Brisas - Week 5

¡Buenas Tardes!

So this week, again, was a little bit of a bummer. We surprisingly had a lot of lessons with a lot of new people, but it's SO hard for people to accept the restoration. Most people think we're nuts to believe Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is everything we say it is.

Iguana just roaming around Brisas

Sometimes its just hard to get people excited about going to church or reading their scriptures. Haha, it's funny because I totally understand that it can be boring, but I also see things with my missionary perspective too. You just gotta make time for God and make his commandments a priority and life really is just happier. More wholesome. It's frustrating to see how much effect the world has on so many people. Including us sometimes! Life is FULL of distractions and it's so easy to put off things that God has asked because something in the world is more fun for the moment.

Something different about this week is that we had exchanges with the sister training leaders. I stayed in my area with one and my companion went to another area with another sister training leader.  My companion that day was Sister Nuñez. It was so fun watching her teach and being able to learn from someone, instead of having to be the missionary who's supposed to know what's going on all the time. I loved it because Sister Nuñez really has a way of bringing the spirit. We had one lesson with a brand new person that were able to have set a baptism date, so that was really cool!

Birthday Party for a Ward Member

Other random things...My companion and I are slowly getting along better.  Last Monday we made a whole bunch of bolis, which are a big thing here.  Bascially, it’s just a bag of frozen fruit, like a popsicle pretty much. We bought mangos and mamey and blended them with milk and sugar and poured them in these special bags, and yeah. That's all you do to make them.

Making Bolis (Fruit Popsicles)

Bolis - Ready to Freeze!

How we got our mameys is kind of a funny story. One day we were out walking and saw a tree with a whole bunch of super ripe mameys and decided to ask the owner if they would let us have one. When we knocked (more like "yelled" haha), we discovered that it was an old couple that lived there who couldn't get their mameys down themselves.  So, we offered to get a bunch down for them and they gave us 5! We had a member with us, so of course we made him climb the roof, and we caught the mameys he threw down. Haha, one of the many mini adventures we have here in Merida.

Mamey's

Well, I can't think of anything else to report back on, so I'll leave it at that!

Hasta Luego, Hna Harper

Internet Cafe where we write our emails on P-day!

Typical Foods We Eat

Papazules

 

 

Brisas - Week 4

Hello!

This week was a pretty normal week. We have a baptism date with a cute old couple that I'm excited for. We have to teach them SUPER slow, but I think they mostly understand the restoration. I don't know what it is about them, but from that first lesson, I totally fell in love with them. You know how sometimes old people are super funny, but because they're old, not because they have a funny sense of humor? Haha, That's totally them. We were talking about the life of Jesus Christ with them this week and to start I asked the wife what she knew about what Christ did while he was here on the earth and she told me. "He walked and walked and walked!" I laughed so hard because usually people say, "healed the sick" or "taught about God," but hey, her answer was right! Haha:)

So our mission goal that they've really been pushing is to have a baptism EVERY week. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with that because the investigators we have right now aren't progressing, but I keep hearing over and over how missionaries are setting that as a serious goal and achieving it. We had a muli-zone conference this morning and they were saying how as missionaries its our DUTY, not just a goal, to be baptizing so often. They said it requires a lot of faith and a lot of work, but it's possible.

That's one thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, how we can use our time efficiently to have enough lessons, meet with enough people, to really do it. I really hope in the next few letters I'll be writing about all the miracles of baptism dates we have. Right now we are definitely lacking!

One thing that has been working for us this week is focusing on less actives. We have tonsss! I think I wrote last week about how dramatic our ward is. Half of the ward has tons of active members in it and it's where the previous missionaries focused, and the other half (where we are) is where all the less actives are because a lot of them just felt left out I guess.

The family we found last week wasn't able to come to church this Sunday because the mom got sick, which made me sad. I'm crossing my fingers for next week though! We got the old bishop to accompany us to our visit with them and it really got the family excited to go back to church, I think :).  We met the son yesterday when we were at their house and he used to be the ward secretary, so he knows tons of the members on our side that no one knows. We got super lucky finding him on Sunday!

Working with all the less actives really is pushing me as a missionary. Besides training and always having to be the one to answer because my companion doesn't know what to say, less actives problems are so hard to help them with! We have one mom of 3 kids who's daughter got pregnant, so consequently they have hard feelings there. In addition to that, they're super tight on money annnnd the mom has this lover that's always over. Its sad because the lover has another family that doesn't know.  We are actually going to teach him because he's genuinely interested.

We have another less active family that stopped going to church because they don't see the need. They grew up in the church, but I don't think they ever had testimonies. Those ones are hard because they say they're content, but they don't realize that's 100%  Satan who's trying to keep them away from the incredible gifts that God's just waiting to give them.

