Conferencia de Zona

I would not call it a perfect week by any means. My companion and I had a couple of rough days, but things have been much better this week too. There's a new found respect between us and I have finally begun to feel like a real missionary? Why the change? What happened?

Opening my mouth is what happened. Taking the lead in some of our activities, making calls on what we should do and initiating more impromptu contacts with people in the street or at their house to talk about the gospel....with that responsibility, I could feel myself being guided. I could feel the importance and purpose of my being here. It was so wonderful! I gained a new perspective too on how difficult it is to be in charge and lead in everything. New found respect for what my companion has been doing for the last 10 weeks or so while training me. We're understanding each other more and more and make quite a few jokes with each other now. Love it!

 

The highlight of this week was a Zone Conference with our Mission President. He and his wife had so many great messages that inspired Hermana Sanchez and I with new ideas and new enthusiasm for the work in our area. Truly, we were so moved. It was specially designed for us, we were sure of it. One of the things they talked about was that the Lord KNOWS that the mission is not easy. He didn't tell his disciples to go spread the gospel and sit in a lounge chair. He told them to go and suffer with patience. Yikes! But suffering with patience really means to submit to the will of the Lord and when you do that, you can have the confidence and joy in knowing that He has a greater plan. In that we can find so much joy! We really don't understand what impact we might have on someone. Everything counts.

What else, oh yes, Hermana Sanchez was sick again and I did a small division with a member to go to our Noche Mormona. Every Saturday we have to come up with new games for this. This time they were something of a flop. Oy! If anyone can think of some games that are incredibly simple but fun, please let us know! We need inspiration! They like things with a little bit of a punishment too...elimination or something like that. Please. Help! We need new ideas!

It was interesting being without Hermana Sanchez for that short time, but I think a good experience too. We're going to try doing more divisions in the future to give me more similar opportunities.

In church, Hermana Viki, the President of relief Society organized the women into pairs to go visit some of the women in the village in the next few weeks to invite them to our stake conference in a couple weeks! Hopefully this is a great new idea to help people interact more and invite others to church. I think it'll be good for them to have other people knocking at their door besides us. See, it's not just the missionaries who go to church!'

That's all I have time for today! Here are some pictures!! I hope you enjoy!.

Love you all!

HES

 

Making a dessert with Yeimy and her family/friends. Ingredients include a sweet cream lime juice and cookies. Delicious!

Hermana Sanchez and I with Hermana Stay at my first Zone Conference

Our District at the Zone Conference

My Niño Coro!! Love them! I have a video, but I don't know how to send it in Gmail without exceeding the data limit. :(

'Your weaknesses are needed here.' It's astonishing to me to think about the fact that the Lord knows our strengths and our weaknesses and how each one of those can benefit the lives of others. My companion told me the above statement on one day that I was seriously doubting my abilities to do this work. Nobody's perfect and I can't expect to be a perfect missionary with the perfect ability to teach and talk to people...not with only three months of practice. Progress and doing the best you can with the tools you have is really all you can do.

Update on the area: Our member that 'fell' last week has once again been restored to his animated, motivated and gospel loving self. What a dramatic difference this week was! He helped us-with a lot of enthusiasm- in lessons and helping to find people who were baptized almost 30 years ago who are not currently attending church and their whereabouts are unknown. I practically burst with pride when, during one lesson, he was a complete missionary! He pulled out a scripture and explained it to the investigator, expounding how it applied to her question. What an amazing turn around! And he has such a wonderful testimony of how the gospel can change lives! He almost cried when he told us that only we (the missionaries) were able to give him what he really needed to pull him from his state of despair and drinking.

Lesbia had her baby! Lesbia is the sister-in law of one of our less active members and we have been teaching her lessons. She was a week late in having her baby boy (the third). He was a really tall baby! There's a picture of me holding him, but I probably look really apprehensive, as I usually am when holding someone else's precious gem.

