Weekly Email!

It´s been a week already?! WOW! I can not believe it! It feels like I just emailed you guys seven days ago... Oh how the time flies!

But the work is very interesting here! I never knew it would be so hard to get people to come to church! We try so hard to motivate our investigators to come with us but most of them work on Sundays and live day to day so they are very iffy about missing a day of work. But we are patient and we know that The Lord has a plan for each one of our investigators and we just need to work as hard as we can to help them understand what a great blessing the church is in our lives.

 

They don´t call it missionary work for nothing! I never knew how stressful caring for someone was. When people don´t keep their commitments or when they don´t want to listen to us anymore it´s really hard to not take it personal and blame our teaching skills or that we didn´t do enough but I always remember Eric´s advice to not take things personally. People have their agency and I can´t control how they act.

 

We had entrecambios (splits) this week. Where I went with one of the Hermana Lideres in her area and the other Hermana went with Hermana Mora. But I went to the other area and spent the night in the other Hermanas´ house. It was the saddest day of my mission. Seriously, I felt pathetic. I missed Hermana Mora so much. I feel like a married couple but with none of the benefits of being in an actual relationship. Through out the day I found myself thinking, I wonder what Hermana Mora is doing right now? I really hope she misses me as much as I miss her. But we had a good day! I went with Hermana Trujillo who is a native and she was very impressed with my Spanish and my teaching skills. Really it was just a really lucky day for me. Heavenly Father loved me a lot that day :)

 

Anyway, we got back to my apartment and Hermana Mora and I ran to each other and hugged for a good 10 seconds. Turns out she missed me a lot. She had the same experiences that I did, she thought about what I was doing. We´re so cute :) She told me she didn´t sleep very well while I was gone. 

 

We had a new missionary meeting with the President and his wife on Friday and it was really interesting to see all the new missionaries in our zone and their companions. Hermana Mora and I are definitely the most united. We stayed together the whole day and laughed and the others were with other missionaries or sitting silently. After the meeting we went to a buffet to eat and Hermana Mora was in love with this place. She had never eaten at a buffet before so she had to try everything. We ate so much food that we weren´t hungry until comida the next day. But we´re trying really hard to not get fat. Sometimes we just have no self control when we see the tacos on the street or fruit. Guys, you don´t understand the tacos and tortillas here are sooooo good. I just cross my fingers every time I eat a tacos that I won´t get sick and so far it has worked! 

 

We had an missionary actividad with our ward and we did Lehi´s dream where we set up yarn and have the voice of the spirit and the bad voices and the members have to discern which to follow. It was so fun! There is a young man named Daniel who is 12 and he actually reminds me of Daniel! He was going and I was like Daniel, "what are you doing? You need to rest, have a seat." So he was like "okay" and he sat down for like 20 minutes and then I came back and I was like Daniel, "what are you doing? The tree is over here" and then led him to a random tree and told him to hug the tree really tight, he made it. So he hugged this tree for another 5 minutes until the Spirit came and he eventually made it to the right place. He was pretty mad at me afterward but I had a great laugh!

 

Well family, I love you lots and I am having a great time! My Spanish is getting better and so is my teaching skills! I love the power of the spirit that comes when I bear my testimony or share an experience. I love this gospel and I love the people of Mexico! 

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

This is me leaving for entrecambios

and returning home!!

Juice in a bag!

And the circus is in town. They drive cars around with lions and monkeys and all sorts of crazy things.

My house. or apartment.

Oh mom, by the way, my address is 202 Republica de Cuba El Dorado Aguascalientes. I hope you can find my house...

It rains like crazy here and the streets turn into rivers!!

Our district!

These are the Hermanas in our district :)

President, esposa y yo!

 

Another week gone by!

Hola, Familia!

 

Wow! It is so crazy that another week has gone by! I´ll be home before we know it! Anyway! Every week gets better and better, I think my Spanish is almost perfect. I only need people to repeat what they say 3 times now instead of 5. That´s a big step for me guys. I think you would be impressed with my Spanish skills. My teaching skills are getting better everyday and I have the best companion ever. 

