CCM Hermanas

CCM Hermanas

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Cambios!!!

This weeks title comes from Hna W herself! Apparently there are some changes happening this week. Fabulous. For the format of today's letter....I asked her a bunch of questions and she was happy to answer. Please let me know if there is something you would like to know more about. Honestly I think it helps her come up with things to write!

This is a new week and we have gotten the call the tomorrow at the transfer meeting I will be going somewhere new! Who knows where, but I'm sure it'll be where the Lord needs me!
 
Just a quick recap of the week before I get to the question and answer section.
 
-Two of our investigators turned out to be members. That was weird. We even asked one of them if she was a member and she said no, but then she said she was baptized and sealed in the temple. So... that's a weird thing.
 
-We had to go all the way to the Capitol just for me to sign some visa papers yesterday. We lost a ton of pday time and I have so much left to pack! Eek!
 
-L was baptized!!!! She has yet to be confirmed, but she was baptized! How fantastic :) We are all super super super happy for her!
 
That's the highlights of it all. Tomorrow Hna. Garcia goes home to Ecuador, Hna. Brower stays in our area and gets to welcome a new trainer and I get a new trainer and a new to me area!

Questions:
Why are you in a triple? Is it because there are too many new sisters? Because of the language barrier? Culturally appropriate?
Because a lot of new sisters came in at once and they didn't have enough trainers. I think pretty much most of the trios are being broken up now though for our second 6 week part of training
*Are you in an area that celebrates dia de los muertos? If so, what are the celebrations like? If not, what kind of holidays are local? And what do they look like?
Holidays we haven't really seen. There was Dia de NiƱos, but i'm not really sure about other days. There is one day where we saw a bunch of catholic tradition stuff with flower petals in the street and bread and candles. That was kinda cool and smelled pretty good! Apparently there is a holiday here in december when they burn all of their garbage to ward off spirits. My lungs are really excited.
*Lynda really wants to know about the weavings. Apparently it's a thing. She wants to know if you have seen anyone doing theweavings, if this is for local use or just tourist stuff, if they use wool or cotton (or other), what kind of plants etc do they use for dyes, are all the looms straight? Essentially anything you can learn about the weavings of Guatemalan natives. And she's aware that this will probably take a bit of research and conversation!
Umm... It's really only for tourists where I'm at. And I don't know that anyone has this hobby, but I'll keep my eye out for more info.
*What do you normally eat? Cereal for breakfast? Tortillas with every meal? Why does your fridge smell like bananas? What about the produce...exotic or do you see stuff that you recognize like broccoli?
Cereal for breakfast, chicken or another type of meat in a sauce with rice and tons of tortillas on the side. and for dinner, nothing. We just eat cookies until we get in the house at night and eat around 10 pm. Pretty much the same, just a few new fruits I've never had. I'm loving a fruit called jocotes (see below) right now. So good. We always see the pits in the streets. We buy bananas and never eat them but my comp doesn't want to take them out of the fridge until garbage day cause they'll go bad, but we always forget. They've been in the fridge for about 2 months now.
*Speaking of meals, how do the locals eat...like 2 big meals or 5 small ones. Do families eat together around a central table or are they all broken up at different times and places? Do they have individual plates or eat from a communal bowl?
Individual plates, breakfast, lunch and dinner and lunch is the big meal. It depends on the family if they're going to eat together or not.
*What kinds of games to people play with their children?
I dunno. I don't really see parents playing with their children. I've seen a lot of people playing marbles in the streets, and soccer. But that's about it.
*Are people fashionable?
Not really. You'll see a few people that are pretty fashion, but for the most part, no.
*Are there tall people?
Some, not many. I'm taller than pretty much everyone.
*What does your foliage look like? I doubt you are seeing the wildly vibrant fall colors like I am, but are you surrounded by lush greenery or is it barren because it's city?
Pretty green. Trees, bushes, ivy, the likes.
*Animals...what do you see everyday? Big giant rats? Lots of deer? Capybara roaming the streets?
Lots of stray dogs. Some cats. I think a lady by the park has a pet raccoon.

Just going to add a couple pictures of the baptism and other things and that's all!


