Week 40: LA SEMANA SANTA

Happy late Easter!!!

Semana Santa is the craziest week of the year in Guatemala!!! The catholics go crazy with huge parades of Jesus and Mary! There are huge groups of teenagers that run around with manikins and sound makers and they FOLLOW YOU AROUND until you give then money or bread hahaha at the end of the week they take the manikins and crucify them. There have been storys that crucify the super drunk people. This week is literally INSANE haha

Everyone passes out the yummiest bread during semana santa. They do bread exchanges!!! One person brings bread to someone and then that person gives them bread!! hahah They also make really pretty street art out of saw dust!  

SO then we had to travel down to mazate from our area and there wasnt any transportation because of semana santa so some how we found a tuktuk to take us up to our area but OF COURSE it broke down on the way so we got stranded on the side of the road. We started walking even though it was going to take 40 minutes hahaha but then a SKETCH semi pulled  over and asked if we were going to san pancho and that he would give us a ride. I got in and never thought twice hahaha I was not about to walk 40 minutes on a sliver of dirt road!! sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get back to your area. #Guatelife.

So my easter lunch was very fun. We ate half cooked cow meat. I threw up the whole afternoon, everytime I threw up in the street the stray dogs came RUNNING to eat my throwup hahah the dogs starve out here without my throwup hahah #guatelife.

The next day we got fed spaghetti and I genuinely almost cried because I was so excited to eat something soft on my stomach. But then we got fed more of the same type of meat and I threw up so much it came out my nose hahhaah people think Im crazy cause I literally still teach lessons and knock doors even though I get sick hahaha

But this week was such a good reminder about the things that truly matter. I found this week that SO many people focus on the death of Jesus Christ but not on the life of Christ. We can learn SO much from his example. My life is being changed everyday because of Him. Because of the example he left for us we have the chance to become like Him. What a JOY it is to serve Him as a representative of Him during this easter season. 

Con gozo,

Hermana Salisbury

Week 39: HALF WAYYYY (9 MONTHS)!!!!

A week full of bad luck hahaha!

 

SO we got a phone call that a member needed help cleaning out her dining room shelves so we went over and found HUNDREDS OF DEAD COCKROACHES hahaha and all their poop. Omg cleaning it wasn't that bad but the fact that they gave us the sponges they use to clean their dishes to clean out all the insets and poop got to me because THEN THEY WASHED THE DISHES WITH IT. THEN WE ATE THERE FOR LUNCH, AND WE ATE OFF THOSE SAME DISHES WITH THE LEFT OVER COCKROACHES  ahhhhh!!!!! 

To continue with the bad luck, I got really sick. I had a pounding head ache and my whole body was sore, and I had a fever of 101. It was BRUTAL cause right now we are in the DEAD middle of summer so its normally 97 degrees here with humidity. But the work goes on. I go out even when I feel like that, I think only though the powers of heaven I find the energy to work and be super sick hahah!

MORE BAD LUCK my ex comp hermana Morales IS IN THE HOSPITAL. She is having really bad kidney problems!! Shes been in the hospital for almost 5 days!!

 

Update on my tuk tuk admirer, hahaha I wasn't in my area for a couple of days cause I am doing intercambios with the hermanas in my zone to help them in their areas and my comp was in my area. She told me that he would drive up REALLY FAST and PUMPED to see me and then he realized I was gone and my comp said he looked so sad hhahaa! He always flashes his headlights when he sees us walking haha!

We got on a bus this week that was SO full that i had to stand on the step to get on the bus with the DOOR WIDE OPEN hahaha and they speed like a million miles a hour hahha! I only had one little handle to bar to grasp and i was SWEATING SO BAD that my hand almost slipped hahaha guatelife.

 

WOW HALF WAY!!!! Fastest 9 months of my life. I made it up to the peak! Now its all down hill to 18 months AHHH Im not ready. 

 

Then everything was PERFECT for Enrique! But then we hit some bumps in his progress and he got REALLY upset about this and had a relapse and started drinking. Everytime we have passed by to help him with his doubts he is drunk so we have to leave and we cant help. It has been one of the hardest parts of my mission to see an investigator come SOOO close and fall so fast. Its the type of sadness that hurts a little. I'm sure the savior is very familiar with this feeling. When we come so close to our potential and fall short. We will all fall short. ALWAYS. We are humans. But we have the 2nd chance through Christs sacrifice. May we all take advantage of this gift, this second chance. I testify that change is possible through the power of the atonement.  

Con amor, 

Hermana Salisbury   

Week 38: Meeting my 3rd mission president!!!

HEYYY!!! Wow this week flew by! 

