MY COMP AND I
WATER BALLOONS!
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!! Feliz Cumpleanos!! hope your birthday was a good day!
I had a letter ready that i was going to send last week, but couldnt, so im sending it today, for you and dad :)Hermana Riley.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
The Miracles of Missionary work!
LATEST LETTER FROM HERMANA RILEY, OCTOBER 7TH.
HELLO LOVED ONES!
My first week out in the field has been wonderful!! I love it here so much! I am so grateful to have already known the language, it makes it that much easier, the people here are nice and listen to us. The downside is that here they´re not very committed which is hard, and they seem to be busy all the time or they are not use to making appointments so its hard to visit them because they never set a fixed time, every time we visit them happens to be by chance, but somehow we fill our days by visiting people. Also another thing here which is very common we find couples don't get married but live together, they`ve been together for years and have kids! its strange, no entiendo (I don't get it) that's why this 19 year old girl is here, to teach this mature couples about doing things the right way (hahaha) imagine that!.
I love my trainer, she is the bomb! she is so kind! we get along really well, She is fun too, we are a good team! My district is cool too, have a good district leader he is nice. a kid named elder brown from my district in the ccm is also in my district here, which is cool, nice to see a familiar face.
To answer your question: Yeah we have agua salvavidas (5 gallon bottled water) our apartment came with a dispensor thingy, we have two bottles, they are 15 quetz each, not bad! i drink that and use that for brushing my teeth. I found out that we can have actual backpacks here, it's allowed, in fact recommended especially up here in Peten, so i bought one today, because the one strap bothers me after a long period of time. Here we are pretty taken care of, a member lady does our laundry and we pay her 120 Q a month (18 dollars), we make our own breakfast, and for lunch (the main meal of the day) we go to a member's house, her name is hna. blanca, holy cow, she serves so much food, the first time we ate there she gave us a mountain of rice,and then the next day it was a whole mountain plate of sphagetti, i never finish it, it is way too much for me, now she gives me a little less, but i still get so full, because of that we don't eat dinner becuase we are never that hungry, but we have little snacks just in case. the members here are so nice, they help us A LOT this past week we have had at least someone come with us EVERY night.
It has rained a couple times during the day, i never bring my umbrella just my rain jacket, that suffices, the first time my comp had hers, the rain wasn't too bad, there was one day we were proselyting, and we contacted this woman and taught her inside her home, when all of the sudden HOLY GUACAMOLE! it started getting cloudy and thundering, and then it started down pouring!! REALLY HARD!! people let me tell you, the thing was, the houses have tin roofs so it gets SO loud and noisy, we had to yell while teaching in order to hear, then we stopped and just sat quietly for a bit to see if it would stop, well.... It didn't! and i was praying that it would. We just started back up again, eventually it slowed down to where we didn't have to yell so loud, but it was crazy. Here you never know when it is going to rain (we don't have the weather channel) hahaha, so i just fold up my jacket and stick it in my bag, and i now bring my waterproof bag with me, its been helpful.
This weekend was general conference, i got to watch it in english which was nice, there was air conditioning and it was so refreshing! I learned a lot of good stuff, the sad part was we called everyone of our investigators and contacts to come, but no one did, except for one for the priesthood session and he went sunday morning too, he is " bien pilas" (very sharp). his name is jose alberto, an older man like 40, he is smart and we have great lessons with him. so yeah the frustrating part was i heard so many good things that wouldve helped our investigators but they weren't there.... triste (sad), oh well, hopefully they will come to church this weekend.
so i have to tell a story of a miracle we had this past week. my companion and I were tracting (knocking on doors), it was so hot out and i forgot my bottle so we went to a store and got some water, while walking down a street, my companion decided to go to this gate door and knocks, a little girl comes out so we introduced ourselves, then a 16 year old comes by, she lets us in, we walked into her house, it is a very humble home, even less so than the ones here, it was kind of sad. We started teaching this teenager her name is Estrella (which means Star), cute girl. My companion started saying, that we were guided here, and that we met her for a reason, that she is a Daughter of God, and that she can be an example to her family, and overcome these challenges she is facing ( her father is an alcoholic, never around, and mean, from what i could understand, and her mom left to the states with a sibling, so abandoning them, she is there with her Grandma and cousins) I could feel the spirit SO STRONG and Estrella started to cry, I know we were lead there to meet her. She has accepted baptism, and now we just got to teach her, towards the end of the conversation her Grandma came out for prayer and her cousins as well (because we were going to pray for them for their health), I gave the prayer. afterwards the Grandma was crying and Estrella too, I know they felt the influence of the Spirit, it was a sweet moment! i really love this girl, and i know she has a bright future, i can feel it!
