Old people and running into things (...like always)

So this week we were walking along with our newly baptized Carmelo accompanying us when this OLD lady asked for help in switching on her light. We went in, turned it on, and sang her a hymn and asked her questions about her life and stuff. That's when we found it she was 105 years old. ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE YEARS. This is INCREDIBLE folks! AND, she lives completely alone and has no family in the world. She says she has neighbors who bring by food and "wash the dishes," but we looked at all the dishes she had and I am here to testify that nobody has washed those things in the past who knows how long. She's basically blind and just sits in her chair all day long. So we asked her permission and took all of those dishes to the back where there was a tank of water, old scrub thing and a little bit of detergent and we went at it. We promised to come back in a few days to see how she was. A few days later, we found her sitting in the same chair talking about death, so we started to teach her about the plan of salvation. And holy cow, her retention! She understands better than most of our investigators! She's like, huh I didn't know we were spirits before. So she's cool. And so, SO so old. I consider it an honor to have crossed paths this week. We'll see what more we can do for her.

Also, I think while there we might have picked something up because I am waking up every morning with like 30 new bites per day, and the other day...I found a flea on the floor and went a little berserk. Why are there fleas. Why is that a thing what do I do I feel so unprotected and spend the evenings checking all my blankets and clothes all paranoid but I never find them what do you do with fleas? blehhhh.

ALSO, one more story. This week I was walking along when suddenly I saw a flash of blinding light, heard a metal clang, and felt pain in my head and my companion laughing in the background. So I guess I ran into a metal box thing hanging off the side of a building. How embarrassing. And painful. It's something someone would sue someone else for in the U.S. but here we all just expect people to walk around those things and be pleasant. Oops. I got a little scar, not as impressive as my Hitler mustache in the MTC but still noteworthy.

Okay. That's enough of that.

So with the new area plan here in Mexico they are focusing on tithing, fasting, and taking names to the temple, three things in which we desperately struggle down here. So we set to work teaching members about those three things and one especially memorable night was when we went with Luz Elba and her daughter Dani who is a super faithful 15 year old. They are basically our family and we are always laughing like crazy with them. So we started out talking about the principles and reading some scriptures and Luz Elba tells us she pays her tithing but has never done the fasting thing, and then they started asking us all these questions. They're like, so if I start at midnight tonight, I CAN'T EAT TIL MIDNIGHT AGAIN?”  Okay, how about if I start at 2 and go 'til 2 the next day....like, what do I do? Just read the whole time?" and oh my gosh we were laughing so hard, and then the mom says, "No Dani, you're going to eat at 2, then go about your day normal, in the night you won't eat just a glass of water" And we're shaking our heads, "NO WATER?? WE'RE GOING TO DIE." And Dani is looking at us like we just admitted to having murdered her cat, just complete horror and I could not stop laughing. So it's a work in progress. But after I shared some experiences of fasting and the spirit came and we all calmed down and it turned out really spiritual and we decided to all start together this coming Saturday.

Also, last story this week, we met this lady whose last name is Wilson and she thought it was SO COOL we had the same last name, invited us to her house where we met her mom and she too thought it was SO COOL and we spent forever talking about the name Wilson and I tried to be as excited although I've been surrounded by them all my life and it couldn't be a more common name up there but I guess you know…

Well that's all I've got time for this week, just know it was amazing and so are all of you! Love to all!

Is it I?

So today I was reading President Uchtdorf's talk, "Lord, is it I?" and man that is amazing stuff. Every single talk given by those men is just filled with doctrine that is so true and pure and nothing that the earth has. I'm not sure if I've said this before but HOLY RELIGION MEXICO it is a party down here with a hundred million different ideas of who God is and pictures or quotes of him on every corner or bus, but nobody knows who He really is. There is such a difference between reading every page of the Bible your whole entire life and understanding something so simple like God looks like us, loves us, and talks to us now. An old Catholic man knows one, a 4 year old primary kid knows the other. Just really interesting.

