¡Hola!
Fam, it was so great talking to all of you!! It was nice, but don´t worry, it didn´t make me baggy one bit!
It has been a great week - learned tons, received a bit of chicotè, Renè got baptized, ate A TON, went on divisions (splits) for a few hours, had Super pday, the weather is gorgeous and warm, and so so so much more.
I´m excited that when I get back to the states I will celebrate part-Guati style. Christmas is mainly celebrated on the 24th. At midnight between the 24th and 25th is the culminating fiesta. At midnight hay fireworks, bombas, present time, and lots and lots of food (main dish - tamales, of course). We, por supuesto, were in our beds, sound asleep (with the aid of ear plugs). The 25th is mainly the day to sleep til noon and clean up a bit. The streets were FILLED with garbage - all exploded bomb/firework remnants, it was crazy, but they had people cleaning up today. No joke, the past 4 or 5 days we have been eating like there is no tomorrow. People feed us at every appointment we have! We probably ate at least 5 (BIG) meals every day. I´m not complaining, it´s been delicious and awesome, but don´t be surprised when you see someone twice my size with my face in the pics I send.
Renè got baptized!! It was amazing and I just know I will always remember that and that baptism will always have a special place in my heart! He has changed so much in so little time, but he´s still the same in a lot of ways (see title).
It was an amazing Christmas week. I really got to rely on what´s truly important for my Christmas spirit and happiness. I love this opportunity to truly learn how to focus your life and thoughts on Christ. We can truly make the whole year like Christmas time if we just have our thoughts in the right place. I am so grateful to have started my time in the mission in this epoca. It kickstarted me with the right mindset, motivation, and goals for the next 16 months.
Okay... email request. If you need me to respond to you asap, could you put it in a seperate email with an appropriate title, otherwise, I just print out the emails and read them later? Oh and everyone, EMAIL ME, porfa please ;)
I hope you are all doing so well and that you had an incredible Christmas! Our Savior lives. He was born in the most humble of circumstances and lived, suffered, taught, blessed, died, and overcame death, sin, pain, and everything for each and every one of us. We are eternally indebted to Him. I hope you all start this new year with a refreshed willingness to follow, love, and obey our Redeemer. ¡Feliz Navidad!
Con todo de mi corazon,
Hna Marin
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
¡Regocijad! Jesús nació
Hola hola!!!
Amazing week. I´m getting a lot more comfortable with our area, the people, our routine, and everything - except for maybe talking ;)
Did you watch the Cmas devo with the First Presidency of the Church? I loved MoTab´s "Come, Let Us Adore Him" - it was amazng.
There are millions of ants here. It´s crazy. Tiny ones though, so that´s better.
Cmas time brings fireworks. Everyday, you see fireworks in some part of the area. All day you hear fireworks going off all over the Mariposa. Loud ones, too. The best is every morning between 5 and 6, when they set hundreds off at a time.
Remember that blog I found and read of the Elder serving in my mission - "Samuel Among the Lamanites"? Well, he´s my district leader... How crazy is that? My comp thinks it´s hilarious, but I don´t think that he´s the biggest fan of lots of random people knowing all that stuff. He´s a great missionary. Our district is great. It´s just us two hermanas and two sets of elders.
On Thursday I received cards/dearelders from Mom, Anny, Crystal, Ciera, Nicole, and Laura Lantz. Those were ALL incredible and such good surprises. Gracias to everyone! Plus, I LOVE little details. I love when people tell me just random things that happen or what they´ve been up to. Seriously. Those are my fave parts of letters. Tell me all the awesome, random details. They make it more real and personal! And I´m so sorry if I never write back. I probably have time to write 1 to 2 letters every week. It´s pretty stressful.
All of the food people give us are in bags. It´s awesome, hilarious, and pretty genius. Even the drinks are in bags. Not zip lock or anything - more like mini-size plastic grocery bags without handles.
I have said SO many prayers in the past 3 weeks. I´m not complaining. I just think it´s so funny and typical that the newbie - who doesn´t talk much - gets asked constantly. It´s good practice and I NEED to be praying lots!
I am loving my big "camping adventure." Have I mentioned that? One of the first few days, Hna Wetzel told me that I just have to look at the next 16 months as a big camping trip. Hand-washing clothes, cold showers, tons of dirt in the house, using a broom with a shirt on it as a mop, ALWAYS wearing shoes - even inside, line drying clothes (which really doesn´t make them smell that great here), washing dishes outside... all sorts of goodness. It really isn´t hard. It´s a blast, and I´m sure I will just get more and more used to it.
I´m excited to talk to you "all" this weekend! Okay... here´s the deal. I only get 15 min for Mom and 15 min for Dad. Sorry. And we don´t have a time set for calling on Saturday, but sometime in the late mañana/tarde - ish. Sorry. I will call from a payphone and then you´ll have to wait a few minutes to call me back on our home phone. Our home number is 502-4045-5703. I´ll let you figure everything else out ;)
We found two amazing families this week. We have very high hopes for them. Both families were so willing and wanting us to come visit with them. I have to tell you the awesome story of how we met one of them... We were walking up one of the streets of the Mariposa and there is a family walking down - 2 parents, a cousin our age, and 2 young kids. They were about to walk around us, so Hna Wetzel just said the first thing that came to her mind to catch their attention. To the mom she just said "I love your earrings!" they went on talking about her earrings, where she got them, etc. While they are talking, the mom is taking them off (we figure, just so we can look at them) and GIVES them to Hna Wetzel. She couldn´t believe it and tried to give them back, but the lady was so insistent. We only talked to them for a few min (they were on their way somewhere) and asked if we could come visit them, help them with anything, and share a message. The lady was not hesitant AT ALL. It was just incredible and unbelievable. I wish I could describe it better. Another amazing part - we usually never do door-contacts or contact on the street, but Hna Wetzel just had impressions to contact two different families this past Sunday and they are now are two amazing, progressing families. The earrings- bright pink, as big as your ear, heart earrings. Hna W has worn them at least twice - not exactly what missionaries are supposed to be wearing, but they are incredibly special and definitely going in her mission scrapbook someday.
René Gonzalez is getting baptized this weekend. The 25th actually. We have seen such an amazing change in him. He is the 60 year old that I said commented on my mouth last week. He still tries to get us to come into the house when there are no other women there (it sounds kind of creepy, but it´s really not - if you just met him for a minute, you would understand), but he is becoming more and more humble and desires stronger faith every time we see him. His prayers are some of our absolute favorites (he has never before prayed in his life). He´s super interesting and we are so excited for him and his family.
Here in Guatemala, the 24th is the main celebrated day. We have at least 4 different dinner appointments with members for that night that we are stoked for. Tamales and lots of goodness await. They usually eat around midnight the night of the 24th, but we still have to be in by 9, so they are making special exceptions for us (they´ll probs just end up eating twice)! We also have a bfast invite for the morning of the 25th.
Life is excellent. We´re healthy, optimistic, strong, and all that goodness. We are having a super pday on wed with half of the mission, so that will be a blast.
Con mucho amor,
Hna Marin
Amazing week. I´m getting a lot more comfortable with our area, the people, our routine, and everything - except for maybe talking ;)
Did you watch the Cmas devo with the First Presidency of the Church? I loved MoTab´s "Come, Let Us Adore Him" - it was amazng.
There are millions of ants here. It´s crazy. Tiny ones though, so that´s better.
Cmas time brings fireworks. Everyday, you see fireworks in some part of the area. All day you hear fireworks going off all over the Mariposa. Loud ones, too. The best is every morning between 5 and 6, when they set hundreds off at a time.
Remember that blog I found and read of the Elder serving in my mission - "Samuel Among the Lamanites"? Well, he´s my district leader... How crazy is that? My comp thinks it´s hilarious, but I don´t think that he´s the biggest fan of lots of random people knowing all that stuff. He´s a great missionary. Our district is great. It´s just us two hermanas and two sets of elders.
On Thursday I received cards/dearelders from Mom, Anny, Crystal, Ciera, Nicole, and Laura Lantz. Those were ALL incredible and such good surprises. Gracias to everyone! Plus, I LOVE little details. I love when people tell me just random things that happen or what they´ve been up to. Seriously. Those are my fave parts of letters. Tell me all the awesome, random details. They make it more real and personal! And I´m so sorry if I never write back. I probably have time to write 1 to 2 letters every week. It´s pretty stressful.
All of the food people give us are in bags. It´s awesome, hilarious, and pretty genius. Even the drinks are in bags. Not zip lock or anything - more like mini-size plastic grocery bags without handles.
I have said SO many prayers in the past 3 weeks. I´m not complaining. I just think it´s so funny and typical that the newbie - who doesn´t talk much - gets asked constantly. It´s good practice and I NEED to be praying lots!
I am loving my big "camping adventure." Have I mentioned that? One of the first few days, Hna Wetzel told me that I just have to look at the next 16 months as a big camping trip. Hand-washing clothes, cold showers, tons of dirt in the house, using a broom with a shirt on it as a mop, ALWAYS wearing shoes - even inside, line drying clothes (which really doesn´t make them smell that great here), washing dishes outside... all sorts of goodness. It really isn´t hard. It´s a blast, and I´m sure I will just get more and more used to it.
I´m excited to talk to you "all" this weekend! Okay... here´s the deal. I only get 15 min for Mom and 15 min for Dad. Sorry. And we don´t have a time set for calling on Saturday, but sometime in the late mañana/tarde - ish. Sorry. I will call from a payphone and then you´ll have to wait a few minutes to call me back on our home phone. Our home number is 502-4045-5703. I´ll let you figure everything else out ;)
We found two amazing families this week. We have very high hopes for them. Both families were so willing and wanting us to come visit with them. I have to tell you the awesome story of how we met one of them... We were walking up one of the streets of the Mariposa and there is a family walking down - 2 parents, a cousin our age, and 2 young kids. They were about to walk around us, so Hna Wetzel just said the first thing that came to her mind to catch their attention. To the mom she just said "I love your earrings!" they went on talking about her earrings, where she got them, etc. While they are talking, the mom is taking them off (we figure, just so we can look at them) and GIVES them to Hna Wetzel. She couldn´t believe it and tried to give them back, but the lady was so insistent. We only talked to them for a few min (they were on their way somewhere) and asked if we could come visit them, help them with anything, and share a message. The lady was not hesitant AT ALL. It was just incredible and unbelievable. I wish I could describe it better. Another amazing part - we usually never do door-contacts or contact on the street, but Hna Wetzel just had impressions to contact two different families this past Sunday and they are now are two amazing, progressing families. The earrings- bright pink, as big as your ear, heart earrings. Hna W has worn them at least twice - not exactly what missionaries are supposed to be wearing, but they are incredibly special and definitely going in her mission scrapbook someday.
René Gonzalez is getting baptized this weekend. The 25th actually. We have seen such an amazing change in him. He is the 60 year old that I said commented on my mouth last week. He still tries to get us to come into the house when there are no other women there (it sounds kind of creepy, but it´s really not - if you just met him for a minute, you would understand), but he is becoming more and more humble and desires stronger faith every time we see him. His prayers are some of our absolute favorites (he has never before prayed in his life). He´s super interesting and we are so excited for him and his family.
