This week has been a little sad, but it´s been good too. Saint James had his birthday and so nobody was home....I think we had 2 days where we only visited 2 people...although we walked a bunch! We´re working hard and we´re trying to talk to as many people as possible to find new people to teach. Today we got together with some of the girls in my old area, Galeana and we watched 17 miracles...I bawled my eyes out, haha...I think I was the only one too...*awkward* anyways, It´s a great movie and I recommend it to everyone.

We´re teaching this one family that has a pet goat, it´s name is Silvia and she´s amazing. I don´t know what´s up with the area, but there are a lot of goats hanging out around here.

I cut my hair last week but was too ashamed to send any pictures, haha! Although the ends were damaged, I kept it long because it kept my neck safe from the sun...there´s nothing like a Mexican sun to turn you brown...anyways, I still keep my hair down, for protection, but it´s definitely shorter, I have time to let it grow out though.

Last Saturday we had a baptizm....sort of ...we received a reference from some missionaries of a girl in our area that wanted to be baptized and already had the majority of the lessons....so we taught her for 3 days...she had her interview and everything with us and 2 days before they told us that she belonged to another ward because the division line was on her street and one side went to our ward and the other to another ward....it was nice to see her get baptized though haha, she´s a great girl and she´ll definitely be an example for her family.

  

So I realized I haven´t really included anything about my area in Mexico...I´m in an area that´s called Chilpancingo...I´m in the ward ´La Obrera´ (at the end of this transfer I would have been here in the ward for 6 months). We basically eat twice a day...we eat in the morning in our house and again at 3pm in the house of a member. They always feed us tons so we don´t really ever eat dinner...we eat at night on the rare occasion that the members give us normal portion sizes..

Last week my companion fainted after eating! It was really hot and she hadnt been drinking enough water...we went to the doctor the next day and the doctor then told her she had to lose weight! It was funny because now anytime we´re eating something sugary we always think about what the doctor would say if she was there! haha!

Also...we´re going to be together for a third transfer and that´s okay with me because we get along great. There are just some companions that are easier to ´click´ with.

Oh, something that I forgot to mention, well two things...ever since I arrived in Mexico and I tell someone I´m from Pennsylvania, they automatically say ¨Oh...like Dracula and the vampires!¨ (like it was their own joke...lol) but I just laugh like it was the first time and humor them haha, I´m such a horrible person. Also, the people here love to drizzle hot sauce on their fruit...especially on mangos...so I´ve been eating a lot of spicy fruit...not really desirable,but it´s definitely been an adventure.

Humberto and Brisnie probably aren´t going to be progressing as we´d hoped...Humberto didn´t do too well in his interview and it´s just been really hard for him to commit, but we´ll have to see if he decides to keep going.

So we had a miracle the other day....It´s a girl that´s been going to another ward and we finally met with her (other sisters in our zone told us that she was in our area) and she almost got baptized on Saturday!) It was crazy.....we probably spent 3 hours on Friday and 3 more hours on Saturday morning talking to her--clearing up all her doubts about polygamy and a bunch of other stuff that she read online....*face palm* and we´re still not sure what ward she belongs too...I´m sure we´ll get that figured out this week though..I hope youre all doing awesome!

Saturday Jose Enrique got baptized and Sunday he was confirmed. If everyone could just be a little bit more like him, the world would be so much better. He is literally the purest, more innocent person I have ever had the pleasure to met. He´s so tiny too, but he´s 9, although it´s a little unbelievable. His kid has been such an example to me. His parents died when he was little in an accident and he just has his grandfather that he calls his dad. He lives in the most humblest conditions and doesnt have much, but when he does have is a killer smile...and when he prayers everyone ends in tears, I can´t believe it. We´re also working with another boy, his name is Richi...he´s the one in the posing picture with the cool shoes, and we´ll have to see if we can get him to come to church. Humberto has his baptizmal interview this week and will be getting baptized Friday if everything works out alright.

