Being Grateful

Woohoo! I am a 4 month old missionary! And I have been transferred. 

My Los Mochis Neighborhood*I wash my own clothes
*A dog they named BURTON, wonder why*When it rains it pours*
Grilling carne asada with Bishop

Holy cow I was so sad when I got the call. I couldn´t believe it. But I know it´s what the Lord wants and so after saying some heartfelt goodbyes to some menos activos, members, and investigatores that I love with all my heart, I arrived this morning in Huatabampo, Mexico. My companion is Hermana Trevino and she is from McCallen, Texas. So she totally speaks English. Haha, It´s super rare to have two gringas together, but here we are! Her Spanish is super amazing,  because her family is Mexican. She speaks both languages perfectly and has a little over a year in the mission. How crazy. I know we are going to have a lot of success here and I am really excited. I am also really excited because I can send you pictures! Finally. 

Keep Giving It My All

I am so grateful for all of your prayers cause they really help me get through hard weeks like this one. 

Saturday, one of our menos activos passed away. It is one of the saddest things that´s ever happened to me. They called while I was in the shower, and they live really close so pronto I got ready and we headed to their house. It was so sad, and just reminded me of the little I remember when we gathered at Nan´s house after Pop died. The hermana went to sign some papers and verify the body, and we were left with her three children. The girls are 15 and 14, and the youngest (boy) is 12. The girls knew but their brother didn´t. He woke up and was confused. He asked us, are we having a family home evening? We said no... he went into their living room and saw all the people and asked why are there so many people here. The oldest daughter looked at us and said, will you help me tell him? We went into their bedroom and let me tell you that moment changed my life. Telling this precious boy who was so disrespectful and disobedient before that his dad died, and see the pain in that little face and he just broke. And that was so so so so hard. We stayed with the family almost all the day and in the night we went to work. All of our appointments fell through and I was just ready to throw in the towel. I took a deep breath, told my companion how I was feeling (she was obviously feeling the same) and we just kept working. And smiling and greeting everyone in the street and this happy spirit filled my heart. The people greeted us with smiles and with the same energy that we gave. We only had one more appt, we didn't have very many numbers that day but what we did have was reassurance from Heavenly Father that everything was going to be okay. 

Can We Just Take a Moment

Well, first off I just want to say I remember reading Ky´s emails in the mission and saying, wow he has a lot of bad weeks. I am always going to have good weeks and have a postive attitude when I write home.... and how little I knew about a mission. Haha. 

This week was good, however and the time just continues to fly by. 

What is in my agenda this week? Good question. 

Monday, Pday. We woke up this morning and cleaned the house, despues went to the house of a member and washed our clothes in their washing machine. During the wash, we went to the store and bought the food that we are going to need for the week. We returned, got our clothes and our food and the members brought us back to the house. We hung up all the clothes to dry and then headed to centro. My companion ate some tortas... is that a word in english? I have no idea and then we are here writing yàll. Then I am going to pick up my results at the doctor because I have an infection... but it`s not super severe or anything so don`t worry. 

I Am a Missionary

This week was so good. I dont have an incredible amount of time to write, so a big THANK YOU to all those who wrote me to whom I did not reply this week... but I promise I will.

Well, this week was pretty great. I was praying the other day, and I realized that I was a missionary. I know that sounds pretty weird, I mean I´ve been in Mexico for two months now, but when I came here it was more like, I AM ON A MISSION! And then for it a little while it was... wowwww I miss the United States, but then I remembered my purpose and realized that I am not only on a mission, I am a missionary, and I´m super happy.

VALE LA PENA

Hermano C is doing so well. We stopped by their house again this week, and he was there during lunch time which was kind of strange because usually he is out doing little jobs. We were nervous that he had given up because it was a hot day, but we asked him and he told us that he had found permanent work! Thank you for your prayers. It is really hard work, really tough labor, but he has work! He came to church again this week and I told Hermana Sanchez that nothing has given me more joy in my life than to see the change in Hermano C. 

This week was probably the best week I have had in the mission. Every night I came home I knew within my heart that I had worked my hardest and that the Lord guided us in every step. We have harmony in our companionship, we are learning more about the Gospel in our studies every morning, we are getting closer to Christ and I am truly learning what it means to repent and forgive moment by moment. I LOVE being a missionary. It is the smartest thing I could be doing with my life. I am learning to love people more than I ever thought possible. It´s hard not to see immediate success and baptisms. The V family is in the process of dropping the coffee, haha I have no idea how to say that in English but hopefully you understand me. They told us they don´t think they are ready to be baptized the 8th...We have a FHE with them tonight and then tomorrow for the birthday of one of the daughters, (and I will be celebrating Gentry!). Pray specifically please that we will know what to say to motivate the family to attend the classes, search for answers, and be baptized. 

