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

When it's time to change

So do you think I'm in Tapachula? Because I'm NOT, I'm in Coatl. (<--3 year old Erika voice). That's right, transfers happened and I'm gone for good! I now live in a mansion with an American who knows Spanish in perfect fresh weather that's not sticky. So that's a little change in circumstances ;) 

Some fun people from our zone (that's elder Acosta in front whose every 3rd sentence is "Hermana WILSON toca el piano bien chido.") Our old zone that is, but many of them came with me to my new zone so there's that.

But let's start with last week. I was basically Nephi this week which was really cool. I mentioned last week that Violeta had told us she was more than ready for her baptism and we started a journey of faith. I've never prayed quite like I prayed for her baptism this week and I've never felt heaven quite so close. It was an experience unlike any other as we prayed, studied, and followed ALL impressions and I really felt God guiding us all week. I had the impression Monday that we should visit Z. (mama de V.) every day, and that's what we did. We passed by Monday and ran into her but she hid in the house and sent Y. out to attend to us. Tuesday we had exchanges and I headed to Hortalizas ward while Hermana Castillo and the other hermana did everything they could, but once again she was hiding (or "sleeping" :)

Wednesday I had the idea to bring Angeles to help open her up, since she's just the most giddy, radiant, loves-everyone-and-the-gospel woman and is also now in Young Women`s. She's been super busy and worn down from work and some classes she's taking but was of course more than willing when we explained the situation. Couldn't receive us, Z. was busy. The next day praying I had the impression that it was time to bring our wonderful powerful bishop, so we organized with him and changed some appointments and went in the night to find an empty house. And the whole time, it just filled me up with more faith because I literally felt Him guiding us and it was so fulfilling to be doing everything we possibly could for something so important and to be trusting in His wisdom. I really felt like I was in Nephi's shoes as they tried time and time again to do as the Lord commanded and kept having failures, but Nephi never seemed to see them that way. He was always looking for what's next.

Sooo Friday. We had an activity at 7 and not much of a time gap to visit, and with the bishop busy with his activity and Angeles just sick and worn-down, we planned to go alone. And thus, having fallen through all of our plans we resorted to going into the city of Jerusalem, not knowing beforehand what we would do. It didn't feel right yet all afternoon so we visited others until 6, and then it was like, yeah let's go visit Z. So we headed down and just as we were turning onto their street we see her heading our direction. Yay! She informs us she's heading to help her sick sister and Y. is in the house and leaves. No! We debated for two seconds and then went to visit Y. and talked to him about talking to his mother about this baptism because we'd been doing all we could and didn't know what more to do. After a while we closed and stepped out the door and BOOM there she was arriving. And, as a miracle you can always count on in Tapachula, it was raining! So she told us why not wait it out inside. My companion was like "Oh, don't worry about us" and I was like "Are you kidding we've been praying for this opportunity all week" and I was in the house before she could change her mind.

Dun dun DUN. There we were in the city of Jerusalem. And we started chatting. And immediately the spirit was just so strong in my heart. She started talking about V. and how she had played a joke on her the other day and told her Hermana Wilson had come by to say goodbye and was leaving, and she said V. was completely alarmed, turned color and was headed out the door in the rain when her mom caught her and told her it wasn't true. When she told me that I just started choking up and couldn't keep my voice steady for quite some time. I told her how very special V. was to us and how strong her testimony was, how she had come to us to talk about her baptism and how we'd been praying all week to know how to help resolve the worries of a loving mother. She listened and looked at me with a face I've never seen before, just full of love and the spirit. I know she felt it so strongly. She thanked me for everything we'd done for V. and how special we were to her. And then suddenly she sat up straight, hardened her face and said "But." And in that moment we lost. Or I should say she did. Because the spirit left the room and she began to contend against the church, and anything we said after that turned to an argument so we mostly remained silent. It was amazing to me to see how immediate the effect was. Y. entered the room and defended his sister and the church and we were very touched at his testimony, especially as he hasn't been so very constant lately. But we knew there was nothing more we could do because she had FELT the spirit and she had rejected it. The Lord had answered our prayers, He had provided us with the opportunity and He had softened her heart, but there's only so much we can do when people use their agency in such a way. Later I was reading in Alma 8 when it talks of how Alma prayed with all his soul to soften the hearts of the peole of Ammoniah, but later says "Nevertheless, they did harden their hearts." But an angel came and told him how  blessed he was and to keep going. This experience was so special because we participated actively in campaigning for the salvation of a willing soul, and one day when she makes it we will see her and I can't even imagine the joy. One thing I've learned out here is that timing doesn't really matter to the Lord. It's something only we measure and often something we measure our success by. But if we can have faith and see through a greater perspective we will realize that EVERY act of faith, every prayer in behalf of another will be so much more than worth it because the blessings are ETERNAL. I believe in that so much more strongly than ever and I have felt so much joy this week as we gave our all!