 

Seriously, Hermana Mora is fantastic and she thinks I´m hilarious. (Surprising right?) Every thing I do and say makes her laugh, which is fantastic because then I don´t think about how horrible my Spanish is! But this week she did two funny things. We were walking down the street and she said, Oh I need to buy a sobre. And I was like, what is a sobre? And she was like como un sobre grande, un sobre pequeno. And I just looked at her and I was like ok, but what is a sobre and she just started laughing and we had to stop walking because she couldn´t breath. We probably looked like a bunch of weirdos but turns out a sobre is an envelope! Sorry if that was a lame story but I thought it was funny!

 

The other story is more funny, I hope. So we were at lunch at a members house and we were talking about things we are scared of and jokingly I said that I was scared that Hermana Mora would kill me in my sleep and then we talked about that for a little bit. Anyway, that night I wake up at 2:15 and Hermana Mora is standing beside my bed and I almost peed my pants and I was like, What are you doing? And she was like what time is it? and I told her and she just started laughing and then laid back in bed and I was too tired to even question her more but in the morning I was like, what were you doing beside my bed at 2:15 in the morning? And she started laughing again and apparently she thought she heard my alarm go off and she was getting ready for companion prayer. She is such a weirdo sometimes... But I was seriously scared for my life. I thought I was going to die. But I was okay with it because if I die on my mission I´m automatically going to the celestial kingdom. Right, Dad? :) Anyway those are my two funny stories, hope you enjoyed them!

 

I love personal study in the mornings! I have started reading Jesus the Christ and it is such a powerful book! I have this overwhelming love for my Savior and I feel His love every morning as I learn more and more about Him. He is my strength to continue on. As I learn more and more about the Atonement and as I watch the Atonement and this gospel change people´s lives my testimony gets deeper and deeper. I love talking about my Savior and this gospel every day and every moment of my life. I don´t understand why people don´t want this joy and light in their lives! Keeping the commandments and being obedient are easy when you truly understand the Why! 

 

I love the members of my ward! I have become best friends with all the young women and young men! I´m making sure they all serve missions! I bought a English CTR ring for a girl in my ward named Scarlett and also I bought a Spanish one for me! I love it! She was so excited when I told her I would get her a CTR ring. Every time she sees me she makes sure I´m wearing mine! She is about to turn in her mission papers! Crazy!

 

But The Mundial (World Cup) is going on right now so that´s all anyone talks about! I had to learn really quick the terms of futbol in order to be part of the conversation but Hermana Mora and I have a competition going on for which country is going to go the furthest, US or Ecuador. Right now US has one more point than Ecuador, so hopefully I win ;) 

 

But we also have a goal to learn 35 new words every week, me in Spanish and her in English. And if we don´t learn 35 words we have to pay the other person 50 pesos. I am memorizing like crazy because I don´t want to loose! But she thinks this will get us to learn the languages faster! Hopefully it works!

 

Also, she thinks after my 12 weeks with her that I´m going to train a new missionary and I believe her because everything she says comes true. I don´t know how she does it but it is incredible. So I´m working my hardest to learn everything I can so that I can be the best trainer ever.

 

I love you guys and I hope life is good! I hope you´re receiving as many blessings as I am! I miss you tons :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

It´s my two month anniversar​y!

Familia!

 

Wow, It´s only been 2 months? It feels like years since I´ve seen you! But it also feels like I´ve only been in Mexico for 2 days! It´s been 3 weeks ... Crazy! Everyone tells me after 3 weeks the time just flies by. Hopefully that´s true! And hopefully I´ll learn Spanish faster, but I´m trying to be patient with myself. I know I´ll get it :) 

 

Dad! Happy Father´s Day yesterday! I thought about you a ton yesterday! I miss you a lot but I know you would rather have me here for Father´s day than with you :) But for this email I wanted to tell one short story for mom, and then as a Father´s Day present I am going to share my testimony with you because that is the most precious gift I have to give. 

