Called to Serve

Here's the recording of our hymn and the note from my branch president:

Before to read please send this mail to all Isaias District.  And start
Dear missioners from Isaias District,  recive this record like a suvenir
from CCM and me.
I love your work and that you do for Jesuschrist and your family.
This record have a price, please sent it to your family like my gift  to
them,  for the way that they support you.
Recive my blessins to you and your family
With our love
Marta and Guillermo Diaz
Branch B President

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Amy's week #4

Guatemala City CCM

Hola!

So, to start off with good news. We were all still feeling the effects from our Wendy's outing a couple P days ago, so they wanted to get to the bottom of that. Two of our elders got tested last week to see what we've all been sick with, and the results came back positive for Giardia! For a week we were all hosts to some cute little parasites, but not to worry, we have all since taken what they call "the bomb" which is 4 pills that kills everything that's not supposed to be living in your body, and we also have to be lactose-free for 30 days. But we've been feeling tons better, so that's great. So, I think we've all been cured of any and all fast food cravings once we get out to the real world. 

On Sunday, we had a local Primary of about 20 children and some of their parents and teachers come and sing for us, it was the cutest thing. They all walked in with little missionary tags, it brought such a tender spirit. A couple of them bore testimonies, they sang some primary songs, and then we all sang "Called to Serve" in Spanish. It was probably the coolest thing I've been able to do here in the CCM, the spirit was so strong and I cried all the way through. 

It was so neat to actually be with the people some of us will be teaching and to see them look up so much to us. Some of the kids were saying how their parents or grandparents had been taught by missionaries and their families were sealed. It really made it real to us because these are the future missionaries who will go out and teach so many more. So cool.

Down here they celebrate Father's Day on June 17th, so on that day we had Father's Day cake and that was really exciting for us all. I hope all of you had a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Not much else happens around here. Today for P day after the temple we got to walk down the street to a little drugstore type thing and the other missionaries got their fill of chocolate and soda.

Also, yesterday I was asked to be the CCM Hermana Leader, and Hermana Thompson will be the Hermana music leader. It sounds fancier than it is, I'll get to put together some devotionals and attend meetings and break up any fights. Although I do get to carry around a little "botiquin" with medicine in it for any sisters that need ibuprofen or pepto bismol. So that'll be fun! It'll give me something to focus on the next two weeks. 

Hope everything is going well for everyone up there, I appreciate the emails and the prayers! 

Love you all!

Amy

Amy's week #3
Guatemala City CCM

Hola from Guatemala!

This week was mostly uneventful, the same old same old. However, the one time they let the North Americans out of the CCM into the real world, last Pday, we all picked up some sort of stomach flu. It wiped out all my district and most of the other Norte district for about 3 days, some got it worse than others, I got the lighter end of the spectrum, one of our elders had to go get some tests done at the clinic to make sure he didn't have a parasite, I guess. Anywho, it sure brought us all together, haha.

And just when we were all feeling better, both of our teachers got sick too and they were gone for a few days. Lots of gatorade and saltines. We were very well taken care of, the cooks made us the best chicken noodle soup I've ever had.

This week we got a group of 12 Nortes and 30 Latinos, making the CCM dominated by Nortes! It's a weird thing, since last week we were in the minority. I guess from this week on, we'll get mostly Nortes since it's school time for the Latinos.

We had some great devotionals this week, about the temple and about Enduring to the End. President Cox scared us all by talking about "life after the mission," which I'm not convinced is a thing yet. I can't wait to get out to Honduras, sometimes I get itching about leaving for my people. But the CCM is great, it's good to feel safe here while we learn the good word of God. They're preparing us well.


Every week we prepare to teach a "less active," who is usually another district posing as a less active with a profile. This week we taught about receiving revelation through prayer, and it was a really good lesson for me. We read about Enos together, and I love that story. I think it's amazing that during Enos' prayer, after he prayed for his own sins, and the sins of his brothers, he asked God that the record would be delivered to the people in the last days, the Lamanites! God covenanted with him that He would fulfill this promise, and that's what I'm doing. I am literally bringing the gospel to the Lamanites in the last days, and for that opportunity I will forever be grateful.

Sorry that's short, not much to report here. Everything's good, I'm happy, and the Church is true.

Love you all!

Amy

First Pictures from Guatemala

Hermana White's District at the Guatemala City Temple

Las Hermanas in front of the MTC

Los Elderes in front of the MTC

Amy's week #2 - June 9, 2015

Guatemala City CCM

Things are good down here in the Promised Land. The CCM is great, each day gets easier and easier. 

This week was mostly the same old same old uplifting, spiritual, life changing stuff. You know. We did get to watch Elder Perry's funeral on Friday, it was so good to hear from our general authorities and President Monson. Elder Perry was a great man who did a lot of good in this world. 

The language. Man. It's coming! Sometimes it's crazy difficult to have to work so hard to understand everything that's going on around me, but I'm doing pretty well for just a couple weeks here. My companion, Hermana Thompson, can understand a lot and speak pretty well, her mom's from Cuba. So if ever I don't quite catch what's going on she's caught most of the jist.

