Newsflash! Guatemalans love the “ch” sound!
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| With Hermana Vilma, Baul’s Relief Society president and an utter gem! Her kids playing FIFA in the other room while we ate lunch reminded me of my younger brother, Jonah. |
How is everybody doing? I’m sure the subject line has led to a number of questions. Good thing I’m here to answer!
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| Hermana González has some very inventive uses for her resistance bands. |
What a week. We went through all of the nurse punches. From your standard diarrhea, to having to send a missionary home on medical release, to elders getting COVID and reaching a fever well over 104° F, to a severely sprained ankle, to what we thought was appendicitis, but turned out to be severe period cramps! Bet you weren’t expecting that one, right?
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| Can’t believe I was out here matching the bougainvillea. |
But what I found to be the most exciting medical emergency was the one I got to experience firsthand, not just from a phone call’s length. What can I say? I like talking about things that have to do with me.
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| Look closely for the hidden gem of this picture. |
Here I was. Walking down the street with Hermana González at 1 p.m., just before lunch. We were trying to get in some street contacting and ended up walking down this alleyway. We’ve walked our fair share in my time here, so we didn’t really think much of it. Hermana González pointed out a house with the number 0-12, and we started talking about how we should come back and take a picture under it for when I hit my one-year mark (in less than two weeks ackkkkk), when suddenly this street dog (or chucho) came crawling out from under a car and started barking at us like crazy and getting his friends to join him. So there were roughly eight dogs in hot pursuit of us.
Here’s a word of advice: As tempting as it is to run away Scooby-Doo!-style from aggressive canines, you never start running away. That just aggravates them even more. So Hermana González and I started a typical slow-walk away from the scene. We’ve had a fair share of run-ins with angry animals in the streets. Normally, that works out pretty well, and I think it served us well this time around as well, but one chucho was able to barely graze Hermana González. It mainly got her skirt, but two of its teeth managed to puncture her leg. And you know what that means. A rabies shot!
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| I don’t know how to define the word “chale,” but this pic best describes the emotion of it. |
Hermana González was pretty freaked out that she had to go in for the shot because we went to the member lunch right after these traumatic events, and one of the sons told her that she’d have to get a shot in her stomach. But off to the health center we went. I had to stand outside and wait, and during that time, a little kid threw up in front of me, so that’s cool. But Hermana González is getting the second shot today, and she is alive and happy. Except for when it comes to the appointment for the shot.
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| What an incredible original design this company came up with! I hope it takes off! |
2 Nephi 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the scriptures, and the entire last half is absolutely phenomenal, but I really love this verse:
26 And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at the great and last day, according to the commandments which God hath given.
Our ability to act for ourselves is such a gift. It’s literally priceless, and the one thing that God will never interfere with because of its value. There is power in the fact that we are able to always choose the path we take, the values we have, and the person we want to be. That doesn’t mean smooth sailing from here on out, but what it does mean is that God trusts us. We just have to decide if we trust Him.
— Chugging along,
Hermana Newton
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