This week was General Conference and I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch it, and if not, I`m sure it`s online so everyone should look it up. I loved the talks that were given by Boyd K Packer, Lynn G Robbins, Jorg K, Eduardo Gavarret, Elder Holland, M Russel Ballard, Carlos A Godoy and Elder Bednar of course....basically I loved them all. Conference is just an awesome spiritually building experience. I watched the majority of the sessions in Spanish and I loved that the members of the Seventy could choose to speak in their native language, that was amazing. My companion and I also made pancakes on Conference morning, there were delicious and we`ll only have to wait another 6 months until the next Conference.

So we`re sort of teaching an investigator who`s name is Alberto and he`s great...he`s just sort of afraid of commitments. He still lives at home and he`s middle aged, but for the most part is progressing at his own speed and one day will be baptized haha, one day! Right now we`re still trying to help him realize the importance of personal prayer. So we`ll have to work with him a little bit more....BUT his mom, Lucy is amazing. She signed up to give us food twice this week and we were able to teach her about the restoration and she accepted a baptizmal date! Heck yeah! She`s amazing and she also went to a session of conference....although she left right before Elder Bednar`s talk that was given specifically for the investigators! Ugh! and the Prophet too! We`ll just have to print out their talks for her :)

Last night we were able to have an amazing family home evening with the Pintor family. There are amazing converts and the dad, Tomàs just got his calling as the Sunday School President. He was so excited, I`m glad to see that the ward is really supporting him and his family in this new part of their life. We talked to them about Nephi in the Book of Mormon and how he built the boat to cross the ocean and that he didn`t have a lot of support from him brothers, but that he was obedient and that he had faith. We then compared that to a personal testimony and the tools that we`ve been given to strengthen our families and our own testimonies. I can`t wait to get back home to have family home evening with my own family. We`re going to be super on track when Kristen gets back, haha!

I love this time of year and I hope everyone can appreciate the beautiful world that we`ve been given to live in.


Lots of love,
Hermana Ward

This week was amazing, Fabiola, Tomás ´s wife was baptized on Saturday and it was amazing seeing them both dressed in white in the baptizmal font. Tomás also gave a talk on Sunday in Sacrament Meeting about love and he´s just hilarious. He told everything that my companion and I are cruel because we told him he had to stop drinking coffee ....he then later mentioned how I told him that he should just make his coffee and addition to the garden. I love this family.

We´ve been seeing so many miracles and everything has to do with the family. The gospel is meant to bring families together and create more family unity in the home. I can´t wait to have my own famiy home evenings one day....the kids will be making the lessons and I´ll be in charge of the treat, ha!I love Mexican food, but I definitely think that the United States wins in the dessert category.

So my district lead is pretty funny, he´s from Mexico and he told me I have a Mexican look alike ¨Memo Ochoa¨ who is a soccer player and when I saw his curly hair I just laughed.

I watched the Women´s Conference on Saturday and it was amazing. I loved the focus there was on the temple and on the family too. I can´t wait until this weekend....General Conference is one of the best things ever and my companion and I are going to Walmart after we´re done writing to buy some Conference snacks....you´ve gotta have Conference Cookies.

Serving a mission is nothing like I would have ever imagined...I never thought I´d get upset if someone didn´t go to church or if someone didn´t want to pray, that wasn´t any of my business...but now that I´m on the other side of it...the missionary side...it´s a little sad and disappointing when the people don´t want to give it a chance or just don´t care. There are ups and downs to living the missionary life, but It´s definitely worth it.

(Memo Ocha)

Okay so this week was interesting because we ended up going to an investigators house (the one that had told us her daughter was a prophet) and we ended up having an intersting discussion on what it means for a church and religion to have authority to do things like baptize. She also ended up telling us how she knew that her daughter was called by God because she had healed so many people and....shortly after that we just ended up leaving (but we left on good terms) but we could definitely see that no one was getting anywhere in the discussion and we also felt really strange being there, because we knew that what the daughter was doing wasn`t from God.