And We Rejoiced Together

I can't believe I´ve almost hit three months in the mission. In two days I am going to have three months as a missionary! How exciting. I love this work and I love being a part of hastening the work as well. I am doing well. I had an allergic reaction this week and got a shot and then this pill that totally drugged me and then slept for 15 hours. So that was really nice to get the sleep that I needed.

Hermana Sanchez and I are getting along really well. I'm learning a lot about patience and self-mastery, things that I´ve never really been able to develop. I am really getting closer to Christ every week and that brings me a certain peace that I can't describe.  Thank you for all your prayers. I know I am being protected through the prayers of the righteous and I am so grateful for that. Keep praying, please. Pray that we can have success and the ability to find the people with whom we need to focus in our area. Our area is todo el barrio, the whole ward, and it´s a little overwhelming at times because we have to use our time wisely. And there is 600 menos activos. So we need the Spirit's guidance to discern which investigators to keep, which menos activos to visit, and everything. 

Think About Good Things Instead

This week was so awesome. I got sick again. Twice. So that was fun, but I hit this one with a blessing almost right away so that was awesome. I am so grateful for the priesthood. I guess it´s just gonna be one of those normal things that I get sick once a week so pretty soon I´ll just stop telling you about it and you can just assume so sometime throughout the week, yeah Hermana Burton es probablemente sick right now. Haha. Thank you so much for sharing that awesome quote about the Santa Cena (Sacrament in Spanish, sweet huh?). I remember that talk being super powerful. I don´t remember if this was from the same person, but one of the talks in Conference talked about durante la Santa Cena, we need to repent of our sins, yes, but we also need to remember all the times that the Atonement has given us strength durante la semana. And I don´t know why it hit me so hard but it did. And I did it this past Sunday and man the Sacrament was powerful. When we recognize all the times that Jesus has helped us choose the right, we are strengthened so that we can choose the right again and again. He is with us more than we think. And it also inspires me to be more worthy of his presence and influence. 

So basically this Saturday we had a ward activity. It was super awesome, a talent show night I think its what it´s called in English. It was a Mexican Cultural theme. (SURPRISE haha). Well it turned all really well and so many people came. One of our menos activos who is super stubborn and won´t ever come to church CAME! And also we have this family that we are reactivating, and the husband still hasn´t come to church, but he came to the activity! And also, in two days I listened to the song Let It Go (Libre Soy en Español!) and learned the chords through listening to it and played it for one of the girls in our ward. It was AWESOME. I was so grateful for talents and for my years of practicing the piano so that I could be of service to a family that does so much for us as missionaries. One of their other daughters went with us to some of our appts this week so that was awesome. and the Dad always offers us food and rides and is so supportive of this work. This ward is awesome. Well tambien, our investigator family, the V family came to our activity! It was so awesome because we had an appt with them the night before and they had to cancel and we were so bummed because they are progressing and so we invited them to the activity, (to be honest I didn't really think they would come) and they CAME! And they had fun, they know most of the people in the ward already so that´s good too. Well then we invited them to church the next day and they said no, we can´t because we are going out of town Monday and we have to get ready because we are going to be gone for a week. And I was like, OH NO YOU DON´T SATAN, GET OUT OF THE WAY and said, well can you make it for one hour because the sacrament meeting is the most important and I know it will bless your lives, so they said, okay, yeah we can come for an hour. And then we asked them for a ride so that we could bug them more about coming to church. hahaha. No not really, to strengthen our relationship with them and so they dropped us off and said, at nine right and we said yeah. Well. Sunday comes and the services start and they are not there. And I was super sad to be honest, like really sad. Because here is this golden family that are starting to know that this church is true and they aren't where they are supposed to be, in la capilla. I prayed so hard. I was like, Heavenly Father; listen. I need a miracle here. I love this family so much and know they are ready to here the Gospel. Please send them here. Please! And lo and behold the announcements took 28 minutes (not really but took forever) and we had a baby blessing and two confirmations and right before the confirmations, they walked in. And I´ll admit it, I cried. I don´t think I've ever been so happy to see people in my life. Well it was fast and testimony meeting so after they got to see the confirmations (so cool) we had the sacrament and the spirit was super strong and then the testimonies and the testimonies were soooo good and lots of their friends went up and shared their testimonies and de hecho the bishop gave them a shoutout and everything and the parents were crying and I was on CLOUD 4000000 because it was just the best experience ever. 

God is a God of miracles and truly prepares people to hear the message and provides a way that they can come to know Him. I actually think God prepares everyone, it´s just the people that are humble enough to hear the promptings of preparation that become escogidos.