I Have to Do This Quick January 12, 2015 AND Letter to Grandma Murset Saltillo

Highlights of the week:

On the way to write emails there was a college age man singing and playing his guitar on the bus. He was really good and I was so happy to hear a good singing voice because everyone here is tone deaf. I say that in a loving and endearing way. 

We got a new heater. Our other one broke and we have been dying of the cold. But we got a new one yesterday!

Our bishop gave us donuts after our ward counsel meeting. Oh, and chocolate milk. 

Our investigator Martha, the one who prayed about her husband, came to church on her own yesterday! Before we would always have to go for her or have someone pick her up because she never had the money. But she saved up and was able to come on her own with her daughter and son! Her daughter, Yudith, has a desire to be baptized and wanted to see the font. I love them so much. 

I don't have any time at all but I promise that I read all of your emails! I love you all very much. I'm keeping warm and I'm keeping fed. My shoes are still holding up and we have hot water in our house. The fog is crazy but we are still safe. The language is hard but the gospel is true!

Les amo mucho. 

Until next week!

This letter to Grandma I wrote  on paper and then typed it super fast so it's going to be really awful with grammar. You can fix it if you want!

Hi Grandma! 

I wrote a letter to you awhile ago but who knows when or if it will get to you!

Mexico is great! I still can't believe that I'm here. The Lord truly le me by the hand to get me here. Missionary work is tiriing, but I'm getting the hang of it. If it wasn't for the language I would have it down in  no time! 

Spanish is hard, but I'm getting better and better everyday. Maybe by the end of my mission I'll finally be able to understand what people are saying. Ha! 

We are teaching a family right now and boy, the mother is amazing. She's definitely the head of the house. At first she was hesitant about us, but now she's got her own testimony. She studies for Relief Society, she reads her scriptures, she does everything! She wants to get baptized so bad but she wants to do it with her whole family. Who knows what that will happen! They are in really poor circumstances and have a hard time getting to church. But this Sunday the mother came with her daughter  and son! She's been saving up her money to come. The gospel really does change lives!

My companion is from Columbia and loves to cook rice. She also thinks that it is essential that we buy hotdogs every week. I love her. She's a good trainer and puts up with me when I get frustrated with the language. She goes home in May. What will I do without her? The mission loves to put you out of our comfort zone. But that's alright. That is essential for life. 

The members feed us lunch everyday and if we don't have another heaping plate of food they get deeply offended. The food is always really good, but when I get home I'm going to be 30 pounds heavier! What hepls is that we walk everywhere, rain or shine. I am vey grateful that they feed us though. 

Thank you for all that you do, grandma I love you very much! Your last grandchild on a mission, that's crazy! Considering that I wasn't going to go in the first place. I am definitely grateful to be here and I know that the Lord has prepared a way for me to preach to these people. 

Le amo mucho, mi abuela!!

--

Hermana Murset

Our front door.

Finally Some Pictures. Happy New Year! Saltillo

Hi hi hi hi hi hi. 

     I still don't fully understand what everyone is saying when they speak to me and that makes for some really awkward situations. But this is the year that I become fluent, or somewhat fluent, in Spanish. a;dlkfjal;dkjflajf YAY. I'm looking forward to it. 

     Remember the Hermana that prayed about her husband? Well her husband came to church yesterday. Yesssss.... I pretty much had a three hour long prayer praying that he would have a change of heart. They're an awesome family. 

     Also our church time changed to 1 o clock and I love it. Except on fast Sundays, then I hate it. 

IT IS SO COLD HERE AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND. It's a wet cold and it makes me want to scream at the heavens. I use five large, thick blankets at night so I'm pretty cozy. 

     Happy New Year! This transfer I'm staying with my wonderful companion. I told her that if she left me I would die. If that doesn't show my devotion to her I don't know what will. 

     I had a Best Two Years moment the other day. Meaning I met someone who speaks English! Bah! We are going to teach her on Tuesday and I am scared out of my mind because I've never taught in English before... Wish me luck!

