Feliz "Skype" Navidad

I hope y’all had the best Christmas! You were all looking so good on Skype! It was such a blast talking to you guys. It was a spiritual high for me and I have been so blessed in my life. Just love y’all too much! 

Ward Christmas Party

WHAT??!!  A Ward Christmas Party .. and a Christmas Photo Booth!!

Ward FHE: The Iron Rod

This Thursday the best missionaries ever hosted FHE! 

We made a recreation of Lehi’s dream and people had to close their eyes and follow the rope o sea the iron rod. 

There were good influences and bad influences telling them things, and they had to decide what voices to listen to.  

Let's just say it was a huge hit!!

Mexico Week 43 -- More Humility Give Me

Can y’all believe it is already Christmas?!  Wow! Feliz Navidad!!

Time is just flying faster and faster!  I hope y’all have a great week together.

First of all, let me explain the pictures.  I found a shirt en Los Tianguis for 30 pesos!! And it´s mustard colored and super pretty, Feliz Navidad to me! 

Some people put up huge nativities here and it takes up their whole porch! Super pretty right! 

Nothing better than a good Christmas Coke! 

Hermano Oscar made a dinner that’s called birria here and well it’s super yum! Everyone was happy and eating and well, I know Hermano Oscar pretty well and asked him what’s up.  He was being really quiet. He says oh nothing, just a little tired.  Yeah, he’s about as good of a liar as dad is.  I asked him a few more times and finally he says: “Well, my Heavenly Father answered me today and it’s an answer I wasn’t wanting to receive.”  He starts to talk about how it’s time to say goodbye to the ward and leave his mom’s house and live with his wife in the other ward. He said he hadn’t slept for a few days thinking about all of this and he says, “The truth is, I was thinking about you and Hermana Malacara and Hermana Gonzalez and how I didn’t want to leave you guys.” He talked about how I was an incredible person with amazing strength that’s put up with a lot of hard stuff in these past couple weeks, but how much he admired me and how much he could never repay me, and how much he wanted me in his temple sealing in a year. He was crying and I was crying and he says “Heavenly Father told me that he has lots of work for you here and you already did your job with us.” It was just a special moment when you know you’re doing your job as a missionary. A little hard to know that he’s leaving soon, but he’s strong and he prays, and he knows his Heavenly Father. Temple sealing in one year!!! 

Speaking of this family, Hermano Jose is also making so many changes. He just keeps surprising us! First things first, he wasn’t sure if we could drink Arizona tea and so he starts telling us the story of being in the store and thinking, wait, is this against the word of wisdom? He realizes he isn’t totally sure, so he’s better off getting a Coka and asking the hermanas later. We can see how much he wants to be obedient. Sunday morning they arrived so late to church and his mom tells us afterward, “I felt terrible and he comes into my room all ready and says “Mom, aren’t we going to go to church?¨ I told him I’d change real quick!  He was just all ready to go and he’s faithful and well I gotta support him!”  Absolutely precious. Then she tells us that he was invited to Christmas parties but hasn’t gone to one of them because he says that he doesn’t drink or smoke anymore, so what’s the point? Just really surprising stuff!! 

On Friday, we had a conference with Elder Piper from the Quorum of the 70 and wow, it was so great!!! Hermana Piper is adorable. They have about 10 years serving in Russia and so she was really struggling to speak in Spanish with English, Spanish, and Russian swirling around in her head, but she is a doll and we all helped her out. I think the biggest thing that Elder Piper left with me is that I need to enjoy my mission. I need to give it all I’ve got and just love every minute. We have to be diligent. We have to love, learn, and share the missionary lessons. I think I just need to stop thinking about me and serve the people more fully, serve investigators, serve ward members, serve our leaders, serve my companion.  It’s a time of giving and giving and more giving, and I know that serving a mission is the best decision I ever made. 

Truth is, it’s been a rough month. I am learning so much and coming unto the Savior more than ever before. I love Him. I trust Him more than I ever have. I am really bad about managing stress, but this morning with some study, I learned a lot.  Actually in 20 minutes I learned what I have been missing for about a month. The Lord is with us in every step. He loves us and He understands every effort we make, actually He’s the only one who understands what we feel. 

This week I had a double infection.  Saturday I humbled up and we stayed home and Sunday I asked the Elders for a blessing. In my blessing, he commanded every illness and bad thing out of my body. I think this also applies to the high levels of stress, the discouragement, and the feelings of inadequacy. He told me how much my Father in Heaven loves me. He told me that my Savior has trusted in Hermana Gonzales and I in this area at this time. He blessed me to be a light and a guide to those around me. He blessed me to be able to find the people that were waiting for us. I felt so empowered and I know that with the Savior we can do all things.  It’s when we try to do things without Him that we have problems! 

We are working with some special people and we are really starting to see miracles here! I know that these next few months will be amazing ones! I love you all and can’t wait to talk this week!!  I’m going to be a strange little White Girl Mexican, so just go with it!

Love y’all tons! 

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!

Hermano Jose

Hermana Karen and her son were baptized December 6th and Jose was baptized the 12th! Ahh, some seriously special weeks! We had some really special lessons with Hermano Jose this week! One day we taught him about the priesthood and the importance of repentance with his Oscar. Wow, what a lesson! All of the blessings I have received from the priesthood just spilled out and we shared how much we depend on worthy priesthood holders. We talked about how the Lord’s expectations are really high. He commands us to be even as He is, but He’ll help us. We just wanted them both to feel like all of this was possible, they both shared their desires to have the priesthood and to always be worthy of it. On Thursday he had his baptismal interview and passed with flying colors! He even told us that he got a little choked up and before his baptism, it was the strongest he had ever felt the spirit. Our district leader told us how surprised he was in the interview and he tells us ¨He’s just a really good guy.¨

We invited him to share his testimony in his baptismal service, but he says ¨No Hermanas!  It’s because I don’t want to cry in front of so many people.¨ We left him some homework that he wrote his testimony and all that he had felt in these couple weeks. We started his baptismal service in the chapel and his mom and brother gave talks. Hermana Gonzalez and I sang ¨Yo Siento Su Amor¨ with the Paul Cardall track and it was awesome. I felt the Spirit and I really felt what we were singing. Before we started, Hermano Jose was looking a little nervous, but as we passed to the baptismal font we asked him how he was and if was ready and with so much confidence he says, ¨Claro que si Hermanas¨.

His baptism was so pretty and the next day he gives us his written testimony. He talked about being so involved in drinking and smoking and even drugs. He thought he was happy and really living the life. He talked about how he didn’t have the slightest idea of what it meant and how it felt to be full and complete. He talked about the weeks leading up to his baptism and all of the difficult things, the moments he doubted that he wanted to be baptized and realizing that it was all the adversary. He thanked me for sharing my testimony and for always helping and supporting and helping him arrive to his baptism and know that he was doing the right thing. 

After reading all of this I just felt the spirit a ton. This is what it means to be a missionary. The joy is so strong and I don’t think we fully realize what we give to people. I feel so blessed to be able to help these people make and keep sacred covenants.