winds of change

so, let it be known, sometimes things happen that you don't expect.

last week was transfer week, and we (feik and i) thought we didnt have transfers because our leaders said we didnt. well, lunes, at about 7:30 pm, elder Gamez called me and said that i had changes. it is strange because hna.feik has been in that area (San Rafael) since mid diciembre. strange, huh?

Well, I am in Lomas del Norte with Hermana Michaelis. Let be describe Lomas to you... casi America! seriously, it is so nice this area, but it isnt too nice where people scoff at you everywhere. San Rafael was poor, and the majority of people were annoyed just looking at us. Here, the people are a bit more friendlier, and it is pretty. THERE ARE GARBAGE CANS! it is so nice! there are still dogs roaming around, but there are also side walks! People have real doors that shut all the way, with hinges! i feel like i am in America.

Speaking of America, my new comp is american! Hermana Michaelis, from Arizona. We fit together like lamb and tunafish... (brandon will get it) We get a long well, and my area actually has nice people. I am sure that i will die here (finish my mission), and to be honest... that sits well with me if it is.

We have this investigador, he has 20 years. He is the bomb! he is progressing, and in this lesson, i got the chills! He is so prepared to receive the Gospel, and in his prayed, oh my gosh! it was so cool, he is awesome. i wont describe the prayer because i dont thinks it is appropriate. just know, he is pilas. 

Well, I must go now. I LOVE LOMAS. Hna.Michaelis and i get along so well, we stay up talking in our beds, and she tells me her bad date stories, and we talk about... experiences. its cool.

Hermana Ramirez

HERE I AM! WALKING IN A HURRICANE!

Dad, 

i hope you dont have too strong of an 80's Scorpions flash back reading that title, but.. its true. 

as a missionary, one is left to be very ignorant. yes, it is true, well, in matters of the worl that is. We dont have tv, radio, internet, so we dont know when there is a hurrincane or not. well, last monday, apparently tere was a hurricane, and we didnt know. so we followed our usual routine, and walked to the mall, and it is about 2 or 3km, not too far. well, it was raining super hard, and windy, andi was like... oh, its just guate. well, fijese que no. it was a hurricane, and we triumphed. yep, good times, good times. it explains why the mall was basically empty. 

somethings i can remember from my week. well, lets see, it was an interesting week. we had a hard day, and nobody, like NOBODY would receive us except this one inactive sister. well, we went an visited her, and she gave us platano cocido con frijol y crema! puchis, tan rico. pues, now quedamos alla con ella, y miramos el video Gracias a El from mormon.org. here is the link to watch it in english  http://easter.mormon.org/ So, she started sharing her testimony of Christ, and she starts crying. anyway, this siter is awesome, becasue she just started coming back to church, and her mom in just a doll. they are so sweet, the whole family. anyway, the father was a high priest and left the church, and really detests the Church, and we feel very uncomfortable when he is htere. well, listening to this isters testimony, just warmed my heart!

We tried to visit a less active sister that hates us. anyway, she lives in an apartment building and didnt come down to let us out. we were locked in the building for 30mins. yep. i love it!

sorry, i didnt plan my time well. i gotta go!

love, 

 Hermana Ramirez 

ps. the assistants came and visited our planning session, and they found me being immature and taking tin foil and making grills. here is a pic 

it smells like... a cleanly spirit! actually, thats our new bathroom

Pops,

  I miss you! dang, i love getting your letters and hearing about your week.

I must tell you... it happened again. my pictures got erased again. its a long story. let me start by saying... WE HAD OUR BATHROOM RENOVATED! Yes, our bathroom was all messed up, and the pipe that left from the toilet would rise in our shower drain! sometimes we would go flush the toilet for fun because we had our very own old faithful right here in zona 18, guatemala!  sucio, no? pues, we told are awesome duenos, and they were like lets get that all fixed. bueno, saturday the men came, and got to work on our house, and put in new tile and it is so pretty! Well,  I didnt know these men, and we live in a place that is... lets the it is a smidge different from Mayberry. I decided to take my bank cards and all along with my darling camera to a members house. i thought this member was trust worth, but... lets say, people that speak dont speak english shouldnt mess around with cameras that are set in english. its not like i just threw the camera in their house and didnt say why, i said i dont want anybody touching it, and well, a bunch of the baptism pictures are gone and pictures of my area. i am pretty upset, but, oh well. i guess i know i am not a picture hoarder, because i have these clean ups all the times.