We were also able to meet with Fabiola (the wife of Tomas) and it was such a miracle to see her because she`s usually always working, but we just decided to pop in. She told us that she wanted to be baptized too and we were able to teach her about Tithing and also about the Word of Wisdom! She`s going to be baptized on Saturday :) I`m so happy to have had the opportunity to help this family because they all have righteous desires and one day they`re going to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. I think this is probably the best part of the mission---helping people along this journey.

The 16th was Mexican`s Independence Day and we had to be home early last Monday because the people here love to celebrate! haha! We were able to go to a ward activity (only for an hour though :( on Friday ) to celebrate and it was SO MUCH FUN. The Mexican people love to dance, eat and just have a good time and I loved being there. Eder (one of Tomas`s sons) also did a traditional dance from the state of Guerrero called ¨La Iguana¨ and it was so awesome.

Eder was also able to be baptized on Saturday by Tomas and this was just such a great day. He has wanted to be baptized for over a month and to see him dressed in white was amazing. He told us afterwards that Heavenly Father had touched his heart and that`s why he wanted to be baptized :) I love this family!

So basically my week can be summed up in 3 events.

1) The hospital
2) A baptism
3) Reactivating Margarita

On Monday and Tuesday I was feeling sort of bad, but I just ignored it because I guess that´s what I just do...and then Wednesday came rolling around and I wasn´t doing too great and we returned home at 1:30 and I just slept all day...then Thursday happened and I slept for 19 hours without moving, and on Friday we went to the hospital because I had this weird pain on my right side. They did some blood work and a few other tests and told me that I´d be fine. Apparently what I had was a kidney infection (what? I drink boatloads of water) and they put me on some medicine. I was really glad it wasn´t anything more because I was super exhausted and just ill all week. I´m glad that´s over with though; being sick is the worst. My companion was awesome through it all--she wrote me a poem and made me a quesadilla!

Helen was baptized! Woop woop! She´s the wife of Edgar, one of the two men that got baptized 3 weeks ago and he was able to do the ordenence because he had been ordained to the office of Priest. I can´t wait to see this family sealed in the temple in a year. They´re gong strong and I can´t see them falling away, I love this family. They are literally the best. (Just as a sidenote, the baptizm happened 2 hours after we had gotten home from spending the whole day at the hospital).

Margarita is an awesome lady. We went to search her out because we had found her name in the directory and she has been inactive for over 10 years. She has some really hard family problems, and didn´t even want to accept us in her home, but we sang a hymn and got her to feel Heavenly Father´s love. She has so much hate in her heart and it was nice being able to talk to her and get to know her story a little more. After we had gotten to know her a bit, my companion stayed and kept comforting her while I went to the kitchen. She had over a weeks worth of dishes and I was there for over an hour, but I definitely am glad for this opportunity that we had to serve her and get to know her. I hope she´ll come to general conference with us (3 weeks!!!) and that she´ll start coming back to church. She just feels really lonely and I can´t wait to see her as an active member of the church again.

I love you all and I hope you have a great day!
Today is Mexico´s Independence Day--we have to be in by 6pm, ¡Viva Mexico!

So I realize that I have sort of been neglecting my blog....I´m just not use to writing about what I do I guess...anyways, the mission continues in Mexico and I have come to the conclusion of how to get along with your companion....Back massages and making their bed really helps! haha! But seriously, it totally works so I´d definitely recommend it to people! Our area is pretty big, it´s in the ¨Pradera, Cuernavaca¨ ward and the area reaches up to the state of Mexico. It´s a large area, but I feel like every missionary says that their area is huge, so maybe I just shouldnt say anything haha!

So two days ago we ended up teaching a family and they told us that they held the church services in their house...so I turned to the guy who was there and asked if he was the Pastor...and he pointed to his sister and told us she was their prophet....so then turned to me and started telling me how that the Spirit was telling her that I was a really obedient person and that God was really happy with my efforts...(what? that´s weird haha, but I am a decently obedient person) So we talked to them about the Priesthood and about Christ´s ministry and about the Restoration of the gospel. They seemed pretty interested and theyre going to come to church next week! woohoo!!

We also have this creepy Jewish guy in our area that sometimes comes out of his construction site to ask us to make tortillas for him! haha! Seriously, it´s so funny! I just laugh about it and we leave. He´s an interesting man for sure.

