Hola familia (friends, neighbors, whoever reads this)

Hola familia (friends, neighbors, whoever reads this),
Thanks Ty for the postcard of the shipwreck. I love ships and was so excited to see that picture. I wish I could have gone. Thanks for all the letters too. I love letters because I get to see what others are doing. I love my mission but sometimes things are just the same day after day and letters are different. 

I have changes next week, and I am positive I will be changed. Hermana Ralphs, the new nurse, has to be trained as the nurse. This past week we didn´t have too much success- it was one of the harder weeks. We found a couple of new investigators but not many. We are helping **** prepare for baptism this week. We are hoping her baptism will be saturday, but we´ll see.

We have had some cool experiences. First, Sunday it rained very hard and we had rivers running down the street. We quickly became soaked from waist down from water splashing on us. The water was ankle deep in most places. Another experience that happened last week, we were walking toward some citas and it was sunny, but suddenly I noticed something a bit odd. Many children were running toward us, screaming. I looked past them and there was a curtain of rain steadily coming toward us. We had to quickly pull out our umbrellas. Another experience, for two nights in a row we had a chuchita (female dog) as a companion for a while. She walked with us while we knocked doors. Fourth thing, I held a chicken chick. A member brought the chicks out and placed them in our hands. It was kind of like holding a fluffy parakeet that doesn´t bite. Speaking of bites, the fleas are still getting to me, but soon they´ll be dead with permethrin. We lost 3 investigators this week because they didn´t want to come to church and didn´t want to hear more of the gospel message.

IT is cool hearing about all the misioneras that are going out soon from our ward. It is exciting. We really need more missionaries. Here in Central America there are many missionaries, but not all of the areas have missionaries and in the areas there are missionaries we cannot reach all the people. If only more people would know of the importance of missionary work.

I forgot to tell you about the buses, I think. The drivers try packing on lots of people in the buses so sometimes it is really packed. Some people call the buses here ´chicken buses´ because there´s barely any room, just like when chickens are transported. 

I am so grateful I am here even though there are many strange things about the country. I will write to you next week to let you know where I am. Be on the watch for my package. No hay una obra mayor que la obra misional. Cada persona en la iglesia tiene la responsibilidad a ser un misionero y invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo. Aun que la gente nos rechazan y ignoran las palabras que traimos, nuestra mensaje es verdadera porque no es nuestra mensaje, pero la mensaje de nuestro salvador, Jesucristo. Sigan adelante, mis amigos y familia, porque estoy aquí en Guatemala con el poder de Dios, y cuando yo regresa, voy a regresar con poder. Ojala pueden juntarse conmigo. Logren la verdad y vengan a Cristo. Testifico que estas cosas son partes de nuestro proposito en la tierra. Esta es la trabaja del Señor. I love you all. Farewell for now. Hermana Park

Some information from other emails Destinee sent today:

I will find out about changes next week. I probably will be the one leaving because Hermana Earl has to stay in the capital. My foot hasn´t been bothering me. It still hurts but it´s stronger and can withstand the pain. Hermana Earl just said that she could massage it for me, but I don´t want a foot massage.  

It has been rainy here. It´s also cold sometimes which isn´t good with the humidity. That way my clothes always feel slightly damp, but then with the cold, the dampness is more prominent. I have been out here for 3 months. I would probably forget if it wasn´t for people asking me often how long I have been out.

papusa--2nd email on 8-24-2010

Well, first, some facts:
They use military time here. It is a good thing I know how to read military time. They call each other by their first names here so we don´t know any last names. Guatemala is one of the only countries in Central america that use the tú form. Most countries here use vos and mexico and south america use tú, but Guatemala has adquired several things from mexico. I tried another drink that originated here in Guatemala. It is made of cornmeal, and is sweet. It isn´t too bad but it´s hard to drink much of it at first, like the atol and the horchata. Hot chocolate is another popular drink here (happy me). Toilet paper does not go down the toilet in most places here. It goes into the trash can instead. People here love chocolate covered pan dulce and fruit, especially bananas. On sundays, even members buy things, and sometimes even we have to take the bus and therefore pay, which seems really weird to me because it feels like I am breaking the sabbath. I tried a candy of Guatemala that is like a hard candy but it has a creamy chocolate in the center. It has been raining a lot lately. I also learned how to make another food, but one of Salvador, called a papusa. It is a thick corn tortilla but with beans, meat, and cheese inside. Then a cabbage mixture, kind of like saurkraut and carrots, is put on top of them with salsa. They are good.