  

the bright side is that we have a new bathroom. We are pretty excited. now our house doesnt smell like the sewer. bye bye yosemite. 

so there area  few young recient converts here that rea just pilas, buut pilas pilas, so awesome. well, one of them was with us doing visits the other day, and i asked he (hes 15) what was the reason he wanted to change and be baptized. He told me how when he was 13 or 14, he went to this funeral ans there were about 15-20 people. we was at the wake, when these thugs came in and started busting rounds into all the people there, and he tried to hide. he said only about 6 people survived, and he is gratefult hat he was one of them, and he decided to change, and not be affiliated with those things anymore. so he changed, and through his friend who is also a RC, he was introduced to the church. i feel very grateful to know such grounded young people of the church. 

we went and visited una hermana, y ella es buena onda, enserio, buena gente. muy amable, y bien chistosa. she lives in a very humble house.. by humble, i mean it literally is just scraps of tin. well, she makes all these things to sell for this group. o think she said it was called cuarto mundo guatemala. she makes all these cute things, and i bought some stuff from her. she is so nice, these things are so pretty, and when her boss comes and thakes them to be sold, the crafts are sold for about 80 o 100 quetzales. well, we asked her how much her stuff costed, and she gave it to us for 20 quetzales. i wanted to pay more, but she said "noo, hermanita, somos hermanas. no se precupe!" she was telling us about her child hood, and how she lived in a little pueblo outside of the capital, and she said that her mom left her. she didnt have a dad, and she would go and be baby sat by a another lady, and one day she was waiting at the wondow for her mom to come back, and it was late and she was worried, and the baby sitter told her " i dont think your mom is going to come back." the next morning the lady kicked her out and said her mom isnt gonna come back. she didnt. so this sister went and lived with her grandma, and said they only ate cut up onion with sald on a tortilla. anyway, this sister is amazing, because she helps us out and visits with us, doesnt complain at all. the thing i love the most about her is that she laughs! she laughs, and enjoy life even though she lives in a shack of scraps of tin. I love this sister so much, i feel blessed to know her. 

We ate caldo de pata. its cow stomach soup. i herad it was good, and i decided to give it a try. i sounds gross, but lengua also sounded gross and i actually llove it, so i went right in and ate it, and ohh my word... it was horrible. it tasted and smelled like the cud the cows chew. clearly it would, but i thought it was going to be good. such a let down. it messed my companion and i up for a few days, and the worse thing was that we couldnt use our bathroom this whole week. yep, the best timing. anyway, my expectations were too high, and the caldo de pata was gross. 

Hermana Feik and I have been cooking a lot, and we love to eat. We also like not being fat. So we decided to stop eating like we usually do, and this week we are going to cut out platano frito, crema, queso, galletas, rellenitos, y solo vamos a comer sanas! I hope this goes well, becsue, well, lets face it.. I am in my latter days. i have to get is shape. i was never thin, but dang, i feel like the michellin-man. We are going for it this week!

I am learning a lot about patience. this area is really trying my patience, and some times.. people just tick me off. i pray for help so that this ny sarcasim does come out when we are contacting. when i get frustrated, like saturday, i just think "serenity now!" also, i remind myself that we have anew bathroom! INDOOR PLUMBING IS THE BEST! THANKS GUATE!

Well, take care Dad, and dont let people touch your camera! EVER!

Keep on turcking, and enjoy life with airconditioning!

love always, 

 Hermana Ramirez

here are some pics my comp took with her camera. this was domingo en la jungla!

ps. I love the Holy Ghost, and my comp Hermana Feik. We make the best trio

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, minerva is far awayyyy (MY AMERICAN COMP AND I)

I was changed out. yep, it happened. i felt like Minerva was the highlight of my mission, and i didnt feel the shock of the change until la hna.varela and i rolled up (fashionably late) in the taxi to the stake center in Molino. I saw Hna.Gomez, Hna. Ynjo, and the light of my guatemalan smog filled life, that darn Hermana Edwards. tha tgirl is so crqazy. anyway, she took my old area, she is sleeping in my old bed! Dang it Edwardsita! I love that girl, we split Puerto Barrios back in the day. Anyway, i knew it was true, becasue she had to come to minerva at one point, but her and i being in minerva, or even the same zone, at the same time... too darn good to be true. que freaking lastima.

   so, i re-read luke 10, and verses 16-18... wow. i like 18. Anyway. i have read that bhapter about 5 times this week.

   So i am in zona la laguna (mission name) but im in zona 18 in la capital. yep, i like seeing the fun and beauty that life in the 18 has to bring. you wont understand unless you've been there. sorry, closed club type of thing. ill tell you when i get home.