     

   

So last Monday we went to Walmart and I almost cried as we left because I actually left like I was in the states, it was the weirdest feeling ever...Walmart isn´t even that out of the ordinary. I´m pretty sure I´m going to have adjusting problems when I get back to the U.S. But that´s okay, my Mexican experience is awesome. It is definitely the biggest adventure of my life.

Humberto, our star investigator ended up drinking at a party and we retaught him about the Word of Wisdom and we had to schedule another baptismal date with him for the 12th of July. I´m pretty sure he felt really bad about drinking so he picked some roses for my companion and I, haha! Seriously, Humberto is something else..He knows that he isn´t changing his life for us but he says that we´ve become such a huge part of the change that he wanted to get us flowers! haha!

The 12th is the same date as Jose Enrique, my best bud, who is one of the smartest kids I know, regardless of the fact that he isn´t going to school. My companion and I always end up crying whenever he prays! He and his cousin always run through the bathroom and into the baptismal font whenever we go to church, they are crazy haha. We get along so well!

We also have this girl that travels 45 minutes in the combi ¨shifty white mini van--public transporte¨ to accompany us while we visit people. Her name is liliana and seriously, we get along great. I finally think that I´ve finally I´ve been able to get my Spanish to a decent level that I can actually joke and get people to know me a little bit more....for example...last week my companion told me I had a devil inside me and it was hilarious..I don´t remember what I said, but it was funny.

 

We have a baptizm planned for July 5th. He is a miracle and his name is Humberto. He was basically a drug addict for 25 years and he just decided to stop and get himself some real help. So he´s got a bunch of therapists and doctors helping him, we´re there to help him, he´s a miracle...and finally..after 4 weeks he prayed and he´s getting baptized the 5th of July. He´s a philosopher type so it was hard, but he is spectualar. His name is Humberto, so shoot some prayers his way if you guys can. He now prays everyday and he´s always praying for us too, he´s super legit. He´s hilarious, and totally reminds me of some of my high school friends. We´re also trying to help him find a job, he´s continuing his studies to be a lawyer but in the meantime he´s gotta find a job, we´re make phone calls and we´ll see what we can find him.

One of our less active members, Gertrudis is hilarious...she´s this little old lady who basically just talks to us about her death..it´s sad but everytime we visit her we´re all like ¨don´t say that, we need you!¨ She is such a comedian though, really, she says everything she thinks and there is no filter! For example...she has this niece that´s basically blind, but they´re neighbors..and Gertrudis was all like ¨why doesnt she visit me if she´s younger? and I´m here, basically about to die¨...and I told her...¨well Gertrudis..it´s just that...she can´t really see very well..¨..and Gertrudis said ¨ Well, that´s because God punished her for being such a bad person!¨ haha!! I just laughed, it was just such an outrageous conclusion haha she is something else.

So Jose Enrique is supposively going to get baptized in 3 weeks but we´ve gotta figure out the details on him because we just found out that like 10 years about other missionaries had passed by his house and had helped his parents get married! (what?!) Both his parents are now dead, but he has an older brother named Elder....that´s interesting. So, yeah we´re still trying to figure out everything...but he is so cute. We´re still best buds!

I´ve offically given up on all makeup because it just melts right off and it´s definitely not worth it, so all the pictures you guys will be receiving of me will be me in my completely nature Mexican state haha!

Oh! Yesterday I´m pretty sure I told my companion something that I thought was absolutely hilarious and she told me that I had the devil inside of me! What! haha! I wish I could remember what I had said! I love you all!

