressed in costumes and had creepy masks.  I just loved it!  Its just one of those only in Guatemala things.

I never thought I'd say this, but watching Wheel of Fortune on a regular basis before the mission has really come in handy.  Every Tuesday our district leader puts up a hangman puzzle on the board to guess the theme of the meeting.  I take it way to seriously and win almost every week.  If only Wheel of Fortune were in Spanish with gospel related phrases, I'd be rich.

We are super determined to baptize this weekend.  We have a few candidates that need lots of miracles.  But we love them so much and are working so hard to help them with these steps to have eternal life.  We need lots of prayers.

Love you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

Hna Haymond

The white board from district meeting.

I guessed the puzzle today with just m's and a's and n's

A village in our area called Santo Domingo

15 de Septiembre!!!

We had Pday of the zone.  We went to the stake center and the Elders made like 200 crepes.  It was super good.  Our zone is really cool.  Everyone is really close and its just fun to be together.

And...yesterday was 15 de septiembre....Indepence Day in Guatemala!!!!! It was the best day ever to have Pday.  There were a ton of parades in the morning!! Here it's like you get a grade to be in the parade with your school,so everyone was there.  And the other thing they do to celebrate is they have marathons and races with torches.   Like the Olympics.  When they run they have whistles and make tons of noise and all the cars honk and its a big deal.  There were a bunch of people running on the highway and tons of people got on a bridge and they threw water on all the runners.  It was a funny sight.  It was a crazy weekend and everyone was out celebrating.  Its was awesome!

Watching the parades yesterday was a really educational experience actually.  Each school  had its own presentation.  And lots of them focused on facts of Guatemala.  For example...

Guatemala had 6 different versions of the flag before they got to the version they use now.

The marimba is the instrument of Guatemala.  There are different styles from different parts of the country.  I really like marimba.

Theres a super cool bird called a quetzal.  Its on all the money.  It means freedom.

There is also a flower and a tree of hte country but i cant remember what they are.

Guatemala (and most of central America I think) gained its independence on September 15th 1821.  One year after the first vision (coincidence...I think not.)

So those are the kinda fun facts I learned about Guatemala yesterday.

This week I got called to repentance.  We had a conference with Elder Ochoa.  And he talked a lot about how we need to love people.  How we shouldn't teach people to baptize them, but to help them go to the temple and have eternal life.  He said we need to find to teach, teach to help people repent, and help people repent so that they can make covenants and have eternal life.  I really needed to hear that.  Heavenly Father has given me so much success up to this point on my mission.  But I haven't been doing what I'm doing for the right reasons.  I need to love the people more and teach more sincerely.  The difference that I've felt since I've focused on that is incredible.  I feel so much more faith in the people we teach and I understand why Heavenly Father wants them to be baptized.  It's too bad I realized this now, but I know its going to change my whole mission.

Thanks for all you do for me!

Love you all!

Its been really really really cold!  When we wake up in the morning we're so tired and its freezing.  so we do exercises in our blankets.  I got up one morning and it was SOOO cold and I was so asleep.  My half asleep self decided I NEEDED to take a picture of us doing exercises in that very moment. This is us jogging in place

This is a corte!!!!! I bought my own corte.  And I just love it.  It's the traditional clothes.  And a lot of people use it.  hna E refuses to take pictures perfectly up and down with my camera. 

 It always has to be tilted.

Hna. E.  Shes so cute!  She looks so innocent but shes a punk.  Its funny

there are two ways to carry things in guatemala.
1...put it on your head.

or....
2....strap it to your head like this.

tortilling

and this is a jacket that a really really poor member let me borrow one day when it was cold.  When I went to give it back to her she let me have it.  It was so nice!  She doesnt have hardly anything!  The things I get from people here are way better than anything I couldnt buy.

Yay for rain!
There was a drought for a while and all the crops were dying.  All the corn and the beans.  And if there's no corn, there are no tortillas.  If there are no tortillas, no one will eat.  So it really is a blessing that its been raining.

yesterday for zone activity the elders made 200 crepes. they were super good.  but when your a missionary in Guatemala you make crepe mix in a water jug.

Mota vs. Moto

It's been another good week!  I love it more and more every day.  Time is flying by and it makes me sick.  But I'm doing good.  There's lot of work to do.

My companion is doing great!  She's so stinkin cute.  We joke around with each other a lot.  She likes to mess with me and I just can't take her seriously because she's so little!  I was looking at her clothes the other day and she has some stuff from the Childrens Place. How precious!  But she's tough for being so little!  I'm impressed everyday.

I'm healthy and happy.  My only issue right now is that I'm always itchy.  I'm pretty sure we have fleas but lets be honest that's just part of living in the mountains.  But I'm really not too upset about it. I've thought it through really well and I'd take fleas over lice any day.

Lately everyone has been trying to marry me off.  And the weird thing is, is that it's never guys who are asking me to stay and marry them.  It's their moms!  These little ladies just slide a little half joking comment in the conversation, like 'Oh.  We'll see if you end up staying in Guatemala as my daughter in law!'   My companion thinks it's hilarious because she knows that I don't think it's hilarious.

So about 5 month ago there were only elders in this area.  So all the people are used to calling missionaries Elders.  And we've gotten a kick out of it lately because people that we don't even know will just say hi to us and be like 'Adios Elderas!!'  I really actually love it.  We can track down all of the Elders' old investigators this way.

