MIRACLES & HOME MADE MEDICINE.

Hello Family and Friends:

Well, I've been in Guatemala for 6 months now and sickness finally got me.

Two Saturdays ago I started having stomach problems, I didn't have the desire to eat at all and I threw up a couple of times, but I didn't want to bother the nurse so I tried curing myself, drinking a lot of water and the lady that does our laundry tried giving me homemade remedies and gave me a stomach massage apparently to help with indigestion she also gave me mineral water with alka zeltzer, I actually felt better, I also asked for a priesthood blessing and my Zone leaders gave it to me.

I felt good for a few days but then this past weekend, I started getting an upset stomach again, but no throwing up or anything just pain, so Hermana Bake (missionary couple here in peten) told me to drink maizena (corn starch) she said that helps clean out the digestive track and stomach so I've been taking that, and now I feel a lot better, things are back to normal (I think) haha.

Hermana Blanca was gone last week, so we had to fend for ourselves again hahaha but since I never really was hungry I hardly ate, which worked out for me (Hermana Blancla is the member that feeds them every day) Hermana Blanca came back yesterday and that makes us SUPER happy because she is the best, she is like our mom here on the mission.

Now for my Spiritual experiences smile emoticon so we had a miracle last week, last sunday my comp. and I felt prompted to talk to this woman and her daughter and after chatting with them we got their information and made an appointment to visit them, she was very receptive, she is very familiar with the church and had even gone a couple of times because her daughter was a member (but had passed away a few years ago) Now the funny thing is that not long ago I was reviewing the area book and I had seen the name of this lady which actually caught my attention thinking that I wanted to go visit her and the irony is that without actually looking for her we found her and that's when we were impressed to go talk to her so I strongly feel that we were meant to meet her. My companion and I were Amazed, It was crazy!!. A week later we went back to see her, her name is Marta, we talked for a while and told us it wasn't a coincidence that we went to talk to her, and that the Lord has always put missionaries in her path, we were shocked, then I shared my experience with her on what happened, that I had an interest to find her and how the Lord helped me and she totally agreed! we invited her to be baptized and she said yes, her daughter also really wants to go to church. This was truly a miracle and an amazing experience, I could really see the hand of the Lord helping us out, and preparing the people to be ready. I will never forget this moment, the only sad pàrt is is that transfers are soon coming in two more weeks and I don't know if I will still be here to see her get baptized, I feel my time in San Benito is coming to an end, but I hopefully pray that I can at least stay one more transfer because this is something really special for me. But we will see what the plans of the Lord are. Another thing, Elder Morales a 70 came here to san benito again, and we had a conference with him, it was really great! I learned a lot of things, and gave me a lot more motivation to keep being diligent and work even harder, the Lord is accelerating the work here and the members are going to be more involved, and we as missionaries now have a lot more responsibility but it will be good, because all this is for the benefit that san benito becomes a stake. So that made my week go better. This is the last week of Hermana perez training and then the last two weeks will be normal missionary schedule, we'll get to leave before lunch this time! smile emoticon haha
Today for pday we went to las arcas and petencito, its a zoo/ habitat reserve i believe, it was really cool, there werent a whole lot of different animals but the ones that were there were still cool, jaguars, birds, MONKEYS, crocodiles, fuzzy turtles, deer, a 3 legged jaguar. It was neat, also there was uncaged monkeys just walking around, i got to pet it, and it followed us for a bit, it was super cool. it was a fun experience, and i believe soon we might go to tikal! because this month we completed are goal and a little more of baptisms, so fingers crossed!!

I haven't had any problems with dogs, a lot of the dogs here are pretty calm, they never bother me.

Well that was my week, more to tell for the following, stay tuned! hahaha

I LOVE YOU GUYS MUCHISISISIMO!!!!

HUGS AND KISSES
hermana riley

Our Zone 

P-Day!

MONKEYING AROUND

Stalker Monkey

WATER SLIDES

BUT NO WATER

MY COMPANION AND I

In Peten we don't see stray dogs but we see 

stray Jaguars.....J/K This is a Jaguar in captivity LOL

MANGROVE

MR. MONKEY

A LAKE IN PETEN 

Mormon's, Jehova Witnesses and Nuns oh my!

