Bendeciones

Hello My Wonderful People,

Yeah, being a missionary is hard. One thing that I was told over and over in the MTC was that obedience brings blessings, and exact obedience brings miracles. I talk about obedience because we were looking up scriptures on it the other day because we wanted to share that message at a comida and with some less actives. I was getting ready for church in our room while Hna Garcia was in our study room...sala....whatever you call it.  Just thinking...I´m being obedient, where are those blessings....where are those miracles...where are those people that just want to get baptized and recieve even more blessings then they could imagine. When I feel discouraged, I get on my knees and pray to my Heavenly Father ... because he knows exactly how I´m feeling. I was also feeling a bit homesick this past week.  I asked him for some help, and he definitely gave me some. He gave me some encouragement.

After a bit, Hna Garcia came in the room and asked me what was up. Last week, there was a day where we both happened to study the Atonement and we had a great discussion about it. To remember that I wasn´t alone ... and Satan knows how much power I can have as a missionary so of course he´s gonna want to make me feel alone.

All of the talks at church are what I needed. And the lessons as well. There are some recent converts in our ward...they were the baptism on my first week. This weekend the ward had a temple trip to Veracruz (menos missionaries) and they were able to go. Obispo Ramos asked them to come and give a testimony about it. They were beautiful. The temple is a house of God, and I miss having the oppurtunity to visit the temple as often as I did before I left on the mission. But one mercy is that I´ll be able to see it on Thursday.

At the end of all the meetings, we were in the chapel and the daughter of a  family of investigators from the elders came up to me and 

said ¨¨Do you know somone named Ali ... Ali Grant?¨¨

¨¨Yeah, she´s my best friend.¨¨

¨¨She found me on instagram, and wanted me to send you her salutations.¨¨ 

I needed all of that. They were all blessings. The chapel is my home away from home, like I am so happy to walk inside it.

Tuesday for our district class ... our whole district was there for the first time... which means our zone leaders were there, as they travel different districts in the zone. So after our class part, we had practices. I hate practices. They make me really nervous and teaching a made up person for me is a lot more nervewracking than a real person. Elder Rodrigez (ZL) was our investigator. We both told him before we begin that we don´t like practices. We were struggling a little, so Elder Rodrigez paused it and said to us ¨Okay, we´re gonna do something a little different. You´re gonna teach me as myself, Elder Rodrigez... with my own needs.¨ 

The whole teaching experience changed... from something nervewracking it was to something where you could really feel the Spirit. He´s almost done his mission and he feels overwhelmed with all the things he needs to do when he goes home. I wanted to, and did, share my experience at the beginning of the mission here in Mexico. My first few weeks were especially hard and overwhelming for me. Helped him remember that the Atonement was there for him in his overwhelmedness. After our lesson with him, he told me I was able to help him a bit. It felt so amazing to be a help to someone.

On Monday, we went to this little shop by our house. Before we left, we set up an appointment with her. We were able to have two lessons with her. The first lesson we had Hna Cookies come with us and it was such a help. She invited Rosario to come with her family to an FHE for this night. We´re looking forward to that. The second lesson was a short one as we had little time. The second lesson her husband was there. And I was able to teach them something that I had decided to study that morning. Through that experience, I know that I was guided by the Holy Ghost.

On Thursday morning, we had a lesson with the zone leaders to this investigator that they´re giving to us since she actually lives in our area. Oh... the Spirit was strong. It was so cool to teach alongside the zone leaders. At the end, Elder Figuroa beared a testimony to her... and after him I just felt so strongly to bare mine. Like none before. I could tell she was touched. When Hna Garcia and I were walking home after (as we had weekly planning to do) she asked me ¨¨How did you do that? You spoke so well!¨ ... The Gift of Tongues is real.

This week we were able to make aquaintence with a less active. She´s 86 and says she doesn´t go to church because of her health. We invited her to go with us and she agreed. We told her we´d be at her house at 8am. Well... Sunday morning we were lot later than 8 because I had my own needs. So when we went to do our rounds to see if our investigators could come with us (which didn´t happen) we went knocking at her door and yeah... no one was there. So that was really disapointing to us. When we got to the chapel we stopped in the baño for a minute. And out of a stall came our less active hermana, so it was a joy to see her.

