Pablo with his sister Isabel and her kids!!
Hermana Alba from Mexico and I
Lucy and Manuel and Lucy's brother and sister Brayan and Jennifer!
We made mac and cheese with them for p day!
Mac & cheese with Lucy!
Helping Lucy and Manuel get rid of their coffee!
Helping Lucy and Manuel (in their new house) pour the cement hahaha
This is how we cook here...thank you girls camp for helping me
learn to cook on the fire (again in the new house)! (Lucy and Hermana Alba)
I will not say it again, but HaPpY OnE YeAr week. I know, it's not what you want to hear, but it is a milestone, and so on Friday, Happy 30th, one year from the first day in Guatemala. That is amazing AND awesome! We are proud of you. You are an amazing missionary. I never hear anything but good comments from those who read your letters. They always comment on how upbeat and positive you always sound. Very cool, Morga! We are happy that you are SOOO happy. Keep up the good work for the next 1/3 of your mission. CoNgRaTs!!
I cant believe how fast it has gone. It weird me out that i only have 4 transfers left....WHAT!? it cant be right. But it has been the BEST year of my entire life.
I am writing Sunday night in case, because of transfer week, you are online Monday instead of Tuesday. I never am sure if that changes your email day.
Transfers are tomorrow so i am here today!
I sure hope you get your package this week. I doubt you will get ours that fast, but that would be an awesome blessing. I hope you can beg someone to bring ours to you as soon as it gets there. I don't want you to not have shoes. I hope you aren't wearing the holy ones anymore. They might cause your feet grief. Be careful with those feet.
I am sure i will get it tomorrow. I am for sure going to the transfers meeting and so i am sure i will receive the package tomorrow. i might or might not be using the holy shoes still...and i say holy because its funny...and is only funny in English also because i cant remember how i would spell it otherwise.
Emily Burgoyne did a good job and yes, I am recording them.
Thank you! I cant believe she is home. It was YESTERDAY that i was in the house with her and her bad tonsils and my bad knee.
So, not much here going on...your turn. What happened for you this week? Did Pablo move up his date? You thought he might last week in your letter.
Just wait and i will tell you all about our week with Pablo!
Are you going into a more dry season yet? You're going into summer, right? Seems like you get rain every day still. I cannot believe how much it rains there, well, according the the weather channel app---they say it rains every day.
Well the rain stops like the first day of November everyone tell us. But we haven't seen rain in a few days. It is coming to the dry season but the cold months. I guess November and December are kind of cold...but cold here is still hot, just colder. hahaha
Have you heard about transfers yet? Seems like if you are training, you would stay in the same please for at least 12 weeks. No?? You are training still right? I cannot seem to remember your companions name? From Mexico?? I know you sent a group baptism photo, do you have one of just the two of you? I try to keep an updated one hung up, I would really like one if you have it -- of just the two of you.
If it does quit being rainy, does that mean the bugs will come out again? That's is bad. Keep spray on--all the time. Do you use your bug tent? I hope you still have it...and your mattress guard? protector thing?
There are a ton of bugs....and the big problem in the mission right now is dangue...so they have made it a commandment to wear bug spray and use bed nets. I am not using the one i brought because they had everyone in the mission go out and buy ones that they will leave in the houses and always be there!
Keep pushing along. Take care of Morgan. Keep drinking lots of clean water!!! Keep he liquids flowing. Stay healthy! Stay strong and happy, and upbeat and positive. You are awesome! We love you so much! Tell us everything!!!
Love you, Mom
Hopefully I'll add pics tomorrow. I have to go cut the missionaries hair at one. Jared Stewart is home on Tuesday. Late evening. I told the bishop I am 110% jealous. He just laughed at me. Laura can't wait. Take care!
So crazy that he will be home. HOW TIME FLIES! Tel him hi for me!!
OK HERE COMES THE LONG PART. We had quite the week full of smiles and tears!