Another less active we ran into is divorced and told us that he thinks he doesn't need the scriptures or to go to church or anything because all that is important is love and service.  He said he doesn't believe in Satan, just God.  He's going to be a tough one ...We'll see.

Everything so far is pretty good. My companionship is still tough, but it's like a lot of relationships I've had, I'm realizing. There are bad moments and good ones. I'm just learning to be patient and to leave my companion alone when she's tired or late at night, haha. People always say having companions in the mission is the best way to prepare for marriage, which worries me sometimes! At least you choose who you marry though, right?

Ok well, gotta go. Bye!
Love Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 3

Familia y amigos -

First of all, I can't believe it's June already! Right now it's starting to get into the rainy season. Three days this week it rained! People here are super hilarious about the rain. The yucatecos all have this fear that if you're outside when it rains, you WILL get sick. For the most part people will just stay in their houses and only leave if they have some kind of emergency. I always laugh because we're alllllways outside and haven't gotten sick yet!

Rainy Season

Other things this week...this week was a little tough honestly. I'm getting a little frustrated because we're trying to talk to people in the streets and if they don't have time right then, we set up a time to come back and teach them. A lot of times they aren't there when we show up. We end up losing a lot of time because our back up people aren't usually the most promising either. Sunday was especially frustrating because all three of the people that we had scheduled weren't home. After the third person, we decided to check with the neighbor to see if she knew when she'd be back, and took the opportunity to introduce ourselves and everything, but she wasn't interested.

I don't know if I just had a girl/hormone moment on Sunday or what, but when we walked away from that neighbor I just wanted to cry! We talk to SO many super awesome people who believe in Christ, go to their little groups, church, and everything, but don't realize that what we have is what they need. They always say stuff like "well it’s the same God," so I'm good. And we usually bring up prophets and the book of Mormon, but it really turns a lot of people off. I just wish I could know what to say and how to say it better so people could get it...because so many of them are such good people. The only problem is they're totally deceived that what they have is correct.

As we walked away I was venting to my companion about this and what we should do differently and she said, "I think you need a prayer." And I was like, "Yes. I think I do." So we turned the corner to look for a place a little more private and as we were trying to decide who should say it, my companion looked across the street and read the house plaque that read "Familia Donde Guiterrez." We'd been looking and looking for their family the last couple days but the directions were wrong, so we ran over to see if they were the less active family we'd been searching for. Thankfully they were and let us in. 

Touristy Shops

The family consists of the parents, daughter who lives there with their baby and husband, other son and adopted son. The adopted son's dad also lives there and his wife died a while ago, but died a faithful member. The family was super warm and friendly and told us how much they love the missionaries and that they stopped going when the bishop got released, but want to start going again. We also got three new investigators from them because the daughter's husband isn't a member and the adopted son and dad aren't members. It turned out to be a super awesome lesson.

I think I had a bad taste in my mouth from visiting less actives in my other area because all of them had been offended or something like that and knew they should go back, but just wouldn't. My other area was so easy to find people too. Another thing I realized is that a bunch of the less actives in our area (and there are tons of them) stopped going to church for the same reason as this family, a new bishop. I have a lot of hope for them though. The current bishop for some reason has neglected our half of the ward.  I think having two missionaries completely focused on our side will help the ward a lot.


Another happy thing this week is that we found a new investigator through the prayer of my companion. Last week she told me she said a specific prayer to find a boy who was wearing a light blue shirt who would listen to us. That same day  (I didn't know about her prayer at that point) we were walking down the street and all the sudden she grabbed me and was like, "we have to talk to him." He was right in the path we were walking, sitting on a rock, texting on his phone, so I was like "sure!" Sure enough, he said we could come back, so this last Thursday was the return appt and the lesson went perfectly. He told us he believed everything we said was true and accepted a baptism date and everything!

It was cool to see when we're specific with our prayers, we get specific answers. I told her we should start doing that every day to find more people who are prepared to hear the gospel, so we're going to start doing that.

Well, I hope everyone enjoys the break from school and the start of summer!
¡Hasta luego!
Hermana Harper

Buildings Downtown Brisas

Downtown Centro

Brisas - Week 2

¡Buenas Tardes!

Well, my companion and I have completed 2 weeks here in Brisas! It's been a tough week because hardly anyone wants to listen to us. We've been talking to lots and lots of people and so many are stuck on their own religion and unwilling to consider what we've got to say.

The beginning of this week I had a tough time with that. Not just the rejection, but I felt like I didn't have my companion backing me up. I love my companion, but she is sometimes hard to work with! I really struggled with the street contacting with her because I kept feeling like everytime she talked she was super bored and unhappy. I felt super alone, like I was the only one who thought what we had to share was important. I got really frustrated with her because it's hard enough trying to win people over, and if you come across like you hate what you're doing, no one is going to listen. I kind of  assumed that she assumed that no one would listen and that our street contacting was pointless. One of the days there was a point where I almost broke down, but luckily I held myself  together!

