I can't think of a clever subject line ...

Well, I´m definitely getting trained, but it is in a completely different way than normal missionaries. So Monday we went to the doctor for Hermana Morinigo and turns out Hermana Morinigo needed a week of rest for her foot. So this week was a little strange but really good for my confidence in my teaching and my espanol.

 

Hermana Morinigo obviously couldn´t walk which means she couldn´t leave to do lessons, and I thought that meant I couldn´t leave to do lessons, but boy was I wrong. Tuesday and Wednesday I left to teach lessons with the hermanas in our ward. Between the two days I had 7 new companions. It sure was a party. Hermana Morinigo stayed in the house of a member and I was left all alone to fend for myself during the lessons. I was SUPER nervous but turns out I can teach people all by myself! Who would have thought?! 

 

So pretty much I was training myself this week, well actually Heavenly Father was training me, but still. I truly believe that Heavenly Father sent us this trial so that I could gain more confidence in my teaching and in myself because I was having a problem with my confidence these past few weeks. I´m so grateful for this opportunity I had to teach alone and not have anyone else to rely on. 

 

But by the end of the two days I was missing Hermana Morinigo a lot! She was able to walk by Friday so we started little by little, each day walking a little more but anytime she felt pain or started to get really tired we headed back to the house because we didn´t want to push her and end up making her injury worse. So needless to say we were in the house more than normal, but I have been able to serve my companion, so I didn´t feel bad about being in the house.

 

She, on the other hand, was pretty discouraged this week because she felt horrible that I am being trained like this and that we can´t work as hard as before, but I assured her that this is the best training I could get, and I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to serve her because then I forget about myself and my problems. 

 

I always call her my baby because I take care of her so much right now. Every morning I make her breakfast (Yeah, I actually make breakfast, and we haven´t died yet, it´s a miracle right?) and then I heat up water so she can put her foot in the water, and apparently that takes away the swelling and the pain, and then I do everything else she needs. I don´t have any time to think about myself it´s the most fantastic thing ever! 

 

This week we have our first baptism!!!! Oh I am so excited!! We have definitely seen SOOO many miracles this week! Paloma is getting baptized on Saturday. She is so fantastic and so excited. We had a really cool experience with her this week. We taught her the word of wisdom and when we talked about not drinking coffee she got kind of upset because apparently she drinks coffee every morning and she loves it.

 

She agreed to try to not drink coffee the next day but we left really worried because if she has a problem with the Word of Wisdom we would have to postpone her baptism another week, and we didn´t want to do that! Anyway, we prayed so hard that night for her to receive strength to quit drinking coffee and to help her find a way to motivate herself to not drink it. The next day we went to visit her and we were super worried to ask her if she drank coffee but we finally did and SHE DIDN¨T DRINK HER COFFEE THAT MORNING!! She said that she woke up earlier to go running while everyone else made the coffee and she made sure that she ran long enough that by the time she got home there was no more coffee. How great is she?? Next week I´ll send pictures of her baptism :) 

 

Oh I also saw another miracle this week with the food. We eat with the Elders everyday at a members house and the members always ask us what we want to eat, and this week it was Elder Chavez´s turn to pick what we ate and guess what he chose ... Sushi. When I saw that we were eating sushi I looked at the Elders and they both started laughing cuz they knew I hate sushi.

 

They gave us 14 rolls each. FOURTEEN! I only almost threw up twice and I every time I put a roll in my mouth I said a little prayer and apparently my face was hilarious cuz the Elders could not stop laughing. But I ate all 14 of those sushi rolls. I was so proud of myself! 

 

Another interesting thing we ate this week was nopal which is cactus. It was actually pretty good! They take the cactus piece and make it kind of like a pita pocket and then stuff it with bacon and ham and cheese. I don´t know why we don´t do that in Arizona ... We have so many cacti it´s like free food. 

 

Well I love you all and I am so grateful that I´m out here even though it is hard! I just hope I can help people find the joy and light of the gospel! 

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

One year for Hermana Morinigo!!

THursday she completed one year in the mission! Apparently no one burns anything for completing a year but I made her pick a shirt to burn. She was really sad but after she felt good about it! I was glad to start this tradition with her :)

Yeah, not for me. For Hermana Morinigo!

14 sushi rolls??

Before and after of my sushi experience!

We take a ton of taxis right now cuz Hermana Morinigo can´t walk...

I made that food!!

 

Mi Querido Familia (My Dear Family)

So this week was a rollercoaster! 

 

Monday I was having a rough day with my self confidence because I am really hard on myself when it comes to the language and teaching, but I can´t even describe how grateful I am for Hermana Morinigo and her support. She makes me laugh when I want to cry and lifts me up when I want to fall down. She is the definition of the perfect companion. Heavenly Father knows me so well because he gave me her. I learned that I wasn´t trained correctly so I have learned so many new things in this week and we have a lot more investigators and a lot more success because of the things I have learned! 