Well my week went so so, we didn't have a lot of success in completing our goals, but hey, that's life, it happens, but doesn't stop me from being excited and happy! :D But aside from not having success I did have an interesting week:

 Last Wednesday we had divisions with the Hermana Leaders, I went to Santa Elena with Hermana Faught and my comp. stayed and held down the fort with Hermana Sorenson, before we split our ways we all ate together at Hermana Blanca's house, which is always great.... but this time it got interesting:  my companion started getting a headache and asked Hermana Blanca to "help her" Hermana Blanca knows a lot of healing traditions (Mayan traditions) she is a special lady. Well this is an old mayan tradition and its where they take the air out of your head, I know crazy huh? how do you take air out of your head, well I will explain. Hermana blanca runs her hands through your hair, she can feel/sense your energy, and she feels where the air is in your head, well wherever it is she grabs a lock of hair twists it around her fingers and yanks hard!  but when she does it you here a POP! which is the air pocket she found, it's so crazy, to hear the pop pop pop pop. She did it to each one of us, and told us what she felt with our energy... She told Hermana Sorenson that she was a little too stressed,   with Hermana Faught she has good energy, cares for the people and has a lot of love, With Hermana Perez... she has a strong spirit, it took a lot for Hermana Perez to get here and had a lot trials. With me... Hermana blanca was feeling my energy and said that it was really good, felt a lot of love, that I was noble, tierna (motherly, something like that), while she was saying that she started tearing up! and then hugged my head haha, I was surprised. It was an interesting experience :) (but man afterwards, your head feels so weird, but you feel so relaxed, it took away the headache of my companion, and she had such a high energy that, it was unreal haha)  Friday we were trying to visit an appointment, but they weren't home, we kept knocking and knocking but nothing,  then we saw two pairs of Jehova Witnesses, and they were knocking on doors in the same street as us! we were like oh man, I see how it is, watch out people, mormones, evangelicos y testigos, oh my! haha well we went to go visit an investigator and the funny thing is that they  didn't open the doors to the others, but they opened the doors to us and let us in (because we know them) in my mind I was like take that! haha but  I was just joking of course. 

Later that day it was dark out, and we were walking by a catholic church and we walked by some nuns, but my comp wasn't paying attention and when she looked up, she jumped a bit, the nun scared her, I laughed so hard, its because she wasn't expecting to see anyone, but there happened to be a nun. Then at night, it started raining hard, me and my comp ran home, and we got soaked! when we got to our house I changed and then I was playing with my hair, I put it all in front of my face like cousin it, and my comp wasn't paying attention she was looking at her camera, I sneaked up on her and just stood in front of her waiting for her to look up, she finally looked and FREAKED OUT! This time I died laughing! it was so funny! I'm so bad, but I cant help myself, it was a golden opportunity!

Well that was what happened my week, vamos a ver que pasa este semana! :)

I love you guys super much!!! 

Take care! 

Hermana Riley

ps thanks mom for the hug, a member lady came up to me Sunday and gave me a hug from you, explained everything, how small the world is huh?

My Companion who fell to the floor laughing

RANDOM PHOTOS.

high tide on the lake

Mosquito bites getting swollen

"Eat Sister! you are too skinny!"

San Benito District.

DISTRITO SAN BENITO

Hermanas de Distrito

CARMEN AND AMARILIS GET BAPTIZED!

FEBRUARY 9th 2015

We had two more baptisms last week. Two beautiful women one is Carmen and the other Amarilis. First the story of Amarilis. Do you remember I shared with you in one of my previous e-mails that one day all of our appointmenst fell through so when we prayed about what to do next we were prompted to go visit this Sister from the ward and when we went to her house she referred us to her daughter (Amarilis) she had recently lost her husband (who died) when we saw her she was doing alright and told us that she wanted us to continue visiting her and to not leave her. We taught her the lessons set a baptismal date. One amazing thing she wanted to do before she got baptized, she wanted to ask forgiveness of her aunt ( her aunt had offended her and her mom) and had never apologized to either of them, so Amarilis wanted to ASK for forgiveness even though she didn't do anything wrong, she was the offended one but she felt that wanted to enter the waters of baptism with a pure contience and feel truly repentant, so she did that! she went and asked her Aunt for forgiveness and all went well. Amarillis and Carmen got baptized, it was so wonderful, they are both strong women, and will be true and faithful to the end. It just shows that the Atonement works both ways it also works for the victims who have been offended to receive that healing and peace, and this has been a really big example for me! it is Wonderful!!. We hope they will be big examples for their families so that they can too be baptized and that carmen can be sealed with her family one day. I have faith and I know it will happen smile emoticon

So that was our miracles for the week!

I haven't heard anything of a volcano nor have their been earthquakes, I'm pretty much in a bubble here in the mission world haha, nothing new, things are great with me and my comp. Tonight we are going to have a noche de hogar and we bought a cake to celebrate the hermana birthday, se llama familia trujillo. I will try to take some pics, today we played volleyball and me an my comp. completed our chores. No baptisms for the following week, but we are working with some new people!