Me, My old companion, and our 2 new companions in Brisas

We'd been talking and talking to all kinds of people and finally one sweet grandma let us teach her.  She told us how we were such angels and how she never says no to people like us. I had felt so alone all day because it had seemed like contacting was pointless, but I was trying to teach my companion that it's just something you do to show Heavenly Father you're doing all you can. I was just glad for a little bit of success and it made me happy to see that not everyone here is so hard.

I'm learning a lot about working well with a companion this week ... I finally asked her what her deal is with contacting and talking to people, and she admitted that talking to the people always scares her.  Slowly things have been getting better, and I think we're equally as happy and bubbly with the people now. I think this whole transfer I'll learn a lot about working well with my companion because we tend to argue a lot. Luckily we argue and get over things fast. I thought Sis. Pinguelo didn't like me at first, but she's told me several times she's glad we're companions. The learning never ceases!

This is how they keep people from jumping over their fences!!!

Apart from my companionship drama, something kinda funny happened yesterday. After we ate with some members we went to an end of our area that  we haven't been to yet to meet a less active/part member family. As we started getting closer to the address we had, we heard that one of the houses had a huge party going on. Me and my companion were both like, please don't let it be that house. And what do you know, that was the house to the address we had. We stalled in front of the house for a minute, but the family saw us outside and they all yelled for us to join the party!  Everyone was drinking and dancing and they came out to bring us into the party with them. Neither of us knew what to do because we didn't want to offend them! They got us to go in to the house for a min and all the people we're cheering and saying "las hermanas! las hermanas!" and they all wanted to take pictures with us.  A kid offered us a bottle of alcohol and this old guy tried to get me to slow dance with him. At that point I was like, ok that's it...time to go. This all only lasted less that 5 min, and fortunately they were understanding when we told them we would just visit another time. It was all super hilarious though.

Ok, agggain, all I have time for! :(
Love you all! Hermana Harper

Brisas - Week 1

This is Hermana Betty Vasquez.  She is in my Stake.  She introduced herself to me on Sunday at Stake Conference.  She is a childhood friend of my next door neighbor Sister Aracely Hallam.  Sister Hallam contacted Hermana Vasquez and asked her to be on the look out for me.  Sister Hallam was one of my Young Women leaders, and I think it is awesome that I have been able to meet one of her friends in Mexico!  Thank you Sister Hallam!!!

¡Hola!

This week has been NUTS. It was my first week in my new area with my new daughter- Hermana Pinguelo! I "gave birth" last Tuesday around noon. It was so fun to be in that little meeting because I remembered being in my first meeting when I got here with all the newbies on the front row in the chapel and all the trainers behind and looking back wondering, "who's going to be my mom?!" Most of the sisters training this transfer I know pretty well, and about half are new trainers like me, so it was fun to watch everyone get paired up. All the trainers are all so great and each has different gifts that I think will help all the new missionaries adjust as smooth as possible.

My companion is from Texas, but her mom is from Mexico.  She speaks English and Spanish perfectly which is kinda fun!  I have had 5 transfers, and I have only had one with a true Latina. Not exactly what I expected when I came here, but hey, guess I won't lose my English right?

My new companion, in the solid gray shirt, Hermana Pinguelo!

My new area is called Brisas. We're the second set of missionaries in the ward and I think we got the tougher half of the ward as our area. There are lots of less actives and only one investigator. Its been hard navigating our way around because the streets don't make a lot of sense, but we're taking advantage of being lost by talking to lots of people. That's my favorite way to start taking to people actually!

Hanging with the Hermanas!

Our new house is pretty nice.  The only thing is,  it doesn't have a kitchen. We have a make shift kitchen in the first room you walk into with a fridge and everything, but we have to wash dishes in the bathroom.  Kinda gross! That's just how it is sometimes though. Other than that it's nice because we have hot water to shower  with and air conditioning when we want it.

Another reason why this week was a little crazy is because the first two days we were living with the other sisters in the ward until we could officially move into our house. We also didn't have a phone (still don't actually). Those first few days we got to know the members with the other sisters and had lots of lessons with part member families.

Staying with other Hermanas after transfers, until we moved into our new house

Even with all this craziness, we managed to find a family that was happy to listen and we got everyone who was there to say yes to the baptism invitation! From them we have 3 solid baptism dates and when we go back, we're hoping to get the dad and the other sister because they weren't there for the lesson.

Wellllll....that's all I have time for because I still have lots to do today! Love you all!

Hermana Harper

Inside A Little Shop In Town

Merida - Week 18

At the Zoo on Cinco de Mayo

Hello!