Another week full of miracles!! Enrique is still going strong! He has a set date to get baptized this Saturday!! I CANT WAIT!!! He is so amazing. Ill write more about him next week!

We had a multi zona this week to meet the PARKERS!!! They are seriously SOO nice! The parkers had met my parents a couple months earlier so when I saw them I ran up to meet them and sister parker gave me the biggest hug and had tears in her eyes and said that this hug is from my mom awwwww It hit me too hard hahah I have to hold it together for 9 more months hahaha!

Then we watched conference IN ENGLISH!!! #BLESSED We had about 15 gringos surrounded one little computer hahaha we were so desperate to listen to the prophets voice without voice overs hahaha We showed up to conference and everything was SOOO unorganized nothing was set up so we got into stateside mode and had to figure out how to set up conference in time for everyone hahaha one elder said [if we we were in the states this would have been set up the WEEK before[ hahaha love the chapins.

On the way back from conference it was POURING rain. It rained so hard that it was up to my ankles. I had never been so grateful for my grandma crocs. Im still sick, so during the rain storm I threw up into the street and the little river on the street just SWEPT it away so quick hahah pros and cons.  

The dogs are still trying to stop the missionary work hahaha! We were basically hiking to an appointment and when we turned the corner about 5 growling dogs came out of no where and I was so fed up at that point I just started slinging my book of mormon back and forth and they didn't end up biting us hahah then some pilas 4 year olds came out of the forest to get the dogs away hahah i love the kids here! Their parents just leave them at home while they go to work. The kids are solid, they literally wash their own clothes by hand at age 8 hahaha everyone just fends for themselves here! 

I LOVED being able to hear from a living prophet this weekend. I LOVED when he said TIME IS RUNNING OUT. So simple but SO bold. We do not have time to mess around with the commandments of god. We need to keep the commands of the lord and trust that we will be blessed for it. As we ACT we can show the lord we are ACTIVELY following his will. time is running out, the savior is coming, may we all prepare our lives with the necessary changes. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Salisbury

Week 37: EATING COCKROACHES

I have never seen so miracles in all of my mission. 

This week was my first week with my hija hermana calvo!! I have really been having to improve my Spanish, she talks SOO fast hahah She told me thats just how they talk in el salvador!! Anyways this week we went and got pupusas (SOO GOOD) and I started eating and I bit into something that I thought was burnt cheese but then I felt little legs on my tongue so I pulled it out to examine AND IT WAS A COCKROACH AHHHHHH I was so freaking grossed out but I was eating at a restaurant owned by members so I threw what I had pulled out on the ground and swallowed the rest!!!! AHHHH Im gagging again just writing this. 

Then we visited the oldest guatemalan ever!! Shes 95 and cant walk. She literally just sits there all day. She wears a little diaper and everything haha

So we traveled to the furtherest part of our area the other day to eat dinner with a member. We left after to find a tuk tuk to get back to our house but not one passed. We couldnt just walk home cause we wouldve gotten robbed so quick cause its a dark path. So we waited until 9Ñ30 pm and we realized we HAD to do something. So we started freaking out a little and by 9Ñ45pm a SUPER sketch van passed by that was transferring people out of that part of the area so we took it home! hahaha Third world problems. 

When we take tuk tuks around our area I always invite them to church and all that. But they have all become good friends of mine! But some of them take it too far hahaha there is this one tuk tuk guy that always slows down when he sees us walking and asks if we want a ride and just flirts it up haha so awk!!! Literally no matter what when he sees us walking by he slams on his brakes to say HOLA GRINGA BONITA hahaha!  Even with customers in his tuk tuk!!  You gotta do what you gotta do to baptize. JK The tuk tuks are crazy tho. They are small three wheel motorcycle things and they should only fit 3 people AT THE MAX but somehow they have figured out to get 8 FULL GROWNS in one tuk. I always end up sitting with half my body hanging out and I have to depend on my arm strength to hold me in the tuk hahaha SO SKETCH.(INSTANT DEATH)

We saw SOOO many miracles this week. We have 6 investigators with baptism date!!! We found ENRIQUE this week. He is the biggest miracle of my mission so far. Basically hes an alcoholic of many years. And one month ago he made the choice to stay clean. I found him in a members house a couple of weeks ago and invited him to come to church thinking he was already a member and he came 2 weeks in a row BUT TURNS OUT hes never been baptized and hes ready to change his life!!!!! The lord is always preparing blessings for us that we cant see. He is on date to be baptized the 13th of April if he doesnt drink until then!!!!!! I made him a promise that if he cuts off alcohol I would cut out sugar!! We are in this together! I am so thankful for the savior and his power to change lives and prepare them to accept the restored gospel. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Salisbury