This week I think Eder and Helen are going to be baptized, they are the son and the daughter in law of Tomas, the man who was baptized about 3 weeks ago. They were going to be baptized last Saturday but something came up in his work so he wasn´t able to, but that´s okay, theyre pretty excited!

We´re also teaching someone named Alberto. He is great and he´s progressing slowly but steadily. He is afraid of committments and doesn´t like to promise anything but he tries his best to live a good life. He also stopped drinking coffee when we told him about the Word of Wisdom! Yes!

There is a lot of culture in Mexico; Independence Day is coming up and everyone is going crazy! haha! I love it though! I think today we´re going to go to a Fair that´s pretty close to our house. It should be really fun and I think they have special ¨Mexican Fair bread¨ I´m gonna have to check that out :P I seriously miss making bread with my dad during conference time, I think I´m going to go into shock whenever I finally get home and just go on a cooking spree, haha!

It´s been raining a boatload....ha ha... okay anyways, it rains A LOT. Sometimes I ask my companion if she thinks it´s a ´boot day´ (on boot days I wear my black boots out) and whenever I don´t bring them it always rains...so I think I should just always bring them haha.

Also, something that I love about Mexico is that my two pairs of shoes where basically worn through. They had no heel and the sides were peeling off....but there are little shoe shops all over the place and for about $15 I was able to fix them up and they look just like new! Yes!!


I love you all and hope youre doing great!

   

    

Serving a mission has changed my life. I love being able to testify of Christ to the people here. I love when the people that we contact want to learn more. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be in Mexico for eighteen months of my life and serve others. Some days call for more faith, diligence and patience but I just focus myself on serving others, smiling and always saying hello to people whenever we pass by. I´ve decided that like salvation, happiness is also an individual choice that we all have to make. Everyday we just have to get up and say to ourselves...¨okay...today is going to be a great day and no matter what happens, no matter what I step in, no matter what the people say to me...I´m going to do it with a smile and give thanks to my Heavenly Father¨

This week was full of miracles. We received a reference from some elders of a man, Erik, who really needed to know his purpose in life. We gave him a call and he came to church on Sunday. We sat down and talked to him and he´s doing pretty bad right now. His grandfather just died, he just lost his job, his girlfriend cheated on him and left him, he has no family in the state and his 2 motorcycles recently got stolen. He told us that a few years ago he had a friend who was a member of the church and that the church was the only outlet he could think of. He is such a good person and he didn´t understand why these bad things were happening to him because he havent done anything wrong. We talked to him about the purpose of life and how sometimes bad things happen to good people because Heavenly Father is preparing them for something even better. He accepted a baptismal date and we´re so excited to get to know him a little bit more.

Eder, the little boy who was going to be baptized this week is going to wait to be baptized until the 6th of September with his sister-in-law, Helen. Helen´s husband, Edgar, blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday and him and his dad, Tomas went to the Stake Priesthood meeting. I am so grateful to have met this wonderful people, they are really helping me understand the reason for serving a mission and what my real purpose is as a missionary.

A Peruvian lady lives in the ward and she made us Peruvian food on Wednesday....it was amazing and I totally felt in home....(mom, yours is still better though, no worries :P ) and two weeks ago (I can´t believe I forgot to write this....a lady from California was here visiting and she invited us over for dinner and gave us mashed potatos and rolls....I ate 5 rolls...I don´t know if that´s a high or low point in the mission...I love bread and I know I probably won´t get to have another roll in awhile.

We also had zone conference and we learned a lot about obedience and the book of mormon. It was a great experience...oh yeah..they did a skit thing too...the President and his wife are really pushing that everyone learns English and we did this skit to practice. The latins did the speaking and the people from the united states acted...I was given the role of ´sister mouse´ and some other sister (who will probably be the relief society president or something some day) made us all handmade costumes! I don´t know how she did it...and I don´t quite know what to do with the outfit now, but it was fun preparing and acting out the skits. I also got to see Hermana Garcia (my MTC companion) and Hermana Young again! Theyre awesome!!