Well I am in Uruapan, Michoacan!
My area is called Jardines 1! It
was a five hour bus ride to arrive here and it is so pretty! It is very sunny here! Ha! Ha!
Almost no clouds and lots of hills! Or in other words, I will be brown
and buff and thin leaving here! I have
been getting home so tired at night for booking it up and down the hills!
Please enjoy my sunburned pic!
My companion is Hermana Lopez. She is from Oaxaca and is an only
child. She just finished her training.
We are working well together and getting to know each other more.
However, I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss Hermana Gonzalez just a
little bit … or a lot a bit!!
This week I’ve been getting settled in. I’m not very good at
changes, and sometimes you just miss people, but I have been working hard and
getting to know everyone here. I realized this week just how much I love
meeting people. I saw so many members open up and my companion told me that
they were members that didn’t really like them too much beforehand. We have a lot
of work to do here gaining the confidence of the members! I just feel a strong
desire to serve and strengthen the families here. My mission has taught me so
much about how much the members too need to be strengthened. We have a lot of work to do!
Happy Birthday Mom! 46 years old! Just a little bit closer to
50. Sorry I didn’t tell you last week,
but I promise I remembered the actual day of your birthday!
Today we had a zone activity! We played charades, fill in the
blank from Preach my Gospel, a little basketball, a little soccer, and of
course catapulting water balloons. It
was a lot of fun and Hermana Quisbert is in my zone! She goes home at the end of this transfer ...
crazy stuff, right? It has been so fun
seeing her again!
Church on Sunday was awesome! It’s a tiny ward and about 70 or
80 people attending every week. This week one of our investigators Marisela,
went to church! She has twins, Ricardo and Delia. They’re 6 years old and she
is just stressed out. We see her pretty frustrated but trying to find answers.
We taught her about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy on Saturday and we felt the
spirit so strongly as we talked about the sacrament. She says, “I need to go¨
and there she was on Sunday and she stayed the 3 hours and loved it! We are hoping
to see her progress a lot. Oh and Ricky was REALLY hungry after three hours of
church and had a little bit of bad attitude for the picture! Ha! Ha!
The other family that went to church is the Espino family. The
parents are recent converts from December I think, but the dad doesn’t want to
go anymore and the kids never wanted to get baptized. I’m kind of doubting they
were prepared before being baptized, but they are also so special. We have a
lot of work to do in this house! Their teenagers are kind of nervous and shy
and giggle a lot, but on Saturday we also taught about keeping the Sabbath Day
Holy and we felt the Spirit a ton. The oldest likes going to church and was
convincing her younger sister who was scared they would ask her questions and she
wouldn’t know the answer. The mom with her three daughters arrives at church
and everyone went to their own classes happy! Their youngest is Paola and she
is just precious. She almost always says the opening and closing prayer just
because she likes too. She loves the church and I think she encourages her
whole family!
There are so many great people here, but I have to tell y’all
about Mike. I still haven’t taught him, but this week was incredible. Since
Monday we were looking for him … calling, going to his house, everything, and
nothing. On Friday we finally found him. He comes outside, in front of his
house, and I introduce myself and we start asking how he is and he starts
explaining, and then says, “I just can’t express myself in Spanish” and starts speaking
in perfect English. He tells us that he is in a deep depression, like it’s just
darkness and there’s no light. He feels
like he’s falling and falling and wants to take somebody’s hand but there’s no
one there. He says he’s a black sheep that has wandered away from the shepherd
but he wants to find Him again. He’s doubting that God loves Him. He’s crying
through all of this and don’t forget he is speaking in English! He says, ”I’m sorry! I barely know you, and I’m crying so much. But, I just feel you care, like I don’t know,
I just feel like you really care about me.” This is where I start crying too. I started testifying
of our Heavenly Father’s love. He says, “I want to change my life now, not
tomorrow, not next week, now. I know I just need to open the book, it’s all
there if I just open the Book of Mormon. On Saturday we stopped by to give him
a list of uplifting scriptures but only his wife was home. My companion had
told me that she didn’t want to listen, but we started chatting with her. She
too opened up that her mom died two months ago and it was just hard, that her
whole marriage has been hard. She agreed to listen to us with her husband on
Tuesday and we are incredibly excited. We see the true possibility of them
progressing as a family!
I
am happy to be here ... sad and a little nervous as I realize how fast my mission
is passing by, but happy. I’m not perfect and I mess up everyday, it is so hard
for me to accept the Savior’s Atonement sometimes, but I love Him and our
Father in Heaven, and this gospel. I know that I cannot be happy without living
it. I can’t be happy without being obedient. I want so badly to make our Father
in Heaven proud. I want to live with Him again. I want to realize how short and
important our earthly life is. I just want to be righteous, I just want to give
the best of me and help everyone here to feel the Savior’s love. I want to
represent Him well. I love you all too much and hope that you’re happy!
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