Doing Great!

Hola familia! Como estan! Dad and Ian, I hope you had a great fathers day! Things are going well in Frutal 2! We have two fechas,one for this Sunday and next Saturday. We had an awesome ward activity for food storage last saturday, and three of our investigators walked away with bags full of rice, beans and sugar. We had about 7 investigators there which was a miracle. Four of our investigators were there before any of the members! This week we are going to focus on putting fechas with one family, La Familia Lizama, but the dad is the most positive out of all of them so hopefully he can help the rest of his family get on board for baptism. We keep trying to find new families by talking to the families we see in the street, asking for references and knocking on a few doors. We dont have to tract very much, which is really nice. This week has been great with Hermana Ralphs, from kaysville-no she doesnt know the Hendersons- with us. She is a great missionary, follows all the rules and is trying to learn spanish. Hna Brown and I are trying to work on getting her to smile a little bit more :) My spanish is coming along a little bit better now, thanks so much for all your advice, love and support. Lets see...welp about the culture...we eat tortillas, a lot! they are these really good little corn tortillas that are made fresh everyday. We have a cocinera that we eat with three times a week and she always gives us tortillas. Everyone blasts reggaeton music here which is hilarious. There are some women in the traditional Guatemalan dress, like colorful skirts and flowery blouses, but most of the people here in the capital are just guatemaltecos. My house is still infested with daddy long legs and cockroaches, but oh well. This place is just awesome though. We have plans to go to Antigua and on another cool hike around here soon on the next couple of p-days. Im way excited. And yes, Hermana Brown and I laugh everyday. We have to laugh sometimes to keep from crying haha we have a ton of fun together and we both love to work hard, so its a blast. She really pushes me. I think thats all for this week, I love this work and know that this is the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I hope you all are being nice to the missionaries at home, they need your love and support! I shared that scripture with nara i think, but theres one in d and c that says if you help the missionaries, you wont lose your reward or you will be blessed or something like that. haha. love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh and can you please tell nana happy birthday for me from yesterday, i sent her a postcard but it wont get there intime i dont think. and you might want to give her my new address of the central mission, she is still sending my letters to the CCM. oh aha and this last week when we had changes, we were all pretty sure i was going to leave, including our ward mission leader. so he made me the nicest card, like put together quotes and even took the time to find a large picture of a mosquito and the back page of the note with the mosquito said, we wont forget you hermana wetzel! haha from the zancudos. so funny and cute. oh he said that becuase the mosquitoes love my blood!! we have an inside joke that the zancudos love my new blood and so he has a bottle of oFF! bug spray at his house for me to use every time we go. hope all is well with everyone! love you!!!!!

hermana wetzel

haha hi family! im not going to kill hermana brown cuz im mad, but she is going home after this transfer, and so they say i am going to be killing her on the mission. haha which means that changes came and went and the new mission came and went and I get to stay here in my area with Hermana Brown! Im also in a trio....of three gringas! We are quite the sight and im sure this will never happen again on my mission. Especially because right now there are only 16 hermanas in the mission! and guesss what, sad news, Hermana Willimas got transferred to the new mission! i almost cried when she told me, but we know that it is for a reason and she will be great in the new mission. Its a great time to be in Guatemala, i love it here. Sorry I dont have much time to write, some of you have asked about the culture here, its awesome! i will write more details next week. Cristian is getting baptized next Saturday and we are hoping to put fechas with helen, gloria and manuel this week! Hermana Ralphs from kaysville is my new companion and she will be the next mission nurse! thats my second nurse companion! shes really cute, but pretty shy too, we like having her with us! love you all like i love being on a mission, next week will be longer i promise. the work is great in guate! love you all! thanks for your prayers and support! and mol i just got your package, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love you so much!

