Foreign Tongues

THIS week was incredible. But I guess that's what a mission is. It's still just so cool.

Tuesday we had a tri-zone conference with President and the assistants. It was awesome and we all got a ton out of it. They'd asked me to share for ten minutes about Matthew 10:39. I had an awesome time preparing and finding all these cool thoughts, and then the elder before me went twenty minutes bearing his testimony in a monotone voice and everyone was asleep so I sort of chucked the plan and decided to do a three-minute explosion of what I'd learned. The main thing that came to mind makes more sense in spanish, which says "El que busca salvar SU vida la pierde, pero el que pierde su vida por causa de mi la hallará.” [He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.] I focused on two parts of it. The word "Su" (your) and "la" (the) and talked about first everything that makes up YOUR life, or MY life. Talked about a lot of things we have to give up to be a missionary from MY life. And then I talked about THE life, and pulled out a picture of Christ. He IS the light and the life. If we can learn how to give up MY life, our will, our disobedience, our pride, we will find THE life--We will find Jesus Christ and we will find Him in ourselves for we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him. And THAT is worth losing a hundred My lifes. In english the words are "his" and "it" which wasn't quite as impactful to me. So there you go. 

Afterwards we did exchanges with Comitan, and I got to stay here with Hermana Pugh - our third exchange in the mission! It sort of just happened that way since we decided to give her companion the chance to direct the area which totally freaked her out. But that's exactly why we did it, because she's had a lot of freak-outs and thinks she can't do anything and only follows her companion who can do EVERYTHING. Perfectly, I might add. She's awesome. We decided it could be really good or really bad. And it turned out to be really good! She came out of it with a new calmness and confidence and found she was able to do things she was convinced she couldn't. In four weeks she'll be doing the same thing anyway since Pugh is headed home.

In our exchange we got to sing a lot of hymns in harmony, find cool people, including one crazy one named L. He started laughing maniacally at one point. But other than that he's pretty golden. And I showed her a "chamula"--the indigenous people who wear goat skin skirts--and then we decided to contact her. Most here speak Spanish but this one didn't. So I gave it all the Tzotzil I had which was totally cool. I told her we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ (Vuún kutik misioneraetik yuún li chulna yuún Jesucristoe in case you're wondering) and she got these wide eyes and said "Oooooh! Missionaries! You speak Tzotzil?" And I'm like, no. Muk na. And we had a whole conversation using a mix of Tzotzil phrases and Spanish words. I asked her where she lives, and she's like, over there! pointing to the mountain. Helpful. As we ended, I asked her how she was just to extinguish the very last drop of what I knew and that was that. We said bye and she went off and Pugh just looks at me with big eyes and says, "That. Was so. Cool." And I'm like "I KNOW RIGHT I'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!" Anyway. Going on three languages over here.

Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference which was beyond inspiring. Elder Alfredo Mirón came and blew us all away with laughter and knowledge and we learned about the HUGE importance of the Sabbath day. That's one thing here that almost zero people obey. Gotta buy those tortillas. And we've sort of been trying everything. Also, we invited so many people, and none of the new ones came anymore. But we got a cool surprise when SIX new new ones came, who were all invited by member friends! That makes missionaries happy! We have lots of appointments this week.

Now to finish up, I will answer the following questions of my Father:

1. Could you send a picture of your new companion?

I would love to.... my SD thing isn't showing up again. We're even at the most fool-proof cafe. I'll see if I can get another computer to let me but we're going on two.

2. Do they have you give talks in church? Or do you bear your testimony there sometimes?

Supposedly. As in every other missionary yes, but for some reason all of mine have been canceled due to surprise speakers or general conference etc. I have not spoken all mission. But I do bear my testimony almost every time. Some think it takes away chances from the members but I think it helps them get to know their missionaries and want to work with them better. And there's always something specific they need. 

3. Have you ever had to speak or do training in zone conference?

See paragraph one. 

Other than that, yes we help the zone leaders every time and sometimes travel to one of the other two zones to help them too. We'll be doing that tomorrow in Chojolho (tzotzilandia)

4. Do the people wear bright colors there like Guatemala? Or western clothes? Or what?

Most people wear normal things. Indigenous people wear pretty self-embroidered flower shirts and cool skirts with a belt thing. Or goat skins if they're from Chamula. 

5. Are the people tall or short?

Short. Except the European tourists. 

Love you!!

Hermana Wilson :)

New miracles errday

Awesome week! I haven't been able to work like this in I don't know how long! Hermana Caraballo loves to work efficiently like me and we got so much done. Holy new people. It seemed everywhere we walked they were just falling into our lap.