     I still can't believe I'm here. I still can't believe I'm going to be in Mexico the entire year of 2015. I can't believe that my Spanish is getting better every day. I can't believe that I finally understand reflexives (me, te, se, nos...). It's a miracle. The food is great, the people are great, and being a missionary is great. Great but hard. I think I might love it. Not sure yet. I'll get back to you on that one. 

     I love you all and I hope you had a very happy new year! Good luck with school, work, and family. My new year's resolutions are to do missionary work during this year. Possibly everyday. That sounds like a good goal, one that I will be able to keep.

Bye!

Pictures:

My companion being a dork. I think I'm rubbing off on her.

Graffiti near our house and me being artistic.

--

Hermana Murset

La Navidad December 29, 2014 Saltillo

     Hello hello hello! How was everyone's Christmas? My Christmas Eve was quite a trip. First we were fed tamales by a member. Then we were fed mole and pasta (weird combination) by a recent convert. Then 20 minutes after that we were fed, once again, tamales. AND spagetti, meatloaf, and beans. And they kept feeding us... and feeding us... and I almost threw up. And every day since then, we have been fed tamales. No dessert. Just tamales. I am grateful, but I never want to see tamales again. 

     Christmas Eve was such an odd day because there was NOBODY in the streets. So my companion and I are walking down the road alone, I'm singing Jingle Bells, and my voice is echoing in the air. I felt like I was in a movie and that some light Christmas music should be playing and snow should be falling.... But in reality I was in a light sweater and kids were setting off fireworks somewhere. I realized how set apart from the world missionaries are! Especially as we went house to house telling everyone Merry Christmas. It was good, but it was odd. 

     Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and had a wonderful time with their families!! Only one more Christmas left and then I'll be home and I'll be an awkward returned missionary who doesn't know what to do with her life. Yay!

     The other day it randomly started pouring rain as we were walking home. That was another movie moment. You always see people in movies walk out into the rain and within 10 seconds they're drenched. I always thought that was so dramatic couldn't possibly happen. Well now I can testify that yes, you can get drenched within 10 seconds. So we're walking in the rain and it's silent because it's night time and it felt like Victorian times and I expected a man on horseback to come galloping up and cry out "Damsels! Art thou in distress?" I have a pretty good imagination...  

     My Spanish is coming along well! I didn't realize how much I have learned until my companion made me call a bunch of people. Yeesh. But don't you worry about me, I'm communicating great!

    Our investigators are well. One Hermana wants to be baptized so badly but she wants her whole family to be baptized with her and her husband isn't keeping his commitments. So she's talking to us and she tells us that she is nothing without her husband and whatnot. But then 5 seconds after she told us that she prayed to Heavenly Father that if her husband was going to keep her from the gospel, to please take him out of her life.  We were sitting there listening going WWWWHHHAAATTT... Yeah. She's a strong one. 

I love you all! Gotta go buy food and water so we can live.

OH YEAH HAPPY NEW YEAR!

--

Hermana Murset

My zone Christmas party.  December 20, 2014.  Here I am, in Saltillo, Mexico!

Christmas Eve.

A Bird Flew Into Our House December 22, 2014 Saltillo

Hi hi hi hi hi.

     Today while we were cleaning a bird flew into our house. All sorts of things ran through my mind. Such as: WOW A PET BIRD. and OH NO I'M GOING TO HAVE TO HAVE A PET BIRD BECAUSE BOTH OF US ARE AFRAID TO TOUCH IT. But don't worry. It flew out. It was almost a traumatic experience. We lived. That's all that matters. 

     Nothing much happened this week except awesomeness. Awesomeness meaning that a family that we've been teaching is going to be baptized! They've been drinking up the lessons like they've been without water for years. They are awesome. And they always feed us. And it's somehow always the best meal that I've ever had in my life. I don't know if they're baptism is this week or next week... I guess we should find out.

