Week 67 - Being a Trainer is Humbling

1. So you know the big question of the week is this – who is your new companion?  Where is she from?  How do you two get along?  How is she adjusting so far? 

My hija is Hermana S. She is from Utah... She is really tall! I'm not used to being around someone taller than me lol., We get along really well.  I think that this whole training thing is going to be interesting. She's doing well... she doesn't speak much Spanish, but she's learning which is the good thing. she is a positive person which is really good.  I'm just not used to doing everything so it was kind of a big adjustment... She is very athletic and has lots of energy and is excited to be here. 

2.  How has your first week of training been? 

It's been a very humbling experience and has brought lots of old memories back. I feel kind of like what I imagine a real mom feels like, lol. Like it's a different relationship training than it is to just have a normal companionship, I think. It's been a load for me because I have to do all the talking in the lessons and all the planning, and I can do it, I just was so used to sharing everything. So it's kind of like double the work and I have to teach Spanish and I don't even know where to start with that. But I guess I just need to have patience with myself and with her and we will be fine. I mean, I couldn't do everything at first either so I can't expect her to be able to. Its just been weird, a change but a good one. 

3.  Where did Hna A get transferred to?  Did any missionaries you know get transferred to Puerto? 

She got transferred back to Copan but to Florida and she is with a companion that she has had before, too. One elder that I met before I got transferred here but we got three new missionaries... fun stuff. But there are mostly gringos in the zone now, haha.

4.  Have you received any more packages? 

No, but the secretary told me that he thought that I had another one in the office. 

5.  How are D and her family doing?  Does their other son still have a baptism date in early February? 

Yeah. They are doing really well. Hna D shared in Gospel Principles that she is so grateful for our visits and she can see that she is reaching her goals and changing her family poco a poco (little by little) and she got all teary eyed and so did Hno F and then so did I, lol. They are just such a great family. and their son is going to get baptized on Feb. 7. They all came to church and their son (who got baptized already) passed the sacrament for the first time thie Sunday! 

6.  How was church yesterday?  Did you learn anything new?  Did you have any investigators or less active members there? 

It was really, really good. We had the most people there that I have seen in my whole time here... 157! WOOHOO! And Familia M came (D and F) and our new family Familia R came for the second Sunday and they are so pilas, too! But they need to get married, too...  

7.  What did you do for P-Day this week? 

Today we cleaned like usual and we bought some things for Hna S -- a backpack and sandals so she can work more comfortably. And we ate at Pizza Hut as a zone and now we are writing! Woohoo.

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

This week we were able to achieve a miracle! The mission standard for lessons with members present is 17... and I used to say that was impossible... until we got 15 and then I saw some hope... well, this week we were able to have 18! I think that the members took pity on me and went out with us, lol, but it felt really, really good and we had a lot of new investigators, too! It was a great week and we even lost a day because we had to go to San Pedro for a training for the new gringos. It was for real a miracle for me... It was just a very good week and really showed me that the Lord is aware of my efforts. 

9.  How was the transfer meeting? 

We don't have transfer meetings anymore... but we at least got to go to the same chapel as a meeting point so that I could say bye to Hna P and Hna V!!! I can't believe that they are already home! What the heck! I don't believe that at all... 

10.  Were you able to see that woman who contacted you again? 

Yeah... but she sent us a message this week and dropped us, lol, she said that the hermanas from the church she visits were now visiting her... whatever. 

11.  How has someone blessed your life this week? 

Hna S shares her food with me. And Familia Galeas is just so sweet!  They are trying to help Hna S learn Spanish and they are just great. 

12.  Describe a time this week when you felt the Spirit. 

Well, we were prepping to go to the training for the gringos in San Pedro and Hna S asked me what she should bring and so I told her what I thought we would need and then when we were going to go out the door I saw my mission handbook and just got the feeling that I should bring it with me and so we brought them and then when we got there my trainer's meeting was all about the handbook and we read from it and it was neat because I definitely didn't remember it on my own.  The training was the new missionary training because the new missionaries missed it (they missed their flight because of weather) so we had to go back for the training.  Oh, we got to see Pres Dester and we have interviews this week!