So that was that. So far. But Sunday we knew I would probably be transferred the next day.  We planned a family night with some investigators and the Fuentes family and watched the Testaments. HOLY COW THE SPIRIT WAS STRONG. As the movie ended it was then only Violeta, Alma, Jenny and us, but we were all crying and then started talking about the second coming, and then the elders called us and told us that I would be leaving the next morning at 7:30 for Ocozocoautla, Or Coatla as they call it here. So we all started bawling dramatically and hugging and it was super funny and beautiful and we kept saying, Okay now we really have to go. And then laughing more and talking or singing dramatic goodbye songs and then, Okay it's REALLY time to go. Violeta said that this time with us has been the best time of her life and sent me a note that thanked me for showing her a world full of joy and truth that she'd never known. I had already basically said goodbye to the members we'd seen because when you're about to be transferred you just know it, and everyone was showering me with gifts and telling me not to go and AHH stop. But good thing I never cried for real. The only one I didn't get to see was Ricardo--he hasn't come the past few weeks nor answered his phone, and we found out it was because he was grounded from leaving the house for anything for not doing well in a class. But Jenny let him know I was leaving over Facebook and yelled up to me through the window in the morning saying Ricardo was so sad and had something for me but couldn't come, and that he couldn't believe it and made her write me a long letter with what he told her. And then I cried. 

But now I'm here and happy and more adventures and mansion stories next week.

LOVE YOU!

 Violeta, Angeles, Jenny..You know. The usual. 

Post-"Testaments" party. :)

Faith to move mountains

That's what we're looking for right now. So it's been an interesting couple of weeks. It looks like Bro. I. isn't going to be able to be baptized any time soon although he wants to. Too many problems he's got to get fixed, but he continues to come to church and activities a little on and off and we really have seen a change in him which has been a major miracle.

We had activity number 2 this week in which we put all the families in groups and they had to prepare a dish from a certain state of Mexico, and the best part was that I got to make tamales! We went to our ward mission leader's house way out in the hills and his sister-in-law taught us how to wrap tamales (here they're in banana leaves). Throughout my first 10 or so attempts, I would battle with my banana leave and maza until I got it into some sort of enclosed form and finally hand it over to her, and she would sigh pityingly and rewrap it. Tamales are like little animals. You try to wrap them and they just move everywhere and want to bite you and it's terrifying. 

But after about 10 or 15 I actually got pretty good and she told me I could start my business of Tamales in the United States now. Woo! Too bad we don't have banana leaves. 

We also made a HUGE tamale that's made in Veracruz, where one of the elders is from. Super complicated, we (they) had to dig a hole in the ground, start a fire, mix a ton of chiles, and who knows what else into a huge soppy mix and then pour it on banana leaves-on giant plastic bags-on aluminum foil-on a wheelbarrow, then wrap all THAT together with wire and stick it in the fire-in the hole-in the ground. It took about 4 hours all together, we weren't there the whole time. And it didn't even cook all the way! So lesson is that Zacahuil sounds awesome, looks awesome, tastes fine, and is way too much work. 

I also ate a bunch of chapolin, which is a salty bug. It was good. 

So. The work. :) We're looking for new people to teach right now because these ones are just frustratingly not home. Sunday we passed for empty houses where people had promised to be up and ready once again. It's amazing how many things you can feel on a mission. Never before have I felt so discouraged and hopeful, frustrated and happy, worn out and full of energy, ALL AT THE SAME TIME. As our friend Ron Weasley remarked "one person couldn't feel all that, they'd explode!" And right he was, I nearly did. But I read Neil L. Anderson's talk on "The Trial of Your Faith" from October 2012 and it just filled me up like a tank of gas (?) and we had a wonderful day. 

So I'm feeling that this is my last week in Tapachula as transfers are a coming next week and my companion is more than ready to take on the area. This week I was praying so hard for V., that if at ALL possible she could feel the desire to be baptized once again and her mother could change her mind. Last night we ran into V. in the street and started walking with her and she said, "You know what, I just want to be baptized this Saturday. How I would love that." And we started putting our heads together in how to soften her mother. But one way or another, miracle number 1 came about and I took that as an answer to my prayers, that this just may be possible. And by that I mean, it definitely is. All yesterday and today I have felt that He is aware of us, and with all his power He knows just what to do and with our faith we WILL move this mountain. So put your prayers together and we'll see what great things happen this week. 

