As a full time servant of the Lord I testify with all my heart that Jesus is the Christ. This is the true church. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY to find happiness and eternal life. We need to keep the commandments. This gospel makes so much sense. Heavenly Father has given us everything we need to be successful, why are we so silly sometimes and don't do what he asks. It so simple. He's given us the answers to everything, it is my plea and desire that we can all do everything we can to do what he requires of us, even when it's hard, thats what faith is. I know this gospel is true. I have been so blessed and strengthened to be able to share it with the people of Guatemala. I can't express my gratitude enough to my Heavenly Father for all that He has given me. Peace and blessings to all...Have a great week. Go read your scriptures, all of you! Do something good today and Heavenly Father will POUR OUT HIS BLESSINGS..Love you so much and think about Moroni 9:6
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hermana Wetzel
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
Final Days
Hola! Wow time sure does fly, its Monday again! This week was crazy, but so fun and incredible. Is it weird to anyone else that i´m a missionary? Sometimes it still gets me! I love it though!
You should definitely hear about this experience we had yesterday. So I promised myself and have asked my Heavenly Father with a lot of faith my whole mission that I would go home with a baptism the night before I end my mission. We are going to have that, but not the night before. Our investigator Juan Jose wants to do it sooner! I called him yesterday to see if we could visit him later that night and he said yes. I knew we were running out of time and we hadn´t put a fecha with him, but on the phone i simply asked him if he would think and pray about his baptismal date for the 20th of sept. before we got to his house that night. He said with anticipation in his voice, ¨My baptism? Really?? Que Alegre!!!!!!!!!¨He was so excited and all I did was, more tell him thats when he was getting baptized than really asking him, but he said yes!!!! We went that night and confirmed everything and he even wants to do it one day sooner so his family can be there, they can only do it on Monday. So thats how we put a fecha this week, everything is good to go. We will have a Noche de Hogar en la case de un miembro tonight, and we think he might marry this lady in our ward, so its kind of like we have a family. But we will continue to look for more families that can enjoy the blessings of the gospel!
We also had an incredible training meeting this week in the capital. I got to go on divisions with the nurse and i left my daughter in another area for two days! It was intense. But I learned so much and I am so grateful for continuing revelation. Our mission president is truly inspired! This gospel is amazing.
I just want to say a big THANK YOU!!! I can't believe what awesome family and friends I have been blessed with. My mission has been the greatest blessing of my life and you all have helped it be so much better! These last 18 months have been such a ride, but something that I wouldn't trade the world for!!! I will miss Guatemala so much, My heart really will be staying here but I will be excited for what the future brings for me, more blessings that my Heavenly Father has planned for my life. We truly are so blessed to be living in this time, with the fulness of the gospel on the earth. Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect!! We are all part of it and I know that through obedience to God's commandments we are blessed. Yo se que esta es la iglesia verdadera. Tengo un gran testimonio de la Restauracion de la iglesia de Jesucristo. Se con todo my corazon que Jose Smith fue llamado como profeta para restaurar esta iglesia. Fue tan necesario que tuvieramos una restauracion de estas cosas, porque si no, hubieramos perecido, todos nosotros. Estoy muy agradecida con mi Padre Celestial por haber enviado a su hijo Jesucristo para pagar por nuestros pecados. Testifico del amor de Nuestro Padre Celestial. El es un Dios de milagros. Se que Jesucristo vive y El es nuestro Salvador!!!!!!! Espero que esten bien, nos vemos pronto!!!!
Con amor,
Hermana Erin Jane Wetzel
You should definitely hear about this experience we had yesterday. So I promised myself and have asked my Heavenly Father with a lot of faith my whole mission that I would go home with a baptism the night before I end my mission. We are going to have that, but not the night before. Our investigator Juan Jose wants to do it sooner! I called him yesterday to see if we could visit him later that night and he said yes. I knew we were running out of time and we hadn´t put a fecha with him, but on the phone i simply asked him if he would think and pray about his baptismal date for the 20th of sept. before we got to his house that night. He said with anticipation in his voice, ¨My baptism? Really?? Que Alegre!!!!!!!!!¨He was so excited and all I did was, more tell him thats when he was getting baptized than really asking him, but he said yes!!!! We went that night and confirmed everything and he even wants to do it one day sooner so his family can be there, they can only do it on Monday. So thats how we put a fecha this week, everything is good to go. We will have a Noche de Hogar en la case de un miembro tonight, and we think he might marry this lady in our ward, so its kind of like we have a family. But we will continue to look for more families that can enjoy the blessings of the gospel!
We also had an incredible training meeting this week in the capital. I got to go on divisions with the nurse and i left my daughter in another area for two days! It was intense. But I learned so much and I am so grateful for continuing revelation. Our mission president is truly inspired! This gospel is amazing.
I just want to say a big THANK YOU!!! I can't believe what awesome family and friends I have been blessed with. My mission has been the greatest blessing of my life and you all have helped it be so much better! These last 18 months have been such a ride, but something that I wouldn't trade the world for!!! I will miss Guatemala so much, My heart really will be staying here but I will be excited for what the future brings for me, more blessings that my Heavenly Father has planned for my life. We truly are so blessed to be living in this time, with the fulness of the gospel on the earth. Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect!! We are all part of it and I know that through obedience to God's commandments we are blessed. Yo se que esta es la iglesia verdadera. Tengo un gran testimonio de la Restauracion de la iglesia de Jesucristo. Se con todo my corazon que Jose Smith fue llamado como profeta para restaurar esta iglesia. Fue tan necesario que tuvieramos una restauracion de estas cosas, porque si no, hubieramos perecido, todos nosotros. Estoy muy agradecida con mi Padre Celestial por haber enviado a su hijo Jesucristo para pagar por nuestros pecados. Testifico del amor de Nuestro Padre Celestial. El es un Dios de milagros. Se que Jesucristo vive y El es nuestro Salvador!!!!!!! Espero que esten bien, nos vemos pronto!!!!
Con amor,
Hermana Erin Jane Wetzel
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Lovin Guate!
Hola! Como estan?! Mi querida familia y amigos especiales.....
How are you! Guatemala is great as usual, who knew a girl could fall this much in love with such a crazy place! Oh will I have stories for you! I didnt get to share my experiences that I had these last two weeks in the TEMPLE!!!! I went two p'days in a row.What a blessing! There is no place like the temple. I talked to Hna Santizo and she is so excited!!! She cant wait for October.
I also got to go on divisions the other day because Evellyn, our cook´s daughter who is just too great, tells the bishop to call my mission president to ask him if I can miss church in my ward and go to their ward conference to play the flute! I was shocked when President gave me the ok, but it was a great experience and the spirit was so strong in this meeting, I missed my own ward but my little hija took care of everything in our ward and she was with an ex missionry too so I felt better abou it. But that was the big adventure of this week. I also met a girl who was companions with my MTC companion, hna mellor over there in Nicaragua. small world. We also went to Panajachel this week, what a gorgeous lake!!! The spirit is so strong there too, guatemala is just too much, so beautiful! Life is so great, hope you´re enjoying everything! You´re in my thoughts and prayers. love you!!!
hasta luego...
Hermana Wetzel
How are you! Guatemala is great as usual, who knew a girl could fall this much in love with such a crazy place! Oh will I have stories for you! I didnt get to share my experiences that I had these last two weeks in the TEMPLE!!!! I went two p'days in a row.What a blessing! There is no place like the temple. I talked to Hna Santizo and she is so excited!!! She cant wait for October.
I also got to go on divisions the other day because Evellyn, our cook´s daughter who is just too great, tells the bishop to call my mission president to ask him if I can miss church in my ward and go to their ward conference to play the flute! I was shocked when President gave me the ok, but it was a great experience and the spirit was so strong in this meeting, I missed my own ward but my little hija took care of everything in our ward and she was with an ex missionry too so I felt better abou it. But that was the big adventure of this week. I also met a girl who was companions with my MTC companion, hna mellor over there in Nicaragua. small world. We also went to Panajachel this week, what a gorgeous lake!!! The spirit is so strong there too, guatemala is just too much, so beautiful! Life is so great, hope you´re enjoying everything! You´re in my thoughts and prayers. love you!!!
hasta luego...
Hermana Wetzel
Monday, August 15, 2011
Still in Antigua
Hey!! Greetings from Antigua...I didn´t have changes! Well I did, but Im still in my same area. This is a tender mercy. I knew Hna Johansen wouldnt kill me, that would have just been too good to be true, but at least I got to stay here to finish out my mission in a place I Love!!!!!! And especially now that Pres Brough says we cant leave our areas, ha thats luck because Im in the area where everyone wants to come and we never get bored here! President Brough has instituted a lot of new rules which is only to be expected, but we have already seen blessings from these changes. So, they werent gonna let me go without a fight. When I got my answer to be here until September, I didnt know why, I just knew I had to èndure to the end¨. And now, upon receiving my new companion, I knew the Lord had something else in store for me. My new daughter pretty much explained that to me when I was the only sister missionary at trainers interviews Wednesday morning....that was interesting- ill explain more when I get home, but needless to say I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here with my first latin daughter! Its been fun to just jump in to teaching without the language barrier that I know my trainer struggled with when she was with me. But life is good, she is from Honduras and her name is Hna Cuellar.
We saw tons of miracles this week, especially with the familia Bautista!! Thats gonna be a good story for the grandkids. Let me just tell you about this week.
so MOnday night we get change calls, pretty sure that if anyone is leaving, its me. But no, hna Johansen got the call. Then tuesday morning we were going to the temple, everything went great there, i learned sooooo much and had an incredible experience in the clestial room. ba. then, on Tuesday night we got back from the temple and may or may not have had to run straight to a baptism we had planned....and we made it on time. It was pouring rain but so fun. Then, that night we had to pack hna johansens stuff and then we woke up at 330 in the morning!! our ride was leaving to the cap at 515 am and we had to go with him. sweet evellyn came with us just for the ride because we cant be alone with a man in a car. so we arrive at 615am at the chapel and just plopped ourselves down on top of her suitcases trying to make sense of what was all happening. It was nuts. We´re just chillin there for about an hour and a half until the zone leaders come to open the church. mind you this chapel is right next to the highway and theres people passin in cars, honkin wavin, and whos idea was it to run on the freeway? we saw like ten people run by just on their morning jog. anyway, we have interviews at 8. the real meeting doesnt start until 1 pm- thats great. so we try to make ourselves useful til then...we have change meeting and then we´re off again to Antigua. I was exhausted at the end of this day, because we had a full afternoon of appointments but got back late and so we were running around...amen to being on the mission. i love it! THese last five weeks I know will be wonderful, thank you for your prayers and concern, I am fine!!!!!!!! love you all, lets live consecrated lives. love yoU!
hermana wetzel
We saw tons of miracles this week, especially with the familia Bautista!! Thats gonna be a good story for the grandkids. Let me just tell you about this week.
so MOnday night we get change calls, pretty sure that if anyone is leaving, its me. But no, hna Johansen got the call. Then tuesday morning we were going to the temple, everything went great there, i learned sooooo much and had an incredible experience in the clestial room. ba. then, on Tuesday night we got back from the temple and may or may not have had to run straight to a baptism we had planned....and we made it on time. It was pouring rain but so fun. Then, that night we had to pack hna johansens stuff and then we woke up at 330 in the morning!! our ride was leaving to the cap at 515 am and we had to go with him. sweet evellyn came with us just for the ride because we cant be alone with a man in a car. so we arrive at 615am at the chapel and just plopped ourselves down on top of her suitcases trying to make sense of what was all happening. It was nuts. We´re just chillin there for about an hour and a half until the zone leaders come to open the church. mind you this chapel is right next to the highway and theres people passin in cars, honkin wavin, and whos idea was it to run on the freeway? we saw like ten people run by just on their morning jog. anyway, we have interviews at 8. the real meeting doesnt start until 1 pm- thats great. so we try to make ourselves useful til then...we have change meeting and then we´re off again to Antigua. I was exhausted at the end of this day, because we had a full afternoon of appointments but got back late and so we were running around...amen to being on the mission. i love it! THese last five weeks I know will be wonderful, thank you for your prayers and concern, I am fine!!!!!!!! love you all, lets live consecrated lives. love yoU!
hermana wetzel
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Christ
Hey!!
