Merida - Week 12

¡Hola!

So we just had cambios (exchanges)  and lots has changed! I'm the senior companion, but not training (thankfully!). My companion, Hermana Torazno is from Mexico and doesn't speak much English, so I get to teach her lots, and learn lots from her. I'm super excited because I get to stay here another transfer and see through to some baptisms that Hermana Ludlam and I found. The last couple weeks leading up to cambios we could hardly wait to see what would happen, so I'm excited to know and be able to write home about it! I didn't expect cambios to be so much anticipation haha.

This week we had a baptism! María (23 years) got baptized, and both of her parents came. Her mom wants to get baptized too, but someone always has to tend the dad, who can barely talk. For a while he was a big impediment, but he actually came to the baptism, which was a miracle! Right now we have lots of really great investigators. Jesus we found more at the beginning of getting here, so he's basically done with the lessons, just waiting for a baptism date. He talks a LOT, so getting through the lessons took a long time with him. He loves the church, but we were worried he wouldn't get baptized on the date we set because work has been crazy for him. He finally had a lightbulb moment this week that he was letting work interfere with what God wants for him, so I think he'll be baptized really soon. He is one of our investigators that Hermana Ludlam and I really love. And I think he loves us even more. We had a lesson Sunday and he told us how much he cared about us and how we've changed his life and his eyes got all teary. Coming into the mission, I expected to have lots of love for the people here, but it's surprises me how much of a friendship I've developed with them. Even though I feel like I barely speak Spanish! Gift of tongues is real though.

Juvencio is another golden investigator. He's a lawyer and we teach him in his office, which pretty much just looks like a house. All the little buildings here are the same, haha. He finally came to church Sunday and only had planned on staying for an hour or so, but he was so touched during the sacrament that he had to step out to dry his eyes. The spirit hit him really hard during sacrament. He ended up staying the whole time and we even had a quick lesson right after the services. He would get baptized tomorrow if we would let him, but his wife is Jehovah’s Witness and doesn't want him to change religions. He's really worried that it will hurt their marriage if he tells her everything, so I'm waiting for him to meet with the mission president to sort things out. Since the church won't break up marriages, if his wife doesn’t agree with it, he can't get baptized without a divorce, and if he gets divorced to get baptized, but won't support his family, he still can't get baptized.  His situation is a little messy

Our family that we're teaching is doing really well though! Their problem is they have to get legally married first. They want to start right away though, so hopefully in 3 months or so we can plan for them. Their cute 9 year old wants to get baptized sooner.  She is super adorable. She's come to church twice with her mom and the last lesson we had with her family, she gave the closing prayer and got all teary afterwards because she was so happy. I think kids can really be good examples for their parents sometimes. Her name is Monica, the same name as her mom.

Things have been going really well here. I'm super excited to finally be the one in charge, haha. I have a feeling my new companion and I are going to have a great companionship and help lots of people learn the gospel!

Until next week, Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 11

Hola!

D&C 4: "The field is white all ready for the harvest!"
 

This week we had a baptism! The day finally came for Christian, the 10 year old of the less active we have been teaching. It was really cool because there  were tons of people. The room was overflowing! Some of it may have had to do with everything running late and having people who were showing up for the activity, come watch the baptism. I was super happy that day too because we had lots of investigators come- I think about 6!

Christian's Baptism!

Church was really awesome for that reason too, lots of investigators. Even though all of them couldn't come that normally do, we still had lots. 5 of them are super steady and come on their own, have friends and everything. One of them is Maria, who is 23 and is going to be baptized this Friday with another super cute little eight year old in the ward. Another is Jesus. We met him in the street, but he is super into understanding truths and was all over what we have to teach. He is one of our favorites! Jesus always gives us little herbal things and today actually we're going to go eat  with him! His nick-name for me is "double H" since he discovered my first name is Hilary, haha.
 

The other steady investigators are, this young couple Georgina and Julio. They bring their sister with them, who's my age and as of recently their other younger brother who's 11. Besides these steady investigators, we also had 2 more who I'm super excited about.

We found this family a week ago in the street and they are GOLDEN. The mom, Monica, and the daughter, also Monica (10 yrs), were the ones that came to church. A couple hours after church we taught the entire family and both the mom and dad said they're looking for a church that is more family appropriate and fills them up. They said a lot of the big religions here just don't feel right because they feel empty. The mom and daughter both had really good experiences at church and loved having us there to teach them!  During the lesson, when my companion would be teaching, I was just thinking in my head how cool of an experience this is. It’s the beginning of their journey. A year from now I can totally picture them super strong in the church, with awesome callings, going to the temple... And here we are right at the beginning! Ohhh, and also something else big. Because we're doing so well in our area, we now have 2 more missionaries who are helping us. They already split the area and elders are working in the half that we hardly ever visit. Its super fun to work with them and watch their progress too. In no time we're going to double the size of our  ward! :)

Old  House!

