Week 72: OPENING A NEW AREA with HERMANA CALVO (trainee from april 2019)

Ok I say this every week but this was the craziest week of the mission. hahaha

So President called me to tell me that I won't be a sister training leader for my last three weeks and that he wanted me to open up a BRAND NEW AREA close to the mission office called San Felipe Brillantes! I was SO surprised because I thought I was going to finish my mission in Coatepeque! 

So because I was traveling with president to my new area I got to go to 2 Zone conferences. I got to see all of my old companions and basically say bye to everyone because I'm going home!

 There are 9 missionaries that go home in my group so president had us all go up and give our final testimonies in the zone conferences. It was surreal because I have seen so many other missionaries give their farewell testimony but now it was my turn!!! All the elders that were in the mtc with me said it was INSANE seeing me upthere cause the time just FLEW by!! We had the zone conference on thanksgiving and president fed us a thanksgiving dinner!! It was PERF!! hahaha THanksgiving guat style. 

After the zone conferences we got out super late and all the office elders and us had to get to retalhuleu the next day! (in total we were 7 people) SO president just got us 1 taxi and we had to fit 7 people with ALL of our luggage ahhahaha with the guat power we somehow ALL fit hahaha It was the funniest car ride ever haha we ended up getting pulled over haaahaha Imagine 1 taxi guy driving with 2 people in the front seat and 5 in the back without seatbelts and suitcases FLYING everywhere hahaha The police just looked at us saw we were missionaries and LET US GO hahah that would have been a $1000 ticket hahaha #guatpolice

So I got to my new area and a really nice member gave us stuffed jalapenos for breakfast! We all had to eat with our hands and touch the chile. During the meal I need to itch my eyes so bad so I did and OH MY GOSH biggest mistake because my eye felt like it was on fire. It stung SO bad I just got up mid conversation at the dinner table to pour water in my eyes hahhahahah The host was so confused so she asked me what happened and I told her. She was like HEY JUST PUT A LEMON IN YOUR EYE AND the PAIN will ¨go away¨ hahahahha Im so dumb cause I actually did it!!! I'm surprised I didn't go blind. I was so mad at the lady but I couldn't say anything because she didn't know any better hahaha After about 10 minutes the pain went away haha #guatCHEF

My new area brillantes is SOOOO small town. Not even a town it's like a little neighborhood hahaha Its guatemalan farm with a baby neighborhood. It is so fun cause everyone knows everyone and they having missionaries here!!! 

This week we had the dinner for those that are going home in my group. We all meet up for dinner with president in Quetzaltenago and then we go to the temple!! It was so fun cause we got to stay in the temple housing which is basically a really nice hotel. When I walked in I just stood in shock cause I haven't seen anything like it in a year and a half. Then we found senior missionaries that invited us into their apartment cause they were doing a thanksgiving dinner. When I walked into this home with the smell of a home cooked thanksgiving dinner i CRIED AAHAAH the couple was like ¨you guys dont have this in your mission??¨ hahahhaa i was like uhhh NOT AT ALL!!! Retalhuleu is the most ghetto mission in guat so they probably think we are SO 3rd world hahaha

So yesterday I found out who I was going to open this area with. I got put WITH HERMANA CALVO FROM EL SALVADOR!!! I trained her april 2019 and now she will be with me until I go home!!!!!!! SO CRAZY!!!! ahahahah 

I am so grateful for this work. This is my second to last email and it makes me SO sad knowing that my full time mission is coming to a close. But I know that the mission of our heavenly father NEVER ENDS. I will always share this gospel (just without a name tag) I love sharing the gospel with the guatemalans. I love that I truly converted. I am so joyful and  I feel so satisfied everyday I share this gospel. In 15 days ill be on my way home. I am going to take advantage of every LAST SECOND. 

Con Amor, 

hermana Salisbury

Week 71: BAPTISM and GUAT PREDADOR

Ok we had a horrible experience this week with some guy we were teaching hahaha He is SUPER old probably like 70 years old. We finished the lesson and he asked if he could take a picture OF us hahahah I was like UH lets just take one all together! And he was like ok so he opened his phone and HAD INAPPROPRIATE PICTURES!!!!! I was like UMMM lets get out of here. So he kept trying to force to take selfies with him so we just booked it hahaha Im sure he might have been upset but he was CREEPY!!!! #guatpredador

So as we were walking to just we got a call that the bishop wanted to talk with us. When we got to the church with 5 minutes to spare and he told us we were speaking. COOL hhahahah so we were the 2 main speakers and I got to wing it for 15 minutes in spanish ahhaha. 

