Santo Tomás - Day 2 [Blog]

By: Carly Nakano

Greetings from Guatemala!

Today was the first day of officially working, and it is safe to say that I already feel closer to God and inspired to appreciate what I am blessed with. We woke up and headed to the Corazon de los Niños center in Santo Tomás.

We arrived, got into our work groups and headed out to the different work sites. In our particular home, both of the stoves for the work day were located there. We split our team up into two small teams and started on each stove, the stove that my teammate Kelly and I worked on had very minimal problems, the woman whom the stove was for was very helpful as well! we finished it with excess time and went to help the rest of our crew, though that stove had a few more issues which we were easily able to figure out together, it just ended up taking a lot of teamwork and more time! This problem was easy to overcome with the help of all our team members.

The women were so thankful for their stove and the small gifts that were given to them, it was inspiring to witness so much appreciation for such a simple service. This has already begun to inspire me to be more appreciative of all of the factors I am blessed with in my everyday life. After we finished our stoves and ate lunch at the center, we headed to hold VBS.

This was also an amazing experience- and it is only the first day! The children were incredibly joyed and excited to be there to have fun, sing, and learn about the Lord! the children were so thankful as well for being able to come together and have fun with each other. Kids would just come up to me and hug me, it was adorable and made me feel so loved!

This whole first day taught me about appreciation and how I should take a break from always wanting more and rather just appreciate what I already have. I have been on mission trips before, though not one like this that impacts so many people in such a small time. I am forever thankful for this opportunity and experience and I am already excited to hopefully return next year.