Haloween and My Birthday!

At 4:30 in the morning, October 30, I was woken very loud and familiar sound for firecrackers, but they were much closer and so much louder then ever before! Then the whole orphanage crouded into my room, all the kids, workers, and everyone! They came in singing a cluster of birthday starting with one that talks about how its early and they are sorry for waking me with all the noise but its a special day...... then the birthday song... and then a song about cake and how they want it now even though its early.... and then they counted up to my age.. UNO... DOSE.... DIEZ.... DIEZ Y OCHO... DIEZ Y NUEVE!!!! It was such a funny and adorable tradition that I was so excited to be a part of!
I guess the history with that, and to answer the question I have had since we got here of why the fire crackers go off all night, is that it is a birthday thing! They light off the firecrackers and wake up singing to the birthday person! Its a very fun way to start the day. I came downstairs, after going back to bed from the crazy waking, and there was a sign for me in the kitchen. The girls were so excited to see me in the morning because they were going to let me shower first (It was actually warm, for once!) and they were going to straighten my hair and get me all ready for the day! This is everyone before they came in singing to me! My birthday sign!! I was so excited to see it!Our pretend costumes! Pretty good huh?We made masks for my craft hour! It was fun and the kids had a great time! Props to Liz, it was her idea and she put it all together! Mary and I made cake for Haloween! It was YUMMY!

This is Renee, he is a STUD! He was a cute jester!The girls looked BEAUTIFUL!We played a game where the kids had to look for a gummy worm in a bowl full of whipped cream without using thier hands. We made a huge mess and had a great time!I cheated...

Mary and I plan messy and fun activities!

Caught in a Landslide

We, everyone at the orphanage, started a big project to help those people that are stuck in the mountains with no food or water from the landslide. We started by going to a Guatemalan version of Costo and getting tons of rice, beans, and sugar. We then, with the help of all the kids, put everything into smaller bags. We got lots of water from mostly donations and some from the orphanage. Then we took a drive in the 4-runner with everything piled in the back. We had to take a really roundabout way to get to them but after a very scenic 2 hour drive up bumpy dirt roads we arrived at Dona Jullú. There were people waiting at the bottom of a trail where we unloaded the car and hiked up with them to take all the food, water, clothes, and other supplies up to where they live. It was awesome to be part of such amazing, first hand service. Mary and I handed a bag carrying 2 ensure drinks, chicken flavoring, tomato sauce, rice, beans, sugar, and flour to every mother of all the families that were there. Then we played games with everyone. It was fun to loosen up and laugh with them. It still blows my mind to see where some people live compared to the way I´ve grown up living. They live in houses smaller then my room, it makes me very grateful!!

This is us hiking up the mountain to where they live! They carry so much stuff on thier head, it´s legit

This is me giving a cute little girl a new doll! She was so excited!

This is a blury pic of Mary and I passing out the bags of food.

They fed us the best corn I have ever had in my life! Also lots of other yummy veggies that they grow!! The food here is amazing!!The moms got really into the piñata! The kids were all sitting on the side in fear of getting hurt, it was really really funny!A house, crazy huh?

¡¡THE CHURCH IS TRUE!! ¡¡¡La iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera!!

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

© 1995, 2008 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. English approval: 5/08. 35602
We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.
In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.
The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.
We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.
Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations.
The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed.
We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.
We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.

San Pédro

Mary, Ganelle (a volenteer that is working at a school about 20 minutes away from us), and I were able to take a break from our busy volenteering lives to vacation a little. We decided to hit Antigua and San Pédro. We left on a Monday afternoon and took the chicken bus to Antigua. We were able to see our super star favorite spanish guitar player, Angelo Guzmán. We staying there the night and then took a 3.5 hour chicken bus ride up the mountain to Panajachel. Soon after arriving to Panajachel we took a 30 minute boat ride across the blue ¨Waters of Mormon¨ and staying the following night in San Pédro.

¡¡¡Volcano!!!

We accidently got off the bus too early and had to take a sketchy 2 mile hike before catching a cab, but it was worth it. Check out the View! I can just imagine Nephi standing right there!

We also saw this on out hike down. It says.. ¨News of great joy Christ is coming soon, prepare!¨ True True!

This was on the boat ride from Panajachel to San Pédro, it was way fun and so so pretty!!

