Scorpions, Baptisms, and giving a talk

Last Tuesday we watched a movie as zones villa Nueva and Villa Hermosa (these two are not part of the capital), which was The Other Side of Heaven. 

(A family) had problems this day and the oldest daughter came to find us. She told us of how her step mom (she´s only daughter of the father) had been beating the second oldest daughter. (A child), of 8 years, ran to bring the police. We couldn´t go and do anything, we told her. Then later when we saw her again with her dad and two of her brothers, they told us of how this mom had caused problems before. They told us of how a cousin had violated the oldest son, who is 11 years old, and how the mom told her son to lie about the experience to the police. Oh, the ugly things we hear. Each day I see those little children, I wish there was some way I could help them, yet there is nothing really. They see us as a type of relief from their home life and when we visit them they are excited we are there. It is sad to see these things. 

Tuesday also, Hermana Elvir found a scorpion by my bed and sealed it in a box. Later we found a jar to put it in. It lived without oxygen for several days. Sunday the jar rolled off the table and broke, and the scorpion ran outside. Then Hermana Elvir killed it. 

March 26, Saturday, Maricella was baptized. 

baptism of Mari. Eduardo, mission leader baptized her. He has 22 years also, and his bday is 16 days earlier than mine. He has a twin. They served in Honduras and Nicaragua.

I gave a talk Sunday. I planned one talk on being a master teacher- like a teacher instead of just a missionary, but gave another talk about faith. I astonished many in the ward because they didn´t think I could speak spanish, but I guess I spoke well Sunday.

Anyway, not much else has happened. It´s been a boring week really. There hasn´t happened anything about the mareros either. I´ll send pics now. Oh, we have divisions this week and I will be going back to San Cristobal for a day. And this morning in district meeting I gave the prayer in kaqchikel. 

I love you. Have a great week, and don´t forget about me and kade too much. We are still living, I promise. 

And send my greetings to Grandma and Grandpa and cousins and aunts and uncles and ward members.... Speaking of which, if there is time I will write something for the primary. Love Desty 

And some other tidbits from the reply to my email:

The funny thing about the foods is that they are made with things that are normal to us, but are more expensive. For example, platanos, beans, flour of corn. But they are fun to make and have a bit of a difference than what we are used to. Hermana Elvir showed me how to make tortillas easier. 

food we made, with fry bread, mango, avocado, fried yucca, and refried beans

Steven (last week's Baptism) is only 17 years old but he is already looking to the future and saying how he´s going to go on a mission, marry a return missionary, and all of his children and grandchildren will be members. It is cool to see how the gospel has effect on people.

Baptism...

Journal Entry

March 14, 2011

district meeting, internet to write family, lunch. We taught four lessons. The family Reyes´ kids were less crazy tonight. We found a new investigator. When we were teaching Steven Juarez we asked him when he wanted to be baptized and he told us this saturnday. Now hopefully everything will work out because he´s only been attending Barrio Petapa and not our ward. We taught about the word of wisdom and then Hermana Elvir asked if there were any of the five things (tea, tobacco, coffee, drugs, or alcohol) with which he had a problem. ´´Sí,´´ he said solemnly, ´´con fumar tobacco...´´. Then he apologized to him mom, and my heart sank. ´´Nah, es una mentira,´´ he added laughing. I felt relieved and his mom stood up to smack him with the pamphlets she had in here hand.

I learned how to make a food from honduras called Baleadas. It is basically like a fajita but instead of the filling fajitas have, one only puts avocado, egg, sour creme, and red beans. They are good when everything is homemade. Thursday we had a zone conference with Elder Falabella, in which was discussed:

1) Obedience is intelligence because someone more intelligent than us asks us to obey.

2) Willing and able missionaries are better leaders. ´´Almost all men can handle adversity, but if you want to test the character of man... give him power.´´ Abraham Lincoln

3) We need to form habits that will last a lifetime such as write down goals and the actions to take, and then the results; smile; try several solutions for one problem; lose fear to talk with others; Study with your comp, and listen.

 

Other than this this past week... Steven was actually baptized. I´ll send photos. The baptism service was really spiritual. We found 5 families this week. 3 is the goal of the mission, 4 for our personal goal, and 5 found. Yeah! Well, now the photos.

 

 

Love you all, and hope your week isn´t too boring. I know the church is true and that Joseph Smith really was called as the prophet to begin this last dispensation. I know that God protects us and watches over us, and that faith and works bring miracles. With Love, Destinee

 

stilos in Amatitlan

From the Guatemala City Central Mission blog

A sisters' lunch and a craft activity they can teach in
young womens and relief society in their wards.

The finished product - beautiful scarves!
A quick and easy project - thank you Hnas.
Lozano and Ralphs for teaching us this craft!

Everyone was talking about the earthquake and the tidal wave it caused. They said all of us in central america would be affected by the after effects but we only had a small tremor and nothing afterward. It was funny because we were studying and at 830 am everything began to shake. Hermana Elvir said ´´hermana, it´s shaking´´ but in Spanish. She was afraid, but I looked at the floor, felt the trembling, and then said, ´´sí´´.  It didn´t feel like hardly anything. We have colder weather due to it. 

