To All My Friends and Family

Since Monday, many people have asked me how I am doing since finding out that my younger sister Desireé had taken her own life. Mostly, It has been extremely hard for me to be without my family. To be there to comfort them and for them to comfort me. I have never had to rely so much on my Heavenly Father as I have at this time. Rely on Him for comfort not only for me, but for all of those who knew and loved Desireé. I am coming to understand more fully that our father in heaven has a perfect plan for everyone of his children. It gives me great comfort to know that He has a plan for Desireé, that I know exactly where she is at this time, that she lives still, that she is not alone, and that what ever she was struggling with in this life, she is free from it. I trust in my Heavenly Father and that he knows how to save every one of His children. We are HIS, and he loves us perfectly. Without conditions or want. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for the 15 years I did get to spend with her and get to know her, to laugh wiith her, cry with her, fight, forgive, teach her, and learn from her.

As a little kid, Desireé always making jokes that didn't make sense, but everyone laughed anyways because her laugh was so contagious. In middle school, she loved to bake chocolate chip cookies.  I remember coming home from school to fresh baked cookies every day for a week, and Dad being surprised when the giant bag of chocolate chips from Costco was already gone.  Des was very special and very intelligent. Before leaving on my mission, I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her, and while here in Guatemala, she would email me. Desireé loved to read and write. She loved art and music. She would talk with me about the latest book she was reading and the newest poem she had written. She always used a dictionary when she read in case there was a word she didn't know. That always really impressed me. She wrote me a few months ago about a goal she made to read 50 books by the time the school year ended. She said, ''I made a goal to read 50 books this school year. I want to get into some classics and I really like the sorts of books that leave people speechless and in love with every word of every page. My lit teacher from last year is really awesome and she knows the kinds of books I like and I told her about my goal so she gives me books and book titles to read''. She had already read 7 books when she wrote me that!

We spent hours going through her mp3, CDs, and youtube, showing me the new songs she liked. We didn't have the same taste in music, but when Desireé started to open up about something she really liked, I loved to talk with her about it because she always had unique ideas and opinions and talked in a way that not most teenagers do. She dreamed of becoming a Psychologist or therapist so that she could help others and I believe that she did help many people while here. She befriended many that were in need of a friend. She sat with those who were alone. She talked with those who just needed to talk.  I know she will have the opportunity to continue to help many people, and not only on the other side, but her family and friends as well who love, miss, and remember her every day.

I am thankful to have the knowledge of the restored gospel in my life and for the opportunity I have to share it with others every day. That I may be able to help someone else during a difficult time such as this to bring them the sweet peace and comfort that one feels from the atonement of Jesus Christ, who took on the pains and afflictions of all mankind. I am thankful to know that this is not the end for Desireé or for our family because we have been sealed together for eternity. I know that one day all of these tears of sadness and pain will be tears of complete joy when we are once again reunited as a family, and we will be surprised at how quickly that day comes. For this life is but a small moment in the eternities D&C 121 vs 7.

I just want to send my love and thanks to all that have been there to support me and my family during this time. I am so grateful to know that my family has been so well taken care of by not only family, friends, and the church, but also complete strangers. Thank you to all those who were a friend to Desireé. Who knew her and loved her. Who tried to love her, be her friend, and encourage her. I love and miss her every day, and know that many people love and miss her as well.

Love,

Hermana Bender

Hola!

So this week has been interesting.

