Growing Pains, Pentecostals, & Rrrrsss

Hola Familia and Assorted Others,

Oh what a week... It was a little bit (fine print: BIG) of an adjustment working with someone new...and being in charge hah but we´re doing it. My hija, the lovely Hermana Castro is great and we get along really well. She even helps me with my Spanish.

Hermana Castro & Me

Apparently, I´m an overly aggressive r-roller. Haha... 

The work was kind of slow this week, we´re adjusting to sharing the members between two set of missionaries and are in the finding stage. Which means lots of walking, and talking to strangers, and bearing testimony. Which is AWESOME. hah. We have faith that if we keep working hard we´ll find prepared people. 

We know they´re out there. 

Meanwhile, we´ve encountered a lot of...interesting.. people. Like the Pentecostal lady who prayed....very fervently....for our confusion to leave us so we could understand the bible. Ahhh.... yeah. And like three people who have hearing problems. And a couple who can´t read.

And a lot of lizards. Have I talked about how many lizards there are here??? 

On the plus, we have a couple really great investigators who are progressing! One has read all the way to Alma 19 in El Libro de Mormón!!! How cool is that!? I love El Libro de Mormón. 

I love you all too! And this gospel. And being a missionary...I just love life. There´s sunshine and as many tortillas as I can eat (no joke about the tortillas) and I´m sharing the gospel with people who need it. Keep being awesome!!!

¡Vale la pena!

Hermana Wilson

Transfer 3: Chuburná

Best Things...

-We got a calentador (not sure what you call it in English...a heating coil we put in the bucket) for the water so I can have hot water!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE: Shortly after writing that, our calentador melted itself and we´re back to cold showers...-_-

-Él es La Dádiva. Even though no on knows what that means. He really is the greatest gift our Heavenly Father could have given us. 

-Devocional Navideño!!!! Getting the whole mission together is like this big family reunion. 

-Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Jesus, I love my family, I love Mexico. It was a perfect Christmas.

Worst Things...

-Showing up to a lesson and your investigator is drunk so you can´t teach them anything. I want to help them with their addiction but we can´t when they´re wallowing in it. Palabra de Sabiduría people. 

Things that are working for me...

-Sticky notes! I use them for everything; to study, to leave notes...They´re awesome.
-Super Agenda: I took apart two agendas and put the pages for Futuros Investigadores in my agenda (otherwise I run out of space like 2 weeks in and have to use sticky notes *see above)

I wish I would have known...

-Get a Spanish-English hymn list. They´re at the MTC, but I didn´t and it´s a pain to try and translate and find the hymn number. Be smarter than me.

-It wouldn´t be a bad idea to get an extra Spanish Himno too. We sing at the beginning of every lesson, and sometimes there are a lot more people than himnos. 

-Bring an English dictionary. It would be nice. But maybe that´s because I´m a nerd. 

-Also a mini whiteboard and dry-erase markers are great for diagramming things out during lessons. Basically all visuals are awesome. 

Food...

-POZOLE! I love it. It reminds me of home. Hah the members are always surprised when I say that my mom makes pozole. 

-Ceviche de pupo...That is octopus and it´s actually a lot more delicious than it sounds. haha

-Cochinita is this pork in Condimento Rojo...not sure what it is exaclty but it´s very Yucateco and delicious. 

-I don´t know how I haven´t mentioned this yet, but MEDIA CREMA! It´s basically cream in this box and they put it on and in everything...yup cream in everything. :)

-Fresh coconut...It´s the bomb

(Why do I have more things about food than anything else?? What does that say about me?????)   

Fun Facts about Mexico/This Mission...

-There are about 13 pesos in a dollar.

-Elders aren´t allowed to pluck their eyebrows...I have no idea why that became a problem serious enough to make a rule. haha

-Mexico has a serious explosive addiction. haha. For New Year´s there were all kinds of little stands selling fireworks and mini bombs, the streets were full of children with explosives, we may have had a couple thrown in our direction...it was as entertaining as it sounds. ;) 

-No caffiene. It´s a mission rule. No podemos tomar la coca. 

-The mission schedule changed this cambio; if you´re not in training (first two cambios) and you need to study language you have to get up at 5:30 to be out the door by 10:00. 

Weather...

-I feel like it´s hot, but I´ve been told that it doesn´t get really hot until Abril. Wish me luck because I may melt. 

Mayan...

-wayanone: here we are

-cuulem: sit

-coóx hanal: come eat

-háa: water

chichi: grandma

I learned...

-How to explain why we don´t worship the virgin Mary. Idols and the Virgin are huge problems here.

Hijas, Baptisms, & Carmen

So many things to say...

But first! I had my first FIVE baptisms this week! We baptized a family!!!!!! La familia Araujo Molina, a mom, and dad, and their two kids. Seriously it was the BEST thing of my life. That´s been my dream since I put in my papers!!! They´ve changed so much while we´ve taught them and I know that this is just the beginning of their eternal family. 

Fam Araujo con Hno Daniel y Hno Manual

And I love them so much. 

I don´t know how to explain how much of a miracle they are. It was a fight to get them to accept a baptismal date at first but then after that it was literally a breeze to teach them. They´re the type of investigators that we teach them a priniciple and they´re either already living it (´´because it seemed like the right thing to do´´) or by the time we come back they´ve already gone over and above completing it. 

