greeting from Retalhuleu! I love you all lots and hope you are happy. exito! Keep working hard! this is me and my comp, hermana Escoto. I love her, she rocks. shes from Honduras. VIVA CENTRO AMÉRICA 

Well we had a very zone oriented week. We were literally with each other everyday and it was so fun because we are all so close! We are like a little family. We did three area attacks as a zone this week to go invite all of Guatemala to the conference. We also had interviews with president, it went well, I passed. um I am having another brain fart and I cant remember anything about my week. All I remember is that I love my zone and my comp rocks, we get along great. Im happy! I love you lots. I think I will just send you a lot of pictures of my zone because they are my favorite people on the planet. They take care of me here in the mish. alright. se cuida. I love you to the moon and back and miss you lots! xoxoxo

 We made bananna cream pie for family night.  Thanks for the recipe G-ma

  saying goodbye to my hija Zentenito. I love her so much! 
 looooook who else I ran into! I LOVE HERMANA MINNICK

me and my new comp Hermana Escoto! the first thing she said to me was, oh so you are Hermana Outsen, I have heard so much about you. and I was like, uhhh from who. I literally have only talked to hermana Zenteno and no one else for the past 5 months. and she was like, well I know you, you are very well known.... I dont really know if thats a good thing or not...  but shes really awesome! really sweet and always happy. She talks EXACTLY like my other comp from Honduras (hermana Pacheco) 

Look who I ran into at change meeting! CJ and Elder Contreras! they rock. Every single person I saw at change meeting was like, hermana Outsen, are you STILL in San Martin? 

SURPRISE! I am still here in San Martin! About 5 months ago president came out and said that no one was going to have more than 6 months in an area (unless you are Hermana Outsen) so since I have 6 months in San Martin and 4 and a half months with my hija I thought I was for sure leaving, everyone did. but surprise. for some reason that I still haven't figured out I stayed and Hermana Zenteno had changes. My zone leaders were really creative with the way the told us who had changes. We gathered together after district meeting on Tuesday and they had written a scripture on a little piece of paper and put it in a balloon with our names on it. We each went up one by one and read our scripture out loud and the scripture told us what our fate was, it was really funny! Mine was Isaiah 55 9 and 10 which goes something like this, my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways or something along those lines. When I read it I accidentally read cambios instead of caminos, it was funny. Then Zenteno read hers and her scripture was like prosper the land or something I don't know. We were so surprised! Hermana Zenteno cried so hard! This was one of the hardest changes I have had. My new companion is Hermana Escoto. She’s great, but I love Zenteno so much and I miss her so much it hurts. We went through so much together, we saw so many miracles together, and she changed so much I watched her transform into a different person. and we become the very best friends! I love her so much! I got so attached to her and its really hard to wrap my head around the fact that it is no longer Outsen and Zenteno. Changes are hard. 

   My new companion is Hermana Escoto. She is really sweet and cute and happy. She is from Honduras, we already get along great! (I mean she’s not Zenteno but I cant complain) On Saturday we were contacting in San Alfonzo aka the middle of nowhere and found a really old less active lady. While we were singing a hymn with her, her grandson came out with a purse that he had trapped a giant rat inside of. He and his siblings slash cousins all went crazy on the poor thing and starting smacking it with broom sticks and tree branches. They whacked the rat to death, of course me and Escoto were screaming the whole time. then the 7 year old picked up the dead bloody rat by the tail and started chasing me around with it. I was screaming my head off and I literally grabbed the 10 year old kid and hid myself behind him. Then the less active grandma got mad and took the rat away and threw it in the river. Welcome to San Martin Hermana Escoto.

   Well it rains really hard everyday. thats September for ya in Reu. Oh and the new kid in my district went to Brighton! He is fresh from the MTC and he talks to me about all these people from home that I used to know that I now hardly remember. The first thing he said to me was, do you have a little sister? she looks just like you! and I was like YES YES YES HOW IS JACK QUACK DOING?!  So I got a Jackie update from Elder Evans. Well I love you all! talk to you next monday 

xoxoxo

Hermana Outsen

     

 our hija! Me, Elder Contreras, and Hermana Zenteno.  

