It's not hot here...oh wait, that's a lie!

Hello fam.

Well, yes, I am here in a place called Patutul, Tiquisate.. mom, I cannot wait to hear you pronouce that one day. And yes... it is SO HOT. Like litterally, you get out of the shower and you start to sweat. I have not slept for a full week because the fan only shoots out hot air, but the people here ROCK. Anyone will listen! I have realized something.. God knows with what things you will suffer and he gives you a reason to smile with other things. I really am just trying my best and will choose to put the smile on my face no matter what. You know, the smile is the first message that we give to anyone.

Here we have found about 7 miracles just in the past week. 3 kids whose parents are members, but they hadnt been baptised yet and they are all 9 years old, a family who has come to church for like a month but were attending in a different ward,a nd are ready to get baptised and another family who is ready to change their lives. I know that the reason that I came here is because I needed them and I needed to know them to know how I can be a better person. But really, I am learning here how to really trust in my Savior and leave it ALL to him.

I am in a branch right now and it is so different. Last week we started Sacrament meeting with about 5 people in the congregation and I played the piano, and the missionaries gave the talks. hahaha it is so different, but it is so little and cute that we will have the priveledge of knowing everyone. 

i will leave you with a couple of moments of the week.

So in the mornings while we study, we have to keep the door open because if you dont you will sufficate. Anywho, our neighbors have chickens, and about 15 minutes of our studies each day are spent chasing the chickens out of our house time and time again. But one of the chickens tail was burned off and so he cant run very well.. poor thing.  We also have pet ants and spiders and geckos... and no mom, none of them are named twinkle toes. 

Last night we were in a Family home evening, and we were ending and the dad of the family had bought orange juice for the treat. So they were serving it when all of a sudden my companion passes me a note that said, [Orange juice gives me dirrarea.[ I had no idea what she wanted me to do.. tell her sorry.. drink it for her... tell the hermano... I had no idea but I was laughing so hard!! 

I am okay. I will do it. I will not suffer, I will choose to be happy. 

I love you all. Merry christmas pues.

Hermana funk

Another adventure

This week has just been awesome.

And when I say awesome, I also mean that I am very destroyed. WE ARE BOTH LEAVING OUR AREA! There just aren’t enough hermanas here in the capital to keep it open as a Hermana training leader area, so they are moving us... but you must listen... I might be going to the hottest part of the mission.. named Tiqisate. The HOTTEST part. But you know what?? I am so darn excited at the same time because it will be an adventure and it is where the Lord needs me right now for my last change in my mission.. here goes nothing. But I do ask for your prayers that I will be able to handle the heat, and will be able to sleep and that I will not get two sicknesses that right now are all over the coast, named chincucuna and dengue.. wooooot!

But I am really sad to be leaving this area, but I know that it is what the Lord wants of me and that he needs other hermanas here in Prados. But he sure blessed us this past week. Austin was baptized!!! And so was axel. These people are so special, and for that I want to tell you about each one.

Axel comes from a really really poor inactive family, and might just be my favorite little boy that I have ever met. The other day we were teaching them, and we asked him if there was something that he wanted us to ask in the prayer for him and he said, ¨Will you just ask Heavenly Father that he can give me more faith?¨

 At the end of the lesson, I found a Hershey cookies and cream chocolate bar.. the small kind, the kind you were disappointed about if someone put it in your trick or treat bag.... and so I decided to split the small bar up into four pieces to give to him and his brothers. When I put it in his hand he looked at it and just lighted up and said, ¨This is the kind I have seen on TV! It has pieces of broken cookie AND chocolate!¨ Then he took a small bite of it and said, ¨AND IT HAS MILK!¨ and the his mom looked at me and said, ¨He has only ever seen this chocolate on TV.¨ It just made me realize how ungrateful I have been my whole life and that really it is the smallest things that make the difference.

Well, the day of the baptism came of them both and what would you know, the elders forgot to bring the baptismal clothes for them.. typical eldesr. Anywho, we asked them if they could go back to their house to be able to bring the clothes... and well about 1 hour later they came back. And we realized something... WE FORGOT TO TELL THEM the size of the people who were to be baptized. We then proceeded to take out the clothes they brought and we find two of those jumpsuits that you use in the temple to do baptisms for the dead.. but what would you know.. they were both the size ¨´Extra Small¨.. for a 60 year old man and a 8 year old little boy.. let me just say that if there was a flood, the pantsuit of Axel would have been the first one to get wet, and Austins the last. You just have to see the pictures. I have such bad luck with baptismal clothes.

We also asked a couple of yard members to bring a cake because that was the only thing that Axel wanted in his baptism. Well, we did not know how many people were going to stay. We had two small cakes for about 70 people. But before we cut the cake, we said a prayer that this could be an experience like Jesus had when they was enough bread and fish for everyone. And then we realized.. we did not have a knife or anything to cut it with.. but we did have a pass along card for the movie ¨He is the gift.¨ With faith, we decided to cut the cake with the pass along card.. do not tell anyone that who ate the cake.. and incredibly there was enough for everyone, and more to spare. I was literally shocked.

I love you all. I have put a goal to every day put a note in my agenda that says ¨One thing that I am going to do better today¨ to be able to become the person that God wants me to be at the end of my mission. I really love the people here, but I love my Heavenly Father more than ever before in my life.

Hermana Funk

A Guatemalan Thanksgiving

I know, I know, the big question of the day... Amy, what did you eat on Thanksgiving? I ate a piece of bread and a milk drink... how is that for a thanksgiving meal. But yesterday, we did celebrate Thanksgiving for District Pday.. but someone forgot to bring something to cook the stuff in, silver wear, something to cut the turkey.. but if you are wondering, my district leader thought about using a can lid to cut the turkey, and it worked like a champ. Happy Thanksgiving Guate.

This week was an awesome week! Melany and Daniel did not end up getting the permission of their parents, but they are surely converted to the gospel, and I know for a fact that they will have the permission soon and that they can be baptized. Melany said the prayer in the last lesson that we had with her and she started crying and said, “Please help my dad to feel and realize the happiness that I have. I want him to also have the joy from the true church¨ It was incredible. She has changed me and has made me realize how grateful I need to be for being born in a home where the gospel was known and taught.. thanks to you mom and dad.

This weekend one of my favorite investigators is going to be baptized. His name is Austin and he is a 65 year old man that carries around a radio everywhere he goes. He has a fake stomach, due to an accident he had and his answer to everything is “Tremendous”. I love him so much and he is so excited to be baptized! And it is also activating his less active cousin, so really, it is such a blessing.

I don’t know what I ever did to be so lucky to serve here in Guatemala. These people have changed me, and have made me realize the important things in life. They have made me realize just how imperfect I am.

If you are wondering, yes, our next door neighbor did receive a violin. Yes, he is the first Guatemalan I have hear play the violin, yes, he is studying Suzuki book 1, and yesterday I heard him advance to “Gavotte”. Yes, he does love to play at 10 at night and yes, yes, these walls are not very thick. Thanks mom, for all the years of violin practice.

I only found one coakroach in my shoe, and yes, Mayra still wants to go to long beach.

I love you all.

hermana Funk, a representative of Jesus Christ.