Letter 19 - This Week Was Super Good!

 

This week was super good!


Well, I have my daughter! Her name is Hermana Garcia from Mexico. She has 23 years. She is a really good teacher. She likes to use a lot of analogies and teaches a lot of object lessons.


Tuesday night we went to Jaqui and Jorges house.. and Jaqui said that Jorge accepted to get married! They will be married this Friday and then Jaqui will be baptized this Saturday! I am so unbelievably excited!!!


Wednesday we had Zone meeting! It was so good to see everyone! I love Zone meetings! After Zone meeting, we went to a members house to do service because she just had surgery. But, when we first got there, she said I have to go there is a problem with my sister and her neighbor, will you guys watch my kids? and she left. Well, we ended up watching them for 2 hours! It was really annoying.. but, it turns out that her sister and her neighbor.. They are both members of the church.. got in a fight and the one girl punched the other girl and one of them had to go to the hospital! It was super terrible!


Elder Toleafoa is training a gringo named Elder Shoemaker from Mesa Arizona. It is funny to see him because I compare myself a little bit. It is good to realize that I am a lot better in Spanish from when I was first here! lol


Sunday was interesting.. Church was great! Lunch was great! Everything was great! In the afternoon... we had a lesson with a member in a closed neighborhood type thing... Well, this is what happened. After a lesson with this member.. We were walking in the street.. and it was night time by this time and we saw a man walking in the street. He looked normal. So, as we passed him.. all I said was Buenas Noches! and then he got really stiff and SCREAMED! When he screamed, his teeth flew out of his mouth and he grabbed his stomach and just fell to the ground face first and just SMACKED his face into the ground! Then he started shaking really bad! Almost like he was having a seizure!So, My companion looked at me... and I was like well, maybe we should go back to the members house... so we went to the members house and they called for an ambulance. Meanwhile... the man in the street started to snore... but, I dont think it was snoring.. I think it was because he was trying to breathe... but his nose was broken... Anyway.. we were standing there with these members... and this man got on his hands and knees.. like a dog and looked up at us.. and his face was just BLOODY! He stood up and walked to the side of the street and sat down on the curb.. he was drunk. But, during this whole thing... I could only think.. Man this man is a child of God! God loves him! I feel like I was pretty sheltered growing up in the US where things like this dont happen.. and if they do. They dont happen in our part of town! But, then this guy stood up and started to run at us! We all entered this members house, and everyone here has a little window on there door... so we peeked through.. and this image is just caught in my mind! It was like a scary movie! When he passed the door, he looked at us and his face was just super bloody! It was so terrible!


Then today we went to San Juan and hiked up this HUGE mountain! We could see three volcanos at once! And we went on the biggest zip line in Central America! My companion didnt want to go and was really scared... Hermana McGill told me to go because she had gone once before and that she would wait with my Companion. Well, After I went, Hermana Garcia decided that she was going to go! So, she did. and she got to the plat form and I rushed over to her to congratulate her on this! and she passed out in my hands! It was really scary! Her eyes rolled back into her head!
This week was super good! 

Well, I have my daughter! Her name is Hermana Garcia from Mexico. She has 23 years. She is a really good teacher. She likes to use a lot of analogies and teaches a lot of object lessons.

Tuesday night we went to Jaqui and Jorges house.. and Jaqui said that Jorge accepted to get married! They will be married this Friday and then Jaqui will be baptized this Saturday! I am so unbelievably excited!!! 

 Wednesday we had Zone meeting! It was so good to see everyone! I love Zone meetings! After Zone meeting, we went to a members house to do service because she just had surgery. But, when we first got there, she said I have to go there is a problem with my sister and her neighbor, will you guys watch my kids? and she left. Well, we ended up watching them for 2 hours! It was really annoying.. but, it turns out that her sister and her neighbor.. They are both members of the church.. got in a fight and the one girl punched the other girl and one of them had to go to the hospital! It was super terrible! 

