Mexico Week 60 -- Yes, He Will Answer You

Dear sweet family, 

Well let’s get these pictures explained!  Check out how tan I am getting with this crazy sun!

This would be Hermana Lopez and I exploring parts of area we’ve never visited before! A little rough looking, right? Ha! Ha!  We’re visiting some special people there.  After leaving that part of the city, we got lost trying to figure out how to get out of there and we stumble upon a random waterfall! Ha! Ha! Everything in Uruapan is an adventure!!

This is the family of Hermana Adelaida. Her boys a little lost.  They took some wrong turns, but they want to make it back. We taught them about prayer and repentance and one says, “I’m feeling things I haven’t felt for a long time.”  How cool is that? They are a great family and we just have to help them to get to church and get back on the right path. They remind me a lot of my uncles. They are good guys, really good guys and they are so cute with their sister, but they need love and need to clear some things up. One day after the lesson, one of the brothers asks me, “Hermana, are tattoos bad?”  I asked him what he thought and he said he doesn’t know, so I told him to ask God.  He just kind of looks at me and he says, “do you ask God stuff?”  OF COURSE!  I ask God stuff all the time.  He looked so shocked, “And He answers you?”  OF COURSE! He will answer you too if you reach out to Him.  It was kind of a special experience for me and I just want to help people have this relationship with their Heavenly Father. 

This is my best friend Victor.  We run together, and his mom! Doesn’t he look handsome in his suit!  They are about to hit a year as members. 

This is Hermana Guevara, Hermana Durnford, and Hermana Peña and our P-Day adventures waiting for our new companions. 

I also got to see Hermana Zapata! She was Hermana Gonzalez’s companion in the MTC and I feel like we know each other from all of the stories.   She’s adorable and one day we’ll be companions! She is too sweet. 

This is Boston’s long lost twin!! 

I am now a real woman. Hermana Villa taught me how to wash clothes at home.  Well, just my underwear!  The rest is still going to the Laundromat.  Wow, I am truly a real woman!

  

We had a lesson outside last night because the boys wanted to. We were reading about Nephi and I will go and do with flashlights and it was just a special night. Their dad disappeared about a year ago and they all really miss him.  It is so hard for them!

We also had a zone activity today. We played soccer and it was intense!!   Hermana Guevarra falling to the ground as the zone leader almost takes her out, I kicked the ball over the fence, but all in all a good time.

 This is Hermana Gloria!! Is she the sweetest or what?? She is the mom of a recent convert who wants to serve a mission in August. She has never really wanted to listen to the missionaries, but she’s really opening up!! She said her first prayer this week and WENT TO CHURCH!! We are so excited and we’re going to do all we can to help her keep progressing. 

Also, I love chiles.  Remember how I never ate spicy food?  Well Hermana Lopez ate a ton of chiles, but she has gastritis.  Crazy girl isn’t supposed to be eating spicy!  So our last week together she practically stopped eating it, but the members that know her served her food with a TON of salsa and she passes it to me and I look at her like are you crazy?  NO WAY I am going to sacrifice my life for you!  I love the salsa but I had never eaten so much before!  I pretty much love it. The mouth on fire feeling is a new favorite feeling!  Ha! Ha! I think that settles it, I’m officially Mexican! 

We are teaching some really special people, but they have so many challenges. We have the best of lessons and then something happens, but just keep them in your prayers. There are lots of stories but I don’t even know where to start.  Y’all can read my journal when I get home. We are in a constant battle against Satan and we just have to be strong, do the little simple things every day because if not, we are stuck without protection.  He is working so hard to trip people up and he hates to see them happy and moving toward the Savior.  We just have to be strong and not crack a window where he can sneak into our lives and start messing around.

