SSSOOOOOoooooo this week was awesome!! On Tuesday I went to the temple with everyone that goes home this month. I love the Xela Temple! It was one of my best temple trips of all time. I just thanked the Lord for this experience and for all of my areas and my companions and converts and just everything. I cant even express the impact my mission has had on my life. Guatemala has such a special place in my heart. and I also I got to hang out with hermana Minnick and Elder Medina all day long aka two of my favorite people on the planet. Oh and also I ate subway, haven't done that in 17 months... it was yummy. 

   On Thursday my companion was super sick so I painted the house. In Guatemala if you want to paint your house pink its free game. It looks nice, and also the house is really clean. There is this sickness going around and literally EVERYONE in all of central America has it unless you are me because I don't get sick. its called chickenguya. I have zero idea how to spell that but thats how it sounds... me and my district leader just call it chicken goo goo. Its super rough! everyone who has it is basically dysfunctional for a solid 2 to 10 days. The elders in my area have it, my comp has is, our investigators have it, members have it. its really slowing down the work. but I feel great so don't worry!

   Then on Friday we went to Xetutu wahooo! (guatemalas disneyland) We were there with 4 other zones and I got to see my Brillantes family! We did a christmas gift exchange between the 4 of them, I love them so much! it was so great to see them! So it was super fun to run around like children and hit up all the rides and eat icecream and watch a magic show and see all my friends! nice stress relief!

     Then on Saturday we had a really good work day and I was so pumped to teach and talk to everyone about El es la Dadiva and we had one of the best days we have had yet in our area.

   Then on Sunday we went to the stake center for the christmas devotional. As a zone we planned an activity to do with the stake and with our investigators. We set off floating lanterns! like the one from tangled! that was definitely something new in Guatemala and everyone LOVED it! we paired each investigator with a member and they set off a lantern. it was magical! and President and his wife came and all the office people and we got a lot of contacts out of it. it was super cool! then we had a sleepover with hermana Laiche and Mendez, hermana Laiche is hands down my number one favorite latina on the planet, she is so adorable! I will be making a trip to peru to visit her very soon. 

   And today we went to play paintball which I have done like 10 times because I was in San Felipe for 8 months and its in San Felipe. but its always a good time. Well. happy december! tell Ryley I say hi! love you all lots! hugs and kisses! 

love

hermana outsen

                                      Minnick Outsen and Valeriano! BFF

                         San Martin reunion! I love them all so much!  

hola! Sorry I am writing early today, and also sorry again because I don't have much time so this email will probably be short and lame. We are going to Xetulu (guatemalas disneyland) again as a mission on friday so we don't have pday today. Just going to write, buy some cereal, and get to work. So thats why I’m writing early.

   So not much happened this week! We painted our house, baptized a nino, fasted like 6 times because between the four of us here in peru we have like 7 quetz which we discovered is enough to buy a weeks worth of beans and a few tortillas. yum. we had a multizona conference, it was a huge machete! President just whipped us all into shape for like 3 hours because my mission is really disobedient and half the mission is going home next week so everyone is also very unfocused.  After the conference we all repented and promised to be better. 

   My zone performed a musical number. I had a solo and I woke up with NO voice. so I went outside and picked some lemons off some tree outside my house and downed it. I may or may not have broken my fast with pure lemon juice.  but it worked! I saw my two favorite people on the planet at the conference, hermana Minnick and Hermana Valeriano. I love them! they make me so happy! um... okay well thats all. I love all the pictures you sent! I ate beans and tortillas for thanksgiving.. provecho.. the elders in my area and I planned a big dinner with pie and turkey and other good stuff but then we ran out of money so that didn't happen. next year... love you all! talk to you next week!

love,

hermana Outsen

 chillin with some kids from the Enriquez family.  
 Yasmin and Isabel Enriquez

our recent converts from the Enriquez family. Im obsessed with the enriquez family....

Hello hello! Thank you all for the birthday wishes. My birthday was AWESOME! We had two really big activities planned for Friday and I was really worried and stressed but they both went really well which is why my birthday was awesome! 

   So remember the family Enriquez (no question mark on this computer, perdon..) our giant family of investigators who all came to church this month and are getting baptized like one by one, ha ha. Well I am still obsessed with them, love them more than anything. So my zone leader called me on Wednesday and he was like vos Outsen, what can we do to help you with that giant family you are teaching. and I was like, well elder... you are probably going to  think I am crazy, but I want the zone to act out the restoration. The mission wrote a play and was going to perform it in every stake and I heard about it when I was in San Martin but then it never happened. So I called my bff in the mission who is now the assistant and I was like, hey find out if they got the script started and email it to me. so he did. and my zone performed it for the Enriquez family. We all dressed up in costumes, piled in a pickup, and did a play in their house! it was awesome! I was so nervous because that is not your everyday lesson but it went so well! they loved it and the spirit was so strong and it totally animated them! it was awesome! oh and on our way to their house is started raining really hard and we had to do the presentation outside because they don't really have a house (they are super poor) so me, two elders, and two of the Enriquez kids knelt down and said a prayer for the rain to stop and it stopped! and we performed the play, and literally right when we finished it started raining again and it rained all day long. WOW! COOL! we all got soaked on the way home in the pickup. but its fine.