    MY COMPANION IS MAERCIAN! AHH! Wehn the assistant told me i had an american comp waiting for me, i heard Handls Messiah in my head. Could it be true? really, i would be so blessed to have an american comp. the last one i had was my darling Hermana hutchins, and now i have Hermana Feik. Okay, my comp is awesome. She is from Oregon. She was telling me about her life (i asked her about 100 questions about her life) in Oregon. She sadi that she got a revolver for christmas...i thought... wow, my comp is packing heat. but not anymore. She is awesome. she went to byu idaho also! she is actually nice enough to ask me how i am doing! Wow right? i felt like i have had somebody ask me how i was in a long long time.

   I miss my old house in minerva, mailny becasue of the view. I felt like sarah palin, because i could see memebers houses from my roof. I can see the zomna 15 from my house! sorry russia, zona 15 is pretty spiffy.

   i was reading our search for happiness, by elder ballard, and i was thinking about when we teach the first lessonthe restoration. well, i always mention how baptism withour authority isn the way the Lord wants it. When Christ established his church, it was in order. Well, i was watching people lined up getting baptized here in my new area, in the streets (not in our church). I thought, que lastima, dont owrry, one day you will be baptized by authority. i thought about it, and when i was baptized as a child, like 7yrs old. i was just doing what i knew at that point, to be correct. I see people as my brothers. these are just people, doing their best with what they have. How can i not try to help them? I know what i know, and i am doing the best with what i have, so when people come against us, as missionaries (happened a bit this week), i dont think they understand that we are doing this out of love. Just as other missionaries are doing it out of love (from other religions). This is a work of love, not a competition. The moment that this becasuse a competition, it is in vain, and offensive to do it in the name of Christ. I love this work, and everybody in this earth, is doing the best with what they know. i am here to teach, and open their doors to a new life. people that steal and commit crimes, they might be judged and hated by many, but do we know the reasons why they are the way they are? the conditions here are rough. understanding is love.

i love you Dad, take care!

 Read Doctrine and Covenants 112!

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ALMA 29:4! oh, and the priesthood session on repreat

Let me tell you about the week i have had. I guess it could go perfectly with the scripture Alma 29.4. YEs, go read it...now!

okay, have you read it?

well...

READ IT AGAIN!

Okay, got it?

Good.

So. my comp said "wouldnt it be nice if we could just sleep one whole day?" and i shouted "BLASPHEMY!" and she said "i would just love to have one day to just sleep and have the energy for the whole rest of my mission." so i told her "hey, the brightside is that there are a ton of mosquitoes out now, so maybe you'll get dengue (an illness that last for a week that i caught back in barrios and its horrible, you just pass the week speeling and drinking 7up)! keep your hopes up!" well, remember alma 29:4, well, it wasnt my true desire that my comp would get sick, but Heavenly Father taught me a lesson to not be sarcastic, and to not joke around. And it came to pass... MY COMP WAS REALLY SICK the following morning. yes, its true. everyone said it was my fault, hna.ramirez es su culpa, SU culpa! arrepientase! so i just said in english... i plead the fifth. the funniest thing is when people are angry with you and yell in spanish and to make a sly remark in english- they just decide to leave you alone. well, i didn't want my companion to get sick. i care for her. she has asthma, she got a bad cold, and friday she couldnt breathe. so we went to the hospital, and stayed there for two and a half days.

Dad, let me tell you, i am so happy that we are taught to keep the law, because i felt like iwas in prison for those two days, and i can't imagine what real prison would be like. Seriously, i climbed out the window and stood on the air vent to get some air, and nearly killed my companion because she saw me and started laughing and then coughed for about five minutes, and her eyes were bulging out of her head. We couldn't watch tv, but we did find the byu channel,  and we're are only allowed to watch church broadcasts. so we watched the priesthood session four times. yes, i know the all talks , i know all the hymns that were sung, and i know how much i really love freedom. I stuck my head out the door and looked down the hall and saw a vending machine, and thought "there might be some candy.. gluten free candy out there, somewhere!" well, i love freedom. american prisons let people go outside and have... recess time (kind of) and i couldnt even leave the room. well, im alive. by the way, across the way from the hospital there is a mcdonalds that plays american music really loud. well, lets just say, im still not a bieber fan.

