happy 5 month mark

Today is Destinee's 5 month anniversary.  It was 5 months ago today that we dropped off Destinee and Kade at the MTC to serve the Lord.

Oh yeah, those tremors.....and Hermano Juanito

Destinee asked last week if there was any earthquake activity in Guatemala because she had felt tremors twice.  Here is what I found out:  On 10/15/10 there was an earthquake.   It was a 5.0 magnitude and was 55 km (35 miles) W of Escuintla, Guatemala 70 km (45 miles) SSE of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala 95 km (60 miles) WSW of GUATEMALA, Guatemal.  It never even made the news........ 

She also mentioned that she would get a picture of her with Hermano Juanito who thinks she is skinny and asks her if she is doing okay.  She wrote in a previous email that "he is a little old man (4´6´´) who refers to me as the Cancha or Canchita, a name which means a person is very fair or whiter. He is always worried about whether I am eating or if I am ill. He and his sister are fascinated with the canchitos, though I don´t know why. He is an active member but loves visits from the sister missionaries because we sing to him. The first time I saw him it was just a silhouette of him and he reminded me of a chinese kung fu master because he has a big sombrero." 

Well, today we get to see Hermano Juanito:

  

And here is Destinee's email for today:

Yeah, I haven´t received a dear elder for 2 weeks and doesn´t look like we´ll get them this week either. Changes didn´t affect me. I am still here. And hermana benavides is still my companion. No one left from our district except elder crosby. Now he is back in Salt Lake City, but the rest of us are still in the mountains.

Yay! I am hermana karate. (the father of one of the sisters in Destinee's area calls Destinee that after the incident with the man on the bike) Check that out. Ha ha, yeah for hermana garcia it was a drunk guy, from what she told me. We´ve had many interesting things in the chimal area. A couple of years ago there were elders in Comalapa, but they took out the missionaries for a year and a half because one of these elders got in trouble with one of the members, or rather they found him with her. Before that there were Hermanas, but one of the hermanas was found to be in a relationship with a man that has an obsession with North American girls. We ran into him in the street one day and Hermana Benavides introduced me to him as Hermana Park from England. She didn´t know why she lied, but sometimes perhaps there are reasons we do things like that... For example, Nephi who had to kill Laban.  

With cooking there is no problem. If I don´t have something made, I make it up. I had to improvise on making some foods and they´ve turned out great. The corn is ripe... and black. I´ll send a picture. Hermana Benavides doesn´t think it is ripe because everyone of Comalapa says it won´t be ripe until may, but the corn is full and heavy, and I don´t think it will stay up too much longer. What says you? I thought it tasted good too. Unfortunately, we need more vegetables. Corn doesn´t count, nor onions. I plan to buy some vegetables soon because I am going crazy. Well, I will try sending the other pics. Love you! 

Well, I couldn´t upload pics because my camera needs new batteries. But next week.

 

Emails, some answers to my questions, and PICTURES

We made donuts to bring for the youth so that they would help us bring people to church. We didn´t have any success with that, though. And I make international food for hermana benavides. She likes making desserts and pizza and french toast. I usually make papusas, tortillas, I´ve made crepes... cannot think of too much more lately that I have made... oh, and salsa yesterday with tomatoes, onions, lime juice, and salt. It was delicious. Here is an interesting fact. The limes are called limones, and lemons are called lima-limones. There is another fruit that is like an orange but doesn´t have a strong flavor that is called lima.

How was your day with Hermana Garcia?  What did you do?  Her mom said you were going to Chimal.  How was that?

The divisions were fun. I liked it in Chimal. It was warmer and there was a lot of beauty there. I learned much from Hermana Garcia. She prays every time she enters or leaves the house. I should pray more. She also said how creepy (mom's know) it was that her mom knows everything and asks her about it before she even writes home about it.

The cat wasn´t a problem. Hermana Benavides took care of it. It died before I even woke up.

 About the idiot guy who grabbed you--you did the right thing.  Remember your Karate training! 

Yeah, I am so glad I took karate which heightened my reaction skills. We actually passed him while we were walking home a couple of nights ago. I didn´t see his face or anything the night that he touched me, but both me and Hermana Benavides had a bad feeling as we passed this guy. But now I am always on the defense with piedras because I know I have got the skills of aiming thanks to the days of work at the theater and rubber band wars. (for all of you theater friends, I am sure you know what she is talking about)

I haven´t been taking my vitamins every day, but I should start because I need to get rid of this cold I have. As for changes, we won´t know until tonight if we are going to have them. I will let you know next week. So I am going to try uploading pictures now to see if I can send them. Bye

And now PICTURES:

my last district (her first district in the Guatemala City Central Mission)

Hermana Earl and I  (trainer and first companion in the field)

The house (the house she lives in)

Hermana Benavides and our ride in the back of the truck to Chimal

Comalapa

Oh, and so this past week. What else happened? We had a zone meeting where we met with the zone of Solola... something like that. I was going to have another divisions, but we didn´t because the other hermana hurt her ankle and couldn´t do it. During this day, I felt tremors twice. Once at 5:30 in the morning, and the other during the meeting. Do you know if there was an earthquake that happened somewhere? (there are always earthquakes in the area because of all the active volcanoes)

More Pictures!

