Well, I´m sitting in the internet cafè right now and it smells like weed. It smelled like weed yesterday for a little bit around the Mariposa. Remember my first email where I said I LOVE the smell of Guatemala? Well, that opinion has changed a bit. It smells like car exhaust constantly. Other smells - weed, fireworks, and just grossness. I usually find myself longing for fresh air, which is pretty ironic, because we´re not in the city or anything. The city is a lot worse though. I´m convinced that they just have the U.S.´s leftover EVERYTHING here... mainly cars. Sorry for the tangent...
The año nuevo was fantastic. We went to bed on time (10:30) and woke up at 11:45 to eat pizza, watch the fireworks from outside our house (we were going to find a nifty way to climb onto our roof, but decided to not be "stupid missionaries" - as our area doctor would say), and write down our goals. It was a blast. Guatemala puts the U.S. to SHAME with fireworks. The sky was FILLED with smoke (again... I don´t think they have any environmental laws here). Funny: the fireworks started about 5 minutes before midnight... the one time that Guatemalans are ever early for anything ;) The fireworks stayed constant for a good 20 minutes. It was incredible. They know how to party here.
The past couple days were a bit more difficult than usual, but I learned a lot and have really realized that the times that are toughest are only because I am focusing on myself. So... NO MORE!
We had some pretty devastating things happen and amazing examples this week. Our primary president´s sister and brother-in-law were murdered last Sunday. We have visited with her a few times, and she is just solid. She is mourning, of course, but she is soooo incredibly strong and just says that she is only hopeful because of her faith in Christ and her knowledge His Plan of Salvation. Also, one of her counselors has been in and out of the hospital because of her pregnancy. The doctors said that she lost the baby, then they said she actually didn´t, now they´re saying that she did again... ahhhh. It´s terrible. But again, she is so strong. We have visited her twice and she is so so incredibly strong. She is bien triste, but she would just say that she has her faith to hold on to, and that is keeping her optimistic and going. The people here have such strong testimonies.
We found some pretty great people this week, so we are very hopeful and optimistic.
We had another training meeting for all the greenies and their trainers this past friday. I was a tad bit nervous, because we were video taped giving a five minute lesson. It was intense, but I felt really good about it afterwards. Again, I´m learning lots and I have a bombdigity companion.
Oh, and we had divisions (exchanges) this past wednesday. My Hermama left me for the coast and I received Hna Guaranda. She is latina, a convert of only 4 years, and is a rockstar. I learned a ton from her. It was fun having a latin comp for a day, but I realize it would be a lot harder to do that everyday for 6 weeks or more.. at least for now, since I have a lot of improvement to make with my spanish. It was an amazing day though. I was basically leading La Mariposa, so I had to figure out what we were doing, who we would go see, where we were... everything. It was tough, but so rewarding. I talked a ton more than usual... because I had to, but as the day went on, Hna Guaranda contributed tons more to the lessons... I learned a lot about choice and force. I shouldn´t have to be forced to speak spanish in order to do it more, I should just make the choice to do it.. bite the bullet. Ever since, I have been a lot more brave and talking a lot more (I think Hna Wetzel is really happy for and proud of that too).
I hope everyone is great and had a fantastic start to their new year!
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Marin
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