DEEP BREATH. April 11, 2016 Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

BBBRRREEEAAAATTTTHHHHHH.

Oh. my. gosh. 

I'm traumatized. 

Just kidding, I've only cried twice. 

In two days (more like 3 because I'm going to get home super late) I will be stepping off the plane and walking into the arms of the people brave enough to go to the airport at 11pm. I will most likely laugh nervously and wonder if hugging my dad is allowed. 

I can't believe that 18 months have already come and gone. I remember the day that my parents dropped me off at the MTC. I hugged them quick, let my eyes get watery, straightened my shoulders, and said, "Wellgottagobye!" I was led into the building were I put on my nametag for the very first time. And from then on, I have been known as "Hermana Murset." 

I NEVER thought that I would love the people of Mexico so much. I never thought that I would feel so much joy, and so much sadness. I never thought that I would see my weaknesses so clearly. I never thought that I could care so much. 

And I definitely never thought that I would be able to learn Spanish. 😁

Being a representative of Christ is something that I will never forget. 

I know that God exists. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. That only through His name are we able to step into the kingdom of God. I love Them, and in this short space of time, I have learned to love Them even more. They have always been by my side, and They have always told me (even though I had a hard time believing it) that I am good enough.

I know that this is the true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. I am going to be able to be with my family forever, thanks to our Savior.

I <3 󾓩. 

Thank you for all the emails, the letters, the love, and the support that you have given me during my mission. I will forever be grateful. 

Goodbye, Mexico. I love ya tons.

Aaaannnnddd for the last time, signing off.

HERMANA MURSET.

Oh yeah, and pictures. 😄

1. Basilio got baptized! Agapita, his wife, was also going to get baptized, but she has a mental illness and got freaked out when she started getting in the water. But she promised her husband, in the name of "The Virgin Guadalupe" that she will do it another day. 

2. A Kodak moment.

Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Stayin' Alive, Stayin Alive (Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México)

STAYIN' AAAALLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE.

That's about the only worldly song that I remember. And it applies to the situation. I'm singin' my last week blues. The missionaries are very kindly counting down the days for me. I've started to give all my stuff away so I won't have to take it home. I've already started packing my bags, so I guess you could say that I'm trunky.

I accept it. 

Our awesome investigator, Jesus Manuel, will probably not get baptized this week, but he has promised me that he WILL get baptized. So at least I have that promise. He's a really good singer and at the end of each lesson has been singing a song for us. He's about 80 years old and he gives us treats every time we go to visit him. And he talks about us and the church with everyone he meets. I love him a lot. 

Actually, I love the people here a ton. I'll be glad to be home, but leaving the people.... man, that's gonna be hard.

General Conference was AWESOME! I got to watch it in English, which made me happy. Somebody pulled out a selfie stick and we took a selfie with Jeffery R. Holland. It was a really good conference. I'm going to have to watch it again when I get home.

I love you all and I can't wait to see you next week! I'll be the one that is clinging to my mom because I'm not used to being without a companion. 

Hermana Murset

Pictures:

Using the selfie stick. The missionaries one the left didn't hear me when I said "MODEL FACE." 

Tu (2) Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México (March 28, 2016)

Elder Taylor, one of the assistants to the president, very kindly made me a paper chain so I can count the days down. He thought it was super funny. I've come to the conclusion that they spend wwwaaayyy too much time in the offices. 

Tú, tu, two, to, too, 2. I have two weeks left. I have 14 days left. I'm planning on just giving the paper chain to my companion so she can count down the months. Heh.

Jesus Manuel went to church again! His daughter in law had a car accident and he went to go visit her in the hospital Sunday morning, but he told us that he was antsy to leave because he wanted to get to church on time. But I worry about his driving because one time I saw him drive and..... it's worrisome. But he got there! And that's what counts. 

You may ask me how I feel, and I'll be honest and tell you that I forget that the time is ticking. I STILL HAVE TIME TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE MEXICAN FOOD. DON'T WORRY. 

Iiiiiiiiiiii don't have much to talk about, haha. I'm sure I'll be a Chatty Cathy when I get home.

I'm well, I'm happy, I'm working, I'm preachin'!

I love you all!

Hermana Murset

Picture:

My paper chain. 

Tamales y Tortillas de Harina (March 21, 2016) Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México

HEY GUESS WHAT I LEARNED HOW TO MAKE!

Flour tortillas and tamales. 

Soy màs mexicana que los nopales. 

Those that speak Spanish are going to get what I just said. Trust me, it's funny. 

I actually ended up learning how to make flour tortillas because at the time I was having a tachycardia attack or something like that and nobody would let me leave the house. So me being all productive suggested that the Hermana should teach me how to make them. I'm an expert now. 

Tamales, on the other hand................... Nope. Not an expert. Sorry, ma. 

This week was a good week! Jesus Manuel came to church again! This time he didn't go to the other church. He jokingly told our mission president that we had gone and pulled him by his ears out of the other church.... the president laughed, don't worry!

Hey guess what, I'm not trunky or anything, but I have three weeks left. I'm gonna leave Oceanía FULL OF AWESOMENESS. My companion is happy that I'm leaving because she's going to inherit all of my clothes. And my notebooks. And my pens. And my shampoo and conditioner because I'm going to leave it there, heh.

Well, that's all for now folks. I'm gonna go make more tamales.

Love you all!

Hermana Murset

No pictures because this computer is weird.

Where's Jesus Manuel? (Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México)

That's my half hearted attempt at word play. (Where's Waldo?)

I would tell you the story about how we decided to go to Centro (where all the cool stuff is) but the bus ended up taking us to the very edge of Saltillo.... but I'll save that story for when I get home. But I don't know if I'll be able to tell it in English...

