April 11th & pics and April 18th letter

April 18th

HELLO FAMILY!!

Well first and foremost, I would like to give a little shout out to the office Elders. I hope that my blog is everything that you hoped and dreamed. ha

Now....where to start...? Nothing super thrilling happened this week. Veronica (the lady that had a baptismal date) told us that she is not ready to get baptised yet and doesnt want to meet with us anymore. Cool. We did have a baptism this week though. It was a 9 year old little boy named Marcos. His whole family are members but not completely active. What happens is, if a kid is 8 years old, and their family is active, they can just get baptised. But if theyre older than 8, we have to teach them first. The family could not remember how old he was so it took quite a while to figure things out but they finally came to the conclusion that he was 9 years old. Not even the mom knew his birthday! haha Thank you for remembering when you gave birth to me mom! So he is the most darling little thing ever and I love him! He was sooo happy after he was baptised and it was precious. So our fake (fill in, until we get another one) bishop set goals with us and the dad of the family to reactivate some of the family and set goals for Marcos to get the Priesthood and stuff. Im excited! Marcos is one of the little boys in the street that follows us around and asks us how to say stuff in English. There are like 5 little boys that every time they see us, they run up to us and give us hugs and ask us how to say stuff in English. So precious. There are also a pack of not so little boys that always talk to us on the street. They always tell us to come and talk to them. So one day I was unusually annoyed by it and I invited them all to church. haha They said they would go if we would give them the discussions first. ha! No thank you.

Weve been working a lot lately with Inactive members. None of our other investigators look real promising but we will find them soon. I just keep telling myself that. For some of these people, (the inactives) its like theyre our investigators cause they do not know ANYTHING about the church. I actually really like teaching them. And theyre usually pretty willing to come to church. A lot of them left the church because they got offended by someone in the church. That is really frusterating to me because the people in the church have nothing to do with the truthfulness of it all but what can ya do?

This week, I have gotten so many clothes given to me. For some reason people love giving me clothes but the problem is...is that I would never be caught dead wearing them. And one lady gave me one of her shirts and I tried to refuse it nicely but she insisted. So I took it and said thank you. And she said "if you are really grateful, ill see you wearing it". Oh dear. That same lady that gave me one of her shirts asked me if she came to visit me, if I would accept her. So I said yes of course! And she was so excited and said ok great! We{ll only be living with you for a few months! Just while my husband starts work there!! Uhh....whoops. Sorry dad, we{re going to be having some illegals living with us. Are you cool with that? haha

Well in answer to your questions....my clothes are awful! They are all getting holes in them and are super hot, I hate them! haha But the good news is...I went shopping last week in some "pacas". They are just stores with used American clothes in them. Thats where everyone gets their clothes. It was so funny cause I was in heaven and I got a new shirt and skirt and was sooo happy. And then I realized....half of these clothes are probably mine that I gave away at home. What is this world coming to? haha
Yes, they have the most delicious fruits here! Lots that I have never tried before. My favorite right now if Mango. They are in season and people have Mango trees everywhere and give us giants bags of Mangos all the time. So Ive been eating so many! I think they are way better here but I think that about most things. hehe

Well sorry if this letter is so short but I cant think of anything else I have to say that is exciting! Except that in 2 days I will have 6 months in the mission! Weird! Thank you for all the letters and emails! I love you all sooooooooooo much!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston

April 11th letter and pictures

Hello my dearest family!

So Im pretty sure that this week was rather uneventful but Ill do my best to say something interesting.

