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!
Monday, November 29, 2010
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
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