another week

Howdy family! How are you all doing? I hope great! Happy first week of 2012! This was a good week. GUESS WHAT! Hna Luki (luki and carlos) accepted to be baptized! She wants to think about the date but we are hoping for the 21st of january. She told us they had done their reading assignment we gave them this past thursday (read a chapter every day until saturday) and we told her we knew she'd have her response by saturday if she did that and prayed. She told us they talked as a family and decided they needed to be united in a certain church and she felt like this is the right church and that she received an answer that the book of mormon is true. I was so excited and so nervous. We were fasting and all i could think about in the lesson was... heavenly father you can do this, please you can do this!! I was so happy and we cant wait to start planning the actual baptism. We are hoping to get carlos as well, but it is all in the lords hands.
We have some really great investigators right now. One is named Raymunda. She is FANTASTIC! She came to church yesterday and I think she really liked it. She stayed for all three hours and wanted a manual for relief society. Her son is the boss of a bunch of buses and everybody knows her for either that or her little store. She is so sweet and is the person who let us try on the typical clothes for the women. I explained to mom last week, but only the women wear typical clothes... the men just wear normal clothes. the cutest are the little 2 year old girls that have the typical clothes on.. they are all adorable!
This was a week of a lot of meetings with our ward but they were great. I realize sometimes I talk too much, or voice my ideas maybe too often... hna smith assured me it was fine though. I am so excited to be working in my ward and stake. They are setting great goals and I am excited to help them accomplish them. The stake presidency both gave really great talks about setting goals. The stake president talked about the creation and how we felt god planned the creation. If it was just spur of the moment or if he had a plan and a vision of what he wanted to accomplish in the earth. He talked about how having visions of what we want to accomplish is great, but if we don't gain a testimony of the vision we wont ever accomplish. Like how nephi in the book of mormon didn't just believe the words of lehi... he prayed and asked for his own testimony. So that was really a great talk... something good to consider how the creation can relate to setting goals. Another thing i really like was that he talked about how we get revelation... he said 90% is information and 10% is inspiration. He talked about how if we set a goal for 3 men that will be ordained in the coming year to an elder might appear like a horrible goal, but if the information indicates that there is only 1 possibility right now and that there are only 10 elders in the ward or branch then perhaps it is a perfect goal. I really liked that... the information is SO important when we are setting goals. But yeah so that is exciting how they are getting excited about moving forward the work because I know our efforts will bless them and their efforts will bless us.
We also had a meeting with president for all the new missionaries. It was really good and we talked about the importance of doing role play. Hna Bautista told us that it is a way we can receive personal revelation for our investigators. President has already said to hna smith that she will train in the next transfer so that is exciting. She will be a fantastic trainer! she is a little nervous because there are rumors that only north americans are coming in but i am certain she can do it. So that means I will probably be leaving my area the second week of february. I realize now that that makes me sad! I love the members in our area and I will miss them very much. I understand now how fast the mission is going to fly by. I sometimes feel a little stressed about the time but I only have five more weeks to work in this area and then it will be on to another area with new members and new people. We talked to familia tistoj about them wanting to go to the united states. It made me realize how very blessed we are. just to put it into perspective... about 500 or so round trip to fly to guatemala and back in dollars. for them it would be about 35000 quetz... more than their house, motorcycle, and clothing cost. they are so amazing and I promised them if I married rich:) I'd fly them to utah. they are such an amazing family and i hope and pray i will be able to communicate with them in the future as much as possible.
Cecilia is doing good as a new convert. unfortunately her work isn't so great but we are praying for her and hoping she will find a new and better job. they haven't paid her for december (only a part of what she earned) and have forced her to take paid vacations. she has no idea if they are going to pay her and wont be able to work her full hours until march. i understand now as well why there are so many people working in the states from other countries. they make about 100 quetzals for an entire day of work here. of course the cost of living is much less but still. when they work in the states they can make about 56-60 quetzals an hour. anyway, so we are praying for cecilia and hoping she will find a better work. I am convinced it is god's plan that she is only working have days for her forced vacation. there are so many things that are falling into place for her and I think for the stress of the time right now, she can't see it quite yet, but i know heavenly father is going to help her out. she is such a great example and I love her family so much!
Anyway, times up! hope all of you had a great week! Tell sammy to write me! i cant wait to hear from her and how she is doing being home. let her know she can write me and i can respond if i have time! I LOVE YOU ALL! Safe week and happy week! Talk to you next monday!
love, hna nelson