Hermana Wiiiilson!

Sorry but I think it's going to be short this week. This week was awesome with some ups and downs and a healthy dose of discouragement midway through. Our baptism fell through because R. doesn't feel ready and has no support from his family. He's only 11 and still doesn't understand a lot of things but we're going to keep working with him.

This week I got to come face to face with my weaknesses. Sometimes you feel super small and you have all these people to bring to Christ and really don't know how. But here's the thing. God knows exactly how and I learned a lot about putting my trust in Him and being patient with the work. For example, yesterday we were walking, and walking, and walking all Sunday long and there was NO one home or in the streets (I'm not sure where they go, they're probably all having personal scripture study time in their rooms I like to think). We had all these goals, had prayed so hard this morning for lessons and to find the people who needed the gospel right now, and we didn't have one lesson. We even had a member with us and were all ready to dish out blessings.

By about 7:30 I was feeling pretty down because we'd been walking for almost 5 hours and I prayed we could have one lesson and bring someone to Christ. But then I had to realize that we were doing what we were supposed to do, we were talking to ALL the people and we got some really good conversations with them and addresses from almost all, and we just don't know what's in the cards for us all the time, but we know that God knows and has this perfect plan, and maybe His perfect plan isn't that we teach 12 people a day or have 3 baptisms a week or teach perfectly. Maybe it's that we mess up and keep going and walk the footsteps of all the disciples of Christ who have gone before us. Patience doesn't just mean, be patient today and you'll get amazing numbers tomorrow. Sometimes it means keep pushing today and tomorrow and all this month, and maybe all your mission or all your life and you may never see the fruits but He who is in charge is using you to bring about His work if you're doing what He asks. So what's important is that we seek His will and do it the best we can and we may not know what miracles are happening around us!

BUT. One of the last people we stopped and talked to was waiting in her doorway and on any other day we might have passed her by, but we knew we had to talk to everyone. So we explained who we were and asked if we could visit another day and she said, how about right now, and we were like, well yeah! And sat in the gross gutter and talked to her about our purpose and she said she's been looking for something like this. She promised to come with us to General Conference and we have another appointment tomorrow. And we walked away like, okay. Okay that's fine with us. God answers prayers, and this time He let us see that He was aware of us. Amazing.

Well, we're entering into the hot season (I don't know what the other one was called) and I now have these happy red bumps all over my arms and neck that are apparently from the heat. We don't have water this week, and at first I tried to think of how I could get my dad to mail me our emergency tank in the garage that would be so handy right now, but luckily we were prepared and have our own several-buckets, and today it turned on for a little bit so that was a blessing.

Pamela (our return missionary friend) has been coming with us a lot and constantly I hear her behind me hitting my compañera and then whining "Hermana Wiiiiilson! Your compañera hit me! Did you see that? Hermana Wiiiilson!" "No! It wasn't me! Did you see that?" Constantly. I told them I'm never having children now, which they know isn't true because we always talk about my 10 hijos.

Well I'm out of time but remind me next week to talk about Later. I love you all!! Keep it up, stay strong push on!

Surprises Errday

So this was a fun week of adventures and surprises.  Like, at the end of our planning session Wednesday night we got a text to inform us I had to go to Tuxtla the next day for migration stuff.  Cancel THOSE plans! So we got all my stuff ready and arranged for someone to accompany my compañera all day, only to arrive at the bus station to find two tickets with both our names on them and thirty minutes before departure.  Ahh! So we ran home and grabbed some of her things, ran back, bought chicken and hopped on the bus for the 6 hour ride, leaving all our appointments missionary-less.

We stayed the night with some hermanas in Tuxtla, one of whom was Hermana Oliphant, aka I know her.  We were like...  who are you, where are you from, I know you, OH! I play violin with your brother and used to carpool with your mom.  Cool.  So that was cool!

