A Spoonful of a Blissful Return

Can I legitimately still say I just got back from my mission? Oh, I can. K, thanks.

Well blogger nation...aka all 10 of you who follow me. I know you probably didn't notice that I took a long hiatus, and you're probably only moderately interested that I have a new blogpost. It's okay to be honest with yourself.

I can't even admit that I have some pressing issue about which to ramble or rage, and we have such good topics (i.e. the Affordable Care Act, Ordain Women movement, the new-ish add/drop policies at BYU, etc.). I just wanted to pop in and give you a little update on life. 

Life is moving. Fast. I'm not really worried about the speed, and surprisingly, I'm not worried or upset or anything but pleased about where I'm at. In a little more than 6 months, I will be a graduated woman. Possibly a graduated woman with no idea where to go from there, but a graduated woman nonetheless. *pause for applause*

Yeah, it's a cool feeling. This semester has been bittersweet though as I've realized how much better I'm realizing my potential now than I ever did before the mission. Too bad the "delete" button on my keyboard does not work for BYU's AIM system. If only...

Thanks to the mission, on another note, my rather varied, past grades don't have such a terrorizing hold on me as before. I'm determined to do better. And I am.

See, it's proof. I got the highest grade on my Span 321 midterm.

And the dating life? Well it could be better, but not in the way my 19-year-old former self would have supposed. There is no end of awesome, generous, and intelligent men vying for my affections (note: I reserve the right to unashamed exaggeration. Afterall, it is my blog.)

I'm more disappointed in that I'm not going for any of it. I'm pretty sure that 19-year-old version of myself would slap me if true time travel did exist because, for once, I actually have options. And out of all the options I'm choosing none of them. 

I do have a spiritual basis for my decisions, lest you think that this returned sister missionary learned nothing in her 18 months in the balmy heat of Guatemala. I pray about everything that goes on in my life, especially my dating life, and so far, I've only received confusion and more confusion about certain possibilities (see Doctrine and Covenants 9: 8-9). 

For most people that would mean calm, acceptance of the will of God, but hey, I'm not far off: I'm just complaining about it on my blog. In all honesty, I'm not too upset because I know I need to be 100% head-over-heels in love if anybody is going to coerce me down the metaphorical "aisle". And I know I always have a choice. That's important to me. 

I hope this has served to update you on what life is like in P-town for a recently returned missionary by the name of Amy. And I hope for your sake it was at least a little bit entertaining/intriguing/awesome. 

Have a wonderful week,world!

A Spoonful of El Enfrentar de Desafíos: Guatemala Mission- Week 19

This week was a bit challenging as we didn't see the success we were hoping for. Our numbers were low and we only ended with one baptism. Plus we had to deal with some of the blowback of baptismal date that fell. And then the husband of the family that we baptized early this transfer definitely (for now) said no to baptism and so we had to drop him. That was a sad day, but we bore powerful witness and word from his wife is that he is still reflecting over our words. And we only had 2 investigators at church despite our hopes for 5 or more. But let's look at the bright side of things, shall we?

It didn't rain quite as much during the week which allowed us to make our visits like planned, we did have a baptism and it was beautiful. We got to know another part of our area called Las Animas. I know, it's crazy that halfway through our second transfer we're still discovering more of our area. It literally is huge. And I know I say this about every new part of our area, but it's incredibly gorgeous. I was sad that I didn't take my camera with me because it's this cute little community built on a hill over a river. And the drive to arrive is prett scenic too. Other exciting news is that I cut my hair. It's to my shoulders now and I have bangs straight across. I'll try to send a picture when I can. I'm happy with it because I thought it would be crazy difficult to find a good hairstylist but it turns out there's one just across the street from our house. Tender mercy!

We started teaching a family with the last name Torres which was kind of cool. They can't have children, but have 5 nieces and nephews that are practically their children. They were a reference from another family in the ward which is awesome because they're carrying more of the weight in planning and we just have to show up to teach. It's great to see that we have so many investigators since when I first got to the area we had nobody. And now that transfers are coming up in another 2 weeks, I feel like I'll be leaving the area in good shape if I'm called to go to a different area. I don't really want to leave especially after finding out we're the only ones in the mission with a hot shower, but I've really come to love the people here and it will be hard to say goodbye.