The water and the volcano, Muy Bonita!We stayed in this SKETCHY SKETCHY hostle overnight for $3.. it was horrifying. The roof was just a piece of tin and I felt like i was going to wake up dead from the sick bed and the bugs! The view was amazing though, and the memory of that night is unforgettable.

The name of the hoslte is my name!! Notice how it says ¨SAFE¨. Well hey, I lived.

There are random bathing women everywhere, I admire the confidence. I´ve been gratefull more then ever out here for the things that I have and take for granted everyday. Like a warm and clean shower, a family, food... This was the view out our $3 window... Pretty good....

The food there was amazing! Breakfast is served!!!

Zooper Day!

It was a sunny and beautiful day full of the sounds of animals and children joined together like a song, thats right we went to the Guatemala Zoo! I thought for a science activity we would all pack up and make to trip to the zoo, 17 people and one 4-runner later we were there. Mary and I were excited to see that to take everyone was very much doable with our HELP funds. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the exotic animals, and I have to say that I think I enjoyed it just as much if not more! The only sad thing was that it made me miss my frogs back at home..

Guillermo dropped all of us off in the morning and took off to run some errends. We had five volenteers (Mary, Renee, Young-hee (a volenteer from korea that came just for the days for about two weeks), Mike, and Me) and 9 kids at the zoo that day. We left the babies home because it would have been absolute chaos with them at the zoo!

Brando fell asleep half way through and I got to hold him, it was wonderful for me because when he is awake he rarley cuddles.

The kids were all so happy and cute at the zoo and it made me really happy.

We took a break in the middle to go visit some of Guillermo´s friends that were close by and them went back to the zoo. This time Guillermo joined us, the kids love him so much and were excited to have him with us.

We all piled back into the car for the ride home and on the way Guillermo pulled over and showed us that city at night, it was beautiful!

Another Week Has Come and Gone

I keep thinking how crazy it is that I have been here for almost six weeks! Things here have been a bit crazy! Guillermo, the man who runs the orphanage, and Mandy, the girl that runs the nursery, left about a week ago. Also my little baby Alejandrita was sick and having to go to the hospital for two nights took one of the workers, and a wedding took another. So for two days we were down to the cook, Mary, and I. It was CRAZY! I had five babies all night and most of the day for two days! Three of them slept pretty good but there are two that are much younger and need lots more attention during the night. It was rough but I was happy to help. Three of the kids here went back with their family this last Wednesday. We all are very sad because they were a big part of this home but also we are very happy that they are back with family. They all got very dressed up to go to the court to see it they could go back with their family, also they all wore a big and happy smile all day. I hope that they are happy and that they know how much they are loved and missed here.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen all day cooking up a storm and making all the plans for a fun Halloween activity... I, with Mary´s help, made tons of chocolate cupcakes for the kids to decorate. I crushed up chocolate cookies to make ¨dirt¨, made orange and blue frosting, and had lots of different candies to make the spooky decorations for the top. The kids had a great time and they were super creative! We used tootsie rolls to roll up and make into spiders and webs. All the volunteers and workers made them too and we all had a ball!

Our newest project is trying to help a group of people in Guatemala that are cut off from the world by a landslide. We did not realize how serious it is until we talked to a women who is up there, she could not call anyone because she has no minutes on her phone and the only way we would talk is because we called her, she told us that they are starving and lots of people are missing in all the debis. They can not get enough supplies because its too dangerous to get to them with all the rain and landslides. She is part of a group of 70 families who are completely cut off. They are going to try to meet us at Losa Plotentas, a place between the orphanage and Guatemala City, where we will give them whatever supplies we can. I hope that it will be safe for them and that they can meet us, also that we can collect up enough supplies for them. We will mostly be looking at giving them food and clothes. Remember them in your prayers.

We just welcomed a new volenteer here and are going to say bye to one on thursday. It´s always sad to say goodbye and fun to meet new people.

I guess thats all! Adios!

Senior Year!

My senior year was a blast! I have been blessed with amazing family and friends that keep me forever happy! This last year I graduated seminary, high school, and dental assisting school. I was able to work full time with my angel Farah, and at a rock climbing shop! Life was crazy and fun and I´m really excited about where it´s taken me.