My Time in Antigua

Hola mis amigos y mi familia! I can’t believe it has already been two months since I arrived in Antigua. Time has flown by! As my time here comes to an end, and I prepare to leave for Honduras, I have the overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I am thankful for the strength the LORD showed me I have, thankful to learn a new language, thankful for the people I came to love here, thankful to have gone outside of my comfort zone, thankful for my faith, thankful for ice cream, thankful for the courage to conquer fears, and thankful for saying yes to this crazy mission and adventure that God has called me on.

When I first arrived to Antigua, I was tired. And when I am tired, the emotions are flowing. I had a “Hailey, what are you doing?!” moment. The houses are different, the food is different, everything is different. But the LORD’s timing is perfect, and He calls us just when he knows its right for us. And luckily, the LORD called me to mission in the 21st century where we have Facetime. My first night here, I Facetimed my parents and pretty much told them I was ready to come home (a joke but also serious). My mom and dad both encouraged me and told me I can do this. After a much needed sleep, I was ready to take on what Guatemala had to offer!

In all seriousness, when I arrived to Antigua, I was in awe of the beauty. Everywhere you look there is a mountain or a volcano. There are the most vibrant flowers you have ever seen. The streets are cobblestone and look like they were made for a movie. The houses and businesses are all painted with different colors. The people are kind. The food is incredible. The culture is lively and joyful. It has already been such an incredible experience to live in Latin America.

In Antigua we live with different host families. My host family was the absolute best! My house parents were AnaLuisa and Manuel. AnaLuisa is the cutest little grandma who is the best cook, loves to dance and listen to marimba music, and is always willing to help you with whatever you need. Manuel is a man of faith, he goes to daily mass every day, and loves his puzzles. They both have the biggest hearts, are so patient, so kind, and helped me with my Spanish a lot. Their house is so beautiful and has a view of one of my favorite churches here in Antigua. They invited me into their family and I am so grateful to have met them. It has been a joy to live with them and I will miss them so much!

The purpose of our time in Antigua is to learn Spanish. And man oh man did we do a lot of that. Language school was a humbling, joyful, and overwhelming experience. My first day of language school, we arrived to the office and were assigned our teachers. My teacher was Rosa (pictured to the left. Rosa is now my Guatemalan best friend. She and I spent a lot of time together over the past 8 weeks. We laughed, we cried, and shared many stories back and forth about our lives. She also taught me some Spanish along the way. One of the best parts of language school was just sitting, talking, and listening to Rosa. Rosa grew up in Guatemala. She is married with two kids. She lives with her sister, mother, brother, niece, husband, and two children. Rosa has the best laugh and always could put a smile on my face. She has had the most interesting life filled with lots of animals and love. One of the biggest lessons she taught me was how important it is to be patient. Every day, I would try and speed something up, and she would look at me and say “Hailey, tranquila,” basically calm down and trust the process. I think this lesson is so applicable in all areas of life. So many times we have this agenda of what we want, what

we think we need to do and get done. We feel like we have this clock winding down and we have to rush from place to place, that we have to be the best, the first, the most. But in reality, we all need to calm down a little bit and trust the process. We need to see the LORD in the little moments, see where he is directing our lives, see where the daily beauty is, see the people in front of us. Because when we do slow down and trust the process, we can write paragraphs like this without the help of google translate:

Mi español es mejor! Aprendí mucho durante mi tiempo en Antigua. Aprendí seis tiempos, incluida presente, pretérito, imperfecto, futuro, y condicional. Aprendí los partes del cuerpo y muchas palabras por la clínica. Practiqué mucho con mis amigos y todas personas mejoraron su español. Nuestros actividad favorita es jugar Monopoly Deal. Fuimos a misa muchos días y hablamos sobre el fe mucho también. No creo el tiempo salir a Honduras es aquí. Estoy muy emocionada y un pequeñito nerviosa. Por favor ora por mis amigos y yo!

Now I can’t forget about my other missionaries! What an incredible eight weeks it has been together. Josh, Will, and I showed up to Antigua first. We spent the first week in awe, disbelief, and a little bit of confusion as we figured out what was going on. A common phrase amongst the three of us that first week was “We’re literally in Guatemala, what?!” The next week Carter joined the group! He added a new bit of fun and craziness. It did not take long for Will and Carter to become my little brothers/children. They like to keep me on my toes, I never know what silliness their going to bring! The next week Carole arrived and we were finally all together! We had two fun trips together. The first being when we visited Lake Atitlan. While at the lake, we spoke a lot about what community looks like, were able to dive deeper into our relationships with one another, and rode ATV’s around the lake! Will and Carter cliff jumped, Josh and I attempted, and Carole was our devoted photographer. It was a special weekend with lots of joy!

The second weekend trip we had together was hiking Volcán Acatenango and Volcán Fuego. This was my favorite two days of being here in Antigua. What an absolutey incredible, life changing experience. This is a two day trip, with intense hiking conditions, where a lot of people turn around and don’t make it to the top. I think we were all a little bit nervous at the start, but that quickly changed to determination and perseverance. The first day you hike up to base camp. Base camp sits at about 12,000 feet on Volcán Acatenango. The hike was one of the hardest things I have ever done and when we arrived to base camp, I was overfilled with joy. We all got the giggles, drank an incredible cup of Guatemalan hot chocolate, and could not believe that we were literally IN the clouds! At first, the sun was out with some clouds in the sky. But shortly after we arrived, a storm rolled in. Normally, after you arrive to base camp, you get about an hour break until you start the hike to Volcán Fuego. Unfortunately (and maybe fortunately), a storm rolled in and our hike to Volcán Fuego was delayed until the next day. This meant we would have to wake up at 2:30 the next morning for the hike. At first, I was ready for it. But during dinner, I started to feel really fatigued and nauseous. It is common for people to get altitude sickness during this hike, and I was scared that was happening to me. That night, I went to bet at 8 pm, and had pretty much convinced myself I wasn’t going to go on the hike the next day.

