Its All Worth It!!!

GOOD AFTERNOON CANTY FAMILY!!!! :))))))

how are all of you doing!?!?! well i will not waste much time and get right to it!

this week was a good one!!!:))) i learned a lot about the will of our Heavenly Father!! :) so story time! we have this investigator named Nancy. she is 17 and about a year ago she met with the Elders, but didnt get baptized bc she went back home. well we found her one day after we went to the Benson for la Semana Santa. she wrote her name a paper and said we could visit her, and so we did!! :) well she is SO PILAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every thursday we have this thing called "Noche De Hermanamiento" (its like a big FHE with the ward in the house of a member!) and we invited Nancy to come! we werent really sure if she was going to be able to, BUT SHE CAME!!!!! and she even shared an experience in front of everyone!! it was so cool! this girl is serious PREPARED!!! i was so proud of her! she has so much faith and so much love for God!!! :))))) we are gonna visit her tonight to set a date for baptism!! :)

also this week the work was good, a little slow but good!!! :))) our area is having a little trouble and sometimes i just dont know what to do and feel like im not doing anything here. but then i look at the investigators like Nancy and the CONVERTS i have here like Maria Ines, and i am reminded WHY I AM HERE!!!! :)))))))) Maria Ines is more pilas than i ever was at 12 years of age!! 

also, we are doing a SUPER COOL video as missionaries here! idk if you guys have heard about the new movie that the church made, "Meet the Mormons" but it is SO great!!!!!!! and june 5 we are gonna show it here in Malacatan!!! :))))) but to make it more personal we are doing our own personal "meet the mormons of malacatan" haha and so we have recorded our recent converts, menos activos, and members of the ward sharing their testimonies to put it on before the real movie! and let me tell you!! ITS SO POWERFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hopefully i can get a copy to show you all!! :)))) 

but just to close i want to share something that i read this week! (i have been studying the ensign from nov and am discovering SO much!!!!!) but in the talk by Elder Tad R. Callister he is talking about parents and the youth and i LOVED this part of his talk:

No doubt most of our youth have their evening prayers, but perhaps many of them struggle with the habit of personal morning prayer. As parents, as their prime gospel teachers, we can correct this. Which parent inBook of Mormon times would have let their sons march out to the front of battle without a breastplate and shield and sword to protect them against the potentially mortal blows of the enemy? But how many of us let our children march out the front door each morning to the most dangerous of all battlefields, to face Satan and his myriad of temptations, without their spiritual breastplate and shield and sword that come from the protective power of prayer? The Lord said, “Pray always, … that you may conquer Satan” (D&C 10:5). As parents, we can help instill within our children the habit and power of morning prayer.

its SO TRUE what he says!!!! we would NEVER send our soliders out to war with out guns and amor, but yet as youth we leave the house without first arming ourselves with the amor and power of prayer!!!!! just an invitation that you can try to pray before you the house!!! :) TRUST ME IT HELPS!!!!

anywho...thats about all i have right now. but i just want you all to know that i KNOW that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us! i know they are watching over us and constantly protecting us! we are SO LUCKY to be members of His church! dont ever let a day go by without realizing the blessings we have!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!! have a great week!! :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Canty

Ups & Downs

Hello Hello! :)

this week was definitely not what we expected!!! (i´ll give the bad news first lol) remember Abi?? our fecha for this past weekend?? well we went to visit her this week..and she told us some really sad news....she told us she was going to move to live with her brother and go to church with him...who is not a member... we were so devastated!!! that is the hard part of the mission..watching people turn away from the gospel, watching them not accept it!!! but dont worry fam..Heavenly Father knows us and watches over us!! after she told us that we were really sad..but we didnt give up! we were contacting later that day in a part of our area at about 6 pm. the thing with this part of our area is its pretty sketchy and dangerous so we cant be there past 6:30. we were debating whether or not to stay there and try to contact more or head back to Malacatan. and so we tried, "one more door" and that is when we met Brayan! we were really looking for another person but we started talking to him and realized that he is who we were supposed to find!! we had a short lesson with him..bc we had to leave soon but we found out that he has actually been to the church before, and has a lot of friends who are members!! we have another lesson with him this week and i am SUPER excited to see how he progesses. it seems God always put the "light at the end of the tunnel" just as we are about to stop our journey through the tunnel.

