Brisas - Week 33

Me and My Companion (Hermana Pitcher)

¡Bueno!

Hermana Pitcher and I definitely had an unforgettable Christmas! The whole week we were laughing because Christmas Eve and Christmas day we had VARIOUS meal appointments.  We both thought we would be able to handle it, but I really suffered, haha. Christmas Eve we made pancakes and had a normal morning contacting people. We were pretty hungry when we got to the food, but when we got there, they said they had a surprise for us. Some of their friends went out of town and left their house keys, so we went with them to the friend's house. The house was REALLY pretty, so while the mom cooked, we went and explored the house with the daughter. After about an hour of being there, the mom fed us a little to hold us off until the "real" dinner was ready. We hadn't planned for that though, so we had to leave to go to another appointment at 5pm, and then told them we'd come back. At the next house, we visited Henry and Susi (investigators) and ate dinner with them. They made a broth with chicken, lettuce, corn chips, avocado, and lime (very typical). We only stayed there about an hour, then had to go back with the family we had been with before. We couldn't stay that long with them again because we had ANOTHER food appt at 8pm. I felt bad because I think they had thought we'd just be able to be with them all day. At 8pm we ate with another investigator family who is really awesome. It was a struggle eating that last dinner, but we both managed to eat everything and not let it show, haha. :)

Christmas day we got a surprise from the Zone Leaders and a member who inspected the house and asked about repairs that we needed.  After they left, we went with an investigator (Alma) who has a son on a mission and had "breakfast." I guess breakfast food here isn't really a thing because we ate dinner leftovers, haha. That was at like 10:30am and at 12pm a member family came and picked us up to have lunch with them at their house. If their food hadn't been so good, I'm not sure I could have done it, but it was delicious! After, we watched the video with them "He is the gift." Everytime we watch that video with someone the spirit really hits the people watching it...and I love it! Once we finished up there, the wife took us across the street to her husbands family because they were they ones who were going to lend us their computers for the Christmas Skype call. Hermana Pitcher decided she wanted to test it before, so she did a test call to her family, but right as they answered I think she regretted her decision. Haha her dad answered and was like "Hija bonita!" and all the members of this family who's house we were at were laughing. I don't think her family knew a bunch of people were right there so they started freaking out all excited and asking questions and Hermana Pitcher was super embarrassed. Once she hung up, one of the members was helping me set mine up and I didn't want to call yet, but he hit call anyway! Haha it was a little awkward because everyone was watching at first, but I'm glad I did because I got to see Drake for a minute! After that, they took us home to drop off MORE food that a different family had dropped off for us and to leave the computers at our house until 6pm. We didn't have much time when we got to the house, so we hung out at the house for a minute, and around 5:30 went to the other member's house to Skype. It was definitely a fun couple days, but I think it threw us out of our missionary groove a little!

The rest of the week we did our normal missionary stuff. On Friday we went as a zone to a tianjis, which is like a flea market,  pretty much. They´re pretty big here and they're kinda fun. We sang as a zone, then after contacted those that we could.

That same day we went and saw our recent convert, Jose, and to our surprise, he wasn't doing too good. I think he was a little hurt  we hadn't come by the two days before because he got really critical of us and told us a bunch of doubts had come into his mind. He said he felt confused now because he felt like he was still catholic in a way and he told us our time should be used to look for people who don't know anything about God. He said he felt like we didn't seem real because we don't share that much about our personal lives and he feels like we're always disappointed with him because he feels like he can't ever be how we are. We had a long lesson and apologized because we don't always do things perfectly and reviewed the restoration with him, because I think he had been forgetting. The lesson ended pretty good, and he apologized too for being critical. On Sunday he came and brought his mom even, so that's a good sign!

Other than those things, nothing else was too out of the ordinary. Starting in January, church starts at 8am, so that will be fun getting all our investigators there so early! Haha. I think our next baptism will be the 10th of January. We just need to get Henry's family to church one more time, and I think they'll be ready! Then the week after, we'll have another baptism for Leticia. She's been an investigator for a while, but has just been waiting to have her divorce finalized so she can marry the guy she's living with, who's a member. Hopefully we'll be starting off the new year good with a few baptisms!

¡Hasta Luego! Hermana Harper

Fancy House - Taking a Swim!!!

The Fancy House!

Christmas Food!

