Sunday - Testimonies!!

Hey!

I have requests. If you all can email me ideas for different things
-- Family Home Evening games
- Ward acitivities
- And, of course, anything else that you think of for mission-related things!
Kris, EVERYONE here does the weird, missionary-snap thing. All theGuatemalans... 80 years old, 10 years... everyone. It´s hilarious. I forgot to mention that earlier. My compa is convinced I´ll be doing itby the end of my mish... I will admit that I do it when I need to dry my hands - we hardly ever have towels or paper towels outside of thehouse ;)

Saturday was an awesome Relief Society conference. Sisters Thompson(General RS counselor) and Wixom (Gen Primary Pres) came to Guatemala,so they broadcasted to the stake centers! It was fantastic. They both had translators, but attempted to bear their testimonies in Spanish - it was reassuring. It was funny to think that I sounded just like them, but have improved a little bit, but realizing that... even though their Spanish wasn´t great at all and they may not have known EXACTLY what they were saying... the Spirit was SO strong. I learn to rely on the Spirit more and more everyday and it is INCREDIBLE.

I have had such a happy life, but never have I felt this much JOY. Pure joy. And it always comes from others. Seeing the Spirit touch and change people, seeing people progress, learn, and improve their lives... missionaries are way too blessed. We had the most incredible testimony meeting in Church yesterday. I was telling Hna Wetzel how ironic it is... Guatemalans talk... TONS...demasiado, really, but when it comes to bearing their testimonies, it is short, to the point, and powerful. In the States, people don´t talk as much normally, but when it comes to bearing their testimonies, they ramble on and it´s harder to feel the Spirit. I wrote down almost all of the people who got up there and there were more than 30 people, and we didn´t even go over time! Whole families went up and bore their testimonies. Lots of people talked about the missionary work. One teenager with disabilities went up and it was indescribable, there was a tidal wave of the Spirit. I could go on and on, but I just wish everyone could have been there to experience it.

Plus, we had lots of investigators there and our attendance keeps going up by about 10 people every week or two. We had a lesson with an investigator that we have been working with for more than a month on Saturday. She is fantastic. We are teaching her and her mom - She´s 23 and her mom is 45 and they are both widows. They have been pretty receptive, a tad hesitant, but incredible. Neither of them have showed very much emotion (not even when we talk about eternal families or when we watched Juntos para Siempre -usually EVERYONE cries during that movie). Her mom couldn´t be there,so we were just with her and another member friend. She has been having some doubts about Joseph Smith, so we watched the Restoration movie. It seemed pretty normal and we asked her to continue reading and praying. Hermana Wetzel gave the closing prayer with everyone kneeling and when she finished, Karla was crying and we knew she had received her answer.

Life is incredible and, as always, I and mi compa are too blessed. My prayers are with you all and I hope everyone is happy!

Love,
Hermana Marin