Week 26

Temple selfie;)

Alright, first of all I wasn´t able to write on Monday because we went to the Temple today so my preparation day was changed to today, and sorry that I forgot to mention it last time I wrote! There´s been a lot on my mind lately with all the work, experiences and enjoyment lately! I don´t have much time to write today, so I´m just going to summarize how our investigators are doing and I have a ton of pictures as well that will explain the rest.

Kerena and Ismael are continuing to learn and grow which has been amazing to see, but we are dealing with them trying to get married and also encouraging them to get up early enough to make it to church more consistently. It´s hard for them to wake up and have enough time to get the kids ready, especially when Ismael works nights when he gets home anywhere from 3 to 6 am! Nevertheless we are being persistent with them because we know they have the desire to follow their savior and his teaching to be able to be baptized and continue in the gospel until they can one day be an eternal family!:)

Next Cindy and Luis asked for more time to think about their baptisms and after a lot of patience we brought it up again a few days ago and they told us they have been talking, thinking, and praying about it and they decided they need to attend the church a few more times and also stay for the full length to feel more comfortable before committing to a baptism date. The funny thing is that´s exactly what we´ve been worrying about with them is getting them to come to church and not just for the first hour because the other hours are a lot more personal and we know they will feel more involved and close to the members if they stay.

Viviana who I talked about before as the 17 year-old that showed up in the middle of church without an invitation from any member or missionary here. She had attended EFY which motivated her to come to the church. We have been struggling to catch moments when we can teach her because first she lives super far, two she works a lot, and three we need another member to come with us when her brother isn´t home since we can´t teach her without another man present. We for sure aren´t giving up on her though, the first lesson we had with her was amazing, she already has a testimony of el libro de mormon and of Joseph Smith! My companion commented after that he thinks she is going to serve a mission for sure, and I´m in agreement because she was already acting like one during the lessons where she practically taught us the first lesson.

My District of 6 (the new hermanas are Hermana Laguna and Hermana Bautista:)

Los Elderes at the Temple

As I explained earlier we went to the temple again finally! It´s been almost 3 months since the last visit since last transfer the temple was being cleaned. Since the temple is pretty far and it starts a 7 in the morning, we have to ask members for a ride. The member who we asked though showed up super late because his little girl had accidentally disabled his phone alarm before they went to bed! I was super freaked out that we would miss it as he didn´t arrive until 6:30. He made a diligent effort with some crazy mad driving skills, but we still didn´t enter until 10 after 7. At first I was really bummed that we wouldn´t be able to do an endowment session since it already started, but the temple workers told us that we could do initiatories instead (another ordinance we perform in the temple). I realized that I havn´t ever done initiatories in Spanish, so it was a really cool experience, and to my surprise they let us enter the celestial room after where we had quite a while to sit and ponder about life in complete serenity. We waited there until the other missionaries finished their endowment session and it was a wonderful experience for sure! 

On our way to Parque Fundidora!

After the Temple we went to a big park that is famous here called Parque Fundidora which was super cool and we even were able to rent bikes for a half hour! I realized how long it had been since I´d ridden one and how much I missed it!

Bicycling with mi amigo Elder Mera

Entering the park

Attempting to do some cool picture effects...

Arena Monterrey!!! (Where all the huge concerts and shows come to Monterrey)

A view of the mountains of Monterrey! And me...haha

A cool purple sign with our State of Nuevo Leon on it

Joseph Smith´s first vision remake;D Mas o menos...

Monterrey is beautiful!

Servicio peeling paint for some members

...and lunch afterward.

A tradition in the mission is to burn a tie at 6 months, a white shirt at 1 year, and pants at 1 year 6 months. I completed 6 months and my companion Elder Toledano completed 1 year so....yeah we had a crazy burning frenzy, did I mention I love fire?? 

Happy 6 months to meeeee! with a campechana and cake!

Silliness with a blue mustache I found.