My life is just getting better and better, seriously!!! Missionary work is all sorts of crazy, but we are working hard to find people and keep track of them at the same time! I think it would be safe to say this week was my favorite in all my mission! We had TONS of activities. To start of we had a ward christmas dinner, which was really more like a party. And our new investigators showed up!!! It was awesome! think they really liked the activity! J was there too, and we are prepping him for baptism and he is super gung ho, but he needs interviews with president and everything. It was fun to watch all the people in the ward that I have really come to love sing and dance and show there talents in the ward Christmas dinner. I was just thinking about how much I seriously love this ward.

On Saturday we had another awesome activity with president George! J was supposed to have his interview with president George at that time, but he didn't show up. Later we found him and asked him what happened, and he said he got there 15 minutes late because the only way possible to get there was on foot all the way from the center of tapachula and he walked the whole way! So he missed his interview and now President George is back in Tuxtla. So we are just waiting the next possible time. But J is excited for baptism. 

AND!!!!!! probably the best Christmas present of my whole life. V was able to have his interview with president on Saturday and told us he would tell us what day he could have his baptism this week. Well, Sunday morning we got a call from him and he said that he wanted to get baptized in like 3 hours! SOOO we may have ditched out on relief society to make things look nice. It was a little crazy, but awesome. And Alejandra, his daughter, is SUPER happy. In Sunday School Gospel Principles, the missionaries always end up teaching the class because our ward mission leader is menos activo.. which is not awesome. But the class was really good. Only JA and V were there so we talked about baptism. I might have cried a little out of super joy that I feel for V. But I felt pretty good because A and V were crying too.. V told me that he feels like we're his daughters and he is just super happy for the angels that showed up at his door to soften his heart. Obviously we didn't do anything, but it feels really good to feel like you are doing your job as a missionary. And we are going to eat dinner at his house on Christmas as a district!!!!! We had to get all kinds of permission to do it, but yeah!! I'm way excited. Christmas is going to be great. Can't wait to see your beautiful faces.

Also, spiritual thought for you all because I just finished the book of mormon!! You should read it. There is just no other way to put it. I've got a pretty firm testimony that if we are reading the book, we won't go astray! I love love love how when Mormon is writing his son and the end of the book he talks a ton about love and charity. If we are living worthy of the Spirit, the spirit can give us these gifts of love and charity that we seek. We just have to be open to it and clean ourselves out and the Spirit really can do the rest. I love this gospel and my mission. Wow can NOT wait for Wednesday!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

LOVE

Hermana McNaught

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, because there is lots to be grateful for! This week went by REAL quick, just like all the other weeks.

Monday: We had family home evening with a Family! His daughter was there too, and it was the first time she heard her Father had accepted a baptism date. She was so excited!! She lives with her mom, so she didn't know. But it is so great, because she is super excited to have her dad come to church with her. Right now she is the only member of her family.

Wednesday: We had intercambios! This time I was with Hermana Taylor, one of our sister training leaders. She is 6ft 2" and is from Utah! My first day in the field with a gringa and let me tell ya it was so much fun! In the night we even spoke in English which was a nice difference. Also in the night we found another monster spider and it was pretty funny to here English phrases like "holy flip" instead of a la mecha as we took 30 minutes to kill the stinking thing. 

But during intercambios, The most amazing thing was that nearing the end of the day, we were in a lesson with 2 female investigators. We planned on just having a short lesson because we only had an hour until we had a family home evening at Hermano Abadia's house (picture from last week.. same family) and we had to teach another investigator before the Family home evening. But the first investigator confided a lot of stuff with us and had a lot to say, so we were at her house for the full hour! I was starting to get a little panicky (on the inside, outside super calm obviously) because I really didn't know what we were going to do. We had already called the other investigator to tell him we were going to be late during the day, and I didn't want to call again and cancel.. BUT then at the end of the lesson hermano abadia sent me a message saying that he wanted to invite the other investigator to his Family home evening! Wow, the lord knows what we need and will not leave us without help!

On Friday we helped hermana Daisy (who was at church AGAIN this week!!!) an inactive member of many years set up her Christmas stuff. Her house is tiny and the front looks totally decked out. Its great. 

