Week 16, Tierra Nueva -Surprise Changes!
Okay buckle up people.
(If you don't want to read a lot just go to the spiritual thought at the end)
Thursday:
Who wants to degrain corn? I do! We found this one family in Pueblo. The family of a woman named Floridelma. We walked into the house to try to teach them a lesson and we found the matriarch of the whole family degraining corn. For anyone who doesn't know what that is (which I assume is everyone that is reading this), degraining corn is when you take an uncooked piece of corn and you take all the kernels off of it, in this case you do it by hand without any tools. It is very hard on the thumbs and takes a while to get the hard kernels off the cob. Anyways after we completed this service for the family I could tell that the very old matriarch was grateful for our help and the whole family was more receptive to our message. Serve a little. It opens up hearts.
(Also my thumbs were red and raw for the next two days but worth it.)
We had the most interested people ever at our weekly family night for the branch! Every member family brought friends. The message was on missionary work and was very spiritual. We got so many contacts and referrals from that night. It really was a blessing.
Saturday:
I know I skipped Friday but that's because it was a slower day and not much email worthy happened.
We prepared for the Day of the Dead by going to the Cemetery in Barberena and cleaning up a lot. It was super fun and our whole zone went to help. We had a lot of people come to help and altogether I think we had a good time doing this service. Some painted tombs, others picked up trash, etc. On that note, Guatemalan cemeteries are like small towns. In the US you can see over almost every tombstone- not to mention that they are tombstones-, but here most bury their dead in little buildings that they seal up with cement. most are between four and seven feet high. Some have decoration, some are plain, some have little entrances where they can honor their dead and put flowers. All of them are super colorful! It was like a rainbow threw up on the cemetery.
Then on our way back to Pueblo from Barberena, we encountered heavy traffic, highly unusual. Turns out that a pole fell across the road along with all the electric cables it was holding up. No one could pass because of the electricity. So we were delayed by about 3 hours in getting back to Pueblo and I had to cancel choir. But we entertained ourselves and bonded as missionaries while we were waiting. We got back and because of the late hour we had to go straight to the chapel to make sure that the activity (movie night: Book of Mormon) was going alright. We then taught a group of four patojos (kids) directly after- still in our service clothes. It was probably the only day I will ever have in my mission where I was in regular clothes the entire day.
Anyways that night, I got a call from the President of the Mission, President Shumway, that I was going to be involved in an emergency change. We had an elder going home early for emotional reasons and I needed to go fill the gap. So Sunday became a day of goodbyes.
Sunday:
I had an emergency choir rehearsal. We sang in church and it was very good for only one real rehearsal and one emergency rehearsal. I was so proud. All of the people in choir were sad to see me go. We sang ‘A Child's Prayer’. Hey everyone, you should go and look up ‘A Child's Prayer’. The Tabernacle Choir at temple square has sung it so look it up on youtube. Its a powerful and simple message that we have a Father in Heaven and he is always there.
Monday:
Changes arrived. The taxi arrived and took me to the City. The taxi driver turned out to be the Stake President of the Estaca Central Stake here in the city. It turns out that his wife was the sister that I sang to in the CCM when she asked me to sing for her after hearing me rehearse for a performance. He had us take a selfie after that because his wife had told him about 'the missionary that sang to her' and he wanted proof that he had met me.
My new companion is Elder Flores! Technically also my trainer because I still have two more weeks of training here. He is also Peruvian and 24 years old. I love him already he's great and super good at training although he only has 7 months on the mission.
We went to our area. Tierra Nueva! It's in the City of Mixco which is right by Guatemala City. Basically the same thing just two cities run together. My Zone is Bosques.
Tuesday:
My first full day in the area and I love it! The members are very nice. It's a ward so that's cool and it's a very big and very flat area. We have to plan walking in time in our day because there are no Tuks in our area. Anyways I will have more info for you guys next week on this new and fantastic area!
Spiritual Thought:
I have learned a ton during my mission about faith and perspective. Faith is something that is required of us always but during our hard times an extra measure is required. The test is whether we will be willing to give that extra measure when it is required. And guess what. Sometimes we don't have that extra measure to give. Sometimes it seems like the walls are closing in around us, like we are being beaten down. Like winds and blackness, the heavens and the elements, the deep and the very jaws of hell are combining against us. But we were never meant to give that measure alone. Christ is always there to help us have more faith to help us give more of ourselves. It's not easy and no one said it would be. It's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, what good would it do? It's the challenge that refines us and shapes us.
When we suffer, we just have to remember that it's only for a small moment. We need to remember that Christ suffered too and more than us. Whenever we ask 'Why me?' remember that Christ, someone who was perfect and had no need to suffer, suffered much more than you. More than you could ever imagine. Why you? Well the righteous will suffer. If we didn't then how could we even begin to understand our Savior and what he went through? There is a scripture in D&C that I love. It says,The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Well I would encourage all to think on that. And go and read D&C 122 because it really is a great section.