Does this look like Taco Bell to you??

 
 


I'm sorry folks...I cannot get the pictures any larger.

Those who are interested, like me, in what a jocote is....click here. I'm thinking I need to try one, or two.

 There is Sunshine In My Soul Today!

 

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Smiles, Duckface and Burgers...

Without further ado....

Not going to write much this week, because I have pictures! Tons and tons of pictures.
 
We had a good week. Nothing really strange happened. We went shopping yesterday for pday and spent tons of time in the mall. It was awesome!
 
Also, I ate my first McDonald's hamburger in over 10 years. Yeah. It was a milestone. There's a picture of that. You're welcome.
 
We're preaching the gospel and for the most part, people are listening! We have a baptism this Saturday of L (female). She's really excited and we're excited for her! I'm so glad that their child will be born into the church! What a great way to give that kid a good start! On the foundation of Christ :)
 
This week I held a duck, hit my 1 month in the field mark, shook hands with a guy who obvious was covered with blood and drugs, was mistaken for a latina, got a ton of letters(!!!), and was close to the shooting of two young men. That was really sad. But, the work is moving on and we're moving with it :)
 
Picture time!!

Doing the Work:
 




Having Fun:

 
Word has it....Hermana W and her companion Hermana Brower get along quite well. I guess so, if these pictures are an example.


 

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Zucaritas, Claro, and Humidity

I just LOVE Tuesdays!! Don't you?


Hello Family!
 
We're almost 4 weeks in the field, which puts me at more than 2 months in Guatemala! Time flies when you're having fun! scratch that- time flies when you're working your flipping butt off! haha, but it's good :)

Weirdest thing I've eaten: Once upon a time last pday, I made mac and cheese. My companions think I'm a fantastic cook because of it! (what can i say?) Well, we put the mac and cheese in the fridge and after a week it absorbed all of the banana flavors of the fridge. That was really nasty.

I found chocolate frosted flakes at the grocery store. They have marshmallows too. In spanish they're called "zucaritas" which literally means "little sugars". So I ate them. We're still waiting to find out if I got diabetes from it.
 
Weirdest thing that's happened: We were doing contacting with a member and she brought a friend of her's over to me and said "i'd like you to meet my missionary friend" (she didn't say my name cause I guess it's like impossible or something in spanish. ugh) then he said hello and i asked him if he was a member. he said no and then i said "pues, podemos cambiar esto..." and he said "claro!" and proceeded to give me his address. Some people are just prepared by the Lord :)

La Obra Missional: Super good stuff! We contacted 414 people this week and 109 families. Wooh!

Update on Abuelita. Well, this week we found out the the family who was taking care of her told her that if she got baptized that the bishop would pay for her to live in an old folk's home. That was the most tragic 45 minutes of my mission so far. Pobrecita :( We're still going to visit her, but hopefully this time she can get baptized for the right reasons.

Shadow, Candy and Candy's boyfriend Ricky! We met all of them the other night and that was an awesome lesson! They were all paying attention and answering questions and none of them was left out. Plus, Candy and Ricky have been dating for almost 4 years and are so cute together :) That's pretty darn rare around here! We can only visit them on sundays, so that's a bummer, but they have potential!

L and L are married! Sweetest thing ever! They're really sweet and show a lot of affection towards each other. I doubt that he only married her for free english classes. She'll be baptized this Saturday and we're hoping that he can baptize her :) that would be really cool! Fingers crossed!

One more family: The Family Newton. Sweet people. I think they have 5 boys or something. The 2nd oldest was baptized the week after I got here. He's lost a little of his animo in the past week. His dad keeps drinking and lying about it, but you can find him hobbling down the streets every hour of the day. It's depressing. We're going to visit them with the bishop tomorrow and hopefully that helps him turn his life around and get his family back to church!!

Well, that's all I got for you! Love you all lots and hope that you're having a blast in the fall weather! It's 70 degrees every day. Then 80 in the afternoon. Of course it's humid, so it feels worse than that. If we're lucky, the temp drops down to 60s in the night! It doesn't feel like fall! But at least it's not raining much any more :)

 Talk to you next week!

