Hola from Guatemala

So this week was a little crazy but it all worked out! We got back from Guatemala City at about 8:00 Wednesday, so we really only had Thursday to Sunday to work! But Elian and Sharon both got baptized and it was such a good baptism! 40 members came and both the families came! Elian's dad and Sharon's dad are less actives that haven't come to church in years and Sharon's dad shared his testimony in front of everyone and it was amazing. I hope that with time we will be able to keep working with them and helping them to get back to church.

Elian's Baptism

Sharon's Baptism

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK PEOPLE!!! Prepare yourselves, we are literally going to be listening to the apostles and prophet of God! We are going to be listening to the counsel and advice from the Lord! If they say we need to do something. DO IT! I'm so excited and already preparing my questions that I want answered and I encourage you to do the same! In one way or another one of the apostles or the prophet will answer our questions. I promise!!

Right now we're teaching a bunch of people so I can't give all the stories in particular, but I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY. The people here are so loving and just love to share with us. This week I have been studying a lot about charity and how we must have charity or we are nothing. In the women's conference that is what President Henry B. Eyring talked about! We must have charity or we are not true disciples or Christ!

I love this gospel and encourage all of you to take an extra 5 minutes tonight to give a SINCERE prayer of thanks and to show God that you want his guidance in your life. I love you all so much and know that this gospel is the way to happiness! Prepare yourselves for General Conference and enjoy!!

A bird made a "dropping" on my companion's arm and I laughed until I cried.

I send my love from good ol Guatemala!
Con Amor,
Hermana Bracha

Hola!

My Zone

Lame blog this week because tomorrow my companion has to go to Guatemala City to sign her visa like I had to do a month ago. So tomorrow we're going to be in a bus for like 4 hours!

Our Bishop's sweet kids

 Armando got baptized this past weekend! He had the date for March 25th and he called us and told us that he felt like he needed and wanted to get baptized on the 18th. He called us on Thursday! So we threw a baptism together and it was amazing! 40 people came and it was awesome. He is literally the definition of CHANGE. He hasn't drank alcohol, smoked, or anything else in three months and he is so happy. He came to church in a white shirt and tie and in the hallway was singing "I hope they call me on a mission." He was also talking about in a year when he gets to start doing his papers to serve his mission. He loves to be a member of the church and to talk with everyone. I love seeing his change!!

Armando's Baptism

This next week we have Sharon and Elian scheduled for baptism and they are two teenagers that are super pilas and we're really excited for them! A woman in the ward gave us a referral for her friend who is super awesome and I know that she is going to get baptized too!

I love this gospel!!! I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY!!! We went to visit a less active family and the little kid yelled at his mom "MOOOMMM those missionaries have come to the houseeee!!! they came to talk about Jesus!!" It was so cute and he was telling us how he wants to go back to the church so he can take his pan y agua, how cute, he wants to go to take the sacrament!

My hair is getting so blonde from the sun!

Guatemalans can carry ANYTHING on their heads!

Sorry this week is really short, I'll have lots the next week!! Just know all, that I am happy, sunburnt and tan, and loving Guatemala! I can talk like 60/100 Spanish and so that in itself is a huge blessing. I love the work, I love my savior, and I love everything that I do. I love you all. Pray, read your scriptures, and go to church... AND THE TEMPLE!!!!

Love you all!
Happy week!
Hermana Bracha

6 MONTHS!!

I love Hermana Tercero

I offered service by carrying water on my head. Man it was heavy!

This time I'm carrying tortillas.

Best District in Guatemala!

P-day at the waterfall

Can you believe that in a year from tomorrow I will be coming home? Me neither! So let's not think about IT!! Congrats to Zack and Kate on the BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY!!! I cant wait to meet him, he is so adorable!!! ahhhh!!!

So if there are 5 things that I have learned so far on my mission, they are:

1. I can carry things on my head

2. I can talk on the phone with people in Spanish

3. I can do the cool finger flick thing that all the Latinos do

4. I can eat food with my fingers

5. THAT I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY AND I LOVE MY SAVIOR.

Obviously number 5 is the most important, but the others are just cool side facts.

This week was super cool and we had 4 investigators in church! We have 3 baptisms for the 25th of March and we have a wedding in April! We have 3 other people that have the potential to love the gospel like I love it too!! This week I really saw the hand of the Lord in our work. Carlos blessed the sacrament on Sunday and was so nervous, but he did such a good job. Karina is amazing and is helping us so much in the work. Armando is a 19 year old boy who is literally the definition of change. When I came to Malacatan he said bad bad words, smoked and drank a lot, and now he has three months without drinking, 2 weeks without smoking, hasn't said bad words in 2 months (he says) and now we're working on helping him to stop drinking coffee. All of this in only three months!! When I came he didn't want anything to do with the church, he would only come to drop of his girlfriend and would sometimes stay for Sacrament Meeting, but two weeks ago he came up to me at church and said, Hermana Bracha, I want to get baptized. I already talked with bishop and we set the date for the 25. IT WAS AMAZING! I never thought that I would have an experience like that in my mission, but it happened. So anyways, we have been teaching him and he is awesome, when we taught him about the plan of salvation he was so EXCITED to start the work. He has a lot of family that has died and he was so excited to know that he could help them in the work in the temple and he has already started to do it and wants to serve a mission too. Also, yesterday he came to church all groomed, completely different than how he normally looks. This gospel changes lives people!!!

