HOT HOT HOT

Hello!

It has been HOT! it has hardly rained at all, and there is sooooo much dust, I get it in my eyes, and it's not a fun experience....Well last monday we did a noche de hogar, with the family that gives us lunch, and we made mexican food, it was delicious.

PLANTS COVERED IN DUST

This week has been pretty good, but I have never felt so exhausted in my life, Mission life is starting to catch up with me unsure emoticon but just gotta keep going. Right now we don't have any baptismal dates, we really are learning to develop more patience right now, and developing more faith for what the Lord has in store for us.

ONE OF THE MANY HILLS WE

WALK EVERY DAY.

The work continues and we put our efforts to find new people, and to help our investigators progress to arrive at that moment to make covenants with Heavenly Father. Last Friday had divisions again, and I went to Santa Cruz, its like next door to San Cristobal. It was a good day, a member accompanied us and brought her granddaughter, she is sooo cute! ( see picture) AND! the highlight of my week, was opening my package, I loved everything inside! thank you! thank you! The candy is delicious, the minnionaries are so ADORABLE! my fave part hahah Oh yeah my companion says MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS, she really enjoyed the puzzle card and the candies smile emoticon

Today we went to a park reserve, it was really pretty and took some photos (which i already sent smile emoticon ) That was my pday today smile emoticon I enjoy looking at nature, I feel like I'm more of an outdoorsy person now, but the bugs are still my enemies haha

Not that I'm counting or anything but I have 8 months on the mission, almost halfway! can you believe it!! time flies by, and I can't believe that almost everyone else is back from the ward, its so crazy!!
I love the mission, especially here in Guatemala, it's the best thing in the world, would never trade this experience for anything!

Well I hope you guys have a great week, happy b-day to Quinn
LOVE YOU GUYS!
Hermana Riley

MISSION LIFE

Mission life is "the bomb" and these are the many aspects I am learning to appreciate and to love about it:

First: I love my district, they are great! our correlation meetings are  always very uplifting, very helpful and at times funny (there are some funny missionaries)  

Secondly: Being in a companionship is so great, we always learn something from each other and you will be so proud to know that my companion is helping me to be more time efficient (can you believe that?) hahaha, hopefully that will stick with me all my life! 

Third: Do you know what is so great about getting sick while you are in your mission? well, you have so many wonderful Priesthood holders to give you a blessing. I was having some strong stomach pains and our Mission President's wife had some Elders give me a blessing and then she took me home to rest for a little bit and afterwards I felt 100% better. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and what it does for us, it is really the authority and power of God. All men should strive to be worthy of it, because it works wonders :)

Fourth: I have been creating better habits of scripture study and personal prayers, also to be more loving and to serve and be more attentive. 

Fifth: to be more obedient. Everyone has to be obedient all of our lives right? obedient to traffic laws, obedient to school guidelines, obedient to the laws of the land (like paying taxes) Here we must be obedient to our mission rules and by doing so we have the Spirit of the Lord guiding us every step, and that also helps us be protected. Listening to the mission nurse and following their advice especially when it comes to the local foods, what to avoid and what to eat. Missionaries here suffer so much of parasites (fun huh?) the best things is to avoid foods from the streets and some other things.

Sixth: The PEOPLE! meeting and finding new people to teach the gospel is the most exciting thing!! last week we found some great people to teach, including a family. We also went to help other Hermanas in their areas, they were getting discouraged about their progress but we were able to help them with their goals and we actually found new people for them to teach. I also met people that they were currently teaching and my heart went out to them, it was so exciting to see their potential, I know they have some wonderful people to work with. Our day was very successful.

The day we went on splits (divisions)

Oh! I GOT THE PACKAGE!! it is so nice to be close to the office  because I don't have to wait weeks to get the things that you send. 

I love you guys so much! Glad you got my postcard,

I hope you guys have a wonderful week!

Love you bunches!! xoxoxoxoxox

Hermana Riley

ps excited to open the package!!