Dad, i love the book of john. I read a lot of John this week, and i really love it. I started Luke, but i had read Luke a ton of times, so i changed to John, and I really appreciate the Bible so much. I love the Bible so much Dad. I feel very privlgd that i could grow up and learn the word of God through the Bible, and learn of Christ. So, i must tell you i was reading in Luke 10, and its pretty awesome this chapter. i suggest you go read it. anyway, verses 6-8 are sweet, i like verse 8. very interesting. i think about how we get fed weird things sometimes, and  well, the Bible says to go for it, so.. yeah. Eat with faith! people tel me to do that with gluten, and i just say... check yourself.

Dad, i feel like i didt rememebr much about this week.

the cemetary is in our area and we went there. Its soo pretty! my comp and i took pictures because the landscape it soo pretty! theres a cafeteria there, but i didnt want to eat there. al fresco? noooo.

im sorry my week wasnt interesting.

I love you!!!!!!!!

take care!

oh, i found this dog with an underbite!

Love,

 Hermana Ramirez

HE IS RISEN!

So, it was semana santa. yes, so everyone decided to observe this holy week with reverence by going to to beach and getting...their drink on. So Minerva was like a ghost town. Friday there was absolutely nobody out, and friday night my companion and i ran hom because we felt a little uncomfortable being hte only ones outside.

Friday we went to a funeral, and i started thinking about life again. yes, i got something out of it. my companions feet were tired so she wanted to stay a while, and i fiured, well, if we're going to be here, i guess ill work. so i hope this wasn't messed up, but i started contacting the people at the funeral. started out with some small tal, askign about their favorite memories they had with the deceased sister, and then, BAM! I talked about the plan of salvacion! Well, what so you know, it was a hit! funerals... it may not look like it, but its a great place to save some souls. 

We got rained on the other day. it felt good. 

Im sorry, i feel like i dont have much to ssay but i know a ton of things happened this week. 

Today we went and did a service activity. my job, along with E'Saavedra, E'Sepeda, Y H'Varela, was to move rocks into a wheel barrel. Yes, so, i felt like i was in prison. it was fun.

It didnt feellike easter much. i was a little sad. i love easter, and i felt like we were rejected a lot. anyway, it was a good week still.

NOW I REMEMBER! Our investigadores put cockraoches in our food. i didnt know until after, and i understand why our food tasted sooo cruncy and gross. it was their kids. TRAVIESOS. the parents didnt know. i understand why the kids were laughing and watching me eat as i downed this tasty treat. YEP! Hey, at least it didnt have gluten!

Im sorry, i should write down what i want to say.

Anyway, i hope you have a good week!

Love always,

 Hermana Ramirez

splashing around in some green water

Dad,

 THIS WEEK WAS SO SWEET!

okay, ill cut to the good stuff. WE BAPTIZED HERMANITA K! yes, she was baptized saturday. What a blessing it was to be able to work with her family, and to keep working with her family. Her fmaily was inactive, and we brought the mother back to church, and realized she was over eight years old, so we prepared her for baptism. Her brother like us, but isnt keen on the idea of coming back to church, well, that was until hermanita K assigned him to say the closing prayer at her baptism. Well, he came to the baptism and then came to church on sundya! It was amazing! I love working for the LORD.

oh, the font water was green. i dont know why, but this is guatechula... the primary kids came to the baptism and wanted to play, and splashed their feet inthe green water.

  Dad, i really love being a missionary. The time goes too fast. I am informed that i go home in six month now, and oh my gosh. Dad, the time goes too fast.

   We also felt pretty used yesterday... used by the LORD! Well, we went looking for this family that found the chapel sunday morning, but missed the services, so they asked us to come back that night to htier house and teach them. I never taught them, theyre knew to the area. Well, we went to their house last nigh, and i was hesitant to go in. the dad seemed a little... under the influence, and it ws dark. well, my comp kept pushing me to go in... well, WE WENT IN. we talked, then sang, then prayed, and after we prayed and i started to tech the plan of salvacion, the sister burst into tears saying she knew that God had sent us. then mientras la leccion, i was talking about the atonement, and the other sister started crying.  I dont know why, i think my voice was so bad they just cried... no, the Spirit was so strong, we ended the lesson with inviting them to baptism. May 10th is their day! They just cried when we left and were so grateful!

  I loved it!

I am so sorry, i dont have time to write more!

I love you!

Remember the Atonement this week... and EVERY DAY.

I know that Christ lives.

I love you Dad!

Love,

 Hermana Ramirez 

ps. in that second picture, find the uninvited guest in my food cabinate. yes, there are cucaracha in guatechula...mala.