Well unfortunately our baptism fell through. She got terrified and doesnt know if she wants to even learn more. And we keep on seeing her husband in the street and he just goes on and on about how much he is annoyed with her and might possibly want a divorce. Perfect. We have not given up on her yet though! Dont you worry! Also, we have been teaching this other girl named Evelyn. She is my bff. I love her. But the thing is, is that we have been teaching her but she hasnt really been progressing. She keeps on saying that she is going to go to church but then she never does. Well guess what? SHE CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!!!! I was soooo excited! Im hoping that that means that she is a little more dedicated to finding out if this church is true. Ill keep you updated on her. Also, remember Jessica? The one that got baptised in Pamelita? Well she called us the other day! We were soooo excited cause I didnt have her address or number or anything but now I do. And her Grandma that she is living with just got baptised toooooo!! She is still going to church and is loving it. You have noooo idea how happy this makes me. haha

In answer to some of your questions, yes, the people here are extremely religious. EVERYONE believes in Christ has pictures of him up everywhere. They have church services every night of the week almost and are very faithful in going. They visit people in their churches every day, they wear skirts every day, they dont wear earrings or jewelry because they think that it says that you shouldnt in the bible, they dont dance or listen to worldly music. These people are intense. Now not all of them are like that but a HUGE majority. What I meant last week by "baggy elders" is like trunky elders, you know, they want to pack their bags and go home? Get it? Yes, this is the hottest that it has every been since Ive been here. I guess the month of April is the worst all year round. Its supposed to start cooling off in May because of the rain. Although, it has been raining almost every day here. But that just makes it hotter, cause its humid.

Something funny that happened this week. We went out to the middle of nowhere, Guatemala to go visit a less active member. But when we got there, she said she was about to go to a wedding and wanted to know if we would go with here. So we went and helped her with her kiddos and it was so funny! We were totally WEDDING CRASHERS! Im afraid we stuck out like a sore thumb considering the fact that we were the only white girls and all. Everyone was staring at us and I felt real bad. We ate the food and they gave us a guest gift and everything. baha! It was a good time there. Dont worry, the bride was 16 yrs old and there were giant muddy pigs running under everybodies table. They were having a really good time at the party!

Also, something creepy happened. Let me know if you are getting sick of my drunk man stories but this drunk man followed us home to our apartment. And he kept on trying to grab me. SO CREEPY! Then when we got upstairs on our balcony, he kept on blowing kissing OVER AND OVER AND OVER again to me. bahaha! Dont worry, he was to waisted to remember where we lived or anything.

The family reunion sounds like it was ridiculously fun! When I saw the pictures of it, I got a little homesick for the first time! But no worries, Im already over it cause the day that you guys were having the family reunion, I was crashing a wedding! baha! I better get one of those awesome tshirts! Well I gotta go but I love you all more than life! Thank you soo soo much for your letters. If you havent been recieving letters from me. Its not my fault. I have tried. LA AMO!!!!!!!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston (AKA, your favorite, daughter, sister, and friend)

My neighborhood friends.

President and Sister Maravilla. bahaha! It looks like their cutting their wedding cake huh?

April 4, letters and pics

Hey family!

Well it is a miracle that I am finally talking to you write now. The electricity keeps on going out in this internet place and earlier my keyboard didnt work but I think its for real this time.

First off, thank you all sooo soo much for your letters. They make me incredibly happy! Hermana Nelson also gets a lot of letters and one day, the office Elders gave us our letters and it was this HUGE pile and they said that they think they{re going to make a zone just special for us "Zona Enfermeras" "The Nurse Zone". hehe So thank you so much. Also, I have tried to send a bunch of letter and I just have this feeling that they are not getting to you guys. I keep on asking people if they got my letters and they havent. How weird. So just know that I am thinking of you guys and sending you letters, Guatemala is just very shady and they dont end up getting there. Sorry about that.

This week was fantastic for 2 reasons. First, I GOT TO WATCH CONFERENCE! IN ENGLISH! I was so happy. Dont worry, the satalite went out about 30,000 times and we didnt really get to watch a few sessions but it was better than nothing. All of the North Americans were in our own room and we all had tons of snacks. It was pretty nice. All the Elders were baggy though. Because I guess in the Priesthood session they told all the boys that they need to be actively searching for a wife. So when we asked them how it was, they said "Well we all said bye to our girlfriends. After that talk, all the boys back home are going to snatch them up!!" They were so depressed and I thought it was hilarious!

