Mexico Week 59 -- With Him, All Things Are Possible

Dear sweet family...I have pretty much no time today!! 

Hermano Lopez was transferred and Hermana Villa is my new companion!  I’m still anxiously awaiting her arrival! She also got here the same time as Hermana Gonzalez and Hermana Lopez! Ha! Ha! I will be companions will all of the Hermanas from their generation! 

This morning began at 2 a.m. so that we could be at the bus station by 4:30am for Hermana Lopez’s bus. Then the sister training leaders, Hermana Guevarra and I headed to their house to sleep a little more, study and start P-Day.  We are all walking zombies! So as we leave the house at 3:30am this morning, Hermana Lopez tells me, no worries, there’s always a taxi here.  Um, except this early in the morning!  We found nothing.  We are walking the streets at 3:30 in the morning looking for a taxi and after about 30 minutes, we finally found one!!  Goodness, the adventures of the mission!

I am excited for my new companion and know that the Lord always has a plan.  I’m learning to trust Him more and more. I know that the Lord needs Hermana Villa and I here in Jardines for some great reasons! 

So I won’t have time to you all my stories until next week, but I just want y’all to know that I’m happy. Sometimes I struggle.  Sometimes I doubt.  But overall, I am happy and learning and growing so much. On Monday I was pondering a lot about some letters I had received and also our President’s weekly message to us as missionaries. I felt the Spirit so strongly and I know that I need to change. I started to talk with more and more people in the street.  We started to look for more new investigators.  I was constantly praying.  The minute a negative thought entered my mind, I started praying. As I read again this morning the talk about consecrated missionaries, I felt inspired and know that the Lord has a plan. I have to be patient and diligent and just keep working until we start seeing results. 

On Saturday we had a rougher day!  We had been giving it everything we had, but just not finding people at home.  We arrived home exhausted!  I showered to just shake it off. I had a good cry and I remember thinking, I can’t do this ... not with my own weaknesses, and with how small the ward is, and my companion .. these things are combining for such a slow progress of the work, I just can’t.  I went to sleep listening to “I Know that my Redeemer Lives” and it was the first thing I played Sunday morning when I woke up.  During church, I felt the Spirit so strongly and as I took the sacrament.  I felt so much peace.

I don´t tell y’all this story so that you worry or anything like that.  I want to share it because sometimes we all think we can’t.  My mom jokes that being a follower of the Savior is hard work, and it is so true.  It is hard and it requires sacrifice on our part.  We all have those moments when things don’t seem to be going the way we want them to, or moving fast enough in the direction we want them to move.  We might even have a good cry in the shower and feel like giving up, like we can’t do it anymore.  It’s not true.  With the Savior, we can. I know it! I feel it even when sometimes I forget. I love this gospel and the peace it brings.  He knows the path and He will guide us along, if we just trust Him.

I hope that y’all have a great week!  Love you! 

Mexico Week 54 -- Life in Jardines

Well I am in Uruapan, Michoacan!  My area is called Jardines 1!  It was a five hour bus ride to arrive here and it is so pretty!  It is very sunny here! Ha!  Ha!  Almost no clouds and lots of hills! Or in other words, I will be brown and buff and thin leaving here!  I have been getting home so tired at night for booking it up and down the hills! Please enjoy my sunburned pic!

My companion is Hermana Lopez. She is from Oaxaca and is an only child. She just finished her training.  We are working well together and getting to know each other more. However, I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss Hermana Gonzalez just a little bit … or a lot a bit!!

This week I’ve been getting settled in. I’m not very good at changes, and sometimes you just miss people, but I have been working hard and getting to know everyone here. I realized this week just how much I love meeting people. I saw so many members open up and my companion told me that they were members that didn’t really like them too much beforehand. We have a lot of work to do here gaining the confidence of the members! I just feel a strong desire to serve and strengthen the families here. My mission has taught me so much about how much the members too need to be strengthened.  We have a lot of work to do! 

Happy Birthday Mom! 46 years old! Just a little bit closer to 50.  Sorry I didn’t tell you last week, but I promise I remembered the actual day of your birthday! 

Today we had a zone activity! We played charades, fill in the blank from Preach my Gospel, a little basketball, a little soccer, and of course catapulting water balloons.  It was a lot of fun and Hermana Quisbert is in my zone!  She goes home at the end of this transfer ... crazy stuff, right?  It has been so fun seeing her again! 

Church on Sunday was awesome! It’s a tiny ward and about 70 or 80 people attending every week. This week one of our investigators Marisela, went to church! She has twins, Ricardo and Delia. They’re 6 years old and she is just stressed out. We see her pretty frustrated but trying to find answers. We taught her about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy on Saturday and we felt the spirit so strongly as we talked about the sacrament. She says, “I need to go¨ and there she was on Sunday and she stayed the 3 hours and loved it! We are hoping to see her progress a lot. Oh and Ricky was REALLY hungry after three hours of church and had a little bit of bad attitude for the picture!  Ha! Ha!

