My LDS Missionary Service-The First Contact

It took two days of travel to get to Quetzaltenango.  The first day we flew from Salt Lake to Guatemala City.  We had a lay over in Texas somewhere and we were tired by the time we got there.  I was traveling with another Sister and we were picked up in a van at the airport and taken to the Casa de Huesped next to the Temple in Guatemala City.  The next day we boarded a bus with about 20 other missionaries, most of them from Central America (they had been at the MTC there in Guatemala City receiving their missionary training) all headed for Quetzaltenango. 

I was excited to try out my Spanish and had some short conversations with the Central American missionaries as we traveled.  My feeble attempts to communicate were greeted with patience and kindness though I quickly realized that my Spanish was very limited, which was frustrating after spending 10 weeks studying so hard.

We arrived at the mission president's home after a meeting with the majority of the missionaries in the area and they sent us out to go knock on doors and teach people. (That was the main purpose of the mission, to go meet people and teach them the gospel.)  I was sent out with a six foot tall gringa (that's what they call white girls in Guate) from Arkansas.  We knocked on the first door and she stepped aside, waiting for me to speak.  I wave of panic swept over me and I began to cry.  All the sudden it was real and I knew my language skills weren't up to the task.  I spent the next hour trying to calm down and let reality catch up with me.
The good news is that my first attempt was out of the way and each time after that got easier.  I even got to the point that I looked forward to going out to meet new people which was great since most days we spent several hours contacting people.

I can't tell you how glad I was that quitting was not an option.  I can't explain what happened that made me fall apart for the better part of an hour but I'm exceedingly grateful for those who encouraged me along the way. It was only the first frustrating day of many but I decided not to ever give up, I'd made a commitment to stick it out and I'm so glad that I did.