SEMANA SANTA

This week in Coban:

I'm really liking Coban, teaching here is really pushing me out of my comfort zone and challenging me in a new way, all in all it is a good experience. The people here are very deep into their beliefs and they don't want to leave the traditions of their fathers, sometimes they harden their hearts and we find a lot of rejection, when we are contacting people they won't let us past their doorway, we just leave them with a short message ( standing outside) When they do let us in we do a happy dance (mentally) our hearts are full of joy and can't help to feel that they are the chosen ones. but it's not too bad, we always have members that accompany us. I'm still getting to know the ward, our goal is to gain their confidence let them know that we are here to serve and help them.

We as missionaries are sharing the video "Because he lives" , I love that video so much, I could watch it over and over, I feel the Spirit every time I watch it with the people and I hope they feel it too, we had a somewhat successful week even though it was Easter, it was a lot better than the Christmas I had in San Benito where it was all dead and hardly anyone received us, I mean it was pretty similar here but we somehow managed more lessons.

The highlight of my week was General Conference, I love it! so much spiritual insight and advice for life, talks about the FAMILY that's all they talked about! i learned a lot about what I am going to do with my future self, and a little bit of things to improve here on the mission. But I couldn't believe it, it was talk after talk about the family, which is really good, because we really do need to focus more on that, especially in this world! I too loved elder Jeffrey R. Hollands talk, it was AMAZING!!! and Uchtdorfs, I just loved them all haha

Here is a bit of culture for you:

As we all know, it was Semana Santa (Holy week) it is HUGE here in Guatemala, there were a lot of processions but I hardly saw them, on friday there were a lot of hand made rugs on the streets but I mean people spent Thursday night making them from a lot of saw dust, vegetation, flowers etc. It was super cool! and then during the day a procession would pass and walk over the hand made rugs and pretty much destroy it because they are not permanent. To give you an idea of what a procession is...basically it is a huge float being carried on the shoulders of men with an image of Jesus (statue) on the float. At one point they stopped and made a switch with women so now the women were carrying it, they also had a smaller float that children were carrying. The people that carry the floats have to pay about 20 dollars to have the privilege, some believe that their sins will be forgiven after they carry the float. I don't want to imagine how much that thing weighed, it was huge!

(EDITORS NOTE: to illustrate the Semana Santa traditions, I found this photos

 on the internet ~  Mom.)

This is a float with a Jesus statue in the center.

A hand made rug on the street ready for the procession

(This street dog thinks he is "all that") lol

This particular rug is made out of colored saw dust.

Another version of a hand made rug

made out of pine needles, fruits and vegetables.

On good Friday a member invited us to eat with them, and we had some traditional food from Coban, it was good! it was also someone's birthday in the family so we had cake, and it had fondant! which reminded me of you mommy smile emoticon it was delicious.

Tonight the missionaries are doing a noche de hogar (family home evening) with him, but I won't be there because I'm writing to you guys, due to my traveling smile emoticon
speaking of which! I went to the capital today, left at 4 in the morning and arrived at like 9, a worker of the church picked us up, I wanted to go to the distribution center but it is closed on mondays, (always my luck).... so he dropped us off at the dentist they fixed my retainer in like 3 minutes it was super fast, and the best part it was free, after everyone was done (there were only four of us) we went to the relief map to kill some time, because the other missionaries haven't gone, I enjoy adventure and seeing things again, I was able to give them a mini tour and history of the place hahaha ( I feel like an expert now) afterwards the man picked us up and dropped us off at central norte, where the busses are, we bought our tickets and we went to go eat lunch,and we left at 2 and got here at 6, so it was a productive day, a trip to the capital, even though we weren't able to do a whole lot, I wouldn't call it a day lost.
So I keep drinking shuko (dirty) water, I can't help it, the only thing I can help is clean it a little bit with my biocyde! and say a little prayer, so far I haven't had any problems, if there was ever a time I needed to pray more fervently for my food (and water) is now, grin emoticon I can't afford to get sick, the work must go on.

Well I love you family very dearly, hugs and kisses to everyone! 

Love you guys super super much!!!!!!
Hermana Riley

CHAPIN WORDS OF THE WEEK:

"Chapin" colloquial word for everything and everyone from Guatemala.

"Shuko" = Dirty

CHIPPY CHIPPY

HELLO EVERYBODY, IT'S ME AGAIN!

