"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

A visit to Campeche- seeing the ocean!!

February 16, 2015

Mom, 

Wow your ski trip looks so fun!! I miss the snow. And skiing. HW skis and she and I want to go skiing in Deer Valley together when we get back. It's so cool that we're together to finish our mission and we started it together, I don't know anyone else who that has happened to!

 Beautiful Campeche!! The girls live on top of a hill. and by hill I mean like mountain.... like think San Francisco... like where Judy and Ron live. Actually I don't know if they still live there... but at one point they did.. Campeche is notorious for their hills. Poor missionaries who work there always have sore legs. Including my companion who had to climb some gnarly hills and was dying the next day..

 We were really scared going up that hill. You feel like you're going to fall backwards!

Ok well this week was AWESOME and terrible at the same time. Terrible 'cause we had very low numbers because we went to Campeche for like 3 days (oh I need to tell you about that trip 'cause it was crazy!) and awesome because our recent converts, Emmanuel and Manuel, yeah, you know them right? The ones who got baptized like 2 and 3 months ago? Yeah yesterday they received the MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD!! They had a special conference with all the Melchizedek priesthood holders 'cause there were like 8 in the stake who could receive it! Isn't that crazy!?? M didn't get it cause he is presently having issues... BUT we're pretty happy. 

El mar:) SOOO this is what the ocean looks like in Mexico! we got to go to Campeche and I saw the ocean for the first time in my whole mission! It was so pretty and we ran along the boardwalk and it was so fun! 

HW and I going off to sea. We decided to become pirates. 

Also, Fatima is doing great. She's already baptized herself. The other day she was talking to us and she said "when I WAS catholic..." and we're like "Hermana, When did you get baptized??" Haha she's awesome. 

 Also, I ate this fish. HW loves fish and she always tells the members that she wants fish for lunch so they make it for us and I am about ready to never eat it again! This was a whole fish fried all together. with the eyes and the teeth and everything. So that was fun

Yeah I finished it.

Valentine's day pancakes! 

OK I'm going to have to copy HW's letter on here cause they're kicking me off the computer now, sorry! I'll try to do better on time next week! Love you all bye!!

HS 

"In the spirit of Valentine's day we are currently playing cupid..."

February 9, 2015

Mom and other people,

Yeah it would be great to have a washer, but I have been washing clothes our of a bucket for the past year also so anything goes really. Yeah HW totally wants to room with us! She is deciding between UVU and BYU. 

UGH se me hizo tarde otra vez hoy y no voy a tener tanto tiempo para escribirles [I'm late again today so I don't have much time to write you]. BUT I told HW to send me her email that she sent to her family so I can borrow chunks of it and everything will be a lot faster. Hahaha we're so sneaky:) 

[The following is her hijacked email that HW wrote]  Sooooo H Williams and I are back to being two instead of three.. again! Hermana C only ended up staying with us until Tuesday afternoon but it was fun being her companion while it lasted. On Tuesday we had leadership conference with President Garcia! We focused on Mexico's area plan for 2015 and how we can apply it to our lives as missionaries, the members and others that we are teaching. The blessings of the plan are really specific and the goal is to help everyone be more spiritually and temporally self sufficient.  I think that's how you say it in English at least hahaha. 

Zone Volleyball game - Just the Girls!

Also I realized this week how thankful I am to have a temple so close to where I am right now. The temple is like 20 minutes away from Chichen and we were able to go on a few tours of the temple this week with our investigators. Manuel took his daughter Fatima, his grandkids and our other investigators Manuela, Rosi and her two kids in his van all the way to the temple. we got there and all get out and everyone got quiet and could immediately feel the spirit of the temple. We went inside the waiting room and had a really cool lesson about family history and temple work. Everyone got really excited about family history and Manuel shared his testimony about the temple and how it has helped him. He is the sweetest!  When we were leaving the temple Pres Garcia (President Garcia's brother who is the temple president) came out all dressed in white and Manuela (who is like 60) went up to him and gave him a hug without saying anything and while we were walking back to the car she said "this truly is like Heaven on earth" it was so cute.

