Te amo La Antigua

We all finally made it to Guatemala! My sister and I got in on Sunday night and were the first ones here. We got to our house late at night not knowing anyone or what we were suppose to do. Our house parents let us in and barely spoke any English. They took us to our room and just told us buanas noches. My sister and I just looked at each other confused and wondered what we do next. No computer, Internet, or TV...what to do?!! We kind of just laughed and unpacked, trying to get comfortable with our small room with barely anything in it. The shower leaks barely any water out and we were without towels, soap, toilet paper, or drinking water. we were a little perplexed and we didn't want to bother nor go find out house parents in the dark night since the probably went back to sleep and do not even speak English. How do you say "we have nothing in our rooms" in Spanish? We tried just having a positive attitude about it and read a little scriptures together then went tried going to sleep. Easy for my sister to do since she knocked out right away but I was having some issues with sleeping. It was hot in the room and I kept hearing noises outside all night that were freaking me out. I am pretty sure I laid awake most of the night but I was on benadryl so I was a little out of it anyway. At 7 am there was a knock at our door and our house mom was saying that breakfast was ready. After we ate and got all ready, we were escorted to our school and we were still the only ones that were in Guatemala so far from our group. When we got to the school where we would be having meetings and Spanish lessons, we met up with four other girls we knew that finally arrived and we all had orientation. After that we all went to our family house and most of our group had got in! We all had lunch together and got excited for our trips just taking pictures and practicing our Spanish. We got a little tour of the town which is so beautiful and colorful! The people are so friendly and everything is in walking distance. There are so many huge catholic churches here of all colors and so many green pretty parks. You can see a volcano in the mountains from where we are staying! In the afternoon we all split up and went to our separate projects. Mostly all our group is working in an orphanage but me and my sister got assigned to work at a hospital in the city that is for abandoned orphans. We had no idea what we would be doing but we knew that we were there that day for a specific purpose and certain people needed us. As we walked in we noticed that every single kid was special needs and handicapped. They were all very deformed and could not even move from their beds nor talk. This was on of the saddest things I have ever seen. Each kid seemed like they wanted so much to be able to look at me or say something but they just could not. We would walk around and feed them bottles and just be next to them giving them comfort. I was feeding this boy Julian for a while and tears just began to fall down my face as I tried focusing on his inner beauty and pure spirit that was inside of him because I knew he just wanted to speak to me. He looked so lost and trapped and I felt so bad that I was not able to fix his condition or make him normal. I knew in no way were we capable of fixing them but all we needed to do was to show unconditional love and patience to these helpless children. I just looked at all of them wondering what their story was and how could their parents just leave them be, especially because they were handicapped. I thanked God for these precious children in that hospital room in the moment and I thanked God for the nurses for their sacrifice and service towards these kids. In a recent book I read, it talked about how in heaven spirits choose to come to this earth and are aware of the things they will learn, experience, and what their needs and bodies will be like. It said that a special and perfect soul in heaven will look down and enter into a handicap body to teach the family members of them or their community the way of love and patience. It also said that the spirit does know it will be a challenging and hard life but they are willing to get through and do it for the benefit of others. I thought that was such a neat part of the book and going through this experience here in Guatemala has already proven to me of this truth and that our heavenly father loves all of his children and if we are able to love them no matter what they look like or what they do, we will become more Christlike and have a more worthwhile and fulfilling earth life. I feel so blessed to be here with my sister and learning about the culture and people of Guatemala. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for us on this trip and I will keep all you readers updated. Until then...ADIOS!!!