The other hermanito that we are teaching is Elian! He is 17 and his dad is less active. He went to the Church a lot when he was little and was a little nervous to go back with us, but he had a really good experience. He also is going to get baptized the 25! He was super interested in the Book of Mormon because he didn't know that Christ came to the Americas to visit the people here too. When we were explaining to him about the book, he said, wow, okay now I really want to read that thing. IT WAS SO COOL. It's sad that his mom doesn't want anything from us, but we're hoping to help out the dad  to come back to church!

The other hermanita that we are teaching is Sharon and she is almost 14, but has SUCH a strong testimony of the church. The only hardship with her is that her dad is less active too and her mom is super Evangelica and doesn't want her to get baptized, so we're hoping that we can get permission from the mom because Sharon wants to be in the church so badly. She knows it's true and has already started doing seminary and everything. She is so awesome. We are seeing some really amazing miracles here.

This week was a little hard though because yesterday we hadn't found any new people to teach and I was stressing out a little bit because we didn't have news! So yesterday before we went out to contact people and work, we said a prayer (like always, we should always pray before we do anything!) and we asked for just one person that would be interested in our message and would love the gospel. And that is EXACTLY what happened. Every person we talked to didn't really want anything to do with us and it was a little discouraging, but the last person--Emmanuel, did. He is 19 and really wants to change his life. He has a really heavy addiction to smoking and was so excited to see us. In his prayer he said, "Thank you Lord, for sending me these two missionaries to finally help me change like my parents have wanted me to for so many years. I know that you are in my life and that I can finally do this!" TALK ABOUT FAITH!!! Hermana Tercero and I were blown away! I literally didn't even have any words when he ended the prayer. I know that he is going to get baptized and love the gospel like I do.

It's crazy that mostly all the people we are finding who are interested are young teenage boys (well boys our age) The lord needs more priesthood, so that is what he is doing! Preparing the people for us to find! Yesterday the sacrament bread was sweet bread and I had a little thought come into my mind. How "sweet" to know that I have a Savior that loves me and suffered for me. That through His "not so sweet sacrifice" I can be happy and find peace in the world. How "sweet" that I have this knowledge and now have the opportunity to share it with other people. I love to be a missionary and I love to talk to the people here about this church. This "church" not only is a church, but it is literally the church of God, of Jesus Christ, that changes peoples lives. I love everything that it offers and I am so grateful for the 6 months I have had serving the Lord. And I am so excited for this upcoming year! I can't believe how fast the time goes by, and I sure hope that it slows down!

I love you all! Pray, read your scriptures, and attend your meetings! Serve others and love the Lord:) I love you all and have a happy week!

Hermana Bracha 

Hello Hello America!!

Everything is awesome here in Malacatan! I'm going on three transfers here and I am now with my new companion Hermana Tercero! I love that she is my 3rd companion here and her name is Tercero. HA! funny! Anyways, she is from Nicaragua and is 25! She is so awesome and joined the church three years ago! Her whole family got baptized with her too, but right now she is the only active one. No one in her family wanted her to come on a mission, but she knew that she needed to and wanted to, so she did it. Her story is amazing and I seriously look up to her SO MUCH! About a year ago when her family went inactive she continued to go to the church every Sunday and to the activities every week by herself. She took a bus for 30 minutes to get to the church building every Sunday at 9 in the morning. Talk about commitment, she is so cool.

Hermana Tercero

Also, there isn't a temple in Nicaragua so we're praying that they are going to start building one there this upcoming general conference!!! PRAY PEOPLE! She went through the temple for the first time HERE in Guatemala! She came to Guatemala and then went through the temple, now THAT is faith.

She is so amazing and I love to listen to her conversion story and its so powerful when she shares it with the other people. She is a little ball of energy and we are definitely NEVER bored. She loves to talk! 

Right now we have three fechas for baptism!! The family of Paola and Joshua! We're hoping that they can do it this transfer because they are still working on trying to get their papers, so here's hoping it works out, because who knows if I'll be here. But they're going to move to Mexico in May and they want me when I finish my mission to go to Mexico to visit them so I can go to their wedding in the temple. Mom, Dad, start learning Spanish because we're going to Mexico!! haha. They are so cool and I love them and their baby Kayla so much!

The other is Armando who is the most amazing example of change! He is three months without drinking right now and is trying to stop smoking. It's truly amazing his example of willpower and trusting in God. And the other is a little Hermana, 13 years old who is SO COOL! Her dad is a less active, so we're hoping to reactivate the dad and get the girl in the church too! And the coolest is that her sister and a friend of the sister both came to church yesterday. Yesterday we had 7 investigators at church, what a miracle!

God loves us and I know that he is blessing and helping us in our area a ton. because Hermana Tercero and I really aren't doing anything, everything that is happening is because God wants them there! It's truly amazing to see the miracles that happen everyday!! I LOVE TO BE A MISSIONARY!!! I know that I say that every week, but every week I mean it more and more. Also the Spanish is getting a lot easier so that also helps:)))

I love everyone and I want you to know that I KNOW that this is the everlasting true church. The only gospel where YOU can find the happiness that you want. I love the Book of Mormon and the Bible, prayer, and everything that this church offers. I know with all my heart that it is real. I have never in my life known like I know now, that these things are true. I love my Savior. I am so grateful for him. i love Thomas S. Monson and am SO EXCITED for one month where we will get to her him and the apostles speak. Everyone invite your friends to hear them!

I love you all and hope everyone is so so goooood!!!!
Hermana Bracha