Next surprise was Saturday when we had an activity with the young single adults and went on splits, meaning I had to direct the area and lead the lessons.  Ah! No sense of direction, hi.  But we didnt even get lost! Probably because I got to be with Pichi and shes from our ward and is this fireball of missionary spirit.  But the next day, surprise number 3, my compañera¨s knee exploded so we left her with a member and I went out with Pamela this time, not from our ward.  She¨s a return missionary, the one who always comes with us on P-days and is AMAZING.  I learned a lot from her, she was so cute with our 80 year old America who has a hard time focusing for more than 2 seconds.  We made it a game to remember the four bases of Christs church.  "The first is prophets." "Prophets!" "And then we need the priesthood." "Priesthood!" "Whats the first one America?" "Oh, I dont remember..." We got to where she could remember all four but when she got to the last one she always said "Revelation! But I dont remember what that is." Completely lost her at apostasy.  We would explain it simply, ask her what it was, and she would respond by throwing up her arms and exclaiming a prayer to the Lord to bless her with sleep at night so her leg would stop hurting.  Okay honey, next visit.  CUTIE.

So on the bus from Tuxtla my filtered water bottle got stolen from the homeless man in front of us.  He was acting all suspicious and ran from the bus and it was gone from under my seat.  Why, I dont know.  So now I cant filter water, but turns out thats not a problem because they¨re shutting off all the water in Tapachula for a week.  Surprise number (what are we on? 4?)!! So we're OH MY GOODNESS I FOUND THE APOSTROPHE not quite sure how that's going to work.  We filled up a huge bin with water from the shower and we just may not be flushing the toilet for a while.  Haha I love this life so much.  I asked my compañera if mission life is always like this month and she's like....  no.

So here's to being robbed of all the random things in our life including water! Luckily we have drinking water since that stuff comes in big bottles you can buy anywhere.

As for investigators, we hope we have a baptism this Saturday! R. (11), one of the niños we are teaching, is ready and excited but his mother is impossible to find and we need her to sign the form.  We're hoping all will go well with that.  We've started teaching the boys separately since they can't handle being seriously cuz they're so dang funny and wonderful.  So Hermana Bastian prepares R. for his baptism and I teach C. (10)  to read and write on the other side of the room, because we found out he has never been to school and doesn't know how, which is halting his progression a ton.  It's hard teaching an alphabet I'm not familiar with in a language I'm still learning but he's making some progress and prayers are helping us a lot.  I LOVE those boys, I think I will miss them most.

So lots of humbling experiences this week having to do what I can't do but I have learned so much and I am never alone.  I know God is real and has such amazing things for us but we can't be what He wants us to be or bless all the lives He wants us to until we become more like Him, and that takes humility, patience, faith, hope, charity, all those attributes.  It's all connected.  Once we can humble ourselves He blesses us with more humility, more faith, and so on.  I know this work is real and moving forward and loving life! Love you all!!

Tapachula: Falling in Love

Hi, I'm falling in love with Tapachula, no big deal.  Not sure how I'm going to leave this area.  Our investigators are beautiful people but have got to start doing things.  Goodness.

So.  We have one family we love, they have two kids (10 and 5) that always call our names in the streets.  They promise every week to come to church and we thought we really had them coming this time but nothing :( My heart almost broke all through sacrament meeting as they didn't show up.

We met this new old woman we're teaching named America and she is HILARIOUS.  I don't know why.  She just widens her eyes at everything you say and says "Ooooh.  You're from America? Ooooh.  You two are always together? Ooooh." It's adorable.  She's super Catholic but we're going to break through.

This week we met a new couple from a reference and they are BEAUTIFUL people.  They are ready for the truth and felt the spirit so much and gave us ice cream and an umbrella! What?! Let's just get you some blessings real quick and be best friends forever.

Here's the thing about these people.  It's so hard to get from one place to another because everyone TALKS FOREVER.  The rule is, one person gets to talk for 25 minutes while the other smiles and nods and agrees with everything they say, and then you switch and they get to agree with everything you say, even if they're the opposite.  The other day we tried to pause at a member's house for two seconds to grab the number of a reference and she didn't take a breath for an HOUR.  60 minutes of us standing, nodding and trying everything possible to move away as she described the details of how she fell down the other day.  It was ADORABLE but a teensy bit frustrating.  Learning lots of patience as we try to stay on track.