So yes, they weren´t exactly the blessings and miracles I was thinking for this week, but looking back at my letter I wrote... I did recieve them.

Take Care Everyone.

Love,

A Little Hermana In Mexico

Besos

Hello Everybody, 

Sometimes it´s nice to start in English for a change.

This week.... I honestly don´t know what to write. We really didn´t have a whole lot of success this week. 

And K, yeah.... we had to drop her. We weren´t able to have a lesson with her after Sunday. We would set up appointments with her and either she wasn´t at her house or she would cancel them on us. 

It´s really discouraging. Because in this transfer and a half I´ve been here, I haven´t had a progressing investigator. So I think for now I´m gonna wait until I think somethings actually working out. I have a good feeling about one unidad we´ve started teaching, and if things progress like I feel it will, I´ll give more details. She made us pancakes last night, though. She has 3 daughters, ages 8, 3, and 1. The way you greet and goodbye everyone here is the kiss on the cheek thing. Well ... since we´re missionaries just with the hermanas here. So last night when I was goodbying the Mom and her 8 year old, the 3 year old was waiting for her goodbye with her kissylips. It was so funny and cute. 

Sometimes I feel like I need to be inspiring when I write as I know this goes public. But truly, I´m not sure if there´s something inspire worthy for this week. I have to remember that people have their agency and to respect that when I just want to say ¨Hey! This´ll change your life!¨  

Well, we had some good visits with less actives and recent converts this week.

I´ve been trying to contact, and say things that I hear in contacts. Hna Garcia says it´s best when you contact with your own personality. Well...I try. But it´s a lot harder when I don´t know the language as well as English.

I think I´ve been dreaming in Spanish. I can´t remember the words, but I think it´s Spanish because I´m with people that can only speak Spanish.

So sorry this week for the lack of inspiring things. But here are some interesting things that happened.

I saw a Canadian flag this week!!!! We were on the way to a meal in another part of town. This family moved houses so we were looking for the street where they moved to while on thus bus. Well we missed it, and we were on our way out of the city. But we got off in time not to get too far. And on the road to the house, there was this motel that said Motel Las Vegas and had Canadian flags. Makes no sense to me. Motel Dubai has American flags. But sense or not, I was so happy to see something of home.

We were trying to find a house for comida the other day and asked this man for some help (in the end he wasn´t good help because he pointed us another direction ... and I knew it wasn´t right). And while we had the oppurtinity we contacted him with a pamphlet. So you know... we shake hands to say goodbye. What is that word that I´m looking for...someone please tell me. And he has his other hand out like he´s gonna give a hug. We can´t hug men as missionaries. So it was kinda awkward for a second and then we started laughing. So he knew only to shake Hna. Garcia´s hand.

We were walking down the street and there´s this 50 year old riding his bike the other way and he shouts out ¨¡Hola Mi Amor!¨  

Me ¨Que Paso?´´ after he rides away.

From a week or two ago, we made friends with some neighbors of Hna Gudelia who sell pork. They gave us a taco the other day. Yesterday we were Portrerillo which is one of our areas ... which is so hard to say and Hna Garcia laughs every time I try to. We were there Saturday as well and there´s this other carnaceria, and we stopped and talked about with the man who was frying up the pig for carnitas. Yesterday we talked with them a little bit and they gave us carne for carnitas and tortillas. We had no idea what to do with the carne ... we weren´t so sure about it so we threw it away. We still have the tortillas though. They need salt.

I´m really hoping I can send something better next week. 

Take Care Everyone! 

Love,

Hermana Jones

matching dresses from da prez

sketchy meat

pretty.

Purple Umbrella

Buenas Tardes,

This week: my companion hit her 9 month mark, I hit my 3 month mark, and Elder McMullen [my cousin] in Halifax hit his year mark. We´ve had some interesting days and....we experienced what we would call a miracle!!!!

We have District Class on Tuesday that takes up a little time. We had an investigator drop us, and we had an interesting discussion with this one man who gave us 3 books by this pastor. He loves books on religion. We gave him a Book of Mormon. ¨Well, he has 3 less other books and one more true book.¨ I said to Hermana Garcia that day.

