Happy Memorial Day!

This is the incredible burger that we
had last week. It was like
Awful Awful! AND HUGE!

Sooo there's no such thing as memorial day here in Mexico but that's ok because I am loving it in my heart! hahaha Actually... I didn't even know it was Memorial Day but now I do and I am happy!

 This has been such and awesome and silly week! I was sick starting about two saturdays ago until about Thursday of this last week. I had something called "gripe." I guess you get it pretty often out here from the heat. My companion and I decided that Mexico doesn't like me that much and is trying to kick me out by giving me parasites, cockroaches, and gripe. The beginning of the week was tough with this. My whole body ached, I sneezed every six seconds, I couldn't breath, my throat was swollen and I had a raging headache. It was crazy

GOD IS LOVE!

how the Lord strengthened me though because the only times I had relief were when we were with people and honestly that's all that I needed. But as I said, I was feeling better at the end of the week. So much so, in fact, that this last Saturday my companion and I decided to get back to running. BUT, since Mexico is mad at me, in the first 5 minutes I fell. I mean, I fell hard. Haha I have scrapes on my hands and elbow. The worst is actually my right hip. It has a cut and I still can't sleep on that side. I think I might have a bone bruise. BUT I was still strengthened to keep running! I mean people, they are bad. I am excited for the sweet scars though! Then about an hour and a half later, we left the apartment to but a jug of water (you can't drink the water here so you have to buy big jugs) and I left the keys in the house. We were locked out for about a half an hour once we could break back in. This happened between 6:30-9:30 saturday morning. It was excellent! Later, I had an older man read my palm. He was very invested in it and all that he said afterwards was SUERTE. Which means Luck. Things have been better ever since haha. I also have one of the jóvenes (teenagers) in our ward take my palm when he saw the scrape and poke it as hard as he could because he said it would help with the pain. It didn't help with the pain but he got blood on his finger. Karma? Hahaha 

The little kitten that snuck into our apartment
one night while we were studying. He was
sleeping on my companions scriptures!

This is the tree hous that one of our
 members live in and the HUGE BOOK
that the husband is reading! haha

 Rally it has been an awesome week. We didn't have a baptism or anything like that but we have found some relaly amazing people to teach and they are all so open to the gospel and ready! We have one investigator named 'Curtis.' Curtis is about 60 years old. Honestly, the first time I talked to him I was really scared. He is kind of intimidating BUT he ended up being the sweetest ever! I have loved getting to know him. He is Catholic but really liked church Sunday and is always so nice. He is like an uncle or something. He doesn't always understand what I say so sometimes after I say something he just looks at my companion and says "¿Que dice?" and nods  at me. It is so funny! He can't always remember what we say but he reads and tries to pray and always has questions. He is really trying to understand. We ended up having 11 people who have accepted a baptismal date this week. This is the most we have had in the mission thus far and we feel so good about ALL of them. They are all so interested. We also met a couple yesterday that we haven't talked to them about baptism but they are so eager to learn. We brought a member couple with us from the ward and they talked about the things that are offered for married couples through the church. This couple loves the idea that they could serve a mission together and be married for eternity. They have an odd schedule so we are looking to pass by for them later this week. 

The view from a little pathway in front of one
of the members house of one of the little cities on the
coast here in Acapulco

I don't have much time left but seriously you guys, this is THE HARDEST and THE BEST thing I have ever done in my life. I am recognizing the daily miracles that God send our way and it is beautiful. Through everything God has seriously strengthened me in everyday. He loves us so much and he is always here for us. I know that the Book of Mormon really in written by prophets that were inspired of God. I really do know that this gopsle changes lives because I see it daily.

I love you all so so much. Thank you for always supporting me and sending me your love. 

Hasta Lunes!

Con todo mi corazon,

Hermanaut

Street Vibrations 2014 Acapulco Mexico

Bueno!