Greetings from Guate! I havent been able to write very much, but things here are great. The Lord continues to bless us, perfrom miracles and test us everyday. I´ve been thinking a lot about Christ like attributes lately and one that I know he had and that the scriptures testify to us that he had, was integrity. If you think about it, thats probably a huge part of what made him perfect! He did everything when he was supposed to, even when he was ridiculed or no one was watching! What if he would have gone into the garden just to sit there and pretend to do the Atonement, his apostles were sleeping, no one was there. That might be a little extreme, because he wouldnt have done that, but if we really think about it, if we have integrity we do whats right always because we know HE is watching us. We are all responsible for our acts, judgment day is not that far off from the looks of things down here haha. I know I need to change a lot of things and be more Christlike, but I just wanted to share 3 nefi 27 27 with you. I know Christ came to visit the Americas and that these are His words to US today. Love you all so much, thanks for the support and write me lots, you dont have very much time to write me as Hermana Wetzel!!!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
Greetings from Guate! I havent been able to write very much, but things here are great. The Lord continues to bless us, perfrom miracles and test us everyday. I´ve been thinking a lot about Christ like attributes lately and one that I know he had and that the scriptures testify to us that he had, was integrity. If you think about it, thats probably a huge part of what made him perfect! He did everything when he was supposed to, even when he was ridiculed or no one was watching! What if he would have gone into the garden just to sit there and pretend to do the Atonement, his apostles were sleeping, no one was there. That might be a little extreme, because he wouldnt have done that, but if we really think about it, if we have integrity we do whats right always because we know HE is watching us. We are all responsible for our acts, judgment day is not that far off from the looks of things down here haha. I know I need to change a lot of things and be more Christlike, but I just wanted to share 3 nefi 27 27 with you. I know Christ came to visit the Americas and that these are His words to US today. Love you all so much, thanks for the support and write me lots, you dont have very much time to write me as Hermana Wetzel!!!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Blessings
Dear family and blog-
Greetings from Antigua! I am so excited for you to see this place and meet these people, it just keeps getting better and better! This week was an awesome week for us! Lets be honest, every week is great on the mission, but this week we had some really powerful lessons with investigators. It was what I like to call a free flowing week....with tears. My testimony this week grew of how important inspired questions are in lessons. I dont know why but every time we asked a really inspired question, the investigator started to cry. Two of these experiences have been my favorites in this area. Irma, the first experience, was a widow who lives with her daughter in that new area I told you about. We were just talking, everything tranquilo when her daughter wanted us to share something with her from the Book of Mormon, if we we going to leave it with her...she was kind of apprehensive. But I said, it would be better if you asked us a question of the soul that either of you have so we can answer if from the Book of Mormon....then the tears started coming. The mom who showed no sign of being emotional before, started to cry and cry and just told us, ¨all i want to know is where my two sons are that died and if they are ok.¨ ha! Thank you Alma 40. Immediately the spirit testified to all of us that this scripture was true after her daughter read it to all of us. This truly was a remarkable experience and we hope to see this family progress so she can be with her two sons again and her husband. The other experience was with a 48 year old man who has been drinking since he was 8 years old. He started to cry when we testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how grateful he was for the help of this member family and us and Jesus. It was incredible..he now has a fecha meta for the 31st of this month if he stops drinking. Pray for tino!
If I could talk about anything in my homecoming talk it would be the power of the Book of Mormon..this book...incredible. So stk pres if you want to mention this to Bish Gessel that would be great...hahaha. Im not trunky I promise! But you know how I like to plan ahead.
We also got to do divisions with the Mission Presidents daughter and that was really fun. It has been raining cats and dogs in the afternoons, we love it.
Katie, way to be a trooper, thanks for the quote and you example! and baby ella, why do I love them so much!! whats gracie doing with her life these days? tell them we´ll celebrate bdays again in september haha. Tay, thanks for the email tu eres la bomba haha pero de verdad, gracias por tu apoyo. y nara? que haces con tu vida? and mol and jeff, everyone is excited to meet you, the famous parents of hna wetzel.
Love you all, hope you have a great week!! Keep reading your scriptures every day and learn and live like today was the last.
Love,
Hna Wetzel
Needless to say, Heavenly Father blesses us so much everyday.
Greetings from Antigua! I am so excited for you to see this place and meet these people, it just keeps getting better and better! This week was an awesome week for us! Lets be honest, every week is great on the mission, but this week we had some really powerful lessons with investigators. It was what I like to call a free flowing week....with tears. My testimony this week grew of how important inspired questions are in lessons. I dont know why but every time we asked a really inspired question, the investigator started to cry. Two of these experiences have been my favorites in this area. Irma, the first experience, was a widow who lives with her daughter in that new area I told you about. We were just talking, everything tranquilo when her daughter wanted us to share something with her from the Book of Mormon, if we we going to leave it with her...she was kind of apprehensive. But I said, it would be better if you asked us a question of the soul that either of you have so we can answer if from the Book of Mormon....then the tears started coming. The mom who showed no sign of being emotional before, started to cry and cry and just told us, ¨all i want to know is where my two sons are that died and if they are ok.¨ ha! Thank you Alma 40. Immediately the spirit testified to all of us that this scripture was true after her daughter read it to all of us. This truly was a remarkable experience and we hope to see this family progress so she can be with her two sons again and her husband. The other experience was with a 48 year old man who has been drinking since he was 8 years old. He started to cry when we testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how grateful he was for the help of this member family and us and Jesus. It was incredible..he now has a fecha meta for the 31st of this month if he stops drinking. Pray for tino!
If I could talk about anything in my homecoming talk it would be the power of the Book of Mormon..this book...incredible. So stk pres if you want to mention this to Bish Gessel that would be great...hahaha. Im not trunky I promise! But you know how I like to plan ahead.
We also got to do divisions with the Mission Presidents daughter and that was really fun. It has been raining cats and dogs in the afternoons, we love it.
Katie, way to be a trooper, thanks for the quote and you example! and baby ella, why do I love them so much!! whats gracie doing with her life these days? tell them we´ll celebrate bdays again in september haha. Tay, thanks for the email tu eres la bomba haha pero de verdad, gracias por tu apoyo. y nara? que haces con tu vida? and mol and jeff, everyone is excited to meet you, the famous parents of hna wetzel.
Love you all, hope you have a great week!! Keep reading your scriptures every day and learn and live like today was the last.
Love,
Hna Wetzel
Needless to say, Heavenly Father blesses us so much everyday.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Merry Christmas & Happy July 4th!
Dear blog...
Merry Christmas and Happy 4th of July! ill explain the Christmas thing later, but I hope you all enjoyed the parade, thanks for the pancake mol! love you. Im making some tomorrow on pday in honor of the big day. We will celebrate Guate´s independence in september.
Well this week was intense! Everything from meeting the new president to opening new areas to listening to guatemalan women talk to their dogs in tu asking them why they are interrupting her appt with the missionaries and what their problem is. soooo funny. But yes the Baldwins left on Friday, but the last time we saw them was a week ago friday in the training meeting for the newbies. Luckily we had the meeting, because it not, we wouldnt have been able to say goodbye to them. Sister Johansen and I knew we werent going to have changes because the church now wants every missionary with their trainer for 2 changes and we have a special study program to follow and everything and so if it goes well with us, then the church will start implementing it worldwide. But this program is awesome and we are so blessed to be a part of it. We also had a way tight lesson with Kevin, yes the kid who runs down the street to catch us a tuc tuc and then rides it back to us and says, here ya go hermanas! like an at your service type of thing. too funny.
President Brough is great! He and his wife are very loving. They came around and shook every companionships hand and talked to us so they could hear how our area was and everything. They will be and are fantastic.
This week we had lots of miracles, like always. But my most spiritual experience was yesterday when we were visiting the only member that lives in this one part of our area that is huge and kind of far away. Anyway, we have been praying a lot about where we can start working in our area to really find a gold mine of investigators, and yesterday we found it. This young couple lives in Milpasaltas and invited us over so they could show us this part of our area. They said the missionaries have never really worked over there and so we basically be opening this area with the help of this one family and everyone they know! I love this though, opening areas is almost better than getting to an area thats already been going, but not really been going if ya know what I mean. But the Lord is blessing us everyday, thanks for your prayers!
It was literally like christmas as I sat and listened to this member just list off every neighbor and friend he had there. He goes, Juan, Karla, the person on the corner..etc oh yeah, and Juan, el pastor. haha it was incredible, who knew they had Christmas in July!!! It was incredible. We have plans to go contact all these references this week.
Keep the area milpasaltas in your prayers, even if you dont, Heavenly Father knows where that is and what the people need. Thanks! from a great movie we watched as a zone the other day...the dad of the missionary said, having never been to the country where his son was serving...¨I dont know anyone in Guatemala enough to love them, but I guess God does and thats why he sent my daughter there.¨ how cute. I know Im here for a reason, thanks for all your support and love! I have the best friends and family a missionary could ask for. You´re in my prayers. The church is soooooo true! Go share it with all those new fams on stansbury! as my cocinera says....con mucho, mucho, mucho, mucho amor!
º hermana wetzel º
Merry Christmas and Happy 4th of July! ill explain the Christmas thing later, but I hope you all enjoyed the parade, thanks for the pancake mol! love you. Im making some tomorrow on pday in honor of the big day. We will celebrate Guate´s independence in september.
Well this week was intense! Everything from meeting the new president to opening new areas to listening to guatemalan women talk to their dogs in tu asking them why they are interrupting her appt with the missionaries and what their problem is. soooo funny. But yes the Baldwins left on Friday, but the last time we saw them was a week ago friday in the training meeting for the newbies. Luckily we had the meeting, because it not, we wouldnt have been able to say goodbye to them. Sister Johansen and I knew we werent going to have changes because the church now wants every missionary with their trainer for 2 changes and we have a special study program to follow and everything and so if it goes well with us, then the church will start implementing it worldwide. But this program is awesome and we are so blessed to be a part of it. We also had a way tight lesson with Kevin, yes the kid who runs down the street to catch us a tuc tuc and then rides it back to us and says, here ya go hermanas! like an at your service type of thing. too funny.
President Brough is great! He and his wife are very loving. They came around and shook every companionships hand and talked to us so they could hear how our area was and everything. They will be and are fantastic.
This week we had lots of miracles, like always. But my most spiritual experience was yesterday when we were visiting the only member that lives in this one part of our area that is huge and kind of far away. Anyway, we have been praying a lot about where we can start working in our area to really find a gold mine of investigators, and yesterday we found it. This young couple lives in Milpasaltas and invited us over so they could show us this part of our area. They said the missionaries have never really worked over there and so we basically be opening this area with the help of this one family and everyone they know! I love this though, opening areas is almost better than getting to an area thats already been going, but not really been going if ya know what I mean. But the Lord is blessing us everyday, thanks for your prayers!
It was literally like christmas as I sat and listened to this member just list off every neighbor and friend he had there. He goes, Juan, Karla, the person on the corner..etc oh yeah, and Juan, el pastor. haha it was incredible, who knew they had Christmas in July!!! It was incredible. We have plans to go contact all these references this week.
Keep the area milpasaltas in your prayers, even if you dont, Heavenly Father knows where that is and what the people need. Thanks! from a great movie we watched as a zone the other day...the dad of the missionary said, having never been to the country where his son was serving...¨I dont know anyone in Guatemala enough to love them, but I guess God does and thats why he sent my daughter there.¨ how cute. I know Im here for a reason, thanks for all your support and love! I have the best friends and family a missionary could ask for. You´re in my prayers. The church is soooooo true! Go share it with all those new fams on stansbury! as my cocinera says....con mucho, mucho, mucho, mucho amor!
º hermana wetzel º
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Pictures in Antigua
blog! Hey we had a great week this week! You are in my thoughts and prayers! Happy bbirthday tomorrow nate b. naylor! love you!
Enjoy the pics!
1 This would be part of my area. Poorest place we have been
2Hna Rios and I fetching water in a huge field for one of our investigators
3 hna Rios and I at super pday en las colinas
4 top of Antigua, by the cross with the famous volcano of fire behind me
5 theres me with the Sagustume family! you know him! I want you to buy art work from her when we come back
6 after leaders meeting
7 me in the market on pday, the fruit here is incredibly big and amazingly delicious!
