Hi famds. (Family and friends stuck together) Saltillo March 16, 2015

Picture: Me walking dramatically to the place where I write you all. In comparison to the one I sent last week. I think I'm going to have a series of these pictures. 

I just don't understand how sister missionaries surive when they serve in cold countries. Which make me think, will they ever open a mission in Antarctica? Probably not, moving on. 

Today the fog rolled in and I am so glad that I don't have to go out walking until 6. If I could wear pants under my skirt, I would be forever grateful. Right now Hna. Bravo is curled up on the couch listening to the Spanish versions of songs for young women because it's too cold to do anything else. I'm in our study room wearing a sweater given to me by a less acive who refuses to come to church because she still believes in the Virgin Mary. She's really nice. This coat has a built in woolen scarf and makes me look like I've gained 30 pounds. Long story short, I'm cold. 

The past week has been the longest and yet shortest week of my mission. Our Tuesday district meeting feels like it was a month ago, but somehow we go to Monday in the blink of an eye. 

It was a week of HALLELJUAHS because we haven't had any prgoress in our area for 4 weeks, but in just two days we found 6 new people to teach and all of them are amazing. 

One of them, Carolina, was a contact I made in the street when rain, hail, cats, and dogs were dumping down on us. I'm surprised she even listened to us seeing as we had the gall to contact her in that weather. But we made an appointement and when we went to teach her, her daughter joined in as well. They are amazing people. Haha when I invited them to baptism I started off by asking them why Jesus needed to be baptized when He was perfect. I don't know what happened but Carolina responded by telling me that sometimes she can't decide what grocery story to shop at. I sat there for a second thinking "What in the world..." and then nodded like it was the most correct answer in the world and  somehow related it to baptism. Three tries later she stayed on the subject and said yes. Her daughter said yes before I even finished. 

We have tiny hallelujah moments everyday and sometimes you just have to sit on a bench and think about them for a second so that you can get through the rest of the day. But most of the time the benches here are wet from the fog, soooo....

But anyway. Happy 5 months to me yesterday! And happy one month until my birthday and happy one month until I have exactly one year left of my mission! And Happy Birthday to anyone who has a birthday this week!

I love you all. Even as much as I love flour tortillas. 

Cuidense. 

Hermana Murset

Hi. My Name is Walk. Saltillo

Yesterday it was raining so hard that we had water leaking from our ceiling. Today it's bright sunshine and hot weather. I will NEVER understand this weather. 

Anyway, hello all. 

This week we entered a house of a woman who promptly informed us that she had bronchitis and so wouldn't be able to speak that much. She sat us down, we sang a hymn, said a prayer, and then she talked for an hour straight. She repeated her life story 3 times, asking her son 3 times if it's been a year since her sister passed away. "Yes mom, it's been a year." We learned that she's 75 years old and that when she was younger her mom told her that she didn't need to put on a coat because she could just hug all the handsome young men in the area. 

When she paused to cough, Hna. Bravo spewed out the lesson in one breath, I testified in one breath, Hna. Bravo said a prayer, I made an appointment, and said goodbye. Speed missionary work, I tell ya. 

That experience happened in what will forever be known as my week of diligence. We don't have any investigators and we have been trying and trying to find some. They only lesson we had this week were the ones where we collapsed on the doorstep of a memeber and begged them to let us teach them. 

We walked from the top of our area down to the bottom, contacting everything that moved (including dogs, they deserve to hear our message). At one point I stopped walking and looked down the street, seeing that there was no one in sight for literally miles. I broke down laughing at our unfortunate situation, and Hna. Bravo pronounced me crazy. 

We didn't find anyone this week, but we worked our best. At one point we were walking to our house and we saw the most beautiful sunset. Hna. Bravo said "Ï think that this is what it's going to look like when the Savior comes." and I said "What if He's already coming?" And we stood in silence, reflecting on that. But surprisingly, I felt the calmest I've ever felt. 

I'm not the best person in the world, I have my mountain of faults, but in that moment I knew that I had done enough. I had done everything I could to invite others to Christ. I had worked with diligence and I could walk up to the Lord and greet him with confidence if He came right then. It gave me the goal to always work my hardest.

The mission is hard. We are only human and the mission requires super human effort. But we are representatives of Jesus Christ, and well, when we work our hardest, we can't fail. 

Sometimes the weeks with the least success are the weeks with the most growth.

 

So, I invite you, because I'm a missionary and I invite people to do something in every converstaion. Such as inviting my companion to wash her dishes. I invite you to go outside, look at the sunset, and imagine that the Savior is coming in that moment. How would you feel? Then walk back inside and tell your family that you love them. Because that never hurts. 

That's all for now, folks. 

Love ya. 

(Picture: Me walking dramatically towards the cyber cafe where I'm going to write you all.)

