Week 55: How to Kill a Cockroach

my comp and our golden investigadora / futura misionera, Yaretzi

Well folks I am here with the update on my new compañera!  Hna Espinosa is from the Dominican Republic....tiny island off of central america.  She is a hard worker, a little shy and serious but I know that with time she will open up.  We go home on the same day in December so we shall be counting down together :)  (161 ;)  our bonding activities have been figuring out how to kill the nasty cockroaches that we ALWAYS find in our kitchen.....smashing them with our shoe does not work, and the mighty cockroach killing spray is barely powerful enough.  It is so gross....one thing I will not miss when i go home haha!

on tuesday when i said goodbye to hna guillen and recieved hna espinosa

" Le agradezgo a la Hna Riches, porque es una buena pescadora de almas perdidas.  Gracias a ella, pude encontrar a Jesucristo y arrepentirme de mis pecados"

" I want to thank hna Riches, because she is a good fisher of lost souls.  Thanks to her, I was able to find Jesus Christ and repent of my sins"

When he said this, all i could think about was how WE weren't the ones that found this family..... but truly how grateful I am that God placed this family in our path.

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life:  he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.  John 6:35

casual ice cream candid with mah gurl

  

LIFE IN MONTERREY:

Lately I havn't talked too much about the culture here so I wanna share some tidbits about the lifestyle. Monterrey is one of the busiest work-wise places in all of Mexico- all day every day people are off working....which makes it hard to really teach people and invite them to church.  I'm in the state of Nuevo Leon which is all the way to the eastside below Texas, as there is lots of United States influence.  Typical jobs include selling clothes and food in the markets, house cleaning, caring for the elderly and sickly, teachers, hairstylers, or the higher class jobs are in the main city of Monterrey.  I'm about 25 minutes out of the city, and the temple is right in the city.  The city is so beautiful-- surrounded by green rolling mountains and has more americanized places such as starbucks, iHop, chilis, etc haha.  The mission has all diff types of areas-- humble areas, and where I am is more wealthier and busier lifestyle.  Every other house has a cardboard sign that advertizes homemade fruit popsicles, tamales, tortillas, beans-- lots of pepole make and sell from their homes.  There are little snack shops on every corner, taco stands, people barbecuing and drinking beer in front of their houses in their soccer jerseys.  In this heat I love buying fruit popsycles...mango is very popular here....and i recently have a new found fig obsession haha|!  They are called HIGOS in spanish, and I just recently read in the dictionary that it is a fig-- lots of members have fig trees.  ABout 99% of the people are VERY religious.....majority are catholics, christians, and jehovas witness.  It makes it hard because lots are very dedicated to their virgin marys and saints.  Every home has a virgin mary and angel figures on front of their doors and there are different churches all over the place-- and other religious preaching alongside of us hahaha.  We just wave and say hello-- EVERYONE knows we are the mormons, we recieve every type of comment out there haha.  I really do feel so safe here-- yes everyday i get a few odd/creepy comments thrown at me haha but honestly it is super chill here.  The crime rate has gone down sooo much the last 2 years, so do not worry family :)  Everyone lives with their extended family, and at noon the streets are filled with kids in their uniforms leaving/entering school.  I've gotten the feeling that not toooo many go on to study past high school-- some adults don't know how to read.  People wash their clothes by hand or washing machine, and everyone hangs their clothes out to dry on a line.  Dishwashers and carpet does not exist here.  The farthest places most people travel are to texas, totally depends because there is such a difference in social status here,  but the majority don't leave.  The peple are so humble and friendly, and I truly admire their sacrifices and hardwork. 

 I could go ON AND ON but time is up!  If you all have any other questions that you want answered, shoot me an email! :)  Love you all and I really am doing great! see ya monday.

La familia valeriano...i love them

C O N  A M O R

hermana riches