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.