WEEK 63

A few photos from our favorite Hermana. She said, "We have awesome leaders that have organized cool activities for us!!! I love the awesome people I've met on the mission!!!"

WEEK 62

Hey all! ok i finally have a few minutes to write an update!!!!!

I am LOVING the mission!!! Nothing new there. Its my second transfer in this area and with my same companion, Hermana Jimenez. We have a ton of unity and we love teaching together, sometimes before i can say something she  says the exact thing I was about to say, the Spirit is truly working through us to testify to the people here!!! What a blessing.

The two sisters :)

David is coming up on a month as a member?!?!?! wHoA! His baptism was so amazing. First, he was SUPER nervous ! We put on the program at the very end 'testimony' because here, often the person who gets baptized gives a short little testimony about how they feel, but he told us he thought he might be too nervous, so we didnt put his name, just 'testimony'. well, as we were about to end the baptismal service he was waving his hand at us. oblivious, we smiled and waved back HAHAH, then we realized OH he wants to get up and say something. his testimony was so full of conviction, i had tears streaming down my face. he bore his testimony about everything from changing his life to live the Word of Wisdom, to how all the people he thought were his friends have abandoned him but that the people in teh church have welcomed him with open arms!!!!  He is still doing great and we talked to him yesterday about doing family history work, which reminds me

THIS MONTH the MEXICO CITY TEMPLE (closest one to puebla) is having their doors open for 3 weeks, followed by t he RE DEDICATION!!! the faithful saints here have been waiting over a year for the remodel to be finished. they currently drive hours to get to another one. it is so cool being able to invite everyone that we visit (be it members or non members) to take advantage of this opportunity and see the inside of the temple and feel the peace that surrounds us there!!!! and how great that after september itll be so much closer when the ward does temple trips. man did i take for granted all the temples in utah!!!

we also brought a less active member to the family history center, i was so stoked about it! its a 70 year old cute grandpa , we helped him make his family tree on FamilySearch but he got excited about looking for some documents so he can find more information. i love the family history center here in our stake center, the computer had a slideshow of all the temples in the world and when i saw the Draper temple i just couldnt believe that a little over a year ago I went there for the first time!!! I really miss going to the temple!! I hope you all can take advantage of how close we are to them and GO! RUN TO THE TEMPLE HAHA!

We have another investigator with a baptism date named Luis. Hes a rough around the edges mechanic  who has completely taken us by surprise with his change of attitude. he went from not even wanting to see us in his house to waking up to get to our church services that start at 8 every Sunday....sometimes the investigators just blow me away. 

Well theres so much more but thats all i have time for!!!! I love you all and it makes me happy to see your smiling faces!!!!

Hermana Besttttt

WEEK 61

She's a chef!

"I randomly now like to cook. I made arroz con leche (sweet...rice?) with mangos that we bought at the market. Using our fancy grill that only works on one side. "

WEEK 60

Another picture week:

"We went to 'Centro' (downtown? forgetting english) this past Monday with our sister leaders (one is one of my absolute best friends from the mission/mtc- totally lucky to have her as a leader!) this was a cute little place to eat although we felt a little out of place in the atmosphere with our dresses and gaffets hahah, im going to feel like an alien when i get home. I ate mediocre sushi. We went to cute little artesian boutiques but i'm a poor missionary, will have to explore that stuff later! I bought a new bag because the other day while walking my bag burst at the seams and just plopped on the ground with all my books, it was a good laugh. My comp and I are like sisters :) "

WEEK 59

Here is what we have from Lauren this week...

"The lightest pic we have right now of DAVIDS BAPTISM. He looks sad but he was just a little nervous before haha."
Disclaimer: I did what I could, but Lauren's companion did not fare well in this photo :/ She looks lovely in the photos below though!

The dynamic duo with a previous sister missionary in the ward.

"This is the day of David's confirmation. Not sure why he's lookin angry, we're always joking with him. He's not a fan of pictures I guess."

"This is a family that moved out of the ward sadly (and we moved into their house haha) but we still see them at church. The Mom took care of us like one of her own. I love all of the people that have become my 'family' on the mission!!!"

WEEK 58

Hello all!!! I am so happy to be here on the mission!! I've been really bad at updates this transfer, and were in the last week!! My comp is Hermana Jimenez from Campeche, Mexico. We are good friends and have shared a lot of good laughs together, our favorite phrase is 'oh noooo' when were laughing too hard and it hurts. 

One is the elders that helped us move this week. they found some leg warmers a sister left in our house forever ago, used them  to 'protect their arms.'

We have seen lots of success in this transfer. The most exciting part for me has been teaching David. He was studying in the catholic seminary to be a Father and he left because he felt that some things appeared illogical. He has been disowned by his parents and 8 brothers and sisters for leaving the Catholic church but that hasn't stopped him from going to the ward and receiving the missionary lessons. Whats more, is that in his prayers he is always praying for his family that they'll be ok. He is a great example to us. His baptism is programmed for this Saturday and we couldn't be more proud of him!!! 

this past week ther was a REALLLLY bad rain storm!!! luckily we had just come back from a conference so we were in our house studying when it hit, i dont know what we would have done if we were outisde. it literally looked like a tsunami, the hail was hitting our windows and wind and rain was going inside our house. when we went outside after the storm we saw that this brick wall by our house FELL DOWN (the pic i took is from the inside of our house). the next day as we visited people we found out taht several people here had their houses fall (the ones that are constructed of really weak materials). hopefully another storm like that doesnt hit soon!!! 

We have a couple of other awesome investigators that are progressing a lot. one brings the Book of Mormon with her wherever she goes in her bag, and she is always smiling so big at church, its so cool! 

The mission is passing by really fast and I'm enjoying every minute of it! 

WEEKS 56-57

A couple pics to tide us over until an update next week!

"A pic a lady in the ward finally sent me from Atlixco. These are the kids of the family we lived with!!!! the little one, Diego is 6 years old and is SO intelligent and spiritual!!!! he loves the Book of Mormon we gave him and can explain what all the images are in the beginning (joseph smith, nephi, burying the plates, etc). sometimes when he talked he would just say these super profound things and my companion and i would look at each other, we couldnt help it. an hermana from my old ward emailed me and said that the older one has a baptism date!!!! it was so fun going to church with them (parents didnt go), they have great faith!!!! "

"A blurry foto of me and my comp after the Zone Conference. "