Mexico Week 44: What Would Jesus Do

Dear Sweet Family of Mine!

I hope y’all had the best Christmas! You were all looking so good on Skype! It was such a blast talking to you guys. It was a spiritual high for me and I have been so blessed in my life. Just love y’all too much! 

Keeping it classic with the Christmas Eve PJ´s!

These two hermanas are Marta and Cuca. They are Rachel and I in about 60 years. 

The other one is Hermana Arellano. She has had some surgeries recently but she is never without a smile and a joke to tell and she ALWAYS goes to church. I want to be her when I grow up! 

I wanted to give a big thank you to Emma and Sister Cohen! Letters from them showed up this week and every ounce of support is just the best! 

Christmas in Mexico was a Christmas like never before! We had our district meeting in the morning and as we left at about 8 o’clock in the morning it was completely silent in the streets.  There were like two people and I felt like I was in the Walking Dead! We had our district meeting and then district activity. We ate food and exchanged gifts.  Please enjoy our whole district with our zone leaders rocking the holiday crowns .. a tradition started in England .. being celebrated by an American in Mexico!  How cool is that!! 

  

We had a district counsel and talking about what changes we thought the Lord expected of our mission. As we all reflected, we realized that he wants us to be more converted, more consecrated to Him. He wants us to work out of a sincere love for Him. I want to be a better disciple. As we headed home and were getting off the bus, the thought popped into my head, “What would Jesus do”?  I started to think about how I could truly think this ALL DAY EVERY DAY. It sounds so simple and obvious but as I made a conscious effort to do it, I felt the strongest Spirit. I began thinking in every situation, how would Jesus respond? What would He say? How would He listen? How would He serve? It was just a really special experience and whew, I should do that more often! 

I am really trying to be a more devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. I want to follow Him and be like Him. I am the farthest thing from perfect, but I just want Him to have every ounce of my effort for these six months.  Well, actually for my whole life. I love Him, sometimes I need to better show my love, but I am trying to love Him more every day. I am grateful for my weaknesses and trials, I am grateful for every single person that supports me, and I am grateful for how He is molding me to become better and better. 

I love you all to the moon and back! Behave yourselves and make some Legos for me!

Mexico Week 40 -- Tis the Season

Is anybody else super surprised that it’s December?  Where is the time going?!

This week is transfers too.  They tell us on Sunday. Whoa, feels like we just had transfers and they just gave us more time here!!

I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving and missed me lots and ate lots of turkey for me! Ha! Ha!

We ate with one of our less active members this week and she has a Texas mug in her house. It made me laugh and smile and she let me take a picture!

Also, it looks like we are living in World War 3 here! Leading up the big pretty area with the Christmas tree, pretty much all of the streets are torn up and the kids are always playing in the holes.  Totally looks like a movie scene here!

Hermano Oscar gave the ward Family Home Evening this week on families and knocked it out of the park! His wife made all of the decorating poster boards with the little drawing and quotes from apostles and everybody loved it! His brother, Jose, is also progressing a ton! He’s almost ditched the cigarettes for good and is starting to receive answers to prayers!

We are working with another investigator named Jorge. He is the son of a Hermana that is coming back to church but he big time struggles with alcohol.  He is really sick, but wants to change.  It was pretty interesting having him in church yesterday! We have faith in him and we’re going to keep loving on him!

It’s also officially Christmas!  We are singing the Christmas hymns and the trees are up and the church kicked off the ¨He is the Gift¨ campaign. If you haven’t seen the video, go watch it! Then post it on Facebook and share it with everyone! It’s a video that really touched my heart this week and it keeps touching my heart and well as the hearts of everyone we share it with. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much. It took so much love to give us His son so that we could all find peace, love, life, and hope here. We need to discover this gift and then accept it. We accept it by repenting, by coming to know him, by following Him, and it’s so special. I am eternally grateful to our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ.

http://www.mormon.org/Christmas

This week I am especially grateful for the sacrament. I am grateful for how it truly can heal us. I am grateful that we have this opportunity weekly. Weekly, we can feel of the love of our Heavenly Father and the power of the atoning sacrifice of His son. We can feel of their patience with us, and start to apply this patience to ourselves too. I love this gospel. I love that our Father in Heaven has high expectations for us. I love that He wants us to be great and strong and that He gave us a Savior to be able to it.

Love y’all tons! Find ways to share the love of the Savior this Christmas!

Mexico Week 39 -- Obedience Brings Blessings

This week we lived in buses! Woo! Hoo! Our Zone Leaders called Monday night and said that I was invited to a Leadership Training Tuesday and Wednesday in CRUZ DEL SUR! I loved visiting that church building! But anyways, two days of about 3 hours in buses!  Then today we had to go to the mission offices for our flu shot.  Like I said, we lived in buses!! 

