Mexico Week 31 -- Lead Me, Guide Me, Walk Beside Me

My dear sweet family!  Everybody looks so grown up and happy! Wow! 

Karla came to church this week! She's one of our less active members that we found about a month and a half ago. We haven't been able to find her since, but she came to church with her mom and went to the Women's Conference Saturday night! Ahh, she is precious and just wants to do what's right. 

This lovely P-Day, we went to play the piano. I love the peace that brings. I am not really good at all, but I’m working with the simplified hymns! I was just singing and playing and thinking of the good days with Beth Ann Sands! She’ll be proud to know that I actually remember a few things! But really, the hymns are incredible. I love the peace and testimony that they bring. I know that they are gifts from our Father in Heaven and I just want to be who He needs me to be. 

Remember the HUGE family I told y’all about last week? We passed last week and only the abuelita was there. We started talking about prayer with her and she gets all teared up and tells us that she just prays every day that she’ll get up in the morning and want to live. She is really sick in her kidneys and has to go for dialysis three times a week. She tells us ¨Ya no puedo.¨or she just feels like she can’t. We give her some hugs and just let her think for a bit, and we talked about Joseph Smith when he was in Liberty Jail. The Spirit was so strong. They are an incredible family and we are going to work so much with them! 

This week we had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders! I went to Reforma with Hermana Workman for 2 days! She has about 2 weeks in her area and it’s huge. We were pretty much lost and running around for two days, so many memories from our first weeks here. Friday, we went to her meeting with the ward mission leader and she had no idea how to get back to her area, and it was pouring rain. I forget the jacket and umbrella and we were both getting soaked and just laughing! Two white missionaries ... uhhh, do you know where we can the bus? Which bus goes for this part of town? Ha! Ha! After about an hour, I offered to pay a taxi. We get into a taxi, and it dies. About 20 minutes later we are headed back for her area! So funny!

I went back to my area Saturday and whew, I missed Tlaquepaque. In about a week, I will be halfway through my mission. I feel like time is going by faster and faster but I’m not really getting any better or helping people to have a better life. I just got really frustrated with myself, like I wasn’t being the missionary Heavenly Father needed me to be. On the bus ride to the stake center to see the Women’s Conference, I started praying, praying that He would help me, just asking Him what He wanted me to do. I prayed that in the conference He would tell me something. 

I absolutely loved the conference, especially the Asian kids singing I Am a Child of God. I guess you could say I was a little teared up. I felt the love of my Heavenly Father so strongly for the first time in a little while. I have to turn to Him more and trust Him more. He loves me so much and I started thinking about my own dad here, aka Papa Bear. He loves the heck out of me. He is my biggest cheerleader and He always wants what’s best for me. He is right there to help me whenever I need it, and I thought about my Heavenly Father. If my dad is imperfect and human and can still do all of these things, how much more can my Heavenly Father do these things? He love and support are even bigger. 

I just love the Lord. I am the farthest thing from perfect, but I do love Him. I want to be who He needs me to be. I want to believe in Him, I want to be like Him. I want to be a light to those around me. I want to do these every single day that will help me to be stronger and help me to shine more. There is so much work to do, but we don’t have to feel hopeless if we believe in the Lord. 

Sunday morning in sacrament meeting my little moment continued. During the sacrament, I was praying to know if there truly are people here that are willing to change their lives, if the Lord would guide me, if He would help me, and He answered me yes to every single one of these questions. I feel the strongest resolve just to work and forget about everything else. He promised me that there are people here and we have to find them. We have to be so, so strong! I think I need to stop trying to do this on my own. I think if I just open up a little more, He’ll guide me, He’ll teach me, and He’ll work miracles. 