--

Hermana Murset

P.S. to Dad 

We only have two beds in our house, but we have four soft mattresses that fold up. Hermanas come and stay for all sorts of things! I've met practically all of them. I have been teaching English, actually, but it's harder than it sounds. I don't know all the words in order to help them understand so most of the time it's super hard, but everybody wants to learn English, so they really don't care. Haha. I still have a hard time expressing myself but that doesn't stop me from using facial expressions! That's how I show my humor. 

I'll write something this week about Grandma and then send it next week! Tell her that I love her!

P.S. to Mom:I don't think they have daylight savings because I haven't heard anything about it. You know how people normally are, DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME EVERYONE THE WORLD IS GOING TO END IF YOU DON'T CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS. But I haven't heard anything like that, so I think I'm safe. 

For some reason Hna. Bjorklund and Hna. Valerio like to buy us cookies, so now I don't know what is going on with my diet. Let's face it, I'll probably come home filled out. 

I love you tons. Thank you for the rock star card. I think I'm going to print it out or something. You look so pretty in your picture! I have the prettiest mom. 

Love you!

Photos from Hermana Peñaranda.

Week of Walking March 2, 2015 Saltillo

Honestly all I can say that I did this week was WALK. I lost all my ballet muscle before I left and now I've gained it back in one week. Miracles do happen.

But before anything, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MMMOOOMMMMMM. You're the best mom I've ever had. :D I made a pathetic little sign to show my love and I didn't even have to ask my companion to translate it for me. Pat on the back for me. I love you a lot! I hope you have a Happy Birthday!!

I feel really bad but I honestly have nothing to write about.... I've gained 5 pounds. 1 pound for every month! I'm going to work it all off with our Insanity CD. Haha who am I kidding, I'm not going to do Insanity. Maybe Zumba. I haven't decided yet. 

Hermana Bravo is full of giggles and sunshine. But if you thought that I didn't like to talk on the phone, she likes it even less. If you thought that I don't like to contact, she likes it even less. Practically everything that I don't like to do, you can see the pattern here. So here's another pat on the back for me because I'm rising above my fears! Yayayaya round of applause! Nah, she's really awesome. We just have to work a little bit harder to get the encouragment to do those things. She wears a lot more colors than I do as well. So she's basically the sunshine in our companionship.

I've learned a lot about patience this week. I want miracles but sometimes the miracle is that I'm progressing little by little everyday. I told that to a less active so I guess I should apply it to myself, right? That less active came to church this Sunday and Hna Bravo and I nearly screamed with excitement when she walked through the door with her daughter! Seeing as we have been trying to find her for MONTHS and after one visit she came. Boy were we glad. 

Go to church. It's good for you. 

Gotta go walk some more! Love you all. Love you, mom. Happy Birthday!!

--

Hermana Murset

HAPPPPYY BIIIIIRRRRRRTTTHHHHDDDDAAAAYYYY MMMMOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

Hermana Bravo is very bright and full of giggles. She makes me practice the lessons everyday, which I don't like, but need to do. She likes to talk about the heirarchy of the mission. She's really good at relating to people and makes them feel comfortable really fast. I'm learning a lot of Spanish from her and she's really awesome! She has really smelly feet though... I'm struggling with that. Haha. And she has a problem with keeping to the mission rules when it comes to our schedule. But we're working on that and we work really well together. 

We don't have any investigators at the moment. All of the ones that we had got baptized! We are looking and looking and looking. And looking. 

We have walked so many miles I can't even count! We have learned a lot about enduring to the end and we're hoping that after all of this comes a miracle. I have literally tried everything. Exact obedience, praying, reading my scriptures, contacting, contacting some more, fasting.... But all in the Lord's time, right? 

But yeah, we don't have anybody progressing at the moment. We'll have to see in the next couple of weeks. We're hoping that this week goes better. 

My Spanish is coming along, Hna Bravo is really helping me with it. 

I'll proabably just have to write you letters to tell you more about the mission because I rarely have any time! 60 minutes goes by super quickly. 

Tell Grandma hi and to get better! I'll send her a letter next week. 

Yay! A new car! I miss driving...

I love you a lot!!!

--

Hermana Murset

The Longest Week of My Life! (Saltillo)

This week has been the longest week of my life. I´m serious. The longest. Let be tell you a little story. So the day of transfers rolls around. We have three new missionaries sleeping in our house and one Hermana, Hermana Bravo, who was going to train. I´m pretty sure our house is a hotel. Every sister in the mission has stayed there. 

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. 

The Reyna Family! I love them too. The little girl behind me was bawling and wouldn´t show her face. So you´ll just have to imagine what she looks like.