But anyway, back to this talk. President Uchtdorf talks about who we are looking at -- when the Lord identifies a problem, as He did with his disciples (One of you will betray me), do we look around and make guesses, or do we search inside and reflectively ask, "Lord, is it I?" This is something I've been missing a little bit as a companion, and let's be honest, as a person, and it made me reflect a lot. If we want to change ourselves, we can but we have to look at our weaknesses and ask Him, Lord, is it I? And then if the answer is "Yes child, you have some things you need to change and I can help you overcome," we need to accept that answer. So that was definitely an answer to many questions I've had this week of how to be the missionary and companion I want to be and wanted to share that.

Now I'm sure you're all wondering what happened to all the junk before the spiritual stuff? Worry not, here cometh the junk!

This week we made banana bread with the primary. It was so fun. Oh shoot I love those kids, we have the best primary ever. I don't know if I told you I'm teaching piano and english classes, and yesterday we went to primary instead of RS to help them out and now I'm wondering if we can get away with going there every week. I shared with them my first experience with reading the Book of Mormon and challenged them all to open it up today, and then we played a guessing game where I played a few notes of a primary song and they had to guess which it was, etc.

Also this week we had a 70 come, Elder Valenzuela, which turned out great. They sort of told us off a lot but sometimes you need a little of that. But we talked about the new area plan of Mexico, which includes helping the active members to pay their tithing, getting our recent converts progressing faster and more effectively, and especially getting our members sending names to the temple. Woohoo! I've had a plan cooking in my head for a while in that aspect and this week we'll be planning really well and working with ward council and I'll give you the juice next week. I'm super excited.

Well we had transfers today but we're staying here! But, Hermana Pugh is leaving and for the first time since day uno in the mission we will not be together. It had to happen sometime, might as well be after a year. We had really awesome divisions this week in which she helped me a LOT with my new situation. We did them for two days, all four of us working in Tuxtla on Tuesday and then going to the temple ANNNND (get readyyyy...) I consumed a hot dog of my own free will. And I liked it. I actually craved it. The mission does such weird things to you. But then the next morning I couldn't touch them again so there's that. The next day the four of us went to Coita and split up to conquer there for a day.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

I love you all and wish you the best week!! 

Banana bread with the kids, mashing with their hands. The primary president thought that's how we do it in the U.S. and that this would be a fun cultural experience. I didn't have the heart to tell her about mashers or forks...and let's be honest, it was funner this way.

With Unwearyness

So it's going to be kind of short today. Because three things happened this week:

1. My companion got dengue.

2. C. and J. got baptized!

3. And I hit my year mark and had my year-mark-crisis 

all in the same week! 

Basically my companion was super tired on Monday and went all yellowish on Tuesday so we went to the doctor and they're like, hey you have principios de dengue, which means some pesky mosquito bit her (probably in Arriaga, her old area since it usually takes about a week to show up and here it's too cold for mosquitos) and we began an interesting week of me yelling at her to get in bed and her wanting to go walk all over Coita and contact everyone. Good little missionary, bad hija. But we did a little of both because she wasn't too bad and felt fine a lot of the time. Now she's doing a lot better, today we'll be going for her last visit to the doctors to see if it's pretty much gone, but last time it looked pretty hopeful, they said she was almost back to normal. Yay! Sometimes dengue lasts like 2 months, but we got it quick while it was starting and should be good this week. 

So C. flew to his baptism, he was so ready and happy and has been coming to seminary every day this week. His mom came which was beautiful!  She felt the spirit and they kept hugging. We'll see what we can do with her now :) 

Thursday I hit a year and we celebrated with a brownie from the OXXO (mexican Maverick) and a sleeping companion. :) 

The rest of the week was pretty hard, as our investigators all pretty much fell all over the place. Those who were progressing disappeared, those who had baptismal dates chose not to come to church and we ended the week with none. Sometimes it's a bummer having low numbers but it's not the end of the world because like, God can do anything and stuff. That helps a lot having Him on our side. My companion was sad because she felt it was her fault because she was sick, but I helped her understand that that's ridiculous unless she was in on some plot with the mosquito.

