In the MOTHALAND

hey everyone! so I finally got to Guatemala on Tuesday around 5:30am. First I went to the CCM (MTC) in guatemala to eat breakfast with the other missionaries leaving to Reu. Then we took a 4 hour bus ride to Reu to meet the mission president, president maravilla. We had an orientation with the president and later we walked around Reu for a little. Then we ate at the bishops house and stayed at a hotel for the night. the next day we found out our areas and companions. My companion is Hermana Villavicencio from Nicaragua. Shes been here for 16 months already. Our area is Mazatenango. This area is known to be a really high baptizing area so hopefully we will get to baptize a lot of people! We are both new to the area so this week weve basically just been going everywhere with the zone leaders and getting to know the area better. My house is really big but my neighborhood is SOO freakin noisy I wanna kill everyone at 10 30 pm when we go to sleep! Theres a ton of dogs, hens, music, cars, buses, people, its madness! On Thursday I was lucky enough to go to the temple and work at the exit tables with the other hermanas in my zone. The temple is sooo awesome and set up on a hill so the view is really cool. We had to wake up at 4 30am to get ready, then take a 2 hour bus ride to Xela where the temple is at. We worked from 7am to 1pm answering nonmembers questions and giving out folletos. All the hermanas had already gone through the temple tour a bunch of times already but they knew I hadnt so they came with my through the temple tour! It soo pretty inside! I love how every temple is different but has the same purpose. On Friday we had taco bell and watched a movie for our Zone Thanksgiving get to gether. Guatemala is crazy! I swear I think I am going to die every 3 seconds! We get around on super packed buses and these little red cars called Tuc Tucs. Yesterday we had to walk through a foresty pathway to visit a member and stood on the back of a pick up truck to get there! Its seriously a wild adventure Im having here! Sometimes I think, am I really here!!! ha! Oh yeah, did I mention I now get to take freezing cold showers every day! I know, I, beyond lucky!! ha! anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and getting ready for christmas. everyone here for sure is ready and blasting fireworks left and right! i love you all! peace out!

hermana argueta

Week 3

Hola everyone! I seriously never know how to start these weekly emails because every day is sooo eventful and it's hard to remember what happened yesterday, let alone last weekend. Well, I got a new companion again! yay! wow, this is my third companion at the mtc, this must be a record or something here. I LOVE HER! Her name is Hermana VanMeter and she's from Portland, Oregon and going to Chile on her mission. Her spanish is SOOO amazing and I learn so much from her! We have a lot in common and I feel most comfortable around her out of all the companions I have had here so far! I'm gonna miss her sooo much! We are both leaving on Monday! I'm soo excited to finally leave STRAIGHT to the mission field in just 4 days! Crazy! I'm really working hard these last couple of days to learn as much spanish as I can and to teach the lessons as best as possible. Oh yeah, so I got 2 new teachers and our district with 14 missionaries split into 2 districts! I was really sad at first because I seriously love everyone and get attached easily, but now it's okay because I still see the other district all the time at meals and my class is right next to theirs. I REALLY miss my old teachers, but my new ones are great too. Their names are Brother Arnold and Sister Keller. So yesterday I got to be a host missionary which was really fun! I escorted a new sister missionary to her class, the bookstore and her dorm room. Then I went with my roomate Hermana Forbush to her physical therapy appointment for the next 3 hours so unfortunately I had to miss class. Today is P-Day so we went to the temple and it was amazing as always. So on Tuesdays we have devotionals with someone from the 70 or an apostle and Tad. R. Callister came and spoke to us. So I was sitting with my district really really close to the front, but we were on his right side. Then all of a sudden, this man points at me and my companion and motions us to get up. He didn't look happy so we were scared that we were in trouble for I don't know, wearing something weird or something, and then he told us to go straight to the FRONT and sit next to Brother Callister's family/friends!! There were exactly 2 seats so we were really lucky and it was definitely cool to be in the very front row with EVERY single missionary there! anyways, so right now we're teaching claudio, caroline, and jose. It's been really great teaching all of them seeing how they've progressed with each lesson. Missionary work is really great because all you go is study and talk about the gospel with other missionaries all day long! Everyone is sooo happy here and READY to leave to their missions! I'm sooo excited to leave to mine too! I miss and love you all and please don't be afraid to WRITE to meeee everyone and anyone! peace out and happy thanksgiving!

