Wednesday, August 19, 2015

La Lluvia


Hola Familia!

Wow, I am totally going to miss the craziness of Guatemalan weather. 

This Saturday we had a miracle baptism.  P did indeed get baptized... Even though we had scheduling conflicts and lots of last minute drama... it all worked out.  The truth is that it was a beautiful baptismal service and everyone was happy in the end, so that is all that really matters.  P and her boyfriend R have plans to be sealed in the Salt Lake temple in a year.  I promised to attend. 

After the service, we headed off to start working.  Within minutes we were hit by a gigantic, unexpected rainstorm.  We forgot our raincoats.  We got drenched. We made fashionable ponchos out of trash bags. But, we just kept moving forward looking for lessons.  We had a lesson scheduled at 3 in a gated community at the edge of our area.  We started walking only to realize that the entire dirt road was flooded.  After trying unsuccessfully to wade through waist-deep dirty rainwater, we climbed up the weedy hill on the side of the road to try and leap to safety.  At this point there were cars lined up watching the psycho Mormons try to get to their appointment.  Hermana M made the first leap and then asked me to throw her backpack to her.  Coordination is not my strongest suit.  I unintentionally flung her backpack into dirty rainwater... Whoops.  She saved it.  The scriptures were unharmed.  At this point I was expected to also leap to safety.  As previously discussed, coordination is not my strongest suit. Panic set in as I clung to the small tree nearby overlooking certain death.  Suddenly a car pulled up filled with very nice strangers.  They explained to us that they were members and helped us climb down the ledge and into their car.  They drove us to our appointment.

God answers prayers, people. 

We saw some real miracles here with our investigator pool as well.  We really needed to find some new people who were going to progress.  The stake planned a stake-wide family home evening.  It was a success.  We had 9 investigators attend and received 6 referrals.

The Amatitilan stake (here) won the worldwide indexing competition... Yeah pretty cool. Like 6 times on Sunday someone over the pulpit glared me down and said "we beat the US in the competition for indexing." It was uncomfortable.  But hey! At least we can drink the water that comes out of the sink in the United States! We win some and we lose some. We are trying to take all of the animo that they have after the competition and put it into missionary work.

This final time here in the mission really has been incredible.  God has helped me see my weaknesses, rely on Him and change.  I am far from perfect, but I am truly trying to be Christ like.  I am grateful for these beautiful 18 months which I have been given to come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love the mission.  I am grateful for this time which God has granted me to be here and help bring others unto Christ.  More than anything, I am grateful that I have been brought unto Him.  He lives.  He is everything.  This is His work.  I am grateful for the chance I have to be a lifelong missionary. 

I love the mission.  I love The Lord.  Even though I don't want the mission to end, I trust that God has many great things planned for me after the mission as well.  Stop worrying, mom... I will be happy to see you guys. :)  Yes, leaving Guatemala will be hard.  But I choose to be happy and I am genuinely excited to see the family again (although I doubt we will all recognize each other). 

I love you guys.  Thank you for supporting and writing me throughout my whole mission.  I love my family.  I am grateful for the miracle that our family is eternal.

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Until the final email....

Hna Wise

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