I'm in charge of the niños for a choir. I LOVE it! I'm a little nervous to admit that, because who knows what I might end up being called to do in the future. But, I really enjoy it. I was surprised, because I could actually communicate with them and they mostly paid attention to me. We're singing 'Me encanta ver el templo' and ' El Sabio y el imprudente'. They mostly shout the lyrics at this time because I was encouraging them to sing louder, but I think that's fine for now. Children choirs hardly ever sound like a chorus of angels and especially in Guatemala. I try to keep it fun and entertaining for them while helping them learn, and I'm trying to incorporate a little message and-or testimony each time I work with them.

Finally, we had a day that we set aside the morning for service work. We were able to wear jeans all morning and cleaned dishes for Lesbia and Mayra. We also helped the mother of Yeimy (Martina?) clean the backyard of her house. Cleaning the backyard consists primarily of sweeping all the garbage, leaves and dirt into a large pile to set it on fire. Seems very odd to me, but, when in Guatemala, do as the Guatemalans do. We also helped her hang clothes up to dry, or placing them out on the tin roof to dry in the sun.

I just want to say that I love Sundays. I feel so energized after church and there's always such a special spirit there. Wonderful. 

I believe that's all for now, I know Brenna requested lots of information on the people, the place and all that, but I may have to respond another time. I am out of time. I will answer one question though. There are two little stores, basically just a house that people vend out of, no gas station, nothing else except a large field for soccer (every weekend) and several little churches.

I love you all and hope you're all doing well! Dios les bendiga!

 

Love, Hermana Schultz

  Our District all ate lunch together! It was a lot of fun!

 

 

 Service project, cleaning up a the backyard of a house. Consists mainly of sweeping all the garbage and leaves into a pile to burn. We got to wear pants! Strange feeling...

 

 

Another Service picture

 

Our Relief Society (the class of women during the second hour of church)

My holding the baby of Lesbia He's 1 day old.

Trampas and Milagros

 

There are times when people fall. When there is a snare that they fall into and it is so difficult to rise out of. That was something we were contending with a lot this week. Not as a companionship, but with one of our members. He fell hard and most of our week was concentrated in our efforts to help, but our attempts were frustrated more often than not. It was heartbreaking to be unable to do anything that seemed to sufficiently help. Our spirits were relatively low for most of this week for this reason.

But, with every dark cloud, there's a silver lining. And I think I'm going to spend most of this letter talking about that silver lining.

First is that the Lord answers prayers! We fasted and prayed Sunday for this member as well as for the attendance at church. Both were answered! We had two investigators that came and several other people that don't normally come. Most importantly, our member who was having problems came. Things just worked out so well this Sunday for us to be able to help this member and get him to come to church and feel the Spirit there and dispell the dark thoughts he'd been fighting all week, 

I know that the Lord heard our prayers this day and we were so uplifted to be reminded that He was there helping us.

The other silver lining is, quite simply, the gospel. This member fell and his family, who are members of a different church, were not much support- reminding him of fire and brimstone for sinners. But that's not how the gospel functions!! We're ALL imperfect and if it was fire and brimstone for all those who comitted sins, we would all be condemned! Thankfully, those obstacles and problems in our life are experienced for one reason- to give us the opportunity to choose, and become more like Christ in every good decision. The hand of the Lord is outstretched ALWAYS for people to turn back to him. Always! This life is the opportunity to change and grow. It is the opportunity to have these experiences. Thanks to Jesus Christ and his atonement for us, we CAN fall. And then we can get back on our feet and press on with more strength. How wonderful! This is the message we have to share. And as we seemed to be the only advocates for our member-everyone else was quick to condemn his problem to an unchangeable nature- we knew that he CAN change. I know that the Lord has his hand outstretched to anyone that turns to him, no matter what point we're at in our lives. We can always turn back to him. How wonderful! 

Other things to note in our daily life: Hermana Sanchez was sick for a few days after me. We're taking turns it seems. I received lots of mail today. THANK YOU! I love receiving them all and pour over the words hungrily. Ah yes, we held something of a stake out a few times to try to keep watch on our member who was having difficulties. We woke up early and did all of our studying in the church with our focus also being on the street infront. Who knew that missionaries could also be like policeman. :) Love you all!

-Hermana Schultz

 

 

 

My goodness, how is it Monday already?! The time has flown by this week.

We tried to renew our forces in stressing the importance of attending church to our investigators as well as reading The Book of Mormon. It's critical that people do these things for themselves because through these methods people can obtain for themselves a testimony of the truthfulness of what we teach. We're not trying to PERSUADE people but the GUIDE them to find out for themselves. With reading of the Book of Mornon, it is apparent that we actually have to read it with them. Many people can't read and others can read a little but do not understand it. We made this our goal for one of our investigators. He's preparing for baptism, but we need to make sure he actually has a testimony of the truth and of the Book of Mormon for himself, otherwise, what good will it do him if he falls away from the church shortly after baptism? This is a life changing influence...not a one time rinse. At any rate, we this investigator lives down the mountain so three times this week we tried to meet up with him, with no success. Finally we were able to catch him at his house and read and share a message with him.

With other investigators we shared some great messages about the importance of going to church, miracles, obtaining miracles and growth in your faith through reading the Libro de Mormon and they seemed very responsive. However, as great an impact as these lessons should have had, they have their agency (ability to choose) and we can't take that away from them

With the rain, attendance at church has dropped quite drastically. We had 24 in church this week. But, some great things were seeing Agustin, one of the most recent converts, blessed the sacrament for the first time. In order to bless the sacrament, a man must have the Aaronic Priesthood (there are two levels of Priesthood Authority-this is the lesser). Being able to use the Priesthood to help bless others is a reward in and of itself.

Had my first illness. I woke with stomach cramps and put a friend's theory to the test and drank some soda to get rid of the pain. It may have helped a little. The cramps subsided, but I still ended up sleeping for the entire day. I think I may have had a pretty high fever at one point but the thermometer was in Celsius...so I wasn't one hundred percent sure. Felt a little better the next day, but still not one hundred percent. Ate lots of broth soup those past two days. It was so much that I literally think my body rejected the very idea of any more broth and I was kind of sick again Sunday morning. Have no fear, I am doing well once again.

Oh yes! I know what else! Agustin is preparing to go to the temple with us this Saturday on behalf of his family! He's so excited about it and so are we! I love the temple!

Speaking of temple, we have started a temple prep class to prepare some families for higher ordenances in the temple and to be sealed to their families for time and all eternity! Que bonita! What a wonderful class! Hermana Sanchez is teaching and it's amazing how much you can learn even when you already know the things that are being taught!

That's all for today! Love you all!

1) My District after Futbol. I think I actually really like futbol. :)

2) How many people can you fit in the back of a small pick up? At least 17 give or take. This is our commute to Cuilapa with the road being fixed.

More pictures

1)Our street with the rain. This was actually when the rain had let up a little. It's much worse with the lluvia fuerza 

.

2)Here are some of the people of Laguna Seca. This is about half of our attendance in our sacrament meetings generally. The main family in front is the Campos family. They cook for us. Love them and their children.

 

  3) One view from our mountain top. It's breathtaking on good days.

 

Hermana Sanchez and me.

 





Caminando

Buenas Dias, familia y amigos!

This last week, I forgot to mention that we went to a beautiful Laguna in another town. It felt almost like Oregon! A beautiful lake surrounded by green hills. It was like being at Tugman or Ten Mile Lake! Mm...! We also played lots of soccer- I'll be a pro by the time I return- and had a great time with our district! So great!

This week we went again to the Capital and my companera and I had some rough days. We were not able to accomplish a whole lot. There always seems to be something that fights against your ability to complete the work exactly according to your plans. We had some differences, but things are always better shortly after. Someone said that a mission is preparation for marriage. At times, when things are rough between us...I get a little bit nervous for marriage. If it's half as bad as it is sometimes, then I really don't know if it's worth it. I know that's not true though.

