Have some food

Well hello again! Even though I saw y'all like three days ago it feels like forever. It was a very full week! 

Like I mentioned, Christmas Eve was nice, we worked all day and then at six went up to the Branch president's house in the mountain -- they have the CUTEST house and the cutest family. His wife just couldn't stop talking about how happy she was that the missionaries were over for Christmas dinner, and we talked to her all evening. After a while, all his kids and their spouses and his grandkids started coming - a big chunk of them are less active and the rest make up about half of our branch ;) We had a really nice family home evening singing Christmas hymns and discussing what it would be like if we lived in Jesus' time, and after ate delicious food.

Santa faithfully came Christmas morning and brought us some nice necklace chains with sweet messages, treats, and socks. Yay Santa! 

And then I talked to my family, which was AWESOME and weird because I still don't understand who the kid on the far left was and why Jared wasn't there. Maybe you can explain that to me someday, but I expect to come home and find my little brother all normal and munchkin like he's supposed to be. My companion told everyone my family is beautiful, crazy and happy. Which is true. We had just finished a very calm normal skype with her family, with lots of "hiiii"'s and "I miss you´s" and then we call mine and suddenly there's a million faces screaming and laughing and popping in their heads saying "I'm mom!" "Dad!" "Kimber!" etc. She really enjoyed Sienna's facial expressions in the background the whole time. 

Anyway, on to stuff you DON'T know. We had a good week, and had the goal to meet ALL our goals since last week we barely had any time to work! And we did really well, not perfect, but saw huge numbers and used every minute we had. Woo! 

For my birthday I really only have one word. Okay I don't remember what I was going to say, but basically I ate more food than I ever have in my life. Of the 4 people to whom we even let slip that it was my birthday, each had prepared a meal, cake, and who knows what else. And I'm really sad right now because ONCE again I am not being allowed to upload pictures by Mexico internet cafes. It seems they are always changing which ones work and which don't :( but I have some really good ones of some feasts, cakes, families, a plastic flower laurel they crowned me with, etc. We went to eat with the Ortiz family, this cute little family with four kids, and they had this huge meal prepared and once we were so full, they brought out a cake, sang to me, and made me shove my face into it because that`s what you do here. Woohoo!

We went from there straight to an appointment with our investigator family -- S., R. and B. -- and found they were waiting for us with a meat and rice dish and a laurel. Their aunt who was there did this traditional ritual and crowned me with it and gave a speech of how she climbed to the highest mount in Tapachula for these flowers. Guess they grow plastic flowers up there. We left to run to a baptism but they made us promise to return that night because they weren't done. So after some lessons we went back and there they were with ANOTHER dish of the best fish I've ever eaten in my life, fried with tomatoes, onions, avocados and stuff, and then pulled out this HUGE cake that said "Felicidades Hermana Wilson" and THEN when we left pulled out a bouquet of flowers. Just GET BAPTIZED OKAY? We love them so much. They're really good at being our friends but don't grab onto the message as much as we wish. Tonight we'll have an FHE with them and a family of members and I think we're going to put on the Testaments and do some green-slime-but-not-green cake. Also, in a couple hours we're going to Hermana Lucelva's house because they want to throw me a bash too (she's like my mom here, besides she's basically a little kid so we have fun).

So everyone, go to Mexico for your birthday. They SPOIL you. No but really I love everyone here so much, I feel like every one of them is my family, even more than Tapachula.  So.... yay for Coita!

As for our investigators, we're still praying for this family, looking for more, trying to get the kids super solid with the members, and this week we'll be baptizing J., this super special little girl who is the daughter of the old branch president, who has since gone inactive for some unfortunate rumors and situations. She has been coming with her grandmother Juanita and knows and loves everything and we had the feeling this week to go and work with her more since before we always assumed her parents wouldn't let her get baptized. But we talked to them and they said it was up to her and ever since she has been soaring through all the lessons. Such a smart special little girl and ever since I met her three months ago she runs to me and gives me the hugest hug every week. And holy grandma, Hermana Juanita is unlike any other person I've ever known. She's TINY and frail and super spunky. She's been through almost everything in this universe and lives in a tiny shack of cardboard in the mountain but faithfully pays her tithing, comes to church, and talks about the goodness of God and is just pure pure light and goodness. Man we love her. 

So there's a little member/birthday schpeel and I'm sorry about the pictures :( I even made sure they had all the stuff in this one to connect up, and later we learned that all the stuff doesn't work. Ni modos, as we say.

Well, have a wonderful new year, love you all! 

Play by play

Wow. That might have been the most different week of my mission. I think I'm going to go day by day and see what happens. 

Monday - Like I told you, we came back from Tuxtla, washed clothes, taught some lessons, and went back again to be ready for the Christmas conference the next morning (I needed to be there early apparently for some musical thing we were going to do that was never explained and I just went along with everything.) We had a lot of fun that night being with Sister Pugh and Cruz, our gringa SisterTrainingLeaders, and pretending it was Christmas eve, with some Christmas carols, a pizza, several outbursts of SANTA`S COMING TONIGHT, and so forth. Such fun girls.

Tuesday - Christmas!! We headed to the stake center, put together a little Nativity show real quick with some costumes and I was one of the singing angels. Then we had a talent show - everyone told me to play my Jon Schmidt song but then they never announced it and it was time for food, and I'm not QUITE Wilson enough to show off if I'm not invited or announced, so it went unplayed for that day. They've all heard it and it was time for other people to get to show off. ;) We had a fancy meal of Little Caesar's pizza and crazy bread for Christmas dinner, a testimony meeting, and then went to the temple in two sessions since there were a lot of us. Sister Pugh and Cruz got stuck in the second session which meant we couldn't break into their house for our stuff so we ended up staying one more night in Tuxtla (yay!) and got to talk to a lot of missionaries outside the temple and take pictures for a few hours while we waited. It was a beautiful Christmas.

Wednesday - We returned and planned on getting back to work, but alas, this happened to be the day in which for the second time in my mission (as well as the third, fourth, and fifth), I "lost my cookies" as they say. The assistants apologized a lot for the little Caesars but I'm pretty sure I just caught something. I got a blessing that night, headed back to the house to fall asleep to some nice Josh Groban christmas music and woke up fine. 

Thursday - We worked! I think it was a normal day cuz I can't remember it.

Friday - I'd rather forget. This was the day of our ward Christmas night which we were all excited for. We invited everyone, found a random family with six kids in the park whom we invited, and they CAME, and we later wished they hadn't because it was absolutely the worst activity I've ever dreamed could happen in the church. I won't go into details but the entertainment fell through and they brought in a DJ who apparently was not informed of the church norms and was singing awful music in an awful voice that was awfully loud. The family wouldn't come back afterwards, although they did finally let us in to sing them a hymn and I think my ranting and apologizing about what had happened finally won them back over but we'll see what happens. It makes me sad that nothing was done to stop it or apologize but ni modos, ya pasó. [anyway, it's over] 

Saturday - We had a nice baptism from the elders, the mom of a young man who was baptized a month and a half back and who got to baptize her himself. 

