Week 19

Ready to fight the sun!

Another week in the mission field has zoomed by! This week was super amazing with lots of experiences and growth. My area is really exciting right now because of the amazing people we have found who are super ready to receive the gospel. The first is Keren whom I've talked about before, but this week I saw an amazing growth in her. She started asking more question and started reading the Libro de Mormon despite the fact that she isn't all that educated and struggles to understand it. She began with the introduction and underlines all the words or phrases she didn't understand and began asking us for help when we came by. Also she's been looking for a job because she wants to start being more self-sufficient and help support her family and eventually be able to start a family of her own. It's amazing to see how the gospel has motivated her to improve her life despite the circumstances she's living in. We had a baptismal date for this Sunday, but we talked with her and decided to push it back a week or two because we still have a good amount of lessons left to teach and also we don't want to rush her into it and she doesn't feel ready. Honestly the baptismal date isn't important compared to her true and long lasting conversion.

Next is our golden couple Cindy and Luis who are progressing along nicely. We had a really cool experience when we stopped by early one morning to ask if we could change our appointment time later that day, and Cindy after telling us that her husband wouldn't be home if we came any later, asked if we had time right then to come in and share our lesson. It was 11 in the morning and they looked as if they had just woken up and yet they asked us if we could teach them. That's something that's rare to find, people who ask us to teach them instead of the other way around. We taught them about the first vision and restoration through Joseph Smith and they listened intently and didn't question his experience or anything, like we've all too often had happen, and they accepted the invitation to pray about it for themselves! Also they agreed to come to church this Sunday. We set up a member to bring them and everything and they showed up all dressed up with their two little boys, and fit right in:) I'm super excited for them and truly am grateful to have been led to them.

Then there is Ismael who we've only been able to teach on Fridays because of his job, but we also taught him about the restoration and first vision. During this lesson he made a comment that made me feel the Spirit super strong. He told us how he's been to a lot of different churches who all taught great things, but that none of them had an overall grasp or talked about each aspect of the gospel and plan of God like we do. He was able to recognize the difference between our church and others he's learned about and the Spirit strongly testified in the room that the church is true. He also committed to come to church and since he has a car, he said he could drive himself, but that he didn't know where the church is. We asked a member to help guide him to the church and he was able to make it:) He stayed all 3 hours and seemed to really enjoy it. Plus a lot of members were talking with him and helping him feel right at home. I'm super grateful to be in a ward where the members are all willing to be involved in the missionary work and are very nice and reach out to everyone!

Also I funny or interesting I should say experience was that my companion Elder Toledano is a father now! Not really...but he told me he felt like it because he was asked to bless someones baby (or present I don't remember what it's called) in sacrament meeting. The mother who asked him is really young and has gotten to know a lot of different missionaries and so out of her love and respect for missionaries, she asked my companion to perform the blessing even though she is new to the ward and doesn't know him. I stood in the circle as well to hold the baby and it was a cool experience, and something I definitely won't forget.

Me trying to eat healthy. My companion didn't approve though. He thinks I'm crazy!

My breakfast looked yummy so I took a picture.

The weather has started to heat up again and I fear the worst is on it's way! It'll be an interesting next couple months for sure! Oh and I have my first interesting food story to tell real fast. So there is a family that are recent converts and they are moving this week, but before they left they sold a bunch of their stuff in the markets and also made food to make a little extra money for their move as well. 

My collection, so far, of minion chips that I find in the streets from chip bags!!!

They made this kind of soup with meat called "Menudo" which is something only found here in Monterrey. When we visited her, she asked if we wanted to try some since both my companion and I haven't had it before. We agreed and were excited to try it. When it was served it looked a little strange because the meat looked squishy and was floating. I tried not to judge it by it's looks and went for it, but after the first bite, I knew it would be hard to finish. It tasted and felt exactly like what I would expect octopus to be like and so that's what I thought it was, Later I asked my companion what type of meat it was and found out it was stomach! I'm proud of myself for eating it all for sure and it's something I will remember always! 

The Sunday markets make me sad...I guess it's a blessing so that I don't buy a ton of useless stuff haha!