Always wear a smile!

This week has been hard and frustrating. Home sickness hit me and its been a little hard to deal with especially since I'm not supper close with anyone. My companions cool and we get along well together but sometimes I feel like she only talks to me because were companions.... Katrine our investigator we had to stop teaching and it was a really sad disappointment considering how much heart, tears and love I put towards her. But I know that everything is okay. We got a new teacher however her names sister Simon she went on a mission to Bolivia and is pretty good at English. The other day she sweetly went around and asked us what were having problems with and what kind of things we were feeling and then gave us a little pep talk and told us what we needed to hear. It was really sweet. This week my district was kept out of the loop alot. They do this thing were random people from the streets enter the CCM. and then we teach them and get to know them. Well we weren't told about this so they came in and said we have CRE and were like no one told us so they gave us three minutes to translate and study what we want to teach them and then we had to go and teach them in Spanish... The lady was nice and she understood that we weren't really good at English. We had one of the teachers in with us watching and seeing how we did and afterwards he said we did really well. He said that even though we didn't know the language very well we came off like we did because we showed confidence... We also were left out of the loop on how our writing home days change. As you can tell from this email we right on Mondays every two weeks from 8 to 9 am. so next week will be my normal Wednesday 11 to 12 writing email.... then the next day Monday next day Wednesday... so forth... anyway so I forgot to tell you in the last email that the time zones the same here as it is in Utah... So thinking it wasn't I set my alarm on the first day and ended up being two hours early for breakfast... hahah we woke up at five....so its the same time zone... anyway.. On Sunday I gave a five m minute talk in Spanish... I did okay but i was so nervous that I know I didn't pronounce some things correctly but oh well.... I think the hardest part this week is that our teachers are now acting like our investigators but when you go in to teach them it doesn't feel like your teaching your teacher because they are completely different its actually kind of scary its like they have a twin or something... but anyway the first lesson me and my companion gave since we didn't really know Spanish that well it didn't go as well as we would have liked it and ended up going back to our class room in tears... the same thing happened to the sisters that went after us... but our teacher gave us a little pep talk on how its okay and its just practice and how we shouldn't beat ourselves up.. Teaching our second teacher however was a lot better and we could feel the spirit and we could understand each other pretty well and we could think of all the words in Spanish. We went from his lesson with a smile on our faces.
Everyone in or district has been a little frustrated with the language because were doing our best and were studying hard and its still doesn't seem good enough. Our teacher told us if somethings hard then we need to study harder so we all took that into consideration. They then gave us a pep talk and said that we've only been here for a week and were not going to be fluent in a week so we need to stop beating ourselves up... After that and after praying I felt allot better... My companion gets frustrated all the time because she thinks I'm better than here because I normally translate what the investigators saying to her and then help her with some words when she doesn't know how to say it. She said something really sweet during companion evaluation. She said that she loves how I always do my best and I try speaking Spanish all the time even if i mess up allot. She said she likes how kind and how I always smile and encourage people even when I'm sad then she told me she was going to try and be like me... I was so touched... So I told her that I would help her with the stuff she didn't understand in Spanish and explained it to her so she wouldn't be frustrated... I feel like we've gotten a little closer together because of it...
On a happier note I found my favorite word in Spanish! yep u guessed it! Buhos! Me gusta Buhos... I like owls!!!!!!! hehehehehehehh i think everyone in my district knows how obsessed I am with them because I talk about them allot and freak out when I see them. I also drew one that's pretty impressive. I'm not sure what happened but I've been doodling lately and my doodles are impressive I'm like where did this come from all of the sudden its like my mission gave me the talent to suddenly draw... its strange... heheeh well tomorrow is my p-day and were going on a field trip to the market and then going to see a paining map of Guatemala and go sight seeing so I'm majorly excited to be able to leave the CCM. Ad much as I love the CCM sometimes it really does feel like a jail.... its funny were right by a gym and a car dealer ship so on Saturdays they sell cars and are blasting music and then the gym plays loud music at night so we get to listen to music... we call it a tender mercy of the lord heheh will just be sitting in class and all of the sudden you hear drop the base and we all just burst out laughing. hehehe I'm excited because last week on Wednesday we got to go right outside the gate where a lady sells a whole bunch of cool things like handmaid scripture cases in multiple colors and they even make leather scripture cases with your choice of gospel pictures that they burn into the leather.... So next week I get to pick up my order...I ordered a leather quad scripture case with a pic of Jesus holding the lamb on the front and then Jesus praying on the back.. and then on the front its says Hermana Flewallen Guatemala Este Mission. Este is East...just in case you don't know... So this Wednesday we get more Nortas Americans.. and our Latinos that we had in our room along with the other Latinos are leaving and I'm really sad about it because I love the Latinos in my room its Sister Garica and Sister Bebetta and there both really fun and really nice... Hermana Garcia found out my weakness and chases me around my room giving me coskeyas which are tickles... shes so cute... anyway. But I'm going to miss them and it was cute the Latinos were like you can't like the new Latinos were your favorites and it was like a innocent gesture and ti was really cute...

