No matter what

Whew! Hello! A little bit exhausted over here but doing great! 

This week was a little bit rough. Almost every day we had the same story...NOBODY HOME. We were very low on lessons and high on walking up the streets and down the streets from empty house to empty house. But that's how it is sometimes. And I've noticed that times like these are fun because they usually mean something awesome is about to happen and we're being tested to see if we really believe that. And guess what, we do. So we keep walking, smiling and contacting and buying delicious "pan" from the panederia and cheap bags of ice cream substance to keep us happy. Works beautifully.

So many investigators who have been progressing so well, and many of them this week made the wrong decisions. Like not to come to church and go to the beach instead. Things like that. But let's talk about some people who made some great decisions instead.

So Fabiola is a less active member of about 4 years who, before those 4 years, was super active, had gone through the temple and had a strong strong testimony. We didn't even know about her before we ran into her in the street one day a couple months ago and she was really happy to see us and said we could come visit her, but that she lived behind her aunt who, when anyone from the church asked, said she wasn't home even if she was. So it was almost impossible to find her, as her phone wasn't working. Well, this past week we ran into her a second time in the street and once again she was really happy to see us. She told us her little girl had had a dream that they'd returned to the church and she wanted to do it so badly but didn't know how. So we set an appointment that day at the church and they showed up! We started talking to her and setting goals. Turns out her obstacles to coming to church are little and easily manageable, things like it being the only time she can do laundry and she helps her aunt. She didn't have problems with any members or any commandment, she had simply slipped into worldly things and started putting her work first and was fullly aware that she wasn't as happy as before, that the gospel was true, and that she needed to get back over here and get to the temple.

It was so amazing to me that such little things can keep a willing member from renewing her covenants and serving, but I guess when we start slipping and allow small unimportant things begin to come before the really important, it becomes really really hard to get back. Well, we'd already invited her to come to church and activities many times and she said she wanted to but wasn't sure if she could and yada yada. Finally one day we made it into her house by sending Alma, who helps Fabiola with her little girl some mornings, to ask for her. Her uncle let her in and she told Fabi that we were outside and we were able to get in. Sneaky sneaky. Well we had a great lesson and suddenly I was about to ask if she could make it to church this week when suddenly the spirit was just speaking for me and I found myself asking, "Pase lo que pase, will you come to church this Sunday?" And she said "Sí." And then we were both like, woah what just happened and she started to get this big smile on her face. It's like neither of us had spoken our own words, but she'd needed someone to ask her that question, of NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, will you do it? So that she could put aside all her excuses and make the decision she had been wanting to make all along. We made plans and kept sending her messages to follow up all week long and Sunday, she arrived really late but we kept communicating and in she came with a bright smile and the members were all ready to welcome her. We also had another less active member with a little girl come in who we hadn't been able to find in weeks and sat with us. GO FABIOLA! 

Almost none of our investigators who were going to come Sunday could make it. But I just looked at our returning members and thought, You know what Satan, you're NOT WINNING. We aren't falling for it! Because all of them are going to come next week along with who knows who else! We are still seeing amazing things and my faith is growing stronger than ever!

Annnnnnd after a long week we just happened to have the best P-day ever! Every six months there's an activity with President and his wife, and it's hard to believe that 6 months have already passed since that first one!

I am one of the few who are still here in the area and we went to see the same ruins again, but this time we had a tour guide, games in the morning and afternoon, and pizza! And one of the perks of being here so long is that we're really good friends with the others who've been here and we just had a party all day. It was super hot and the sun is much more direct up there but my companion and I discovered where they sold "bolis" or frozen ice cream things for 5 pesos and we went for those. We were soon joined by 50 other missionaries and President George and his wife and the owners of the stand were pretty happy.

I understood a little bit better what the ruins were this time, it no longer being my first week in Mexico. It's called The rock of Lehi's dream or something like that, and it's an ancient carving that was found that depicts exactly Lehi's dream! It's so cool! For others it's just a cool carving with Mayan symbols of water, trees, blind people, etc. but for us it's awesome since we know what those things mean. We had a tour guide from the stake who was able to tell us a ton about the area and we got cool maps that showed us where they estimate are all the cities in the Book of Mormon in Mexico and its roundabouts. I'm currently living in Zarahemla.

After[wards] we went to a stake center and an elder who had found out I could play the Jon Schmidt song "All of Me" and has been bugging me for weeks to play finally got his way. He's completely crazy and loud and hilarious and made everyone be quiet and listen and almost went crazy when another elder was about to play the piano. "No, HERMANA WIIILSON." I gave it a try for the first time in a couple months and found out it was still there and afterward everyone was like AHHH PLAY IT AGAIN and I laughed and left the piano only to find they were serious and I had to play it again. And then they made me do the elbow part once more. And now Elder Acosta refers to me as her majesty, great one, etc. Locos. It was fun to play again. And then we played volleyball for an hour where I am not the queen, but it was really fun and now we're tired and sweaty and happy and ready for success okay love you all bye! 

Hermana Wilson :)