Sunday - Made it all worth it. So this day all the missionaries from our zone went to our neighboring pueblo, Berriozabal, to have a concert in the park. They had a pretty great setup with lights, a keyboard and speakers, and we set up a ton of chairs, got a ton of contacting cards, and sang hymns. They had me on the piano and brought in a missionary who has her violin (she got special permission to bring it on the mission cuz she's professional something or something) who's 2 hours away, and we sang two or three hymns with everyone, then had them all go out and contact while we threw together some on the spot arrangements with random groups of missionaries who could sing or just me and Sister Cook (the violin). We traded off one song and I played the violin with her on the piano. The spirit was awesome and it felt like Christmas and I got to fill up a tiny bit of the lingering emptiness in my soul in the spot where not playing the violin for a year appears (I'm not even going to look back on that sentence, I tried). So it was awesome. 

Well, sorry I just talked FOREVER about my life and none of it is about the gospel. I'm sure my family is fine but everyone else is wondering why they are still reading and where their last ten minutes went. To make it all worth it, I would like to invite everyone to go back and read Thomas S. Monson's talk from this past conference which was my favorite this week. It caused me to reflect a lot on the path Jesus walked when He was here on the earth, and how especially in this season we can learn to walk, not only the path of disappointment, pain, and temptation, which we must walk to understand Him and which he DID walk to understand US, but we can also follow His example and walk the path of service, spiritual strength, love, and obedience. He showed us the way, and He GAVE us the way! I hope we all feel a bit closer to Him this Christmas season!

In other news, I'll wish Shaylee a happy birthday today, and everyone else a late happy birthday from this year since the spontaneous moments in which I remember what date it is usually don't come in my weekly hour at the computer. Love you all, and I'll see you on THURSDAY! Merry Christmas!

My new companion (and camera!)

Being musical in the park.

BAM

So. Let's just call this the most beautiful week ever.

First of all, my hija is doing well, she gets sad sometimes but she always tells me and is really cute about giving hugs.

So! We went up on Tuesday to get my new daughter and this whole hoard of missionaries comes, and then WHO do I see in the distance after almost a YEAR.....Hermana Hickman!! That was a reunion like very few I've ever had in my life. We were so happy to see each other and I was so happy to hear her Spanish and see how strong and happy she's become. I've always heard rumors she's a little fireball :) Anyway we spent the rest of the day catching up and it was beautiful.

Then! We had a great meeting in which our wonderful assistants gave us awesome words of wisdom as well as some promises. President has set a goal of 400 baptisms in this next transfer, which is a LOT more than we've been having as a mission. The goal is one family per companionship at the least, and the promise is that if we seek with a spirit of prayer and fasting we will be able to find this family. Well I've been praying to find a complete family that will go the distance my whole mission, and I was more than ready to put that to the test. Hermana Conde and I set out to searching and inviting everyone, and I prayed specifically to be able to recognize the family that is now ready, because right now we've actually found a lot of really cute families. 

Well. We went randomly one day to one who we've only taught one or two times--last week when we were on divisions Sister Coronado and the other hermana went to see them and said it went well, so we decided to return. We found them a few weeks back contacting their daughter who invited us but was never there, and her mother who was there let us in. She's very good but seemed pretty passive. When we went this week, she invited us in and her daughter came to listen as well. The mom said she had read a little of the Book of Mormon (huge here, nobody reads), and watched the Restoration again to understand it better. She still seemed pretty passive but we've since discovered that that's just her personality. B., the little girl, got really excited about going to church but said she didn't want to go alone. The next time we came, Saturday, we focused the whole lesson on coming to church, giving promise after promise, talking of families, and all the blessings that await them. S. (mom) said B. wanted to go but not alone, so she would talk with her husband and hopefully they'd come the next day. We said we'd come at 9:30 for them, and started a fast that day for them specifically, that they would come TOMORROW. Because in order to get baptized this transfer, they've got to come. 

Well, the next beautiful day we passed and what was our beautiful surprise, there was the dad whom we'd never met pulling out the car, and S. and B. getting ready, almost there. Not only that, but suddenly all of C.'s little cousins came running out of their house up the block and wanted to come too, and they let them hop in once they asked permission. We had the primary program, which I played for and turned out really beautiful. The chapel was nearly TWICE as full as usual, the program was GORGEOUS, the stake presidency was there, Susana's husband, R., suddenly knew everyone "Hey, that's my cousin! Hey that's my friend from forever!" And they were all welcoming them. B. loved primary. We got cake (for playing the piano and "making the program"--I guess they'd never had a piano before) and afterward we all piled in their car and went back to their house and talked about it. They're now excited to go to the ward activity Friday, the baptism Saturday which happens to be a family friend, and church Sunday, and B. asked us if we could come back tomorrow instead of Wednesday. 

Promise, Action, FAMILY OF THREE. Just beautiful. 

Meanwhile, soon after church we were told that we were to go to Tuxtla and wouldn't return til the next day, so we went up and stayed with Sister Pugh and Cruz which is the best ever. And then we ran back home to wash clothes and write and are now going back to Tuxtla in a couple of hours because tomorrow is the CHRISTMAS PROGRAMMM all day for the missionaries. We're going to the temple, I'm singing in some play that I don't understand, and it'll be beautiful. So in case y'all didn't know that Christmas was tomorrow, it is. 

Have a merry one!

(Side note: C. DID get baptized and it was beautiful and I don't have any good reason to not have included it in the email except holy week love you bye!)

Miracle niños, 1, 2, 3!

Sooooo....I'm staying in Coita!

Annnnnnnd..... I get another daughter!!! Yay!!!

I knew I was training. Sometimes you just know things. So I'm excited to go pick her up tomorrow. As for today, Hermana Coronado and I get a whole day to be together and do everything, pack up the house and take cute Christmas pictures. Today we opened her Christmas package and pretended it's Christmas because YOLO (Is that still used in the real world I know nothing).

Also it was an AMAZING week, we found a CUTE family that is really open and have little boys and an even CUTER family that's really closed but have little girls who completely stole my heart, COMPLETELY. Basically my companion taught the mom while I played with the girls because it was impossible any other way, they're so crazy, three and four years old, and the smaller one has the eyes of a meerkat (imagine Payton a few years ago in a staring contest). They were obsessed with me, trying to crawl all over me and ruin my books and I'm like "I bet you can't zip my bag closed," but boy was I wrong, they could (and they stopped messing with my stuff ;) Super cute. Too bad the mom is happy with being Catholic and thanked us for coming. I'm still looking for an excuse to go back there. 

We also found Caramel. His real name is C. or something but it's all really the same. We went to eat at D.'s house and she had a friend from photo class over, we said hi to him and introduced ourselves and went in the other room, and five minutes later she called us back "HERMAAAANAS, Caramel wants to learn about the gospel." Of course he does! So we taught him, got an appointment, ate, taught him the next day and he accepted a baptismal date and was at church an hour early the next day waiting for us. So. Awesome. We don't know much about him but he's super silent and solid. Yeah Caramel!