 

We started a wall of miracles that we have seen in our lives and the lives of our investigators which has really helped us have a positive outlook on all the things around us. One of the miracles that we saw this week is that one of our investigators, Paloma, has a baptismal date for 2 de Agosto. And her parents said YES! She is 12 so we had to get permission from her parents but they said yes!

 

Hallelujah! She went to Girl´s Camp this week and she loved it. She is one big miracle in our lives right now! When we first started teaching her she was really shy and didn´t like to talk or answer questions but we brought a young woman with us to one of the lessons and they became good friends and Paloma opened up and now she won´t stop talking during the lessons. She is super incredible! Through this experience I have a strong testimony of the importancia de los miembros en la obra misional. WORK WITH THE MISSIONARIES! :) 

 

Tuesday night I got sick with a fever and throwing up and other gross stuff I don´t really want to talk about and so I went to bed early but woke up every 30 minutes with the shivers or I had to rush to the bathroom. Needless to say, it wasn´t my favorite day in the mission but at least I got what I wanted, right? The next morning I really didn´t feel better but we had set appointments with investigators so I got out of bed and put a dress on and went out and taught. I looked like a zombie and felt like I wanted to die but at least we taught lessons! I got a blessing from the Elders and the next morning I felt almost good as new! Although I still had problems with the other stuff I didn´t want to talk about.. I think we discovered that I might be lactose intolerant because I ate a lot of ice cream Tuesday and that´s when I got sick and now every time I eat dairy I get sick again. And every time I think about ice cream it makes me want to puke.

 

Saturday I became a real missionary. If you don´t get what that means just ask Robert. He will tell you! 

 

Every morning we have language study and I study Spanish and Hermana Morinigo studies English but to start and finish we pray in English and let me tell you. It is hard to think and pray in English. I sound like a 2 year old praying when I pray in English. Hermana Morinigo is 10 X better at praying in English than I am. I know it sounds ridiculous but I have forgotten words in English already.. Hermana Morinigo asked me how to pronounce exaltation and I couldn´t do it... I could only think of how to pronounce it in Spanish. How pathetic is that? I guess you could say that I have the gift of tongues or that I´m just slow :P But let´s go with the first one!

 

Yesterday Hermana Moringio twisted her ankle and couldn´t walk so we spent all day in the house and today we went to the hospital to get her checked out. Apparently she needs a cast and to rest for 3 weeks. But apparently she can walk with crutches while she has her cast so we should be able to work still. If not I have to leave her with an hermana in the ward while I go out with another hermana in the ward to do our visits. Oh I´m super nervous about that because I will be the only one teaching! But if that is what I need to grow with my confidence than come what may! 

 

I love you all so much and I miss you  less and less everyday but don´t worry, I haven´t forgotten about you yet :) I´ll keep you posted on how Hermana Morinigo is and how my lactose intolerance goes :) 

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

Her feet get really cold in the morning so she wears pillows on her feet... I know.. She is so weird but I love her like a sister :)

 

Nicest part of Aguascalientes!!

 

The cerro de muerto ( The mountain looks like a dead man.)

 

And this is how we finish our nights. With half a watermelon and journal writing :)

 

 

Oh, the Blessings of Missionary Work!

Dearest Familia,

Remember that one time when I told you guys how much I loved Hermana Mora? Yeah... times that by 100 and that´s how much I love Hermana Morinigo!! She is seriously fantastic! We´re pretty much the same person, maybe that´s why I love her so much... I have seriously learned more from her in these 7 days then I did in my first six weeks training. She is incredible.

We had a lot of success this week. We street contacted double the amount of people this week than I had ever contacted before and we actually teach with unity and the spirit is so strong in all of our lessons. I loved this week! She is always happy and always smiling which is probably the reason that I like her so much!

The weather here is sooo perfect! It´s like 20-30 degrees Celsius everyday and i´m not sure what that is in Fahrenheit but you all can figure it out (68 to 86 degree F)! It rains almost every day and in the mornings and evenings I´m actually cold. It´s weird to think that it´s July and I´m cold but I´m glad it´s not 120 degrees :)

Our barrio (Ward) is really small compared to the home Ward but the members are all so great! We have probably about 50 members that come every Sunday and our chapel doesn´t have benches so we sit in chairs, but at least we have chairs, right? The members are always willing to come with us to lessons and to hermanar (I can´t remember the Word in english... sorry) our investigators!

Tuesday Hermana Morinigo and I got lost because I thought I knew where I was going but apparently not! I still don´t know the area very well and our map is horrible so I got us lost so we wandered around contacting people as we tried to figure out where we were and where we were going. Super embarrassing, but eventually we made it to our appointment and had a ton of contacts that day. She always tells me that I´m the best trainer she´s ever had! Even though she´s training me how to be a good missionary, I´m training her with the area. Maybe this is Heavenly Father training me to be a trainer. I sure hope not!