Elder Toleafoa is training a gringo named Elder Shoemaker from Mesa Arizona. It is funny to see him because I compare myself a little bit. It is good to realize that I am a lot better in Spanish from when I was first here! lol

Sunday was interesting.. Church was great! Lunch was great! Everything was great! In the afternoon... we had a lesson with a member in a closed neighborhood type thing... Well, this is what happened. After a lesson with this member.. We were walking in the street.. and it was night time by this time and we saw a man walking in the street. He looked normal. So, as we passed him.. all I said was Buenas Noches! and then he got really stiff and SCREAMED! When he screamed, his teeth flew out of his mouth and he grabbed his stomach and just fell to the ground face first and just SMACKED his face into the ground! Then he started shaking really bad! Almost like he was having a seizure!So, My companion looked at me... and I was like well, maybe we should go back to the members house... so we went to the members house and they called for an ambulance. Meanwhile... the man in the street started to snore... but, I dont think it was snoring.. I think it was because he was trying to breathe... but his nose was broken... Anyway.. we were standing there with these members... and this man got on his hands and knees.. like a dog and looked up at us.. and his face was just BLOODY! He stood up and walked to the side of the street and sat down on the curb.. he was drunk. But, during this whole thing... I could only think.. Man this man is a child of God! God loves him! I feel like I was pretty sheltered growing up in the US where things like this dont happen.. and if they do. They dont happen in our part of town! But, then this guy stood up and started to run at us! We all entered this members house, and everyone here has a little window on there door... so we peeked through.. and this image is just caught in my mind! It was like a scary movie! When he passed the door, he looked at us and his face was just super bloody! It was so terrible!

Then today we went to San Juan and hiked up this HUGE mountain! We could see three volcanos at once! And we went on the biggest zip line in Central America! My companion didnt want to go and was really scared... Hermana McGill told me to go because she had gone once before and that she would wait with my Companion. Well, After I went, Hermana Garcia decided that she was going to go! So, she did. and she got to the plat form and I rushed over to her to congratulate her on this! and she passed out in my hands! It was really scary! Her eyes rolled back into her head! 

During the hike, my companion was having a really hard time and said that she couldnt hike all of the way. I kept telling her that she could do it! I told her that this mountain is like life! If we dont endure to the end, we will never see the beauty at the top of the mountain, or the celestial kingdom! That seemed to motivate her for a little bit.. but, then after ten minutes she said I am okay with only being in the Terrestrial kingdom haha it was funny.

I love you guys so much! I think about you all of the time! I try not to think about you guys too much during the day because it distracts me... but, when my head hits the pillow... you bet that you guys are the first things that hit my mind!

I love you guys so much!

Love,

Hermana Natalie Paige Bullough

Letter 18 - Estoy Embarasada

Hola mi familia maravillosa!

Pues, God has a sense of humor haha Let me explain the title of my email... I AM PREGNANT with a 19 year old! haha That is right. I just finished my training... and now I am going to train. 

Last Monday we went to this huge horse stable. It was super fun! We have an investigator there! Her name is Vicki. She is 16 and pregnant! She told us that she doesnt want to get married... so that will be a struggle... but, we will get the spirit to touch her heart, and then I know she will want to be married and baptized.

Tuesday we taught Maximina. She is the CUTEST! haha she has 84 years. The first time we taught her, she accepted our invitation to be baptized... But, then before our second visit, preachers came to her and told her that she cant be baptized more than twice. So, she was pretty confused. We taught her about baptism. We asked her if she remembered the man who baptized her and she said yes. Then we asked her if she knew how he got the power and authority to baptize. She said from God. and we said How? That really got her thinking. We explained that it is really important to understand the line of authority because we need to be baptized with the Presithood Authority. Then we asked her to be baptized again and she said yes and explained to us after that her first baptism wasnt valid. 