8 these are the waterfalls we went to! on the hike...
love,
Hermana Wetzel de Antigua
Monday, June 6, 2011
Rainy days are happy days
Rainy Days are Happy days....
Hey Fam and friends! How are we!? Happy and loving life, hopefully. Sounds like everyone is doing great and busy as ever! ps real quick, dad, did you put jesus stickers on the tie box you sent? I still dont have that and I think its sitting in customs and they have to open it, so just wondering if that was random or because it wasnt insured :) Now because of where Im at, you might want to invest in some virgin mary stickers. Elder Montoya´s mom did that and his package got to him cleaner than a whistle. Im just saying.
Ha! This week was great, lots of stuff to tell. From the fact that we got lost on the side of a Guatemala mountain for an hour and a half hiking down from the waterfalls on pday, the rainy season has officially started here, to meeting Max, an athiest who would rather live in CUBA where there is no religion, but a lot of other safe things..im so sure haha he declined a visit from us because he was married to a woman from the US before and now didnt need anyone or anything in his life, much less God, he says. That was an exciting contact. A bird happened to have really good aim when we were walking with a family to our next appointment, especially cuz my companion is so tall and skinny, but it managed to land a poop right on her jacket by her hip, so weird? We also found a new investigator who basically went through a mini holocaust experience in the mountains of Chimaltenago when she was a teacher up there for 17 years. but she kept going back for the sake of these kids. She´s got a lot of issues but we hope to be able to help her and her Catholic family. que mas....the hike to the waterfall was gorgeous, its amazing what the Lord has gone and created for us, and in the places where we least expect it. These waterfalls are gorgeous, but definitely hidden on the side of a large hill in the middle of Guatemala. Its kind of like the experiences of our lives, Heavenly Father is such a part of our lives but sometimes we are so busy always looking at the outside, we dont take the time to take a deep look into our lives to see what the Lord has done. Its like President Eyrings talk says, that he didnt care how tired he was or how early he had to start the next morning, he always wrote down the miracles he saw in his life that day. What a great council and example for us as latter day saints!
I hope all is well, miss and love you. Dont go on too many trips this summer without me...haha its ok cuz im on a big trip too! In the most gorgeous place on earth! Have a great week! love you all! Sarah Mabey and Con Con thanks for the letters! Is sar hansen getting married this summer? get excited for a reunion in october!sorry! last second the pictures didnt work! next week!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Hey Fam and friends! How are we!? Happy and loving life, hopefully. Sounds like everyone is doing great and busy as ever! ps real quick, dad, did you put jesus stickers on the tie box you sent? I still dont have that and I think its sitting in customs and they have to open it, so just wondering if that was random or because it wasnt insured :) Now because of where Im at, you might want to invest in some virgin mary stickers. Elder Montoya´s mom did that and his package got to him cleaner than a whistle. Im just saying.
Ha! This week was great, lots of stuff to tell. From the fact that we got lost on the side of a Guatemala mountain for an hour and a half hiking down from the waterfalls on pday, the rainy season has officially started here, to meeting Max, an athiest who would rather live in CUBA where there is no religion, but a lot of other safe things..im so sure haha he declined a visit from us because he was married to a woman from the US before and now didnt need anyone or anything in his life, much less God, he says. That was an exciting contact. A bird happened to have really good aim when we were walking with a family to our next appointment, especially cuz my companion is so tall and skinny, but it managed to land a poop right on her jacket by her hip, so weird? We also found a new investigator who basically went through a mini holocaust experience in the mountains of Chimaltenago when she was a teacher up there for 17 years. but she kept going back for the sake of these kids. She´s got a lot of issues but we hope to be able to help her and her Catholic family. que mas....the hike to the waterfall was gorgeous, its amazing what the Lord has gone and created for us, and in the places where we least expect it. These waterfalls are gorgeous, but definitely hidden on the side of a large hill in the middle of Guatemala. Its kind of like the experiences of our lives, Heavenly Father is such a part of our lives but sometimes we are so busy always looking at the outside, we dont take the time to take a deep look into our lives to see what the Lord has done. Its like President Eyrings talk says, that he didnt care how tired he was or how early he had to start the next morning, he always wrote down the miracles he saw in his life that day. What a great council and example for us as latter day saints!
I hope all is well, miss and love you. Dont go on too many trips this summer without me...haha its ok cuz im on a big trip too! In the most gorgeous place on earth! Have a great week! love you all! Sarah Mabey and Con Con thanks for the letters! Is sar hansen getting married this summer? get excited for a reunion in october!sorry! last second the pictures didnt work! next week!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Monday, May 30, 2011
I'm Back!
Dear Blog,
Ok! I´m back! How is everyone! This week was great and it was wonderful to hear from all of you. Psads and Dan thanks for the letters. I ate soup at Luis Cuc´s house yesterday, you ve got to come visit! Their house is awesome. Antigua continues to be a dream, although its a dream with an awful lot of Catholics in it. Funny story, so you know how this city was built on the backs of who knows how many primitive Catholics and there are how many Catholic churches here..anyway, its a blast and Ive learned a lot. But last week we were contacting on the bus and I was standing up, holding on for dear life while talking to this guy that was staring at us the whole way. I finally ask him where hes from and he answers in english. So we talk to him for a second and he was going to same place we were so we walked with him for a bit. We invited him to church but he said he was leaving on Sunday and besides, he was Roman Catholic. I asked him exactly what does it mean to be a ROMAN catholic, because people in Guatemala dont really specify that or not, and he goes, ¨Well, have you ever talked to a Catholic question mark.¨ haha we busted up laughing and this time my companion did too cuz she understood haha, we were laughing so hard that we left it at that and he gave us his email address to send him some church literature. I dont know if you had to be there, but it was pretty funny and ironic considering that we casi only talk to catholics every day. Hermana Johansen and I are just loving life.
Anyway, speaking of Catholics, we actually had a really cool experience yesterday with a family that are Jehovahs Witnesses, that was weird and different to hear, here in Antigua. But this family was great. We were out with a cute returned sister missionary who was helping us find references in this one part of our area and we found the kids outside and asked if their mom was home. They all screamed yes and we got to go upside. They live in this cute little house on the side of a very large hill. But it doesnt matter where you are, the Spirit can go anywhere. This was a short lesson but probably one of the most spiritual of my whole mission.
We talked and found out that the mom was baptized when she was a teenager because her dad took her to our church. But when she got married, because of the culture here, the man always decides and she had to drop being LDS and now her and her husband with 8 kids are all Jehovah´s Witnesses. I dont know why, but I just felt something so special about her, like she still new and had her testimony of the Church. We got started talking about the church and how they really could know just by praying and we really tried to emphasize the fact that the mom knew these things and she kept shaking her head in the affirmative. Then I felt impressed to bear my testimony with her about Joseph Smith and the fact that he saw Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I looked straight at her when I was saying it and I dont even remember everything I said, I just know that when I was telling her these things, my eyes filled up with tears and my heart was about to burst. I felt like it was just her and my compaion and I in the room and that we were telling her straight to her face that she knew these things and that they are true. I have never wanted to tell anybody so badly to come back to the church. I think the tears were from the Spirit being so strong, witnessing to me in that moment and to her and everyone in the room, they were tears of sadness because of what her life had become without the gospel and tears of desperation trying to tell her to come back. The Spirit filled the room so quickly and so strongly for those few moments that I knew she and all the others felt something so special. She too teared up a little, and then my tears of course stopped, because what..im definitely not a crier. Dina Cuc, the member then bore her testimony and my compaion did too. But this was a moment that I will never forget. I dont know if this family will progress, we hope so but even still, we know that the mom knows the truth and we can only pray so hard for the family Garcia to see the light. It was awesome. I know that this work is real. I spoke in church yesterday about the power of members and the missionaries together and that with the words and testimonies of the members are so important. This lesson was only possible because we had a member who knew the mom with us. Miracles happen everyday, look for them! I know this gospel is true, with all of my heart. My testimony of Jose Smith has been strengthened a hundred times because no other church or pastor has what we have. The knowledge that a 14 year old was foreordained and called to be a prophet of God to restore his gospel to the earth in its fulness. This truly is the biggest blessing we have. I hope we dont take it for granted, share it always and dont do anything to impede us from receiving all the blessings that God has for us. He truly has given us everything. I testify of that, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I hope you have a great week! Mol, I will pray for no rain, everything will work out just great! Heavenly Father knows what needs to happen, heñll probably just send the rain straight down here and its more than welcome! Thanks for sending that stuff. Oh ps, talked to the familia Santizo a few days ago and they are right on track for getting sealed on the one year mark! They are so excited about their temple class that starts in July and they are the ones taking the initiative to organize the families to clean the chapel because the other ward didnt do it! pilas, love them.
Love you all, hope you have a great week!!!
Love,
Sister Wetzel
Ok! I´m back! How is everyone! This week was great and it was wonderful to hear from all of you. Psads and Dan thanks for the letters. I ate soup at Luis Cuc´s house yesterday, you ve got to come visit! Their house is awesome. Antigua continues to be a dream, although its a dream with an awful lot of Catholics in it. Funny story, so you know how this city was built on the backs of who knows how many primitive Catholics and there are how many Catholic churches here..anyway, its a blast and Ive learned a lot. But last week we were contacting on the bus and I was standing up, holding on for dear life while talking to this guy that was staring at us the whole way. I finally ask him where hes from and he answers in english. So we talk to him for a second and he was going to same place we were so we walked with him for a bit. We invited him to church but he said he was leaving on Sunday and besides, he was Roman Catholic. I asked him exactly what does it mean to be a ROMAN catholic, because people in Guatemala dont really specify that or not, and he goes, ¨Well, have you ever talked to a Catholic question mark.¨ haha we busted up laughing and this time my companion did too cuz she understood haha, we were laughing so hard that we left it at that and he gave us his email address to send him some church literature. I dont know if you had to be there, but it was pretty funny and ironic considering that we casi only talk to catholics every day. Hermana Johansen and I are just loving life.
Anyway, speaking of Catholics, we actually had a really cool experience yesterday with a family that are Jehovahs Witnesses, that was weird and different to hear, here in Antigua. But this family was great. We were out with a cute returned sister missionary who was helping us find references in this one part of our area and we found the kids outside and asked if their mom was home. They all screamed yes and we got to go upside. They live in this cute little house on the side of a very large hill. But it doesnt matter where you are, the Spirit can go anywhere. This was a short lesson but probably one of the most spiritual of my whole mission.
We talked and found out that the mom was baptized when she was a teenager because her dad took her to our church. But when she got married, because of the culture here, the man always decides and she had to drop being LDS and now her and her husband with 8 kids are all Jehovah´s Witnesses. I dont know why, but I just felt something so special about her, like she still new and had her testimony of the Church. We got started talking about the church and how they really could know just by praying and we really tried to emphasize the fact that the mom knew these things and she kept shaking her head in the affirmative. Then I felt impressed to bear my testimony with her about Joseph Smith and the fact that he saw Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I looked straight at her when I was saying it and I dont even remember everything I said, I just know that when I was telling her these things, my eyes filled up with tears and my heart was about to burst. I felt like it was just her and my compaion and I in the room and that we were telling her straight to her face that she knew these things and that they are true. I have never wanted to tell anybody so badly to come back to the church. I think the tears were from the Spirit being so strong, witnessing to me in that moment and to her and everyone in the room, they were tears of sadness because of what her life had become without the gospel and tears of desperation trying to tell her to come back. The Spirit filled the room so quickly and so strongly for those few moments that I knew she and all the others felt something so special. She too teared up a little, and then my tears of course stopped, because what..im definitely not a crier. Dina Cuc, the member then bore her testimony and my compaion did too. But this was a moment that I will never forget. I dont know if this family will progress, we hope so but even still, we know that the mom knows the truth and we can only pray so hard for the family Garcia to see the light. It was awesome. I know that this work is real. I spoke in church yesterday about the power of members and the missionaries together and that with the words and testimonies of the members are so important. This lesson was only possible because we had a member who knew the mom with us. Miracles happen everyday, look for them! I know this gospel is true, with all of my heart. My testimony of Jose Smith has been strengthened a hundred times because no other church or pastor has what we have. The knowledge that a 14 year old was foreordained and called to be a prophet of God to restore his gospel to the earth in its fulness. This truly is the biggest blessing we have. I hope we dont take it for granted, share it always and dont do anything to impede us from receiving all the blessings that God has for us. He truly has given us everything. I testify of that, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I hope you have a great week! Mol, I will pray for no rain, everything will work out just great! Heavenly Father knows what needs to happen, heñll probably just send the rain straight down here and its more than welcome! Thanks for sending that stuff. Oh ps, talked to the familia Santizo a few days ago and they are right on track for getting sealed on the one year mark! They are so excited about their temple class that starts in July and they are the ones taking the initiative to organize the families to clean the chapel because the other ward didnt do it! pilas, love them.
