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Our Week in Merida May 18, 2015
I can't believe that it has come to an end and this is my last week. I just know that this has been the best time of my life. Yes, very hard, and very challenging, but the best! Every time I had to fight to get the right words was worth every time someone got done saying a prayer with tears in their eyes, every hour walking in the 110 degree weather for every house we were able to get into of someone who was looking for the gospel, every mosquito bite for every person I have met and am now so fond of and love so much.
I remember the first day of my mission, going to Yendi´s house and meeting someone who I never would have known that now means so much to me. She was the first of many people who have helped me along this time of change. Now ending the mission, seeing Adrian be able to enter into a covenant at the young age of 11, I remembered something that happened to me a while back in the mission.
6 months ago, before we would go to the temple every month, I remember in a special ocasion when President let us go if we memorized all of the scripture masteries from the Book of Mormon. That day, when we were able to go to the temple, I remember sitting there at the end, thinking about how amazing heaven is going to be. In that moment, I promised myself that I would work as hard as I possibly could those last 6 months to be able to help as many as people possible get to the Celestial Kingdom and live happily forever as a big family. I was thinking of that experience this morning, and realized that not only have I been able to meet people and be an instrument in God's hands to help them prepare themselves for that moment, but I have also been more and more prepared by God for that moment myself. I am forever grateful for the amazing experiences I have had during the past year and a half, and I KNOW that they are what I needed to be able to return with God one day. I can't wait to make it there, and I now promise to work as hard as I can THE REST OF MY LIFE to keep preparing myself to get there and help others around me to reach it as well.
Doctrine and Covenants 15:4-6
4 For many times you have desired of me to know that which would be of the most worth unto you.
5 Behold, blessed are you for this thing, and for speaking my words which I have given you according to my commandments.
6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.
This is all I have to say for now.
Doctrine and Covenants 33:18
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| I little down pour never stops us ! |
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| Just out of the water, with no sins ! |
My Mom is the Best ! May 11, 2015
How fun was it to see my awesome family yesterday! I love you all so much! I heard something awesome in chruch yesterday, and it was that the only love that comes close to the love that Jesus has for us is the love of a mother. I hope all the mothers had an awesome mothers day. I love my mom with all of my heart and she is so incredible. It is very true, that mothers have so much love for everything that they do for their children.
It was a great week, as always. Adrian is doing awesome. He should be getting baptized this week. Suemy and her family are great, and Rafael is awesome!
We have all been freaking out here in the mission, because next week Elder Bednar is coming! We are going to have a meeting with him and he is going to be changing a bunch of stuff here! it should be really fun!
It was so nice seeing all of my family this week, I love them and am so excited to see them!
Here are some cool pictures from this week. There is a member who has a REALLY big house, because her husbands grandpa used to be from a royal family here in Merida, and we got to eat there this week :)
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| Beautiful home of a member we ate with ! |
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| Yes, I have a new boyfriend ! |
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| Certified Family History Specialist ! |
New week, Same heat.... May 4, 2015
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| Zone activity ! |
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| Yay for Wilmer ! |
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| Splits with Hermana Duron from Costa Rica ! |
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| I love her ! |
Well, I seriously am freaking out about how fast time is going! I can't believe that there are only 3 weeks left until I am going to be with my family! Ahhh! I have been so bipolar lately and it has been very bittersweet. I can't even think about leaving these amazing people, but I am so excited to see other amazing people who mean so much to me!
This week was super awesome. Wilmer got baptized! He is so awesome! He was so excited. He had a double baptism because the other sister missionaries in our ward had a baptism too. Wilmer is really excited to have a calling and get the priesthood! He really wants the rest of his family and all of his friends to learn about the church too. He says that in a year he wants to go on a mission so badly. It is so amazing to me how much he has changed. He told us that he felt like a completely different person, but that it wasn't as hard as he thought it would be to change so many things.