On Sunday we had an activity for the stake about missionary work! It was to help other youth get excited to leave, and I felt like I was in the MTC again. It really is exciting this whole missionary work thing!

Also we have been teaching this 20 year old girl who is a little rebellious, but wants to change her ways. We've been helping her quit smoking and partying and stuff. Saturday night she went to a fiesta and kind of fell through.. but on Sunday when we visited she was like "yeah I'm done partying,I don't want to be like this anymore. It was really great. She is going to be amazing!

And that is pretty much my week! Hope everyone has a great week!

Asi es, in the mission you just do weird stuff. Here's the stats:

1 tarantula killed (I thought I would start off big for you mom) The garbage collector came with his machete to cut our lawn (yep that's real life here) and he said that we've got rats and lots of animals in our backyard!!! yay!! So later that day we came home to a lovely little surprise. Thank goodness for bug spray not even kidding.

10000 cockroaches killed (maybe exaggerating)

1 scared out of her mind companion (hermana Avendaño)

35 tortillas eaten (probably not exaggerating)

1 interview with president George

17 lessons taught

2 amazing investigators rolling

1 french guy I found in the grocery store (the most diversity I've seen here) turns out he's atheist... bummer

7 miracles (at the very least)

There you have it! This week was pretty good!

So V! I said that we were going to invite him again to baptism and guess what he said...yes!  We shared Moroni 10 with him and he told us he was waiting for a sign from God that all of this was the truth. After we shared the scripture I told him that the peace we feel from the spirit is our sign. And then he said "I'm so happy that you told me, because I have felt so peaceful this week, and I didn't understand why. Yes I will be baptized." It was like one of those mormon messages you see where everything is literally perfect and it felt so good! the spirit is real and really can testify that the truth is the truth! He is already to go, just needs to quit smoking. But that's easy right?

Also J (20 years old) was at church this week too. He lives alone in Hermana Oralia's restaurant type thing. It was perfect because we went to pick him up for church and we caught him with alcohol in hand ready to drink, and he put it down, and came to church instead! yay! He's pretty golden. Him and V have changed so much from the first lessons! V was super catholic and told us he already had is saints and everything. J was pretty guarded, but now we are his best friends! It is so great to be a missionary. Sometimes I feel more like a counselor, but its a privilege to be here! 

I'm just nearing the end of my book of Mormon, and I know every missionary says it, but holy cow that book is good!! We had a lesson with an inactive family, L and I and L. Her husband J has cancer, and they started going to a different church that is giving them more service than us. I have never felt so sad in a lesson. Literally crying, I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith. Probably the most dramatic I'll ever be in my life, but I felt so sad!! People who have the blessings of the temple and know what is true, but then say it doesn't matter where you go to church have forgotten about the restoration. The book of mormon is the only way we can keep up our testimonies of the gospel. It's easy to doubt, but if we continually gain more faith, we will always be okay. So read your Book of Mormon. If its true, than this whole gospel is true. its "The Keystone of our religion". I love this gospel and I love being a missionary!!! 

Love

Hermana McNaught

November 17th

Well hey

This week was so great! The first couple weeks of the transfer were really difficult. Learning to lead out the area and introducing my new comp to everything and learning to live with someone different again was a lot to handle all at once. During these weeks we were having a hard time teaching lots of people and it was just a little frustrating. But this week in general was a miracle. Our new District Leader Elder L always asks what was our miracle of the day in our daily reports, so I've become fine tuned to saying that everything awesome is a miracle. But seriously! Monday was kick started with lots of teaching and finding. We found three new investigators on a Pday! And the whole week was like that. Its not that the numbers matter, but I felt like we were doing our job, inviting everyone to come to Christ and literally invited SO MANY PEOPLE to be baptized. Its pretty hilarious how that has become part of my normal day. Just inviting people to come church and be baptized and its so  great. 

We are now teaching A's dad (14 years old in young woman's) who isn't a member. He was at church on Sunday and knows a lot already. We are going to invite him today to be baptized next Saturday, so I will let you know what happens! We are also working a lot with a family we found last Sunday. We have been meeting with a wonderful family, and they are progressing. Tonight we have a family home evening with them and family and we are having lasagna. If there is one theme from this transfer its families! We have been finding and teaching a lot of people where there is a member in the family and someone is interested! Its the best kind of work! 

