The Last Melon!

Well, here we are! Beginning the LAST TRANSFER. [The ‘Last Melon’ was an Ice Age dodo reference, btw] My companion is getting transferred to the Dominican Republic :(

Yesterday we had quite a dramatic scene in which she said she's leaving me and started throwing all her clothes dramatically onto her bed and telling me everything I'd done to her. She's so funny. I'm going to miss her.

So this week we worked like MANIACS. Our district leader put a goal on the district to have 21 lessons and 220 contacts as well as a bunch of other things that all sounded impossible. So we decided to go for it and it was quite the week. It also rained. Every single day. And our feet were constantly wet which apparently makes your lungs hurt because that's what happened. I think I'm going to invest in rain boots.

[Here’s the weather forecast I snapped from my iPhone while Kelsi was online this morning:]

But I'm going to tell you about what was probably the BEST day of my mission. I don't even know why. It rained the entire day. Hermana Ana, this single 50 year old lady in our ward accompanied us the whole day and we contacted EVERYONE. We kind of made it into a competition, my companion was keeping score and she'd be like "Okay I've got 12 and you've got 8." "Did you count the last two ladies?" "Those were MINE! I talked to them first!" "But who had their card ready?" "No! Bad!" And then later, she's like, "I'm winning both of you!" "But Ana and I are a team, right Ana?" "Yeah!" "NO!" It was so funny. Also, I had like a million failures. For example, we're walking along the busy street on the sidewalk and suddenly I feel like I'm going to fall off the curb, so I grab a telefone pole, fall anyway, and end up swinging around it as my bag goes flying off my shoulder and into my hand and then I end up just embracing the wall and collapsing in laughter while my companion can't even breathe and we're just maniacs in the street laughing beyond control and she's like, "What WAS that!?"

Kelsi, Ana, and Hermana Caraballo

That night we had a great family home evening with our struggling recent convert family and everyone felt the spirit strongly, we read a very moving "letter" from Heavenly Father to his daughter and everyone felt it. Afterwards, Hermana Sofía gives us mugs with this warm pink thick drink in it. I whisper "What is this?" and my companion tells me it's yogurt. I try it, it's good, and I'm like "Wow, I've never tried it like this before!" And she just dies "BAHAHAHA she thinks it's yogurt!" and I just about tackle her and the whole family all night keeps saying "Did you like your yogurt Hermana Wilson?" "Anyone want more yogurt?" And I'm like "How am I supposed to know there's a pink hot milk thing!” [Apparently it was really strawberry flavored “atole”] And then we leave the house, start walking, my companion hurts herself, I look behind me and then walk into a hole and fall again and she is beside herself.

But despite all the craziness and laughter we had the most success I have ever had in one day, with a bunch of lessons and 82 CONTACTS, (the mission goal is 20 each day).  So with a half hour to spare we went and bought huaraches to go and taught a lesson to Hermana Ana right there in the restaurant while they were being made. Awesome.

Meanwhile, I forgot to mention that last Monday we went to these caves in a forest and it was awesome! It was like being in Timpanogos but without the hike, you just pay 5 pesos and walk in, and then they try to charge 15 more after you're in but your Dominican companion says "Do I REALLY have to pay to see some rocks" And they let us all in free and didn't even take our money when the rocks were actually cool and we tried to pay on the way out. They were nice.

Hermana Alejandra and Kelsi

And last of all, here are some random questions and short answers from my little sister :)

So how are you? Awesome!
What's your favorite part of your mission? See above!
Do you wish you could extend? Well, why wish for things? There are things to do here and things to do at home so I'll just do what I'm told. :)
Do you think mom wishes you could extend? I used to think no but I'm not altogether suure. They keep telling me how much they like having me on a mission. But I take it as a good thing!
How's your (new?) companion? Coming tomorrow! 
Are you hungry a lot? No.
Do people feed you? Yes!
If so, do people feed you well? Most of the time!
Do you ever just scream from joy? Every day.
Do you still dance in the rain? I sort of smile upwards and do a little jig.
DO YOU MISS ME!?!?!?!? YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
What is your favorite Mexicano food? Everything
What is your favorite Americano food?  Bagels
What do you miss most? Bagels
Do you mind answering these in the main letter? That's what I'm doing!
How many people do you think are counting down the days until your home? You tell me :)
Many people are wondering (me), is your bed comfy? 