13.  Describe a lesson you taught this week or a visit you had with one of your investigators or a less active member. 

Well... we sat down. and we sang a hymn.... and then I asked questions and taught the lesson and my companion listenend.  LOL.  I don't know what else you want me to say about a lesosn this week, lol.... 

14.  How are Hna M and her family doing? 

She's doing well.... She came to church this Sunday but her spouse still didn't... but we will visit them tomorrow and her son is going to go out with us to do some visits. 

15.  How have you served someone else this week? 

I think that training is a 24 hour service... 

16.  Have you been able to talk to a lot of people this week? 

Not as many. It's hard to do everything... I have to do all the contacts this week and so yeah... we didn't do as many as I would have liked. 

17.  Are there some members of your ward who go out with you pretty regularly? 

Well, our mission leader goes out with us more than anyone and one of the young men and his little sister (the sons of Hno Galeas who Hna Butikofer baptized) goes out with us every Sunday and then at night they give us dinner. 

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

We met the goal for lessons with members present!!!! And we got Quiznos on Friday when we went to San Pedro for training for the gringos. 

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

We were talking with Familia Galeas last night and we were talking about weird words in Spanish and Hna S heard us wrong and though we were saying that I was calling one of my other companions a sinner, haha, and it was really funny. And we were in a cita and a little girl started imitating her gringa accent and was saying Spanish words with an accent and we were all laughing so hard. We couldn't even finish the hymn. 

20.  How are J and N doing? 

They are doing well... they didn't come to church this week.  :(  J had to work. We went to visit them with the second counselor in the stake presidency because she has a ton of respect for him and I think that it went well. It wasn't a very well planned lesson due to lots of stress I had going on ... but I think she heard what she needed to hear from him. 

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

I really liked the talk "Stay in the Boat" from Elder Ballard... so go read it... and stay in the boat. I think that it is very applicable to our times... And I was reading in Jesus the Christ and a phrase stood out to me... "Paradise is the place where dwell righteous and repentant spirits between bodily death and resurrection" (you can explain the spirit world for no mormon folk).  But I guess I always thought that perfect people went to paradise or that we stopped progressing or something. On the mission i think that I have come to understand that we keep progressing all the time! And that we will have the opportunity to repent and to be better even in the spirit world if it is our desire. I guess I just liked the word "repentant"... we don't have to be perfect, but we have to want to be better and to try to be better all the time. But just like those in prison, those in paradise progress, too. 

22.  Do you know that I love you and I miss you? 

Always. 

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

I don't know... it rained a little bit this week so I suppose the sun. But the weather has been really, really nice. 

24.  Did you have any unusual experiences this week? 

We went looking for a little pathway shortcut to the mountain yesterday and we got lost a little bit and a big dog came out and almost bit us, hahaha, but it was way funny and really fun at the same time. An adventure. My English is really bad too... Like I can't read out loud in English, lol, it sounds so bad, hahaha.  I love Spanish so much!!!!  When I get home I want to go to the Spanish Group and go out with the Spanish sister missionaries.  I hope they give me a calling in the Spanish Group.  I want to keep up my Spanish before I go back to BYU.  I might do a Spanish minor or maybe a double major.

25.  What has been your biggest challenge this week? 

TRAINING and teaching Spanish! 

I don't know why but I was thinking about Christopher this week. How is he doing?

I'm SOOOO excited that you could find Hna Butikofer. Hno Juan Carlos is going to be SO excited!!!!! Thanks!!!!! 

LOVE YOU! 

Hermana Gisseman

Don't worry -- I wasn't really sad.  I was cutting onions.

We do a lot of painting service projects...

The Ward Christmas Party

Christmas caroling

This is the storm we saw blowing in over the ocean last week 

Week 66 -- We Are Never Eating Store-Bought Tortillas Again!

I don't mind if lots of people are visiting when I get home and I have to give up my bedroom...I can sleep on an air matress or the couch, lol.  Heck, I could even share a bed!  LOL  But it so sweet of Brie to think of me and not want me to have to give up my bedroom as soon as I get home.  That made me teary.  I love her idea of you and Daddy going on a date while we're at Disney World and me and Brie going out to dinner and having our own sister time while we're there.