Wednesday we had a meeting with all of the Hermanas in our Zone. We got cool tshirts! After this meeting we taught Filiberto and Maximina. Filiberto is her husbund. We taught about the Book of Mormon. Filiberto is hard of hearing... so when he talks... he talks REALLY loud haha He went on and on about how he is going to read the Book of Mormon every single day! He read the introduction to first Nephi and asked what the promised land was... and we explained that it is here in the Americas and when he prayed in the end. He thanked God that he was able to be born in the promised land haha it was really cute! haha After this we went to go see Jaqui, but she wasnt there. So, we taught her Mother in law. Her husband recently died. So, we taught her the Plan of Salvation. She seemed happy with the plan, then Jorge got home right as we were finishing with Sandra. So, we played uno with him to gain his trust. Jorge is Jaquis husband. He is really hard. He doesnt want to be married. It was perfect that Jaqui wasnt there because we needed to talk to him alone. It went well! Jaqui got home right after we shared a scripture with him and he gave us tamallis. After Jaqui and Jorge, we went to the Familia Reyes. We watched the Joseph Smith movie witht them, and then asked the mom to pray. We all knelt down on our knees and She started to pray... before we knew it... Denis, there oldest son started to laugh so hard... and before we knew it everyone was laughing.. including us! How terrible! haha nothing was wrong with her prayer! It was fine! The 15 year old, Olividio ended up praying. He is super! He will end up getting baptized I think! 

Thursday during Personal Study, we got a phone call! Hermana Madrid answered and Elder Reinhold (Our Zone Leader) asked her how she was and she was a little weirded out like.. I am fine.. what do you want haha then he asked to talk to me. I said Hello!? haha and he said I have an announcement for you! You are going to train! haha I fell to the ground and started screaming haha not in a weird way or excited way... more shocked than anything haha God has a sense of Humor! LOL Oh well! We are the Lords investigators... right? I guess He is trying to teach me something through this process! Then I went on divisions with Hermana Mcgill. She is seriously the best! I am sure she is super annoyed with me because I am always complimenting her and talking about how perfect she is! But, it is so true! We were at a less actives house and one thing she said really hit me! We were talking about how this family needed to go to church. And they started making excuses.. Like we are too busy! and she explained that there are 168 hours in one week and God only wants us to go to Church for 3 of those hours. It was really good for that family! 

Friday we had a meeting in Garibaldi for all of the people that are going to train. There are more than 200 people in this mission and only 20 are training. It is so crazy! I cant figure out why God wants me to train! haha you should here my Spanish... you would laugh. OH haha the other part.. there are 16 north americans coming.. that means that it is pretty likely that I could be getting a North American HAHAHA 

Saturday, I hit 4 months! Time really does fly so fast! 14 more months? That is nothing! Time is running out! I need to work so much harder!!!

Sunday, we went to Jaqui and Jorjes house for Hermana Madrid to say goodbye... and She was bearing her testimony to Jorje and said I hope that one day you will find in your heart to be married to Jaqui.. Do you love her? and he SAID NO!!!! It was so awkward! Hermana Jaqui started to cry! We asked them if we could talk to them in a different room. We asked them what the problem is in there family. and she said that she wants to follow the Savior and be baptized but he doesnt want to get married. I explained to him that marriage is the last thing she needs to baptized. I asked Jaqui what she likes about Jorge, and she listed some things and then I asked him and he said he didnt know. So, then I listed some things like she is kind, pretty, intelligent, and wants to do what is best for her family. I told him that he has something great right now, and if he isnt careful, he could lose her. that didnt seem to bother him. 

Today, Jaqui called us and asked if we could come tonight for dinner because she said she told Jorge yesterday that she was going to leave him because she really needs the gospel. He got worried then and said that he wanted to have us over for dinner tonight to talk about it. 

The mission is SUPER great! I love everything about being a missionary! It is super hard... but, super rewarding! 

I love you guys so much!

Love,

Hermana Natalie Paige Bullough

 

Letter 17 - Hola Mi Familia

Hola mi familia!