Love you all, hope you have a great week!!!
Love,
Sister Wetzel
Friday, April 29, 2011
Easter
Hey! this is just a quick shout out to the fam and everyone at home! how are you! I hope you enjoyed the week of remembering th final steps of our Savior and what he did for us.
This was quite the week! Semana Santa here in Antigua is unlike anything you have ever seen! There were people everywhere in the street, with their processions of Christ and the Virgin and the whole bit. I think the pictures will be able to explain better. We had a ton of success this week and I actually wish every week was Semana Santa because the whole country has practically the whole week off and the dads are actually in the house! Families are spending time together and we got to contact a ton of pilas families in the street.
We had an awesome Zone Conference this week too. I love Zone Conference!! It´s like Thanksgiving for a missionary. We got to see a talk E holland had just given in the MTC and when I heard his words my heart was on fire!!! I felt the whole time like he was talking just to me and I received so many answers to questions I had. To Dan Johnson or anyone else teaching at the MTC, Im sure you know the talk im talking about, its incredible and I hope you can all see it! Im going to attach a picture for Dan too, tell me if you recognize this companion....
Some interesting events from this week were, on Saturday night, we had thought the processions were over because they celebrate Friday as the big day because Jesus has died. We find it ironic that they do nothing to celebrate on sunday or the resurrection, which is sad but true. So we walked through the center to get back to our bus stop. It was crazy!!! there were still processions going on and we were right in the middle of it! It was nuts. WE made it back to the bus station just fine and were waiting for the bus to leave for about 15 minutes. It finally left, only to break down when we had just pulled out of the bus stop place!!! So we sat and waited while some guy, by himself pushed the bus to the side and we ended up having to walk home!!! I know I dont do these stories justice, but ill retell them when i get home. just know that there arent many dull moments! also, a dead spider came pouring out of our water pitcher this morning into my cup. I didnt do anything, i just looked at it, thought to myself, ït´s Guatemala¨and went and got another cup. I scare myself sometimes at how calm i guess you could say that Iñve become. You see so much in the mish that you just kind of get to the point where nothin really phases you anymore....haha life is great on this side of the world. I´d love for you all to check out Alma 13 27-29.
Hope you have a great week! Keep praying hard, know that Im praying for all of you. Love you and love this work!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
This was quite the week! Semana Santa here in Antigua is unlike anything you have ever seen! There were people everywhere in the street, with their processions of Christ and the Virgin and the whole bit. I think the pictures will be able to explain better. We had a ton of success this week and I actually wish every week was Semana Santa because the whole country has practically the whole week off and the dads are actually in the house! Families are spending time together and we got to contact a ton of pilas families in the street.
We had an awesome Zone Conference this week too. I love Zone Conference!! It´s like Thanksgiving for a missionary. We got to see a talk E holland had just given in the MTC and when I heard his words my heart was on fire!!! I felt the whole time like he was talking just to me and I received so many answers to questions I had. To Dan Johnson or anyone else teaching at the MTC, Im sure you know the talk im talking about, its incredible and I hope you can all see it! Im going to attach a picture for Dan too, tell me if you recognize this companion....
Some interesting events from this week were, on Saturday night, we had thought the processions were over because they celebrate Friday as the big day because Jesus has died. We find it ironic that they do nothing to celebrate on sunday or the resurrection, which is sad but true. So we walked through the center to get back to our bus stop. It was crazy!!! there were still processions going on and we were right in the middle of it! It was nuts. WE made it back to the bus station just fine and were waiting for the bus to leave for about 15 minutes. It finally left, only to break down when we had just pulled out of the bus stop place!!! So we sat and waited while some guy, by himself pushed the bus to the side and we ended up having to walk home!!! I know I dont do these stories justice, but ill retell them when i get home. just know that there arent many dull moments! also, a dead spider came pouring out of our water pitcher this morning into my cup. I didnt do anything, i just looked at it, thought to myself, ït´s Guatemala¨and went and got another cup. I scare myself sometimes at how calm i guess you could say that Iñve become. You see so much in the mish that you just kind of get to the point where nothin really phases you anymore....haha life is great on this side of the world. I´d love for you all to check out Alma 13 27-29.
Hope you have a great week! Keep praying hard, know that Im praying for all of you. Love you and love this work!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Conference
Hello family!!!!!
We haven´t had changes yet, but tonight they let us know where the Lord wants us. I have a feeling I´m leaving and everyone else does too, but its been an emotional week! but none the less, Wow, this week was a blast.
Getting everyone ready for conference was so great! To invite people to come listen to a prophets voice is truly a remarkable experience. Sometimes we watched the video clip of President Monson and some of the other living apostles from the movie ¨Special Witnesses of Christ¨so that our investigators would be familiar with their faces and voices and then we would bare our testimonies that these men were called of God. Then to have nine investigators hear the real voice of the prophet, live was quite the incredible testimony builder. One of our most pilas investigtors said last night that¨I didn´t even have to question if President Monson was the prophet, I could just tell and I could feel that He was a man of God.¨ Then Franciso Obregon and his wife proceeded to tell us that they both want to be baptized! I truly was so happy for them that they had obtained their own testimonies strong enough about the prophet and the gospel of Jesus Christ to take this step. I know that Conference was the extra push that they needed.( I´m cnvinced more people always get baptized around conference time, its great). I know that they simply can´t deny what they felt or comply with some of the things they said before like, ¨We´d like to know more, we want to wait, we want to be able to explain everything when our friends ask us¨, things like that and we just keep re-emphazising faith, conversion, prayer, answers to prayer everything. But now, through the prophet and Apostle´s messages and testimonies, we have a family getting baptized. They are praying about their date for this month and we will check with them tonight. But this week turned out to be a great one and we are on the uphill climd t ohaving many baptisms this month.
I loved General Conference! One of my favorite quotes was one that somebody quoted president Benson saying, ¨I love this work, and it IS work!¨ That´s exactly how I feel! Elder Christofferson and Elder Grow´s talks were excellent for me. I have been trying to study the Atonement and repentance more lately and these two talks were answers to my prayers. I also received another big answer to prayer through President Monson´s talk. I wondered what we needed to do in my area to motivate the members and our investigators and prayed to know what they needed. The answer came in the form of temples. We are going to encourage everyone to go to the temple as often as they can and teach more of our recent converts about temple work, so they too can take part in the rich temple blessings. I am always impressed by Elder Bednar´s talks. At least in my experience, he has always hit it right on they money for our investigators. I feel like he is speaking directly to them! We also are going to focus on helping the people here in Amatitlan, or whereever I am serving, to establish ¨celstial traditions¨. These are the special things that we as members of the Church do, like FHE, family scripture study and prayer, to strengthen home and family. And can we please just talk about Elder Scott´s talk??? How cute is he!! I would someday like to meet his wife, but I know that I too have great examples of incredible women that are the best wives, mothers, grandmothers, friends and relatives. We definitely have a new and redediacted sense of enthusiasm for the work and I know this will be another great week, wherever I am.
Did you not all just love conference???? Im so excited to hear your insights. I can´t believe another six months have passed, but I sure am grateful for general conference. I know without a doubt that this is the true church of Christ. Thomas S. Msonson is the prophet of God and he is the person, who if we look to him and abide by the words he and the other apostles and leaders of the church have just spoken to us, we will be able to gain eternal life. After all, that´s what it´s all about right? Remember to keep the end goal in mind and that ÿour future is as bright as your faith.¨ah! there were so many good quotes from this conference, i cant wait to get the liahona. I love you and leave you with my testimony that this gospel is true and we are numbered among the most highly blessed of God´s children to have it. Go share it with everyone!!!!
I´ll let you know where the heck I am next week! Pray for me! Love you all, you´re in my prayers!
have a great week, love you all like I love guatemala.
con amor,
Hermana Wetzel
We haven´t had changes yet, but tonight they let us know where the Lord wants us. I have a feeling I´m leaving and everyone else does too, but its been an emotional week! but none the less, Wow, this week was a blast.
Getting everyone ready for conference was so great! To invite people to come listen to a prophets voice is truly a remarkable experience. Sometimes we watched the video clip of President Monson and some of the other living apostles from the movie ¨Special Witnesses of Christ¨so that our investigators would be familiar with their faces and voices and then we would bare our testimonies that these men were called of God. Then to have nine investigators hear the real voice of the prophet, live was quite the incredible testimony builder. One of our most pilas investigtors said last night that¨I didn´t even have to question if President Monson was the prophet, I could just tell and I could feel that He was a man of God.¨ Then Franciso Obregon and his wife proceeded to tell us that they both want to be baptized! I truly was so happy for them that they had obtained their own testimonies strong enough about the prophet and the gospel of Jesus Christ to take this step. I know that Conference was the extra push that they needed.( I´m cnvinced more people always get baptized around conference time, its great). I know that they simply can´t deny what they felt or comply with some of the things they said before like, ¨We´d like to know more, we want to wait, we want to be able to explain everything when our friends ask us¨, things like that and we just keep re-emphazising faith, conversion, prayer, answers to prayer everything. But now, through the prophet and Apostle´s messages and testimonies, we have a family getting baptized. They are praying about their date for this month and we will check with them tonight. But this week turned out to be a great one and we are on the uphill climd t ohaving many baptisms this month.
I loved General Conference! One of my favorite quotes was one that somebody quoted president Benson saying, ¨I love this work, and it IS work!¨ That´s exactly how I feel! Elder Christofferson and Elder Grow´s talks were excellent for me. I have been trying to study the Atonement and repentance more lately and these two talks were answers to my prayers. I also received another big answer to prayer through President Monson´s talk. I wondered what we needed to do in my area to motivate the members and our investigators and prayed to know what they needed. The answer came in the form of temples. We are going to encourage everyone to go to the temple as often as they can and teach more of our recent converts about temple work, so they too can take part in the rich temple blessings. I am always impressed by Elder Bednar´s talks. At least in my experience, he has always hit it right on they money for our investigators. I feel like he is speaking directly to them! We also are going to focus on helping the people here in Amatitlan, or whereever I am serving, to establish ¨celstial traditions¨. These are the special things that we as members of the Church do, like FHE, family scripture study and prayer, to strengthen home and family. And can we please just talk about Elder Scott´s talk??? How cute is he!! I would someday like to meet his wife, but I know that I too have great examples of incredible women that are the best wives, mothers, grandmothers, friends and relatives. We definitely have a new and redediacted sense of enthusiasm for the work and I know this will be another great week, wherever I am.
Did you not all just love conference???? Im so excited to hear your insights. I can´t believe another six months have passed, but I sure am grateful for general conference. I know without a doubt that this is the true church of Christ. Thomas S. Msonson is the prophet of God and he is the person, who if we look to him and abide by the words he and the other apostles and leaders of the church have just spoken to us, we will be able to gain eternal life. After all, that´s what it´s all about right? Remember to keep the end goal in mind and that ÿour future is as bright as your faith.¨ah! there were so many good quotes from this conference, i cant wait to get the liahona. I love you and leave you with my testimony that this gospel is true and we are numbered among the most highly blessed of God´s children to have it. Go share it with everyone!!!!
I´ll let you know where the heck I am next week! Pray for me! Love you all, you´re in my prayers!
have a great week, love you all like I love guatemala.
con amor,
Hermana Wetzel
Monday, March 28, 2011
Light
Dear friends and family,
La Mariposa is great! Can I please just say how grateful I am for light. I love the word in spanish for light, it´s ´luz´. i just love it and it has so many different meanings. We needed some serious light from heaven this week as we passed for some difficult situations when Satan wanted us to feel bad. But it´s like what we told one of our investigators this week, that the light of the gospel is always going to win and be stronger than the darkness of satan. we all liked that idea.
