Her name is Jackie, she is in my ward and her family rocks!

 
 Waiting for the fireworks the Christmas Eve on our roof

                                            Christmas Day

yo mate un pollo!!

HOLA MAMMMMA

It was so wonderful to skype with you! I loved it so much, the connection was so good that I felt like I was sitting in the kitchen right there with you.  It sounds like christmas dinner was fun at Richards place. How does his house look? Is it all finished? 

    You are never going to believe what I did!! I killed a chicken!! like I grabbed a live chicken by the head and cut his neck clean off with a kitchen knife I literally screamed at the top of my lungs the entire time and everyone was yelling HARDER HARDER and the chicken was flinging itself all over the place and pecking my hand. and then I cut the head off and its blood squirt everywhere and then it pooped all over me, while it didnt have a head!! Then we started a fire to heat up some water and stuck the chicken in for like 5 seconds and then I pulled every single one of his feathers out, It was so gross! The family Sam from my ward sells chickens so they randomly invited to come over and kill a chicken, they are the greatest family and they always help us, I love all of them! I told them that before I could not even help my mom cook dinner because I couldnt touch raw meat and they laughed their heads off. They took all the chickens we killed to scout camp and so I was running around during church slap happy telling all the young men that I killed their dinner, they didnt seem to think it was as cool as I did, but they did say it was a really good tasting chicken so theres that. I killed it in a pila which is something evey home has no matter poor or rich. It is where I wash my clothes my dishes my hands, everything! so you can see what it is in the picture I sent, except mine doesnt have chicken blood in it. 

      So this week was very different, we had some sort of activity every day so we didnt work much in our areas, although this week was super fun and I really enjoyed it, I missed my investigatores and I am excited to go back to work in Tzunua. I already told you about how Guatemalans celebrate Christmas and all the fireworks that covered the entire sky on christmas eve night at midnight that we watched from my roof and it was the greatest thing ever! and other then eating a million tamales that is pretty much all they do. The day after christmas we had a christmas party devotional thing with President and like 4 other zones. We had a talent show and ate a really nice lunch and watched a football movie, it was super fun. Then on Saturday night my zone performed our christmas program again in the middle of Retalhuleu because President asked us to, then we contacted everyone that stopped to listen and there were tons of people! It was a cool new way to get references and stuff. Then president took me and my comp home in his fancy car because we didn't finish til 9:30 and all the hermanas have to be home at 8 every night, so that was the most intimidating thing ever! but he is really nice and he bought us big macs so it was okay. 

     well I love you so much and I hope you have a super fun new years! tell the hootons I say hi! Love you to the moon and back!

Love,

Marsy doets

                                          merry christmas from guatemala! love you! 

 my cook hermana mima, her husband ronald, and their daughter anita bonita at her wedding! I love this family so much, they are wonderful people!

okay I just about died when I saw that picture of Cal in the snow! That is too cute! the scotts also sent me some pictures and they are all so big! I hardly recognized them, they are all so adorable! 

   well I am also just going to write a quick letter so we will have lots to talk about on Christmas! I got your package and I loved it!!! Thank you so much! I was so excited and my companion and I have been blasting the music every day and singing at the top of our lungs, we were so tired of hearing the same 5 songs, it was so wonderful to get new music! We hung our stockings up on a rope where we hang our clothes to dry and our house finally has that little chritmas spirit it was lacking! and the picture book was so fun! I love getting pictures and everyone looks so good. who the heck is that kid sam is holding?!? oh wait THATS MY NEPHEW! i seriously dont even recognize the kid, he looks so old! Everyone looked so cute, it made me so happy!

    My zone performed our christmas program in the middle of the busiest street in Reu and my solo was a little more intimidating, but it was really fun! on sunday bishop got up in the middle of sacrament and said, and now we will hear a special musical number by hermana outsen for christmas, and that is all the warning I had! that is the second time this month he has surprised with a special musical number, ha ha. I literally sing at everything! I have performed more on my mission already then I think I have my entire life! its alright though because singing is fun! 

    Well I think I am going to skype sometime between 4 or 5, I hope that works for everyone!  I can hardly wait, I am so off the wall, slap happy excited to talk to you IN LIKE TWO DAYS!! YAY YAY YAYA! 

