Week 19 - June 30, 2014 - This one's for you, Dad.

Today for P-day we went hiking! If you want to check the all knowing Google, Cascadas El Aguila. I don't know if it will show up or not, but there you go. I know, Dad, I didn't wear long pants. It's only been drilled into me since I was a child, and I got bitten by bugs, but the hike itself was so worth it. It reminded me a lot of Eagle Creek, but without the cliffs. 

Miracle of the week: Cinthia's whole family came to church on Sunday!! It was awesome. We were running late, but we managed to catch up with them about a block away from the church and walk in with them. That family - we told them that everyone here offers us food and more food and more food, and then Hermana Guevara and Carlos, one of Cinthia's brothers, decided to see who could eat a GIANT bowl of pozol the fastest... Hermana Guevara won, just so you know.

It continues to rain every day, which is nice because it makes it so the morning heat calms down. 

I just read an email from a friend that asked, My joy is full, is yours? I can answer with a resounding YES!! I love what I am doing - I love sharing what I know is true with anyone and everyone. This week, something that impacted me was this: not everyone knows that they are a child of God. If you don't know it, if you don't believe it, ask Him. He'll let you know. I trust that promise more than anything. And as His child, you are entitled to happiness and all the blessings that He has in store for you. Ask Him for them, and be patient, and faithful. 

Have a lovely week, and remember who you are. 

Week 18 - June 23, 2014 - Staying here!

I get to stay in Cacahoatan for another six weeks!! Woohoo! I am really loving being here. The rain, the people, the food (I think I'm gaining weight - little by little the sisters are helping my stomach grow, I think they are afraid we don't eat anything else in the day. They're super sweet.) 

Yesterday we had a special musical number, and it was amazing. The first two verses of Nearer My God to Thee there was only one voice per line. The third, four. The fourth, the ten of us that were singing the first verses line by line, and the fifth, the whole congregation. The Spirit hit us like a wall, it was incredible. I don't want to ever have to leave Cacahoatan, because I love looking around me and knowing the members and knowing that I love the members here. 

The young women and the missionaries :)

Also, the story in the Book of Mormon that talks about the vision of the tree of life? There's a carving of it about 30 minutes from where I live. It was an adventure getting there - we loaded onto a public transport truck that we hadn't used before (but they told us passed by there) and went on an adventure. Then we got soaking wet, then we took pictures :) It was very fun.

As Sister Bagley always said - the Church is true, go be awesome. The Gospel helps us to make everything we do even better. 

Love,

Hermana Juliana

Week 17 - June 16, 2014 - This week went really fast

Hello everyone! 

I really can't believe that it's monday again, I don't even know where the time went. 

Cinthia was baptized on Saturday!!! That was really exciting. She sent us a message Tuesday that said she finally felt like she was ready. We were in the Relief Society president's house when my companion showed me the phone, and I started jumping up and down. I met Cinthia my first week here in Mexico, and she is and will always be a dear friend. It was a special event, her mom and brothers all attended the baptism and her mom attended church the next day. I seriously love their family. 

This week the Bishop took us to a place called Carnes Asada Mixcum, which is part of the way up to Union Juarez but not quite as far. They serve every piece of cow, practically, grilled, and the interesting parts I tried were the udder and something called tripa which I have yet to translate exactly but I'm pretty sure it's the small intestine. They wouln't tell me what 'ubre' was until after I tried it, and it was actually really tender and tasty. Tripa wasn't so much, but I tried it to try it and probably won't eat it again. 

This week we also borrowed a guitar from a total stranger. My companion plays a little bit and wanted to practice to see if we could use it in a special musical number, and we were asking around, when a young woman we had just met, said. 'wait just a second, my friend Eric has one', and she went to knock on his door. We looked at each other, kind of shrugged and said, well, we'll ask! We had the guitar in our house almost the whole week. 

We had an interesting experience with Cinthia's mom. She attends a different church, and sometimes the members of that church come to her house and pray for her. We were about to start teaching a lesson when there's a knock on the door, she goes to answer and starts talking with the brothers who came. They proceed to practically invite themselves in, and the looks on their faces were kind of funny when they saw us sitting on the coach. We got up, smiling to introduce ourselves and proceeded to teach them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. It was actually a really great lesson, we felt the Spirit, pretty sure they did too, and we felt the confidence that comes from being called by the prophet to remind people of who they are, children of God, with infinite eternal potential.

Love.

Hermana Juliana

Week 16 - June 9, 2014

This week was stake conference! Yesterday, to be exact. The ward contracted two big vans to take us to the stake center in Tapachula, and it was fun being a missionary in stake conference because I actually recognized the mission president. It was also awesome because there had to be two sessions of stake conference - not all of the wards fit into one session! This stake is growing like crazy, it's fantastic to be a part of it. 

It's been a fun week. As part of our area, we have a touristy city called Union Juarez. That's where we are in the photo - it's up the side of the volcano more, and when it rains up there, it's COLD. This picture was taken after it rained, but the hill you can't see to the left was running with muddy water when we were walking up it. It was pretty funny. 

Cinthia isn't sure that she's going to be here on June 28th, which is the day that she picked out for her baptism. Hopefully she'll not postpone it more - she has a testimony of the gospel, she shares it with other investigators when she comes to lessons with us, and she introduces us to her friends and family, and invites them to church. 

We're teaching a family right now with eight kids. We (think) we finally met the last one this week - every time we go there's a different set of people in the house. One of the daughters has come to church once. 

I'm sure I'll think of a bunch of stories I could have shared in just a minute once I send this, but just now I'm drawing a blank. So, I'll say good bye for now. I love what I'm doing. As missionaries, we're just a bunch of kids. But we have a sacred calling to share with the world what we know is true - Christ lives, He directs His Church, and He wants every one of us to come unto Him. 

Love,

Hermana Juliana

Week 15 - June 2, 2014 - The rainy season

Where to start... First of all, welcome to my 'I barely decided to send out a mass email list' those of you who are not directly related to me. 

Second of all, I'm loving the rain. My companion and I only get soaked occasionally now because we finally took the advice of the members and started caring an umbrella. On Saturday though, we only had one little umbrella and a young man in the ward was accompanying us. The streets that go down the mountain turn into mini rivers on the edges, so we were getting soaked from the top and from the bottom. There was even a current, things that people had dropped three or four blocks above us were swept by in the water. My companion and Daniel both started saying - hey, you should let your shoe go and we'll run and catch it! Come on, it'll be fun! When they finally convinced me that they weren't going to let my shoe be lost forever, I kicked it off and off they went, running down the street to catch that plastic shoe. If only I had a waterproof camera!

This week, we had a really awesome experience with a family, a reference from a member. We had met the parents, and made an appointment, and when we arrived in the evening almost all of their kids were there. Gradually, one by one, they came and sat down to listen. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and everyone participated and asked questions, and the next day, one of them actually came to church. 

Food wise: I'm loving the little corner shops. Although they will be my undoing when none of my skirts fit anymore! Also, this week we ate Mexican style chinese food that an sister prepared for us. Half the plate is full of noodles, half the plate is full of rice. And then, the best part, there are tortillas on the table to eat them with. I'm going to come home and not know what to do - there won't be tortillas or chile. 

This week I learned something important about the Spirit: you have to pay close attention. There's a part in Preach my Gospel that talks about listening to investigators to discern their needs, and the jist of it is: This will take all of your concentration - don't expect it to be easy. Nobody said anything in life would be easy, least of all the mission, but the Lord doesn't put expectations higher than we can manage. If He expects a lot from us, it´s because we have a lot to give.

Love and mangos,

Hermana Juliana