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

No Me Voy Saltillo (Zaragoza)

I'M STAYING IN ZARAGOZA. And I have an American companion. I can't spell her last name and she's actually not with me yet, so I'll keep you updated. Hna. Peñeranda is off to the North of Norths, is opening an area, AND is going to train again. Haha poor Hermana. This will be her fourth time training. But she's a good trainer and this new Hermana is going to learn  A LOT. A lot a lot. I'm going to miss her, but that's how the mission is, right? Right.

We're planning on baptizing the Reyna family this week whether they like it or not. Just kidding, they want to be baptized, we just have to see if Hno. Reyna can make it through the week without slipping up. Pray for him, he needs it!

The other day we contacted a man and he spent 20 minutes telling us how our eyeballs testify that there is a God. Which, if you think about it is true, but he just took forever and a day to say that. 

I am on a no flour tortillas diet. Wish me luck.

And again, not much has happened this week because we've been in the house because of my companion's foot. She has inflamed tendons or something and it hurts a lot to walk. 

I hope you all had a great Valentines day and that you have an even better President's Day... I finally got my Christmas packages from my mom and my sister so I turned on my Christmas music, set up the tree I recieved and opened my presents while my companion rolled her eyes and helped herself to the candy I recieved. 

Oh my, my training is done! I just remembered, haha. I've learned a lot in these past 12 weeks. I've definitely grown as a person and as a missionary. I didn't realize how much I had progressed until I went on splits with our sister training leader in my area and I wasn't even scared to lead everything. It was like clockwork. The only way I can go is up, right? 

I promise I'll have more exciting things next week. If I don't, I'll make something up. Just kidding. 

Love you! Happy President's day! Be safe doing whatever you do on President's Day....

Christmas seven weeks later...

Thanks for the packages!

I'm trying to stay away from these.

They are too delicious. 

Oh Hi. Week 11. Dun dun duuunnnnnn...... February 9, 2015 Saltillo

Week 11. Dun dun duuunnnn..... 

Week 11 is when your companion hands you the cellphone and the responsibility and DOESN'T HELP YOU AT ALL. Just kidding it wasn't that bad. Except when I make phone calls it's a lot of awkward "whats" because sometimes people don't talk slow like they did in the MTC. 

We actually had two other sisters staying with us because of medical stuff and one day we decided to go on splits because they were sick of being cooped up in the house. So I got to be a legitamite senior companion for a day. Lemme tell ya, it was a bit terrifying. All of the sudden you're put in charge of miles and miles of streets and you realize how small you are in the world and how you don't know where anything is. But I acted confident and blabbered in Spanish like I knew what I was doing and the other Hermana seemed pretty convinced. 

We don't have any new investigators because, well, nobody is ever home when we go to visit them! But our investigator family, the Reyna's, are progressing! The hermana is probably going to get baptized this week and so we are very happy :) The hermano still has a problem with the word of wisdom, so we're going to work on that. They are good people and I love them a lot. 

Transfers are next week! So far I've been in the safety bubble of being a greenie missionary in training, but this next transfer I have no idea what's in store for me! It's scary, lemme tell ya. I have to have a loooottt of faith. Hermana Peñaranda has faith in me, so that's good.

Not much has happened this week because my companion hurt her foot and she's supposed to rest for SEVEN days. Minimum. So far I've read half the Bible and most of the Bible dictionary. We're on day 3. Pray for me. 

Love you all and I hope your Valentines Day is filled with chocolate and pink stuff! 

This picture is evidence that I was called to the right mission. 

--

Hermana Murset

Week of Thankfulness February 2, 2015 Saltillo, Mexico

Today, because we're super intelligent and wise, we got Dairy Queen and then walked around in the rain and fog while eating our ice cream. We got a lot of weird looks, but that's okay. 

This week I learned how to say that someone has "bats in the belfry" or in Spanish it's "tiene pájaros en la cabeza" Which means that there are birds in your head. Probably not what I should be learning, but oh well. I told that to my companion and she was slightly offended and told Hna. Martha (our recent convert) what I said and I got a scolding. But then later Hna. Martha leaned over and said "You should bring food for the birds in her head." and I busted up laughing. She's great.

Today I realized how much I have to be thankful for. So in this email I'm going to list some of the things that I'm grateful for. It's like Thanksgiving all over again!~

The Spanish that I know.

My companion.

That the members feed us well.

That I have a rainproof coat.

My family.

That people write me every P-day even though I can't respond all the time.

That I feel safe in Mexico.

Flour tortillas

My friends.

My mission president.

Bread.

Cheese.

Blankets.

That I speak English.

That I'm on a mission.

That I'm not sick.

My area.

This gospel.

Jesus.

God.

Todo. (All)

I love you all and hope you have a very happy week filled with grateful thoughts and Valentines candy. 

The picture is a bad one of me being super smart in the freezing cold. 

--

Hermana Murset