"Not quite ready to leave yet, but Pres won't let me extend my mission..."

March 2, 2015

Sooo this week, guess what happened...

A lot of things. FIRST of all, my very last transfers of my whole mission came yesterday, and HW and I are staying in Chichen and dying together [this is missionary lingo- it means they will be finishing their mission together ]!!! We're soooosososososo very happy.

BUT, we have a third companion. AGAIN. I'm now done being surprised about being put in a trio anymore. This is literally the 8th time I am in a trio.. I should be freaking out about how unusual this is but I just am not even phased. Our companions name is Hermana J and she is from Bolivia. AND we were supposed to be with Hermana L (AGAIN) but there were some complications and some complaints and some drama and so we're with Hermana J. So that is that. but she's way cool! I think. I've only been with her for not even one day but I hope she's cool!

HW and I with E Tobler and Hainsworth. They're some really great elders, and maybe this is bad to say or maybe not, but the four of us are really just like great friends and we joke around a ton. HW and I have been in the same district as ET twice now and he's always been either district or zone leader to us haha, and he's just goofy.

SO this week the ward had 3 baptisms, one mom, one 20 year old kid, and one 9 year old girl, and they were all in one day! It was actually a great baptismal service and a lot of people came! Among them Mishel, and Manuel's granddaughter Brigette. And Emmanuel too but he goes to everything we invite him to cause he is so stinkin' cool. He is totally going to be a missionary.

Mishel still isn't getting baptized and we really can't figure out why. She is PERFECT! She signs up to feed the missionaries, and goes on visits with us, obeys all the commandments and is already reading in 2 Nephi!!! She is sooo ready!!!! But maybe this Saturday will be the day. Elder F planched her for us. Elder F is still here as our district leader which we're way happy about 'cause he's so funny and a great leader! 

Us with mishel. She stinking needs to get baptized. I don't know whats stopping her, she's the most prepared person I know and has a stronger testimony than some of the members! Wellll just pray for her...

We are officially of the oldest generation of hermanas in the mission. Not sure how I feel about it. Not quite ready to leave yet, but Pres won't let me extend my mission, he doesn't let anyone.

English classes are going great, and they're way fun! They mostly consist of sarcastic comments from Elder F and everyone laughing, and this week featured Hermana Williams and I acting like different animals (which I imagine was highly entertaining) which the class then had to say the name of- in english, only after first running across the room to grab a marker and whoever grabbed it first got to say the name and get the point. 

Us with the Palma family. I really love them a lot. When we come here on vacation, we're totally going to eat dinner with them and chill with their family

Ok well that's pretty much the news for this week and I have to go now. 

Love you all dearly!

HS

"My converts are ruling the world..."

February 24, 2015

Well... a pictures worth a thousand words right?

I don't know what is happening to my time on p-days lately. Note that today is not even Monday, but Tuesday that we are here writing to you. But it's been pretty crazy down here in Chichen this week. This week we had a random conference with president on Tuesday which was hard 'cause we had to cancel all our appointments and had very few lessons that day, but it was a great conference and we learned a lot! The big thing in the mission right now is family history, and everyone is super into this whole spirit of Elias [in English we say Elijah] thing! SO we're using that a lot to contact new people by helping them realize that not only can they see their loved ones again one day after we die, but that they can get close to them now and perform saving ordinances for them in the temple!! Soo that's fun. 

Fun family history contacting activity at the Tianguis! Some members of the ward with us:)

Morning run to the turtle park

Me in the turtle. One of the 3 days of the year where you need a sweater in the morning in Merida.

AND we're doing that a lot as missionaries too. And on Sunday we were in the church with Mishel and Emmanuel (Investigator and recent convert, we are currently trying to set them up so that they can be each other's support system, also they're both single and great hehe) anyways and HW and I were messing around looking at my geneaology tree thing finding funny names or whatever, and we notice that this one line that we're following goes back pretty far, like in the 1600s, and we're like wow cool! And we keep following it, and we start seeing names  titled like "Sir Edmund" and "Lord Thomas" and stuff and HW and Emmanuel start joking around saying that I must come from a royal background and all this stuff, and we keep going and all of a sudden we see the name King Edward I, nickname Longshanks, King of England...... whattttt????? and HW and I both freak out! and the lady there helping us comes and verifies it and then everyone bowed down and started worshipping me. No just kidding, but Emmanuel keeps calling me "your excellency" and HW tells me that she is getting me a crown to wear. And we found other names like Louis IX, king of France, Matilda Adelaide, Princess of England, Empress of Germany, and a bunch of other royal people from like Normandy, Italy, Tuscany, France, and I don't know where else!! SO cool story mom and siblings, we're royal. Dad you're not sorry. but we still love you:) 

Ok get this. THIS is my family history chart. mom, we are royalty. note that it says KING Edward I!! And he is my ancestor. I started at Gigi and drew the line all the way back to the year 1239, and found a king.. No big deal.. 

We googled him and he's totally a legit king. 

Haha ok well I have to go now but I also saw a movie before it even came out in theaters with a bunch of other missionaries, my converts are ruling the world and the whole elders quorum of the ward is in the hands of my recent convert who may or may not still not know the difference between the temple and the church, My companion got sick and had to go to the hospital, but was miraculously healed in the temple today, I got to do baptisms for the dead in the first time in 16 months, and went to probably the most disorganized crazy disastrous baptism ever. 

And sorry I don't have time to explain everything in more detail but I'll tell you more in like 2 months OK? OK. 

Love you all bye!

HS