I love crema, too.  You should buy a tortilla press because then we can make tortillas faster and they really are sooo much better made at home! I can never eat store bought American tortillas again in my life, hahaha. Now that you know how to make corn tortillas and I know how to make both corn and flour tortillas, we are never eating store-bought tortillas again, unless it's an emergency!  I make tortillas by hand, but a tortilla press would be good to have so you should buy one.  But really, they're pretty fast by hand.  Another thing...when I get home, I do not want any chicken that has bones in it.  I'm so tired of having to work to get chicken!

1.  Have you received any more Christmas packages? 

Nope, not this week.

2.  How are D and her family doing?  Did they go to church yesterday?  

They didn't...They are doing alright. Hno F is really negative and so D wants to go to church but when he starts complaining and she has to get 4 kids ready by herself it disanimates her a little bit. But we went to visit and she's still so ready to get baptized and they are talking about getting married this year so we will see what happens. We set a date for their other son who is 9 to get baptized for February 7 to keep motivating them to progress so he will get baptized and we hope that the month after they can get baptized.

3.  What did you do for P-Day this week?

We went to the beach as the 4 missionaries from this ward. It was cool because when we were able to leave it was raining in Puerto and we could see it coming, haha, it was like a wall across the water and then it caught up to us and it rained a little bit. But then we went out to eat at a new restaurant and it is one of the best resaurants that I have eaten at here.. It was way good and now we are here writing.

4.  What did you do for New Year's Eve? 

We didn't do anything... Well, that's a lie, lol. A family invited us to come over. We played UNO that I got form the Swansons until the food was ready and then we ate... it was actually really good. Here they eat pork for like all holidays or chicken if they can't afford a pig leg. And we had cheesecake. Lots of people gave us tamales, too. I finished the last of them today for breakfast, lol. Then they dropped us off at our house. But there was a family there from La Victoria. The 2nd counselor in the bishopric/branch presidency and his wife have family in our ward here and it just so happened that we went to their house to eat so I got to see them and that was nice.

5.  What miracles and tender mercies have you seen this week?  

This week the members showed us a lot of love and so we could feel a little bit of the love our families have for us.

6.  You said that when you were walking home last P-Day a lady stopped you and told you to visit her. Have you been able to go see her? 

Yeah, we went to visit her this week and she seems really pilas. She had an uncle who was a member but he died when he as like 17... but their family had received missionaries before. She is really sweet and we are hoping to visit her again this Saturday.

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

An hermano invited us over for lunch one day and I don't know why but he reminded me of Daddy. Maybe becasue he wears athletic clothes all the time, too (haha) but he just invited us to eat, and bought us some fruit and treated us like we really were part of his family. He has a daughter serving a mission, too, so maybe that's why. But It was nice because we could really feel his love for us and for all the missionaries.

8.  How is Hna M doing? And her husband?  

He is doing better. We went to visit her son this week and we have a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) with them tonight. I am hoping that with the new year they will be a little bit more motivated... we shall see. But M and her daughter who is more active came to church yesterday so that made us happy.

9.  How have you served someone else this week?  How have you served your companion this week?

I made her bed.  I don't know! She makde me a bookmark that is from a drawing of missionaries and there was one with blonde hair and she decorated it for me and gave me a pen from Guatemala which was really sweet. I end up doing most of the cleaning in our house, lol. We did do a big service project as a zone this week. We went to campana and built a ramp for a man in a wheelchair... I don't know that that ramp is going to work but whatever... we had to look for big rocks to use as a wall and support and pretty much we just dug dirt out of the side of the mountain for the ramp... it wasn't a ramp of wood or anything fancy. But it took forever! And I didn't enjoy looking for rocks in the trash -- that was just icky. But whatever. And the elders just dont think!  They weren't getting anything done until we stepped up and told them what to do... oh, elders!  LOL

10.  Have you been able to talk to a lot of people this week?

Not really. The weeks of Christmas, New Years and Semana Santa are the hardest and this week we felt it a little bit. There weren't  people outside really at all. And we left with more members and a bad habit that we have is to forget about contacting when there is a member with us... so we weren't able to contact as mane people as we wanted to.

