IluminaelMundo!!!

I don't know what it's called in English, but for December the Church is doing a service push. Every day of December there is a short video on Mormon.org to give ideas and inspiration on how we can serve other people around us! How cool is that!! EVERYONE GO CHECK IT OUT, I LOVE THE VIDEOS SO MUCH!

We've been doing a lot of member work with the Primary and the Stake choir, so that's been fun, but also makes it really hard because we haven't had a lot of time to work in our area. So pray for us to find people that want to progress!!! Most everyone commits and then they are never home, or don't come to church!! But things are going to get better! 

Something I came across this week in my study was this phrase in the talk from Brad Wilcox  ... "Grace is our constant energy source. It isn't the light at the end of the tunnel, but it is the light that carries and guides us through the tunnel. It is not a finishing touch, but the finisher's touch" ...... WOW. Can we just! When I read that I was blown away. Christ's grace is what gets us through the tunnel and makes us want to be better. Everyone should read that talk too, its amazing.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving as a zone which was so fun. I'll try and send pics next week! A woman in our ward prepared a turkey for us with salsa, it was yummy but super weird too haha! Then I made an apple pie, creamed corn, pasta salad, and green beans. SO that was fun because I haven't gotten to cook in a long time and I missed it. It was super fun to all be together as a zone!

Lots of choir practices this coming week! I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY! We as missionaries are really focusing on the IluminaelMundo once December hits! We're going to do service everyday to any person, religion, anything!! This invitation is for everyone.. SO DO IT!

Sorry this week I'm lame, my brain is broken I think, who knows? I LOVE YOU ALL! I know this church is true, and if you read the book of Mormon you will too. There is so much proof in that book that we have a Savior who loves us and knows us. Just read it, but actually pay attention when you read it, but read it! I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet and receives revelation for us, and for him I am so grateful. I love this church and pray that every single one of you are safe and happy. But if you want to be even more happy... DO THE SERVICE! When we are in the service of our fellowmen we are in the service of our GOD! Who is everything!

Love your fave missionary,

Hermana Bracha 

¿Estoy en Guatemala?

This road reminds me of the backroad from Tualatin to Sherwood

Sometimes I honestly forget that I am in Guatemala until we start walking to our investigators' houses and we're walking through LITERALLY KNEE HIGH WATER!!! Tuesday it rained SO hard and when we left we walked through a street that went to our KNEES! It was crazy haha, but so cool! 

This week was really awesome, but also a bummer. We had 7 people committed to come to church, but then none of them came. BUT, a recent convert came. and she probably lives a good 4ish miles from the church building and there are many hills. Long story short, she walked ALL the way to the church with her two month old baby on her back and her two other children -- talk about dedication! It was such a milagro that she made it there and we were so happy to see her! Also it was amazing that we found a family of 7!! 7 people! The mom's name is Marta and she was super positive, so we're going to see what happens. She was super interested when we were talking about eternal families! That's a big thing for a lot of people here! 

This week we had the meeting with all the new missionaries and I got to see my Hermana Ralph!!!!!! I missed her so so much! and also my Hermanas Tree and Taylor! it was such a fun reunion! And Presidente Goodman is so awesome and always says such amazing things. I love him and Sister Goodman. 

Me and Hermana Ralph -- back together again:)

We also almost had 170 members at church which was so awesome! It's so fun playing the piano for the Primary, they are so adorable. Sorry this week I'm kind of boring. I honestly can't think of what happened. The days feel like years and the weeks feel like days. :)

I love everyone so much and always miss and have a prayer for you in my heart! These past couple of weeks i have been reading the Book of Mormon so much and honestly it is my favorite book that i have ever read. I love it so much. If you're feeling sad, happy, or anything really, READ THE BOOK OF MORMON! it is so amazing, and the message is wonderful. I love the promises and the blessings that the book brings and the testimonies of our Savior as well. 

I Love my nametag showing that I am a missionary!!

I'm so grateful to be a missionary AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! Something that President said at our meeting was that, its a privilege to be a missionary, not an obligation. And I was thinking wow, seriously though, it IS a privilege! What an amazing privilege to say that I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and get to share my testimony and love for my Savior the best that I can in another language. (Which is also hard....Spanish is hard!) 

Today we ate at Wendy's which is always so weird, and I also think of you Dad! funny funny!
I love you all so much!!!!! Have a good week!