Christmas Food!

Christmas Socks!!!

Brisas - Week 32

Merry Christmas!!!

It's crazy to think Christmas is almost here! Yesterday, we celebrated Christmas as a mission and all got together in the Stake Center in Centro. ALL the missionaries were there, so that was really fun! It started at 10am and the President and his Wife spoke, and then after  we took turns going up as a zone to sing.  Later two missionaries shared an experience they've had sharing the new video "He is the Gift." I think there are like 11 or 12 zones, so the meeting lasted for a good 3 hours. After, a professional choir from Merida came and sang. There were several people from our ward, so that was neat listening to and seeing them. After the devotional, we ate. I LOVED the food! They had salad, potatoes, meat, vegetables, rolls, and chocolate cake and ice cream. Haha,  something funny though is that everyone got sick from the food. This morning our entire zone had diarrhea, and at the store today we ran into 2 sisters from a different zone and they said their zone all got sick too. Fun present to all the missionaries, right !?!  Really, it's not too bad though, me and my companion are surviving!

After the lunch yesterday, we had a talent show which was super entertaining. Most people sang, but there were a couple of  hilarious skits mixed in. After the talent show we had a gift exchange. All of us were assigned another missionary and had to buy a gift that was as close to 50 pesos as we could. I put together earrings and candy and stuff like that and the gift I got was basically the same, haha. It was a lot of fun! That ended about 7pm and from there we went to a park to sing and contact people. That turned out pretty good because there were tons of people to talk to.

Today we had our P-day and it’s been a crazy day to say the least. We had district meeting as usual and after went to the plaza to buy food. The last thing we always buy is fruit and Hermana Pitcher was picking out her bananas and got her wallet stolen right out of her hand! I was on the other side looking at something else, so I didn't see anything, but when she came to put her bananas in the cart she realized she didn't have her wallet and started freaking out. She keeps evvvverything in her wallet so that really stunk. We had even just pulled out money so she had like 80$ in there- 900 pesos which is A LOT as a missionary! We went to security to see if they could look at the cameras, but they couldn't figure it out, so we just had to call the mission offices so they could cancel all her cards.  Hermana Pitcher was pretty upset, but after we got things figured out she was ok.

Something super exciting this week is that we had a baptism on Saturday!! That morning we were in a pueblo called Tixcocob and it was ADORABLE! People don't really use cars there, so the roads are all really little and everyone goes around walking or on bikes. There are these tricycles here that people use all the time and I saw tons in Tixcocob. They make them into little bike taxis and they're so cute! (I need to take more pictures of those)  When we went downtown it reminded me of Disneyland or Lagoon when you walk down the little fake streets and all the stores are right up against the street with stuff out to buy. It was really cute!

All the missionaries in the stake and some ward missionaries went to the Tixcocob activity and we all took a bus there. We first met in the prayer house they have there (which makes you super grateful for chapels) and from there all split up to contact and search for less actives. I went with one of the young women from another ward and we had lots of fun. We talked to just about everyone we saw and invited them to meet us downtown at 5pm because we were going to be singing and giving out gifts. We talked to lots of people, but we didn't seem to have a very good turnout by the end. We still sang though and handed out wrapped up Books of Mormon to those that were nearby.

We got back from the activity around 6:30 and the baptism started at 7pm. We were a little stressed because when we arrived, Jose (our investigator that was getting baptized) wasn't there and wasn't answering his phone. At 7pm, we left with some members to see if he was home.  When we drove by his house, he was outside all dressed up and he was getting in his car with his mom. I was happy he hadn't forgotten, but a little frustrated because nothing seems to go smoothly here! We got back to the church at 7:20ish and they had all waited for us, so that was nice.  From there, everything went really good.  Jose seemed really happy! It was neat because another youth did the baptism and it was his very first time baptizing. I love seeing the ward members welcome the investigators into the ward like they do, because it really strengthens them both,  and the missionaries too! :)

Well, I hope everyone enjoys their Christmas!! Haha, my companion and I have 3 meal appointments (2pm, 5pm, 8pm) Christmas Eve, so we'll definitely be enjoying our holiday here!