I got to see Hermana Mansfield! Love that kid, she is training a new missionary right now! 

Today I saw my hija! She is training and opening a new area in Michocan...oh sea, bien lejos de aquí!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Please enjoy my list of blessings I made!

Mom, I officially own a hot glue gun in Mexico!  I made thank-you notes for everyone that participated in and went to the baptism. They loved it! 

Members are also starting to give us Christmas trees...love it! 

 So to start things off, this week I went to the 2-day Leadership Training.  It was awesome and I learned a TON! Well actually, I felt super overwhelmed and wow, some times I feel like I’m the worst missionary in the whole world!  At the end, we watched this video where all of the apostles talk about the purpose of leadership in the church. Let’s just say, I may have shed a few tears. It was so beautiful what they said. They talked about how so many times we are called and we have no idea what we’re doing, but we learn, and the most important thing is helping others to be true disciples of Christ. I loved this theme, we are just called to learn, love people, and help them grow. I love that the Church is so focused on other people.

We have a new investigator this week and his name is Jorge! He is the son of a less active member that’s coming back to Church.  He struggles so much with being an alcoholic. He always talks about how he sins every day and there’s just no escaping it. He broke my heart last night!  After we got home, I kept thinking to myself, “How many people in the world feel like that? How many people feel like there’s no escaping sin?  That we can’t rise above the things we do wrong? That we can’t leave? Or that we’re trapped?”  I love the peace that the gospel brings. As we learn to trust in Christ, we really can overcome these things, we can repent. 

Okay, this week was one long big story. Monday night, we go to the house of Oscar to see how he’s doing after his baptism. Their house was MAGIC. All four of them were together and laughing and having fun and the Spirit was so strong. His brother, Jose, has changed so much. He was cracking jokes left and right and we shared a really special lesson with them. Sunday after church I felt like we should invite Hermano Jose to listen again. My pride got in the way and I didn’t really want a repeat of the last time, so I didn’t say anything.  Monday, in the lesson, I felt the strongest Spirit that just said ¨Go on already, invite him to be baptized.¨  He accepted a baptismal date so fast and just said, “Yeah, I’m going to prepare and start working.” WOW!!  That same day Hermano Oscar tells us that his wife is going to live with his mom so that she and their son can get baptized. He talked with the bishop and the bishop told him it was okay and everything. We got super excited!! 

Jump to Tuesday ... after we arrived from the leadership training, we went to eat with Hermana Elsa, something felt weird to me, so I asked her if Karen really was going to live there.  She said that a few times during the week she was going to spend the night basically. This is the part where Hermana Rawe gets really nervous, because, really, she doesn’t live there and the bishop can’t give permission. Hermana Karen at FHE is super excited and wants to buy her baptism dress and is praying thanking Heavenly Father for letting her get baptized here. 

Wednesday, Hermana Rawe talks with President Camarillo after the leadership training and affirms what she was already thinking. Wednesday night, we tell Hermano Oscar and he gets super mad. We were teaching about the priesthood and the order of the church, and well ... he just got more and more mad, until he tells us that until his wife can get baptized here, he’s not going to church. This is the part where Hermana Rawe and Hermana Malacara leave their house to get home by curfew and sit on the floor and cry a whole lot, and then prayed a whole lot. Actually, in that moment, I was just thinking about Christ. I was thinking about how if I felt so pained and so sad for one person that was leaving the path ... how does he feel for every single person? I felt so angustiada y just sad, just straight up sad, and it was for one person. I literally can’t imagine how he felt everything for everybody. 

We go to bed and I wake up Thursday morning feeling terrible. At about 6:45, Hermano Oscar calls. “Hermanas, I am so sorry. I’m just really, really, sorry. I prayed. I prayed a whole lot and He told me that I had to obey, that His will was a little different than mine. Hermanas, I know that you have turned your hearts into this family, just like God has. You love us, you love us a whole lot and that’s why you do everything you do. I just ask you that you help me find the missionaries there because my wife really wants to get baptized.” 

Wow, the Lord taught me that we have to obey. Sometimes it’s really, really hard, and it would be easier just to bend the truth a little bit. Being obedient and being honest always pays off. I have learned so much about honesty and obedience in my mission. I started thinking about how much our investigators truly watch us. They are learning from us and how we do things how the church is and how it is run. I fully believe that we are training future leaders of the church and now they are going to know how important it is to do things the way they should be done, to be completely honest in all things. I loved it. I loved seeing how the Lord touched his heart and helped him to accept His will. 

