La Maquinaria

Hey Everyone! So this week was kinda busy because I had to balance my calling as the english teacher with my missionary calling. I had a lot of phone calls to make to the latino missionaries to see how well they are progressing in their english. This week my comp and I focused on finding new people to teach. I honestly can say that going out with the members is the way to go and makes all the difference. Think about it for a sec... would you be more intimidated to talk to 2 missionaries that show up uninvited at your front door or would you rather be interested in going to a friends house and having a lesson altogether with the missionaries? Whenever we bring members over to an appointment, they instantly have a new friend or a person that can fellowship them when they missionaries arent around. We cant always be around as missionaries and take an investigator to and fro which is why its important that we find good members to handoff the investigators when we cant be there with them. This week my comp and I brought 3 young women to church and they LOVED it! They cant wait to come back next Sunday with us. They are having a hard time understanding what it means to be baptized and the fact that baptism entails membership in the church. They are catholic and want to come to both churches, ours and the catholic church. We are going to answer their questions this Wednesday. So this week is kinda rare because today, Monday until Wednesday the Hermana missionaries (theres 30 of us) are having a little conference/vacation! We are going to the beach and gonna play volleyball and sleep in a big house for 2 nights, kinda like a slumber party I think! I´m sooo excited! We are leaving on a bus tonight for Reu with the other hermanas in our zone to go meet everyone up. Thanks mom and dad for the package and to everyone who contributed too! I love missionary work and spreading the gospel every day in Guatemala! Hasta luego!

Hermana Argueta

 

 

 

Pamela

Hey Everyone! This week was really busy but in a good way. I had to go to Reu, about 30 minutes away, twice this week to start working on the english program for the latino missionaries. Then I had to make a lot of phone calls all weekend. But everything seems to be going well. From now on, I have to go to the mission office in Reu every Friday to work on the program. Besides that, we had a last minute baptism this week for Robert´s younger sister, Pamela. Pamelas and her friend Melanie went to seminary for the first time on Saturday morning, later to the movies for a young women activity, and then decided they wanted to get baptized that same day! So my zone leaders called me Saturday morning to let me know that we had to spend the whole day in Santo Domingo to get permission from Pamela´s mom (shes 12 years old) and interview her before her baptism at 6pm. So my comp and I spent the whole day in Santo Domingo picking everyone up in a pick up truck and then took everyone to the baptisms at 6pm. Its fun standing up in the pack of a rusty pickup truck with 20 other people on our way to church on Sundays and to the baptisms each week haha! I wish you all could see it for yourselves!  Our ward had 7 baptisms this weekend so it was a good weekend :) Pamela loves church and is excited to be a new member. She´s awesome and willing to be obedient to the commandments and keep the sabbath day. We are also trying hard to work with Pamelas mom since she says she likes church and everything but isnt sure if shes completely ready to give up her evangelist religion. Her mom is sooo nice though and loves us and shes planning on going to the temple with the relief society this weekend too! Shes sooo funny, after we took photos at the baptism, she said, ¨wait, why didnt you change? arent you the one thats going to baptize her in the font?¨¨ What else... well yesterday I taught the principles of the gospel class at church on service and that went well.Im soo grateful for missionary work and am trying to have more faith in myself and in my comp. I know that I am capable to work harder every week, despite my weaknesses and moments of doubt that I have sometime. I am going to work harder this week with my comp and find those families that are ready to be like Christ. i love you all.

hermana argueta

The Mouse

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty good for the most part. We had a baptism on Sunday for a 16 year old boy named Robert. Were so proud of the decision he took yesterday, especially since it probably isnt easy being the only member of his family. His very evangelica mom and sister came to the baptism too which I never thought would happen, so that was awesome that she chose to be supportive of her sons decision. We also brought an investigator to church named Zaida who wants to get baptized, but isnt married and has a kid. In order for her to be able to be baptized, she would need to get married to the man shes living with. So were going to teach her some more this week and see what happens from there. So the church attentance rate is pretty low in our ward right now, so our mission President told all the missionaries that we need to work hard to get members to come to church. So yesterday, Sunday, our zone leaders Elders Deskins and Maradiaga came with me and Hermana Blunk to visit a TON of families in our ward as well as some investigators. It was awesome to just spend the whole day focused on reactivating and motivating the members to come to church. We told them we were visiting them to bring a little bit of the spirit we felt at church that day to their very own homes and we did so by singing a hymn with them and sharing a message. Okay, story time! So yesterday us four went to a house of 2 people who were just baptized a few weeks ago. So when we get there, the lady or mom of the house tells us that she has a buck of rats in her backyard that she caught because they were getting all up in her buckets of corn. So after talking to her for a while, we decide to start singing a hymn, Put your shoulder to the wheel. So im sitting on a couch for one, and we start singing right. So were singing the second verse, and i look behind my left shoulder and theres a freaking gray mouse RIGHT behind my ear! If you know me well enough, you know that I HATE and DESPISE rats and mice because they totally gross me out and the are the nastiest filthiest creatures on the face of the earth. So I freak out, and I dont know what to do so I just turn my head and look at Elder Maradiaga who was sitting right in front of me and just stare at him with my eyes wide open. I dont say a word, just look at him until he sees the mouse and sings, ¨Pon su hombre al RATON!!! Then all of a sudden, right in the middle of singing the chorus I jump up at lighting speed and everyone else does the same. The mouse runs and jumps off the couch and hides as the lady of the house, Carmen, grabs the broom and starts looking for it. Everyone runs around and tries to look for mouse. The elders dive onto the couch and shake it so the mouse comes out. Anyways, the mouse scurried into the hollow of the couch so we never caught it, but its probably in the house still ha. So that was my week. Perfect. ha. Well I love you all and I testify of the importance of missionary work and theres no greater or better work on the planet! love you all, have your best week ever!

 

Hermana Argueta