So yesterday at church, my best friend Jose Enrique (9 year old) and his cousin, Brisni (11) came with us. They are amazing and are definitely the poorest children I have ever seen in my life. They don´t go to school because theyre watching after the chickens and collecting trash in the streets.. everyone else in their family drinks and I´m pretty sure all if not the majoritiy of them have mental illnesses. They have a house made of cardboard and stones that´s on the side of a mountain. Jose Enrique wants to be a missionary and travel the world. He was inviting everyone to his baptism (2nd of August). During church he kept telling me he was hungry and we really didnt know when he would eat again or if he´s eaten all day and he told us he hadn´t. My ward mission leader took him to a little store after church and bought him and his cousin food for 2 meals. My ward mission leader is awesome. I really can´t even explain how I feel about him, he´s just this little bursting ball of sunshine and I really just want to give him the best life possible.

We also had an awesome ¨Family Home Evening¨ with a part member family and the topic was ¨Eternal Families.¨ We really didn´t know what to teach them, because they have all the missionary lessons and theyve been to church plenty of times but they just lack the desire to do it. So we had an awesome lesson with them with a couple from the ward who was about their age. The little girl, the daughter who´s 11 just started to cry in the middle of the lesson and pour out her heart to everyone because she really does want to be baptized and get closer to the church but the parents have had some marriage problems in their past that I nor my companion could really help them with (swoop--enters members). I really don´t know what we would have told that family if that members wouldnt have been there. Members really are the key to missionary work. I´m going to be so awesome to the missionaries when I get back, I´m gonna feed them and give them free stuff lol

I hope everyone had an excellent father´s day. I have the best dad alive so I just wanted to say, I love you dad! (Even though it´s the day after the fact...) I´m still the favorite child, nevertheless ;D

Also I hope my sister and all the other girls in the ward are having an awesome time at girls camp! Woohoo!!


Serving a mission is definitely the hardest thing I´ve done in my life, but it might be the most rewarding....I´m not quite done yet so I can´t give a full report on how it was, but I´ll let you all know how it was at the end of it all.


With all my Mexican love,
Hermana Ward

Hey everyone, this week was....a disaster..nah, just kidding, but it definitely had its ups and downs.

We had a training meeting on Wenesday for all the trainers and the new missionaries and it was great to see Hermana Junca ( she´s from my district in the MTC) and we totally get each other. We learned a bunch of things, and then they fed us. We were going to go back to Chilpancingo that same night but something I ate made me sick and well yeah..so we had to stay in Cuernavaca another night. There are 2 older sister missionaries in the offices and I was laying down in one of the back rooms and they were basically fighting to see who could be the most motherly and all I wanted to do was sleep lol I´m pretty sure I´m a horrible person. They wanted me to take a cold bath, sleep without a blanket, ect ect--they had a boatload of suggestions, but at the end of it all..I just went to sleep.

Back in Obrera, Chilpancingo...we´re on day number 14 without water...we´ve upgraded from the bucket shower, to showering with a hose that we feed up through the spiral staircase. I love Mexico, the people, the food, the mission...but there will be nothing like showering in the normal shower back in the states.

We had 9 investigators at church yesterday. NINE. That has never happened before and we were SO happy...it was amazing. I can´t wait to see the progress of all of these people.

We´re still working with Humberto, we´re going to talk to him about the word of wisdom tonight. He´s really been trying to stop drinking recently but we´ve gotta let him know that he´s really missing out on a lot of blessings when he drinks.

We´re also working with a family of 4 ...the older daughter was already baptized in October, and the younger sister and parents have all the requirements they need to actually be baptized. The younger sister wants it with all her heart but she´s 13 and without the parents permission it´s a no go, but we´re having a huge family home evening Thursday and we´re going to see what happens.

So I have a Mexican best friend! His name is Jose Enrique and last Sunday we come to church with us!It was awesome because we were at stake conference and the poor 9 year old was so bored so I leaned over and asked ¨Hey..so..do you wanna be my best friend?¨And he totally remembered! We went to pick him up yesterday but he wasnt there...but later in the afternoon we were walking throught the street and he came up and gave me the biggest hug ever and said ¨Hey, best friend! I´ve missed you¨ He is adorable. He also drew me a Winnie the Pooh picture and gave me his light up toy thing...haha I´m not sure what it´s called but it was super sweet of him to give it to me.