Here in Guatemala, the 24th is the main celebrated day. We have at least 4 different dinner appointments with members for that night that we are stoked for. Tamales and lots of goodness await. They usually eat around midnight the night of the 24th, but we still have to be in by 9, so they are making special exceptions for us (they´ll probs just end up eating twice)! We also have a bfast invite for the morning of the 25th.
Life is excellent. We´re healthy, optimistic, strong, and all that goodness. We are having a super pday on wed with half of the mission, so that will be a blast.
Con mucho amor,
Hna Marin
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Cucarachas are from the Devil
Hola!!
Don´t worry, we don´t have any infesting our house or anything, but they are SO distracting during lessons!!!
Anyhow...
I love La Mariposa! I´m kind of sad that I have such an incredible area and comp right off, bc the rest will just disappoint! No... I know it won´t. Every place and comp will be amazing. I know that ;) Kris, I´m pretty sure it´s the place you found, we are pretty close to the lake.
It has been pretty hot around here lately, which is amazing. Hasn´t rained once! Beautiful sky every single day. The nighttimes, however, get super cold... I sleep in 3 pairs of pj pants, 2 pair of thick, fuzzy socks (sometimes slippers, too), a long-sleeve, a sweatshirt, and 3 sheets (we don´t have any blankets)!!! Haha.. it´s really not that bad. Once I figured out how many layers I had to wear, I have been nice, cozy, and toasty every night :)
This weekend we had 3 baptisms and a wedding!!! It was amazing. 2 of the baptisms were part of a family. Pablo married Gilda. Gilda has a daughter whose name is Reyna. Gilda is pregnant with Pablo´s hijo. Pablo and Gilda got married. Gilda is a member. Pablo and Reyna got baptized!!! It was fantastic. Pablo has such a strong and amazing testimony of Jesus Christ and this, His church. It was a crazy, amazing, happy weekend! I found out pretty quickly that nothing goes according to plan down here. We were planning all last week for the wedding, passed out a ton of invites and NO ONE from the ward came. It was disappointing, but a VERY happy occassion still and they had such good attitudes. The baptism we had on friday started about 2 hours late and the one yesterday started about one hour late. The one yesterday was crazy, bc the person who was supposed to baptize Reyna y Pablo was held up in a meeting, so we asked Pablo if he would mind if one of the Elders just baptized him and he said, "it doesn´t matter, I just want to be baptized." It was awesome. It all works out and everyone is really patient (for the most part). One thing they need to teach in the MTC and CCM... how to pick locks. We had 3 instances, in 2 days where we needed to get into a locked door (one was to open the baptismal font, but don´t worry, mi compa climbed over the 7-ish foot high glass to get into the font).
I gave my first español sacrament talk yesterday! It went well. Slow, but well. A few of my favorite people came up to me afterwards and said that they were praying for me while I was up there... I needed it! I felt good the whole time, wasn´t nervous at all. The Spirit will guide, we just have to trust him.
Random fact: We throw our tp in the garbage. The area doc said that we wouldn´t have to, but my comp says that he hasn´t been to all the parts of Central America.
Awesome excuse: We´re working with a 68 year old man, but he didn´t come to church yesterday, and when we asked him why he didn´t, he said his arm hurt. He´s super cute and he´s always a blast to talk with and teach. His name is Renè. He told us yesterday that he likes my mouth.... yep... it´s pretty interesting over here... never a dull moment.
Cross fingers: no illnesses still! Not even BU.
We cook our own bfast in the mornings - usually cereal or eggs (with beans - delish). Today we had pancakes. People give us food pretty often, so that is often and we have it either in the morning or at night when we get home at 9. For lunch, 4 times a week we have two different ladies that cook for us, so we go over to their houses. Delish: átol!! Átol is the most delicious thing in the world.. find it.
Everything is SUPER cheap here. It´s awesome. My comp basically has a new wardrobe. Most of her skirts she bought for under 16 quetzales (2 dollars) in pacas - (basically really small thrift store things that are EVERYWHERE)! We buy bread and goodies at a bakery every so often, most of the stuff costs about 50 cents. We have everything we need here, basically.
The Spanish is coming (most of the time it doesn´t seem like it though). I can understand tons more Gospel related conversation, but the rest of the time I just feel like a fly on the wall... not contributing AT ALL to the conversation. Everyone is so good and patient with me though.
The work is amazing. I have met so many amazing people. I have heard CRAZY stories and circumstances of people. I want to help them all and make it all better, but I can´t.. only the Lord can, so all I´m trying to do is to help lead them to Christ and all that He has to offer to every single person. I want to work my tail off. Every day, I realize how much deeper in blessings-debt I am getting, and Doctrine and Covenants 82:3 just weighs more and more on my mind.
I hope you all know how much I love you. You are in my prayers and thoughts!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Jenna Marin
Don´t worry, we don´t have any infesting our house or anything, but they are SO distracting during lessons!!!
Anyhow...
I love La Mariposa! I´m kind of sad that I have such an incredible area and comp right off, bc the rest will just disappoint! No... I know it won´t. Every place and comp will be amazing. I know that ;) Kris, I´m pretty sure it´s the place you found, we are pretty close to the lake.
It has been pretty hot around here lately, which is amazing. Hasn´t rained once! Beautiful sky every single day. The nighttimes, however, get super cold... I sleep in 3 pairs of pj pants, 2 pair of thick, fuzzy socks (sometimes slippers, too), a long-sleeve, a sweatshirt, and 3 sheets (we don´t have any blankets)!!! Haha.. it´s really not that bad. Once I figured out how many layers I had to wear, I have been nice, cozy, and toasty every night :)
This weekend we had 3 baptisms and a wedding!!! It was amazing. 2 of the baptisms were part of a family. Pablo married Gilda. Gilda has a daughter whose name is Reyna. Gilda is pregnant with Pablo´s hijo. Pablo and Gilda got married. Gilda is a member. Pablo and Reyna got baptized!!! It was fantastic. Pablo has such a strong and amazing testimony of Jesus Christ and this, His church. It was a crazy, amazing, happy weekend! I found out pretty quickly that nothing goes according to plan down here. We were planning all last week for the wedding, passed out a ton of invites and NO ONE from the ward came. It was disappointing, but a VERY happy occassion still and they had such good attitudes. The baptism we had on friday started about 2 hours late and the one yesterday started about one hour late. The one yesterday was crazy, bc the person who was supposed to baptize Reyna y Pablo was held up in a meeting, so we asked Pablo if he would mind if one of the Elders just baptized him and he said, "it doesn´t matter, I just want to be baptized." It was awesome. It all works out and everyone is really patient (for the most part). One thing they need to teach in the MTC and CCM... how to pick locks. We had 3 instances, in 2 days where we needed to get into a locked door (one was to open the baptismal font, but don´t worry, mi compa climbed over the 7-ish foot high glass to get into the font).
I gave my first español sacrament talk yesterday! It went well. Slow, but well. A few of my favorite people came up to me afterwards and said that they were praying for me while I was up there... I needed it! I felt good the whole time, wasn´t nervous at all. The Spirit will guide, we just have to trust him.
Random fact: We throw our tp in the garbage. The area doc said that we wouldn´t have to, but my comp says that he hasn´t been to all the parts of Central America.
Awesome excuse: We´re working with a 68 year old man, but he didn´t come to church yesterday, and when we asked him why he didn´t, he said his arm hurt. He´s super cute and he´s always a blast to talk with and teach. His name is Renè. He told us yesterday that he likes my mouth.... yep... it´s pretty interesting over here... never a dull moment.
Cross fingers: no illnesses still! Not even BU.
We cook our own bfast in the mornings - usually cereal or eggs (with beans - delish). Today we had pancakes. People give us food pretty often, so that is often and we have it either in the morning or at night when we get home at 9. For lunch, 4 times a week we have two different ladies that cook for us, so we go over to their houses. Delish: átol!! Átol is the most delicious thing in the world.. find it.
Everything is SUPER cheap here. It´s awesome. My comp basically has a new wardrobe. Most of her skirts she bought for under 16 quetzales (2 dollars) in pacas - (basically really small thrift store things that are EVERYWHERE)! We buy bread and goodies at a bakery every so often, most of the stuff costs about 50 cents. We have everything we need here, basically.
The Spanish is coming (most of the time it doesn´t seem like it though). I can understand tons more Gospel related conversation, but the rest of the time I just feel like a fly on the wall... not contributing AT ALL to the conversation. Everyone is so good and patient with me though.
The work is amazing. I have met so many amazing people. I have heard CRAZY stories and circumstances of people. I want to help them all and make it all better, but I can´t.. only the Lord can, so all I´m trying to do is to help lead them to Christ and all that He has to offer to every single person. I want to work my tail off. Every day, I realize how much deeper in blessings-debt I am getting, and Doctrine and Covenants 82:3 just weighs more and more on my mind.
I hope you all know how much I love you. You are in my prayers and thoughts!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Jenna Marin
Monday, December 6, 2010
Pictures!!!
Hola!
Okay, there is way too much to write!
So, Mondays are our days to email, but pdays are tuesdays, which is nice.. we have a system. I can print emails, so EVERYONE: EMAIL ME... POR FAVOR! Anyone and everyone can email me and I can print them out, so it won´t take up my 45-minute email time. However, I can only email family. We´ll see how this goes.
I am in zone Amatitlan. I am in a tiny colonia called La Mariposa. It´s just an enclosed community basically. My comp and I estimate it to be around a square mile in area.. if that. It´s tiny and AMAZING! MY comp´s (trainer´s, mom´s) name is Erin Wetzel... a gringa. She is fantastic. She has 9 months in the mish and this is her 3rd transfer in La Mariposa, so she knows the area, people, and such very, very well. I am so, so, so grateful for her. She has been incredibly patient and helpful. I can´t even express how grateful I am. Yet again, the Lord has blessed me too, too much. The people are amazing and loving and patient and so helpful. We have met a ton of people. I have to work on remembering names, but I know the Spirit has been helping me out. The area isn´t in the city, but it´s also not in the mountains or the coast (there are nine zones, and three types of zones - mountain, coast, and city), but our area counts as the city.
Okay, I am going to send multiple emails, so the pictures can load :)
Okay... rapid fire...
We ride to church in the bed of an old truck. I´m taller than 90% of the people here (including my comp). No one plays the piano in our ward - acapella (and let me just tell you that ever since the CCM, it has been obvious that not many Latin wards have piano players, so a lot of people´s singing abilities are interesting), but it´s still wonderful. My shower handle thing shocks me every morning (only a little bit, don´t worry). I can´t get away from english, awesome, worldy music. People play it everywhere. I live in a house that is about the size, if not smaller, than my whole upstairs in OH. We have a backyard area for washing random items of clothing and dishes, but it´s pretty small. We have someone to wash our clothes, but she hangs our garments outside on top of her house where everyone can see, so we just wash those ourselves. We make our own bfast. Most days we have people cooking lunch for us, but sometimes we have pizza (probs once a week).. I know. Surprising. Then, we don´t eat until we get home at 9!! Pretty crazy, but we have snacks :) We are in a very safe area, so no worries! We played soccer in the streets last Friday. It was awesome. I´m sure a lot of you are shocked that I even played soccer, but it was a blast. We are playing in the fields tomorrow morning. The people here are fantastic. We´ve taught a few lessons and I´ve met a ton of people. Mom, no need to send decorations, we´re good. Gracias. Money will be just fine. Dad, don´t forget to wear you awesome singing time at some point this season, k?