 

love you all, hermana argueta

 

P.S. Shout out to RITA! Thanks for the package girl! My district and I are gonna eat ALL the candy and cookies in the laundry room in a second ha! And the monkey sleeps on my bed every night!

P.P.S. Thanks James for the package too! you da bestt!

My First Week!

       

  Hey everyone! So this is my first time emailing and soo much has happened but I literally have 27 minutes to write since the computer is timing me! Wow, so even though I've only been here for 3 days I feel like I've been here for 5 weeks! Everyone here says that the weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks and I TOTALLY understand that now ha. So my companion is Hermana Griggs from Colorado Springs, Colorado and she's reallly realllyy nice! Plus we get a long really well and have some things in common so that's been good. She's going to Nicaragua on her mission but she's coming to the Guatemalan MTC with me too in 3 weeks. So in my room there are 2 other Hermanas, Hermana Zuniga from Yucaipa, CA and Hermana Harris from Idaho.They have the exact same mission in Guatemala as me! So, I just have to let this out: THE FOOD HERE SUCKS! EWWW. Worse than what people let on. BUT... I discovered chicken wraps so that's what I'll be eating for the rest of the meal times here :) So I feel like I'm reliving my freshman year of college in a dorm room because I never got to experience the dorm part and having 5 roomates so now I know how it feels ha. I've actually been doing really good at waking up at 6:30am. I'm not even tired during the day! Our district is pretty cool. There are 12 of us, so 8 elders and 4 Hermanas. Elder Wood is soooo funny! He makes me and Sister Griggs laugh a lot ha! I don't think he knows he's funny. So since I'm in beginning spanish class, my teacher Brother Hellewell and others have noticed that my spanish is really good and they all have been advising me that I should probably be in intermediate or advanced spanish class. So I went with Brother Hellewell to another building to get tested on my spanish. This young lady told me phrases in english and I had to translate them in spanish. After that, she said, "Um, yeah you are definitely advanced level." So I'm pretty sure I'm going to get moved up to advanced spanish next week. I don't mind that, but what I'm not excited about is that this means I have to change companions and move to a different room! ahhhh. I'm gonna miss Hermana Griggs soo much. Oh well. So anyways, we started teaching a girl named Liza. Today was our second lesson with her. Today went much better than yesterday. Today she even invited herself to church! haha. Hermana Griggs and I just looked at eachother when she asked us if she could come because I can imagine this is every missionary's dream! We are teaching her all next week as well. So people I've seen... The first person I saw that I knew were Brother and Sister Call! They are sooo nice and it was good to see familiar faces. Then I saw my friend Trevor from my ward at BYU-Hawaii. He's going to India and I didn't even know he was planning on serving a mission! He's soooo friendly and funny, he always yells, "HERMANAAA ARGUETA!" whenever he sees me ha! Then I saw Sam Lew! We talked about peacoats and how we have similar ones ha! Right now we are about to have a half P-DAY to do laundry, but since Hermana Griggs and I don't have any we are going to read our handbooks and write our talks. Oh yeah, so every Sunday during sacrament meeting, the branch president will choose 2 people to each give 5 minute talks in spanish about an assigned topic! So we all have to be prepared and write a talk in case we get called. Everyone is soo excited to be here and working really hard. Everyone in my class has improved and learned soo much in spanish in just 2 days! I'm really excited to be here and am doing really great so far! Everyone is really supportive of each other here and ready to learn. Oh yeah, I'm FREEEEZING everyday, all day here! So cold! But yeah, I'm learning a lot and know I will be learning much more during these LONGGGGGGGGGGGG DAYYYS! So long! Oh and I have absolutely no time whatsoever to do anything alone or even study anything I want. Every second is literally planned out and I'm never ever even in my room besides bedtime. A really cool thought that Brother Hellewell was telling us is that our call as missionaries gives us authority to receive revelation for the people we teach and authority to teach the gospel to others. He showed us his white tag that said Teacher Brother Hellwell and said, "My tag is useless. It means nothing and gives me no authority to do anything. But yours has your name RIGHT next to Jesus Christ so we have a lot of responsibility and power to preach the gospel to the world. I'm grateful to be a missionary and to get to teach others the best message they will ever hear! Well I gotta go cuz my time is about up but I love and miss you all and please don't forget to write to meeee! And packages are welcome anytime! Mahalo! and Hasta Luego!