So to start off let me just explain about Pablo. So i had told you we were hoping to move his baptism date up a week and that he was going to be praying to know if he should move it up. Well when we went with him to see what answer he received he just looked at us with this big grin and said, i am going to be baptized this Sunday! So we were so excited. We went everyday this past week to go visit him and teach him all that he needed to be prepared. He has been studying the gospel principles book and the Book of Mormon every day and learning so much and just LOVING IT!! So Friday we went and verified everything for his interview that he had scheduled for Saturday at 11. He said he would be there even if he had to walk (It is like a hour and a half walk) but he said there was no problem. So Saturday at 11:15 we called his niece, cause she is the only one in the family who has a phone. We call her and she said, "Listen, we have NO money to pay for the bus to get there and he was going to walk but we wont let him because he has a bad heart cause of the drinking he did before." So there we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. A cute member saw us and asked what the problem was, and we explained. She gave us 10Q and told us to go pick him up. So we run to get in the bus...its like a 20 minute bus ride...we get there and he and his niece come with us. We get to the church at like 1145 and Elder Cortez is there waiting for us all excited. He has his interview and all is well. He is all set. He and his niece told us they were heading up to San Lucas to get some money that a friend owed them so they could have money to get to church the next day for the baptism. Ok well we tried to convince them not to go because they had no money in the first place to get them there...but they said they would just talk with the bus driver and pay after....so they go happy and ready. Well we had an appointment with Pablo later that day at 3 to go visit him and he said he would be back by then for sure. Well he wasn't home and his sister said she hadn't heard anything...we just figured it took longer than expected. Well we left the house and i felt very strongly that i needed to call him and make sure everything was ok. So i call him and he answered his nieces phone...and as i was talking to him i just knew it was bad. I had this new talent as a missionary, i can hear someone talk for 5 seconds and know they are drunk....well he promised me he wasn't drunk...but i knew better. As we were talking and i was trying to convince him to come back the phone died...his phone..and that was the end. Well we had no way of communicating with him that whole day or Sunday. We just prayed a lot!! Sunday comes and Pablo is usually there early waiting and he wasn't there. He nor his sister. Well after sacrament meeting we go outside to greet some investigators and his sister Isabel and her kids are just standing in the door. We walk up and they just looked at us..and said we have some bad news...and i just told them "I know..i talked to him." Well fast forward to today...NO ONE KNOWS WHERE HE IS. His family that lives in san lucas, his sister maria, the mother of his kids...NO ONE! No one has heard from him as far as we know. My heart is just broken. I am worried. I just cant even imagine. He was a person totally different and he just fell. hard. And it breaks my heart. I grew to love him so much as we were teaching him and now that i have to leave the area i am dying. I am just sick to my stomach. It has been a rough couple of days. I just pray that he is ok and that he can come back and start over again. Because he changed so much. When we met him he had been an alcoholic...big time. Like lived in the street alcoholic.....like begged for money...SO BAD. and in the 6 weeks that he was with us, he was a different person. Didn't drink once. He went from drinking EVERY DAY to NEVER. That is why he had heart problems...but he always just told us it was ok because it was just Satan working on him because Satan doesn't want him to be baptized. Pablo will forever be an incredible example to me of faith. He has been jobless for about 3 months now. He received a job offer about 2 weeks ago but turned it down and said he know God would bless him with a better job that he didn't have to work Sundays....What great faith! I cant explain it. This family is incredible. and my heart is just broken. I pray with all my heart that he comes back.