   Then that night we had a ward movie night. We watched Frozen and the missionaries made popcorn and lots of new faces showed up. It was an awesome birthday! I am starting to really love my zone! something really chafa about the mission is that I get so close to so many awesome people and I probably wont ever see most of them again. I literally get so attached to so many people and then they get sent off far away 6 weeks later, it is so sad. Oh well. I am happy. All the guatemalan christmas traditions are starting up again, I cant believe how fast this year went by! well have a very happy birthday this week mom! I love you lots and lots! 

love

hermana outsen

hello todos! greeting from Peru Guatemala! I am so insanely happy! I love my comp, we get along so well its the best thing ever! So this week our entire focus has been the Enriquez family! I love them so much! I thought it wasn't possible to love anyone more than the family Tem Perez from San Martin... but then I met the Enriquez family. Sadly they could not get baptized this week like they wanted because they have a few problems with the commandments. but we are working on it. I love seeing them everyday! They are 25 in total. and this week Ernesto, the dad and or grandpa of the whole crew got baptized! This guy is adorable! he is blind and he doesn't have any money at all but he is so sweet and happy. We went to pick him up in a pickup because they live super far away, and almost the entire family came! 22 of them! it was incredible! we stuffed 22 guatemalans in the back of a pickup and took them to the baptism, it was awesome! 

   oh and before the baptism I called my old zone leader of 5 changes aka my best friend in the mission who is now the assistant. I was like, hey vos, hows my favorite mexican doing? and then I asked him if he could come with us to meet the family because this kid is the most incredible teacher, he works miracles! im pretty sure none of my converts would be converts if it wasn't for him, he is amazing! so the assistants came with us and we had the most spiritual lesson with the whole family and they were able to do some interviews and give some blessings, it was great! we have big plans for this family! 

    um... so... im really sunburned right now, again... we played soccer and frisbee with 3 other zones and zona brillantes was there! it was a blast!  alright well I don't have much else to say, so I think I will just send a bunch of pictures of the Enriquez family! love you lots! 

love,

hermana Outsen

hola!! This week was freakishly awesome! Peru is the promised land, I love this area and my comp rocks, I have never felt so comfortable with a companion so early in the change, we are the very best friends. She is so cool! I will be visiting Honduras shortly after my return, I promised La Castro. 

   So on Saturday hermana Julieta got baptized! she is defs the most prepared person I have seen on my mission. She is 20 years old and her boyfriend brought her to church so thats how we found her, but he broke up with her yesterday... his loss. Anyway, So about 3 days before her baptism we go to visit her and she was like, Hermanas, I have to tell you something, can I talk to you in private? My heart dropped, I thought she was going to tell us that she wasn't ready or that she talked to some pastor and doesn't want her to get baptized, I basically just assumed the worst. but then she tells us, hermanas, i have decided to serve a mission! ha ha ha ha WHAT!!! okay Julieta go for it, but you have to get baptized first! when she told us that her boyfriend dumped her she was like, I am just glad that I got baptized for God and not for him. she rocks! I love this woman! 

   So Julieta is part of a family of like 20, no joke. they are all really evangelic and the boyfriend was convinced that they would never accept the gospel. but we have been teaching them every time we visit Julieta and they have been progressing quite nicely. She has 3 brothers that are 18, 23, and 33 and they all do bad stuff. but they have come to church with us twice and they came to the baptism and when the mom saw them in their nice clothes ready for church she started to cry and hugged me and said, this whole family changed when you showed up canche. and then she came to church too and loved it! and her blind husband came to church too! he yelled amen and hallelujah after every word but thats okay. its kind of catchy, I found  myself doing it once or twice. In total we had 11 investigators in church! all thanks to the Enriquez family. I have no doubt that I was sent to this area to meet this family! After church on sunday we went with my district leader and he did a butt ton of interviews and we put 7 baptismal dates for this weekend! 7! It was awesome! this family is one in a million! So we were with the family Enriquez basically the whole day. We had an assembly line going. I was teaching the adults, Hna Castro was entertaining  the kids, elder wilden was filling out baptism registers, and elder potter was doing interviews. it was the most incredible thing! This Lord is way too good to me. 

   They live really far away and by the time we got back to Peru is was dark and we were all starving! like about to drop dead from hunger. So the 4 of us wasted an entire hour trying to figure out a away to find something to eat without breaking the Sabbath day and without begging the members. (we don't have a fridge in the house because if we plug in a fridge the power goes out, also we don't have running water in the house... I bath, brush my teeth, wash my dishes, basically any task that requires water... i do in the bucket.) so we don't have any food in the house. We got soo desperate that us and the the elders sat outside our house eating dried cereal, corn Flakes. De Repente a returned missionary passed by on his moto, laughed at us, then invited us to dinner. he made us eggs, sausage, and yuka. it totally hit the spot. 

  Alright well pray lots and lots for the Enriquez family. love you lots!! hugs and kisses! exito! 

love

H Out.