The Field is White: Week 50 -- We Came, We Saw, We Painted....and lots of pictures!

HOLA! And happy Honduran Independence Day.

I'm glad that you guys are doing well at reading the scriptures. And I totally want to see these pictures for homecoming dresses that Brie likes!!!!

I'm not mad at you for emailing President Dester (Mom's note: We contacted her mission president last week because we were concerned about her health)... that's just you and I just laughed. But it was really, really nice to get to talk to him. I just love President and Sister Dester and I think, like Bishop Sybrowsky was the perfect bishop for me freshman year, that President Dester is the prefect mission president for my mission. The Lord knows me.

1. Who are you teaching? What specifically can we pray for for your investigators?

Well, we are still really, really just looking for investigators. We are still teaching S and her "husband", but they need to get married and they want some time to work things out between them, save up money, etc. I know that S will get baptized one day,,,I just am starting to think that it won't be while I am here which is really, really sad. We are teaching a few teenagers who are references of E. And one, J, seems to be interested and her aunt and uncle are members, too, so she already has a background...but we will see. Teaching youth is always tough. Really just pray that things can work out between S and her "husband" and that they can make the decision to get married soon. And that we can find some new people.

2. Your Noche de Cine sounds like it was really fun and went really well -- how often do you plan activities like that for your ward?

Well, this was the first one that we planned. They have a goal to do an activity like that once every so many weeks (I forgot how many).

3. How is S doing? How about Z? And Hermano E? We gave Hermano E over to the Elders. And, yeah, that is really strange that he sent you a Facebook request, but he probably just thought that it was me... but whatever. S is doing well. We ate dinner with them 2 times this week because she is just so cute! We had a cita (appointment) with her on Wednesday or Thursday and it went long and we brought a member and we had to leave, but we wanted to talk to them about the temple and just weren't able to. So afterwards we had a cita but we both felt like we should go back to see S again, so we did and she had made dinner for us and was bummed that we had to leave so fast but then was all excited because we felt like we should go back and she had dinner stuff prepared for us. :) So it was cute! And we talked to them and they are planning to get baptized and go to the temple and all of that... just with time. Which is understandable but still makes me a little sad. Z is cute. We keep just finding her in the street, lol, she sits outside a lot in the shade and so we take that as a sign that we should help her out. She is cute and said her first prayer in front of us yesterday although she didn't make it to church.

4. What did you do for P-Day today?

We went to Fesi and played games -- Signs and another one called Peter Peter which was fun... I think it's kind of like Big Booty but I don't rememebr how to play that one really well..and we played slaughterball. We went to Wendy's, too...Pizza Hut was WAY crowded because today is Honduras' Independence Day and everyone is out of work and school. And we took out money...which is funny because one of the elders played a joke on Elder Scott and told him that we didn't have money today... hahaha. And we went to the big grocery store and bought root beer to make root beer floats!!!!! And I bought more movies.... heehee

5. Have you started painting Hermana M's house? What color paint did you buy?

We painted on Saturday and it looks soooo good. :) It was a greenish gray neutral color. We painted her living room and her hallway. There was a part that was just cement (because the houses here are made out of cement blocks and don't have sheet rock) so that got painted, too, and now her house looks more like a home. And the paint I bought was a really good quality paint with a little bit of sheen in it so it brightens up her living room and it's easy to clean and maintain and it should last. She was so happy. :) And I loved painting. They all thought I was an expert because they had never painted before. We had no paint rolling container thing though so we had to improvise.... shoebox wrapped in plasic for the paint tray and a plastic sheet to roll the roller in, lol, but whatevs. And I used a cut open Pepsi bottle and a fat paint brush to cut in everything. It was so fun though and very relaxing . It reminded me of painting with Daddy.

6. What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week? Answers to your prayers?

So for a really long time I have wanted to buy a tipico blanket that they sell from time to time from Guatemala. It seems like just about everyone here has one. And on Saturday we ran into a guy selling them from Guatemala who only passes through here like twice a year. And we just happened to not have a cita and since we hadn't had study time from the morning due to painting we were going to go back and get some study in so it was perfect and I could buy a blanket that I can bring home with me! So it was a very tender mercy because it was something that I really wanted to buy and the timing was perfect!

7. How has someone else blessed your life this week?

President Dester coming to talk with me. It's nice to know that he really does know me and that he cares a lot about how I'm doing.

8. How have you blessed someone else’s life this week?

I think that painting Hermana M's house meant a LOT to her so that made me really, really happy. :)

9. What was the best thing that happened this week?

I thoroughly enjoyed painting!

