Preach the Gospel

Hello. I hope you all had a splendid week in whichever part of the world you may be. This week my companions and I had the pleasure of carrying out the baptism of Josselyn, sister of Ada and Lilliana from last week. Josselyn was super excited and showed a lot of faith as there was a problem right before the baptism was about to happen. It was great to see Josselyns desire to follow the Savior, even through trying times. I'm so grateful for the love heavenly father has shown to me throughout my mission, and especially in this time of my life. As missionaries, nothing we do matters if we don't rely on the saviors help and on the holy ghost. We are merely instruments and hands in this great work. I leave you all with precious words of the beloved prophet of the restoration, joseph smith..."After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel."

with love, Hermana Argueta

Out of Hiding!

                 

  Hello friends. another long hiatus of blogging on my part. I hope you all are enjoying March so far. This week we set baptismal dates for Arabely and Juan Carlos. They are family members of an ex missionary in our ward. They love love love church and are so excited for their baptism this Saturday. They were fascinated by the word of wisdom and really felt it was inspired of our Father in Heaven. So Juan Carlos told us he drank coffee because his grandma gave it to him daily for breakfast. We told him not to worry because we had a cure and solution for this. The next day we brought him MORCAF, a non cafeinated drink made of cereals and corn. He was so excited that he told us he immediately ran to his grandma when he came home and asked her to make it for him. He said he likes it and is very willing to stop drinking coffee from now on. We are really trying to work hard with the members. The most challenging part that keeps our investigators from progressing is church attendance. For some reason here the people are just so darn scared of going to church. I think they think we have cults or weird ceremonies inside the building or something, I really dont know. We always have at least some investigator in church so that is good. The ward is awesome here. We just started a cool new competition to encourage and excite the members to participate in missionary work with us. We are giving points to each organization whenever they come contacting with us or have family home evenings or bring their friends to church. We have a calendar where they can sign up and everyone was so excited that they ran to the calendar after we announced it and the calendar is now practically full! I know that if anyone has a testimony of the gospel then they know that sharing the gospel is important in Heavenly Fathers plan, but sometimes we just need to wake up and just do it... TODAY, not later!!! Now is the time and everyone can share the gospel in their own way. I've realized that creativity is so important. The gospel can be shared in so many ways and we can help apply it to others families and lives if we try to think of fun and unique ways to share it. WE are the Lords hands in this great work and he really is depending on us. I encourage all of you to share the gospel with at least one person and invite someone to church. You never know what the Lord has in store for them... and for you. Don't just follow the gospel... live it... everyday.

With Love,

Hermana Argueta

FELIZ NAVIDAD

 

 

 

 

Con Amor,

 Hermana Argueta

The True Meaning of Christmas

 

    
          Wow, one week til' Christmas! This year I will be looking forward to tamales, fireworks, and christmas songs in spanish to celebrate the holidays. This week Hermana Jimenez contacted a lot of the members to introduce us to their neighbors and friends. President wants us to work with the members more than just contact random people, but we did a little of both. It actually is fun contacting in Mulua because everyone is super friendly and everyone talks to you. It seems to be even more happy and bright during the holiday season. Well the good thing about Mulua is that there arent as many people who light fireworks compared to Mazate. Today we had our annual Christmas activity with the whole mission and Mission President and his family. The mission Presidents wife even made cookies for each missionary! One of the blessings of this last Christmas in the mission is that I really am focusing and pondering on the true meaning of Christmas and life. We all really do have a purpose and it is so simple... To return again to be with our families. We have our whole life to really demonstrate to Heavenly Father if we want to recieve the blessing of eternal life through the way we react to our daily challenges and trials. But in the end, everything is simple... Jesus Christ loves us. Does he know we love him? Happy holidays and Feliz Navidad from Guatemala.

Hermana Argueta

FIRE!

