Nuns, Guns, and tons of fun

Hola mi Familia! 
  Things are so good here in Guatemala. I think it gets more and more beautiful here ever day! I love the rain..the weather is so perfect..I would guess somewhere around 70 degrees every day. We go outside any chance we get (which isnt much but at least a few times a day). The MTC is so great...I wish I could send you pictures but we are not allowed to have our camera in the building unless we are going outside...I will ask about bringing it to send some pictures next week. We did take some with our district at the temple last week and I have a few with a couple of my good friends here. 

   I guess I should somewhat explain the title of this email. Sometimes I totally forget I am in a different country because we are in class all day long....until I get to my room at night. My bedroom window overlooks this school for nuns. Every night we hear the Nuns playing basketball...its a super funny sight for a small town Idaho girl. It gives me and my companion a good laugh. The other night after the nuns went to bed I was talking with my roommate Hermana Martinez and we heard what sounded like a gunshot right outside our window on the street. Then about five minutes later we heard a bunch of sirens and saw a bunch of flashing lights. This is DEFINITELY not Grays Lake. 

   This week was busy busy busy. We are teaching usually two if not three lessons a day so lots of planning. By the way, if you have any tips on effectively planning a lesson with your companion please let me know. We are super struggling with our lessons because we can never get on the same page with our planning. I am blessed with a good companion and district that will laugh with me through all of my mistakes. I will tell you the best from this week. Oh so embarrassing. We were teaching Angel (Hermano BAJAN) and he asked how to come to know whether or not the Book of Mormon was true. So I starting digging through my scriptures to have him read Mosiah 10:4, but since I was hurrying so quick I didnt double check myself and handed him Mormon 9:4 instead. I told him to think about how he could apply this scripture in his life and asked him after he read it to say a quiet prayer to know whether this scripture was true. I then bore my testimony of the truthfulness of that scripture in his life and asked him to read it. Well...because my spanish is muy poquito I didnt understand the scripture when he read it. Then he looked at me with this super super angry face. I panicked...he started saying all these spanish words to me i didnt understand and finally I looked at the scripture and realized...rather than the scripture about praying to know whether or not the word was true....He read Mormon 9:4..look it up....I basically told my investigator to pray to know whether or not he was too filthy to live with God. Good thing hes just my teacher and not my real investigator. hahaha

   This week they started bringing in REAL PEOPLE. It is terrifying. We didnt get to teach because something came up....but tomorrow...we will start teaching our first REAL investigator. We know nothing about them...not even how many people will be teaching...all we know is they are less actives. So I will let you know how that goes next week! Our other new investigator this week is Joel (Hermano Abadilló). I felt like it went really really well. My companion has been struggling alot this week with the language so i have really had to take the lead in the lessons. It amazed me when i got out of our first lesson with him how much Spanish I actually know! I love this language..it is so so hard...but it makes so much more sense than English. It is getting harder and harder to remember some words in English already because I have to completely block them out of my mind so I dont use them in class. This week we are also going to the market to do some proselyting..im so nervous Im not going to be able to understand the natives. It really does help though to talk to the Latinos here in the CCM. This week there were several of them who became some of my best friends! Look up Quirian Noreli Tecún and Dinorah Martinez on facebook...they were my roommates..I was so sad to see them leave! Also...Leila Jorquera Chavez and Sarahi Zamudio...my besties! I sit with them at lunch...I have learned so much Spanish from them! I also learn alot of Spanish on the volleyball court every night! Deportes is my favorite time of the night...the Latinos have taught me alot. They now fight over whos team i am on in volleyball. Guess my calling can help me to learn more than just Spanish and teaching skills super quick on a mission. 

   My Spanish has improved alot over the past week. On Wednesday night I was reading my scriptures in Moroni 7 and it was like a brick wall hit my heart. It talks about the things that we need to have before we can have faith. I have strived every day this week to make it my goal to have charity for those around me and to worry about their needs before my own. It has made all the difference. When you devote your time to helping others...the things that you need seem to come alot easier. I have had some super hard days out here on the mission, but I have my mind set on it and I know I can do it. The hermana who taught relief society this week compared missionaries to the pioneers. We leave everything behind...everything we have ever known to come do the work of the Lord. It is hard...but so was it for the pioneers. She then compared us to the Savior. She told us to never quit. She asked a question that I will remember every day through my mission. She said, "What would have happened, if in the most anguishable part of His mission, the Savior of the world would have quit?" This is the Lords work. We have been called to usher the work in the dispinsation of the fullness of times. I am here. I am a missionary with a holy calling from the Lord. And I am so ready to get out there and not let a single person pass me by. I love the Lord. I love the people of Guatemala and El Salvador. And I love YOU!

Much love!

HERMANA STOOR