Well, we were also praying a lot that we could have people at church this week, and fasting, since it's been a rough couple of weeks. We sent D. and her mom L. to get C..s. and L..r. and went ourselves for some others, including K., who we dragged out of bed and she promised to meet us there, which she did. FINALLY! We're hoping she'll keep making steps in the right direction. Then suddenly D. called and said C..s didn't want to come and his mom wasn't home, and it was reeeally important that he come since his baptism and the primary program is next week, so I had her pass me the phone and all I said was "C..s are you ready?" "I'm gonna go get ready now!" and he did. Atta boy. Sometimes it's hard for them to make the missionary-member transition, but it's always best to do it while we're still there.

Well, they showed up but said little L..r wasn't home but they'd brought C..s's cousin S., another 10 year old boy who is just as excited as C..s and is living with them now. After church they took them home and L. told us they went home and at five they showed up at her house again and begged for her to take them back to church so she brought them to the Christmas devotional, where we taught Samuel, drew pictures, and sang with the Tab Choir. It was the most beautiful night ever.

Speaking of C..s, my little boy Roberto in Tapachula who we used to bring to church every week and who knew all our pamphlets front and back just got BAPTIZED!!! My old companion sent me a picture and it made me cry. We prayed a lot for that little boy and his family and it looked like they all went to his baptism. Yay! 

And other than that, we've been decorating our house beautifully, putting on David Archuleta christmas CD over...and over...again since it's the only Christmas music we have aside from a little Motab. But it's good stuff. Making matching shirts, stockings, and the works. It's Christmas in Coita! I love you all a lot! 

Exchanges with the capacitadoras, who are also both Gringas from California and Washington. We had lots of fun, and I got to spend 24 hours with hermana Pugh, who has been with me my whole mission and we always say we're the closest thing to family we have on the mission. She is amazing! And really helped pick me up this week on a rough day.

My First Rum

As you can tell it was an interesting week. Let it be known that my first alcoholic taste was without my knowledge and in the form of ice cream, which I think we can agree was the best way to go. If you're gonna sin, you might as well not know about it AND be eating ice cream. It happened like this. We have an investigator (best referral ever) that a little girl in the branch thought of and took us to while she was out with us last week, and she happens to own the best cake shop in Coita and the first visit gave us all big pieces of beautiful 3 leches and cheesecake, and she has not failed us in any visit since. This Monday, we went by and found out her uncle owns the huge ice cream-crepe shop next door we always pass, and he sent some workers over to give us free samples of all their flavors, and we didn't think to ask until we had already tried them all what they were (dumb), and when he pointed to one of the ones in my dish and said "tequila" and that it was a mix of several liquors and rums, I'm pretty sure the look on my face was priceless because my companion couldn't hold it in and started laughing like crazy. The man left and I secretly threw the rest of everything away, completely scarred. 

Not a whole lot of interesting stuff happened this week other than that. We spent Thanksgiving preparing for our activity and bought some delicious biscuits at Gloria's cake shop because they tasted like Thanksgiving, and then ordered a pizza that night. Friday we had an awesome activity, first one in Coita that's succeeded it sounds like, although we didn't have a ton of investigators we had a lot of members show up and the activity itself went so smoothly. I applied everything I learned in our Tapachula activity to make it more organized and get the organization leaders involved, and they did the rest. We had a nice chapel tour with each organization presenting something and explaining the function of their organization, and then watched a missionary video By Small and Simple Things, and let everyone pick a BOM, a Christmas DVD, and some pamphlets to give away to somebody this month. 

As for investigators, we're on the search for new, C. continues to be our faithful little man who comes every week and participates beautifully in primary, and his little brother (L. Y.) follows him everywhere and is the CUTEST little person I have ever met, he is our world. The other day we took some members to meet their family, and they asked his name and he said "L...Hermano Y.!" More quotes to come. 

Sorry this email was kind of lame haha, that was my time, but I love you all!! And am getting better at sending real letters now that I have a post office :) Thanks for the Thanksgiving pictures and to everyone who was in them for being part of my life, I love seeing how the family's doing and I'm thankful for each of you! 

12,000+ Words!

So I've just been sending a ton of pictures but I guess I should write something too :) I just want to say that each of those apparently has the value of a thousand words so we're running at like 12,000 so far. Very long email.

Anyway. It was an awesome week! Especiallyyyyy SATURDAY! 

We've been visiting J. all week to make sure he's good for his baptism, and every time we visited him he was even happier and it was adorable. He started talking of his own free will which has NEVER happened, and the day after the baptism he made a comment in Gospel Principles class for the first time, and no one even called on him (WHOA.)

Saturday we went early to fill up the font, and in contrast to every other baptism day I've had, we had nothing to do. We had the programs done, chairs set up, and everything seemed to be working, so we just sat and listened to the water run and read scriptures. Pretty soon the L. family showed up with J. and everyone was jittering around with excitement, it was so cute. We shook J.'s hand and the first thing he said with a nervous laugh was "Feliz!" He went and changed and then we took a ton of pictures with the family and all the missionaries. A few members came, including our new Elders quorum president, which we didn't have before, and he gave a really sweet welcome and had J. stand up to come give him a welcome hug and J. pretty much flew up to him. So cute.

The only thing that wasn't normal was in the ordinance, which they had to repeat at least 8 or 9 times. They were in the water for over ten minutes, because J. kept kicking his foot out or Ruben Jr. wouldn't say the words right (his first baptism right before his mission). But they made it and it was all very sweet.

(Here’s my companion, who fell in a hole, keeping her foot elevated.)

We headed out and were able to have some good lessons and lunch before heading back to discover the water was out in the chapel. Too bad the font was already FULL, nice try! Waha.

President George and his wife showed up with their cute sister missionary companion who was on crutches for the moment. A. came and some more members and it was another great service, A. bore his testimony after and talked of how his family didn't want to come but that he had a new family now and how special it was that President George had come to baptize him and he started crying. So special.

After, we all went with President and the elders to get awesome tacos we discovered last week. It was pretty much a perfect day.

And then yesterday we had a random zone meeting for all the hermanas. Sister George said "Is that real, who gave them permission to do that?"

President: "Wait...I think I did. But I can't remember what it was for." Hahaha. But it was really nice and spiritual.

Speaking of nice and spiritual, I was reading the Bible this morning and in Mark 10 it talks of James and John asking Jesus if they can be the ones on his right and on his left. He told them that the kingdom of God is not like the power of nations--those that seek greatness don't get prestige but will be the servants of all. 