Hopefully you guys got my emails now, I do write back i promise!
I love you guys sooooooo much!!!!!
FELIZ DIA DE CARINO!!! HAPPY VALENITNES DAY!!!!!! MWAH XOXOXOXOXOX HUGS AND KISSES!:D

LOVE hermana riley

FRANCISCO GETS BAPTIZED!

FEBRUARY 2ND 2015

You didnt get my email last week?..... sad face frown emoticon (Aol sometimes doesn't receive emails from missionaries, I had a problem with that too, and switched to gmail and it was better)
but here is the email I sent last week

We had transfers and I'm staying in San Benito for another change!! yippee!! but I get a feeling that this is going to be my last change here frown emoticon but I'm going to enjoy it to the MAX!

This past week, me and my comp have been really trying to contact more, and we have found some really great people that we have a lot of hope for!

Last time I shared that we were teaching a wonderful elderly man and his name is Francisco Banos, well he was baptized this past weekend! It was very special. Francisco is 73 years old and his baptism is one that I will never forget. This coming week(February 7th) we are going to have two more baptisms, their names are Carmen and Amarilis, we have been working with Carmen for 3 months! and now she is getting baptized! grin emoticon the adversary has been working against her with her family, but she is strong and knows this where she is supposed to be so she is fighting. But its wonderful to see her conversion and her testimony.

To answer your question: With the recent converts it's our responsibility to reteach all the lessons again, and so yes we continue to visit them and help them to be more involved in the church so that they can have a strong foundation.

We are also trying to work with the jovenes (youth) to get them excited to go on a mission. We have a few girls that consistently go out with us.

Last week, Hermana Blanca (The wonderful lady that provides their daily meal) wasn't home so me and my comp had to fend for ourselves for food, it was a sad week! there is nothing like eating at Hermana Blanca's hahaha, She went to go pick up her hija (daughter) from the airport because she was coming to visit from the states with her baby, her baby is SO CUTE!! chubby too! reminds me of me when I was a baby Hahaha (editors note: yes she was a CHUBBY BABY)

Things are going well, and I continue to learn and to grow. I LOVE being on a Mission! So happy to have made this decision that I will never regret! I'm never sad nor terribly sick, which is a blessing. I'm in my second home grin emoticon (just waiting for that time to go to tikal.... tick tock tick tock time is passing by.....) hahaha One day! (She is only a very short distance from the Mayan ruins TIKAL but they can't go unless it is a special reward from the Mission President)
But glad that everything is going well with the family, hows grandma?
going to try to send more pics!

love you guys super much!!!!!!
keep up the faith!
Hermana Riley

FRANCISCO BANOS

DOING GREAT!

To answer your questions: After I lost my debit card I cancelled it right away and the mission office sent me the cash I had in my account  when the Mission President came up here (especial delivery hahaha) so it's all good! I'm still waiting to receive the replacement card. I'm getting along pretty nicely without my rain jacket, thankfully it hasn't rained much, I have just been using my umbrella more often, its been holding up and I have been more careful with it. 

I'm doing great! still loving it here, loving the mission even more! I'm going to be sad when I finally get transferred.... but I have some training to finish first. Last week we had interviews with President his wife and the assistants, the assistants wanted to know how our area was and gave us some advice, it was good. I talked with President (I  was really excited for that), it really helped me motivate me more, and help me increase my faith  more, opening up my eyes to what I can be really doing, I've always known but have been a bit of a chambona lacking a little bit of faith, but all that is changing, that's why I'm here to learn and to grow, and its wonderful!   talked with Hermana Curtiss, she asked me about my health, and I told her that I'm doing pretty well just got a little cold which affected my throat that made me hoarse and I could barely talk (that was fun haha)  but I'm getting better now, I never get anything worse than a cold and this is only my second time, its because the climate changes a lot form hot to cold but its all good!  I got it under control :) oh yeah Hermana Curtiss told me to tell you that she is proud of me :) The interviews were really great, really helped me a lot. 

This week we have a baptism, with Francisco Banos, it has been an answer to our prayers and fast, he is great. I will send pics next week. We are contacting a lot of people and finding some few hidden gems, we are going to go backk and visit those and hopefully they are those elect that the Lord has in store for us. lessons that we teach during the week are about 30 lessons and people and families are probably about 10, I'm not really sure, we visit different people its hard to keep track (I don't have my agenda with me to double check...) but yeah.

Did you guys get my postcard?? 

Well until next week!

