Monday, March 21, 2011
March 21st
Well hello my dearest family, How strange this is because I am writing to you from the CCM in Guatemala City. haha! So there in an Hermana that has a lump in her chest so I Dr. MacArthur wanted to see her. So they wanted me to go with her and here I am. I am having the time of my life. Its like a mini vacation. We took a super cool Ghetto bus here, got checked by the Dr. and then he took us out to lunch (taco bell) and we are hanging out in Guatemala City for the rest of the day. Dr. MacArthur is sooo hilarious. We are best friends. But anyways, as soon as Im done writing, we are gonna go explore the city a little bit. Then I think we are gonna do a temple session tomorrow morning before we head back. WOOOOHOOOO! I feel like a little kid. The weather here is so perfect and now Im afraid I dont want to go back to Reu. It is officially the "hot months" and I. AM. DYING!!! I sleep without anything on me, next to the window, with the fan blowing right on me, hair wet, and I STILL wake up all night sweating! BAH! Anyways, enough of complaining. Would you like to hear about transfers? Ok, Ill tell you! So we have to go talk to all the new missionaries that come in about medical stuff and then we hand out medication to the zone leaders and stuff every transfer meeting. So we were there and we decided to stay for the meeting to see where everyone was being transfered to just for fun. We didnt have to be there cause they had told us that we didnt have changes. So we were sitting there just watching where everyone was going and all of the sudden, Hna Nelson and I pop up on the screen and we get a new companion. We are in a trio now but in our same area. We have a new companion and she is latina. I am just very very very very happy that Hna Nelson is still with me. Some other big news is that the President told me that I am going to start traveling soon and visiting all the houses in the mission. Im just going to make sure that they are clean and have necessary supplies and what not. So I get to go and see EVERY area in the mission! Even the areas that Hermanas cant go to. That will be fun huh? It will be a bit of a bummer cause all my time and efforts wont be in missionary work but I guess that is missionary work too. Just a different kind. I really dont have hardly anything to report investigator wise. We are having like 0 success here. Its really quite depressing. We get investigators and they almost get baptised but them something always gets in the way. On girl was under 18 so she needed her dads permission and he wouldnt give it to her. Then Aurelio were are still on the edge with. Hes in law school so he has like 0 time. I dont know whats going to happen with him. We have this new investigator. Her name is Evelyn. Shes 22 and she says she really wants to find which church is true cause she knows there is probably only 1 right church but she is so confused and doesnt know how to get an answer to her prayers. So we had her practice praying with us and her prayers are soooo perfect and she just begs Heavenly father to give her an answer if this is the true church. But then she wont go to church or read the Book of Mormon. So we told her that Heavenly Father is not going to answer her prayers unless she is doing her part and working to find the answer. But we have another apt with her soon so we will see what happens. Here is my funny story of the week. So the streets here are soooo uneven and really bumpy and just plain ridiculous so I am ALWAYS twisting me ankle and tripping and what not. Anyways so I was walking down the side walk and I was walking RIGHT in front of like 6 boys and they were ALL whistling and calling us princesses and yelling and blah blah blah when all of the sudden, I tripped and fell off the sidewalk (which is VERY VERY RIDICULOUSLY high here). Like bad. Allllllll the way down to the ground. It was very graceful . I truly am like a princess. haha! As if my legs werent already scratched up and ugly enough. Well thats all I got for you this week. I am out of time but I love you so so so much! Thanks for all your support as usual. Remember, dont have any fun without me!!!!! Love, Princess Alston
March 14th letter and pictures
Helloooo familia!
Well so much stuff happened this week, and I dont know which stories I should tell you. Life is so hard. Having to decide what to write home each week is just to much to handle. ha
I suppose I shall start out by telling you about Aurelio. Remember the perfect lesson that we had that was so great and then he text us and said that he felt like he belonged in the Catholic church? Yeah well we chatted with him again and now he has a baptismal date for this coming Saturday!! Now dont get too excited because I dont know if its going to happen. But he accepted to work now to prepare himself to be baptised so I just gotta have faith! But on Sunday morning, I dont know if I told you this or not but we have to get up at 515 because we have to go wake people up for church. Well anyways, on Sunday morning, we were going all over waking people up and trying to get them ready but NO ONE COULD GO!! Including one of our other investigators that wants to get baptised. We were so depressed and walking into the church empty handed when Aurelio pulls up on his scooter with a HUGE smile on his face waving. I felt like crying I was soooo happy! I really hope that it works out for this Saturday!