 43 But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:
 44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.
 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

I was just thinking about that and how important it is to always be serving. Jesus, the most powerful of all, the One who created the entire Universe, didn't come to conquer as the Jews expected Him to, but to serve. The callings in the church are all different and our callings in life, our talents and circumstances, are all different, but they also don't matter. The one thing that will save us and lead us to exaltation is learning to lose ourselves, to come down into the depths of humility and put all other people before ourselves, because that's exactly what Christ did. We are here to serve and nothing else. We are not here to be served. So this week as everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and starts getting into the Christmas season, I hope we can all think about how we can do that more deeply and profoundly and make service not only an action or even habit, but a part of our nature and deepest desires. And I believe that getting to that point is better than all the glory and recognition in the world. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

P.S. Time for lots of pictures!!!

We haven't had pillows in Coita since April so we went out and changed that. Here we are making sure they work properly.

And we've (I've) started teaching English and piano classes, which is going awesomely. I've missed teaching!

Water adventures: Buckets of water, and the secret well under our house.

YAY! We got our water RUNNING! PURE JOY!

OH!…But only for 10 minutes. Then it stopped and we don’t know why and apparently our black motor thing is broken. Boo!!

Fun with the boys we take to church every week.

10 months and 5 months.

“Ahkyaht"

(That word was a Father-of-the-Bride Martin Short accent of “aw cute”. If you didn’t get that which I don’t know how you would.)

My companion fell in a hole.

And we don't even have any pictures. You could call that a disaster. 

This week was crazy as you can imagine. First, on Tuesday we went to see J. at the L. family's house, and we taught him about tithing and everything went well for the lesson part. And then we started asking about his baptism and he went into his quiet shell and wouldn't talk the rest of the night; what made it worse was that the whole family was walking in and out of the room and talking way too much to him or about him, "We can't do it this time, we have a birthday party!" "How about tomorrow?" "J., I want to baptize you, can I baptize you?" and he got completely freaked out and then Brother Leon asked him if he even wanted to get baptized and he finally said one word: no. Brother L. thanked us for everything we'd done and said it just wasn't his time and just like that we were out the door and we were just like WAIT. Everybody just CALM DOWN. Because we had just talked to Jeremy two nights before alone outside their house and he had opened up to us at last and in his prayer prayed for his baptism and we knew he wanted it, he just got SUPER pressured. But we decided to give him some space and I knew if he felt ready he would come to church all on his own just like he's always done. 

As for K., she went from solid as solid, going to youth conferences and church on her own, friends with everyone, reading her book of Mormon every day, to a sudden not coming to church and not knowing what to do. We finally figured out that her friends are giving her a hard time about changing and she's not sure if she wants to change completely yet. Two weeks now she has promised us she'll be there and gotten all ready for her baptism, and then her friends convince her to go out with them Sunday mornings, I think on purpose. Silly girl. But one thing I've learned is that they have got to make the decision. That's the beautiful thing about God's whole plan, is that we get to make the decisions, choose everlasting happiness or misery, and we get to feel satisfied because we have done (and are doing) everything we can for her and really soon she's going to take that step and realize what's most important. So stay tuned!

So our triple baptism went back down to A., who's not going anywhere, he's got the mission president baptizing him for goodness sake. 

But THEN, it went back up because who showed up Sunday but J.! And when we were in the hall and hermana C was talking to a member I went up to him and asked him if he had made his decision yet, and he said yes. I asked him if he decided to get baptized, and he said "Saturday." Like, out loud! And then we figured out the time and I walked calmly back to my companion like nothing had happened, but I'll just tell you that it is so beautiful when people use their agency RIGHT! Because when we're dragging and dragging, nothing lasting happens. But when we back off and they come, they change because the spirit works inside them and without even knowing it, they are becoming more converted to the Lord by taking a step on their own in obedience. 

Now back to the title. We were walking along two nights ago with Hno Emanuel to go see an inactive brother. My companion was off jumping around a couple steps ahead (I don't think I've ever seen her stand still) and then she got really excited and did some half twirl-jump-thing to turn around and tell us something when she lands on a hole thing, does two more jumps backwards and then somehow lands on her back in the middle of the street with a sprained ankle. Like, WAY over there. It reminds me of something Jared would do. 

And then I'm there like, I'm in Mexico what do I even do, what's the 911 here, oh there isn't one, where are the members around here, oh there aren't any, and Emanuel is just uselessly like "I can't touch her! What do we do!" and Hermana is like "CALL SOMEONE, ON A SCALE OF 1-10 IT'S A 9!" and he goes running and comes back with three red cross workers (teenagers) in vests. Super comical, they were all march-running with a gigantic red bag ready for a huge emergency and it reminded me a little of Korean Soap Operas. And then they looked at it and said....just put ice on it, it's an inflamed tendon. We took a moto taxi to a member's house and hermana Isabela took her foot and started digging her palm into it and my companion was shouting like she was giving birth, but we were also all laughing. Yesterday I took a member out with me and she stayed home and today she's walking slowly again. So all is well, or soon to be. 

Anyway, THAT was a week. Never quiet over here :) But happy as always! 

Love you all!

Come Unto Christ

That was our theme of this week. One of the youth lent us her FSY DVD and it has a bunch of music videos and stuff and basically we watched the Youth theme "Come Unto Christ" about six times. A day. New Mormon Messages are for us what new big movies are for you. Life of a missionary. 

But honestly just with having that playing and having Christ on our mind so much has made the hugest difference in our week. There's a spirit that filled our companionship and we both came unto Christ in so many little ways, through service, always thinking of the other, ALWAYS thinking of Jesus and as a natural result of that, we become more like Him. We were so unified and had a power in all our teaching and were always on the same page. That's what Christ does for you. 

There's a lot of hype about our cute "mansion" that we live in, but I've learned this week that no matter how perfect something or someone looks from where we see it, there are always struggles underneath that we don't know about. Literally underneath. About a week and a half ago, we ran out of water--all the way. We went to the water place and asked and they said we should get some on Monday. MONDAY!? I guess we'll just not shower or use the bathroom for four days--we'll let our bodies know. So without options, we called the branch president for permission and then went to fill buckets of water at the church a block away. We did not shower in the font as the rumors say. Monday came and the water didn't. In fact it never did. Until we lifted a tile and found the secret well under our floor full of slightly gross water, so turns out we do have water, just that the black thing that sucks the water up into the pipes is broken. So right now we fetch water from the well under our house and it's only slightly nasty. We'll see what happens.

So K., our baptism for this week, decided to go crazy and not go to church yesterday so now her baptism is next week. Silly girl. She was doing so good and even went out to accompany us to visits this week, but she got scared and wanted to wait another week. One thing that never gets easier is people using their agency. Come on humans! Do we really have to let Satan in? Once we know this is the truth and that it will make us happy and have even felt a taste of that, do we really have to be scared of obeying ALL the rules? It's the same with me and all the rest of us. We just keep choosing wrong and to be less than what we can be. And that, is why we have a Savior. And that is what I have felt so strongly this week watching those videos and studying about His life. He loves us so much and has overcome all the depths of our various sins and trip-ups, and every time we wander from Him as we are prone to do, He makes the way back possible and even sends angels and friends to invite us and help us along. Sometimes our forbidden paths are big and long and sometimes they're just little decisions like giving into fear or putting your homework before going to church and your baptism, but anything that takes us away from Him will make us less happy and make it harder to get back. That is why COME unto Christ is so important. It's the little decisions we make every day when we rebel against the natural man inside of us and COME, just like each of these teenagers in the video. If you didn't already go watch it after reading my first sentence, go ahead and do that and then think about your own life and how you can COME unto Him this week. 