           

 

              Hey everyone! This month is going by so fast! So I have a new comp... Hermana Jimenez from the Dominican Republic! Shes awesome. So on Tuesday night a member in our wards house burned and she lost everything! She was just sealed in the temple with her family too and said the only things that didnt burn in the fire were her book of mormon and her temple recommend. Hortensia has so much faith and she is really strong. We went to visit her and she was surrounded by people fron relief society and right when she saw me she just hugged me and started crying really hard. We sang a hymn with her and read dc 121 verse 7. Later, I went to see the house and all that was left were burnt walls. I didnt even recognize the house at all. the ward is awesome though and everyone is helping out so much. So this week we had a neat experience. We were walking down this place called las 3 marias to look for cindy and erickson since they told us they had moved. Well, apparently we passed their house because we heard HERMANAS!! and we turned around and it was jennifer, a nonmember and sister in law of erickson. so we went in and they were painting. We told them we wanted to help but they wouldnt let us because they didnt want us to get paint on our clothes. so we told them we would come back tomorrow. so on thursday we painted the inside of the house and talked with them. Then we set up a family home evening for Sunday night with the 2 couples that live there. only the wives are nonmembers. we had a fun family home evening and made each couple a poster of the stages of the gospel of jesus christ and wanted together forever with them. we talked about families and about the things they need to do to be able to have an eternal family one day. they said the family home evening was fun and we are going back on Wednesday to teach them some more. There's so much work to be done in Mulua! I know we are bound to find more people to teach this week. I hope you all have a nice week and are getting ready for christmas!


Hermana Argueta

Yury

Happy December! Can you all believe we're almost leaving 2012? Wow, I've never felt any other year go by faster than this one. Well, this week was successful :) Hermana Gilland and I were able to baptize a family. Yurys baptism was a miracle and definitely one of the most special moments for my comp and I. Yury, 23, is a timid young mother of two who has been having trouble connecting with her inactive husband. She finally decided to make this covenent because she wants her family to change for the better and she wants to set a good example for them. I know it wont be easy for Yury, but I know the Lord will bless her so much for taking this step of faith. This week is changes and Hermana Gilland is returning to our amazing country of USA! She is excited but at the same time sad to leave Guatemala, where so many love her! Im sad to be getting a new comp because this change was so fun with Hermana Gilland, but thats the mission for you and life goes on. This week they put up the giant town christmas tree and had the lighting ceremony on Friday night, so everyone is getting excited for the holidays. I hope you are all beginning to feel the Christmas spirit of peace and joy. Love to all.

Hermana Argueta

Abel and Andersson

 

 

 

            Hello to everyone out there. I'm glad to say that this week was successful and rewarding. After our attempt at diligence, Hermana Gilland and I were able to help carry out the baptismal service for Abel and Andersson on Saturday. This baptismal service was definitely one of the most special ones of my mission. Abel is 17 years old and has been going to church every Sunday by himself for 4 months now and even went to the youth camping trip last week. He never got baptized because his mom didn't want to give him permission. Other hermana missionaries and church leaders had previously tried to talk to Abel's mom about why he wanted to get baptized and how it was a special commandment. Well, everyone just left the whole circumstance alone, but Hermana Gilland and I felt that we should at least try talking to his mom. We thought of a plan and quickly told Abel so we could put it to action. We filled out Abel's registro completely and then had Abel write his testimony on a piece of paper. The mom is supposedly evangelica and cranky and at first she didnt want to let us in. We were persistent on her letting us in and told her we would only be there a few minutes. Finally, not knowing what to say or what other excuse to use, she let us in. We talked to her about the importance of baptism,how much Abel has changed as well as his desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, and gave her the testimony. She just thought for a few seconds and said, ¨. well, if he really wants to then thats fine. We were so happy but Abel was definitely happier! The Lord truly will always come through ONLY when we have true and humble FAITH in him. If we were to doubt that his mom would give him permission, we would of never tried to talk to her. I know that faith results in miracles and that's probably why I talk about it so much. I hope you all can have a little more faith in Jesus Christ than you did last week. I'm hopeful to keep finding more exciting experiences this week in the mission field of Guatemala. Have a great day!