By the end of the week we had met EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR GOALS!!! We were going to have our names in the monthly periodical whooo... But what happened is that we only had 3 investigators show up to church and we needed 4. UGH. The worst is that during the meetings a contact we made on the street was calling us to try to ask what time church was because he wanted to come! But overall it was a super great week! I've got some pics but these computers are bad, so I'll send them next week.

Fun fact. Taught a lesson last night to a man who is a Mexican singer, famous and also announces for fighting like in nacho libre. If you want to know what he looks like you can look up any picture of these announcers.. seriously the most typical of typical. It was awesome. He was showing us his photos from the fights and I just could not stop smiling because it was so funny! The people actually do what they show in nacho libre. Down to the tricycles that they ride around in the streets. And Corn with cheese and mayonnaise (which is super delicious). Mexico's great. 

Love you all! 

Hermana McNaught

Hola amigos, familia, and fan club

Just kidding. Well we didn't teach a ton this week, but let me tell you, I witnessed some of the craziest miracles of my life!! not even kidding. this new companion of mine is something else. To start off we had this super good day and we went to go ask hermana D if she could come with us to teach somebody. she couldn't, so I thought, "hey lets go check if hermana B wants to come" so we did. And we showed up and it was like no other time I had ever been at hermana B's house. She is always smiling and joking but this time didnt say anything until she got to the gate. It turns out we showed up at exactly the right moment and her husband was drunk and wanted to fight her son... so she was crying and we ended up just singing some hymns until the husband actually came and started listening to our message too. by the time we left the husband had apologized for everything and was normal again. Hermana D had just mentioned B's name and that's why we went to her house. It was really weird because she wasn't in our plans for the day or anything. No doubt the spirit seriously led us there. Wow.

One more really cool thing, we started working more in this one street me and hermana canalizo were rarely around. And we found some super special stuff!! There are 2 different families there where someone was baptized and went inactive and their families are not members. Both of this families we just contacted on the street. Alberto and his wife are superstars for baptism. Alberto is a member but his wife accepted a date for baptism in our 2 minute contact in the street and was super pumped. She has been trying to get him to go to a church for quite some time now, and this is exactly what they needed. They also have 2 kids of 10 and 8 years. I am pretty sure we're going to have another family baptism by the time I leave tapachula. Which is so exciting.

Sunday was good, we didn't have any investigators at church really, but david and javier were there so I feel good about that! There's not a ton to note this week. Oh, just to make everyone's day, I think I had my 3rd most embarrassing moment yesterday. We were on the colectivo (bus) and they are always super bumpy and rough but this time the driver stopped extra hard and I just tipped right on over which caused 4 different men on my sides to try to help me and all of them started yelling at the driver to not be dumb which just made me feel more uncomfortable and I think it panicked my comp a little because she couldn't stop talking about it. People are good. But if you could just imagine that and laugh a little for me it would make me feel better.

Hope everyone's week is super great!

Love
Hermana McNaught

GUESS WHAT. We baptized a couple this week!!!!!! Yup, Aurora and Jose got married on Tuesday because the government was helping out this month with free weddings. When hermana Canalizo mentioned this to them they jumped right on it and then they got baptized the following Saturday! They have been waiting 6 years to get married, they just don't have enough money. It was literally the best part of my mission thus far. This family doesn't have enough money to pay for their food let alone pay to get to church, but they made it to their baptism and to their confirmation yesterday. They are so grateful to us, which is pretty funny, because we literally did nothing because they already knew everything there is to know about the missionary discussions. But their baptism was awesome. We made a big sign and while they were changing their clothes everyone went back and signed it for them and most of the ward members already know who they are because they have known the gospel for so long, so it was really special! and our district leader (now Elder Leon from Mexico) And Elder Ipabary (from Bolivia, the same) bought Jose 3 ties and me and my comp went and got them a cake to celebrate their wedding slash baptism, which was pretty hilarious, because we didn't have enough money left for this month to buy a really nice one.. so it was a bunt cake and a little Halloween themed.. but we did what we could!  I felt like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding when they try to fix the bunt cake by putting a flower in the middle. We ended up putting a big bow on top so that the Halloween was less noticeable.. It was so awesome though, when we presented the gifts Aurora started crying again and they were literally just soooo happy. I love this. And they invited me in 1 year to be at their sealing!!!