We got to do some awesome divisions this week. On Tuesday my companion and I both went to this really hard area to help them out. There are 4 sisters living in one house there. They are all American, and you can tell from the food they had. They had bagel bites and nutella and sugar filled cereal. I felt like I was in heaven when one of the sisters showed me their food when we ate there! hahaha. I also got to go work with a new sister who is from Costa Rica, Hermana Duron. She is so awesome. I always love working with the new missionaries. They are so so humble and amazing. They always amaze me with how much they can do and how smart they are . Plus, it was AWESOME to hear her accent from Costa Rica all day, I LOVED it!
Yesterday we had a stake activity, All of the missionaries from the stake went with the EFY, or as now known as FSY comittee and we invited all the less active youth to sign up to go this year. My companion and I got to go with the President, and we had a really cool experience. We went with 2 teenage boys who haven't gone to church in about 8 or 10 years. We got to the house, and it is just a really torn apart house. They weren't answering, but I told the EFY president that I thought they were sitting across the street where there were 4 boys smoking and drinking on the sidewalk. We went and sat with them, and they were all worried that our clothes and the President's suit was going to get dirty. We explained EFY to them, and they thought it was awesome. It turns out, all 4 of the boys were members and all signed up to go to EFY. While we were there, I realized that those 4 boys were just like any other boys that are in the church, or in school, or in any other place. They liked soccer, and music and were normal. Maybe they had lots of tattoos, and their vocabulary was a little bit more rough, but they are good kids. We realized that just through helping them, we could help generations. I know the family really well, and the kids don't recieve much help from their parents. But if we can help them, we could help many future generations as well. I know that that is exactly what happens when we do good things for other people. Sometimes we don't realize or see the outcome of our actions, but every little thing we do can have a huge impact on another's life. I hope that each of us can put a goal of 2 or 3 things that we can do for someone else this week. I know that we will help someone. I know that we truly are the Lords hands here on Earth and that we can make miracles happen just like he did, so lets do it! I love you all, have an amazing week! And a HUGE shoutout to my brother Scott for his birthday this week, and my mom for being the coolest mom in the whole world!! :)
Ninos, Ninos, Ninos....April 27th, 2015
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| Love these primary kids ! |
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| Fun activity on missionary work ! |
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| We are the only three blonde missionaries ! |
So this week we had pretty much the most busy week ever! Every single morning we had a 4 hour conference. The conferences were about basic principles that help us teach. They are called the 8 principles. I have been to these conferences about 5 times in the mission, but this time it was my turn to teach them! It was so different, but really fun! My companion and I taught with the zone leaders. It was so weird to have people joking about me leaving soon, it just doesnt feel real to me! I feel like one of those new kids who just got here, the only difference is that I can understand Spanish now!
We also helped the assistants with this huge activity they did. Them, 2 other elders, and 4 of us, the sister training leaders, helped with the activity. It was with about 100 primary kids and it was to help them prepare to be missionaries one day. We did games and had a huge devotional with them! It was really awesome. My companion and I got to give the tour of the offices. They were SO excited. Little kids have the most amazing spirirt. It was actually funny because our President spoke at the end. We are always making fun of him with the other missionaries because he always speaks about marriage, and even though this activity was for the PRIMARY and it was about MISSIONARY WORK, he spoke about marriage! He was saying "marriage really is the most important thing you can do. Its very possible that a bunch of the little boys here will marry a bunch of the little girls that are here." The little 7 year olds look scared to death! Their teachers were like "who is this guy?" and us, the missionaries, we were so embarassed! We thought that normally those things are prohibitted to talk about in the mission!
Hahaha, we really were hardly in our area this week. But it was a good week here as well. Wilmer is doing amazing. He stayed at church on Sunday just talking with all the young single adults. He is just so excited to get baptized this week! We are so excited for him too. He has had to make so many changes! Adrian, Rafael, and the rest of the investigators are doing really well!
Well, this week has just been so amazing. I have felt the spirit in so many ways, and have been so happy! I hope that everyone can feel the love of the Savior this week and search for that feeling through prayers and scripture reading. I love you all!