Hermana Argueta

HAPPY 1 YEAR!

Hermana Argueta has been out for one year! We are so proud of her and can't wait for her return in April!

Nov. 2, 2011- As soon as my mom and I drove away, I flooded the car with tears. Bittersweet day!

 
You still have a few months to send her some love! Help her finish her mission strong with a quick note or two! 
Follow the directions here =====>






 Love,
Rita 

Mulua

Hey everyone! Wow, so a lot has happened since the last time I wrote! So I had changes! I am now in Mulua, San Felipe! I have always wondered what it would be like to come to this area since so many missionaries only have had good things to say about it so I am soo excited to work here. So far I love EVERYTHING here! My companion is Hermana Gilland from Texas. She and I have always wanted to be companions so we were really excited when we found out we would be in Mulua for her last change here! So lets start with the ward. The ward is soooo big, about 260 members and the church building is huge and really nice. We seriously feel like we are in America here, especially because they pass a calendar around in relief society for members to sign up to feed us lunch for the whole month! The members and residents of Mulua are SOOOO incredibly nice and friendly! Not gonna lie, my house is super super humble and small. For example, my toilet doesn't flush and we only have water from 10pm til 8am. Not to mention theres always cockroaches who for some reason love hanging out in our house and bathroom. But we dont really think about all of this too much since we are never home anyway. So we are super busy here in Mulua.... theres always always always something we need to do or someone we need to visit. There's a lot of recent converts in the area that we have to visit often to keep them active. Right now we are teaching 2 families who are progressing and continually going to church together, so we are just working with them to get them to accept a baptismal date. Our biggest challenge is getting the wives of both families to follow through with the compromises we give them, but they are getting there.

Mulua is a really small pueblo so everyone knows everyone, ha its funny. To explain Mulua a little, its pretty much one really long road with houses and smalls streets on both sides. Hermana Gilland is such a hard worker, I am learning a lot from her and am motivated by her love for missionary work. I like how she always says that she loves being a missionary and that she doesn't want to go home in December! So something funny that happened today was that my comp left me on the bus on our way to the stake center! She was in the very front and I was in the very back so I didn't see when she got off the bus and the bus drove away with me still in it! I just looked out the window and she was standing outside waving at me! So the bus just when down the street and I got off. Then we were both cracking up laughing when we were walking towards each other ha!

So, I can feel that there are a lot of people in Mulua who are ready to be taught the gospel too and are ready to take action and make changes in their lives. There are some more families we have met and want to start teaching too. I will write more about that later! Thanks for all your support and prayers. Missionary work is an incredible work and will always be never ending :)

Hermana Argueta

Conference

Hey everyone. Did everyone enjoy general conference? I did as usual. My favorite talks were Jeffrey R. Holland´s and Ann M. Dibb´s. I love when Sister Dibb talked about the importance in having confidence in our identity as members of Christ´s restored church. I was pensive when she asked, ¨Do we have the strenth, discipline, and commitment to follow Christ?¨Also, she was so true when she talked about how we sometimes tend to step away little by little from the church and from Heavenly Father when we begin to prosper and when things are going well for us. Can´t believe women can go on missions now at 19. That's sooo awesome. I hope more young women take advantage of that. I would have totally gone when I was 19 if I could have! Well this week we have been working with Noemi and Silvia, 2 of our investigators. We hope to look for more investigators this week in our area and our planning activities to make it more fun. Dad, I can't believe youre in Guatemala right now! Wish we could hang out, oh well. Well it won't be long until it starts raining super hard so I better leave before I get drenched. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Hermana Argueta

P.S. Happy Birthday Mom! Go crazy!