Love you all very very much! Can´t wait for ALL of your emails next week!!!
Hna Marin
Monday, November 29, 2010
Real world!
Hola!
Well, tonight is my last night in the CCM. We have said goodbye tohalf of our group (serving outside of Guatemala) today. That wastough. The rest of us (some that I have been with for 9 weeks 24/7 andothers that I have been with for six and three weeks) will split tomorrow and the next day. Crazy business. We will have a day of prepat the mission home, then they are sending us out to the real world. Just me and my comp. No teachers. No cafeteria. No 90 other amazing missionaries. No gated areas. No teachers or security to walk around.Okay... it{s not a nervous or scary thing. It{s different and soo exciting! I am so excited to finally help people. I{m so excited toget out and do what I have been training for constantly for the past 9weeks. I have seen so many amazing miracles, hardships, and blessings in these past nine weeks - locked up, so I can only imagine how much more tremendous all those things are going to be - for the next 16 months!! Crazy, I am 1/9 of the way done with the mission. That{s scary!
I have so much I need and want to do. You had better believe that I am going to work sooooo hard. And if you ever hear from me and I am sad, or losing motivation, or complaining, or ANYTHING negative or dumb, please, please, please tell me to kick it into gear! I neverwant to slack off. If I slack off for a moment, there might have been someone I could have invited to come to Christ and their life could have been changed, but I messed it up.
Whenever someone writes me, it would be amazing if you could a personal experience. Something that I could share with people - about blessings, faith, ANYTHING. Specific or general. Really, please. That would be amazing. Everyone and anyone. It{s hard saying goodbye to the latinas, because the chances of seeing them again is very low. It{ll be like that the whole mish, I{m sure. The cooks and CCM President surprised everyone with an amazing thanksgiving meal last thursday. It was incredible and made everyone soooooo happy.
But really, the provo MTC and this CCM have ruined me.I can eat SOOO much. It{s awesome and hilarious. Anny - could you somehow figure out Bishop Haderlie{s mailing address,por favor!? I love and miss you! Sorry this isn{t long. I don{t know when pdays are, but I think either mondays or tuesdays. We{ll see!
Con muchotototota amor,
Hna Marin!
Well, tonight is my last night in the CCM. We have said goodbye tohalf of our group (serving outside of Guatemala) today. That wastough. The rest of us (some that I have been with for 9 weeks 24/7 andothers that I have been with for six and three weeks) will split tomorrow and the next day. Crazy business. We will have a day of prepat the mission home, then they are sending us out to the real world. Just me and my comp. No teachers. No cafeteria. No 90 other amazing missionaries. No gated areas. No teachers or security to walk around.Okay... it{s not a nervous or scary thing. It{s different and soo exciting! I am so excited to finally help people. I{m so excited toget out and do what I have been training for constantly for the past 9weeks. I have seen so many amazing miracles, hardships, and blessings in these past nine weeks - locked up, so I can only imagine how much more tremendous all those things are going to be - for the next 16 months!! Crazy, I am 1/9 of the way done with the mission. That{s scary!
I have so much I need and want to do. You had better believe that I am going to work sooooo hard. And if you ever hear from me and I am sad, or losing motivation, or complaining, or ANYTHING negative or dumb, please, please, please tell me to kick it into gear! I neverwant to slack off. If I slack off for a moment, there might have been someone I could have invited to come to Christ and their life could have been changed, but I messed it up.
Whenever someone writes me, it would be amazing if you could a personal experience. Something that I could share with people - about blessings, faith, ANYTHING. Specific or general. Really, please. That would be amazing. Everyone and anyone. It{s hard saying goodbye to the latinas, because the chances of seeing them again is very low. It{ll be like that the whole mish, I{m sure. The cooks and CCM President surprised everyone with an amazing thanksgiving meal last thursday. It was incredible and made everyone soooooo happy.
But really, the provo MTC and this CCM have ruined me.I can eat SOOO much. It{s awesome and hilarious. Anny - could you somehow figure out Bishop Haderlie{s mailing address,por favor!? I love and miss you! Sorry this isn{t long. I don{t know when pdays are, but I think either mondays or tuesdays. We{ll see!
Con muchotototota amor,
Hna Marin!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ay ay ay
Hola!
Just in case you all don't know... ay ay ay translates to wo wo wo in the scriptures. I promise I am actually learning lots and important things! Less than one week here in the CCM! Crazy. Exciting. Sad. I have amazing comps. I have learned so much from each of them and itwill be hard to leave them, but luckily we are all going to the same mission.
Okay, so two days ago we went to the plaza to contact people again. It was a little bit different this time. Not that many people wanted to hear from us. My latina comp was Hna Mendez, which I was very happy about. She's fantastic. The last person we talked to actually didn't speak spanish, only english, so I started talking to him and my poor comp had no clue what was going on. Well, time went on and he just kept on coming on to me. It was terrible. I would just turn it around to our message. We got his contact info and he said he was interested in our message, but wanted me to be the one to teach him, which is not possible and wouldn't happen anyhow. We just walked away, but I felt so gross afterwards. Not the most awesome end to that experience, but honestly I learned a ton from the whole trip and know what I need to work on. Two elders had accidently contacted prostitutes, so they ran once they figured it out. And there was a group of men that said they were born-agains and just kept on bashing on the elders. The elders said they would try to walk away, but the men would physically pull them back. VERY different experience for everyone, but no one had a negative attitude at all, we know our message is true, we are trying to help people, and we know the Lord will guide us. It's very reassuring to know that things like that will for sure happen, but we have the choice to let it affect us negatively or not.
Spanish is coming along. It's fun to look back on how my spanish conversations went about 7 weeks ago and how they are now. It's amazing. I still know NOTHING... don't worry. But I have definitely progressed. The only way this is possible is through God. I know this.
So, last week a missionary that had been serving in the dominican republic came to the mtc last wednesday night. She's not even in our area, but came to guatemala because the medical is apparently better here. They believed she had a brain tumor. She was way out of it, just slept the whole time. She was in our room. Hna Searle (my forever comp) is a nurse, so she was in charge of watching her for the night.They got here at dinner and her appointment at the hospital wasn't until noon the next day. She only speaks spanish, so it was going to be interesting. I'm trying to keep this short, because there are a lot of details, but Hna Sosa (one of my amazing teachers) came up and they asked her to stay with Hna Reyes (the sick missionary) and Hna Searle. Hna Reyes loved her, she even started calling her mom and joking. We got to be there while she received a priesthood blessing. It was all in spansih, but the Spirit was so amazingly strong. Hna Reyes ended up asking Hna Sosa to stay the night and she did! It was crazy. We all tried helping out. Miracles: forever we have been trying to figure out why there were only four of us in our room and only n. americans. We were sad that we didn't have any latinas in our room (6 to a room).Well, we had 2 extra beds - 1 for Hna reyes, 1 for Hna Sosa. There is no way that could have been planned out. AND we have two nurses in ourroom. It was amazing.We heard the news two days ago: it turned out to be a parasite. They removed it, but we're not sure how long recovery for her will be. Hopefully she will be able to go back to her mission. Good thing: it wasn't cancer of any sort. They had been planning for her to have to stay with the mission doctor for three months (she has absolutely no family support - only her boyfriend on a mission, and her stake president - who has been paying for everything for her) and she probably wouldn't be able to go back. But this is better! Crazy. Amazing.
I have so much to be gratefull for! Thank you to all of you for youremails, support, love, and prayers!
Con mucho amor
Hna Marin
Just in case you all don't know... ay ay ay translates to wo wo wo in the scriptures. I promise I am actually learning lots and important things! Less than one week here in the CCM! Crazy. Exciting. Sad. I have amazing comps. I have learned so much from each of them and itwill be hard to leave them, but luckily we are all going to the same mission.
Okay, so two days ago we went to the plaza to contact people again. It was a little bit different this time. Not that many people wanted to hear from us. My latina comp was Hna Mendez, which I was very happy about. She's fantastic. The last person we talked to actually didn't speak spanish, only english, so I started talking to him and my poor comp had no clue what was going on. Well, time went on and he just kept on coming on to me. It was terrible. I would just turn it around to our message. We got his contact info and he said he was interested in our message, but wanted me to be the one to teach him, which is not possible and wouldn't happen anyhow. We just walked away, but I felt so gross afterwards. Not the most awesome end to that experience, but honestly I learned a ton from the whole trip and know what I need to work on. Two elders had accidently contacted prostitutes, so they ran once they figured it out. And there was a group of men that said they were born-agains and just kept on bashing on the elders. The elders said they would try to walk away, but the men would physically pull them back. VERY different experience for everyone, but no one had a negative attitude at all, we know our message is true, we are trying to help people, and we know the Lord will guide us. It's very reassuring to know that things like that will for sure happen, but we have the choice to let it affect us negatively or not.
Spanish is coming along. It's fun to look back on how my spanish conversations went about 7 weeks ago and how they are now. It's amazing. I still know NOTHING... don't worry. But I have definitely progressed. The only way this is possible is through God. I know this.
So, last week a missionary that had been serving in the dominican republic came to the mtc last wednesday night. She's not even in our area, but came to guatemala because the medical is apparently better here. They believed she had a brain tumor. She was way out of it, just slept the whole time. She was in our room. Hna Searle (my forever comp) is a nurse, so she was in charge of watching her for the night.They got here at dinner and her appointment at the hospital wasn't until noon the next day. She only speaks spanish, so it was going to be interesting. I'm trying to keep this short, because there are a lot of details, but Hna Sosa (one of my amazing teachers) came up and they asked her to stay with Hna Reyes (the sick missionary) and Hna Searle. Hna Reyes loved her, she even started calling her mom and joking. We got to be there while she received a priesthood blessing. It was all in spansih, but the Spirit was so amazingly strong. Hna Reyes ended up asking Hna Sosa to stay the night and she did! It was crazy. We all tried helping out. Miracles: forever we have been trying to figure out why there were only four of us in our room and only n. americans. We were sad that we didn't have any latinas in our room (6 to a room).Well, we had 2 extra beds - 1 for Hna reyes, 1 for Hna Sosa. There is no way that could have been planned out. AND we have two nurses in ourroom. It was amazing.We heard the news two days ago: it turned out to be a parasite. They removed it, but we're not sure how long recovery for her will be. Hopefully she will be able to go back to her mission. Good thing: it wasn't cancer of any sort. They had been planning for her to have to stay with the mission doctor for three months (she has absolutely no family support - only her boyfriend on a mission, and her stake president - who has been paying for everything for her) and she probably wouldn't be able to go back. But this is better! Crazy. Amazing.
I have so much to be gratefull for! Thank you to all of you for youremails, support, love, and prayers!