The area here is good, i dont really know how to describe it, it`s decently developed, got your stores or tiendas and stuff. hhmmm i will have to think of stuff for what i want for christmas and birthday. i will get back to you on that
things are great here i love it! i have my camera now, so will send pictures, but the internet is soooooo sloooow, it takes forever to upload the pictures but I'll send some and i hope to send a letter!
with much much much love!!!!!
hna. Riley
HELLO LOVED ONES!
My first week out in the field has been wonderful!! I love it here so much! I am so grateful to have already known the language, it makes it that much easier, the people here are nice and listen to us. The downside is that here they´re not very committed which is hard, and they seem to be busy all the time or they are not use to making appointments so its hard to visit them because they never set a fixed time, every time we visit them happens to be by chance, but somehow we fill our days by visiting people. Also another thing here which is very common we find couples don't get married but live together, they`ve been together for years and have kids! its strange, no entiendo (I don't get it) that's why this 19 year old girl is here, to teach this mature couples about doing things the right way (hahaha) imagine that!.
I love my trainer, she is the bomb! she is so kind! we get along really well, She is fun too, we are a good team! My district is cool too, have a good district leader he is nice. a kid named elder brown from my district in the ccm is also in my district here, which is cool, nice to see a familiar face.
To answer your question: Yeah we have agua salvavidas (5 gallon bottled water) our apartment came with a dispensor thingy, we have two bottles, they are 15 quetz each, not bad! i drink that and use that for brushing my teeth. I found out that we can have actual backpacks here, it's allowed, in fact recommended especially up here in Peten, so i bought one today, because the one strap bothers me after a long period of time. Here we are pretty taken care of, a member lady does our laundry and we pay her 120 Q a month (18 dollars), we make our own breakfast, and for lunch (the main meal of the day) we go to a member's house, her name is hna. blanca, holy cow, she serves so much food, the first time we ate there she gave us a mountain of rice,and then the next day it was a whole mountain plate of sphagetti, i never finish it, it is way too much for me, now she gives me a little less, but i still get so full, because of that we don't eat dinner becuase we are never that hungry, but we have little snacks just in case. the members here are so nice, they help us A LOT this past week we have had at least someone come with us EVERY night.
It has rained a couple times during the day, i never bring my umbrella just my rain jacket, that suffices, the first time my comp had hers, the rain wasn't too bad, there was one day we were proselyting, and we contacted this woman and taught her inside her home, when all of the sudden HOLY GUACAMOLE! it started getting cloudy and thundering, and then it started down pouring!! REALLY HARD!! people let me tell you, the thing was, the houses have tin roofs so it gets SO loud and noisy, we had to yell while teaching in order to hear, then we stopped and just sat quietly for a bit to see if it would stop, well.... It didn't! and i was praying that it would. We just started back up again, eventually it slowed down to where we didn't have to yell so loud, but it was crazy. Here you never know when it is going to rain (we don't have the weather channel) hahaha, so i just fold up my jacket and stick it in my bag, and i now bring my waterproof bag with me, its been helpful.
