Week 45: Happy New Year!

I loved Skyping! It was super exciting to see you guys and this time Brycie wasn’t asleep and Dallin accepted to be seen. I believe that it was a Christmas miracle. lol

On Christmas I got to Skype my family!

Thanks for the Christmas package! It made me pretty excited! I’m sorry, but I will not be using the things for the cold now...but I will when I get home! It’s good that I will get home in August when it’s still warm. I’ve heard that lots of missionaries get really sick if they go home from here when it’s winter. 

Christmas Package From Home

We tracked all day on Christmas. Absolutely nooooo one was in the streets! Where it was normally busy - it was empty...so logically we laid down and took photos. :)

Merry Christmas!

 Sadly we don’t have any water in Lazaro Cardenas right now. The workers have gone on strike and so the entire city is without water. That makes living a lot of fun! lol The good thing is that we are in Guadalajara today and tomorrow for a meeting with the president. There is water here. :)

Right now Hermana Valdez and I are going to go to an awesome buffet that she says is super yummy. It will be our Merry Christmas/New Years present to ourselves because our Christmas was pretty pathetic. lol So we are going to eat! Yeahhh!

After our district meeting, we had a little 
breakfast-dinner and a gift exchange.

Week 44: Merry Christmas

This week was my ten-month mark! On the same day was the eight-month mark of my first baptism here. My convert was pretty happy and reminded me that it was his eight-month mark. Then the next day he baptized someone! Can I tell you how happy that makes me? He is truly converted. He is preparing to serve a mission and is helping his sister prepare to be baptized as well. I love being here because I can see how my last area has progressed. Three people that we started teaching are now baptized, and the elders are preparing three others. Sure it took a long time for a few of them, but I love to see them happy and with testimonies.

Missionaries and my first convert.

I go on exchanges with the sisters. My companion and I change companions with a set of sisters for a day. We do this so we can see how the sisters are doing and help them with anything they need. While we were out we found a little family of hogs walking around looking for food. 

This Little Piggy

One of our investigators had a birthday, so we bought her a little cake. She was pretty happy because they hadn't done anything for her birthday, since they don`t have much money. 

Happy Birthday!

It honestly does not feel like Christmas because it's so hot. Mexicans don't put up many outside decorations. They are afraid that it draws attention to their house and people are more likely to rob them. I can’t believe that after four months of driving my companions crazy (only 54 days until we talk to our familys) it is finally this week! How exciting is that?

"To catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ." -President Thomas S. Monson

Week 43: Welcome Back Again

So I’m pretty sure I have heard the phrase “welcome back again” at least a million times this week! It has been really nice to see all the people again: our investigators who have gotten baptized, the less actives who are now active, and how much the ward has grown.

This week we traveled to Guadalajara to have a meeting with the apostle Elder Russell M. Nelson. The meeting was amazing and afterward we got to shake Elder Nelson's hand and also a few of the seventy.

I feel like we spend more time in the bus then in my area! Guadalajara is eight hours from here, and we have traveled there four times this month. We also travel to other zones for meetings, go and study with the sisters, and have exchanges with the sisters. It's a miracle when we are in our area together. It surely does keep me busy.

Lots of Traveling

I got to see Hermana Vergara again!

Week 42: Sister Training Leader

Saying good-bye to my favorite family.

I have officially left La Huerta after six months. I cried a lot saying goodbye to everyone yesterday. It’s okay because the Lord needs me in another area. And do you know what area that happens to be? Lazaro Cardenas! The same ward that I started my mission in. But I served in Lazaro Cardenas I and now I am in Lazaro Cardenas II. I had forgotten how ridiculously hot it is here. 

I have been called to be a sister training leader (STL). Ah! An STL is the leader of the sisters. We go on divisions with them, teach, help them, and work with the Zone Leaders to give training  for Zone Meetings. I am super nervous!

When the mission president told me I would be an STL, I think at first I might have laughed because I thought it was a joke. Of course the first thoughts I had were "I can’t do this for this reason or that reason." Then, when I was praying about it the scripture mastery 1Nephi 3:7 came into my head. "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded" because God won’t give me anything to do if He doesn’t know that I can do it. 

I also really like the scripture you sent me. I’ve actually taken to memorizing it in Spanish because I think it has become my slogan for the mission! “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.” (Alma 26:12)

We went to a training meeting in Guadalajara.

Week 41: He is the Gift

This is my last week in La Huerta! It honestly tugs at my heart every time I think about it. I have spent six months here, and I am in love with the area and all of the people. I would be happy to spend my entire mission here. But the Lord needs me in another place. :(

We had divisions with the Sister Training Leaders. It was the last division with Hermana Jimenez, because she ends her mission this week. She is pretty tired out, but it was fun and all went well.
 

The church is doing a ton to promote the true meaning of Christmas to all. For all of December “He is the Gift” will be shown in Times Square New York! On the 7th of December the video will show up on the head of YouTube. God has given each one of us absolutely everything we have. The gift that we can give back is to Discover the Gift, Accept the Gift, and Share the Gift. The first gift of Christmas was our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Only 24 MORE DAYS UNTIL WE SKYPE. I´m excited. 

I love Sopes, look up the recipe. They are amazing.

It´s been super cold this week. When we visited one of our recent converts we were absolutely freezing to death! He quickly made us little scarves that saved our lives. Lol