A Ginger Takes on Mexico: September already???

Wow. The mission really is flying by. I have officially been in Mexico for 6 months! And it is September. I feel like the year is winding down and next thing I know it will be Christmas! Trying not to think about it too much though.

We had a conference with presidente this week, and it was amazing!!!! I love Presidente and Hermana Greer, we can feel their love for each one of us and we know that they have their whole hearts in this work with us! We had little workshops and Hermana Greer basically does not know any Spanish so she kind of unofficially dubbed me as translator for my district....I did my best! Something that we have always done in teaching is explaining the Trinidad (Trinity) as the first thing - Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. BUT, Presidente explained that we should teach as it is in PMG, and the Trinidad is not a part of the lesson....so no more of that! He also explained that the work of salvation has 3 parts: missionary work, retaining converts and reactivating less-actives. AND we ALL have a responsibility in the work of salvation!! They really want us to animate the members, get them excited to work with us! The more of us involved, the better it will be!

I LOVE THE MEMBERS HERE SO MUCH THEY ARE SO GOOD TO US!!!!!

The weather here has been absolutely nuts. Literally from sun shining that I got sunburnt to torrential downpour and the streets are rivers in 3 minutes. When that happens, we just need to accept the fact that we are not going to be able to keep the shoes dry and onward we plunge into the COLD street rivers. I am getting better at jumping though to try to avoid the deepest parts. One morning when we went running, I saw this lightening storm move from our area across the valley, it was so cool!!!! Every morning running, I get to watch the sunrise. Perks of getting up at 6:30 every morning!

I ate haba beans. They are realy good hahah not sure what they are called in English.

I wiped out 5 times in one day....it was not the best day of my mission and I think i lost a year of my life from each heart attack I had after I tripped and fell.

We are trying to teach more efficiently and more effectively AND we had 5 lessons in one day! A record! It feels so good to know that we are using time wisely and that we are making the most of the short time we have here!

My spanish has been feeling on and off lately. Hna Q told me that only about 5 out of 100 words that I say are a little off with the accent or are the wrong word....so I guess that is not so bad! It honestly depends how tired I am. If I am tired....I basically feel like I don't understand anything. Trying not to let the physical part of my body have control over my ability to teach and testify!

I met my MTC companion's - Hna M - missionary mom!!! She lives here in Xalapa and Hna M told her to look out for me after her mission! This is such a small world!

People:

Saul, Saul Jr and Irvin: we re-taught them the commandments because we feel like they are not sticking very well. Saul kind of confessed his love a little bit for Hna Q....so we are trying to figure out the best course of action to take from there. We also talked about the importance of reading the scriptures, because IT REALLY IS SOSOSSO IMPORTANT!!! And we know they are not reading them! We challenged them to 5 verses a day

Yolanda, Rosalba and Eduardo: Their family has basically given me the entire DL on crossing the border and the whole system of what happens after that. Their brother, Carlos, has gone like 4 times apparently...I am not sure how I should feel about that. Before crossing, you walk for 3 days and 2 nights in the desert and basically always people run out of water and almost die. But almost everyone I met knows someone who has or they have tried crossing the border. Yolanda is very pregnant and hormonal and kind of paranoid. She is convinced that a demon has taken over her son since he got baptized because apparently now he never listens to her....he seems the same to me hahaha. She also asked us if she absorbed the sins of the people who got baptized before her because the sins were washed away with the water. We re-assured her that she did not absorb their sins...but her questions was pretty legit I thought.. Rosalba still does not feel ready to be baptized. I think she is afraid because she has all these examples of people who were baptized and then fell away, and she told us that this is not a game for her. I am really glad she is taking it seriously, but I want her to be confident and have faith in herself!!! She is ready! She can be the example and strength for her family members who do not go anymore!

Pati, Rafa and Ana: We taught them all The Restoration, and Pati is very pensive still. She has depression, so that is really hard for her :(. She loves her kids so much, and they love the church! We are trying to help her see that this is a gospel of happiness and peace, and we know that it can bring her so much comfort!

Rubi: We have only taught her a little bit, but she is the neighboor of Yussy - who moved by the way :(. We are always teaching her in the street and there is tons of noise, so that is difficult but we make the most of the situation! She is 17, has a 1.5 year old baby and lives with her sister. She is super loving, and obviously wants the best for her baby. She is really sweet and so young! We invited her to an activity this week, so hopefully she can go to that!

Ituriel: went to stake conference with us! He is in a crazy program training to be in the proteccion civil, and his teacher is having them do injections in each other with NO experience. Things are very different here in Mexico. But he committed to pray about the things we are teaching, and thinks the Restoration makes a lot of sense! We met his sister too, she is 13, and she accepted a baptismal date too! It is always better to teach families!

Sorry if my email is so scrambled, never enough time for everything!

I love being a missionary and I know this church is true! I am so blessed to be able to serve here, meet these people, and share my testimony of the things I know to be true.

Love, Hermana Westergard