hello family!

 I LOVED LOVED LOVED that big group family email! I can just hear all your little voices when I read everyones part, glad to hear you are all doing good, sounds like a lot of exciting stuff is going on for all of you, que alegre! 

    Alright, well my week was really really awesome! I would tell you why but I cant really remember.... ha ha I just remember that it was good. I will try to remember bits and pieces. okay, so my new zone ROCKS! It is by far my favorite zone of my mission and I do not want to changes, I don’t want anyone to have changes. It is like all of my very favorite people all in one place all together and there is not one person in my zone that I don’t like. Because we are so small we do a lot of stuff together and we just have a blast. 

     On Saturday I did divisions in the morning with Hermana Valeriano and it was super fun! I have a connection with all the old people here, they are all crazy and so funny and they all love me. So there is this family of 4 of them, they are all sisters, all crazy, all super old, all hilarious and they all love me. So I walked past their house like I do everyday and they gave me some weird exotic fruit like they do everyday and Marina (the craziest one) came out working with us. She is not a member, I always try to bring her to church with me but she is always in the bathroom when I pass by and she yells out the door, ¨sorry canchita but I will be in here for at least another 40 minutes, next sunday for sure¨so she just walked around with us all morning and taught lessons with us and bore her testimony to our investigators even though she has never been to church in her life. and she was singing the guatemalan national anthem all morning, I love her, we will be friends for life I’m sure of it. I see her sister every second because she walks around picking up garbage all day everyday (and there is A LOT of garbage in Guatemala) and she stuffs it all in her dress so she always has a giant lump of garbage in her clothes. I asked her sisters why she does that and they said, ¨she has problems, we tried everything, paying her, talking with her, beating her, and she still wont stop¨ ha ha respect, keeping cleaning the earth lady. 

     So we had a great week full of really butt kick lessons and really smart positive people, on sunday we left really early and passed for maybe 15 people that had all promised to come to church and no one came, it was a real bummer and I was really upset. Thats guatemalans for ya, they are so flakey! but my comp and I had a really nice long chat on sunday and we really helped pump each other up and I finally built up the courage to tell her that I needed her help because I cant do this all by myself. My comp is really great, and we never have any problems but she is so painfully shy and so I literally do everything all by myself and I have for the past 11 weeks. So I told her yesterday that I was just exhausted and stressed and stuff and that I needed her help and that I am not good enough to do it all alone and that it just doesn't work that way. So we had a chat and came up with plans and goals for her to push her a little more and I gave her like a 2 hour long pep talk and we fasted together and yesterday we worked so well together! She contacted people on her own and starting lessons and a bunch of stuff that usually scares her so bad that she almost throws up, but for some reason yesterday she could just do it and it is just so much better when both people in the companionship are working hard TOGETHER. So as much as I really really hate fasting, it works. Oh and we were also really happy yesterday because Blanca got a calling!! She is the first counselor in the young women's! wahhooo! GO BLANCA! best family ever.  okay well I am just very content. I am so happy to hear from the whole family! Tell them all I love them so much and you all keep me going! love you to the mooon and back!

love

Hermana Outsen

    

   

This week was supèr super awesome! On Thursday we had a talent show at the church planned by the missionary department in San Martin, more people showed up than come to church! and it was so much fun! Valeriano did a hula dance, I sang Adele and the four of us did a gangster dance. Every organization did some sort of act and it was really fun and funny I was screaming my head off like the whole time, they all think canches are crazy...and we found a family out of it, win win. 

    On Friday we had a zone workshop, I LOVE my new zone. Everyone is so awesome and we meet in the biggest, newest, most beautiful and air conditioned chapel in all of guatemala. I love being in a small zone because we can all get to know each other really well and do more fun things, like go mini golfing like we did this morning. So anyway... we had our workshop and it was SOOO GOOD! Elder Jorgensen, elder contreras, and a member, Wilder, all gave a little workshop and they were all way good, I learned so much. Let me just tell you a little about this wilder dude. So he is a convert, got baptized like one year ago. So he was talking about the restoration, how important that lesson is, how we can teach it better, ideas and stuff and I literally have never felt the spirt so strong in my entire life, I could not take my eyes off of him because I didnt want to miss one word he said, he probably thought I was so weird and creepy. So I go up to him after to ask him what mission he served in and he tells me, oh im 18, Im preparing for my mission, WHAT. he is going to baptize the whole planet and probably take over the world. So he told me a little bit of his conversion story. He said that before he met the missionaries he was a pastor for an evangelic church (evangelics are crazy nuts, they get up on buses street corners and scream and sing and thrust the espiritu santo upon people and all this weird stuff.) So he meets the missionaries, and they start to chat, at the end of the lesson he tore off the elders missionary tag and broke it in half and threw it on the ground.he said that the Elder picked up his tag, looked him in the eyes and said ÿou are going to be the best and most powerful missionary¨ and Wilder was like I will never ever be a missionary and I will never ever be a mormon and the Elder was like, we´ll see. So some time passed and 2 different elders passed by,he listened,long story short, he said he prayed everyday for 18 days to know if the restoration was true and the 18th day he told the elders, sorry, but I cant be baptized, I have prayed and the lord has not given me an answer so the elders were like okay, lets go, we are going to pray together. So they prayed and he said he felt such a strong spirt and then heard a voice say, bienvenido which means welcome. And he opened his eyes and all three of them were crying. So he got baptized and not one member came to the service because they all hated him and told the elders that they were stupid and that Wilder was only getting baptized to steal money from the church and a bunch of other crap. And when he got baptized his family kicked him out of the house so he lived with the elders for 2 weeks, then his family got over it, Wilder taught them the restauración and they got bap.

