August 24 Mexico City Temple Open House

My Companion, Hermana Vite and I at the Temple Open House

Okay here's what happened this week.

We had another GREAT lesson with Alexis, he has so many great questions, and is reading the Book of Mormon. Super excited for him, I'm just praying that he will receive a witness that the church is true powerful enough to give him the courage to be baptized, even when his family isn't too excited about it. But I know he will.

We got to go to the Mexico City Temple open house!! on Thursday, it was awesome. Such a great experience to be in the Lord´s house again. I am so grateful for temples. We had a few investigators go with us, I don't think I've told you about Javier yet. He has a major phobia of water, of a lot of things and has a few psychological problems. but has a huge desire to be a member of the church. We are working with him, he already has all the assistances and could be baptized tomorrow, but he's scared, terrified, and thinks that something bad will physically happen to him. So we are just praying that he will have the courage to do it. But he LOVED the temple, and things are looking good :) 

I love my new companion! Hermana Vite, she's from Veracruz (lives close to a beach :) and we get along SUPER well. We are very similar, and I'm just really excited for this cambio that we have together! 

I have great news, this saturday we will be having a conference with ELDER CHRISTOFFERSON!! so so excited, I will tell you all about it next week, but honestly I just feel super blessed for that chance we are going to have to listen to him. 

Those are basically all the updates for now. It's hard to remember all the little things that happen during the week haha but I'll try to be better with keeping you informed with how things are going. 

love you allll the much

Aug. 17 Angie's Baptism

Angie, 17, got an awesome testimony. It was a miracle that we found her, the other missionaries were teaching her but then stopped for some reason, and we found her one day in the street, and she wants to get baptized now. Makes me realize that no effort is wasted, like the other sisters might have thought they wasted time with Angie, because she wasn't progressing at the time, but it's all part of the plan.

This week was great, I fell down the stairs when we were cleaning the church though haha so my butt is literally black and blue, but it;s getting better.

Angie's baptism was on tuesday, which turned out really well because her mom and two brothers were able to be there. She's amazing, I'm really proud of her and her decision, because at first her mom wasn't very supportive at all. but with Angie's example her mom went to church on sunday and she's a LOT more receptive, I'm so excited for this family! 

So since we don't have a font in the casa de oracion(church), we baptize in a pool, in a hotel close to the church. The familiy that owns the hotel have seen LOTs of baptisms. When we stopped by on Monday to ask them to use the pool, we started talking to Alexis, he's 16. SUPER ESCOGIDO, we invited him to church, and he went all alone. We started teaching him the first lesson (restoration) and he started describing how he feels really confused with all the different religions that his family has. Like his mom is cristiana, his dad is "catolico creyente" and his aunt is jehovas witness and how he has been searching for a while to find the truth. I almost started crying, my companion and I were so excited to get to the story of Joseph Smith, we zipped through the lesson, and it was one of the most powerful moments of my mission, as we described the first vision.  Such a cool experience, I honestly feel blessed for the opportunity I got to know him, because there aren't many jovenes de 16 años here that are searching to find the truth like he is. 

    We had a crazy sunday because of cambios, Hermana Bustamante had a hard time saying goodbye to everyone, and we were running all of Ixtapan, but ate lots of cake so that was fun. 

Oh and saturday we had an activity, a Tarde de Cine, and it ended up being super great. My companera and I made about 2 kilos worth of popcorn and we watched 17 Miracles. I can't believe I hadn't seen it before, but I cried like a baby. along with all the rama, so everyone bonded. SUCH a GREAT MOVIE!!! 

    My new companera is super great! super tiny, cute, with a huge smile. we will get along really well. her name is Hermana Vite, from Veracruz, Mexico. She lives close to a beach.  I love her already :) 

  I'm really happy, we have a ton of work to do here, and I really just want to see Ixtapan grow. I know that the Lord works miracles in so many ways. I'm so grateful :) 

Nothing else crazy to tell,  I'm just happy and super excited for this change with my new companion.

Aug.10 Lots of pictures! I love Mexico

Fiesta

They call me chica herbalife

We are teaching Araceli who has her own little club. shes convincing me to start one when I get back in AZ. Gotta love it!

Adventure days in El Salto

Mi México!  This place is straight out of a fairy tale

Jazmin and her family aren't doing too well, her husband (Jesus) still hasn't really gained a testimony, and he decided to go back to his other congregation... so hasn't come to church yet, and this week Jazmin didn't come and it's just a little frustrating becuase she wants her family to be united, but has a testimony of the power of the priesthood, so it's all a little confusing and complicated. We need lots of prayers. 

