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

ha ha ha mom I just died laughing, that story is too funny! Loved your letter, I know I say that every week but I mean it! I didn’t get a letter from grandma this week, I hope everything is okay. Oh and also I already wrote Steph and Max last week and told them about the video, so sorry for ruining the surprise, ha ha. I actually wrote every single one of my siblings last week and only one wrote me back ONE! It was Steph so Steph is now my favorite sibling. 

    Well this week was really long. I feel like last time I wrote was like an eternity ago. Its not like I had a bad week or anything it was just long. But on Tuesday we did a service project as a zone. We met up with like the mayor of Coatepeque or something and picked up trash out of a river. It was the most hopeless activity because there are literally piles and piles of trash everywhere especially in the rivers, but they interviewed my companion and put her on the guatemalan news so at church on sunday everyone was like hyperactive excited to tell her that she was on tv. So I guess that makes me famous through association. 

    So since hermana Fusi left we had to change it up a bit in Coatepeque. A mini missionary came so we thought she was just going to be with hermana Cadavieco until changes because that makes the most sense. but they ended up changing some people around and hitting us with a bunch of surprises. So there is this hermana in my zone who has some freaky crush on me or something and it is like a huge joke in the zone. (she is this tiny girl from honduras who never talks and is like half my size). She is kind of weird but I try to be really nice to her because she doesn't really have any friends in the zone. So she follows me around everywhere and is always touching me, like all the time. and I don’t like being touched. She always comes up behind me and touches my hips and it is like a huge joke in the zone and everyone always laughs. So anyway, thanks to all the freaky changes, she now lives with me. When they announced it in the zone everyone just about died laughing and was like, outsen you better sleep with your door shut. So it was a pretty funny situation. But don’t worry it was no problem living with her, I actually think she’s pretty funny. 

      So on Saturday there was a relief society conference. The senior couple in our zone invited all the hermanas over for dinner and then we all went to the conference together. They are Mexican and she made really yummy mexican tacos and we got to chillax in their fancy house and it was a good time. and watching the womens conference made me really pumped for conference this week!!! I cant wait. 

    Alright well I hope everything is going well back home, I love you to the moon and back and miss you tons. I sent the video with hermana fusi. She is from California but she is going to salt lake for conference so I gave her dads cell number and our home address. her first name is Pelalina or something like that so you can try to find her on fb, good luck! Oh and I really want to know who Jackie is going to prom with. until next monday.

con amor,