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

I suppose New Year's, LOL. We met together as a zone and we had planning together and afterwards we went out to eat together. It was nice.  Pretty chill.

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

I don't know... we were eating with a family and there was a sopa opera on and I think a lady was about to kill herself and the dad in the house was making fun of the novela and was saying "oh, just kill yourself already" and after he said that there was a firework that went off outside and shook the house and it scared him and it was really, really funny. But I think that you had to be there.

13.  How are J and N doing? 

Well... J is doing well and wants to come to church again and her son wants to get baptized so we will be able to work with him some more so he can reach that goal. But N apears that she really doesn't want to make the changes necessary... so that's okay. But J really seems like she's ready to come back to church.

14.  What was the spiritual highlight of your week? 

I think that being at church yesrterday and seeing all the hard work that we have done. We had 8 investigators there, including a new family that we found! And Hno C, the excommunicated member. And we had 10 menos activos (less active members), and the 2 members we helped to reactivate were there, too. It was just really nice to see all of our hard work finally. It was a very good Sunday.

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

I have been reading from the talks that the family sent me for Christmas and they are all really, really, really good. So thank you all! I have been learning lots actually. I really like "Life Where You Stand."  I haven't finished them all yet.  I have just read some. Also I am reading the Liahona that President Dester gave us about Christ from November 2008 or something like that. But it's good, too... Nothing earth shattering, but it's good. It's been hard to study well when I'm just so dang tired all the time.

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

Always

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

Today we ate at a new restaurant and I ate a fish fillet with a coconut sauce... it was soooo delicious! One thing that I like about being at the beach is that there is fish and it's really good! Also people gave us cheesecake two times! Woohoo!

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

When the rain came in today there was like a line over the ocean.  I don't know how to describe it but it was sooo cool!

19.  Did you have any unusual experiences this week?

Actually yes... this week we got robbed. We went to the grocery store and you have to leave your things in a cubby but there is a huge fat guy who guards them... so we bought a cake to share with the family who invited us for New Years and someone had given us tamales... well, when we came back the tamales, which had been on top of the cake, were gone. Someone robbed us of our tamales!  And the most ironic thing is that they were selling tamales right outside the door... really, folks?  Really?

20.  What has been your biggest challenge this week?

I think accepting that we are going to have changes. We have gotten so used to being with each other and it is going to be hard to get used to a new companion. This companionship has helped me to learn to be more positive.  I am hoping for a positive companion.

21.  What are you goals for this week? 

I like your goals, Mom... I think that my first goal is finish the mission, lol. But I want to excercise more, too. In the misison my body is just TOO tired now. I honestly just can't do exercise. I have never been this tired in my life, lol. I walk so slowly now, too. But don't worry -- it's normal -- missionaries are always tired.  I'm fine.  But when I get home I want to run again. I want to learn more about the gospel and the Bible and everything so I want to read more church books and take more religion classes at BYU... especially Isaiah because I just don't understand that book. I don't know... I want to go back to school... I don't know.  I haven't really thought about it because most of the things involve being at home so I don't want to be baggy, haha.

22.  What do you think will happen with changes this week? 

I think that Hna A will have changes and that I will get a new companion and stay here in Puerto Cortes...but I'm sad because I have really enjoyed my time with her.  :/  We'll find out tonight what is going to happen.

Update:  We just found out that Hna A is being transferred and I will stay here and be a trainer to a new missionary...who doesn't speak Spanish!

Happy aniversary to you and Daddy and happy 15 months to me!!!

Oh, and a member of the ward here got baptized with an Hermana Butikofer in 1983 and so could you get in contact with the Butikofers..tthis is really important. That last name isn't common... and he would really like to get in touch with that hermana to let her know how he is doing now... so that would be really nice if you could do that for me.

Love you all!

Hermana Gisseman

GIfts from Marcia

More painting

Working on the wheelchair ramp

Drinking from a real coconut -- I didn't like it that much.

Don't worry -- the cow is tied up

My meal today - SOOOOO good!  The vegetable slaw is encotido, or something like that, and it's like onions and other vegetables in vinegar.