Do you sleep well? On that note, do you see emoticans? Yes. yes, yes :) 

Who do you miss most? (me, right!) Carpets!! The violin. Oh, and you. 

Well, I love you all! My new companion is Hermana Membreño and will get here tomorrow. I like her. She does crazy things. She's one of the girls that was trained in Tapachula at the same time as I was training and we would see them a lot.

Have a great week!!

Beware of Pride

Well things are back to normal-ish. It was something of a rough week but with lots of happy sprinkles.

Hermana Pugh ended up staying with me til Thursday, and we had lots of fun, conversations and success. But we were both ready to have permanent companions and get to work, especially her. But I'll tell you about one miracle.

Every Monday night we've been doing FHE's with a member family and whoever they or we choose to invite that week. It started as a four-week plan to go through the mission lessons and invite people, and I think I already told you about the inactive sister that came the first time and has just been glowing with happiness and changing her life since. She calls my companion her niece because apparently they look alike, and she calls me her "Guerita." (White one. I'll never get over that word. We need one like it but with an affectionate connotation because all we've got that I can think of is "pale," "pasty" etc..) But anyway it's been more than four weeks but we figure, why fix something that's not broken because it keeps bringing success and Hermana Fide makes delicious quesadillas.

So this week may have been the greatest yet. We've been having lots of issues with one of our convert families of one year that have started going to another church and closing their doors to the members. But miracle of miracles, both we and Hermana Fide invited the mom and she came with her daughter! And so did M., the miracle from week one. Annnd as we're all arriving, who shows up but a random aunt-something-removed and her friend who came to visit from Guerrero and had no idea about the FHE, nor the church in general. So as a big happy clan we put on the movie of How to find faith in Christ and have a nice discussion afterwards. It went really well, the spirit was strong, but the best part was as we're saying goodbye to everyone, the aunt hugs me SUPER tight to my surprise and says "Thank you." And then before I can ask anything she says "You can come visit me tomorrow. I'll be here for three days or so.”

Unfortunately the next day something came up and she wasn't able to make it home in time, nor the next night after, and then they were gone. But. The miracle is that upon talking to Fide, it had opened the door for lots of late-night discussions about the Book of Mormon, and after everything was said and done, she left town determined she wanted to be a member of the church and ready to go find the missionaries there. Yay!

We also had some days in which we walked, and WALKED all over our area in the rain and found empty door after empty door. But you know what? It wasn't anywhere near discouraging like it once was. Sometimes it's just nice to be in Mexico, with a namebadge on next to your companion and be doing the best you can. We found ourselves at one point at the limit of our area in a place we'd never been by a smelly river and took ourselves a picture. Cuz you're never going to remember the normal days, but the brutal ones live forever and are just awesome. I can't believe we've only got seven days left til this one leaves me. I just want to cry. But we're having fun, and today we're going to head down to Rancho Nuevo. Who knows what that is but it was my idea. I think there's caves there. We're going to go with the girls from the other ward who are our good friends.