With all the presents you're getting and receiving, don't forget about the most important one. One thing I've come to understand is that for me, Jesus Christ is a gift because through Him, fresh starts are real. I can change things about who I am or bad habits I've had and the changes are real. When I'm held up on Judgement day, if I've done everything I could to make good decisions, and really changed, I won't be held guilty for all the bad decisions. I've realized that nothing is immediate though. You have to constantly to work at things and not let yourself believe that you've already done enough and you don't have to keep working on it. The hard work is what really makes you happy in the end!  Being lazy about things doesn't!

Feliz Navidad! Con amor, Hermana Harper

Unexpected House Guest!

Bedroom in Our New House

Study Area

Kitchen in our new house - BEFORE!

Kitchen in our new house - AFTER!!!

Our Beautiful Christmas Tree!

And the Stockings were hung...

Tixcocob

Bus to Tixcocob

Tixcocob Activity

Tixcocob Activity - Wrapped Book of Mormons

Jose's Baptism

Missionary Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Christmas Party

Puss-In-Boots Kitty!

Our Adopted Dog - His name is -Carlos Juanito Harper Pitcher

Brisas - Week 31

IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

This transfer is starting to feel like Christmas because we finally got all moved into our new house, and we set up the paper tree mom sent and have presents under the "tree" haha. It took two days to get everything moved over, but the members we awesome to help us out. We also discovered how to hang our stockings and wrote "MERRY CHRISTMAS" above it. A lot of the houses have put up Christmas lights and its super cute because they don't have much. Usually its just a little string of lights and that's all.  It's been fun this transfer because the other half of the ward I'm getting to know really well and it's way more humble. Sometimes I feel like we're camping when we walk into some of the houses because its literally just plain cement walls and it feels the same as when we're outside.

This coming week we have lots of fun activities planned to take advantage of Christmas coming up. When we left district meeting today, my companion and I and another set of elders and sisters all got on the same bus, so we decided to sing and hand out cards that advertise "Él es la dádiva" (He is the gift) video and ask who wanted to hear more. Its surprising how many people don't really understand the true meaning of Christmas. A lot of people don't like Christmas because they say its just an excuse to get drunk or have parties. Its been fun to tell people why Jesus Christ is important and can actually make a difference in their lives if they let him.

This week has gone really good because my companion and I are both on the same page with things. Its fun because we both feel like we have a new area, but at the same time not, too. And we both know all the members and they all know us! We met out new Zone today and except for 4 elders, everyone is American. I'm not sure how the other zones are, but it feels like the Americans are taking over! Haha

One miracle this week is that the guy Hermana Suarez and I were teaching, Jose (the 20 year old that's sick with a heart  problem), we started teaching again, and he's ready to get baptized! For a good week or so before, he had completely lost faith and decided he would just wait to get better and then maybe starting listening to us again, so we had decided not to teach him anymore. It turned out that (I didn't know this until after we'd already gone back to check on him) all by himself he had gone to a members house asking for us. When we went back he said he realized he needed to have faith if he really wanted to start getting better because he knew that was the only thing that would actually help him. We have been teaching him again and he made it to church Sunday, so his baptism is set! :) We're going to combine his with 2 others in the zone, so there should be LOTS of people. The morning of his baptism all the missionaries in the zone and a bunch of ward members are going to a pueblo to help out the elders there. We're going to contact and hand out lots of pamphlets and liahonas and stuff like that. So that will probably be really fun! And then we'll all be back just in time for the baptism.

In gospel principles class, I saw how much Jose has really blossomed. Our ward mission leader talked about obedience and it was a REALLY good class. It turned into a conversation about faith and that we're obedient because we have faith that God will bless us. Jose joined in a lot and said how its sometimes hard because friends sometimes says things to discourage you, but that if you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, you don't have anything. Jose mentioned how Christ suffered a lot, but he pushed forward, and if he did, we can too. During the week when we went to visit Jose, he showed us that he was making a frame for the picture of Jesus that we had given him. It touched my heart because he'd kept his picture of Jesus in his Book of Mormon with his other pamphlets and every time we'd tell him to take it out and put it in his room, but he'd always forget. That night he decided to frame it and put it in his room. We've been pushing him to look for a job or help his dad with his carpentry because he does NOTHING.  He thinks he's too sick and its not good for him. He's starting to take a hold of his life and it makes me happy! Another thing that was kinda funny, was that he showed up to church with his little gangster outfit on and earring in, but when he walked in I think he felt a little funny and asked if he should take his earring out, so we told him yes. In the gospel principles class he mentioned that part of the change he was making, he realized needed to be external too. He said he loved to dress gangster for the music he listens too, but was willing to sacrifice it. That make me so happy that he decided it all on his own. My companion and I died laughing because our ward mission leader said he was exactly the same before he got baptized. Down to an eye brow ring and everything! I never would have thought he was that type of person before, but I liked that he explained that when you choose to really follow Christ, you lose interest in things that you may have liked before, and that's really true.

