Tricky Situations - November 14

life is super crazy when you`re teaching dozens of lessons everyday!

super super sad news, one of our investigator`s mom died last week, so we`re been working super closely with them and it`s SUCH a blessing seeing the Lord`s hand in the work! I`m super happy that I have the knowledge that I have an eternal family! It`s such a blessing to know that no matter what, I will ALWAYS be with my family! Cherish your family and love them forever! 

Hermana Rosas and I found 4 youth and it`s honestly the biggest blessing of my life! I absolutely LOVE working so closely with the youth here! They just have such a special spirit about them and I just love their interest and intrigue in the gospel of Jesus Christ! It`s so cool because right now they`re on vacation (it`s like their summer right now! Weird huh?) but yeah, they`re always ready and open to listen to our messages and AH I just love the work SO much! 

Okay, so there`s a super weird tradition here for Christmas! So I guess on the 11th of November, they get a rooster, but JUST the head, and they place it on top of the Christmas tree!! It`s like the star, but the rooster`s head in San Marcos! It`s so different! But yeah, it`s called arbol gallo and everybody celebrated on Friday with tons of fireworks and of course, tamales!! I can`t even tell you how much I don`t like tamales hahahah but life is too wonderful to even care about 7 tamales... haha!

I`m in a super cold and far area in the mission so I haven`t really seen a ton of the mission or really the different types of people, but the people here are so amazing! Literally everyone goes to church and I`m positive that everyone has God stickers on probably every single thing they own! It`s seriously so fun getting to know all the people here! I`m SO grateful to be here!!

Really nothing much else! I love serving a mission here and being a gringa missionary in Guatemala! I hope and pray that each of you are having so so so much success in your lives and developing relationships with people that will be in your life forever! I know that God has a plan for each and every single one of us and we`re all placed on earth for a reason! Each of you are important to our Heavenly Father! I love you all so much!

xoxo,

Hermana Pereira

Super, super quick, OH, and Happy Halloween - October 31

super quick, the water system has been down so we didn´t have water for 6 days!! It was so so so horrible, but luckily our across the street neighbor LOVES us and let us shower at her house all week! Sooo bless her heart, and her hot water!

Our investigators are kind of at a still point right now, nothing new but nothing old! Just same old same old! 

Fireworks continue to go off every night and the dogs continue to bark at literally EVERYTHING. BUT luckily no dogs tried to eat us this week! 

I have lame pics this week because honestly this week was lame and super super cold! 

Super super random but tomorrow Guatemala has this super cool tradition where literally everyone flies kites and has contests and so we´re super excited to watch like thousands of kites flying in the air!!

Anyway, love you all so so much! 

Xoxo, 

Hermana Pereira

 

 

Happy Anniversary Soche - October 24

this week has been FILLED with celebration and fairs and TOO many fireworks! Like fireworks are a normal everyday thing here, but this week, at literally any hour of the day, fireworks and sparker things and I don´t even know what else, just go off! It´s actually super fun! So happy anniversary Soche!

Nothing too crazy happened this week! We´re still working super closely with that super cute family I told you about last week and AH I seriously love them SO much! There are 3 girls and 1 boy and it reminds of my cute fam back home! I´m so so so happy to be sharing this happy happy gospel with the people in Soche, especially Hermana Celeste and her super cute family! 

I´m excited to finish my training... in 6 weeks! It´s actually been a great learning experience for both me and my companion! Oh goodness, my companion is the sweetest girl in the world! I love her more and more everyday!!! I wish you guys could all meet her and her contagious personality! 

Our area gets bigger and bigger each day! I love being cold everyday (that´s definitely sarcastic) BUT it´s honestly the prettiest area ever! I´m always seeing new places and meeting so many different types of people because we´re so far up the mountain! 

This email is seriously all over the place BUT I knnow that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ and I KNOW that this gospel blesses families. I have already witnessed too many miracles to know that God knows and loves each of us. I´m seriously so incredibly thankful for the knowledge of eternal families and I´m so so so happy to be here spreading the gospel and sharing my testimony of Christl! 

I hope all of you make time for your families this week and express your gratitude for EACH member in your family!

Miss and love you all more than the amount of fireworks that go off everyday!

xoxo-

Hermana Pereira

ps. so i´m sorry that i attatched a pic of myself... hahah 

Too Happy to Type - October 17

ahhh first of all, so so sorry for last week´s email! We were super busy!! And secondly, how is everybody doing?? I hope super well!

This week was super successful for both my companion and I, and our zone! Our zone had 11 baptisms this week and it´s super awesome because supposedly, the mountains don´t baptize at all! So we´re feeling super super happy! Also, our ward hasn´t baptized any new converts in about 2 years I guess so it´s such a happy time for everyone in our area!

I had my second baptism this week for Robin!! He´s the husband of Mariela and they´re family is SO sweet! They now have the fullness of the gospel in their cute home! Saturday was insanely crazy because we didn´t have the keys to the font and so I had to jump over the glass of the font to open the door and turn on the water! I was shaking so much but hey, I´m a missionary and missionaries do service for whoever and whenever! Haha but yes, we then continued to fill the font with bucket after bucket of ICE COLD water! Poor Robín, he was probably freezing! Oh yes, and after the baptism the missionaries were talking to Alba, Robín´s sister, and she decicded in that moment, that she wanted that same happiness in her life! So we had a surprise last minute baptism for Alba the next morning before church! 