The next morning, I was awoken at 2:30 am because I had forgotten to turn my alarm off. I woke up feeling a lot better than I thought I would, but still quickly texted the boys that I would not be going on the hike to Fuego. Through the wall of the room, I heard Will yell “Hailey, you’re going!” After a few moments of back and forth yelling, it was accepted that I was in fact not going. As I laid back down, I checked my phone and had two very important notifications. The first was from my grandma, Nonna. Her text read “Hope you’re getting sleep. You’re going to feel so good about yourself when you finish the hike! Say some prayers for peace!” The second notification (actually quite a few notifications) was from my mom’s side of the family. When I had gone to sleep, the Longhorns were losing terribly to Ohio State and I had accepted that we were going to lose. The notifications from my mom’s family confirmed that I was very much wrong and that Texas had come back from losing 3-23 and ended up winning the game in the fourth quarter (HOOK’EM BABY!!!!!). As I laid there, thinking about how I was missing this incredible experience because I was scared I could be sick, I reflected on these two notifications. One about how proud I would be and the other about my football team coming back against all odds. I felt God was telling me to not let my fears in life hold me back from living. That I needed to be bold and courageous, and to not have any fear. In that moment, I decided to go. And wow am I so glad I did.

The hike to Volcán Fuego was one of the hardest things I have ever done. It’s a straight down hike, with a steep up hill climb to Fuego, and then you do the exact same thing on the way back. During the hike on the way there, the guys didn’t see I had joined the hike (like I said, I was originally not going and last minute decided to). As each one of the guys saw me during the hike, they were so excited. There excitement and joy kept me going! Will literally never left my side. At moments I had to take a break, Will would wait for me when he easily could have kept going. Josh made sure that I was full of snacks and Carter helped to keep my mood light. I mean it when I say they are part of the reason that I was able to make it to the top of Volcán Fuego. Their encouragement, companionship, and love was inspiring. They showed me how we are supposed to live this life, surrounded by those who lift you up, encourage you in the hardest moments, and help you to be the best version of yourself. When we made it to the top of the volcano (with a little last minute encouragement from LMFAO and their song Shots), I was in awe. God once again showed me how much strength he gave me and how to be bold and courageous in a moment where I had fear. The view from the top was stunning. A “take your breath away” kind of moment. But what was even better was the prayer that we said at the top. From God’s point of view, we praised Him for his beauty, for making it to the top of Fuego, and for the friendship and companionship that He gave us. It was truly a moment I will never forget.

To wrap up our time here in Antigua we had a retreat with Nate (Service Coordinator), Lorena (Director at Finca del Niño), Cristian (one of the driver’s at Finca del Niño), and Zulena, one of the founders of Finca del Niño. During the retreat, we talked about our four pillars: Spirituality, Service, Community, and Simplicity. Spirituality is at the core of everything we do at Finca del Niño. We have Franciscan Sisters that help run the Finca, daily prayer times with the kids, daily holy hours as a missionary community, we ask the saints to pray for us before every meal, and so many more ways that we incorporate faith into everything. During the retreat we were able to have mass, say the rosary, and pray a holy hour every single day. Next we talked about Service and how important it is to not only serve the Finca community but the surrounding community as well. We serve our community by caring for the kids at Finca del Niño, teaching the kids in the surrounding community, caring for all in our Sacred Heart Clinic, and so much more. We talked about Simplicity and all the different ways we can live this out (please pray for me with this one!). And lastly we talked about Community. Community with each other, with the kids, and with the staff at Finca del Niño. What an incredible opportunity to get to live in such an intentional group!

My favorite day of the retreat was Saturday. During the day, we heard Zulena tell her story and testimony. She told as about how she met Vincent in Parque Centrale right here in Antigua. She told us about how Vincent asked her to marry him, which included asking her to live a life of mission with him in a very rural part of Guatemala. Zulena told us about Vincent’s call from God to start Finca del Niño in Guatemala and their successes and struggles in the early years of the mission. She told us about how Vincent taught himself about medicine, how to build things, and how to be a pilot. How he would tell others about the mission, advocate for the kids at the Finca, and speak about the LORD. She told us about when Vincent approached her and told her God was calling them to open up another Finca in Honduras and then about the two years of work and effort it took them to build the Finca in Honduras. And how many people tried to take the land away from them. Then she ultimately told us about the plane crash that killed Vincent while he was carrying back supplies to build the chapel at the Finca del Niño in Honduras. After Vincent died, Zulena felt the LORD tell her “Don’t leave the mission in ruins.” She carried the mission on and Finca del Niño has now been caring for abandoned and abused children in Honduras for 30 years.

To say I was inspired is an understatement. Hearing Zulena talk about Vincent and Finca del Niño showed me the heart and soul of our mission. It inspired me to be even more willing to whatever the LORD wants me to do in the next two years. I am encouraged by my time hear in Antigua. I have grown so much in strength, boldness, and courage. I have made 4 new incredible friends who God gifted to me to help me through this mission. I have learned (a lot but not all) a new language and can communicate with others who speak Spanish. I have pushed my body physically, mentally, and emotionally and come out such a stronger person. I am forever grateful for these first two months and can’t wait to see where the next 25 lead!

Please pray for me, Will, Josh, Carole, Carter, and Nate as we travel to Honduras! Pray for safety, peace, and joy as we embark on this crazy new adventure! Let me know how I can pray for you! God bless!!