If any of you haven't seen the video, "He is the gift," go and watch it! And share it with everyone. And after you watch it, think of how you can choose to really follow Jesus Christ and accept the gift he's given you. Think of what you're lacking, and do something different to repent and change for the better. Remember that choosing to follow Christ will ALWAYS be the easier path in the end, and is the only way to be truly happy. Don't forget the simple stuff like studying the scriptures and praying and fasting.

Until next week, Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 30

 TRANSFERS!!

So, my poor area of Brisas hasn't been doing too well and the mission President decided to cut a companionship. President Garcia interviewed the other Brisas companionship Tuesday and called me on Thursday to make the final decisions. He asked me if I felt like I could be effective with Hermana Pitcher (from the other Brisas companionship) and if I wanted to stay. I told him yes, so that's what happened! By the end of this transfer I'll have spent half of my mission in one area! Not many missionaries do that in this mission, but I'm okay with it. I'm excited to spend Christmas with a ward that I already know really well!

Today we met at the stake center for transfers.  My companion, Hermana Suarez, went to Mashkanu with her new companion. She was REALLY sad to go, even though she only spent 4 weeks with me in Brisas. Transfers are always tough for everyone seems like :(

I'm actually really excited for this transfer, even though there's A LOT of pressure. The President told me on Thursday that if we don't get the ward moving and start having baptisms he's going to shut down the area and Brisas will be left without  missionaries!  I have been worrying about a lot of things since I found out when transfers were.  Hermana Pitcher is really good to tell me to stop worrying so much haha. I'm excited because we had the same trainer, and like to work the same way, so I'll think once we start working we'll have lots of success!

We have several people from both areas that are close to getting baptized, so our plan is to organize our ward plan so that the members can work to excite all of these people to go to church and start progressing!

This week was a lot like our last week.  Not much happening. It felt like opening an area again because alllllll we did was contact. Unfortunately all the people outside were grandpas and grandmas or people who were too busy to listen. We've been passing out lots of little cards to advertise the Mormon message "He is the gift" and it's been pretty successful. I like it because now we've been targeting people on their phones, instead of not bothering them, and have them open the video right then and watch it with them. We found a super cute little family that way, but of course they live just outside our area!

At church Henry and Susi came for the second time! After 3 times they can get baptized, so I'm hoping we can re-put in a baptismal date and that they can get baptized already! They really want to, but the husbands work schedule is just so unpredictable.

We had a stake baptism and we brought Jenny and her 2 daughters. They're super awesome and actually all of Jenny's family are members, but she doesn't want to get baptized yet. She likes going to church and stuff though for her girls sake.  She likes to have them involved in good activities. I'm hoping that she'll have more of a desire to get baptized soon!

Hermana Harper

Family Home Evening in Brisas, Mexico! 

Moving to a different Apartment in Brisas

Ward Members helping us move!

Brisas - Week 29

I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving! I forgot until morning of that it was Thanksgiving, and then forgot again until that night. Oh well! I don't think it would have even felt like Thankgiving here because 1) the weather and 2) no one would have the least idea of how to make a true Thanksgiving dinner,  haha.  It would just turn into frijoles and chicken! Christmas on the bright side is very much celebrated here.  Lots of people have put up lights and the plaza here in my area has a huuuge Christmas tree and it looks like they're putting together a cute little village thing too.  I'm hoping I don't leave so I can see how it all turns out!

Well, this morning I honestly couldn't think of anything positive that I wanted to write about from the week.  As of right now, we have NO one with a baptismal date and yesterday, not even one investigator or less active came to church.

