Guatemala City Guatemala LDS (Mormon) Temple - Mormonism

I felt like someone was pushing me....

When Jack was serving in his first area Peten,
he assured me that it was the safest place in the mission.
Being a new missionary mom, I believed him.
I felt a sense of security.
Now a year and a half later he is serving in Zone 18.
He knows that I know the stories about Zone 18.
Of course he says that he is in the "safest part" of Zone 18.
But he doesn't need to keep the truth from me to protect me.
Heavenly Father has been taking care of that job, as you can imagine,
with perfection.
I don't always receive it perfectly but that is how it is sent and
it is enough.
Yesterday when we were sending emails back and forth...
(I just "happened" to be at my computer when he sat down to a computer in the internet cafe)
He was telling me where to try and book a hotel for our Guatemala adventure in September.
He said,

"the temple is closer to our mission

zone 15 is the nicest zone

zone 14 or 9 are good ones too

zone 6 and 18 are not! lol

but i love the people there =)

in peten just make sue it´s in san benito, santa elena, or flores

flores is really nice"
To which I replied,
"hey Buster you told me that Zone 18 was SAFE. lol lol lol
Man am I a seasoned missionary mom veteran not to get stressed out about the zone you are in???
You better be safe though!!!
or else."
And then he shot back....

"lol

it´s safe.. just don't read the Guatemalan news  lol

the temple is in zone 15

it´s nice there

oh btw

i prolly wont be writing again until Tuesday

we have a service project on Monday" (I included that part for the Guat North moms whose sons are in Jack's zone. ;)
To which I replied,
if it's about the 6 severed heads found in public places...too late. your dad filled me in on that one. (I cannot imagine why he told me) But I long ago had to leave all that on the Lord's shoulders so don't worry about me worrying, I try to keep it to a minimum. Do you still feel safe and protected? If not I will try to pray harder. lol Thanks for the heads up on Tuesday.
He then said,

yeah, that's the news.

didn't happen in my area though. so don't worry. i still feel safe

I then typed back,

Just make sure that you keep your head on your shoulders and follow all of the rules and I will try to not worry.
btw you ALWAYS say your area is not the bad area....good try. But thanks for trying to protect me. lol You are a good son!
There should be a whole gang of really muscular angels surrounding you. I pray for those guys EVERY night!
Do you ever see or feel their presences?
And then he sent this short answer that made me cry....it still makes me cry when I type this. But first a little background...
When he was serving in "safe" Peten he and his companion were approached by a man who stopped his car to get out and talk to them. Jack had a bad feeling and they kept walking. The man then exited his car brandishing a machete and yelling. Jack and his companion started running....fast. Now Jack has never been known for his athletic prowess but he said that he ran faster than he had ever run before. Yesterdays email answer explained why,
He said,

in peten when they were trying to kill me i did. lol

i ran faster than i had strength to run. i felt like someone was pushing me.
I know who was pushing him.
It was those angels.
They are not only big and tough they are
FAST
too.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with a thankful heart.

Hey everyone!

                Thanks for all of your emails. Today has been a good day. We played capture the flag, only this time I didn’t run into the wall. Then we went to McDonald's as a zone. Then we did our weekly shopping. I pretty much only bought Oreo, powdered milk and marshmallows, but what could be better than that? =)

                This week has been excellent. We are working with a family that I think will progress. Their names are Nyor and Araceli. They weren’t able to come to church this weekend because they were pretty sick, but they are reading the Book of Mormon, and they have felt the Spirit as we teach.

                We are also working with the Flores family. They all came to church this Sunday. We need to get them married, and the husband doesn’t want to, but we´re still working with them. Keep hem in your prayers.

                We´re also working with Roberto and Damaris. He wants to get baptized, and his divorce papers are coming through, but we can’t get either of them to church! It´s a little frustrating, but we´re trying to find the way to get them to church. I think we need to find a member that can take them.

                Speaking about help from members, congratulations on helping the Torres family get baptized. Help from the members is very important. I bet it felt very good to be there. I'm excited to talk to them when I get back.

                I went on divisions with Elder Smith this week. (not the new one) He is one of the greatest missionaries that I have seen here on the mission. I really enjoyed being with him for that day, and we had a lot of great experiences together. There´s a lot of great missionaries here in the mission. I like being able to go on divisions with the missionaries in the zone. I learn a lot from them.

                Let’s see. Elder Richardson is doing well. He is about done with his mission. I still feel like I have a lot of time left.

                I got a letter from Nancy Castillo today. She´s my convert from Lomas. It was kind of a sad letter. Things are difficult for that family. I feel bad for her, because she wants the Gospel in her family more than anything, yet her husband is still difficult. She told me in her letter to thank you guys though, for sending me out in the mission. That is nice of her. Please keep her in your prayers. She is still active though! That makes me happy.

                                               Question time!

1.       What is your release date?

Sept 28!

2.       Did you hear about the giant sinkhole before I sent you the pictures? Do you hear much local news or are you pretty insulated?

I heard about it because it’s in our mission. I have been in that church in the picture.

3.       What does Elder Richardson like to eat? Do you eat together the same meals?

Well, he likes to eat, that’s for sure. He eats and eats and eats. We cooked together for a week, but he ate all my food! =) this week we´re eating separately.

4.       What was the best thing that you ate this week?

Bisquick pancakes! I found them in the store, and even though the wee expensive I bought them, and they were delicious.

5.       Am I just suppose to decide all of our places to go to when we get to Guatemala or do you want a loose schedule that we can figure things out when we are together?

Make a plan and send it to me!