I hope you're all enjoying your hot summers, swimming, watermelon, and flip flops. If you have some time, drop me a line. Love you all very much. Until next week,

A Spoonful of 4 Meses: Guatemala Mission- Week 18

This week I reached 4 months! It was worthy of a celebration so my comp and I bought pupusas. Which we do every week, really, but this week it was accompanied by my new stuffed animal that my comp won me from a machine and the card she made me where she called me by the wrong name. She has the tendency to do that. This week we worked a lot in all of the parts of our area which includes the main city or the name of our area and 4 or 5 other districts on either side of San Francisco. Basically we have a huge area and we should have more missionaries here but first we have to prove to the President that that's the case by baptizing like crazy a few months in a row. Which is what we plan to do. Our goal as a zone for July is 100 which is an extremely high number for a zone, but more than possible here.

We have 3 baptisms planned for this weekend, but we're fighting for more and challenging everybody this month while at the same time finding new investigators every day if we can. It's tough because to have success you have to be solid on every side: have baptisms set and maintained, work with other progressing investigators, work with non-progressing investigators to get them to progress if you can, find new investigators, and work with the members to get references. It's intense, but when we have all of these things in a day our whole attitude towards the work changes and we are happier.

I feel like I blank on all the cool things that we do in a week, so I'm sorry if my emails are boring. We had stake conference with the newly called Elder Falabella. He is one of my favorites. He is so meek that he can get anybody to commit to anything. He had everybody in the congregation paying attention which I was able to see because I was asked to play the piano for the general session. As everyone knows, I'm far from the best piano player, but literally nobody here plays the piano which is okay because their organ has hymns programmed into it, but still, they love having somebody play for them. I hope you're all staying healthy and happy and constantly growing. I love you all and am beyong grateful for your love and support. Until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Feliz Dia de los Madres: Guatemala Mission Week 17

or Happy Mothers' Day! Also I'm almost certain that I'm off on my weeks because I was in the CCM for 9 weeks and last week was the end of my first 6 weeks in the field. So basically...I can't count. Oh well. 

I hope everybody's mother's day was fantastic. Here it's celebrated on the 10th or thursday of the past week and I was awaken to the sound of canon fire. At least that's what it sounded like. In my panicked state I tried to think of who in the small city in which I lived had I offended who also had a canon. It also didn't really cross my mind for the first 5 minutes that we were in fact still in the 21st century and canons as a weapon had indeed gone out of style. Apparently, that is the champines(guatemalans) idea of celebrating mothers' day. At 4 in the morning. 

We had transfers this week, but since I'm a newb I get to stay in my area for another 6 weeks. There's also a good chance I'll stay for another change after that because my comp will have already been here for 4 and a half months by the time transfers come around again. I'm not really complaining because we have a really good district and zone (the highest baptizing zone in the mission). I don't think I'd mind staying in Mazate for my whole mish, but that's me as a 6 week old missionary talking who knows how I'll feel in time. 

We had our first baptism this weekend and it was great, in spirit, not quite in reality because we didn't have an agenda prepared and we started an hour late. Besides the problems, the spirit was still there strongly and I had the opportunity to see this family enjoying the blessings of happiness that the Gospel brings. That was really the special part of it. Well, I hope everything is going well back in the states and for each and every one of you. Have a beautiful week!

Love,

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Playa: Guatemala Mission Week 16

We got to go to the beach today! It was awesome. We didn't go swimming, but we still had a blast! I have some pictures, but I think they'll take to long to load on this computer so I'm going to wait  until next week to send them. The beach was sooo pretty, though the water is a bit more dirty than what I'm used to seeing in California. We even got to eat yummy seafood that was well-cooked and everything. It wasn't really as a reward but we don't typically get to go to the playa. 

