hello hello! So as far as the work goes this week was a little dull and hard. but thats alright, it happens. So my district leader is Elder Contreras from Honduras. me and him have the weirdest relationship, we hate each other but at the same time we get along like really well and sometimes we are like best friends, and then we hate each other again, its just a hit and miss depending on the day. So he calls me Friday night and he´s all, ¨Outsen Canche, I´m really stressed.¨ and I´m all well Elder I´m real sorry but I don’t really know what you want to do about that. and he was like, lets play soccer, and I was like whateves Elder you´re in charge not me. So he called the zone leaders and got permission to have a distress district get together. Since our district is only us 4 in the house and the two elders it was just the six of us. So we made our way to their area saturday morning and played a stress relieving game of 3 vs 3 soccer. Elder Contreras and Elder Garcia are both really good so it was super fun and after we played uno, turns out that is NOT  a popular game here in the spanish world regardless of its uno title because the only two people that knew how to play it were me and hna valeriano. It was really nice to hang out with my district one last time before changes, I love them all! Elder Garcia is from Guatemala and he is the most awkward and weirdest person on the planet, me and Valeriano call him pobresito. but he is so entertaining, he makes me laugh so hard. On Thursday when he walked into zone meeting I was like hi Elder Garcia and he looks at me so confused and says, ¨que es hi?¨ so I explain to him that hi means hola and he was like oh okay. and then on Saturday when I saw him again I was like hi Elder Garcia and he was like Bien. ha ha ha. Hes getting sent off to the cold mysterious mountains that are 4 hours away in the all Elders zone so thats the last english word I will teach him because I will probably never see him again. 

    So anyway, thats my district... So since really nothing happened this week how about I just tell you a quick story and call it good so I can go write Hermana Pineda before she goes home on wednesday, I think I might die, favorite person in the whole world. So remember how in my first house we had a bit of an ant infestation problem, and in my second house there was the cockroach problem...well this house has a bit of a rat problem. So on Saturday night we came home and I walked into my house and turned on the light and saw a HUGE rat (biggest one I have ever seen, at least twice the size of the picture I sent home of me holding the rat) on my desk. so when he saw me he ran between my legs and hid under the fridge. I started screaming and the super cool member we live with in our duplex house thing, Mario, heard my scream and came running to the rescue. I told him what happened and he gave me a broom and told me to kill it. I looked at him like he was crazy and said you must be joking. He laughed really hard and reassured me that yes he was joking. So anyways. He moved the fridge and the rat ran out and sprinted into the room where we keep our clothes and hid under MY hamper. Mario chased it hitting it with his broom in an attempt to beat him to death but ended up on his back with both feet in the air, I was screaming my head off and laughing at the same time and my comp was hiding in the bathroom. So he continued chasing it around the house and smacking it with a broom. Sadly the rat won and escaped through the hole in our wall, who knows what he is up to now, probably eating all my tostadas I just bought.

   Well I am happy, I am healthy, my comp is great! Everyone here is also obsessed with the world cup, it is all anyone every talks about. and it is always on and everyone gathers wherever they can find a tv to watch, so I am very updated. Because my comp is Mexican, we are rooting for Mexico. We just watched the game in McDonalds with all the missionaries in Reu, Las Palmas, San Felipe, and the office and everyone is very content with the 3 to 0 win of Mexico. Viva Mexico. no somos inicuos...  anyway.... love you to the moon and back. Have a safe trip to Seattle and tell Sam to send me some pics because hermana Terry tells me that Seatle is real pretty. 

con mucho amor,

Hermana Outsen

 me and hermana Valeriano on our way to the temple! 2 hour drive to xela and its cold, hence the scarfs, it felt so good!

                                        la familia Tem Perez in the temple

                                        the classic xela temple view in the day.

 me and Jorges daughter, Lourdes at the temple! Make sure grandma notices that she is wearing her ctr ring, she wears it everyday. (I wear mine everyday too)
                     the classic xela temple view at night.

                             me and my comp, hermana Zenteno, at the xela temple.

wow! happy birthday slash fathers day to dad!! Love him! best dad of all time! looks like it was such a fun day! tell dad I do not think he is old or fat... ha ha ha. looking at that picture of dad swinging the bat made me really miss him and made me miss Utah too! I almost forgot how beautiful the mountains are in Utah!

