Rest and Miracles

POSITIVE outlook is such an amazing thing!! I don't quite remember what happened, but this week has been so wonderful for my spirits. I have been working on actually talking to the people with my limited knowledge and I think it really pays off! It`s obvious that they appreciate my efforts...even though half the time they cannot understand my Spanish....``I`m certain that was a perfectaly understandable question!`' Oh well. En tiempo.

We didn't do a whole lot of lessons this past week. We had interviews with the presidente this week, which ran longer than expected. Then, Hermana Sanchez got sick. She slept all day Friday and Saturday we were instructed to go into town to get her blood checked for Danghae. Several people in the area had gotten in, including one of the Elders in our District. He is better now and back to work now. Also, happy to announce my companion does NOT have Danghae. However, it has reconfirmed to me that I DO NOT want to get sick here. We both had a lot of apprehension in entering the clinic because it was...well, not a place I want to return to for my own needs. Yikes! Thankfully we didn`t have to take off our shoes like Michelle had to do in Thailand!
 

Major miracles happening. At least, major for this area. A less active woman, whom the Hermanas have been working with for a long time finally came to church! Then, Eddy, our investigator who wants to get baptized came to church all on his own! We have also been able to start talking more in depth with this one family about the gospel. The husband of the family is brothers with Agustin, a recent convert who had been a drunkard. He`s started to listen to us after seeing the dramatic change in his brother. Same thing with his wife. Last night we spent two hours at their house, sharing the gospel as well as just talking. Disclaimer here for my fellow missionaries reading this- the work is MUCH different here. You have to get to know the people and build that relationship of trust. Why would they listen to people they do not trust? It is so important to build that relationship. So, even though it was late, we did not tell them abruptly that we needed to go. We were so happy to be able to talk with them!

  Here are some pictures.

Location Location Location

A couple of our house in Leguna Seca.

The contents of our fridge. Yum! Mangos and oreos!
Can't go wrong.

 Preparing to exit the house.

Oh yeah! Mud! A runner's playground. This is the street outside our house.

A couple of the Guatemala Temple, one of my companion and I standing on temple grounds-

the phrase `Stand ye in Holy Places` comes to mind.

 

 

 Oh, and one more note- today marks 2 months on my mission! The most jam packed 2 months of my life. Feels like forever, but also like a blink of an eye! Learned so much and continue to learn.

My Email for those who don't know it already and would like to send one is:
erika.schultz@myldsmail.net 

 

Alright, update.

First off, I'm learning a lot about myself and how I need to change. It's easy to focus on myself when I can`t really talk to anyone and I am trying so hard to be obedient and learn and all that. But, there's a catch! It makes me selfish! Good heavens, I had no idea! It was something of a crushing blow to realize that about myself! But, that's a new goal to work on. `Love thy neighbor`. Love is powerful and if I think of others first instead of `Me me me`, it will be much much better.

Besides that, it has been a much better week. I know it`s tough and sometimes I dream about the time when I can return to carpets and warm showers, clean streets...but that`s not important. I have my whole life to live like that. It`s a priviledge. Now is my time to give, completely to the Lord and his people. It is worth it.

I`m able to share more. My companera is very good about giving me opportunities to talk in lessons and I am trying to open up more with small talk. A work in progress, both in English and Spanish.

Funny story of the week: My companera and I were in this woman`s house, sharing a message. There were a couple of baby chicks running around near our feet and they suddenly just hopped onto her leg. She didn`t bother to shoo them off but left them there as we shared the message. I was dying! I tried so hard to keep my focus and not to laugh, but everytime I looked at the chicks I had to stifle down the laughter.

The people:

Yeimi was baptized this Wednesday. It was so wonderful. I love baptisms for the strong tender feelings of the Spirit. It fills the room. And, for me, it reminds me so much of my own baptism. I am grateful every day for how it has changed my life. I would not be here among these great people without it. Eddy, our investigator with a baptism date no longer has a date. He desperately wants to be baptized but he has a problem with drinking. A prerequisite to baptism is no more consumption of alcohol. We found him obviously drunk the other day. We want so badly to help, but we could not teach him at that point because he would not have been receptive to anything we said. We have an idea to help him though. Another recent convert had been a bolo (drunk) and the gospel has drastically changed his life, so we want him to share his testimony with Eddy. Also, we shared a lesson with this one family where the wife is a less active member. It was a very powerful message and I know that at least the wife felt the Spirit. Their son Donny is potentially interested in learning more, but the father is not incredibly interested. We`ll see what happens. We have another family, Irma Geronimo, that I like very much. She seems interested, but hasn`t gotten permission from her husband to go to church. Poco a poco.

I like it here. My companion and I are getting eaten alive by something at nights and we`re not sure what else to do. We`ll figure something out though. I have to get going, but I just want to say it was great getting to talk to mi familia yesterday! Thanks guys for your support! I love you all for infinity and beyond.

Hermana E. Schultz