That young women I mentioned has a baptismal date set, but we are not sure how ready she is for when so we´ll see if it´s before the change in 2 weeks. She has had a lot of problems in her life. I have never seen someone so young who has been through so much. I stopped having problems with bug bites and they´ve mostly faded, but my left foot has been hurting. It needs rest but as a missionary that is difficult to do. I don´t have time to rest so I just try making the weight on it minimal and walking on flatter ground. 

Elder Lontine probably is one of the only missionaries through which you could get pictures of me because he is one of the 2 missionaries in the zone or area that have known me from before at the CCM. But if not, you´ll hopefully get some soon. I have stayed about the same in weight. Last Pday we went to Antigua, a tourist spot, as a zone. The ruins there are cool, as well as the churches there and the cobblestone roads.

Scriptures 2 Nephi 16:6-7, part of the Isaiah chapters but talks about repentance. It is not easy to repent. All of us like Isaiah, are impure and we must be purged of sin. It is sometimes a painful process. I am going to write to kade now. I will send letters to others through envelope. Love you all. This is the Lord´s work for sure and things work out differently than expected, but everything is in His time. Adios.

The Vasquez--first email on 8-24-2010

The Vasquez is above my area, La Justo, and is pretty much the same. A division is about a week long, but this week it was only half of the day because of the training, so we didn´t have a full division. My latina companion I had for divisions was the same one I had in San Cristobal for the overnight thing.

I don´t think I will need a flea collar. There is a spray I can spray on my clothes, but I haven´t done it yet. I have been trying to eat enough bananas. Some of the Guatemalan dogs are scary looking, but the ones people have for pets and take care of are really cool. We still don´t pet them but when we are walking sometimes a big dog will come up and walk in front of us or by us to scare away other people. There´s are investigators we are teaching that have 4 dogs: a poodle, 2 other poodle-looking dogs, and the biggest german shepherd I have ever seen, which name is osa (bear in spanish). After that, I am not so scared of dogs here. I received the postcard. Thank you. I like it much. I´ll write another email. 

Adventures and patience.....

 Today we have a shorter time because we missed email with our district, which I will explain later. (Since Destinee's companion is the mission nurse, they travel around the mission for various reasons.  This week they had an incident that they needed to attend to that involved a bit of traveling.  I am editing that part out of the blog for sensitivity to those it involved.  Feel free to contact me privately if you feel a need to know)

Estoy aquí todavía tratando a comprender el español, which has actually been a little easier lately because this past week I have had a latina companion because of divisions. Sometimes it is difficult though because my companion forgets sometimes what language she´s speaking and doesn´t explain things. This week we worked half in the Vasquez and half in La Justo. I believe I received flea bites from the Vasquez. This past week from capacitación many of the trainers got sick, including Hermana Earl. 

Tell Brother Golding thanks for the picture and book. 

I tried making knudel this week and it turned out okay, but not like Ty´s. So for a spiritual thought, read Elder Uchtdorf´s talk in May 2010 about patience. He said that patience is a purifying process. I thought of how they purify silver. Bye. Love you.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Just a bit of information from letters to others:

 We are always doing something and never get any breaks really until p-day.  I met a lot of people this week and it´s kind of funny because in order to remember who they are I have to connect them with people back home. I have seen many cucarachas. Almost every house has one. It is so hot here sometimes I can feel the humidity through my clothes, but I can adapt to it.  Someone washes our clothes, another woman makes us lunch each day (our cook). They have a weird way of greeting people that I have to get used to because right now it´s really weird for me. They kiss each other on the cheek as a greeting. It doesn´t matter if you know the person or not. But only the women. The men and boys just shake hands

So I have the craziest mission ever. With my companion being a nurse, she is also like the AP of all that goes wrong. If someone is sick, or a change has to be made with the sisters, she´s in charge, whether it is mental or physical. It´s been quite a ride since I got on my mission. I have ridden in strange little vehicles- one was a bus but it was like a van without doors. The other one was like a golf cart. I have seen areas from Vista Hermosa to the center of the city, to La Justo where I am at, to Venezuela, to tribal, and to other parts of the city. It has been crazy. 

recipe for relleños, ant attack, and a golden investigator!