 

Anyway, my story. So we are teaching a girl named Esmeralda, she is 11 and she was adopted by a member family and so she is taking the discussions so she can get baptized. She is so cute and I kind of want Daniel to marry her! But this family is so great and they have another daughter who is also 11, Nicole, and a son who is 10, Jeremy. So the three kids have challenged me to a race to see who can learn the Articles of Faith faster. Me in Spanish and them in English, so they started teaching me the Articulos de Fe and they laughed at me as I tried to remember all the words and as I tried to pronounce everything and then I taught them the first 2 in English and I was put to shame. They memorized both of them in like 10 minutes and then asked for more. I pretended like I didn´t remember the 3rd one so that they wouldn´t win the race to memorize. But on Sunday I wrote all the Articles of Faith in English for them and brought it to church and they were soo excited! It was so cute! 

 

Okay, now for Dad´s present (Prepare yourself, get some tissues, because you´re going to cry.) Dad, I just want to share my testimony about this wonderful Gospel. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS GOSPEL and I´m so grateful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know without a doubt that this is the true and only Church of Jesus Christ. 

 

I love my Savior Jesus Christ more than any other person. And I know He lived and He established his church and He performed tremendous miracles and paid the price for my sins as He suffered in the Garden. I know with all my heart that He lives and that He stands at the head of this church. I love the EFY song that says, there´s One who knows you perfectly, he can take the hurt away. I know this to be true. I know He knows me better than I know myself and He knows exactly what I need to experience to grow and change to become more like Him. He can take all my pain, sorrow, doubts, and fears away all I have to do is lean on Him and allow Him into my life. 

 

I have a huge love, appreciation, testimony of the Atonement and the power of the Atonement. I know that through the Atonement we can be whole and we can be cleansed from every sin. On my mission I have been the most worthy I have ever been in my whole life but I have never felt so unworthy to preach and teach the gospel. I´m just a little girl who can´t speak Spanish and who has a small testimony, but Hermana Mora reminded me that if I do as much as I can He has paid the price for the rest. He is standing, sitting, walking next to me and He is encouraging me every moment of the day. I love my Savior and I know He lives.

 

I know that Joseph Smith was a true and living prophet. He was such an incredible man. He went through so many trials and afflictions to restore this gospel. And I think my mission is hard. I know he saw my Heavenly Father and Christ, and the Holy Ghost testifies this to me every time I teach about the restoration. 

 

I love the power of the Holy Ghost. Every time I pray I can feel his presence and influence in my life. I get super emotional every time I feel the Spirit because I can feel God´s love for me.

 

I know God loves me and He care for me. I am overwhelmed by His love every time I study, pray, talk about Him. It is truly incredible.

 

I know with every fiber of my being that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is true. I love reading in it every day. And I feel the closest to my Heavenly Father and Savior when I read it. The Book of Mormon contains answers to life´s questions and we can find so much comfort in it´s words. 

 

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet today and that He receives revelation directly from God and that he directs the church and gives us guidance in the things that we must do upon this earth.

 

I know I will live with God and my family again after this earth if I am true and faithful and I can´t wait to stand before my Heavenly Father with Christ at my side on Judgment Day and have Him look at me with pleasure and say, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." And I will do everything I can to achieve this honor. Because I know this is the greatest honor I can receive.

 

I know life is hard, all the time, but if we endure to the end and enjoy to the end, we can have eternal life and become like Heavenly Father.

 

I love you guys and I hope that was a good enough present Dad! I love you so much and I´m so grateful for the example that you and mom have set for me and the rest of the kids. I am so grateful that I have this gospel and I love talking about it all day every day. I miss you tons but I need to keep increasing my testimony and having hard experiences so I can grow :) As much as I dislike my trials and problems, I know that they are small compared to what Christ went through and I know I´m not alone.

 

You all are incredible and I love reading about how sad you are without me :) 

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

Our study home 

and gorditas!

She said that this barbie looked like me... Just cuz I´m white and blonde



Our investigator Blanca and her daughter Anette



Hermana Mora and I

We got stuck in a rain storm. Seriously, the rain is crazy here. It´s like a movie - one second it´s fine and the next it´s pouring down rain!



Anette cleaning my shoes. I have many helpers here in Aguascalientes! :)

Pday fun! This is a park in down town Aguascalientes.

Our investigator Mary (Her 82 birthday!) and Blanca.

