Mexico Week 25 -- Go! Go! Go, Joseph!

To all of my favorite people in the world! 

In all honesty, this week was a little rougher. We are really struggling to find people to teach and visit.  We are walking .. walking .. walking for days! I have a great story that will make you all laugh! So I end up with these big blisters, one under each ball of my foot, right? One day we’re walking and they’re really killing me. All of the sudden POP! There goes one! Pus filled sock and I’m wimpering in the street, but we’re missionaries and so we keep going! About 10 minutes later POP! There goes the other one and I begin wimpering in the street again. Ha! Ha!  All I could think was que bueno que I wasn’t a pioneer!  Seriously, I think I would have died half way!

There is a WalMart in my area .. I have never been so excited to enter a WalMart in my life!!  Seriously, it is HEAVEN!!

My area is also so beautiful. The whole area isn’t like these pictures, but really, it’s beautiful! We also found some Mariachi band members today! 

Okay, now for the good stuff. This precious señora is the mom of one of our less active members we found this week. She has Alzheimer’s and is literally my favorite. She reminds me a lot of working in the nursing homes when I was in high school! She always holds my hand and is always talking. Sometimes during lessons, she just puts her head on my shoulder. Her daughter is a member and literally loves to learn. She’s also a nurse! She took care of her dad until he died and now she’s been taking care of her mom.  She’s starting to get worse as the disease progresses and can’t go to church. She says all is good, but she just has this look sometimes like she’s just sad. It stuck with me all week and we need to really work and pray so we can find out how to help her! 

We found another less active member that also just needs a lot of help. She wants to come back to church and I honestly love working with those that have stopped going. They have testimonies, sometimes they just help to repent, or they need someone to listen, or they just need representatives of the Lord to help them out. I love it. 

The Lord always has a purpose. I have started reading the Bible and remember how the Old Testament always put me to sleep? Well now I’m kind of loving it! I have been reading about Joseph this week.  True confessions, I’ve been singing the Donny Osmond songs from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat! Ha! Ha!  It really helps my study when my brain breaks out in song part way through the scripture .. Go! Go! Go! Joseph, you know what they say! Go! Go! Go! Joseph, you’ll make it someday!

But really, there are some verses where we says to his brothers, you guys didn’t send me here (to Egypt). God sent me here, He had a purpose, you guys aren’t guilty of anything. God needed me here to interpret these dreams and prepare us for the famine. First things first, he spent two years (well probably more) in jail for something he didn’t even do. Can you imagine that type of patience? That type of long suffering? I feel like the Lord really worked on him there and helped him prepare for more of what was to come in his life. Then he’s face to face with brothers and completely forgives them, saying that they’re not guilty of anything. He looks for the hand of the Lord and eventually understood the plan. I think we should be more like that. He is my new hero! I really am going to accomplish my goal of reading the whole Bible in the mission! 

We visited another less active member. We have gone by there two or three times and they don’t receive us, or they’re not home or stuff like that. We had been walking for a long time and I just started praying.  Praying that they would open the door, praying that they would receive us. We knocked and after a long time, her son opened. Then about ten minutes later she came downstairs and was kind of mad because she had been resting and started telling us everything she didn’t like about the church. We started talking about our Heavenly Father and her whole face changed. She tells us that she felt hope like we had planted a little seed and told us when she would be home and everything. She tells us, it’s really a miracle you found me here today and even more of a miracle that we opened the door and I came downstairs. My son never answers the door, and I had no intention of getting up, but something made me get up. WOW! The Lord does work with us. 

I love you lots and you're always in my prayers!! Love you almost as much as the Lord does! 

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!

Tengo Fe

To my best friends in the whole world!

First things first … THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the ward and family members for my birthday treats!  We love the snacks and the kids just love all of their treats. Y’all are the best!

So lately I have been listening to a lot of Christmas music. Every once in a while we visit Esther (Antonio´s wife) and the last two times we sang Christmas hymns! I think I love it so much because one, it is just happy music; and two, it is so focused on Christ! Ahh, love it!  Needless to say, I think I’m always going to be the person that listens to Christmas music in July! 

We also had interviews with President Camarillo this week! He is literally the sweetest man. We talked a lot about the Atonement and how we can understand and apply it to our lives more. We talked about taking responsibility for all of our choices and making the most of this opportunity that the Lord has given us! He just really has a Spirit about him. He told me that Hermana Buttars’ Spanish is really good and he thanked me for being obedient as I helped her learn. He told me that he really trusts me a lot and gives me a lot of responsibility, even though I haven’t been out long. Wow! Now I just want to do everything in my power to never ever let him down! At the end of our interview I really felt like I should ask him for a blessing so I went for it. 

