Guatamala- Week 3

Hola Family!!

Not a very eventful week in Guatemala......just 5 earthquakes, someone has worms, and i got to go into the city for some shopping today. (!!!!)

First things first! Earthquake!!! At the CCM, we just had "tremors" but i tell you what--it was freaky!!! we were all just sitting in class and all of the sudden the room started shaking. Sounds stupid right? you know what an earthquake is. It just lasted a few seconds, but that was enough for me! we all just stopped talking and held onto our desks and watched each other wide eyed and the windows and watched everything shake. CRAZY!! then like half an hour later--it happened again? and then like 2 hours later it happened again when we were at lunch, and then at 10:30 while we were praying as sisters another little one happened. Everyone is fine here though. We all thought it was way cool and then we heard that 3 people died in Guatemala. So sad! But don't you worry, Everyone here is great. There are only 4 sisters at the CCM right now because all of our latinas left! It was so sad! My companiera wrote me a long letter and it looks really nice, but it is totally in Spanish, so I cant read it. Not gonna lie, this week has been an eye opener. turns out I really don't know Spanish. I have alot of work to do, and just 3 weeks to do it in! Time is flyin.
Segundo--Worms. Luckily I do not have worms. A few Elders do (and no one knows what from) but nope, I am good. We asked the Doctor how we can like avoid those fun-loving creatures, but the Dr. was like-"oh, everyone here has parasites by now. If you eat here, you have little friends." Awesome. I have enough friends. :) It is crazy to think about right??
Shopping today was SO fun!!! we went to an underground mercado and it was alot like the stores in Cabo, but much much cleaner like morality wise, and i bought a way cool dress and a jersey and such. Then after that we went to a way cool mayan museum and studied up on the people here before. We went to a huge relief map that was made like a hundred years ago and is 99% accurate. it was SO cool. Then at the museum they just had tons of amazing artifacts and paintings and statues and obsidian, it was amazing. Then we went to a mall that is nicer than any I've been to in Utah. It was like a new york mall. Amazing. I felt really out of place. I didn't think about it before so i just braided my hair this morning and wore one of those shirts Jodi got me (Remember how i had 4 of them and then only brought 2 because they are not the most attractive things? they are my favorite to wear. all of my companions are so jealous that i have them cuz they are so cute and easy out here!!) Anyways, i looked totally amish to all of the rich people at the mall. Oh well.
So, I am so so grateful that i probably wont have a car in Nicaragua. The roads are terrifying here!! Did you know that there is special motorcycle lane here? it is in between every other car. People are just driving so fast and running lights and just trying to get where they are going in the quickest time possible--scary!! I have never been so grateful for law enforcement. Crazy Nazi Nibley Cop, you keep doing your job, Ma'am.
Man, I am so tired! The work is hard, but i love it. (and I haven't even gotten to the field yet!) Have i told you about my amazing teachers here yet?? I think not. In the morning we have hermana Cruz, the afternoon Hermano Vasquez, and at night Hermana Alvarez. They are all so awesome. I think I've told you before, but there are a different breed of saints down here. Everyone who is a member is because they absolutely know its true, without a shadow of a doubt. I feel extremely blessed to be one of the 4 Norte sisters here partake of this awesomeness! Oh, have i told you that i havent met anyone going to my mission yet? I am hoping that there will be some in the group of newbies coming tomorrow. There are for sure no other Nortes going there though, because transfers are in 3 weeks, so i am just with latinos. Perfect! (Seriously, I cant believe how lucky i am!!) I love my district, i love the people, the food is still pretty good, and I hope you are all doing great. I love you each and i think i will be able to check your emails tomorrow, so keep me posted! I want to hear about your lives! Also, can you send me some pictures in your emails? Like Chelsey especially?? I've gotta see my little sobrina!! (Neice en español--I know her name!) Welp, Back to work! Smile! Love you all--Hermana Barrett