How are you guys?
I love you guys so much! I think and pray about each and every one of you. Work here in Guatemala is absolutely fabulous!
The baptism for Caren Saturday was great! She is so great! Right after she was confirmed. She was different. You could tell she was happier. Nothing makes me more happy than bringing souls unto our Savior. I sang Im trying to be like Jesus. It was great!


Now we are trying to work with Jaqui. She said that she knows that the Church is true. But, Her boyfriend doesnt want to get married and she wants her boyfriend. It is difficult. We told her that she will be blessed for the rest of eternity if she makes this covenant with God. We will see... we have a lesson with her tonight. Please pray for her.

 I finish training Sunday. I am so excited! haha I hate being told what to do... so training was a little rough lol

I can pretty much understand everything in Spanish now. Now I just need to figure out how to speak it. That is always really rough. I understand the scriptures when I read them.

Not much happened this week. I will try to write more next week. I love you guys with all my heart!

It is possible that I could have a new nephew next week... right? I am so excited!!!

Love you guys!

Love,


Hermana Natalie Paige Bullough

Letter 16 - Mi Familia!

Hola Mi familia!

Como Estan?!

This morning was really crazy! At 530 this morning, an earthquake hit! Everything was shaking so hard! It was like in the movies! I was lying in my bed, and I felt it start, and there are little earthquakes all of the time... so I though it just might be one of those. In my mind, I was praying ¨Heavenly Father, Please dont let this be bigger than it is right now...¨But I must have needed this experience... because my whole bed was shaking and all of my lotions and shampoos and such were falling off of the shelf! Hermana Madrid Said ¨Hermana!¨and I got up and ran to the frame of the door! The Earthquake lasted 54 seconds. It was 6.6. 4 people died here in Guatemala close to my home. It was so scary! We then heard screaming! ¨Misioneras! Misioneras!¨and we ran out onto our balcony and Hermana Caren, The landlord of our house, and our baptism this Saturday. We were looking down at her and she was holding her daughter and she was crying and screaming! Hermana Madrid ran into the house and down the stairs. I did too, but then the phone was ringing, so I ran back upstairs! It was the Elders of San Mateo asking if we were okay! Then I ran out to Hermana Caren with Hermana Madrid and Hermana Caren almost passed out! She told us that she had a dream about this and that she knew it was going to happen. She also told us that she knows there are going to be more. The mission and our church leaders here have really been stressing the matter of food storage and how important it is. But, I did not like the earthquake.

I bore my testimony in Church yesterday. I can feel the Spanish coming! I am definitely more and more comfortable every single day!

Oh Dad! Can you register me to vote? The Mission sent out an email asking us to prepare to vote.. but I am not registered.

We had the COOLEST experience with our investigator Jaqui this week. She really has a desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized... but, It is difficult because her and her husband arent legally married. We went to her house to teach her a lesson about tithing.. but, her niece answered the door and said that she couldnt because Jaqui was sick. But I asked if we could go talk to her and the niece let us in. We talked to her for a little bit and she said that she felt bad because the day that we had taught her the word of wisdom, she tried to stop drinking coffee, but that night drank it because she had a really bad headache. I think it was because she had stopped drinking the coffee. Anyway, we asked if she wanted a blessing from the Elders. She said yes. So, we called them and while we were waiting for them to arrive, we taught her about baptism. We had the feeling that it was necessary at this time for her. We taught her and she said she is willing to do what ever it takes to be baptized. I told her that if she continues praying in Faith for George that his heart will be softened. When the Elders got there, we explained that blessings of healing only work through the power of Faith. Elder Toleafoa gave the blessing and said a bunch of things that Hermana Jaqui really needed to hear. I especially liked the part when he said ¨You aren´t feeling well right now. You have pain in your body, in your head, and perhaps in your spirit. But, do not let these things drag you down! Through your faith everything is possible.¨ Immediatley after the bendicion Hermana Jaqui started to cry. She said Ï dont have any more pain in my head and body¨She was crying so hard! I started to cry! The Preisthood is so true! I have such a strong testimony of it.
When thing the President of our Branch said this week was There are 5 things that we NEED to do to be successful in this life. Personal and Family prayer everyday, Personal and Family Scripture study everyday, Go to Church every sunday, partake of the Sacrament, and have Family Home Evening every week. I know that if we do these things, we will be able to have a forever family. I love you guys and want you forever.

