Some awesome "only happens in Guatemala" moments

So sorry... surprise that I am writing today, but a man is coming to our house tomorrow to put in a fire alarm so we have to have Pday tomorrow... sorry... but at least we won't die of a fire anytime soon! Blessing, right?

Well this week was so awesome! I love my companion and she loves being exactly obedient and dilligent and so we are doing so well. We work as a team so that we can have the spirit as a team. I would send you pictures of us two, but I am pretty darn sure that the Bishop of this ward has sent you 5000. He literally is the best.

This weekend a man named Eric will be baptized. IT IS A MIRACLE! He has been an eternal investigator for like 500 years, and we had a very powerful lesson with him. While my companion was challenging him to be baptized, I pleaded so hard to Heavenly Father that he would allow andsend Grandpa to testify to him....  and he accepted to be baptized! GRANDPA IS THE BEST MISSIONARY I KNOW. Eric doesn't want anyone to know, he wants it to just be us him and the pèrson that will baptize him, but really, it is a miracle. But please PLEASE pray for him this week. I know Satan will try hard with him, but that the power of God is more powerful.

If you could also put in your prayers for Edgar. He is a 23 year old guy who has decided to completely change his life. He used to smoke 10 cigarrettes a day, and when we taught him about the Word of Wisdom, he said, ¨Today, today, I will stop smoking.¨ And you want to know something? He has not smoked a cigarrette since. He is so pilas and will be baptized on the 26th. He is a miracle from God.

This week I went back to Villa Nueva to do divisions. I saw Hermana Sonia and La Familia Luna! We all started crying, it was so special. And it made me think that that is a little bit what the celestial kingdom is going to feel like, and that I will never have to say goodbye to them. That is why I work and never give up every single day.

And now let me just share some ¨only happens in guate¨ moments.
1. Out of all the places to fall, a cockroach fell from the ceiling and landed on my head and started to crawl down my neck. It was the size of a small hotdog. It was awful.
2.I made a rookie mistake by leaving my shoes outside to dry during the night, what I didn't know, was that our ant friends were looking for a place to make their  next ant hill, and my shoes won the chosen place. Yes, ant bites hurt just as bad as they did in Villa Nueva.
3. Good news. The dog that bit me doesnt have rabies. Blessing. And yes, the wound is healing up.

We just keep going every day with energy and help we find from the Lord. I am a representative of Jesus Christ, I know he lives and loves you.

Obey with exactness, it is the only way to kill the natural man inside of us.

I love you all more than you know.
Amy

General Conference

Hey Fam!

Yes I did watch General Conference. Yes I watched it in English. Yes I ran to the Chapel when they were speaking in Spanish so we could hear it and yes I loved it with all of my heart!

Here I am. I got transferred... if that is how you say it in English..not sure. But I am in a place called Villa Hermosa! I am still Hermana training leader and I am so stoked because know I will do divisions with all the girls here in the capital.. including VILLA NUEVA! I am so excited. My companions name is Hermana Brewster, and she is from Idaho and we have the same time in the mission, and so it has been really fun. Sometimes we just get a little jumpy when we hear the 510,000 airplanes that pass above our house everyday but really we are just doing so well. She is so obedient and diligent and we both are just so tired and both our bodies are giving out on us, so we are just helping one another out.

This week I had a really special experience. I was actually supposed to train this change (to my surprise) but then they said that sister missionary was sick and that she needed to go home. Her name was Hermana Caballero from Honduras. President told me and my companion that she would be working with us for a couple of days while they figured out her flight arrangements. When we first went into the room to meet her, she would not even look up at us. She was crying and did not want to talk. We decided that we were going to love her up and make her have the best experience while we could.

She had to go home for anxiety problems that she was suffering. It was so hard for her to face that fact, but even with this knowledge that she would be leaving to go home. In one of our last lessons that we had with her, she looked up at a guy and said ¨If I did not know this was the truth, I would not be here in these few moments to represent my Savior.¨ The night before she left, and even coming from a poor family, she left all of the money she had so that we could buy shoes for one of our little converts who doesn’t have any. And she wrote one of the most heartfelt letters to a person we had only visited once. Like my companion said when she left, ¨I will never take another day of my mission for granted”. That is the motto I am living by now. Hermana Caballero, even though I only knew her for 2 days, changed my whole mission and life.