11

Wow, I can't believe I have 11 months tomorrow. time is going by way too fast. this week we were able to carry out a baptism for a family, Carlos Gomez. Carlos told us he was ready to be baptized after years of rejecting missionary discussions and the invitation to become a member of the church. He is deaf in one ear due to his previous habit of consistent drinking, and now is realizing the disadvantages of not being baptized earlier. Carlos truly is repented and has a desire to change and improve his life. He even showed up early to his baptism and confirmation all by himself, demonstrating his humble faith and desire. Carlos told us he is going to miss us when we leave because we weren't like any other missionaries and we helped him when he truly needed it. He is now homeless and doesn't have a job. I know Heavenly Father loves Carlos and is so proud of his decision to repent, change, and come unto Christ. I feel his life will slowly, but surely come together and everything will be better for him than before. I'm grateful to have met Carlos and to have seen this true change in his life. I hope you all have a happy Conference weekend! I hope you all are as excited as I am :)

Hermana Argueta

Candelario

 

          Hello. This week went amazing. Our investigator, Candelario, was baptized on Saturday and now he and all his family are a latter day saint family in completeness. Candelario has been taught by several missionaries over many years but he never came to the point of accepting the gospel. We met him about 2 weeks ago and taught him the importance of a baptism having authority of God. He said that he was ready to make a good change in his life and he accepted a baptismal date the very first day we met him. This experience really proved to me that there are so many people who are simply ready to accept the gospel and we shouldnt be scared to share the gospel with everyone... after all how can we know who is ready and who isnt if we dont open our mouths and share our testimony with EVERYONE. Candelario is truly special and I am happy he and his whole family can now me an eternal family. I hope you all had an amazing week.. Changes are this week so I'm freaking out because I have no idea where I will be in the next 2 days ha. Oh well, thats the mission for you I guess. Have an amazing week.

 

Hermana Argueta

 

P.S. Thank you Stefanie Chen for the mauna loas... you're obviously the best person alive.

 

 

 

Ten

 

Hello. So Ive officially hit double digits... 10 months of my mission is now complete. It went by too fast and it scares me how fast time is flying by... I feel like I cant control how quickly the days are going by and sometimes I just want life to slow down a little so I can enjoy each experience I have each day. This week was better for me. We found more investigadores that appear positive and have a desire to learn more and we are preparing Candelario, a man of about 60 for his baptism this week. Candelario is a blessing. The missionaries have taught him for years and he is the only one in his family who would never accept the gospel for whatever reason. But he accepted a baptism the very first time we went to go meet and teach him. He is ready. Its as simple as that. The Lord prepares his children in HIS time, not OUR own. Im not here to baptize every creature alive in a year and a half. Im here to baptize those who are READY. Thats my job. But I cant do it alone, even if I wanted to. Without the Holy Ghost and Heavenly Father´s help... I would be incapable and inefficient in being an instrument in any part of the Lord´s work. Im grateful to have realized this so I can better myself in the next area I am placed in. Im grateful for the opportunities Ive been given to learn, grow, and experience.

My birthday was amazing! My awesome ward gave me a cake and sang to me and some members made me Shucos for dinner. It was a happy day. Thanks to all who contributed to the package I recieved as well! I loved EVERYTHING! Take care, everyone. Have a great September!

Hermana Argueta

 

 

 

 

Delfina

 

 

 

Hey everyone! How is your summer going! Its seriously a heat wave here in Coatepeque and Im pretty sure its 50 times hotter than wherever you may be right now. So we just came back from a bananero, a banana factory where they produce del monte bananas. It was really fun and interesting! Then we ate hamburgers and played soccer on a little field on the factory site. This week was Delfina's baptism, age 11. She is awesome and her family is so cute… plus her dad is soo funny, he reminds me a lot of you dad! This week was challenging but we are working hard to help our investigators progress. Im still working on building my faith day by day through fervent prayer and positive thoughts. Trials really do strengthen us and test our capacities, Ive learned this much just this week. Who knows what other challenges will be placed before me but all I can do is put my faith to use and keep myself optimistic about my life. I feel I have a great responsibility right now to help the people in my area. Thanks for your consistent prayers, I really need them right now. I love you all.

Hermana Argueta

P.S. Thank you so much Ana and Rick Clift and family for the package!!