I've always heard that after a year sister missionary's go crazy and have some mental-emotional crisis, and I've been waiting for it and today it came! But along with it came this huge power and help from heaven. I am amazed at how much power filled me. I just want to say that I felt the prayer of someone today, so I want to thank you. I was also reading Helaman 10 when the Lord talks to Nephi and says:

 4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

 5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works...

This scripture brought me such comfort today, and I know that the Lord sees our efforts. Not everything always turns out perfectly but He is aware of each one of us and loves us. We are to seek His will with unwearyness, and although we did feel pretty weary this week, we have felt the power of angels with us and found the strength to keep going. I hope you all feel the power of heaven in your week and feel my love as well!

Love you all!

Trading Children 101

So it was a Thursday, on a clear and windy day in Coita, when the phone rang. It's President George! "Hello President George!" He asked if he could ruin my day. I said Go for it! He then told me they needed some sisters to do special transfers, that he and his wife would be coming in an hour and a half, taking us to Arriaga, leaving my daughter there and giving me a new one to bring back. I told him how would he feel if someone told him he had to trade one of his kids for someone else's because it just wasn't working out. Kay that last part didn't happen. 

I told my companion and she started crying and holding on to me like a real daughter. But ni modos. So we had an interesting day driving two hours almost out to the ocean, trading people, eating tacos, and then returning to Coita. 

Meet Hermana Carvajal! 

It's been an interesting ride. She is so sad to have left her companion as well but there were situations over there that needed a change. I feel like I'm starting all over again but rather than being homesick she's Bate-sick. Sister Bate came out with me and is so awesome and honestly I am learning SO much from her just from hearing the stories of her companion. She has so much love and expressed it in every way possible, words, actions, hugs. It's something I've been wanting to learn to do better and I know this change was perfect. It's amazing how much divine help I have felt this week--I have so much more patience than I know I really have, especially when literally 87% of her sentences contain Sister Bate and she compares us in every way, but I've started giving myself Bate points for when I do things like her and have expressed more love in this one week than I think I have in all my life. And what's more, I have been FILLED with so much love for this girl and I know it's coming from Him. 

Moving on, last night we had our second sister's zone conference in history, which only take place in our zone, and it was beautiful. We watched the talk of Elder Christofferson on the moral force of women, shared experiences, talked of the Atonement and after got to all talk and eat brownies which was SO strengthening in this time. I talked with Sister Dìaz who has been with me since Tapachula and we learned so much together. She is also training right now but is in a threesome, with a new gringa companion who speaks nada de español and a companion who has a hard time being a missionary because she only does what she wants, and Sister Diaz is doing an AMAZING job of not only "training" them both but making them progress and work as well so they grow. I admire her and all the sisters in our zone who are all going through different challenges right now! 

Also this week I have felt different from before. I feel like I'm finally the missionary I want to be. Not perfect, but I feel like me, and I feel like His servant. One thing Sister Carvajal told me was that Sister Conde told her when we were in Arriaga that "Hermana Wilson is the best trainer  you could have and she doesn't lose a minute." She said she never imagined how true that was until she was working with me and said she wants to be a missionary like that soon who doesn't lose a minute. I just wanted to share that because of a talk in the MTC we listened to from Elder Holland in which he talked about all that he got from his mission, and how he is completely convinced that no one could have gotten more than he did. He said, don't lose one minute, don't lose one second. And I remember thinking I wanted to give him a run for his money and do exactly that. I hadn't thought about it in a long time but when she said that it made me want to cry because of all that the Lord has made me. I know that we are agents unto ourselves! We get to CHOOSE how much we get out of life. I have gotten SO MUCH out of this mission and hope to get so much more in the next six months. I hope you can all take a little time to read Elder Christofferson's talk from THIS general conference about free agency and I hope we can all lose not even one minute in doing what the Lord wants us to do, whether it be spending time with family, fulfilling a calling, lifting a heart. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!