Last Monday we hiked up to this place called la piedra de nuestros compadres. We went with my district and took a picnic. It was fun and there was an awesome view of the valley and mountains/vocanoes all around. Wednesday we had divisions. We went to Chiquimula for district planning and then Hermana Torres came back with me to Esquipulas and my comp stayed in Chiqui with Hermana Guerra. I was feeling sick that day, but also excited because of divisions because Hermana Torres is pretty much amazing. So it was one of the best days I have had out here. Even though I felt like I was going to collapse, throw up, or pass out for pretty much the whole day, I actually felt like a missionary and like I contributed and learned! She gave me really great feedback and did the training with me. We ended up with 5 new investigators at the end of the day and a baptism date!! So basically for the past few days I have been back and forth between laying in bed and going out to teach and then regretting going out haha. On Thursday I got in bed at 3 and was in and out of sleep until 10! it was insane. Everyone thinks It´s dengue because I have had a fever and it feels like someone beat me up.
Yesterday for pday though, we went to Ipala with my zone. We hiked up to a water volcano! It was awesome. It was an hou hike up so I was pretty beat when I got to the top. I layed in the grass basically the whole time and talked with some of the other nortes. I probably should have stayed home but if one companionship couldnt go, then nobody could go. It was really fun though. My zone is so fun. We have 13 nortes and 11 hispanos. It´s crazy!! Usually we have a lot mor hispanos than nortes. Anyways, that´s all I have for this week really. It hasn´t been too exciting as I have been laying in bed for a good part of it. We have another baptism date for this month though. The lady walks an hour and a half to get to church each week. Her ¨husband¨was coming with her but he just left her last week. He actually has another family somewhere so she thinks he went to them. She said that he was talking about his family after one of the sessions of general conference. So who knows, maybe he will make things right with his family and still find the church wherever he is out there.
Anyways, I love you all and thank you for your love and support and prayers!!!

Love,
Hermana Bender

Ipala:

Jungle Hikes

Hola all!!

Time is flying by, it is unreal!

This Saturday we had 5 baptisms between the Elders and Me and my Comp. Last Saturday we had 3. So the most recent Saturday was awesome because we had one of our new investigators come to the baptism! we planned it for 4pm so naturally here in central america, it started around 5:45 haha. During the waiting time our investigator, Jessica, came up to my companion and was like, hey, can I have a Book of Mormon? So we had a mini lesson and asked her to read about when Christ came to the Americas and pray to know if it is true. She said yes because last time she prayed to know if we were messengers of Christ and she had her answer in a dream. In the dream me and my companion were standing and holding a streamer I think between us and in the center was the heart of Christ. Kind of weird because she talks about the heart of Christ a lot but awesome because she was like I know that where you two are, there is Christ also! So cool.

So last Pday was so great. We planned to go to a waterfall with one of the recent converts in the branch, Freddy. So we left at 7am in case it was going to rain in the afternoon (which is usually does since it is the rainy season). So we hiked for about 2 1/2 hours in the most beautiful Jungle basically. Then some people told us that we were on the wrong path for the big waterfall. We didnt want to turn back so we kept going and made it to some small ones. It was really fun. We brought lunch and hung out and took pictures. Then Freddy ended up slipping on a rock and hurt his foot pretty badly. He could barely walk and we were out in the middle of nowhere so there wasnt any transportation until we got closer to town. so the 2 1/2 hour hike back was actually 3 1/2 which was actually really great because it as a lot of steep up hill and down hill so it was nice to walk slowly. Came back into town just as the rain came down so I was soaked, had some nice blisters, scrapes, and bug bites, and it was AWESOME!! Totally worth it.

On the way back we stopped and talked with this lady who works out there taking care of the coffee plants. She lives day to day and was crying because someone told her that the missionaries go out there sometimes and to look for them. (which is weird because the missionaries dont go out that far). I gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and we invited her to come to church on Sunday although we didnt think she would actually come because it is so far away. But. Sunday morning in she walks with her ¨"husband" (hardly anyone is married here). They want to come to conference this Sunday too, Yay! Just goes to show us that the Lord is hastening his work. Miracles happen every day here, and it is amazing to be a part of it.

Saturday we get to go out to Chiquimula for conference and stay overnight with some of the sisters for Sunday conference too. I cant wait! Im pretty sure we nortes get to watch it in English too so that is great!!

Invite your friends to conference everyone!!!

I love you all!

Hermana Bender

Two families baptisms:

Our hike through the jungle:

 My District:

A cool castle thing:

A family found out Hillary's first name and named their rabbit after her because it is white and has blue eyes:

 

Buenos Dias!

Hello everyone!!!