Thursday in the afternoon, we teach Hermano Jose the Restoration. We go back Saturday and he’s read five chapters in the Book of Mormon and is praying. On Saturday, we saw beer in the house and started asking ¨cough cough, who’s is this??¨ Hermano Oscar says you’re not going to believe it, it’s the friend of Jose. He didn’t drink last night!  He was drinking soda. He’s also not smoking as much. We haven’t even taught him the Word of Wisdom yet!  Hermano Jose promised to go to church on Sunday and Sunday morning we were waiting for him! Sacrament meeting ends and no Hermano Jose.  I felt terrible. I was thinking NO!  We pressured him again and now he’s running.  He’s going to tell us the same thing he told us last time. At the end of sacrament meeting, he shows up, “I’m sorry Hermanas!  I stayed with a friend last night and well, I’m late, but I’m here!”  Woo! Hoo!  We are so exciting to keep working with him. Also, he should marry my sister, Rachel...for reals Rach! Ha! Ha!! 

I love you guys and hope you had a great week. It’s up and down like always, but we usually end up! I love what I’m doing!  Eat some turkey for me! 

Mexico Week 35 -- Todo Lo Puedo en Cristo Que Me Fortalece

Buenas tardes mi familia eterna, 

So turns out at least six more weeks here in Tlaquepaque with Hermana Malacara! Woo! Hoo! The elders called us at about 10:30 last night.  They always call at about 7:30pm, so we were all nervous and tight stomached for so long!  We had so many people nervous too.  All day long when we arrived at their houses, they would ask, ¨Sooo, what’s the news? Is somebody leaving?¨.  We had to inform a few people after the news arrived! I am going to be honest ... I literally squealed. I’m not really good at the whole goodbye thing. Get ready for one crazy transfer after so much work! 

These are my new favorite pants!  They are green like the Mexican flag, and I got them for the equivalent of about $3.  They are so soft! 

  

Every Monday, I have been searching long and hard for a Coke with my name and today I found it! The only sad part is that Alexis is a boy name here! Ha! Ha!

 This would be me attempting to play the piano and singing hymns today. Life is great with the Spirit and some hymns. 

Also, just in case you were still wondering, I still don’t have full feeling in my lip. Remember the crazy wisdom teeth surgery? Oh well, ni modo, I will have partial feeling the rest of my life!

This week was ... A WEEK OF MIRACLES. 

Hermano Oscar is practically a member! Once we ditch cigarettes, we are golden! Tuesday we were walking for mil años and not finding anyone. The light at the end of the tunnel is that he was going to go to Ward FHE and we were going to talk about repentance afterward. We show up at church and well...he didn’t. We were so bummed. He calls us and says ¨Hey are you still at the church?¨ We said, “Of course!”  He told us he was sorry for being so late, but that he would be there in about 15 minutes and he had a surprise for us!  He showed up at about 8:15 WITH HIS WIFE AND KIDS. They live about 15 minutes from here, but wow, they are so special! We talked about families and one of the counselors in the bishopric gave him a blessing to help him live the Word of Wisdom. BUT, his blessing also mentioned that lots of people including his family, would receive the gospel through him, and that he would be SEALED IN THE TEMPLE.  His wife started to cry and told us how she is so grateful that her husband has found God and she keeps asking where He is. 

Another night, we had another lesson in the chapel and we talked about families more and our Father in Heaven. His wife is opening up so much and his 10 year old son is an angel! They all want to learn more and be baptized. One morning we went to visit Hermano Oscar and we talked about our baptismal covenant and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. We were talking about what we need to feel before baptism and he gets teary up talking about mistakes he’s made and how he just wants to change and be better for his family. He wants to help his kids outside of his marriage to receive the gospel too. This is what it means to be repentant, to have this change of heart.

We went to church on Sunday and here comes Hermana Elsa (the mom who’s less active), both of her sons Oscar and Jose (the one who listened one time and then didn’t want anything) the family of Hermano Oscar, and Hermana Elsa invited her niece who also wants to learn more. All of this started by loving and finding a less active member and helping her to feel peace during a rough time. The gospel is incredible and when people are touched by it, they start to share it with everyone. Wow, this family blows my mind!!  It just felt amazing at church on Sunday. We had seven investigators come to church. AHH! 