   Oh about that question, its funny that you mention that... So we had interviews with president this week, let me tell you how my interview went. So I walk in and he started asking me about the conference with president Dunkan who is the area president of the 70 (or whatever you call it) here in Guatemala. So I told him what I learned, liked, etc etc. Then he starts telling me about a little meeting he had with president Dunkan. He said that they really want missionaries to go home with a plan in mind, He told me how important it is to get right back into school or go straight to working, he said they don't want any missionaries going home and sitting around. So he was like Hermana Outsen,I know you are planning on going back to school, and I was like yeah, and then he lectured me about how I need to start planning now and stuff like that and I was like yeah Pres I know. If you go home in January you will miss school by 3 weeks, and I was like yes yes I know. So he said we are not going to send you home one change early, we are going to send you home one month early, in the middle of the change and that will put you home about one week before school starts. I said okay thats fine. So he pulled up my mission profile and clicked on a little calendar. He explained that all the days in black were the days that I could travel and all the days in white were not available. There were only 5 days that were black, the 25th through the 29th. So I was like uhhh okay I pick the 25th. As in the 25th of December, aka Christmas Day. He was like okay, and he changed and now it is all set in my profile on the computer that I am coming home on the 25th. (which was the very first day I could have chosen.) President never once mentioned the fact that it was christmas, he just acted like it was totally normal. I think he forgot... So I came home from interviews totally freaked out. I never imagined that I would come home from my mission on christmas day and I am also totally freaked out that the 25th was my first option, what are the odds. I have no idea how that will all play out but I really hope that doesn't ruin your christmas plans. 

    Okay, well enough baggy talk. So this week was amazing because we got to go to xela with the ward and go to the temple!! No one in the mission has been to the temple in 6 months because president suspended all temple trips. But he just sent out an email that said that any companionship that bap. a family in the month of June can go to the temple! Since the only people in my zone that bap. a family in June were me, hermana Zenteno, hermana Valeriano and hermana Leiche, aka my house.  We are all in the same ward and Jorge and his family were going so we got permission to go with the ward! yayayay!!! So we went. and Jorge, Blanca, Lourdes, Maria, and Daniela all went with us. There is nothing sweeter than seeing Jorge at the temple with his family. I love my life! I LOVE my mission! I LOVE that family. Of course we took lots of pictures, I will send you a few, please ignore the ugly crap all over my chest, I have another heat rash (don't worry I told hermana Minnick this morning) Oh and I had a small world moment in Xela. So I walked into the temple and a family of tall white blondes came up to me and said please tell me you speak english, we have no idea what these people are saying to us. and I was like ha ha yeah homies I speak english real well. Then they asked me what mission I am in and I was like Guatemala Retalhuleu and they were like REALLY?! Do you know Audrey Prince? and I was like uhhh.... she was only my comp for 3 months and I spent Christmas with her. Then they were like she is living with us right now in Utah, she’s our cousin! So I told them so send her my love and they gave a little update on hermana Prince, said she is doing great! Small small world. 

   Alright well I am sorry this letter is so long and filled with dumb pointless stuff. but I am super happy! I love the girls I live with, I love my area, I love my ward. I promise you a better letter next week with more mission information, oh an by the way no one will listen to us right now because everyone is watching the world cup every second. I love you to the moon and back and I really hope I don't ruin christmas plans! 

love,

Hermana Outsen

       

 so they do exist. This guy had been running around in our house, eating our food, digging in a garbage and pooping on our dishes. Lucky for us we live with a super cool member who maliciously killed it while we were our working. nice guy. amamos Mario. 
                           this is Jorges youngest daughter, she is so adorable it kills me!
                                  me and hna Valeriano with our matching Reu Jerseys, I love her. 

                                                                  Sunday Dinner

glad to hear everyone is doing good, I love updates and I love hearing about you guys. and to answer your questions, no I am not getting a new mission president,  President Ruiz actually has just about the same time as me in the mission, and he is from Panama and yes I am healthy. Funny that you mentioned that this week because I came down with a wicked cold but nothing serious like dengue fervor or parasites or anything, at least not that I know of. The mission has been threatening to send a lot of people home for health reasons so when I get sick I just kind of keep it to myself and dont tell anyone because I think I would rather die than get taken out of Guatemala.    Alright, well this week FLEW BY! This week was fantastically fabulous! Blanca and her daughter Maria got baptized this Friday and so now all four members of the family are bap! Jorge and the other daughter got baptized 3 weeks ago and Jorge baptized his wife and daughter this week. It was so cool! It was probably the best moment of my mission to see him bap. them, the spirit was so strong and it just made everything so worth it. This family is amazing! I wish I could just be with them all day every day because they are just nothing but pure joy. I have loved seeing them all change so much and its amazing how easily and naturally they all fit into the ward, its like all of barrio San Martin had prepared a place for each of them and was just waiting. They rock I love them, I think a little too much! I really hope you can meet them someday too mom, I think you will, i will make it happen. Oh and for the bap we made brownies in the church and that was a first for everyone and they are all obsessed with them. I burned them crisps but they still loved them because ¨they are just like a chocolate tostada¨so I will probably be making a lot of burnt brownies in the next 6 months. 

