An Earthquake, a Baptism...and Weird Combi Drivers

So everyone, that investigator, Carlos, had the right idea--we should never sit, just in case there´s an earthquake, we´ve gotta be alert...This week I experienced my first earthquake...We were studying and suddenly the whole house just started to shake and it was a little scary because we live in this second floor patio area and I was super suprised the metal spiral stairs that lead up to our house stayed in place. We just sort of huddled on the floor together away from all the windows until it calmed down, but apparently it was a big one because all the people were freaking out. I´m perfected okay though. It was pretty interesting because I had no idea what was going on so I was just like ¨whelp...I think this is an earthquake..¨ I was super calm apparently haha! I´d like to thank Carlos for giving me the headups although I just thought he was crazy.

We had a baptizm this week! Heckka yea! Juventino finally got baptized. I was so happy for him. He had really changed a lot from when I first met him and it´s a real privilege helping people be able to make this life changing change in their lives. After the baptizm, my companion and I sang him ¨¨La Luz de La Verdad¨ it´s his favorite hymn and it´s actually the hymn of the mission too, so that was a little ironic, but he burst out into tears at the end. He told us later that when he hears us sing he knows the church is true, and that was really special because I´m not that great of a singer, ( my companion studys music, so I give all the credit to her) but it was just really special. He had us scared though, because on Sunday he arrived late for the comfirmation of the Holy Ghost and we thought he wasn´t going to show up! But he come strolling in right because the Sacrament and all I could think was..¨...wow Juventino..wow¨...the person that´s always 30 minutes early to everything! Ha! What a weekend! It was amazing. I am so happy for him, he is going to be a great member of the church.

On the way home I had some interesting combi (white mini vans that drive people around the town--it´s the public transportation in the area) experiences....first off...I was walking down the street and a huge gust of wind decides to come my way and up goes the skirt....we were walking down the sidewalk and a combi driver shouts out his window ¨whoooa Senorita!¨ It was pretty hilarious. Then a little bit later we got into a different combi and on come Bryan Adam´s ¨I´d do anything for you¨ (but it was translated into a Spanish version) and the combi driver sang that song to me, looking up at me through his mirror! Talk about creepy. The combi drivers are definitely something else.

We had a great experience on Sunday. We were suppose to go to eat at a members house but an extended family member had died so the mom had to go out of town and we were left with the two daughters and a house with no food. So they took us to the grocery store to buy some food (we usually never shop on Sunday´s because we believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy...but they had no food...so it was necessary) anyways, as we walked into the store we see the family of the YM´s president ( who´s wife for some reason has never really liked the missionaries in the ward and she´s actually been a little mean too) but we see them and they were super embarassed to have been caught shopping on Sunday! It was hilarious. My companion and I laughed, but we saw them as they were exiting out of the store and they gave us each an apple...as if to bribe us not to tell anyone, wow. It was just super funny. Don´t worry people, we´re not going to tell anyone! haha!

Happy birthday mom! I love you!

¨Buenas tardes, se ve muy guapa con sus lentes¨

So this is what our investigator, Juventino told me last week during a lesson...apparently he liked the way I looked with glasses...but then he want straight to telling me how I looked like the Abuelita on that hot chocolate box ¨Abuelita¨...she´s like 60+ years old! Thanks Juventino, haha! He is amazing..a little out of this world, but nevertheless very interesting.

We´re also teaching a girl who was obsessed with One Direction...she brought out all her posters, her bookbag, her photos, everything...and I took a bunch of pictures with her. I told her that she could have all the members minus Zayn (is that how you even spell his name?) Anyways, she was way cool and really thinks I´m great because I tried on her One Direction hat! haha!

The third investigator we´re teaching is named Carlos and he is definitely interesting. He is 17 and was born in Spain but moved here 5 years ago. During our lesson he didnt want to sit down because he told us his martial arts teachers taught him at a young age that he should never sit because when he sits he isn´t alert---and if there´s an earthquake he´s got to be alert...so he´s pretty interesting. He went to church yesterday though and that was awesome.