Guatamala- Week 2

Hola everyone!!! Whats crackalackin?? (i taught my latina companion how to say that and then barely caught her before she said that to the CCM president) oops! Man! This week was great. Everyweek is great in Guatemala. It was a bit harder though. Um we went tracting yesterday and it was SO HARD. "I dont think thats the language they taught me in the MTC!" They talk SO FAST!!! it was way hard. a very humbling experience. Lucky our leaders foresaw this and so they put us with our latina companions. Hermana Trochez as amazing! giving out pamphlets left and right closely followed by heartfelt testimonies! it was awesome. Not gonna lie, i was a bit discouraged. But then we came home and for the devotional last night we got to watch a talk from the MTC where Elder Bednar came and spoke. it was so amazing! He finished up by getting choked up and very seriously saying: You CAN do this. As an apostle of the Lord, i promise you that with his help, you can do this. So! now im feelin much better. Today I am feeling extremely blessed to be a Norte Sister here. Did i tell you that there are only 10 North american sisters in the whole CCM? And i get to be one of them. How blessed am I right? Our real investigator didnt show up last saturday-but we have hope for this Saturday! Oh, and i was sick on Monday. I went to breakfast and then i was like, woah...i need to lie down. and then i slept until 9:30 pm and then woke up for an hour, and then slept for the night. Wierd right? Im fine though. I guess I was just really tired! :) dont worry-seriously, Im great today! Want to know what Ive been thinking about all day? I will tell you. :) You know that song "If the Savior Stood beside me"? I have been thinking about it non stop. I realized that today that a representative of the Savior is literally beside me every moment of every day. Am I doing everything i can to act the way i should? I have some work to do! Remember how i like extremely love music. It has been a challenge. I always have a song in my head.And all the sudden i need to transition them to church songs. Its a challenge! CAN YOU BELIEVE IVE BEEN OUT TWO MONTHS ALREADY?? I sure cant. I remember Jodi told me that is what would happen. It would seem like i had forever and a day and then I would be out for 2 months in a snap. I hope my whole mission doesnt go this fast! Okay, so let me tell you about tracting in Guatemala. We all ran across the street and got on this way ghetto bus. I thought i was going to die. Like there were like WAY too many people on this bus (Personal space? what personal space??) and there were people hanging off the sides and everything, it was crazy. . Anyways, we head off on this jet powered bus (Speed limit?? Autobahn baby! How fast can you get there?) and then we finally get off in this little plaza and so we started off tracting and there was just garbage everywhere on the street and the people are all in dirty old clothes and are trying to sell you things, but hey, its a good way to start talking eh? The people are so poor here. They are so nice though! They will be working or whatever and you just walk up and they will stop and talk to you and share their feelings with you (complete stranger here) and UGH! i just love the people so much. I am so excited to get to know all the cute little Nica´s!! Anyways, then we wondered around for like 2 hours and i got so totally lost (again, luckily my latina companion was with me) and we finally found our way and then took the trip back. Im not sure why, but on the trip back we couldnt just get on the bus where we got off, so we had to walk all through town and like down this highway that didnt have a sidewalk and stuff. It looked really cool though! cuz it wasnt just me and my companiara, it was like 3 districts, so we were all walking down this highway single file and it stretched off for a long space of just missionaries. it was really cool. OH! another thing. Everyone has guns here! there are just guards out front of every building holding shotguns and just standing with their hands on their pistols. Kinda scary. They are really nice though. As we were walking through the city looking for our bus stop, i walked past a guard with a huge double barrel shotgun around his shoulders and he had one hand on his gun and the other hand was holding a "el evangelio de Jesucristo" folletto! (A gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet) It was so funny. If i didnt think he would shoot me i would have taken a picture. I hope ya´ll arent getting nervous because I am perfectly safe. I am following all of the mission rules and I have the Lord on my side. What could happen?!? (I´ll be careful. Dad, I can just hear you cringing) I¨m fine!!! I am just super duper grateful to be a sister missionary in central America. Life is great! Guys!! good job on the emails this week! i so appreciated them!!
Whitney!!! Congrats on your new job! so exciting!! (I had to skim over your emails because i had like 7 and no time!!)
Chelsey!! OH MY GOSH---CRAWLING?!! push her down! I need to be there! Totally kidding. THE OTHER THING YOU TOLD ME MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD!!!
Dad Thanks for the emails! I hope yall arent feeling bad that i dont write, but lets face it, im feelin pretty lazy. Emails are sufficient right??