First off, I'm really, really, really sad right now because I'm leaving my first area! I've had 18 weeks there, so I got pretty attached. The members, the investigators, my companion! I feel like they're all my family. Last night when we were waiting for the call to find out what would happen me and Hermana Tozcano, we were positive we would have one more transfer together before we'd get switched up. Usually they call us at 8:30 or 9 so we have time to pack, and when 10:30 rolled around they still hadn't called, so I thought for suuure we'd stay. But, At like 10:40 our district leader called to tell us we're both going to have babies and I'm leaving to open a brand new area! I'm excited, but SO sad.

I couldn't fall asleep for hours because I was thinking about all the people I would miss and baptisms and just everything...annnd my eyes may have been a little teary! They told us we would have a normal Monday together and Tuesday morning we'd have our babies, so I was thinking about what me and my companion would do our last day together. At MIDNIGHT, the assistants called to tell us we had to be at the stake center at 8am to trade companions for a day. I was a little annoyed at the late notice...buuut i guess that's just how it is in the mission. We woke up at 5ish so I could pack and get all ready to leave :( The morning was a little nuts because I wanted to leave a couple notes for people. Everything I wanted to get done I was able to luckily.

As we were leaving, miraculously there was a taxi. We haven't been able to buy credit to call, so I was a little worried about getting a taxi without being able to call one, but it all worked out! In the morning, I didn't get teary or anything, but a member stopped by to pick something up and surprised us...I gotl sad all over again. It's been two hours since then, and I can't seem to pull myself together very well. Luckily I'm with a new companion right now, so she can distract me with new conversations!

Baptism!

This week we had a baptism! We baptized the 9 year old of the family of investigators we're teaching. They are amazing. I feel so lucky to have known them and taught them. We ate with their family yesterday after church and I'm glad now I had that little extra time with them. At church we had their family there and 3 others. For two of those 3 it was their first time. I LOVE seeing investigators in the chapel. It always confirms that we're not just wasting our time with them and that they honestly do want to learn and do their part.

Hmmm...besides transfers I feel like there isn't a lot of new stuff to report. Next week I'll write all about my new daughter and area and finding investigators. Yikes! I'll be working super hard the next transfer. I love you all! Talk to you next week!

Hermana Harper

Merida - Week 17

Happy Birthday Hermana Harper!!!  21 Years Old!

¡Hola!

This next Monday is transfers, so I'll either be changing areas, getting a new companion, training, or nothing will change. I'm secretly hoping nothing changes because I really love my companion!

It's been a little crazy this week because we've been looking at houses...again. I have 3 transfers in the same area and this will be my third house I've lived in. Moving isn't too bad, it just takes up a lot of P-day :(

On a happier note, we managed to finish all the lessons with Monica (9 year old) so she can get baptized this Tuesday! I'm really excited because I think it will strengthen their little family so much.  We are still trying to get the parents married, so they can get baptized too, but more than likely that's a couple months off. Their entire family came to church on Sunday for the first time. Usually the son doesn't want to come, but I guess he finally decided it’s not so bad. I think we're going to have to work with him more because he has the typical "church is boring" attitude. It's all new too, so hopefully, once he has friends it will be better.

A Catholic Lady told me I look like her Virgin Mary.
She gave me this little card with a prayer on the back.

There are so many little things like that you have to worry about as a missionary! Who can be friends with who, what lessons people need, what things people aren't understanding. Sometimes I think I overwhelm myself, but when I just rely on the Lord things usually work out. One other thing was SO special on Sunday: for the first time one of our investigators, now a recent convert, got up to bear his testimony! Jesus had his baptism last Friday and is a really, really cool person. I think a lot of the members look up to him honestly. His dad has been sick since we met him, and he passed away on Saturday, may 3. Jesus told us Sunday in the chapel before sacrament meeting. It completely melted my heart because when he told us, he was holding back tears, but said to us he was really happy and knows where is dad is and how us missionaries are the reason he's at church and is able to be happy about something like that. Wow! And when he bore his testimony he talked about Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon just like a member. I loved hearing his testimony because I know he didn't just say all that to say it. He's really been reading and praying and fasting to have a testimony and had the desire to share it in Sacrament.

Hermana Harper's Birthday Party! In a member's home

Oh, my birthday was this week! I had thought my birthday wouldn't be much different than any other day, but it actually turned out to be a really fun day. In the morning my companion surprised me with a poster she made (no idea when or how she did it with our schedule) and balloons which was SO nice. After studies I opened the presents Mom and the family sent (thanks guys!! :)).  And later, the president's wife, my district leaders, and the other sisters in our district called to sing to me,  and one of our investigators (Jesus) sent a text message. For lunch we ate with a member that knew it was my birthday, so she asked in advance what I wanted to eat.  She was all dressed up when we got there and had the table set up really pretty and had a cake for afterwards.

Hermana Harper's Birthday, May 3!

Well, that's all I have time for. The time is always so short. Love you all!
Hermana Harper