Mexico Week 10 -- Happy, Happy, Happy

Dear sweet family of mine!  Are you all ready to get all caught up?

Okay first things first, the pictures are of a part of town called Sauz!  It’s actually kind of the ghetto and everybody tells us to be safe there, but nothing’s ever happened to us!  Please enjoy the shoes on the line!  Isn’t that from the movie “Like Mike”?  I can’t remember for sure, but it cracked me up. 

Also, I’ve started doing push-ups in the morning. Guess what!  First day, I could literally only do one.  Que oso! Or like ¨how embarassing¨ in English. Well now I can do 10! Ha! 

Mom, the kids absolutely LOVED the treats from your Easter package. I’m like the most popular person I know!  Psych!  But really, the kids love the eggs and the coloring packs are absolutely perfect for Sacrament meeting. 

Big thank you to Amber Tolman and her family this week!  I got a letter from the whole family!  Tell the kids it’s a little hot right now, but the weather is pretty nice and the food is even better!  I love being a missionary and they have to start getting ready now if they want to serve a mission!

Also, big thank you to the Jeansonne´s, from Ohio.  I figured they must be part of Mom’s family!  They sent literally a huge package.  We were having interviews with the President and I shared my treats with the elders, but the big joke is that I always get packages and they were more fired up because I was entirely sure who it was from!  Hey, at least I share!   Thanks for loving on me as a missionary and know that we all love and appreciate it!

Okay, now for the good stuff! So remember how Antonio can’t see pretty much anything?  Well, we gave him a Book of Mormon and during certain times of the day with the right lighting, he can read it!  He reads 3 or 4 chapters a day and we’re working with him on identifying what he learned about Christ from his reading. Some days we read with him.  I love picking out the lessons we learn from the stories. The Book of Mormon is literally full of treasures! 

Paty Reynaga and her whole family came to church again this week!  Her progress is incredible. She has the strongest desire to give her kids the best example and she’s changing her life for them.  They’re reading the Book of Mormon and set an hour for family prayer.  My heart just melts every time I sit with her whole family at church.  They are truly incredible people. 

This week we had interviews with the mission president!  In all honesty, I was a little nervous!  President Camarillo is so amazing, and he really has a spirit about him.  First things first...Spanish! Our interview was in Spanish.  He told me my Spanish was truly incredible and he asked me if I would come to the First 12 Weeks Meeting with the group of missionaries that arrived the transfer after me and share something.  We talked about inspiring them and getting them excited about learning Spanish.  I was so pumped!  He also told me that Hermana Valdez and I now have clearance to speak English one hour a day so that she can practice her English!  I’m so excited! 

Oh also, President told me that he found y’all on Facebook and that we have a beautiful family!  My first thought was awwww, and second thought was ¨oh no, what does my rowdy family have on Facebook” followed by “I wonder if he’s seen the video of Tamsyn and I singing with corn dogs or acting like Barbies!¨  Ha! Ha!  But really, y’all are great! 

President and I talked about a scripture in 3 Nephi 19:25-30. I really love that it talks about Christ smiling upon us.  We talked about the sanctification the disciples experienced and how the truly were in constant communication with Christ and we can become the same.  I want to achieve this.  I want to maintain the habits I’m forming here for the rest of my life and with my family! 

So today is Monday, or the day of the First 12 Weeks Meeting. The new missionaries have about a month here and my job was to inspire them that they could learn Spanish. I really worked hard to prepare and the Spirit was awesome!  The words flew out of me in Spanish and it was so cool because I also spoke clearly and with emphasis and it was all the Spirit helping them understand.  I shared Ether 12:27 and applied it to being missionaries and learning a language. The look on some of their faces was incredible.  I love when I get to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands.  I know that we are all going to have difficulties and face challenges as we come unto Christ.  It is not an easy path but it’s definitely worth it.  I know that Christ calls us in our strengths and in our weaknesses.  He knows us inside and out and He knows exactly what we’re capable of.  I love you all tons and hope that each of you work with Christ to overcome your weak points.  Be humble, have faith, and you’ll always be able to feel Him by your side. 

I love y‘all! Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for you! 

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!!!

Mexico Week 2 -- Language Isn't a Barrier to Love

Ohhh, my Dearest Family...did I ever tell you how much I love you?

So cool story of the week.  One day, a ton of our appointments fell through and I honestly felt like we were walking for years.  We were walking through this neighborhood and there is this grandpa in front of his house.  His name is Antonio.  He says hi, introduces himself, then invites us in!  We gave just a short lesson and he asks, so when are you coming back? Then we invite him to church and picked him up yesterday!  He was answering questions in Gospel Principles, then asks us, so when are you coming by this week?  My mind blown! The hardest thing is getting investigators to come to church. They have to come five Sundays before they can be baptized.  We have baptismal dates falling all over the place because of it, but I know it is a good rule.  Hermana Valdez hasn't had a baptism since she's been here.  I have a strong testimony of taking the sacrament and being in church on Sundays.  I can't describe it, but we need it.  We need to refresh and reset ourselves. We also receive answers in the chapel because it's a special place. GO TO CHURCH!

My mind is always blown away how I am completely exhausted at night, but somehow, in the morning, at 6:30, I'm ready to go again. I know that it is a blessing, but it still blows my mind every day.