And I'm sure everyone is just dying to here about my new companion am I right? Her name is Hermana Avendaño, which took me about a year to be able to pronounce, but I've got it now... she mostly just calls me hermana Mick, which is fine by me. She is a convert of 3 years, and is 22 years old. She's super clean which I really like, but she isn't putting up as easily with my American breakfasts.. which is unfortunate. But its not difficult. At first she reminded me SO MUCH of Raven! And sometimes still reminds me a crazy amount of her. She's this tiny little thing. She has back problems and its really hard for her to walk a lot, this week we have 3 doctors appointments for her and she'll be in more pain with them. And for this week have been talking a lot with President George and at first he told me she was probably going to get transferred back to Tuxtla and I was going to get a new comp. But I didn't want that. Its different with her, but its a good different! I'm going to learn a lot. And it turns out she actually has two transfers left, so I might be here only for one more transfer. feel really bad for her, but she has literally been such a trooper! We walk A TON in this area and its literally huge. They didn't send elders for our second area, but the zone leaders keep asking about the area which means that they next transfer more than likely yes. Not going to lie I've gotten us lost about 5 times which is only bad because we are walking more than we should and my comp cant do that... but we always find a way, its like we have the spirit or something. Not a lot to note today, but Just so everyone knows, nothing crazy happens the day of the dead. I was disappointed so I'm sure y'all are devastated. Love you all keep on keepin on

Love

Hermana McNaught

October 27, 2014

Well, this is my last day with hermana canalizo!! Which means that I will be here in Tapachula for probably 3 more months because my new comp is going to start her very last transfer! She is apparently also from Puebla Mexico and Hermana Canalizo says she's great. And she was just recently a sister zone leader, so she knows her stuff! I'm excited and scared out of my mind, but overall it will be a good change. Also I don't know if we are getting knew elders in the other area, but I am really hoping that we are. It would help a bunch! 

This week we worked super hard to meet our goals! We had a bunch of lessons with members and on Sunday David's sister came to church and an inactive family of lots and lots of years that we visited and 2 more new investigators! It was super great to have a full principles of the gospel class.

Wednesday was our last district meeting with Elder Jensen who is going back home this week! Hermana Canalizo and me gave him cokes with each one of our names on it to drink on the airplane home, because he says that he misses coke a bunch and we can't drink it in this mission!

Right now we are focusing a lot on working with David's sister Fernanda and a young couple who are getting married this Tuesday and baptized this Saturday! Its super exciting and Fernanda is even more golden than David. Who knew? In Sunday school she was telling David to behave and participating and talking about the temples and everything. So she'll be baptized in 5 weeks. I know it! 

Thats about all for this week, because we have to go drop off hermana canalizo! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Hermana McNaught

Oct 20, 2014

This week was nuts! On Tuesday until thursday we had intercambios, so my temporary companion was hermana Zuñiga again! Love her. It was loads of fun. But this time Hermana Canlizo went to the other area to work and me and hermana Zuñiga stayed here in this area and taught our investigators!! My first time working without my comp. SCARY! I was not sure how I was going to be able to do it, but everything worked out fine, and if I didn't know where I was going Hermana Dionisia helped us out. I have a lot more confidence in the area now and that I can plan to teach our investigators and everything! Dont get me wrong, I still have no idea what I'm doing, but I feel like if Hermana Canlizo leaves this coming cambio (ON MONDAY!! ah) then the area won't be horrible. Also great news! We got a call from president, and he said that most likely he will be sending us elders for the other area that we are looking after. So hopefully this next week we will only have to work one area and we can be a lot more efficient. Seriously that would help us so much. The other area we should only be up out until like 5 or 6 in the afternoon unless we are with members, and most people finish work or school and can be taught at that time.. so it is really not effective to have hermanas looking after this area. So we are REALLY praying that this next week their are some new missionaries here!