Love, Hermana Argueta

Dork Dot

       

Hey everyone! So this is my first time emailing and soo much has happened but I literally have 27 minutes to write since the computer is timing me! Wow, so even though I've only been here for 3 days I feel like I've been here for 5 weeks! Everyone here says that the weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks and I TOTALLY understand that now ha. So my companion is Hermana Griggs from Colorado Springs, Colorado and she's reallly realllyy nice! Plus we get a long really well and have some things in common so that's been good. She's going to Nicaragua on her mission but she's coming to the Guatemalan MTC with me too in 3 weeks. So in my room there are 2 other Hermanas, Hermana Zuniga from Yucaipa, CA and Hermana Harris from Idaho.They have the exact same mission in Guatemala as me! So, I just have to let this out: THE FOOD HERE SUCKS! EWWW. Worse than what people let on. BUT... I discovered chicken wraps so that's what I'll be eating for the rest of the meal times here :) So I feel like I'm reliving my freshman year of college in a dorm room because I never got to experience the dorm part and having 5 roomates so now I know how it feels ha. I've actually been doing really good at waking up at 6:30am. I'm not even tired during the day! Our district is pretty cool. There are 12 of us, so 8 elders and 4 Hermanas. Elder Wood is soooo funny! He makes me and Sister Griggs laugh a lot ha! I don't think he knows he's funny. So since I'm in beginning spanish class, my teacher Brother Hellewell and others have noticed that my spanish is really good and they all have been advising me that I should probably be in intermediate or advanced spanish class. So I went with Brother Hellewell to another building to get tested on my spanish. This young lady told me phrases in english and I had to translate them in spanish. After that, she said, "Um, yeah you are definitely advanced level." So I'm pretty sure I'm going to get moved up to advanced spanish next week. I don't mind that, but what I'm not excited about is that this means I have to change companions and move to a different room! ahhhh. I'm gonna miss Hermana Griggs soo much. Oh well. So anyways, we started teaching a girl named Liza. Today was our second lesson with her. Today went much better than yesterday. Today she even invited herself to church! haha. Hermana Griggs and I just looked at eachother when she asked us if she could come because I can imagine this is every missionary's dream! We are teaching her all next week as well. So people I've seen... The first person I saw that I knew were Brother and Sister Call! They are sooo nice and it was good to see familiar faces. Then I saw my friend Trevor from my ward at BYU-Hawaii. He's going to India and I didn't even know he was planning on serving a mission! He's soooo friendly and funny, he always yells, "HERMANAAA ARGUETA!" whenever he sees me ha! Then I saw Sam Lew! We talked about peacoats and how we have similar ones ha! Right now we are about to have a half P-DAY to do laundry, but since Hermana Griggs and I don't have any we are going to read our handbooks and write our talks. Oh yeah, so every Sunday during sacrament meeting, the branch president will choose 2 people to each give 5 minute talks in spanish about an assigned topic! So we all have to be prepared and write a talk in case we get called. Everyone is soo excited to be here and working really hard. Everyone in my class has improved and learned soo much in spanish in just 2 days! I'm really excited to be here and am doing really great so far! Everyone is really supportive of each other here and ready to learn. Oh yeah, I'm FREEEEZING everyday, all day here! So cold! But yeah, I'm learning a lot and know I will be learning much more during these LONGGGGGGGGGGGG DAYYYS! So long! Oh and I have absolutely no time whatsoever to do anything alone or even study anything I want. Every second is literally planned out and I'm never ever even in my room besides bedtime. A really cool thought that Brother Hellewell was telling us is that our call as missionaries gives us authority to receive revelation for the people we teach and authority to teach the gospel to others. He showed us his white tag that said Teacher Brother Hellwell and said, "My tag is useless. It means nothing and gives me no authority to do anything. But yours has your name RIGHT next to Jesus Christ so we have a lot of responsibility and power to preach the gospel to the world. I'm grateful to be a missionary and to get to teach others the best message they will ever hear! Well I gotta go cuz my time is about up but I love and miss you all and please don't forget to write to meeee! And packages are welcome anytime! Mahalo! and Hasta Luego!

Love, Hermana Argueta