     On Saturday was our mission Christmas get together! I call it a get together because Hna. Peñaranda insists that it's not a party unless there's dancing. We did all sorts of fun things. Such as caroling on buses. Caroling at bus stops. Caroling in stores. Caroling in the streets. Oh, and caroling. Our district, in 1 1/2 hours contacted 94 people! And so many people were so grateful for our songs. Even though we were practically screaming over the bus. But that's okay. It was still fun. 

     Then we went back to the church and exchanged presents! The Hermana that had me gave me makeup. Which means that I have to wear it. I think she was trying to send me a message... not sure. But I was grateful anyway. Hna. Peñaranda ate four pieces of cake and afterwards was wondering why she felt like throwing up.... I love her dearly.

   

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas! By Christmas time I will have been in Mexico for a month. And I'm already on my third month away from home. That's weird. I think of you all often. Mostly when I'm washing dishes because that's the only time I have to myself to think of other things except the mission. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas filled with peace, joy, and family. And food. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS. I LOVE YOU ALL.

Some of my MTC district being reunited at the mission Christmas party.  December 20, 2014

Hola Las Personas December 15, 2014 Saltillo

     Another week has come and gone and spell check still thinks I´m spelling words wrong. That rhymed. I feel very accomplished right now.

     Numero uno de mis experiencias: So for the past week my upper back has been hurting because I haven´t had anyone around to crack it. I never thought having people who could crack backs would be a privilege, but it is. So we were visiting an older couple and teaching them a lesson and what not. When we were about to leave Hna. Peñaranda mentioned my back pain and they started talking about how so and so is really good at cracking backs. Then they turned to me and asked if I wanted my back cracked. HALLELUJAH YES. Well this is were the problem of only knowing HALF of what people are saying comes in. I nodded yes and all of the sudden this little old man is trying to crack my back! I was very bewildered and was flailing around trying to figure out what was going on. Then he patted my back, rubbed my shoulders for a second, and said 'Your ears are red!' Oh dear. Anyway. That happened.

     Numero dos: I taught a drunk man how to pray. A very, very, very drunk man. Interestingly enough, it was a very spiritual experience. I can now put that on my list of accomplishments. 

It was a weird week. 

     Missionary work is difficult. Often times it´s difficult to know if I´m doing enough or if I´m slacking. There are so many aspects to the work that every single day is different. And while we´re teaching our investigators I´m realizing how important it is that they gain a testimony for themselves. They can´t lean on the testimonies of us Hermanas for forever, eventually they´re going to have to be independent.

      I think that´s the hardest part of the work, getting people to keep their commitments. But it is so exciting to watch people when we teach because you can see that they are recognizing what we are teaching and that things that they had always had questions about are now starting to be answered. Even though a mission is hard, I know that it´s worth it. Everyday as we´re walking, and walking, and walking we sing hymns. I do a very rousing version of ´WE MUST ALL PRESS ON IN THE WORK OF THE LORD!´ If you ever feel down, sing a hymn. Very loudly. It helps. 

I love you all soooo much. You better believe it. 

Adiós! (Which means ´to God´)

Hermana Murset

PostScript to My Parents:

     I am going to try to call on Christmas day but we still haven´t been able to get ahold of a family who will let us use their computer. I want to be able to see at least a little bit of the family! We have a family in mind and when we set a time and date I will ask them to tell you on Facebook or something so that you can know faster than next Monday.

     Those geese! That would annoy me. If dogs annoy me here I can´t imagine having geese everywhere. 

I promise I´m dressing warm enough! I do layer. But yeah, there are a couple of members that always fuss over me. I think it´s because my nose gets red really easily when it´s cold and then they think I´m dying of frostbite. But yeah, it gets cold here. I need to buy a smaller coat. I don´t like wearing my huge one. Makes me look like I´m journeying to the Antarctic. 

     Don´t overwork yourself, ma! I´m glad that you´re so busy with music stuff, that´s exciting! I promise that when I get home I´ll listen to all of your songs.

How´s the yard coming?  How is Minnie? 

