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!

 

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