There was this one guy we contacted in his watch shop while searching for an address that wouldn't stop talking. We sang him a hymn and before we could even teach the first lesson he said "I want you to sing to my sick brother and my wife! Let's go!" And we're like, whoa, wait, um, hold on, don't kidnap us, and he said, okay, and so we all went in a taxi to his brother's house, where the entire family gathered around. They were the funniest people. The parents super Catholic but SUPER sweet, the kids devote to some other Christian religion, and they would all go silent as we spoke and listen. Then we sang "I know my Redeemer lives" and as we finished, they all start applauding. We're like....thanks. And there goes the spirit.

We ended up going back the next day and taking with us this CUTE old lady, Eulogia, from the ward. She's a 72-year-old widow who spends her days making visits and is only a little bit crazy. For example, right after the woman in the home finished explaining to us that she was Catholic and it was really important to her, Eulogia said in her cute squeaky voice, "Yes, the Catholic church is the whore of all the earth!" and I smacked my head with a pamphlet right then and there. But, I think she might be a little confused about the meaning of the word because in spanish it's "Ramera" which is close to the word "Rama" (branches) and she started talking about all the branches that came off the catholic church after that. But still. Last time we visited with her she said she had the priesthood and Lehi crossed the sea with Moses.  But she's cute so wherever it won't do damage we like to take her. It was funny because the watchmaker, Rodolfo, basically acted like a member accompanying us, testifying to what we'd said, telling his family to change, and he still knew nothing about the church! I'm actually still really confused about him. 

Then we're walking along one day and this man calls out to us and said we'd given him a card the other day and to come teach his family. So we went and taught them, and the mother cried during the hymn, "Families can be Together Forever." They're really sweet and confused and Catholic and we are hoping to bring them to an FHE tonight! 

Then we had a referral from the other ward who accepted baptism and everything with it just like that! Super cute young mom. Just needs to get married!

Annnnd my companion is perfect. I decided we all just need more Dominicans in our life. They're so funny. They talk faster than Mexicans with a little twang to their accent and a WHOLE LOT of attitude. Hermana Caraballo is just perfect. The other day I told her that if I were a man I would marry her. And she said, "Hija, si fuera hombre no me gustara, es GUERA. Mm-mm." (Translation: GIRL, if you were a man I wouldn't like you, you WHITE. Huh-uh." I laughed so hard. She works so hard and the best parts of my day are when she smiles. Man. 

Well, more stories to come, I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! If you haven't, I invite everyone to read this month's Liahona  It's full of beautiful stuff. I love how it talks about Family Home Evenings and it made me think of how they changed my life. Looking back now I realize it is one of the most important things in my life, that I had FHE every week and loved that. So if you want your kids to leave home and look back with gratitude and happy memories of time with you, HAVE FAMILY HOME EVENING EVERY WEEK! Bringing the spirit into the home is irreplaceable, and we know it's important because the family is basically all they talked about all conference!

Well, Love you all!! 

Hermana Caraballo is from the Dominican Republic

Straaaaange things

...are happening to me! Straaaaaange things. (Toy Story.)

Well! We sure did have transfers today. We were expecting several of the girls to be moving around and out, but we did NOT expect this. Every single companionship in my care as well as almost the entire zone has gotten changed and it looks like I will be here alone and expected to know everything and be somewhat in charge! WAHAHAHA.

Van is off to Tapachula to sweat in APRIL hahahaha. I laughed at her. It is just so hot right now. Hottest month of the year. But it's a magical place and she'll love it. Meanwhile, the other girls in our ward are getting switched, and we'll now have a trio in which not one of the three know the area. New Zone leaders, everything. BUT. Hermana Pugh is coming to Comitan so I won't be completely alone. Whew. 

Other than that, we weren't together anyway this week because we did exchanges with Chenalho, the little village out in the mountains with the indigenous people. Not sure if that's spelled right. Holy beautiful though, I can't wait to go there. We've been learning Tzotzil all week and can now at least introduce ourselves and say some other simple things.

We also had so many miracles this week. We worked so hard and had high numbers for the first time all transfer. That was a huge blessing as we ended. Yesterday a cute recent convert from a little Ecuador village came out with us to visit since she's preparing for her mission. We talked about Ecuador, and I admire her so much. She's the only member in her family and her brother makes it so hard for her to go to church since she works for him, but I've never seen anyone so humble and diligent in immersing herself in things of the gospel. She's always at work watching Mormon Messages or reading her Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel.

We also saw the Lopez family the other day. The mom is having a hard time making a step, but the dad said, "I don't know about all of you, but...I'M going to get baptized." They're still perfect. We love them so much. Thanks for your prayers for them.

Thanks for all your letters and messages as well! It's nice to hear how everyone's doing up there. And please keep the prayers coming because heh heh....who knows what is going to happen in this next transfer. Definitely ready to let Him take over.

I can't remember if I mentioned this last week so I just will. In the Liahona this month there's a talk called, "It isn't a Sin to be Weak." Holy. Moley. It is beautiful and changed my whole perspective. I invite everyone to take a nice long read and reflection. So often we confuse our mistakes with our sins, our nature with our disobedience, and begin feeling guilty because of our challenges. It's so important to learn to recognize the difference so we can use the right remedy! When we really are willfully disobeying we NEED the Atonement to make us clean and change us. When we are fighting through a weakness, we need to humble ourselves, not beat ourselves up but rather rely on the Lord's grace. If we can learn to do THAT there is nothing that can get us down in this life!