6.       Do I get to meet the lady who is not nice to you?

Lol. Probably not

7.       Should you warn her that I am coming?

I should. I bet you could take her.

8.       Does she know that your awesome mother is pretty scary when her cub is not treated right.lol lol?

I´ll let her know. =)

9.       What was the best thing or most interesting fact from the week?

The best part was that the Flores  family came to church. That made me happy.

Well, I would have loved to write more, but the keyboard that I am using barely works, and my time has ended. Thanks for everything though. I love you guys and pray for you often. Next week I will write more!

I love my mission, and I know the Church is true.

Love.

Elder Winn

 

Nobody can attack my testimony

(This story is from my blog themomshell.blogspot.com and I added it so that you would understand the answer to question number 7 from Jack. Plus it has nothing to do with volcanoes or tropical storms or people who harass young missionaries, which is a bonus I think, because I've had enough of all those things.)

This is the view from
our hotel on our recent trip to Los Angeles.
Every time I plan a road trip I spend weeks on the internet agonizing over every detail.
One of the biggies is the hotel.
The hotel choice can make or break a vacation.
(well maybe that's a little dramatic but you know what I mean)
I drive myself crazy reading every review and trying to stay within a budget.
Not too cheap but definitely not too ritzy.
L.A. was really a hard one.
The bigger the city...the more options there are.
I asked Baby Davey what his thoughts were since he lived there for about 8 years.
I told him that I was considering a Quality Inn in Hermosa Beach
He said that it was a good choice.
The whole two days drive to get to LA I wondered and fretted over my choice of hotel.
We would be staying there for 5 nights so I wanted it to be decent.
And it was...
decent.
It had a view of the ocean...kinda
And it was roomy and clean.
I was proud of myself.
After we got home my husband received a phone call from our credit card company,
asking him to verify some charges that seemed unusual for us.
He was a very pleasant sounding man most likely based in India.
He starting listing some of the places that we had used the card.
"McDonald's in Fort Stockton Texas"...check.
"Hotel room in Demming New Mexico"....check.
"Welcome center in Willcox Arizona".....check.
"Cheap hotel in Hermosa Beach"......?
HUH?
My husband asked him to repeat the last charge.
"Cheap hotel in Hermosa Beach"?
Mr. T replied,
"Well I don't know about that...It wasn't that bad a hotel..."
"No Sir" the operate replied....cheaphotel.
"The restaurant."
C-H-I-P-O-T-L-E.
"Oh Mr. T. chuckled, Yes we ate there."

Hey everyone!

                So I hope everyone wasnt too worried that I didn’t write yesterday. We had zone conference, so our pday is today. We just got done having a district leader training meeting, and we have some appointments and an English class to teach at 4, so really it won’t be much of a pday, but there’s often too much to do, and not enough time to do it.

                Recently I’ve been thinking about my time here. Usually I don’t feel like I’m going home soon, but yesterday it all kind of hit me. Elder Richardson is making all his preparations to go home, and I guess that made me think that my time is coming soon as well, perhaps a little too soon. I only have 2 changes left, which means I will only have 2 more companions, or maybe even just one. I could see myself ending my mission here in Llano Largo, which would mean that this is my last area. It’s a weird feeling, and I’m not sure that I am ready for it.

                This last week went very well for us. We had 3 investigators come to church, and we’ve been trying to continue finding families. Marylou wants to get baptized but she has little support, if any, from her husband, and they are not married. He doesn’t plan on marriage either. That’s going to be a challenge. We’re going to have to pray and work a lot with him so that he can have a change of heart.

                Remember the grumpy lady? Well, I knew there was a reason that we had to keep visiting her. I had always felt like we needed to visit her, even when she continually offends me. She gave us a reference of an 18 year old kid named Luis that lives in front of her. We talked to him shortly and invited him to church, before even teaching him a lesson. Well, he came to church, and we had a great lesson with him about the Book of Mormon yesterday. I think he has a lot of potential, and I see a future missionary in him. I am glad that I kept visiting her, because there was definitely a purpose.

                We also taught an interesting lesson to this one younger family. It was a man named Marlos, about 18 years old, and his wife, and his mother. We taught them the Restoration, and I felt the Spirit as we testified of the great restored truths. At the end of the lesson I invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. As Marcos was about to say yes his mother began to attack us with all the words and scriptures she knew. It turned out that she wasn’t listening at all, rather just trying to find things to fight about. For a good 20 minutes she frantically attacked us with all that she had. She then told us never to talk about the Book of Mormon again. At first I wanted to fight her about it, but something told me not to. When she finished I just thanked her for her opinions, bore my testimony, and asked Marcos again if he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. I think he was a little surprised that we didn’t try to defend ourselves from his mother’s accusations.  He accepted, and this Thursday we have an appointment with him. We’ll have to see how it goes. Nobody can attack my testimony.

                Okay, time is running out, and it’s question time!

2. Since you had some quality time with your new companion I want details...
3 Where is he from?

Oregon.
4 Are you getting along well?

Yes, we are.
5 What is he like?

He’s really quiet, but he’s obedient and he works hard. He really likes writing things down. I haven’t figured that one out yet, but he’s always writing things down.

6.Do you have a 72 hour emergency kit right by your door?
It more like a 24 hour kit. Lol I’m trying to add to it.

7. What is the first fast food place that you will eat at when you get home.

Cheap Hotel! Lol Chipotle!

8. Your mother is ____Nerent to Her!____(fill in the blank and use as much space as needed)

This is an amazing photo of the volcano Pacaya which erupted last week in Guatemala and that I just had to add. Thanks Bonnie for sending it my way.