Wednesday we had a zone class in Cordoba, which was a surprise Tuesday night because they usually happen on Tuesdays where we don't have district classes. And we made a thank you for President since he´s getting released soon. 

Our miracle is a former investigator named K. She´s a former from over a year ago. Wednesday night we wanted to find some find some formers from the area book and we randomly picked her as one of the people we would search for. When we knocked at her door she answered and let us in. She´s 21 with a 4 year old and another one on the way that she does not feel ready for. She lives with her mom. Her relationship with her mom isn´t the greatest.

Earlier that day, she was in a church somewhere praying. She feels so alone right now and she said in her prayer that she needed something in her life to help her. So when we came to the door, she knew we were an answer to her prayers ... so already she has a huge testimony in the power of prayer. Do you know how amazing that feels??? I know I´ve been in lessons before and said something, but I like to consider her my first real investigator. She is something special. She could also use some prayers from all of you. Situation is a little tricky because the next time we came to her house she said her mom didn´t want us coming in. So we need to find another place to teach her. We invited her to church on Sunday, so she said to call her Sunday morning an hour before.  Well...she wasn´t picking up. And not picking up. And later texted us to say she wasn´t entirely sure because her daughter is a little sick right now. It was 8:30 and she said she´d let us know in 15 minutes if she could make it. Church starts at 9. And then we got the text to say to come and pass by her house to church. SHE IS OUR MIRACLE!!!

Friday we had divisions again. My guess was that I would stay here in our area and Hermana Zarate would be my companion for the next 24 hours. And that´s how it went. It was fun! We did a lot of contacting ...because it´s something I want to be better at and something that Hermana Zarate loves to do. We did a 15 minute lesson with which we thought were new investigators because they said we could come again the next day. Overall, it was a good learning experience. And I finally tried tacos al pastor!

Saturday was a day with not a whole lot of success. We did a lot of contacting in our neighborhood. But nobody wanted anything from us. And the lesson we thought we had was a no. Earlier in the evening we passed by a store of a member. We passed by her store again later in the evening and told her how our day was going. She was telling us that our neighbourhood was strongly Catholic. She also told us that we were a blessing to her. That really lifted our spirits.

So on Sunday, I was the first missionary to give talks. I chose to talk about service, and  I think it went well. Sunday evening we stopped by Hermana G´s house ... she lives about 5 minutes from us and is so sweet. She told me last week that I´m like another one of her grandkids. She has neighbours that she wants to visit with us, but she was a little too tired to do some visiting. So it´s been raining each night the past 2 weeks. I didn´t have my umbrella that day and she asked me where it was. It was at home, and me getting wet was no big deal. Well, she decided to walk home with us and me under her umbrella so I wouldn´t get wet. Super sweet lady, right? Well later that night we heard a knocking on our gate ... it was her again. And she came with pica ditas for us (yummy food) 4 each. Oh, she is a good soul. She also bought us bananas this morning.

Hermana Garcia and I have matching umbrellas. Awesome. Well, mine is violet and hers is pink. And now it is time that I must ... voy?

Until Next week.

Keep K in your prayers!

Les Quiero,

Hermana Jones

happy birthday elder boyd!

lol.

the violet umbrella

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

Tessa's zone

stake president and family

la familia of the ward mission leader

One Transfer Down!

Mis Amigos y familia,

 I have survived one transfer, and the next transfer I can tell is going to be really different.

Other than an Elder in our zone going home, all the transfers are in this single district. Hermana Zarate is going to be an sister training leader in Orizaba and Hermana Ledek is going to Tuxtapec. So There are going to be Hermanas whitewashing Escamela ward. Elder Lopez is going to the port [VERACRUZ] and I will get a new little brother (Elder Boyd is training). And one of our zone leaders is also getting transferred.

AND...... I am getting a new mom. The uncommon things always seem to happen with me on my mission. Hermana Orduña is going to the port and she will finish Hermana Orr's training. Hermana. Orr´s mom is coming here to finish training me. As transfers are tomorrow and all the Hermana´s nearby are going be at the port, I´m going to Cordoba tomorrow to teach with some Hermana´s there. I also get to wake up nice and early. 4am, but hey I´ve gotten up earlier before.