Second reason I am super happy is because SOMEONE IS GETTING BAPTISED! Woohoo! This saturday. I am so excited. They went to conference and everything. Her name is Veronica. Her husband is an inactive member but wants her to get baptised soooo bad. He is practically desperate. He keeps on talking and talking to her about the church and saying, don{t you want to be together for me forever? With our little girl? If you want that you have to get baptised and we have to get sealed in the temple! It is precious. Shes had a little bit of a hard time feeling like she has gotten an answer to her prayers if this is the true church be she says she feels peaceful when she prays about it and agreed to be baptised this Saturday. She was Evangelical before and had a REALLY hard time believing in Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon but she has been praying really hard and has resolved a lot of her own doubts. I am so happy!

I also saw someone from Pamelita yesterday and I asked about our convert Jessica and if she{s still going to church and he said that she goes EVERY single week by herself and her little baby. I am so proud of her! Shes only 15! So that made me extremely happy!

Funny story of the week. We were at a members house and we talk him a little short lesson. And afterwards we asked him if there was anything that we could do for him (we ask this EVERY time that we leave someones house) and he said. Yeah, you guys can learn Spanish better because I dont think you understand anything I say. Ouch. Thank you. I didnt really want to learn it better before but now that you said that...haha! It was really random that he said that cause we understood every word we said. Hna Noj said that she thought we underthood everything that we said and stuff. She said she thinks its because a lot of people here just assume because you{re white, you dont understand them and cant speak spanish. Good thing I have a high self confidence level cause these people are BRUTALLY honest.

Well Im out of time but I love you all tons! I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston

AWESOME crib that a TON of people use down here. I want to buy one for Lindsey and Christi for their babes but somehow I doubt they would use it....

Conference

a recent converts - less active members house - We come here almost every day. These are the kids of an 18 year old!! She had her first kid when she was 13. Sad.

Our little friends bday party we went to.

New comp Hna Noj. We were having a picnic cause we were in no mans land where there was no where to eat lunch.

March 28, letter & pics

Buenas Familia!

Well I cant think of a whole lot that I have to report this week. It turns out that I was able to go to the temple on Monday and it was sooo wonderful. And here is the best part. We were in a session with Elder Martino and Elder Clark of the 70. I was excited! haha If you ask me, I think it is crazy that they let us just take off to Guatemala City alone. We had to find our way back and we ended up taking a taxi, metro and bus to get back to Reu. The buses are CRAZY! They are all decorate and painted crazy and there is stuff piled on the top of them like 10 ft high. All the members here are very upset that they let us go on a bus by ourselves. They say it is soooo dangerous. And that THEY wouldnt even go on a bus and they are from here. How comforting.

It turns out that our new companion Hermana Noj is actually hilarious and I love her. I think shes going a little crazy cause shes going home in 4 weeks but she just is full of jokes and shares them with us all day long. It is super good to have her as our companion cause we have to speak spanish all the time. At first I missed english so much but now I am getting used to it and learning A LOT more spanish.

We also had a conference this week with the President and 3 other zones. And guess who is in my neighboring zone? MY BFF!!! Member her? Hermana Roney? haha We chatted about the missionary moms website and all and it was hilarious. I guess she was saying that her mom might get kicked off the site cause she upset some of the moms? Is that a rumor? Hna Roney thought it was hilarious. What DRAMA! haha

So we found out something very interesting this week. We have not seen our Bishop since weve been here. We saw him the second night we were here and then he mysteriously disappeared and nobody knew where he went. We just found out this week that he got threatened by a gang and had to leave the country. Sooo yeah, he is tucked away safe in Nicaragua and we are here in the ward still. Dont worry. haha Im not sure how much of that is true because people LOVE to gossip and overexaggerate here but it makes sense because he did not tell ANYONE and just took off. Who knows!