I love you guys so much!!! With all of my heart!!!

Love,

Hermana Natalie Paige Bullough

p.s. I met the new mission president, President Smith and his wife. They are so awesome! I love them so much! They will be great!!!!!!

I also got to go do a session in the Quetzaltenango Temple! I did it in Spanish! It was so awesome! This Temple is the most beautiful Temple I have ever seen! 

I love you guys!

Nat

 

Letter 15 - Machetes

Hola Familia!

So, the title of this email... haha Hermana Madrid and I were walking in the street around 845 and a man out of no where came RUNNING!!! He had machetes in his hands and he was yelling venganse! Venganse! haha It was really scary! We ran to a random house and waited until the man left haha But,thinking about it now is funny.

The World Cup is happening right now...and it is REALLY annoying. Karen, one of our most progressing investigators, left church early yesterday to go watch the game. And people wont let us in their houses when the game is going on. And when they do let us in and we ask them to turn off the television, they refuse.

Unfortunatley, Antoni wasnt baptized this Saturday.He said he cant be baptized because he doesnt believe that Thomas S.Monson is the Prophet today. But, we think there ismore than that, because on Sunday when we were going to get our investigators, we saw him with a group of guys. One of the other guys is our investigator Wilson. Wilson is addicted to drugs and alcohol and is in a gang. When we went to go teach Wilson in the afternoon, we couldnt because he was drunk... so we think that possibly Antoni was doing the same... It was really sad.

Yesterday in church.. I gave a talk. I found out right before Sacrament Started. I was really nervous.I gave my talk on Missionary Work. It was only about 6 minutes long. But, everyone was telling me afterwards that my spanish was perfect during the talk! So, needless to say that that made me feel great!

This week we got to go to the Temple with our Branch. We never get to do a session, but we get to take investigators and walk around with them. We brought Karen. Karen is the landlord of our house. Missionaries have been living in this house forever! Karen has been taught all of the lessons and knows a lot about the church. But, she stopped meeting with the missionaries before us. One day we were talking to her and I shared a scripture with her about Coming unto Christ and she told us that day that she knows the church is true, but she is scared. So, after that day we started working with her. She told us that she was going to go to the Temple to receive her answer about baptism. So, we showed her the Joseph Smith video in the front part of the Temple. and the next day, she knocked on our door and said she wants to be baptized the 12th of July! I am so excited!!! She is so cute!

We have another investigator, Jaquilin. She is pilas! She wants to be baptized! It is a little difficult with her, because she isnt married to her husband haha. So, we are working with her on that. But, on Sunday a scripture was read out of the Doctrine and Covenants and after church she told us she wanted that book to read too! She is preparing really hard for her baptism. She wants the Lord in her life, and she recognizes that this is the road to eternal life.

When we were in Branch counsil yesterday, we were talking about Antoni and how he is having this problem with Prophets, and our Branch President has a picture of the first presidency in his office... as they were talking, I was thinking about them.. and when I looked at the picture, the most overwhelming feeling came over me, and I know that President Monson is the Prophet on the earth today. It is cierto.

Mom! I hope you are having fun on your cruise! All of my missionary friends are super jealous!

But, family... seriously! I love you so much!!!! Thank you guys for being the best examples to me! I seriously love you all so much! Serving a mission is the best decision I have ever made in my life. I am learning and growing everyday.,..and it is the best.

I love you, but most importantly, God loves you!

Hasta otra semana!

Love,
Hermana Natalie Paige Bullough