Love,
Hermana Weatherford

 

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

CIA, contacts, and scary tshirts

Hello!
 
Another week has past by and I am still alive. Countin' my blessings. I don't think this email will be as long or nearly as interesting as the last, but if you're reading it, I don't think you'll mind.
 
Weirdest thing I've eaten: Mole. But it was way good. We helped a member in our ward make it yesterday for pday and it was fantastic! But I'm pretty sure she used water from the tap at one point.... Later that night I had a stomach ache. But it was worth it.
 
Weirdest thing that's happened: I went to contact this little old man in the street. Hna Brower went with me and just as we were introducing ourselves he interrupted us and said "I already know all about your church" (in english. fancy that.) He then proceeded to list off BOM prophets. So we just decided to testify and leave it at that, not to get into an argument. As we said good night and began to turn away, he looked at us and whispered "Ustedes son de cia?" We were confused to say the least. Then he said "C-I-A?" This little old man thought we were gringa spies sent to infiltrate Guatemala! We said no, and walked away laughing under our breath.
 
La obra misional: Things are going pretty well. We had divisions with a sister training leader this week and she set some goals for us. We now contact 20 people a day and 5 families (per hermana in our companionship). At first it was a little difficult, but it's turned out to be just fine. I think I'll be upping my goal soon.
 
One of our investigators (we'll call her Sir) told us that she thought everyone thought they had the truth and were right. It was sad as she shut down even our committments to pray with an open heart. That's all we asked and she said no, cause she'd already found Jesus. Well, after 3 visits, we say goodbye to Sir and hope that some other missionaries to visit her later.
 
The young couple we are visiting has decided to get married! The girl (her name shall be L) is 4.5 months pregnant and has wanted to get married for some time. Her boyfriend (also L) has agreed and they'll be getting married soon :) Only problem: we found out recently that L (male) only wants to get married to L (female) because there's a program that he qualifies for after marriage that allows him to learn english in 4 months. GRR. ...well, i have faith that if they do the right thing first and get married, the Lord will later give him the desire to do it for the right reason.
 
A couple weeks ago we found the cutest little old lady. We call her Abuelita. She can't hear to save her LIFE. Or see. It's made teaching her be a shouting match. My trainer said that we should try to use only simple clear words. Lucky me, I only know simple and clear words in spanish!! :D This sweet little old lady always wears a cardigan and a graphic tee. One day it was spongebob, the other day it was high school musical.
 
---Side note: Tons of people wear shirts with English on it and don't know what it means. I've seen baaaaaaad shirts. Ones that you should talk to your bishop about. And also some pretty funny ones. Yesterday we saw a man wearing a random girl's softball team shirt.
 
Spotlight on one more investigator: We'll call her Shadow. Shadow is the girl who I contacted after the tragic incident of September 2013 (reference earlier email to clarify). She's super sweet and has the cutest little baby girl ever. She lives with her mom (who speaks english. not that many people speak english, i swear.) and her sister. We're going to call her sister Candy. Now Candy is gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous. And outgoing and nice and charismatic. She's so great that she's everyone's favorite. Even her mother. We went to teach Shadow and all her mother could do was talk about Candy. Until Candy arrived. And then she talked more about Candy. Poor little Shadow. Thus, we call her Shadow, because she is always in the shadow of her sister. Well, we went to talk to them 2 days ago for our appointment and Shadow said her sister wouldn't turn off the TV and when she asked, she still wouldn't turn it off. Then we set another date and as we left, her mother said "Somos evangelicas. No queremos escuchar su mensaje." That was weird. We're going to keep going back, but it's going to be hard to get Shadow away from her family who wants to control her.
 
Just a tid bit about General Conference: I hope you all watched it, cause as I heard things, I thought of you all specifically. I heard things that I know the apostles were inspired to say for your benefit. If you didn't get to watch or listen to it, I encourage you to please, please, please PLEASE take the time out and listen to the words of our Heavenly Father through His prophet and apostles. I promise that if you listen attently, you will find answers to the questions you didn't even know you had and you will leave a better, wiser person more ready to face the troubles of the world. Take my word for it, watch General Conference.
 