On a less-religious note. We finally had a bunch of things fixed in the house we're living in, so its more livable. Still isn't super pretty, but it's definitely better. We still have ants EVERYWHERE. I swear they find every little crumb. Haha. We told our mission leader we have this problem, and he told us if we really needed him to, he would be willing to find a way to kill them, but it made him really sad. He's so funny. He told us in his house he hates to kill bugs, and like when he starts to do the dishes and there's ants he just tells them "Alright chicas, I'm about to start doing the dishes!" and he says they always just leave. So funny.

New House!

Other random thing. There are surprisingly a lot of Americans that live here. Lots of Americans buy cheap houses and re-do them really pretty. I wish i could take pictures of all them because they're super luxurious inside. Especially when they landscape the backyard. We ran into this cooky old lady a couple days ago who is looking at real-estate because she's got lots of money. She told us how she doesn't speak Spanish at all, so we were like, how do you get around?? She said there's this app she always uses and she talks into it and it translates for the person. Super hilarious. Americans are so dorky sometimes, haha!  The other day I heard a guy trying to ask for directions and it was super sad...to say excuse me, he said, "escu-se-muah," like in french. We grabbed him pretty fast after to help him out, haha. Americans for some reason never think to ask us, not sure why!

Thanks for your love and support,
Hermana Harper

Hermana Hilary Harper and her Fruit!

Merida - Week 10

Hola!

Lots of crazy changes this week. We've been looking for a new house the past couple weeks and we finally made the move Saturday. The house we were in before had a single guy who lived above us and used the same house gate, so the president's wife wanted us out of there. To me it was silly, but if they tell you to move, you do what they tell you! Our house now is definitely not as nice which is sad. Honestly I was kinda grumpy when we were arranging all of our stuff because there just isn't room for anything, as in no tables and all the outlets are in weird places. And its super old and dirty. And there are  bugs everywhere.  I'll live though. Moments like those, I just tell my self  "18 months."

Something interesting: Thursday, we were sitting outside the chapel waiting for a member who was going to visit some people with us and we got our phone robbed! We have no idea how it happened because my companion had it while we were sitting in front of the chapel and after the member got there, we got half a block down the street and my companion realized she didn't have it. Whoever took it was really sneaky! We called the phone from the chapel and the person who had it surprisingly answered. He was a mostly normal guy, but claimed to be really far away already and couldn't return it for a week and a half.  Hermana Ludlam told him flat out he robbed us and should turn around and return it, but he asked for money in return. Long story short, we got a new phone from the elders in the office about a day and a half later. That just threw some kinks in our plan that day.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week  we were in training ALL day in the stake center with a couple of zones. Half the day we just did practices with each other and it was pretty fun! I feel like I actually have a couple friends in the mission apart from my companion. In one of the practices it was me and 3 Latinas and for one turn they tried to teach me in English and it was super funny. One of them has an American companion so she's knows some phrases like, "what's up!" It was funny because one of the other sisters was trying to construct a sentence using "what's up" and asked me during the lesson "what's up in your mind?" In the moment it was all really hilarious.

The whole splitting the area thing I talked about last week is for sure happening. My companion and I will most likely share the ward, just have new companions. I'm a little nervous for a Latina companion. Nervous, but excited. I'm excited because I feel like I'll start learning Spanish better. I'm not sure if I'll train or have another senior companion. All the other American sisters started training at 12 weeks, but I've told Hermana Ludlam I don't feel quite ready yet and I think she hinted that to President for me. I'd honestly be fine either way, but in just one more transfer I think I'd feel way more ready.

Something cool, the president told us a couple days ago our numbers are the highest in the mission. Crazy! I feel like we're super average missionaries, but I guess we've done something right. A lot of the credit has to go to my companion though because she always has a go-go-go attitude.

Well, I guess that's it for this week! Adios- Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 9

Hola!

The first thing I'm super excited to write about is what is probably going to happen in about 3 weeks! We got a call this morning from the elders in the offices and they are thinking about splitting our area! After this transfer I'll be done with training, so it was kind of a for sure thing that my companion and I would get split up. One reason is to help us with Spanish, and the other is because the president knows my companion is a really good trainer. We've been sad because our area has a bunch of people progressing, and we're at the most exciting phase with most of them. However, if our area gets split, that means we will both get to stay here and train! We'll share the ward, but have different boundaries that we cover. It's the ideal situation honestly and I'm super excited!