The first is me and my companion in a fight
so we got put into timeout....hahahaha

First off,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE HERMANITO CHRIS!!! You are sooo old you 22 year old!

Also! A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to my beautiful, inspiring and over all wonderful best friend KELSIE for graduating from the University of Nevada Reno Magna Cum Laude (with high honors) on Friday! You deserve this for your very hard work in school! 

I love you both so very much!

This week has been... just a week. No way to describe it. Honestly it felt like we had signs over our heads that said "run away from the Mormons" because there was literally no one that wanted to talk to us. A lot of our 

lessons fell through, we didn't have anyone in church this week and people were just not interested. HOWEVER, what I am so grateful for is that the Lord has helped me and my companion not lose hope or faith. I know that there are going to be tough times but we can be strengthened through obedience and love for all those that we encounter. 

The sunsets here are INCREDIBLE

ALL WEEK we saw TONS of motorcycles. Enough to where everyone is complimenting on how many there are. It was like I was back in Reno working Street Vibrations! But the whole time we would be walking downtown I felt this urgency like I should be helping someone find out where their booth is or helping a participant find VIP stuff. It was quite funny! We had to go to downtown Acapulco A LOT this week. We had our regular meeting on Monday, then Zone conference for all of the missionaries in this zone and stake conference as well. Also, last night we had a "Noche de Barrio" which was basically a Family Home Evening for whole ward. It was really wonderful actually. My companion and I, as well as the other companionship of elders taught about the Restoration of the Gospel to the ward. We watched a shorter version of the Joseph Smith movie and then afterwards we all did a kneeling prayer as a ward. It was really spiritual and we recieved a few references from the members. Afterwards, we had pan dulce (sweet bread, which is basically like just so good that I can't even descrive it) and hot chocolate! It was so good! The hot chocolate here has like cinnamon in it! YUUUMMMM!! 

I feel like my emails have not been very interesting these past few weeks and I am so sorry! We don't really have any investigators that are truly progressing. We have two families that sometimes are, but one of the spouses in each family has to get divorced and then married before they can get baptized so we are working

A little but of what Acapulco looks like... And an awful picture of the oceanboth were taken when we were driving
through the canyon so theyre afwul...sorry haha

on that with them. I am looking forward to this week and the things that come. Also, I got bitten 8 times in one hour yesterday by mosquitos. Yeeeeaaaaaa. Haha BUT I do have com pictures for all of you!! I hope you enjoy them!

As always, I love you all so very much! I am so grateful for each and every one of you!

Hermanaut

Rain, earthquakes, and flooding

Hola everyone!! 

So I don't have a ton of time to write this week so I am sorrrrry... The only interesting thing that happened was that on Thursday it rain, THE WHOLE DAY. It stormed pretty heavily until about 4 pm. In about one hours time serveral things accured. First, the rained started. It was literally like buckets of water just falling down. I have never experienced rain that hard before.. Then a little bit later our power went out and it started flooding from the front door of our house and finally we had another huge earthquake! It was crazy! The earthquake was not as big as the one we had a few weeks ago but we are closer to it this time so we felt it a lot more. It was the strongest thing I have ever felt in my life. It was so crazy! It literally shook our whole apartment. We had an apointment with a member at 1 and once we arrived at their house it started pouring and they wouldn't let us leave because it was so bad. And we were on the top of a hug muddy hill. We were at their house for about 4 hours until we could actually walk outside again. That day was crazy. Apparently at the end of this month and then the next month is like that everyday. I can't wait haha. But since then it has been SUPER hot. You can feel the rays on sun scorching your skin... ouuuchhh haha

We having been working with a list of members who live in our area. Whenever we visit someone we have the list of the people that live in that area and if the appointment falls through we visit all these people. A lot of them actually don't live here anymore so it also cleans the list up for the ward that we are serving in. We also are able to find families that are less active and need help. It has been wonderful. We are also able to contact others and find new investigators because we don't really know where we are going haha. 