Last night we went and visited our special family again. Their four-year-old twins are hilarious and slightly out of control. They are all members minus the dad. He has quite a few addictions and they need to get married, but last night we taught the Restoration. Wow, we felt the Spirit so strong and el hermano says ¨So how does this work, we need to get married first and then I can get baptized, and then the temple is after?¨ These are the moments that we read about in the scriptures, when people, after being taught say HOW? How can I have that? When they are willing to work. Mom, he has one of the cards you gave us that talks about change being a very real gift that comes from God. His wife told us that he taped it to the wall all by himself. Ahh, I love working with them because they are so special. Their family really means a lot to me, and we are going to work so diligently with them! 

I am happy. I am loving all that I’m learning and especially that I feel just a little bit better every week. I know that this is my time to act and just run around crazy working. I know that the Lord has miracles in store if I can just exercise my faith just a little bit more. 

I love you all to the moon and back and please let me know if there´s anything I can do for y’all!

Frozen

I found a Frozen blanket for the equivalent of about $9!

It is huge!

It says Family Forever!

Enough said! 

New Favorite Snack

Hot Nuts are excellent!!  They are peanuts with chili and lime.  They are literally the best thing since Hot Cheetos .. literally, just so good. 

Mexico Week 30 -- The Gospel Is For Families

To all my favorites! 

How are y’all? Happy and obedient right??!! 

So my whole week was made when last Monday the Hermanas that are in my old area told me that Hermana Infante is reading my blog. Ahh, the connections we make and can maintain .. the Internet is great! 

Also, Grandma Kathy sent me a copy of Grandpa Jay’s patriarchal blessing and wow, what a treat. I love how much it focuses on following every prompting to serve. I have been trying to work on that, to really follow every single prompting we receive even when we don’t understand why sometimes. I can’t wait to be an eternal family and get to know all of these people.

We bought ice cream this week, and ate it in about two days! Ha! Ha!  Some of our favorite less active members have also gone to church two weeks straight! They crack us up and we love working with them. 

Tamsyn will be so proud of me because we found this tiny little guy in the street and he was so sweet. I had to snuggle him a little. I decided in my house, we will need one cat and one huge Lab with some cute kids and life will be great.

This is one of our investigadores. She has a salon in her house and the truth is, she is always happy and serving other people, but she’s carrying quite a bit of pain right now. She cut my hair today and gets all excited about this cut she’s going to do and bangs and I’m thinking .. Uh, BANGS??!!  But, she was so excited and so we went with it. She starts painting my eyebrows on because she tells me they’re too short. Ha! Ha! She really is a sweetheart and sometimes it just feels good to know you help somebody relax and have some fun for a few minutes. I love the people here, and now I have bangs. 

We are teaching this family! I LOVE teaching families. Their mom is less active because she works Sundays and her 12 year old daughter is also a member. They also have 4 year old twins! House full of girls, just like us!  Her partner, well almost husband, but they’re not married, isn’t a member and has years listening to the missionaries. We went by this week and she told us that he told her that he wanted to get baptized, that he felt something different with ¨the Elderas¨ .. must be slang for girl missionaries! Wow, we got so excited! We need to help him quit smoking and drinking and go to church and get married, but he has a strong desire to be a good dad and help his family. They are so special. 

We also have another little miracle family! We went looking for an old investigador that the elders taught but instead we found her mom. She let us in and afterward we found two of her sisters, her nieces and nephews and we are teaching almost 10 people in this one tiny little house. We need to help them a lot, but the kids gets so excited and they are loving the scripture stories! They love to read the Book of Mormon and their prayers are adorable. There is just something special about teaching families. This gospel is for families and wow, life is good. 

We also found another new investigador this week! She goes to visit Oklahoma a lot and has a boyfriend there. She tells me ¨He’s a redneck¨ and I about died laughing. She has about a year listening to the missionaries off and on. She has a couple doubts but she is so prepared. She tells us that she wants to raise a family in this church. She wants to base her life on its principles. Her whole family is Catholic but she still wants to get baptized and move forward. I learn so much from different people.  Everyone has a different perspective and view of what the gospel can bring to their life. Our Heavenly Father created some truly amazing children.

Life is good as a missionary. Love you tons! Be good!