This week was like the highest of highs on my mission to the lowest of low! Intercambios were awesome and we had a ton of good lessons and contacted a bunch and I felt like I learned so much. Then on Friday me and hermana canalizo were super fired up from what we learned and were ready to go. But then the whole day was abandoning people. Like every stinking lesson people were saying that they didn't want us anymore or they weren't keeping commitments and it was time to let em go. 

BUT we also had some pretty awesome stuff happen this week! The whole month of October the government is paying for weddings here in Mexico. So everybody that uses this as an excuse to not get baptized its a perfect opportunity! Well, We were visiting this inactive family, the daughter Aurora has a partner and isn't a member. Last minute we brought up the fact that weddings are free this month.. and it was so awesome, this girl was like "seriously?? Awesome what do I need to do? I CAN GET BAPTIZED!!" She had been waiting for this opportunity and has already been to church lots of times. So we are planning the wedding for the 28th or 29th and she should be good to go for baptism in 2 weeks. Also we got to visit Yahir again yesterday and he was miraculously at church on Sunday because his parents are out of town and his uncle went and picked him up for the primary program. We've got faith that it will work out with him and that we're going to find lots of other people who are looking for the gospel this week! 

Also we are starting to teach Davids family! We are a little worried about David because it has been 3 weeks since he was at church... but its because he got a new job and is super busy. But were helping him out! We went to find David during intercambios and his sister answered the door. Fun fact for you, here in Mexico if you want someone to come to the door you don't really knock on the door you just shout buenas noches or tardes really really loud until someone comes outside. Its good fun. But his sister came out and we were talking to her, and she said david wasn't there, but then asked when we were going to come teach her! WHAT! so that was super cool. The only thing is that she goes away for work every weekend... so we don't really know how we are going to work with her. But yeah, really cool stuff is happening here!

Hope everyone has a great week! 

Love,

Hermana McNaught

Pic of me and hermana Gloria Gomez and me learning how to cook like a Mexican. Its just frijoles haha but one step at a time.

Hola familia!!

Okay so this week was great once again! I think I will start off all my letters like that. We started out on Monday without water! It hadn't rained for like 3 days and so they shut off EVERYONES WATER!!  what is this, Mexico? I have never genuinely prayed for rain. But I was praying. Luckily the night before we had filled up our big tub to wash our clothes and we were able to use that for showering and the dishes and the bathroom and everything. But then Tuesday night it rained and bam our water was back and I got to take a "normal" shower. 

Wednesday we had a day with the Bishops daughter again and she went with us to our appointments. I love going out with the youth in the ward. Teaching with them is so fun! Its too bad though, because she is moving to Tuxtla this week and so we wont be able to have her help us anymore. I was thinking about how if I get transferred I may NEVER see these people again!! That is terrible! I honestly feel like Javier, David, Octavio, and Ana and Alejandra are my friends. The mission is so great. I feel like there are people here that I just love.  I honestly love some of our investigators!  Octavia our gold of golden investigators moved 10 minutes away into another area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!! But he doesn't want to switch missionaries... But he has to because he isn't in our area anymore. But the reason he switched houses is because in the house he was living in, the other students were drinking and smoking a lot and he didn't feel good about it anymore. So that was actually really cool.

We also have an 8 year old who has been coming to church Yahir and his parents aren't members but gave him permission to be baptized. He can be baptized before the end of this transfer! He is super adorable and super smart and its always good practice for me to teach little kids because my Spanish is the equivalent of a 5 year old. (better than a 3 year old). 

On Thursday we had a big zone conference about sanctifying our missions. there are so many things we can do to drive away the spirit in our lives! Its crazy how much we really need to do to be disciples of Christ. But its good. We buried a list of things we need to leave behind in the grass by the chapel which is so typical, but it made me think a lot and later I made a whole long list of things that really can help me! One thing about missionaries that half the time I like and half the time I don't like is that they always have this "if there is a problem we're going to fix it" attitude. 