But don't worry, I have ANOTHER story. So a while back we started teaching a man named Jesus Manuel. He's about 80 years old and has a sickness that always makes him feel dizzy. The first few lessons I wasn't super convinced that he wanted to hear our message, but then we taught the Restoration, and he went "WWWOOOOWWWWWW! I WANNA GO TO CHURCH!" He's super convinced that this is the true church and he wanted to go see what it was like. 

I was pretty sure that he was going to go to church, but for some reason I felt uneasy. Sunday morning we were going to go pick up some investigators, but I kept feeling like we needed to go make sure that he had left to go to church. So we passed by, and saw that his car wasn't there. Good! So he went. But I still felt uneasy. So we got to church, and he wasn't there! We called his phone, it was turned off. We waited, he never showed up. (The real life of missionaries). So we went into the sacrament room and sat down because the service had already started. 

BUT THEN. 

I turned to my companion and said "Let's run out to the main street and see if he's there." 

Fat chance that he was going to be there, but we left the chapel and started running. The members probably thought we were crazy. We get to the main street and lo and behold, there's his car! It's easy to spot seeing as it's a red Volkswagon Beetle. But.... where was he? And THAT was when we started to hear rock and roll Christian music. We turned around and BOOM, we realized that he had entered into a rock and roll Christian church that is on the same block as the chapel. 

Uh....

Um...........

So what did we do? We started talking to a guy from that church that was standing outside with his kid. We kindly asked him if he could go see if there was an older man with white hair named Jesus Manuel in the church. The whole time very aware that our black name tag was shining in the sun. Within minutes Jesus Manuel came out, looking very disoriented, led by some people. 

We didn't wait for them to react and we practically dragged him to the chapel, just in time for the sacrament.

Haha later he told us that he was actually just about to leave the church that he was in because he was really confused and because he didn't see us anywhere. 

He's great!

And that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I would also tell you about the time when I had to open a pop bottle with pliers, but that's another story for another day.

Next week I'm going to learn how to make flour tortillas! Wee!!!

I love you all and I'll see you next week!

Hermana Murset

Pictures:

1. We teach a recent convert, Willy, outside of his house because he lives alone. This is a common occurence. I did the same with Tomas! Rain or shine.

2.Hahahaha a recent convert family that I love. The Vasquez family. The hermano is such a jokster.

6-1=5 (Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México) March 7, 2016

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeey. 

It's not like I'm super good at math or anything, but if I count on my fingers, I only have 5 weeks left. 😲

I would start to reflect on my mission right now, but I won't do that until my last email, don't worry. 

This week went SO WELL. Goodness. I was seriously worried for our area. It seemed like the people decided that they were allergic to the sun and missionaries, so they weren't out in the street and they wouldn't open their doors. But lo and behold, they aaaaalll accepted us this week. So I'm happy. If the people are like that for the rest of my mission, I will be one happy sister.

A new assistant to the president is here. He has super long legs so beating them to contact referrals is a little more difficult. But he's cool, so I guess it's alright that we're sharing an area with them. 

The other day we went to go look for some less actives that the bishop asked us to find. We only knew their last names and when we approached the house there was a man outside. Hermana Novoa whispered "What's their last name?" and I replied "Ramos Sosa." 

She walked confidently up to the man, pointed at him in a friendly manner, and said 

"Your name is Eduardo!" 

Man, I don't know where she got the name Eduardo and he looked a little confused and I turned red and reminded her that we only knew their last names, only to hear the man reply: 

"Yeah, my name is Eduardo." 

MY COMPANION CAN READ MINDS.

Anyway. That's my experience for the week. I hope you enjoyed it.

Love you guys and all that stuff.

Hermana Murset

Pictures:

1. Maribel and Jose Manuel are two people that my companions and I found in Zarco. They got baptized on different days, but they invited us to both. They actually got baptized at the beginning of Febuary, but I just barely found the picture. They're GREAT. They're also going to invite me to eat when I leave so that I can say bye to them.

2. I said to my companion "THAT'S IT. We need a picture." So we took a selfie. I'm skinnier than normal, I know.

Let There Be Light (Oceania, Saltillo, Coahuila, México) February 29, 2016

Let me just tell you a story real quick.

So Tuesday we woke up all cheery and ready to start the day. I hopped out of bed joyfully and flipped on the light, only to find that the light didn't turn on.... Hm. That's happened to us before, but the light has always turned back on. So we went out to work. When we came back, still no light. BAAH. Turns out the light bill blew away, meaning that we never recieved it, so they cut the electricity. Hmph. So that night we took a lloonnnggg journey to the electricity place, typed in all the information, looked at how much the light bill was, and said "I have like... 50 pesos?" Yeah, we didn't have enough money. 

But two hermanas were going to stay in our house that night.

So we went and picked them up, warned them that we didn't have light, bought some stuff to eat in the morning, and went back to the house, only to find it all lit up! What the.... somebody had turned our light back on. 

Hermana Novoa yelled "GOD LOVES US!!" 

Which is true.

Aaannnddd when we woke up the next morning, there wasn't any light. We took out some money, paid the light bill, and waited.... THREE DAYS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY. I know, I wouldn't survive if I was a pioneer. 

Turns out they really did turn the electricity back on, but there was a shortage so it didn't work. 

The bishop fixed it. They got a kick out of me when they asked if we had a screwdriver and I pulled one out of my bag. I found it on the street and I thought it would be useful.

But now we have light, and I am a happy missionary.

And that's my story for the week. 

That's really all that happened. But hey! I'm staying in my area with Hermana Novoa. I guess the president thinks we're a really good team. Today begins my last transfer, and before you know it, I'll be walking around in Utah.

I love you all! I can't send pictures because this computer is weird.

Hermana Murset