Hola Amigos!
This ABST experience so far has been nothing less than extraordinary to every single one of us; each activity there is something that moves our hearts and those of the people we are with.
We are currently wrapping up our day at the moment and reflecting on todays activities. Today, we hopped into the bed of a truck, and traveled one hour away to another village to help build stoves for families in need. We spilt into three separate groups, and on top of working on the stoves, we got to spend time with the Guatemalan families in which we were building them for. We worked there for three hours mixing cement, soaking bricks, and then smoothing and laying bricks down evenly to make a working stove. On the journey there and back to San Lucas, we kept the spirit up by singing random songs together. 
Now on to a more serious note; we enjoyed a beautiful Ash Wednesday mass at the Iglesias de San Lucas. The whole mass was in Spanish! Even though most of us couldn’t understand what exactly was being said, the experience in Spanish was a beautiful experience. It was truly moving to see that the whole community put so much of a focus on the importance of Ash Wednesday and took time out of their busy lives to spend over two hours at the church. There were so many people from the community we were in awe as folks lined up outside of the building and surrounding the church.
As our time is now slightly past half-way, we are especially striving to live being present to all people and service works that we are involved in. The love that is experienced here is something that is unforgettable.
In our reflection tonight B talked to us about patience and we realized that it seemed to be our theme for the day. In our morning work we had to practice patience while bouncing back in forth with our broken Spanish trying to communicate and find out what we were to be doing, we had to practice our patience in waiting for cement to be smoothed and for us to move on to our next step in stove building, and we had to practice patience while waiting an extra 50 minutes (in the hot Guatemalan sun) for our driver to come back and pick us up.
We were THEN forced to be patient in realizing that we were not going to be able to make our 3PM mass service with our beloved Father Michael (staff from Gannon ☺) which we were all looking forward to. Tweaking our plans ended up giving us some extra time to shower, reflect, and prepare a new plan for our evening. We ended up attending our mass service at 6PM (after having not eaten since lunch) where we experienced 2 hours of untranslatable beauty.
As we write this at the end of the day, we realize that through the good and the challenging experiences of the day, maintaining a patient heart allows a person to have a capacity for loving more fully and freely.
Buenos Noches a todos!
Deanna & Maggie
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