                                                         Before

                                                  after, I love Laichita!

 the wedding! Meet the family Palacious Batz. I love them! Douglas, Maribel, Jose, Douglas hijo, Esther, Dulce, and Isai.

                                          The wedding

 My zone on the splash ride at xetulu. 
 the Baptism! isnt that just the cutest little family in all the world.  

                    My zone at Xetulu! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these people, my zone rocks!

okay okay okay! Well this week was so incredibly amazing but also so incredibly stressful! Don't be frightened if I come home bald because I think all my hair fell out, but its okay. It was so worth it! So you know how I told you last week that Maribel and Douglas were all ready to get married and baptized. Well on wednesday Hna Sanchez decided to randomly do divisions and take me out of my area. And Douglas had some Satan attack or something and yelled at the hermanas and said he refused to get married, and never wanted us to come back and stuff like that, I am not really sure exactly what went down because I wasn't there but the next day at zone meeting she told me and the whole zone what happened and that she wanted to drop them and it was all really sad, but I refused to drop them without talking to them because they were totally fine like 2 days before. So we set up a lesson with a really rich family from the capital that I called and invited to the baptism because they knew Maribel when she was little and basically raised her and they are members. So they came. We had a really incredible lesson with their whole family, the whole family from the capital, and our kick butt zone leader, Elder Medina! We watched a video about eternal families then had a great lesson about baptism and the law of chastity and at the end of the lesson Douglas said that he wanted to get married and baptized!! wahooo!! So the family from Guate was going to go back to Guate saturday morning and so we had to do the wedding and the baptism Friday. and that lesson ended at 9:30 thursday night, and we were going to be in Xetulu for a mission activity all day Friday, STRESS! 

     So Elder Medina and I were literally up till 3 in the morning on the phone calling all of the lawyer in Guatemala trying to find someone that could do it on such short notice, without the DPI that Douglas left in Mexico and cheap. We finally got it all planned out with a lawyer who is a member from Mazate who just happens to be Elder Contreras´s mission leader so its a good thing that contreras and I are tight because he pulled some strings for me. So I went to bed at peace. Then woke up to stress when Elder Medina called and told me that the lawyer was going to go to Xela at noon and we were going to xetulu at 9. So we came up with the only solution possible, take Maribel and Douglas to Mazate in the morning before Xetulu, get the act done, and still throw them their party at night and have the wedding, perfect right. So Medina and Jorgy came to San Martin early to go to Mazate with us before 9. BUT the very difficult guy from the capital said no, that he wanted to do it here at 5. So we told him the situation and he was like just go to your activity and I will take care of everything, I know a guy. and we were like, okay but make sure its not expensive because thats the reason we were going to use the guy from Mazate, and he was like, I’m all rich and powerful, don't worry about the money. 

    So then we went to Xetulu and it was SO MUCH FUN OH MY GOSH! Xetulu is the biggest and the only amusement park in all of central america and it just happens to be in my area by the way. in august we broke the record of baptisms as a mission and so president let us all go to Xetulu. We rode all the rides, ate ice cream, ran around like children, got to wear pants, and I got to be with my zone all day long and I love my zone, it was seriously so much fun! I loved every second of it! 

