HOLA! Ah! Mi familia!!!!
Los amo mucho! Guate es mucho muy bonito y mi area nuevo es Huehuetenango. All the missionaries say this is their favorite and I agree. The warmer the place the warmer the people and it´s gorgeous here! Hermana Castaneda is from Belize and she is a gem! I am blessed. Speaks english and spanish fluently. What a life. I don´t really ever know what is going on but it is so great! I am learning so much and my heart is bursting with love for these people and the gospel.
Leaving the CCM in Guate felt like leaving my family again. I just cried and cried as I said goodbye to all those people! Ah! Why is it so hard for me to leave people... but I am grateful to be where I am. Presidente and Hermana Bautista are the absolute best things ever! They are 100% kindness. Sister Bautista is hilarious. Always laughing and smiling and the perfect cute grandma with glasses on her nose and the tiniest voice. Presidente is so kind and full of knowledge. We had a tiny training and then hopped on the craziest bus I´ve ever been on to go up to Huehue. It was about 2.5 hours, up winding roads and hills, and in the pouring rain! I was so grateful to get off that bus. They pack 20000 people on them along with every other sort of thing you could imagine and our suitcases were just chilling on top of the bus sloshing everywhere. Hahahaha I love it!
This area is gorgeous. I love Guate. The part that I am serving in is pretty rural. The people are so humble. Daddy didn´t think I´d be teaching in homes with dirt floors... ha Im grateful to find a home with a door and a floor! Mmm... the people are amazing. Half the time I can´t understand what people say and I was getting a little discouraged about spanish but then I realized that they aren´t even speaking spanish!!! They speak a ton of languages here but luckily everyone knows at least a little spanish so I´m just focusing on that. We teach all kinds of people. Old ladies with no teeth, 15 year olds that are married, families, singles, 80 year old men in the street that reach my shoulder because they are so short, kids playing marbles in the dirt... classic. Oh man... Heavenly Father has a lot of children. The women here are so beautiful! Everyone reminds me of mom too. Haha it´s so great. Mom would be best friends with all these women. They are so tan and the hardest workers and only care about their families. There is also a darling little lady named Hermana Bettita that is so hilarious and she reminds me of Grandma Kay so much! She always asks us about boys... I love it. The food is great. Our first night of planning I asked my comp what time dinner was and she just laughed and said... we dont eat dinner. Awesome. But the rest of the food is muy rico! I just dont ask what it is and its all good. The people here always ask where I studied spanish before and when I tell them I didnt they are all impressed. I know its just a tender mercy from Heavenly Father and them being nice because yeah right can I say anything I want to. Mom was right... my biggest motivation for learning is that I want to know what is going on, what people are saying, and I want to laugh and express all the love and things in my heart! Ah... spanish. The most humbling thing but so great.
So they just dedciated this gorgeous new chapel right by our house and I could not be more grateful for it. They dedicated it the week before I got here and it has really upped the church attendance because it is so much closer now. The church is the same wherever you go... love it. We sat down in Sacrament with a few of our investigators and they started doing announcements and saying the hymns and speakers... all the sudden I heard my name and had a small panic attack as I realized that they had just asked me to speak. hahah so awesome. I just bore testimony of the Savior and the power the gospel has in our lives...
Oh my goodness. This church is SO SO SO true! There is nothing more beautiful and more powerful than feeling your testimony grow through tender mercies and spiritual experiences. We see miracles here. I am so grateful for miracles. I don´t know how to say much in Spanish but I just tell Heavenly Father to put words in my mind and heart and then I say whatever comes. Satan does not want us to work. The second Genisis decides to come to youth night after us begging, her dog runs away with literally 7 other scary chuchos and we go chasing it for 200 hours up in the jungle. I stopped and in my little spanish asked if we could pray. I said a little prayer and poured my heart out to Heavenly Father to help us find that dog and strengthen this darling girl´s faith so she could come to Young Womens. We searched and searched and no sign of it... went back to the house. Sat on the porch and with tears in my eyes said out loud- Heavenly Father we need a miracle and this girl needs faith. My comp utter the same tender little words of her own and then we turned around and sure enough that blessed dog came running up the hill. I have never been more grateful. Heavenly Father loves His children, and Young Womens, and our prayers.
We found this family to teach that are so prepared. They were a reference from a man we met on the street who wasnt interested but gave us his sisters address. The mom, Saira has had the hardest life. Watched her brother get killed, had no friends, her husband was doing terrible stuff, and has this darling little autistic boy who is my favorite. We visited with them and two candle lit, rain pouring in the house, hours later we had commited them to church and reading the Book of Mormon. They came to church. It was beautiful. We are setting a baptismal date with them tonight. Another girl, Dulce is 21 and gorgeous. We had set up an appointment to give her a tour of the new church and she wasnt showing... my comp was mad and ready to leave but no. I knew she would come. I prayed, prayed, prayed and sure enough when I turned aroud she was there. We gave the tour, ended in the chapel, talked about the Santa Cena (the sacrament) and testified of the Savior. The Spirit was bursting through the walls and my heart was pounding. Her baptism date is the 27 de Julio and I could not be more excited. She is prepared. It amazing to feel the difference in the eyes and hearts and words of the people whom the Lord really is preparing. I love it SO much!
I was reading in Jacob 5 today and I just had tears running down my face. Verses 61 to the end basically but 61-62 and 71-72 just touched my heart so much because that is us! These truly are the last days and I have been chosen by the Lord to be here in Guate right now. The entire first 60 verses of this chapter the Master is working so hard and doing all He can and it is so frustrating! It is unfruitful sometimes but Ï will spare it a little longer, for it greiveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard.¨ He is so patient! He is so kind! He wants nothing more than our success and happiness and for every single of us to return to the Father. D&C 50:40-44: and none of them that the Father hath given me shall be lost.
These souls are precious. Every single one. My own, my companions, my family, investigators, inactives, members.... The Savior has already paid the price for them all. I am here to represent the best missionary that has ever lived, Jesus Christ, and to offer these weary hearts and burdened bodies so much joy and peace and purpose and the promise of salvation! Eternal life with our families! Ah! If nothing else this mission is teaching me how much I adore my family! I am in love with you guys!!! I am so grateful for parents who set such an example so that when I testify of families and the proclamation and scriptures and prayer I have experience with them and can truly testify with all my heart of the blessings that will come! I so grateful for your prayers for this feeble little missionary that is full of faith and a desire to serve my Savior and Father in Heaven. I am only homesick for Heaven :) Can´t wait to be there with you all and with all of Guatemala because I´m bringing them with me.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to ¨labor for some short day for Jesus the crucified.¨. Such joy ahead... ¨If ye labor with your might ye shall have joy in the fruits which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come.¨ (Jacob 5:71) The day is coming. We are preparing the world for the Savior. When I give these little children those stickers, watch them put them on their shirts and hands and books, and then look into their eyes and testify ¨Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial y Dios nos ama.¨ I can´t help but have tears pour down my cheeks. I love those children´s eyes because I see the Savior in them. He lives. I testify that He lives. I have seen Him with my heart and in the eyes of these people. Their is nothing greater in life than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is complete joy, complete peace, and complete happiness. The Book of Mormon is true and holds the key to salvation. It answers all of our questions and brings us so close to the Savior. Oh man... I love this gospel and I love my family. We´re doing this together. Always.
All my love, all my faith, and all my prayers.
Hermana McGill.