I am loving this area. The members are awesome and there are not AS MANY mosquitoes. When I say not as many, I mean that I only get bit 4 or 5 times a night. So that is really a privilege. I promise I will send you pictures next week mom, don’t you worry my fair mother.

I will leave you with something that President Markham has asked us to do. At the end of every single lesson, we say five things, and truly they have changed the whole spirit of the mission.

1. We are representatives of Jesus Christ. We testify that he lives.

2. The Lord loves you and wants you to be baptized by someone who has his power and authority.

3. We testify that this power and this church was restored the prophet that God chose, The prophet Joseph Smith.

4- Will you pray... read... etc.

5. When you know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is the Lord restored his power to baptize... will you be baptized.. etc.

We say it in every single lesson, and we have the goal to have a baptism every single week.

Being a missionary has truly gone from being in my head, to being in my heart.

I love Grandpa and thank him for being my constant companion in this last year. I could not have done it without him.

I love you all!

Ame

Many Changes + Video of Amy Singing

You will never believe it!!

I HAVE CHANGES! I am leaving Chimaltenango... and leaving Hermana Merrell... after only 6 weeks! Yesterday they told us and we thought that they were kidding, but then we noticed that no one else was laughing.. and we started to hug each other and ball our eyes out, we were destroyed. Hermana Merrell finishes the mission in 4 weeks and we were positive that I was going to be here with her, but the Lord has other plans. I just have no idea where he wants me. But I will do it. You know the feeling where you just hope that you have accomplished all the Lord has sent you to an area to do? I just want to be able to feel that, not that I made a huge difference, just that I completed what the Lord wanted me to do.

I am extremely sad to leave Chimal because I love this place so much. Elena got baptised! And she was so happy. She has a son who lives in Utah who just completed a year as a member... yes mom, you can invite him over to your family home evening.. no I do not know if he speaks English... But she had asked the bishop if he would baptize her, but he decided that it would be better if this young man who is leaving for the mission did it. At her baptismal service, he got up and said. ¨I knew I had to give the chance to Billy to baptize you because I wanted him to represent your son. He would have done it if he were here.¨ It was so special!!

Our investigador Jussef... yes Jussef and not joseph.. yes I laugh almost every time I say his name... is doing so darn well. He is such a chosen person of our Heavenly Father and he will be baptized this weekend, I am completely bummed that I will not be here, but it is okay. I am just so grateful for him!

I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done, but I would never ever remake this decision.

I will leave you with a couple of funny moments. Here we go.

1. We were in a Noche de Hogar and I was sitting on a plastic bench thing, I have no idea what happened but I moved it and I fell over backwards and broke the chair.. I definitely broke the spirit as my skirt flew up and my head went crashing into the floor.. sorry

2. I have also distracted from the spirit in this week as I have received 9 mosquito bites on the bottoms of my feet and in my armpits. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW THEY BITE ME IN THESE PLACES. But man.. they are the worst.

I love you all. I truly do. really.

Hermana Funk

Here's a video of Amy and her companion singing:

Marvin Got Baptized + Pictures

Description of the Pics: MARVIN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!

With Hermana Oliphant

Corte fairy princess dress up party!

Hey there fam!

Thank you once again for your letters. I just feel extremely blessed. I love you all and I do love the mission, we are seeing miracles. Miracles, miracles, miracles.

Marvin got baptized!!! Even though he had to stay in his work until Saturday... when he was supposed to return on Wednesday... but when people are trying to kill the mayor, apparently the police officers have to stay. Weird. But anywho, Satan did NOT want him to get baptized. Everything went wrong with the interview time, with his schedule, with his family, everything. But he got baptized! It was SO SPECIAL!! He invited his whole family, and the room was so full, it was a special day for him and all of us. I just felt so darn grateful. It all comes from obedience and sacrifice.