Hermana Riley

GOING TO GUATE "THE CAPITAL

This is what happened when we went to the Capital from Peten: We left for the capital at around 10 PM, we picked up the elders on the bus in their area at around 11:30, the bus we rode in is pretty nice, its like a coach bus in the US and it has two levels! (a double decker bus) it had tvs (but that doesn't really matter because we can't watch them anyways ( anyone traveling from the Capital to Peten or Tikal this is the type of bus they would ride), plus they weren't on because it was nigh time. The seats were reclinable, and super comfy (kind of like on the airplane) Im sorry mommy! i didnt take pictures of the bus..... i was too tired and didn't think about it. Well while on the bus i tried to sleep, but it was hard, because even though the seats were comfy they weren't comfy enough to go into a deep sleep like in a bed. I brought my thick socks, and two sweaters which helped, but at times I was still cold because I was in a skirt and you know how breesy it can be with the legs haha but I brought an extra pair of clothes just in case for emergencies and so pulled out a skirt and used it as a blanket to cover my legs,( the Lord gave me a brain for a reason haha) well we traveled all night and arrived to the Capital at around 7:30 in the morning, it was a long a journey. When we got there a driver came to pick us up someone working for the church ( a member) and he took us around to where we needed to go. I asked if we could go to the temple ( i really wanted to go inside and do a session because I miss the temple so much) he said yes, but we got there and the temple was under maintenance, even the distribution center was closed, so we couldn't even buy anything either, bad luck frown emoticon, but we got to go in the gardens and take fotos,

We then went to the CCM, we wanted to say hi to President Cox, but they have a rule in the CCM where they are not allowing anyone to come in , not even missionaries, for security reasons, we were just there for a teensy bit because the chauffeur works for the ccm as well and had to get some paperwork, we then went to the office building of the church, and picked up some other missionaries from other missions, after that we went to sign the visa papers, we waited for an hour and a half until we signed, (it was SO boring), and I was tired so I fell asleep in my chair, it was kind of different seeing other cultures there (like Asians) in the US is normal but here, not really because normally is all Hispanics, its even weird to see white people but I'm getting more used to that since I'm in a touristy place and I blend in perfectly with my half Guatemalan blood I tan easily and I am VERY tan hahaha. Anyhoo, after that, one of the elders from our area had a dentist appointment so we went to that but not before going to Mcdonalds to have to lunch (It's been awhile since I've had Mc, and I realized that don't really miss it haha) the Elder got his appointment taken care of, and then we were taken to a mall to buy our bus ticket. We bought them and then we had a lot of time to kill, it was like 3pm and we didn't leave until 9 pm. We walkedd around, we went to the bathroom, and I walked in the stall with my bag and agenda, I left and we went to buy snacks and stuff, and GUESS WHAT?? I discovered that I didn't have my agenda, I left it in the bathroom, I ran back but it was gone, I asked everyone, even the information desk, no one turned it in, I was so disappointed, I checked my bag a bajillion times and nothing, I prayed, and we went to walk around look at stores and ask more people, but nothing, we then went to go eat dinner at the food court, the elders bought pizza and my comp chinese and i just had a fruit tart, but the elders were kind and shared and my comp. (but i wasn't really hungry) we went back to the info desk but it was closed, all hope was lost, and i just had to face the facts that I lost my agenda, my agenda is my life! I had my schedule, my plans for the week, THE TICKETS to ride the bus back home, MY DEBIT CARD!! my insurance card of the mission ( yeah bad luck i had last week, loosing everything) but the good news was I didn't have to repay for the bus, they told us it was fine, and we got on the bus just fine, with no problems. We traveled all night going back to our Mission, I tried to sleep ( this time I bought a mini blanket for the bus) We arrived at 5:40 a.m. but the funny thing.....hehehe I was asleep when the bus arrived at the bus stop in Peten, and all the people were gone! I woke up and I realized the bus was leaving the bus stop, I looked around and there was no one just another man sleeping, I was like....OH NO WHERE ARE WE GOING??? (we could probably had ended up back in the Capital again hahaha.) I walked down to the first part of the bus and knocked on the door of the driver, the bus stopped, I woke up my comp. grabbed our stuff and we exited the bus, (it didn't go to far) but who knows what would have happened if I didn't wake up haha. Well that was my adventure and that next day was rough due to the lack of sleep. But the rest of the week was good!, Seeing some miracles with our investigators ( me and my comp. did a fast so that our investigators can accept a baptismal date) and we are starting to see them to open up and we hope to see baptisms coming up soon! smile emoticon I learned to be even more patient with the things that i lost, and learn from my mistakes and move on.

Things are going great here in San Benito, and I am alive and well.

Well I love you guys so much!!! keep up the faith and hardwork!

Our short visit to the Temple

waiting for or bus to go back to our areas.