And to finish, the winning analogy from the exciting flood from last week by my dear Aunt Sharon:

Sometimes the world feels like it is surrounding us with evil - just as the rains outside the investigator's house.  So we try to make our homes a sanctuary against it, but Satan tries hard to get inside, even finding tricky, sneaky ways to get in - like through media, TV, internet, phones, distractions, and even arguing (or drainpipes). But if we let him know, we won't stand for it, and use plastic bags and rocks and the spirit to push him out, sweeping him out with dustpans and prayers, we can keep our home free from his influence.  

May the Lord bless you all this week!

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

So yesterday we were innocently eating chicken and tortillas (which, if you were wondering, is what we Mexicans are made of down here) when SUDDENLY... it started raining. Sorry that wasn't more exciting.

But the exciting part was that it didn't STOP raining and after walking up and down the streets to empty homes in the pouring rain (really fun actually) and finding not ONE of our planned visits at home, an old investigator came to my mind that had something of ours we needed returned. So we headed for her new house which is wayyyy back behind a locked gate and rang the bell. Thus started the yelling game in the rain. 

"QUIEN?"

"LAS MISIONERAS!!"

Pause of about a minute. 

"QUIEN?"

"LAS MISIONERAAAAS!"

Two minutes this time. 

"QUIEN?" 

Forget it. Finally she came and let us in and we all ran back into her casita. We had a nice talk and finally made some progress, and after about half an hour realized that there was water on the ground and it was coming from the bathroom. Never a good sign. Yep, the rain from outside was flooding up through the drain and outside her door the whole little neighborhood was a basin of water about two feet deep. Thus started the quest of finding something to block the drain, and after failed attempts of a potted plant, and a ridiculously large rock from outside, I had the idea to stick plastic down into the drain and she had the idea to stick the large rock on top. It worked! And then we spent twenty minutes shoveling water out of the house into the lake outside with a dustpan. 

So that was a story and made for a super fun day, we laughed a lot. I'm going to leave it to each one of you to make your gospel analysis in connection with this story so we can move on, and if anyone has a great one please do send and we'll stick it in next week's letter ;)

So the rest of the week was pretty good, we're still having trouble locating the awesome investigators we have and helping them progress. "I." is doing well though he still hasn't been baptized. We postponed it one week because of an incident but we're hoping this is it! The great part is that the members are now fully involved and are really helping him out and that he's still sincere about his desires. It's all a matter of getting to where he's actually ready because change is HARD and he's had a LOT of problems. But our high councillor and the elder's quorum president have joined forces to help him and have asked if they can visit him and read the Book of Mormon twice a week. YES. Yes you can. One of them also suffered similar problems with alcohol and such before his baptism twenty years ago and so that has really been a miracle. 

Fabiola is flying. She's the less active member who came for the first time last week and said she had a GREAT week afterwards, that she went home and was like "YES! We did it! We returned!" So hard to get back on the path but so awesome when we're willing to DO. 

We got sick this week. Just with a cold but it was nasty and exciting. 

On Fridays the new bishop has started having these ward mutuals, where he in all his wisdom and power explodes our brains in a short message of 20 minutes and then we all sing songs and play games. I may have already mentioned all of this. But Friday we had 7 investigators come which was awesome, and then I taught everyone the Jellyfish song from girls camp. The kids are still chanting "JellyFEESH, jellyFEESH, jellyFEESHFEESH!" 

We also found an investigator who has been more or less hiding from us a couple weeks because of her crazy life. She opened the door and said she was swamped with her kids homework and we offered to help. She immediately agreed and let us in and we spent a while forming words with tile letters and afterwards read from the Book of Mormon. This started a tradition in which we come in the afternoons, help with homework a little and then share a message and have a prayer and song. It was so cool to see the 8-year-old twin girls start to get excited about singing and praying and asking their mom when she would take them to church, where when we first found them the girls wanted nothing to do with us and tried to distract their mom the whole time. They came to the mutual and had fun exploring "la iglesia mormona."

So that's what's happening. I got your letters this week, and was only a little shocked at one little part when you mentioned the word "fishing" as part of your camping trip, and I think back to all the times I tried to make that happen once in my life. ;)

Love you all and hope you have a great week! Thanks for the emails and letters and especially the prayers!!

(....and the house on the rock stood still.)