Our baptism fell through this week, but I'm sure everything will go well for this week. Her name is Angie, I've explained a little in my other emails. super great though.  I got rid of the lice pretty much, but it was awful!

This week will be busy and we have cambios next week. This cambio went by wayyyy to fast!

I'm loving Ixtapan though.  I had a great little adventure today, we hike up to an old church from the 16th century and explored a bit. super cool, it was a really good way to just destress :) I'll send lots of pictures!

Conejo Cereal!  Used to eat it when we lived in Cuernavaca

Aug 3 LICE

This week was good, good days and not so good days, but that makes a really good week. We have a lot of families that we are teaching, but they have lots of challenges, and I feel like it's going to require a lot of faith to help them progress. I'm trying to work on that, on just having more faith. Everywhere in the scriptures it says that if we have the faith of a mustard seed we can move mountains. but its SO EASY to doubt. Like the story of Peter when he's walking on water, and looks down for just an instant and starts to fall. sometimes I feel like Peter. 

 

Oh so I have lice. ewwwwwwwwww I basically can't sleep because I just dream about the little lice crawling around my head. so gross, but we cleaned everything in the house and washed all the sheets, and I bought some shampoos. I'll let you know how it goes hahah. When I found the first little guy I cried and just thought "I want my mom" plus I was throwing up that day haha it wasn't a great day. but I miss you mom.

But honestly this week was really good, we had some good lessons. I love this little rama and I really really want it to grow, so its very motivating. 

 

July 27 Baptism of Gerardo

I'm still playing the piano and going to start giving lessons to a few young women so they can learn and play for the ward and not rely on the missionaries.

I am missing grandma a little over here too, wish I could share with her the experiences that I'm having, but I KNOW that she's working really hard in the spirit world helping convert people so it's cool to feel like we are doing the same work. 

 

Okay, about my week, we had an awesome baptism on sunday, in a pool in one of the hotels here because we don't have a font. His name is Gerardo, 28, and super awesome. He wanted to be a missionary, he literally shares the gospel with EVERYONE that he sees now. Has a few crazy ideas but super good guy. I'm really excited for our rama here, excited to see it grow :)

and we had some AWESOME experiences with a new family.

 

A crazy, incredible week we found an amazing family!  Yazmin, Jesus, her husband, and Maria, his mom, and their little 6 year old son Jordon.  Every lesson that we had with them this week was a blessing.  We feel an incredible spirit in their home.  On Tuesday we found them.  We went to teach their neighbors but they weren't home and Stefani (11 yrs old) asked us if we were going to visit Yazmin, (she was an old contact of the cambio before) and I was like, yeah, might as well.  They let us in and we started to get to know them.  I was just thinking the whole time this family is escogido(selected).  After teaching the First Vision the spirit was so strong, tears flowing and everyone silent.  I could almost hear the Spirit testifying to them of the truth of our message (not really but it was incredible)

Wait just kidding Wednesday was the First vision, and it was super awesome because we were working with Michel, a recent convert, and she's only 13 but has the greatest testimony, and really helped bring the spirit into the lesson.  Okay so Tuesday was also super great because we put a date for them to get baptized.

The best part is Jazmin told us about an illness that she has, a super bad pain in her stomach.  She's gone to a bunch of doctors and had lots of tests done to figure out the cause, but they couldn't figure it out.  At the end the doctors said it's something pyschological.  Who knows but it's been super  hard for her, she can't work and has to be in the house all day.  Hermana Bustamante and I explained how she could have a priesthood blessing, and if she had FAITH she could be healed.  Thursday the Elders came to do the blessing but SADLY I was on intercambios and in Toluca so I wasn't there.  But the best was Friday.  Yazmin and Jesus aren't married so we have to marry them before they can get baptized.  Friday we went in and taught a super sweet lesson with the Family Proclamation and Chastity.  But what really brought the spirit was the opening prayer by Yazmin.  She starts out thanking her Heavenly Father for her family, health, food, normal things and then she starts crying.  She thanks Heavenly Father for healing her because now she doesn't feel the pain.  I'm crying, my companion's crying, I almost couldn't believe it.  All during that day of intercambios I was praying in my heart for her,that she would have the faith necessary to work this miracle.

I KNOW that the priesthood is the power and authority of God.  It was restored first to Joseph Smith and I am so grateful.  I can't believe I get the chance to witness little miracles like this every day!

July 20 Sunday with Friends

Sunday with mis amigas <3 

Vanesa and Michel, both want to serve missions, and always accompany us to lessons. the greatest!

Almost going to hit 6 meses! Can't believe it. but then again it feels like SO long since I've seen you guys.