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 32 -- Miracles

To my dear eternal family :)

How are you all?  Missing me but surviving right?  Ha! Ha! Love you guys tons! 

Did you know that my mission is officially half way over? I hit 9 months this week...that is beyond crazy. 

First things first, funny story. Remember my four year old twins that are to die for? We were leaving the other night and they always hug us and give us a kiss on the cheek (typical Mexican thing). I say ¨Leilani, ya nos vamos, donde está mi besito?¨She answers me ¨Ven pues¨! Ha! Ha! That’s like, “Well, come over here then”!  I was laughing so hard and her mom just puts her face in her hands. Definitely a good laugh for the day. 

We were working this week and the zone leaders call us, ¨Hermanas are you busy¨?  We were with a member, had some really important appointments and I’m kind of feeling sarcastic, so I say ¨What time is it? Before 9? Obviously we’re a little busy¨!  They tell us we have to go to the bus station and pick up some hermanas that needed to stay with us.  So we went and picked them up. Slight problem, I’m not in Cruz del Sur anymore and our house isn’t well equipped for visitors. Good thing I bought that Frozen blanket because I rocked the cold tile for the night!

A little shout out to Emma Gathro, whoa that’s weird! I got a letter and birthday card from her this week and I LOVE the roommate pic that she sent me.  Sister Cohen is also the sweetest and I received about the third letter from her this week. She’s the best! 

We had our zone meeting this week, and these are the other Hermanas in our zone! Hermana Castillo. She got here when I did, but she has been on the other side of the mission this whole time. She is adorable. Hermana Sanches: also the sweetest. She goes home in December but she is a doll! 

Now for some miracles! This is our single mom! Remember her? She sleeps about three hours a day and works nights. We haven’t seen her for a bit because she said she had family in town.  We visited her a ton this week!  We got to her house after teaching the Restoration and ask her if she did her homework. “Of course!”, she says, “I read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and it mentioned a scripture in Moroni and so I went there and read and then prayed. I’m not sure when the answer comes but I know it will.”  We start talking about the spirit and how she can recognize her answer and we teach her about prophets.  She says ¨Hermanas, I know the conference will be really special tomorrow and that I will receive so many blessings for going.¨ Poor thing, she worked Saturday night, and it was a rough night, and she was trying so hard to stay awake during conference. Her daughters were with a friend, and after conference, she just sat there for a minute. She was so quiet!! We were like ¨soooo, how’d it go? How do you feel?” She says, I’m just thinking about so many things right now.”  Good things, we hope!  She kind of smiles and says yes. She said that she just really liked what they said. We are visiting her tonight and we’ll see if she opens up a bit more!! 

I know that she was our miracle for the week and that we will keep seeing miracles in her. I know that our Father in Heaven loves her and has prepared her so much! Wow, I never seen somebody like her before. I know that there are more people like her and we just have to work so hard, so diligently, so that we can find them! 

I loved General Conference. I can’t even pick a talk because I loved them all too much. Every single talk that mentioned the family, especially Elder L. Tom Perry, really hit me. I realized that things I’m learning aren’t just for my mission. I received a powerful testimony that Heavenly Father is preparing me to be a mom and wife. He is going to send me some pretty special spirits and I have to be ready for them. My understanding and application of the Atonement is going to be so important for my future family. I also loved Elder Holland´s talk too.  I know so many ¨poor¨ people and we are called to rescue, we are called to support and as President Monson said, we are called to represent Christ, to walk as He did. I love how this conference focused on changes. We are on this earth to change and become. Everyone comes with their faults and shortcomings and weaknesses...we are here to grow. We need not be discouraged because we aren’t the best! Ha! Ha! I have met so many people who just get down and say they can’t.  Or get discouraged because they feel they have too many changes to make.  That is NOT the message of this life or of Jesus Christ. The message is that we all to change and with Him it’s possible and fulfilling. It is so desperately and urgently important that we understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

Last little thought from conference. I loved that Sister Esplin talked about the sacrament. She mentioned a young woman who quickly got discouraged because as she thought about how she needed to improve, she become discouraged because she was making the same mistakes every week.  Ding! Ding! That is so me sometimes!  She mentioned that the sacrament is also for realizing how we grew, how the Lord helped us to change, how He strengthened us and helped us to do good in the week.  This was revolutionary for me! Wow! It’s true. The sacrament is also a time to reflect on how the Lord has changed us, not only how He can change us. Good stuff. 