This week my Heavenly Father taught me so much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I realized how much I’ve truly been touched by the love of my Savior. All of my experiences and meditating this week helped me to prepare a talk for Sunday. The bishop asked my companion and I to speak. I loved it. I started out by sharing the story from President Hinckley la de “He Took My Lickin for Me”.  I asked everyone if they had been touched by the love of Jesus Christ.  When we feel just a little bit of his love, we start to have faith.  We start to believe in what He did, and we start to see that it is possible … with Him, everything is possible.  Our love for Him starts to grow and we want to repent. We want to use the sacrifice He gave us. We want to be better for Him. We want to show our love for Him and we trust Him enough to be humble and repent, and confess, or whatever we have to do. Fear doesn’t matter, talking with a bishop doesn’t matter, what others will say or think doesn’t matter because we just want to come unto Him. I told a BYU story too. In my 3rd semester, I was feeling a little hopeless. I was scared, I just wanted to do what was right and I remember one night driving to the temple in Brad’s car. I parked outside of the Provo temple and started to listen and sing “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” … then I started crying and stopped singing. I shared the lyrics of this hymn and talked about how we have made or are preparing to make covenants.  We have or will have the Holy Ghost and we have to be firm and faithful to the end, o sea, we have to allow the Lord’s love to touch our hearts our whole lives.  I used Elder Holland´s talk about the First Great Commandment (still my all time favorite talk)  and how he asks Peter if he really loves Him.  If we love the Lord .. we serve Him.  If we love Him .. He comes first. Last week Grandma Janice told me that I was finally accepting the Lord’s love. I read that and thought pridefully ¨Hey that’s not true, I always feel it!¨  The truth is, that’s not the truth.  I resist it so many times.  I put extremely high standards for myself and I’m really not very patient.  I have resisted His love so many times in my life, most thinking I wasn’t worthy of it, or that I could figure things out on my own.  My President gave me a blessing one time and in my blessing said that I needed to learn about and experience the Atonement and the Savior’s love on my mission so that I could bless my husband and kids.  IT’S SO TRUE!! 

I am finally feeling the Lord’s love.  I am finally understanding repentance.  I am seeing myself how He sees me.  My love for Him is growing more and more every day and my mission is the most incredible gift that He has given me.  I love the Lord.  If I don’t communicate anything else with y’all .. I want you to know this .. I love Him.  I love Him a whole lot and I love what He has sent me to do.  I love Him for his patience.  I love Him for what He did.  I love Him for always giving us a second chance.  I love Him for giving me this mission, and I love Him for being by my side every day.  I am just extremely grateful and happy and with Him it’s all possible.  ¨Todo lo puedo en Crist que me fortalece.¨ .. This scripture is so going on the wall in my home.  Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” .. not going to lie .. I like it better in Spanish!

I love you all to the moon and back and I hope that you are happy. Come unto Christ, forget everything else and come unto Him. Feel His love, do what He asks, and receive His love. 

Love you almost as much as He does! 

Mexico Week 21 -- I Will Go and Do

To my favorite people! Wow, this week just flew by! Ahh! I can´t believe it! 

WE BOUGHT MINION PIÑATAS. Hermana Butters hit 3 months and I hit 6! We haven’t broken them because they are too cute, but they are hanging up in our house! 

Look at how much the kittens are growing! They’ve gotten so big!! This is Veronica’s daughter, Alexa. She is nine and literally cracks me up. She is so confident and bright and just a smart girl. She starting talking to us about how so many families are separating and how God doesn’t like that. She talked about all of the fighting and kids that have parents that don’t love them. She just kept asking us how we can keep our families together. She literally about broke my heart. She loves to pray and loves to sing too! She is my testimony that kids get it. They understand the gospel and they are so close to Christ. We are having a family home evening with their whole family tomorrow! 

So, I had a rougher night this week. We got home just exhausted because we are working our tails off, and I just kind of felt discouraged. I felt like we we are praying and studying and doing what we needed to do but nothing was happening. I really want to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands, but I just felt like I wasn’t pulling it off. I took a hot shower, got a good cry in, prayed, and then just listened. The words - Fear not, I am with thee - came to my mind. Even though I was discouraged, I still felt the Spirit, I still felt like He was with me. I realized how brokenhearted He must feel every time that we are disobedient. He wants us, every one of us, and He loves us. I am starting to feel a part of this love! 

There was an article in the Liahona this month called “Becoming Perfect in Christ” by Elder Gerrit W. Gong.  I’m pretty sure he wrote it for me. He said, “We unsuccessfully try to control our circumstances and the people around us. We fret over weaknesses and mistakes. In fact, the harder we try, the further we may feel from the perfection we seek, but we can gratefully accept, as God´s sons and daughters, that we are His greatest handiwork, even though we are still a work in progress. As we understand our Savior´s freely given atoning love, we cease fearing that He may be a harsh, faultfinding judge.”

