Mexico Week 67 -- Heavenly Father, Are You Really There?

Dear favorite family of mine, 

Today marks 17 months as a missionary!  Can you believe that?!  Kind of freaks me out a little bit. 17 months have gone by so fast and wow, just wow. 

So this is my mini coke!! Ha! Ha!  This little thing only costs 4 or 5 pesos and it is just perfect!! 

This is Hermana Mayorga and I at our Zone Meeting. I remember when she got here and stayed the night with Hermana Buttars and I!  That was a whole year ago! Crazy stuff!!  She’s in my Zone now and she is too cute! Love our Zone! 

Remember our Hermana Lucy!  The 70 year old grandma that always goes with us to our appointments? She is adorable and works a lot in a metal shop. She knows how to make so many things and she said she wanted to make me something that I could take home with me. She made me a covering for it too! How cute is she! Now I have a bird key holder ... I absolutely love it!! 

This is the daughter of a less active member. We ate with their family on Saturday but when we arrived, they were still preparing the food. Her daughter started teaching me how to make rubberband bracelets and we had a good time! How cute is she? Her mom, Hermana Saira, went to church on Sunday and shared her testimony. She says from the pulpit.  I’m grateful for the Hermanas.  Every time they invite me to church, I really feel like I want to go.  Sorry Elders, but they just make it so easy!  Everyone started laughing!  Oh, goodness!  Her testimony was so pretty and she’s just a special person. 

On Sunday it started pouring rain and all we had was one umbrella that I had brought. We were dripping wet with water and wading in the water trying to cross streets and it was absolutely crazy! We finally found Hermana Adelaida in her house and it turns out her cat had babies and her dog had puppies the same week! So cute! We were able to talk about the Holy Ghost with her and we love them too much! 

Claudia and Natalia are progressing so much! The plan is that they’ll be baptized this Friday and we have a really pretty baptismal service planned!  This week we really focused on the Book on Mormon. We taught the 10 commandments using the story of Abinadi and King Noah.  Hermana Claudia is so willing to change and to be obedient. She says, “Well Hermanas, I’m about the Sabbath Day. I know I need to wash clothes and clean the house on Saturday, I know we go to church, I know I need to take the sacrament every week, but we get home, and then what do we do?”  She just has this strong desire and she truly looks to us as guides to help her make decisions. 

We were going to teach her about the priesthood and temples on Saturday, but as were following up with her commitments, she had read so much in the Book of Mormon but she still hasn’t felt an answer. Then she mentioned that she felt like she was very impatient and just angry sometimes. I thought about 2 Nephi 4 when Nephi feels terrible about getting mad at his brothers. We read it with her and we pause for a second and Hermana Claudia says, “When we pray, we really need to talk with God, right? It needs to be a conversation.”  It was so AWESOME!!  Then we kept reading and as we finished, I felt the impression to invite her to write the impressions she had received or the things she felt like she should do as we read together. She starts writing and then puts the pen down. I wrote too, and as I was finishing, she picks up the pen again and writes, Read the Book of Mormon. We are helping her to receive and recognize revelation!! She’s already choosing who is going to baptize her and who is going to give the talks and what hymns we’re going to sing and it will be so pretty. 

As she talked about how we really need to talk with God, I thought about so many prayers that I said before my mission.  In my last semester at BYU, I spent hours on my knees, crying, listening, receiving answers, just super special experiences.  I was thinking that here on my mission, I’ve been lacking a little bit of that recently.  We got home that same night and my companion was really stressed and I sat down and started to write in my journal about the day.  I meditated on so many things and then felt the strongest desire to pray.  I felt the Spirit so strongly and it was a true conversation. The tears came and I felt His love, I haven’t been a perfect missionary, but I felt that He was content with all that I’ve done here. It was such a cool moment. 

In our Zone Meeting, we talked a lot about the covenants we’ve made with the Lord during our lives ... at baptism, in the temple, and as we were set apart as missionaries. I thought a lot about my covenants and how I need to better keep them.  I don’t want to just hang in there, or something like that. I want to faithfully and cheerfully serve in this time that I have left.  Sure it is hard, these past two months have quite easily been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but you could say that I signed a contract with the Lord.  I promised, and if I depend on Him and faithfully keep my covenants, He will strengthen me, He will make my burdens light and I will be able to serve Him with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I love the Gospel and I love the Lord. 

Hope y’all have a great week! Good luck with Girls Camp! 

Mexico Week 8 -- Covenants and Promises

First things first...we ate these taquitos in the street and they changed my life.  Wanna know something even cooler? I liked them better with the sauce that had chilis!  Who’s Mexicana now?  Rach, I miss the Hot Cheetohs days, but guess what??  They have hot taquitos here in chip form and they’re pretty close! 

This week, after conference, I started something new. Every night, I write my blessings of the day.  It is changing my life! I go to bed so happy and all I do is take five minutes to write down kind of some funny things that I consider blessings.  I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.  We honestly have so much to be grateful for despite all of the business in life. 

Remember Hermana Claudia? She’s the one that takes care of Antonio’s wife. She is a doll and one hundred percent Catholic. We’ve been going to Antonio’s house every day and I think he’s really going to get baptized.  Hermana Claudia is like our mom. Really, she is.  She bought us shirts and always talks to us about everything.  The three of us secretly call Antonio our abuelito.  

It is perfect.  We’ve talked a little bit about the gospel, but she’s so great and so prepared!  With Antonio, well he can’t see, so we’ve started reading the Book of Mormon out loud to Him.  It is such a special experience.  I know that we need the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY.  It has the power to heal whatever pain we may have, whatever thing we may be lacking, it will change our perspective of so many things. READ IT. 

Remember Hermana Infante?  She’s also kind of my mom here.  She came with us to a lesson and afterward, we were in her car talking and it turns out that they are having some family struggles.  It blows my mind how open people are with us and then I remember that we’re representatives of Christ and people truly trust us with their burdens.  Hermana Infante is the Primary President.  She talked about a lot of pain in her family.  She talked about how much comfort she finds in the sacrament and also in us.  She told her that her patriarchal blessing promises her that if she endures her trials faithfully, her posterity can live in righteousness.  She was crying and just told us that it is all worth it for her kids and grandkids.  She’s like the strongest person I know.  

This is why we have the commandments. Because in all honesty, wickedness never was happiness.  This is why we have the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, all of it, because Heavenly Father is protecting us from pain.  She honestly blows my mind.  She always sees the bright side.  She’s working things out with her husband, and she’s putting everything she has into her calling and service and trying as hard as she can to not have bad feelings toward others. This is how we face adversity ... by turning TO the Gospel, not AWAY from it. 

Last little thing, I’ve been studying a lot in Alma lately, toward the end. Remember the war chapters that used to be boring?  Well now they’re changing my life.  We have to be faithful to the end. We have to strengthen every weak point that we have with diligence.  It is not enough to receive a testimony one time, to feel the Spirit one time, to forget the commandments that are harder to live.  We have to be crazy flippin diligent and then fortify every weakness.  You want to know what else?  Covenants are the real deal.  The Lord NEVER forgets and He lives up to every promise.  Will we do the same?  The Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s were about to break their covenant. They had buried their weapons, but the war was hard, their brothers were dying, but guess what?  They left their weapons in the ground and not one of their sons was killed.  No matter how hard it is, we can’t break covenants, we have to trust that the Lord will keep every single one of his promises. 

Y’all are so great!  I thank Heavenly Father daily for how incredible every single one of you is. Keep your covenants, trust the Lord, and share what we have. 
LOVE YOU!!