After the conference we went to visit Maria, an older lady who lost one of her legs. She is a recent convert. During the lesson I started feeling super sick and thought I was getting a migraine which is weird because I haven't gotten one in forever. I was sharing my testimony and crying because I hurt, but it just made me look super spiritual :). After I told Hermana Canalizo that I was too sick to work and we went home and I slept for a while. then she got me up and we went to the doctors and turns out I had a stomach infection, the doctor said maybe salmonella. So it was making me dehydrated and that's why it felt like a migraine. So We got it taken care of real quick with some antibiotics and I'm good now. I think that happens a lot to the gringo missionaries here when you're new, because I have heard lots of similar stories from elders. Guess I should give it another couple of months before I say I'm Mexican...

Last night in my training, hermana canalizo was talking about recognizing the spirit. When we have the gift of the holy ghost with us always it can be hard to recognize when he's talking. But its possible and I know that if we always are trying to do what is right, we can feel good that we are doing what we need to do.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Hermana McNaught

This week was great! We dont have a lot of investigators right now, so we are trying to focus ourselves on who really wants and needs our message. We visit a lot of Recent converts and inactives during the day. Its almost like a half and half. But they need us too. Its just sad because with the inactive members, the people in the ward should loook after them and take care of them, but some members have expressed that they dont feel like this is their responsibility! Um... yes it is. We all need to take care of our brothers and sisters. Visiting teachers and home teachers are SO IMPORTANT. the missionaries cant do everything and visit everyone. But if everyone does their part and has a little role in helping someone, we can get people the love and attention that they need. 

How was everybody's conference weekend?? Mine was a little weird, because I got about half of everything the prophets were saying. I'm glad I had at least the time I did in Mexico learning Spanish before Conference, for the people that came in a transfer after me I felt way bad. There was one new elder I saw that was just totally asleep. It's pretty hard to stay awake when you can't tell what's going on. But I really liked the talks! I thought it was interesting in the Sunday morning session how they had 2 talks about the prophet in a row, and then after the prophet spoke. I thought he was going to make a huge announcement or something, but he didnt! I explained to Hermana Canalizo how there are big movements in Salt lake with women wanting the priesthood and things like that. I love it because whenever the members here, hear about these kinds of things they react as if it is totally ridiculous. Being separated a little from the politically correct pressure in Salt Lake puts it into persepective for them. The law of God will always be the law of God. When people don't understand the reasons for why God does the things he does they have trouble following.

But besides all of this... Our investigators!! Sonia and Octavio and a new investigator Luis were at conference. Luis is a pentacostas and said that conference made him scared... so uh.. theres that. And Sonia has one foot in the LDS church and another foot in a different church, so we are going to visit her lots and help her understand a lot about why its so importnat to pick the church the has the priesthood!! BUT OCTAVIO!! Is awesome. He came to 3 out of the 4 sessions. He is 22 and is the student that I contacted my 3rd day in Mexico and then later randomly found him in the street. Well we keep on randomly finding him (as if God is saying hey you need to teach him!!!) and after conference he called us and said "What do I need to do after I get baptized?" Best experience of my life. Yep, he's ready! We are super excited about him. 

Also thought you all should know I officially killed mulitple coachroaches. I'm a mexican. Also I eat super spicy, like the people here sometimes tell me I can eat like a mexicana.. So basically I'm mexican. It's good fun. Really missionary work is fun. It can be stressful at times when you don't know exactly what you need to do, but God will always help us know what is right. I have so much to learn about loving people and about the church. I feel like I'm learning so much. I have SO much more to learn. I'm not very good at teaching yet and I definitely dont know the language, but when I look back and see how much I have changed, I love it. This is good! 

Hermana McNaught

                                                      Mckenna's companion made her breakfast stuffed peppers!

                                                       Holding a families dog and bird

Whoo this writing time goes by SO FAST and I used up all my time sending pictures.. So I promise that next week will be better! Sorry to everyone. 

This week was super great! We had our baptism with David!! It was crazy insane because he still needed like 2.5 lessons and we only had an hour to teach them before his interview with our district leader. So it was a little chaotic, but he is so ready and has been going to church for 2 months. His first Sunday was my first Sunday! He is my first real convert, because his first lesson was with me. He was so happy after his baptism and was talking about how good he felt and really couldn't stop talking about it! I have such a strong testimony of these feelings! I know that every week with the sacrament we can feel these same clean feelings again and again. The longer I am out here the more I realize there is a 0% chance I'm ever going to be close to perfect, but I feel super happy that every week we can have another chance. Another chance to obey a little better and to help others a little more. 