Everything is going great here in Coban although I do miss San Benito (last area)

The sun came out this week and that brought a little warmth but it wasn't nearly as hot as Peten. The weather here in coban is most of the time cloudy and there is always some rain, mostly sprinkling which is known by the locals as CHIPPY CHIPPY and that is probably why the vegetation here is so lush and green and beautiful. My week went well, we are working on finding new investigators and we found 10 people this past week.

One day we were walking past a house and my companion said to me "I've always wanted to contact this house but we never did" so I said..."Well what are we waiting for? Let's go for it!

We knocked and an old lady came out, we said hi and asked how she was doing? and she said...." not as good as you guys", we asked why? she said that her husband had passed away 4 months ago, so we started talking to her, sharing our message giving her comfort, she wouldn't let us in at first because said she was washing clothes and couldn't leave them unatended, but then she decided to let us in and turned off her washing machine, we talked to her and shared more about the plan of salvation and we gave a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon, she kept saying that she is catholic but she accepts the word of god and likes to learn and read things, and she was curious about what we said that there is life after death and that we can see our loved ones again. I hope she can open her heart more and accept more of our message and this gospel smile emoticon I am so grateful that the Spirit led us to her.

On Friday we had divisions and we went to Salama a city 2 hours away from our area. We went to help the hermanas, they have been having some challenges so we were there to help resolve them, there are two sets of sister Missionaries, this time we worked with on of the sets and the division went great, we completed some of the main goals they had, and we were able to advice them and cheer them up, the division was successful and as of now, they are overcoming their problems and starting to see the blessings due to their obedience. (It made me happy, I love being Sister trainer leader because I really get to help the Sister Missionaries, and I know the Lord called me for a reason)

On Saturday we watched the general women's broadcast. It was SO inspiring!! I loved it! I learned a whole lot, and felt the spirit strongly (I recommend all to watch it :D) It talked about families and being defenders of the home and values! LOVED IT!

The people here are so sweet, after our lessons they always offer us something to drink and its hard to reject because you don't want to offend, I always have with me a bottle of biocyde, that we are supposed to carry to put in the drinks so that it purifies it somewhat, I carry that wherever I go! food and drinks hmmm always a challenge I just pray to bless it every time so that it doesn't cause me harm haha really relying on my faith grin emoticon

Today for p-day we went paca shopping (thrift store) for sweaters and I got some dresses, clothes here are so cheap! and I saw a member from peten here, gave her a hug and took a pic smile emoticon will send pics next week, because I'm a chambona and run out of time SORRY!! takes time to load them......

I love you moommy super much!! Happy Easter week!!!

Hermana Riley


CHAPIN WORDS OF THE WEEK:

"Chippy chippy" what locals call when there is very light continuous rain.
"paca" the shipment of used clothing that is re-sold to the public.
"chambon, chambona" in Guatemala means someone who is flaky, useless, disorganized.

PUCHICA!

Puchica! let's see where do I begin?
My first week in Coban has been exciting! getting to know the area, the people and now as Hermana Leader I also have the responsibility to watch for other sister Missionaries.

There are 10 sisters that we are in charge of, some sisters are having some problems and we are having divisions with them this Friday to see what's going on and to fix it. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, it will help me grow even more.

I know you have been asking me to take pictures with the members and on the week prior to my transfer I finally was able to do that, I usually don't carry my camera with me mostly on p-days (we are not tourist you know) hahahaha but don't worry I will be sendind them to you soon. I haven't had the chance to send all my fotos from tikal, I'm working on it! haha I wasn't able to take fotos with all whom I wanted to because I didn't have time, this is what happened, presidente called me saturday night to tell me my change, had church on sunday and said goodbye to all that I could, thinking that I would have time monday to say goodbye to the rest, set up an appointment to have family home evening with Jorge and Amanda, but sunday night the ZL´s called me and told me that I had to leave monday morning, I was so sad it ruined all my plans, So I packed the entire time and didn't get the chance to call anyone.

