WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW! Jackie looks gorgeous, Steph looks gorgeous, Max looks great! mom, me and hermana Minnick are both expecting a trillion photos, a video of the wedding, and details details details. I so wish I could be there. 

     Well not a lot happened this week, we had two baptisms on saturday, they are sisters. We went over to my mission leaders house (who is maybe the greatest person I have met on my mission, his wife rocks too) and we made the sugar cookies you sent in my package to have at the bap. everyone LOVED them, they were a huge hit. 

    My comp is the greatest! We get along so well and I love being with her. She is reminds me so much of my roommate Laura Jackson, they are literally exactly the same and I love it! I feel like I am right back at school laughing my head off with LJ every night, it rocks! As for the zone, I feel like I dont really know anyone still because the zone is really huge and I am lucky if I can remember everyones name (which says a lot since everyone has a name tag.) but now that I have short hair I got a new nickname. Remember how when my hair was long everyone used to call me hermana Barbie?? yeah well after the hair cut the nickname changed to sunshine because apparently I look like sunshine from remember the titans. At first it miffed me off because Im a girl, but then I got over it and since I can quote that entire movie now I just work it. ¨hey look at that fruit cake!¨

    Alright well I had a good week but nothing too exciting worth reporting. Last night my comp and I got to talking about how ghetto our life here in Guat is so be thankful for all that you have.  well thats my life! gotta love it! but really, I love it! but really please dont leave me out here hangin in the dark, I want as many pics as you can send, a video if possible, and tell me EVERYTHING! I really want to be there too. I love my comp but being with a white girl from my same city is tough, it makes me really homesick. but mom, I needed to come on a mission, I was such a brat before, I still have a long way to go but the mission has whipped me into shape a little and made me really appreciate everything and everyone in my life, just know that I am there in spirit! i love you to the moon and back and I hope everything goes smooth for the wedding! 

love, sunshine

here is a pic of me and lizard

hello mother,

Remember my very favorite person on planet earth hermana Pineda? Well she wrestled to get the video on youtube and she just sent me the link, I will forward it to you. I am sorry you had to go through all this trouble for this video, you will probably be really bummed when you finally get it because its really dumb and awkward, ha ha. and thanks for all the recipes! She will be so excited!

     Well This was a very interesting week. So this week was semana santa which is Guatemala’s version of Easter and its like a really big deal.  I have heard about semana santa since my very first day in the field, no joke. They have been telling us we were going to be locked up in the church as a zone for three days out of work for the past three weeks and last year everyone in the mission was out of work and all the elders slept in the church, the hermana slept all in one house and that was the plan for this year too but then they randomly canceled everything and they decided it is not as dangerous as we thought, normal days.  So anyway... Wednesday is the craziest day, we were out of work. They told us that all the hermanas had to be inside their houses by 3 with all the doors locked, so we did that. It was us four in the house and my companion and I were talking, finally starting to build some kind of relationship when the phone rings. It was the assistants, they said to tell Hermana Pacheco to pack her bags, she has emergency changes, we will be there in one hour to pick her up. um.....what! so she packed and was gone in one hour. Later, we found out that there were 15 emergency changes in the mission this week and 4 in just our zone, who knows why. So I am no longer scared out of my mind every second of the day so that is good. She did start bawling when she left though and hugged me and said nice things to me which totally took me back but it was very sweet. So my new gringa companion walks all cute adorable and is happy as ever. Her name is Hermana Minnick. She is from Draper, Utah and went to Alta high school, like the one that is 10 minutes from my house! She only has one month more than me on the mission. We have so so so many friends in common, and all we do is talk about Snowbird all day long. She is so cute and so much fun, I don’t know how we are going to get anything done, we literally just make each other laugh all day long and stay up late talking every night. She rocks, everyone loves her, including myself.

     So spending all of Wednesday in the house was not as boring as i expected since I just packed and unpacked all day. On Thursday Friday and Saturday we all had to be in the house by 7 for semana santa. semana santa is pretty freaky, I don’t really have time to explain the traditions and what they do to celebrate right now so I will just tell you when I get home, remind me. or maybe when I have a really boring week and have nothing to say. 