This week we found some great new people! First of all, we had a lesson with Octavio, and Javier and David were there helping with the lesson. Octavio is going to get baptized, he is super interested!! Just that he works on Sundays. That's the only problem! But its exciting!

We contacted this one guy on the street this week and he was talking about how he was baptized but never really a member and how he's done so much bad that he can't come back. Hermana Canalizo was like, no you can! ¨´Have you ever killed somebody??¨´And he paused for a second... and then said mas or menos!! I shouldn't be laughing, but the point is that hermana canalzio was trying to get the point across that he isn't that bad but the guy had like killed someone. So we contacted him and invited him to church and everything. And then guess who was at chruch? him! And he came to a baptism of a little girl in the ward that we taught a couple of lessons to (Abish) As well. He knows its time to change and I am happy that we ran into him. Sometimes people just need a little push to come back and start repenting. But he isn't in our area so we will pass on his reference to other missionaries.

I don't have a bunch to say, but I do want to bear my testimony on how right now is the time that we have to change our lives. I know that that is what this life is for. There are so many people that we teach that have excuses for not coming to church or reading their scriptures or praying. There will ALWAYS be an excuse. Satan it the master of procrastination. We have to change now!! But I know its possible and I'm so grateful for my savior for this. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana McNaught

PICTURES: 

Sept 22, 2014

Alright! This week was another good one! I've got a load of pictures to send, but these computers are super hit and miss, and today its not working on mine... so next week lets all cross our fingers! Monday after PDay finished we went out with this hermano that this week just came home from his mission early. Him and his baby brother came out with us. At first I was super skeptical, because before we even started he started giving us some criticism and I was not about to have that. But then I was thinking how I could either just throw the rest of the day away or show him that I'm actually awesome. So me and Hermana Canalizo were like on fire. Seriously, we were contacting everyone and I felt like I talked a lot more in the lessons, and it was like the Spanish was coming a lot easier! That day we had a family home evening with a member and their neighbor who was close to being an investigator. And in this lesson she FINALLY accepted a baptism date!!! whooooooo. And she was at church on Sunday and we have another FHE with them tonight and she'll be there. YAYYY! Her name is Edith was actually super helpful! Turns out I can actually step it up a lot more.. It was a good wake up call. And we are all friends now, so I'm happy about that. Also at the end of the day, he told me that I speak as if I've lived in Mexico for 6 months!! Which is definitely not true, but I felt pretty good about that. The language is like hit and miss. Some days its good and some days I don't have any clue what is going on. but everyday I think I am improving. Anyway, this set the tone for the whole week! It was awesome. Super grateful for him. Also with Cambio's!! Hermana Hickman, who's blog I read before my mission is in my zone now, which is really cool. I feel like I met a celebrity.

Contacting in the colectivos is always the hardest and me and canalizo sometimes chicken out. But If I say hello and start it out then hermana canalizo always does good, we make a good team, because I'm less scared to just be like "hi my names hermana mcnaught and I'm a missionary and a little weird, but how are you?" and afterward she is better at spanish and keeps it all going. But this week, we had a bet on whoever ate their flan the slowest had to contact the entire colectivo and invite them to our activity on Saturday. I was like alright its on. And I lost hardcore. So I talked a lot on the combis. But we got some appointments out of it, so hey, its all for the Lord am I right?  Sometimes hermana Canalizo teases me because there have been two times where I have accidentally had some attitude in my contacting... I don't mean to. Its not super bad, but hermana canlizo thinks its So funny. But the best was yesterday this guy was like "Hey beautiful girl" and all this stuff, which usually we just ignore but he was so close to us and we were waiting for a bus, so I was like alright. And Hermana Canalizo tells the story best, but I guess a just flipped around and moved my hair out of the way from my plaque and was pointed to it and said "hi, I'm A MISSIONARY for the church of JesusCrist of LDS and just started turning it into this weird contact it was way funny, but bad because I never realize when I'm like that. My comp tells me I am turning into a Mexican with my attitude.