In my blessing, he blessed me with wisdom and a desire to study the Atonement more. He said that this study in the mission would bless and help my future spouse and kids. Wow! I am constantly thinking about my future family and now I can see why! I need to prepare so much so that I can be everything they need me to be. Something that really surprised me is that he said that I should give milk instead of meat to the kids that I teach .. that I should teach them line upon line. I was thinking that I truly haven’t taught that many kids, but maybe Heavenly Father has more in store for me! The kids here are truly so special to me. They are just so close to Christ! 

I was also encouraged to put complete confidence in the Lord. I think I still struggle sometimes to give Him everything. El Presidente gave me like a half hug after and I almost asked if that was allowed ;) He tells me: “Te quiero mucho Hermana Rawe”. He truly is an incredible President!

Hermana Buttars is the best. We had some real talk this week and I admire her so much. I feel like we both are changing a ton on the mission! We are just really firming up what’s important, what do we want for our futures? We talked about how so many people talk about missionaries that come home from their missions and then falling away.  We both have a fear of that, of just getting distracted when it’s not missionary work 24/7! We made a pact that we are going temple exploring in Utah every week and on the car rides recommitting each other to being good people every time! 

I had an epiphany this week!! We’ve started making these huge posterboards for families. We made one for the Reynaga family that says on top -  Tengo Fe en Jesucristo. Below it has the name of every single member of the family and we left some stickers. Every time we pass by, we’re going to see who has stickers and how they showed their faith. The kids LOVE it. Thanks to my package I got this week, we have sweet prizes too! I started thinking that we could do something like this for so many families depending on their needs. Some of them have trouble sharing the gospel, so we made ones that say -  Soy un Representante de Cristo. Every time they represent Christ and share the gospel ... sticker on the chart! I was just really loving this all week! We made one for Rosa Elía and her family too. First we watched a video about finding faith in Christ with the kids. Both Alexis and Nickole all snuggled up with Hermana Buttars and I. Not gonna lie, gave me major mommy fever. After the video, we talked about faith and how we can have it. All of their faces lit up when they saw the chart and the kids are so excited. I just love when you can see on people’s faces that they know that we care. 

We had two pretty special lessons with the Reynaga family this week. First, we taught the Law of Chastity with them.  We’ve been feeling that they need a refresher on some things and we taught it a little different. We started with the scripture in Corinthians that says that our bodies are temples. We asked the kids what temples are like. They start describing the temples and then Roxton says, “But, I drew on my hands on this morning, and I haven’t bathed in 3 days!”  Then he kind of does the classic Lexi head drop. I love this kid! These kids get it. They are so smart and they are learning so much about the gospel. They are reading the scriptures as a family and going to church. Even our teenager’s attitude is starting to change!  On Sunday we visited Hermano Pedro to see how he was doing with cigarettes. He asks us if we’re starting to see the fruits of our work in their home. Love this old fart to death. He tells us, “I don´t know if you noticed, but when we got to church, I went with JuanCarlos and Roxton and we sat on the other side.  I thought the girls were going to follow, but they went and sat with you two. They see something in you. Our home really is changing.” Wow! It’s so true. Their home is changing, they’re not perfect, but they’re improving. I couldn’t help but think back to when I was wondering why in the world do we come here?  They don’t want it!  The Lord testified to me to love them and stick it out and look at where we are. Ah, the Lord truly always has a plan. 

Now on to my other family members here, the Contreras and Flores families. We ate with the Contreras family on Saturday. Guess who was there to eat? Hermano Carlos and his son Fernando (who is also not a member).  We taught about how we can truly be cleansed from our sins. Wow! What an incredible lesson! I don’t know what it is, but I truly feel the spirit so strongly every time we teach Hermano Carlos. He talked about how he wants a clean slate, he just doesn’t feel like it’s possible, but he has this dream of his whole family being together after this life. My brain is about exploding at this time with the word baptism!  I talked about how there are things we have to do to be an eternal family, one of them being baptism. I invited them both and I don’t think I have ever extended a baptismal invitation with so much love in my life. Fernando and Carlos both said yes!! We talked about the preparation, about what it really means to work toward an eternal family. The night before I felt like their family poster should say -  Nuestra familia es eterna. Seriously!  We weren’t even planning to go there with the lesson and look where we ended up! Two hermanos preparing for baptism and a chart to mark when they make efforts to get there. I love this family. I love them almost like I love you guys.

We ate with the Flores family on Sunday because our food from the hermanas fell through and we decided I’m going to marry Angel (the Contreras son that’s on a mission right now so I can be in their family). Hermano JuanCarlos sticks his hand out and says, “Sister in Law!”  Ha! Ha! He and Blanca are literally Brad and Laura … so sarcastic, a little wild, but so committed to doing the right things. Entonces, guess I’m marrying a Mexican!