    So Hhermana Minnick and I have only had half a week together but it has been the craziest week ever, so jam packed filled with experiences. first of all, this area is huge and I only have two week here, so I still don’t know the area very well at all and obviously my companion doesn't know the area either so we basically are opening the area and we have no idea what we are doing, but its cool, sometimes its almost better that way, to just start off fresh. We had a bap, on Saturday!! Hermanita Jenny, who is a girl me and Hermana Pacheco taught, it was the most pathetic bap. service ever, no one showed up and her little sisters were spazzing around and running all over the place, she left her clothes on under so she was soaking wet and a bunch of other little things but the important thing is that she got bap so its all good.

    This week we went to visit a recent convert. she is this really super super old adorable halfway crazy lady who has been a crazy evangelic her whole life and is now Mormon. So we shared a message and asked her to pray, she was hysterically bawling during the entire prayer, was on her feet shouting hallelujah and shaking her body and putting her hands on our heads in an attempt to thrust upon us the holy ghost or something like that, and it was like forever long. Hermana Minnick and I were both dying laughing, we were sweating from trying to hold but eventually we just lost it and both starting crying from laughter, after we felt really bad for laughing but she still came to church so i guess she wasn't too offended.

  In church, during the third hour Hermano Julio struts into church. Julio is an investigator Hermana Pacheco and I had, she is 95 % deaf, doesn't have any teeth, and is just totes crazy, the most entertaining guy ever. So he shows up to church on his own completely wasted, just drunk out of his mind. So Hermana Minnick and I escort him out, as we were walking out he was holding on to my comps shoulder trying to steady himself, when he just totally biffs. Hard, falls flat on his back and rolls onto his head with his feet hanging up in the air. I just lost it right then and there. it was SO FUNNY! so we try to help him up but between his complete inability to focus, slash balance and our laughing it was just not working. So he remains on the ground whining with me and Hermana Minnick, one on each arm, trying to help him up, with the whole ward starring at us, they hardly know us. Eventually some random guy from across the street came running to the rescue and picked him right up and took him away. it literally was so funny, I can still just picture it in my mind and I just die. Later that day we were teaching some lady and some other drunk randomly walked in and sat down and joined and just talked to us in broken drunk english, then had his arm around hermana minnick during the prayer and half the lesson, don’t drink kids. 

     Well I am glad you had a fun Easter, I certainly had an eventful semana santa here in guat (I didn’t even realize that semana santa was guats version of easter till just now when you sent me that super cute picture from easter, I’m so dumb.) love you to the moon and back a million times. 

love,

hermana Outsen

      

Here is a picture of me and my companion, Hermana Pacheco. 

I saw hermana Pineda in Reu today for pday (I just about dropped dead from excitement, I do not have words to express how much I adore hermana Pineda.) Oh and this week I got your package, thank you sooo much! I loved it! I cannot believe you found that necklace, that is the greatest thing ever. and thanks for sending me that part of hermana Bontempos blog. I definately know her. We have had the exact same companions EXACTLY As in she has not had one single companion I havent had and I have not had one single companion she hasnt had, pretty weird. Hermana Pineda was just her companion for liike 2 weeks before she got sent to Texas. And yes daungaree is a really big problem here and pretty much everyone gets it at least once unless you are me because I dont get sick. I had lots of trouble with nasty parasites but I dodged that whole daungaree thing, knock on wood. Hermana Bontempo is really awesome though, the reu mission will miss her. 

    Well this week there was a tornado in my area San Martin. It was so scary! Luckily it was after hours so we were safe and sound in the house but our roof is lamina so the wind was crazy loud as everything was flinging around like crazy outside and hitting against our roof and house, it was pretty intense. We got to do lots of service this week to help people clean up from the storm so that was cool. 

   On saturday we had a baptism woohoo! Her name is Ana, she is seventeen, lives by herself with her little 9 year old sister and her 3 year old son and she is nothing short of a miracle! We found her my first day here, she was so prepared, so positive, accepted a bap date in the first visit, came to conference then randomly fell off the face of the planet. We searched and searched and heard some rumors that she went to work in Malacatan until June and we were super bummed. Then we went to do a bap interview with another investigator but it was a total bust. that was on Thursday and we were already with the Elders for the other interview and we walked past her little boiling hot cement house and saw her inside asleep. So we walked in, woke her up, and we were like, hey do you still want to get bap? and she was like yeah. and we were like when? and she was like you guys said the 12th right? and we were like yeah do you feel like you are ready and she was like yes. So we did the interview right then and there and she passed and then on Saturday she got bap! It was awesome! and when I saw Hermana Pineda today she said that the family we taught and left with a bap. date in Coatepeque got bap on saturday too, so I was on cloud nine all weekend! 