Okay My new area! Im here with Hermana Hernandez, she was in my District in Peten previously so I already know her, which is nice, she is great, and we get along well! Thats just how I am, you know me easy going (haha)

In Coban, there are A LOT of hills! I get a leg workout every day, when one is on top of the hill the view is SO pretty!!! It's green and foresty here, I LOVE IT!, it hasn't been too cold, the summertime is starting here so it has been pretty warm, only at night and in the mornings it gets a bit cold, the best part is that I HAVE HOT WATER! so I get to enjoy taking warm showers every day!!! grin emoticon It makes me so happy, I love it!! I live in Barrio 1 in Coban , and we are definitely a lot closer to the mission offices, which is also nice, I still have the umbrella and my shoes are holding up just fine, just my toms are starting to wear down a teensy bit but nothing really.

Here there are a lot of q'éqchi people, which is also really neat, they wear their traditional clothing, here are called "Cortes (skirts) y wipil (blouses)" The entire clothing are hand embroidered , so pretty! I really want to learn q'éqchi', which is one o the Mayan dialects and we have investigators that is their primary language (they don't even speak Spanish), so we have to bring someone to interpret for us.

We have a member that feeds us, the food is a little more simpler, but still tasty, her name is hna lucia, her husband speaks q'eqchi', they have a fun personality, the other day they came with us to visit Isabel a q'eqchi woman, and at the end she gave us a drink of cacao and a root called yuka or malanga, I ate a little bit, it was alright tasting not terrible, but it looked so funky I couldn't eat more of it, so I brought it home with me then I gave it to hermana lucia, becuase i wasnt going to eat more of it.
Here in coban is not as a clean as Peten, especially the water, the people are so generous and kind, they always offer you a drink wherever you go and of course most of time the drink is not prepared from purified water so that's how the missionaries end up having stomach problems (including parasites) It is hard to avoid it even if we are careful in drinking from filtered water, everywhere we go they offer us a drink and it is so sweet of them that it is hard to say no (how can we?) a woman gave us lemonade and im pretty sure it wasn't made from purified water haha, I will always remember what you said before I left "you are bound to drink the water sooner or later" "just drink it and get it over with" hahaha, I know as missionaries we really can't be picky while out here. There is also A LOT of dust that gets in my eyes, which is no fun, but hey living the life here!

y ha recibido mis cartas?? estoy mandando un post card este semana de coban smile emoticon

Ok, I think I answered all your questions hahaha, everything is well with me, I am enjoying my mission A TON, and I am loving Guatemala more and more everyday.

take care, love you guys sooo much!!!!!

Hermana riley.

(editors note: no pictures from Hna. Riley, but this are some google images to demonstrate the beautiful traditional clothing original of Coban, every city has their own traditional regalia)

 

 

 

THE TUPUY

a braid that measures 9 meters long and

the color red symbolizes the blood spilled by

their ancestors.

 

The White Wipil represents beauty and virtue

all hand embroidered (including the skirt)

The skirt represents the 4 cardinal points.

 

 

Coban is know for their silver jewelry.

 

 

 

Rarely do they remove their traditional outfits for

other activities.

 

 

 

 

Even the men have their own traditional clothing.

 

 

 

 

Some very famous steps in Coban.

It shows how hilly it is.

 

I GOT TRANSFERRED TO COBAN.

Yeah now that i look back to going to tikal, it was a really good experience!!! Well only the missionaries went and the bus driver, we didn't have a tour guide, there were missionaries that already knew their way because of how many times they have gone haha. From San Benito to tikal it was like an hour bus ride. But thankfully that day wasn't too hot, it was just right smile emoticon

TEMPLE 5

FINALLY GOT TO WEAR MY TIKAL T-SHIRT

TEMPLE 4 

IN THE BACKGROUND

MADE IT TO THE TOP!

GUESS WHAT??, I got transferred!!!!! I am now here in Coban in barrio 1, I am now a Sister Trainer Leader, my new companion is Hermana Hernandez (from Mexico) 6 months in San Benito and now it was time for my departure. It was sad but I actually didn't cry, in my heart and soul I could feel that I was going to leave, all of last week, so I was preparing emotionally and mentally haha.