Also with the idea of light, we talked about d and c 50;24 that talks about if we endure, we will receive more light, more lknowledge about the gospel and ultimately, Heavenly Father will guide us day by day with the light that we need, when we need it.
Then right when we had some weird things happen, we had other appointments with our ´luces´ like heidy ochoa and Blanca Escobedo. I hope we can all be a light for someone this week and look for opportunities to serve others, especially people who we think don´t need it or that we always serve.
General Conference is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope we´re so excited, I´m excited to be here for two general conferences in Amatitlan!!! yahoo! have a great week! happy birthday mol!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
La Mariposa is great! Can I please just say how grateful I am for light. I love the word in spanish for light, it´s ´luz´. i just love it and it has so many different meanings. We needed some serious light from heaven this week as we passed for some difficult situations when Satan wanted us to feel bad. But it´s like what we told one of our investigators this week, that the light of the gospel is always going to win and be stronger than the darkness of satan. we all liked that idea.
Also with the idea of light, we talked about d and c 50;24 that talks about if we endure, we will receive more light, more lknowledge about the gospel and ultimately, Heavenly Father will guide us day by day with the light that we need, when we need it.
Then right when we had some weird things happen, we had other appointments with our ´luces´ like heidy ochoa and Blanca Escobedo. I hope we can all be a light for someone this week and look for opportunities to serve others, especially people who we think don´t need it or that we always serve.
General Conference is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope we´re so excited, I´m excited to be here for two general conferences in Amatitlan!!! yahoo! have a great week! happy birthday mol!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Monday, March 21, 2011
Quick Update
swimsuits and hotdogs...hna Ch.
we had an interesting week. there´s so much to do!
Hermana Rezzio left for her mission.
We are happy for her but sad that now we won´t get to work with her anymore.
It´s a good thing she left about the same time I m leaving, if I do leave next change.
there´s a package on its way!
Love you all, have a great week!
Hermana Wetzel of Guatemala
we had an interesting week. there´s so much to do!
Hermana Rezzio left for her mission.
We are happy for her but sad that now we won´t get to work with her anymore.
It´s a good thing she left about the same time I m leaving, if I do leave next change.
there´s a package on its way!
Love you all, have a great week!
Hermana Wetzel of Guatemala
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Your Version of Conversion
Hey Family!
This weeks letter is going to be entitled ¨ÿour version of conversion¨
Why? Because this week we have been focused as a companionship on the conversion of oursleves as missionaries, we´ve seen miracles happen with the conversion of our investigators and our bishop gave a legit lesson from Alma 17 about conversion. Everything is wonderful here in La Mariposa, again I am grateful for this change that I have had to be here again. We had an incredible lesson last night with our bishop and one of our familias that is progressing, la familia Obregon (thanks for your prayers!) The lesson was about baptism and clearing up doubts that they had. They always ask a ton of questions which is great, but sometimes they are not always the most relevant. So our bishop gave them some scriptures from Alma 17 about how to be converted and how no matter what they might always have questions or doubts, but not to worry becuase they would keep growing and learning in the church. This family is awesome! Their meta is for this month on the 27th and we are meeting with another family tonight who wants to be baptized but just have to get married first. We´re so excited! But the bishop told them that Alma 17: 2-4, 10-11 was the key. Read these verses and you will find that these are the things we need to do to have a real conversion. I was in awe this whole lesson at the spirit that was felt. All these ideas were just flooding my mind and I just felt so much love!!! for everyone!!! These are the moments that make everything worth it, puchica! It also made me so grateful for the role of the bishop. I am so grateful for my dad and all that he does for the good ol MP 17 and now working this closely with bishops in the mission, I understand a little bit more of the workload and weight that they carry and the unlimited amount of love that they have to have for their fold. I feel bad asking the bishop to do things sometimes because I know how busy he is, but he always says that its no problem, whenever we want he will do whatever needs to be done. That reminded me of what my dad would say, so I just want to say thanks dad for all you do to support me and the ward.
The other part of conversion this week is the level of our converts love for the gospel. Ingrid is the one sitting next to other investigators making sure they feel good. Evelt brought a family of 5 to church yesterday because the dad is his friend and he wants him to know the gospel. Heidy was showing off her hymnbook that we gave her to one of our other investigators and now they are besties. It´s just incredible to see these people that I love so much... progress! This area really is a dream and I have been so lucky to have had the chance to work here.
My comp gave a bomb talk on testimony yesterday and how our testimony stems from our personal conversion and that all we need to do is to share our testimony with others and not be afraid to share what we have!
There was a bunch of other funny stuff that I was going to tell you, but there is so much going on that sometimes I forget to write it down. But I will tell you that its pretty funny/ironic that one of my favorite hermanas here has a ¨miller light crew¨ shirt, the first counselor sports a coors shirt on saturdays and the bishops son has a collection of various other beer type shirts. The greatest thing is some of them have no idea what they even mean, everyone just buys 25 cent shirts here and they are usually in english and they have no idea what they say! It´s hilarious and we try to explain to them. Guatemala continues to be crazy but I couldn´t love more what I am doing and where I am doing it.
We got so much sun on Saturday when we were helping with the primary activity from 9-1 pm out in the sun in pday clothes, not noticing that our tshirts were a different style than our normal everyday shirts and so we got fried. It was great. The kids were so cute and loved the activity that Hermana Blanca planned for them and we got to help.
Hope you have a great week! Nara, let me know if you got my postcard! I hope it gets to you before you leave España. Loves to all! Tay thanks for your uplifting story, mol I got the valentines card, thanks! Hope everyone is doing well! love you all! Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
This weeks letter is going to be entitled ¨ÿour version of conversion¨
Why? Because this week we have been focused as a companionship on the conversion of oursleves as missionaries, we´ve seen miracles happen with the conversion of our investigators and our bishop gave a legit lesson from Alma 17 about conversion. Everything is wonderful here in La Mariposa, again I am grateful for this change that I have had to be here again. We had an incredible lesson last night with our bishop and one of our familias that is progressing, la familia Obregon (thanks for your prayers!) The lesson was about baptism and clearing up doubts that they had. They always ask a ton of questions which is great, but sometimes they are not always the most relevant. So our bishop gave them some scriptures from Alma 17 about how to be converted and how no matter what they might always have questions or doubts, but not to worry becuase they would keep growing and learning in the church. This family is awesome! Their meta is for this month on the 27th and we are meeting with another family tonight who wants to be baptized but just have to get married first. We´re so excited! But the bishop told them that Alma 17: 2-4, 10-11 was the key. Read these verses and you will find that these are the things we need to do to have a real conversion. I was in awe this whole lesson at the spirit that was felt. All these ideas were just flooding my mind and I just felt so much love!!! for everyone!!! These are the moments that make everything worth it, puchica! It also made me so grateful for the role of the bishop. I am so grateful for my dad and all that he does for the good ol MP 17 and now working this closely with bishops in the mission, I understand a little bit more of the workload and weight that they carry and the unlimited amount of love that they have to have for their fold. I feel bad asking the bishop to do things sometimes because I know how busy he is, but he always says that its no problem, whenever we want he will do whatever needs to be done. That reminded me of what my dad would say, so I just want to say thanks dad for all you do to support me and the ward.
The other part of conversion this week is the level of our converts love for the gospel. Ingrid is the one sitting next to other investigators making sure they feel good. Evelt brought a family of 5 to church yesterday because the dad is his friend and he wants him to know the gospel. Heidy was showing off her hymnbook that we gave her to one of our other investigators and now they are besties. It´s just incredible to see these people that I love so much... progress! This area really is a dream and I have been so lucky to have had the chance to work here.
My comp gave a bomb talk on testimony yesterday and how our testimony stems from our personal conversion and that all we need to do is to share our testimony with others and not be afraid to share what we have!
There was a bunch of other funny stuff that I was going to tell you, but there is so much going on that sometimes I forget to write it down. But I will tell you that its pretty funny/ironic that one of my favorite hermanas here has a ¨miller light crew¨ shirt, the first counselor sports a coors shirt on saturdays and the bishops son has a collection of various other beer type shirts. The greatest thing is some of them have no idea what they even mean, everyone just buys 25 cent shirts here and they are usually in english and they have no idea what they say! It´s hilarious and we try to explain to them. Guatemala continues to be crazy but I couldn´t love more what I am doing and where I am doing it.
We got so much sun on Saturday when we were helping with the primary activity from 9-1 pm out in the sun in pday clothes, not noticing that our tshirts were a different style than our normal everyday shirts and so we got fried. It was great. The kids were so cute and loved the activity that Hermana Blanca planned for them and we got to help.
Hope you have a great week! Nara, let me know if you got my postcard! I hope it gets to you before you leave España. Loves to all! Tay thanks for your uplifting story, mol I got the valentines card, thanks! Hope everyone is doing well! love you all! Thanks for your prayers!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
One Year Out
Hola familia,
ha! you cant believe I have a year? I cant believe I have been here for a year! I haven´t even felt the time go by. Who would have thought that I entered this area with six months and I will now be leaving it with over a year. This has been a great blessing for me to really get to watch this area flourish. The people are gems, all of them. I cant wait for all of you to meet them.
As for special events that happened this week, we had a couple of very powerful lessons with investigator families. the dad of the familia Obregon told us sincerely on Friday night that he prayed with his Book of Mormon stacked on top of his bible, both of them in hand, to know if what we were teaching him is true and if these two books will lead him to where God wants to be. He has the purest desires to do what´s right and best for his family which is awesome! We reassured him that that is exactly what these two books would do and the wife agreed to pray as well to know if the Book of Mormon is true.This week was a fantastic week, especially with La familia Obregon. Pray for them please!!! What more could a missionary want. The Lord has truly been blessing us and his children here. Friday and Saturday were probably two of my most favorite teaching days on the mission. Just for some reason we had a ton of success and they were just incredible dias.
Did I tell you that my favorite third companion is leaving La Mariposa? No, no hermana marin is not leaving which I am so happy about, but the Hermana Rezzio, my favorite grandma who isnt much of a grandma type person because she is more active and out doing visits more than anyone else in the ward. But she is leaving at the end of this month to go serve as a full time temple worker. She has wanted to do this for so long and I am so happy for her, but I will miss her dearly. This woman has such a love for the temple, she´s a red type personality, and loves being a missionary, so we decided that she´s pretty much me in abuelita form. Love her! There is a ton going on right now, we´re runnin around like crazy all the time and its so fun. If you could please pray for the number ten. Just keep that in mind this month, that would be great! Tell the Omers hi and congrats, tell Cathy not to worry, the Lord will be with her, even if the monkeys and other creatures will be too! thanks for the news update, oh good old byu. love ya lots fam!!!! remember that we are all disciples of Christ, 2 nefi 25:26. Love you all, pray for your success daily!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
ha! you cant believe I have a year? I cant believe I have been here for a year! I haven´t even felt the time go by. Who would have thought that I entered this area with six months and I will now be leaving it with over a year. This has been a great blessing for me to really get to watch this area flourish. The people are gems, all of them. I cant wait for all of you to meet them.
As for special events that happened this week, we had a couple of very powerful lessons with investigator families. the dad of the familia Obregon told us sincerely on Friday night that he prayed with his Book of Mormon stacked on top of his bible, both of them in hand, to know if what we were teaching him is true and if these two books will lead him to where God wants to be. He has the purest desires to do what´s right and best for his family which is awesome! We reassured him that that is exactly what these two books would do and the wife agreed to pray as well to know if the Book of Mormon is true.This week was a fantastic week, especially with La familia Obregon. Pray for them please!!! What more could a missionary want. The Lord has truly been blessing us and his children here. Friday and Saturday were probably two of my most favorite teaching days on the mission. Just for some reason we had a ton of success and they were just incredible dias.