Maddy--How come you havent even emailed me?!?! QUE PASA MUFASA?! I sure love you--smile a ton for me!!

I love you guys! thanks for the support and love, Im feelin it! Love, Hermana Barrett

Guatamala Week One

HOLA EVERYONE!!

I made it very safely to Guatemala a week ago. I dont know how to fit all my enthusiasm into one sentance but...I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The people are AMAZING. The saints here are a different kind of strong. Where do i start?

I got out of the guatemala airport (which wasa little scary because there wasa really bad rainstorm going on when i flew in) and i saw a sign that said "LDS SISTER MTC GUATEMALA" and these cute littleguatemalan men waving me down! then we got here and i was put with my companion. Guess who it is...hermana holladay again! yay!!! we are just a duo now, so i amlovin it. We also have 2 latina companions. Their namesare Hermana Trochez (who is my native companion) and Hermana Legal (who is hna holladays) They are so stinking cool! Hermana trochez is really sweet aaaaaaaaand she understands zero english. A cool thing about this CCM though is that the Norte´´s teach the latina´s spanish. This keyboard is in spanish and i dont know where the apostraphe is. just fyi. also, the space board is broken. awesome possum. The CCM (mtc) is SO NICE though! Like i like it way more than Provo. it is just one building with 3stories and a huge basketball/futbal court in the back. The food is DELICIOS. SO so sosos ososososo much better thn mexican food there. it is so flavorful and delightful. I havent been sick, but 2 of the older Nortes are just getting over E.Coli. awesome. eeeeeewwwwwww.

The teachers are all returned missionaries from the area who served in america, so they speakenglish. I think i was born to be a latina. I love everyonehere. They are so nice and lovingand strong sure, they are super touchy feely, but they are always so willingto help you with anything and everything.

Spanish is comingalong. Everyone keeps asking me how many years of spanish i took before,or the presidents wife´- hermana stimele just asked me where i learned to speak spanish. I said....ummm...here? and she was like-seriously! wow you are great! :) imsure she says that to everyone but i really enjoyedit.

Last night Hermana Trochez said the sweetest thing to me. Every night we sit together and write in our journals and sing and talk together, and so last night we did so, and she was helping me write a little note in spanish to Hermana Silva (another latina sister) and then we said goodnight and went to our seperate rooms...and then a few minutes later she came back and knockedon the door and she just said "you are a very special person" in her broken adorable english. it soundedmore like "ju rr a vedy spishal prrson" but oh my gosh it was the sweetest thing! I totally cried!

Today i had the amazing oportunity, like i will every wednesday, to go to the Guatemala Temple!! Oh my gosh it was so good. it is just super small and like everythingelse here they dont start on time (to get people to a devotional on time at7, they tell everyone it is at 6) but !! it was so great to be back in the temple. Today i really feltmom close when i was in the Celestial Room. I was just thinking about you guys and how we are sealed for eternity. What an amazing blessing. There is a sister from Nicaragua who just got endowed today because they dont have a temple in Nicaragua. it is a 24 hour drive to the closest temple from Nicaragua. I hope you will take every opportunity to go to the temple. It is everything. Get there. Do whatever you need to in your life to live worthy of those blessings.

Anyways.......the address here is
23 avenida 23-71

vista hermosa 1 zona 15

Guatemala- Guatemala C.A

You know, just incase you want to send anything...or whateva...

what else would you like to know? lets talk about the weather. haha Im serious. It is lovely here! It rainsalot, but i still dont think i really know what humidity is yet! It seriously is beautiful.. Okay, a little hotter than im used to, but the building totally has air conditioning, or else i would be dying. The thing that makes me a little worried isthat all of the missionaries from Nicaragua are freezing here. AKA it is super DUPER hot there. Awesome. Seriously, i have no complaints though. OH!! guess what. Everyone here gets to teach a fake investigator...but since hermana holladay and i speak better spanish than our class... we get to teach a real investigator!! Hername is Seleni and weget to teach her again on Saturday. I amso excited! We may have a baptism to talk about before i get to the field! Anyways, I sure Love you guys and i pray for you all the time. Smile! Love, Hermana Barrett