So this week we had a BAPTISM!!! His name is Antonio. He is SO dedicated. He lives so far away that he has to walk 2 hours to take a bus to the church. But this sunday we went to his house with all the members. On the way there he got off the bus and BOUGHT stuff in a small store (tienda) IN FRONT OF ALL OF THE MEMBERS!! They were all asking us "did you teach him that we cant buy on Sundays" ahhahaah We totally did but I think he just forgot. #GUATjudgement

JUST MY LUCK my camera broke. It couldn't make it ONE MORE MONTH hahaha So we aren't sure what happened but on Saturday it just stopped working. So I sent it to get looked at and they said that it needs a special part replacement that is only found in big cities/ countries like the UNITED STATES hahhahaha I have SUCH bad luck. SO i won't have a camera for my last month but a really nice member from our ward is gonna let me borrow her camera until I go home! #GUATISSOBEHIND

So we met a gringa that literally lives here. I was so confused. The first thing I asked her was WHY she would CHOSE to live in GUAT??? hahaha she is like a super hippy so she said she wants to help all the people in guat feel the love. I was like good luck I've been doing that for 18 months hahaha But it was super random to meet a girl from Iowa here in guat hahaha

Our area is HUGE. So huge that we don't even know where it ends hahaha but we decided to explore one part called pacaya because we had received a reference from church headquarters (FIRST TIME IN MY MISSION) So of course we went looking. Our only address was "unknown road of pacaya" and it's like the BIGGEST most spread out pueblo ever so we just started asking random people if they knew Osman Mejia. Nobody had a clue!!! So we chose a random dirt road and started walking. We got about 2 or 3 miles in and decided to ask a nice family if they knew osman and they didn't know either. We kinda lost hope at that point and realized that we couldn't find him in this HUGE town without god's guidance.I told my comp that we weren't going to lunch until we found him. hahaha We prayed on that dirt road and then pondered about where we needed to search. We felt impressed to just keep walking. We only got about .5 miles when I felt a force move me to ask ONE more hermana. when I asked she said she wasn't sure but that maybe he lived in the next house over. I was so happy that we ran to the next house and asked if they knew OSMAN MEJIA ahahaha and she was like oh he is my brother!!!! WOW honestly I know that when we call down the powers of heaven they COME DOWN. I am so thankful to live to see miracles. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Salisbury

Week 70: EATING COW STOMACH

My digestive system can't do this anymore hahaha

This week we were contacting a really nice lady! We saw that she was sweeping her "front yard" (basically just the street) and we offered to help her pick up all the trash and she said no because she was going to dump it all in the river AHAHAH she has the prettiest river right next to her house and I CRINGED watching her dump POOPY DIAPERS and USED TOILET PAPER into he RIVER hahhaha but thats how you live #guatlife Honestly there is a littering problem here hahaha 

So we were visiting a girl who was going to join the church and get baptized. The only problem was that her husband was SUPER abusive and she didnt know what to do. So we straight up gave her advice to run away and we didnt think she would actually do it until we went to her house to visit her and her husband answered the door (I was so freaked out by him hahaha) he asked us why we were there and we told him we were there to visit his wife. And then he told us how she ran away to MEXICO with their 4 kids!!!!!! I was SHOCKED. Then he was like i dont know why she would ever run away from me and I was like UHHHH cause you ABUSE HER!!! (I didnt say that) but basically we broke up a marriage and I dont know if I should feel bad about it or not hahaha #GUATWOMANPOWER

