Merida - Week 16

Hola Amigos!

This week we had two baptisms, so that  was definitely a highlight! The baptism was super special because the two of them we have been teaching for several weeks and they both REALLY wanted to be baptized. It was always just a matter of how fast we could get through the lessons and have them go to church enough times. I was so happy for them because I really felt like they understood what they were doing and why. A member commented to us yesterday that she was talking with them and they said that the missionaries came into their lives at exactly the right time. It's so cool to be apart of such a huge change in people's lives!

Baptism!

Some of our Ward Family!

Something kind of crazy happened this week on Friday while we were eating lunch with a member. It was just her and us in the kitchen and we were eating and she was cooking when she got a phone call. She answered the phone in the room right next door and we all the sudden heard her saying over and over with lots of panic in her voice "tell me your name! tell me your name!" My companion told me that she heard people here always get "kidnapping" calls, so we both thought it wasn't real even though the mom was really panicking. It was pretty scary because we didn't know for sure if it was real or not. After the mom had talked to the guy for a second to get his name and tell him she was poor and everything she all the sudden came back in the kitchen and handed ME the phone of all people! The guy had told her if she didn't follow the "instructions" he was going to kill her daughter. I only had the phone for a moment until I handed it to my companion because her Spanish is wayyy better than mine. The mom was super  worried because two of her 3 daughters were home, but the other was working and the girls voice in the phone sounded like her other daughter. It turned out to be super lucky that we were there because no one in their family had credit on their phone to call the daughter, so we called on our phone and found out that she was completely fine and it all was a scam. There are some really mean people here! After the mom calmed down and got her tears out, it turned out to be a funny experience. Mostly because in the moms panic she handed ME the phone to talk to the guy. Haha she told us after that she did that because "we have the spirit." People really look up to missionaries even though we're just normal people too! Luckily everything was ok, just a little crazy and scary!!!

Ok, I'm short on time, so that's all I'm going to share!
Hope you all have a great week!
Hermana Harper

Watching General Conference, we watched it in the office in English with about 10 missionaries

Merida - Week 15

Buenos Dias!

I hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday yesterday! Easter is a let down in Mexico, at least with the Mormons I guess. Mormons here don't celebrate it for some reason. A bunch of members told me its because we remember Jesus Christ and the Atonement every Sunday, so nothing is really different on Easter Sunday. It was kind of weird to me that NO one even mentioned the word "Easter" on Sunday; we just had the usual missionary work push in sacrament, talked about prophet in gospel principles class and a normal relief meeting. Haha, Relief Society here is kind of different.  All the ladies LOVE to participate. A lot of times the teacher barely gets a chance to talk and it feels like a big discussion group of people wanting to say everything they know and why what they're saying is right. I always get scared to bring investigators to relief society, but so far none of them have gotten scared off.

This week will be exciting because we have 2 baptisms set for Friday! Usually we have them Tuesdays, but one of the investigators got this HUGE bug bite. It was all infected and he had to take antibiotics and couldn't submerge in water. I really want to know what kind of bug it was so that I can watch out for it! Luckily we don't have as bad as a bug problem as some of the other sisters. We just have lots of ants and little spiders and sometimes cockroaches. Hermana Ludlam was telling me she has scorpions and huge centipedes and huuuge spiders in her house. When I hear things like that it makes me realize how good Hermana Tozcano and I have it in our area.

Speaking of how good we have it, we've been spending time in another part of our area a lot lately and it keeps surprising me how poor some people are. We talked to one lady who doesn't have a fridge so she has to go to the store several times a day. I've seen a bunch of houses that have fire pits in front of their house or walls of mattresses and I'm realizing a lot of people don't have appliances likes ovens or lamps, that in the US we totally take for granted. But people survive like that! Those people who don't have much spend a lot of time washing and cooking and working because they have to do everything themselves. They're almost ALWAYS busy, so it makes it hard to visit them and get them to church.

Other random things, we taught a lady this week named Feliciana who is suuuper Christian. Usually I like teaching Christians because they don't worship Mary at least, and they are way more dedicated than most Catholics here. Sometimes I like to think about the mission like a video game because we have to have so many lessons and have or little goals and everything. All of our investigators I give a level of difficulty to of 1 – 10.  Haha, I mention this because Feliciana would be a level 10 difficulty. She is studying to be a pastor and so she knows A LOT. It’s hard because she's super nice and everything but we have to think really hard how we can help her understand the restoration. She's the hardest we've come across so far. Usually people don't know much and just believe what we say, which can be good and bad I guess. I know it's the spirit that's saying "hey this is true," but sometimes I wish people would ask more questions.

