11 months!! .....waaaaatttt?!!

Can you believe that I've already been out here for almost a year?! I can't. It feels just like last month that I got here from the MTC, except that I can understand what everyone's saying now and I know what I'm doing...kinda. =P

This week has been rather interesting. I was really sad too to see Hna Vazquez go and even though we both cried a little after we found out, we knew deep deep deep DEEP down that it was a necessary change. She's now serving with in another stake but it seems that we will be seeing each other relatively often before she finishes her mission in May.

My new companion is Hna Pérez. She's from the Mexico City and is almost as tall as I am. I still haven't quite adjusted to having someone my height walking by my side everwhere I go. =P She's super excited about the work of the Lord and to make a difference here in this area.

Hermana Perez

Thanks to my companion's love of contacting, we currently have a new family to teach that consists of a mom and two daughters. They have a lot of problems between them and the mom accepted us with the hope that we could help her rebellious 12 year old that 's dating a 17 year old. o.O They are really sweet and attentive and we hope to be seeing a lot of progress with them over the next few weeks. 

This week I've been receiving the blessing of spending a lot of time on my knees. It was surprisingly hard having a new companion and getting along with her is easy enough but it's all mostly feelings that I bring upon myself. Sometimes, I don't know what to do with myself or with my companion and feel that I just can't do anything. However, I'm beginning to be taught to be grateful for the daily strength that the Lord gives me even though my problem doesn't get solved right away.

Sorry it's not much of what's happened this week but I have to go, we are going into Puebla today with our zone to see Meet the Mormans.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Here are some pictures of the jewelry box Jose Abel made for me.

  Check out this GIANT asparagus we found!!!

February 16

We will be having transfers again this week and my companion will be leaving the area. She's had about 4 and a half months here and that usually is the average to be in an area. Everyone has been so sweet as they've told her goodbye. Our convert, José Abel, arranged a little lunch in honor of her leaving. He had promised about a month ago to make us jewelry boxes (quick background story: He usually makes little jewelry boxes for a craft store and when I saw one that was simple but pretty I asked him where I could buy one like it, silly thing to ask a carpenter, and his only reply was something to the effect "Don't worry Hermana, I'll just make one for you" and that's exactly what he did.) and unfortunately I don't have pictures this time but next week I'll make sure to send them to you. They are absolutely beautiful! He make us each one and I've never been so grateful. I told him that I had always wanted a beautiful jewelry box to put my important things in and that he hadmade one of my dreams come true. He seemed very happy with that.

Like I said last week, we went to Zacatlan de las Manzanas, something of Apples I have no idea what Zacatlan means. Anyway, it's positively beautiful there. We went to the center of town where's there a huge clock surrounded by what are flowers during the summer. We finished off by going to a beautiful waterfall. I'll have to double check what it's called but you have to go down 365 steps to reach the waterfall. That also means going up 365 steps to return to the car. ;P We certainly got our exercise. Funny thing about Mexico, any beautiful or ancient site that you want to visit, you have to hike to. I guess the native inhabitants didn't mind exercise as much as we do. =P 

This week we had another zone conference with our President. It was really good however I think I enjoyed the zone meeting before even more. We talked about being excited for the work and how the prophets from the Book of Mormon passed for the same things as us and yet, the Lord helped them to keep going. This is something that every missionary has the chance to see and is grateful for each day. 

Yesterday, we ended up going to Puebla on an emergency trip for money. =P My companion had almost 1,000 pesos stolen out of her wallet and has been without money for the last 2-3 weeks and so we've been living off my monthly allowance. However, with so many trips into Puebla the last few weeks, I'm basically out of money also until Tuesday afternoon. So, the elders in the offices said that they could help us out by giving us money but we had to go into the offices to get them. A 2 hour trip in bus. My companion and I prayed to our Heavenly Father, asking that if there was a better way to get to the offices than taking the bus that he would show us. Fortunately the other hermanas decided to accompany us and weren't as embarrassed as I was to ask Hermano Emilio to drive us down. We all pooled our money for gas and had a pretty fun road trip down to Puebla together. We did get lost on the way home but everything went well. We were very blessed and now will be able to get to Puebla tomorrow for tranfers. =) 

My Heavenly Father has been answering my prayers a lot lately and I have been very grateful for them. It always amazes me just how mindful of each of us he is and I cannot comprehend how he does it. However, I am reminded that right now I'm just a missionary and not a God, so I don't have to worry about understanding everything right now. 