I packed all last night because the ZLs told me that I had to leave this morning at 5:30.... I kind of got a bit frustrated because i thought I wasn't leaving until tuesday and so I had plans to say goodbye to the rest of the people I didn't get to yesterday and have a noche de hogar (FHE) con la Familia Poot y Leon, but my plans got ruined, and I left this morning. The only time one goes to bed super late and almost pull an all nighter is when there are cambios (Transfers), I was up to 1:30 am packing, didn't go to bed until like 2, so today is a bit rough sleep wise, but you know its all good, life of the mission right!? Well I'm really excited to be here in coban, and now i have an even greater responsibility to take care of not just one hermana but a whole bunch of Hermanas that are in my zone, this will be fun, and interesting. I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father that has given me this opportunity and his trust. I got a lot of work to do but I am ready for it!! Bring it on! haha Hermana Perez is still in San Benito. Elder Brown is my pal he was in my district in the ccm and in peten, he is now going to sayaxche. He´s a good elder and really funny guy.
(I ASKED HER ABOUT HER FINANCES)
As you know mom, I'm pretty bomb with my finances, I always have plenty for what I need smile emoticon

Well the weather in coban right now is a tad cold but not too much, I left Peten just in time because the HOTTEST months are just ahead which will happen in semana santa (Holy week) when i was there it was bearable and my clothes handled there, just always got sweaty, but here i think i might have to buy some warmer clothes, thank goodness everything here is super cheap!!

This weekend we had district conference, its like stake conference, president of the mission spoke and Elder Morales (a member of the seventies spoke), it was really good and uplifting.
Really excited for the changes, hope all is going well with you guys, i love you super duper much!!!

more pics to come next week
love hermana riley

TIKAL!

Well first of all, this week went a bit better, found some new people to teach which is exciting. We are also teaching Marta and her daughter, they are seriously THE BEST! They came to church on Sunday just like they said and they enjoyed it, the best thing is that they  accepted to be baptized on the 28 of March!!  they are truly a miracle and proof that the Lord prepares the people for the missionaries :) Also on Sunday we met with the family Valladares, another family that I love so much! again this time it was only the husband that was there, but this lesson was definitely taught by the spirit, we finally got to understand him more,  We invited him to pray and read, we could sense that he really wants to accept it, but told us that he can't really make these types of decisions alone, that he has to do it with his family, but he feels they don't accept and don't want to change their religion, he is a bit confused, but we helped him understand what it means to be an example, and that if he receives his answer from the Lord, all will work out, and everything else will fall into place. Im not giving up on them!

This week I'm going to bring my camera everywhere I go,  so that i can take fotos of everything! :) because we are having transfers in one week and I suspect that my time in San Benito is coming to an end  :(

Okay now for the big news.... drum role please!!!!!!!!!

TODAY WE WENT TO..................TIKAL!!!!!!!!!!!! :D yeah thats right, you read that correctly, this past month, our zone completed our goals, so the Mission President gave us permission  to go to Tikal (the Mayan ruins) today! It was super cool, and I was finally able to put on my tikal shirt that i bought in the CCM haha The only bad part, was that we were rushed through the whole trip, so we didn't even get to see everything nor soak it all in, that was the sucky part. (I'm just like you mom, where I prefer going on my own on my own time, to do my own thing :) hahah ) Oh well, I got to see the main parts, and take  enough  pictures (I will send them next week because I ran out of time) You could really feel something special there, in the miniscule time that I had, I thought about the movie The Testaments, and tried to picture the people there and when Christ came, it touched my heart, and that was special for me, but I wanted more time to reflect. It would have been cool to bring my scriptures and read 3 nephi 11 the coming of Christ to the Americas. One day I will return (better when I can go with my mommy :) ) 

Okay a cultural thing or courtesy thing i have noticed here is that when people are sitted in like a circle or group, if one gets up to walk to a different room, they dont cut through the circle or in front of the people talking, they walk all the way around and say permiso, i always thought about that, i thought why dont they just cut through its a lot faster, but its to be polite to the people who are chatting i guess. Lets see what else happens here..... I cant really think right now, but i will think more about it this week and tell you next week :)

So thats the news for now, more to come next time, so stay tuned :)

love you guys bunches!!!

hermana Riley