So to start off let me just explain about Pablo. So i had told you we were hoping to move his baptism date up a week and that he was going to be praying to know if he should move it up. Well when we went with him to see what answer he received he just looked at us with this big grin and said, i am going to be baptized this Sunday! So we were so excited. We went everyday this past week to go visit him and teach him all that he needed to be prepared. He has been studying the gospel principles book and the Book of Mormon every day and learning so much and just LOVING IT!! So Friday we went and verified everything for his interview that he had scheduled for Saturday at 11. He said he would be there even if he had to walk (It is like a hour and a half walk) but he said there was no problem. So Saturday at 11:15 we called his niece, cause she is the only one in the family who has a phone. We call her and she said, "Listen, we have NO money to pay for the bus to get there and he was going to walk but we wont let him because he has a bad heart cause of the drinking he did before." So there we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. A cute member saw us and asked what the problem was, and we explained. She gave us 10Q and told us to go pick him up. So we run to get in the bus...its like a 20 minute bus ride...we get there and he and his niece come with us. We get to the church at like 1145 and Elder Cortez is there waiting for us all excited. He has his interview and all is well. He is all set. He and his niece told us they were heading up to San Lucas to get some money that a friend owed them so they could have money to get to church the next day for the baptism. Ok well we tried to convince them not to go because they had no money in the first place to get them there...but they said they would just talk with the bus driver and pay after....so they go happy and ready. Well we had an appointment with Pablo later that day at 3 to go visit him and he said he would be back by then for sure. Well he wasn't home and his sister said she hadn't heard anything...we just figured it took longer than expected. Well we left the house and i felt very strongly that i needed to call him and make sure everything was ok. So i call him and he answered his nieces phone...and as i was talking to him i just knew it was bad. I had this new talent as a missionary, i can hear someone talk for 5 seconds and know they are drunk....well he promised me he wasn't drunk...but i knew better. As we were talking and i was trying to convince him to come back the phone died...his phone..and that was the end. Well we had no way of communicating with him that whole day or Sunday. We just prayed a lot!! Sunday comes and Pablo is usually there early waiting and he wasn't there. He nor his sister. Well after sacrament meeting we go outside to greet some investigators and his sister Isabel and her kids are just standing in the door. We walk up and they just looked at us..and said we have some bad news...and i just told them "I know..i talked to him." Well fast forward to today...NO ONE KNOWS WHERE HE IS. His family that lives in san lucas, his sister maria, the mother of his kids...NO ONE! No one has heard from him as far as we know. My heart is just broken. I am worried. I just cant even imagine. He was a person totally different and he just fell. hard. And it breaks my heart. I grew to love him so much as we were teaching him and now that i have to leave the area i am dying. I am just sick to my stomach. It has been a rough couple of days. I just pray that he is ok and that he can come back and start over again. Because he changed so much. When we met him he had been an alcoholic...big time. Like lived in the street alcoholic.....like begged for money...SO BAD. and in the 6 weeks that he was with us, he was a different person. Didn't drink once. He went from drinking EVERY DAY to NEVER. That is why he had heart problems...but he always just told us it was ok because it was just Satan working on him because Satan doesn't want him to be baptized. Pablo will forever be an incredible example to me of faith. He has been jobless for about 3 months now. He received a job offer about 2 weeks ago but turned it down and said he know God would bless him with a better job that he didn't have to work Sundays....What great faith! I cant explain it. This family is incredible. and my heart is just broken. I pray with all my heart that he comes back.
Well this week we had divisions. Hermana Yepez came and worked with Hermana Alba and I. Grandma, mommy and daughter! SO FUNNY! It was so fun! I really loved it. I am 99 % sure hermana yepez is going to come take my place here in patulul. Hermana Alba tells everyone her mommy is going to abandon her and leave her with the grandma. HAHAHA--funny! It was a good time though. It was nice to be with her again.
We have this adorable little investigator Ana Crisitna. She goes to church every week. I asked her one day if she was baptized because the Spirit told me to...well she told me she was and so i was like uh ok. well turns out shes not. She goes each week with this family that are members. and she loves it. She wants to be baptized, but soon. and we are just waiting for permission from her mom. I know it will happen, we are just waiting.
Well, we will see what happens with transfers. I will update ya next week. It has been a wild week and i am excited to see what is to come. I keep thinking this week, as i am hitting my year mark, how blessed i am to be here. It really is such a miracle. I am grateful for the trails i went through to get here. I am grateful for all i learned to get here. I am grateful for all i have learned here. I am grateful for the refiners fire that my heavenly father puts me through each day. I am grateful for the miracles of the mission. I am grateful for the spirit. i am grateful for my Savior. I am grateful for the gift of tongues. I am grateful for health and strength. I am grateful for the priesthood. I am grateful for a loving family. I am grateful for the miracle of forgiveness. I am grateful for covenants. I am grateful for the chance i had to be born in a family with the knowledge of the gospel. i am grateful for my mission. I am grateful for my wonderful life.
LOVE YOU ALL!
Hermana Oliphant
Hermana Oliphant
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