Con mucho amor
Hna Marin
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Week of November 17, 2010
Hola mi familia y amigas!!!
Well, we officially have less than two weeks left in the MTC! 2 weeks from yesterday. We got one new north american last tuesday and 13 latinas last wednesday. They are all a blast and so amazing. This past week has been interesting in so many ways. We are officially (almost) ALL spanish. As in: our teachers have been told to only teach us in spanish, all of our meetings are in spanish, the 3 hours of church are completely spanish, and the President has asked us to only speak spanish our last 3 weeks... we are trying, but it´s tough. Last wednesday we went to an all spanish session in the temple! It was interesting. It´s really cool, because all of this constant spanish makes me realize how much I have learned, but especially how much I don´t know! Two days ago was one of the tougher days. It´s so hard to be the person that is completely clueless and needs help. Some people are really good at helping with the language and others make me feel like I am four. It can get super frustrating, but it is amazing and humbling at the same time. It´s amazing how hard listening can be sometimes. I have to concentrate so hard on each and every word people say. If I lose it for a second, it takes me a little bit to get back on track. Don´t worry... still no tears and yesterday was a very peaceful, reassuring day. I know that God answers prayers.
I grow to love it here in the CCM more and more everyday. Even with how hard things are at times, I am constantly sooooo happy. I just keep praying that I will love every area I am assigned to and the people MORE than I love it here. I know I will. Mom, I got your letter on Friday I think. Thank you thank you. So far, I think I have received one dear elder (Crystal Lemme) and three or four cards (mom and Grandma). I´m holding up don´t worry. I know that I have so much love, support, and prayers my way. I don´t need a physical confirmation.
At times, I really realize how different of a world it is down here. Some of the latinas here don{t seem to have had as many privileges or opportunities as the last group of latinas. It has been interesting. We had an all-hermanas health meeting a few days ago. None of the latinas had ever used a tampon. They didn{t know anything about them actually. Our area doctor had to give a whole anatomy and phys ed lesson. I{m not even out in the real world and I am already seeing how many more amazing advantages we have in the states. It´s sad. These people are so amazing and so loving. I am no better than they, in any way, but I have had such an easier life with so many more opportunities that I have taken for granted.
One hna (my sunday comp - Hna Mendez) lives just 30 minutes away from here! She{s going to panama and informed us that some awesome food that we might get to try in the field includes: frogs, ants, and flowers. It{s been pretty cool to have those moments of ´´oh my gosh, I just had a pretty decent conversation with a latina completely in español!´´ It has seriously been a blast with this group. We are able to communicate so much better than the first 3 weeks (don{t worry, we still have many moments of ´´I have no idea what they just said´´) and we can actually help out the newbies (since we are the ´´experienced´´ ones here).
I know that I am so bleak on details here, so really any questions you have throw them my way. It will help! Mom could you go on fb and get Brandi Farnum and Megan O´s address for me please? I love you all so much. You are all in my prayers and thoughts.
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Well, we officially have less than two weeks left in the MTC! 2 weeks from yesterday. We got one new north american last tuesday and 13 latinas last wednesday. They are all a blast and so amazing. This past week has been interesting in so many ways. We are officially (almost) ALL spanish. As in: our teachers have been told to only teach us in spanish, all of our meetings are in spanish, the 3 hours of church are completely spanish, and the President has asked us to only speak spanish our last 3 weeks... we are trying, but it´s tough. Last wednesday we went to an all spanish session in the temple! It was interesting. It´s really cool, because all of this constant spanish makes me realize how much I have learned, but especially how much I don´t know! Two days ago was one of the tougher days. It´s so hard to be the person that is completely clueless and needs help. Some people are really good at helping with the language and others make me feel like I am four. It can get super frustrating, but it is amazing and humbling at the same time. It´s amazing how hard listening can be sometimes. I have to concentrate so hard on each and every word people say. If I lose it for a second, it takes me a little bit to get back on track. Don´t worry... still no tears and yesterday was a very peaceful, reassuring day. I know that God answers prayers.
I grow to love it here in the CCM more and more everyday. Even with how hard things are at times, I am constantly sooooo happy. I just keep praying that I will love every area I am assigned to and the people MORE than I love it here. I know I will. Mom, I got your letter on Friday I think. Thank you thank you. So far, I think I have received one dear elder (Crystal Lemme) and three or four cards (mom and Grandma). I´m holding up don´t worry. I know that I have so much love, support, and prayers my way. I don´t need a physical confirmation.
At times, I really realize how different of a world it is down here. Some of the latinas here don{t seem to have had as many privileges or opportunities as the last group of latinas. It has been interesting. We had an all-hermanas health meeting a few days ago. None of the latinas had ever used a tampon. They didn{t know anything about them actually. Our area doctor had to give a whole anatomy and phys ed lesson. I{m not even out in the real world and I am already seeing how many more amazing advantages we have in the states. It´s sad. These people are so amazing and so loving. I am no better than they, in any way, but I have had such an easier life with so many more opportunities that I have taken for granted.
One hna (my sunday comp - Hna Mendez) lives just 30 minutes away from here! She{s going to panama and informed us that some awesome food that we might get to try in the field includes: frogs, ants, and flowers. It{s been pretty cool to have those moments of ´´oh my gosh, I just had a pretty decent conversation with a latina completely in español!´´ It has seriously been a blast with this group. We are able to communicate so much better than the first 3 weeks (don{t worry, we still have many moments of ´´I have no idea what they just said´´) and we can actually help out the newbies (since we are the ´´experienced´´ ones here).
I know that I am so bleak on details here, so really any questions you have throw them my way. It will help! Mom could you go on fb and get Brandi Farnum and Megan O´s address for me please? I love you all so much. You are all in my prayers and thoughts.
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Early, early, sorry!
Hola!
So, today was kind of like our pday. Long story. All of the old N. americans and latinos are gone. Some left yesterday and the rest this morning. Whenever that happens (every 3 weeks) the president and his wife take us out on a chartered bus and we get to go into the city to a GIANT relief map of guatemala, a market, a museum, and a mall. We just got back, and now is our time to email. We will go to the temple tomorrow, still, but that is the only part of pday for tomorrow. Sorry if you were planning on trying to email tonight! Today was incredible. It is always soo amazing and such a blast to be able to get away from the CCM (trust me, I LOVE it here, but I love seeing Guatemala). The relief map was incredible. I bet you could look it up online. It is seriously gigantic. There are two watch towers you can go up on. It was made over 100 years ago! It took around a year to build it. It took 16 years to actually go around Guat and survey the whole whole country (by horseback, no less). I had no idea how mountainous Guat is!!! Crazy. It is seriously so beautiful here. I cannot wait until I can get out of the city and actually walk around this place! I am in love with it. I know I will always be in love with this place, and I haven{t even seen that much of it!!! I am so grateful to be in a place with so many trees!! Plus, the culture is amazing. There are so many colors everywhere. There{s also a lot of poverty, and we are definitely in the nicer part of Guatemala and the city. We have been told that the air is too dirty here and that they advise not wearing contacts... well, I wasn{t really prepared for that. I have been wearing my glasses tons more, but I still wear my contacts every once in a while. Mom, if you could look into that a little bit (I{m sure you were planning on it now that I mentioned it anyhow). Everyone thinks I am BLONDE here!! My hair is a little lighter bc of the sun, but still! Haha... oh well. I know it will just keep getting lighter too. I am so grateful that I got a perm. It is a heaven send, I don{t know what I will do when it wears off. The market today was amazing. I didn{t buy much at all, but definitely will in 16-ish months and bringing home lots of things and presents! Plus, everything is riduculously cheap. I bought two woven headband things and a small pouch camera holder for 30 quetzales (about four dollars). We also got some pretty good food - I have no idea what it was actually, something with tortilla and meat and goodness :) It was interesting trying to barter in spanish, my comps and the other two sisters are pretty rockin though. The museum was cool, apparently Guat city is built on top of a huge Mayan city or something. Pretty crazy. There is a huge mound, grassy hill next to the museum and apparently there is a pyramid right beneath it. I guess there are big mounds with ancient buildings beneath all over, but I don{t know why they won{t excavate them. The traffic here is psycho. I{m grateful that I{ll probs never have to drive. The mall was huge and super modern and nice. The pres said he wanted to show us the other side of Guat, bc for most of our missions we will see the super, super poverished side. While we were there, we only had time to eat at the food court. Guess what... they have taco bell. Everywhere. Weird. We ate dominos. Let me just tell you how funny/weird it was to be in a MALL, not proselyte, and be a missionary AND american. Everyone was looking at us. A guy inside of Dominos was taking pictures of us with his iphone. Interesting. We have two "blondes" and a redhead in our little 5-hna group, so I{m sure that didn{t help :) Mom, Ruth Sosa is going to add me on fb! She is one of my most favorite people here in Guat - my teacher of course. About 5 days ago, it started getting so COLD at night. A couple days before that we were hot and sleeping with the window open. It was so cold, I had to bust out my calf-high fuzzy sock/slippers! Está bien! I have received Dad{s, Mom{s, and Grandma{s letters. One from each. They each took about 2 weeks. I{m supposed to ask you to start sending things to the mission home. Mission Office address:
Sister Jenna Marie Marin
Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission
Apartado 921-A Zona 9
01009 Guatemala City
Guatemala
Gracias gracias!
Con amor,
Hermana Marin!
