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