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