I got dear elders from the Turner girls a few weeks ago and since I don't know how to mail still, I thought I'd answer some of their questions real quick for all to hear.  Kynli asked if I've tried any new foods.  If by new you mean pork fried in mayonnaise, yes!  It's not all super different but it's a lot of beans, fried meat, and a lot of people serve me "spaghetti" since I'm American, but it's spicy and much better than the American version.  This morning our friend Pamela made us breakfast and I don't know what any of it was called but it was delicious.  I'll send a picture next week.  No, Mexican food there is not anything like Mexican food here.  Except for some of the names.  But we do have a stack of tortillas at every single meal.

Faith ready go.  I've been reading the story of the army of Helaman.  Their faith is CRAZY.  Because these young boys did not doubt, they got to save their country, their families, liberty for the future generations, turn the tide of a war and conquer when they were outnumbered and outskilled.  They knew without a doubt, God will not suffer us to fall, and so not one of them did, and while they were at it, they were able to save everything.  This is death we're talking about with these boys, this is thousands of experienced Lamanites.  That is what faith can do.  It's so much more than believing, it's having a real trust and being willing to act and give something up.  Wow wow wow.

So I'm doing 100 pushups a day, woo.  Anyone who wants to join me in this feel free and we can have a buff party in a couple of years.

And I love you all.  Keep it up everyone, go conquer Lamanites or something.

Tapachula: What the what?

Hola!!

Yeah, so CRAZY things are happening.  Mom you might want to close your eyes for the next two paragraphs (Grandma too) just so you don't get stressed.  Jokes, its fine.  First of all, I don't know if I told you that my iPod is gone.  I know what pocket it was in in my luggage and my companion thinks the airport security guards in Mexico took it.  So that was exciting.  I'm on the hunt for a way to listen to my beautiful MUSIC but Hermana has a ton so we've been okay.

We are also having crazy incidents in our apartment, where a small chunk of my US money disappeared but not all, some Liahonas, and other random things.  We are beyond confused.  And then today, Hermana Bastian's money was stolen.  ALL OF IT.  For the month at least.  And she's the one who pays the rent and everything so it was a lot and we're not sure what we're going to do.  That part wasn't in the apartment, it was in her bag and she set it down in a small shop but we could see it the WHOLE TIME so we have no idea.

And then we locked the keys in the apartment (are we surprised? This is me we're talking about).  It was a joint effort, I forgot the keys and Pamela (our return missionary hermana friend) locked the door.  We called a locksmith who told us it would be 250 pesos and we're like nooooo, okay.  We tried shoving, bobby pins, cards, everything.  But we prayed and prayed and I will tell you I had faith that door was going to open.  I knew it would.  But it didn't yet so we went shopping, bought all our food, and returned home, and I busted in the door in one shove.  Whaaaat! It was a miracle and only a small piece of wood broke off! Haha.  So now we just need one more miracle for all our months money so we don't get kicked out of our apartment or starve or anything.  It'll be fine.

This week we had stake conference and it was so good! It was like an answered prayer, all about missionaries and members working together.  Not just helping each other but joining efforts and doing the work of salvation.  One hermana put it this way, it's scary to talk to our friends or acquaintances about the gospel, but we need to remember that everyone has a testimony, and we have no idea what there's is like, and a lot of times neither do they.  So we have to leave this up to God and do our part.  So I'm challenging y'all (saw this coming right?) to 1) pray for your missionaries and their investigators by name.  2) Pray to know who it is that needs this message in their life and 3) invite your missionaries over and make a game plan.  Let's go, blessings!

I love Tapachula, especially in the evenings when it's warm and beautiful and breezes are flowing and the sky is pink and the streets are quiet and I am just walking through Paradise on sore feet.  I love sore feet.  I love all the hard days and I love laughing with my companion, pushing each other over, picking flowers, teaching her English, being rejected, smiling and doing this work.  I have found so much happiness here and am changing so much.  There's the really hard days too, when smiling is not the first thing you want to do, but I'm working on that losing yourself thing.

To answer some of your questions.  First of all, mail turns out to be almost impossible.  The place to mail is miles away and few missionaries even know how to do it, so don't expect too many handwritten letters from this area.  We receive mail once a month since they don't really have a mail system here, so everything has to go through the mission office and it's 6 hours away.  So the first Wednesday they generally all come in and its the best!

