Antigua

Hola!

This week was good! Yesterday for Pday we went to Antigua! It was so awesome and beautiful! I loved it! It is also La Semana Santa this week and so it was pretty crazy! Most of Antigua is Catholic and so there was lots of purple. And lots of people too! My companion was in Antigua before La Gomera for 5 cambios... 7 months!! Hahah. So she knows it like the back of her hand. We saw some of the ruins, like the old churches and stuff and then also went to the big market. It was so awesome!

I am so excited for general conference this week! It is such an amazing opportunity that we have to listen to a living prophet and the living apostles. They are truly servants of God and their words are the words of God. Just like Doctrine and Covenants 1:38 says. Whether it is from the mouth of God or the mouth of His servants, it is the same! I challenge you all to think of some things going on in your lives and some questions you have. Write them down. Meditate about them. Pray about them. And listen to General Conference. I promise you will find the answer as you listen! This is such an amazing opportunity and privilege! Dont take it for granted! And they will all testify of Christ. They are special witnesses of Him. Listen and learn from the words. As we listen to the living prophets and follow their counsel, I know we will come to know our Savior better. I testify that Jesus Christ lives. That he loves all of you. And thanks to Him we will all live again as well. Take time this week to think about what Christ has done for you and how you can express your gratitude for all that He has done!

I love you all! Have a good week!

Love,
Hermana Dibb

Maricruz and Hivan!!!

Hola!!!

It is still blazing hot here! And just getting hotter! What a blessing! How is the weather in Utah? Yesterday I went to the paca for the first time and bought a skirt. Pacas are like little stores with clothes and I dont know if they are used or what. But sometimes there are shirts that say BYU on them so I think they get a lot of their clothes from the DI. Anyway... I bought a skirt for 10 quetzales. That is equivalent to about $1.50! woooo hooooo! And it is super cute... not. We love the pacas though. They are the best.

Maricruz and Hivan were baptized on Sunday! It was so amazing. They are so amazing. I love them so much. After they were baptized they shared their testimonies and it was so amazing to me to see the change that they have experienced. They are so willing to obey whatever the Lord asks them to do. Before, Hivan worked on Sundays. But he wanted to go to church to obey the commandment and so he could get baptized. So he went and looked for a different job and found one. This happened a few weeks ago! What a miracle. So he was able to get baptized with Maricruz. The only downside is his job is in Santa Lucia, so they are moving there this week. But they are so willing to do it because they have so much faith and trust in the Lord. Their baptism was beautiful and they are so amazing. It was such a happy day!

I love Guatemala. It is so beautiful. When we travel a lot in the buses for big meetings I love it. I love all the green and all the trees. There are volcanos and those are really cool to see! It is a beautiful country and I am so lucky to be here! And the people are even better! I love them!!!

Have a good week!!! Les amo!!!

Love,
Hermana Dibb

P.S.  something fun, I got called as leader of retention... hahah. for my district. So thats fun! I have to call everyone in my district every sunday and see who is going to church out of the recent converts... the stats are not too great! like about 50 percent of new converts attend. Pray for me so I can know how to make them better

Maricruz and Hivan's baptism...

My first skirt from the Paca (bargain.. $1.50)

Elder Anderson

Wooo! It has been an awesome week!

On Tuesday Maricruz and Hivan got married!!!! Wooo! I love them. They are seriously the best. And so prepared by the Lord. This Sunday we are hoping to baptize them! I love them and love their faith and testimonies. They are truly amazing.

Yesterday we had the meeting with Elder Anderson. And it was amazing. He truly is an apostle of Jesus Christ. I could feel it as he entered the room and as I shook his hand. One amazing thing I learned at the conference is how amazing and powerful the book of mormon is. I love the book of mormon. My love for the book of mormon has grown so much on my mission. Elder Anderson said that our investigators need to love the book of mormon. Not only read it, but love it. Because if they love it they will stay in the church. They will stay converted to the gospel because if they love it, they will read it and apply it. I love this. It is true for everyone! As we read the book of mormon we will have a deeper love for it! Read the book of mormon everyday. There is time! I promise. Make time to read it. Set time aside for it. It is so important. Study it personally and as a family. As you read it, I know that you will come to know our Savior more in your life. There are so many converts here that dont attend church anymore. And I know one of the reasons is that they dont read the book of mormon. If they did, they wouldnt fall away. They dont understand how important it is. The book of mormon is literally the words of God that we have in our hands, and sometimes we think their is not time to read it? It testifies of our Savior Jesus Christ. Of what he did for us. Of how we can better our lives through Him. This book is sacred. I know it is true and I know that it changes lives. It will change all of our lives over and over again as we continue to read it!

I love you all! Have a good week! And read the book of mormon everyday! It will strenthen you and help you through anything and everything you are going throught.

