Fresnillo Zacatecas

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Oh my lanta I LOVE Fresnillo!! Everyone here is so amazing and even though the members don´t work much with us this area has so much potential and Hermana Rivera and I worked hard this week! We have a TON and I mean a TON of menos activos en our barrio (less active in our ward) and so we have so much work to do but 3 came to church again yesterday! We were so happy!! The Lord is blessing us despite our weaknesses and I´m so grateful for it.
 

Seriously Hermana Rivera is the most amazing missionary ever! She has been such a fantastic companion for me and I know that Heavenly Father knew that I needed her in this time of the mission. I´m going to be sad to leave her when we have cambios (transfers). 

 

So our area is huge and we have a city called Plateros (means "Silversmiths" - Fresnillo has one of the largest silver mines in the world) in our area but it is completely separated from the rest of our area. Sabado we thought it would be a great idea to walk all the way there to contact people and visit some menos activos (less active members) that live there. It was just a great day! It took us an hour to walk there and then when we got there we realized that everyone in this pueblito (town) is SUPER CATHOLIC! We started contacting people and realized that we weren´t going to have much success pero echamos las ganas (but missed the win?)and we kept going. It was actually super fun to talk to all the people! We discovered that they have their own santo (saint) in this town. The Santo Nino. I don´t know how the nino (child) became a santo pero (saint, but) everybody there worships him and literally every part of the town had a picture or statue of the Santo Nino. (See Fresnillo page for story of Plateros and the Santo Nino.) I love it. Zacatecas is known as la tierra de tradiciones (land of traditions) and it is definitely true but I know we are here for a reason and there is someone that we need to find :)

 

Also as we walked to Plateros we counted 41 people who shouted güera (it pretty much means white girl) at me. It was super funny and it kept us distracted from how much our legs and feet hurt. Also the other day a guy passed us on his bike and literally turned around to look at me 10 times and then made a U-turn to pass us by again. I mean I know I´m super white but come on! I love it here. Everyone is so funny but I feel like a zoo as we walk down the street. Everyday we have at least one group of guys shouting at us telling us to come and read them the bible. Most of the time we just ignore them.

 

Monday and Tuesday were the Mexican Independence Days and unfortunately we had to enter our house at 8. But we had a good time! Hermana Rivera and I bought moustaches and we made pancakes in the shape of the mexican flag ( Really it just looked like a square) and the republica de Mexico ( But it looked more like south america) We are very talented when it comes to pancake making but they tasted SUPER good! Dad you would be proud of me :) 

 

This week we saw two of the great wonders of Mexico. One was a guy driving a tractor down the main road pulling a trailer FULL of chile! It was so much chile and we never thought that we would see anything more amazing than that but the next day we passed by a semi truck full of Jalapeño. Only in Mexico can you see things like this. Oh AMO A MEXICO! (I LOVE MEXICO!)

 

MY NEPHEW IS SO CUTE!!! I just want to hold him so tight and kiss him until his head falls off! Just kidding, but seriously he is adorable. I don´t know how our family makes such cute kids!! I feel like by the time I have my kids Heavenly Father is going to run out of all the cute babies for our family and send me ugly ones! Just kidding I know that´s not how it works, but still I´m pretty worried :P

 

Mom you´re going to love this next part. Maybe you shouldn´t read it. The newspapers this week said that Fresnillo Zacatecas is the most dangerous place in all of Mexico. That got me pretty excited not going to lie! But unfortunately I don´t feel like I´m in any danger at all! I think the newspapers lied but it´s still excited to say that I´m in the most dangerous part of Mexico! Mom, just don´t pay attention to that last paragraph. It´s not true (maybe) and Heavenly Father is protecting me :)

 

I love you all and I´m so glad I have this opportunity to realize how important this gospel is and how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Miss your dear  sweet faces and my next package request is that I want you to send me Emmett!! I think he´ll travel well  :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

Emergency Transfers!

Well Martes (Tuesday) we got a call at 10 at night and the zone leaders told us that we had cambios especiales (special transfers) and that I was going to Fresnillo Zacatecas! How lucky for me! I was super excited cuz I have been wanting to go to Zacatecas my whole mission but I was also super sad to leave Hermana Morinigo!  

 

So after moping around for a little bit I started to pack cuz we had to be in the central at 7:30 the next morning so I could take a bus all the way to Fresnillo at 8. We got to bed at 1am and woke up at 5:30 the next morning. Needless to say I was a little tired and didn´t want to move, but I like being obedient so we got to the central 10 minutes early and waited for everyone to get there. The zone leaders didn´t get there until 8am so I missed the bus, and everyone was so confused what was going to happen because my zone leaders said I was going to be traveling with another Hermana. But she was going to San Luis and then other zone leaders got there and said I was supposed to travel alone. So finally we got it all figured out (or so we thought) and I bought a ticket for the next bus and I was going to be riding to Fresnillo sola (alone.)

 

Turns out Hermana Rivera had bought a ticket to come to Aguascalientes to drop her companion off and to pick me up and it was too late to change my ticket, so I ended up buying a ticket for nothing and had to wait in the central until she got there. I was waiting for her until 12. I was pretty upset that I woke up so early to just sit and wait, but I enjoyed myself as I talked to everyone. Hermana Rivera got to Aguas and we went right away to buy our tickets and then got right on the bus. I felt so bad for her cuz her whole day was spent on a bus, but we had a long ride to get to know each other.

 

They told me that I was going to be Companions with Hermana Rivera who is from Puerto Rico and that she was pretty serious. I was kind of worried that I wouldn´t get along with her very well if she was serious, but then I actually met her and she is the complete opposite of serious. We laugh so much and I seriously love her to pieces. She has really helped me and we have only been together 4 days. I can´t believe how alike we are!

 

I know Heavenly Father knows me so well and He gave me her because I need what she has right now. I need her support and her encouraging words. The experiences that she has had have helped me more than I can even imagine. She has 6 months in the mission but has had a super different experience than most missionaries because she had to go back home because of visa problems and ended up serving in Puerto Rico for 3 months and then was able to come back here to finish out her mission.

 

She is seriously so incredible and she´s the friend, companion, hermana that I needed in this moment.The first thing she asked me was if I was obedient and I told her that I tried my absolute hardest to be exactly obedient and she was like oh thank goodness! She tells me every night that I am an answer to her prayers and that I´m her dream companion. But in reality she has helped me more than I can put into words.

 

I LOVE FRESNILLO! Even though it is freezing already and I have to wear a jacket every day this place is amazing! It´s a little more ghetto than Aguas but I wanted experiences right? The people are super humble and super kind! The thing that shocked me the most was that we have about 15 active members in our barrio and about 500 members total. We have to work super hard with the menos activos (active members) in this area but I know we can do it. Everyone always says Fresnillo is the most discouraging place in the mission, but I see it as a challege that just needs love and a positive attitude. I´m hoping to stay here with Hermana Rivera for the rest of my mission. 

 

I´m almost out of time! The hour goes by so fast! But I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

PS - Check out the Fresnillo page to learn more about where Sarah lives.

Where did this week go?!

Oh hey there Family,

I feel like every email you guys receive from me has a subject about how fast the time is going by! But it´s true!! Can you guys believe that it´s Septiembre already?! Pretty soon it´ll be Octubre and we´ll get to watch General Conference! And celebrate mom´s birthday! But I am seriously so excited for General Conference, I don´t know what happened to me but I feel like the weekend of GC is going to feel like Christmas for me.


President Thomas S. Monson

 

I can´t wait to hear the words from the Prophet and the Apóstoles. I might pee my pants from all the excitement! But hey, it´ll make for a good story, right? haha

 

So funny story. Viernes (Friday) we had a Zone Conference which was pretty good and really spiritual like usual. But after the Hermana Leaders pulled Hermana Morinigo and I aside to talk to us. They proceeded to tell us that someone had seen us separated from each other and we were talking to some men while we were eating at a restaurant. We were super confused because, first, we have never eaten at a restaurant unless it was with a member family and, second, we have never been separated from each other. ANYWAY, they told us to be careful and not flirt with people. Needless to say I was pretty upset and I felt poopy because I have worked so hard to not flirt with people and to be very professional, but Hermana Morinigo said it was probably just cuz someone got offended by something and that I shouldn´t worry. But of course I still worried about it because I don´t want to be known by the missionary who flirts with everyone; I want to be known as a powerful missionary who has the spirit always.

 

Well, Heavenly Father answered my prayers because that day we had one of the most powerful lessons I have ever had on my mission. Every lesson was like the spirit was teaching and I was just the mouth piece. It was incredible! After every lesson Hermana Morinigo said, there is no way that Heavenly Father is displeased with us because we have the spirit and we are seeing miracles in our area. 

