Hunucma - Week 1

What a week!

This week I got sick, starting with last Monday night, during the night, I couldn't sleep because I had this pain in my chest. I kinda had it the last two weeks, but I wanted to see if it went away on its own, but that night it was so bad that I couldn't sleep. It was also weird because I threw up during the night, and the next morning after taking an acid reducer pill. We went to the doctor and he said I have gastritis, which is really common for the kind of food that's eaten here. So now I'm not supposed to eat lime, citris fruits, or chiles :( I've been feeling a lot better though, so hopefully it goes away completely soon.

Despite feeling sick, I've been super impressed with the ward in Hunucma! Several people have said they want to introduce us to their friends, so that's super exciting. My last ward didn't have enough faith in their friends, I guess, so we'd rarely get references.  Its a lot more fun having so many good people to teach.

An example of this was Tuesday, while we were eating, the mom (Tere) of the member that was feeding us stopped by and said she had news for us. Tere said she went out visiting her friends, with a friend and they ran into an old investigator (Berenice) who was really excited to see them. Tere asked if she wanted the missionaries to start vistiting her, and she said yes. Then Tere said she felt prompted to ask the baptismal question and Berenice accepted! A couple days later we showed up to visit her with Tere and she really is as great as Tere said. Her husband also has potential, so maybe we'll have a new family for the ward soon.

When I got here, there wasn't a single person with a baptismal date, because they all just gotten baptized the week before I got here.  Fortunately we have Berenice and one other that's gone to church several times, just never was asked to be baptized on a certain day. The other person’s name is Mileybi,  and she is super cute. She lives right next door to the prayer house, (Hunucma barely got switched from a branch to a ward) she is 23 and does hair,  and is in school to be a nurse!

Other things about the ward... I finally met the American couple! The husband got baptized 3 weeks ago and his wife grew up in the church and has been active most her life, but has been inactive for the last 14 years. She is really great though and I can tell had a lot to do with her husband's conversion. Neither of them speak Spanish, so I had to translate church for them. I thought it'd be a piece of cake, but it was harder than I thought. We also have the problem with the Preisthood hour because before there was an elder that spoke English in the ward, but now we have 4 sisters and I'm the only one who knows English. They are one of 4 member families that life in Sisal (pronounced like sea salt, without the "T"). To get to that part of our area, we have to take a little van and it takes about 20 mins.

Sisal is really pretty! I guess its just barely starting to get a little touristy, as of about 4 years ago. There's not much there, but it’s a cute little place. Haha! The first day we went was Wednesday, and we visited a family that lives right on the coast pretty much. They sell shell jewelry, so when I first got there we walked through their display and went into their little house. I felt like I was in a movie because the brother of the lady we came to visit handed us a coconut with a straw in it, and we sat and talked to his sister as she was cutting up a hotdog for dinner getting ready to watch her TV drama series. She has 3 younger boys who act like they're all teenagers and I can tell love their little life on the beach.

Love,
Hermana Harper