Anyway. So it´s the morning, I´m groggily trying to get out of bed, thinking about my soon to be companion Hermana Bjorklund and hoping that she knows enough Spanish. THEN we get a phone call. It´s for Hermana Bravo. She talks for a little while, hangs up, and says "I´m staying here with you, Hermana Murset. Hermana Bjorklund is going to be the companion of Hermana Valerio." WHOA WHAT.
Apparently the assistants had put the wrong thing on the transfers list and when Hermana Bravo showed up to train they felt like something was wrong so they prayed and they prayed and then they called us to change things. So, I´m not with an American! I´m actually really glad (sorry Hermana Bjorklund). I´ve learned a lot about Spanish just in these 6 days with Hermana Bravo. I´ll tell you more about her later because I have even better news!
The Reynas got baptized! Boy this has been a long time coming. We nearly didn´t have baptismal clothing for them, but everything turned out alright. Haha Hermano Alberto was SUPER exicted and SUPER nervous. He refused to wear a tie because he had a dream once that he died from a tie... Hermana Guadalupe was more reserved. But goodness, when they were finally baptized and confirmed (yesterday) it was liking closing a huge novel that has taken three months to read. I´m super happy for them.
Directing the area is hard, but I´m alright. We are working on my pronunciation. I stick a pen in my mouth and apparently that´s supposed to help me? I don´t know, ask Hermana Bravo.
I love you all! Hope everyone is healthy and well.
Pictures
The Esparza family! I love them.
Hi family!
I miss you all. I was walking around in the heat and dust the other day as usual and I thought, I want ice cream. And then I thought, I should write my family a letter. So here I am, Monday, in a internet thingy. Most of the time I don´t really have enough time to write so there are probably a lot of questions.
The mission is, well, the mission. There´s really no other way to explain it. The first two months in Mexico were really hard for me. I didn´t understand anybody, I couldn´t really talk to our investigators or members, I was expected to know the lessons more than I did... I never wanted to go home, but I sure did think about home a lot. Being here has really made me appreciate my family.
Everyday we teach families that are going through really hard times. Although our family isn´t perfect, we still know that we love each other. And we have the gospel. All of us. I never realized what a blessing that is! Every single one of us will be able to be with each other for eternity! Maybe even Minnie and Marble, who knows. I¨m just really grateful for you all. Thank you for being my family. Thank you for supporting me in this mission. Thank you for going to church and staying in the gospel. Do you home and visiting teaching. Do you family history work. Be on time to sacrament meeting.
Hna. Peñeranda was a hard trainer. In face she has the reputation of being one of the hardest. But she was good for me. We had some good laughs. She has the number 1 spot in Pride of Columbia and apparently they eat a lot of fruits and vegetables because she told me that almost every day for 3 months. She never walked in a straight line and that almost caused her death various times. By cars and by my annoyance. She´s a really good teacher and can explain basically anything. I miss her tons.
Hermana Bravo enjoys the mission to it´s fullest. She's very... full of sunshine and bubbly giggles? She can teach a principle in one breath and then invite someone to baptism in another. She doesn´t like to talk on the phone so I do it most of them time. Weird, right? I¨m pretty sure she thinks that I understand everything that people are saying. Ha! I´ve got her fooled. She says "Muuuuyy bien" at least 5 times in a sentence. She´s awesome though and I think I¨m going to learn a lot of Spanish with her.
The Esparza family. OH how I love them. Hermana Peñeranda and Hermana Godoy contacted Hermano Nicolas while he was working washing cars in front of his mother in law´s house. He invited them back and at first he was the one who listened. Hermana Martha didn´t want anything to do with us. I came in when they had about two lessons. Then Hermano Nicolas had more and more work and Hermana Martha started listening with her daughters, Yudith and Dariela. They came to church and everything changed. They started reading their scriptures and praying. Yudith herself told us that she wanted to be baptized. When they entered the waters of baptism Hermana Peñeranda and I nearly shouted halellujah to the heavens. They are definitely a miracle family.
The Reyna family was a contact in the street with the other Hermanas. Their notions of Mormons was that if they knocked on your door, you run the other way! But they didn´t recongize the actual name of our church so they let us in, not finding out that we are Mormons until later on. At first they were skeptical, but then as they started praying and reading their scriptures they started seeing the changes in their family. I think that´s what really converted them, seeing how the gospel changes families for the better. When they got baptized, that was a whole miracle in itself.
Gabriel was a less active for 6 years. He has a sickness that deformed his body and he has problems with his heart. He has 15 years as a member, and before that he was a member of a gang. So you can imagine his life.
Hermana Peñeranda and Hermana Godoy had been visiting him for awhile when I came. The first time we visited him, my second day in Mexico, I left feeling astonished because I could feel how special he was to our Heavenly Father. We visited him and vistited him, nothing. But then we left him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read. The next time we came is was a complete flip around change. He brought out all of the scriptures, his hymnbook, different conference talks that he had found. He was so happy! We had left him 3 Nephi 11 when Heavenly Father calls to the people three times and it´s not until the third time that they hear. He applied that to himself and decided to finally LISTEN to what we were teaching him. He had an appointment with the bishop and hasn´t missed a Sunday since. The power of the Book of Mormon, people.
Although sometimes it´s difficult to recongnize the miracles that happen around me, they do happen.
The mission is still hard. Hermana Bravo has me speak with a pen in my mouth to practice pronunciation. She does Insanity in the mornings. I have wicked tan lines. We walk and we walk. But it´s all worth it.
I miss you family. Hope everything is well on the good frontier.
Love you.
--
Hermana Murset
