Mexico Week 70:

Dear Family, 

Can you even believe it’s my last letter as a missionary??!!  I feel weird, but I also don’t quite believe it yet...I can’t believe it has already been 18 months. 

So let’s get the pictures explained first! This is a baby bunny. One of the families we’re teaching has 3 rabbits and they all had about 10 babies.  Holy bunnies!  She wants me to bring one home. 

Hermana Lucy was working hard with us this week. She is literally the sweetest and we get together one morning to go visit people and she brought us conchas. So cute! 

This is Hermano Hector. He is 30 and single and he’s gone to about every single church that exists. He loves to learn and has been reading the Book of Mormon and we just hope we can help him progress! 

This is Hermana Yannete. She is probably the sweetest person I know and believes in God so much. She always wants to say the prayer and loves to read. She just wants the best for her kids and we’re going to be FB friends and stay in touch. She’s special too. 

Hermila and Alfonso are the sweetest people in the whole world. I feel like I have an extra set of grandparents!!  Saturday they invited us to eat with them for my goodbye meal.  They made carne asada with guacamole and I felt like Uncle Brad wanting to lick myself it was so delicious!  They are just too sweet and Alfonso went to church by himself on Sunday!  We were so surprised!!  They are too special and they both start telling me that I can’t go home yet and that I have to call because they fell in love with one misisonary that doesn’t call and I have to call and they want me to visit, and they are just sweet.  Yesterday Hermana Hermila tells me she wants to give me something.  Her hand sewn napkins and table runners are really popular and she gives me a gorgeous white table runner and says that it’s for the day I get married. She says, I would love to be there, but if not, I can feel good that you have something from us that will always be in your home. Yesterday I started feeling super sad.  My companion is already packing my bags and yesterday I really did start to feel sad. Such a HUGE part of my heart will always be here! 

These two pictures are of Hermana Cristina, Hermana Lupita and Hermana Azucena. They are the ones that we had the family home evening with last week. They too are too sweet and have been special. 

This is Eva! We have only taught her like twice because of her crazy schedule but she is super sweet and really wants to learn. Her daughter warmed up last night and I hope the missionaries here can keep working with them. 

And this is Hermana White!  The sister training leaders came to study with us today and turns out I won’t see Hermana White anymore! She is a great missionary and she’s super sweet. 

We visited Hermana Claudia last week and she said the closing prayer and she prayed a lot for me. She thanked Heavenly Father for me, for sending me, for all of the blessings they’ve received through me, and for all of the unselfish and selfless love I’ve given. It was one of the moments where I felt the spirit so strongly.  I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, where I’m supposed to be. Missionary work is so rewarding. 

So I’ve been printing pictures and writing letters to the families here and on Sunday I gave an hermana a letter and a huge hug. Her name is Elba and she’s a returned missionary who is like 40 years old. She never marrried, takes care of her niece and nephew, works, and studies, and she’s the only member in her family. She is funny and we just get along well.  I gave her a letter and a picture of Christ and she just gives me a big hug and starts crying. I was so surprised! I think sometimes I underestimate just how much we can help and influence people.  I was literally stunned and just felt peace again, knowing that every little effort counts. We are Christ’s hands here on earth. 

I got to give a talk again in church!  Something weird happened with the bishop and he’s not bishop anymore and he only had one counselor that’s in charge of the ward now.  He said that nobody wanted to give a talk and was a little stressed and asked the missionaries to help!  I was pumped! I love giving talks.  I started thinking about the members here and what they really need.  I was praying and just thought about happiness and how we can be happy and have peace even when we are in the middle of crazy trials.  As I shared my testimony I got a little choked up and just told them how much I loved them and how much I wanted them to be happy, that they really could overcome and bear their burdens.  I felt the spirit so strongly and I realized how much I really have loved every single one of my areas. 

I have to tell y’all a story.  So Sunday night we decided to have Family Home Evening with the Castillo family.  Dad is inactive and has been a member for a year.  Mom is kind of active and super stressed and has been a member for a year.  Angel is also kind of active and also has a year as a member, and Leo is 6.  As we thought about what to share with them, we thought about love and the importance of showing love in our homes.  We sang “The Family is of God” to start but it was pouring rain and we were having to yell, and the minute they turned the TV off, Leo starts hysterically sobbing.  We started with the Proclamation and did an activity where we wrote situations and they answered how they could show love and be like the Savior.  Leo is still crying, the dad is being sarcastic, it is still raining and we were feeling like it was a disaster.  Then I had a revelation. I remembered those times when we were a little more contentious then normal and we all sat at the table and said the positive traits of every family member.  We put down the planned activity and told them what we were going to do.  It started out with ... Angel is good at drawing, and stuff like that.  Then it is Leo’s turn (he’s still crying) and Angel says Leo, you’re really a good brother.  His whole face changes, he stops crying, and says I love you too brother.  Then we all started crying and the whole night changed.  We all ended up in tears and you could feel the spirit so strongly.  I love Family Home Evenings!! 