Other exciting things that happened this week. We go out to this remote area in our area called Ocosito every Saturday and we chat with all the inactives out there and we always ask if there is anything we can do to help them. Well almost always they say no but this time she said yes, we can help her wash her dishes. So we were so excited and went to her pila to go start but there was no water in it. So it ended up that we had to hike down to the river and carry 3 HUGE buckets of water back so we could wash dishes. She taught us how to carry the water on our heads. Its actually much much easier. I totally sang the song off of Jungle Book about fetching water and I felt super cool. haha She also taught us how to make tortillas by hand only. Lets just say, I have a lot of practicing to do.
Random culture thing. So here I guess that they believe that when Christ was suffering in Gethsemane, his apostles had like a little ritual thing and dressed up and danced as Gods and stuff. And they celebrate that every year here. Its called Carnival. All the kids dress up in different costumes so its pretty much like halloween. haha But they also have a TOOON of cascarones and break them everywhere. So there are these little boys that always attack us in the street. We were so glittery it was ridiculous.
Well I dont really have much else to say except that it is HOT. SO. STINKIN. HOT. I was laughing one night cause Hermana Nelsons alarm clock can tell the temperature and one night I was like man! Its really cool tonight. Whats the temperature? And she was like Oh wow! It is cool, its only 86 degrees! hahaha We were in heaven. Usually when we go to bed, its about 90 degrees in our room. haha!
Well sorry if I bored you to tears. Ask me questions if theres anything Im not including that you would like to know. Thank you sooooo much for your letters and support. I love you all more than life itself. And remember. Dont have annnny fun without me!
Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston
Awesome delicious fruit that is like a mosquito bean, but you suck the stuff off of the beans and its all sugary and delicious.
Menos Activo family that we visit all the time. IHEART HER SOO MUCH and her name is ALICIA which makes me heart her even more. haha
This lady is hilarious and wanted me to be sure and send you pictures because A)It's her bday today and B)because she wanted me to tell you that she is one of the original members of the church in Guatemala. (A pioneer as she calls herself) She traveled like weeks to get to the Mesa temple to be sealed.
Ocosito - a little community WAAY far away that is in our area - the one that has the swiss family robinson family out there. hehe
On our way back from Ocosito
Museum
Well so much stuff happened this week, and I dont know which stories I should tell you. Life is so hard. Having to decide what to write home each week is just to much to handle. ha
I suppose I shall start out by telling you about Aurelio. Remember the perfect lesson that we had that was so great and then he text us and said that he felt like he belonged in the Catholic church? Yeah well we chatted with him again and now he has a baptismal date for this coming Saturday!! Now dont get too excited because I dont know if its going to happen. But he accepted to work now to prepare himself to be baptised so I just gotta have faith! But on Sunday morning, I dont know if I told you this or not but we have to get up at 515 because we have to go wake people up for church. Well anyways, on Sunday morning, we were going all over waking people up and trying to get them ready but NO ONE COULD GO!! Including one of our other investigators that wants to get baptised. We were so depressed and walking into the church empty handed when Aurelio pulls up on his scooter with a HUGE smile on his face waving. I felt like crying I was soooo happy! I really hope that it works out for this Saturday!
Other exciting things that happened this week. We go out to this remote area in our area called Ocosito every Saturday and we chat with all the inactives out there and we always ask if there is anything we can do to help them. Well almost always they say no but this time she said yes, we can help her wash her dishes. So we were so excited and went to her pila to go start but there was no water in it. So it ended up that we had to hike down to the river and carry 3 HUGE buckets of water back so we could wash dishes. She taught us how to carry the water on our heads. Its actually much much easier. I totally sang the song off of Jungle Book about fetching water and I felt super cool. haha She also taught us how to make tortillas by hand only. Lets just say, I have a lot of practicing to do.