I love you all!!! I hope you're all enjoying getting ready for Christmas (yes, Christmas season starts the day after Halloween for many). ;) 

Have a great week! 

PS Sorry for the drought of pictures. Internet cafes are all against us, today we even gave up on the first one after 10 minute and walked 20 blocks to another and they're still not uploading. They'll get there! 

[p.s. For anyone who mails packages to missionaries in other countries, my cousin has had good luck with "My Missionary Shipping" (mymissionaryshipping.com). Arrived safely in Mexico in 3 days, with tracking and insurance, for less than “DHL” charges themselves].

When the Unthinkable Happens

That's right it's happened. The one thing we never expected or planned for when we embarked on our journey for Mexico. It. is. COLD. And I am sick. But not really I just like to cough a lot this week. It's been interesting, since between the two of us we have about 3 or 4 very light sweaters. But the goal today is find warm things they sell in Coita's limited markets. 

But anyway. Other than that things are pretty normal. Just the Day of the Dead and people play loud harmonica-wide-vibrato-Mexican party music that floats into our house all through the night. But it actually wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be. There's some people in gross masks, a few more drunks in the streets, bread baked in shapes of people with Xs over the eyes, and a few little families who go door to door for treats, but they do it on November 2, not Halloween, and it's mostly just the Catholics. Instead of "trick or treat" they shout "Calabazita Tía!" (Zucchini aunt?) and if you say we don't have anything, they shout "Que se muera la tía!" (I hope your aunt dies...) An investigator showed us just to show us, but then she did give them treats. Anyway, it was super cute. :) So there's your taste of dead week:)

So let me tell you about C. We've been teaching his mom, M., for a while. I don't remember if I told you this story so I will real quick--a month or so ago we met her and went to visit her that night and taught her on top of her roof. But then it started getting dark, but luckily we had our flashlight that we always use to explain the priesthood (you can't make your own LIGHT) and it was just wonderfully visual as we went through the dispensations of light, and then turned it off and it was all dark and you really do feel the need of a prophet or some sort of intervention. And then right as it really got dark, we started telling the first vision and turned the light on to the picture of Joseph Smith and the first vision, and it was SO COOL. It made it so real for all of us. Hopefully your imagination made that work :) Anyway, she was having a hard time getting to church and not making excuses, so we were trying to decide whether to drop her. But then we went this week and her son was there and he was just SO excited to learn about Jesus, he devoured all the pamphlets we brought, wanted to answer every question and come to church that Sunday. The next time we came, the first thing he said was "Are you still coming for me Sunday??" and then he showed us his colored drawing of the restoration. We taught them a lesson and then we told him we had a special invitation for him. "I already said I'm going on Sunday." No, this was more special. We showed a picture of Jesus getting baptized and talked about what baptism was and before we could even get the question out of whether he wanted to prepare he was shouting "YES! Yes." And we're like, hold on first you'll need your mom's permission "Mom, give permission!" And you need to go to church 5 times first "I'll go EVERY DAY." Super cute. He reminds me of [my foster brother], even though I haven't met him. 

So there's a bit of my week, I love you all and hope you all had a happy Halloween. Something I learned this week was the importance of unconditional love. Sometimes it's hard to be a human in a world of humans because all we do is be imperfect and hurt each other. But something we all have inside of us is a piece of our Father in Heaven and the potential to do as Jesus did and turn outward when our natural tendency is to turn inward. When we are offended, hurt, or attacked, He is the only source to draw upon and He can fill us with the peace and love we need to react as He would and really make an impact on people's lives. Something I've learned here is that nothing is worth the spirit. Not being right, not being disobedient, not even our favorite sins. 

So, that! I love you all a whole lot, I'm blessed to know some of the very best humans and have them in my life. So have fun being those! :) 

Love you!

Ups, and ups!

So I'm trying to figure out how to write a letter now because I got very unfairly onslaughted with too many emails talking about people getting married and my sister going on dates and stuff and I'm just wondering how everyone grew up so fast and can we all just push pause for 9 more months please thank you for your cooperation.

Anyway. Transfers were today. Aaaaaaand WE'RE STAYING HERE (and there was much rejoicing (yay...). But seriously. We're happy :) Everyone knew I was staying but my companion was pretty convinced she was gone, so she said goodbye to everyone, left her address, took pictures, but then when we were in a lesson with Zoila she started crying and then said the prayer and asked that we wouldn't leave, so then we knew it was a lost cause and who knows how long we'll be here now. Can't work against the Faith of Zoila. So sweet. 

But this was a crazy week, we had tons of success. Super high numbers in everything, even we were shocked as we looked back at them. We found lots of new people, invited EVERYONE to be baptized, and lots of them accepted. The trick is getting them to church so that actually happens, but some of them came. President came to our ward and talked to A., and he's getting baptized in the next few weeks! He's super happy to put it very very mildly. 

So there's this man we're teaching named J. Really J....ías but it's all the same, right? He's a lifelong friend of a member, and he's the sweetest guy, he's like 40 years old but his growth was stunted because of lots of abuse and mistreatment all growing up and he's like a little kid. We used to teach him and he wouldn't say ANYTHING. Ever. We didn't know if he was understanding anything we were saying. But with time he's warmed up and now he answers our questions with a big smile after a few seconds. We've made a lot of progress. Where we used to talk about baptism and he would suddenly go all closed up and quiet (we found out it was fear of his family, who he doesn't even live with), he has now decided he wants to. Last time we met with him and asked if he had any questions for us and he went silent for a long time, which we thought meant no, until we realized he wanted to say something. We asked what it was, and he said "Sometimes I'm sad." My companion told him we are all sad at times but how Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and that's why He wants us to pray and follow His Son. That was just a huge moment, because it was the first time he opened up to us even a little bit like that. So sweet. 

Well more stories next week, I know it was shorter today but I love you all the same! Have a great week!

(PS sorry there's no pictures today. We picked the wrong internet cafe and nothing's working.)

Pure Faith. But seriously.

So without any ado at all, I'll just start talking about Zoila, because to be honest, she was my week.