About our investigators...we had to drop Aurelio. Waa! I was sad but he sent us ANOTHER message saying that he loves the Catholic church and thats where he belongs. I just hope that we planted a seed for the future! We are teaching this other girl now though that Im hopeful for. Her name is Veronica. She is "married" aka living with this guy who is a member and return missionary and everything (but inactive now). They have a little kid and are a PRECIOUS family. He wants her to get baptised and sealed in the temple SOOO bad. He is desperate! He is doing everything in his power to convert here. Its precious but really sad at the same time. I just dont understand how you can be a return missionary and fall away from the church! He still has such a strong testimony, he just fell away. She is a little less excited about the whole thing and kind of has the attitude of trying to prove us wrong them wanting to know for herself if its true. She said she would read and pray to know for herself and her husband has been helping her. She says she really does have a desire to know. Hopefully that works out.

On the Nursing topic. I got about 1000000000000000 calls this week. Everyone is dying I swear! There was one day that I was literally on the phone all day. The president even called me because one Elder was so sick. Its hard though because I am not allowed to send someone to the doctor without the permission of Dr. MacArthur so pretty much I cant do anything. So Ill call the Dr. and he ALWAYS says that theyre fine. No matter what. So them the President will call me and say....I think that so and so needs to be hospitalized. Can he go? Uhh....Welll....uhh....I dont know. The Dr. says that hes fine. See the problem. Every time I am around a large group of Elders, I feel like everybody is shooting fire at me with there eyes. One funny call I got this week was an Hermana that said her lips were a little darker than usual. Hmm... I asked for how long and she told me for ten minutes. I think she wants to go home and purple lips were her desperate attempt.

In answer to some of your questions, yes parasites are a VERY VERY VERY common thing. I would say about 75% of the calls I get, they have parasites. All different kinds. One elder has a tape worm and cant take medication for 3 months because you are only allowed to take the medication every 3 months. This is the 3 worm/ parasite he has had and he just got here right before me. Bummer. I think I might have one too but who knows.

The only really funny thing I can think of that happened this week is that Hna Noj whipped out a picture of a North American boy in a "model like" pose and I couldnt tell who it was for a while and then I realized....IT WAS THE ASISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT! bahaha! I guess every single Hermana in the mission has pictures of him that a member printed off of his facebook and gave it to all the Hermanas. The mission is ridiculous. Its like a HUGE efy. All the Hermanas have crushes on all the Elders and they email each other on Mondays (which is completely against the rules). So now, I have a picture of the asistant to the President in my house. Awesome. Its amazing the stuff I know now that I have a latina companion.

Well sorry if I bored you to death. Ill try to have more interesting things to tell you next week. I love you soo soo soo soo much! Seriously. A lot. Have a wonderful week and Ill talk to you next monday!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston

p.s. General Conference is this weekend and Im so excited I could just DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never been this excited for conference before in my life. Its pathetic. But our whole zone is pitching in a buying a pig to eat in between sessions Saturday. Like an entire pig. The President found out about it and was so excited and says hes coming. haha! Have I mentioned I love that man?

Volcano outside the bus window on the way to the capital! The ride was so stinkin pretty!

Best Friends Forever!!!! Hermana Roney

Alston shirt! WOOHOO!

Awesome swiss family robinson house. I finally got a pic of it but it totally doesnt do it justice!

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

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!

February 28th 2011

Hello family!

