A Ginger Takes on Mexico: La mitad

Well that is it, half of my mission gone!!!!!! AAAAHHHH.

But first things first. I have been with the members a lot recently and they love seeing pictures,so sometimes I take my photo albums to their houses to share. And EVERY SINGLE PERSON goes on and on about how young my parents are. All of them!!! It is their first comment. I though Mom and Dad would appreciate that!

We had interviews with Presidente this week in our houses! That has never happened before....but I can see his reasoning for wanting to have interviews in the houses. To see if people are actually cleaning, if they have food and all that jazz. Hermana Greer made us these AMAZING oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars with M&Ms. Totally a Mormon thing, but I was brought back to the US in the savory moments that I was enjoying my treat. And we now have a CO2 and gas detector! Yay!! We also have a bathroom on the middle floor of the house that we NEVER open the door too. In my almost 6 months in Xalapa, I have never, once, opened the door to this bathroom. Why? Because I was told through various sources that it is just full of spiders and cockroaches and bad smells. But that did not impede Hna Greer from throwing open the door to see what lurked behind the wood plank. GOOD NEWS!!! No Aragog spider from Harry Potter emerged....just a bunch of little ones that Hna Greer immediately squished. Yay for brave mission presidents!

The Spanish speaking missionaries have an English learning book they are supposed to be doing. I want to help Hna Q finish her book! I need to motivate her! Sooooo what do I do? I told her I would but her Chiles if she finished by the end of this transfer. And she has been cranking through it now and practicing her vocabs and everything!

So for 9 months in the mission...I took the typical pregnant picture hahha but the ball had little spikey things on it so my baby looked like it was supernatural or something. And I cut my hair! Myself! Just a little...like 3 inches off the end. I have anxiety just thinking about that.

An hermano from my ward wants me to marry his son.......it is difficult to escape those kinds of situations especially when you have crutches and cannot hobble away in a smooth manner. At our baptism also, the nephew of the investigator of the elders asked me my name about 15 times. And every time the answer is the same - Hermana Westergard. Ug. Then he asked me my number. I kindly told him that we have our cell phone for missionaries, and I gave him a Book of Mormon with the Elder´s number if he had questions hehehehe. He actually seemed interested though!

THEY ARE TAKING MY CAST OFF THURSDAY!!!!! YAYYYYY!!!! They told me I could start walking a little with my foot with the crutches. So that is the good news. Bad news is I might have Salmonella. Hahahaha not the best time in the mission. My fever was 39.1 Celsius which is like 102.3 Fahrenheit - forgive my spelling.

Hermana Quiñonez is the funniest person to watch kill cockroaches hahahaha every time she is screaming and screaming and screaming and I am dying from laughter. But this week she killed another one and with one swipe of the broom she chopped off its head! AND....it was still moving the next morning. I dont know how....but I can believe that cockroaches have been alive since the time of the dinosaurs. Hna Q asked me if I thought the body could reunite with the head...I told her I doubted it but if the head was still moving more than 15 hours later, I do not doubt anything.

Elsy got baptized this week!!! She was so excited, so sweet, so perfect! We borrowed a white dress from a member and we even made sure the water was warm for her! The next day, another girl was getting baptized and Elsy was encouraging her! Telling her that when she entered the water she would be able to feel the Spirit and she would be so happy. MY HEART MELTED!!! Her family went too, and they are all less active. But her grandma and mom were both crying and it was just very emotional and spiritual and amazing!! Our whole entire district baptized this week!!!!

These past couple of weeks have been really hard for Hna Q and me because all of our investigators are dying. We are trying SO hard to contact all the references we have, but people either are not there or do not want anything. But after MUCH prayer and LOTS of hope, Hna Q found a family!!! And all 3 accepted baptismal dates!!! Prayers are answered always! Sometimes we just need to wait a little.

I know this church is true. I know it with all my heart. There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the power of the Spirit and I KNOW that our families can be together forever. That is why I am here! To share the little knowledge I have with the hope that I can bless the lives of others. Sending lots of love!!!!

Hermana Westergard