This week has been great. I was able to talk to my family yesterday and that really gave me a booster. On top of that I have been studying the scriptures a lot. I always go in like I know nothing and just let Heavenly Father and the Spirit teach me. It is incredible what you can learn and begin to understand when you just give it up to God. He really is our Father in Heaven. We are stuck in a very cruel world, but I also know that we can live in this world but not be of the world. I have been studying in the New Testament about Christ a lot. I have realized, TRULY, how important it is that we just love every soul that is on this earth. We all need love whether we think so or not. I know that we are bound to each other through a force stronger than we can imagine. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and to be a tool in the Lord's hands.

I miss you all and love you all so very much.

Con todo mi corazon

Hermanaut

Iguanas? Cockroaches?

Bueno!! (That's how we answer the phone here!) 

So as you all know I was transferred last week. I am in Acapulco in Costa Azul. I really like it here. We are about a 30 drive from downtown Acapulco. Downtown makes me feel like I am in the United States but surrounded by Mexicans! I am glad we are close but not in dowtown. We are in a more "suburban" area.

Me in downtown today after soccer! The was the same floor we ate
 burger king on! This is not my area, but the area of the other elders in the
 same ward as us! We also bought these sweet soccer jerseys in our last
 area that have our choice of number, last name, and the name
of my last zone (cuautla) on the sleeve! We are getting some
for this zone as well! They are only about $15!!

So here's the deal with our area. Our boundaries are HUGE. And I am not kidding when I say huge. It should really be two different boundaries but it isn't- My companion and I are in an area called Colosio which is, like I said, a 30 minute drive from dowtown and then there are other missionaries (elders) that cover the more down town part of our area. There are 4 missionaries in this ward, me and my companion and the elders. We are actually the only sister missionaries in our zone. There are 5 companionship of elders (ten elders total) and us.

Here is the interesting part. There has NEVER been sister missionaries in this area. There are some in more northern parts of Acapulco but never in this area. When we showed up to church yesterday everyone was so excited yelling "Hermanas! Hermanas!" So we are basically a big deal haha. De hecho (in fact), this area of Colosio has not had missionaries for about a year. So for the last year, the missionaries that have these boundries have lived in the down town area and would travel here two times a week to help the people here. So these people really haven't had full time missionaries in the area for a long time. They are pretty excited and so are we. BUT it has been basically like we have opened up this area and are starting from scratch. We have been working with the members to find people to teach and everyday we are lost. But it has been really fun. It's hard, but I really like it. The hard part is that we have a lot of less-active members who cant afford to make the trip to church every Sunday. We  have about 1200 members in our area but only about 130, if that, go to church on Sundays. We have our work cut out for us. 

The second is the 8 of us that went to burger king! Que Padre!

The heat... well it is pretty stinking hot here. This is their hot month too and then at the end of the month the rain starts. The humidity is hard. I really have been seeing the way that the Lord blesses us though with the way that he helps us get through everyday. It is incredible. My hair is literally in a pony tail everyday because it is so hot. My companion told me that I become more of a morena every day! Basically she says that I get darker everyday. My tan lines are dang crazy haha. 

So I have two funny stories for you guys this week. Yesterday morning, I woke up and after our prayers I went to use the rest room. Well I turned around to grab toilet paper (we dont have a little thing in the wall so it just sits on the toilet) and when I could actually see better I realized there was a HUGE cockroach sitting on it! It took me a second to figure it out because I was still half asleep! I screamed and threw the toilet paper out of my hands and on to the ground. The coacroachs flew directly onto the wall in front of me. I screamed again and grabbed the closest thing next to me (which was a bottle of clorox) and swung to hit it as it crawled up the wall. I hit it as hard as I could and it's mangled body went flying again. It's body on the ground and it's head ON MY LEG!!!!! I BEHEADED IT!!!!! It was the worst and funniest experience of my life. 