Well, here´s the letter i said i´d write. Last Pday was fun because we learned how to make relleños, which are made with platanos and frijoles. here are the steps, somewhat, if you want to try to make them. We first bought 6 platanos (not yellow, but not all black either), cut them up into fourths and boiled them in about 1 liter of water, not too much but enough to cook the platanos. With the black beans we used a really smooth mixture, like refried beans but more pureed, and mixed them with cinnamon. Then
1) peel and drain the platanos when they are soft, and mash them.
2) after they are mashed you can add sugar and flour to make the mixture more manageable.
3) the beans are cooked on a stove until they thicken
4) take the beans off heat, cool them by stirring, and add sugar
5) take platano mush and use the flour to make it into a palm-sized tortilla, place a little bit of the beans in it, roll up the beans to make a bun, and then fry it in vegetable oil.
6) sugar can be added on top.

They are kind of like a donut. One of our investigators reminds me of grandma park. She is so kind and says she knows she´s ready for baptism but doesn´t want to yet. We found another 2 families to teach. Wednesday we had an emergency division. A division is kind of like a split, like in The Errand of Angels, where the sister left for a week to go somewhere else, but this one was only for a day. A transfer, or change, happens every 6 weeks, well not always but usually. I will have a change at the end of the 6 weeks.

I went to San Cristobal. I´ve got to have one of the craziest missions here of the new missionaries because I am probably the only new missionary to have seen half of the city in less than 2 weeks. But everything´s better now and hopefully things have been resolved. In San Cristobal, I stopped in an anthill and was attacked. My legs received many more bites and afterwards were not happy. Ant bites hurt. I counted 24 but bites on my legs this week.

So as to last week´s question, Hermana Earl´s name is Jamie. As to scripture stuff this past week, I was reading in 2 Nephi 4:17-19. Nephi felt saddened but wanted to feel joy. He trusted in God. Scriptures like this help to make the scriptures more real and the prophets are not perfect.

About other investigators, there´s a girl about 14 or 15 years old who has had a tough background and has a messed-up family, but she´s what one would call a golden investigator because she called the missionaries and is ready and quick in keeping the compromisos. Her name is ****. I don´t know if I have mentioned ****, but her son Jorge started listening to us. She prefers to speak in English, but her son only understands Spanish so we taught in Spanish and made the lesson fun for him. We talked to a recent member today and she collects ducks from different countries here in Central America. It reminded me of Dad.

The days all seem much the same- much walking. This week is another division because the trainers have meetings so half of each day from tuesday to friday I will have a different companion and we will be covering both La Justo and the Vasquez. I tried a couple new things: Pan dulce, a sweet bread that is popular here, and chocopan, which is chocolate covered pan dulce. They are both really good. There are a lot of different breads here. Well, I will write more later. I love you all much and hope you´re doing well. Love hermana Destinee Park

A little bit of what it is like......

About her companion:  I haven´t found out her full name yet. And I can´t remember where she´s from but she said she´s about an hour away from orem. She´s been out 15 months, so she´ll go home in October. She has to check on missionaries who get sick... basically what normal nurses do, but for missionaries.

About her area:  My area has a lot of houses. The people are really friendly, I haven´t been chased by dogs, but there are a lot. The houses look pretty much the same- kind of like adobe and brick buildings of pink, white, yellow, blue, well almost any color. All of them are kind of dirty. The apartment is on a second level, our kitchen is outside, though covered, and the washing sink is outside as well. Everything is open- meaning there are no doors. There is something that walks on our roof sometimes, I think it´s a cat. The stove is a gas stove so I don´t know how to use it.

About shopping and food:  Shopping was weird, but we bought cornflakes and granola, cheese and ham, bread, honey (yum)... We didn´t buy fruits or eggs because they are better to get at outside markets, or rather they probably are only available there. Hermana Earl cooks all of the hot meals at our apartment, but we don´t have to cook cereal :). For lunches we usually go to the Nolasco´s because Hermana Nolasco is our cook. We´ve had some interesting things- nothing gross though, well, almost. Yesterday I tried atol and I am not a fan. It´s a sweet drink, but it´s made with oatmeal, so it was like drinking oatmeal. But for lunch last week we had a soup made with potatoes, rice, chicken broth, and platanos. I love the platanos (you´ll probably hear this much). We get to learn how to make some deserts with platanos this week.