It wasn't until my mission that I realized how much I took for granted. I Love my family and friends but it took me going a mission to realize how much I took that for granted I see so many people who aren't with there family's forever yet and it really put perspective on allot of things. I also took the gospel for granted, I thought I new so much about it and that I always leaned on the spirit but I didn't know what leaning on the spirit was until I got here. I'm constantly praying for strength and even though I'm exhausted and sick of sitting down for sixteen hours a day. I'm doing my best so that I can serve my father in heaven. I love everyone in the CCM. and I've already got the opportunity to see a bunch of the amazing people here and even though i don't know them I can feel the love that god has for them and i love them because of it. We went to the distribution center the other day and a little girl looked up at me and smiled and said hola. so i said hi back and she called me a rubia princess of god. blonde princess of god.. I had to k ind of laugh at that but it was really cute.
I love it here and my district has become like a second family to me in a non weird way... heheeh, we all struggle but we try to lift each otehr up by having fun and by studying together. On Friday for sports the hermanas played half court basketball it was soooo much fun and i got a tan from it... heheheh anyway I need to wrap it up... I just want to say how much I love and miss you all.. sometimes I wish I could just call you and ask for help and advice and get a little frustrated when I know I can't but its okay because I'm doing my best and studying hard and in no time I will become the missionary that god wants me to be and that's all that matters. si se puede yes I can! Love and miss you all! Thank you for those of you tat emailed me. La inglesia es Tan veradera the church is sooo true.
love your favorite missionary in Guatemala


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~Hermana Flewallen~ ;D

First week in Guatemala!

