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!