This letter will be shorter because Hermana and I have to make a whole bunch of short visits to members of the ward tonight, and then our district is going for supper at the stake president´s house.

This transfer will be a little bit of a challenge because I´m in charge of the area now, and introducing Hermana Garcia to the members. I still don´t know them all yet. So I could use some prayers for that. Hermana Orduña asked how I was feeling today after the news last night ... for some weird reason I´m feeling pretty calm.  Hermana Orduña says Hernana Garcia will be good for me. 

Elder Boyd is feeling pretty confident about this transfer. It´s his last area and he´s said this has been the hardest area he´s been in. But he feels that we´re gonna get some baptisms next transfer.

Speaking of which... we had to drop our date. V is really hard to find and if investigators don´t come to church for two weeks, we have to drop them.

More members have told me that I´m speaking a lot more, and there are a few words that I´ve picked up this week.

This week I:

was part of a lesson where I felt the Spirit so strongly....it was SOO nice, you have no idea. At the MTC you are always feeling the Spirit, so it was really nice.

went to a birthday party of a member in the ward in Capaluca...it´s gorgeous there. Really, it was the family and us missionaries. And their cute little puppies.

had sushi. It was tasty.

Hermana Sarai gave us a big thing of Chilatoles. We had them at her house twice this week too. A pity that Hernana Orduña can´t have a whole lot more, because we have lots to eat. And they´re not made at the port.

I don´t have my planner with me, so it´s a little hard to remember all that we´ve done.

I had a nightmare the other night. I came home from my mission and I couldn´t remember a thing and I was really unhappy. I was SOOO glad when I woke up. I was telling Hermana Orduña and she said to me "... Well do you pray for good dreams at night?" and I realized I never did. All my dreams on the mission haven´t been very pleasant. So the next night when I said my prayers, I asked to either have a good dream, or no dream at all. I had a good dream, I was helping the people in my ward with something. And last night I had a good dream as well. I´m really grateful that Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

Yesterday when we took a taxi to comida, the driver had a pass along card on his dash. So we asked him who he received it from and he received it from some Hermana´s in another ward. He lives in our boundaries, so I hope I can find his house with the directions he gave us.

Yesterday at the end of Relief Society, Hermano Laulo came in to talk with the RS. Our food calendar for June was pretty empty, and he told the story in the Bible of how there was that one lady that didn´t have a lot of food but a man came and asked her for a meal. And afterwords, because of her faithful service, she was told that she would never hunger again. Well...our calendar got pretty full. So thanks to the families that feed the missionaries everywhere :).

Well, this upcoming transfer comes with responsibilities I didn´t think I would yet be in charge of. If Elder Boyd can do it after being out here in this area for 6 weeks, so can I.

Bring it.

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Jones :)

Elder Boyd's #selfie

It is tradition to get your face smashed into cake on your birthday.

Blanca Nieves

Hola Everybody!

First, I must congratulate myself. It´s been the first week of me being out here in the field that I haven´t cried once. Okay, last week it was when I was sick and I would have rather been sick at home. So...it gets better!

Sometimes I have dreams where I can´t speak a lick of Spanish and I don´t like those dreams. But I picked up on a few more words this week, such as suyo or cierto. I´m not entirely sure in what context to use them so I´ll keep listening to my trainer. It´s funny the random words I pick up. 

So in the mornings, something I´ve never mentioned yet... we wake up at 6:15 so we can have 10 minutes to read the New Testament before we exercise...it´s a mission wide thing. I like it because I haven´t been able to really read it since my first year of seminary. But I started reading it in Spanish this week alongside my English. Since this time is just for me, I thought first to just read in English, but now I do first in Spanish, and I only look in English if I don't know a word.

So...cool story. We have another connection in my area, with home. Jessie Tanner, go get Brandon. You'll see why. Our ward mission leader is Hno. Laulo. The other day he had us and the elders at his house for pizza. He likes to say Canada must be boring...all a joke. He said that he had a mission companion from Alberta. He took down this collage on the wall from his mission and I took a quick glance at it. ¨Elder Tanner¨ he said, and was about to put it back in the wall. The name clicked, and I knew Brandon served in Mexico City. I was just like ¨wait, wait, wait¨. And I was too excited to think in Spanish I said wait in English. So, there was a picture of him and Brandon as mission companions. And so I told them that his wife is a friend of mine.

