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!