First of all, shout out to my baby sister LIDDIE JANE who is turning 10 today!!! Welome to the double digits sista!!! I love you!

Im sorry if any letters got lost because of the other address or because the MTC here loses lots of letters apparently.

Time for an update on the past two weeks! Still adjusting to the fact that I live in Guatemala. It is so beautiful here. Every day is a new experience, and they always remind me that I am definitely not in the United States any more haha. I have never had to wonder if I would have power in the morning or running water. It has definitely made me more grateful. I am actually super blessed to live out here in Esquipulas. Our apartment is pretty nice and has warm water in the shower. The other hermanas in my zone were like whhaaat?! you have warm water?! haha. One of the hermanas from my district in the MTC said that they were living in a house for a week and a half that only had cold water, no flushing toilet, and it was infested with geckos.

So last Fridady was a zone conference with the mission preident Watts and his sweet wife. They are the BEST!! The meeting was really great and inspiring and gave me a lot of encouragement and all of the other hermanas were just really uplifting. Afterwards, hermana Watts gave us all cinnamon rolls that she made!! A little taste of home : ). Sunday Pres and sis watts came out to Esquipulas for church at our branch. We had a family that we have been teaching FINALLY come to church with us that day and also less active members galore!! It was awesome!

Sunday night we went to stay in Chiquimula because we had zone pday the next day and we were going to the Castillo which is 3 and a half hours from there so we were leaving at 5 in the morning. It is about 40km from the coast! It was so beautiful there and sooooo humid! I loved it! There is a famous singer that made a music video in the castillo if you want to check out where i was on youtube. The singer is Ricardo Arjona and the song is called Fuiste tu. One of the pics i sent last week is from the castillo.

We now have 4 baptisms set for this saturday. they are all cousins and from inactive/reactivated families. The oldest one is an 18yr old boy named Bryan. He never sists in onthe lessons with us so we were super suprised when he asked us if he could be baptized. He wants to go on a mission too so that is exciting.

Thursday was my comps birthday. we went to our commedor for breakfast which we usually never do, and the cook, mama lili, made us pancakes! And hot chocolate!! I thought she was asking me if i wanted my hot chocolate with milk so i was like YES! but she was actually asking me if I wanted avena con leche which is oatmeal-like stuff but better. Anyways, I would have said no because i was already so full but out she came with the avena con leche and I was confused at first. I said to my comp, that is for you right? hahaha nope. so I was soooo stuffed. Then for lunch we went to a members house with the elders because the family wanted to make my come a honduranean meal. It was a bunch of fried stuff and some root that they love which i forgot what it is called. They love this root, like they put it in fried dough and with salsa and in tacos. It is no bueno. Elder Davalos bought 3 huge strings of fire crackers so we set those off, it was pretty fun. He is crazy. He knows a little bit of english and he learned funny words when he worked in the mission office so he calls me cankles, flowers, stinky, fool, and grumpy. It is so funny to hear with his accent and nobody else has any idea what he is saying. That night we got pizza and cake and the Elders smashed my comps face in it so that was fun! hahaha.

Anyways, that is my life these days. We are having a workshop on Friday for the leaders in the Branch because none of them want to help us with the work and we really need to be united as a branch if we want to see success.

I am trying to take note of the tender mercies of the Lord every day. It is amazing to see his hand in every aspect of my life. I love the people here. I can hardly wait for when I can actually express everything I want to say to them in Spanish. It has been hard for me to stay positive in that aspect so thank you to everyone for your love, support and prayers. I am so grateful to have so many people that love and care about me. You all are wonderful!! 

Hermana Bender

Hola to All!