We always sing songs in between each appointment. This is how all of our conversations go.

Hermana Morinigo: "Con quien vamos?" (Who are we going to?)
Yo: Francisca, yo creo. (Francisca, I think.)
H.M.: Vamos a ensenar profetas, si? (We will teach prophets, yes)
Yo: Si. (yes)

And then she starts singing a song about how we are going to teach Francisca about prophets but she only sings one line and then waits for me to sing another line and by the time we get to the persons house we have sung our whole lesson plan. How cute right? At least we are really prepared for each lesson :)

I love how much fun we have and how much I grow every day with her. I have learned how to enjoy every day and I hope that I stay with her for the rest of my misión! I know that´s not possible but I still pray for it every night :)

In sacrament meeting yesterday an hermana gave a talk and she said that we aren´t alone in this life, we have a guide. The Book of Mormon. I loved this. I have felt the Book of Mormon guide my life every day for the past 3 months and I have realized how much I rely on my personal study every day. I have truly found so much comfort, guidance, love, and knowledge while I read the Book of Mormon. En verdad (Verily) we have an incredible gift in our hands and we can feel our Savior´s and Heavenly Father´s love every sing time we read it. I love the Book of Mormon and I love this gospel. I love my Savior with all my heart and I try every day to make Him proud. I love you all and I look forward to reading your letters later. Thank you for all the support, love and prayers.

Love,
Hermana Huff

Hermana Morinigo!

These are our Hermana lideres. Hermana Duverge y Anderson



One of the members gave us balloons and so I wrote Hermana Huff ama Hermana Morinigo on mine!

My New Companion!

Hola Familia!!

 

So last night we got a call from our district leaders and they told us that Hermana Mora was transferring to San Luis. And of course we laughed about it because the Elders always joke around with us about cambios and cambios especiales (transfers and special transfers.) Anyway, we didn´t believe them until the zone leaders called us and were like yeah Hermanas you have cambios tomorrow. As you can imagine we cried a lot last night and this morning as I said good bye to her. I don't know why they changed us already, usually they have the same trainer for all 12 weeks but then I remembered that Heavenly Father knows me really well and knows that I hate change and want´s me to grow as much as I can on my mission, so of course, I´m going to have cambios. At least I´m staying in my area! But I have to navigate around now which is stressful because I still don´t know the area really well. But I can do it! And I already LOVE my companion. She is really happy, loves to laugh, and have a good time. Just like me! Her name is Hermana Morinigo she is from Paraguay and doesn´t speak a lot of English! Yes!

 

This week was a little rough with Hermana Mora though. I read all your letters last week about obedience and how it brings miracles and so I tried my hardest every day to be exactly obedient and it seemed to have the opposite effect than I wanted. We had two investigators drop us which was really sad because we had a lot of hope for them! And my relationship with Hermana Mora kind of decreased as she because more and more frustrated that we weren´t having as much success. I was pretty discouraged one day and then I reread mom´s letter and it talked about gratitude and I started thanking Heavenly Father for these challenges and I started to see miracles. Little miracles but still miracles. :)

 

We met an Hermana named Tete and she is golden! She is so happy all the time and is really interested and wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. We had our first lesson with her on Saturday and she is so excited to come to church with us next Sunday and to have our next lesson. She was one miracle this week.

 

Another miracle is that I got your package! We have a Zone conference every cambio and that´s when we get our packages and letters. So every six weeks I get stuff. It´s a long time to wait but oh well, I guess those are the rules! I loved all the stuff in the package! There is stuff in there that I didn´t think I needed but I realized when I opened the package that I really do need it! So thank you so much! 

 

Dad, I love every letter that you send. I love all the scriptures and inspirational stuff you put in every letter. Also, you said something in the last letter that was almost an exact quote of my patriarchal blessing that I used a lot this week. I don´t think it´s a scripture but maybe. You said I have the power to call down blessings from heaven for me and those around me. I had forgotten that part of my patriarchal blessing but as I called down blessings for each of my investigators this week I could feel the power I had as a representative of Jesus Christ and I watch little miracles happen every day in the lives of our investigators. So thank you for that :)

 

But guys, I finished my first six weeks in the mission field! Time flew by! It feels like I´ve only been here for 1 week! But my Spanish is getting really good! All my investigators tell me my Spanish is perfect which is a huge lie but I really can see a change from my first week until now. The gift of tongues is real! Heavenly Father really loves me a lot :) 

 

The saying really is true that time flies when you´re having fun and when you´re working hard! 

I´m so excited to get to know my new companion more and to take on the challenge of being the senior companion of the area even though she is training me. We will learn together and grow together :) I love the Lord and I love my mission. I love you guys and I pray for each of you! 

 

Love,

Hermana Huff



Goodbye Hermana Mora