A Ginger Takes on Mexico: Name of the Game

So this week we have literally talked to EVERYONE. I have never experienced so much rejection in the mission. You would think that people would be happier and more willing to talk during the Christmas season, nope it seems like it is more reason to be a grinch. Oh well. SOOOO the church is doing a promocion right now called He is the Gift, or Él es la Dádiva in Spanish. We have tons of these little pass along card things and are giving them to everyone! Taxis, weird people in the street, TODOS. You would think that with the more people you talk to, the more people you would get to teach. But we seem to talk to the grumps. Who knows, maybe we helped brighten their day. We continue being excited and happy and talk to everyone! No importa a quien! If we get 1 million rejects and 1 person wants to learn, totally worth it. But the video is at christmas.mormon.org. WATCH IT! CHECK IT OUT! SHARE IT! If you are feeling adventerous and want to watch it in Spanish, navidad.mormon.org is where you gotta go. The Church is so smart to do all of this! They took over Youtube yesterday for the whole day!!!!!!! With just the add for the video. SO SHARE IT!!!! :)

We had a conference this week for just the sister missionaries. SO AMAZING!!!! I love President and Hna Greer and they love us! We got to eat delicious American food, we helped wrap the Elder´s Christmas presents, made goodie bags with chocolate covered salted carmel and Giradelli chocolate and all other sorts of good things. Christmas is gonna be great here! I also got to see Hna Quiñonez!!!!!!! She is definitely my best friend here. I love her so much!!!!!! We have such a great time together. In the conference, they talked about norms, the importance of time and how we should use it diligently, all that good stuff. As I was sitting there, I realized I am one of the older missionaries in the mission. I have gotten accustomed to the mission life, but I love it all. Maybe not getting up at 6:30, but the studying, talking with everyone, teaching people what I know to be true, I love it!!!!

I have been trying really hard this week to be exactly obedient. It is really hard, and Hna H seems to be struggling a little more than me to meet our goals. But we help and remind each other, because we want to see miracles!

Random:

WE MADE A CHRISTMAS TREE!!!! They sell trees on basically every corner, and on one we asked them if we could have some of the extra parts that they had cut off the trees, they told us to go right ahead. AND SO WE MADE A BEAUTIFUL TREE :) The house smells amazing and it feels a little more like home :)

Made fudge for Camile for his birthday! Thanks momma for the recepie! We melted 15 chocolate bars, added a can of Lechera and TADAAAA. Deliciousness.

I DO NOT KNOW WHY. BUT. I had the lovely chance to enjoy pansita AGAIN. But this time it was mondongo. Which is basically a soup of all the internal organs and veins and who knows what else of the sheep. Heart, stomach, intestines, lungs, liver, all that jazz. This hermana is that same hermana who gave us the salad of tuna fish and hot dogs. She seems to try to out-do herself each time in the amount she can make me gag. And she is succeeding.

I am tired of when people are more interested of where I am from than in my message that I have to share. heheheheh we were talking with a security guard, and he was like You are not from here are you. I told him Yes I am, Jalapeña. AND HE BELIEVED ME!!!!! HA. He was like Oh, I thought you were from the United States. LISTEN TO MY MESSAGE, DO NOT LOOK AT THE COLOR OF MY HAIR OR THE FACT THAT I AM TALLER THAN YOU.

People:

Ivanna - Got baptized on Saturday!!!! Her baptism was beautiful :) her mom got emotional. Baptisms never get old, my stomach flips around like a fish in my stomach every time :). She was waiting for us the whole week when we went to teach her, we may be her new best friends. Fine by me!!!! :) She needs to help be an example for her family, her mom and older sister are less active. SHE CAN BE THE STRENGTH!!

all of my companions who are still in the mission

Camilo and Lorena - Did not get baptized this week, Camilo is kind of failing school and had a lot going on and now goes to extra tutoring class things. SATAN. GO AWAY. We finally got his mom to sign his cédula though!! She asked him like 6 times if HE WAS SURE that he wanted to be baptized. He was always kind of flojo with us, but he said YES every single time! GO CAMILOOOOOO!!!!! This little fat kid definitely has my heart. Lorena´s mind is all over the place again, she is a confused teenager. We put a goal for both of them for the 14th. I love them both so much!!!!! We have been working with them for so long, I feel like they are my kids. Lots of hope. Camilo told us he prayed to know if the church was true and told us he dreamed that night that he was a Mormon!!! And that he felt warm and peaceful. I don't remember if I already said that or not....but IT STILL MELTS MY HEART!!!!!

Maria - the wicked interesting lady who lived in England. Turns out she cannot leave for the Yucatan because the peso is losing its value, and there everything is in dollars. YAY!!!!!! We re-put a baptism date with her and are gonna visit her more, because it looks like she is staying around!!!! Hopefully her life can be non-Mexican novela for a little bit.

That is about it for this week. I love being a missionary, and I love this Christmas season! Be happy!!! Look up He is the Gift! You will love the video, I promise!!

Love, Hermana Westergard