Random culture thing. So here I guess that they believe that when Christ was suffering in Gethsemane, his apostles had like a little ritual thing and dressed up and danced as Gods and stuff. And they celebrate that every year here. Its called Carnival. All the kids dress up in different costumes so its pretty much like halloween. haha But they also have a TOOON of cascarones and break them everywhere. So there are these little boys that always attack us in the street. We were so glittery it was ridiculous.
Well I dont really have much else to say except that it is HOT. SO. STINKIN. HOT. I was laughing one night cause Hermana Nelsons alarm clock can tell the temperature and one night I was like man! Its really cool tonight. Whats the temperature? And she was like Oh wow! It is cool, its only 86 degrees! hahaha We were in heaven. Usually when we go to bed, its about 90 degrees in our room. haha!
Well sorry if I bored you to tears. Ask me questions if theres anything Im not including that you would like to know. Thank you sooooo much for your letters and support. I love you all more than life itself. And remember. Dont have annnny fun without me!
Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston
Letter and pictures from March 7th
Hola Mi Familia!!!!
Well it sounds like you all just had a fantastic week! I cant even believe that it snowed there without me! How inconsiderate of the weather. Especially how the weather is here.
Well Im afraid this week something horrible happened. Remember Aurelio? The AWESOME guy that we had an AWESOME lesson with? Well he text us last week and told us that he has been praying and felt like he got his answer. He was in the Catholic church and he felt the spirit soooo strong and he said that that is where he belongs. So at first I was just super sad and was like...whelp, oh well. There goes Aurelio but then Hermana Nelson and I decided. NO! We{re not ready to give up on him yet. So we made another apt with him and talked to him about what he was feeling. We found out that he hadnt read the book of mormon at all and he had only been to church once. So we told him that he cant expect heavenly father to give him an answer if he hasnt put forth his effort and trying all that he can do to know for himself. We told him that reading the book of mormon is KEY is knowing if this is the true church. That if he knows that the book of mormon is true, he also will know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is Christs church. So he committed to read the book of mormon and to go to church. But then he crashed real bad on his motorcycle and couldnt go to church. BAH! But we have another apt with him wednesday so we{ll see if he{s actually making progress or not! I am PRAYING that he is reading and praying.
Changes are next week already! How weird. This change went by so fast. I have a feeling that Hna Nelson and I are staying together again in this area cause President Maravilla gave her a job to do in the office to help the latinos learn English. He said that she can be working on that in the office while I{m doing Nursing stuff. So Im guessing that means we{ll be together? Who knows though. Things are ALWAYS changing here.
Well this week I have had MANY experiences with drunk men. They are passed out ALL over the streets. One night we were teaching a lesson outside of someones house in the street at night (which we do often, its usually never in someones house) and we were just about to sing and starting singing like the first line of the hymn when a VERY drunk man popped his head in between me and Hna Nelsons and starting singing VERY loudly in our ears. DO RE MI FA!!!! And then he would start dying laughing and do it over and over again. We were all just cracking up and saying, ok bye! We{ll see ya! Bye! Have a good night! BYE! And he would not leave for like 10 minutes. I think I am getting immuned to all the drunk men though cause the next day I was buying something at a little store and a man comes up and starts talking to me and hanging on my shoulders and stuff and I didnt even flinch or notice until hna Nelson started trying to pull him off of me. hahaha
In answer to your questions, no I most certainly do not bath in the pila. Most people here do but we have a little shower in my appartment. Thank heaven! Some other funny things in my life....I drink powdered milk that is very very yucky. And everybody on the streets calls us Elderes! They all yell out ELDERES!! when we pass by. haha Also, for some odd reason, everyone in the town knows my name now. It is spreading like wildflower which is very funny because usually people can not say my name worth a darn. But people will pass by on their motorcycles or whatever and just say ALSTON!!!!!! haha Very bizarr.
Today we went to a museum with the zone and saw a bunch of Mayan pottery and stuff. It was a pretty great time. Hopefully Ill send you pics.
Well I gotta go but thank you all sooooo much for your letters and support as always. You are all WONDERFUL! I LOVE YOU!
Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston
p.s. Mom, the pepper spray gives me soooo much more confidence around dogs. I keep it on my backpack and whip it out any time I see a dog. THANKS! You{re the BEST!
Alejandro and Beatrice - remember the family that we were teaching that I love. The ones that want to play futbol with us. We stopped teaching them but we still stop by to say hi occasionally cause we're best friends. Ha
That little boy just slapped my butt. That is why I am making that face. They're CRAZY and broke Cascarones on our heads, that's why we're all sparkly.
Less active fam we visit and they have a little tin house next to this river. I love it! The other day, they caught a crab in it and were soooo excited. And this little like 8 yr old girl brought it home and started boiling it live. To eat! Yummmm!
I cut her hair!
Well it sounds like you all just had a fantastic week! I cant even believe that it snowed there without me! How inconsiderate of the weather. Especially how the weather is here.
Well Im afraid this week something horrible happened. Remember Aurelio? The AWESOME guy that we had an AWESOME lesson with? Well he text us last week and told us that he has been praying and felt like he got his answer. He was in the Catholic church and he felt the spirit soooo strong and he said that that is where he belongs. So at first I was just super sad and was like...whelp, oh well. There goes Aurelio but then Hermana Nelson and I decided. NO! We{re not ready to give up on him yet. So we made another apt with him and talked to him about what he was feeling. We found out that he hadnt read the book of mormon at all and he had only been to church once. So we told him that he cant expect heavenly father to give him an answer if he hasnt put forth his effort and trying all that he can do to know for himself. We told him that reading the book of mormon is KEY is knowing if this is the true church. That if he knows that the book of mormon is true, he also will know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is Christs church. So he committed to read the book of mormon and to go to church. But then he crashed real bad on his motorcycle and couldnt go to church. BAH! But we have another apt with him wednesday so we{ll see if he{s actually making progress or not! I am PRAYING that he is reading and praying.
Changes are next week already! How weird. This change went by so fast. I have a feeling that Hna Nelson and I are staying together again in this area cause President Maravilla gave her a job to do in the office to help the latinos learn English. He said that she can be working on that in the office while I{m doing Nursing stuff. So Im guessing that means we{ll be together? Who knows though. Things are ALWAYS changing here.
Well this week I have had MANY experiences with drunk men. They are passed out ALL over the streets. One night we were teaching a lesson outside of someones house in the street at night (which we do often, its usually never in someones house) and we were just about to sing and starting singing like the first line of the hymn when a VERY drunk man popped his head in between me and Hna Nelsons and starting singing VERY loudly in our ears. DO RE MI FA!!!! And then he would start dying laughing and do it over and over again. We were all just cracking up and saying, ok bye! We{ll see ya! Bye! Have a good night! BYE! And he would not leave for like 10 minutes. I think I am getting immuned to all the drunk men though cause the next day I was buying something at a little store and a man comes up and starts talking to me and hanging on my shoulders and stuff and I didnt even flinch or notice until hna Nelson started trying to pull him off of me. hahaha
In answer to your questions, no I most certainly do not bath in the pila. Most people here do but we have a little shower in my appartment. Thank heaven! Some other funny things in my life....I drink powdered milk that is very very yucky. And everybody on the streets calls us Elderes! They all yell out ELDERES!! when we pass by. haha Also, for some odd reason, everyone in the town knows my name now. It is spreading like wildflower which is very funny because usually people can not say my name worth a darn. But people will pass by on their motorcycles or whatever and just say ALSTON!!!!!! haha Very bizarr.
Today we went to a museum with the zone and saw a bunch of Mayan pottery and stuff. It was a pretty great time. Hopefully Ill send you pics.
Well I gotta go but thank you all sooooo much for your letters and support as always. You are all WONDERFUL! I LOVE YOU!
Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston
p.s. Mom, the pepper spray gives me soooo much more confidence around dogs. I keep it on my backpack and whip it out any time I see a dog. THANKS! You{re the BEST!
Alejandro and Beatrice - remember the family that we were teaching that I love. The ones that want to play futbol with us. We stopped teaching them but we still stop by to say hi occasionally cause we're best friends. Ha
I cut her hair!
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