Also today HW and I were doing our own family history and I discovered that there are like 23 temple ordinances available to be done on Dad's side, and I am going to try to take them to the temple next time the mission let's us go!!! I appreciate it so much more that we are actually allowed to go inside now and everything:)

"Us in the house. Its casual Friday so that's why I am wearing flip flops. 

Just kidding, casual Friday does not exist in the mission..."

Other great news, Rosi (the mom of Roger Rosi, don't get confused, there are two Rosis we are teaching right now..) is back home and progressing again! YES!  She left our area to live with her other daughter for a couple weeks and everything kind of got put on hold but she came to church this week so it's all good. In the spirit of Valentine's day we are currently playing cupid and devising a brilliant plan to get together Rosi with our recent convert Manuel!! They are both widowed and looking for a companion, and about the same age!!! And they both like to talk a lot and live with one of their daughters in our area...... So we'lI see how that goes am so excited!  Also we have another super cute 18 year old investigator named Mishel. she is so sweet and she is so involved with all of the activities in the church and she is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and doing everything that she should be doing but she doesn't have a baptismal date yet. We are hoping that really soon she will accept! I will send pictures of her next week, The tips of her hair are green!

"Emmanuel invited us to his house for lunch. Chicken and green spaghetti:)"

Ok well that's all folks. I gotta go now, love you all!

HS

"4 people came to church!!!!!!"

February 2, 2015

AH Mom today is literally the craziest day ever and I have like 5 minutes to write I'm so sorry! But real fast,

My new room sounds fantastic! YES I will bring my hammock, you won't be able to find one anywhere else, you just need to get the hooks up. 

Good thing you didn't send the camera! Hahaha yeah maybe you can stop sending me packages soon 'cause they sometimes take a long time to get here and I'm afraid that you will be sending stuff and it will arrive after I'm already home... HW has been waiting on a package for like 3 months now...

Can somebody please triple check that my BYU application is in? 

Stuff this week:

OK yesterday the assistants called us with special changes, Hermana Cruz is gone. Went to a little town called Baca.

Today: another call, you guys get another companion, Hermana Carrasco!

Apparently Presidente only trusts us with the hermanas left without companions, if there is an emergency he just sends the girls to us. SO we are in a trio again. After a couple of hours of just being us two..

4 people came to church!!!!!!

Fatima. Is amazing, progressing like crazy, wants to get married, wants to get baptized and put her life in order. She has changed so much that the people at her work have started calling her "Sister Fatima" cause she like reads the scriptures now! Brigette is her 8 year old daughter who comes to church with her too.

Jenifer. 13 year old girl but you'd think she's 20, has awesome questions and really likes listening.

Rosi. Not the one you're thinking, this is another one. But she's way awesome and even though she has a ton of family and economic problems, she knows that this is what will help her have more peace in her life.

"Here's a picture of me and Hermana Velasquez making tamales!"

We went to the temple on Tuesday.  Manuel and Emmanuel woke up with us at like 3:30AM to go do baptisms for the dead and it was way special to see them all in white saving their ancestors!

Ok sorry I have to go now 'cause I have to do a millions things before 6:00 so I have to go now but I love you all dearly!

Bye!
HS

"Well this week a miracle happened."

January 26, 2015

SO glad to hear the fam is doing well. So is the mish:)

Well this week a miracle happened. And it's called someone returned my backpack that I had lost that had all my stuff and my camera in it!!!!!!!! So in your face all of you Debby downers who said it was pointless hoping that someone would have a heart and return it! There are good people in the world!!!!!!! Well either that or I just accidentally left it in the church without realizing it...but so the good news is that I have my camera again and when the girls called to tell me they had it I almost died! 

Sam and Hma Williams

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to the temple because the missionaries are allowed to bring recent converts to do baptisms for their ancestors. So we are kind of last minute rushing to get Manuel and Emmanuel and Miguel all ready with their family history work and everything. (Jasmin can't go:( she got a new job and we hardly ever see her anymore so we're really worried about that actually...)