A lot of times people dont let us give lesson in their house so we give them on the street. So my comp, the person we were teaching, and the member we brought were sat on the side walk. There wasnt enough room on the side walk so I was sat on the cobble stone street where all the SPEEDING CARS PASS!! We were finishing up the lesson with a prayer and I had to close my eyes while sitting on the road with a TON of cars!!! I said that prayer with my eyes WIDE OPEN hahaha im sure the person we were teaching saw me and was super confused hahaha during that prayer like 4 huge semi trucks passed and we heard gun shots in the next street over hahahha sketchiest prayer I have ever given. Honestly I almost always have my eyes cracked open during the prayer just to make sure no one trys to steal something from me ahhaah #livingonaGUATprayer

well like I said my digestive system is done with guatlife. We got fed COW STOMACH this week. I seriously can't explain on any level what it was like. But what I can say is it smelt like cow breath and was sooooo SO CHEWY like I felt like I was choking as I swallowed it. The whole time I ate it I had tears in my eyes cause SO grossed out but I had to eat it for the people that gave me it. I ended up cutting the stomach into pill size bites and swallowed each piece like a pill so it didn't even TOUCH my TASTE BUDS AHAHA the stomach didn't get me sick but the NEXT DAY someone gave us a pepper covered in egg  whites stuff with cheese and SHRIMP hahaha My stomach was so confused. I have had a stomach ache since then. Parasites round 4 here we come! #GOURMENTGUAT

This week was awesome cause we were able to share the book of Mormon with SO many people. As we were sharing 3 Nephi 11 (the chapter when Christ visits the Americas) with guatemalan historian he told us about an ancient mayan story that a white god named "gucumz". He said that they don't know a ton about him cause the people from Spain burned a lot of the religious records of the mayas. But he said that everything that the book of Mormon says about christs visit in the Americas lines up perfectly with the information we do have about the mayans visit with the "white god". I know without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true. I know it is the tool to prepare us for the second coming of the messiah. The Book of Mormon is another testament of the life of Jesus Christ. God loves us. That's why he has sent us more of HIS word. I invite all of us to read the book of Mormon and the bible everyday to be better prepared for the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Salisbury   

Week 69: BAPTISM and MAGGOTS

HEY week 69 and still going strong!! hahaha

So the house we live in is SOOOOO hot because there are no windows. SO when we leave for the day and close the door its basically a hot yoga room. I got home one night and went to put my retainers in. When I opened the case there was a fly stuck inside and it flew out. BUT as I looked closer I SAW IT MADE MAGGOTS ALL OVER MY RETAINERS AND THEY HAD GROWN SO BIG DURING THE DAY CAUSE OUR HOUSE IS BASICALLY AN INCUBATOR hahahahahah I have never been so grossed out in my whole like. Little white worms all over my retainer. DISGUSTING. 

So as an hermana leader I have the fun job to help the hermana not FIGHT in their companionship. We had some hermanas that just COULD not get along. So we had to go to their house and work it out. I was there to translate because there was a new girl from the states. There was one point when I thought they were gonna FIST FIGHT hahaha I totally would have let them cause at that point we were 4 HOURS IN TO THEM ARGUING!!!! hahahaha WE FINALLY finished at about 5 hours. I seriously could be a marriage consejero after the mission. 

So our ward decided to do a service day! They gave us the job to pick up ALL the trash around the church building. I was about to finish up picking up like 1000 needles #GUATDRUGS until a saw what looked like a bag of chips but when a picked it up HUMAN POOP AND PEE FELL OUT. I dont know how I didnt throw up. It made me INSTANTLY regret the service I had just done hahahaha EWWWWW I dont think I will ever pick up trash in GUAT!!!

We have to walk SOOOO much here because there arent tuk tuks. We had to walk like 7 blocks to get to the church. As I was walking I felt a lot of air but I didnt think anything of it until we FINISH THE 7 BLOCKS and somelady pulled over on her motorycle and said that MY  DRESS WAS PULLED UP AND I WAS FLASHING EVERYONE. So I literally FLASHED GUAT FOR 7 BLOCKS hahahhaah I can't even tell you how many groups of boys we passed on the way there!!!! The worst is that I always walk the same street so they FORSURE will remember me. RIP 

Honestly they have some weird witch craft that goes on here in coatepeque. There are so many sketch things the people have told us. This week a less active member told us that in his house there is a HAUNTED STUFFED BEAR!!! That talks to his daughter at night and yells at her that he's gonna HIT HER AND PINCH HER ahhaahhah He asked us for advice and we told him to BURN IT hahaha #GUATBEAR

I found some gangster from LA that got deported and he started talking to be in engish!! He asked where I was from and I told him california and he was all like ¨GIRL you HECKA out of bounds right now¨ ahhaha TRUE