  So anyway… thats Wilder. He literally is the most incredible teacher. So then on Saturday it was my comps birthday. We decorated her room, ate cake with Mario and  his super fun cool family , I think she had a good day. Alright, well I love you lots and lots and I am glad to hear that you are getting better and better every day. love, hermana Outsen

                                                           We cut our hair

Well... guess what... I am no longer in zona San Felipe. They split my zone and we are opening a new zone, zona brillantes! President had to do a lot of emergency changes and had to call new zone leaders and district leaders to open up the zone and my very favorite elder is now in my zone as a district leader! We came together and I have not seen him since we left the ccm because he has been in the mountains the whole time. BUT now he is in my zone and the four of us that are all in the same group got to hang out all day today and it was SO FUN! I am so happy we are all together. it rocks. they are the best people alive. I don't really know how I feel about the whole zone split thing because some of my favorites are not in my zone anymore, but we will still see them all the time so Its okay. but now we are 4 hermanas and 8 elders instead of 6 hermanas and 22 elders, so that makes things a whole lot better because when all the elders get together its a giant headache. 

    Well this week was a really good week! My comp and I were getting along great (I think its because I went on divisions with my trainer and I nearly ripped all my hair out and after that it helped me realize how much I love my comp) so we had a lot of fun together this week and she finally came out of her shell and turns out she is really funny! We found a really cool family of 7 and they love us! There are two types of guatemalans, the ones that I love so much that are just a joy and the ones that totally miff me off. This family is the good type, I love them! they are so funny, friendly, and just so much fun! and they don't go to any church which is unheard of in guatemala, EVERYBODY goes to church. and only one of them is baptized in another church which is also nearly unheard of. So we are going to be working with them a lot to finish off the change. and I may or may not be engaged to her son.... Reina said that she loves me so much and that she has always wanted canche kids and when I told her that i was single she just about dropped dead with excitement. I told her she had to wait 6 months and then we will talk. But she basically has the wedding planned and she said she would clear out a room for me.      As for the rest of guatemala, everyone is really miffed off about the world cup because everyone here worships Messi so that was a hard loss and for that we faced a lot of rejection this week because everyone was in a bad mood, and like no one came to church because everyone was watching the world cup but its fine.

     Oh and guess what, I chopped my hair this morning. Hermana Valeriano and I decided to do something exciting for her 9 month mark and my year mark so we both chopped our hair. We went over to hermana Terrys house at 7 this morning because she's pro and  she cut it for us. My hair is tiny. It was a very spontaneous decision so I will let you know if I like it or not next week because as of now I am not really sure. 

       alright well we are doing good here in Guat. it stopped raining so now it is really hot all the time again. We are teaching 3 really solid, pilas investigators right now who I just love and it is such a joy to teach them. We are still getting along great in the house. miss you lot and love to the moon and back. sorry this letter is dumb, Im running out of things to tell you guys.... xoxoxox

hermana Outsen

       

                                                             The streets of Guatemala

 This is a really hilarious, crazy, adorable lady in my ward, Clarita, I love her. I would just like you all to notice how TALL I look in this picture. Just one of the many reasons I love Guatemala, I always feel
tall (okay maybe just average..)
                                                         Happy 4th of July

                                                            I love the world cup

We paint balled this morning as a zone, it was good time! And yes the earthquake hit us. It woke us all up at 5:30 this morning on the dot. It didn't hit too hard in my area but up in the mountains a bunch of stuff was destroyed. look up San Marcos Guatemala and you can see how bad it hit up there. but it was big enough down here to knock everything off my desk and shake my bed for a solid 3 minutes. but don't worry, we are all just fine, I thought it was kind of fun, I felt like I was in Disneyland on a rollarcoaster or something.