Also this past week in Latin America was the week of the Family!!! and so we had lots of activities to help strengthen the family!! and to end the festivities..yesterday there was a devotional from the area presidency that talked about the family and the area plan. the area plan for Central America is SO COOL!!!! its all about doing the small and simple things to be better! they talked a TON about being better in the family prayers, scripture study, and FHE!!! they said something that is loved!!!! they said that as parents "its not just about giving the best world to your kids but about giving the best kids to the world!" how true is that! the teaching comes from the home!! HOW BLESSED I AM TO COME FROM A HOME THAT TAUGHT ME THE GOSPEL!!!!!!!!!! i have thought sometimes that it would be much easier to relate to the investigators if i had been a convert (that way i would know their feelings of changing their lives, of the fears and doubts, of everything!) but then i remember the BLESSINGS i recieved and still recieve from the family and life i have..and those desires go away! its true...i dont understand how it is to change my life and join the church, but the thing is..we all have to go through the conversion process!! even if we have known the church since we were born, we still have to make the choice to FOLLLOW the teachings and to LIVE the gospel..we all have to be converted at one point or another!!! :) 

the area presidency invited everyone to do 5 things, i am inviting you all to do them too!! :))

1: Be better at praying and reading the scriptures DAILY!

2: Do Family Home Evening and INVITE others to join you!

3: Search for your Ancestors

4: Strengthen the love in the home

5: Have a Family:Proclamation in the house, and study it!

i was really impacted by this devotional!!! i know it takes time to make habits..but we can all start with at least ONE thing out of those 5! :))) anywho...i think thats about all i have for now! but i just want to thank you all for being such a great family!!!! i seriously have the best family in the whole wide world!!!!!!! :)))))) KEEP BEING YOU!!!!:)))) I LOVE YOU!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Canty

Fotos!!!

Pictures

Miracles and Raindrops

how are all of you doing!! great!!!! :) well i dont know if you guys know this..but in less than a week i will see all of your beautiful shining faces...through a blurry computer screen!!!! ;) PREPARE YOURSELVES PEOPLE!! i have forgotten english.... ;))))))

anywho..i dont have tooooo much time today bc me and my comp have to go to Reu tonight bc we are going to the capital tomorrow!!!!..entonces...we have to leave malacatan at 4..its a very long and sickening bus ride... ;) but yeah! lol

so i will get to it! THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING!!!!! i dont know if you all remember my email after the stake conference when i wrote about all of the investigators who came!? well 2 of those investigators were baptized and confirmed this weekend!!! YEP THATS RIGHT!!! their names are Maria and Selvin. its a mom and her son. #story time.... when i first got here to malacatan the other sisters had only taught them like 1 or 2 times and the mom was a little sketchy about letting us meet with her kids, and even less pleased to let them go to church. well as the time passed and we continued to work with them..they still didnt come to church. but THEN came general conference, asistence #1, then came the stake conference, asistence #2, and then 2 weeks ago, asistence #3!!!!!!! the crazy thing is though, is that when hermana mendoza left, the kids were really sad and werent really wanting to progress (read, pray, come to church) but the mom still was!!! and she kept telling us, "i have made my decision to get baptized and even if they dont right now i am going to" it was so crazy bc she was the LEAST positive of the 3 of them when i came!!! :) but MIRACLES DO HAPPEN PEOPLE!!!! :) god has a timetable for EVERYTHING!!!!! 

their baptism was so cool!!!!!! the son got baptized first, and when he walked out of the font..the mom was crying. she was so happy and told him, "congrats my son, you were baptized." it was seriously a moment of pure joy!!!!!!!! :))))) she was also baptized and it was equally joyful! now we are just gonna work with the daughter to help her! she said she wnts to get baptized but doesnt feel completely read yet!!! and sunday, they almost gave us a heartache...they showed up late to church! BUT they came and made it in time to be confirmed!!!!! :))))) bienvenidos to the newest members of the Malacatan ward!!! :)

also...this week it rained so much! i have never seen anything like it!!!! but its also really pretty!! :) in the letter that presidente ruiz wrote me this week he asked me what i thought it meant to be a strong missionary!? and he went on to say that strong missionaries have to suffer so much...heat, rain, stress, and everything in between! and while that is true...i thought..even though we have to suffer all of that...the HOT sun of guatemala, the INSANE amount of rain, the STRESS of investigators..it is NOTHING compared to the things christ had to suffer! when we suffer..we are "walking shoulder to shoulder with the greatest life this world has ever known!" I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)))))))

one more thing, this week we had a multi zone conference. and presidente ruiz talked about the importance of the sacrament and the sabbath day! IT WAS SO POWERFUL!!!!!!!! i knew that it was important...but seriously the sacrament is one of the most sacred things we do!!!!!! :) it should be high priority for us!!! :)...sorry just had to crack the whip a little ;) hahahahaha im a real missionary now! ;) 

i love you all so much and know that you are working so hard! you all are such great examples for me! thank you for your love, support, prayers, EVERYTHING!!!! keep being great!!!! :)))) have a great week and nos vemos a las 7 pm domingo!!!!! :))))

CON MAS AMOR QUE PUEDEN IMAGINAR,

Hermana Canty