Lindsie's Mission in Guatemala: Huehue week 2: Companions, bus trip, and investigators

Hola Familia,

So my dear beloved sister brought to my attention that I wrote a crappy letter last week.* Sorry I was all over the place, but when you don’t have a lot of time and you want to tell everyone everything, it’s kind of difficult.

First to clarify, I am in a trio. Hna Lopez is my trainer. So basically she is in charge of me and is supposed to help me learn. Hna Gonzalez is also my companion. Her mission is temporarily here in Xela. She isn’t technically my trainer, but we are just in a trio. I love them both. Sometimes it’s difficult, but they are so fun.

Hna Gonzalez is so crazy and so fun and says the funniest things in Spanish. Hna Lopez is a little more serious, but has her fun moments. Other than that, being a missionary can be hard sometimes, but I am hanging in there and totally relying on the Lord. I am trying to focus on the positive.

Last Tuesday, Hna Lopez and I had to go to Xela for a meeting for new missionaries. Hell is being a gringa on a chicken bus for 2 ½ hours there and back. That’s a five hour trip, my friends, for a 3 hour meeting. The people here are crazy, but you got to love them. There are two men that work at the door of the bus that yell where it is going, and they are constantly jumping off the bus, or climbing onto the roof while the bus is moving. No biggie. And buses don’t really like to have to stop for more than 5 seconds. So it’s do or die: jump onto the bus or get left behind. They will stop longer for women with children thank goodness.

The bus drivers think they rule they road and will constantly change into the oncoming lane to pass people. Thought I was going to die. The buses here are old school buses, so they’re teeny tiny and I was so squished. And I have never seen so many people fit into one automobile before. It’s so tightly packed that it feels like you’re close to breaking the law of chastity. But thank goodness I got a seat every time, so I wasn’t the freak show for the whole bus standing up. My legs were still killing me though. Aside from those unpleasantries, Guatemala is beautiful and it was so good so see my district from the CCM at the meeting.

Sunday (7-21) was an awesome day. We had 5 investigadores (investigators) come to church: a family of three, a lady named Tomasa and a guy name Cavin.

The family of three is Dora and her two kids Marilisa and Ronny. Dora went to the open house of the Xela temple and really loved the feeling there. Sunday was her first time going to church, so my companion got her a skirt that was too big, and I bought Marilisa a new dress for 20 quetz, or 2 to 3-ish dollars. Nothing was greater than seeing the whole family all ready for church. I was so flipping happy.

Tomasa is an ongoing investigador, and her two kids got baptized, but something is holding her back. She is ridiculously hard to get a hold of, so we have only had one short lesson with her.

Cavin was a street contact. The spirit told me to go talk to him. He may be coming to all of our activities just because he thinks I’m cute, but hey he is coming. We have an activity with our ward every Thursday night, and Cavin came to that and he showed up to church. I think he likes how friendly everyone is. But we found out he isn’t in our area so we have to give him to the other sisters.

The activity with the ward is really fun. A ton of people showed up this week (7-18). We had a lesson about obedience and then played a game. I just talked with the little kids because they seem to be the only ones who understand me haha. I have been trying to speak more. It’s hard, especially when you have to guess half the time what people are saying. So I feel like the members are starting to warm up to me a little bit more now too.

As far as other investigadores, we also have an investigador whose name is Cristian. He is in his 20s and it’s really hard to get a hold of him as well. He was supposed to come to church, but didn’t answer the door or the phone. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and the spirit was so strong, which is good because that is when my Spanish is the best. Anyways we have to follow up with him to see if he read and prayed about if the gospel’s true or not.

We also have been teaching a chick at a hair salon. She knows a lot about the bible, but is willing to read and find out for herself if the Book of Mormon is true. Her name is Lydia. She is a sweetheart.

There is a lady who is a recent convert and she has two kids. We spend a lot of time with them because the sisters before us had to work hard to get her baptized, so we are trying to make sure she stays active. Her two little daughters love us so much and they crack me up. It took them a while to figure out that I don’t really know Spanish at all, but they make me so happy.

On Sunday (7-21), we went and visited a lot of the less-actives. We went and visited Sergio, the old man that shakes. Alison, doctors down here don’t help, and there really isn’t much they can do for him. Also doctors are expensive. Sergio is the only member. His wife is Catholic, so his kids go to the Catholic church with their mom. But we talked with Sergio’s older daughter, and we have another appointment with her, so we are going to teach her about the plan of salvation because she has the cutest little kids.

Things are good. I am loving it. It’s hard, but it’s great.

Love you lots,

Hermana Lindsie

Oh yeah, two side stories:

I have Guat-gut, which I am pretty sure I will have for the rest of my mission. Also, our water happened to not be working the day I get diarrhea. Of course. It was awesome...not. I had to dump buckets full of water into the toilet all day.

On a brighter note, there is a store in Xela called Xelapan, and it has the best desserts and bread in the entire world. Oh my goodness it’s mouthwatering. There is this chocolate bread covered in chocolate it’s fantastic.

Editor's notes:

* I (Alison) did not say it was crappy last week (previous weeks' letters, yes I said some were). I just said it was confusing because she didn't put when she left the MTC and stuff like that.

Photos sent with this letter:

Lindsie’s first day in the field (7-9-13)

Lisonbee, Lindsie, Richards, McGill (7-9-13)

So to clarify some more about the last letter: of course the mission home is in Xela, and it’s where the President lives. Then there is the mission office. Different places. Hna Lopez wasn’t there, so I stayed in Xela for the first night with the sister missionaries near the mission office. One of the sister missionaries is the mission nurse. It kind of sucked I’m not going to lie. But the first part of the day rocked.