And to top the week off we had a BAPTISM!!! YAYAYYAY!!!! Kevin got baptized on saturday!! He is so pilas.  He has the goal to go to the temple in one year. He was such a miracle cause he told us the sunday before his baptism that he wanted to get baptized and he did the next saturday! As we taught him the lessons we always asked him how he felt to learn about the topic. He always said that he felt more sure about his decision with every commandment that he learned. I love that he found safety in the commandments. He didn't see them as limits but as  blessings to improve his life. I want to always have that same faith in the commandments of God. Que gozo es bautizar!!!! 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Salisbury    

Week 68:FULL BODY RASH FROM HELL (DANGUE VIRUS)

Ok the title makes it sound like the week was HORRIBLE but it was pretty good even though I was dying haha

So we had the opportunity to meet the lady that is on the 25 cent coin here in GUAT it was SO cool. She is really humble, they chose an indigenous woman to be on the coin to represent what Guatemala is really like. She is super nice and we gave her a book of Mormon! 

So in coatepeque the hills are SUPER steep. We were walking up a hill after an appointment and we were with a young member. It was a tight little road and a truck was HAULING up the hill. So the young member had the choice to get hit by the car or knock into me. He is a boy and the rule is we cant even touch men while we are missionarys so he literally chose to get hit by the car instead of touching my shoulder to hop out of the path hahhaahah thank goodness there was BARELY enough room for him and the car but it was a dang close call hahaha #guatsacrafice

This week we celebrated the DAY OF THE DEAD!!! It was super fun cause we got to eat FIAMBRE again!!!! It is the plate of every type of cold meat and everytype of cold vegetable soaked in VINAGER. Its honestly torture. But we had a fun time walking around asking everyone ¨what happens after death?¨ and then explaining it to them! haha

So this week we were talking to a 40 year old lady and mid conversation her fake teeth fell out ahahhah THEY LITERALLY FELL INTO HER HAND an .d we were like uhhh and had to act like nothing had just happened. I was pretty surprised she already had fake teeth at 40 years old ahahha #GUATHYGINE

And like the title says I genuinely had a ROUGH week. hahahaha So starting on Wednesday I had a REALLY bad head ache and REALLY bad pain in my eyes. I was super confused as to why but it lasted for about 5 days!!!!! Around day 3 I went to lunch with a member and 30 minutes later I had a little rash on my fore arm and thighs. I was like AM I HAVING AN ALLERGIC REACTION??? me and my comp were so confused. Automatically we thought I was dying from some kind of allergic reaction and we just waited till the next day to see if it would go away. Oh was I SO wrong. I woke up the next day to a FULL BODY RASH. Like seriously I think I had a panic attack from seeing a rash all over my body. And the worst part was I WANTED TO ITCH IT SO BAD but I wouldnt let myself. SO I took an allergy pill (first mistake) cause we thought it was allergy. When we went out to go to our first appointment I was SO drowsy. I didnt know why and so I asked my comp and she told me, OH  i totally forgot that these pills make you super weak and sleepy. I was TICKED hahaha because I had a FULL day of work in front of me and I was on a sleeping pill. I fell asleep in every lesson. 

The next day I STILL HAD A RASH and I took the decision that it was not an allergy because it already would have gone away. So I stopped taking freaking BENADRYL and I just kept living guat life with my FULL BODY RASH. So I want you guys to imagine a HUMID GYM full of gross sweaty people in the BURNING SUN with sweat ALL over your body and then imagine having the most itchy rash of your life. THAT WAS ME FOR 6 DAYS, I seriously would get to a point that I thought I was going to freak out. Like there were moments when I needed to shower THAT INSTANT hahahaah but I was IN THE STREET PREACHING THE GOSPEL. The humidity made it SOOOOOOOOO much worse legit I was SO mad. I dont think I smiled for 6 days straight. All of the members threatened to take me to GET MY BLOOD DRAWN to see if I had allergies or not. I told them I would rather die of this disease than get my blood drawn in GUAT. Honestly I was ready to take the next flight out to cali hahaha  There was one night I got home and I was so incredibly itchy from sweating all day that I had to force myself to go to sleep cause I was about to go INSANE from that dang rash. I personally came to the conclusion that I had a mosquito borne virus called DANGUE. Symptoms consist of head ache and eye pain, body ache, and A FULL BODY RASH. SO Thats my fault for not putting bug spray on. I have never had to dig so deep in my whole mission. We went out everyday despite allllll the health problems ahhaha #RASHFROMHELL 