We practice teaching with the Latina missionaries, which is sometimes an adventure. This week we were teaching the Restoration to a couple elders from Mexico, thought we had totally nailed the language and the doctrine. Hermana Thomspon asked them a question and one of the elders responded, and then turned to his companion and whispered he had no idea what we had just said. It was pretty funny. Sometimes the language barrier is so bad we all just laugh about it. 

The Latino missionaries are only here for 2 weeks, so the ones who came in with us left early this morning. I couldn't believe how hard it was saying goodbye to those sisters. They are some of the most amazing people I've ever met and its crazy to know that I'll never see them again in this life. I especially got close with a few of the sisters from Honduras, they taught me some Honduran lingo and are excited for me to be in their country. They told me I'd become a Gringa Catracha and I told them that would be my greatest honor. We taught them some English phrases and they loved that.

Today for Pday it's only been the North American missionaries since the new ones don't come until tomorrow. We got to go out and take a tour of Guatemala City which was so cool. It's gorgeous here, so lush and green. It rains every day like flash flood for hours, since it's the rainy season. We got to see a really cool cathedral at the plaza in the center of the city, and also eat at Wendys. Que Bendicion.

Then we went to this crazy market with so many people, and little booths and things all together. It was nuts! It was really neat and also scary because we all thought we were going to get robbed. Then we went out to the plaza and tried to place some Libros de Mormon, but my comp and I had no success. Luckily we found an Evangelist woman who began to preach to us in fast Spanish that we didn't understand. All in the experience, I suppose!

Every day with the tag is a good one, I feel so grateful to be here with so many amazing people preparing for the best work I could be doing. I hope you're all doing well, you're in my prayers. 

LOVE YOU. Mwah.

-Hermana White

FYI:  Amy's email is Amy.White@MyLDSmail.net

Amy's first real email

Hola mi familia!

Thank you so much for the emails and the letters that mysteriously ended up in my suitcase... I'm so grateful to have family with such wonderful testimonies. Thank you for your support and for your prayers, I think about you every day. Not too often to get homesick yet. I sure do love yah.

Congrats Mal! [Amy's cousin Mallory, who received her mission call to the Tennessee Knoxville Mission] That is so awesome! Aw man, I wish I could have been there but I am so excited for yah! You'll just love it.

I shall commence to try to write an email about my week, although I feel like so much has happened there's no way I can tell you everything I want to. Also the keyboards are different down here so Dad, forgive me for my grammar and spelling errors. Winky face.

My companion is Hermana Thompson, she's from Meridian Idaho and she's going to Retalhuleu, or however you spell it, I just asked and she didn't know, but it's in Guatemala. She is fantastic. We get along great and are having a grand old time. Our whole district is the group we flew in with, and they're all great and I've learned so much from all of them. They're either going to El Salvador, Guatemala, or 2 hermanas and 1 elder is going to Teguc with me. In the morning we have sports time for an hour and then breakfast, then classes for most of the day. It's busy and overwhelming at times but so great as well. I've grown so much and learned so much this past week, it's crazy! It feels like I've been here for a month already, and yet it feels like only yesterday we left the states. The food is pretty good, most of the time it's local Central American food but sometimes they give us quote unquote American food, but with a central American twist, it's pretty funny.

The CCM is nice, it was updated last year so the classrooms and bedrooms are all new and comfortable. It serves missionaries going to all of Central America. President and Hermana Cox are super great, they care a lot about us. President Cox is super enthusiastic, his favorite phrase for us is FIRE UP! He has three loves. Hermana Cox, missionary work, and P90X. He does it with us sometimes in sports and it reminds me of the Studio C sketch about P90X, pretty funny. There are about 20 Nortes, that's what they call the North Americans, this week and 50 Latinos. The Latinas are so cool, they are patient with us when we try to speak Spanish and love it when we teach them English words. They have such faith. When they bear their testimonies I can't understand most of their words but I can feel the spirit so strongly. It's such a blessing to be with these people. We are definitely in the minority here, which is a new experience. Last night we got to watch a devotional from Provo and it was so refreshing to hear it in English. I miss being able to not have to work to understand what's happening around me, but the gift of tongues is real and it's coming, though ever so slowly. I've learned a lot about patience and faith this week, and also about a lot else.

I'm happy here, I have my moments where it's hard, but the Lord is by my side and I feel so grateful to be here. I'm not ready to go to Honduras yet, but luckily I have 5 more weeks so I'll get to that point. The Latinas from Honduras tell me about my mission and I get excited, they say I will love it. And I will!

There's an hermana Blanco here from Argentina, she's so sweet. They call me the Estados Unidos Hermana Blanco. I love it.

And we got to go to the temple today, that was so great! It's right next to the CCM so we just walk there. It was in English so that was nice. Every time we get to go outside we get really excited. It rains a lot and the humidity killed me for a couple days. Guatemala City is so pretty, we can see the lush mountains from outside the windows. Also the CCM is right next to a nightclub, so we get to hear drunk karaoke every weekend which is super funny.

Lolly, I love yah. Don't tell anyone else, but I probably miss you the most. I think about you often and I want you to know I'm out here for you too. Eyebrow raises and winks all the way back to Utah for yah.

I'll try to respond to individual emails with the time I have left. Thanks for your love and support! I'm doing swell!

Much love,

Hermana White