So, today was kind of like our pday. Long story. All of the old N. americans and latinos are gone. Some left yesterday and the rest this morning. Whenever that happens (every 3 weeks) the president and his wife take us out on a chartered bus and we get to go into the city to a GIANT relief map of guatemala, a market, a museum, and a mall. We just got back, and now is our time to email. We will go to the temple tomorrow, still, but that is the only part of pday for tomorrow. Sorry if you were planning on trying to email tonight! Today was incredible. It is always soo amazing and such a blast to be able to get away from the CCM (trust me, I LOVE it here, but I love seeing Guatemala). The relief map was incredible. I bet you could look it up online. It is seriously gigantic. There are two watch towers you can go up on. It was made over 100 years ago! It took around a year to build it. It took 16 years to actually go around Guat and survey the whole whole country (by horseback, no less). I had no idea how mountainous Guat is!!! Crazy. It is seriously so beautiful here. I cannot wait until I can get out of the city and actually walk around this place! I am in love with it. I know I will always be in love with this place, and I haven{t even seen that much of it!!! I am so grateful to be in a place with so many trees!! Plus, the culture is amazing. There are so many colors everywhere. There{s also a lot of poverty, and we are definitely in the nicer part of Guatemala and the city. We have been told that the air is too dirty here and that they advise not wearing contacts... well, I wasn{t really prepared for that. I have been wearing my glasses tons more, but I still wear my contacts every once in a while. Mom, if you could look into that a little bit (I{m sure you were planning on it now that I mentioned it anyhow). Everyone thinks I am BLONDE here!! My hair is a little lighter bc of the sun, but still! Haha... oh well. I know it will just keep getting lighter too. I am so grateful that I got a perm. It is a heaven send, I don{t know what I will do when it wears off. The market today was amazing. I didn{t buy much at all, but definitely will in 16-ish months and bringing home lots of things and presents! Plus, everything is riduculously cheap. I bought two woven headband things and a small pouch camera holder for 30 quetzales (about four dollars). We also got some pretty good food - I have no idea what it was actually, something with tortilla and meat and goodness :) It was interesting trying to barter in spanish, my comps and the other two sisters are pretty rockin though. The museum was cool, apparently Guat city is built on top of a huge Mayan city or something. Pretty crazy. There is a huge mound, grassy hill next to the museum and apparently there is a pyramid right beneath it. I guess there are big mounds with ancient buildings beneath all over, but I don{t know why they won{t excavate them. The traffic here is psycho. I{m grateful that I{ll probs never have to drive. The mall was huge and super modern and nice. The pres said he wanted to show us the other side of Guat, bc for most of our missions we will see the super, super poverished side. While we were there, we only had time to eat at the food court. Guess what... they have taco bell. Everywhere. Weird. We ate dominos. Let me just tell you how funny/weird it was to be in a MALL, not proselyte, and be a missionary AND american. Everyone was looking at us. A guy inside of Dominos was taking pictures of us with his iphone. Interesting. We have two "blondes" and a redhead in our little 5-hna group, so I{m sure that didn{t help :) Mom, Ruth Sosa is going to add me on fb! She is one of my most favorite people here in Guat - my teacher of course. About 5 days ago, it started getting so COLD at night. A couple days before that we were hot and sleeping with the window open. It was so cold, I had to bust out my calf-high fuzzy sock/slippers! Está bien! I have received Dad{s, Mom{s, and Grandma{s letters. One from each. They each took about 2 weeks. I{m supposed to ask you to start sending things to the mission home. Mission Office address:
Sister Jenna Marie Marin
Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission
Apartado 921-A Zona 9
01009 Guatemala City
Guatemala
Gracias gracias!
Con amor,
Hermana Marin!
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Quiero...
¡Hola!
Okay.. so, it turns out that last week was just a trial test forprinting emails and it didn´t go well, so we aren´t doing it anymore.Sorry. Thank you all for your emails though! I have 16 minutes left,so sorry if this is short!
Yesteday we got to go to the central park in downtown guat city. It was AWESOME. I was in a trio with Hna Searle (my ¨forever¨comp -whichI am not complaining about) and Hna Nava (she´s from Mexico and isabsolutely AMAZING). She spoke most of the time, but was so good atgiving us a chance. We took a 30 minute-ish public bus into the city.It was interesting... and very, VERY crammed. I sat next to a nativeGuat man. It was a tad bit nerve-wracking... my very first contacting experience as a missionary! I did my best. I just put all my trust inHeavenly Father and talked to him. It was tough. I asked him questionsand whenever he would answer... I probably caught myabe one word haha.He spoke so fast and quietly, plus the bus was SUPER loud. Anyhow, he gave me his contact info, so I was able to pass that on to the people who will pass it on to missionaries in the field. It was amazing. Ifelt the Spirit and I felt so much love for this man. Really, all Iknow is that he has a wife and 3 kids, the oldest is 12 and the youngest is four. He works... somewhere. haha. It will come, I know.He seemed so humble and willing to listen to the message. Contactingin the park was so interesting. I undesrtood probs 10*ish percent ofthe conversations (and only that much, bc it was all about church-gospel-religious-spiritual things, and that´s the majority ofwhat i know). We gave out two BoMs, a few pass a long cards, and abunch of pamphlets. It was fun talking to the people. They were allreally nice, much more than I´m sure it is in the U.S., but there werestill a few who would avoid our gaze completely while we talked tothem. My hopes were only raised though. I am soooo excited to get outinto the field, but am VERY grateful to have four more weeks of purelearning and growing in the CCM. The public buses are just old,painted school buses. The city smells like the stinky parts of normalcities in the U.S., but much more potent. The exhaust and urine scentswere super strong when we were on the bus. The park-plaza place wewere at was very nice and beautiful though. We were right next to thebad part of the city, too. There was a part of the park that only theelders coudl go into, and it´s not like the park was even that big. ILOVE one of my teachers. Mom, I´m going to have her add me on FB. Sheis amazing. Hna. Sosa. One of my fave peopel ever. I truly love ithere at the CCM. Everyone gets along amazingly and we are all tryingto learn together. Mom, I don´t know if you´ve been editing theemails, but please feel free to do so (and I´m mainly takling aboutcontext). The temple here is sooo small. The endowment session roomsfit about 30-ish people. It was very crammed last week. We got to goto an english session. Peopel come fraom allllll over, just to come tothe temple, it is very humbling. Yesterday was the first day that Ieven somewhat got sick. That´s good odds, huh? I´ve had diarrhea offand on since about lunch time yesterday. It´s not painful at all, justa little neusance, so please don´t worry! Thank you so muhch for allof your prayers, support, and love. I turly feel it. I am sooo, sohappy here and to be doing this amazing work. I know it will becmoeharder and harder in some ways and easier and easier in others. I amready and excited. Everyday I see and feel so much that makes mytestimony grow. I cannot deny this Work, this Gospel, my Savior, oranything to do with our God.
Con amor (with love),
Hermana Jenna Marin
Okay.. so, it turns out that last week was just a trial test forprinting emails and it didn´t go well, so we aren´t doing it anymore.Sorry. Thank you all for your emails though! I have 16 minutes left,so sorry if this is short!
Yesteday we got to go to the central park in downtown guat city. It was AWESOME. I was in a trio with Hna Searle (my ¨forever¨comp -whichI am not complaining about) and Hna Nava (she´s from Mexico and isabsolutely AMAZING). She spoke most of the time, but was so good atgiving us a chance. We took a 30 minute-ish public bus into the city.It was interesting... and very, VERY crammed. I sat next to a nativeGuat man. It was a tad bit nerve-wracking... my very first contacting experience as a missionary! I did my best. I just put all my trust inHeavenly Father and talked to him. It was tough. I asked him questionsand whenever he would answer... I probably caught myabe one word haha.He spoke so fast and quietly, plus the bus was SUPER loud. Anyhow, he gave me his contact info, so I was able to pass that on to the people who will pass it on to missionaries in the field. It was amazing. Ifelt the Spirit and I felt so much love for this man. Really, all Iknow is that he has a wife and 3 kids, the oldest is 12 and the youngest is four. He works... somewhere. haha. It will come, I know.He seemed so humble and willing to listen to the message. Contactingin the park was so interesting. I undesrtood probs 10*ish percent ofthe conversations (and only that much, bc it was all about church-gospel-religious-spiritual things, and that´s the majority ofwhat i know). We gave out two BoMs, a few pass a long cards, and abunch of pamphlets. It was fun talking to the people. They were allreally nice, much more than I´m sure it is in the U.S., but there werestill a few who would avoid our gaze completely while we talked tothem. My hopes were only raised though. I am soooo excited to get outinto the field, but am VERY grateful to have four more weeks of purelearning and growing in the CCM. The public buses are just old,painted school buses. The city smells like the stinky parts of normalcities in the U.S., but much more potent. The exhaust and urine scentswere super strong when we were on the bus. The park-plaza place wewere at was very nice and beautiful though. We were right next to thebad part of the city, too. There was a part of the park that only theelders coudl go into, and it´s not like the park was even that big. ILOVE one of my teachers. Mom, I´m going to have her add me on FB. Sheis amazing. Hna. Sosa. One of my fave peopel ever. I truly love ithere at the CCM. Everyone gets along amazingly and we are all tryingto learn together. Mom, I don´t know if you´ve been editing theemails, but please feel free to do so (and I´m mainly takling aboutcontext). The temple here is sooo small. The endowment session roomsfit about 30-ish people. It was very crammed last week. We got to goto an english session. Peopel come fraom allllll over, just to come tothe temple, it is very humbling. Yesterday was the first day that Ieven somewhat got sick. That´s good odds, huh? I´ve had diarrhea offand on since about lunch time yesterday. It´s not painful at all, justa little neusance, so please don´t worry! Thank you so muhch for allof your prayers, support, and love. I turly feel it. I am sooo, sohappy here and to be doing this amazing work. I know it will becmoeharder and harder in some ways and easier and easier in others. I amready and excited. Everyday I see and feel so much that makes mytestimony grow. I cannot deny this Work, this Gospel, my Savior, oranything to do with our God.
Con amor (with love),
Hermana Jenna Marin
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Esta Bien
Hola!
Okay, so much to write! Sorry that I didn't tell you last time, but Wednesdays are my pdays. We didn't get one last week, so it has almost been two weeks without a pday!! Ahh.. but esta bien. We get to go to the temple later today, so that will be fun. It will be in english,but hopefully in a few weeks, I'll be up for a spanish session.
It is SOOOOOO amazing here in the CCM. There are less than 20 hermanas here,so it is so nice to be able to get to know everyone. The latinas are ahoot and so patient with all of us north americans. One of my teachers here is Guatemalan. He was called to serve in Germany, but in order to learn German at the Provo MTC, he had to learn English!!!! How crazy. He said it was defintely the hardest thing he has ever had to do. If he can learn two languages in a short time, I guess I can learn Spanish. I also heard about a Chilean that went to NYC - mandarin speaking!!! Ahh.
The branch President's wife here learned english through watching the show "Mr. Rogers." How amazing is that? Totally thought of Grandpa. It is so interesting trying to communicate with people here. I am understanding a lot more than would be possible than if I weren't on a mission. I know that, but sometimes I forget it and just compare myself to others. I just want to work harder, and harder, and harder! We went contacting on the temple grounds last Saturday for practice. It was truly incredible. It was definitely a little bit difficult to understand some people sometimes, but it was truly inspiring. We talked with a younger lady with 3 little girls and ababy boy. Cutest girls ever (Mom, they were all wearing Hello Kitty shirts). One of them just talked and takled and talked. It's a lot harder to understand little kids speaking spansih by the way haha. We met a woman who LOVES english, so she talked to us a lot and gave usher business card. She said if we ever needed anything to just call her. The people here are so amazing. Granted, we have been dealing with mostly LDS people, but I konw that they're not this way just because they are lds.
The Latinas laugh at/with us a lot. On sundays,we are assigned n.amer/latin companionships. My comp is Hna Mendez. She is super cute. A little bit shy, but def has a feisty side. One of my reg. comps is soooo good at just using the spanish she knows and talking to everyone however she can. I'm a bit more hesistant, but will definitely strive to be more like Hna Winder. I have never listened so intently in all of my life. I have honestly been getting headaches from concentrating so hard on each word everyone says. How hilarious is that? I find that the faster they speak (esp. if they're latin), the worse my headache is haha. But really, it's no big deal. It will come.