Well I regret to inform you that this week was the most uneventful week of my entire life!!!! It all started last Sunday when Hna Nelson got sick in the middle of church. We just thought it was a virus but it lasted for FOREVER! So I finally made her go get a stool sample to make sure she doesnt have parasites. Whelp! You better believe she had parasites! Giardia to be exact. We have no idea how she got it. She is soooo careful with what she eats and drinks. So shes on medication and all now but the problem is the medication is VICIOUS and has the worst side effects in the world so she has been on her death bed ALLLLLL week. And I have been stuck to the confines of our apartment going INSANE! If anything, it made me realize how much I LOOOOOVE to work. So unfortunately I dont have anything to report to you on our investigators or anything. We didnt have any appointments. The only up to all this is that it was rainy all week and we got to be inside and just enjoy it while we were DRY! Oh that AND I also made up a love song about Hna Nelson and Gerald the Giardia and sang it to her about 30000 times. That was pretty fun I guess. She really enjoyed that.

But let me just tell you a little bit about the nightmare that Hna Nelson had to do when she went and got a stool sample. First of all, we had to go with our Zone Leaders cause they had to pay for it. So she goes into the bathroom with a cup and comes out holding her cup of diarrhea in front of a PACKED doctors office and our zone leaders. And she had to wait in line with it in front of everyone. Just holding it in her hands and very politely waiting. And to top it all off, the bathroom didnt have toilet paper or soap. Wonderful. Im just glad it wasnt me. Although, I am a little concerned because we eat and drink all the same stuff. But Im doing just fine and dandy!

Speaking of embarrasing medical things...I have gotten 2 anonymous calls this week from Elders. One was constipated and the other one had a hemorrhoid. They were to embarrassed to tell me who they were so they would not tell me their names. And they could hardly tell me what was wrong with them cause they and their companions were laughing so hard and soooo embarrassed. Oh goodness, I am always entertained here.

In answer to your question about the cute family Alejandro and Beatrice, we had to drop them. Waa! I was very sad. But they were not reading the book of mormon, wouldnt come to church and never seemed to have time for us. AKA they arent interested. Bummer. Aurelio is still looking positive and we have an apt with him tomorrow. Ill keep you updated.

I guess the entire mission is having a really hard time getting baptisms. Last month we broke a record of almost 200 baptisms but this month it is sooooo low. I dont know why. Were not having much luck here either.

I cant believe it SNOWED in AZ!!! UGH! I cant even imagine. I want snow!!!! Or just anything besides the hottest weather Ive ever experienced in my life! Lucky!

So something very embarrasing and traumatizing happened to me yesterday. I was in church and this lady that is so sweet and I love her but bless her heart has the worst hygiene I have ever seen. And all of her kids have like bugs crawling on them and the whole family has weird rashes all over them and everything. Well anyways, I dont know if ive told you or not but everyone kisses everyone on the cheek here as a greeting. So she walks in the class and we go to kiss on the cheek but I didnt know which side to kiss her on cause we were in a really awkward position so all the sudden BAM! She goes for it and we kiss on the lips. YUCK! haha It might not seem that bad to you but I was very traumatized ok? haha

Oh also, I think I forgot to tell you. Last week we went to our cooks house for lunch but the problem was, she was gone and there was someone cooking in her place. She asked if we wanted to eat something and we didnt fully understand what she said so we said sure. And so she brings it out and its cow hoof stew. BAH! It was the most disgusting thing ever. Soo chewy and there were veins and everything. And the worst part was...the hair wasnt all off of it so there was hair floating around. Sick. Hna Nelson and I were thinking that that is possibly where she got her parasite.

Well sorry I think this email is kind of all over the place. Hope I didnt bore you too much. I love you all! Thank you for your emails and letters. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!

Love, Hermana Kami Alyse Alston

Pretty river close to my house!! Relatively empty but really big after the rain.

Nightmarish dogs on top of every house!!!

Beautiful Guatemalan country side

Our apartment complex in Las Palmas. We're on the 2nd floor in the back.

Our kitchen slash study room.

Empty room that we keep all of our pamphlets and hang some of our laundry in.

Our lovely bathroom - It really is lovely compared to my last house.

Our bedroom - don't let the blanket and sheet fool you. Its just for decoration, I don't sleep with any covers!