      Sooooo Here is what I have to say about this week, Im glad its over. ha ha. This was a really tough week, We have now officially talked to every crazy person in San Martin (and you don't know crazy until you have met an evangelic guatemalan.) but my favorite day of the year, the 4th of July, was a blast! I am so sad that I missed the rodeo with you all and the Scotts, I love me a good rodeo, but thats okay...next year. I totally lucked out on the 4th of July because I got to spend the whole day with one of my very favorite hermanas in the mission, hermana Terry! We did divisions and it was a blast! She makes me so happy and she really needed someone to talk to this week, wow...my life is really easy. We had an awesome day and me Terry and Valeriano hung out all night long and ordered pizza. 

   Love, hermana Outsen

 One last shot before changes. Elder contrera, elder Garcia, and Hermana Valeriano

 TOGETHER AGAIN! We all came together. Hermana Terry from Seattle, Elder Garcia from Hawaii and Elder Rodriguez from Oregon.

i LOVE this family! This is Rony and Sheny and they take care of me! They seriously remind me EXACTLY of Sam and Dallin, they are like a Mitchell family clone. I saw little Sharon take her first step yesterday, she was born the day I left on my mission so we will complete a year together. 

Some of the ward at Hemano Maxs birthday part this morning!  I LOVE Max, he is the most adorable viejito in all of Guatemala, so sweet!

hello how are ya? So changes were this week, I am still here in San Martin with Hermana Zenteno to finish the second part of her training, WAHOOO!. hermana Valeriano and Hermana Laiche are still here with us, WAHOOO!! So we will continue to have a blast together and work hard for at least another 6 weeks, WAHOOO! An Elder from my group came to the zone so now there are 3, its a good time. It was fun to catch up with him, this is the first time I have seen an Elder from my group in the field because they have all been in the mountains the whole time and I don’t see mountain peeps. Speaking of the mountains, this change they closed a bunch of hermana areas and opened up new ones in all these new places. When I first got here there were 5 all elder zones but they have been slowly easing in hermanas almost every change for the past year and as of wednesday there is now only one zone of only elders. HERMANAS RULE!

    so... I am really sorry that the only thing I ever talk about is Jorge and his family but they are such a huge giant miracle, and they are incredible and I love them so I cant help but just talk about them all the time. So last sunday Jorge received the Melchizedek Priesthood, QUE CALIDAD! we have this investigator, just another crazy guatemalan who likes to listen to la palabra de dios. He was telling us about how sick his wife is with her heart problems, old age, and broken hip and stuff and he was really distraught, so we told him that an hermano from the church could come and give her a blessing. So instead of asking my idiot district leader who makes me want to bang my head against a brick wall every time he talks (bless his heart) we asked Jorge! He was really nervous but he accepted! So me, my comp hermana Zenteno who I love so dearly, my super cool mission leader Rony who I also love so dearly, and Jorge who I especially love so dearly made our way to hermano Baldemars house and I had the privilege to watch Jorge give his wife a priesthood blessing, then heard him teach and testify of the authority to a humble family. It was one of the greatest and most spiritual moments of my whole mission slash life! HOLY CRAP I LOVE MY MISSION. MISSIONS ARE SO COOL! Okay so that whole blessing thing went down Saturday night. Saturday day I was really sick, having some stomach issues, I will just leave it at that, all the details are much better left unsaid. And Rony said it was probably better if I stayed home, I will just go with Jorge. And I was like, HA HA HA HA GOOD ONE RONY, I WILL NOT MISS THIS! So I went. and I was all happy and feeling a whole bunch of spiritual power and stuff, totally forgot about how crapy I felt, on cloud nine.....then I threw up during the blessing... luckily this guys house doesn't have a floor so I just threw up in the dirt and he was like, oh don’t worry about it, the ducks and dogs throw up in here all the time, just leave it. ha ha ha, it was really embarrassing, but so worth it, still the best moment of my mission, regardless of the barf. It reminded me of a story that my favorite elder in the mission told me about how he threw up in his first bap. then his comp and bishop gave him a blessing and he was throwing up in a bucket as they continued to give him the blessing, ha ha ha ha! oh guatemala and its freaky food that just kills us gringos. 

     Oh and on Friday I met this little 10 year old boy and he kept telling me that he was from the united states and that he is the bishop of the mormon church in San Andres. So I was like, oh cool, whats your name, and he said Luis, I told him, thats not an english name, if you are from the states you have to have an english name. so he said, okay will you give me an english name, youre canche. and I said okay how about Russ, now he goes around telling everyone his name is Russ, literally EVERYONE. 

well that was my week. I love Valeriano! We are so excited to be roomies after the mission because we love being roomies in the mission! okay well I love you to the moon and back, have a safe trip to Seattle and tell Sam to WRITE ME! 

love,

Hermana Maren Marie Outsen