Lately I've felt really good about my Spanish.  People have been getting me and hna b mixed up on the phone and people seem to understand me better.  But Heavenly Father is really good at humbling me.  Thank goodness.  We were talking with this inactive recent convert who has a lot of problems. He hasn't made it to church because his motorcycle is braking down. I wanted to say 'ya esta lista la moto para ir a la iglesia el domingo?'  (Is your motorcycle ready to go for church on Sunday?) But instead i said 'Ya esta lista la mota para ir a la iglesia el domingo?'  (is your weed/pot/marijuana ready to go for church on Sunday?) So that was a good embarrassing humbling experience.  Just gotta laugh at yourself and be patient Also don't tell converts to bring their weed to church...

Love you all!  Thanks for your support

Iglesation

I've been helping Hna E learn guatemalan spànish.  It's so funny to have to correct her Spanish, but here they use words that are way different here.  She's also teaching me English.  Ya know how in English when we try to speak Spanish we just put an o at the end of everything?  Well apparently in Honduras they just put a 'tion' at the end of everything to turn it into English.  Like holation and fiestation and adiosation.  So she's teaching me how to speak English from Honduras.  I'm sure no one gets why we talk so weird but we understand each other.

I've learned a lot about the importance of the gift of the Holy Ghost.  This has never happened to me in my mission but in the last few weeks we have found 6 people who got bapatized but never got confirmed!  It's so crazy.  Now they don't come to church and they aren't very strong and it's just sad.  It's such a testimony that we need the Holy Ghost to help us after baptism.  And that baptism isn't complete without it.  Now we need to work with them to see what we need to do to reactivate them and help them completely be members of the church. Its so complicated!  And it makes me so grateful that our 2 baptisms were able to get confirmed the week after their baptisms.

We saw a huge miracle this week!  I've been praying so hard to have more investigators come to church.  We really focused on explaining what church is like and inviting everyone.  So in Sacrament meeting I was sitting there and I saw that we only had 2 investigators.-  So I was trying to be thankful for that and trying to think of what we can do better when a family walked in!  We were working so hard to get them to come!  It was such an awesome reminder of how Heavenly Father really answers prayers when we do our part.

Love you all! Thank you so much always supporting me!

Di a la luz a una catracha

Yay!  My new companion is adorable!  She is Hna E from Honduras.  She is tiny and amazing!  She is really happy.  It's really cool because she got baptized less than 2 years ago.  Her family doesn't support her at all because she's the only member but shes got a strong testimony.  She's sarcastic too which is so fun because sarcasm just doesn't  happen much in Spanish.  She's really little and new in the mission so it's so hard for her to walk as fast as me.  But she tries sooo hard and she is so diligent!  I love training because it's such a humbling experience.  It's so precious seeing new missionaries do hard scary things.  But you just have to make them do it because that's what will make them be successful and happy. It's so weird to think that just a year ago I was with Hna Hansen and Hna Godfrey training.  Time flies!

Ah!  I really don't have tons of time, but I'm sending lots of pictures to make up for it.

Things are going good.  We haven't had any super crazy adveuntres yet but I'm sure there are lots coming.  Heavenly Father really wants new missionaries to feel successful.  And for that we have seen lots of miracles.  More lessons with members.  More unity in the ward.  More people commiting to go to church.  More families contacted in the streets.  It really is a beautiful experience.  It's such a privilege to be a trainer.  I'm so thankful for all that I'm learning from Hna E.

Love you all and as always thanks for your support!

Hna Haymond

The next few pictures are of us at the brick making place from last weeks e-mail-

this is where they fire the bricks every night!

Us with the guy who actually works there

Us with members that came to hang out with us

Hector Pablo hosing us down in his car wash

he's super in-active but super awesome.

My shirts all untucked weird but last day with Hna Z

My hijas!

hna E!

I LOVE HNA WISE!  This is our signature picture pose

hna R!! she came into the mission at the same time as me and is one of my favorite people.
I did divisions with her.  But shes not in our zone anymore 

A cute new missionary that was writing me to ask for help before she got here.  Now shes in my zone.  She is so sweet and I know shes just trying so hard.  I feel like shes my daughter too but shes not.

Ladrios!

Yesterday I found out that I'm staying in this area.  Which wasn't really a surprise. The Zone leaders thought they'd do something different.  Instead of just calling us and telling us, they had the whole zone go to the stake center.  They had pictures of each companionship and when they announced the changes, they ripped the picture in half and dropped the companion who's leaving the zone.  It was really sad and funny at the same time.  Every companionship in our zone has changes which almost never happens.  I'm sad my companion is leaving.  I still have lots to learn from her.  But I'm excited to meet my hija tomorrow!

I just thought I'd point out that it's been 2 months since hna Wise and I waded through sewer water and I still don't have foot fungus.  Woo!! 

Yesterday we went to make bricks!  My area is known for brick making.  There are members who own a ladriera so we went with them.  To make the clay for the bricks you basically stomp around barefoot in a big pile of mud (I'll let you know in two months if I get fungus).  You have to feel around with your feet to get rid of the rocks.  Then we went next store to the families car wash to rinse off. It was so fun!  Every one thought it was interesting that dad worked in a brick place too.  I think I did a pretty good job stomping around, probably because of dad.  I have lots of pictures but I didn't bring my little memory card reader thing.  So you'll have to wait until next week.

We had two baptisms on Sunday!  It was such a miracle.  It gave me so much hope after not baptizing last month.   I'm so thankful that we get to teach them.  They really are super pilas and have progressed a lot on their own.  It was just a tender mercy that Hna Z and I were able to baptize together.

Today Hna Z and I gave a little workshop on gratitude today in District Meeting.  It made me think of how we said one thing we're thankful for when we say family prayer at night at home.  Even though I always said lame stuff, it's good to know that we were always trying to be grateful.  I decided that I'm going to start doing that with my companions from now on.  

Thanks for always encouraging me and for praying for me.  It's always fun to hear from you guys!  Thanks for your love!

Love you!!

Hna Haymond