Ok! So this week has been great! We have seen lots of miracles and we had many really wonderful opportunities that are a bit out of the regular routine.
FIrst off, Andrea was confirmed and it was a BEAUTIFUL blessing! It was really special and she was blessed with desires to serve in the Church as she comes to understand and live as a virtuous woman. Really great and really special!
On Wednesday, we had a special mission conference that was really fantastic. President talked about the Temple opening and how we are going to prepare ourselves as a mission. He talked about the importance of remembering our covenants and honoring them. It was all very powerful and the Spirit was sooo strong! At the end, he invited us all as a mission to take on a challenge that will help us more fully come to know our Savior and prepare us to go to the Temple. As a mission, we will all be reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover in our native language in 60 days! We will finish the last day of June! I am so excited! We got started right away. We were instructed to mark every name and reference to Christ, everything about the doctrine of Christ, and anything that adds to our personal testimony. We have already had really powerful experiences. Seriously, everything that is in the Book of Mormon is so true. Having recently finished it in Spanish, I am really happy with the goal to read it in English. As much as I love Spanish, there is something about reading it in your native tongue. I have already really come to know and love the Savior even more just in these few days as I have sought to do so through The Book of Mormon.
Yesterday, I completed 10 months in the mission! I really can´t believe it! I don´t know where the time has gone. I have truly loved every moment of my mission and would not change any experience that I have had. I just have to make these next 8 months EVEN BETTER!!!!! I love the mission and I love who I am becoming because of it. I am here to serve and seeing miracles every single day!
This week we had an AMAZING opportunity! We have a great senior couple, Elder and Hermana Garvin who served as the directors of the Mexico City Temple Visitor Center. While they were there, they closed the visitor center for renovation. Well, they still wanted to do their work, so they took it on the road! They took the displays to the chapels! Such a cool idea! Well, the Church asked them to do the same thing here and depending on how it goes, they want to take it to many places in the world that don´t have visitors centers. Well, we got to be visitor center Sisters for a day and it was AMAZING!!! They even bring in a Christus and have His voice play with the same words that we hear in the Mesa visitors center. It was so powerful! They do that part in the chapel and then you go back to the cultural hall and they have the whole display set up and you go around and do a normal visitor center´s tour in the chapel. It was SOOO cool and the Spirit was so strong! I loved having that visitor center experience. Another super awesome blessing that day was that we were called in to do it with 2 other Sisters... Hermana Milmont and Hermana Alvey!!! So much fun! So we got to spend 4 hours with them! In those 4 hours, we had over 100 people come in, 25 of whom were not members! Of those 25, the Elders in that area (we were sent about an hour away to another area, but are hoping to do it here soon) have return appointments with something like 18 and 8 accepted baptismal dates on the spot! Wow! That is so cool! It was really just an amazing experience and I loved every moment. It was fun being a visitor center sister for a day!
So, to answer all of your questions:
1. The new area is great! It is all very green. There are TONS of trees! Fall is starting, so all the leaves are changing and it is really beautiful to see all the red, orange, and brown leaves. I will have to take some pictures today! There really isn´t much of a view cuz everything is really flat, but it is really green. We are pretty far north from Capital, so it is like the country and there are lots of fields and farms. It´s cool. Every area that I have been in has been really different.
2. Things are great with Hermana Dunn! We are loving our time together. I am thinking that it is coming to an end, and that is kind of sad... we are just starting the last week of the transfer and I don´t think that we will have more time together. Sad, but I know that we will go where Heavenly Father needs us. I love Hermana Dunn and it has been a HUGE blessing to be together again! It is really neat to have companions and learn from each and every one.
3. Thanks for putting some stuff in the box! I should get it next week I hope. We only get mail once a transfer (every 6 weeks), so if it hasn´t come yet, I will have to wait till next transfer, but I think it should be here! Thank you so much! I am excited to see what you sent.
4. The food is actually pretty normal. The biggest difference is that they cook pretty much everything in lard. So I think I am getting kinda fat... I need to change that! haha. It is super delish though! I think the most exotic thing I have eaten is definitely the octopus! But, on the 25th of May, I will probably be eating cow stomach... it is there independence day here and it is traditional to eat Locro which is a soup with vegetables and cow stomach... oh boy...
5. The people are sooooo nice! Seriously, pretty much everyone lets us in their house, even if they don´t want anything to do with the Church. They are really giving too. Even the most poor people offer us juice and crackers. In this area, people are always out in the street playing soccer with their neighbors and that is fun. Sometimes we kick the ball once or twice with the little kids.
6. Pdays here are really different. There isn´t a ton to do, so we pretty much just email and do some window shopping. It is fun. I do miss Ushuaia for that though... we would always go on hikes and stuff. Today, we are going to meet up with our district and go to a pizza buffet. Should be fun! The pizza here is SUPER yummy. You would like it.
Thanks again for all the questions! I always love answering questions, because I am never sure what it is that you all want to know when I email.
Well, the investigators are great! The work is great! We are doing great. We are happy and healthy. We had a terrible mold problem and were finally able to get that fixed, so we hope our lungs will start opening back up! haha. But no, we are really doing so well. The work moves on. We should have 4 baptisms in the next 3 weeks and we are very excited. We will see if I stay here in San Ignacio or if I am shipped out, but whatever happens, I am happy to go.
I love my Savior so much. I love the work. Prayer is so powerful! Know that I have all of you in my prayers always.
I love you all so much! Keep up with the great scripture study and prayers!
Love,
Hermana Shelley
pictures: 1-3 pictures of Jessie's baptism
4-6 pictures of Andrea's baptism
7 friend they found in their apartment (wonder which one of them beat his leg off!?)
8 group at the traveling visitors center
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