This weekend was general conference, i got to watch it in english which was nice, there was air conditioning and it was so refreshing! I learned a lot of good stuff, the sad part was we called everyone of our investigators and contacts to come, but no one did, except for one for the priesthood session and he went sunday morning too, he is " bien pilas" (very sharp). his name is jose alberto, an older man like 40, he is smart and we have great lessons with him. so yeah the frustrating part was i heard so many good things that wouldve helped our investigators but they weren't there.... triste (sad), oh well, hopefully they will come to church this weekend.
so i have to tell a story of a miracle we had this past week. my companion and I were tracting (knocking on doors), it was so hot out and i forgot my bottle so we went to a store and got some water, while walking down a street, my companion decided to go to this gate door and knocks, a little girl comes out so we introduced ourselves, then a 16 year old comes by, she lets us in, we walked into her house, it is a very humble home, even less so than the ones here, it was kind of sad. We started teaching this teenager her name is Estrella (which means Star), cute girl. My companion started saying, that we were guided here, and that we met her for a reason, that she is a Daughter of God, and that she can be an example to her family, and overcome these challenges she is facing ( her father is an alcoholic, never around, and mean, from what i could understand, and her mom left to the states with a sibling, so abandoning them, she is there with her Grandma and cousins) I could feel the spirit SO STRONG and Estrella started to cry, I know we were lead there to meet her. She has accepted baptism, and now we just got to teach her, towards the end of the conversation her Grandma came out for prayer and her cousins as well (because we were going to pray for them for their health), I gave the prayer. afterwards the Grandma was crying and Estrella too, I know they felt the influence of the Spirit, it was a sweet moment! i really love this girl, and i know she has a bright future, i can feel it!
The area here is good, i dont really know how to describe it, it`s decently developed, got your stores or tiendas and stuff. hhmmm i will have to think of stuff for what i want for christmas and birthday. i will get back to you on that
things are great here i love it! i have my camera now, so will send pictures, but the internet is soooooo sloooow, it takes forever to upload the pictures but I'll send some and i hope to send a letter!
with much much much love!!!!!
hna. Riley
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
SAN BENITO PETEN!
I am out of the MTC!!!
and today is my FIRST day in the Mission field!
We had an early start yesterday! we left at 6 a.m. traveled over 5 1/2 hours to Coban, it took that long because there was an accident so we were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. Coban is a neat city, we ended up going to the church building and not the Mission home. I arrived with my companion Hermana Weicks an half of my district, which was fun. When we got there we met the Mission President and his wife and some other missionaries, they fed us a lunch of sandwiches, potato salad and ice cream. After lunch they gave us a presentation about the mission, finances and rules. The Mission President spoke for a brief time because it was getting late, we also had 10 minute interviews with each and that's when he told me where my area would be and you won't believe where they assigned me....drum roll please!...............PETEN!! The Mission President told me I was going to Peten the land of the Mayan ruins (TIKAL) If I get lucky maybe I'll get to see Tikal which has been one of my dreams. While we are here our goal is to try and make a stake up here, and then get at least 3 more in the north part of Guatemala and then they will build a Temple up here!!! how cool!
After my interviews, I met my trainer, she is so sweet and nice, my other mama haha her name is Hermana Martinez from San Pedro Honduras, she is just the greatest, I am so excited.
I got your package with the blanket and stuff, thank you!!!! I ran into the Hermano that is married to Alma and he said he had a little package but I didn't get that either.... oh well, still thank you! after I met my trainer, we had to load up the bus fast, because we had a long drive to Peten. But first we went to the store to get some things for the ride, we didn't end up leaving Coban until like 4:30 pm, it took like 6 and half hours to finally get to peten, it was a looooonnnnggg bus ride, and I slept for most of it, one by one we dropped people off at their houses, and then I got dropped off. we have a quaint place, an area to study, a little bar to eat, a small kitchen with a sink, microwave and mini fridge, with some burners, there is a little outdoor area to do laundry and hang stuff, there is a bathroom with toilet sink and shower, a bedroom with two beds, mosquito nets, and a place to hang our clothes, there are also fans, which are nice in the night time.
We got to our house around 11ish, got stuff ready, up here in Peten it gets pretty hot and humid, right now I am sweating bullets haha but the night time wasn't bad, we had the fan on, slept with my sheets and there were no mosquitos or anything, just ants on the floor, but they don't bother me. I am so happy to be up here. We got our plan for the day, going to visit a lot of people and do some contacting, I am so ready to work! no complaints, even the heat isn't really bothering me, I'm just ignoring it and dealing with it. I am doing so well! I LOVE IT HERE, there are some great people here. I will send pics next p-day which is on monday, i dont have time today because I was only allowed to write to you to tell you that I arrived safely and to share that I'm still alive, and loving it!!! I love you guys so much!! hope all is well! send my love!