It's crazy how powerful missionary work is becoming. Here in Mexico so many people are interested and we keep so busy teaching people. The thing is we usually lack the time with them, because the area is big and we have to fit in so many people to our schedule. Its cool when we walk around the city and as we pass by houses we can say, "ope, we know them, that family isn't interested, that family has potential, don't know that family" to every house as we pass by. It's crazy how many people we have met in our area. We keep telling ourselves that one day we will have met everyone in our area! The thing is once there are more and more missionaries, and areas get smaller and smaller, it's actually possible to know everyone in every house. That's how God is going to bring his gospel to all the world- little by little. It's so exciting to be a part of!

At church it makes me so happy to watch our ward grow. It’s a slow process, but our ward is already growing with converts and less-actives are becoming more active with our efforts. It's the most amazing thing to get to watch.

At church we had pretty high numbers of investigators who we were counting on. Only about half showed up, but we got a surprise investigator! We contacted a girl on the street probably 2 weeks ago and just did the run through, leaving here a card with our number and address of the church and everything. I didn't think that much of it, because 90% of the time I get my hopes up for nothing. But, she actually came to church and we're going to start teaching her! The key with missionary work is honestly to talk to EVERYONE. Everyone. Our most golden investigators were disguised as normal, not very interested people. I get surprised over and over when people I don't expect to be very responsive, are keeping commitments and doing more that we asked of them.

Right now I'm really loving my mission here. The thing that makes me love it are the people. I remember in my “setting apart” blessing, the president told me I would love more people that I thought possible. Couldn't be more true! Part of it, I think is because we have that teacher-student relationship. I feel like they're all my kids because they look up to us to teach them how to be happier in their lives. I love watching them learn and understand and to be excited to tell us they read the chapter we left, or came to church or whatever commitment we left them with. They are all SO amazing.

One cute thing yesterday: we were teaching this older lady named Yamili the last half of the restoration. I didn't have much hope for her because it didn't seem like she was remembering what we had taught, just repeating to us what she already believes every lesson. BUT, during our lesson Sunday we discovered she's actually taking a lot out of our lessons and believes in the apostasy and restoration. She accepted the baptisimal invitation, but after was like "I got to be honest with you guys, I can’t go teaching to every house like you guys do..." She thought being a member meant being a missionary! We explained to her that our job is different and  after her baptism she just has to go to church on Sunday with us. She was very relieved by that, haha, because she has some health problems. Ah, I love her. She's also one of a couple investigators we have that always sends us away with food :)

Well I guess that is all I have time for. Hope everyone has a great week!!
Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 8

BUENOS DIAS!

I feel like the last time I wrote was seriously like yesterday, crazy crazy! I usually wait to read my inbox, but this time I read my messages first,

I've been getting used to how things are here and thought,  it's basically the same as the US. However, one thing I've been noticing is how uneducated people here are. Every family has a different situation, but I didn't realize school isn't a law here, so there are plenty of kids that don't go to school. We've run into a bunch of kids around 15 or 16 that work for a living, no school. Also, adults that's don't read very well. That's what makes me sad. We have one investigator that works every sunday taking care of this really old grandma and we talked to her about maybe switching jobs so she could attend church. She was nervous because she has so many educational restrictions, like for example, she can't write at all she says. Very, very few people here have the chance to learn an instrument too. Evvvvveryone wishes they played piano or something.  They always talk about it to us because my companion plays violin. Take home message: Be grateful your parents make you learn!

Another gratitude thing. I've been thinking what a blessing it is to be born into the church. There have been a couple times I've wished I was a convert or something because surprisingly a lot of investigators ask if we've been members our whole lives. I hate when they use it against us, like we're here out of duty or because our parents taught us it is true, so that’s the only reason we believe it's true. Usually we explain ourselves pretty good, how we both are here for our own testimony, our own conversion. But I was thinking about it, and religion really is a cultural thing for people. Catholic is a huge part of the culture here and it's what feels comfortable and like "home." When you are born into the church, you never have to experience that change that can be awkward or

View of the City!

uncomfortable. I always feel bad when we teach people who are SUCH great people. As in super faithful, love God so much, invest so much in their church. I hate telling them that really their chuch doesn't have the authority.  Their church has a lot of good, but is just missing one important thing. That's probably one of our biggest challenges, honestly. There's so many people that I admire and love and have so much truth in their lives, but don’t get that the authority is only in one church. A lot of people tell us, "All the churches are the same, they're all good." Which is true, but to really know what God wants us to know and do has to come from one mouthpiece on the earth. I think people have a hard time understanding a good person from a good person with real authority. Ah, it's so hard. That's why you have to have SO much faith in the Holy Ghost when you teach. As missionaries, we are so weak and imperfect, but as long as the Holy Ghost can touch the hearts of the people, that's all we need to happen.

Ok, well I guess that's all for this week! Enjoy your week :)
Hermana Harper