Family, I have been thinking so often of the accident. I just know that we are so blessed. I know that angels carried Isaac. I really don't know why we are so blessed to still have him in our lives, but I know that we most definitely need to heed the command of D&C 82:3. I have been studying a lot about angels, blessings, hardships, and "if ye love me, keep my commandments" this week. I know that I MUST work the hardest I can these next 18 months. I have been WAAYYYYYY to blessed to do anything but give it my all. We have nothing but to be thankful and try to give back. I've probably read Mosiah 2:20-25 at least six times these past few days. One of our teachers, Hna Sosa,talked to us a lot about families the other night. She pointed out something I haven't really thought about before. She told us to look at our plaques/name tags. We are not only representing Jesucristo, but the even larger and bolder name on our plaques is not our own, but our family's. Then, she had us look at a picture of our fam (don't worry, I totally have one... minus Kaylie, which is lame). I only want this mission to bless our family. I know we can be happy if we follow Jesus Christ. It may not be the means that we have in mind, but I know that we can.
I am in far too deep to ever deny God and all that He has given each and everyone one of us. So much is expected of each of us,but we have His help the WHOLE way. We have been encouraged to write to our families not about food or people, but about experiences and what we have been teaching. I feel so inadequate to try and give any uplifting thoughts or advice, but I wish I could make you all as happy and hopeful as I have been made. I love you all and am so proud of all you do and who you all are. Thank you thank you thank you for your influence, love, advice, letters, encouragement, prayers, and thoughts. Know that I think about each of you soooooo much. Don'tworry about me one bit, okay?!
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Okay, so much to write! Sorry that I didn't tell you last time, but Wednesdays are my pdays. We didn't get one last week, so it has almost been two weeks without a pday!! Ahh.. but esta bien. We get to go to the temple later today, so that will be fun. It will be in english,but hopefully in a few weeks, I'll be up for a spanish session.
It is SOOOOOO amazing here in the CCM. There are less than 20 hermanas here,so it is so nice to be able to get to know everyone. The latinas are ahoot and so patient with all of us north americans. One of my teachers here is Guatemalan. He was called to serve in Germany, but in order to learn German at the Provo MTC, he had to learn English!!!! How crazy. He said it was defintely the hardest thing he has ever had to do. If he can learn two languages in a short time, I guess I can learn Spanish. I also heard about a Chilean that went to NYC - mandarin speaking!!! Ahh.
The branch President's wife here learned english through watching the show "Mr. Rogers." How amazing is that? Totally thought of Grandpa. It is so interesting trying to communicate with people here. I am understanding a lot more than would be possible than if I weren't on a mission. I know that, but sometimes I forget it and just compare myself to others. I just want to work harder, and harder, and harder! We went contacting on the temple grounds last Saturday for practice. It was truly incredible. It was definitely a little bit difficult to understand some people sometimes, but it was truly inspiring. We talked with a younger lady with 3 little girls and ababy boy. Cutest girls ever (Mom, they were all wearing Hello Kitty shirts). One of them just talked and takled and talked. It's a lot harder to understand little kids speaking spansih by the way haha. We met a woman who LOVES english, so she talked to us a lot and gave usher business card. She said if we ever needed anything to just call her. The people here are so amazing. Granted, we have been dealing with mostly LDS people, but I konw that they're not this way just because they are lds.
The Latinas laugh at/with us a lot. On sundays,we are assigned n.amer/latin companionships. My comp is Hna Mendez. She is super cute. A little bit shy, but def has a feisty side. One of my reg. comps is soooo good at just using the spanish she knows and talking to everyone however she can. I'm a bit more hesistant, but will definitely strive to be more like Hna Winder. I have never listened so intently in all of my life. I have honestly been getting headaches from concentrating so hard on each word everyone says. How hilarious is that? I find that the faster they speak (esp. if they're latin), the worse my headache is haha. But really, it's no big deal. It will come.
Family, I have been thinking so often of the accident. I just know that we are so blessed. I know that angels carried Isaac. I really don't know why we are so blessed to still have him in our lives, but I know that we most definitely need to heed the command of D&C 82:3. I have been studying a lot about angels, blessings, hardships, and "if ye love me, keep my commandments" this week. I know that I MUST work the hardest I can these next 18 months. I have been WAAYYYYYY to blessed to do anything but give it my all. We have nothing but to be thankful and try to give back. I've probably read Mosiah 2:20-25 at least six times these past few days. One of our teachers, Hna Sosa,talked to us a lot about families the other night. She pointed out something I haven't really thought about before. She told us to look at our plaques/name tags. We are not only representing Jesucristo, but the even larger and bolder name on our plaques is not our own, but our family's. Then, she had us look at a picture of our fam (don't worry, I totally have one... minus Kaylie, which is lame). I only want this mission to bless our family. I know we can be happy if we follow Jesus Christ. It may not be the means that we have in mind, but I know that we can.
I am in far too deep to ever deny God and all that He has given each and everyone one of us. So much is expected of each of us,but we have His help the WHOLE way. We have been encouraged to write to our families not about food or people, but about experiences and what we have been teaching. I feel so inadequate to try and give any uplifting thoughts or advice, but I wish I could make you all as happy and hopeful as I have been made. I love you all and am so proud of all you do and who you all are. Thank you thank you thank you for your influence, love, advice, letters, encouragement, prayers, and thoughts. Know that I think about each of you soooooo much. Don'tworry about me one bit, okay?!
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Friday, October 22, 2010
GUATEMALA!!!!!
Jenna arrived in Guatemala Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Oh my goodness! we are here and it is amazing. okay, i probs wont becapitalizing or using much punctuation, because the spanish keyboard is different! ay ay ay. it is absolutely beautiful here. no joke, right when i walked off the airplane... i smelled guatemala. guatemala has the best scent EVER! i love it. everyone so far has been so friendly and patient. we flew in around 630 pm and it was alreadydark, so it just looked like a normal city from the plane, which was sort of a bummer, because i bet it is way gorgeous in the daylight from the air. we got our baggage and and went through customs without any problems. when we got out to the curb, there were a ton of people waiting along a little blocked off area. a man was waiting for us with a sign that said CCM.. an awesome old yellow school bus picked us up. altogether, we had 5 hermanas and 8 elders.. i think. we went straight to the ccm... it was about a ten-fifteen minute drive, so we got to see a little bit of the city. we saw mcdonalds, wendys, quiznos,subway, and some other american things, which was lame.. haha. lots of "farmacias" i think i may have spelled that wrong. it would be super cool to be able to serve in the city, but i am very much looking forward to getting out into the country. we got an amazing welcome once we got here. we are now the new "north americans" group. with the old "north americans" group and the "latinos" that came today, they said that there are about 90 missionaries here! How crazy is that? it is so small and intimate and awesome. they fed us pizza last night,which was very surprising and funny. but don{t worry, we got real guatemalan food today! there is a temp cook right now, but we are told the main cook is amazing and will be back in a couple of days. all ofthe north americans are here for six weeks and the latinos are here for 3 weeks. so we get a new set of each every three weeks. does the cycle make sense? so, we came in last night, greeted the new latinos this morning, we will say goodbye to them and the old north americans and greet the new latinos and north americans in 3 weeks. sorry if that{s confusing. we can{t drink the water here, so they have a ton of filtered water dispensers everywhere. the ccm is actually really nice. there are only two buildings opposed to the 20-ish in provo, but one of them is the gym and is used for housing for people who come to visit the temple. there is a high fence and guards all around, pretty interesting. all of our teachers are locals, but have pretty good english and are so nice. i feel kind of bad for the new latinos,because the majority of the people here speak english, so they are the minority! all of the hermanas here are super friendly and cute. there are probably only 20-25 of us, probably not even that many, so it is fun. it{s cool introducing myself or just when people try to read my tag, because they try to say it the "american" way (which still isn{thow we say it), but i just pronounce it the spanish way. i said it our way to one of my teachers and said "es no bueno" and she just started cracking up. marin really does sound so much prettier in spanish. i actually feel really lucky, because my name is so easy and could be hispanic. one of the elders here has a last name that is a cuss word in spanish... pretty awesome. there has also been some confusion with hna. searle{s name... haha. i love it here. i still have my companion from the mtc, plus one of the sisters we were always with at the mtc, hna winder (we{re a triio), but we will be assigned a latina companion to eat meals, go to gym, and other various activities with, so we can be immersed. it is WARM and sunny and gorgeous and humid (no more gross dry skin, thanks utah!) and beautiful and good-smelling. it has actually been pretty fun and hilarious. everyone is just so friendly and comfortable so there is constant spanglish flying around. we are to help some of the workers here with english and everyone is supposed to help us with spanish, so it is fun. when we greeted the new latinos today, we QUICKLY ran out of things to talk about.. haha. we would just end up looking at each other and laughing. it will be a fun (and frustrating at times, i{m sure) process. they said they are working on us being able to print our emails, read them, then log back on, so we won{t use all of our 30 minutes. we{ll see! times up!! lovvvvvvvvve,hna marin
Oh my goodness! we are here and it is amazing. okay, i probs wont becapitalizing or using much punctuation, because the spanish keyboard is different! ay ay ay. it is absolutely beautiful here. no joke, right when i walked off the airplane... i smelled guatemala. guatemala has the best scent EVER! i love it. everyone so far has been so friendly and patient. we flew in around 630 pm and it was alreadydark, so it just looked like a normal city from the plane, which was sort of a bummer, because i bet it is way gorgeous in the daylight from the air. we got our baggage and and went through customs without any problems. when we got out to the curb, there were a ton of people waiting along a little blocked off area. a man was waiting for us with a sign that said CCM.. an awesome old yellow school bus picked us up. altogether, we had 5 hermanas and 8 elders.. i think. we went straight to the ccm... it was about a ten-fifteen minute drive, so we got to see a little bit of the city. we saw mcdonalds, wendys, quiznos,subway, and some other american things, which was lame.. haha. lots of "farmacias" i think i may have spelled that wrong. it would be super cool to be able to serve in the city, but i am very much looking forward to getting out into the country. we got an amazing welcome once we got here. we are now the new "north americans" group. with the old "north americans" group and the "latinos" that came today, they said that there are about 90 missionaries here! How crazy is that? it is so small and intimate and awesome. they fed us pizza last night,which was very surprising and funny. but don{t worry, we got real guatemalan food today! there is a temp cook right now, but we are told the main cook is amazing and will be back in a couple of days. all ofthe north americans are here for six weeks and the latinos are here for 3 weeks. so we get a new set of each every three weeks. does the cycle make sense? so, we came in last night, greeted the new latinos this morning, we will say goodbye to them and the old north americans and greet the new latinos and north americans in 3 weeks. sorry if that{s confusing. we can{t drink the water here, so they have a ton of filtered water dispensers everywhere. the ccm is actually really nice. there are only two buildings opposed to the 20-ish in provo, but one of them is the gym and is used for housing for people who come to visit the temple. there is a high fence and guards all around, pretty interesting. all of our teachers are locals, but have pretty good english and are so nice. i feel kind of bad for the new latinos,because the majority of the people here speak english, so they are the minority! all of the hermanas here are super friendly and cute. there are probably only 20-25 of us, probably not even that many, so it is fun. it{s cool introducing myself or just when people try to read my tag, because they try to say it the "american" way (which still isn{thow we say it), but i just pronounce it the spanish way. i said it our way to one of my teachers and said "es no bueno" and she just started cracking up. marin really does sound so much prettier in spanish. i actually feel really lucky, because my name is so easy and could be hispanic. one of the elders here has a last name that is a cuss word in spanish... pretty awesome. there has also been some confusion with hna. searle{s name... haha. i love it here. i still have my companion from the mtc, plus one of the sisters we were always with at the mtc, hna winder (we{re a triio), but we will be assigned a latina companion to eat meals, go to gym, and other various activities with, so we can be immersed. it is WARM and sunny and gorgeous and humid (no more gross dry skin, thanks utah!) and beautiful and good-smelling. it has actually been pretty fun and hilarious. everyone is just so friendly and comfortable so there is constant spanglish flying around. we are to help some of the workers here with english and everyone is supposed to help us with spanish, so it is fun. when we greeted the new latinos today, we QUICKLY ran out of things to talk about.. haha. we would just end up looking at each other and laughing. it will be a fun (and frustrating at times, i{m sure) process. they said they are working on us being able to print our emails, read them, then log back on, so we won{t use all of our 30 minutes. we{ll see! times up!! lovvvvvvvvve,hna marin
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Too fast, too fast!