Did I tell you that my favorite third companion is leaving La Mariposa? No, no hermana marin is not leaving which I am so happy about, but the Hermana Rezzio, my favorite grandma who isnt much of a grandma type person because she is more active and out doing visits more than anyone else in the ward. But she is leaving at the end of this month to go serve as a full time temple worker. She has wanted to do this for so long and I am so happy for her, but I will miss her dearly. This woman has such a love for the temple, she´s a red type personality, and loves being a missionary, so we decided that she´s pretty much me in abuelita form. Love her! There is a ton going on right now, we´re runnin around like crazy all the time and its so fun. If you could please pray for the number ten. Just keep that in mind this month, that would be great! Tell the Omers hi and congrats, tell Cathy not to worry, the Lord will be with her, even if the monkeys and other creatures will be too! thanks for the news update, oh good old byu. love ya lots fam!!!! remember that we are all disciples of Christ, 2 nefi 25:26. Love you all, pray for your success daily!
Love,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Monday, February 28, 2011
It's Not Over Til It's Over
It´s not over til they say its over!
So remember how we had changes last week? Where do you think I am? We´re not playing where´s Waldo, but where in Guatemala is Hermana Wetzel? Here´s the scoop. So I had had the feeling that I was leaving Amatitlan for about the last two weeks, I just felt like that was going to happen. Everyone else seemed to confirm these feelings. I was worried too that I wasnt going to be here for the big soccer tournament that I was in charge of planning as pasrt of our ward activity. We didnt start to say goodbye or anything but everyone was pretty convinced. Then on Monday night, after hearing what Presidente Baldwin had told me, I told my district leader to just tell hna Marin she was staying...and he goes hna wetzel, you will never believe whats going to happen with changes...... he tells me, Hna Wetzel YOU´RE STAYING!!! haha! I was so happy!!! I couldnt believe it! But here I am, six months later still livin it up in La Mariposa. Thats why I say its not over til they say its over, or that the ball hasnt gone out of lthe line until the ref calls it because everyone thought i was leaving, including my president. But from what my bishop told me, some phone calls were made, whether it was some other bishop telling presidente that they didnt want me in that area or it was my bishop saying he didnt want me leaving, that will never be known until maybe I decide to tell when I get home. But the rest is history for now. All we know is that Im so happy to still be here beause we have so much going on! This month is going to be rockin. Im also so excited to be here for another General Concference! I wonder if I´ve set some sort of record, being here for 2 general conferences is pretty good! especially cuz i was here one month before confernence last time too. But life is great...here are some pictures of the awesome people we are teaching...
Gaby Zacarias, 13 baptism 8 am
Heidy Ochoa, 20, baptism 3 pm
Ulfa Bamaca, 50, baptims 3 pm, Ulfa is the wife of Hno Rene that got baptized on Christmas! You could say that this was another Christmas miracle that Ulfa was baptized this day! she is incredible!
These girls were all baptized last sunday. It was a crazy but fulfilling, satisfying day like you have no idea! We were running around having them get interviewed, pictures, drying the skirt inbetween baptisms etc. great day!
Evelt Cabrera, 42, baptism yesterday 4 pm
Andrea, my bff and the bishops daughter and I have the samw headband! They came over on Sunday night to take pictures because they thought I was leaving!
Hna Padilla and I, she came in at the same time as me and this is at the hermanas activity that we had and made these scarves!
So the work goes on in La Mariposa, pray a lot for the Familia Obegon please! Have a great week! Love you all!
Hermana Wetzel.
Monday, February 21, 2011
A Clean Apartment
ahhh familia! como estan? wow...another amazing week en La Mariposa! Right now I´m typing in the semi dark because the guatemalans like to save on the light bill apparently in this little internet cafe and I cant see the keybpard very well. But we had interviews today with president and they were, great and interesting. We dont fidn out intil tonight if we have changes and he said some things to me that make me think i will stay one more change or taht im out on wednesday. Because he also told me when he came to inspect our impeccably clean house after, well hermanas, we´ll see ya, soon! ah! who knows. But can I tell you about a miracle that we had this week? well one was that the attendance in sacrament increased by ten again, its kind of like a contest amongst ourselves now to see if we can keep getting it to go up because we definitely never want it to go down again! But heres what happened on saturdaay.
So we worked in the morning to clean our house to get ready for cleaning checks and we just had no time to finish it. so we left the house a little disorderly to go out to our appointments, thinking that we would go back in the noche and finish it. To our surprise, after having a great day with our ROCKSTAR investigator heidy ochoa and Ulfa Bamaca...thats a whole nother story for the birds when I get home. But anyway, to our surprise, when we got home, our desks had been moved a little, that was the first thing I noticed. And then I noticed the pile of dust wasnt there either. I then realized that someone had been in our house and cleaned the whole thing!!!!!!! The bathroom sink looked like a new one had been put in, the windows washed, floor mopped, everything! This was the biggest tender mercy we could have received in this moment because Heavenly Father knew everything we had been doing this past week and how busy things got with the things and people we had to coordinate for Sundays events and it literally was just not possible. The only people that have keys to our house are the pilas familia Morales, they are our landlords and one of our favorite familias in the colonia. I never thought I would say that I could sleep on a guatemalan floor or kiss it, but this one, I could have, but didnt :) This family is incredible and truly understand what it means to serve and be instruments in the hands of the Lord. If any of you are praying that there are angels around us or that we will be taken care of, you can thank Heavenly Father in your prayers that we are more than better taken care of!
Other events that took place this week were awesome. Tell Nathan Warner and Elizabeth Rhondeau I say hi! The pictures, I cant remember which ones I sent but the road rash was definitely a goal scoring skid(accidentally of course Mol) on turf fields. I loved it though, we played soccer for three hours on pday three weeks ago and it was awesome. Thanks for my shoes mol, they made all the difference! I hope I dont have changes because we are planning a soccer game with the relief society vs, priesthood and Im in charge of planning this activity! I love our ward, they just keep adding on to this activity...ok great at 4 we´ll have the baptism, 5 soccer game and at 6 we´ll start the other activity! says our bishop when we ask him what we can do to get our investigators more involved. Life is great, Jesus is the Christ and Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. May he be with you always, is my humble prayer.
Love you!
Hermana Wetzel
So we worked in the morning to clean our house to get ready for cleaning checks and we just had no time to finish it. so we left the house a little disorderly to go out to our appointments, thinking that we would go back in the noche and finish it. To our surprise, after having a great day with our ROCKSTAR investigator heidy ochoa and Ulfa Bamaca...thats a whole nother story for the birds when I get home. But anyway, to our surprise, when we got home, our desks had been moved a little, that was the first thing I noticed. And then I noticed the pile of dust wasnt there either. I then realized that someone had been in our house and cleaned the whole thing!!!!!!! The bathroom sink looked like a new one had been put in, the windows washed, floor mopped, everything! This was the biggest tender mercy we could have received in this moment because Heavenly Father knew everything we had been doing this past week and how busy things got with the things and people we had to coordinate for Sundays events and it literally was just not possible. The only people that have keys to our house are the pilas familia Morales, they are our landlords and one of our favorite familias in the colonia. I never thought I would say that I could sleep on a guatemalan floor or kiss it, but this one, I could have, but didnt :) This family is incredible and truly understand what it means to serve and be instruments in the hands of the Lord. If any of you are praying that there are angels around us or that we will be taken care of, you can thank Heavenly Father in your prayers that we are more than better taken care of!
Other events that took place this week were awesome. Tell Nathan Warner and Elizabeth Rhondeau I say hi! The pictures, I cant remember which ones I sent but the road rash was definitely a goal scoring skid(accidentally of course Mol) on turf fields. I loved it though, we played soccer for three hours on pday three weeks ago and it was awesome. Thanks for my shoes mol, they made all the difference! I hope I dont have changes because we are planning a soccer game with the relief society vs, priesthood and Im in charge of planning this activity! I love our ward, they just keep adding on to this activity...ok great at 4 we´ll have the baptism, 5 soccer game and at 6 we´ll start the other activity! says our bishop when we ask him what we can do to get our investigators more involved. Life is great, Jesus is the Christ and Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. May he be with you always, is my humble prayer.
Love you!
Hermana Wetzel
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines Day
Feliz dia de Cariño!!! There are about fifty million different names for this day in Guate, and yes they do celebrate it! We are looking forward to a normal day of work here filled with lots of love of the Savior. haha Anyway, we had a great week this week. Yesterday we broke the record again and had even more people in church than ever before. Our new bishop rocks! Im so glad you got to see Guate in the training meeting! We had a ward council meeting yesterday with over thirty leaders with our Stake President there to capacitate us, so I can imagine that that is similar to what you saw. But thats how the people are! Love them.
Yesterday was an exciting day as I had to speak in church, we sang in a trio in sacrament meeting and gave the relief society lesson. They might have heard a little too much from me, but I learned a lot and was grateful for the experience. You all know how I love being busy!
This week we had some awesome lessons with Hermana Ulfa. Her name says it all, she is darling! She is so receptive to the gospel, knows its true and is grateful that God blessed her with two sons that were able to serve missions.So now she says she is ready to comply with God´s rules. Heidy Ochoa is also progressing and was so excited this week that she was able to find a skirt in the market to wear to church! The little joys of mission life like that are so fun because you see how excited and ready people are to change their lives, in the little ways for the sake of the gospel. Hermana Marin and I are doing great, both loving La Mariposa, there are a lit of exciting things coming up that will take place in March or in the next change. Life is great and I love Amatitlan.
Have a great week!
Yesterday was an exciting day as I had to speak in church, we sang in a trio in sacrament meeting and gave the relief society lesson. They might have heard a little too much from me, but I learned a lot and was grateful for the experience. You all know how I love being busy!
This week we had some awesome lessons with Hermana Ulfa. Her name says it all, she is darling! She is so receptive to the gospel, knows its true and is grateful that God blessed her with two sons that were able to serve missions.So now she says she is ready to comply with God´s rules. Heidy Ochoa is also progressing and was so excited this week that she was able to find a skirt in the market to wear to church! The little joys of mission life like that are so fun because you see how excited and ready people are to change their lives, in the little ways for the sake of the gospel. Hermana Marin and I are doing great, both loving La Mariposa, there are a lit of exciting things coming up that will take place in March or in the next change. Life is great and I love Amatitlan.
Have a great week!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Never want to come home!
Hola Hola! Oh my gosh! Why is life so fun! Guatemala is nuts and I love it! Did I mention that I never want to come home? OOps....but Seriously, receiving the support and love from all of you, having the great companions that I have had and being able so serve amongst and with the people that I have met, it really is a perfect life and most days I feel like I could go forever! Even though I love all of you and will have to come home eventually, just want you to know that I know I have made one of the best decisions of my life by coming on a mission. You just learn so much everyday! I have started in my miracle journal, a ¨what I learned today¨section, because there are way too many things that pass each day that I want to learn from or remember to be a better missionary now and be a better person in the future and so I have tried to write at least one thing everyday that will remind of an experience I had or something. Only one because we know that there is no time in the night to get hardly anything done before lights out. There are so many things to learn in the mission, the only reason I feel overwhelmed sometimes is that I´m not learning everything I should/could be. but that´s what the spirit is for, is to help us remember all the things we have learned and been taught by the savior like it says in john 14:26. And if we believe that really we came from the presence of God and Jesus Christ, think of all the knowledge we must have had, sitting at the SAvior´s feet being taught the gospel. I think this scripture applies to all the things that Christ has said to us before and the things we have learned in this life. Pero hay que ser diligente tambien! We have to be diligent in all we do.