Okay now for the good stuff! Hermana Gudelia is a less active member of our ward. She is so great, but think of kind how a redneck speaks but Spanish.  I can't understand a word she says.  But I don't know, she and I kind of have a special bond.  She gave me a skirt this week!  I wore it and she came to church!  Ah, the first time I met her, she wouldn't even pray with us.  She is so great though and you should have seen her face when she saw me wearing the skirt.  We were supposed to take a picture, but the stinker skipped Relief Society! 

This week, Hermana Valdez and I had a really special companionship study.  We were practicing teaching the Restoration.  We just felt the strongest Spirit and I know that it happened.  I know that Heavenly Father saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  I know that this church is the only true church because we have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Read the Book of Mormon and you won't be able to deny it.

 Also, I have NEVER in my life had a fear of dogs until I moved here.  Nunca!  Well, when you're walking on the sidewalk and twice in one week massive dogs lunge against the fence barking and you about pee your pants...you get a little nervous!  I'm talking spit droplets on my skirt here...These dogs are messing with my head!!

 

I have to tell you about Carlos.  Carlos is in his 50's, and just a hard hard man.  He has a mustache  and he talks super rough.  I'm pretty sure he fights game cocks too.  Haha! But really, he's so stubborn and just kind of has this hard face.  He had a baptismal date, but it fell through before I got here.  Most of the people in his family are members and his son is currently serving a mission.  He reminds me a lot of Grandpa.  

Anyways, he was talking during the lesson and I can't even describe it, just the strongest Spirit filled my soul and I had to talk!  I honestly felt the strongest love for him.  I probably butchered the Spanish, but I just spoke so directly and I felt the power of the Lord.  It was the first time I felt like I really spoke with power and authority.  There were thoughts, clear and distinct and personal to him, coming to my mind.  After the lesson, he told me that he had never met a missionary with a heart as strong and sincere as mine, and he said he's had a lot of missionaries pass through his house.  He just kept telling me how beautiful my heart was.  As I shook his hand as we left, he looked me in the eye and told me he believed I was meant especially for him.  This moment was so powerful for me.  I felt like I had purpose .. that Heavenly Father meant it when he told me He was preparing people especially for me.  

We had another lesson with Carlos this week and again, and I just feel the strongest love when I'm in their house.  I realized that I've been praying to recognize the people prepared for me and they might be able to recognize me too.  I had this experience with Carlos and I just have a ton of faith in him.  Other missionaries kind of roll their eyes, but I don't know, I know he can change.  I know that he wants to too.  He told us that he wants to be completely sure because he doesn't want to get baptized and then return to his old ways.  I want so badly to help him to increase his faith.  I'm learning that our faith has real power.  We have to have faith in people.  If we don't believe they can change, they won't.  Repenting is going to be really hard for him because he has some things to take care of, but I just feel the Savior's love for him so strongly.

Saira is coming along too! I feel this strong love for her too.  She still hasn't accepted a date, but this week she said, "If I decide to get baptized in two or three years, will you come?"  I know she feels it, she's just nervous.  So many people don't understand the love our Heavenly Father has for us.  We can literally do incredible things!  We also passed by Saira's house to bring her to church, but she didn't come.  The first week she said no, this week she said probably, and for this coming Sunday she said yes!  We are going to pick her and I think she's excited!

Okay real talk...yesterday afternoon I got a little down...okay really down. I just started thinking about the members of our ward.  I want to be their friend.  I want to have their trust.  I want to have my personality, and be able to pull it off in Spanish!  Sometimes I'm really good it, but it's also kind of hard in Spanish.  If I'm tired or what not, I don't have much of a personality because I'm not actively listening, so I don't follow the conversation, and then I don't want to speak.  I don't know!  I'm a well liked person, and I want to be myself!  I started feeling bad about Spanish all over again because I felt like I couldn't be as friendly as I want to be. 

Last night, Hermana Valdez and I were working on our language study plan and she said some really beautiful things!  She talked about how far I've come in two weeks, and how much I really do understand.  She talked about the gift of tongues and how much my Heavenly Father has blessed me.  She even pointed out other missionaries (like the secretaries) and how I don't sound as gringa as them.  Haha!  I just realized how blessed I am to have her as a companion.  She has complete confidence in me and pushes me to be better.  I realized how blessed I am with the language too.  It's been two weeks in the field and if I really am actively listening, I understand a ton.  During most lessons, I really do understand, for the most part, I can express myself too and even teach principles.  My Heavenly Father is blessing me and sometimes I just miss it.  Sometimes I'm too worried about what I think I need, or where I think I should be.  Sometimes, we demand blessings and it doesn't work that way.  We have to have the eyes to see how much He is present in our lives every single day, to notice the little things.  I know that He is with us and we receive blessings every flippin day!  Also, language isn't a barrier to love.  Even without complete understanding, I love these people and we have real relationships. It's amazing!

 On the bright side, an investigator gave us a ton of bananas this week and we couldn't finish them all, so we made milkshakes!  Please enjoy these hilarious pics with Hermana Valdez. But really, they were so good.

I love you all to the moon and back.  I know that all we have to do is work hard and have faith.  Keep believing and do the little things!