Zoila is A.'s sister, the guy waiting for the go-ahead for his baptism. She used to always quietly kind of peek in from the other room but when we invited her she was shy and didn't come in. Well last Wednesday A. wasn't home and we asked if we could talk to her. So we shared a little message, and were really impressed with her sweet spirit and strong faith. We invited her to baptism in 5 weeks since she has to attend church 5 times first, and she accepted. Well then she told us she used to go to the Mormon church years ago, for about 5 months. We started running through earlier dates in our heads and thinking when she could be ready, and suddenly I just felt this urging to invite her for next week, so I did! And she got a little freaked out, but didn't say no. Oh, I forgot to mention one thing. She was on crutches, broke her foot four months ago and it never healed right, and now she couldn't walk right and had lots of pain. We continued to visit her the rest of the week but weren't sure exactly what would happen; she told us she was going in for some kind of surgery Monday. 

Well, Monday we went and saw her and turns out she had gone to the bone man, not even a doctor, and he rebroke her foot and put it right, without anesthesia or anything. She was lying in her bed in so much pain, and with tears in her eyes, she asked "My baptism was this Saturday, wasn't it?" I promised her that if it was her desire and she had faith, she would be able to be baptized. We prayed lots that week and took a brother to give her a blessing a couple days later and OH MY GOODNESS she was on CRUTCHES again! I was like, are you crazy? But her foot was doing really well and she said she was practicing for Saturday. She got a blessing and loved it, and every day we taught her lessons with everything she needed to know, but she's a retentive little thing (word or not?) and she remembered everything we taught her. On Friday before her interview she said she was studying all her pamphlets for three hours before the elders got there, and she knew everything he asked. He was concerned she hadn't been to real church in 10 years, and maybe we would have been too with any other person but we're like, LOOK AT HER, she's hobbling around and studying all day to be baptized as soon as she can! He called President who gave the go ahead.

Annnnnd, Saturday! Welcome to 101 Problems with a Boiler. She can't be in cold water and we had plans and backup plans to heat up pots of water, buy a couple electric water-heaters and try not to get electrocuted, and then we found out we had a boiler! But...nobody knew how to work it. Don't even worry, said the two gringas and our humble branch president. We'll just figure it out! 

Right.

Lots of button-pushing and spark-flying later, I was like, I'm googling it. So we went on the church computer and looked up the company and ended up calling them and asking how to work it. "When did you buy it?" We don't know, we're from America and we're trying to baptize a cool lady. Finally the nice man walked us through, and after another 30 minutes we got it! We RAN to eat lunch, make copies and get back to the chapel just in time for it to start pouring rain of course, and Jose Luis and Citlaly showed up with Zoila in their car. We got her inside and kept her dry, helped her change, waited another hour for the branch pres to come back, got a chair in the water, and had a beautiful baptism, in which they only had to change chairs once and our mission leader had to go get in the water to hold her legs down. But Zoila was just so happy and undaunted by it all, and after was just crying and saying how wonderful she felt. The next day she was there in the front row before anyone else, ready to be confirmed.

So...that was awesome. 

I know for a fact I've never met anyone like her and hopefully I'm just like her one day. 

This week we also got to go to the TEMPLE! It was positively beautiful. 

It was also my companion's birthday and everyone made us pizzas and gave us referrals, which worked for us. So all in all, it was just a really good one.

I love you all!

[P.S. Kelsi's trainer, Hermana Bastian, is now in her district, and they finally got to wear their matching dresses that they bought back in April.]

Up the Canyon

Well. It was a fun week, starting with our special secret trip with President. I guess he had agreed with two other hermanas to take them to the canyon for one reason or another, and then secretly came up to us in zone conference and asked if we wanted to come along so it would be more fun. So we took a bus up to Tuxtla last week and spent the day in America, because that's what it felt like! Riding in the car through the canyon and stopping every once in a while to look at cool stuff, talking about their grandchildren and cows, eating sandwiches and brownies, hiking through trees, and listening to sister George nag President about directions or let's go get popsicles they're RIGHT there or what are you SAYING in Spanish I can't understand, and he mostly remains quiet and smiling haha. They're so cute, they remind me of my grandparents. And then President wanted to buy this cool carved alligator but they kept raising the price and claiming it was the same and he wasn't going to buy it, so I went over and bartered as my mother taught me in Ecuador and we got a decent price for two. 

So that was fun. Then we went back to Mexico! Woo! 

So one day we were walking along up a hill looking for a contact from the day before. When suddenly there's this string in front of my face and I did a double take before plowing into it. It was so confusing until we heard all this giggling and looked to see a ton of little kids on both sides of the street with ends of the string. I was like "What IS this?!" and they all started giggling louder and running away, but then they came back and we talked to them and after messing with them a little told them we were missionaries from America and we visited families and talked about Jesus and my companion gave the oldest one a contact card. Then I was like Who else wants one--"YO YO YO!" and we gave out all these contact cards, and then I said we wanted to bring a movie to watch with them and whose mom could we go talk to. The oldest took us to see her mom and she was cute and we started visiting them. They're really special girls and understand what we teach, so we'll see what happens. 

So I guess I should tell you about Viridiana. It was only the most BEAUTIFUL BAPTISM EVER. We saw her every day this week and she was nervous but firm and excited.  So we knew she had an aunt and uncle who were members in Tuxtla, but what we weren't expecting were the 20+ aunts, uncles and cousins that showed up and flooded the room, brought a musical number, and cried about how they'd been praying for their family here in Coita. It was such a powerful day, and Viri was crying as well, and hugged me and said "Thank you for everything." Those moments make every uphill step, disapointment, drop of sweat and every other cost more than worth it. Everything was so beautiful. YAY VIRI!

And Viridiana's friends, la familia Lopez:

As for C., who I said I'd explain this week, she went to Tuxtla a couple weeks ago and talked to her Catholic dad who confused her, and then she went to Catholic mass and got this huge emotional experience and took that for her answer. We tried talking to her and explaining how the spirit really works, and the blessings of the temple, but she wasn't budging. She said she wouldn't come to general conference because that would be going against her answer. But she DID come, and I think she secretly knows it's right. She'll come around. That was hard for my companion, and I was surprised that it wasn't anymore for me. I've learned to trust completely, because what we see is only for a moment and one day they'll all come back. We're doing our work and it'll all work out. Maybe even really soon!

That reminds me of something we were reading this morning. It was in the Teachings of President Joseph Fielding Smith manual, and it talks about why is it that bad things happen when we're doing everything right, and other people who don't seem to be doing anything right seem to have it great. He said it is because this is their world. Those who are of the world get its fruits now, but this world is heading towards its end. This is not our world. We have another one, and we cannot let anything that we see, experience or want here get in the way of getting there. Our blessings are eternal if we are living by eternal principles. As we put OUR trust and all of our faith in Jesus Christ, His world will become our world. 

The last thing I want to mention this week is our zone conference. As a zone we're starting a 40 day fast! And I want to invite any of you to join if you'd like to! What we did was chose a day and started with a fast, then made a list of all the things that impede us from feeling the spirit or having it with us always that we want to put on the sacrificial altar. For 40 days we will be marking how we did that day, filling in a square black if we completely failed, an X if we didn't do well, or leaving it blank if we were consecrated! The goal is get the spirit with us and get it strong and purify ourselves as missionaries or members. I'm so excited, and I've already felt results.