We had an awesome Sacrament meeting yesterday that was full of surprises....with one of the biggest asistencia´s La Mariposa has ever seen! There were 165 people there and they ran out of water! The Sacrament took awhile, which is nice to have more time to think about the Savior of course, but also it´s a bit nervewracking for missionaries because you are sitting next to your investigator´s wondering what they are thinking and just praying that everything will be normal or that they won´t think we´re nuts. But it always works out in the end because God loves his children. But the best part about it was that the chapel didn´t have any water yesterday and so when they went to go get more water, there was none! After about three minutes of awwkward eying going on with the bishopric on the stand, I caught on to the fact that one guy says to the bishop that he has a water bottle in his car...so hermano Juan goes to his car and brings in bright green water bottle discreetly trying to walk down the side aisle, when one of the priests comes walking in magically with 2 glasses of water!!! where he got the water we dont know, but at least we know that it was blessed! This is all after the Stake Presidency had just announced a new bishopric!!!! So there´s all this excitement, we will have an awesome new bishop, probably one of the funniest men I have ever met in my life.(Big day for us gringas when we can understand funny jokes in spanish ,)-) We will miss our bishop dearly, but we are excited for the changes. I hope I will be here for these changes so I can work with the new bishop, but I have six months in this area and who knows where the Lord will need me next. Heydi Ochoa is progressing so well, Ingrid is doing great and Isabel arrived an hour early to church yesterday because she didnt want to be late! love them. Time has been flying by way toooooo fast! Pray for time to slow down, that more families will be found so we can teach them gospel and they enter into sacred covenants with God! This work is the work of the Lord, Im so grateful for the opportunity to share his true gospel! There are always adventures and miracles everyday, so look for them! Love you all, have a great before Valentines week! You´re in my prayers,
Love always,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
We had an awesome Sacrament meeting yesterday that was full of surprises....with one of the biggest asistencia´s La Mariposa has ever seen! There were 165 people there and they ran out of water! The Sacrament took awhile, which is nice to have more time to think about the Savior of course, but also it´s a bit nervewracking for missionaries because you are sitting next to your investigator´s wondering what they are thinking and just praying that everything will be normal or that they won´t think we´re nuts. But it always works out in the end because God loves his children. But the best part about it was that the chapel didn´t have any water yesterday and so when they went to go get more water, there was none! After about three minutes of awwkward eying going on with the bishopric on the stand, I caught on to the fact that one guy says to the bishop that he has a water bottle in his car...so hermano Juan goes to his car and brings in bright green water bottle discreetly trying to walk down the side aisle, when one of the priests comes walking in magically with 2 glasses of water!!! where he got the water we dont know, but at least we know that it was blessed! This is all after the Stake Presidency had just announced a new bishopric!!!! So there´s all this excitement, we will have an awesome new bishop, probably one of the funniest men I have ever met in my life.(Big day for us gringas when we can understand funny jokes in spanish ,)-) We will miss our bishop dearly, but we are excited for the changes. I hope I will be here for these changes so I can work with the new bishop, but I have six months in this area and who knows where the Lord will need me next. Heydi Ochoa is progressing so well, Ingrid is doing great and Isabel arrived an hour early to church yesterday because she didnt want to be late! love them. Time has been flying by way toooooo fast! Pray for time to slow down, that more families will be found so we can teach them gospel and they enter into sacred covenants with God! This work is the work of the Lord, Im so grateful for the opportunity to share his true gospel! There are always adventures and miracles everyday, so look for them! Love you all, have a great before Valentines week! You´re in my prayers,
Love always,
Hermana Peach Wetzel
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Doing Great
Hi fam!!
How are ya?! I just hope you are all doing fabulous, you sound like it! I am so glad everyone is healthy and happy. Well this week was fantastic, we had zone conference, met la familia ochoa and la familia diaz lopez and Ingrid got baptized! It was quite the eventful week. Alegran let me just tell you how inspirational and cool zone conference was, it was incredible! This conference was my favorite and most inspirational conference yet. I don´t know why but these ideas were just flowing and flowing of people in our area, what we need to do better, ideas of specific examples we can use in certain lessons with poeople who arent progressing that much right now, just everything was amazing! The assistants gave an awesome lesson about prioritizing with our investigators and our time. They used a visual example that really made sense to me. I love using visuals and stuff like that in lessons because that´s how I learn and I think the people really like it and learn a little bit better when they can actually grasp and see whats in front of them rather than just words. I dont know if I can explain it all, but just know that this was an awesome conference and that the work is progressing in La Mariposa!
I cant remember if I told you about La familia Ochoa or not, but they are an awesome family where the mom, dad and daughter arent members, but the two sons are. What are they chances that we would meet the son who is a member but lives in the United States, in the street in La Mariposa when he was visiting and he tells us he wants us to come visit his family! Its a long story, but so cool....no time, but the moral of the story is that we met this family and they are awesome. We have awesome members here that help us so much, visit with us, give us food and tell us all their friends to go visit. Life is great, sorry this is short, but I hope you have a great week, you´re in my prayers! Keep on keepin on!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
How are ya?! I just hope you are all doing fabulous, you sound like it! I am so glad everyone is healthy and happy. Well this week was fantastic, we had zone conference, met la familia ochoa and la familia diaz lopez and Ingrid got baptized! It was quite the eventful week. Alegran let me just tell you how inspirational and cool zone conference was, it was incredible! This conference was my favorite and most inspirational conference yet. I don´t know why but these ideas were just flowing and flowing of people in our area, what we need to do better, ideas of specific examples we can use in certain lessons with poeople who arent progressing that much right now, just everything was amazing! The assistants gave an awesome lesson about prioritizing with our investigators and our time. They used a visual example that really made sense to me. I love using visuals and stuff like that in lessons because that´s how I learn and I think the people really like it and learn a little bit better when they can actually grasp and see whats in front of them rather than just words. I dont know if I can explain it all, but just know that this was an awesome conference and that the work is progressing in La Mariposa!
I cant remember if I told you about La familia Ochoa or not, but they are an awesome family where the mom, dad and daughter arent members, but the two sons are. What are they chances that we would meet the son who is a member but lives in the United States, in the street in La Mariposa when he was visiting and he tells us he wants us to come visit his family! Its a long story, but so cool....no time, but the moral of the story is that we met this family and they are awesome. We have awesome members here that help us so much, visit with us, give us food and tell us all their friends to go visit. Life is great, sorry this is short, but I hope you have a great week, you´re in my prayers! Keep on keepin on!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
Monday, January 17, 2011
It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Dear Family and Friends,
Oh hey! Welp, changes came and went, (does that make sense in english?), anyway things are going great and I´m still here in Amatitlan! I´m so excited to still be here, I love my area and all the people here and Im still with Hermana Marin! Our district leader Elder Musick left and now we have a Latin Elder as a DL, but he is awesome too and very animated about the work. So, that´s life in Amatitlan.
As for: Hermano Rene, a few of you asked about how he is doing, and the answer is, GREAT! He was so cute in church yesterday in the gospel principles class he goes,¨I just got baptized and I still just feel good. I like when the hermanas come because they bring the word of God and I feel good.¨ Hes so cute.
La familia Santizo.....they are doing great and I got to see them this week!!!!!!!! No way they came to La Mariposa again to visit us (the missionaries and La familia Samayoa) and boy was it a joyous reunion. I havent seen them for over two months and Im not gonna lie, I screamed a little bit when I walked in and saw hermana Santizo. We had an awesome family night with them and everyone was just so happy. Hermana Santizo told me three things that made me want to cry (for joy) 1. that the first thing she tells me is that they are reading the book of mormon and have the goal to finish it by April, and that her biggest worry is that they arent going to finish because they are still in 1 nefi! I told her not to worry, all things were possible and that if my family could finish it, so could they! ( love you family, I didnt really tell her that, but was thinking about how long it took us!) 2. Hermano Santizo is now the elders quorom secretary in their new ward and loves his calling 3. she asked me when i was going home so they could make plans for when they were going to the temple and if they would have to do it in guatemala or in the new temple in Xela! ahhh! That was the best! so they are all doing great!
Isabel, familia aguilar, everyone is doing great! La Mariposa continues to flourish and we see miracles everyday. Hermana Ingrid is another one of our investigators that was a reference from another investigator. Ingrid is the mother in law of Jaquelin, the one who cant get baptized cuz shes not married and her papers are in Nicaragua? Welp, she referred her mother in law to us and Ingrid accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson we taught her last week! And since then she has been telling us stuff like ¨Oh well, when I read this chapter for the third time, I liked this¨öh and when I was reading before you came, I liked this part in 3 nefi¨and we hadnt even assigned her 3 ne 11! she is awesome! Im telling you, references from members and investigators is the only way to work. I hope everyone is being pilas and talking to all the neighbors and friends about the gospel! So, that´s part of the update from La Mariposa. There have been some crazy stories that have happened, and Hermana Marin and I just continue to laugh every single day.
I have to tell you about our P-day last week! We went to Panajachel! I know that means nothing to you until I tell you that it´s the lake where they think the waters of Mormon were! I will for sure send pictures soon, because this place is incredible! Panajachel is the little village surrounding one part of the Lake with an incredible view of these two huge volcanoes and a Market enough to please a girls heart for hours :) I just love Heavenly Father! I couldnt help but have a prayer of gratitude in my heart when I was looking out at the Lake, imagining what could have taken place there thousands of years ago and seeing how gorgeous everything looked. With the noon day sun and the blue water, Im not gonna lie, our pictures might look fake. But it was an incredible experience even though we were only there for three hours in the village because its a three hour bus ride there and back! But, just incredible and breathtaking, a little different than my appearance spork.
I hope everyone is doing well, loving life, having a grateful heart, enjoying the scriptures and serving others! Love you all so much, hasta luego!
Hermanita Wetzelita
Oh hey! Welp, changes came and went, (does that make sense in english?), anyway things are going great and I´m still here in Amatitlan! I´m so excited to still be here, I love my area and all the people here and Im still with Hermana Marin! Our district leader Elder Musick left and now we have a Latin Elder as a DL, but he is awesome too and very animated about the work. So, that´s life in Amatitlan.
As for: Hermano Rene, a few of you asked about how he is doing, and the answer is, GREAT! He was so cute in church yesterday in the gospel principles class he goes,¨I just got baptized and I still just feel good. I like when the hermanas come because they bring the word of God and I feel good.¨ Hes so cute.
La familia Santizo.....they are doing great and I got to see them this week!!!!!!!! No way they came to La Mariposa again to visit us (the missionaries and La familia Samayoa) and boy was it a joyous reunion. I havent seen them for over two months and Im not gonna lie, I screamed a little bit when I walked in and saw hermana Santizo. We had an awesome family night with them and everyone was just so happy. Hermana Santizo told me three things that made me want to cry (for joy) 1. that the first thing she tells me is that they are reading the book of mormon and have the goal to finish it by April, and that her biggest worry is that they arent going to finish because they are still in 1 nefi! I told her not to worry, all things were possible and that if my family could finish it, so could they! ( love you family, I didnt really tell her that, but was thinking about how long it took us!) 2. Hermano Santizo is now the elders quorom secretary in their new ward and loves his calling 3. she asked me when i was going home so they could make plans for when they were going to the temple and if they would have to do it in guatemala or in the new temple in Xela! ahhh! That was the best! so they are all doing great!
Isabel, familia aguilar, everyone is doing great! La Mariposa continues to flourish and we see miracles everyday. Hermana Ingrid is another one of our investigators that was a reference from another investigator. Ingrid is the mother in law of Jaquelin, the one who cant get baptized cuz shes not married and her papers are in Nicaragua? Welp, she referred her mother in law to us and Ingrid accepted a baptismal date in the first lesson we taught her last week! And since then she has been telling us stuff like ¨Oh well, when I read this chapter for the third time, I liked this¨öh and when I was reading before you came, I liked this part in 3 nefi¨and we hadnt even assigned her 3 ne 11! she is awesome! Im telling you, references from members and investigators is the only way to work. I hope everyone is being pilas and talking to all the neighbors and friends about the gospel! So, that´s part of the update from La Mariposa. There have been some crazy stories that have happened, and Hermana Marin and I just continue to laugh every single day.
I have to tell you about our P-day last week! We went to Panajachel! I know that means nothing to you until I tell you that it´s the lake where they think the waters of Mormon were! I will for sure send pictures soon, because this place is incredible! Panajachel is the little village surrounding one part of the Lake with an incredible view of these two huge volcanoes and a Market enough to please a girls heart for hours :) I just love Heavenly Father! I couldnt help but have a prayer of gratitude in my heart when I was looking out at the Lake, imagining what could have taken place there thousands of years ago and seeing how gorgeous everything looked. With the noon day sun and the blue water, Im not gonna lie, our pictures might look fake. But it was an incredible experience even though we were only there for three hours in the village because its a three hour bus ride there and back! But, just incredible and breathtaking, a little different than my appearance spork.
I hope everyone is doing well, loving life, having a grateful heart, enjoying the scriptures and serving others! Love you all so much, hasta luego!
