Mexico Week 43 -- More Humility Give Me

Can y’all believe it is already Christmas?!  Wow! Feliz Navidad!!

Time is just flying faster and faster!  I hope y’all have a great week together.

First of all, let me explain the pictures.  I found a shirt en Los Tianguis for 30 pesos!! And it´s mustard colored and super pretty, Feliz Navidad to me! 

Some people put up huge nativities here and it takes up their whole porch! Super pretty right! 

Nothing better than a good Christmas Coke! 

Hermano Oscar made a dinner that’s called birria here and well it’s super yum! Everyone was happy and eating and well, I know Hermano Oscar pretty well and asked him what’s up.  He was being really quiet. He says oh nothing, just a little tired.  Yeah, he’s about as good of a liar as dad is.  I asked him a few more times and finally he says: “Well, my Heavenly Father answered me today and it’s an answer I wasn’t wanting to receive.”  He starts to talk about how it’s time to say goodbye to the ward and leave his mom’s house and live with his wife in the other ward. He said he hadn’t slept for a few days thinking about all of this and he says, “The truth is, I was thinking about you and Hermana Malacara and Hermana Gonzalez and how I didn’t want to leave you guys.” He talked about how I was an incredible person with amazing strength that’s put up with a lot of hard stuff in these past couple weeks, but how much he admired me and how much he could never repay me, and how much he wanted me in his temple sealing in a year. He was crying and I was crying and he says “Heavenly Father told me that he has lots of work for you here and you already did your job with us.” It was just a special moment when you know you’re doing your job as a missionary. A little hard to know that he’s leaving soon, but he’s strong and he prays, and he knows his Heavenly Father. Temple sealing in one year!!! 

Speaking of this family, Hermano Jose is also making so many changes. He just keeps surprising us! First things first, he wasn’t sure if we could drink Arizona tea and so he starts telling us the story of being in the store and thinking, wait, is this against the word of wisdom? He realizes he isn’t totally sure, so he’s better off getting a Coka and asking the hermanas later. We can see how much he wants to be obedient. Sunday morning they arrived so late to church and his mom tells us afterward, “I felt terrible and he comes into my room all ready and says “Mom, aren’t we going to go to church?¨ I told him I’d change real quick!  He was just all ready to go and he’s faithful and well I gotta support him!”  Absolutely precious. Then she tells us that he was invited to Christmas parties but hasn’t gone to one of them because he says that he doesn’t drink or smoke anymore, so what’s the point? Just really surprising stuff!! 

On Friday, we had a conference with Elder Piper from the Quorum of the 70 and wow, it was so great!!! Hermana Piper is adorable. They have about 10 years serving in Russia and so she was really struggling to speak in Spanish with English, Spanish, and Russian swirling around in her head, but she is a doll and we all helped her out. I think the biggest thing that Elder Piper left with me is that I need to enjoy my mission. I need to give it all I’ve got and just love every minute. We have to be diligent. We have to love, learn, and share the missionary lessons. I think I just need to stop thinking about me and serve the people more fully, serve investigators, serve ward members, serve our leaders, serve my companion.  It’s a time of giving and giving and more giving, and I know that serving a mission is the best decision I ever made. 

Truth is, it’s been a rough month. I am learning so much and coming unto the Savior more than ever before. I love Him. I trust Him more than I ever have. I am really bad about managing stress, but this morning with some study, I learned a lot.  Actually in 20 minutes I learned what I have been missing for about a month. The Lord is with us in every step. He loves us and He understands every effort we make, actually He’s the only one who understands what we feel. 

This week I had a double infection.  Saturday I humbled up and we stayed home and Sunday I asked the Elders for a blessing. In my blessing, he commanded every illness and bad thing out of my body. I think this also applies to the high levels of stress, the discouragement, and the feelings of inadequacy. He told me how much my Father in Heaven loves me. He told me that my Savior has trusted in Hermana Gonzales and I in this area at this time. He blessed me to be a light and a guide to those around me. He blessed me to be able to find the people that were waiting for us. I felt so empowered and I know that with the Savior we can do all things.  It’s when we try to do things without Him that we have problems! 

We are working with some special people and we are really starting to see miracles here! I know that these next few months will be amazing ones! I love you all and can’t wait to talk this week!!  I’m going to be a strange little White Girl Mexican, so just go with it!

Love y’all tons!