Even though it was a really hard week being sick we saw LOTS of miracles. We were walking down the street and 2 guys on a motorcycle stopped and it was a member and an investigator named kevin. Kevin told us that he wants to get baptized this Saturday (nov. 9th) and we were like UHHHH are you serious??? (he hasnt wanted to be baptized for a year but he goes to church every Sunday) and he was like yes im 100% sure. So we gonna have a baptism this Saturday. I know that God blesses us in our limits. Faith is when we dont think we can keep going but we do it anyway. Every step I take is for Him. I know God lives and loves. I know our purpose is to BECOME like our savior. [be ye therefore perfect[. But to become perfect is a process that will not be completed in this life. Love the work. Love Guatemala. Love the chapines. 

Con amor, 

hermana salisbury

Week 67: Raw meat/Jehovahs Witnesses/HURRICANE OLGA

Hola fam! Aqui andamos con GOZO en Coatepeque!!

So I always try and eat healthy snacks here in GUAT so I have started eating celery. I usually eat it on the go or right after finishing a lesson. And EVERYTIME I pull my celery out they look at me like im CRAZY and they are all like WHAT IS THAT??? hahaha They eat celery here but NEVER straight celery. It has to be in chow mien or something for them to eat it. Everytime they ask me what it is I ask if they want to try it! And about 75% say no but the other 25% say yes and they almost THROWUP while GAGGING on the celery ahahahha. They think im crazy to eat celery with peanut butter hahaa

So this week we had the primary program. It is when all the little kids under the age of 11 sing hymns in front of everyone a church! They sing hymns and give mini speeches or testimonys. One of the little girls got up and gave a heart felt testimony and to end she said "I know the catholic books are true" HAHAHAAHAH we were all like WHY did she just say that??? haha It was super funny cause she said it without ANY doubts!!! #GUATCONFESION 

So there is another hurricane passing through the west coast of GUAT so we have been suffering a little bit. Its name is HURRICANE OLGA hahaha 

This week we were walking in down town PAJAPITA which has a huge market. So as we were walking they pulled RAW COW MEAT out of the back of a pick up and it was like HUGE it had to have been half of the cow. He pulled it out of the truck and put it on his back to carry it but he was so short that the raw BLOODY meat was dragging on the ground. I just stood in shock thinking about how thats the meat I eat in lunch every day hahaha #GUATcleaniness

It is SO sad cause there are no tuk tuks here in coatepeque!! So we have take little vans. THEY ARE CRAZY cause they try and fit as many people as possible. I ended up standing in one the whole ride. I couldnt even stand up straight I had to bend my neck at a 180 degree angle the whole way and everytime they stopped SUPER fast and out of nowhere I would fall. It was HORRIBLE hahaha but at least the people got a good laugh of a tall gringa falling in a bus haha

Here in coatepeque it is hard to find new people to teach so we have been knocking a lot of doors to find new people. We had been rejected a lot this day and we decided to knock one more door and he told us we could come in! ahaha I was super surprised cause literally no one was letting us in their house that day! When I walked in a saw their HUGE banner of the Jehovahs witnesses and i was like OHHHH boy. He basically let us in cause he wanted to convince us that his church was better than ours haha we dished up straight doctrine from the bible which got him super mad lol. 

This week I had my very LAST mission leadership council!!! Time is flying by.

I gained a stronger testimony this week that god answers prayers. We went to the most dangerous part of our area this week. It is called chuatuj. It is dangerous because all of the gangsters from the capital go there to hide from the police. But anyways we went with a family that are members of the church. We went there an hour before lunch time. And we didnt have lunch that day cause there wasnt a lot of money or food in our house. So we just prayed in the morning that the lord would provide. When we finished the appointment with the family we were about to leave and then she said, "now you guys can stay for lunch!" It was such a miracle and I was so grateful for the humble lunch she gave us. God always blesses His children! Many times it will be by means of other people. May we all look for ways to serve our neighbor and answer prayers like heavenly messengers would do. 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Salisbury  

Week 66: 3 BAPTISMS AND I GOT TRANSFERED

Well this week was kinda crazy. I have never been more tired in my whole mission.

