Mexico Week 53 -- So Many Emotions

My dear sweet family! 

Well it turns out that today is transfer day and I am no longer in Guadalajara.  I have been transferred to Uruapan in Michocan! It has been 24 hours of just too many emotions.  I’m not too good with transfers!  Our zone leaders call us last night and well I left and Hermana Gonzalez stays there! Hermana Casanovas is with her (remember when I wrote y’all about her at the beginning of my mission?) She is the best! They will work miracles there! 

My new companion is Hermana Lopez. She arrived here with Hermana Gonzalez and just finished her training! We are going to work a ton! 

So anyways, they call us and then we get a little teared up and then we decide to make videos about our feelings and we cry some more. I was up until about 2am packing and then we left super early to go to the bus station. Hermano Oscar came to say goodbye and brought me a Guadalajara temple poster, with a note on the back.  A note that may or may not have made me cry, but it talked about his promise to make it there. As I boarded the big bus (like Greyhound but a lot nicer), I just started looking out the window and thinking. I felt the Spirit so much and I realized I wasn’t angry like the last time I was transferred, sad and with a big whole in the heart, but not mad. I trust my Heavenly Father more and I trust His plan. I just felt filled with gratitude that He’s let me be a missionary. I feel so blessed to feel this kind of love for people. I love this country … I mean I really love it. It sounds so cheesy, but I just feel like it has become a part of me.  In a way, my areas have been like home. I am excited for my new adventure even though I will miss Hermana Gonzalez lots!! I am excited to work and just give the best of me. Serving a mission is truly the best decision of my whole life. 

Okay now that the cheesy is over .. Let’s get these pictures explained! 

We ate out pretty much every day this week! The Hermanas gave us money instead of inviting us to eat and well I think we’re sick!  Ha! Ha!  Enjoy Cuarto de Kilo and the dehydrated life with mil suers. 

Hermana Irma passed herself with this Spiderman piñata .. it’s 3D! 

I have a new habit of always going to Reforma’s zone meeting! The sister training leaders wanted to be able to attend both meetings so I traveled to Reforma again! There are more hermanas there, and we have a good time!

This dog is like Cody’s twin, just a lot bigger! Every day we walked by there and he just gets so excited because he recognizes us! He wags his tail and jumps and runs to get his ball and then we keep walking and we runs to the other side that’s like a store and puts his front paws on the table.  He loves us! Ahh, I need a big dog! 

These young adults are Jessica and Javier. They’re cousins and Javier is a returned missionary. They work a lot in the ward and they’re just good kids. They’re not from here, but they are just great. 

Hermana Elsa was too good looking yesterday!  We told her we needed pictures because she was so beautiful!  She has progressed so much and I just love her and her whole family a lot. They’re just a special family. 

We had the most special lesson with Hermana Karla and Hermano Alejandro yesterday. They are having quite a few difficulties in their marriage and we talked about service and the pure love of Christ, how they can serve inside and outside of their home. We all ended up crying and we ended with the family hug. Ahh, I am seriously going to miss them and our families.  Marriages are so important! 

I also hope you love our video journal this week. We had so much fun doing it, but I don’t know, it made me feel the Spirit so much and I imagined showing them to my kids one day! I just love my mission! 

Our investigators really opened up this week and listened and listened and listened, and testified and testified and testified. So many people are losing hope in this world.  They’re losing hope and they can’t find relief or solutions in their problems. We have to help them. We have to testify of Christ and help them learn how to use His Atonement. I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that He loves us. I know that He understands us, that He knows our pressures, our stress, our worries, our responsibilities, all of it .. He knows it all and He helps and strengthens us in these things. I want to always by strong in my testimony of Him and I hope that as a family we can always bear powerful testimony of Him. 

I hope y’all had a great week and that this week is even better! I am here for whatever y’all might need and I love you all too much! Next week I´ll give you more details about the new area!

Mexico Week 41 -- I'm a Mom Again

This past week was filled with experiences!! I don’t have much time but next week I’ll send the pictures. 