So I was meditating a lot about my mission last night and remembering so many experiences. The Lord has blessed me so much as a missionary.  I know I still need to grow so much more and be so much better, but I feel like I have grown and learned so much.  I just love the people.  I have to call, skype, visit, all the good stuff because they are such special people and they really do miss us.  It is so incredible that the Lord gives us the opportunity to sacrifice, come on a mission, and be His hands even though we’re not perfect and even though we mess up, He still gives us the chance to do it.  It is awesome.  I have such mixed feelings.  Sometimes I feel so excited to see you guys, and other times, I just feel straight up sad.  What am I going to do all day at home??  Ha! Ha! You’re all going to get so tired of my stories and pictures and videos because it’s all I will want to talk about, and I’ll probably speak Spanglish.  But really I love you all so much and I’m pretty sure we’ll cry in the airport.  Let’s take the pictures without tear stains.  But really, I love you guys and I will never stop being grateful for the family I have. 

See y’all in six days! 

Mexico Week 68: Love is Always the Answer

Dear sweet family!! 

You are headed out to girl’s camp and I have been praying all week that all will go well!! You’ve all worked hard and now just let the Lord work, I know that it will be great. 

So first things first...the pictures!! This is Hermana Dayana. She’s less active and this past week she was going with us to our appointments and she went to church! It’s the first time she’s gone to church since I’ve been here!! 

My companion celebrated my 17 months with balloons! 

Hermana Karla was feeling bad the last time we visited her and Hermana Lucy was with us and so we helped her get the house tidied up! Hermana Lucy is a doll!  We love her too much! 

This week was my last zone conference! Crazy stuff right?  I am going to miss President and Hermana so much! We talked about the importance of the Sabbath Day using a training from General Conference. It was AWESOME!!  We talked about the church has the purpose of uniting families for eternity, but the chain usually breaks between baptism and entering the temple and it’s because of weak gospel teaching in the HOME.  We talked about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and how it will help families. This day we send a sign to the Lord with everything we do. How are we applying in our families what is taught at church? What are we teaching our kids that we should do on Sundays? It was so good!  We also talked about the Book of Mormon and I just loved it!  We sang the song “The Family is of God”.  Not going to lie ... I got a little teary eyed! Who makes missionaries sing that song??!!  Ha! Ha!  But, it was so pretty and honestly my new favorite song. 

President counseled us to study until we complete a Doctorate, if we can. He told us not to wait for all of the luxuries of life before we get married.  He said, “Now do you understand why faith is so important?” …  I love my President!! 

I had the opportunity to give a talk in church yesterday. I LOVE giving talks. I was praying and thinking a lot about what to talk about and I couldn’t get the idea of love out of my mind. I started talking about what is love and how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and how I came to know that that’s true. I used a lot of Jeffrey R. Holland’s talk, “The First Great Commandment”.  Once we’ve felt their love, there’s no going back, we have to love them too. I talked about how we show them our love and how we have a life of devoted discipleship to give. I felt the Spirit so strongly and I love this topic. We have to love, love our Father in Heaven and love everybody else. 

Last little story, yesterday we visited Claudia and Naty to see how they were doing and how it went in their baptism and confirmation and it turns out Brandon stayed at the table to chat.  He almost always leaves, but yesterday he stayed there! We started to talk about prayer and I felt the strongest impression to tell him, “I know you need a Dad. You need someone to listen to you and to help you and to love you and our Heavenly Father can be your dad. He is your dad. He will listen. He will help.  He will support.  He will counsel.”  He just looked at me and we kept sharing more.  He wants to start praying. We’re also going to start teaching him more and more! He asks us, “If I join your church, do I have to go on a mission?  Like it’s not my choice, I have to go?”  We told him he would make the decision and no one would force him.  A teacher at church always talks to him about a mission and I think he scared him! That’s why he hasn´t been hanging around!  Goodness!! 

Ha! Ha!  Well, I love you and hope that you’re all happy and not too stressed.  I want to see you all happy and in one piece at the end of Girls Camp!  I love y’all tons and can’t wait to see you soon. Keep praying for me! 

Mexico Week 65 -- Finding Peace in the Storms

Dear Family! 

Today marks the start of my last transfer! I will be finishing my mission here in Uruapan with Hermana Villa! Does that freak you guys out or what? I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that I only have 6 weeks left.  I’ve been reflecting a lot on my whole mission and how beautiful it has been and how much I miss people from other areas and how much I’ll miss people that are here, but I then I get excited to see y’all at the same time!  Who knows??!!  Too many feelings! 

