San Juan

Hola!!!!!

I am finally in the misison field. Sorry I could not write last week, we did not have a P-Day. I would tell you about my last week in the MTC but I feel like you would rather know about my first week in the field. As you can see from the Heading I am in San Juan. It is a town in the mountains in Guatemala. I like it because it is one of the coolest parts of my mission. I do not like the heat and this is almost the hottest time of the year here. They speak two languages here so it can be confusing, however right now I am only focusing on Spanish. Sometimes my companions will speak the other language and I will get super confused.  

Driving to My Area

Me and My Companions

 

View from our Apartment

So I am going to be honest with all of you and say that this has been one of the toughest weeks of my life. Guatemala is really different from the United States and so it takes time to adjust. I am in a Trio with Hermana Calero and Hermana Rodriguez. Hna. Calero is from Nicuragua and Hna. Rodriguez is from Guatemala. She is waiting on a VISA to go to Peru.  They do not really know English but that is good beacuse it helps me to speak more Spanish. My Spanish is actually not that bad. When I talk people understand. It is not perfect but I can at least teach which is good. My companions say I have the Spanish of a missionary that has been out for 7 months. I don`t agree but oh well. The members are really nice and they also say I have good spanish. The thing is that I am better at speaking than understanding. I think that is funny. 

 

The first two days in the field were some of the hardest but Heavenly Father blessed me with rain. I loved it and got totally soaked. I was wet but happy. My companions thought I was craz. They did not like the rain and wanted it to stop. It was helping me a lot though so I prayed out loud for more rain and it would rain harder. :)  

 

What I woke up to my first morning in the field

Being in the mountains we travel a lot. We travel by walking, riding buses and Taxi's ( Tuk Tuks)  We are always going places. I actually really like the buses because there are always a lot of people on them and they drive really fast. People do not really follow speed limits here.  I love teaching people and helping them. When we go to houses it is crazy. The houses are tiny and very dark. A lot have dirt floors and they are just so dirty. What is interesting is that the peoples cloths are usually clean.  There is trash everywhere in the street and dogs and cats running around. It is different but I am getting used to it and I know that I can help these people by  teaching them about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

 

One of the best things that happened this week was with our investigator. She is going through a rough time because her husband is leaving her. We had one lesson with her and set a baptism date for April 26th. She said that was too early and pushed it back to May 25th. Then we had a relief society conference at the Stake Center and she really felt the spirit. The next day in our lesson she told us that she wanted to get baptized sooner on the 26th of April. I am so happy for her. She is so ready for the gospel and it will bless her life. This Sunday was her first at church and she was participating and asking questions it was great. She says that we are her angels.  

 

We had other investigators come to church as well. They are progressing and they really seemed to like it. We are in a Branch. It is small but so great. I love the church becuase no matter where you are in the world it is the same. Another thing that is different here is that their addresses are really unorganized and they will just go ahead and feed their baby in the middle of the street or during a lesson. 

 

I love the families here especially the family where I go to eat food everyday. They are so kind and are sort of like my family right now along with my companions.  Oh, just so you know, the town that I am in is really safe. ninjas protect us. Well everynight people dress up as ninjas and protect the neighborhoods.  I love you all and I will write again next week. thank you for your love and support. Also Happy Birthday to Timothy and Grandma B.Nana. 

     Hermana Cailey Gurule

Goodbye CCM!!

Wow, I can not bellieve that this is my last week in the CCM.  To be honest I am not sad about that at all.  I am ready to go out into the field.  This week, like every two weeks, there are a lot of changes.  I am only companions with Hermana Coats now and Hermana Ison is in a Latino district. My district is now Amos and there are 3 of us from Isaias and then 8 new nortes. There were 30 new nortes that came last week.    A little sad news is that we did not get to teach our real investigator this week. We were going to but we were told that the missionaries in the area would do it.

That makes sense. I just hope that I will get to teach him or even see him again sometime when I am in the field.  The last week has gone by really fast.  We leave class to learn different grammer or lessons.  

It makes time fly and that is fine with me. If you can't tell I am just so excited to go out to the field.   I wasn't going to write this but it is really funny I think,  All of the Nortes here say that you are either constapated or you have the runs.  I usually do not have these problems but for all the other nortes is is a problem all the time.  

Temple Square 2010

 

 I love that since I am in the last two weeks before I go to my misison that there are Latinos from my mission as well.  I have made a lot of friends and I love them all.  Besides all of the new poeple this week has basically been like any other.  One really good and sad thing is that I finished reading the book of mormon again.  That book does contain the fullness of the gospel and I was sad because it was over, but I get to satrt reading it again.  I challenge everyone to read Moroni 7 this week.  It is an amazing chapter and I know you will all benefit from it.  I would also like to say how grateful I am for the early saints in the Church and the sacrifices they made.  This gospel is amazing and it changes people for the better.  One last thing is that I spoke Spanish all day yesterday and no English.  It was amazing and today when I spoke in English it is really weird.  I say the words in English but in my head I think of them in Spanish.  Well I love you all.  Thank you for all  you do.  Just so people know I got four letters this week, two from Shawn and two from Jared.   Well I will talk to you when I am in the field.  Adios!!!

True Guatemalteco

This week was the best week I have had in the CCM.  Sorry if this is shorter I tried sending pictures. I will explain what they are another day. Presedente gave me permission.  A lot has gone on this week.  It all satred in the begining of the week when I fell down the stairs and bruised my ankle and my leg. Do not worry though it feels much better now. I am just glad I did not break anything. Before I forget, please send all of my mail from now on to my mission home.  The mail takes 2 weeks to get here so if you send it to the CCM I will be gone.

 

This week was so amazing because I got to go and contact with people. It was only across the street at the Temple but it was an amazing experience. We talked to a man and his daughter. Now we have an appointment to meet with him on Thursday.  You could not do that in the Provo MTC.  One of the coolest things that I think will help is that he was born in Jerusalem, moved to Guatemala most of his life and for college he went to New York.  Do you know what that means?  He knows English!!!  I am super excited to teach him.

 

Here we are! Courtesy of the wonderful Sister Brinton :) - Hermanas Ison, Gurule y Coats (left to right) We love you lots!!!!!

This week it was about 60 degrees so the Latinos were very cold. All of them were wearing scarves hats gloves and winter jackets. It was funny. My district keeps gettting smaller and smaller. Right now we have 2 Hermanas and one Elder. This week they are going to put us in a Latino district or put us with the new Nortes coming in.  I hope we will go with the Latinos so I do not know who my companion will be.  Today we got to leave the CCM again and go on a city tour and to the market.  It was cool and I bought a bunch of things for about $3.  After the market we went to this square and talked to people. I love contacting. We talked to this man, I gave him a book of mormon and got his informatiuon because he wants to know more. The people down here are amazing and very humble.

Group Photo of all Missionaries at the CCM

I love it!!!  Oh and also today when we talked to this one man he was convinced I was a native and my companions were from the USA. I guess the few things I said in spanish were correct. It was funny. Well I have to go.  Love you all lots. Hermana Gurule