Elena and Evelyn will be baptized this weekend and they are both so excited. But we just need a whole lot of prayers for Joseph... whose name is not Joseph by the way... it is Juseph.... who knew right? BUT HE CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN! And boy was he the hit. And we are planning for his baptism this weekend too but his work just called him in.. and he works in the capital. But we have ALL the faith in the world that he will come home and that he will be baptized. We just need a lot of prayers.

I am way sorry that this email is very short... but my comp is going to send you the pictures from the baptism. It was so darn beautiful. This week I will have divisions with my mom, Hermana Satterhwaite. I AM SO STOKED.

Love you all!

Hermana Funk

An Epic Guatemalan Independence Day

*Hi, I've heard from a couple people that they are not getting Amy's letters. I tried to form a group address and something may be up with that. If you haven't been getting them and are just dying to get past ones:) just let me know and I'll send them. Love you all and thanks for supporting Amy,Laurie

Hey Fam!!

Alaska! That is so cool. I hope it was as cold as it is here in Chimaltenango. But it does look really fun! congrats congrats congrats.

Let us start out with the funny moments this week.

1. It was Independence Day in Guatemala. But here it is more like Independance week. Boy, do they have some weird traditions. Each school basically has to get a running team together to be able to run a torch. And then all of Guatemalans stands out on the street to throw really hard bags of water at them.. and yes they are bags because they haven’t found out about water balloons yes.. and yes they hurt ten times worse. I am just saying... YOU NEVER WANT TO BE OUT ON THE STREETS WHEN THIS IS HAPPENING... and worse if you are white. My companion and I were walking down the street when all of a sudden we hear ¨GRINGAS! GET THEMMMM!¨ Needless to say we were running like gazelles while getting absolutely bruised and soaked. But the funniest thing is they don’t block off the streets for them to run, they just put buses behind them so that if anyone hits them, they hit the bus first. And then it all ended with the parade. We didn’t mean to be part of it or even the main attraction.. we just happened to be walking in that direction. Happy Independence Day everyone.

We are so excited and grateful for the investigators that we have right now. We may or may not have found the most chosen investigator this past week. While we were singing to contact a bus.. yes singing.. a guy told us that we could visit him. Anywho, we went and he was way cool. His name is Joseph and he is 19. But on the second visit, we went back and he told us that he looked up all about the church on line on mormon.org and learned a ton. Then we pulled out the Book of Mormon to teach it to him and he said... ¨Hey, I have read that before.¨ He then proceeded to tell us how his coworker had left it on her desk and he had taken it and read the WHOLE BOOK in 6 DAYS. Can you believe that?? A kid who didn’t even know anything about the church?? Then he told us how he had to work in the capital for the week so he couldn’t attend church. But he called him on Sunday and he told us that he went to the capital and found an LDS church and attended! WHAT THE HECK. We were so excited! It just shows you how much the Lord prepares these people.

Marvin will be baptized this weekend and Elena the next weekend. Just please pray for them so much.

I have learned that if we are going through the hardest trials it means that the greatest miracles are ahead. 

¨I do not obey because I am blind. I obey because I can see.¨ 

Hermana Funk

ps. love ya

World's Best Ward Party

Editors note: A “Tuc Tuc” is a 3 wheeled rickshaw

Well I loved hearing from all of you! Thank you for always remembering me. I love you all so much!

This week was a rockin week. Let me just start with a couple of key points.

1. Elena is so ready to get baptized! Do you remember this miracle lady that showed up at church the past week? Well she is just loving everything and she even showed up to the ward party early just to help. She ROCKS and I love the Miracles of God. She will be baptized on the 21 of September. 

2. Marvin, the police officer and the only one of his family who is not a member, is also going to be baptized on the 21 of September. He had a baptismal date like 20 years ago, but never showed up at his baptism, and this time he said YES. And there are no buts about it. We just love him and his family so darn much. 