hna wetzel

Campo Week Six: I'm Fine

Dear Family,

oh hey! Sorry for all the stuff you´ve probably been hearing on the news, you probably know more than I do about the volvano. But right now the city is pretty calm and there is still a lot of ash in the streets. its a good thing I have my jelly shoes cuz we get rocks in our shoes everywhere we go, but we wear our jelly´s in the rain ;) They´ve been saying something about there being another eruption, but there hasnt been one yet. Thank you for all your prayers and concern. We did find out this week that the rain storm i told you about last week....yeah that was a hurricane. we were shoveling water at Lubia and Ciriaco´s house during the middle of the hurricane. great times, I love my life. The only repercussions we have felt from the volcano so far is that some of our investigators havent been home as much depending on their work. The night we set a baptismal date with Noelia, she said she would pray about it and we would return the next day. Well, since that day we havent been able to teach her because she goes to work at like 7 in the morning and gets back at like 10 at night cuz she works somewhere in the capital that is dealing with all the volcano stuff. But we are still praying for her and visiting her family and we have other new investigators from when we did service last week, so the Lord is mindful of us. But we had two other awesome experiences, both with 2 little boys. One, Manuel, the grandson of Hermana Rosita, who is the coolest recent convert ever. Manuel is ten and we taught him 3 Ne 17 when Christ visits and blesses the little children and after he read that he goes, I want to be baptized! It was so cute and so cool. We are teaching his mom Gloria right now too, and his sister and Rosita just keeps bringing over more and more grandkids, her other daughter, random friends she meets because she wants them all to be a part of the gospel with her! she is so pilas and so we´re hoping to have gloria, manuel and helen be baptized soon, all together. Presidente Baldwin is really having us focus on finding families to teach. This is a great family whose dad unfortunately was involved in a gang accident and passed away about a year ago. but they are so great. oh and the other story is that this other 11 year old boy who is a friend of some of the other members in our ward, came to church yesterday and announced he wants to be baptized. its amazing how great this ward is and how heavenly father communicates with his children, especially the younger ones. other news is that we find out this wednesday if we stay here or go to the Quetzaltenango mission or the new mission they are starting this July. our mission is supplying 54 missionaries.
This week we had an awesome zone conference. I got to see Hermana Williams which I was so stoked about, we have so much fun together and she has been having a hard time with her comp and so it was so ooooo good to see her and be able to talk to her! haha and get this. So at zone conference there are always a few short talks given by the missionaries and all the newbies and the missionaries leaving this change bear their testimonies. Guess who got to do both......me! I was shocked when the zone leader read my name and only one other elder´s name to give talks. And then like an hour later I had to bear my testimony. It was fine though, my talk only had to be three minutes and i´m comfortable now bearing my testimony in spanish, but it was just funny. Hermana Brown, my comp was just smiling at me the whole time from the audience which gave me a lot of strength and afterwards she said, hermana I understood everything you said, you did it perfectly! I dont tell you that to boast, i was just happy people can actually understand me, especially when most of the other faces in the audience were telling me otherwise ;) It was a good experience for me though. We learned a ton about our purpose as missionaries at the conference and really focused on how we can better invite others unto Christ. The mission is so amazing, its so different than I expected, but so much better too. Thanks for all of your support and love!!! I can feel it everyday and I am praying for you all as well. If you have the chance, read Jacob chapters 1-4. There is so much good stuff in there! Sorry I dont have time to explain more, but I really love what Jacob is teaching to his people. I love being able to study the scriptures and gospel everyday for hours! I love it here in Guatemala. The spanish is coming along, hermana brown and i are doing great and i killed a cockroach the size of my thumb that was headed for my bed. haha. Adios! love you all! until next week, hermana wetzel