First things first!  Four LARGE packages showed up last Friday. Imagine me, Hermana Malacara, and four huge heavy packages on a bus, trying to get on and get off, and then the elders making fun of us for having so many packages. Also, I’m prideful so after they make fun of us, they offer to help!  Well, I tell them no and we are about dying as we make it home. However, our house looks absolutely AWESOME! 

I love that all of the Coke products say Haz Alguien Feliz – Make Someone Happy – right now.  Ahhhh, Coke is great. 

Also I say winner, winner chicken dinner to the Princess Goldfish! Those are sweet!!

I want to tell you guys about our investigator Anabel. She is a mom of five, but with three kids already grown up and two younger ones. We have about a month teaching her but she is precious, she is so special and so sincere. We teach her something and she wants to live it, she wants to change. She was involved pretty heavily with drugs but she has two weeks without using anything! Her prayers are my absolute favorite. She literally talks and just pleads with our Heavenly Father. She wants to understand and she wants to be obedient. She says that we are her angels. We taught her the law of chastity last week (because she is living with someone and not married) and she closes the pamphlet and says well, I think this is the end of our time together. I was a little nervous because I thought she was going to get really mad, but she says I just have a lot of sins. You guys are better off saving someone easier, someone with less mistakes. She felt so hopeless and we testified so firmly of the Atonement and how she can repent. It was an incredible experience for me and it was awesome. We are hoping to see her at church this week! 

Hermano Jose just keeps surprising us! He’ll be getting baptized this weekend!  He doesn’t talk much and he likes to keep things to himself, but little by little, he’s opening up more and sharing how he feels.  He knows the gospel is true, he feels ready to be baptized, and he hasn’t been smoking!  He told us that before he knew that God existed but never that he worried about us individually. He said that in these weeks with us, he feels it. He knows that our Heavenly Father worries about him and cares about him.  His baptism will be so pretty!! 

This week we found a new family by showing them the video, “El es la Dadiva” – He is the Gift. El hermano teared up afterward and told us how much the video made him reflect on his life. He tell us that he is an alcoholic and just wants to leave it completely. He looks at us with tears in his eyes and asks us, “Can you help me?”  Wow, they are so special and we’re excited to keep working with them! 

Now for the transfer news: Hermana Malacara was transferred.  Still in my zone, but no longer my companion. I am training a new missionary. Her name is Hermana Gonzalez and I already love her! She is from the Tampico mission (I can’t remember the actual name of where she lives). Yesterday I was in Cruz del Sur all day in meetings and then meeting our new companions and for this reason I couldn’t write yesterday! But we will be staying here in Tlaquepaque.  Woo! Hoo! She is so animated and excited and really focused.

Yesterday I was reflecting so much about my mission and really my whole life. I saw just how many changes I’ve made and how much I have grown. I have passed through hard things but the Lord has delivered me. My relationship with my Heavenly Father has improved so much. I understand the Atonement better. I am stronger. I understand my purpose as I missionary and I know exactly why I’m here. I just want to be a good example for my new companion because she is going to be an incredible missionary and it’s my job to help mold her. I think we are really going to see some miracles here. I love this gospel, and I love the Lord. Our president told us about 50 times yesterday that the Lord trusts us so much, it’s He that called us. He knows we’re not perfect, but he trusts us. I felt the Spirit so strongly, the strongest I’ve ever felt it in these past few weeks. Our president told the newbies that he looks for trainers that are obedient, that are christlike, and that work hard. I just feel super honored, and I am so excited! 

My mission is passing by a lot faster than I would like! Ahhhh, well I love you guys tons!! Be good! Show the Lord you love Him!

Mexico Week 23 -- Cambios

Dearest family!  Well first things first – I’m in a new area! I really don’t have much time because I just got here, but I have a new companion Hermana Malacara, and we are both new to the area!  Let’s just say we have some work to do!! I am super nervous and yet I just feel the Spirit super strong too!!

Also, thanks so much for all of the birthday fun!! I am so sorry I just don’t have time today, but thank everyone for me and know that I felt so loved!!

Okay now for the stories of the week.  So to practice my Spanish, I have been memorizing primary hymns in Spanish! I absolutely love it!! It is so cool to be able to sing them during the day. I love music!! I have tantas ganas to learn how to play the piano and actually understand music. One day right?