So Friday we had an interesting experience...we were suppose to have a ward activity and so we told our investigators to come at 5...and so they, all being super punctual, showed up at 5 and there was no one there...slowly more people started trickling in but at 5:45 people just wanted to leave so Hermana Riggins and I were like ¨okay...what can we work with¨...so we decided that we´d just sing a few hymns with them...thank goodness that Hermana Riggins knows how to play the piano because we were there singing songs until 6:30. Finally someone from the Bishopric showed up and was like ¨what´s the plan?¨ What do you mean what´s the plan? We literally have been planning this activity for 3 months and in the end it all turned out improvised...it was interesting that´s for sure. We also had our first Ward Counsel meeting in 7 weeks yesterday. We´re suppose to have them everyweek but I´m pretty sure the Bishop noticed we weren´t too happy with the activity. This area is definitely interesting. I love the people but the ward could definitely use a boost. We´re trying our best to get everyone motivated but It´s not going to happen in one day. It´ll definitely take a few months of serious work. The Bishop told us that if the ward doesn´t start getting more people coming to church then we´re be combining with other ward in the area. Juventino´s baptism will be the first in 5 months, so we´re really trying to help him so he feel prepared.

Thanks everyone, have a great week!

Hermana Ward

So this week has definitely been an interesting one. We´re teaching this one man who wants to be baptized and we were teaching him the law of chastity but he told us of a few problems he had with it and we´ve actually been able to help him out! His faith is incredible and I´m so grateful I´ve been able to get to know him! I love serving. It is one of the hardest, if not the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my life, but I love the work.

My companion and I were playing basketball with a few of the other missionaries and this huge black elder slammed her to the ground! She fell like a bird without wings! It was a pretty bad fall but everyone just laughed about it after the fact.

I loved conference! It was amazing. I watched 3 or the 4 session in Spanish and I actually understood a decent amount. I loved President Monson´s talk. I definitely think the world would be a better place if everyone had a little more love for their neighbor and had more charity for everyone as well.

We had a zone conference this week with all the missionaries in the state of guerrero and it was super fun! There were a bunch of missionaries there and the President showed up a video of Elder Oaks talking to all the missionaries who would serve in Mexico and about the expectations the Lord had of the mission. It was a great meeting, I really enjoyed it!

Okay so for the first time here in Mexico I burned. I actually burned pretty bad too and I´m using this super expensive 70 sunscreen protector...(Sunscreen should not be that expensive)...

We´re teaching this older man who actually has a baptizmal date for the 19th! He´s great and loves to talk...a lot. His name is Juventino and he had an accident a few years back that caused him to forget everything, so he basically had to start over from zero, but he is super pumped for his baptizm.

I cannot wait for general Conference this week! Finally it´s here! I´m going to go to the stake center to watch it with all the other missionaries in the area. It´ll be my first time watching it in Spanish!

Oh....I also lost the mission phone (cough)....That was disappointing and super embarrassing...We sat down on the curb to call a lady (I´ve never met her in my life and she yelled at me! What the heck!) and then we left to go to a lesson and at the end of the lesson I didn´t have the phone...so long story short we literally spent 3 hours retracing our steps to try to find it...and in the end I ended up paying for a new phone (it was pretty cheap so it didn´t really hurt me too bad) but more than anything I was just really embarrassed...but I guess things happen, but I will definitely never lose the phone again. We lost all our contacts and everything! Ugh! We´re pretty sure we left it on the curb and some little kid snatched it. That was our conclusion.

My family also sent me a huge box with a bunch of stuff in it! Thanks so much! In the box were also a few pictures and all minus 2 featured our new dog ...I´m glad to see that his getting loved!

Oh and I am also super grateful for my ward back at home...the ward that I´m in has like 40 people that show up consistently and the rest are inactive...so we´re working on that, haha. And the teachers sometimes don´t show up either so my companion and I have taught the last 2 Sundays worth of classes.