I love you all and hope we all have a fantastic week!!

Perfect

Well this week was amazing and long in so many ways. Let's just go day-by-day are we okay with that okay.

MONDAY we headed up to Tuxtla. Sister George was going to come down and shop again and take us back up, but turns out there was a road blockage for most of the day due to fun protesters so we had to wait and take a little van thing at six. We made good time and got to walk through Tuxtla to President's house on the most PERFECT evening ever. It was humid but cool with palm trees and lights and flowers and Tuxtla is just perfect--it just is! We spent the evening eating taco soup, visiting sick girls and making them laugh and putting on the Van show, this time with a seated audience and stories about our prideful male investigators. I'm sorry but masculism is a PROBLEM here. Even our most golden investigators just talk for an hour about themselves, and just this last week we had one of them tell us "I feel like I'm in this family just to help my wife and daughters learn humility. I'm just the humble one in this family and they have so much pride" (All of the daughters and mom nodding "Sí, sí es muy cierto.") And we just look at each other. And then there's this new family we found this last week, really sweet loving people. But one time we were coming back from Comitan and couldn't make it to our appointment with them until an hour later, and later we found them in the street. He tells us we can come over another day but when we say six we have to be there at SIX. I told him sorry and we will do our very best, we're not perfect but-- "Yo sí soy perfecto," he says. We kind of laugh and then realize, oh wow he's serious. Then he talked to us for about 15 minutes about why he's perfect. So we might not even have to do anything for him! Doing well it looks like! It was just so funny.

TUESDAY was the best leadership council in the world. President brought the spirit so strongly and talked to us about having an elevated obedience and how it's time to put childish things away! We've had some missionaries with Rubik's Cube problems in church and such... After all the announcements and us presenting our zones we were split up from companions and put into groups, where we made a plan and vision to solve a problem in the mission. Ours was, "How do we help missionaries obey out of love?" We felt so inspired and found so many scriptures and a great plan. We had Pres. George in our group too, which was cool. 

WEDNESDAY we had our zone conference and planned it better with the elders. It ended up being the most focused meeting we've had since I got to this place, and the obedience talk went really well. We all made a bunch of goals to change.

THURSDAY was just about our only normal day to go out and work and plan. We had a cute 50-year-old member come out with us all day and taught a ton. Our new family accepted baptism but then forgot to come to church so we're still working on them. 

FRIDAY we headed two hours down to Comitan to help in their zone conference and it was even MORE beautiful. The spirit guided us so beautifully to say what we needed to. We ended up talking about things we hadn't planned, and opened the scriptures to talk about Nephi and all his attempts to obey, but more than anything his attitude in doing it. We then talked about Peter. I had a cool study session last week about Peter while babysitting one of our sick girls. We talked about how Jesus called on Peter and Andrew to follow him and they IMMEDIATELY left their nets and followed him. I then asked, what if Peter had wanted to follow Jesus but ALSO wanted to bring his boat. How would he look dragging his boat all around Nazareth? And we talked about the things we obviously have to leave behind, like family, videogames, Facebook, etc. But then I said what if Peter had left his boat but decided to bring his net in a backback since no one would see. What are we secretly bringing with us? And we started talking about our BEHAVIOR, and how Christ has asked to be "even as He is." (3 Nephi 27:27). That turned out just beautiful and the spirit was strong! 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY were basically the same and so empowering. Although Satan worked hard and our THIRTEEN committed and excited people suddenly had to leave the CITY. We will find a way though. Conference? Lovedverything. I watched one in English to accompany a sister who still doesn't understand so well and that was nice to hear their voices. Favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf! It changed my perspective in many ways. I also loved the one about NOT getting distracted!! That's my goal in a few months if everyone could help me out with that! Well this was a really long letter so if you've made it to the end I'd just like to announce for those who don't know it's write Sister Wilson week! So if you haven't done that in a while (or ever...awkward for you) you now have the chance! I accept emails, Dear Elders and handwritten letters! Have fun! 

Meanwhile, it's perfect down here and I love it. :) Hope everyone has a positive week! 

Born in the 90s.

This is a picture of Kimber's childhood she sent to me and which Van soon afterward stuck on our mirror. We now shout things like "Kimber fell down again!" Or "AH! No it was just Kimber."

[All right, folks, time’s getting short, so time to step up those letters:]

E-mail: Kelsi.wilson@myldsmail.net

Blog: http://kelsurito.blogspot.com

DearElder.com: choose “Mexico Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico”.

Letters:

  Sister Kelsi Wilson

  México Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mission

  Apartado Postal 278

  29000 Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas

  Mexico