About those she is teaching:  There are some of the people we teach that I can´t remember well or I haven´t understood a thing they say, but there are other families that I think are awesome. Last night we taught a family. Everyone in the family is a member of the church except the father, Roberto. The family has a great spirit of love. Roberto seems like he is ready but isn´t ready to take the step to be baptized. We also have a couple of other people that would be ready to be baptized if not for the smaller things. There´s Jessica, who keeps all her commitments but doesn´t come to Church. And then there´s Edna (she talks to us in English), who seems quite ready because she wants to be better, but she also hasn´t gone often to church and everytime the missionaries go to her house she talks a lot so the lesson is never finished. She has a son named Jorge, who is 9 years old and he hasn´t listened to any of the discussions because he just doesn´t want to listen, but when they went to church he really liked it. Our focus right now is how to involve him. Then there is Ana Maria, and the first night I entered her house, I looked around and thought, "This place looks very familiar". She and her husband remind me of Grandma and Grandpa Park. Her husband is a member, and she seems really ready to be baptized, but she still has some fears. 

How she is feeling overall:  Yesterday morning I felt homesick for the first time and was really sad, but I kept reading scriptures. I still bore my testimony in Church because I had been challenged last week to do it. For the first time I cried during the testimony because I was so uncomfortable and sad. But after sacrament meeting I started feeling better and by the end of the night I was happy again. It´s only mornings that are difficult for me. Nights are easy. The bishop of our ward is cool. He makes sure everyone feels welcome. We also have a teacher of the CCM that moved into our ward. His family is counted as less active though. I am learning so much. 

I'm in La Justo! and I never want to eat at McDonalds again.....

Pues... I get to write again because I´m in a new area. We get an hour to write here: 45 minutes for family and 15 minutes for the President. 

Yesterday was busy and a big change for me. I am still in a dream-like state from it all. Yesterday we left a bit after 8 am. Right before we left, I started playing hymns on the piano and then everyone started coming in. Then they wanted to sing. I played, and they sang, "Para Siempre Dios esté con Vos", which was a pretty cool experience. President Baldwin and wife came to pick us up- us that are in the Central mission- and all of us 5 girls rode with them to the mission home. At the mission home we had some meetings, took pictures, and had some free time, and had interviews with the president. Then a bit later we went to eat. It was the first time I have eaten mcdonalds food and I never want to eat there again. Then a while after that we went to the mission office and met our companions.

My new companion is Hermana Earl. She is from Utah, is 24 years old, and is a nurse. She´s also the mission nurse of our mission. My area right now is La Justo, within Guatemala City area. We took a taxi to get to the apartment and the taxi driver drove fast and crazy, but got us there safely. We left a Book of Mormon with him. Our apartment is on a second level- basically all the houses are placed together so that houses are stacked. It´s not the cleanest place, but it´s not too bad. Our sink is outside for the kitchen and the stove is a gas stove... I need to figure out how to use it. 

It rained a lot last night and my feet got soaked. There were rivers down the street, but we went out to teach and meet people nonetheless and it was a fun experience. I couldn´t understand hardly anything and the only thing I could share all night long was my testimony. I felt bad for Hermana Earl because she had to do all the talking. 

Somethings are really different here. In the CCM my district had high standards and we had rules that we followed with exactitud. Here Hermana Earl says we really need to follow the rules with exactness but sometimes that´s hard to do. Last night we were supposed to be in at 9 but were not in until 9:30 because we were eating at the Bishop´s house. They served us beef (with a lot of fat), rice, and lechuga. The lettuce has to be washed a special way, but luckily the bishop´s wife knew how to prepare it. I figure whatever Hermana Earl eats is okay for me to eat because she knows what things can or can´t be eaten. 
 
We had a district meeting today, which will usually be on Monday or Tuesday... I can´t remember which, but that day we also have email and pday. I get to learn how to shop today because there´s not much food at our apartment. For the district meeting, first we had a zone meeting. Elder Lontine´s in my zone! I don´t feel so... I can´t think of the word in english- like being the outcast or misfit? But I know I have a friend nearby. He said he´s doing well and last night he got soaked because it was raining a bunch and he didn´t have a jacket or umbrella. 

Hm... What else can I say to you all? Do you have any questions for me? There aren´t too many bugs that I have seen yet. I haven´t had problems with fleas.