I love you and pray for you all! May God bless you in your week! 

The Powers of Heaven

Hi! So THAT was the best conference of my life and I'm not even kidding. Usually everyone has gone to Tuxtla to the stake center by the temple, but only up to 15 go at best so this year we experimented with the internet and projector thing in our very own chapel. My companion and I went early Saturday morning just as excited as could be and set up the chairs like a movie theater and sat in the front row. Like I've been talking about general conference since July, and I've been more excited than for Christmas. We had a BEAUTIFUL first session, and about 30 people showed up. For the second session it was us and Emanuel, the tech guy. But that's okay because holy technical difficulties, we could barely get through it. The elders came a little late and one other lady and although we missed some talks to annoying pausing screens and viruses, we pretty much got the whole second half.

But SUNDAY though. We got there in the morning to see a full chapel, including C.(!) which was crazy and in a minute I'll tell you why (not. Next week); A member's husband who we'd invited; a couple other progressing investigators and a new one who was the niece of a new member that said she was interested. We talked to her after the meeting and she was just so beautiful. "I really liked that, when can you come visit me? I just want to know the truth and follow God." And the miracle was that pretty much EVERYONE talked about prophets which was just the most perfect and powerful thing. 

Well, the night before we had texted V. to make sure she was coming on Sunday since it was the last attendance she needed to be baptized this coming week. She pretty much just said "Sorry I won't be able to, have a great night!" Wait, WHAT? We let her know it was important and she needed to come so her baptism wouldn't be postponed and she told us she wanted to postpone it and didn't feel ready. But that's ridiculous because she's the most ready person in the world. But Satan always works hard and I knew that. So we told her to read her Book of Mormon and come to at least one session and afterwards we would talk, and she agreed.

Anyway that was scary. We realized we hadn't seen her in 5 days since she had moved our appointment and then we couldn't that day and then she started working. And then we found out that Citlaly and Jose Luis hadn't seen her in that time either because of crazy things in their life. DON'T LEAVE YOUR INVESTIGATORS ALONE! All they do is get attacked. Well we went and saw her at work real quick beforehand and she did come to the afternoon session. I felt the spirit so strong that whole session, and felt like every talk was talking to her. Don't be afraid, read the scriptures, stay steady, etc. But then suddenly Elder Bednar stands up with his "My message is for those of you who aren't members." POW. And I think all five of us just like jerked up and listened. After the session we all went into a classroom to talk and the spirit was so strong. We had some scriptures prepared to read to her but after the prayer before my companion could start, I just asked how conference was for everyone and looked at Citlaly. She talked about how it was her first one and yesterday both sessions had just answered all of her questions and spoken to her, and shared lots of experiences, and her conversion experience and started crying really hard and talking about her family and the change she's seen. After she finished Jose Luis talked about how special it was to watch his wife go through her first experience and bore his testimony as well. And then we all looked at V. and she started crying as well and talking about how she's just been scared and confused because her family didn't want her to do it. She said she never doubted that she wanted to be a member of this church but she felt so alone and started getting scared. We were all crying, I'm not a crier and I was crying, and my companion and poor José Luis did a really good job of just being really chill in a room of crying women haha. But I cannot describe the spirit in that room. We kept talking and read Alma 7:11-15 and the powers of heaven and angels were just in there with us telling us that this baptism was not to be canceled. Such cool stuff. 

Another AMAZING thing that happened this week is that we had a conference with President, aaaaand he told us that once a transfer we get to go to the TEMPLE! We get to go to the temple! I'm on cloud nine and can't wait, I think we're going to go next week for my companion's birthday. The TEMPLE! Honestly the temple is the thing I've missed most on my mission, (except you mom, of COURSE.) And also, after the conference when we were taking pictures, Pres. George leaned over to my companion and asked if she and I wanted to go to the canyon with them on Monday because they had promised two other hermanas they'd take them and it'd be more fun if we went too. Real sneakily. Well, YEAH! So that's why I'm sending this early and about to head to Tuxtla to meet with Pres. and his wife. We thought it was so funny, we'll just pretend we're not President's pets, because we totally are. Haha not really but we are friends and I'll send pictures next week!

Love you all! 

Just Happy

Well, another great week! Turns out the "really nice weather" has been hiding since I've arrived and everyone's blaming me for bringing the heat up from Tapachula. But we have high hopes of winter which was supposed to start last week.

So C. is really awesome. She's the one who started out with a thousand doubts and went from "I just don't know if this is true" to "Okay so Joseph Smith is a prophet, but the church?" to "Well the CHURCH is true and I'm going to now get baptized and pray that my family accepts it all and read every pamphlet you throw at me and maybe my son could get baptized too, wouldn't that be cool he's turning eight!" She kind of keeps us on our toes with her surprises. Like we CANNOT READ HER. Last week she came to a baptism of a little girl in the ward and afterward we had a little lesson with her in one of the rooms. We talked about baptism, the holy ghost, and tried to ask some good questions but she just looked SO BORED. She was watching her little kid, kind of nodding, looking all around. So we tried to end it pretty quick, and when we asked her a question to see what she understood she just suddenly spouts out all this wisdom and how everything we said was new to her and changed her perspective and showed amazing understanding. The same thing happened the time before with the plan of salvation. The whole lesson staring off into space or feeding her daughter, and then at the end "Wow I didn't know this before, it makes me want to change my life and reach those higher goals and have an eternal family, etc." And we just get so confused and amazed because what? But it's awesome. My favorite thing about her is that she changes. Like every lesson she changes her point of view, grows, and is ready to apply it. Word of wisdom she started out with a ton of questions, like "why not coffee?" and "where is this in the scriptures?" and we're ready for doubts when we invite her to live it and she comes back with "Well it's a commandment, of course I've got to live it!" And then she does. I feel like that is something we all need to learn to master a little better, is learning how to change. That when we realize something in us is not quite in tune with something we learn (or maybe already know) we just go ahead and change it, and then so much time and grief is saved. That's the problem with humans, is we resist that change or make excuses or postpone it, and that's why it's such a hassle changing our lives and getting all these blessings. But look at this woman, she was way over there with doubts, but in a week already has a ton more blessings and is ready for more just because of this willingness.

Anyway that was cool. 

A. didn't quite have his baptism yet which was a bummer for him. President came for his interview and we had a great time going to lunch with his wife and him - American burgers with a Mexican twist. Mine was the Oaxaqueñan. I really like saying Oaxaca. Anyway. After we waited while they interviewed for what we knew would be a very long time, since getting A. to stop talking is a fight we've long since given up and President's interviews are always really long anyway. Sister George played the piano with a book of classics we found in the church, which reminded me of my mom because she plays really awesome.