     I will admit, this week has been hard. My companion probably thinks I have water for a brain because I keep crying. It´s like ´Pass the bread´ and I start tearing up because in this one lesson with this one person I didn´t follow a prompting because I couldn´t say it in Spanish and they just happened to have a loaf of bread on their table. Sigh. I have never been so emotionally drained. But we must all press on in the work of the Lord, right? Right. 

     I hope it feels Christmasy up in Utah! It doesn´t feel that way here. But that´s okay. I play Christmas music almost everyday. 

I love you I love you.

My arrival at the mission November 24, 2014.  With Mission President Rodriguez and his wife Sister Rodriguez.

Yoo Hoo! Saltillo

Every morning when I wake up I think ¨WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING HERE.¨ I still can´t believe I´m here... This all began as a little tiny thought way back in March, and now I´m roaming the streets of Mexico, stopping people and talking to them in broken Spanish. But the people are usually nice and my companion helps me out when I get that blank look on my face that means I-have-no-idea-what-I´m-saying-please-help-me. She´s great like that. 

I finally remembered to attach pictures to this email so I don´t have to send two emails. If it looks like I´ve gained weight, it´s because I have six layers of clothing and I might have eaten 8 tortillas de harina (homemade flour tortillas) yesterday... 

It´s not that cold here, but the past two days have been super foggy and humid. It´s so foggy that I can´t even see the huge mountain range that surrounds Saltillo. THERE ARE DOGS EVERYWHERE. Whoa, Megan, calm down. Dogs aren´t that bad. Well having little chiuahuas follow you around nipping at your heels makes me want to kick them into space. None of the dogs like us here... We´re fitting right into the Mormon missionary stereotype. It´s great. I love it. 

Contacting people on the street is hard. It´s hard to figure out who to stop, what to say, etc. All last week I was having a hard time because it´s like ¨Hey you! Do you know your purpose in life?¨ I mean, imagine having a complete stranger white girl stop you and ask you that. But then one day I woke up and said, ¨whatever.¨ I contacted 13 people that day. One of them just happened to be a lady who was baptized as a kid, but then never ended up going to church. She had gone to different churches throughout her life but she had never stuck with one. She was so happy that we stopped and talked to her! Another one resulted in an appointment and the lady said that her daughter is interested as well! I hope they listen to our message.

IT´S CHRISTMAS TIME. Yay. It doesn´t feel like Christmas. But Hna. Peñaranda and I put up a tiny cardboard Christmas tree and now I feel all festive.

My Spanish? I taught myself the verb ¨to sneeze¨ the other day. Yeah, it´s going fantastic. No problem. Moving on. 

I was teaching the first lesson (The Restoration) the other day and I forgot what I was saying halfway through. So to buy some time I sunk slowly into a chair and pretended like I was in deep thought, pondering about the next inspired thing I was going to say. All eyes (there were 7 people) followed me- they were listening very intently- and they stared at me until I said ¨I forgot.¨ And then they busted up laughing. The people here are awesome. 

I have also been kissed on the cheek more times than I ever have in my life. I´m sure you can imagine my reaction when someone did that to me for the first time. WHAT ARE YOU DO...ing.... oh. 

Heat up a cornbag for me and stay warm.

I love you all even though I can´t respond to your emails. I´m responding to them in my mind as I read them so just develop the sense of mind reading and we´ll all be happy. 

I love you!

-Hermana M-ohr-set

That´s how they pronounce it.

 We feel more Christmassy now that we have our cardboard tree up.

Oh, My Goodness! Saltillo

Spellcheck is marking all of my words wrong because they are English words. This is going to be annoying. 

     WHERE TO BEGIN. Oh yeah. I'm in Mexico!! Crazy. On Monday I woke up at  2:30 in the morning. Meh. But hey, I wasn't left in my room. There was a point when Elder Nay had to stop to tie his shoe and I made everyone stop and wait for him so that he wouldn't be left behind. Anyway. My first flight from Salt Lake to Atlanta Georgia was about... 4 and a half hours? (It took me at least 30 seconds to find the which key the question mark is on...) Then I called home then I jumped on a flight to Mexico City. Then from there we got on a rinky dinky plane and flew to Saltillo!