Two more random things before I go: Not sure if it's just here in Merida but people are obsessed with Halls flavored cough drops. Instead of always have gum on them, people always eat Halls like its candy. Kinda funny. Also, in an area not too far from us, I heard that there's one ward with 8 companionships. 16 missionaries in ONE ward! Crazy! Our ward thought it was hard to juggle 4 missionaries, but another ward has 4x as many. And the members are always supporting them with their meals and accompanying the missionaries with appointments. I was glad to hear that because I think it really motivated our ward to be even more supportive than they already are.

Well, that's all I have time for. Adios! 

Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 14

Hola Amigos y Familia!

This week was another good week! Something exciting is that we have 5 new baptismal dates! Just because people say "yes" to a date though doesn't automatically mean we will have a baptism. Time will tell with these new ones how serious they are!

A week from this Tuesday we are going to have two baptisms and I'm super excited. One of them we've been teaching since I first got here and the other since about 8 weeks or so. Finally the day is almost here and they're ready!

The 6th of May we also have another solid baptism. We've been teaching our golden little family of four and the little girl wants to get baptized first. (I think I've already talked about them) The parents are waiting to finalize their marriage before  we can pick a date for them. Yesterday we asked their 13 year old son how he felt about being baptized and he decided he wants to for sure!  He wants to do it the same day as his parents though. 

It makes me so happy to have some solid investigators because so many keep letting us down. I'm lucky to have the companion I do too because she's always positive and makes things fun.

Well, it's April so its starting to get hot! It gets around 100 degrees here most days. I actually just realized that everything here is metrics and celsius. So people here say "wow it so hot, it's 40 grados!" And that means like 103 in Fahrenheit.  Funny!

On a spiritual note, since I'm a missionary, I will share a little from my studies. I was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day (surprise!) and Nephi was writing about how incredible the atonement is, especially referring to the plan of salvation. He wrote how without the atonement, we would never have a body again and we would basically live with Satan forever. Even if we lived really good lives on the earth, without the atonement we couldn't get rid of our "sins" or mistakes/shortcomings/imperfections and we'd be stuck with Satan. Forever. When you think about the atonement that way, WOW. It makes me want to repent of everything. The atonement is the greatest gift. Because of the atonement, we can repent and change and change until we're more and more like Jesus Christ. And if we do our best to stay on this incline, not be perfect, but on an incline, we have the gift to become like God one day. Live how God lives. That's what eternal life is.

Well, I love you all and hope everyone is happy! Can't wait to see you all in...one year! :) Adios!
Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 13

¡Hola!

My first week with my new companion, Hermana Tozcano! I completely adore her. I was a little bit nervous that she didn't speak English at first, because I've never not had an English speaking companion, but I honestly felt like the ability to speak sky rocketed as soon as we became companions. It's definitely a huge blessing, and evidence of the gift of tongues that missionaries receive.  Its fun learning Spanish and English between the two of us and being able to laugh at all the weird things that happen out here. That´s one thing I´m super grateful to have in a companion, some one who likes to laugh at all the same things I think are funny.

In a lot of ways, I feel like this week  I've learned more about how to be a "real" missionary. Now that I'm the senior companion and the only one of the two of us that knows the area, I have a lot more responsibility! The first four days of this week were pretty nuts too. One of the days we had a sister stay the night with us, and in the morning we took her to the airport because she served her 18 months. The other days we had other sisters who had to say with us because it was too late for them to travel home to their area. And last Monday, we had sisters with us all day running errands! Lots of extra people to take care of! Hermana Tozcano and I were pretty exhausted those first few days.

General Conference: Hopefully everyone got a chance to watch! I think my favorite talk was by Elder Uchdorf about gratitude. I love it because gratitude really is the cure for any depression, sadness, when life just seems dull or not fair. There is always something to be grateful for. I really liked what he said about Nephi too, because I remembered reading that in the Book of Mormon and how it had impressed me. I think its toward the end of 1 Nephi when Nephi is tied up for 3 days on the ship. He says when his brothers finally untied him, his ankles and wrists were super swollen and that it was really painful. If you honestly put yourself in that position, I think it would be really hard to not be mad or at least want to complain about the pain. But Nephi thanked the Lord and didn't complain against him. I'm pretty sure the things I want to complain about are nothing compared to what Nephi suffered.

Speaking of pain and complaining, Saturday I got sick. It's my first time getting sick here in Mexico. Getting sick in the mission is honestly the worst because you can't just curl up on the couch and watch movies until you feel better. Instead you have to walk and walk and walk. And walking outside in Merida right now is super hot and humid, we are constantly sweating and sweating! And not only that, you've got to use your brain muscles to try and get people to listen to you, AND  seem happy.  After conference when we were out teaching, I was super tempted to just go home a couple hours early because I didn't feel like I physically had the energy to keep going.  However,  little by little I made it through the night and I 'm so glad I did because we found two families with a lot of potential. It strengthened my testimony of obedience to see how God really does bless us when we sacrifice to be obedient.

Ok, well that's all I have time for this week!
Love, Hermana Harper

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