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