      Our mission president met us there. I really like him. He made it a rule that all the native Spanish speakers have to learn English so that when they get off the mission they can also be bilingual. He's really funny and his wife is the same. We had a little break for food and he told us to go find our companions. Well there were only three Hermanas so we asked him which one. He said "Through revelation." So we kinda stood there staring at them in silence because we don't really know Spanish and they don't really know English. It wasn't awkward at all.

     HALLELUJAH I figured out how to change the keyboard settings to English. But spellcheck is still being annoying.

     Okay, now I'll tell you about my companion. Hermana Peñaranda! She's from Columbia and too pretty for her own good. She's really funny though. I'm the second "hija" that she's trained. She don't take no nonsense. I was inviting people to be baptized on the first day. (They said yes, if you were wondering). She casually told me that we were going to have THREE baptisms on Saturday and that we had SIX other baptisimal dates. Whew! My first day she dragged me around Saltillo.

     Oh yeah, I'm in Saltillo, by the way. My area is called Zaragoza 2. But anyway, she dragged me around our area. I have never felt so American in my life. I understand about half of what people are saying and the other half I smile and nod and laugh and act like I know what's going on.

     But sometimes that doesn't work out because sometimes they get talking about really weird things. Such as prostitution. I was smiling and nodding during that conversation until I heard a word that sounded like "prostitution"and then I put my concerned face on beause I figured that one was better.

     BUT DON'T WORRY. I met an American Hermana today and now I have hope for my future. She's got the language down. She also mistook me for a Mexicana. Score.

     I'm getting used to the food. It's not that different. But I have a hard time eating the soup. Hermana Penaranda scarfs down her food in two seconds and then it makes me look like I haven't eaten anything. I think that's the only thing I dislike about her. STOP EATING SO FAST.

     We have quite a few investigators. They're all awesome. There's one family, la famila Esparsa, that I am in love with. They have a little boy and he and I have developed quite the connection. I'm friends with all the kids because I have no idea what's going on during lessons so the kids and I become friends.

     Now I'll tell you about contacting. IT'S SO HARD. Going up to people and saying hi is no big deal, but then I have no idea what's going on afterwards. So yesterday during church I had an idea. I did it with two people and one resulted in an appointment!

Ahem.

Me: Hello! Can I practice my Spanish with you?

People: (How can they resist a gringa asking for help?) Of course!

     Then I proceed to bear my testimony in Spanish. Then afterwards they talk about Christmas and such because we have these little cards that say "He is the Gift" (In Spanish of course). Hopefully I can get over my fear. That's been the biggest of my struggles, is contacting. Actually that has been my ONLY struggle, haha. 

Oh. None of the houses here have heaters. I'm freezing all the time. But that's okay. 

     On my second day we went to go visit a lady named Clara. We were talking about the Restoration and Hermana P. told me that I was going to share the First Vision. No big deal, I have it memorized. So when the time came, Hermana Penaranda looked pointedly at me and I felt awesome because this is the one thing that I know how to say and say it well. So I start saying the First Vision in Joseph Smith's words, and man, the Spirit was thick. I could practically see the light in her eyes and the Holy Ghost touching her heart. Afterwards she said she knew it was true. AH. 

     Mexico is fantastic. I am fantastic. Bedtime is fantastic. The people are fantastic. The three baptisms were fantastic. The gospel is fantastic. 

I don't really have that much time, I took most of it trying to figure out the keyboard. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Oh, and if you want to sent me a letter everything gets sent to the mission office. 

Eulalio Gutierrez #1057

Col. Las praderas

C.P. 25295

Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico

                                                                                                 My door.

 My companion Hermana Peñaranda navigating the vast wasteland between colonies.

Three of us missionaries from my MTC district are in my district here.  We had a baptism our first Saturday in Saltillo.