Hola Mi Familia y Amigas!
Alright. Get ready for lots of typing errors and misunderstandings!
Dad, I didn't mean to leave you out last week, i just sent it to mom only for time purpuses. It was a mass email, not personal. Sorry.
I cannot believe that it has been two weeks since i got here. absolutely crazy! We leave for guat on tue!!! Cfrazy crazy crazy. But amazing.
Time goes sso blasted fast here! Thank you so much to everyone who has written me. Dearelders are aamizing! Dad, thanks so much for the bread. You are too blasted funny and cute. it was a nice surprise. i hadn't been expecting anytihng
so the next time i talk to you (mom and dad) will be on tuesday! HOw awesome is that? I feel so scatterbrained all the time when i think about getting everything settled before i leave. thanks for sending packages mom and dad. i had hoped to get to you, dad before you sent off the package, but that's okay. i think i decided that i want more of the shirts (the ones i decided to leave at aunt christine's) and some cardigans. But that's fine. It stinks now knowiung that sending stuff to guat is not cheap. That's fine. Hold off on stuff.. it may all change once i get there.
i really have heard close to nothing about the guat mtc. The only thing i have heard istht thety have at leat two amazing teachers that my teacher, Hno Frandsen served wtih. It will be fun and an adventure.
so far i can bear my testimony, say very simple prayers and conjugate a little here and there. everything i can do is super basic and simplistic, but it is coming. I still feel alwasy slightly behind everyone else in my calss, but i can't compare! I am doing well compared to when i first gt her,a nd that's good!
i'll try to print and send some pictures before i leave here. There aren't that many, just the stereotypical ones in front of the big map ;)
This week has been full of lots more learning and growing. I love it here. So amazing. It doesn't feel as much of a big fire hydrant drink anymore, but there is still craziness going on. We have taught the first lesson from preach my gospel twice. and both times seem to have gone pretty well. It's all about the Spirit and He is amazing. Truly, my favorite part of learning how to teach is how to get to know someone and truly love them. I love finding how the Gospel applies to each and every person and can truly bring peace and happiness. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly love us. I can't even begin to describe how strongly I feel about that fact.
To think that starting in a week I will actually be getting out and teaching REAL people! At the guat mtc, missionaries that are already in the field take a missionary in the mtc out to the city (I think) once a week! A little nerve wracking, but so exciting. It's funny, bc the mock lessons here seem so REAL. The people who play "investigators" take it so seriously. There have been so many times where I have thought, "Is this person really talking about themselves?" But the person ALWAYS says yes to more visits and lessons from us, which I know will not happen nearly that often in the field. I know why they want us to have that optimism, but it's almost funny, bc sometimes it seems like they are setting us up for uber dissapointment. A lot of people will say no to talking to us and not accept the Gospel, but there will be those awesome people who will feel that Spirit and want that in their life all the time. I am so excited to help people when they let us! I soooooo wish that people knew how pure and loving the message of the restored gospel is. It is truly amazing. God loves us so much and wants us so much to be happy always!
This past tuesday, Richard C. Edgley from the presiding bishopric spoke to us. It was incredible. One of my fave quotes from him said, "You're all weird. The New Testament calls you a peculiar people. You have left your family, friends, college, sports, careers, girlfriends, and so much more to serve. It is because of the feeling in our heart, because a 14 year old boy went to a grove to ask a simple question." That hit me hard. My testimony of Joseph SMith has grown so much. THe sunday before that we watchdd the Joseph Smith movie. Everyone in the whole world needs to see it. I need to see it at least once a week. It is a good reminder and motivator. I never want to slack in this work. I memorized a part of the first vision in spanish... maybe i'll tell it to you on the phone on tuesday :)
Don't forget about pouch mail once I'm in guatemala! It's annoying that I don't know what else to say.
I'll tell you our usual daily routine, bc I remember not having a CLUE what people in the mTC do all day:
630 wake up, get ready
7-745 personal study in our classroom
classroom: our district, 4 hermanas (Me, Searle, Jackson, and Winder) and 6 elders (Weight, Galvin, Rose, Amis, Ward, and Durrant)
745-815 bfast in cafeteria
815-11 in classroom, usually mdt (Missionary directed time: either personal, companion, or lang study) or we have class with Hno Frandsen or Young
11-12 gym
1230-115 lunch in cafeteria
115-530 mdt or class
530-615 dinner in caf
615-900 mdt or class
9-930 plan for next day
930-1015 personal time
1015-1030 quiet time
1030 - lights out!
It varies, but that's usually it. Devos on tue. Firesides and churhc on sun. Of course, pdays are way different.Occassional mock lessons in another building. Pretty awsome. Not as bad as it sounds. A lot of times i think, That is a LOT of mdt, how am i ever goint to fill it!?! But it always goes too fast and there's so much more i need/want to learn and study!!
Everyone, keep me updated, PLEASE!
I love you all so much!!
Fam, I can't wait to talk to you on tue!
I'm so sorry for this scatterbrained, psycho email!
Anny, I need your school address!
Love,
Hermana Nenna Bobenna Twinkle Toes Vee Marie Marin!
Alright. Get ready for lots of typing errors and misunderstandings!
Dad, I didn't mean to leave you out last week, i just sent it to mom only for time purpuses. It was a mass email, not personal. Sorry.
I cannot believe that it has been two weeks since i got here. absolutely crazy! We leave for guat on tue!!! Cfrazy crazy crazy. But amazing.
Time goes sso blasted fast here! Thank you so much to everyone who has written me. Dearelders are aamizing! Dad, thanks so much for the bread. You are too blasted funny and cute. it was a nice surprise. i hadn't been expecting anytihng
so the next time i talk to you (mom and dad) will be on tuesday! HOw awesome is that? I feel so scatterbrained all the time when i think about getting everything settled before i leave. thanks for sending packages mom and dad. i had hoped to get to you, dad before you sent off the package, but that's okay. i think i decided that i want more of the shirts (the ones i decided to leave at aunt christine's) and some cardigans. But that's fine. It stinks now knowiung that sending stuff to guat is not cheap. That's fine. Hold off on stuff.. it may all change once i get there.
i really have heard close to nothing about the guat mtc. The only thing i have heard istht thety have at leat two amazing teachers that my teacher, Hno Frandsen served wtih. It will be fun and an adventure.
so far i can bear my testimony, say very simple prayers and conjugate a little here and there. everything i can do is super basic and simplistic, but it is coming. I still feel alwasy slightly behind everyone else in my calss, but i can't compare! I am doing well compared to when i first gt her,a nd that's good!
i'll try to print and send some pictures before i leave here. There aren't that many, just the stereotypical ones in front of the big map ;)
This week has been full of lots more learning and growing. I love it here. So amazing. It doesn't feel as much of a big fire hydrant drink anymore, but there is still craziness going on. We have taught the first lesson from preach my gospel twice. and both times seem to have gone pretty well. It's all about the Spirit and He is amazing. Truly, my favorite part of learning how to teach is how to get to know someone and truly love them. I love finding how the Gospel applies to each and every person and can truly bring peace and happiness. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ truly love us. I can't even begin to describe how strongly I feel about that fact.
To think that starting in a week I will actually be getting out and teaching REAL people! At the guat mtc, missionaries that are already in the field take a missionary in the mtc out to the city (I think) once a week! A little nerve wracking, but so exciting. It's funny, bc the mock lessons here seem so REAL. The people who play "investigators" take it so seriously. There have been so many times where I have thought, "Is this person really talking about themselves?" But the person ALWAYS says yes to more visits and lessons from us, which I know will not happen nearly that often in the field. I know why they want us to have that optimism, but it's almost funny, bc sometimes it seems like they are setting us up for uber dissapointment. A lot of people will say no to talking to us and not accept the Gospel, but there will be those awesome people who will feel that Spirit and want that in their life all the time. I am so excited to help people when they let us! I soooooo wish that people knew how pure and loving the message of the restored gospel is. It is truly amazing. God loves us so much and wants us so much to be happy always!
This past tuesday, Richard C. Edgley from the presiding bishopric spoke to us. It was incredible. One of my fave quotes from him said, "You're all weird. The New Testament calls you a peculiar people. You have left your family, friends, college, sports, careers, girlfriends, and so much more to serve. It is because of the feeling in our heart, because a 14 year old boy went to a grove to ask a simple question." That hit me hard. My testimony of Joseph SMith has grown so much. THe sunday before that we watchdd the Joseph Smith movie. Everyone in the whole world needs to see it. I need to see it at least once a week. It is a good reminder and motivator. I never want to slack in this work. I memorized a part of the first vision in spanish... maybe i'll tell it to you on the phone on tuesday :)
Don't forget about pouch mail once I'm in guatemala! It's annoying that I don't know what else to say.
I'll tell you our usual daily routine, bc I remember not having a CLUE what people in the mTC do all day:
630 wake up, get ready
7-745 personal study in our classroom
classroom: our district, 4 hermanas (Me, Searle, Jackson, and Winder) and 6 elders (Weight, Galvin, Rose, Amis, Ward, and Durrant)
745-815 bfast in cafeteria
815-11 in classroom, usually mdt (Missionary directed time: either personal, companion, or lang study) or we have class with Hno Frandsen or Young
11-12 gym
1230-115 lunch in cafeteria
115-530 mdt or class
530-615 dinner in caf
615-900 mdt or class
9-930 plan for next day
930-1015 personal time
1015-1030 quiet time
1030 - lights out!
It varies, but that's usually it. Devos on tue. Firesides and churhc on sun. Of course, pdays are way different.Occassional mock lessons in another building. Pretty awsome. Not as bad as it sounds. A lot of times i think, That is a LOT of mdt, how am i ever goint to fill it!?! But it always goes too fast and there's so much more i need/want to learn and study!!
Everyone, keep me updated, PLEASE!
I love you all so much!!
Fam, I can't wait to talk to you on tue!
I'm so sorry for this scatterbrained, psycho email!
Anny, I need your school address!
Love,
Hermana Nenna Bobenna Twinkle Toes Vee Marie Marin!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
One week... woohoo! (Sorry for the unoriginal title)
Hola!!!