I made it through my second week in the mission field!! haha nah, but really. Thank you for the support and love from every one of you. It has definitely been hard but I know that I am here for a reason and I have faith that the Lord with help me succeed in his work.
Last week we went to the cathedral I was talking about in my last email that has the black Jesus. It was weird because there were a lot of sculptures of Christ with blood all over him and stuff. I didnt like it at all. We has to walk out backwards too, what is that about? My comp tried to explain it to me but she just kept saying the same thing over and over. Hopefully you all got the pics I sent. I will try to send some more out next week but I dont know if I will have time today.
Thursday was a great day. We had divisions and I got to go out to Chiquimula with Hermana Guerra, who is probably the sweetest girl ever. She helped me so much and actually let me teach!! I felt like a real missionary for the first time. She is such a good example and exactly what I imagined a trainer as. It was awesome. We visited so many people and I have never sweated so much in my life!!! And chiquimula isnt even the hottest area! There is so much poverty there though and lots of people dont know how to read. They live with dirt floors, tin roofs and plastic bag material for walls. It was very humbling.
Saturday it rained sooo hard! It has been raining a lot lately but so much that day. We were teaching in a house with a tin roof so we had to yell while reading the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. When we went outside the street was like a river and all of the kids were out splashing and dancing. It was super cool.
On Sunday we traveled to the Capitol to do visa stuff yesterday. We didnt know that we were going to leave sunday so I was so excited. I loveeee the Capitol because I just love city life and being around lots of people. Anyways, I was hoping to stay with Hermana Fitzgerald (my old comp) in the old nurses house that we had stayed at before because the district leader said we would be staying in the nurses house so i was so excited but then he said we would be staying with the nurse who is hermana whittaker. Anyways the bus ride was 6 hours long because there was a car accident. The AC on the bus was broken too so that was pretty funny, and quite sweaty haha. Its always fun being with the elders though because they help me with the language and are super funny. They lift my spirits a lot. So when we showed up to the house we were going to stay at it was Fitzgeralds!!! It was so great to see her. Then the next morning Hermana Hutchins showed up from all the way out in porte barrios!! We went to the mission office and guess who was there...Hermana Medina! Then a while later the last girl from my district and ALL of the Elders from my district showed up. I was awesome because we didnt think we would see them again since they are in a different mission than us 4 (Fitz, Hutchins, Medina and Me). It was a major blessing because we all needed support and encouragement from eachother. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father knows us and knows our needs. Im back in Esquipulas now and ready to start working hard. There is definitely a lot of work to be done here!! Wish me luck. I hope you all have a great start of school!

Love you all,


Hermana Bender

This is the church with the Black Christ

 

At the catillo yesterday

Entonces!

It seems like it has been an eternity since i have been able to write! I'm out in my new area Equipulas. It is 5-6 hours outside of the capitol, practically by Honduras. Actually, my trainer said that it use to be part of Honduras. There is a famous cathedral here that has the carving of Jesus that turned black. So lots of Catholics here believe that God is black. Very funny.
I still only get an hour to write so hopefully i will have time to write everything. I also left my notebook at the apartment so i cant remember everything I wanted to write about. Anyways, the area here is good. Its pretty hot but not like Zacapa or Porte Barrios. There is only a branch here. Yesterday was my first day at church. The Branch President is hilarious, i love him. There are a lot of good people here that want to help us and some that don't but we are going to fix that. On Friday i think, we finally did some contacting in the street and I saw some little girls in front of their door, so I said hello and my comp asked if their mom was home. They invited us in and we talked with the grandma that was there. My companera asked her if she knew who we were and she said yes I know her...me. It was strange, I don't really know all of what she said but my comp said that she recognized me. After the lesson my comp asked her if she would pray to know that we are messengers of Jesus Christ and she said Hermana I don't need to, I have no doubts that you are his messengers. My comp said that a lot of people here say that they have had dreams or visions and so lots of missionaries think that they are crazy but the president said that because they are descendants of Lehi, they have that gift and to never dismiss what they say about them.
I'm going to send out some pictures finally so hopefully they all come through.
Spanish is really hard right now. Everyone here speaks differently and not everyone pronounces their words correctly so half the time I don't really know what the person is talking about. I don't really get to teach anything, I just go around with my comp right now and listen and then either pray or bear my testimony. Its really hard out here, and every day I want to go home. I have to remind myself every day why I'm out here, because I know it will get better. I miss you all so much and love you.