Well they came out and President says he just needs a little more time but to keep going to church and start acting like a member until he gets the go ahead to be baptized. In talking to him afterward even though he was sad he was more excited than ever. When we had asked him before who he wanted to baptize him he asked for the stake president first, and then for the tall American man who spoke in stake conference (President George). We told him how about someone in our ward. But in his interview he went ahead and asked him and he said yes. We were like, "you ASKED him to baptize you?" and he got super excited and was like "I asked him!!" and he just reached out and shook my hand and kind of jumped out of his seat like he didn't even know what else to do with his excitement. It was so funny. And apparently they're just the best of friends now, he's already talking about when he's going to go to President's ranch in Wyoming and we're just like, wait what? But the really cool part was that his wife who hasn't accepted us teaching her asked him where he was going on his way to the interview, and asked him if he was going to tell everything. He said "Yes. I'm going to do whatever it takes to be baptized." And she looked at him and said "If you are baptized, I will follow." 

So he's just super excited. Yesterday he came out of Priesthood and told us they asked him to say the PRAYER. And I was like, "the PRAYER?" and once again the excited jump and this time he high-fived me. "yeah! Me! Like I was a little nervous. You get up there and you're in front of everyone, but you know you just do it!" He's the CUTEST MAN. And he kind of looks like a mini-Obama. 

So one last experience. We made plans with Citlaly (the recent convert-wife of our mission leader) and her best friend Viridiana (who's super excited for her baptism in two weeks) to go up to Tuxtla and watch the Womens Conference. It was probably the most beautiful evening in the world. We got there at 6, because that's when they announced it in our ward, only to find the Mormon Tabernacle singing and a counting down clock that said 57 minutes until it starts. No! So we were just about to go find a room to have a lesson to wait, when we saw some elders and a lady in white. Baptism! So we went to watch and it was really awesome for Viri, she's never been to one before. It was this cute lady with an accent and her husband who was already a member gave a talk and expressed his love and excitement for their sealing. Really precious. Then the conference was AMAZING. Everything centered in covenenants, the temple and sealing. It couldn't have been more beautiful. After the mini temple video they show of people bearing their testimonies all over the world, I looked at Citlaly next to me and she had tears in her eyes and we just hugged and watched like that for a while. It was so special. Even though I wasn't there at her baptism, she is just so special to me and I feel like she's my convert and V. is following just happy and strong as can be. We're just happy. 

Love you all! Bye!

Pictures at the temple with Cit. and V.

Can you say Ocozocoautla?

If not, that's okay because nobody else here does either. Welcome to Coita as it's called, and I finally know how to spell it. :)

My new kingdom.

Everything the light touches is ours. :)

So this may just have been the most amazing week ever. I don't even know where to start. I guess if you want a full description of Coita you can go through all my descriptions of Tapachula and imagine the opposite. Haha not really but it is very different. Because we're in the mountains and it's super breezy and nice all the time. The first day after I finished writing y'all we went out and just hit the ground running, we had great lessons, great contacts and GREAT WEATHER (yay..!). Day two was the same story but more. We met new people, taught them, and everyone was just accepting us and accepting baptism and saying "Wow I didn't know this before." We went to see a family who invited us to lunch in an hour because our lunch appointment fell through, and in that hour we went out to find an investigator and found her daughter instead in their shop. She invited us in and we taught her the restoration and she accepted baptism, said the prayer and in her prayer started to cry and thanked God for sending her this sign. As we were leaving I said "I don't know what the heck is going on but I really like it." My companion agreed and said this was NOT normal. So we're just really enjoying being companions in this golden place.

 

 Our view from the roof of the mansion

Hermana Coronado is from Houston, Texas and is pretty new in the mission, she got here 3 months ago when I started training Hermana Castillo, but her mom is Mexican and she grew up learning so she already speaks really well. We're more or less at the same level and speak fluent spanglish together with sentences like "Donde vivimos again?" "From the purple thing hacia abajo four cuadras." But it's kind of fun being a pair of gringas because EVERYONE just stares at us and wants to know what in the world we're doing here, and when we contact them they're already interested. And everyone gives us food. But that's okay because we walk a LOT. Like a LOT more than Tapachula with more hills. I think the area may be 6 times as big but I think it's great because there are so many opportunities. 

So let's talk about some of the wonderful people who are about to get baptized. Not all of them because let's be real here. First I just really like this story that happened before I got here. There's this couple, Citlali and José Luís that have a little baby girl. He's a return missionary who'd had something happen four years back and accidentally fell away and she was a member of a different church. But she basically began talking to the missionaries and through her conversion brought him back to the church and got baptized in August and they're now preparing to go through the temple next year. He's back and fully activated and what's more, he's our ON-FIRE ward mission leader! And now they're just the cutest most powerful little family that ever happened and are helping us teach Citlali's best friend V. who is so ready and sure about baptism, she was definitely prepared beforehand by Heavenly Father. We always start to teach her a lesson and then she starts giving all these great insights and basically teaches us, and in all her prayers she asks that her baptism will come quickly. She just needs to go to church a few more times and on the 11th of October she'll be there. Her family isn't super supportive but she has an uncle and aunt in Tuxtla who are members and they drive out sometimes to go to church with her to give her support. So awesome. YAY V.!

A. is all ready for this coming week, he just needs an interview with the mission president for some things he wants to talk about. We called President last night and asked and he asked us if they could take us to lunch as well when they came out. OKAY! 

C. we just started teaching this week. She's been to church several times with her mother-in-law, with whom she is now living, and started asking questions in her mind if there really was another church that was true, as she's grown up very Catholic all her life. She's been very confused all week, but we had cool lesson after cool lesson and taught the Restoration. It's been cool to see her progress. The first time she just wasn't sure. The second time she said she felt Joseph Smith was a prophet but wasn't sure about the church and baptism. We had invited her for the 27th of September. She was also wondering why so many hard things are happening to her as she's searching for the right church when so many other people seem to be just fine and aren't doing anything. So we talked about the hard truth of opposition, and all that the prophets through the ages had suffered, especially Joseph Smith and the Savior. One thing I read this week in the conference magazine from April was "Why didn't they leave the Lord alone? Why? Because He is the Truth, and truth will ALWAYS be opposed. Why didn't they leave Joseph Smith alone? Why? Because he taught the truth and the TRUTH WILL ALWAYS BE OPPOSED." By the end of the lesson she pretty much told us, Oh no I have something going on the 27th what should I do, should I be baptized before or can we do another day or what? And we're like, well something just changed. We ended up postponing it until the fourth since it looks like she won't be home all weekend. But since then she's gone to the church and feels like she's received her answer. WOW.

And we did see and hear many more marvelous things, all of which cannot be written in this email at this time. Ah, but ONE more. Right now we're in the branch of Ocozocoautla, but very recently it's doing REALLY great and we made a branch goal to become a ward by December. But I think we can do it by next month. Yesterday we all had the first ward council in months and got together and made a plan, headed by José Luís (mission leader) and got SO much done. So get ready for Ward Ocozocoautla! Stay tuned!

Love you all a ton! 

My princess staircase

Princess beds

Spiritual Jacuzzi time