So, Martes... um, Tuesday, we climbed a mountain in Amatitlan, saw the lake from a good distance, and saw fake ruins. Wednesday we taught one of the investigators, Steven, about the law of chastity and challenged him to keep it. He then and there took our an earring he was wearing (he hasn´t put it back in since) although he said it was important to him. We brought papusas, popcorn, and cocacola to the Family Reyes in the night and they were very excited because they usually don´t have dinner.

And from her journal:

Journal entry of Saturday:

March 12, 2011

This afternoon the zone leaders accompanied us for 2 hours. In the two hours we had one appointment and it lasted for about 1 hour. Nevertheless, it was a good lesson. At 5 we had to arrive at the church to fill the baptismal font. At 6:30 pm we had the baptismal services for Yoselin (18) and Manuel (9)... After, we went to the house of the Family reyes and I helped Teresa and Paula, the two oldest daughters, with English homework. This was fun.

As we were returning home, Hermana Elvir began walking slower and after a minute or so said (whispered), ´´Hermana, ellos son mareros´´, meaning a group of men that was walking in front of us. Even though I thought of how I should be afraid, I felt at peace an the thought came to my mind, ´God can easily smaite man, but I know I´ll never see a man who can smite God.´

Well, that´s all of the journal entry. Not too much more happened this past week because it went by so fast. We have a few other baptisms on the way, so I believe I will be writing more about that. Maybe we´ll have a month of snow? I hope so. We only have a small problem with having one of the families baptized. Well, a big problem: they aren´t married and cannot be married until the hermano divorces with his ex-wife, which will cost time and money, and they do not have money... What can we do? Well, we will trust in the Lord that things will work out. I am going to send photos of this past week, so you can look for that. Love you all, and know that I am doing well. I am happy, and tired, and ready to ´´rock the socks off in Guatemala´´ as Noel (from work) would say. Thank you all for your support.

Hermana Destinee Park

Cinemark!!!

The lake Amatitlan

Walking across a bridge into the park

Zona villa Nueva (most of it)

Baptism

Baptism

The fake Ruins

Walking up the mountain and the lake from a distance

I just have to share

One of the moms of a missionary in Destinee's mission passed the following on to me this week from her missionary::

"Also Sister Park is in my district and you can tell her mother that she is doing amazing there because a lot of things changed when she got there and they are having a lot of success."

Proud missionary mom moment!  I love these moms who are so willing to share with each other.  For anyone who has a missionary out, there is no better suggestion I can give you than to be sure to join the missionary moms lists! http://www.ldsmissionarymoms.com/

To begin with, one day as we were leaving from the colony a guard called out ´´good night´´, but it was morning so I talked to him and told him what it means. He replied, ´´yo sé, pero él (pointing to another guard) no sabe Inglés. Estoy enseñandole como hablar inglés.´´

Saturday was scary. While in a lesson, and halfway through it we heard noises outside and people began screaming, especially a man. The woman we were teaching jumped up and said ´´they killed a baby´´. As she began to leave the house to see what had happened (this took place right outside the house) Steven, her 17 year old son, forbid her. Then Hermana Elvir and the member that was with us went to the window to look and Steven yelled at them to get away from the window (the both being females) and then he left to look. The baby wasn´t killed. The car just came really really close to killing it, and the father had began to panick. For this lesson we had arrived late. If we had arrived on time we would have been leaving by the time the car had lost control. Other blessings this week:

March 6, 2011 (journal entry)
Today I witnessed great miracles. 10 investigators attended church in our ward and 1 of them, making the 11th, attended in the Petapa ward. Of these 11 investigators there was a family that attended. Later as we visited and taught this family they said they´d like to be baptized. This week we found 11 investigators and four families. I feel exceedingly blessed. It seems that those investigators that progress have many difficulties. Lately I´ve related my experiences to gospel principles.

1) In a testimony meeting once, an elder leaving stood to bear his testimony. He said, ´´I am hungry.´´ Although physical hunger is uncomfortable it´s important that we always hunger spiritually. Says Enos, ´´And my soul hungered.´´

2) While riding on a bus to Antigua I was on the last step and had to hold tightly with one hand on the rail so that I didn´t fly out. In Lehi´s dream he saw a rod that led to Christ. Those that let go of the rod were flung to the depths of darkness. If we don´t hold tight we too will fly into darkness.

3) At the beginning of my mission I heard of an elder that had been electrocuted. He had been outside of the house where a cable was hanging. This reminds me that we should always stand in holy places without the sort of dangers that can harm us.

4) Once my companion and I were locked within the gates of the stake center in Chimaltenango. We had looked for a way out and found no visible solution. Finally I decided to pray. After praying, a man passed by and came to our rescue with ladders, and helped us escape. From this experience I learned how powerful prayer was and how important it is that we have faith.

Well, that is all about this past week. I have never been so happy and yet so tired. It seems that I go to sleep and then very quickly morning comes, but even with this and with running to nearly every place, I have sufficient strength to help me continue forward. Tomorrow we will be going to Amatitlan, so I will tell you next week how that goes.

I love you all and hope the week goes well. I know this church is the true and living church, living in that we receive modern revelation by a prophet of God. Rinwetaman chi re ri kajol ri ajaw nukolonel chuqa k´es. El Libro de Mormón es llenado con las palabras de profetas de antiguedad y de Dios. Tell everyone hi for me.
Love desty