10. What was the funniest/funnest thing that happened this week?

I don't really know... it was a tiring week.

12. How was church yesterday? What did you learn? What stood out to you that was taught/talked about?

We had some Family Search people come into the ward and give a big capacitacion (lesson) on how to open an account, how to navigate Family Search and send names to the temple so we were in the Sacrament Meeting room for all 3 hours of church... It is true that we really do need to be doing the work for our own family.

13. What did you do for your district meeting and zone meeting this week?

Elder Scott prepared a really good lesson and really specifically for us hermanas. Since Hermano I had had a change of heart and only wanted to read the Bible ....Elder Scott helped us find and look for ways to teach lesson one with scriptures from the Bible. But we had the lesson on couches and nobody but us was paying attention and I felt really bad for him. Because it was a really good lesson and we could tell that he put a lot of work into it and nobody else cared. But it was good and WE learned a lot.

14. What was the spiritual highlight of your week?

Getting to talk to president Dester. I just love him. And he always says the perfect things. :)

15. What did you learn from your personal study this week?

The New Testament is better in Spanish, lol...or maybe not, maybe it's that I really have the desire to read it and study it now more. I liked something that I read in Alma... well, the conversion of Zeezrom is really interesting because its a complete 180. He was contending with Alma and Amulek and then he was healed and baptized and went to preach himself. And I love the last verse in whatever chapter that is that said that Alma took Amulek to his house and comforted him in his afflictions or something like that (I don't remember really well) but it was after they broke free of the carcel (???) and I imagine that after seeing people suffering so much that that had to have some effect on the both of them. So I really like that Alma took the time to comfort and help his companion. That's why we have companions, to help and strengthen each other.

16. Do you know that I love you SO much and I miss you?

Always!

17. What was the most beautiful thing you saw this week?

The guy that makes the carved leather scripture covers here brought a new kind of scripture cover that was so pretty! So I went ahead and bought a cover for my English quad... but if you haven't already bought some for when I get home for my Spanish scriptures, I think that I am going to buy from him. They are soft leather and really pretty. So yeah...

18. What ended up happening with Marcia's new puppy? (That made me soooooo sad!)

It just got sick. And when we got home last Saturday it had died.... but I did get to take one picture of him sleeping from the week before... he was so dang cute but I think they took him away from his mom too soon. :/

19. Did anything unusual or strange happen this week?

Well, the random interview with Pres. Dester but it was good. It was really hard to find citas this week. Like REALLY hard. The 10th was Dia Del Nino here and so eveyrone was giving candy to the little kids. And then today is Independence Day so everyone really takes these days as vacation... so that sucked. Hopefully this week is better.

20. What are you looking forward to this week?

We are going to have a meeting or something as hermanas only in the Desters' house on Wednesday and we are going to go early to help out Sister Dester so that should be fun!

21. What was the best thing and the worst thing you ate this week?

I put up a picture of Honduran enchiladas... they are a fried tortilla on the bottom, ground beef, lettuce or coleslaw (repollo), hard boiled egg and tomato (or some chimol/chismol which is like pico de gallo) and some cheese. We ate those twice this week and they are pretty good...but really messy to eat, lol.

22. What have you learned about yourself in the last few months? Have you discovered new strengths and talents, or rediscovered some you may have forgotten about or didn't know you had?

I think that I have learned a lot about myself as far as my perfectionism... and how it's really not always a good thing. I think that in life I really excelled in everything and I never had to do things that were hard for me. So being a perfectionist wasn't such a bad thing. It was good because it helped me to excel and to do well...but in things of real life I think it really hinders me. But I'm getting better I think. I don't have to be perfect. It's impossible to be perfect and life would be too boring anyway. And yeah.... talents... I don't really know or strengths either. I will have to think about that.

Other things... I have done Zumba 2 times this week! I got a packages from Angie and Oma and Opa with a skirt and an athletic shirt and that skirt is seriously sooo cute and comfy! Thank you SO much!

How is Diana doing? My camera got another virus but the Bishop fixed it. Thanks for sending the recipes for Hermana A -- I'm sure she will love them.

Oh, for Christmas you could send me a book of everyone's favorite conference talks!

Love you!

Hermana Gisseman

Our district

Me with Elder Guerrero before transfers....

Our district at this week's district meeting. Elder Scott gave a really good lesson. Elders Rodriguez, Woodland, Nunez, Palma, Figueroa (zone leader) and he and Hna N, with Elder Stutzman in the back. Elder Scott took thepicture.