In all honesty, I got a little sad this week. It hit me that there’s a big chance I might be leaving in two weeks. I can’t believe almost another three months has passed by so fast. I love the people here and I think I might cry if I miss the baptism of Carlos and Fernando, but the Lord always has a plan right? I know that He takes care of us so much and I’m willing to go where He wants me to go. I’m willing to do what He wants me to do and I’m willing to be what He wants me to be. I love Him, more than I have ever loved Him in my entire life. I am committed to Him more than I ever have been. I just want to be someone that He’s proud of. I want to represent Him with every interaction. I feel so blessed to be here, to be with these people. I love my mission. 

Don’t worry, because I love you guys too, so I will come home at some time! Be good! Be examples! Share the gospel with everyone! Love you more than you know! 

Mexico Week 19 -- Lovin The Mission Life

To my favorite people!!  How are you guys?  I hope that all are healing and feeling better and getting ready to go to New York! 

So we wore our rain boots for the first time this week!  It was storming in the morning and we left, then by about 2 in the afternoon it is blazing hot and we were about to die from heat stroke!  Some day it really will rain for real all day! 

Hermana Maria Dolores bought us tamales this week!  Ahh!  They were sweet ones, with pineapple ... I was dying!  They are so good!  Then the bishop asks our little cutie to share her testimony during Ward Conference. She was so nervous, but she did so great! 

I was thinking this week...whoa, I am about to hit 6 months in the mission field!!  How is that even possible??!!  I starting thinking a lot about how am I really doing.  Am I really achieving my purpose and potential as a missionary?  Is the Lord proud of me and happy with my work.  I just want to give Him everything I’ve got during this time.  I want His approval. 

We have a new investigator and her name is Enriqueta.  She really has to be about 70 years old, and she is adorable!  She has this pug named Camila that her grandkids gave her so that she wouldn’t be alone and that dog is crazy.  She always says “Uhh, I’m better off alone that with this crazy mutt!”  Anyway, she’s super Catholic but she’s reading the Book of Mormon and says that it really interests her.  She also wants to go to Church.  She has a son that is super sick and she’s working a ton to pay for herself and her son because he can’t work.  She has passed through so many trials but her faith is so strong!  I just want to bring her home with me! 

I would just like to take a minute and talk about how much I absolutely love my area and my companion.  Cruz del Sur I think might be my home.  This week we ate with the Flores family.  One of the Contreras kids married their daughter in the temple and they have the most beautiful baby girl. Anywho, her sisters are hilarious.  They remind me so much of y’all because they are incredibly sarcastic.  Sometimes I jump in and then think -- Whoops! I am a missionary and I need to behave!  Haha!  I truly love being with them.  I realized that Hermana JuanCarlos Contreras reminds me so much of Brad, always doing stuff for other people.  He tells me all the time, “Come here with your family at the end of your mission.  We will feed all of you and then we are going to the beach!”  Hermana Isabel always jumps in, “We met the family of some missionaries and you can totally do it, and you just need to come back.  Give us a heads up and we will book the beach tickets!”

It is literally like a Henderson family reunion when we go over there. I decided that we should start saving our money so that I can fly all of my new family to my wedding that I hope happens some day. 

We also found out that Roman Contreras, the son of Flor, is an investigator!  We thought we were just helping out the Primary but he’s an investigator.  I love teaching and preparing to teach kids.  It is literally a totally different experience.  I feel like I’m practicing to be a mom! He is one active kid and he struggles to listen even to his mom, but we are getting super creative with his lessons!  I am so excited to plan his baptism because he has such a big family!

I love working with kids...they truly are very close to Christ. They’re just special!  Flor and her husband rent a room in a house with a million people.  The other day we were teaching and there were just kids everywhere!  We opened and closed with a Primary song and they all one by one, got so quiet, and sat down in a circle watching everything.  It was just a big spiritual moment for me.  I really do love the Primary songs and know that kids can feel the Spirit. 

Hermana Infante came with us to some lessons this week and well, we always go in the Infante van.  It is pretty much famous!  Haha!  We couldn’t find a lot of people and we started talking with her and she parked the van.  We started talking about challenges in life and how we can help our families when they struggle.  We shared our testimonies, hugged really tight, and then I said, “Well, before my dad dropped me off at the MTC I was a little nervous and scared too. My dad gave me a blessing in the car. Therefore, I believe it is okay to have spiritual moments in the car.  Is it okay if we say a prayer?”  She asked me to say it and I think it was one of the most beautiful, sincere, prayers I have ever said.  The words just came and she gave me the tightest hug after. I t was just one of those mission moments that you’ll never forget. 

I got to see Hermana Valdez today!  Actually she stayed in our house last night with 10 other hermanas.  It was so good to see her. We talked about our purpose as trainers and just had some good bonding talking about the ups and downs of training new missionaries!  I am so grateful for Hermana Buttars and the experiences that we are having together.  She is a great missionary and I truly have been blessed with the best companions! 

Love you all to the moon and back! Keep loving the Lord and being missionaries!