Well, that's it for this week. I have written a novel, and hopefully you'll all be done reading it by next week ;) Love you all lots and lots!
 
Hermana Weatherford
 
The missionaries are encouraged to share stories of the investigators that they meet with so that friends and family can pray for those people specificially. Some missionaries use names like Julie or Jose, some use initials and Teigen uses codes! This is going to be interesting!
 
Those who are interested...you can find General Conference online at www.lds.org. There were some amazing talks. Personally, I loved Saturday morning President Uchtdorf and Sunday afternoon Elder Vinson and ALWAYS Elder Holland (Saturday afternoon). I add my voice to her testimony...it was uplifting and so inspiring!
 
We Thank Thee for a Prophet
 
 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Mollejas, Slang, & Samuel the Lamanite

Without further ado:

Didn't get to write last week, that was a real bummer. But fun story- i'm alive!! Things are crazy different here. The culture, the food, the work. I love it all.

Weirdest thing I've eaten: Mollejas. People keep calling them mollejitas, but i'd like to say that they were definitely mollejotas. They're chicken stomachs for those of you who have not had the pleasure of eating them. THEY'RE DISGUSTING. Truth.

Weirdest thing that's happened to me: We were walking down the street and a guy on a motorcycle did a drive by butt grab. I think that's probably the most violating experience of my life. Yep.

Cool thing that happened afterward: I was busy complaining about how I wanted to go home (not really, but close.) when a woman walked by and I felt like I should contact her. So I did and she said she didn't know her address (not unusual) so I told her where the church was and said goodbye. A few minutes later she came back down the street to where we were and said she had found out her address and we set up and appointment right there. When we went to visit her this week we found out she is sooooo prepared. She has tons of questions and I am so excited for our next appointment. Moral of the story: whenever it rains, you know a rainbow is around the corner.

About my comps: I am companions with one of my best friends from the CCM, Hermana Brower and our trainer is Hermana Garcia. She's from Ecuador and thank the stars above, her spanish is clear and perfect. Hallelujah. We have such good times! We're supposed to teach our latina companions english, but all we've taught her so far is "what's a girl to do?" "swag" "too legit to quit" and various other slang. It's the best. she already knows "ain't nobody got time fo dat" and "what the heck" and "ewww". So, she's basically fluent in english.

My area: We're in El Lago in Amititlan. It's hot, but not as hot as the coast. And we baptize TONS here. Our goal for October is 9. The mission rule is 3 per month. The people here are super receptive to the gospel and out of all our contacts each day, we get tons of addresses. It's fantastic! The only thing I don't really like is the drunks (here they're called bolos) and the creepies. People think I'm latina, so I get hit on a lot. Like a lot, a lot. It freaks me out, but I have my pepper spray with me always!

Something I like: Here when we ride buses it's a rule that we have to contact them. So in order to do that you ask the bus driver to turn down the music and stand at the front and preach. It's BOSS. I'm so bad at it, but when I do it I feel like Samuel the Lamanite crying repentance unto the people. The only problem is that ever since I've gotten here I've lost all sense of balance. I can barely kneel for prayers. It's bad. So when I'm on the bus I hang on for dear life and hope my skirt doesn't come up. It's SO FUN. But I have received many the bruise from being slammed into a bench or worse, a bar.

Something I don't like: Cucarachas. There are more than I'm comfortable with. During a lesson yesterday, one flew onto my comp's backpack and I literally jumped onto the couch. They all had a good laugh at the gringa who's afraid of cucarachas. Tons of ants too, but not many spiders though, which is good.

We had 2 baptisms on Sunday and that was so so so so good. There was a 15 year old boy and an 8 year old boy. They both were so excited to be baptized and come from families that don't exactly do what they're supposed to, so it was good to see them being strong examples. Pilas. Both of them.

Well, that's pretty much it. I have tons more to say, but I don't think I can write it all out. Love you all and hope that things are good back in the states!

Hna. Weatherford
I looked up PILAS and it said "batteries". I then asked Teigen if she really meant "batteries" and she informed me it means "batteries or hard working\righteous". We will learn some Guatemalan slang folks!