3. WE HAD THE BEST WARD PARTY IN THE WORLD. Mom, you know I have never been a big fan of ward parties and all of that but I just have to tell you, our ward mission leader made these awesome invitations to pass out to everyone and their dog. It was like a celebration of  the independence of Guatemala... and well every organization had to put on a dance.... let us all imagine the Elders Quorum and the Relief Society doing dances... it was literally the best thing I have seen thus far on my mission. And the best part of all of this is that we had 24 INVESTIGATORS AT THE WARD PARTY! We taught three lessons during it and they all said that they were going to come to church. Well, they may or may not have been a little too tired after this party, and not all of them came, but many did! WE ARE TOO STOKED.

4. It was late Sunday night and we decided to contact a family on the street… on a dark street. Great idea Hermana Funk and Hermana Merrell. Anywho, as we were contacting them we starting hearing loud footsteps behind us and I looked back to see this man all dressed in black with cowboy boots and the whole get-up chasing after us, we started booking it! He was running too and so we ran faster, and let me not forget to mention that it had been raining way hard that day and every member had given us a sweater to put on. I HAD 4 SWEATERS that weighed a whole lot and my comp had a sweater with a built in scarf... and we were so weighed down by these things and we couldn’t run.. hahaha but then we were saved by a tuc tuc. Great times in Chimalllll.

5. I had divisions with my daughter. She made sure to remind me how much I made her suffer in her training but it is all for the cause dear.... I love her so much!!

My testimony gets stronger every day. I am coming to know my Savior and kneeling in his shadow every night pleading with my Heavenly Father to bless you all. You have no idea how special you all are for me. I am doing good, still livin, and still loving every minute. I WILL NOT REST UNTIL THE FINAL MOMENT!!!

Hermana Canchita

Chimaltenago

Well this week rocked! I AM IN THE MOUNTAINS! In a place called CHIMALTENANGO. I will tell you the five greatest things about being in the mountains.

1. I have fifty five mosquito bites on just my arms... not counting the ones on my legs.

2. BUCKET SHOWERS.

3. The clothes that they wear here. It’s called corte and it is the coolest thing I have ever seen. They hardly even speak Spanish here... it is time to learn a new language.

4. Who needs cars when you’ve got horses and cows? They rock.

5. Or perhaps the Amish colony that we live next too. They are called Mennonites. They have been here for over 20 years. All Americans. All Amish and they have the greatest bakery. It is actually way cool and we live right next door. I might be taking up a new hobby soon.... just saying.

MY comp is the BEST. Her name is Hermana Merrell and wouldn’t you just like to know that she went to BYU Idaho and that we have a bunch of friends in common. We are basically the same person and have so much fun together. I am really loving it and I now get to do divisions with 13 companionships and so that means 3 times a week. But I am going back to Antigua today to do divisions and I am so excited!!!

We have seen so many miracles. This past Sunday we went to church to find 2 guys that are not members that came with their wives who are members. We hadn’t even visited them and they just came to church. They were so excited to when we asked them if we could visit them. That night we went and one of them told us that he had a baptismal date like 11 years ago but then he just decided to not get baptized with his family. When we asked him to be baptized he said, ¨Yes and I am not going to use ANY excuses this time.¨ We both left with like our jaws touching the floor.

That same day we were walking... or I should say running... when my companion just stopped and said, we need to go down this alley. So we went down there and we could feel like someone there needed to talk to us, we just didn’t know who. We knocked on a door and out left a lady and like 7 kids. She said that we could share something with her but there was like a ton of music and we asked if she could turn it down. She said that there were like four drunk guys in there who she said were the dads of the kids she was taking care of. She said it would be better if we could leave the house with the kids so they didn’t have to see their dads like that. Anyway,. we started to share with her when her drunk husband started to leave the house. We usually have to get out of there but we had a feeling that we should invite him. We started to sing ¨I Stand all Amazed¨ and he just started weeping like a little boy. He told us that he had been baptized with his whole family 8 years ago and that it was the happiest time of his life. He then just started to talk about all of the spiritual experiences that he had had and ended with ¨I’d give anything to feel that happiness again.¨ It was incredible. Really, when you look at stuff like that you realize that what you are going through is NOTHING.

For the funny moment of the week... I face planted it running across the freeway. The good news is... at least my Book of Mormon flew out of my hand and made it safely across without me.

Love you all.

Ame