I was making eggs one morning and I turned my back for ONE SECOND and it went up IN FLAMES hahahaha I legit didn’t know what to do cause I don’t think fire extinguishers exist here!!!! So I just dumped water on top of it. Turns out my comp left spilt hot chocolate on the burner and it caught on fire ahaha

So we had the joy to see 3 BAPTISMS!!!!! They were great but the baptism was a WRECK hahaha One of the girls is chubby so she had to wear a white graduation gown XXL instead of a jumpsuit hahaha then when she got into the baptismal font and was submerged in the water THE GUY BAPTISING HER COULDN’T LIFT HER UP OUT OF THE WATER hahaha She came up basically drowning!!!! Right after that we had to sing child’s prayer but no one had the words to the song. It was THE most off tune version of ¨child’s prayer¨ I have ever heard in my life. I only know the words in English so as they sang in Spanish I sang in spanlish hahaha It was a MESS!!!

We were walking in the street and a man stopped us and said ¨Wow I can see that you guys are really prideful.¨ And I was like what??? So I asked him why he said that and he was like ¨BECAUSE YOU WORSHIP SMITH¨ and I was like oh my gosh ahaha So I explained how we ONLY worship our savior Jesus Christ and he started SCREAMING in my face that we were crazy and that I was lying!!! He looked so mad that I thought he was gonna hit me! So we gave him a book of Mormon and left haha 

So I LEFT MALACATAN!!!!! I got my transfers to COATEPEQUE!!!! I most likely will finish my mission here. But it was so funny saying by to some of the young kids we have been teaching. They are like 17 year old teenage boys. We went to say bye and they all confessed that THEY HAVE A CRUSH ON ME hahhahaha They were like Hermana Salisbury before you go we have to tell you something…we have always thought you were cute hahaha It was super funny. #GUATCONFESSIONS

It was so sad saying bye to all the converts!!! Lots of tears!!

My suitcases are SO heavy. I don’t even know why cause I don’t have ANYTHING!!! But I had to help all the bus people lift my suitcases on top of EVERY BUS in a dress! (I am so sore) haha but we took one bus that had a toilet. So I went and it was THE BIGGEST MISTAKE cause the bus was speeding so fast and hit so many bumps that the dirty water and POOP and PEE would splash up and hit me and then down EWWWWW I WAS SO GROSSED OUT!!!! Hahahaha I was so uncomfortable that all I wanted to do was wash my hands but there wasn’t any soap nor toilet paper!!! Haha RIP

Once I got to coatepeque we had to cross a dry river bed with my suitcases!!!! It was really hard with the sand and rocks to just push them across so we had to lift them the whole way!! And right when I thought it couldn’t get worse, we got to the house and had to climb 3 flights of stairs to get to the apartment!!! Hahaah We took one at a time. So we left one suitcase unattended down IN THE STREET and the other one we had to carry upstairs. So I tried to hurry down the 3 flights cause I didn’t want someone to steal my suitcase! So as I rushed down I slipped (it was raining) and fell down one flight of concrete stairs!!!!!! Hahahaha I was so done at that point!!!! But Im #blessed cause I didn’t hit my head or my back just my legs!!! But yeah in summary suitcases in Guatemala are really hard to deal with!! My new companion is Hermana Flores from Santa Ana, El Salvador! We are the sister training leaders of coatepeque! Should be a good transfer!

This week seeing the baptism of Laura, Ana Miriam, and Sofia was so special. At the beginning of my 3 months in malacatan we contacted all of them and invited them to church and they all said no. So we left them for a time and we went back and I can say that the Lord prepared them during our time away. They all were asking when they could be baptized so we set it up and prepared them. I feel like those are the best converts. When they personally have a conversion. Laura counted as a family and Sofia completed a part member familia. I am so grateful for the chance I have to see god work His miracles among the children of Israel. I know He is always preparing His children to receive the restored gospel. May we be capable to feel and know who is ready to hear the message that will prepare them for the second coming of or savior Jesus Christ.

Con amor,

Hermana Salisbury