The elders had a baptism this week and it’s the family that I met on the bus!! They asked me to lead the music and while they were changing, we sang some primary hymns that the kids picked. I seriously feel part of this ward. The pictures are with their daughter Vania who is the sweetest. She always says ¨Hermana!!!!¨ and gives me the biggest hugs. Their baptism was so beautiful.

I am pretty sure my heart will forever be with Hermano Contreras. We taught him a couple of times last week and Saturday night we taught about the Atonement. I saw him in white again, just like I did five months ago. I remember receiving an impression that I needed to say some things and have him repeat it. I remember thinking, ¨What are we in first grade? I’m not doing that!¨ Then it came again even stronger and I said ok. I made him repeat after me: “I am a child of God. He loves me. I can overcome all of my weaknesses through Him. I have faith. I will act.¨

Afterward he said, “Those really are true words aren’t they?” He promised to go to church the following day. And what can you believe....HE WENT. We got there pretty early in the morning and he was getting ready. Then he tells us that his mujeres are late and he’ll see us there. We were so scared to leave! We went to church and can you believe it, two confirmations, two baby blessings, and then they got there, so late, but on time for the sacrament. The Lord really wanted him to be there I think and worked some miracles. I felt the most incredible spirit and he stayed the whole three hours.

Afterward we ate with the Flores family and they are just too cute!  They had Frozen birthday surprises and made my favorite food and I was about to tear up! They even bought me this pink skirt that is so pretty!

So then we visit los Infante. They made me an apple pie to take home and sang to me in English and Spanish. They finish singing and then the phone rings.  Turns out Hermana Buttars and I were both getting transferred!  Here come the water works! Then Hermana Infante all teared up says, ¨Wow, time goes by so fast.¨ We get the message started and Hermano Infante says that he really wants to be in sacrament meeting with her and says that he’s going next week.  He hasn’t been to church in about three months. The kids start crying and now everybody’s crying for a million different reasons!

 Then they take us to the Contreras house – Talk about a HOT MESS for our last lesson of the night. One look at Hermano Carlos and there come the tears! I felt really bad at first because we didn’t go back sooner.  I felt so bad and then just this peace came and we started talking about faith. I mentioned the Lord also tries the faith of the missionaries with my new announcement. I thought of the song, “Adonde Me Mandes Ire” or “I’ll Go Where You Want Me To Go”, and how the Lord isn’t asking us He’s commanding us. I don’t even know where it came from, but the spirit was so strong and I felt like the prophet Moroni or something, calling everyone to repentance!  Hermano Carlos, the Lord is commanding you to repent and change and live the gospel, listen to Him. Family, the Lord is commanding you to forgive your dad and husband and help him. I have never felt that kind of power throughout a whole lesson. We cried a lot and hugged a lot and I almost broke a mission rule and hugged Hermano Carlos but a handshake did the job. Hermano Carlos tells us he’s going to buy the juice I like and he’ll be right back.  Please feel free to enjoy that splotchy faced picture with the juice. He tells us he knows it’s not much but it comes from the heart and he didn’t know anything about us leaving, so he couldn’t get anything else prepared sooner. I started talking to him one on one and I was just basically pleading with him to use the Atonement and be happy. He looks me in the eye and tells me ¨I know the Lord sent you here for a reason and I promise you I’m going to change.¨ He never promises unless he means it. I love the Lord, I love their family with my whole heart. I just have to come back at the end of the mission.  Seriously, we have to visit … not an option.

I know that the Lord sent me here to Tlaquepaque for a reason. I know that I have a new companion to serve and more people to find! I know that He loves me and that He trusts me. He knows what He’s doing even though I’m really not a big fan of this whole transfers thing. That’s where faith comes in right?  I know He’ll be by my side as we figure out this new area and new ward and be completely lost for this week! Ha! Ha! Ni modo right? But really, I love the Lord, I trust Him. One day I will understand it all and I just have this peace with me. We are going to really lose ourselves working here!!

I love you all so much and thanks again for the birthday wishes! Be good and be obedient and keep praying for your sweet missionary!