The following are pictures taken while making papusas with the family Sotz.

 

More pictures of Comalapa

The next picture is of a spinning wheel. Comalapa has much weaving. It is awesome to watch them work.

We had a rain storm that included hail. So I took a picture of it. Also, the water has to be poured so hermana benavides was carrying the water but the container broke, so the one of me is sweeping out the water.

 Destinee's house is the green building you can see in the first picture.  She is standing in the "kitchen", which is a separate building.

And in closing, Destinee wrote the following:  I am so grateful to be here. It is difficult, I cannot lie, but the growth I have seen in myself is incredible. Time really does pass quickly when we work hard. I want you to know I love you. Life may be hard, but I know we can get through it. I know this church is true. It is the true church of God. He has created a plan for us that we can return to live with him. And I am grateful I can live eternally with you all. Got to be obedient and get off. Love Desty

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1.02.28

"You had better run"

Okay, so what happened this week? Not much, and yet a lot. Basically it was just a busy week of trying to get people to keep compromisos (I forgot how to spell this word in English) and getting them to church, but no one came to church of the investigators. We had a low assistance (attendance?) of 50 this week. Usually it is around 65. We need 90 to have a chapel built. Oh, so our church is a building of three levels with a hole in the ceiling to allow light to enter. The sacrament room is just an open room off to the side, without doors. However, during sacrament it is very organized, like our home ward in a way. The priesthood waits to be excused to sit instead of getting up right after the sacrament. The good thing about being in a branch is that there are so few people that I have the chance to know each of them. One of the families I have the chance to know well is the family Rodriguez. Hermana Coni is in the Relief Society presidency. Her daughter and grandchildren live with her. Hermano Emanuel is the mission leader and is preparing to leave on a mission soon, but waits a while for medical reasons. His sister, Alejandra, comes with us often for the visits. Last night we had splits with Hermana Coni and Alejandra and Alejandra and I returned earlier so I waited in their house and met the cats, Omale and Lucas. The youngest boy, Andres, played with the cats the whole time so that was my entertainment while I waited for Hermana Benavides and Hermana Coni. 

Well, about the adventures of this week, the first was about a cat. We left the house one night and there was a very weak kitten outside of our door, so we tried finding out where it came from and asked all of the neighbors. No one claimed it, and it died the next morning. We had to dispose of it in the barranca. That same night that we found the cat, I had a bad experience. I was waiting for Hermana Benavides to open the door to our house and could see behind me a man on a bike approaching. I saw him slow down and approach closer. My thought was, Crap, what am I going to do? Then he came to me and grabbed my hip. Well, I was already tense from much earlier walking in the dark. I grabbed his arm with my free hand, turned around very quickly and nearly pulled him from his bike. At the same time I yelled at him in one of the loudest yells I have ever done. It scared the crap out of him and he took off fast, running and trying to ride his bike up the hill. I yelled after him, ¨You had better run¨´. My yelling scared Hermana Benavides also. I felt so shaken up and angry afterwards, and ashamed that I had yelled like that. Then when the district leader called I was the one to answer, so I told him of the experience. He told me that I should have punched the guy in the face. I was grateful for that comment he made because I was feeling bad for my yelling. I do not trust any of the guys in Comalapa now. It makes it harder to contact and teach, or ride the bus. 

I read from Preach my Gospel and am trying to finish it. It is sad that I never read it before because there are some things in it that really can help me be a better missionary. Also, I read from Alma, from chapter 5 to 10. Alma was a great missionary. Well, that will be all for now because I want to write kiana. I love you. Have a good week. Oh, and changes are next week. Also there are divisions today with hermana Garcia. (woohoo, I love Hermana Garcia and her mom.  Hermana Garcia's mom tells me they are doing their divisions in Chimal) And tomorrow we go to antigua. bye 

And in an email to me:  We didn´t go out soap-box preaching, but I really wanted to some days. We did find three new families this past week but only one was really positive. We still have hopes that we will have a goal of a baptism by the end of this month, but the work is hard. However, speaking of baptisms, I do have one I can count all though I was not there for it. Giovanni was baptized! Hermana Earl is going to send me pictures.