I love you all. This is the Church of Jesus Christ and the apostles and prophets are representatives of Jesus Christ. This is His Church and He is at the head. We need to bring these blessings to EVERYONE! But in order to do that, our own faith and conviction in Jesus Christ needs to grow. Love you to the moon and back! Be good! 

Mexico Week 17 -- Let's Get Caught Living the Gospel

To all of my favorite people in this world, 

First things first, HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!  I love you tons and you have always been an amazing example to me!  I hope that our family spoiled you rotten! 

The rains are coming!!  Please enjoy my awesome storm pictures as it storms almost every night! Those are the nights that Hermana Buttars and I buy ice cream as we get soaked! 

Also! Mas o menos, I know the story of Great-Grandpa on dad’s side, but what are the conversion stories on both sides of the family?  I am going to be such a family history nerd after the mission. 

I got Rach’s graduation announcement and she is beautiful!! I LOVE the announcement! 

La Hermana is Vania!  She is so awesome and does such a great job with the young women in the ward. 

We have a new investigator!  Her name is Veronica and she is practically perfect!  We met her outside of her apartment building.  We have had three lessons with her and every single one has been incredible!  She is so prepared and we feel the strongest spirit in her home.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying about everything.  She is really sweet and my evidence that the Lord prepares people to receive His gospel!  She has a cat that had 5 kittens about five days ago and they are tiny!!  I definitely thought of Sister Randall and when she converted me to liking cats! Ha! Ha!  If it wasn’t against mission rules, Hermana Buttars and I would have one! 

So this week we visited the Moreno family. We met them in the street and they are so perfect!  The wife and daughter had baptismal dates and are just great, great people.  We went by one night and their dad told us that he just wanted to be honest and that they were never going to change religions. His house is our house whenever we want because we are friends, but they just aren’t going to change.  He told us that his wife had thought about it, but they were going to stay Catholic.  So we enter their home and find the mom and daughter and ask if we can sing some hymns.  They tell us sure and we are all in the kitchen and the dad gives us the same speech again. The look on Brenda’s face is saying that she really does have interest and wants to learn more.  We sang “Yo Se Que Vive Mi Señor” and shared testimony of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon.  Brenda gave me the biggest hug and I just know that she wants it!  Ahh, its hard because you don’t want to cause problems in the family but she also has the desire to learn.  I think that this is one of the reason I am so grateful to be in the Gospel and a big reason I am so determined to be married in the temple.  We just can’t have religious conflict in the home!  We need to all be on the same page! 

So awesome story of the week!  We had a Family Home Evening with the Reynaga family!  I was looking through some Liahona’s for ideas and found a sweet FHE!  So we talked about temples and we all drew one!  We listened to some Paul Cardall music and was just really special.  Paty asked Roxton to draw their family there.  I started thinking about my family and the family home evenings I want to plan and have!  Ahh, I got so excited to be a cheesy Mormon mom!  Haha, but really, it was probably the highlight of my week and I am so grateful to be here with some really special families. 

So we have an investigator named Lupe.  I have so much faith in her, but we really need to get some more friends for her that aren’t her mother in law!  We got to the lesson one night and I was tired and feeling a little stressed and anyways, we started to teach Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  Their house is always a mad house and then her mother in law starts talking about how important the sacrament is ... then she adds … Well, as long are there aren’t any kids there.  Because if kids are there you can’t feel anything and you might as well just not even go to church.  Here’s me, starting to get annoyed with everything.  I just took a deep breath and started talking.  The spirit was so strong. The words just fell out of me after that.  I got a little choked up and just said I go to church because I need help, that I literally can’t make it through the week without the Lord’s help.  I need my 15 minutes of the sacrament to be filled with hope and healing and love.  The whole room got really quiet and nobody had anything to say.  My companion continued teaching, but whoa, I just felt the strongest spirit. This is what it means to teach with power and authority. 