Our biggest difficulty right now is getting people to come to church. Some of our investigators are doing everything else-praying, reading the Book of Mormon and they're feeling good about those, but they are not getting complete answers and they don't feel like they have a desire to come to church. Ay! This is how they will receive the answers! Test the waters! 'Try me' as Christ says. It's truly the only way to know for themselves.

Also, our comuneta is out of commision for the next month. This is our way up and down the mountain. They are fixing the road, which is great, but that means the comuneta may not be functioning for the next month or more! I secretly am happy with the chance to walk more, but it has it's problems too. The woman who washes our clothes lives in Cuilapa. We might be washing our own clothes for the next month or so to avoid having to hike around with a bag of clothes.

One thing that always astounds me is our own imperfections. It's a fact, no one is perfect. And that is often so clear here in Laguna Seca. The people here, no matter how upstanding generally have someone who has a grudge of some kind against them. For this reason, many people who would be interested in the church or who enjoy many aspects of the church...just won't go. Because someone in the village has done something they don't like. Oy! This is the most aggravating of difficulties! There is always going to be someone to offend, someone who will say or do something that will upset you. True, we should and do strive to not do that (It's not very Christ'like after all) but that's not why you go to church! Message of this is two fold I guess- Don't let someone else stop you from demosntrating your love of Christ and His gospel, and Do your best to be an example in all you do, that you will not stop someone from drawing closer to Christ.

I love you all and look thanks for all the emails, letters and support! Think about you all often! Here are some of the most recent pictures!

1) My District for this Transfer (6 weeks).

 

2) Me when I receive mail. Just a little excited.

 Two of my friends from the CCM. Hermana Miranda and Hermana Sanchez.

 

5) The view of the closest city, Cuilapa. This was taken on our hike down from our village. We're about half way at this point.

This week was very different. Went to the capital for my Visa on Monday then went again Friday for divisions. This means that for 24 hours I was companions with a different Sister missionary. It was a good experience in the city, but SO different. The people are so different, their houses are so different....It was hot in our apartment with minimal bugs. That was a change. Oh, and a hot shower. Still, when I returned, it was a good feeling to get to talk to people I knew again. None of the people in the city actually were all that interested in talking to me. They only talked to my companion, Hermana Alvarez. She is from Nicaragua and is a very good missionary in my eyes. At first she seemed a little abrupt, but she gave me lots of opportunities to bear my testimony and share scriptures.

It was amazing, we met a woman who desperately needed to hear the words we carry. We have a message to share that can bring light to dark places or shine an even brighter light to the path you already can see. Well, this woman desperately needed light. Her sister had just died 2 days earlier and when we asked if she would like us to share a message with her, as representatives of Christ's Church, she welcomed us in with a sob, saying `Por Favor, gracias. Por Favor!'. Wow! You could see the calming influence of our message on her. Too bad I won't get to see her again, unless I go to that area.

Companion and I had a bad day. A really bad day. I legitamtely did not want to be there with her. Was super mad. But, we talked it out and things actually were really really good the next day. We're just learning to serve each other when we get upset. One thing we like to do is sing for each other. She has some Spanish songs I want to learn and I have lyrics to songs Michelle has sent me to sing to her. It is part of her english education. := She's great!

Someone asked about Tracting. This is generally when you go house to house or walk the streets and try to contact people. We...do not really do this in Laguna Seca. If we see people when we're walking from house to house, we'll take the time to chat with them, but it is really really hard to find new people when...well, when everyone knows who you are already. So, we set goals, but rarely set specific times to go do these acftivities.

Things are going well and the rain is about to hit. Did I mention that we might be trapped in our house with the rain? Sounds wonderfully promising.... Anyway, that's all I have time for. I love and miss you all!

Here are some pictures. I have more coming. :)

Stake and Ward Building.  It's pretty big, huh?

Modeling the home made rain cover for my backpack.

Desperation is the mother of creativity.

With the massive rains, it needed a way to not get drenched

 

Exercise Plan I created for my companera.