Love,
Hermana Dibb

Makayla was asked about the temple in Guatemala by her little brother and she sent him some pictures.

Hola!

Wooo! For Pday this week we went to Sipacate to the beach! I love the beach! Guatemala is so so beautiful! We played a little bit of futbol and we played capture the flag! It was so fun!

This week was good! We have a family that we are teaching right now. They are all awesome. Maricruz and Hivan are getting married this week and hopefully maricruz will be baptized on Sunday! This week we started teaching the brother of Maricruz. His name is Ernesto! He is awesome! He wasnt being taught before but he decided that he wanted to start learning and going to church. We started teaching him and he is so willing to just do what he has to do. To do what God says. To read and pray and asist church! He is willing to stop a lot of the things that he has had problems with in the past and obey the commandments. It is amazing to see his desire to change and that he acts on it and is changing! He is so prepared for this. Heavenly Father definitely prepares people for this message! It is amazing. Him and his family and so ready and willing to change and follow Christ. It is amazing. 

This week I read in Mosiah 24. Alma and his people are in bondage and have many burdens. They pray and the Lord says to them the he will eventually deliver them out of bondage, but while they were in bondange He would help them. In verse 15 it says "The Lord did strengthem them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." These people are amazing examples. Sometimes we have challenges or burdens that we ask the Lord to just take away. But it´s not always His will or timing. But. He will always help us bear our burdens and afflictions. And like these people we should "submit cheerfully and with patience to ALL the will of the Lord."We need to realize that the Lord will help us. WE will be able to bear our burdens and our challenges. But we need to do it with patience and cheer. And try to align our will with the will of the Lord. They were patient and bore their burdens cheerfully and the Lord delivered them out of bondange. Sometimes we have challenges and things that we feel we can not bear. But the Lord is always there to help. He has His will and timing, and sometimes we just want our problems to go away. But we need to realize that is not how it is. That is not how we learn and grow. The Lord will help us in our trials. Always. But we have to ask. We need to be grateful for the help that the Lord gives us every day and be patient and endure through the hard things in life. 

I love you all so much! have an amazing week!!

Love,

Hermana Dibb

Marzo

Oh my goodness! It is hot hot hot here in La Gomera! Who knows what the temperature is! But I have never been so hot in my life! We sweat so much! Which is good I guess. It means we are working hard! hahah. But it is only going to get hotter! Crazy! Apparently all of March will get hotter and then April is the hottest month! Yay! 

So something fun that happened this week... We were teaching like 4 kids the plan of salvation and they were super involved, answering questions and everything! And then all of a sudden my companion was like.. Did you guys feel that? And I was like... What? Then the earth started shifting! Hahaha. like the ground shifted sideways really hard and then back. It was crazy! My first temblor!! Hahaha! Apparently they happen about every 15 days! But the kids were screaming and one of them ran up to us and was hugging us and was so scared! hahaah. The temblor was the weirdest feeling but it was so cool! Oh Guatemala! something random that we don't understand is that all the people here LOVE Winnie the Pooh. it´s so strange! hahaha. But he is everywhere. There are like murals of him in restaurants and people have pictures of him and stuffed winnie the poohs and everything. It´s so funny! Who knows why they love him so much but its awesome!

Last night we were eating cereal after planning and I looked over by the wall and I thought I saw a mouse crawling around so I jumped on to my chair. Then we kept looking at it and it was not a mouse. It was a massive beetle the size of a mouse. Seriously. so we were freaking out and it ran outside then kept coming back in and we were like we can´t sleep with that in here. So we got the broom and tried to kill it! But it wouldn't die. We hit it witht the hard part of the broom probably 20 times before we finally squished it. But when it was squished it was still alive and trying to move. It was so creepy! Ahhhh! But it couldn't move so it was outside in the kitchen and we went to bed and this morning when we woke up it was gone. So we hope that something ate it and not that it just like got up somehow. hahaah. The creatures in our house. So fun. There was also a massive cockroach the other night. As big as a finger. Seriously. hahaha.

Something I am learning on my mission is how important the Restoration of the gospel is to understand! My testimony of the Restoration grows everyday! Every time we recite the first vision of Joseph Smith, I feel the spirit so strong and I know that He was a prophet! I know that through him, Jesus Christ established His church in the earth again. right when the time was right! I love how perfectly clear the restoration is! Study up on the restoration and then pray and ask our Heavenly Father if Joseph Smith was a prophet! I know that you will receive an answer if you ask with real intent and do your part in studying and living the right way to have the spirit testify to you! Even if you have already asked, I know you can feel that confirmation again! I did this the other night. I prayed and asked. Then a few days later on Sunday, in Church, we sang the hymn La oracion del Profeta... I can remember the name of the song is english sorry... and I felt the spirit so strong testifying to me that He was a prophet! I love this church and am so grateful for the gospel in my life! 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Love,

Hermana Dibb

Mission President Letter