But I'll let you know how that goes down. 

The trio!! Us with Hermana Cruz! She's great. And she's Mexican so she can help us out with stuff like people not ripping us off 'cause we're gringas.

Family history is the big thing now! All the missionaries now have to do all their family history work up until the great grandparents and show it to all the investogators and recent converts and members and everyone! And it's actually working way well. Go espiritu de Elias!! 

Bunk bed hammocks!

Mom! Can you remind me how to do yoga? Like pictures or videos or something? I can't remember and we want to do yoga for exercise in the mornings.. that would be awesome:) 

Ok sorry I have to go now! I am out of time! but don't do anything rash like send me a camera, 'cause I have one:) love you all dearly!

HS

"..we have a third companion. and I am in a trio, yet again. I need my crown."

January 19, 2015

OK I'm so sorry today its going to be really short cause we're way short on time. 

News:

Changes happened, after begging president to keep us together, HW and I have another transfer together in Chichen!!!!!!!!!!

Also, we have a third companion. and I am in a trio, yet again. I need my crown. This is my SIXTH time in a trio on my mission!! But we're excited. our new comp is Hermana Cruz and she's Mexican, So I guess that'll force HW and I to speak Spanish more. So that's good..

M didn't get baptized. turns out there were A LOT of things she failed to tell us about and she totally didn't pass her interview. Soooo maybe some other day when she's ready she will get baptized. 

Another thing, the assistents called us last night to tell us this surprise part of our changes. Sooo turns out, president had to take away a ton of sister training leaders to have them train because  11 new missionaries came in this transfer!  Now in Merida there are only 8 of us, and 2 in Ticul.. ANDDD HW and I are called to be the senior head chief captain-I-don't-even-know-how-you-would-call-it-in- English sister training leaders. So that's kinda fun. 

 Moises (the stake missionary leader who is SUPER cool), invited all us missionaries of the stake to his house on Saturday for food! He made us tacos and they were so good

I don't really ever wear my own clothes anymore, I just wear Hma William's clothes. and my cute new clothes that my sweet family sent me:) [note from Camille- I have totally noticed that!]

Me and HW, we thought we might leave so we were taking Sunday pics.

Today in a comvi we sang I am a child of God and this guy told me that we were a false church and that the restoration is a big lie because the church was never lost and all this junk and he was like intensely trying to argue with us in front of a bunch of people there on the comvi.

Me with the grandkids of Manuel. they have been coming to church with us for the past 3 weeks!!!! Their names are Kenneth and Brigette and they're way cute. 

Rosi is trying really hard to get baptized but she needs a new job because her job makes her cranky and also she can't go to church sometimes because of it. We took her to the center of autosuficiencia (not sure how to say that in English) and are in the process of finding her a new job. 

I am out of time now sorry, but I love you all! Bye!

HS

"...I guess I won't find my backpack ever again but at least some thief somewhere is reading my Book of Mormon and getting converted."

January 12, 2015

Dearest family,

Well this week went great, and so much has happened once again and I don't know where to begin!

So this Tuesday we had leadership conference again and the assistants called us the night before to give us a special assignment (funny story, HW and I just spent a good minute trying to remember if asignation was a word in English... it's not, right?) because president wanted us to share a success story with all the leadership counsel. So that was pretty fun and we learned a lot in the meeting, particularly about family history and now the whole misión is totally using family history as like the coolest missionary tool ever! We have these "my family" pamphlets and have been inviting people to listen to us by introducing them to the whole family history program and it's way successful!

So for the success story HW and I decided to take a short video of Manuel and have him talk a little bit about his conversion to us and it is a really sweet video! Manuel's family went from just saying hi and hiding inside the house when we taught him to slowly listening and now coming to church every week. It has been such an amazing change. Fatima and Luis (Manuel's daughter and son in law) still need to get married before they can get baptized but we are working on it. On Thursday we had family home evening with Manuel and his family. Oh and I don't remember if I have already said this or not but they are our neighbors. Anyways we taught them the restoration and the spirit was so strong. While we were explaining the first vision to them HW and I had everyone close their eyes and we sang Joseph Smith's first prayer while they imagined what was happening. Afterwards we asked them what they imagined and Fatima described the vision perfectly and when we showed her a picture she gasped. It was so cool!!!!