      Well I am glad that you got to finally go to lunch with sister Heiner, sadly I am not in the same zone with Elder Heiner anymore.

 Oh and I have a quick favor for you. So we dont eat dinner on the mission because there is not enough time and guatemalans dont eat dinner. but every sunday we go over to our favorite members house and make a traditional guatemalan or honduran meal because my comp. LOVES to cook and then we all have dinner together and they are hands down the nicest, funniest, coolest people to ever live. So yesterday they asked me if I could make cool a dish for them from my home for next sunday. so will you send me a recipe or an idea of something I can make, it cant be too hard because I suck at cooking but it cant be too easy either because I want to impress them. and it also cant be anything that requires an oven because there are no ovens in guatemala, they just use firewood and fire to cook . Thanks mom! I love you to the moon and back and I will get that video to you if it kills me! 

Love

Hermana Outsen

this is our we are miffed about changes face. Us four shared a ward/area and they are hands down my favorite people in the mission/ on the planet.

ha ha I am sure Alex is not too upset about it, thats a mission for ya, you never quite know what is going to happen, which brings me to my topic for the email today...

   Okay mom you always taught me to be honest so I am going to be completely honest in my letter. Lets start from day one, On monday night I was talking to hermana pineda and we were like, “wow, I think we have changes this week, that really snuck up on us, fastest change of all time”, President had told us that we were going to be together until Her Pineda finishes in June and we were absolutely stoked about it because we have both never been happier here in the mission. 

    So on to Tuesday. Hermana Pineda and I bought a cake for the zone. While the zone leaders were reading off the names of who was leaving we were cutting and passing out cake, hardly paying any attention because we were dead sure that we did not have changes. Then we heard him say hermana Pinedas name. She started to hug me and cry because we are literally best friends, I absolutely adore her and I loved every single day with her for the past 6 weeks, we just click. Then, the last name he read, Hermana Outsen.. THEY CLOSED MY AREA. I was so miffed. I cried so hard. I love Coatepeque, I felt like I belonged there. I had the perfect companion, the perfect area, the perfect zone, the perfect house, the perfect elders to share the area and the ward with, the perfect ward and we had 3 amazing investigators who I adore with bap. dates for the 12th. Everything was perfect, and it was all taken away so fast, I felt like Job except he handled it a lot better than I did. So at the zone meeting everyone was so shocked and I was so devastated. Everyone was telling me as long as you don’t go to San Filipe everything will be okay. You will love whatever area, just don’t go to San Filipe. 

    Wednesday comes and I get to the change meeting, I wasn't even excited to see all my friends in the mission, the only person I wanted to talk to was hermana Pineda. The meeting starts and the first name that shows up, hermana Outsen in San Filipe.   So I get to my new area and meet my new companion, she is from Honuras and I am terrified of her.  The first thing she says to me is, I hate english, You are not allowed to speak in english to any gringos in the zone or the hermana who lives with us. it makes me mad and I do not work when I am mad. The very next day we had a zone meeting, I totally forgot and talked to Elder Jolley in English, I have been with elder Jolley my whole mission and I just shared a ward with him in coatepeque and we got along so well, so it was just natural. well then she got really mad. Longest day ever... So that night I called her old comp who is like the worlds most perfect human, everyone loves her. She told me 3 things, always let her have her way, tell her she is pretty every morning, and she loves little cards and notes. So on saturday she had an asthma attack or something so the ap’s picked her up and took her away for like an hour. I stayed in the house with the hermanas I live with. Now I suck at crafts and I also suck at writing nice things, but I did it anyway. I put it on her bed and when she got home she absolutely loved it and she has been so nice to me ever since, so so nice. She now always calls me mi companera canchita chula and hugs me like every 10 seconds. 

   I love you to the moon and back and although I am home sick for coatepeque I made a goal at the first of my mission to become best friends with every companion, and I don’t plan on breaking the streak now. Hermana Pacheco is a little rough around the edges but hey aren't we all. and I am also glad conference was this weekend because pres uchtdorfs talk really whipped me into shape, just what I needed to hear,  and president monson's, his too. 

    

hermana canchita