Hermana Bender

 

my trainer, Hermana Redondo

my hermanas de mi distrito Fitzgerald, medina, hutchins

Hola hola!

Great news everyone!!! We got to go to walmart on Tuesday! What a glorious day that was. We started the day off right with a nice americanish breakfast of pancakes!!! The viejos left that morning so there were only about 40 missionaries here. That night was pretty much the worst night of sleep I have ever experienced because the girls in our room had to leave for their missions at 3 in the morning. So basically they just stayed up all night and then around 2am Hermano debon started yelling luggage! luggage! luggage! in Spanish so that was awesome. The world was set right though when we got to breakfast and had pancakes. I dont know why but we seriously have some sort of egg concoction for breakfast almost every day. No me gusta. Anyways, before Walmart we went to the stake center and played an awesome game of kickball. I was a captain and basically picked an allstar team because we dominated. Not that we kept score...but we dominated haha. That was really fun. Then we got to go to walmart and everyone stocked up on their favorite candy and snacks to last us the last two weeks. Im Pretty sure the elders filled an entire cart. one elder spent over 700 quetzals. Insane. Hermana Fitzgerald and I got a nice stash of chocolate and nutella haha tpical. After wallyworld we went to the mall and ate in the food court. The taco bell here is legit everyone.
When we came back from our adventure "a fuera" we got to go to the temple, which is always the best. I am going to miss it! We might get to go once or twice in our mission though since part of the east mission includes the city.

On Wednesday morning we got a BIG new group of Norte Missionaries. We now have more nortes here than hispanos. Its crazy and awesome. There has been a lot of construction going on here so every day they turn the water off randomly and we have no water in the bathrooms. The only bathrooms we can use are out at the gym so there ends up being a long line haha. It has been a fun adventure. That night though some of the workers were working on the bathroom...we had a great suprise. We got into bed late because the hermanas were all just getting back from meetings and they still needed to unpack some things and so around 10;45 the 4 latina hermanas were kneeling by the door praying together in a circle. Us nortes were all just laying in bed when we heard a really loud rushing sound like the fire hydrant was on outside or something. I looked over the side of my bed to say something to my companion when the hermanas started screaming. Water started rushing in our room under the door!! I jumped down from my bed and went to grab bags and things that were on the floor and its a good thing too because we ended up with an inch of water in our room all the way back to the window. And our room is pretty big. Our room is right by the bathroom so we got the most water. It went almost all the way down the hall on our floor though and out the side door down the stairs. It was crazy. We all got brooms and mops and dust pans and swept all the water into the bathrooms in like 20 minutes. It was crazy and really funny. One of the hermanas in my district was super smart and when she saw the water coming she put a blanket down in front of the crack in her door so they didnt get any water in their room. Friday morning I woke up and grabbed my towel to go take a shower and had a nice suprise when i slipped in a new lake of water in our room haha. Luckily I caught my balance before i ended up sopping wet. We still have no Idea what happened with that one because our room was the only one with water in it.

In the new picture you can see two of the girls from my district. They girl in the bright red dress next to me is hermana hutchins and above us is a girl with red hair that is medina. Then down my row in the middle is hermana fitzgerald. She should be right in the middle, not the hispana one haha.

Last week we were talking about family and my teacher told us that her brothers names are josé, jóse, and josue...hahaha we all have a good laugh about it now and then and whenever we ask hispanas what their siblings names are or some of the teachers what their names are we always guess those names and then Melgar is like hey! Are joo making fun of mi family? it is the greatest.

Sundays Mondays and Tuesdays are our favorite days because Sundays are just filled with great devotionals and talks and meetings (besides the hunger games in sacrament meeting and district class). Then mondays we get a new shipment of ice cream (sad how our excitment centers around food these days). then Tuesdays are pdays and we get to email. Anyways I hope everyone is doing great and soaking up the summer sun! This might be the last email for two weeks since we are heading out to the mission field next Tuesday! Its crazy! I feel like I have been here forever but that I just got here at the same time!

I love you all!

Hermana Bender

foto grupo 24 julio CCM Guatemala: