June 27 Loving IT!

Chasing some chickens

The day before our diet

Okay so this week has been great!!

My companion and I are so similar. Our personalities are super alike. So it's a blast and I'm learning a TON about myself haha. It's been kinda funny, because we both get annoyed at the same things, and I've realized that sometimes I can be an annoying person. It's pretty divine revelation that we are together because I've learned a lot. but it's good because we also get over things really fast, like one minute we are annoyed but the next we are laughing so it's all been really good :)

We had some pretty amazing experiences.

Idk if  I told you, but after tons of time without seeing her, Guillermina showed up to church last week. I turned around during sacrament and saw her and almost had a freak out. She is so cool.

Long story short, she hasn't had a place to live these past months, and was living with a less active.. but obviously that's not good so we taught her chastity and explained why she couldn't be living with someone even if they weren't dating. She accepted that, and went out to the DF to look for work to be able to get enough to rent a room somewhere. She comes back, starts working here as a security guard in Walmart, but works Sundays. She quits the job to be able to go to church, and just showed up. 

She is the most humble, trusting person I've known. It's incredible to me, we went to get her interview done on Wednesday, and we started singing a hymn. I asked her what her favorite was, and its 55, Dios da Valor. it's so perfect, she has no idea what's going to happen in the future, how she's going to find work and be able to support her 5 kids on her own, but she trusts completely in God.

Her baptismal service was really special. Tons of members came and we felt the spirit super strong. There was just a lot of love and support in the room, and she was so excited, laughing and letting out little ahhhhh screams haha. 

A really happy Sunday :)

Oh and one of the members adopted my dog max from the street, and we saw him on Sunday too.  

casi tengo el nopal en la frente 

(I'm so Mexican)

When we celebrated how old we are in months:(

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Conferencia de Zona Lerma-Zitácuaro

Bautismo de Guille :)

June 20 Eating Rabbit

This week was so good. it POURED every single day haah which was ridiculous, we also went and worked with the Hermanas in Zitacuaro Michoacan all day thursday so we didn't have a ton of time in our area. But wow Michoacan is so so pretty. super green and pueblo , I loved it.

and idk its just really been good with my companion, Hermana Ramirez. She and I are VERY similar, it's crazy, so we get along really well, and just laugh all day.

Sunday was so good. We are working with two little families, and they have baptism dates for July. Martin and Cristina are a really awesome couple and they have a little girl who is 3 and so precious. and Norma and her son and the son's girlfriend (we need to get them married) are really excited about everything we've been teaching.

Oh it was so funny, we showed up at Norma's house on Saturday, and found them outside killing a bunny to eat, so we watched them skin it and open it up and everything. It was kinda sad but also super interesting because I was just trying to identify the anatomy of the little bunny the whole time.  Then they invited us over on Sunday to eat it with them and it was delish.

I'm so happy. It's been a blast this week

I love you guys so much. cant believe I'll be home a month from today.

June 15 Saying goodbye to President Whitehead and his Wife

My companion and I, she's from Sonora, super cute. She goes  home in August

This week was crazy for me, we said goodbye to Presidente in Concilio Monday and then in conferences Tuesday.  He leaves in two weeks, but I won't see him or Hermana Whitehead again.  So crazy, because I always thought that I would leave with president, now he's going  home, so that means that time is ticking for me. ahhh

I literally love my new companion, Hermana Ramirez SO much. Its been a really fun week and a half, we get along super good and she's really fun hah. lots of laughs 

We are looking for new people to teach. Its been raining every day so we keep getting soaked. We found a cool couple, Martin y Cristina, and they have a fecha for my last Sunday, we are just praying tons that they can get baptized that day!! I love you guys a ton, and I'm glad you are having a good busy summer. Hope that things go well at work and everything too this week. 

Saying goodbye to Presidente.

we gave him the standard of liberty for his birthday

Saying goodbye to Hermana Whitehead :(

June 6 New Companion

My best friend max <3 he just follows us around to the citas and sometimes we buy him tacos

We had a pretty good week, it was really weird though. because my companion was like experiencing her last everything, and I kept seeing myself in 6 weeks doing the same. The last Sunday is going to be the worst haha. yikes

It was really wierd and right now I just feel this urgency to focus and use every second of the time I have left here. I love mexico and I love this work.  I love being a representative of Jesus Christ.

We had a really stressful sunday haha. we were planning on having the baptism of Tania at 2:30 right after the stake conference... but then they told us that we couldn't because the lideres were going to be using the room, so just a lot of chaos, and waiting for Tania and her family to show up.. which they came JUST in time for the last talk of conference so it could still count as her assistance and she could still get baptized. it was funny, just little tender mercies, because we were calling and calling her and no one was answering so we just said a prayer, like "Heavenly Father, she's your daughter, we know she's ready to take this first step, she needs to get baptized, so just get her here on time please" and everything worked out fine. the Lord will always provide :)

So I'm really excited about being with my new companion too. Hermana Ramirez, she's from Sonora, and really chill :) she seems sweet and we have lots in common, so I am excited to finish my mission with her. she finishes in two cambios so we will work hard.

la Poderosa zona de Lerma

We go too crazy for carne al pastor :)

May 30 Ups and Downs

I learned a LOT about faith.

I've learned that we get to a certain level of faith, and God always wants us to keep progressing and growing. So he puts little trails of our faith, so we can decide again to either rely on Him or on us.  He helps us be more humble, so that we can really trust in our Savior Jesus Christ.  We have to decide to focus on our hope, and its honestly a decision we have to constantly make. It doesn't just come naturally.

When everything is dark, and we have no idea what's going to happen, or what's in store for us, we have to completely trust, it's the only way to be happy. I love what President Monson says "the Future is as Bright as your Faith"

but also a really good week.  like I guess just a ton of ups and downs, but the ups were :

we had an AWESOME baptism!

We worked a lot with an investigator named Leticia and her hija, and I really love them <3 Leticia has a pretty complicated situation, but she has a ton of faith. she wasn't sure about Joseph Smith or the  Book of Mormon, but she wanted to get baptized anyway, acting on just a desire to believe, and it was pretty incredible. 

Our zone ROCKED it this month. so today in about a half hour we are having a zone activity, volleyball, carne al pastor, the whole deal. I'm so excited because the elders are pretty hilarious. 

It was all thanks to the title of liberty we made I'm pretty sure. :)

We also got to go to the TEMPLE!.  its gonna be closed next week when my companion goes home, so they let her go this Friday, and I went with her. what an incredible experience. I understood SO MUCH MORE  than before... and I felt like I learned so much. I didn't get all the answers I wanted, but I felt peace, and sometimes that's all we need.  I think most of the time, God doesn't give us all the answers we want, just because He wants us to be humble and not worry and trust.

oh , and something else that happened, 

our Mission leader and his wife are SUPER cool, and I look up to them a ton. the way that they work in the church, and just a lot of things. anyways, la Hermana found out that she has breast cancer this week. it was incredible, they were getting back from the hospital after finding out, and we called them not knowing about anything, and asked if they could help us go over to another area to help with a baptism date that was for this week, and they stopped by and drove us over no problem. they just always put other people first, even when they are going through what for me would be a crisis.  I can't believe it.

Leticia and Joanna

May 23

Hey mom! I love you a lot <3

This week was alright, we didn't baptize this week so that was kinda sad because we were working aton with  an investigator named Jaquelin, but she kept saying she wasn't ready.  We will keep working with her. Then another really sad thing happened, we went to talk with Sayra, who is the absolute coolest but all her family are evangelists. everything was good and then all of a sudden  Sayra sent us abunch of texts saying she doesn't want us to pass by anymore, and I'm sure it was something her husband did to her. We went and talked to him this last week, and of course to us he said that he doesn't have a problem with her going to church and all, (he's super evangelista) but I'm really worried that he hit her or something, because she told us that he's got major problems with his temper (he went to jail for it before). I hate machistas, and it's really common here.  

It's so sad because she is super escogida, and feels the spirit so strong and identifies it. She LOVES church and the santa cena.  I get so mad when people try to take away the agency of others, Not even our Father in Heaven does that, so who do they think they are. ughh and Sayra was supposed to get baptized this week  but now we will have to find her and see what we can do. Just keep praying a ton I guess.

Things are getting a little better with my companion. I have to learn a LOT about charity, because it's something I really fail at, not getting annoyed so easily and being kinder in the way that I say things. Sometimes I'm way to direct about it and don't think about the feelings of others.. so that's where I'm at right now.

I'm excited to start working again, I love how we all work together in the office, is Haylee going to start this summer? how crazy :)

I'm glad the kids are almost done with school too, that will be a huge relief for you it sounds like. and its always fun, I love summers so much :)

I hope you guys are doing really good and I can't wait! Time is flying by super super fast, it's crazy and exciting but also scary all at the same time.

love you lots

May 16 More baptisms

This week has been crazy, we had to cover two areas because we are in a trio right now because the Hermanas in la Crespa had a bunch of problems. It's been a ton of going back and forth to the two areas.

We had two baptisms! It was really cool, two weeks ago we found an awesome kid whose family was super inactive, and he's ten, and we taught his family, got them to come back to church these past two weeks and he got baptized yesterday.

Love them a lot and Reynaldo, is a young adult super cool, super escogido, changed a TON of things in his life and got baptized yesterday too :)

We had a cool experience going home with him, we couldn't get a taxi to take us back to our area and take Reynaldo home.  It was like 8:30 at night.  Reynaldo said a specific prayer, asking the Lord to send us someone who would take us back for less than 50 pesos, and right when we said amen, we opened our eyes and there was a taxi, and he said he would take us for 50 pesos.  Reynaldo was super excited and it was just really cool to see the Lords loving hand in our every day lives.

Just cool tender mercies.

Oh and I want to tell you about another investigator that I just love a ton.  her name is Sayra, she is so so sweet. her whole family is evalgelista, idk they live right behind this temple and her spouse is super into it. so she was kinda afraid of getting to know the church and stuff.  But she went last week and this week and told us about her experience is was so cool . 

She said that she was pretty hungry (because we have church at 8 am and its a half hour away, so we have to pass by the houses of the investigators at like 7.. way too early on a Sunday ) because she didn't eat before, but she said that when she ate just that little piece of bread she felt so full and happy and content and peace.  and she couldn't even remember what the church was called but told her mom all about it when she got home. and when she prays, the spirit is so strong, so tangible I LOVE it. and she told her husband "I know that you and our kids are evangelists, but I'm going to be Mormon." and he just told her to do what her heart told her. That's a miracle in itself!!! I'm so excited for her.

I love you guys tons and hope you have another good week!

May 9 Mother's Day

Yeah it was really good to talk to you guys yesterday, I hope you had a good mothers day!

This week has been super emotional for me. I just crying every day. I felt really alone being in the new area I think just because I was SO close to everyne in Claveria ,  so I don't feel like anything is the same here. but I am learning to love it the same. We are working hard and want to find lots of miracles, it's just been harder to feel unity and the spirit because of the differences. but we talked it out a little last night and I felt a lot better today.

Just a little miracle I forgot to tell you guys about yesterday..So we were getting ready for the baptism, and my companion was talking to her family while we were at our Mission Leader's house.  It was just one of those cool little things, because what happened is that we totally forgot to tell the elders to start filling up the font.  When we remembered it was about a half hour before the baptism was supposed to start.  We called the elders and they turned the water on, but we were pretty worried because it normally takes about 2 hours to fill.  I said a prayer and was just like Okay Father, we need your help, and we know that you will provide.  We got there and the font was completely filled.  I'm so grateful for His constant tender mercies.

This is Freddy! yeah his full name is Freddy, it's so goofy. because that's so not a common name here. 

May 4,2016 Title of Liberty

I put these clothes on and we were like wait, its Ana! from frozen

We stayed up till like 2 making this standard of liberty haha

it was Hermana Gallacher's idea, and I got to my new zone and was like yeah we really need to get them excited to work because our zone hasn't been baptizing a lot so Monday I started making the plans in Concilio and on the way back from Presidentes house we made the plans and gave an AWESOME talk and had "Captain Moroni" act a bunch of stuff out and everyone signed it.

it was pretty legit :)