 

POR FIN! (AT LAST!) We found someone who let us do some service for them! We  visited an investigator named Tete and we asked if there was anything, ANYTHING we could do to serve her and she was like yeah! I have to move some boxes to my new house if you want to help. We were so happy! So we went to work packing boxes and walking them down stairs to her new house ( it´s the house downstairs). But from this experience we met her daughter Nayelli who we were able to teach afterward and she is so amazing. She is 13 anos (years) and is really excited to meet the young women. Unfortunately, she got sick Domingo (Sunday) and couldn´t come to church, but we are really excited for her.

 

Speaking of being really excited, our investigator (Name withheld by mom:) is getting baptized 27 de Septiembre! We had an incredible lesson with her yesterday. Seriously it was the best lesson I have ever had and it´s incredible what people are willing to do to receive the blessings of the gospel. We talked about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity yesterday and we were pretty worried about it because we didn´t know if she had problems with coffee or with the law of chastity. Anyway we taught the word of wisdom first and she told us that she drinks coffee every morning but that she isn´t going to do that anymore. And that was miracle One! I have never had anyone accept the word of wisdom so easily.

 

Prepare yourselves for miracle two. We talked about the law of chastity and asked if she had any problems with it and she said yes. She has lots of problems with her husband, they have been separated for 6 years and she just wants to feel love from someone but she said but if you hermanas tell me that I can´t continue with my partner then I will end it. This is more important to me. WOW! My face was probably hilarious because when she said that I was amazed. She is so strong and so prepared! I know the Lord is going to bless her for her sacrifice. We were so grateful for that lesson and after we were on a spiritual high and pretty much danced all the way home. 

 

I´m so grateful for my companion. She is just about as crazy as I am and we laugh all the time. I´m amazed that I´ve actually been able to see her every moment of every day for almost 12 weeks and not start to hate her. Every day I have grown to love her more and more. That´s the third miracle that I have seen from my Father in Heaven this week! 

 

Daniel, Happy Birthday! Sorry I missed it and I meant to send you a letter last week but I forgot and by the time I remembered it was too late but just know that I love you and I´m so proud of you for getting the priesthood! I talked about you a lot to Hermana Morinigo yesterday and Jueves tambien (Thursday also) when it was actually your birthday. I hope you ate tons of cake and ate double for me. The next package I want some ice cream cake please ;) Just kidding, but I´m kind of serious.

 

I love you all and I´m so happy that I´m out here and that I have more and more experience everyday to help me grow and become a better person! Thank you for your support and your letters. They mean the world to me, seriously, every single one :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

PS: I absolutely loved all the pictures that you sent me last week mom. As gross as everyone looked I was pretty sad that I couldn´t be there! (Eric's birthday party)

Now ... a letter from Sarah's companion!

Hi Huff family- I’m only writing you to tell you that your daughter, Sister Huff, is an excellent missionary and is very well taken care of, actually she always takes care of me. Haha.

 

We are working very well together getting to know Aguascalientes and enjoying the mission which is marvelous to us. Thank you for your prayers and worry when I had the problem with my foot. Sister Huff is more than my companion she is like my sister and in this short time that we have been together as companions, I have learned to appreciate the great strength that she has to be here as a representative of Jesus Christ and I have a lot of love for her. She has a lot of patience with my English, she is helping me a lot and I am sorry for writing in Spanish.  The next one I will write in English.

 

I love my companion, she is very special! Have a great week.

With Love,

Hermana Morinigo

September Already??

Dear Family,

 

I can´t believe that it´s September already! Pretty soon you´re going to be planning my welcome home party ;) Well, not really. This week was pretty great! We taught bunches of lessons and met a ton of people and walked a ton. All in all it was a pretty typical week for a missionary. 

 

Lunes (Monday): We actually washed our clothes in a washing machine! Oh it was incredible. One of our investigators found out that we don´t have a washing machine and we wash all our clothes by hand and so she invited us to wash our clothes at her house and eat with her too. We were so happy. 

 

Martes: Hermana Morinigo and I taught the lesson in our district meeting about the importance of receiving revelation at church. It went pretty well and Hermana Morinigo said I am definitely going to be an hermana leader because my part of the lesson was really good. I told her to stop and that I didn´t want to be hermana leader. Which means I´m probably more likely to be one... We found that the Elders were getting another companion and that they were going to train. So now they are in a trio and training a North American! Oh it´s so nice not being the newest missionary! But I do feel bad for him cuz he doesn´t understand much and I don´t like being around him very much cuz it brings back the bad memories of my first few weeks in Mexico. But it´s fun to translate all the jokes and stories for him when we eat the comida (food) together.