Dionisio & His Family History

I love them. It made me so happy.

We also baptized the granddaughter of a less active member in the ward. And she is a complete sweetheart. 

Ashley

Ahh...it was too much joy for me to take in. The church is true people. Don´t you even worry about it. 

After the baptism we also had the coolest lesson with one of our investigators, Carmen. She tried to quit on us, but after some smooth talking (a whole LOT of the Spirit) she agreed to try again. Also she is like the sassiest person I´ve ever met. Direct quote (well...translated direct quote):

´´I said I read a little and didn´t understand...yeah, I didn´t read. I´m LYING´´ hahah I love her too. :) 

So cambios were today. They divided our area and....I´M TRAINING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, you read that right. I have an hija!!!! Her name is Hermana Castro and she´s from Monterrey. I´ll send pictures next week. They split up me and Hermana Ludlam and we´re both training and staying in Barrio Chuburná but in different areas. 

Hermana Ludlam  & Hermana Wilson

I´m only freaking out a little. Haha. But I am SO excited. 

I love you all! The gosple is true. I KNOW that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. This is His church. And His gospel. And through Him we can have eternal life with our families. Love you all!!!!!!!

¡Vale la pena!

Hermana Wilson

Familia Poot

Barrio Chuburná

His interpretation of how Hna Ludlam says "Buenas Noches"

Wipiles, Diezmo, & the Prodigal Daughter

¡Buenas!

Oh people...I love the mission. Hah 

Monday for Pday we went to Centro! Which was quite an adventure. Hah I want to go back just to be able to take pictures all day. It´s beautiful, we did a little shopping and it totally reminds me of the Great & Spacious building in Lehi´s dream because every little shop keeper is like "Adelante amiga..." trying to con you into their store. hah. I did buy a wipil and I love it and sleep in it now. I feel like I´m finally yucateca

Wipil & Blusa

Also I bought a blusa yucateca... because my self control is that good. ;) 

So. WE´RE GOING TO HAVE BAPTISMS NEXT WEEK!!! 5!!!!!!!!!!! One is a granddaughter of a member (formerly less active) and the rest is a family (Familia Araujo)!! Seriously they´re my miracle. They´re awesome. Yesterday we had a Noche de Hogar with them and a member family in their home and we taught about Eternal Marriage and Temples and Family History and it was just like the best thing ever. I love them. And I will write more about them next week. 

Noche de Hogar

Fam. Aruajo y Fam Poot

Hah quick story though, we mentioned (kind of in passing) tithing just so they could have a heads up before the actual lesson this next week (because our ward mission leader was a little nervous that we hadn´t taught tithing yet and we´re planning their baptism) and they were just like "Yeah we already read about that. No problem" haha That´s the kind of family they are guys. 

Also our Prodigal Daughter has returned! I don´t know if I mentioned our investigator who ran off in the night with her ex to go live somewhere else, but she came back and we are teaching her again! It was a happy reunion. :) 

Other than that things are good here. We´re currently looking for new investigators because after the baptisms we pretty much have nobody left. Also, cambios are next week and they´re dividing our area so we´ll see what happens. 

I´m learning so much here. I thought before that I had a pretty good handle on the gospel but I´ve realized just how much I have to learn (it´s a lot) and I love being able to share what I´ve learned with others. One thing (of many) that I´ve learned from the Familia Araujo is that the gospel changes lives, it changes our very natures. It takes the best parts of us and makes them better. 

I love the gospel. I love being a missionary. I love you all.

¡Vale la pena!

Hermana Wilson

Familia Araujo

2015, 18, & 1,000,005

Feliz Año Nuevo!

So it´s 2015. I´m not entirely sure what happened to 1024, but I´m excited to devote this WHOLE year to the Lord. :) 

New Year´s here is a big deal...lots of drinking (like 1,000,005 drunks in the street)....surprise!....and they stay up all night. Hah our neighbors played music all. night. long. Luckily, I sleep like the dead so I slept through most of it. We had a normal work day the first, but a lot of people weren´t there for their lessons, or they were drunk... -_- And so we literally only taught once that day. 

There was a lot of walking that day. hah. Gave me a chance to work off some of my Christmas calories. ;)

Other than that it was a pretty good week, we 18 lessons with members present, which was our goal for the week! It can be difficult to get the members involved sometimes but we´re working to get them more excited to participate in the Work of Salvation. 

My personal library.

Funny story, we´ve been begging for Libros de Mormon because we ran out (all the members give away LDM during the Navidad so there´s a mission-wide shortage). Just so you know it´s hard to share a message about a very important book if you don´t have the book. But! The members came through and we now have a few to get us through the week. 

I´ve been working on developing my faith. I´ve realized (several times) that if I´m going to be the kind of missionary I want to be I´m going to need miracles so I´ve been trying to develop faith unto miracles. I´ve realized too that I´ve seen miracles here in the mission field; that I see miracles every day. I´m a walking miracle! I don´t speak Spanish, but here I am communicating with people. hah. I´ve learned that the Lord always does His part, we just have to do ours and we will see miracles. 

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

¡Vale la pena!

Hermana Wilson

Sopes! Thought of you as I ate them Dad! ;)