Yo sé que el Señor me ayudará en cualquier cosa y es posible para preserverar hasta el fin. Hay personas que están listos para escuchar el mensaje del Señor. Hasta la proxima semana, Love Hermana Destinee Park

 

President and Sister Baldwin

D034D585-5259-E93B-CCEB-BD7D4C1EB62B

1.02.28

Destinee's last email from the CCM

Hey. We get to write today because we are leaving tomorrow at 8 am. We said goodbye to everyone else today. It was really sad because I have made so many friends from this group. I had many of them sign my librito so I can keep in contact with them after the mission and took lots of pictures at the temple on Sunday. I will sometime send the card home with a list of everything and who´s who. I received the card today and was so excited to see the puppy. He´s adorable. Is he just cocker or a mix? I didn´t get the chance to read the card yet though. The day after last pday we went as a district and sang "I need thee every hour" to the other district. It was a really spiritual experience. Our district has become like a family but today it was no more really because Hermana Pond left. Now Hermana Moeai is my companion again. This weekend we baptized many people. The two APs were baptized and 4 other elders from the new North Americans. We have some sisters that will be baptized this week (ha ha). It´s fun teaching here but I am excited to teach in the real world. I took pictures of our fake investigators too, which you´ll see later too. It´s weird but the elders in our district remind me of Kade. Each has some characteristic like Kade. By the way, I believe you have it but the webpage for the CCM is www.guatemalaccm.com. I love it here and I am excited. I hope all is going well for you at home. I am sorry I don´t have much time this week to write, at least here, but I will send you more when I find out where the next step of the mission takes me. I love you all much. I have seen so much progression with everyone in my district that I have no doubt that the gospel changes lives. This is truly the work of God. I will leave you with a poem that President Steimle shared with us: Don´t set low goals. They have no magic to stir mens´souls. Buena Suerte in all things. Love Hermana Park.

I cannot help people if I don´t understand what their needs are 7-21-10

It sounds like a busy week for you and a very hot one. I am glad it never gets that hot here. It is strange how long Kade´s illness was. So it is the last week and I started cleaning up some things. We went to the Centro yesterday again to contact. Also we have been teaching many lessons (usually 3 or 4 each day) to the other missionaries here. It is interesting how real some of them seem. It gives me a lot of practice and makes me more excited to go out into the field and teach people, but I still have trouble understanding the language. It is the hardest thing sometimes because I cannot help people if I don´t understand what their needs are. Also yesterday in the Centro, the mother of a family we talked to kind of made fun of me for not being able to understand the language, and here if you don´t understand the language you don´t know how to speak it and whatsoever is said is as if it wasn´t said in Spanish at all. 

On a positive note, we get to go to the temple later today, which is a great thing because it has been closed for the past couple of weeks. Oh yeah, our dearelder letters always come the day after pday.

Sunday was quite interesting. It was normal of course but I had some cool things happen later on in the day. We had a devotional and movie. Before the devotional 2 of the elders rode on one of the machines, I think it´s called an elliptical? But they looked like rabbits and it was hilarious. I really wished I had my camera that night. We watched a Book of Mormon documentary which talked about the evidences here that the Nephites lived in this area. There was a time when the movie mentioned Christ´s visit to the Nephites, and then I remembered something from earlier on when I was reading in 3 Nephi about that experience. I remember how I had some sort of a daydream or imagination or something and pictured myself there, watching all of the Nephites being invited unto Christ. Then Christ invited me to go forward and feel the marks in His hands. Then it hit me that I am here where that took place. That now, not only through a vision, but in actuality, I have been invited by Christ through a prophet to come here where Christ once stood. To me, it felt as if I had been invited again. During the devotional, Elder Hatch told us that we need to have a high goal with baptizing because anything is possible. So I guess we´ll see about that.

We have a new rule that if we don´t arrive on time to class we have to roll a dice and the number determines our punishment. Well, not too long after we had that rule we were late to class. Hermana Pond rolled and her punishment was that she couldn´t have ice cream that day. Before I rolled I prayed that I would get the number that would benefit me most. Then I rolled and my punishment was that I had to sing the hymn solo. So we chose the shortest hymn and I sang it. It wasn´t too fun, but wasn´t terrible. Afterward I wondered why that punishment and then felt impressed to turn to DyC 25. Part of this section talks about being humble. The day before I had been studying how to be more humble, so I guess all worked out for my good. I truly did feel humble afterwards. I am grateful I am here and there is nothing I would rather do. I don´t know if I will even want to come home after all is done, ha ha.

I think also that if it is possible that (someone we know) is putting in (their) papers for a mission, that hopefully (someone else we know) will come to the point where he knows that he has a testimony and will have the desire to serve as well. This is truly the work of the Lord. I don´t have full control about my outcome here but I know that with the Lord, I can do all things. God loves all people and wants his children to come here and help bring people to him. This is something I wouldn´t trade for anything. Jesus Christ lives. The Book of Mormon is true. I love you all and hope you have a great week to come. Kade and I probably need your prayers more than anything at this moment. Have fun. Love Hermana Destinee Park.