Campo Week Five

well hello familia!!!!!!!!!!! gracias for all of your awesome messages, i had one from every single one of you, thats fantastic! haha my zone leader prayed this morning that if our families hadnt written us yet that they would be inspired to write us right now before we had internet, it was hilarious. you guys are the best! i am so happy every one is doing so well, it makes me so happy that i have been blessed with such an incredible family. it sounds like the reunion went well, way to go everyone having a wedding one day and then the reunion the next week! i wrote dan johnson a letter about a month ago, hopefully he will get it before he comes home. thats great they are going to pick him up. the Lord works in mysterious ways because i went on divisions last week with hermana rabanales in villa canales and her sister is serving in dan{s mission! small world. but the mission is great. i dont have time right now to respond to all of your stories, i will write a letter tomorrow but i wanted to give you an update on things here. last week was great, everything was fine, normal, we taught a way pilas lesson to our neighbors and had the ward family history guy come and help us teach on monday, and then on thursday it was great because we just passed by one of our investigators housese to see how their reading was goin g in the ldm, and we ended up staying and teaching them a lesson! they are so awesome, we just need the mom to stop workin gon sundays so she can come to church. but while we were teaching, it started raining.....RAINING ROCKS. haha it was insane! there had been a tiny earthquake that day that lasted about ten seconds and apparently that was when the volcano erupted. so we ran home, luckily we had our umbrellas cuz we were getting pelted left and right, but we made it home. there were so many rocks, well i think its volcanic ash...anyway, we were leaving footprints in it there was so much. and then in the morning.....there was like 4-5 inches on everybodys roof and in the streets! that is a ton of ash and it covered all of guatemala city. so friday we spent the entire day cleaning and doing service for our neighbors. it was good though cuz we got to meet some of our other neighbors and we now have a new cocinera, someone to cook for us twice a week, and we have citas with two other families on our street to come visit them! haha get this, then on saturday it straight rained for 24 hours. its didnt stop once and during the worst part of the storm we were at an investigators house who actually lives in a literal shack on the top of someones roof, who had tons of water coming into their house because their walls were made of cardboard. it seemed hopeless because the rain just kept dumping, but i think we did some good for these people and they appreciated our help. its amazing how some people live down here, be grateful for everything we have been blessed with! I feel very blessed to even have gone home to the house we live in here in Fuentes. and then on sunday church was cancelled and there was a ton more work to be done, so it didnt really feel like a sunday, but lets be honest, missionary sundays are not like sundays at home, but i love it. sundays are always so busy and we get a lot done cuz people are home and with their familias. i love you guys, i have to go, but keep the faith, im fine, loving life and we have zone conference this week, i sent a package to the house so hopefully you will get it soon. muchisimas gracias for all your love and support! I love the thought that comes from somethin we sang at the mtc - we are now the lords missionaries, to bring the world his truth. its so awesome that i am now a missionary for the Lord and I am now happy. i got sister rowes address, so thank you. have a wonderful week everybody! love you so much! adios!

hermana wetzel

Campo Week Four

hola!! im so glad to hear everyone is still alive and well and made it through the wedding! it sounds like there were some crazy times and some miracles, hooray! you all were definitely in my prayers. haha and i definitely received the wedding announcement after the ceremony had happened cuz we had our interviews that morning but didnt get done until around 1130! but i was praying for all of you none the less and im so happy everything went well. thats so cool president wirthlin got to seal you guys! Im working a hand written letter that i will send soon with more questions and details. sorry for the confusion about email days, today is monday and that is my email day. we have district meeting in the morning and then come and email as a district after, but p-day is tuesday. so look for emails on mondays now. the only time its different is when we have a newbie meeting in the capital.
anyway, it has been another great, exciting week in guate! mol you got that package really fast, and nara i hope you enjoyed the bueno bars! katie, i got your package thank you so much! you remembered all my fav treats! love you! As far as adventures for this week go...we still have a lot of great investigators that hopefully will be baptized soon. I still cant speak spanish and im trying my hardest not to just be a bump on a log during the lessons, although thats what i feel like sometimes. People just talk to fast here!!!!! but life is great. My spiritual thought this week comes from Mosiah 2 21-22. I love the part in verse 21 that says the Lord preserves us from day to day by lending us breath ( and who knows in how many countless other ways) and then in 22 it says all that he requires is for us to keep his commandments. The Lord is so merciful and i am so grateful for all the seen and unseen ways He blesses me everyday. I hope you all are looking for the tender mercies daily! I promise, if you look for them, they are there. This gospel is so true!!! love it and i love all of you, thanks so much for all your love, support and letters! muah!