I must admit that I am sad to be seeing Hermana Vazquez leave the area, I'm not quite sure it's completely sunk in yet, however, I am so excited for her and for the next three months she will enjoy as she ends her mission. I have been very grateful for my time here in Libres with her and I don't think I've been happier in my mission. Although I am nervous or a little scared for tranfers, I am reminded of something that Jeffrey R Holland said, "Faith is moving forward, believing that the Lord has something better for us than what we now have."

I hope you have a wonderful week! I love you all!

Heeelllloooo...February!!!

 Where did January go? 

This week was probably one of the more boring and yet exciting in my mission!

On Monday, we fumigated our house. We left all of our clothes laid out all over the house and we were basically kicked out of the house by the sisters from the Relief Society that came to help. They were very excited at the idea of killing tons of bugs. =P We had planned things out so that we would have clean clothes during the couple of days that we would be out of the house and officially moved in with the other sister missionaries in our ward. It was fun having a whole missionary sleepover where everyone is asleep by 10:30 but we were so ready to be home by the time Wednesday came along. We ended up being without clothes until Friday I think, because we just kept running out of time to go and get them from the Lavanderia. It was amazing to see little surprises coming up of the Lord blessing us. I.E. My companion finding a clean skirt in her suitcase and me finding a clean pair of socks in my backpack that I had forgotten I had put in there. It looks like the fumigation did the trick for now and I have officially stopped touch dogs!! With all considered of the not really doing much because we took a few days to get the house back together, we're really excited to get back to work. 

Our recent convert Josè Abel has been doing well. He's just learning so much! He also had a very eventful Sunday and blamed us completely for it...in the best way possible. =P He received his first calling in the ward (counting heads during sacrament meeting), gave his first spiritual thought during Sunday School, and received the Aaronic Priesthood. We had asked the ward leaders to help us work towards these things to help him progress in the Gospel but we never expected it to happen so soon! I've been rather impressed with our Elders Quorum leader because he always seems to be just one step ahead of us to help Josè. 

This Sunday was really good. I actually really enjoyed fasting and I think it was because I had something really special that I was fasting for even though it scared me half to death to ask the Lord for it knowing that the outcome was going to be hard regardless but I'm also really excited for the chance to watch Him mold me again. 

Today we went to Puebla for a Zone activity. When they first invited us we said "thank you but no thank you" because we would have to travel 2 hours for a couple of hours of playing and then return and there wouldn't be time to complete everything we need to do to prepare for the week. However, they continued to insist and moved everything around so that it would be easier for us to go. In the end, I think I only went because I felt bad for all the work they had done to put it together and to make it more convenient for us. It actually was a lot of fun. I haven't been to an activity in a while and we all enjoyed it. We played soccer, volleyball, and basketball. All of which I'm horrible and yet competitive at, but we all had fun. 

I can't believe the month of January is already gone. I knew that the year would begin to pass super fast after the New Year but  I didn't think it would be that fast. Anyway, transfers are coming soon and it'll be interesting to see what happens. Usually we all start to receive a bit of personal revelation at this point, as President starts making the changes, but my companion and I both feel that anything is possible and so I guess we'll see. =) 

Thank you for all that you do! I love you all and have a wonderful week!

 

 

Here are some pictures of some service we did this week. The older woman in Hermana Agustina, the most loyal member of the church I have ever met. The man with the straw hat is Hno Emilio, a less active who's trying to come back and the man in the cameo is the less active that we have to drive 45 minutes to go visit. We were helping to get corn ready to be stored

This is hno Emilio's son. He's the cutest thing ever! At Jo'se Abel's baptism day, Emilito brought me a beautiful white rose. =)

 

Two day old baby goats at our ward mission leader's house.