But truly, I love the sacrament.  Yesterday was the first time we took it in two weeks because of stake conference.  I just feel it, I really feel it when I need to take the sacrament.  Before, I was stressed, I felt like we were working really hard but not seeing any results.  We took the sacrament and I just felt different.  I had more faith and hope in the Savior and I didn’t feel so stressed and negative.  The sacrament truly does cleanse us … it purifies us.  I am so grateful for this opportunity almost every week. 

I ran into Hermana Valdez this week!  It was so fun to see her again and introduce our new companions!  Love this girl!!

Well I would like to wrap this up with a quote this week that I loved from Jeffrey R. Holland. He said, “When He comes, I so want to be caught living the gospel.  I want to be surprised right in the act of spreading the faith and doing something good.  I want the Savior to say to me Jeffrey, I recognize you not by your title, but by your life, the way you are trying to live and the standards you are trying to defend.  I see the integrity of your heart.  I know you have tried to make things better first and foremost by being better yourself and then by declaring my word and defending my gospel to others in the most compassionate way you could.  He will certainly add I know you weren’t always successful with your own sins and with the circumstances of others, but I believe you honestly tried. I believe in your heart you truly loved me. “

Let’s try to be like that.  If the Savior were to come tomorrow, could He say that to every member of our family?  Well, I have some work to do, but I love this vision! 

Love you all to the moon and back! 

Mexico Week 3 -- Abide With Me 'Tis Eventide

Oh my dearest family...sorry we are crazy pressed for time today because we're having to rent a new apartment and a bunch of crazy stuff.  I'm going to shoot off this family letter and respond to your individual emails next week!  No pics this week -- Sorry!  We're at a different internet cafe and I don't have my cable!

Huge moment of the week: I bought a watch totally on my own!  Talked to the guy, told him which one, all that jazz.  Super simple conversation but it's something that I can say I did on my own! 

Also! I got Rach's card this week!  I absolutely loved it!  We live right by the mission office and one of the secretaries was nice and gave me my mail for the day!  Technically we're only supposed to get it once a month.  Haha and no, I didn't ask or offer bribes!  It reminded me how fun it is to get real mail .. You should feel free to keep doing that!!

This week we had a lesson with two investigators, a mother and daughter, named Maria and Melissa.  Maria is a grandma and Melissa has these 3 beautiful kids!  We taught about Joseph Smith and the Restauracion and it was super special.  They agreed to be baptized! Melissa's son Eric is 6 and he is so great.  He loves to listen to the missionaries and he's so reverent.  I just think of Christ's love when I see him.  I KNOW that kids are so important to our Heavenly Father.  Her youngest Evaline, is about 3.  She hugged and kissed me after the lesson...my heart melted.  This family is so special and I know that we can help them follow through with their baptism! 

This week we were out with Iliana Contreras, the daughter of Carlos, and she told us he doesn't want to read.  He is so distanced from their family.  Hermana Valdez told me that before I got here he told the missionaries he didn't feel like he needed to repent of some pretty serious stuff too.  Gahh, my heart is breaking!  I feel like I'm here for him.  Every time we talk about him or plan lessons for him, I feel the strongest spirit, but I also can't make decisions for him.  Hermana Valdez suggested leaving him and ahhh, I don't know. We're going to have a lesson with him tonight and then decide.  I feel like the strongest spirit that we really need to be bold and law down the way, and then after just rush in with love and the spirit and hope for change.  I 'm a little nervous actually but I know I can follow the Spirit!  Ahh, the mission is a tricky thing.  I know there's good in him, and I also know that he's truly unhappy.  I love him so much.  I have never been this emotionally exhausted before.  I honestly don't know how our Savior experienced all of it.  It amazes me...I'm exhausted after feeling utterly joyful and then heartbroken for three or four families, but he literally experienced all of the emotions of every single one of us.  These people are Heavenly Father's kids and I need His help.  It´s kind of crazy feeling so much for things barely I don't understand completely.  I´m so grateful my Heavenly Father lets me feel this love, even if it exhausts me! 