(If you don't want to read a lot just go to the spiritual thought at the end)
Thursday:
Who wants to degrain corn? I do! We found this one family in Pueblo. The family of a woman named Floridelma. We walked into the house to try to teach them a lesson and we found the matriarch of the whole family degraining corn. For anyone who doesn't know what that is (which I assume is everyone that is reading this), degraining corn is when you take an uncooked piece of corn and you take all the kernels off of it, in this case you do it by hand without any tools. It is very hard on the thumbs and takes a while to get the hard kernels off the cob. Anyways after we completed this service for the family I could tell that the very old matriarch was grateful for our help and the whole family was more receptive to our message. Serve a little. It opens up hearts.
(Also my thumbs were red and raw for the next two days but worth it.)
We had the most interested people ever at our weekly family night for the branch! Every member family brought friends. The message was on missionary work and was very spiritual. We got so many contacts and referrals from that night. It really was a blessing.
Saturday:
I know I skipped Friday but that's because it was a slower day and not much email worthy happened.
We prepared for the Day of the Dead by going to the Cemetery in Barberena and cleaning up a lot. It was super fun and our whole zone went to help. We had a lot of people come to help and altogether I think we had a good time doing this service. Some painted tombs, others picked up trash, etc. On that note, Guatemalan cemeteries are like small towns. In the US you can see over almost every tombstone- not to mention that they are tombstones-, but here most bury their dead in little buildings that they seal up with cement. most are between four and seven feet high. Some have decoration, some are plain, some have little entrances where they can honor their dead and put flowers. All of them are super colorful! It was like a rainbow threw up on the cemetery.
Then on our way back to Pueblo from Barberena, we encountered heavy traffic, highly unusual. Turns out that a pole fell across the road along with all the electric cables it was holding up. No one could pass because of the electricity. So we were delayed by about 3 hours in getting back to Pueblo and I had to cancel choir. But we entertained ourselves and bonded as missionaries while we were waiting. We got back and because of the late hour we had to go straight to the chapel to make sure that the activity (movie night: Book of Mormon) was going alright. We then taught a group of four patojos (kids) directly after- still in our service clothes. It was probably the only day I will ever have in my mission where I was in regular clothes the entire day.
Anyways that night, I got a call from the President of the Mission, President Shumway, that I was going to be involved in an emergency change. We had an elder going home early for emotional reasons and I needed to go fill the gap. So Sunday became a day of goodbyes.
Sunday:
I had an emergency choir rehearsal. We sang in church and it was very good for only one real rehearsal and one emergency rehearsal. I was so proud. All of the people in choir were sad to see me go. We sang ‘A Child's Prayer’. Hey everyone, you should go and look up ‘A Child's Prayer’. The Tabernacle Choir at temple square has sung it so look it up on youtube. Its a powerful and simple message that we have a Father in Heaven and he is always there.
Monday:
Changes arrived. The taxi arrived and took me to the City. The taxi driver turned out to be the Stake President of the Estaca Central Stake here in the city. It turns out that his wife was the sister that I sang to in the CCM when she asked me to sing for her after hearing me rehearse for a performance. He had us take a selfie after that because his wife had told him about 'the missionary that sang to her' and he wanted proof that he had met me.
My new companion is Elder Flores! Technically also my trainer because I still have two more weeks of training here. He is also Peruvian and 24 years old. I love him already he's great and super good at training although he only has 7 months on the mission.
We went to our area. Tierra Nueva! It's in the City of Mixco which is right by Guatemala City. Basically the same thing just two cities run together. My Zone is Bosques.
Tuesday:
My first full day in the area and I love it! The members are very nice. It's a ward so that's cool and it's a very big and very flat area. We have to plan walking in time in our day because there are no Tuks in our area. Anyways I will have more info for you guys next week on this new and fantastic area!
Spiritual Thought:
I have learned a ton during my mission about faith and perspective. Faith is something that is required of us always but during our hard times an extra measure is required. The test is whether we will be willing to give that extra measure when it is required. And guess what. Sometimes we don't have that extra measure to give. Sometimes it seems like the walls are closing in around us, like we are being beaten down. Like winds and blackness, the heavens and the elements, the deep and the very jaws of hell are combining against us. But we were never meant to give that measure alone. Christ is always there to help us have more faith to help us give more of ourselves. It's not easy and no one said it would be. It's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, what good would it do? It's the challenge that refines us and shapes us.
When we suffer, we just have to remember that it's only for a small moment. We need to remember that Christ suffered too and more than us. Whenever we ask 'Why me?' remember that Christ, someone who was perfect and had no need to suffer, suffered much more than you. More than you could ever imagine. Why you? Well the righteous will suffer. If we didn't then how could we even begin to understand our Savior and what he went through? There is a scripture in D&C that I love. It says,The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? Well I would encourage all to think on that. And go and read D&C 122 because it really is a great section.
We just need to have
faith he is there and that if we are faithful we will be rewarded in the end if
not before. We will suffer but we will also be led out of our suffering. In the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Walbom
Adios!
Guatemalan Cemetery
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