Well, This is pretty intense, becuase of the awesome timer in the corner counting down my 30 minutes on this computer. Sorry if you cannot understand what I am trying to say, if there are a lot of spelling, and grammatical errors ;)
I'll anser all of the questions first:
My teachers are amazing. Hermanos Frandsen and Young. They are amazing. One served in Mexico and one in Chile. They both have amazing advice to give and are so uplifting and brilliant! Great, great teachers. Spanish is tough. I am a little farther behind than the rest of my classmates, most of them had at least one year of Spanish in HS, but it isn't terrible. I am trying really hard. We have something called SYL (speak your language), so we are constantly speaking Spanglish. If you know a word in Spanish, you are never to use the English word ever! It's pretty awesome. At times, I can get a little stressed, but my companion is amazing and patient. She is probably one of the most advanced in the class when it comes to Spanish, but she is so gracious and helpful to me. I love it though, it is so fun to learn Spanish. We have been promised that we will be fluent in the language in 5 months. At times, 5 months seems not far off, but at others it seems centuries away! There is much hard work ahead! Sometimes, I wish I were speaking English, just so I could just go out and help people already.
Only 12 more days in the Provo MTC, then off to the Guatemala CCM! Crazyyyyyy!!! Holy cow.
I cried for the first time on Monday (I thought I did pretty well), I was a little disappointed that I cried at all! I just started thinking too much about how I wish I could talk to people, especially mi madre. But really... I am doing sooooooooooooo well. I love everything here. I love the missionaries. I love the leaders. I love the teachers. I love what I am learning about Spanish. I love how much I am learning about the Gospel. I love how everyone's testimony is strengthened so much each and every day. I love how energetic and excited everyone is. The atmosphere is amazing. Busy, fast, crazy, but amazing.
It is truly like trying to drink from a fire hydrant, like everyone says. I wish I could write so much about my experiences, but really... by the end of the day everything just mushes together. Thank goodness for notes, otherwise I don't think I could remember a tenth of the things I learn each day, but I know that in the time of need, those things will be brought to my mind.
My district is awesome. 6 elders and two other hermanas. The elders are sooooo mature for their age (don't get me wrong, they still have their moments) and are completely here for the right reasons. They work so hard and want so badly to do well and help people. My companion's name is Hermana Searle (Jamie). She is wonderful. She graduated from BYUI in nursing. She is actually going to be the mission nurse in Guat C.Central. Her and I, along with the other two AWESOME Hermanas in our district are going to the Guat CCM in two weeks. It will be so nice to have our little support group. No one has really told us what it is going to be like, but we have high hopes and know how fortunate we are to be able to get immersed so soon and quickly.
The food is not bad at all. I don't know what people complain about. I'm sure it has changed a bit since you have been here, Toph. They have wraps and salads usually at every meal. Of course, most of the food is cafeteria food, but it isn't that bad. Mom, no pies, but we get ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays. They usually have some pretty decent desserts all the time, too. My fave part is probably the limitless amount of fresh fruit! It's awesome.
Thank you so much to all of you who have written me! You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear from each and everyone of you! Thank you so much for your encouraging words, advice, and for telling me what is going on with YOU. I love it. Dearelder is DEFINITELY the best way to communicate. No joke. We get them all throughout the day. Email is probably no good, bc of the limited amount of time on the computer and I can only check it once a week. Letters in the mail are awesome, too.
General Conf. was amazing. It was a nice little phasing time, bc we didn't have a crazy weekend - no teachers. We usually have teachers on Saturdays, and Sundays definitely don't feel like Sundays, bc you work just as hard as all the other days (except for pday).
It takes a little longer for me to fall asleep, I really don't know why. I still fall asleep pretty quickly, but not compared to my usual hit the pillow and out in 1 minute routine. Which is funny, bc I have been working so much harder here and have had such longer days. The days go by SO slow. By night time, the day felt like a week, but by the end of the week, you just think "holy cow!! A whole week just went by!" It's crazy and unbelievable. I'm going to the temple later today. Right now is laundry (we're actually late in picking it up). Sorry, Mom, I won't be able to see Cathie on the tenth. I only have one more day of the temple here and that will be next Thursday - only on pdays.
Dad, I got the pedigree chart, thank you. We haven't used it yet so we are good. The verse I would like would probably have to be Isaiah 58 ?? Ahh... the one where it says... "and with his stripes were are healed." I think the verses are 2-5. Sorry, sorry, sorry. THanks for taking care of that. Could you also do it for singles ward please?!? Thank you thank you. Ahh... 3:10 minutes left...
I love you all so much and think about you a lot, but not enough to keep me distracted... don't worry ;)
Mom, a care package would be awesome ;)
Everyone, check out 6billionothers.org. we have used it to figure out how the Gospel applies to everyone.
I love this work. I love that I will be helping people, if they allow us. Even my personal study is for the future people I will try to help. Did you like the Mtc choir at p-hood session? We got to hear two fo the hymns. Incredible. Powerful. Amazing
My shoes already stink.
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Well, This is pretty intense, becuase of the awesome timer in the corner counting down my 30 minutes on this computer. Sorry if you cannot understand what I am trying to say, if there are a lot of spelling, and grammatical errors ;)
I'll anser all of the questions first:
My teachers are amazing. Hermanos Frandsen and Young. They are amazing. One served in Mexico and one in Chile. They both have amazing advice to give and are so uplifting and brilliant! Great, great teachers. Spanish is tough. I am a little farther behind than the rest of my classmates, most of them had at least one year of Spanish in HS, but it isn't terrible. I am trying really hard. We have something called SYL (speak your language), so we are constantly speaking Spanglish. If you know a word in Spanish, you are never to use the English word ever! It's pretty awesome. At times, I can get a little stressed, but my companion is amazing and patient. She is probably one of the most advanced in the class when it comes to Spanish, but she is so gracious and helpful to me. I love it though, it is so fun to learn Spanish. We have been promised that we will be fluent in the language in 5 months. At times, 5 months seems not far off, but at others it seems centuries away! There is much hard work ahead! Sometimes, I wish I were speaking English, just so I could just go out and help people already.
Only 12 more days in the Provo MTC, then off to the Guatemala CCM! Crazyyyyyy!!! Holy cow.
I cried for the first time on Monday (I thought I did pretty well), I was a little disappointed that I cried at all! I just started thinking too much about how I wish I could talk to people, especially mi madre. But really... I am doing sooooooooooooo well. I love everything here. I love the missionaries. I love the leaders. I love the teachers. I love what I am learning about Spanish. I love how much I am learning about the Gospel. I love how everyone's testimony is strengthened so much each and every day. I love how energetic and excited everyone is. The atmosphere is amazing. Busy, fast, crazy, but amazing.
It is truly like trying to drink from a fire hydrant, like everyone says. I wish I could write so much about my experiences, but really... by the end of the day everything just mushes together. Thank goodness for notes, otherwise I don't think I could remember a tenth of the things I learn each day, but I know that in the time of need, those things will be brought to my mind.
My district is awesome. 6 elders and two other hermanas. The elders are sooooo mature for their age (don't get me wrong, they still have their moments) and are completely here for the right reasons. They work so hard and want so badly to do well and help people. My companion's name is Hermana Searle (Jamie). She is wonderful. She graduated from BYUI in nursing. She is actually going to be the mission nurse in Guat C.Central. Her and I, along with the other two AWESOME Hermanas in our district are going to the Guat CCM in two weeks. It will be so nice to have our little support group. No one has really told us what it is going to be like, but we have high hopes and know how fortunate we are to be able to get immersed so soon and quickly.
The food is not bad at all. I don't know what people complain about. I'm sure it has changed a bit since you have been here, Toph. They have wraps and salads usually at every meal. Of course, most of the food is cafeteria food, but it isn't that bad. Mom, no pies, but we get ice cream on Wednesdays and Sundays. They usually have some pretty decent desserts all the time, too. My fave part is probably the limitless amount of fresh fruit! It's awesome.
Thank you so much to all of you who have written me! You have no idea how wonderful it is to hear from each and everyone of you! Thank you so much for your encouraging words, advice, and for telling me what is going on with YOU. I love it. Dearelder is DEFINITELY the best way to communicate. No joke. We get them all throughout the day. Email is probably no good, bc of the limited amount of time on the computer and I can only check it once a week. Letters in the mail are awesome, too.
General Conf. was amazing. It was a nice little phasing time, bc we didn't have a crazy weekend - no teachers. We usually have teachers on Saturdays, and Sundays definitely don't feel like Sundays, bc you work just as hard as all the other days (except for pday).
It takes a little longer for me to fall asleep, I really don't know why. I still fall asleep pretty quickly, but not compared to my usual hit the pillow and out in 1 minute routine. Which is funny, bc I have been working so much harder here and have had such longer days. The days go by SO slow. By night time, the day felt like a week, but by the end of the week, you just think "holy cow!! A whole week just went by!" It's crazy and unbelievable. I'm going to the temple later today. Right now is laundry (we're actually late in picking it up). Sorry, Mom, I won't be able to see Cathie on the tenth. I only have one more day of the temple here and that will be next Thursday - only on pdays.
Dad, I got the pedigree chart, thank you. We haven't used it yet so we are good. The verse I would like would probably have to be Isaiah 58 ?? Ahh... the one where it says... "and with his stripes were are healed." I think the verses are 2-5. Sorry, sorry, sorry. THanks for taking care of that. Could you also do it for singles ward please?!? Thank you thank you. Ahh... 3:10 minutes left...
I love you all so much and think about you a lot, but not enough to keep me distracted... don't worry ;)
Mom, a care package would be awesome ;)
Everyone, check out 6billionothers.org. we have used it to figure out how the Gospel applies to everyone.
I love this work. I love that I will be helping people, if they allow us. Even my personal study is for the future people I will try to help. Did you like the Mtc choir at p-hood session? We got to hear two fo the hymns. Incredible. Powerful. Amazing
My shoes already stink.
Con amor,
Hermana Marin
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
First day... almost done!
I only have a few minutes to write. I'm supposed to tell you that I am alive, so... Guess what? I've survived. No tears today. Pretty awesome, huh? Today was a rush. It was go, go, go. They really don't waste time around this MTC. We were in the classroom within an hour. I really think that as long as I take this whole thing a day at a time, I will be just fine. Thank you so much for your support along with everyone else! Truly, you all have made the transition so nice and exciting. Dad kept on asking me, as he was getting ready to drop me off, if I was excited and/or nervous and I really wasn't either of them. Really. You will be happy to hear that as soon as I was on MTC grounds, I was SO excited! So, I'm good. I'm safe. I'm sane. I'm excited. I love you all so much and hope you all are happy and safe.
Could you pass this on to family, please? I got the emails from you and from Kristopher. I had to skim them really quickly though, we only have a few minutes to email you guys.
My pday will be thursdays, but not tomorrow, because it is the first week. So, I'll talk to you all in eight days!!All my love,
Hermana Marin
Could you pass this on to family, please? I got the emails from you and from Kristopher. I had to skim them really quickly though, we only have a few minutes to email you guys.
My pday will be thursdays, but not tomorrow, because it is the first week. So, I'll talk to you all in eight days!!All my love,
Hermana Marin
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