He goes on to talk about missionaries learning mission languages and adults looking for spouses and how picky we are. He also mentions that with perfectionism, we are pretty critical of others. I realized that I truly have this problem. Not so much with investigators, but with missionaries and members, I am kind of critical. I do try to plan everything and I usually focus on where I fell short during the day instead of celebrating the small successes. Sometimes, I do try to control everything instead of putting it all into His hands. I truly have a long way to go in my understanding of the Atonement. I also know that I lack patience. He asked us, “Do I define perfection and success by the doctrines of the Savior’s atoning love or by the world’s standards? Do I measure success or failure by the Holy Ghost confirming my righteous desires or by some worldly standard?”  I know that I need to trust the Savior more, to let go of my plans and expectations and put it all into His hands. I think He knows better than me!

This week we worked so much with Pedro Reynaga to help him stop smoking. We made a solid plan and we have been visiting him almost every day. The kids make great spies to tell us if he’s smoking or not!  I love my little abuelito. He tells me the other day - Hermana I have been thinking about you and I think you are going to leave soon. Flip, almost broke my heart! He then goes on to tell me what a hard character I have and how he would never want to be my kid. Ha! Ha! I read the end of Doctrine of Covenants 121 to him and told him that I really do love his family a ton, but I am also a stickler for the commandments because I want what’s best for him and his family. I want an eternal family for them and if we’re going to get there … Well, the Lord has standards and we need to follow them!  Not going to lie, might have hurt my feelings just a little bit, but I guess it is okay if my kids don’t like me. As long as we work with love and do all we can to be obedient, it all works out. 

We also visited the Contreras family this week.  Hermana Carlos listened for the first time in a long time. We entered their house and it started dumping rain! We were almost having to yell to share a message. We talked about obedience and I just felt my own testimony so strongly. I can still see it on Hermano Carlos’ face when he feels the Spirit and knows it is true. He just has that sliver of pride that gets in the way. After we got home that night, I just felt like we needed to visit him more. I have actually felt it for a little while now but I thought it was just me wanting to go back not the Spirit. I know he has the potential and I think we are going to go for another round. 

On a funnier note, we go to leave their house and it is literally dumping rain. They’re telling us to wait it out and there is water just flowing in the streets, but it’s 8:30 and we have to get home. Hermano JuanCarlos tells me he’s going to call the mission president and tell him we’re not leaving until the rain slows down!  I’m thinking, PLEASE NOOOOO!!  Ha! Ha! Armed with umbrellas, we head out! Some homies pulled over and asked where we were headed and “offered” us a ride!  We pulled the - no, gracias, buenas noches!  The streets were almost empty and I just start praying we can find a taxi.  We are literally crossing rivers in the streets, and of course, we are not wearing rainboots!  Well, Heavenly Father loves us and answers prayers, because we found a taxi and made it home on time. We called Mama Contreras to tell her we made it home and she was pretty grateful we called! 

Church was great yesterday! I love my ward here. I love my mission and I love the people. I decided that sacrament meeting is always going to be a priority in my life and for my family. We just need it every week. I also made myself some other promises. I am always going to be a missionary. I never want to be scared to open my mouth and share what I know with co-workers, neighbors, and everyone!  I promise to rescue less active members and befriend investigators of the missionaries. I will teach my kids to be confident in the message we share. I want to always be involved in the work of salvation. I am going to know the people in my future wards by name. 

Hermano Nefi Torrescano gave a talk about preparing for eternal marriage and I LOVED it. Every youth and young adult needed to hear this talk. Being in a relationship is preparation for marriage. If I am going to be in a relationship - after the mission, of course - it better be helping me work toward the temple and celestial kingdom. We have to love and respect ourselves first and then we can love and respect someone else. We have to understand who and whose we are. Our purpose in a relationship is to help each other achieve our eternal and divine potential. If a person doesn’t help me become who my Father in Heaven wants me to be, I can’t marry him. I think the most important thing to me is that my future spouse has a big heart, that he really loves people and our Heavenly Father. As Nefi talked about meeting his wife Bania and seeing the Spirit reflected in her, I just want to be like that … to reflect the light of Christ. 

I think an eternal marriage and eternal family are quite possibly the most important things to me. I want it really bad, but I’m also starting to understand that these are big, big, BIG decisions. Maybe it’s Heavenly Father’s plan for me to be a Sheri Dew or something! I can marry one of the 3 Nephites later on!  Ha! Ha! Quien sabe, but for now I think I’m just going to prepare as hard as I can so that one day I can be ready! 

Not going to lie, the New York pics do make me just a little bit sad, but I am so happy that our family is so close and that we’re best friends. I love y’all to the moon and back!