Also those things are corn with Mayo, chili and cheese. Super interesting. Still haven´t decided if I liked it or not.

This is Hermano Porfirio (He is a recent convert) who made the corn things.

Also, Esmeralda, Nicole and Jeremy! The kids who are teaching me the Articles of Faith!

Hermana Mora´s 8 month Anniversary was Saturday so we bought ice cream!

Also this is Blanca our investigator!

Happy 2 month to me and Feliz Dia del Padre!

 

Wow! Another week has gone by?

Hola Familia!

Wow, I don´t even know where to start! First off I have a funny story to tell. 

 

So, Friday we were leaving an appointment and walking down this long dirt road and a car drove past us, stopped and then backed up a little and it was two girls that were in their twenties and they asked if we wanted a ride. Hermana Mora and I looked at each other and we were like, "Um, SURE!" It was a hot day and we had a long way to walk so we get in the car and start talking. Come to find out these girls aren´t members, but they were SUPER nice, and one asked if we could come meet her family and if we would come to some place with her the next day (but it was Sunday and we had church and she lives super far away.) Anyway, this whole time I´m thinking, "Wow, these are the easiest contacts or new investigators ever." So, we get to our next appointment and they asked for our number and we talked for a little bit more and then got out of the car. So I close the door and I was like, "Oh my gosh Hermana, they were so nice," and she just looked at me like I was crazy and I was like "What?" And she starts laughing. So at this point I´m SUPER confused and wondering what I missed and so then she is like, "I don't think they were trying to be nice Hermana... I think they were lesbians."  And I was like "WHAT? How?" And she was like, "Non members don´t usually stop and give us rides and the one with the green eyes wasn´t looking at you like a friend." And I just started laughing because I find it hilarious and who knows if they were lesbians or not, they were super nice! So maybe they´ll call and ask me on a date :) So, maybe I got hit on by my first lesbian in Mexico. Woo Hoo! 

 

Sunday, we got a ward mission leader! Oh I am so excited to actually have one! It´s one of the really great Hermanos in our ward and he is really excited to work with us and help us out! 

Oh Mom, You don't have to worry about me starving to death. We are fed by a member every day at 3 o clock, and so I have cereal in the morning and then eat at 3 and then am so full for the rest of the day that I can´t eat anything else, but of course every house we go to for an appointment feeds us something so if anything I might get fat. Just kidding! But seriously, if we didn´t walk so much I would be worried about getting fat.

 

The only thing you have to worry about is I might get hit by a car. The driving here is insane! I am terrified every time we take a taxi or the bus because we talk to them and they don´t ever watch the road and they drive so fast and so close to each other and there are no lanes so it´s kind of a free for all. Surprisingly I haven´t seen an accident or anyone get hit by a car so maybe you don´t have to worry about that either :) 

 

Our investigators are incredible! Sometimes I get super discouraged because I get impatient with my lack of Spanish but every time I visit one of our investigators I cheer up! Also it really helps when I imagine the Savior next to me telling me how proud he is of me and how much he loves me. But that usually makes me cry because I can feel the  spirit really strong when I do that. I feel like Dad out here. (No offense Dad.) It´s not in a bad way, I promise! Every spiritual feeling I get, I tear up or get choked up, which is pretty embarrassing if you ask me, but oh well :) 

 

We have an investigator named Blanca who is fantastic! She has two kids one is 14 and the other is 7. Anette (7) always wants to take pictures with me and hold my hand and she always wants me to do her hair and she makes me feel so good! I love her! I´ll send pictures!

Saturday nights are party night in Mexico and this Saturday there was a fiesta that lasted from before 9 pm to after 9 in the morning. It was in one of the houses close to us and they had such loud music literally all night long. It is a miracle that I was able to sleep!

 

Also, I have another experience. My first Sunday I gave my testimony and I told how I had never wanted to serve a mission, but I got inspiration and I am here and I don´t know why, but I am. So we went to lunch at a family's house and their daughter Scarlett who is 18 told me that she felt the spirit so strong in my testimony and she never wanted to go on a mission but she got the inspiration and now she is going. Wow! I was shocked. Maybe she is the reason that I´m out here. I almost wanted to tell her she really doesn´t have to go, she could get married instead but I decided that was probably a bad idea :)

 

Well family! I hope that is enough to get you through the week. I miss you soooooo much! Seriously! You all are the best Please keep praying for me that I´ll have the gift of tongues because I need it to help these people! I don´t care if I look like a fool, I just need these people to understand me enough to know that they need this gospel in their lives.