Love your fave misionera!

Hermana Bracha

Beautiful Sunset

Baptisms!

The baptism of Danissa and Daniela was a wreck! haha. We got there at 1:45 to be ready to greet everyone and no one came. It was 2:30 and the baptism was supposed to start at 2:00 and nobody was there, not even Bishop! We called the Bishop and were like uhhh you coming? The little girls were so sad because no one was there, and it was just sad haha. So long story short, 50 phone calls later and an hour and a half later, that's right, the baptism started at 3:30! But we had 20 people there to see it and enough priesthood holders to get it on the road! It was so amazing, and spiritual. and aaaah, it was just the best! Such a good feeling and they are so adorable! 

Baptism of Danissa and Daniela

So it turns out I'm like the only person in Guatemala that knows how to play the piano. So I'm playing for the primary presentation and stake conference. They didn't even ask me either haha, the stake president just came and told me that I was going to play for the choir. So cool! Actually though, it will be awesome and good for me to gain a little bit of the members' trust because it's not like I'm really able to talk to them or anything, hahah! My Spanish is improving everyday, but normally its just me smiling and laughing because I either don't know what they are saying or don't know how to say what I want to say, but OH WELL, with time, eh?

Hermana Barnum and I have so much fun, she's the best, and my zone is really awesome too! I really love it here so much and I don't know why because it's only been like three weeks, but I just have such a love for it! I am constantly sweating though, like insane amounts of sweat. But it's so funny because Hermana Barnum always has a sweat stache. Who knew Americans got those! I always sweat like under my eyes, yuck, but its great! It still rains every day around three until the evening.

They tell me this is a grapefruit

These are our pets living outside our door.

Sooooo this week is going to be awesome because we have 5 new people we're starting to teach! Unfortunately none of them came to church... but that's okay, next week I have faith that they will! It's just so frustrating because they commit to coming and then don't show! But we met this lady on the street that works at a tortille vende and she was telling us that her mom had just passed away a couple days ago. Hermana Barnum whips out a plan of salvation pamphlet and we started to teach her the plan of salvation. The woman and her daughter were crying when we told her that she would be able to see her mom again. It was so spiritual and probably one of the most amazing moments I have ever had in my life. I love this gospel and the peace and spirit we feel when we testify of it to others.
Hopefully I'll have an update on her next week!

The path we take to teach one of our investigators!

I love you all so much and have such a strong testimony of prayer. God hears us and answers when we have the faith. I have felt my prayers answered so many times while being here. We are God's children and he loves us and is always helping us. Jesus is our savior and with faith in Him we can do all. But we need to constantly be trying our best everyday!! I love everyone so much! I love being a missionary!!!!!!

Love the coolest missionary ever,
Hermana Bracha 

P.S. Guatemalans listen to country music, who knew? And American rap, so weird, haha. 

Week 2...

Beautiful Sunset

Hermana Ralph and Hermana Bracha at the Temple

Wendys!!

First Companion -- Hermana Ralph

Wow, let's just say that this week was a rollercoaster of emotions! Butttttt, we have a baptism this Saturday! and then hopefully another one in two weeks! We were at a member's house that I LOVE, she is the coolest, Hermana Candy! and she says, "there's a less active who lives around the corner, you should go and talk to her." It turns out she has two little girls, 9 and 8, and neither of them have been baptized and the mom hadn't gone to church in awhile. Long story short, we've been teaching the girls the lessons and they are both getting baptized this week. 

The other woman we have been teaching is named Gaby, and she is the daughter of a man that my companion taught about a year ago. We asked her, "what do you think are the ways in which we show our faith?" and she says, "well going to church, keeping the commandments, and um, well I should probably get baptized right?" Hermana Barnum just looks at me and goes, "ya! how does the 26th sound?" and she said great. haha. It was the coolest thing! It's amazing how the Lord helps us find the people that are prepared and ready to receive the gospel. but anyways, she's the coolest. 