 

Miercoles: Miercoles was a pretty normal day I think, I can´t really remember everything that happened this week but I can tell you that we did something missionary like this day.

 

Jueves: Oh we ate with the Echeverria Family and they are so wonderful. They are a youngerish couple in the ward and they have 3 kids and one of their kids, Santiago, is in love with Hermana Morinigo and I and every time we go over there he gives us each a huge hug! He has the cutest little voice and I just want to take him everywhere with us. We ate pasta and rice and Hermana Echeverria put peas and other veggies in the rice that Santi didn´t like so every time he found a pea or a pepper he would say, "Hermana Huff, another one!" and then he would put it in my hand and I would eat it. I spoil him too much but I can´t help myself. Oh mom you are going to be so proud of me! Or you might have a heart attack... We´ll find out. I literally love Zucchini... I don´t know what happened to me but Heavenly Father has blessed me a ton when it comes to food on my mission. Ever since the first day I have enjoyed tomatoes and zucchini and every single thing I have eaten. I see it as a miracle!

 

Viernes: This day was literally the most stressful day of my mission so far, and we barely did any missionary work! We had our missionary activity Friday night and so all Friday morning we were working to get everything ready and to make the food and stuff like that and I was super stressed because the mentality and schedule of Mexico is so different than I´m used to. We had to rush to help make the food because one of our investigators Silvia helped us and she had to rush because she had to go to work and so that was the first thing that stressed me out and then the hermana that was supposed to feed us didn´t know it was her turn so she quickly made us food which made us late for getting to the chapel to decorate and set up the activity. But that didn´t matter because the Elders were late too and they had the keys to open the chapel. We ended up getting into the chapel at 4:30 and the activity was supposed to start at 6.. The activity started at 7 because Mexico has their own time schedule and so FINALLY we started the activity and it went great!! We did a game night where we had 4 spiritual games and 4 worldly games and the members had an hour to do the activities and there were changes every 10 minutes and they could decide whether to stay in that activity or go to a different activity. At the very end they presented their cards which told what activities they participated in and they were judged according to their choices. It was so funny to watch their faces as Elder Chavez announced which reino de gloria (kingdom of glory) they ended up in. Surprisingly there were a ton in the celestial kingdom! I was so proud :) But the activity ended at like 9:30 and we didn´t get back to our house until a little after 10... Long story short. I had a stressful day but in the end it was worth all the stress :)

 

Sabado: We did some more missionary work and met more people!

 

Domingo: They call it dia de reposo (day of rest) but I don´t feel like I rest at all on Domingos. We are running around the chapel making sure everyone has someone to sit with and waiting for our investigators to show up and then after church it´s just like every other day. But Sandra came to church again which was so nice and we had our ward conference and we got to sing in the choir. It was so fun to sing again :) I realized that I love this ward so much. All the people are so nice and I have grown to love them a ton! When I first got here I thought that I would never learn to love anyone because I couldn´t understand them but I definitely have some feelzies for this ward. All the youth are so great and it´s so fun to be able to talk to them and help them realize they have strong testimonies and all the hermanas are so sweet and the hermanos are hilarious! It´s amazing to me that I can actually understand all the jokes that people tell me. 

 

I am still loving my area and all the people I´m meeting and I still love my companion which is a miracle because I see her every single day all day. Heavenly Father really does bless me tons! I miss you family and I love you all! Hope you have a great week and I´ll talk to you in a week :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

Hermana Morinigo makes me food in the morning and leaves nice little notes for me :)

We were twins today because we sang in the choir :)

I made a tortilla!

It was Elder Chavez´s birthday yesterday

 

Back in the game

Hola Family!

Well, we worked super hard this week to make up for our horrible week last week! Last week was super slow and we didn´t have as many lessons as we hoped so I felt pretty bad and I made it my goal this week to work super hard and what do you know I saw success!

It´s incredible how much Heavenly Father blesses us when we work with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. One success that I saw this week was my Spanish! I have seen a drastic change in my Spanish in the last week. I have been more diligent in my studying and it has definitely payed off. Sometimes we have times where we talk in English because Hermana Morinigo wants to work on her English and most of the time I start a sentence in English and then finish it in Spanish without even knowing. I´m really worried that I´m going to forget all my English because right now it is literally so hard for me to speak in English. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I sound like I child when I pray in English because my mind wants to talk in Spanish. Hermana Morinigo thinks it´s funny, but I´m truly concerned. I think it´ll be for the best if all you guys just learn Spanish for me. Gracias :) 

 

My teaching has also gotten better! I haven´t had a lesson where I didn´t feel the spirit this week, I was so happy! We had a super cool experience with one of our investigators, Sandra, this week. We gave her three baptismal dates in September and told her to pray about which one she felt was her date and that we were going to pray too and so when we got to her house for the lesson we asked her what date she felt was right and she said 27 de Septiembre and we were like, US TOO! She started crying and kept saying how crazy it was that we all got the same date and that she had the chills. I was so happy and the spirit was so strong during that lesson.