But to explain my pictures to you! 

This week I had splits with Hermana Peña! She’s too cute and too funny and we had a good time here in Jardines! We taught some great lessons and I have some good goals for my last little bit here. 

This is Hermana Castillo. She helped us in some of our appointments this week and she just hit one year as a member. We visited her last night and she was kind of in a rough spot with some family situations and as I hugged her I just told her to hang in there and not get discouraged. She started crying and it’s the first time I’ve seen her cry. I love her so much and we’re looking for ways to help her. Hermana Maribel is also going through rough stuff right now and last night we knocked on her door and her kids told us she was showering.  The house was a wreck, so we snuck in and cleaned.  We wrote her a note, and were getting ready to leave, but then she caught us!  So, we stayed a little longer and shared a message with her.  She kind of had a moment too.  Hey!  We all have those little moments!

Hermana Caracosa is in our ward here.  Her 18 year-old son died after two weeks in the hospital.  He got sick and two weeks later died as they found an infection in his brain.  She went to church yesterday and sat in the back. She looked so sad and alone, we went and sat with her.  She just started crying.  We have been visiting her this week too.

I realized in the last 24 hours that there are so many people suffering. This life isn’t easy and the only thing that gives us peace is living the gospel. Your heart just breaks in like a hundred different pieces and you start looking for talks or scriptures or something to help, or you start writing a note, and there are just so many people that need us to lift them up or bring them light. I feel like our whole lives can be productive and happy if we are constantly serving and thinking about others instead of our own problems. 

Got to love my best friend Victor. He says that he’s going to invite me to his baptism in about three years and that if I cry, he’ll hug me.  Precious right? 

We went to visit Hermana Karla this week and we found her in bed because she felt really bad.  We started cleaning her house ... sweeping, mopping, dishes, putting her clean clothes out to dry, and then the elders call and tell us that the family we were going to eat with isn’t home and so we start thinking of who we can call. Hermana Karla hears and tells us that we’ll be eating with her. She is precious and we love her, but money is so tight.  She leaves and we see her ask her neighbor for money and then goes a buys chicken and other things and sits us down to eat. I felt the Spirit so much and people that literally have nothing give us everything they have. They are so humble and just give and give and it was special there with her in her house and she’s also getting closer and closer to being prepared for baptism! 

Walking later, we find Hermana Hermila who’s less active and her partner Alfonso who’s Catholic about to wash the car. We decide to help them and it was so fun. Then, on Sunday, they show up at church for the first time in about three months! 

 Claudia and Naty!  Woo! Hoo!  I have some great stories from this last week!! They are progressing so much.  They have been working on the word of wisdom and keeping the Sabbath day holy.  They still don’t feel like they are ready for baptism though.  Hermano Eduardo went with us to teach them and we felt the Spirit so much. We decided to fast with them so that she and we can know if she’s ready. It was such a powerful and she told us that she wants to be baptized because she wants to change and start over and lighten her burdens and she receives every commandment with an obedient heart and they went to church on Sunday and she was taking pictures of the manual in relief society because she liked what it said and wanted to read it again later! Haha! They fasted!! Naty too!! We love them so much and when they found out I was going home in six weeks, they weren’t too fond of the idea and are already making plans so that I visit.  I love them too much!  Oh, and one day we showed her one of Jeffrey R. Holland’s talks and we left YouTube there in her house. She tells us the next day that she watched videos for 3 hours!! General Conference talks, Mormon Messages, but she was there till her son kicked her out! Crazy right? She is so great. 

Talking about General Conference, after watching the talk with Hermana Claudia, I became practically obsessed with Conference Talks, but listening to them. I’m going to download them in English today because I have tantas ganas to listen to their voices! It’s not the same in Spanish. I am turning into a Conference junkie!

This is the Ortiz family! They helped us out on Sunday when our meal plans fell through and they are so great.  Their teenagers are passing through a rowdy stage and we talked a lot about the importance of family home evening, family prayer, and they are so excited to start! 

I was thinking about how so many times in this life, we pass through storms. The winds start, the rain starts, or hail, and we kind of panic.  Ha! Ha!  I have been learning so much about finding peace in the storms. The hymns are my happy safe place. I know you’ll make fun of me for my MoTab CD, but I love the music. It’s one of the first things that instantly helps me feel peace. I love the words of the prophets, just hearing their voices also makes me feel peace. I am learning so much about the enabling power of the Atonement. Without prayer, without the scriptures, without obedience, the storms last so much longer. With the Lord’s help, we are passing by with rain boots, a huge umbrella, and a long rain jacket! 