"This is a Little monument thing close by our house"

Our investigator Rosi was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but she didn't come to church so I don't think that's happening...:( but we're going to keep praying for her. She's going through some hard times right now 'cause Satan's trying to do everything possible so that she doesn't get baptized...

On Friday we had zone conference and it went well in our zone, but HW had to go to our other zone that we have girls in and give the spiel there. She said it was super awkward because the zone leaders there are both new and neither one knows what he's doing... But our zone rocks:) Afterwards we did divisions with Motul (this cute little pueblito) and I got to be with Hermana Nuñez! (the Hma Nuñez who was my second companion Hma Nuñez, the tall one from DF.) and that was fun, but in the process of getting on the bus, I somehow left my backpack on the sidewalk and had to do divisions without any of my stuff!! And I lost my backpack that had my CAMERA in it!!!!!!!!!!!! SO that's the sad news of the week, I lost my camera....:( And I also lost that happy shirt that mom sent for Christmas and I LOVED that shirt:( and my tennis shoes so I'm going to have to buy some new tennis shoes.  And like some clothes and notebooks and a Book of Mormon that I guess I can live without but it's still sad.

Good thing I had Hma Nuñez sympathizing for me. Do you know what she said in her prayer that night after I lost my backpack? She says, "please bless that the people who find Hma Smith's backpack can make good use of all the things inside, and that they can be used for the better." ..... hahaha so I guess I won't find my backpack ever again but at least some thief somewhere is reading my Book of Mormon and getting converted. That's the important thing.

IMPORTANT NEWS UPDATE!! IZAMAL IS BEING DIVIDED!! Hma Perryman is STILL there after like a million transfers and she just emailed me and told me that the area is actually doing really well now and they're planning on baptizing more people that we started teaching when we were there together, and the ward is growing so much that they're dividing it and sending more missionaries there! I am SO happy for them!!!

"All the girls in the zone (except for Brisas ) with muffins the zone leaders got us!! We are all gringas.."

So cool story, remember that little girl M we were teaching? The sarcastic little punk one? So she has gone to church like a thousand times and really likes it, but she's just very immature and doesn't really take things as seriously as she should sometimes, so we kinda dropped her for a while and stopped focusing on her, but every time she sees us she's like "Hermanas I want to go to church on Sunday!!!" And we're like ok. go then.

But she's only 15 and can't go alone so she asked us if we could pick her up to go together, so we were like ok fine. So we go to pick her up Sunday morning and the bishop's wife is giving us a ride and she- making small talk- says "so M, when are you getting baptized?" and we had not really planned on baptizing her anytime soon, because we hadn't really thought about her much in a while. But so then M says "well I don't know, I want to get baptized but I don't know what I need to do and the Hermanas haven't told me anything!" and so we just sit there for a second and then I'm like "well do you want to get baptized on Saturday?" and she was all for that idea so we told the bishop to announce it in sacrament meeting and invite everyone so he did and now it's kinda set in stone. It was actually an answer to a prayer because we were really excited about baptizing Rosi on Saturday and had been planning on that, but then when she couldn't get baptized (work problems and so she couldn't go to church) God sorta slapped us in the face with M. Soooo we'll see how this goes. Pray for M please! and Rosi! and we're hoping the week after to baptize Charlie! and then Andrea! SO please pray for them all!

Also, Rosi has a granddaughter that has been coming to church to and she's so cute!! She's like 13 and reminds me a lot of Miranda, her name is Monserrat Adamari. We're hoping to baptize her soon too.

Well that's all for today! Thanks for being so awesome everyone!

HS

"So we ate way delicious food on New Years day and a TON of it too!"