Oh yeah! Hermana Curtiss (Mission president's wife) says: "thank you for sending your daughter I get to have another half Guatemalan" :) (because that's what her children are as well haha)
So stoked for general conference this weekend! first one out in the mission! also this transfer is short only 4 weeks, because presidente has some meeting in el salvador. and I learned that for christmas we can only call, not skype because the elders in p´okchi (algo asi no me recuerdo) where it is more rural and most of the people speak K'ekchi, well they don't have skype so its only fair i guess. Just a heads up.
I will be sure to let you know more next week!!!
con much amor!!!
hna. janelley riley :)
and today is my FIRST day in the Mission field!
We had an early start yesterday! we left at 6 a.m. traveled over 5 1/2 hours to Coban, it took that long because there was an accident so we were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half. Coban is a neat city, we ended up going to the church building and not the Mission home. I arrived with my companion Hermana Weicks an half of my district, which was fun. When we got there we met the Mission President and his wife and some other missionaries, they fed us a lunch of sandwiches, potato salad and ice cream. After lunch they gave us a presentation about the mission, finances and rules. The Mission President spoke for a brief time because it was getting late, we also had 10 minute interviews with each and that's when he told me where my area would be and you won't believe where they assigned me....drum roll please!...............PETEN!! The Mission President told me I was going to Peten the land of the Mayan ruins (TIKAL) If I get lucky maybe I'll get to see Tikal which has been one of my dreams. While we are here our goal is to try and make a stake up here, and then get at least 3 more in the north part of Guatemala and then they will build a Temple up here!!! how cool!
After my interviews, I met my trainer, she is so sweet and nice, my other mama haha her name is Hermana Martinez from San Pedro Honduras, she is just the greatest, I am so excited.
I got your package with the blanket and stuff, thank you!!!! I ran into the Hermano that is married to Alma and he said he had a little package but I didn't get that either.... oh well, still thank you! after I met my trainer, we had to load up the bus fast, because we had a long drive to Peten. But first we went to the store to get some things for the ride, we didn't end up leaving Coban until like 4:30 pm, it took like 6 and half hours to finally get to peten, it was a looooonnnnggg bus ride, and I slept for most of it, one by one we dropped people off at their houses, and then I got dropped off. we have a quaint place, an area to study, a little bar to eat, a small kitchen with a sink, microwave and mini fridge, with some burners, there is a little outdoor area to do laundry and hang stuff, there is a bathroom with toilet sink and shower, a bedroom with two beds, mosquito nets, and a place to hang our clothes, there are also fans, which are nice in the night time.
We got to our house around 11ish, got stuff ready, up here in Peten it gets pretty hot and humid, right now I am sweating bullets haha but the night time wasn't bad, we had the fan on, slept with my sheets and there were no mosquitos or anything, just ants on the floor, but they don't bother me. I am so happy to be up here. We got our plan for the day, going to visit a lot of people and do some contacting, I am so ready to work! no complaints, even the heat isn't really bothering me, I'm just ignoring it and dealing with it. I am doing so well! I LOVE IT HERE, there are some great people here. I will send pics next p-day which is on monday, i dont have time today because I was only allowed to write to you to tell you that I arrived safely and to share that I'm still alive, and loving it!!! I love you guys so much!! hope all is well! send my love!
Oh yeah! Hermana Curtiss (Mission president's wife) says: "thank you for sending your daughter I get to have another half Guatemalan" :) (because that's what her children are as well haha)
So stoked for general conference this weekend! first one out in the mission! also this transfer is short only 4 weeks, because presidente has some meeting in el salvador. and I learned that for christmas we can only call, not skype because the elders in p´okchi (algo asi no me recuerdo) where it is more rural and most of the people speak K'ekchi, well they don't have skype so its only fair i guess. Just a heads up.
I will be sure to let you know more next week!!!
con much amor!!!
hna. janelley riley :)
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