    So we left Xetulu at like 4 and I called the guy from guate to see if everything was all ready with the lawyer and it was like, fíjese hermana, we have a little problem, he is willing to do it but its going to be 450 quetz and we don't have the money and neither does Douglas. and I was like yeah bro, WE TOLD YOU THAT LIKE 10 TIMES HENCE THE MAZATE PLAN! so i was all bummed and since my zone is so close, they all know Maribel and her kids because they have been to activities  with the zone and stake conference and they all know how much my comp and I love her and how hard we have worked for her and so without me even asking they each pitched in and we were able to gather up the 450 quetz all before leaving xetulu. I LOVE my zone. it was so sweet. it was totally a Despicable Me moment when the minions chip in their money to build a rocket, thats exactly how it went. So we got back to San Martin at 4:45 and the wedding was at 5 (good thing everyone in guatemala shows up to everything 2 hours late always) and we ended up decorating the chapel beautifully for the wedding and lots of members came and after the wedding and they got baptized  and it was honestly the best bap. service I have had on my mission and even though the wedding was short notice and stressful, it all worked out in the end and , thanks to my zone who totally helped us out with EVERYTHING! 

   So on Friday we went to xeutulu, had a wedding, and a baptism, I guess you could say it was the best day of my mission! I love this area, changes our on wednesday and I’m almost positive that I am leaving, thinking about leaving San Martin rips my heart out, pray for me on wednesday, because I think I might die leaving my companion who is my very best friend, my zone who is so united its like we´re one, and my home,, San Martin. 

love,

Hermana Outsen

   

me and my comp rocking our corte. We pura chapinas pues. This is what guatemalans wear. its their traditional dress

I LOVED the skydiving pictures!! thats so cool! put me in coach, I want to play. 

   Well this week was fun! We had stake conference so that was cool. Rony is now first counselor in the stake presidency so we kind of lost our number one member who holds the ward together and our mission leader... but im excited for him, he will do a great job! I went on divisions with hermana Sanchez, she is the lady that trained me. It was a good time! We went with the zone leaders because they randomly called and said they wanted to go with us. It rained all day long really hard and all of our citas fell through. but it was okay because we ended up having a really cool lesson with some joven named leslie in Rony´s house. it was such a SPIRITUAL lesson! It was so cool, I loved it. Few times have I felt the spirit that strong in a lesson. I kind of wish I could just teach with Elder Medina all day everyday, he is such a power house, he amazes me. I felt really small all day because all three of them are 6 feel tall and I am like not that tall but it was fun because elder medina, hermana Sanchez, and I had a bunch of ¨remember when¨ moments. When I started my mission Elder Medina was my first zone leader and we did EVERYTHING together because we pretty much shared an area. so we all know each other really well and it was fun to go out and work all together again now that I can actually teach and like speak spanish and stuff. 

      We also had our hermanas conference. it was awesome! we had pday last week with all the hermanas in the mission, we played volleyball and ate yummy food. hermana Ruiz and the 2 hma leaders gave workshops and president spoke. Then we all slept in a hotel together in Reu. It rocked! I got to see all my favorite chicas! Then we had more workshops and stuff on tuesday and we all went back to our areas tuesday night. It was awesome! I love the hermanas in my mission, I hope I get to see them all again! 

   On sunday we had a zone activity. We all went to San Luis and did divisions with the members and handed out church stuff and did service and got some solid contacts for the elders. I went with this really awesome member and by the end of the day we were best friends, she said she is going to request that they send hermanas to San Luis and that I open the area, ha ha she was super cool. It poured rain the whole afternoon and none of the members were even phased. all the streets flooded and we were all soaking wet but we went out anyway, it was so cool! I loved San Luis, it is beautiful and the members rock! We didn't get back to San Martin until late and the elders in san Luis had to take us home because its really dangerous there and it took us like forever long to find a bus. that was totally my fault, me and my super cool member may or may not have returned an hour and a half late.... but it was worth it, we lost track of time teaching a really positive teenager who is totes going to get baptized, pray for Kevin. um... I hung out with my zone all day today and all day sunday and I love them, they are wonderful people! I LOVE being in a small zone, we are all best friends. I am hooking up like every elder in my zone up with my friends back home ha ha ha, I have just been handing out emails left and right. 

    Alright well thats all I can think of for now. love you lots! have an awesome week! xoxoxoxo.

love

Hermana Outsen