A Ginger Takes on Mexico: The week of being stood up

Well everyone,

This week I felt like an awkward teenage boy that got stood up by every, single one of his date prospects. We had a week scheduled for success!!! We had so many appointment planned, and SPLAT, like a pie in the face, people either were not there or were busy and could not talk to us or they literally ran away. We do not bite! I promise!!!! We only taught 11 lessons this week, that hurts. But, we can still find the good even when we are stood up! We can find things to laugh about, try to talk with their neighbors who have been watching us knock on the door for 5 minutes, and buy elotes! So it really is not so bad after all. I am hoping this week that we will be able to teach a lot more. The prayers and feelings during the lessons are so important!!!!! I want our investigators to be able to feel these things! So we did a ton of walking this week. Tons and tons and tons. Burning off those tortillas! We also have some taxi friends who we keep running into when we need a ride sometimes, so we get a lift for free! Making plans to visit/find their houses this week.

Investigators/People in General:

I am getting a new companion! Hermana M is going to Poza Rica, and my new companion will be Hermana Q. She is from Guatemala, and was comps with Hermana M in the MTC. I am excited!

Clauda: Still amazing, still has such a strong spirit, still not married :(. Her boyfriend says he wants to wait until December when his family can all come. It seems like all we can do now is just make sure she keeps going to church until December then! Merry Christmas!

Carlos: is a recent convert who we visit. He does not like to read, his mom cannot read and his dad is really sick. But we challenged their family to read the Book of Mormon together, 1 chapter a day, and they have been doing it!!!! AND they like it! Success

Ingrid Abril: She is 8 years old, but she is not baptized. Her parents are less active members, but she wants to be baptized! We had a really special lesson with her yesterday, and she is going to get baptized on Sunday! I love teaching kids so much more! They have a special spirit, I cannot really describe it, but children are special!

Aurelia: a little old lady we met in the park. We go running on Mondays, and she is always there so we just started talking to her. She has the funniest laugh ever hahaha and has A LOT to say. We have a lot to share too! Working on finding a happy medium with her 30 minute tangents and our lesson plans.

Jesus: friend of Carlos. We taught a lesson to him at his front door with basically every sound in the world going on behind us. All the dogs were barking, trash trucks, fruit trucks, gas trucks, and all these trucks have their own sounds with speakers to announce they are there. I could not hear the majority of what he was saying, but we did our best to teach with the Spirit, despite all the other sounds! We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to be baptized too. He is timid, but had a lot of good questions! We will see where things go with him this week.

Highlights of the week:

Got pooped on by a bird. Yep.

Finished the Book of Mormon! It was only my 2nd time reading it! Now on to Doctrine and Covenants! SO EXCITED!!!

OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT IS AMAZING!!!! He loves us all so much! The love is literally illuminating from his body. His name is President Greer, he served his mission in Guatemala, so he knows some Spanish. His wife though is just learning the language, but she is so sweet and so beautiful! Something he emphasized was that we need to focus on helping people get to the temple, so he wants us to focus a little more on teaching the importance of temples and helping recent converts set goals to go to the temple with their families! I love temples though and talking about them, sooooo my pleasure!!!

My croc flats are one of my best purchases. The streets turn into rivers with a rapid current when there is even a LITTLE bit of rain. I do not need to worry about my shoes getting wet! I just need to worry about how much the water will splash up when I take a running leap to avoid the deepest part of the river, from the curb to the center of the street. But it is fun!

This week was my 2nd year in a row not being in the US for the 4th of July. My District Leader called me in the morning and played the National Anthem to remind me of the holiday. I had already decked out the page in my agenda with flags and stars and fireworks and everything, I remembered! BUT I started crying hahaha it was so unexpected to hear the song. I love my country. I am so grateful for the freedoms we have, and the thousands of other blessings and opportunities I have in the US. USA!!!! I celebrated the day by eating an elote.

Working hard, rain or shine! I got goosebumps from the cold this week! Basically my first ones in like 4 months. I was excited!

I love you all!

Hermana Westergard