As I read the emails from today, something totally hit me.  Sometimes it is really easy to get stressed in the mission. I think, well actually I’m pretty sure, my goal for my last transfer is expressing my love for everyone every day ... for the Lord, for my companion, for the members, for our leaders, for our investigators, literally everyone, and my focus for these last six weeks is going to be showing sincere love every day. 

I love y’all tons. I know that the Lord lives. I know that He forgives. I know that He wants us to be happy. I love y’all too much! 

Love Letter to My Family

I hope y'all enjoy my special message for you! 

I was thinking a lot about the HUGE blessing it is to have y'all as my family! 

I love you all tons! 

Mexico Week 63 -- Birthday Moments to Celebrate

This week was so great!! It was so fun talking to y’all yesterday!  So weird that I’ll be seeing y’all for real so soon! 

As always, pictures first!! HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO! 

This week Naty and Hermana Claudia had their birthdays on Saturday! Hermano Mike is in between jobs right now and well, there wasn’t really a lot of money around in order to celebrate the birthdays. We bought a cake a made a huge card and surprised them Saturday morning! They were so excited and told us that the night before they had been super sad because they weren’t going to be able to celebrate their daughter’s birthday. We all ate cake together and shared a message about prayer.

As we were following up with their commitments, it turns out Hermana Claudia had read A TON in the Book or Mormon.  The study guide, more chapters in Moroni, from the beginning, she had read so much and she’s loving it.  Then on Sunday, the FOUR of them show up at church on time, take the sacrament, and then we go to Gospel Principles. Hermana Mike speaks up about how important to be baptized when we know what’s right and wrong, and how many big changes he needs to make, and how he needs to be a hundred percent committed to this in order to be a good dad. It was just cool. Like, I don’t know how to describe it, but it just feels different when a whole family arrives at church. Hermana Claudia said the closing prayer in our class and she prayed for so many things ... for all of the missionaries, she thanked God for being at church, for being there with her family, for all that she’s learned ... like it was just a super sincere prayer. They are such a special family and I love them too much!! 

Earlier in the week, we stopped by because Hermano Lozano was going to give Hermana Claudia a blessing. He gives her the most beautiful blessing.  Out of the other room comes Hermano Mike and completely surprises us by sitting down to talk.  He’s been ignoring us for awhile.  The questions comes up of when I’m going home. I tell him July.  “So, you’ll be here until then?”  Hopefully, but there is a possibility I won’t be. He gets super serious and starts speaking in English, “You can’t leave yet.  You have so much more work to do, especially with me.  You can’t leave yet.”  I was so surprised and also excited!! They read part of the Book of Mormon TOGETHER. They all have baptismal dates, except his son that’s 17, but they want to be baptized together. I would love to be there!! 

Hermana Villa and I went to the National Park today with Hermana Lucy.  That is park is so pretty.  It never gets old! 

Yours truly, the 4 missionaries in the Jardines Ward printed this photo and made a HUGE Mother’s Day Card for all of the moms in the ward and presented it in Relief Society.

 I think my companion took this picture of me one night when I was filling out our daily reports at night! Ha! Ha!

This week I learned a lot of things. I learned just how much with every companion or every area, the Lord prepares for something else I will face with another companion or another area.  After lots of sincere, heartfelt, almost pleading prayer and fasting, I know He loves me.  I know He always has a plan. I know that I can do anything He asks me to do.  It’s like with every hurdle I learn to trust Him and depend on Him more and more.  I am more patient, more loving, and I am changing.  

This week I was thinking about who I was before my mission. I was a good kid, but not 100% converted. I feel so much more converted, like I truly have a testimony of every principle of the gospel. I started thinking about what my life would be like if I hadn’t served a mission. It just wouldn’t be the same, I wouldn’t feel the same, and I wouldn’t do the same things. I know I still need to prepare a lot more, but I feel so much more prepared to be a mom and a wife. I think every companion, or people in every area are teaching me how I will be able to better respond to my kids. It’s teaching me a lot about the husband I have to look for! Ha! Ha!  According to an ex-missionary in Tlaquepaque ... who you marry is a lot like your favorite companion! I can totally see that!  I have to be able to talk with him and we have to be humble and we both have to change and we have to be positive and hard working and just see the best in everything.

It’s just cool. It’s cool absolutely thinking I can´t ... I can’t anymore … I just can’t … and then seeing how with the Lord’s help it quickly turns into I can. We can endure, we can be long suffering, we can love, we can be patient, we can grow, we can bear it, and it’s all because of His help.  It’s because He gave us the strength, He changed our hearts, and it’s just cool. The gospel is true. I know, I do my best to live it, and I love it. 

I love y’all tons and today I found some surprises for you!  Keep being good and I’ll see y’all soon.