Hermana Wetzel

Campo Week Three

Hola!!! greetings from Frutal 2, the best area ever. I love life! but this week was another great one, some funny stuff happened. we have 8 new investigators and a way pilas family. four of the girls living in the house are praying to know if the plan of salvation is true and about a baptismal date on june 6! we just met them last night and they were sooooo positive! ill keep ya posted on them. oh and a few things to note, the rainy season has officially started!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wish i could send you a video of the rain, its awesome! we run in it from appt to appt and it is so fun. but its rains like clockwork everyday right around 2 or 230. but a cool story from last saturday was that our next door neighbors, who are so pilas, a family of 5, said they would come to our mothers day activity if it didnt rain. so what did I do? I prayed all the way to the church that it wouldnt rain. i knew they wouldnt come even if it looked like it would rain so i prayed that the clouds would roll away.......and they did!!!!!!!!!!!! it never rained and didnt even look like it was going to from 4-9 at night! this story is kind of anticlimatic because the family didnt end up coming which was a bummer, but still at least i know Heavenly Father answers prayers. next thing, i straight up washed all my garments in a cement tub with those little rickety things to scrub them on. nara, it reminded me of beverly hillbillies, dont know why. haha but it did. but anyway, it was so funny and you all know me well and can laugh with me when i say, ive never been so grateful for what washing machines do, somebody please go give a washer a big hug for me!haha jk im livin the life, its hilarious. i kill about 50 bugs a day in our apt which is nice, but the greatest news is, I HAVE HOT WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I took my first hot shower this morning and it was glorious. cold water was nice and all, i tried to love it, i really did (not, but thats the happy and postive missionary attitude we´re supposed to have lol) but the lady who we rent our house from came over to look at it and she flipped a switch in the kitchen and said, there ya go! i was in shock that we could have had hot water this whole time. but oh well, the lessons we learn. im just grateful to actually have running water!but yeah, thats the guatemalan front. oh, one more thing, crossing the street is too great, we cross with a prayer and me saying ´are you serious!´ when my comp pulls me across inbetween two huge trucks and speeding cars. i dont tell you this to scare you, only to let you know that im having a great time, loving this new culture and am so happy to be a missionary of the Lord. Theres no greater feeling than walking away from a lesson knowing that the people you taught felt the spirit and want to know more about the gospel. The gospel is the only thing that can truly bring us happiness in this life and in the next! love you all! good luck with the wedding! know that i will be there in spirit and praying for you!!!! adios!
Hermana Wetzel

Campo Week Two

Hola! Long time no talk! haha jk it was soooooo fun to talk to everyone on Monday! Everyone sounds so good and I am so happy to hear all the wedding plans are coming together! Thank you again for the packages, you sent all my favorite treats! But lets see, something that has happened since Monday is...last night we taught the most pilas lesson! (pilas is a chapin word used here in guate for like the coolest, best, tight....but its not slang, and a chapina is a person from guatemala) Hno Gramajo is this guy in our ward who is the ward mission leader and he loves to give us references of all his friends, its awesome! And last night we taught one of his references, Carlos. Carlos is probably dads age, although not quite the lean, mean fightin machine dad is, but he was so into the gospel! Hermana Baldwin gave us a picture the other day at our meeting of people helping each other pull others up a mountain out of a dark cave and it gets lighter as the people get to the top in the picture. This man reminded me of that picture because hermana baldwin said we would be helping pull people out of the darkness and into the light of the gospel. I felt like thats what the spirit of our lesson was doing yesterday. the spirit was so strong! he was asking so many questions and you could just see the light in his face increase whenever we taught him a new principál, he just ate it up. This guy pratctically taught the whole lesson! He just kept asking question after question about the plan of salvation and because of all his questions we basically taught most of the gospel. He wondered about temples and why we are the only church that has temples, what baptism in our church means, baptism of children and we got through the entire plan of salvation with him and read scripture after scripture with him in the Book of Mormon. He even asked us how much a book of mormon would cost him before we could offer him one. Of course we said it was a gift and he couldnt wait to start reading it. Tay, I took your advice and I tried to give him specific chapters and I think the ones I gave him will really help him because he asked a lot about the baptism of children. The spirit was so strong and even though I didnt understand the entire lesson, I could feel his spirit and the Holy Ghost testifying of what we were saying. My spanish is coming along, I understand more each day and im getting especially good at understanding gringos accents because they talk slower ;) aka my zone leaders elder beck and lindsley and my district leader elder erkenbrack who gave our lesson in district meeting today. anyway, this gospel is so true. we are sooooo blessed to have the book of mormon, i hope everyone is reading and STUDYING it everyday. The principles therein are incredible. My day isnt the same when we dont get to study the book of mormon for an hour every morning. que mas, i just love being a missionary! i love all of you so much and i pray for everyone everyday! The Lord loves each one us, I know this is true with all my heart. have a great week! looooves! hermana wetzel