Ixtapuluca 2

Week 1 en Mexico! 

Okay, so this week has been SUPER crazy. Can you say Rollercoaster?

(Also, attached is a picture of my first service project. We bushwacked a park for 4 hours. I was a BEAST with the machete! Hahaa!! It was sooooooooo Great! The other one, we ordered Pizza, got drinks, then realized we didn´t have enough cups. So we used pans instead. I Love Mexico!)

Also, as of yesterday, I can honestly say that we fit 18 people in a Volkswagen. Yah, think about that.

So we started out the week pretty strong, found tons of investigators, new area, super exciting. My Spanish has exploded! I can UNDERSTAND people now!! Pues, todavia necesito practicar y aprender más. (Now I need to practice and learn more.)

Our lessons are going great! We found 22 new investigators, all of which we´ve taught at least once, 7 came to church yesterday, 4 have a baptismal date, and one of their families is very interested in learning more. Entonces,(Then) we´re expecting to have 3 more baptisms next week just from that one family. Everything is going amazingly brilliant. I gave my first priesthood blessing in Spanish to one of our investigators that is having a hard time quitting smoking. Usually he does about 20 a day, and although my Spanish was horrible, and I was struggling very hard to find the right words, he´s completely stopped. He´s not smoked a single cigarro at all! Oh how fantasticly the Spirit of the Lord can work through us, despite our own incapabilities.

On the flip side, we saw a man die in the street, we talked a recent convert out of killing himself, we saved another kids life as we pulled him out of the street, we almost got jumped, and there are dogs everywhere and I know one of these days one of them is going to get me, Haha!! We had two investigators claim that they had heard enough, that they had already been saved by the Virgin Mary, and they don´t need our help. (We´re too young to know anything about these matters, they say)

However! The bads never, Never, NEVER outway the Greats. I wish everyone here reading this could have felt how strong the spirit has been in our lessons. I wish I could write and explain how much we´ve been guided and helped. I wish I could write down all the Amazing experiences that I´ve had that have made me grow. But I´ve already experienced a lifetime of progression, a lifetime of growth, stories, and lessons. And it´s only been the first week.

I am SOOO EXCITED to be here in Mexico, helping as many people as I can. Yes it´s rough, yes it´s dangerous, YES it´s Worth it. 

"The Worth of EVERY SOUL, is great in the sight of God." - Joseph Smith

I know these words are true, I feel it in my soul when I teach the people, when I serve them, when I help them to draw nearer to their  Heavenly Father. One of our investigators, Olga, at the end of the lesson we asked her to pray. She followed the steps we taught her, and had to stop in the middle of her prayer. She was bawling... When she was finally able to choke through it, she told us that she had Never felt so much Joy and Happiness in her entire life. How GREAT it was to tell her, that could be hers, Forever.