So here's the other: Today was Pday and we went an played soccer with our zone. So it was 10 elders and us. We played against a bunch of little kids in the neighborhood. It was terrifying because they literally hit it AS HARD AS THEY CAN. But it was also really fun. But that is not the funny part. So what happened is that later about 8 of us went to go eat at burger king. Not the healthiest but we enjoy the days that we don't eat Mexican haha. There were 6 natives and then me and anotehr elder who came int the mission at the same time as I did, who are from the US. Well we all made our orders but at some point during my order the cashier said something and I asked for clarification and I couldn't understand her. The thing is that it was really loud in there, and I think that had it been in English I would have been fine at the same noise level but since I couldn't distinguish her words with everyone elses I just said "si!" Well she gave me my cup to fill up and I went and sat down with everyone. As we waited for our food I recognized that the other American elder and I  had a size larger cup than everyone else at our table. Then a little time passed and one of the native missionaries recognized it too and he started laughing and said that She had obviously asked us "¿mas grande?" and he and I did the same exact thing and just said SI! It was pretty funny. We all laughed for a good time about it. I am looking forward to next weeks pday because we are planning a zone activity and there is a lot to do here!

Well, time has ran short so this is all I have for you guys this week. I know it's a lot but at the same time not much! Sorrrrry! I only took about 2 or 3 pictures this week because it wa super busy! I love you all so much! I miss you guys like crazy!

Con todo mi corazon,

Hermanaut

Acapulco

The girl on the far left has been a member for around 4 years,
 she also converted her mother and her sister who is
 standing to the right of me. After hearing my conversion story
and my reasons for choosing to serve a mission she has
now officially put her papers in to serve!!! SO stoked!!!
My companion is holding some paperwork that has nothing to
do with her serving a mission sooo theres that. sowwwwy hahaha

HOLA EVERYONE!!! This has been a crazy week. I just got done with my first transfer in the field... and normally you are not transferred in the first one but me and my companion were technically "emergency transferred." It's weird because it happened right during transfers so it worked out. I can not tell you guys why we were transferred but it's nothing to worry about. SO Hermana Arroyo and I are in Acapulco in an area called Costa Azul. We are about a 10 minute walk from the beach.... say whaaat? Too bad we aren't allowed to swim.

With one of the families of the ward. The woman
 I am hugging sells THE BEST tacos EVERRRR...!!!

Saying goodbye to some of our beloved members yesterday!

Our third baptism this Saturday with the mother 

of the girl who was baptized in my first week here :)

 It just shows me and my companions personalities!

 The kids are so stoked when they see how tall I am!! 

They love trying to slap my hand hahaha

 It is really different from our other area here. It is much busier. Our old place was a small town and here it is much more city. It is beautiful, there is sand everywhere which makes me feel like I am with my family in California. There have never been sister missionaries in this ward and we share the ward with elders. Our area is HUGE. I am kind of nervous because we are both new to this area and know nothing but I guess it's just a learning experience. I will send pictures of our new area next week because I literally only got here about an hour ago.

We finished our time well in our old area. We had a baptism last week of the mother of the girl we baptized in the first week. We had three baptisms in our first area and we left 5 people with baptismal dates there as well. I really will miss the people of my old area a lot. I cried a bit when saying goodbye to all of them. We recieved a lot of gifts. The people here are so incredibly loving. I love that about here.

I am so sorry that this email is short but to be honest with the quick change I can hardly remember this week. I am sending come pictures along and I hope you like them! I miss you all so much and love you guys with all of my heart! I hope that everyone is doing well and I will give you a better email next week!!

Con todo mi corazon,

Hermanaut      

These are simply of one family that I just love love love.
They are members of the ward and this is the gift that they
 came over to give me late last night!! I am truly blessed to know these wonderful people!

BY THE WAY....I have officially been baptized for two years today, April 28!! Holla at yo girrrl!!!