So apparently I ate cow tongue and stomach this week. On November first they eat this dish called fiambre. Nobody knows why, but it's just tradition and they eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's kind of good, it's literally just a ton of like lunch meats and vegetables. But after she asked us if we liked it, and of course we say, oh ya, we loved it.. right? And then my comp holds up this weird thing and asks what it was and the woman says, estomago. EWWW! I can only imagine the face I pulled because everybody started laughing at me, but haha, ew ew ew. I was trying so hard not to gag. And then the woman continued to tell us everything that was in there and there was tongue, and other weird junk. I will spare the details. So yay, my first weird experience. Other than that, it's just a lot of rice and chicken which is yummy, and then beans and eggs, and TORTILLAS! Tortillas with literally everything, even spaghetti. Like huuuuuh? who eats tortillas with spaghetti? Weird. It's like they worship tortillas here, it's hilarious. They think they are so healthy. Oh well, I love it here. The language is hard, but I am understanding a lot more than the first day so that's a bonus! Talking is just super hard. Sometimes I forget I'm in Guatemala because today we ate at Pizza Hut and we were going to make cookies as a zone but then there wasn't any electricity so that was unfortunate. Other than that it's good here. OH YA! So it's been raining, so around 3:00 it just started pouring, like nothing compared to Oregon rain because here when you are in the rain for three seconds you are soaked head to toe. 

One more amazing experience that happened this week was that we were visiting this recent convert Dulio. He was sad because his son had just moved to the states, and we were just talking and stuff and then I asked him if we could sing a hymn for him. So Hermana Barnum and I sang Secret Prayer. In the middle of the first verse I noticed his eyes were kind of teary, and then by the end of the second verse he had tears just streaming down his face. When we were done he thanked us like 10 times and said that it was so beautiful and he was so grateful for us. Then both of us bore our testimonies on prayer and it was amazing, definitely the highlight of the week!

There's a ton of english music here, so weird. Like Drake playing loudly so we also turn our church hymns up to drown out the music. I love it and I love singing with Barnum.

I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY. I love waking up everyday and telling people who I represent and who I put my trust in and right now my happiness. I'm so grateful for this opportunity and can't wait to learn more everyday!!!

I love everyone so much!!!
Much love,

My Trainer -- Hermana Barnum

Hermana Bracha 

HELLO FROM MEZALTENANGO!!

As you can tell my area is called Mezaltenango. Oh my goodness it's crazy here but I love it! We have lunch and dinner everyday with someone in the ward and it's so hard because they want to know who I am and where I'm from, but turns out I AM HORRIBLE at Spanish! I sometimes avoid eye contact so people won't talk to me hahahah, but oh well, I know with time that will get better.

It's crazy here, like crazy! It's a lot more modern than I expected, there's a lot of little kids with phones and Taco Bell, Burger King, and McDonalds! So weird, but then there's also people who literally live in metal shacks with dirt floors, so it's the best of both worlds I guess. I forgot my camera cord so I will send a ton of pics next week!

My trainer is an American!!! I feel so blessed, I try to talk in Spanish, but its hard when I don't know how to and it really helps to have her, plus she is amazing and I love her death. The only down side is that this is her last transfer so after this transfer I'm going to get a new companion, so I will have two trainers.

It's so fun. Sometimes we take transportation which is literally just a van that they pack people in like crazy and it's so hot and stinky, but it beats walking! Did I mention IT IS SO HOT HERE? I don't think I have stopped sweating in the past week, but oddly enough I don't mind it anymore because everyone is sweaty ya know?

But oh man, I just can't wait until I am able to be crazy and talk to everyone! so on my first day we got to Retalhuleu and did all the interviewing stuff and left and got to our area, dropped our bags and went to dinner at a members house. SO SCARY! and then right after we went tracting and taught a lesson. That was terrifying, but the next day, we found 9 new investigators!!! 9!!! It was awesome, we just started talking to everyone and got a ton of people, so right now we are teaching 7 of them. But sadly only one of the ladies came to church yesterday, so that's why I'm excited for this week to teach more and hopefully get them to church!

But anyways. augh I know I'm missing a ton of stuff but I cant remember anything that has happened other than I love it herrrrreeee! This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, but I know with time it will get a little easier.... I am so grateful for the blessing of prayer, to be able to pore my heart out to my Father in heaven and know that someone is listening to what I am saying. And to have a Savior that knows what I am feeling, and knows how to help me. Hopefully next week I will have a little more to report. I am so blessed to be a part of this work, and I love waking up and putting on my name tag everyday to say that I AM a representative of Jesus Christ on the earth, to teach and testify of his ministry on this Earth. WHAT a blessing I have been given . I love you all so much!!! 

Much, much love, from the coolest missionary ever...

Hermana Bracha