 

We were able to talk about hope because she just lost her job and she was pretty discouraged, but I know that the Lord is looking out for her, and I know that she will be a strong member of the church because Satan is working really hard to get her to not get baptized. She came to church yesterday with her two sons and her son Luis didn´t like it apparently because during Sunday school he left and went home. After church we all were waiting for him to come out of the classroom but he never came out and so we asked one of the young men and he said that Luis said he had to go to the bathroom during Sunday School and he never came back. Sandra called him and he was at home. We felt pretty bad that he had left but he´s 17, what can you do? We are going to try and work on getting him to feel comfortable during church and enjoy the other youth.

 

We had a meeting with the area seventy of Mexico Elder Valenzuela, and it was such a great meeting! It was with all the bishops and ward leaders in our stake and the other stake in Aguascalientes. Elder Valenzuela was so direct and super clear that the members need to work with the missionaries more. He talked about how President Monson spoke about how now is the time that members and missionaries need to work together to bring people to Christ and he pretty much told us that we weren´t following the prophet and we need to repent and change. I loved it!

 

And another miracle, I understood everything that was said in the meeting without even trying. Guys, I can speak Spanish. It´s weird to think that if you guys were here you couldn´t understand anything anyone said but I can understand pretty much everything. I always think about how you guys would feel if you came and visited me right now and saw me talking to every one and how happy I am in my little piece of Heaven.

 

Speaking of little piece of heaven, our area is huge and yesterday we ate with one of the members all the way in Canteras which is super far from our house, and I didn´t want to take a taxi back to our house because it was Sunday and I didn´t want to use money ( also cuz we have no money) so we walked all the way back. It took us an hour to get back to Espana which is the area closest to our house, and we were pretty tired by the time we got back, but I felt really good that we didn´t take a taxi.

 

Also we saw a miracle as we were walking back. We passed by a house and the gate was open and this huge dog came running at us and was about to reach us and bite us when suddenly it stopped dead in it´s tracks and turned around and walked away. We were so confused and terrified and grateful at the same time. We decided that it was a blessing for not paying for a taxi on Sunday and that the angels were watching out for us. But I seriously almost peed my pants ... the dog was so huge!

 

I love you all. Sorry I don´t have any fun stories to tell. I wasn´t very fun this week.. It was weird, I felt like such a missionary :P But I´ll work on having more experiences in this week. Maybe I´ll get a parasite, or lose an arm or something :) Cross your fingers that I don´t lose an arm.

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

These are the other elders in my ward. Elder Montes de Oca is from Guatemala and Elder Chavez is from Honduras. They are some of my favorite people!

I made us pancakes again and I failed horribly with making an M for Hermana Morinigo. Forgive me dad :)

On our hour walk yesterday we found this super pretty river! How cool is that?!

Four months baby!!

Hola,

 

Well, I had a bunch of spiritual experiences this week that I am so grateful for! The first experience was Martes (Tuesday) during my hour of training with Hermana Morinigo. That day I was having a rough time and I was being really hard on myself and wondering why I´m out here. I had prayed that morning and begged my Heavenly Father to either give me a desire to stay on the mission or a reason so that I could go home. He definitely answered my prayers! We watched a video of The District and as  I watched the experiences of these missionaries I was gradually comforted but then one of the Elders said, “any person who is worthy to serve a mission and chooses not to go is making the worst mistake of their lives.” When I heard that I just started crying because the spirit testified so strong to me that I am supposed to be on a mission. I was able to think back on all the progress I have made in these four months and all the people I have met, how much my testimony has grown, and how much I love the people I´m teaching. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and even though in that moment I wanted a reason to go home .I am so thankful that I am still out here kicking Satan´s trash J

 

Another spiritual experience that I had this week was with one of our investigators named Sandra. She is so special to Hermana Morinigo and I. She is our golden investigator right now and on Saturday we went to visit her and we were supposed to teach about profetas pero (prophets, but) we felt that we needed to talk about baptism with her so as we talked about how wonderful baptism is and all the blessings we get from this convenio (covenant.) I invited her to be baptized, but I felt impressed to let her pick the date that she wanted to get baptized, but to give her three dates in September. When I invited her to get baptized and gave her the option of the three dates she started crying and said that during our lesson she kept thinking of September and she didn´t know why until I gave her the three dates in September. Needless to say she wants to be baptized and she agreed to pray about which date in September is her baptismal date. I was so happy that I was able to follow the spirit. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had just picked a date for her? Maybe she wouldn´t have had that experience that she needed in order to have a desire to get baptized! Wow!

