Week 66: The Bitter and the Sweet

Well Folks the news has come in:  I am getting transferred and will be training these last 12 weeks of my mission!  Before I get into all the transfer deets i just wanna talk about how cool yesterday was being able to see the live video transmission of the Mexico City temple re dedication!

us with Pres and Hna Bird- they always go to our stake conferences because stake I am currently in is the mission office!

 Yesterday the whole stake met to watch a video transmission of the Mexico City temple re-dedication.  Only adults with a temple recommend and kids 8 and older interviewed by the bishop could attend,and it was honestly so neat.  It was filmed in one of the temple rooms and Pres Eyring and Elder Holland among 4 other 70s directed the session.  They were all dressed in white and as the apostles spoke they would speak a line and then a translator next to them would translate it in spanish.  But it was sweet because Elder Holland bore a mini testimony in spanish haha.  It was neat because they bore firm unshakeable tesimonies of how the temple is literallly the house of God and how thanks to the Prophet Joseph Smith we have this restored priesthood power on earth today.  Watching this re-dedication made me appreciate being a missionary even more and how blessed I am to have this knowledge in my life.  Pres Eyring gave the re-dedicatory prayer, and after we all died this temple tradition of waving white handkerchiefs in the air.  So much more I can share, but bottom line is that it was a super neat experience!  and being able to be with our convert Hno jorge was super special as he is so excited to be able to go to the temple.

Oh man how i have so many mixed feelings in my heart.  I can't put into words how it feels to be getting transferred:  excited and anxious for all the new adventures that lie ahead but you can't help but feel a pain in your chest saying goodbye to all the members and investigadores.  I have absolutely loved the 3 areas I have been in and my companions.  All are so different and I have grown in different aspects with each experience. Here in America I think I truly learned the importance of having faith and working super diligently.  Before arriving here I was told that Ameria was a "super small area filled with old people and those who don't want to listen" and through my 4 months of being here we were able to pull off extremely high teaching numbers and gain complete support from the ward.  Now every missionary WANTS to come to America the Beautiful haha!  And all these positive changes are thanks to Hermana Espinosa's and I's faith, hope, belief that change can happen, and constant help from the Lord.

  a few of the ward families

I could write a novel about all the miraculous lives I have met here.  I wish all of you reading my blog could just experience these people's humble personalities.  Every family in this ward I will truly miss-- la familia robles, a couple who goes and teaches with us almost every day, La fam Valeriano, the bishop and his wife who are super ÿoung and hip" and cook us knock out meals, the  young women who look up to us as older sisters and all want to go teach with us, Hna Nina who is disabled in a wheel chair nevertheless we take her out to teach with us so her powerful testimony can effect other's lives, Hno Jorge and Yaretzhi whose door we knocked and whose lives we saw change through accepting the gospel, familia flores who make me brownies and arroz con leche, and i could go on.  At night I can't help but just thank Heavenly Father for how much love I feel from all those around me

A girl who has been a blessing in my life is Estefania.  The elders knocked on her door in april, 6 weeks later she was baptized, and now she is preparing to serve a mission next summer.  She lost both of her parents to cancer and is 19 years old.  She lives alone as her 3 older siblings are married.  She is one of the strongest, most determined people i have met with the biggest hart willing to serve and lift others help.  Her conversion has changed my life and strengthened my testimony that this gospel does in fact change lives.  She spends practicallyl every day with us, and she literally is our official companion as we are "training" her haha!  she takes part in the teaching, and we really are teaching her as if she is a new missionary in the field.  Presidente knows her and our friendship and jokes that we aren't "real" missionaries because she literally drives us everywhere and we just have it "too good" haha.  I can't say enough about this girl, i have a goal of coming back for a few days next summer and going through the temple with ehr before she leaves on her mission!  She is a sister to me, and I am grateful for her example in my life and I will miss her terribly.

 i will miss these 3 ;(

My days as an hna leader are over....and it has been a fantastic experience growing to be a more christ-like leader.  I am stoked to receive my 2nd "daughter" here in the mish!  Training is a blast- And it is a privilege to be able to teach a new missionary everything i've got during these last 12 weeks i have.  Next week I will fill you all in!  My past 3 areas all literally touch and surround the mission offices haha so maybe this last area will be a more of a geographical change!

C O N  A M O R

hermana riches