The Girl with the Veracruz Mission: Cambio

Hola mis amigos y familia Amados

First off, I hate this keyboard.

Secondly, I am really excited about this new transfer. This past week alone I have felt a change in me. I feel more confident, like I actually have authority to teach. Which I do, but I just didnt feel it as strongly as I do now. I feel this transfer we are going to find people who want the gospel; that we will have progressing investigators. This cambio [change] is going to be a cambio of cambio.

I love my new mom. We are quite alike. She's also the youngest, but of 8. 2 brothers and the rest sisters. They have all served missions before her all over Mexico.

On Tuesday I only spent the morning with the Cordoba hermanas. When we got back to their house, I slept. Which felt so amazing because I was helping Hermana Orduña pack her stuff till the middle of the night. She didn't get any sleep. At 11 I went back to the buses to meet my trainer and go back home.

When I actually have to figure out the area, I remember it a little better. But Karen has been awesome and for two evenings she went out with us to introduce the members to Hermana Garcia.

I have a new little brother. Elder Boyd told me before that he was hoping for an Argentine. He got one, and he's awesome. I can already tell he is going to be a fabulous missionary. We went with the elders to the same house for comida yesterday, and about 2 houses down is a less active hermana. We all taught her a lesson. She doesn't go to church because she is alone and she feels like she doesn't have the money to go. She doesn't have a testimony of tithing. So we taught about trials of faith, and the blessings of tithing. She's a stubborn lady, so I hope she can understand the importance of it.

Hna Garcia and I met another less active this week. Hermana N. She's a wonderful lady. Her husband was a mission president in Argentina. She always needs to be busy, so she has a bunch of sewing projects or she gardens. She says the people here are good,and she loves the church, but has no desire to go. She says she has no friends in the church. We hope we can help her feel the desire to go back.

Its been raining here a lot these past few days. The first two days I didn't have my umbrella. The third day I thought it would be a good idea to bring it. It was a great idea. That night it poured like no other! There was my umbrella and another that a hermano lent us. As we were walking home, we saw a member with nothing, so we went to cover her with our umbrellas as she was walking to her house.

Our goal is to get more references, and the other day we ate with the wife of the stake president, Hermana Blanco and asked if she knew anyone. She pointed us to a woman who has taken the discussions before and knows the church is true, but doesn't want to get baptized. We went to visit her afterwords and taught her the first bit of lesson 1 in Preach my Gospel and the importance of baptism. I hope we can help her.

On Saturday, we didn't have a place to go for comida, but we were given money to get some comida. So we went to this pizza place and ordered spaghetti. They had different kinds. Later in the evening, Hermana Garcia wasn't feeling 100%. We went to bed at 10. I can't remember the last time I went to bed that early, but it was wonderful. Sunday morning was beautiful. We walked to church, which was the first time I was able to do that as both Hermana Garcia and I are pretty fast at getting ready. It was beautiful, with a bit of a breeze. Elder Boyd wanted us to come a bit earlier because he wanted to take pictures with families in the ward. I love testimony meeting in this ward! Hermana Garcia still wasn't feeling good, and so Elder Boyd gave her a blessing, which was a really nice one. And I was able to understand it!

So this is where the story continues... At comida, the second course was spaghetti. I look at Hermana Garcia and if I were her, I would not want to eat it. I never want to eat that candy with chili again after getting sick. It was just us missionaries at the table, so when the hermano was in the kitchen dishing up another plate, Hermana Garcia gave me a ton of hers and switched plates with Elder Boyd, who was finished. So I ate what I could, and when I ate all the spaghetti that I could, I switched plates with Elder Boyd.

After comida, and after trying to contact references with Hermano Nadales (no succcess....but another day, right?), Hermana Garcia told me she needed to go home and rest, as we would have no time Monday. She slept a lot and I tried to find other stuff to work on. I think she's feeling a bit better, but she had me take a portion of her salsa de heuvo today (which i didn't mind because it's tasty).

Today was so busy. We did a deep cleaning of our house today and it looks so much better! When we went to buy some cleaning stuff in the morning, we also bought matching pillows (because we don't have any). I feel so much better in the house. With a cleaner house, it will be more inviting to the Holy Ghost.

We went to a mall today. It was probably the most normal I've felt in a long time. Not that I don't feel normal, but missionary life is a lot different than everyday life. The zone leaders wanted to eat with our Elders, so while they were eating, Hna Garcia and I went to go shopping but mostly window shopping. I loved it.

We all give talks next Sunday. The missionaries. Hope it goes well.

Les Quiero!

Hermana Jones