Earlier in the week, Hermana Rosas and I were walking and saw this cute little 5 year old crying and so we went over to him and hugged him and made him feel like he was the most important kid in the entire world! When we were laughing and telling jokes with him, a bunch of kids came over and started talking to us! Hermana Rosas and I decided to sing hymns with them and teach them a little about the Book of Mormon and it was SO fun! I love love love the kids here and their sweet spirits! 

Our progressing investigators are thee best people ever! There is this family that I absolutely ADORE and they´re so so so faithful and the family just loves learning more and more about the gospel! They are one of the reasons why I love waking up in the morning and teaching these beautiful people this ahhh amazing plan of happiness!

I absolutely love the mission more than words can explain! It´s dificult and tough at times, but every week I am just reminded of the happiness that this gospel brings when I see shining, happy faces in sacrament meeting!

I challenge each of you to think of something you LOVE in your life and share it with the people that you love! Each of you mean the absolute world to me and I´m so thankful for your sweet words and testimonies you share with me each week! 

Love you all beyond words, 

Hermana Pereira

ps. I see about 100 dogs everyday!! Like actually I´m not exaggerating, I saw 103 in one day!!

SOCHE SOCHEEEE - October 10

hi everyone! sorry this email is going to be SUPER short, buuuuut the work here is getting busier and busier each week! I`m so grateful for the opportunity to serve in Guatemala and I know that this gospel blesses families more than anything in the entire world! Everyone here is so open to listening to our message centered on happiness and that makes me soo happy!

All of our investigators are SO sweet and they`re progressing so much! The language continues to be a struggle but I LOVE the work and the amount of love that I have for the people!

Ugh I`m so sorry this is so short but I love all of you and I promise I`ll write more next week!

Love you and miss you everyday!

Hermana Pereira

She Put a Ring On It! - October 3

hi sweet friends! this week was full of blessings and miracles!

first of all, Mariela got married and baptized! It was such a special day for her and her family! We are extremely happy for her and her decision to come unto Christ! It`s seriously so wonderful to see the change in people through their conversion process. We are so so so blessed to be able to work with her and her sweet family. And we`re super excited to announce that her husband is getting baptized next week! We`re on cloud 9 with the progress of her family!

General Conference was super great this year... espeically the music... because that was the only thing I could completely understand! Haha the language is really coming quicky though! Anyway, we had some of our investigators come and they really enjoyed it! We have an investigator named Juli and she LOVED the conference. She`s super positive and excited to learn more about the gospel! 

In typical missionary news... I ate chicken noodle soup this week. Like literally CHICKEN noodle soup... like my bowl had the head, neck, liver and heart in it... Let`s just say I had 5 too many tortillas to get it all down hahhah. It was so funny though. I can`t say I love trying new foods, but it was a good experience hahah my companion only asked for ALL 4 FEET hahaahahah oh gosh I love my life here and the crazy things that happen everyday!! 

We had a conference with all of the hermanas this week and it was centered on happiness! It was SO great learning and meeting all the cute sister missionaries here and we had chocolate chip cookies which were a complete blessing!!

I continue to freeze my buns off when it rains but it`s been so fun especially with my cutie of a companion! I love the work SO much and It`s crazy that I`m celebrating 2 months tomorrow!! 16 more months to go! 

I know that this gospel brings complete and everlasting happiness! Continue being the energetic and joyful people that you all are! I love and miss you all! 

xoxo-

hermana pereiraaa:)

Freezing My Buns OFF - September 26

It´s so cold here but honestly, we´re so busy everyday that I don´t even think too much about it! BUT great news!! One of our super sweet investigators is getting married AND baptized on Saturday! Ahhh we couldn´t be more excited for her... and us because it´s our first baptism in Soche!! Yay!

Honestly though, so much happens in a week that I can´t even remeber the little things! I love and adore every single kid here, they make my heart so so full and happy!! I thin kI´ve met maybe 6 Diegos this week? Hahah but honestly it´s so fun meeting new people, contacting here is so fun too because the people are too nice to say no to 2 cute, yet soaking wet missionaries in the pouring rain! ;) 

Let´s see let´s seeeee... I miss everyone so so much! I think of so many of you people every single day, I just never have the time to express my love and appreciation for ALL of you in just one hour!! But just know, you´re always in my heart! 

OH! This Sunday was great!! Crazy crazy busy BUT a member of the 70 came and spoke in our ward... we´´re still not really sure why but it was so awesome! He pretty much just directed his talk to the missionaries so it was so great, it was like a little mini General Conference for Hermana Rosas and i!

We continue to love and adore the people here and we progress the work everyyy singggle dayyy! EXCEPT I´m not a fan of the dogs here... I mean yes, most of them are super cute and ugh so skinny, poor babies... but literally TWICE this week, we almost got eaten by dogs... hahah it was actually so funny! We screamed and then right after we were like "Okay... this is happening, just let it happen..." But luckily, we didn´t get bit, and the sweet pregnant women saved us. And in return we gave her a Book of Mormon so really, it was a win win! Hahah

well I absolutely LOVE my life here and yes, there are definitely hard days, but everything is SO worth it when you´re bringing people unto Christ! I know without a doubt that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. We as missionaries wear His name on our hearts because he died for us! Continue to be obedient and righteous daughters and sons of Heavenly Father! Ugh, I love every single one of you and I´m so so happy to have you in my life! 

Trust the Lord with alllll your heart and he will direct you on his straight and ETERNAL path! 

xoxo,

hermana pereiraaa :)