   Feliz navidad! see you on wednesday!! love you to the moon and back!

con mucho amor,

hermana outsen

mi querido madre dulce,

well to answer your question, I have no idea, ha ha so I guess that did not actually answer your question. but there is a mcdonalds and we go there almost every pday and tell the mystery sender mucho gracias! Calvin is big and so adorable!! I love when you sam or grandma write me just to tell me little tiny details about him, I miss the little guy! I hope we can somehow work it out on christmas so we could do some kind of 3 way so I can talk to sam and max too. oh and as for the other question, I also have no idea, we haven't planned it yet. but we are either going to ask a member or my comp said that maybe we could go to the family history center in her old area because the computers are really good, so we will see. 

    Well to be totes honest, this week was kind of a bust when it comes to investigators. we have had two baptisms fall through in two weeks and no one came to church on sunday and we dont really know what to do to fix it. the frustrating thing is we had a lot of really awesome lessons and found lots of new people and they all read the book of mormon and pray and they love talking to us and all that good stuff but no one will come to church, we have tried just about everything we can think of and you literally cant do anything more with them and they cant progress unless they come to church. well theres my rant for the week! 

     heres a brighter note, I totally lived a parent trap moment this week. I did divisions with hermana jordan from riverside cali and she just got here like 2 weeks ago so she speaks zero spanish. so we were in her area and we got to talking and we are literally the same human. We have the same personality, the same hobbies, the same talents, the same feelings, so we are pretty much twins. she was expressing to me how she was doing and I am new enough that I can remember my first few weeks here and how hard they were and I was really able to connect with her and help her because everything she said I could totally relate to because we are so similar and that bonded us so now we are super tight and she rocks! oh and I also had another ¨holy crap¨moment with my comp. You know the ugly green chair we have in the front room that you hate but we have had since like before I was born? well we were teaching a lesson and sitting on a couch with the exact same fabric and I said to my comp, hey comp. guess what I totally have this chair at my house, and she was like me too! and I told her mom hates it but for some reason we have never gotten rid of it, and she was like my mom too! So I told her that I would tell you to send me a picture of it, so if you get a minute, we really miss our ugly chairs. 

       last night we had a christmas program, we practiced a lot for it and it turned out really good! there were so many people there and all the missionaries in my zone performed a bunch of christmas songs with harmony and it was really awesome! we had a video and president spoke and everyone loved it and it was probably my favorite presentation so far here in Guat. We decorated the chapel with a nice christmas tree and flowers and it just turned even better than we thought. and also I had the solo in silent night! The assistants filmed it and they told me they were going to put it on youtube. I will send you the link next week and you can watch it if you want!  Oh and here is a fun christmas fact, it is a tradition in guatemala to paint your house every year for christmas. Everyone was outside painting all day everyday, their house, their fence, their curb, their dog, you name it! and my comp and I were so confused! so I finally asked someone and found out why and they do it every year. so I painted like 5 houses this week. yellow, 2 pink, baby blue, and purple. yeah... guatemala is super brilliant! 

    In other news, my companion and I joined a gym and we are so sore everyday, it is the most pathetic thing. it is the most ghetto gym. it is probably the size of my bedroom at home and has like 3 old bikes that hardly move and a bunch of weights and the guy that owns it is basically like our own little personal trainer who makes us do random workouts with the weights and I cant feel my arms and legs like ever. also there is this huge green parrot that hangs out by our house who talks to us! it is the coolest thing! the first time I heard it I thought it was a kid, the bird seriously knows more spanish than I do! SO COOL! well thats it for now! I love you so much and I hope you have a great week! give Cal a big kiss for me and tell sherrie hi!

Love,

Maren

                                          The sunset from my roof

                                         The view of the volcano from my roof

                                          Brighton friends in Guatemala

I cant believe it is already pday again, this week flew by! I am so glad you got my package but you were not supposed to open it til christmas! thats why I wrapped everything!! like mother like daughter I guess. Did you give grandma and grandpa their presents too? Loved the pic, dad looks like such a goof ball, I love it!