I love the Lord and I love His gospel. Sometimes I’m a hot mess, but I’m really trying hard to focus my mind.  Just stop the negative voices, shut out everything and just focus on Him and His kids.  A mission is really a miracle. This week I saw the movie “17 Miracles” and I thought so much about the pioneers. They were exhausted and hot too but they just kept going. I loved the examples of the ones who also served and gave everything they had to their families. This spirit of service and sacrifice for the Lord touched my heart and I think that more than anything I don’t want to forget the things I’ve learned on my mission. I want my life afterward to be different, to be more consecrated to him, more focused on Him, and more than everything else, just obedient. I want my mission to really change me and not just be a cool or spiritual experience. I want to be different, more converted and just firm! This life is a wild ride, but the Lord has given us everything we need. 

I love you all so much and hope that you’re happy and working hard and loving life. I’ll see y’all soon!!

Mexico Week 15 -- Sonrisas Para Todos

To my favorite people in the world! 

Well good news! I found my memory card! Two weeks later and the guy had it in the Internet cafe!  Obviously Heavenly Father loves me a lot!  I’m also grateful for a companion that will play with random dogs in the street with me. Who knows if they’re dirty or not, but they sure are cute! 

So Hermana Buttars got sick this week!  Throwing up and everything!  I don’t miss those days!  I think all of us Americans pass through it, some strange rite of passage or something.  We took her to the doctor Friday afternoon and she got two days at home in bed!  Well turns out Saturday was Paty and Roxton’s baptismal service and well ... we may not have fully followed the doctor’s orders ... we went!  

Anywho, I was talking care of Hermana Buttars this weekend. I’m really coming into my mom role! Translating at the doctor’s office. Giving her the meds and watching the hours.  I started thinking about taking care of my own sick kids one day. Maybe I really can pull off this whole mom thing! 

So while Hermana Buttars was down Saturday, I read the book, “Our Heritage”.  I love reading church history ... absolutely love it!  I just know that it’s all true.  I can’t believe all of the persecution that the saints suffered.  They are such an example of faith and patience to me.  They completely trusted in the Lord even though they were moving all over the place.  They fought so hard and suffered so much for the truth.  What am I going to do for the truth?  I’ve been a little bit of a baby these past two weeks but I’ve got my feet back under me.  I loved my quiet time just to study in the house.  I know that the Lord loves me and I know that our relationship is growing stronger and stronger.  I know that I can do all things through Him.  I want to do everything that He has planned for me here.  I’m just happy and ready to work!  Hermana Buttars is back in the game too! 

Yesterday, Paty and Roxton were confirmed ... barely!  They have a hard time making it to church on time and they have to walk about a million miles to get there!  I called her in the morning and they were getting up and getting ready and told me they’d be there!  Well, 10 o´clock comes and goes, then we take the sacrament, and we hit about 10:30 and no one is answering phones or anything.  This is about the part where I feel like I’m going to throw up because next week is Stake Conference so they would be waiting about two weeks if it didn’t happen today.  Finally we see them all coming!  Roxton gives me the saddest look and asks me, “Ya pasó la hora de mi confimación?” – Basically he thought it was too late.  I told him I didn’t think so!  With about 10 minutes left in sacrament meeting, we’re sitting in the back with them.  I start making gang signs to get the attention of the bishopric and we got them confirmed at the end of the meeting! 

Okay, last little story!  As we were welcoming people to church, the elders showed up with this hermana and her daughter.  She gets really excited and tells me “Remember me?  We met on the bus!”  I recognized her and remembered about a month or two ago, I talked with this family on the bus.  They told me that they were meeting with missionaries earlier, but that they had stopped coming.  Her sister is a member and everything.  I gave her the number to the mission offices and we chatted a bit.  It was so cool to see her at church but I’m a little jealous that she lives in the area of the elders!  She told me after sacrament meeting in Gospel Principles that her daughter didn’t want to go to her Primary class.  She wanted to Hermana Rawe, because she just thought I was a good person.  How precious is that!  She’s 7 and her name is Vania.  After Relief Society her daughter came and found me and we chatted a little bit. That was just a good day! 

I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support. I hope that you are all happy and being good! Know that you’re always in my heart and prayers! Love you!