    On Saturday we had a conference by elder Morales and all the missionaries and stake leaders in San Filipe were invited. I have heard from him before in mission conferences and stuff but he is a really incredible speaker and I always learn lots and lots so that was a good time. 

  Okay so I am the happiest little camper right now because my house is so awesome! I love the hermanas I live with, the four of us get along so well, we are all bffs. Hermana Leiche is from Peru and she is so sassy yet sweet at the same time and she always makes me laugh so hard I die, like to the point where the obnoxious, broken record repeat laugh comes out. Hermana Valeriano from Hawaii is one of my very best friends in the mission and we are planning on living together after the mission and my comp, hermana Zenteno from Mexico is just so innocent and is really starting to open up when we are all together, its great. I love these girls! So on Sunday after church we all chipped in and made a HUGE sunday lunch with pasta, salad, tuna, platanos fritos, beans, and we set the table with all of our nicest dishes and put on music and then we all ate together like a little family. It almost satisfied my 11 month craving to sit down at the table for sunday night dinner with the family. ALMOST... but not quite. I really miss that. 

     Then this morning we played a nice intense soccer game on the big nice field right in front of my house. It was a blast! I may have skin cancer when I get home because I am totes fried but it was so worth it! Well I am just about as happy as I can be, healthy as a horse, and as canche ever. Love you all lots and lots and i wish you all a happy summer. Sounds like you are going to be an empty nester for the next three months with all of these fun trips Jackie has planned. love to the moon and back. adios. 

love

hermana Outsen

                                   Hermana Terry

                                                              It's the rainy season

WOW! I am soo excited for the trip! It looks beautiful! and yes I am pretty much set on going to UVU for now. So if you could help me out with getting things all set up when the time comes that would be much appreciated. There are a lot of Hermanas in the mission that will also be down there and we have talked about living together and stuff but I don't really know right now, we will cross that bridge when we come to it. 

   Well nothing too exciting happened this week. I did divisions with Hermana Terry and it was a blast! Hermana Terry is one of my favorite hermanas in the mission, we came together and she is joy, I absolutely adore her. So that was really fun, especially because we used to always do practices together in the ccm and we totally sucked and couldn't speak spanish and it was cool to see how far we have both come since then.

    My comp. is good! She is really easy, still really really quite but I am learning to entertain myself and try not to get bored so fast. She has opened up a little more, we had a bonding experience where I tried to kill a giant flying cockroach in our room. I got up on my bed and jumped up in an attempt to smash it with my shoe BUT THEN IN STARTED FLYING! I had no idea cockroaches could fly so it scared me and I fell off my bed. She laughed pretty hard and now I think she feels a little more comfortable around me and is less scared of me, I hope... She is a really fast learner and really patient and doesn't get annoyed or mad at the people when they say dumb things like I do. 

    So remember that family that I am obsessed with? Blanca and Jorge?.. Well the obsession grows stronger and stronger every day. They are incredible. The other day my comp and I made them a mexican cookie cold cake thing and we all ate together and then had a family night. So anyway... I was shuffling through my scriptures and lourdes saw a picture of the salt lake temple and she asked which temple that was. Before I got a chance to answer Jorge chimes in and says, oh thats the salt lake temple, it took 40 years to build, then he points to Moroni and says, and thats angel Moroni, he appeared to Jose Smith and showed him where the plates for the book of mormon were hidden. WHAT THE HECK HOW DID YOU KNOW ALL THAT! He didn't know anything about the church before he got bap. two weeks ago and I definitely didn't teach him any of that. He just reads and reads and listens to church and HES JUST SO SMART I LOVE HIM! This kind of stuff NEVER happens. I love Guatemalans with all my heart,     Alright well thats all I can think of right now. i love you to the moon and back! oh and yes I LOVE my new house. and just about everyone and their dog heard about the break in. Random people who I have never seen before ask me on the bus about the whole situation. it’s the top gossip in San Felipe right now. 

con mucho amor

Hermana Outsen

Heres a picture of me on a super sketchy bridge, I totally felt like Indiana Jones while I was crossing it. I love bridges!