So I had a really good week! but... my mind is completely blank right now, I cant remember anything about my week. but it was good! I love my comp, love my area, Aide and vicky are going strong and have bap. date for this saturday at our zones mega splash! wahooo! in the zone we are 12 missionaries and we have 14 bap. dates for this saturday so we are just going to do it all together in one big giant baptism. same service, same place, same time and we have invited all our members. it should be really cool! I am excited! we are seeing lots of miracles in our new baby zone, brillantes, brillando! 

    um... okay... so this week I went on divisions with hermana Terry in her area. I love terry, she rocks! we are mega amiga s. but I really missed my companion because we are also mega amiga s. I love her too, she also rocks! We had a multizona conferencia with President. It was really good. learned a lot. On thursday we had zone bonding and just played dodgeball and played unity and trust games. It was a real good time, I love my zone! I´m really really sunburned right now, I cant even smile because it hurts my face, its really hot here. im so sorry that this email is totally lame, my mind is completely blank right now, i am going to start writing things down during the week so my letters aren't so chafa. im happy! i hope you are happy! keep cruising. missions rock! 

love hermana Outsen

MOM!! I loved all the pictures you sent! So glad you went to all my friends home comings. I cant believe they are home! that was so fast, holy crap, I’m so freaked out. Tell all the guat. moms that all of their children are great missionaries and tell elder Heiner that Reu misses him. Glad you liked your presents. I also have a shot glass for Kasi but i bought it a while ago and I’m an id and forgot to put it in, but tell her she will get it pronto. 

   Okay well I’m pretty sure that you found out that I didn't have changes before I did, ha ha ha! So I will be in my area for 6 months and with my hija for three changes. My favorite district leader, Elder contreras had changes, and one of my best friends in the mission, hna valeriano also had changes, besides those two there were no other changes in the zone but I feel like I am in a whole different world just because those two left, the zone is soooo different. now I know you are probably really confused and thinking, now hna outsen, I thought you said you didn’t get along with contreras. yeah I thought I didn't  but turns out  we do. we were together 3 changes and I saw him completely change into a new person. we had some rough patches but by the time he left all 6 of us (me, valeriano, laiche, zenteno, contreras, and his comp, elder zuiniga) were heart broken. I told contreras before he left, coche, you make me so mad and you are such a jerk, but I love you like a brother.¨¨so true! he is now a zone leader but he calls our house like every day just tell us how much he missed his ¨favorite district.¨my new district leader is Elder wilkes, he came with me. and my new roommate is hna Beckstrand, she also came with me. and there are like 4 other people from my group in my zone in San Felipe. it is SO MUCH FUN! We are all so obnoxious together but it is such a blast to be all together. We were all so close a year a ago in the ccm and it is just pure joy to be all together again. Valeriano went to a COATEPEQUE! lucky duck! and she has a fantastic comp, Hermana Pinedas hija! she will love it there. but I miss her so bad it hurts. 

      My comp and I had an AWESOME week! Usually, I love my comps at first and then with every week I like them less and less to the point where when changes come I am ready. but Zentinito is the complete opposite. I  love her more and more every day and this has been our best week together yet. and I honestly love her to death. I am to the point where when we get together with other zones I don't even want to talk to anyone else because my comp is darn funny that I just cant get enough of her. but only around me. she doesn't talk to anyone else in the mission, just me. and it makes me feel special. like a secret spy who is the only one who knows how cool she is. and she is gaining more confidence every day and talks a whole lot more in the lessons. and we are teaching really cool people! so I am excited for one more change here with her. love ya to the moon and back! keep sending me pictures and writing me funny emails, I love them! 

con amor,

hna Outsen

Glad to hear you are still going on your lunch dates! Have you heard of any mission gossip that I don't know about?? ha ha. I actually just talked to Elder Heiner and I am sending a package home with him for the family, I hope you like it. and yes Hermana Terry cut my hair, she rocks! Im sure she would cut your hair when she gets home, you would totally love her!

   So as you know changes are coming up. I have absolutely no idea if I have changes or not, it could go either way, ill let you know next week. but there will be some changes in the zone which makes me sad, we are all sad. but we have a really fun morning planned for tomorrow for our last day together, it should be fun! BEST ZONE IN ALL THE WORLD IM CONVINCED! okay so this week was really awesome! I know I say that always but seriously, it was a killer week! We found this girl and she knows nothing about god or jesus or religion in general which never happens here, guatemalans are obsessed with jesus. So it has been quite an interesting experience teaching her just because all guatemalans are the same except her, I really liked changing up teaching techniques and stuff. We found out that her boyfriend is a member and they both came to church yesterday and he hasnt been to church in like years and years. so that was pretty cool. We will see what happens with her, she is a cute gal. 

    On Friday Mallito and Olga invited us over for dinner. Each of us made a dish from our country. (and when I say each of us made I really mean Valeriano, Laiche, and Zenteno cooked and I ate...) It was the best thing ever. Valeriano made some Hawaiian dish with seaweed, rice, soy sauce, and spam, and some chicken stuff from the Philippines. Leiche made some potato casserole thing from Peru. and Zenteno made a Mexican dessert. oh my gosh it was all so good! For sure the best meal I have had in one year. But we never eat dinner on the mission, just a butt ton of lunch. and I ate my head off and it was at night so I just about exploded. but it was worth it because it made me happy for a solid 3 days because it was all so delicious! I felt like it was thanksgiving. 

    On Sunday afternoon me and my comp were walking to a cita and it was raining really hard and my comp randomly fell over and twisted her ankle. We were with a member so he rushed us to the soc soc presidents house and she wrapped it up and put some weird cream stuff on it that i am pretty sure came out of some random leaf she found on the street, its fine. So my comp was out but I really wanted to go to our citas because we had really good citas planned with really cool people. So we did divisions with the members. My comp stayed in the house and I got to go out working with maria Isabelle and Mario in San Alfonzo! it was one of the best days I have had. Probably the 2 smartest members of all time (besides Rony and Sheni) We had some of the coolest lessons and they both have KILLER conversion stories. they're so cool. and Mario just invites everyone to church ever second always. its so cool. Mario is the guy we live with by the way. I love him! he rocks! 

    Okay well be safe. love you all! I had a really really fun pday today! We are here in Mazate with three other zones and we played soccer, volleyball, and all went to taco bell together (yes they have taco bell here in Mazate! win. Shout out to Kendra) and I basically saw all of my favorite people in the mission. My mission is packed full of really really really awesome humans. okay. love ya lots. miss you tons. 

love hermana Outsen

sorry no pictures today because my camera is being a spaz. lo siento. 

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