 

Well we saw a huge miracle this week too! We have been trying to get one of our investigators Johanna to actually do the commitments that she promises to do! Like go to church or read from the Book of Mormon between visits! She is really receptive during our visits and always says she is going to read and go to church but she never does. We were getting pretty frustrated because she always says she wants to get baptized and change her life but she isn´t do the things that she needs to! Finally during one of our lessons she was talking about her baptism and I was like Johanna, you can´t get baptized unless you read and go to church! (I used more loving words but I was pretty direct). I talked about how much we love her and how much my love for her has grown  over these past 3 months and that we weren´t leaving her chapters just to leave her chapters. We were leaving them so that she can better her life and learn the things she needs to do to get baptized. We left her with 4 verses to read and I promised her that if she read these 4 verses she would have clients in her hair salon because she doesn´t have very many clients. She agreed to read. 

 

The next day we passed by and the first thing she said to us was, "Hermana I read!" Oh I almost had a heart attack and then I just wanted to hug her and cry all at the same time but I thought she would think that was weird so I just said, "Yeah, that´s cool." JUST KIDDING! I was so happy! I really did hug her, but I didn´t cry! She had two clients in her salon at that point and she talked about how reading really brought clients. We talked a little bit about the power of the Book of Mormon and then we left. We passed by at night and she was sitting in her chair and looked like she was about to die. She told us that she had tons of work that day and she was so tired. We asked her why she wasn´t reading in her down time and she said she doesn´t want any more clients cuz she was tired. I´m so grateful that Heavenly Father gave her that experience to increase her testimony of the Book of Mormon. He works in weird ways but I know he always answers our prayers.

 

I finished my 12 weeks of training yesterday and now I´m officially a real missionary :) To celebrate we had a district meeting in English which was super interesting and ate cake and I taught everyone how to play chubby bunny! Unfortunately Elder Montes de Oca can fit 14 grapes in his mouth and still say chubby bunny and I can only fit 12 so I didn´t win but it was a great bonding experience for the district!

 

Hermana Morinigo had a dream that we were going to have cambios (transfers) this week and we had made a pact that we would eat a chili if we had cambios. I have no idea what we were thinking but we decided to trust her dream and eat the chilis on Saturday. We went to the Munoz´s house and they gave us each two chilis de arbol which are apparently one of the hottest chilis. I wasn´t too worried about it, but Hermana Morinigo was about to cry, but like a good companion I forced the chili into her mouth and we suffered together.

 

At first nothing happened and then I swallowed and it was like Satan was in my mouth. Hermana Morinigo was crying and I was breathing really hard and we ate tons of salt which was supposed to help but didn´t really do anything. We looked like a bad Mexican soap opera. And then after we thought it was a really good idea to eat habanero peppers.. The members told us that they had a pepper that was hotter and we were already suffering so we agreed to eat a habanero which was another bad idea! Luckily it was not as hot as the first chilis but still it was pretty bad. But we survived :) But it was a good experience until after when my stomach started hurting... I wasn´t too happy at that point but one of our investigators gave me some stuff to take away the pain, here they call it drogas but I don´t know what it is in English... Just kidding! She gave me jello :) Turns out we didn´t have cambios so we ate the chilis for nothing! I decided to never trust her dreams ever again. 

 

Anyway family, I´m with Hermana Morinigo for another 6 weeks and we´re still in the same area! We committed ourselves to working harder and longer this cambio and we´re going to see tons of baptisms! I love you all and I love this gospel. More and more ever day :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

4 months!!!

Chubby Bunny:)

This is called Elote or something like that and it´s corn and mayonaise and chili and cheese. It looks gross but it tastes so good!

We like to ride bicicletas

The chilis de arbol

I made pancakes:)

I ate crickets!!!

 

 

 

What happened to this week?!!

