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. :)