Our investigator that I wrote about last week (Jose) has the thought that if God is really so great, why hasn't he healed him yet? He's been sick with chest pains around his heart for the last four months and what he's been hoping from the lessons with us is to get closer to God so that he can be healed.  He started out super humble and sincere and wanted to just get his life going in a good direction, and those first 2 weeks, everything went perfectly. This week is when he started saying that he feels like he can't go to church anymore or be baptized because he's too sick. He feels like he's done his part for God to bless him, but hasn't received his health yet. Our last lesson was really frustrating because we taught faith, but it was all in one ear, out the other. We explained that you need to act first, and the miracles follow, but he was really stubborn about it. He just kept being superficial and saying "I know, I have to have faith, but..." My companion also told him the story of when Jesus was in the desert and Satan was tempting Jesus, and how that is exactly what  Jose is doing with God. When we want a sign for selfish reasons, that's when we're tempting God. Then I told him that right now he's too focused on himself, and that if he wants to get better and be happy, he needs to forget what he wants and do what God wants.  My companion and I were both feeling the spirit really strong, but I could tell he wasn´t. The majority of the time he had a smirk or seemed bored with what we were telling him. It was all super disappointing because things started out SO good with him. Too good honestly, but now we can't continue with him.

So, since we haven’t really been teaching anyone, we have had lots of members and less actives written in our agendas, with the goal to contact everyone along the way. Contacting really isn't much fun.  95% of the people are just content being catholic. Catholic here means "I don't go to church or read my scriptures, but I believe in God and loving my neighbors, that I don't know.”  There are some devout Catholics and other religions here and there, but the majority is like that. Another challenge is that there are lots of grandpas and grandmas in the part of the city that I'm in. I usually don't like spending too much time with them because they all have the mentality that they've lived their life and God will judge them how He will.

Another thing this week is that Saturday and Sunday the members who we were supposed to eat with forgot, and when we showed up, no one was there. It's never happened before, but for some reason this week everything seemed to happen! Saturday, when we discovered that the members weren't home, we left and decided to eat at our house.  On the way home we ran into a family of investigators who needed our help. We originally stopped by to invite them to church, but it turned out that 3 of their 5 kids were really sick and throwing up and the mom needed to take them to the doctor. All 3 were crying and didn't want to walk and she didn't know how she was going to get them all there. Her dumb husband had completely checked out from his parental responsibilities and was drinking in the front yard with 3 friends. I was glad to help the wife, but at the same time it made me so mad that a dad of 5 little kids wasn't willing to help his poor wife. My companion and I each carried a kid and we walked all the way to the doctor, which was closed, so we walked all the way back to get some papers so that she could take them to the hospital, since they had insurance.  From the house they had to take 2 buses to get to the hospital, so we took the first one with them, but only could go that far with them. It worked out though because the second bus left them right in front of the hospital.

With everything that happened this week, I'd been feeling super down. It was super frustrating to have no one to teach, and be stuck with contacting people that don't want to talk to you. Plus it felt like nothing was ever working out how we had planned and I just felt frustrated with everyone, and especially my companion! Its hard because I've tried to just ignore it and not let it show, but things like that do just come out in one way or another. In district meeting today, we were doing our practices like we always do and they decided that instead of playing the part of investigators, we would just be ourselves and tell the "missionaries" who were being the missionaries our "need." It actually was really cool because I played the part of "coach" for one of the practices and I watched two elders try and help one of the sisters. Her "need" was that lately she hasn't felt useful because her companion always has the better ideas and she feels like she doesn't know how to contribute. One elder went off and shared the scripture about the sons of Mosiah and how they prayed and fasted and were able to teach with power and authority, but you could tell it didn't really make her feel tons better. Then the other elder took things and simplified them. He just asked her, "who gives us thoughts that we're inadequate?" And she said, "Satan." Then asked, "Where do thoughts of hope and confidence come from?" "Heavenly Father." Then he asked who she felt like was speaking louder to her, and she said, "Satan." And then he shared a scripture in D&C 10:7 that says that Satan is wicked because he seeks to take our gifts from us. It was a really cool moment because it totally hit her and even I felt the spirit just watching it all. That experience, and also when i took my turn in another group to say what's been hard for me lately, really strengthened my testimony today. I think I sometimes forget that the gospel is to bless ME, and not just everyone else I'm teaching. If there's something we need, we can always find an answer if we're sincere and put in the effort.

Well I guess that is all for this week! Me and my companion are going downtown to this place called Paseo Montejo that is super touristy. Hopefully they have some fun clothes or Christmas stuff!

Adios!! Hermana Harper