Loving Every Minute of It

Farewell to the Bautistas

Welcoming President and Hermana Smith

This is Ada. She is the best and served us fish this week.

This is Jennifer and Josue's baby that was born this week. (see last letter)

I have missed Hermana Call so much! Loved doing divisions with her this week.

The members helping Hermana Gonzalez get to the doctor because she couldn't walk. So nice! Watching them move her kind of made me laugh. 

Hey family.

It will never cease to amaze me how many things can happen in a week on the mission. Last Monday night we got back to the house and started cleaning before we went out to work. It was about 5:30pm and all the sudden I hear ¨Hermana!¨ and I went running into the little entry way. My companion had stepped on a tragaluz (a glass square thing in the floor that lets light in) and had broken it with her foot. Her heel was down in the hole and she was legitimately hyperventilating.  She told me that she goes into shock when she sees blood so that was good that is was bleeding profusly. Luckily I was just pretty calm and helped her sit down and cleaned up all the blood while I called the nurses... long story short, we went to the hospital and she wouldn´t let anyone touch her but me. Finally we got her on the bed thing and she got 8 stiches... the nurses bought us McDonalds and we got home about 9:30. That was quite an adventure. Right when it happened and we sat down I held her hand and said a prayer and she calmed down a lot. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father loves us and always takes care of us.

So all week we have been doing 2 day divisiones with the hermanas in our hermana zone. One of the hermanas stays at home with Hermana Gonzalez and the other comes out to work with me in our area for a day. And then we all sleep together and the next day I go with the hermana that stayed with Hermana Gonzalez and we go work in her area for a day. I have been all over the place this week and it has been great. I have learned so much and I am so grateful for the time that I have to be with the hermanas.The hermanas in the zone are doing well and they are working hard. Each hermana is a different world but the Holy Ghost helps to understand and lead them along. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve. I love this gospel and the work that we are so blessed to participate in. I have been reading in D&C 11 this week and I know that we have been called of God to bring this precious restored gospel to all the world, and especially here in Bougambilias. All we need to do is work with all our heart, might, mind, and strength- and the Spirit will always be with us when we are worthy. Hermana Call is in my zone and it is such a blessing to be with her. She is such a dear friend and she has grown so much since the day I picked her up in the mission home last October. What a life. Loving every minute of it.

Today we had a leaders meeting with Presidente Smith and his wife. They are so wonderful. They are super happy and love Guatemala because they have been here for the past few years serving as missionaries in the captial and always working in the offices in Guate. They will help us so much. It was so sad to say goodbye to Presidente and Hermana Bautista but I will see them again someday. They were my best buds. I saw the hermanas that are in Cerrito today and they gave me the update on everyone. Remember Rudy that disappeared? Well he came back and has a fecha for the 12th! And Anotnio was released as young mens counselor and is now ward mission leader. Oh man... He is the best. He will be such a great missionary and I just hope he keeps going strong. The good thing is that he has so much ward support and his family all live far away. The Lord always leads and protects his children and puts them exactly where they need to be. What a blessing it is to get to know such wonderful people. I cannot even start to think about coming home in 5 months or I start bawling. I love these people so much. They are my family too. Guatemaltecos are the best.

We are teaching the daughter of a less active and they are doing so well. Hopefully she can be baptized in the coming weeks. I will tell you more about their story next week.

La familia Polio is doing so great. They are working hard to strengthen their testimonies and grow in their faith. They found out that hermana Gonzalez was hurt and Hermano Ismael said to me, in all seriousness ¨Hermana McGill, I have a bike that I use to sell oranges and it has a huge crate on the front. We can come pass by your house to bring her to church if you guys can't make it by foot!¨ Oh how I love them! 

We went and visited Mari and she also offered to pass by and pick up Hna Gonzalez if we couldn´t pass by to pick her up. haha Nothing like investigators picking up the missionaries on Sunday morning. I asked how she was doing in the Book of Mormon. We had left her a little part in Mosiah and she started explaining to me the entire story of Nephi getting the plates from Laban and then the whole vision of the tree of life. She even referenced the different sections of the plates and everything. I love when people can read and when they understand things! It was so great. She got so excited and said that she just kept reading one day until it was dark and she was cold and couldn´t see anymore. It was the best. The power of the Book of Mormon is so real. She told us that as she has read from the Book of Mormon and attended church she feels a new desire to change and accept God´s will, even when it is hard for her. I was so proud of her. And the Spirit was so strong as we read Mosiah 3:19-

 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

We must yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit to be able to change all that we need to and turn all of our weaknesses into strengths (Ether 12:27) Sometimes I think we spend so much time worrying about and trying to change things that are not that important right now, while we neglect the most important little things that the Spirit is prompting us with. We were able to use this scripture to help Mari understand the importance of baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how it would bless her family. Her uncle that is a member is coming tomorrow to visit with us and hopefully she can keep progressing well.

 20 And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

And I love verse 20 also! The power of the Atonement is so real, and ¨the knowledge of a Savior¨ brings that power into our lives. Therefore we must seek Him out and learn of Him. That is why we must do missionary work. How else can our brothers and sisters learn of the Savior´s sacrifice and draw closer to Him? I love this promise in Preach My Gospel-¨As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You will feel, as Lehi did, the “great … importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth” (2 Nephi 2:8).¨ That is so true. I feel the importance of making these things known to all of the world. Thus I will forever work, forever teach, and forever testify that Jesus Christ lives. That He has called prophets to lead and guide us and help us make the necessary changes so that we can put off the natural man. This is the Lord´s true and restored church. We are preparing for his coming. And all of these incredible people are too, even if they don´t yet know it. I am so grateful for the patience and humility and faith that I am developing here in Guatemala. I am still very far from perfect. I still mess up a lot. I still need the Savior's grace and mercy every day. But I am a lot better at repenting. And I feel so close to the Spirit. He is my friend and my guide.

I love you guys so much. Hope you enjoy Lyd´s birthday (oh baby... sweet 16) and have the best 4th of July! How blessed we are!!

Hermana McGill