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

PS: Mommy, I forgot to add Nutty bars and powdered donuts on my list for packages :) And you send the packages to the mission office. It´s the address that they gave my in my call packet. I love you.

 

 

One week down! 89 to go!

So I finished my first week in Mexico! Let me tell you, a mission is not a walk in the park! Who knew! I have a native companion who doesn´t speak English, so I´ve been using my dictionary and the gift of tongues ALOT! But I´m super grateful for her! She is super patient and she is a great trainer. Well I think so ( I can only understand half of what she says most of the time but the part I understand is great). So I guess the Spirit is a great trainer because I´ve learned a lot through the spirit.  But I understand more and more each day. Now I understand almost everything she says. :) I count that as a huge victory!

 

Okay, My first day was crazy! I woke and and we studied and then had our first lessons. I shared my testimony and followed the spirit the whole time because I literally didn´t understand a word anyone said. Everyone talks SO fast in Mexico! Oh I was so discouraged! I still get discouraged everyday but I know I have people supporting me back home and I have the Spirit and Christ as my constant companions.

 

Every day gets better and better, I can actually understand most of what people say and I can respond for the most part! I love the people here! They are SO nice! I can´t believe it! Some people live in little areas where there is one front door and then a courtyard with different houses around and so we knocked on the front door for one of our lessons but our investigator wasn´t there so we asked the lady that answered the door if we could share a message with her and she let us into her house and started talking to us and then started making us food. Oh my gosh it was so good! I was so surprised when she started making us food but literally that is how everyone is here! SO NICE! Who would have thought that I would fall in love with the people of Mexico! (Just the Mexican women and grandmas, not the men:))

 

Anyway, so my first day Hermana Mora told me to invite our investigators to be baptized and of course I said yes because that is the easy part of the lessons. I could do that all day! So I did and they all said yes. So hopefully they get baptized 12 de Julio. They have to go to church 5 times before they get baptized so that is why it´s a date that is far away. So hopefully they keep their commitments and continue on in the path. They are all super prepared and will be such good members of the church!

One of our investigators, Ismael, was running around town one day with a Book of Mormon looking for us. So we ran to his house and he was like, "This is true," and we were like, "Yeah it is." And then we taught about the Holy Ghost because he was like, "I feel a burning in my heart," and then his family came to visit and he shared what he had been learning and his grandson Luis was super interested in it. So we got a new investigator through our investigator :) The gospel is true!

 

I love this :) It is so hard some days, and I feel so lonely most days, but this is the Lord´s work and I can do this :)

 

One thing that I love is that people are always out on the street and so we can talk to so many people and they are friendly, even the ones that don´t want to listen to us. I don´t have too hard of a time talking to people because, in the MTC, President Uchtdorf told a story and the main point was I FEAR NOT MAN. And so I have made that my motto and I fear no man, I only fear that I am not doing enough for my Heavenly Father but then I start to work harder!

 

My companion told me something that I love. She said she heard a quote somewhere that said, "No será fácil, pero será possible." I love it! (It won´t be easy but it will be possible!)

 

Our apartment is tiny but it is pretty cute! We have to wash our clothes by hand so that was fun to experience for the first time! I actually loved doing it too! That´s how I´m going to wash my clothes for the rest of my life :)

 

I love you family and I miss you tons, but I´m not coming home (as much as I want to some days)! I need to bring this light I have to the people of Mexico :)

 

Love,

Hermana Huff

 

PS: Oh my companion is from Ecquador she has such a strong testimony! I live with Hermana Eliason who is from California and Hermana Perez who is from Mexico, but only for this week because they are getting their own apartment and then it´ll just be Hermana Mora and I. I am in Aguascalientes, El Dorado. The address that I receive letters at is the mission office.

 

Hermana Mora and Hermana Huff

Dinner in Aguascalientes