Hermanita Wetzelita
Monday, January 10, 2011
Pipeline
I can´t even believe another change has gone by....time is psycho, it goes by way too fast! But Im here in Amatitlan and I will let you know what happens next week. Remember how in my farewell talk I said that I hadnt even started yet, but 18 months didnt seem like it would be long enough? welp the scary thing is how true that statement actually is! I was talking with my comp the other day during companion study, trying to help her figure out a study plan for her mission and what had worked for me etc. I told her what things I had done and liked to do and didn´t like to do and it just made me realize that I have so much more to learn! Between Preach my gospel, the scriptures, Jesus the Christ, modern day prophet talks, etc...there are so many things we can read and do to learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ. All of these resources prove that he wants nothing more than for us to be happy and come to know him, and of course help others to do the same. What a blessed people we are to be living in the fulness of times with all this information about our Senor Jesucristo. The word of God,o sea, all of this is like a huge pipeline that we have the choice to tap to be able to know exactly how to live our lives happily, safely and be able to return to our father in heaven! So cool, so thats my insight for the week that I hope everyone is taking advantage of and reading everyday something that will strengthen your testimony of this gospel!
As for events, this week was a lot more tranquila than the past couple weeks have been! We still got a lot done and saw some miracles! The Lord´s timing is perfect, I just want to start out with that.
So yesterday, we were walking and we had just left our house after lunch. Like, literally just stepped out of our house when we saw to of the ym walking down the street and we were talking to them for a sec when within seconds of talking to them, this family comes walking up the hill from the little park we have down the street.We talked to them for a sec and then the Ym left and we saw this family that was struggling, carrying two toy cars and two toy boys. haha no the kids were real but they looked like dolls squirming around in the moms arms and so we asked them if we could help them. Luckily the dad said yes and so Hna Marin and I helped them carry their stuff to their house which happened to just be 2 streets above ours. They were just returning from the park and werent going to do anything else, so we got to their house and asked if we could share a message with them and they said, yes of course! So hna Marin and I are like yes! So we go in and teach this cute little family, the mom,dad and two little boys, 4 and 2 years old about the restoration. They were way positive and you should have heard the prayer the dad gave after the lesson! He followed all the steps of the prayer perfectly and Im pretty sure this was the first time he had prayed out loud, but it was spirit filled to the max! Love this gospel, love that I know that my Savior loves me enough to let me be an instrument in his hands to help his children like the familia hernandez that we found, and I just love tender mercies! I wont go into all the details about how this wouldnt have happened if this wouldnt have happened before, but it was a pretty incredible chain of events!
Love you all so much, pray for you always and hope you have a great week! Tell Nar hi for me and i hope you land safely in Madrid! thanks for all your support and love!!! the gospel is true, we´ll see where Im greeting you from next week!
Love always,
Hermana Wetzel
As for events, this week was a lot more tranquila than the past couple weeks have been! We still got a lot done and saw some miracles! The Lord´s timing is perfect, I just want to start out with that.
So yesterday, we were walking and we had just left our house after lunch. Like, literally just stepped out of our house when we saw to of the ym walking down the street and we were talking to them for a sec when within seconds of talking to them, this family comes walking up the hill from the little park we have down the street.We talked to them for a sec and then the Ym left and we saw this family that was struggling, carrying two toy cars and two toy boys. haha no the kids were real but they looked like dolls squirming around in the moms arms and so we asked them if we could help them. Luckily the dad said yes and so Hna Marin and I helped them carry their stuff to their house which happened to just be 2 streets above ours. They were just returning from the park and werent going to do anything else, so we got to their house and asked if we could share a message with them and they said, yes of course! So hna Marin and I are like yes! So we go in and teach this cute little family, the mom,dad and two little boys, 4 and 2 years old about the restoration. They were way positive and you should have heard the prayer the dad gave after the lesson! He followed all the steps of the prayer perfectly and Im pretty sure this was the first time he had prayed out loud, but it was spirit filled to the max! Love this gospel, love that I know that my Savior loves me enough to let me be an instrument in his hands to help his children like the familia hernandez that we found, and I just love tender mercies! I wont go into all the details about how this wouldnt have happened if this wouldnt have happened before, but it was a pretty incredible chain of events!
Love you all so much, pray for you always and hope you have a great week! Tell Nar hi for me and i hope you land safely in Madrid! thanks for all your support and love!!! the gospel is true, we´ll see where Im greeting you from next week!
Love always,
Hermana Wetzel
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
First Post of the New Year
hola hola!!! family how are you! thanks for all the updates, sounds like there still never is a dull moment in salt lake. welp i just have to laugh telling you how much I love guatemala, especially the times of the holidays. We have a had nothing but a crazy month starting in december until now! Everything turned out great with Rene´s baptism, did i mention that he tried to baptize himself? well, hes a little hard of hearing and the first time he was baptized his toes popped up, so we all told him he had to do it again, but before Elder Musick could say the prayer again, Rene was already on his way back down into the water with his nose plugged and everything! It was funny but not, but Elder Musick was trying to lift him back up again while everyone was telling Rene to come back up...whoa , it was an epic thirty seconds. But he´s baptized, confirmed and has had a change come over him in his countenance. love that.
Then this week, after all the Christmas festivities and everything, we went on divisions and I went to the hottest place in the mission, La Gomera. It was way fun, but let me just tell you a little about La Gomera. So we have to take a 2 hour bus ride from Esqunitla to La Gomera, which is fine, everyone just gets real cozy on these hot, crazy buses where you can sit 6 or 7 people across the seat because your bottom is over the aisle, but guess where hermana wetzel was sitting? I´m sitting towards the back of the bus talking to this guy while the bus was still loading when little fisherman juan walks on the bus and puts like a five gallon tub thing full of fish, dead or alive Im not quite sure, and their guts on the rack right over my head! You just know Im waiting for the juice and fish from this bucket to spill all over my head at some point in the ride, but it was a joyous ride through the coast and resulted in the smelly fish staying in their tub. I was so grateful for that! Needless to say, its always an adventure, but if you want a picture of what Im doing, thats what we go through sometimes! Then, yesterday, this is pure coinsidence but my luck with animals this week was not so great. We were talking with Victor and Fernando outisde Victor´s house because Victor was a reference from Fernando. So we are chatting with them, no big deal, when all of the sudden I feel something wet fall on my nose, twice! It hasn´t rained in Guatemala for months....and all the dogs in guatemala live on the roofs of people´s houses. Even though I didn´t want to, I put two and two together real fast and looked up to see the drooling puppy dog from up above looking over the roof at us with tongue hanging out and panting. Victor was pretty embarrassed and ran upstairs to take his dog in the house. I didnt care, I just thought, ´what good timing satan has´. No, but Victor came back and we taught him about the five steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he really liked it and understood that his baptism as a child in the catholic church wasnt what Christ wants. He´s way pilas. We also had an amazing lesson with Wendy yesterday, who was also a reference( this is what the power of fasting can do, 2 references received and appointments set in one day to go contact them with the members that gave them to you!). Wendy is having marital problems right now, but was in tears after watching ¨together forever¨ and just said how grateful she was for her neighbors concern for her and even though she didnt need to say it, her tears said that she was grateful for this bit of hope that she could try to save her marriage and that she was going to do it. Her husband wasnt there because he had just left the house a few days before with all his stuff. But is was incredible to have this testimony strenghtener again of how the Lord´s timing is perfect. When people are on the very edge, or maybe they have already fallen, Heavenly Father puts them in our path because he knows they need help and that the gospel is what they need. Everyone needs the gospel, but time and time again I have met people in my mission that in the very brink of their darkest days, the Lord has shown them the light through their friends, neighbors or family and we have been able to meet them and help them. I know that the Lord is so aware of us! He is the one that gives us out trials and our blessings, both for our benefit.
New year´s was great here! ill explain more next week! have a great week! nara, have fun in spain, write me when you get there! dad, way to be the grinch, gongrats to ben and nate, and who is nell engaged to? love you all, you´re in my thoughts and prayers! oh and mol, yes i would stll love the red shoes. thanks! muah!
Hermana Wetzel
Then this week, after all the Christmas festivities and everything, we went on divisions and I went to the hottest place in the mission, La Gomera. It was way fun, but let me just tell you a little about La Gomera. So we have to take a 2 hour bus ride from Esqunitla to La Gomera, which is fine, everyone just gets real cozy on these hot, crazy buses where you can sit 6 or 7 people across the seat because your bottom is over the aisle, but guess where hermana wetzel was sitting? I´m sitting towards the back of the bus talking to this guy while the bus was still loading when little fisherman juan walks on the bus and puts like a five gallon tub thing full of fish, dead or alive Im not quite sure, and their guts on the rack right over my head! You just know Im waiting for the juice and fish from this bucket to spill all over my head at some point in the ride, but it was a joyous ride through the coast and resulted in the smelly fish staying in their tub. I was so grateful for that! Needless to say, its always an adventure, but if you want a picture of what Im doing, thats what we go through sometimes! Then, yesterday, this is pure coinsidence but my luck with animals this week was not so great. We were talking with Victor and Fernando outisde Victor´s house because Victor was a reference from Fernando. So we are chatting with them, no big deal, when all of the sudden I feel something wet fall on my nose, twice! It hasn´t rained in Guatemala for months....and all the dogs in guatemala live on the roofs of people´s houses. Even though I didn´t want to, I put two and two together real fast and looked up to see the drooling puppy dog from up above looking over the roof at us with tongue hanging out and panting. Victor was pretty embarrassed and ran upstairs to take his dog in the house. I didnt care, I just thought, ´what good timing satan has´. No, but Victor came back and we taught him about the five steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he really liked it and understood that his baptism as a child in the catholic church wasnt what Christ wants. He´s way pilas. We also had an amazing lesson with Wendy yesterday, who was also a reference( this is what the power of fasting can do, 2 references received and appointments set in one day to go contact them with the members that gave them to you!). Wendy is having marital problems right now, but was in tears after watching ¨together forever¨ and just said how grateful she was for her neighbors concern for her and even though she didnt need to say it, her tears said that she was grateful for this bit of hope that she could try to save her marriage and that she was going to do it. Her husband wasnt there because he had just left the house a few days before with all his stuff. But is was incredible to have this testimony strenghtener again of how the Lord´s timing is perfect. When people are on the very edge, or maybe they have already fallen, Heavenly Father puts them in our path because he knows they need help and that the gospel is what they need. Everyone needs the gospel, but time and time again I have met people in my mission that in the very brink of their darkest days, the Lord has shown them the light through their friends, neighbors or family and we have been able to meet them and help them. I know that the Lord is so aware of us! He is the one that gives us out trials and our blessings, both for our benefit.
New year´s was great here! ill explain more next week! have a great week! nara, have fun in spain, write me when you get there! dad, way to be the grinch, gongrats to ben and nate, and who is nell engaged to? love you all, you´re in my thoughts and prayers! oh and mol, yes i would stll love the red shoes. thanks! muah!
Hermana Wetzel
After Christmas
Hola! It was so good to talk to all of you! I hope you enjoyed the rest of your Christmas! Everything went smoothly with Rene, i attatched a picture of him, the fact that he is doing this peace sign with a huge smile on his face is fantastic. He is too great. I forgot to tell you we went carolling in our area on Thursday night to all of our investigators and it was a huge hit! We had about 12 young men and young women come with us and we split up into two groups to go sing to everyone! I love how involved the jovenes want to be, they are all such a good example to me and they really got into the true spirit of Christmas with us, love them! The rest of my Christmas was great, I love Christmas in Guatemala. I think I pretty much told you all the details in the phone call, everything is going great and if I could stay here forever I would, being able to talk to everyone every six months of course! But I will explain a little about the pictures. **Red alert: I got all the packages, thank you thank you thank you! See pictures below...
Hermana Baldwin, Hermana Marin and I at a training meeting we had in the coast
surprise birthday party with me, my comp and the elders that Hermana Blanca and her daughters planned for me! they are so cute!
my last moments with hermana Ramos(old comp) before she went home!
Pablo and Gilda Aguilar´s wedding! We were kind of like her bridesmaids in brown skirts?!
Love you all, hope you have a happy new year! Remember to make your spiritual goals too, how you can include the Savior more in your life and how we can look for more opportunities to serve others. Love you and pray for you all always! This gospel is so true and I am eternally grateful for the chance that I have had to be a special witness of Christ. Stay pilas! muah!
Love,
Hermana Wetzel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