This week has been a bit rough for reasons of illness and Satan. Firstly, my comp and I have been trading being sick. Well really just she got sick and then me and then her again. The only difference is that I save my illness for p-day. haha. Not intentionally. And Satan, man, how sad is it when you can see him working and suceeding with your investigators! We saw a lot of his advances this week but I just take that to mean we're really doing good work here. And it's true, we have really good opportunities for this month and a baptism planned for this Saturday. 

I don't have much more to share, just my testimony that I know this work will go forth to cover the whole earth and I feel privileged to be allowed to work in this area of the Lord's kingdom for now. These people are special, and I'm learning a lot from them and the especial struggles they face as Saints in Central America. Stay safe and blessed. Love you all!

Love,

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Helicopter Rides: Guatemala MIssion Week 15

This week has been a little crazy. It started out great as we set a date for a the baptism of our family for the 5th of May (aka this Saturday). If we can maintain it, I'll get to go to transfers meeting even though I'm not transferring to receive a pin for baptizing a family. Then we had an Area Attack in our area of San Francisco where the rest of our district comes and we all go out contacting to try and find new investigators. I did a division with another Hna in my district and it was fun to see the difference in teaching style and just how her personality translates into being a missionary. We found some prospects, but then later in the week were flat out rejected by some of them. And that kind of hurts in more ways than one. First of all, it's just sad that they're turning down something as good as the restored gospel. Secondly, some of them feel like they can't be completely honest as to why they're rejecting us.

Back to this week. My companion got sick, a 48-flu I think, and so that was no fun. We celebrated the birthday of our investigator with a delicious cake, only to not have him make it to church the next day. I also got to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Obedience. There were a couple times when I would get tongue-tied, but mostly  I did pretty well, at least, according to the people that were listening. And now for the most exciting part of this week: I can now say I know what it feels like to helicopter. For those of you who get queasy easily, I apologize for the following explanation. Helicoptering is when you have liquid coming out both sides of your body at the same time (i.e. vomit and diarrhea). Basically the idea is that the force your body uses to vomit makes it impossible to hold in anything else. I had this wonderful experience last night about 3 in the am and didn't get back to bed until about 5:30. I'm hoping it's just something bad that I ate that is on it's way out, but I still feel pretty awful. More on this later.

I don't know that there's much more left to tell. As always, I hope you're all doing well and always building your testimony of the Gospel. Have you read the Book of Mormon lately? It's an amazing book. I'm currently at the end of Nephi, the intermediary books, and the beginning of Mosiah, and I'm loving it. Be safe and happy and until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Me encanta ver el templo: Guatemala Mission week 14

Family! Friends! 

I hope you're all doing well. I am doing fantastic. This last week was a super spiritual week because we had a multi-zone conference and then we got to go to the Quetzaltenango temple. It meant we didn't have a lot of time in our area this week, but it was such a good experience, I don't really wish it was different. 

Firstly, the multizone conference was great. It was kind of a lot of sitting down and listening which I learned from the MTC is hard to do without drifting off, but we had interesting enough material that I was able to do pretty well. We had a 70 come, Elder Gavarret from Uruguay, with his wife, as well as Pte. Maravilla and his wife. They all had great messages to share on how to improve our work as missionaries. And we got fed. That was nice. 

Secondly, the temple. Wow. It was so nice to go. It was all in Spanish which is the 2nd time I've done it in Spanish, but I was surprised how I understood mostly all of it. The Quetzaltenango temple is definitely one of my favorites because it is sooooo pretty. It's modeled a lot off the Draper temple so if you've been to that temple just picture that, but in Guatemala and with mountains in every direction. It's even on a hill like in Draper. I loved it. 

Sadly, it doesn't look like we're going to have a baptism this month, which is actually strange for this mission. Everybody has at least 2 every month. It has seemed to dampen my trainer's spirit a little because she wanted this first change of my mission to be the best possible. I'm not too worried about numbers for now. I know we're working hard and sometimes we're just given challenges like this. We do have a family we're teaching now that is super pilas (or awesome) and will probably be baptized in the next month. 

Stay safe and happy and until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

P.S.: Enjoy the photos! I hope they work this time. Some are from the temple, some from the capital. I'll let you figure out which ones are which. :)