This week. So remember all those contacts I told about for Tuesday? Yeah...no one was home. However, Hno and Hna Celiceo, the less actives from last week, they were at their house for FHE. Hno. Celiceo taught us about eternal families. And that night I had my first chilatole in what felt like forever. It was amazing! But...earlier on Tuesday we had our meal with a member in the ward who is 5 minutes from our house. I was in the bathroom for a minute and I came out and Hna said ¨Vamos a nuestra casa!". Okay, I didn't entirely understand why, but when we got to the street we starting running to our house. There was rain and thunder, and we had clothes on our clothesline. (we dry our clothes in the sun here). But those elements didn't click to me at that moment. ¨Why are we running¨¨ I asked Hna. ¨Nuestras ropas!!!¨  Yeah...sometimes I can be a little blonde.

This week, my favourite day was Thursday. In the morning we went to the Hernandez house to help Hna Cookies (wife of Hno Hernandez) and Karen decorate some items for the ward activity we would have later that night. They also fed us breakfast, which was nice because we barely have any food in our house. 

We went after to visit a family that was referenced to us as a less active family. They´re a part member family, as they stopped attending their church before their youngest (who is 12) could be baptized.  We're going to their house sometime this week for FHE. We hope for them to return to church and teach their 12 year old so the father can baptize her.

We were to visit an investigador after our visit with them and were hoping for a taxi to come soon. I said a little prayer in my head that we could have one to come soon. So when the taxi came, which wasn´t too long after, we started talking with the driver. He has a Book of Mormon, and knows it to be true. But he works all the time he hasn´t had time for the missionaries to come and teach him. He gave us his contact info. So that was a cool experience. 

With our investigator R, our plan was to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. But he had some other questions and we ended up teaching him some of the commandments, like the Word of Wisdom. He knows English, so he talks to me in English and I teach him in English. Hna says that when I have the oppurtunity, teach in my language. That lesson really reminded me that we are here to teach people, not lessons. Why there is a guide such as Preach My Gospel.

That night, the ward activity was a belated Mother´s Day activity that involved the whole ward. There were different challanges to be done, and we were in charge of two. Hna, Elder Lopez and I had letters of the alphabet. Corresponding with the letters were Hno. Laulo. Hno Hernandez and Elder Boyd. When we flipped to a new letter, they had a theme and had to talk about something corrosponding with that letter. It was quite funny. But afterwords, they wanted to switch roles. anmd have us talk about how it is hard to be women because we have to be dressed up all the time. E. Lopez was the conscience of a women. Hna was worried about me because I don´t know everything in the Spanish language. Elder Boyd said I could do it in English, but that would be no fun for me. So I did it in the limited spanish I know. The ward had quite a laugh. It was fun.

The second challange was for some of the hermanos in the ward to play telephone, but charades style. They all faced one direction and the hermano behind one would tap their shoulder and act it out. We chose movies for them to act out. I chose Snow White. Pretend to eat an apple and fall, right?

The first Hermano pointed at me ... the only guera in the room and bobbed his hand for the seven dwarves. So the trend continued. I found it funny, so now I have the sign on my desk, and why I had Hna take a picture of me in it.

Sunday, for our third hour, we the missionaries were in charge of teaching the hermanos and hermanas together. I was slightly terrified because though I just had to speak 5 minutes, it was the most I would speak at a time in front of a large amount of people. I s`poke of the importance of sharing our testimonues with our friends. Either I did a good job, or the ward wanted to make me feel better about my lack of spanish, or both. But there were some people who came up to me afterwords that said they liked hearing my portion. I think it was good atleast. 

Well, I look forward to this next week, where Hna says that I´m in charge of planning where we go and starting the lessons.

Keep being awesome!

Les Quiero Mucho! 

And a Happy Belated Birthday to the amazing Ali Grant!!!

Hermana Jones

#selfie

Tessa y Tessa

We Have a Baptism Date!!!

Hola!

First, I want to talk about yesterday because it was awesome. Not only because I got to talk with my family but because of some other things.