The other family that went to church is the Espino family. The parents are recent converts from December I think, but the dad doesn’t want to go anymore and the kids never wanted to get baptized. I’m kind of doubting they were prepared before being baptized, but they are also so special. We have a lot of work to do in this house! Their teenagers are kind of nervous and shy and giggle a lot, but on Saturday we also taught about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and we felt the Spirit a ton. The oldest likes going to church and was convincing her younger sister who was scared they would ask her questions and she wouldn’t know the answer. The mom with her three daughters arrives at church and everyone went to their own classes happy! Their youngest is Paola and she is just precious. She almost always says the opening and closing prayer just because she likes too. She loves the church and I think she encourages her whole family! 

There are so many great people here, but I have to tell y’all about Mike. I still haven’t taught him, but this week was incredible. Since Monday we were looking for him … calling, going to his house, everything, and nothing. On Friday we finally found him. He comes outside, in front of his house, and I introduce myself and we start asking how he is and he starts explaining, and then says, “I just can’t express myself in Spanish” and starts speaking in perfect English. He tells us that he is in a deep depression, like it’s just darkness and there’s no light.  He feels like he’s falling and falling and wants to take somebody’s hand but there’s no one there. He says he’s a black sheep that has wandered away from the shepherd but he wants to find Him again. He’s doubting that God loves Him. He’s crying through all of this and don’t forget he is speaking in English!  He says, ”I’m sorry!  I barely know you, and I’m crying so much.  But, I just feel you care, like I don’t know, I just feel like you really care about me.”  This is where I start crying too. I started testifying of our Heavenly Father’s love. He says, “I want to change my life now, not tomorrow, not next week, now. I know I just need to open the book, it’s all there if I just open the Book of Mormon. On Saturday we stopped by to give him a list of uplifting scriptures but only his wife was home. My companion had told me that she didn’t want to listen, but we started chatting with her. She too opened up that her mom died two months ago and it was just hard, that her whole marriage has been hard. She agreed to listen to us with her husband on Tuesday and we are incredibly excited. We see the true possibility of them progressing as a family!

I am happy to be here ... sad and a little nervous as I realize how fast my mission is passing by, but happy. I’m not perfect and I mess up everyday, it is so hard for me to accept the Savior’s Atonement sometimes, but I love Him and our Father in Heaven, and this gospel. I know that I cannot be happy without living it. I can’t be happy without being obedient. I want so badly to make our Father in Heaven proud. I want to live with Him again. I want to realize how short and important our earthly life is. I just want to be righteous, I just want to give the best of me and help everyone here to feel the Savior’s love. I want to represent Him well. I love you all too much and hope that you’re happy! 

Mexico Week 42: Feeling Loved

 Today I took Hermana Gonzalez to Cuarto de Kilo because we were starving!! Ha! Ha!  We have plans to take the challenge to eat two and get our pictures on the wall before the end of her training!

Hermana Gonzalez is in the 12-week training program and we have to study on Sundays too.  So after church we hiked it to the primary room and studied in the kid chairs!  #kidsforlife 

On Monday, I said goodbye to Hermana Malacara.  I ran into Hermana Daniel in the bus station! Good times!

I FOUND SANTA!!  Pretty sure he’s the same one from when I was a kid.  I still love him and he reminds me of home!! 

Mom, remember the young women’s songs that you gave me in Spanish? Well I am officially a nerd and with Hermana Malacara sat down and listened with a pen and wrote our all of the words so that I could learn the songs. I LOVED IT! I don’t know all of them yet, but I’m working on them!  I will be singing young women’s songs in Spanish after the mission in the car.

This week Elder Russel M. Nelson and Elder Donald Hallstrom visited our mission! We had a mission conference with our mission and the Mexico Guadalajara Mission. It was AWESOME!!

Before I get to the good stuff, I loved seeing all of the missionaries. I saw Hermana Valdez and wow, so many memories came to my mind and I think we were all a little sensitive and I got a little teared up hugging her. She says ¨Hey your family doesn’t write me anymore. Do they not love me or what??!!¨ I love her tons, send her some love!

I saw Hermana Buttars with her daughter that she’s training.  We shared a few more tears!  My two daughters were talking and Hermana Buttars gets a little teared up and says to Hermana Gonzales, ¨She’s really the best you can get as a mission mom¨.  I saw Hermana Daniel, Hermana Mansfield, and Hermana Taylor and then thought about so many MTC memories. I realized how flippin beautiful my mission has been. I have been so blessed. My experiences mean the world to me and I love how much I’ve grown and how many special people I’ve come to know. Life is good. 

I absolutely loved Elder Hallstrom’s talk. He talked about how special our missions are. He warned us against losing this sacred time. He talked about how in our missions we lay a spiritual foundation for our whole lives. He was pleading with us to come to know the Savior, to love Him, and to be firm in our testimonies now so that we would be prepared for whatever trials come our way in the future. I felt so much love for the Savior. I remember how strong my desire was\is to serve a mission. I felt a very strong need to strengthen my faith and to come to know the Savior better. I want Him to be a bigger part of me. 