So...moment of truth, parts of this week were a little rough. Every day is just so up and down!  Usually it comes back to me and what I see I my weaknesses as.  I want to be feeling a perfect love for everyone, and communicating like crazy, and being a real support to my companion in lessons, and I'm really actually progressing, but my brain is just a dangerous place.  Anywho, I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting this week.  As I was thinking about what to say Sunday morning, I realized that I felt alone this week.  This was the thought that kept sticking in my head like this was what I needed to share and relate it to the Atonement and the comfort we can find. I  wasn't really enjoying the idea of sharing that from the pulpit, but the thought stuck with me all morning...

Entonces, guess what I gave my talk on!  Whoa...the words just flew out of my mouth, and I'm me so of course there were tears.  I shared Mosiah 14:4-5 and also 1 Nephi 21:15-16. Oh and the children's hymn "I Feel My Savior's Love."  I sure felt my Savior´s love.  I have a strong testimony that He is always with me and we are never truly alone.  I need to learn how to more fully lean on Him, to turn to Him more fully.  I want to be a perfect missionary now, but I need to learn to rely on His Atonement as I grow. 

After church, I just felt an outpouring of love.  So many people thanked me for my testimony, complemented my Spanish, and or told me not to feel alone.  I received some of the tightest hugs today.  One of the Young Women, I don't know her, gave me the biggest hug and just told me she loved my talk.  Some of these members are really starting to feel like family.  The Contreras family, Flor, Lupe, Iliana, Mayra, ahhh I love them.  I feel at home in their house.  The Arreola family is incredible too.  Oh and the Infante family, and Hermana Rosa Elia.  I love these people so much and I'm definitely being taken care of.  Also, I had a ton of spiritual moments this week when I felt better.  However, it wasn't until I took the sacrament, until I spent time at Church that I was truly lifted.  We can read scriptures, we can pray, but we HAVE TO take the sacrament every week.  There's something about being completely clean and feeling the fullness of the Spirit. 

However, I have a pride problem.  I don't like when people talk to me in English.  I'm so stubborn that I can speak and understand Spanish and even when people talk to me in English I respond in Spanish.  Also, I really don't like looking weak, and it was hard for me to announce my weaknesses from the pulpit.  I bore my testimony fervently, but my pride kicks in when people are giving me advice and telling me not to feel alone and cosas asi, because then I start thinking -- "Hey I'm back on track!  I'm good to do!  I already understand!"  Haha, I know I'm a brat!  But in all seriousness, the Spirit strongly directed my words during my talk.  Maybe somebody needed to hear it, or maybe I needed to seem weak, who knows.  What I do know is that we have weaknesses for a reason, and that reason is purely to learn how to come unto Christ.  We have to learn how to rely on Him in all things.  We have to learn how to be humble, how to feel uncomfortable, so that we can be better disciples and also so that we can learn to never make other people feel that way. Lessons of humility are great! 

I want every single one of us to realize how completely blessed we are. There is a 15-year old named Geraldi in my ward.  She is less active, married, with a baby, and her husband is drinking and has started hitting her.  She crazy stubborn like me, and her mom, Hermana RosaElia told us this was going on.  She said Geraldi would never admit it and she's currently living with her mom.  This breaks my heart...my life at 15 was nothing even close to this.  Sometimes we forget just how good we have it, just how much we have to offer, and just how much we can truly reach out to other people in love.  Be strong Young Women! 

Two things: Mom, big time thank you for my laminated Plan of Salvation card! I use it probably once a day in lessons! Also, everyone here struggles here with my name big time.  Half the time I'm the --¨Hermana from Tejas¨-- Haha I love it! 

I just want to leave you all with a hymn that was especially helpful to me this week! 

Abide with me, 'tis eventide. The day is past and gone; 

The shadows of the evening fall; the night is coming on. 

Within my heart a welcome guest, Within my home abide. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

Abide with me; 'tis eventide. Thy walk today with me 

Has made my heart within me burn, As I communed with thee. 

Thy earnest words have filled my soul and kept me near thy side. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

Abide with me; 'tis eventide, and lone will be the night

If I cannot commune with thee, Nor find in thee my light. 

The darkness of the world, I fear, Would in my home abide. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

O Savior stay this night with me; behold 'tis eventide. 

I love you all to the moon and back and I feel your love every single day. 

Be missionaries!  Be bright!  Smile!  Spread joy! 

I´ll do the same. 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, YOU!!!