    Well I got two more birthday packages this week so my zone thinks I am so spoiled and I just tell them, well what do you expect from a barbie and then they nod in agreement. We all know that Kasi always nails it with the gift giving thing and she sure didn't disappoint even when I am far away in Guatemala. She sent me super cute shoes and some nail polish for my birthday. I also got a birthday package with some sweet african jewelry that I love! I am glad I got jewelry, shoes and nail polish to remind that I am a girl because sometimes I forget because I am always so dirty, sweaty, and stinky. 

    

    So in Guatemala to celebrate the christmas season kids do fireworks in the streets every night. They are not cool pretty fireworks. they are just piercingly loud and hardly light up at all. For the first 2 weeks my comp and I were convinced that there was a giant shootout  outside our house because it is so loud but turns out it is actually just christmas. 

    Speaking of Christmas, I am going to Skype you all at christmas and I can hardly wait! I am glad Max, Sam and their little doves got to go to the devotional last night! It was so good! I watched it on tv in english just like I we did for conference and it was fabulous! It was so weird to finally come to the realization that it is christmas season and not dead of summer.  It is so hot here and I feel like it is still July. It does not feel like christmas at all here! 

   My comp. is still super fun! her name is Audrey Prince and she moved to utah when she was 17 and went to high school in Duschene where ever the crap that is. She told me it is the armpit of Utah. She is super sarcastic and crazy and we have a lot of fun! we tell nine mile stories and memories like everyday. I am glad I get to spend christmas with her! well I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love reading your letters each week! Love you to the moon and back!

Love,

hermana Outsen

                                              My favorite family

                                                     My native dress

we found this on my roof. which means someone walked through our gate, onto our roof, put this poor teddy on the pole and peaced out. like what the heck?! 

• mi nueva compañera es muy calidad‏

I am so glad that everyone was in town for Thanksgiving, sounds like it was a blast! and I am glad Alex got to go through the temple with the whole family, loved the pic!

     Well I am just the happiest little missionary on the planet! This week was so wonderful! My new companion is a rockstar! She is from Utah but she grew up in Chicago and she is so much fun and so funny! We just laugh all day long and we get along so well! We never speak spanish ever but I don't even care because I love her and we have so much fun together, I could talk to her all day which is perfect because I am with her all day. She is so cool! We were talking and she was telling me how she loves to hunt and camp and what not and shes all "you probably have never heard of our camping slash hunting spot for my family" and I said "yeah I am sure I haven't but you can tell me anyway" Turns out it is good old 9 mile canyon. When she told me I kinda freaked out a little bit. That was like the first 5 minutes of our companionship so that set us off right and we have been clicking ever since.

     Tuesday was my last day with Hermana Sanchez. In the morning we went to the temple as a zone because our zone baptized the most people in November! so that was freakin awesome!  yes I have seen the new video, it was in spanish but it was super sweet! Then that night we had such an awesome family night with hermana mima, it was like my favorite lesson of my mission. Her husband is inactive and has a bunch of problems with drinking and comes home drunk and beats mima and his kids and crap, but at this lesson he started crying and thanking us for taking care of his family while he wasn't and for bringing the spirit into his home and all this cool stuff and then he told us he wants to come back to church and he begged us to help him and then he came to church on sunday and it was all just really cool! 

    This week I had to lead the area cause Prince is new here and doesn't know anyone. I still suck with directions but all went well and it was a solid week. Tell Dad I got his dear elder, I always love those and I also got grandmas package and it was so wonderfully perfect and also made me cry. I miss grandma and grandpa so much! but this week was totally my favorite week of my mission, I don't even know what is worth telling you but just know that I am doing fabulous. I love Guatemala, I love the members in my ward, I love the culture here, I love teaching my investigators, I love my companion, and I love all of you!

   Oh and this morning I got to go to the beach with my zone. basically my entire zone changed so it was a great way to bond everyone. The beach is gorgeous, the prettiest beach I have ever seen! and we played soccer in the sand and ate fresh coconut which is totally gross but I ate it anyway because it made me feel cool.  It was such a blast! Well thanks for the pic and the email, I love you all so much and I miss you tons! I hope you are enjoying the christmas season and the snow! have a good week! 

Love,

Maren Marie