"Becoming a different person...." April 21, 2015
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| Intercambios with Hermana Laura |
This week was so incredible, I am so excited to tell you all about it!
Suemis daughter, Mirley, got baptized! It was so beautiful! She got baptized before church on Sunday, and then got confirmed! She was sooo happy! Her older brother has been struggling a lot lately because he was having a hard time not drinking and he had an earring that he had to take out before he can get baptised. He was telling us on Saturday about how he didn't want to take it out, and how it wasn't a big sin and he didn't feel like himself without it. Well, he showed up to his little sister's baptism early and didn't have his earring in, and last night we went to visit him and he didn't have it in. He hasn't drank for 2 weeks (he wasn't an alcoholic before, but he drank every now and then with his friends), and he wants to get baptized ASAP! He said he read about Alma's conversion in the Book of Mormon, and said that even though he isn't that bad of a person, he wants to be able to feel that kind of conversion in his own life! We are so excited for him!
There is a guy who recently got active in the church and is now the counselor of the ward.. his son is 15 and we were visiting him when I first got here. He didn't want anything to do with the church, but this week we started visiting him again, and he is really excited and has been going to church activities every night, he even says he wants to get baptized!
Alicia's little brother is doing really well too! He has been practicing his prayers with Alicia, and they are so beautiful! He always just prays for his family and thanks for all of the blessings he has. Alicia's mom is doing really well too. Alicia says she hears her praying every night, and that she is working really hard to get work off on Sundays!
Well, I don't have much time to write about a lot of things, but I just wanted to share how amazing it was to see some of these amazing people become totally different, and better people. This week I didn't only realize that they have changed tons, but that I have been changed too. I know that God makes us into the people he wants us to be if we trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the changes I have seen in others through Christ and the change He has made in me as well. I love you all, have a great week.
Let the End begin....April 13th, 2015
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| So hard to say goodbye to this Hermana ! |
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| Sunday ! |
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| Suemi and Gabriel's baptism ! |
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| Mission Leadership |
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| Helping paint Suemi's house... |
WOW! What a crazy week! I can't believe that today I start my last transfer, it doesn't even feel real! Time has gone by way, way, WAY too fast! It was really, really hard saying bye to Hermana Carr. I went back to the house and cried for a little while. The mission already feels so weird without her! But I got a way awesome new companion. Her name is Hermana Gutierrez. She is from Guadalajara. She is so great.. we have been friends almost the whole mission because we have always been in the same zone! She has been out for a little over a year, and we are going to be sister training leaders together here in Esperanza. I am so excited for this transfer, I know it is going to be so amazing!
So Hermana Carr and I ended the transfer very strongly! Suemi and Gabriel got baptized on Saturday, it was the most beautiful thing! Suemi was crying when she got to the church saying that she was just so happy to start a new life. Hermana Carr and I sang her favorite song "How Great Thou Art" and a brother in the ward played the guitar. The ending hymn was "God be with you 'til we Meet Again." It was such a spiritual experience. Hermana Suemi gave her testimony on Sunday. She was the last one. She said that she had been looking for the truth in many places for a really long time before she met us, and that she could feel the spirit so real testifying to her that we are in the truth. She is AMAZING. I am so excited for her to get a calling and go to the temple next week! Gabriels girlfriend is going to get baptized hopefully this week and he is going to baptize her! So amazing.
Alicia has been so excited to share the gospel. Her mom went to her baptism and really liked it, so we started teaching her and Alicia's little brother. They love it! It is so amazing seeing Alicia like a little missionary and sharing the gospel and loving it so much.
Well, I just want to share how grateful and amazingly happy I am to be where I am doing what I am doing right now. Life is so amazing! I can't imagine life without the people I have met or the experiences I have had in the past year and a half.. and I know that in this next month and a half there are even more to come! I LOVE YOU ALL! Have an awesome week!
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