Well, for the tamale, the hermana used two different types of leaves to wrap it, which were a banana leaf and one other type of really big leaf. For the inside stuff they use usually chicken, some sort of chile pepper to make the sauce, and in the one I ate there was a type of flower, a yellow one, that we used when we made papusas. I don´t know much more of it, but the tamales down here are softer than the ones up north which are solid.

Better late than never---her email finally came

Hello family,

So this fever I wrote you about continued the rest of Monday and then Tuesday, and then wednesday and thursday, and friday as well. One week! Each time I coughed during this time, my head hurted. It´s terrible to be ill. I still have a cold, but luckily no fever.

Two repeating thoughts stayed with me during this time. The first, I wish I was home, with sun (it was so dark and rainy) and mom and dad and family and a bath tub. I have never wanted to give up so bad, but at the same time I had no desire to give up. It was difficult to eat much of anything so Tuesday I bought a can of fruit cocktail and a cup of noodle soup I could make. The second thought was to go out among groups of people and preach soap-box style (standing on a crate or platform), calling people to repentance and telling them to soften their hearts and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. The people have hardened hearts and blinded minds like in the scriptures. They refuse to pray to know the truth and deny all of our words. Those who accept us have large problems in their lives, concerning not understanding why we do not pray to Mary, the law of chastity, refusing to believe there is only one true church. We have taught in nice manners but, again like the scriptures, they esteem all as naught. However, the active members are fantastic and are truly converted.

I am very grateful for the letter Kanna (her nick name for her sister) sent. I really needed it Monday night, especially with all that has happened lately. I received the letters before email but did not read them until afterwards. I am glad Kade is doing well. He´s grown much spiritually. I had to save Kiana´s lettter until night time because her letters always make me cry because they say what I need to hear. I forgot to tell you, but when Elder Crosby gave me the blessing last monday, he began in English and then changed to Spanish after the first sentence. I thought it was cool because Spanish basically has become my language. I only use English in times of frustration.

We had divisions for Wednesday, thursday, and friday. For these divisions, senior companions went to the capacitación. I went back to La Justo!!! I was still ill throughout that time so I didn´t get to do much teaching. Much of the time I was ill I felt as if part of me was not thre, like I was partly in a coma. I could respond to questions and could see or act but everything was disoriented and I didn´t have much of any reaction. One of these days at La Justo I stayed the day with the Bishop´s family while my two companions went to work in the Vasquez. It was a little awkward at first but I got some rest and for lunch ate a tamale. The tamales are delicious. It was also funny because the two boys entered the house after I was put in a bedrrom to rest so when Hermana Cux came to check on me the boys were scared because they didn´t realize I was there. 

On Friday we returned to Comalapa. We had very poor luck on the weekend, but it didn´t rain which was good because I was still ill. The nurses sent me with lots of medicine. I got to watch conference Sunday. I guess we could have watched it saturday too but we worked instead and found three families to teach. Hermana Benavides went with another Hermana in our zone to watch conference in spanish and I and Hermana Garcia went to the stake center to watch it in English with the Gringos. She says hi, by the way.

So the week was busy because we walked a lot and tried to teach people but every time we try finding someone we don´t have much luck. I feel like a failure as a missionary because our dats don´t show anything. Anyway, the packages finally arrived. Thank you mom and Sister Anhder. It´s always fun to receive things. 

Well, it has become much easier to contact after the illness because still it seems as if something is missing and I have less fear. When I talk, it is with power and I stop thinking for myself. I actually like that feeling. We learned a little more of Kaqchikel, but I will have to use it later. I want to write an email to kiana. I love you all. I will write to you next week. Adios!

And more from a personal email to me answering some of my questions:

Hi mom. We watched sunday sessions of conference and worked saturday. We will get the liahonas next month. I stayed a few days with the nurses in La Justo and feel better now. But some things that are terrible can be blessings. P days depend. Sometimes we stay in Comalapa, and other days like yesterday we go places. Yesterday we went to a campground to watch the elders play futbol. On normal days we wake up at 630 and have to be in by 9 at night. We have a water heater for the shower. Sometimes bits of dirt come through the showerhead, so I don´t know if I am ever really clean, but let´s hope so. I don´t know how we receive water, other than we pay the city for it. At night I am cold. It gets really cold here.

That´s funny buddy caught a bug for kiana. Hermano Juanito thinks I am skinny but I haven´t lost or gained any weight. If I did it is in my arms from the bus rides. Well, I have got to go. I will try getting more pictures to send when the time comes. The package came. I love you much. I haven´t baked anything new but I will let you know when I do. Adios. Love desty

And some additional information from a letter to her sister:
I actually didn´t have a baptism. We had some dates set for people, but they are unable to keep them. However, there will be a baptism on the 9 in La Justo! So I guess you can count it as a baptism for one of my investigators.