Our ward is about 80 people usually, our area is pretty darn rural, but last week I discovered the STORE and went to heaven.  It's like this big Walmart thing and it's the best.  We take our laundry to the lavenderia and only do it by hand when the washer is broken.  The members  feed us a big meal once a day at 2 pm and we eat random cereal, quesadillas and fruit in the mornings and nights.

I'm short on time but I love each of you and will answer more questions later on! Keep at it, stay strong push on and smile your lives away! 'Til next week!

--Hermana Wilson

Tapachula: Paradise Woo

[Tapachula, Mexico; Monday, March 3, 2014]

Hola!

So I'm falling in love over here.  No big deal.  It's basically paradise except hot, but the palm trees and skies are to die for and the people are incredible.  I love the simple lifestyle, the smells on the streets...goodness.  Go Tapachula.  Yesterday it started dumping buckets of rain for about 15 minutes and I was in heaven.  Love that stuff.

 

We had five investigators come to church this week!! Last week it was none, so that is good! Two were our "niños", the ten year old son of an inactive member and his cousin.  They are CRAZY and everywhere and so so funny.  Teaching them a lesson is like your old primary class Mama, but at the same time we just crack up.  It was so fun to sit in sacrament with them between us and pick them up from primary, look at their clay projects and then make mustaches out of them.

Members are so great.  So many of them really have nothing but are always trying to give us everything.  It's so humbling.

My calling in life has become waging war against bacteria, and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed but winning I think.  Today we made a little friend in our bathroom - my first cockroach.  Aww.  My compañera screamed and shot it with dish soap til it died.  Who knew right? Dish soap.  We named it Amalickiah and flushed it down the toilet.

Speaking of which, I've started naming all the dogs and cats on the streets and members homes after people I know.  So if you're a person I know there's a good chance you have a namesake out here.

I love the life of walking all day and loving people.  Some of them are so stubborn and some are so ready.  We've been trying to find this inactive member since the day I got here and she's never home or else they don't open the door.  So the other day we stood outside knocking for five minutes and finally her husband answered.  He let us in and started talking and within ten minutes his wife walked in the door.  We gave a lesson on keeping baptismal covenants and how Jesus' arms are always reaching out to us, and she started crying and saying she's been feeling like she needs to come back.  Yesterday, there she came up the walkway with a huge smile on her face and she's already making all these friends.  So happy!

Last Sunday we finished a meal at a member's house and as we left their family friend, about 18 years old or something, came walking up the steps.  First thing he does is greet us and kiss me (on the cheek).  My compañera was like "nooooo..!" and it was like slow motion and crazy and then we had to explain we were missionaries and couldn't do that and got an appointment with him.  So there's one way to do it! We taught him yesterday in the member's home, they didn't think he would come because he belongs to another church, but he came running in the door early thinking he was late and asked us all these golden questions.  He has such a burning desire to learn all these deep answers and it was a really cool lesson.

One big lesson I've been learning out here is focusing in on the moment.  That is such a hard thing to do because it's easy to think that things were perfect before this time or will be perfect in the future and we miss what's perfect right now.  There's so much joy and so much we can learn in every second, especially the hard ones.  I love that quote that says it's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain.  So basically if something's hard, yes there will be light ahead and yes it will pass, but what are you missing right now that you'll get to look back on later? The gospel is so important and families are so important.  I regret all the time I wasted when I could have been spending time with my family back in the day - all those things old people say are true! Crazy.  But I'm learning to love life here and it's changing me.

 

I love you all like crazy! I have the best family and friend support system in the world.  Stay strong and push on in the gospel! Praying for you all!

[Still no pictures from Mexico yet.  But, since she mentioned "Yesterday it started dumping buckets of rain for about 15 minutes and I was in heaven.  Love that stuff;" and "It's not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about dancing in the rain;" then here's a picture of Kelsi in 2012 getting dumped on by the raining mist at Niagara Falls.  While most people were ducking for cover under their ponchos, she was just embracing the experience!]