Well this week seriously FLEW by! I´m in my last week of training! I was talking with one of my investigators the other day and we were amazed that I have been in Mexico for 3 months.. This week I´ll have 4 meses en mi misión! (months in my mission) I have no idea where the time went. I feel like I´m been out here for like a week, but I also feel like I´ve been in Mexico for years and years. The mission is super weird like that. 

 

This week we went to the doctor at the beginning of the week and he was pretty upset that Hermana Morinigo (HM) had been walking so much with her foot how it is, and he pretty much threatened to break her other foot if she didn´t rest this week. I don´t know how he became a doctor but that´s Mexico for ya! :P 

 

Anyway, HM had to be en reposo Lunes until Jueves, (resting Monday until Saturday) so guess what! I went out alone with the members again! How fun. It was super difficult to help the members understand that they aren´t missionaries and that they weren´t allowed to give the whole lesson, but I kept everything under control. I went out with one Hermana and I had to interrupt her while she was talking because she started talking about really weird things that had nothing to do with the lesson we were teaching. I taught about the apostasy and for some reason she thought it was a good idea to talk about how the bible came about. Granted the bible was changed and stuff during the apostasy pero (but) she didn´t have to give a 10 minute talk about who did what to the Bible. When she started talking about all this stuff I had to be really quick on my feet and figure out how I was going to take control of the lesson in the most loving way. Luckily, Heavenly Father helped me out and I was able to fix the confusion. Needless to say I really started to miss HM by the end of the day. She is the greatest part of my life right now because I get to serve her so much everyday and I completely forget about myself. I love that feeling! 

 

Anyway! Friday we started working together again and let me tell you I was so glad that I had her by my side as we taught. There is a power in a companionship that is really hard to describe especially when we get along and we look to have fun and share the gospel. We have one more week before transfers and I´m really really hoping we don´t get transferred but the Elders think they are super funny and keep telling me that I´m going to train the only Hermana that´s coming in this transfer. I really hope not, I don´t feel ready to train, yet, but if Heavenly Father trusts me enough to train a new misionera then I know I can do it! We´ll see in a week! 

 

This week it rained a ton! Like more than all my years in Arizona combined. It was insane! Jueves (Saturday) I tried to go out and work with a member but it started to rain bien fuerte (very strong) and I was about to go out to work anyway, but then it started hailing and the street flooded and we couldn´t go anywhere. But of course I ran out in the rain and took a video and pictures! The next day was Friday and it was the first day HM went out to work and of course it started raining really hard again and, first, HM´s foot started hurting pretty bad and, second, she didn´t want to get her ankle wet cuz the cold would make it worse. We were stuck in a papeleria (stationery store) for probably 20 minutes until I finally convinced her to walk down the street to an investigator's house. But when we tried to cross the street it was like a river and HM didn´t want to cross cuz of her foot, but there was no turning back, so I gave her a piggy back ride across the street. It was probably the weirdest thing we had done together. Well, not really.

 

There was one day that an investigator gave us ice cream after the comida (food) and I ate it cause I didn´t want to be rude, and of course I got sick again and HM rubbed my stomach as I laid on the floor of our apartment and we told stories to each other. That´s probably the weirdest thing we´ve done together. But I feel like that´s pretty normal.

 

Anyway! We finally got across the street ( good thing I´m so strong) and into the estetica de Johanna and we tried to call a taxi but because the streets were so flooded. No taxis would come and get us, so we had to walk all the way home in the pouring rain, and I carried HM across every puddle. It was definitely the best and most hilarious experience of my mission.

 

I´m not sure what else happened this week. Everything is such a blur at this point! We had a lesson with an investigator named Johanna yesterday and she was telling us a story about how she was talking with her husband and they were having an argument about how she is turning Christian and she was like, No, I´m not Christian, I´m Mormon. We were super confused at this point because here she is telling her husband that she is a Mormon, but she has yet to come to church or read a lot of the Book of Mormon or get baptized! (Besides, Mormons are Christians.) We were happy that she was willing to defend herself and her beliefs, but we have to find a way to get her to come to church and read!! It´s really hard when people have albedrío (will) :P

 

Well, I love you all and I miss you tons!! But I´m happy and healthy. I haven´t had any parasites or anything so I´m still waiting for the real fun to start :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

The RAIN here is crazy!!

 

And this is how we get to all of our appointments right now since HM can´t walk :P

 

 

I learned how to mop yesterday! I´m so prepared to get married it´s insane!!

 

My last week of my training!! How exciting is that!!

 

 

Street tacos!! I´m really hoping to get a parasite this week!!