 

 

Change 3

Hey everyone. So there were changes this week but luckily I didnt have any and neither did my comp. So now I am in my 3rd change here in Coatepeque. Im soo glad I didnt have changes because I love love love my area and my comp too! I did go to the changes meeting though to hand out the english certificates to 3 of my latino students who finished their missions on Wednesday. Anyways... so right now we are in the process of looking for new investigators since we baptized all of ours last month. We have an investigator, Delfina who has a baptismal date later this month so we are working with her. Right now we are working a ton with members and planning fun activities so members can invite their friends. We are planning a talent show for Thursday and the whole ward is participating. Yesterday my comp and I met with a member family for lunch to plan everything so we are excited to start letting everyone know and invite everyone! We chose acts from the bible and book of mormon and each society or quorom is going to act one out. My comp and I are going to act out the quarrel between 2 women and King Salomon in the book of Kings... one of my favorite stories! Even though we are working hard, the mission is not as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of challenges and obstacles we are facing as well. But we are learning as we try to make the best of everything Heavenly Father sends our way. I know that the gospel can change lives and help us be the people Heavenly Father wants us to become. Love you all, hope youre all having a fun summer :)

Hermana Argueta

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad and Kevin!

 

Meta

Hey everyone! So we just got back from a fun day at the beach with our zone! We spent the whole day taking pictures, talking, eating fish, drinking coconuts under shady palm trees, and playing in the sand. I'm grateful we got to have a relaxing pday at the beach because this week was super CRAZY! CRAZY, but in a good way. So we had 3 baptisms this week, Jeffrey (8), his brother Angel (10) and Marta (80). We had soo much to do, the challenging part in particular being heating the water for Marta since she cant bathe in cold water. So we asked the 4 elders in my district to help us all afternoon and heat huge pots of water while we ran to do errands for the baptismal service. Wow, I've never had such a crazy-stressful week but in the end it was worth it because all 3 were confirmed on Sunday and happy with their baptisms. My comp and I are especially happy because we met our goal of baptizing 5 people for the month of July! I honestly testify that 2 things in particular allowed us to reach this goal... FAITH in Jesus Christ and OBEDIENCE. These are 2 principles that our mission President is always always always stressing and teaching us to have. My comp and I did everything possible to make an effort to be more obedient in every aspect, at home, while contacting, during lessons, always always. And I also turned my feelings of disappointment and doubt into automatic reflection on Jesus Christ and that this is TRULY his work for the happiness of his children. Turning my negative thoughts upside down and doing my best to follow the guidelines placed before me as a missionary honestly made all the difference in this month and allowed this miracle of 5 to happen. I know this without.a.doubt.



Hermana Argueta


 

Patience

Hello Everyone!



This week was kind of challenging for me and my comp, but we made it through thanks to a great Sunday! So we were on the lookout for new people to teach this week and asking for references from as many members as possible. Well, no one really wanted to talk to us when we knocked on doors and the members gave us NO references at all. We were frustrated and sometimes just walked around hopeless. On Saturday we contacted a 19 year old named Nery and he came to church on Sunday and appears positive. He said he feels really happy and good about the things we are teaching him. The week thankfully ended happily thanks to an amazing Sunday! On Sunday, my comp and I spoke during Sacrament meeting and 108 people showed up (our goal is 100 for the ward)! We were shocked, but mostly thankful. We both felt the spirit as we each gave our talks about missionary work and looked out to a full congregation. Later we went to visit some inactive members and an inactive family who has a daughter that wants us to teach her to prepare her for baptism. So we have some new possibilities for baptism this week. There is soo much work here and this area is really big, so I'm grateful for that because not all areas have these advantages. I know this week will be better and will work as hard as I can. I know Heavenly Father listens to our prayers because despite the challenges and difficulties I had this week, he helped to realize there is hope in everything and its up to me to show him how willing I am to work and serve him and his children. I love this work so much. It makes me happy.