Elder Nelson is absolutely precious and can you believe he’s 90 years old? He said something that impacted me so strongly. He said, “I know we don’t talk about marriage with you, even less with you, but assuming one day you’ll get to that point, sisters.  The day your prince charming gets down on his knees and asks you to marry him, you’re going to say NOOOO, unless it’s someone that loves the Lord more than He will ever love you¨.  I realized just how important that was to me. He invited us to think about our mission presidents and their wives. I admire President and Sister Camarillo so much. They are truly a team and they are a team that is committed to the Lord. I thought about my parents. I really do want someone obedient that loves the Lord a whole bunch. I hope I find a good one! 

I just a felt a change the day of the conference. I felt the spirit so strongly and a strong love for the Lord, a strong desire to serve Him and to come to know Him more, to more completely depend on Him. I just want to rock what I have left of my mission and just give it everything I’ve got! The time is going by so fast! 

So as we were walking to church yesterday, we saw a little pitbull puppy, probably 5 or 6 months old and super skinny. She started following us and followed us all the way to church.  She kept entering the chapel and didn’t want to leave! We had to take her out about 10 times and all of the kids were loving it. I think she just felt the love there! Ha! Ha! It broke my heart and I was dying to take her home, but well, that’s not allowed. It’s a good thing I don’t live here because I think I would have a house filled with dogs from the street. 

I am loving my new companion Hermana Gonzalez.  Even though she has only been here a week, she is an incredible missionary!  I think she’s teaching me more than I am teaching her! I just hope I’m putting a good example and teaching her well. About three people have told her, ¨Enjoy your companion, learn everything you can from her because she’s great!  Learn from her and just take advantage from this time¨.  That totally surprised me!  Kind of made me a little nervous too .. I hope I can live up to her expectations.  I struggle sometimes and am just a little hard on myself.  It just felt good to see that people, members and nonmembers, see me as a good missionary. We are going to keep working our tails off! 

Love you all tons! Hey in about a week and a half we’ll be Skyping!

Mexico Week 26 -- I Feel My Savior's Love

To all of my favorite people in the world!

We found some horses in the street this week! Grandpa, I thought about you! I started talking to the Señor about how my Grandpa also used to have horses and I rode them as a kid. We talked about the influence we have on the generations after us and sadly he lives far, but he’s got a pass along card!

This is one of the young adults in our ward that just moved out of young women’s. She wants to serve a mission in January! She is precious and we’re showing her the ropes!

We got home exhausted everyday this week, did our planning and then had some 30 minutes of rest and relaxation watching “The District”, or our training videos! Ha! Ha!  We really do like them!  We had popcorn, the foot cream, and can’t forget a coke and stuffed animal to snuggle with!

Also, this area is a huge tourist zone and they have Chili’s!  What do you know!  Sadly there are no pretzel sticks ;)

Fun Fact … People here put ketchup on everything!  Pizza, pasta, you name it. Megan would literally be in heaven.

This week we started having some success! We found some new investigators and our less active members are really starting to open up to us! A less active member told us that she got pretty mad at the elders before us. She was really struggling with some things and nobody from church visited her and then the elders stopped passing by too. She told us that she actually had no intention of listening when we started coming by but that she was starting to open up.

In Relief Society yesterday we talked about our responsibility to rescue. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. If you don’t know who you’re supposed to visit teach, where they live, who they are … ASK THE MISSIONARIES. They can help! These are people who once had testimonies. Maybe they made some mistakes, or maybe they got offended and don’t know how to come back, but the majority of them know they need the gospel. We can’t judge and say they don’t want it. We have to keep having faith and keep reaching out until we rescue every person. In the scriptures we read that without charity, we can’t enter the kingdom of God. Well, I think when we feel the pure love of Christ, we’re going to want to help him save people right? Or in other words, we literally can’t enter the celestial kingdom if we don’t participate in missionary work.

Wow, let that sink in a minute and then it will light a fire!

Yesterday, or Sunday, I was getting ready in the morning with my playlist of all of the Atonement songs. We have this picture of Jesus in our house and wow, I had the most amazing feeling come over me. He loves us. He knows we’re not perfect and that we do dumb stuff. He loves us anyways. I am coming to know Him more and more. We truly can’t comprehend the love He has for us. He just wants to be by our side every day.

This week I was really starting to think about Grandpa Jay. My patriarchal blessing says that I will have the spirit of Elijah and feel motivated to look for my ancestors. Now I know a lot of our work has been done, and I can’t quite work in this right now, but I can look to my ancestors. I just felt like he was with me, like he loves me and is watching over me and supporting me. I really want to read his patriarchal blessing actually! I love our Heavenly Father’s plan and I know that little by little He’s teaching us. I love this Gospel and the peace it brings. I love that families are the central unit of the Gospel and that we can be eternal. The more I see and hear here, the more my gratitude grows for you guys. You gave me the most amazing environment to grow up in. I love that you have always taught me that I can change the world and be amazing and that nothing or nobody can stop me!  You helped me to gain this confidence, and it is with this confidence and the confidence that the Lord gives me that I’m serving. I just love you guys lots.

Have a great week!