WE HAVE A BAPTISM DATE!!!! On Sunday, after comida we went to go visit some less actives who haven´t been to church in a long time. Hno. C is a great man and knows that God is very important in his life. There was a lot more good stuff that he said, but when you´re trying to listen and interprate what is being said, that takes a lot of energy. So take my word for it :). One concern about coming back to church was that he didn´t really have church clothes, so Hna shared with him that scripture in Samuel...that God doesn´t care about your outward appearence, he cares about what is in your heart. Which is a lovely message for all of us. As long as we have that desire to follow God, that´s all what he needs.

After our visit with them, V was walking up the street (the guy we had a lesson on the street with the other week). Hna had to talk on the phone for a bit so as we were walking to Abi´s house so I could skype, I talked with him of what I could with my limited Spanish. My Spanish is growing! Little by little. Like...now I understand what people mean when the say mandé.

V. When we got to Abi´s, Hna told him to wait a moment. So after I was set up with Skype. Hna and Abi went out to teach him one of the lessons. After skype, after Abi´s, when we were going home in the taxi, Hna told me ¨Tenemos una fecha!¨ I am so excited!!! I don´t even care I wasn´t there for the invitation.

Last Tuesday during our zone conference, Presidente was conducting interviews. It was his last one since he is getting switched soon. He is a good man! And I know the next one will be excellent as well. He really cares about his missionaries. At the end of my interview with him, instead of a closing prayer he asked if he could give a blessing, as it was his last interview with his missionaries. I understood parts here and there. But though I couldn´t understand everything, I could feel love. Love from him and love from my Father in Heaven.

 

Wednesday. We got up at 4:30-5:00 that day. We had a hermana conference to get ready for in Veracruz! It´s 3 hours away so we had a bus to take at 6:30. It was so good! It was wonderful to see the Hna´s from my district as well as Hna Blankmeyer! (Family, you know some already). They are all serving in zones in Veracruz. Hna´s DeFriez y Blankmeyer are even in the same district. When you spend 6 weeks all the time with Hna´s like them, they become your family. So it felt like an early Christmas present to see them again. They have been wondering where I´ve been all this time.

 

 

Hermana Fletcher told me that lately she´s experienced some Tender Mercies. One day, during a zone conference she was thinking how she was going to go through her mission without hearing a Josh Groban song (we´re only allowed to listen to MoTab and EFY songs), and during a presentation came a Josh Groban song (was it a different one because I never heard one at my zone conference). Also...if you remember, she´s one of the biggest Frozen fans I know. Frozen focuses on sisterhood, and one of the themes of the Hermana´s conference was sisterhood. We got to watch the clip with the song Do You Want To Build a Snowman.

 

Thursday I slept a lot [Tessa got sick]. In the afternoon both Thurs and Fri, we had divisions with the Escamela Hermanas so Hna could go out and do some work. Hna Zarate went with her and Hna Ledek stayed with me. I´ve been able to get to know her a lot better these past few days. She´s an only child, and she was saying that going out on a mission feels like she´s starting her own story. Since she was young she had the thought in her head to go on a mission. Both of her parents have served one.  Her saying that this was a start of her own story was really cool to hear.  She also loves The Fault In Our Stars and is sad that she will miss the release of the movie as well. She gets to see it 6 weeks earlier than me. It´s cool. On Friday night, for part of it we tried to play Spanish scrabble. It was a lot trickier than we thought, but we got a few new words from it.

It was so nice to go out and work again on Saturday! I was so happy! We did some service for Hna Sarai...who is one of our mothers in the ward, other than Hna Cookies. It was trying to make her gelatins look pretty by injecting colour in them...I was really bad at it so I looked for other ways to serve. We also went to Porterillo and got some street contacts for lessons tomorrow. I really hope they follow through. Hna got flowers from Hna. Cookies for mothers day because she´s my mission mother.

On Sunday morning, I could barely speak because my body thinks its fun to give me a cold. When we sang a song in church for the Relief Society in my ward and Sacrament Meeting for Escamela ward, I mouthed it all because it hurt to sing. There were three other voices with the Escamela Hermanas, plus the voice on the recording.

I look forward to working this next week, and building up my props I bought today to go with my lessons.

Les Quiero!

Hermana Jones

 

They love to see the temple.

Hermana Jones and Hermana Ledek

Comida

Hermanas in the Cordoba zone.