Today we were studying about pride. Holy Ezra Taft Benson, everyone needs to look up his talk called "Beware of Pride." People who are older than me probably remember when he gave the talk because apparently it was super famous and impactful, but I can't get enough of it. Interesting to see that pride is not just vanity (a fruit of pride) but rather everything that is enmity towards God or any other person. Every time we compare ourselves to someone else, or want to have something better it is PRIDE. That's why Satan became Satan. Not because he wanted all that the Father had, but because he wanted MORE. He wanted it and for his own father to go down a rank. And now look at him. Poor kid. If he could just have been happy with being "Assistant 2" as my companion puts it, he really could have come to have all the father had. But it took HUMILITY to get there, it took glorifying the father, and it wasn't a price he was willing to pay. We HAVE to be willing to pay the price of humility! We have to admit we're wrong, say I'm sorry, be happy for other people's successes, and help in every way we can. Pride is just so destructive. That's why we have the old testament and Book of Mormon, just to teach us that. So anyway, loved that talk. Read it. Enjoy.

Well, you're all great! Wish us well in this last week and pray that I don't get dehydrated from shedding tears. Hehe ;) 

Love you all!

That week happened. :)

So as a sum-up of the absolute CRAZIEST week of the mission:

We drove to Tuxtla with President and Hermana George on Monday, squished in with a bunch of luggage, their daughter, and one of the sick sisters, and THEN added in two elders who had a sudden problem with his appendix, which meant Hermana Grover, Kim and I ended up in the one available seat in the back and were laughing the whole way there. Meanwhile, we get calls that one of our girls in Comitan who's been having a lot of problems lately has run away! Oh! And her companion is in the mall and is freaking out. So we tell President, and he's like, Oh! And we spend the next two hours getting lost, calling a million people, sending for help down in Comitan which is two hours away, and driving in the opposite direction to Tuxtla. With the help of some ward members and missionaries they found her at about 9:30 that night. Holy cow. And we were basically on the phone most of the day trying to keep people calm.

Then we had a great council. Very inspired. My companion provided most of the comments in her very direct manner and took everybody off-guard a lot, but the assistants asked President why she wasn't made STL before because they were awesome. She scares people sometimes and she knows it but I don't know why, she's perfect. I think it's hilarious.

We got to go to the temple and I got to see Elder Merrill, and President was all surprised we were cousins (AFTER we took the picture) even though I've told him before, and then we found out that WE'RE cousins too! Turns out President, like many others, comes from Anson Call, and we got on FamilySearch and found his father from my account. So that was cool! He told his wife, "Sister Wilson's our cousin too!" And she lights up and opens her arms to me and says "Family!”

Then we went home, did a zone conference which went awesomely—we got lots of participation and taught about self-reliance and instigating it in investigators and in ourselves. Then since it went so well, we decided to go down to Comitan to their zone conference and help the girls out down there, even though it didn't make logical sense because we wouldn't have much time to be with both companionships and it was really far away. But we went! And it's a GOOD THING. Because everything crazy happened and we were in the right place to be able to help and now everything's calming down and it looks like we'll be in a trio for a little bit and wait for a new companion.

But let me tell you what I learned about self-reliance. This is SO KEY to EVERYTHING! It is the major focus in Mexico for this year from the Area Presidency. They talk a lot about "Autosuficiencia" because we need to help these people take responsability for their own conversion. So many depend so much on the missionaries. So we taught how to take responsability for ourselves and OUR conversion, and how to help investigators and members answer their own questions and solve their own problems. And that's what we'll be focusing on for the rest of ever I think, because it just makes so much sense and solves all our problems. Goodness.

Well, I enjoyed this week. Can't wait to start sleeping and working again, because we didn't do either of those things that week. But I have felt such a strength and ability beyond my own in everything we have done this week and I know we have not been alone one step of the way. I am so thankful for this gospel and for such a stellar family. Thank you for your faithfulness, happiness, and every other ness you have. I love you! Happy Mother's Day!!!!

Hermana Wilson (or half of her ;)

Twists and Turns

What a week! This week we spent Monday down in the dumps physically, if you know what I mean, and spent most of the day sleeping. Tuesday we decided to push our stomachs to the limit and head to Chenalho, aka Tzotzilandia which is an hour drive of pure twists and turns up and down the mountain, and my companion vowed she'd never return. We spent the day teacing their district leaders and then doing divisions with the hermanas for a few hours before heading back and feeling completely wiped. We worked Wednesday and Thursday and started exchanges with Jovel, the other ward here in San Cris in the night. We had crazy exchanges and kind of felt bad afterward. We ran out of food and the neighbor came over and said there was no water so we started filling up buckets in preparation, and then I was coughing all night and then I injured myself! Poor Hermana Alejandro. She's the best though I really love her and we had fun.