Oh and get this! There are always a ton of earthquakes here and people are just super used to them, and I have felt 2 already!! one night I was talking to my zone leader and he was like, "can you feel the earthquake" and I was like "uhhh... woah, yeah I can!" and then we had a missionary activity on Saturday with the whole zone and we sang hymns and watched mormon messages and stuff which turned out pretty good, and after our first song there was another mini earthquake! Wow! Also, speaking of activities, there was another one last night with some guy from the US who came to speak more about Izapa and how we are living in BOM country. pretty cool stuff, although I didn't really hear any of it because we were making appointments with people. Also there have been some of the craziest thunder storms of my whole life. HOLY COW! The other night at 2 AM there was the LOUDEST crack and me and hermana canalizo both woke up and she's like "HERMANA ARE YOU OK?"  I said yeah I'm good, was that an earthquake?" Super funny because I was so tired the first thing I though of was that there was an earthquake. Nope, just rain. 

Oh! and update on our investigator David! He has been kind of hit and miss, and not really willing to listen to our charlas but comes to church every week. So we finally got a hold of him and we were like, whats your deal?? And turns out he just doesn't want to invite his parents to his baptism. so we told him it wasn't a requirement, and now he feels lots better! He will be baptized on Saturday! We just have to teach him nearly all of the lessons this week! But he is ready and excited!!   

Also this cambio we have the goal of baptizing two families! And its totally possible because for every general conference someone attends it counts as a church attendance! We already found one family to teach and taught them a lesson yesterday and they are golden! So we are hoping that they are the one!! And there is one more that are good potentials as well!! The field is white already to harvest! God loves us! He cares about our families so much. He wants us to be happy, and I know that we can be if we are living how we should! 

Love you and have a great week!

hermana McNaught (Macnouuuuut in a spanish accent)

So this week!! Wow Time is literally flying. I am about to reach my second cambio! Its definitely possible that me and Hermana Canalizo might not be companions this next change, because right now we are actually working 2 areas, and we hope that by the next exchange there will be some missionaries to cover the other area we are covering right now. The thing is that they are probably going to send hermana Canalizo and a new missionary to one of the areas and leave me here with a different trainer to take care of this area. But who knows! I'm really hoping that nothing changes. 

This week went pretty normally! 

Yesterday we finished our fast at the house of the one of the families in our ward! They are the family that I told you about earlier and they just have super adorable children, loads of references for us and the mom reminds me a lot of Aunt Chrissy. So the other day we were talking about what foods I liked from the U.S. because these people are English professors and they love to learn about the states. And I was like; I really like lazagna. And they don't eat bread here which is kind of a bummer, mostly they just have tortillas at every meal, but never bread. I miss bread! So we show up to dinner, and what did she make? LASAGNA AND SALAD AND BREAD! awhhh it was probably the nicest thing ever. I love people.

Okay, until next time! I love you all! Have a great week!

Hola everyone!

So this weeks update is going to be a little shorter, sorry! But Yesterday we had a baptism!! My very first of my mission. Really I'm just lucky and blessed to be able to see this so early in my mission. I feel like I didn't even do much to help convert our investigator, but then again the spirit does that anyway right? He was so good. His parents aren't members and are devout catholic, but the church helped their son change so much and they are so grateful for the missionaries. His mom was crying the whole time. It was really beautiful. And his testimony was like so solid. Here the investigators have to attend at least 5 Sundays before they can be baptized, and he had like 7. He was ready to go. What an amazing person!! 

Yesterday I had to give a talk in church and it was the scariest thing I have ever had to do!! haha I don't know Spanish! I spoke about faith hope and charity and threw in temples because

I love the temples. Our investigator told me after he gave his testimony at his baptism that he knew how I felt in my talk. He's like I didn't know what to say! I was like me either! It is seriously so funny how greenies are just like there investigators. We don't know the language or what is going on, but we have testimonies!

This week was great and we just keep finding new people to teach, although they don't always follow through, but the field is super white here! I love it. The strangest thing I had to do this week was eat cow stomach. hermana Canalizo said that was the best prepared cow stomach she has ever had, but i am here to tell you it was not only awful, I thought I was going to die! That was the first time in my mission I have felt like I just couldn't put it away and it came back to bite me let me tell ya... ah the things missionaries do to gain the members trust am I right??

Have a great week everyone!