 

That is our investigator Johanna!

 

These are pictures of my zone.

 

The one with happy birthday is because it was an elder´s mom´s birthday

 

 

Bautismo de Paloma!!

Oh what a great week!!

We saw so many miracles dealing with Paloma´s baptism this week! So we were able to get Paloma´s mom to sign the papers for her baptism on Tuesday and we were beyond happy, but then on Thursday ( the day before her interview) Paloma told us that her mom said she couldn´t get baptized because they got in an argument. WHAT??

We were so distressed about what to do, but we taught Paloma about repentance again and she said she would ask forgiveness from her mom and ask if she could get baptized again. Anyway, we called her on Friday and she said her mom still hadn´t given her permission, so we went to talk to her mom. Her mom was super nice and as she saw us talking to Paloma and trying to get her to apologize, the heart of her mom was softened and she let Paloma go to the interview! Woo Hoo! Paloma passed the interview with flying colors and after was so excited for her baptism! 

 

The next day, Saturday, Hermana Morinigo and I went to the chapel to clean and fill the font. It took two hours but we entertained ourselves by singing our lessons to each other. I´m getting really good at making up songs about the prophets and Joseph Smith. I think I´m going to record a cd when I get home. :) Anyway, we went to get Paloma after the comida (meal) and she was so excited.

 

She would have run to the church if Hermana Moringio could walk faster. We were so happy, and she had us take a ton of pictures of her in her baptismal dress. One Hermano asked her if she was nervous and she said, YES! And when he asked why, she said, "because it's my first time getting baptized!" We laughed a lot at that and then afterward made sure she knew that this was going to be the only time she was baptized too. 

 

The elders and nosotras (us) sang "Cuando me bautice" (When I am Baptized) for a special musical number and she teared up. It was so precious :) After she got baptized she couldn´t stop smiling and kept telling us how good she felt and how much she liked it. Seriously, it was the best day of my mission so far! To see someone that I taught enter into such a special covenant with Heavenly Father is so special! 

 

Hermana Morinigo is using a cane right now to help her walk. Poor girl looks like a grandma but the youngest and cutest grandma I´ve ever seen :) We went to the doctor because her foot had swollen up again and was hurting and he said she needs to rest again so this week she is going to stay in the house of familia Echeverria and I´m going back out with the members! Woo hoo! More training!

 

I guess Heavenly Father really wants me to learn to not rely on anyone else but Him. I´m really grateful for the experience though :)

 

One day this week we were crossing the street and Herman Morinigo has to go slow cuz her foot hurts and she thought she was being funny and she just stops in the middle of the street with cars coming and says, "I think I need to take a break." I practically carried her out of the street and told her she wasn´t funny. But in reality it was pretty funny and she laughed a lot while my heart calmed down and then I started to laugh with her. She´ll be the death of me, in the best way possible :)

 

This week I learned something very traumatic. I´M NOT READY TO GET MARRIED! Who would have thought! We were at a member's house and I offered to cut the tomatoes and onions and she told me that we´re going to see if I´m ready to get married or not by the way I cut them. I was super nervous and I tried to cut them super thin but I failed miserably. Well, atleast I have 15 more months to learn how to cut tomatoes and onions right! I´ve been practicing all week and I´m going to be so prepared for married by the end of my mission :)

 

Also this week I ate a chicken foot. It was very interesting but it looked like a baby´s hand. I had to be very careful not to eat the bones but the meat tasted like chicken. But I had to close my eyes as I ate it because it didn´t want to imagine eating a baby hand. That was my experience for the week :)

 

All this week we studied about how we can recognize the spirit more and use the spirit more in our lessons and yesterday we had an incredible experience with an investigator named Sandra. We taught her about the Spirit and it was the first time I felt the spirit super strong in one of my lessons and I felt the guide of the spirit to help her learn to recognize how she recieved her answer. She could feel the sprirt too and she was super interested in our lesson. I was so grateful for this experience and I can´t wait to have more and more experiences like this one. 

 

Well Family! I love you guys a lot! I´m doing better with my Spanish and my confidence in my lessons has improved. I´m like a whole new person! I have never been so happy as I am right now :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

This is Dana! My mexican version of Summer!

 

Happy Birthday Shelly! I love you!:)

 

Because Hermana Morinigo can´t carry anything I carry everything!

 

It´s so fun to serve her :)

 

 

 

 

Paloma!!

 

And her Aunt Bertha

 

Paloma and Shayla

 

My Chicken Foot!