Hermana Argueta


 

Yara

 

This week Yara was baptized. Her parents and brother Bryan were baptized in March and she was so excited to finally have her own special day on Saturday. Yara comes from a difficult family. Her parents drink sometimes and her dad was completely drunk every single time we came to visit them this week. The mom abandons her 5 kids and they do whatever they want. The family has changed a lot since their baptism, but still has a little trouble keeping their baptismal covenants and coming to church. But Yara loves coming to church and always talks about the things she learns in primary and sings the primary hymns at home. We were so happy for her for  making this commitment with Heavenly Father and showing her great faith! This week we were really busy and I feel like this week will be the same. We need to find new investigators this week so that will be interesting. I'm grateful to see how the gospel has changed many peoples lives, like Yara's family. It gives me hope that there are plenty more out there who are ready to accept the gospel and be happier than ever through keeping the commandments. This is the only way to TRUE happiness.

Hermana Argueta

 

Ingrid

    This week was sooo busy but so cool! So a girl named Ingrid came to church with a member. She is 20 years old and 7 months pregnant and the daughter of a recent convert. It's kind of sad because her dad doesnt support her or her brother or mom in going to church because he is very  evangelic, so she has to be kind of sneaky when it comes to church things. So we met her Sunday and on Tuesday we taught her for the first time. She told us she had a strong desire to be baptized and was willing to be baptized the next day if possible! We told her that we would have to do a few things first but she could be baptized this week if she wanted to. On Thursday she had her interview and proved she truly is ready. She was baptized on Friday at 9 in the morning! It all happened soo fast. Since we set the date on Thursday evening, my comp and I had a TON of things to do in order to plan a baptism in less than 24 hours. We had to make a ton of phone calls, find white clothes, invite EVERY member possible, buy the refreshment, clean the baptismal font, and plan the agenda and messages for the baptismal service. It was a crazy experience but I am happy to report that everything went amazingly well and a lot of members showed up. Ingrid was soooo happy and is clearly ready to start this new path with her soon to be born baby. This experience with Ingrid taught me that the field really is white already to harvest... just like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 4! There are people here who are just simply ready to be found and to take this first step.... baptism. I know now that I need to be patient and let my faith grow and be strengethened through both the good and bad experiences I have each day. The Lord showed me that patience brings miracles when we always maintain our faith. Ingrid was a miracle that the Lord presented in his own time, I know and feel it. I'm sure that there are more miracles in store these next few months too.

    Hermana Argueta

 

 

 

Happy 8 Months!

         Hello family, relatives, and friends! First of all, happy 8 months today to my comp and I! I cannot believe I am almost half way done with my mission. Crazy! Time flew by and I feel like I just got here yesterday! This week we are working on changing everything about our area! We have a new mission leader and he is awesome. Yesterday we went out to contact a lot of less actives in our area with him since he knows the area really well. Plus my area is huge so sometimes we don't even know where to begin. But I can't complain about that because I love my area and I cant believe I get to be here. Yesterday we had 2 investigators come to church, Glendy and Ingred. They are both really positive so we are gonna work really hard with them and teach them as much as possible. The work is coming along slowly, but surely. Sometimes it's hard because we want to see the fruits of our labors immediately, but EVERYTHING is in the Lords time and not our own. This week we also had a conference with our mission President, Presidente Maravilla on Faith and the Atonement and it was amazing. I am still blown away by everything that man said and am grateful to have such an incredible President! He's seriously the best and everyone loves him! Today we are having a family home evening night with a member whose inviting less actives and we are going to talk about the atonement. We are also going to start having family activity nights with the ward on Thursdays so they have an opportunity to bring friends and less actives to meet the ward and play games in a less intimidating atmosphere. The ward is going to improve soon I know it! I'm grateful again to be exactly where I am and with the comp I'm with. I've learned sooo much about Hermana Ramirez than I ever thought I could learn from a companion. Thank you all for your support, prayers, and encouragement. Miss you all.



Hermana Argueta