The Living Christ

This letter is going to be short and sweet because I am having computer issues!!

This week was pretty difficult. We had to drop a family and that was pretty painful. However, we found another family of oro! We taught a lot of people who were pretty confused about the purpose of life in general, and we also had a crazy experience with a pastor. A lot of people wanted to contend with us this week, but we didn't let them! In each situation Hermana Jimenez and I could only offer our simple but powerful testimonies.

This week was also a week of miracles and spiritual experiences. I could tell that my hija was feeling a little tired of the missionary routine and she felt a little down. We started memorizing The Living Christ. That made a huge difference! We only have 3 paragraphs down, but I am glad to know that my memorization skills are still in tact! It was amazing to me how much closer I felt to the Lord. I know that He lives and I invite each of you to memorize The Living Christ too!

Yesterday we saw a huge miracle with our investigators. We had 9 investigators (Carlos, Esteben, Jose, Victor, Maria, Edison, Liber, Delmis, and Meradi..please pray for them) with one family at church! The best part was that most of them came by themselves. Usually I feel like I have to tie a rope to their wrist and walk them to church... But yesterday each of them came with a DESIRE and that made all of the difference. I am excited to help them this week to recognize the spirit, invite them to repent and be baptised.

I love this work! I hope that you are all being the best member missionaries that you can be!!! Help out the missionaries!!

Con Amor,
Hermana Minnick

Mis amigos

Mi otra hija la Jimenez

Mi hija la Leyva

Typical Whitney jumping picture!

Ode to companions.

When you're with someone for 24/7, seven days a week for up to 6-12 weeks, you REALLY get to know them. You even get to the point where you can predict exactly what they are going to say. What fattening snack they are going to buy from the tienda...etc.etc. You learn what annoys them and you do it on occasion. You also learn what pleases them and you do that sometimes too. When they are in the bathroom, you hide and when they leave, you jump out and scream like a maniac (make sure you are filming). Every once in a while you should make their bed and give them a bear hug. Always make them tell you their deepest secret. Together, you should at least have 3 inside jokes. A good companionship study is necessary everyday. Pray together. Laugh together. Cry together. Companions. They are so fun.

Sorry about my companion rant. It's just that this week we were only in our area for 3 days because the rest of the days were spent in Guatemala City and Reu. We had some good companionship bonding time. We had to go to Guate for my comps papers so that she could be legal here. Long story short, it took so long that we had to stay over night. I was really excited to take a hot shower because it was freezing. But, when I turned it on, only cold came out. Also it was a community bathroom and we were sharing with two old German men that smoked all night long. I decided to stink for one more day. 

Anyway, back to my companion. She is so cool. I learned a lot about her this week. Like how she is obsessed with cars. She knows all of the names and stuff. I just laughed and told her that one time someone asked me what type of car I had and answered "toyota mazda". It took a couple of google searches to figure out why they had laughed so hard. I also learned that she wants to be the one to propose to her future husband. Not me. haha. 

I was pretty stressed out the entire time though. We left our area and investigators in a very important time. Its like when you make a really good hot mouth watering plate of food and your mom yells at you to go and do something and you come back an hour later to a cold half empty plate because your sneaky brothers stole it. Our investigators went a little cold, but thank goodness for microwaves. If you just followed what I wrote then we can be friends. 

Anyway, have I ever told you that I love being a missionary? Well, I do. With all my heart!!!!!!

Here is a quote that I love.. "You have the Savior of the world on your side. If you seek His help and follow His directions, how can you fail?" -- Bishop Gary E. Stevenson

I know that Christ lives and for the rest of my life, I will defend His gospel!!!

Keep the commandments,

Hna Minnick

Hermana Jimenez - Whit's companion.  She is one of three missionaries from Costa Rica in the REU mission.  She is darling and Whit loves her to death!!!  This pic was stolen from the "Mision Guatemala Retalhuleu" FB page run by President Ruiz!!!!  

I only took one picture this week.  MY BAD!

Happy Octubre.

Meet my hija...Hermana Jimenez. 
Everyone thinks she is a gringa. Everyone asks 
if we are sisters, we say yes!

Guys!!!!!

I hope your GC weekend was relaxing! Mine was the opposite, but as my hija mexicana always says, "lo importante es que estamos vivos." Yeah. GC here was insane!  It is a HUGE opportunity for missionaries to bring investigators to hear the Prophets voice! GC season is the time to turn up your knotches to high power blast mode and invite every living breathing person with eyes to see and ears to hear the prophets and apostles of the Lord!!!!!!   We worked HARD. Even to the point where I thought that if I had to take one more step I would collapse. And I did, but luckily on my bed. We invited every person we saw, and it paid off.  So many people came!  As a zone, we didn't meet our goal, but we got pretty darn close!!! Satan worked really hard this week too, the satellite had a ton of problems. On Saturday we had to find members with TVs to watch the conference with all of our investigators. 

Also, this week it decided not to rain and so the heat in Pajapita was UNBEARABLE!!!! One night I woke up at 2 in the morning sweating buckets, I looked at my Lewis and Clark alarm clock and it said that it was EIGHTY NINE degrees in my room. I went to the pila dumped three buckets of water on my head and then attempted to sleep with my fan blowing hot air on me...haha.  Okay, totally got sidetracked... 

CONFERENCE!  Wasn't it awesome?!  My favorite talk was Elder Bednars!!  It was awesome because ALL of my investigators had their eyes glued to the screen!  I also LOVED hearing the talks in Spanish.  It is so much better than hearing a translator!!  The members here loved that too! I have to re-read and re-watch all of the talks though.. I have a hard time paying attention because I am always so worried about my investigators, watching their body language, and praying that they can understand and feel the spirit! 

FOLLOW THE PROPHET, DON'T GO ASTRAY!

By 4 pm after the Sunday session my companion and I were zombies, but we prayed for strength to go and challenge our investigators with FECHAS!  We are going to see miracles!

We had interviews with President this week. He is awesome!  As usual my interview was short and sweet. 

I know that I am forgetting something important but I can't rememberrrr!!!! 

Today we went to the beach and I fell asleep in a hammock for 30 minutes, it is the most relaxed I have felt in a very long time. I love hammocks, and the beach. 

Uh, as for Weston and his comment about annoying sister missionaries... Yes, you are right, there are some sisters missionaries that complain and whine and cause a lot of problems. I hope you know that I am not one of them. Also, I could make a really long list of dumb things that elders do. But I won't because that would take up my whole hour! Good luck this change, keep working hard!!  BAPTIZE!!! Love you Westifer. 

I love you family!!!!! 

Hermana Minnick

P.S.

HUGE SHOUTOUT to Renee Bontempo....best package of my life....goldfish!!!!!

I killed him with a broom.  He is the smallest one.
Tam: THIS IS SOOOOO GROSS!!  SORRY FOR POSTING!!!

In between one of the sessions of general conference my comp and I stacked a ton of wood while our investigator showered.

Today we went to the beach!