Hey everyone! I only have an hour and time already feels like its flying by so I'm going to try and make this brief but with all the info I want you guys to know. I warn you this is a weird Spanish key board and its a little hard to use but I'll try my best... Also since I have so much to tell you all my thoughts are probably going to be all over the place so hopeful you can follow me. I want to start off by telling you a funny thing that happened to us when we were about to land. We were all really excited and restless to get off the plane and
then all of the sudden the plane decided to turn and go in a circle taking ten minutes extra... Apparently there was a dog on the run way so we had to circle around until they got it off.... This week has been insanely busy!!!!! I have classes all day on learning the language and the doctrine. The language is coming along but I still have allot I need to learn. Both of my teachers, Hermano Medendez and Hermano Bonilla are really impressed by our districts improvement and want to do our best. They told us that out of all the groups they had we are the first that actually tried our best from the start to learn the language and the doctrine. The other groups waited about two weeks until they really started trying. Also our third day here, second day learning. They gave us a investigator. She doesn't really speak English, and her parents are both members and she has a younger brother on a mission. Her parents got her the job at the CCM, or the MTC. Her names Katrine, shes really sweet and nice. And everyone in our district in companionship's gets to take turns giving her a twenty minute lesson on a topic we all choose. Anyway to get to the main part of the story, we ended up teaching her and our first actual lesson with her was amazing!!!! We felt the spirit. She felt the spirit and she was crying and we were all crying. The language barrier didn't matter because we had the gift of tongues with us and it was probably the most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my life. I remember after our lesson my companion and I headed back to the classroom just smiling and basically in tears from the amazing feeling we felt in that room. However the next lesson unfortunately wasn't that good. The lesson before some elders from our group taught her how to pray.. And the second lesson she had with us she said her mom is really sick with a clot in her lung. And she went on to tell us in spanish how she prayed but her moms not getting any better. And its been really hard for me to try and figure out waht to tell her. The spirit that lesson was off and on and it was hard to communicate. It was totally opposite of the experience we all had with her the lesson before. So our teacher after telling us that we did what we were suppose to let us through a small pitty party to get us back on our feet where we had allot of food and got to talk.... We were all majorly frustrated and sad. I kept wondering what I did wrong and what I needed to tell her in order to make her happy... On the brighter side our third lesson went allot better. Even though she had allot of hard questions like why only the men have the priesthood and things like that... we were able to feel the spirit and got her to commit to read part of the book of Mormon. Oh and I forgot to mention our first lesson me and my companion CONVINCED HER TO GET BAPTIZED. :) Our morning teacher was speechless it was funny... But yep I'm trying my best to be the best missionary I can be. I want to improve myself so I can help others and when I study I found it so much easier to learn the language when I know that I'm doing it to help other people, like my investigator Katrine.... So were all back on our feet and doing well. Oh and speaking of my companion, her names Hermana Crouch shes really funny and nice. The Latinos call us Crouch on Flewallen because our names are really hard to remember... Speaking of my last name, no one can say it.. Hahaha sometimes I feel bad because I can't tell when a Latino calls my name... Anyway the people in our district Jerimas Jerimah... is me and Hermana Crouch. Hermana Boulough and Hermana Mckee who Hermana Boulough is the type of person whose so happy to be here and is happy all the time she really is a great example to me and Hermana Mckee and I are basically twins and I love it hehehe. Shes also really funny and nice.. Then we have Elder Williamson and Elder Wright who both have twins out on missions currently... fun fact... and then Elder Hansen and Elder Borelace. I love my district they are all really nice and kind and they have such beautiful spirits. I was so worried that when I came here I would be constantly homesick but Hermanas have been so kind and inviting and everyone's so fun and funny that its like I have a second family.. I'm not saying I don't miss u guys because i do!!!!!!!!!!! We were watching a movie on how the salt lake temple was made and at the end i was homesick. Also when they ask me questions about all of my friends and family. I get a little homesick along with when I'm writing in my journal at night i think of all of u guys as well and hope your all doing great! But after seeing all these missionary's around me so excited to be here and so happy to have all of us in our distract it makes me forget myself and go to work! My testimony has grown allot here. I can also say my testimony and say a small prayer in Spanish now! They also made us write a five minute talk in Spanish I just hope they will be able to understand what I'm saying heheheh :) I always thought that I was really close to god and it wasn't until going on a mission that I realized how much closer I actually became to god. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here and meet all these wonderful people. I fell in love with so many Guatemalan people and hope that I can meet the standards that god wants me to be at in order to help and bring these people to the gospel. I've never prayed for fifteen minutes straight before in my life and have found myself praying to know what to teach Katrine and what her heart needs me to tell her. I'm so excited to be able to serve people and the moment I put on my missionary badge I cried because I felt the spirit so strong. I love this gospel and even though I'm still unsure and afraid and miss everyone at home. I know that I'm not alone and that I have heavenly father and the holly ghost with me to guide me through this. I have already been receiving all the many blessings from people praying for the missionary. In one of the devotionals we had from last night the man said he wants us to become 24 hrs missionary's. Where we think daily about missionary work and we dream about it at night. the man went on to say that god only asks us for 18 to 24 months to go and teach his children. And that were on the lords time not ours. Our motto of being a missionary is to baptize people not for the numbers but that so others can be brought to the temple to have the temples blessings. Today we got to go to the Guatemala temple. Its soooooo beautiful and It had such a peaceful feeling inside. To help me remember the motto since I'm on the bottom bunk bed I bought a picture of Christ from the distribution center along with a picture of the Guatemalan temple and put them on the bottom of the top bed so that right before I went to bed and right when I wake up I have that reminder. Well so get back on a less serious mode The weather here is sort of like Utah, but its humid... Its not as humid as I was expecting though some days are hotter than others but we've been having a really nice breeze lately to kind of cool us off in the heat. Also my hair despite all the frizzyness loves it here. I have like naturally curly wavy hair here and its pretty... Hmm, its almost like I'm in a Provo of another country. We have bathrooms and showers like I normally would have. And its weird because there's an actual sign in the bathroom that's in Spanish that says please put used toilet paper in the toilet. Because once I leave the CCM or MTC apparently they throw there toilet paper away after you use it... ya that's going to take some getting used to... I know that was probably a little to TMI but it was a interesting change in culture. Also the food here is AMAZING we have a international cook who has made us food and deserts that are super delicious.. they told us to enjoy it now though because once were out of the CCM we wont be able to eat such great food.... Oh and another thing when we arrived here there are like normal looking school buses everywhere with really pretty bright colors painted on them and if u look inside its packed and I mean packed with people and I even saw a bus with people hanging on the outside of the bus. It look dangerous but it was interesting to look at.. Also unfortunately I wont' be able to get any pics of the temple or the CCM because they took our cameras away on day one and only allow us to have them on p-day two weeks... and they give them to us when were outside of the gate... Because apparently some elders in the past did some bad things with the cameras and made it so they banned them here... Anyway that reminds me our song we sing allot in class is the frozen song for the first time in forever... We sing this because the whole CCM is surrounded by a gate and there guards that guard it 24 7 so sometimes I'll admit the MTC feels like a jail and were all supper excited when we get the opportunity to get out and explore... But I really do like it here they have a nice gym and basketball court. The nickname they all call me is 'cheste', probably spelled that wrong but it means joke... they all tell me how hilarious I am all the time even though I'm not really trying to be funny... Anyway they also kind of lied about the packages.. u can get them here... As well as I think letters take about a week in the MTC by mail and then when I'm out of the MTC it will probably take about six weeks... To tell you a little bit about my teachers... our morning teacher who helps with language study and a little bit of doctrine is Hermano Mendendez. Hes really nice and is a great teacher. I finally understand allot of things that I wasn't able to learn in high school from him... He also just got back from him mission about two months ago. I can't remember from where though.. Hermano Bonillas who is our evening teacher.... Is... ah.. well hes funny but for some reason he is obsessed with black jokes... and raciest jokes.. He said that all the words we use in the USA that are raciest don't apply to him because he Latino.. ya hes a interesting teacher.. But hes also the teacher that were able to kind of relax and have fun with... And when we were all down the other day he really helped pick us back up onto our feet... It just proves how amazing the staff here is... We have two Latinos that are in our room of four people. At first we weren't able to communicate at all but know I understand about everything there saying and I love them so much. They are so sweet and kind and always go out of there way to help sister crouch and I. Its cool because they help us with Spanish and then we help them with English. The other night we helped one of them say a prayer in English and then I said one in Spanish. They only stay here for two weeks but we stay in the MTC for six and so will be getting new Latinos and i think that will be one of the hardest things is saying good bye to them. The people here have a huge sense of humor our translator for sacrament and stuff is really funny and he always says weird things into our little headsets like the other day he was like soft kitty warm kitty and it was completely random so we all bursted out laughing and I felt bad because the lady speaking didn't know what was going on and neither did the Latinos...the translator also has the joke that drives us all crazy. He says como se dice, how do you say in Spanish which means how do you say how do you say in Spanish... also our district quote is la inglesia es TAN vedadera! Which means the church is SO true. And we quote that all the time and since Tan isn't common the Latinos always try to correct us so we have to explain it in English then they understand.. that's another thing.. I think the Latinos all think were crazy hahah we asked them the other day and there like ya all the nortas gringos all the north white people basically are crazy heheeheh but i can tell that they really do have fun and enjoy speaking and helping us with our Spanish. Well unfortunately I only have five minutes until the computer signs me automatically out.. Oh and mom and dad I need family pictures also if friends and family can send me some pics of me with them in the mail I would really appreciate it i forgot to bring printed off pics and all the pics i do have are on m camera but i don't have it :( so id appreciate it if u could send me some pics in the mail! Well got to go.. oh and dad make sure my gecko isn't dead!!! heheehhe miss and love u all take care I'll write next Wednesday! Remember to pray and read your scriptures! sorry if parts of what i said dint make s since its actually a little weird and hard to write in English since i want to write in Spanish...


Love,
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~Hermana Flewallen~ ;D

I am in Guatemala!

So I only have five minutes just to let you all know I'm alive and okay. My P day is Tuesdays but there might be some weeks where It will be on Monday. I can't send pics from the MTC because they won't let us upload anything but once I'm in the field. Which will be in six weeks I can upload pictures to you all. Its been a lot of fun, all the sisters and elders are really nice and fun! The MTC is actually in the area I'm going to be in for my mission and the temple is right next to the MTC as well. Its really pretty... My companion is Hermana Crouch, shes really high spirited and is a lot of fun to work with. Hmm, Um, the teachers here are amazing and really funny as well! The food is extremely good.

...

...So the keys suck on the key board and I'm trying to get used to it.The space bar and such doesn't really work that well.. That is why I accidentally sent the other one before I finished it... Anyway got to go my minutes are up! Email or write you soon to tell you about more....

Love,

Hermana Flewallen

Shelby Flewallen - Missionary contact card

Shelby Mission Address Cards