The injury went like this. We went up to a mountain to grab a member who was going to accompany us to see an investigator, and then once we arrive the investigator calls and cancels. So we're suddenly on top of a mountain and not sure where we're going. But the sweet member was willing to go with us anyway even though it wasn't going to be as close, and sacrificed her day of laundry to walk all around the city with us. She's this sweet 60-something single lady with gray hair that goes past her waist and her first language is Tzotzil. We went with her niece who's been inactive and taught her, and then with some new people we found. Then we finished up the night visiting L.

I don't even know if I've talked about L. but I should have because he's wonderful. He's María Ester's friend, 21 years old, and has been investigating for a while now. He kind of disappears for weeks at a time which is probably why I don't talk a lot about him, since he lives in a village two hours away but goes to school and has an apartment here. Well, he's been progressing really well and we'd challenged him this last week to leave tea, since he did so well with the coffee but really loves his tea. One thing about Linder is that he always keeps his commitments which is really wonderful. But this week we showed up and he started right off to say that he needed to tell us something. He then proceeds to tell us that he'd gone to Tuxtla this week and had honestly forgotten and drunk wine at a party. He said afterwards he realized what he'd done and felt SO guilty, and just awful. He didn't know what to do, so he opened his book of mormon and prayed. He thought we'd be mad, but we had a really REALLY awesome lesson about repentance, the sacrament and the Atonement. And it was funny because the night before I'd had an experience where I messed up on something little and for some reason felt SO guilty and didn't know why. I just wanted it to go away but it wouldn't and it took a lot of praying and reading to find peace again. Well it was in THIS moment with Linder when I realized that I had felt all of that to be able to understand him. We are representatives of Christ, and Christ felt everything we felt to understand us. In that moment I felt this HUGE rush of love and understanding and realized I was feeling what the Savior feels for each one of us when we mess up. I'll never forget these moments because I feel like this is really what the mission is about--not baptizing a hundred million people before they're ready, but experiencing moments of understanding the Savior and loving God's children. WOW.

We had a talk last night and realized that with our last few months that's what we want to do. There's a lot of pressure here for numbers, as in all missions, but upon talking with the bishop and being completely inspired by him and how hard he works for these members, we decided we want to give all we've got to help him in his job and convert the people of San Cristobal -- help them to understand the doctrine, live it and love it. So keep your prayers up and we'll keep working over here! Love you all, have a great week! :)

....Awkwardly realizing I never said anything more about the injury. We left L.'s house, tried to get a taxi for Hermana Manuelita who lives in the mountain, but when we stopped it, she shouted NO and started walking away firmly, because apparently she just doesn't like taxis, so we walked her to her bus stop and then had to move quickly to get home, in the process of which I stepped wrong, doubled my ankle, shooting pain for like thirty seconds which went away and then came back at 1 AM and kept me up all the night. The next morning I couldn't even walk to the kitchen. Alejandro called my companion and she didn't believe her at first, but then she passed me the phone and I'm like "Compañeraaaaa" "Y que FUE??" And she comes home, the doctor comes, tells me not to walk that day, gives me pills and told us we need more humility and to stop getting sick, alright, and then I spent the day at home with María Ester, a 20-year-old perfect convert of one year. We spent the day eating sandwiches, talking about the mission and reading the old testament which was super cool. I love her. But now I'm walking all over again woohoo!

Kay NOW have a great week :)

The Lopez family with Kelsi and her owee foot.

Hermana Caraballo, Kelsi, noodles, and ‘pan’. And juice. Apparently made in a bowl.