January 5, 2015

Hola!

Hey thanks for updating the blog!! And for doing all this BYU stuff! I really appreciate it!

OK so this week was great. Kind of. Well so New Years we didn't really sleep at all because our neighbors are party animals and were blasting loud music all night and they were burning this viejo [old man] which is like a tradition that they do here where they make this life-size stuffed old man and fill it with fireworks and sit him on a chair, and then at midnight, they burn him. And its SOO LOUD!  I'll send a pic of it. We took a video too but I don't know if it will go through. It represents like the past year dying or something, but I think it's just a fun thing they invented to keep the missionaries from sleeping...haha

So then we ate way delicious food on New Years day and a TON of it too! Mexicans are so generous and just give us so much food. Our fridge has never been so full. But the best part of the week was not until the end. In fact, we really had like a horrible week in the way of numbers. or so we thought! It seemed like every day we were just walking and walking and not teaching anyone! But on Saturday I think it was, we both got back from divisions and just decided to really focus and stop speaking English, because we had a real problem with that 'cause we always just spoke in English and joked around and stuff, but we decided to just cut it out and speak only Spanish. So we were doing that, and we started fasting on Saturday for the Lord to bless us with at least the investigators who we are teaching at church, because that's been a real problem too. But guess how many investigators showed up at church... 10.

 I have never had TEN investigators in church in one day before, That's insane!!!!!!! And they were all like families!!!!! Manuel (our recent convert) brought his daughter and his son in law and the grandkids who have never let us teach them before and were never interested but they just decided to come to church one day to check it out and they loved it!!!!!!!!! Also this random couple who we met literally the day before came with one of their neighbors! Literally, we saw them in the street and we were like "hey wanna come to church tomorrow?" and they were like "yeah!" and we picked them up and they totally came! And I'm not 100% sure that they were not drinking a very short time before, but they said they loved church and they even told us that they want to get married there and get baptized and everything!!! So that was way cool. Also, our coolest investigator right now is Rosi, and she's the mom of a recent convert of the elders, named Roger. And she's WAY COOL!! The first time we met her she was like "my son has changed so much, before he was so rude and he drank and had problems with his wife but then they met the elders and got married and baptized and now he knows God and I want to do all that too so I can set an example for my other kids!" And we asked her to get baptized and she was like "I will do absolutely whatever I need to to feel clean before God!"  We're hoping for her baptism the 17th of January.. Pray for her!!! Also, pray for her grandkids (Monserrat and Antonio) and Charlie Chan, and Manuel's family (Luis, Fatima, Briget, and Kenneth) and Wendy and Manuel (yes another one..) and Carla. thank you:)

Well I have to go now but I love you all dearly and hope you are all well!!

HS

"I just want to be a missionary forever!"

December 29, 2014

Sorry I think today is going to be a short boring email  'cause I had to do a bunch of BYU stuff but I'll send pictures!

I don't know who gave us that gingerbread house, but that was the cutest gift idea ever!!!!!!!!!!! We made it with the bishops kids and some other kids in the ward. This is Christmas eve when we ate with the bishop and our missionary leader and their families and some other people. But it was soo fun making the gingerbread houses with the kids!!!!!

Cool that I'm a missionary and I totally was online for almost an hour today thinking about college stuff... Ugh I hate it! I just want to be a missionary forever! But I guess I do kinda need to go to college and have a life so whatever. 

Haha anyways to answer your questions and everything, after we finished Skyping, I called Grandpa and I could see and hear them and they could see me but they couldn't hear me! So we fiddled with that for a while and Emmanuel got super cool and was communicating with Grandpa and telling him what to do to get the speakers to work but writing notes and holding them up to the camera. His English was a lot better than I thought! Anyways in the end Darby and I ended up signing to each other to communicate (I didn't know she was learning sign language!) and I forgot almost everything that I knew, but we got the message through. And then we gave up and I just told them to talk to me and I would listen. But then it was really late and we had to go home, and that was our whole day! 

We ate WAY good for Christmas and Christmas eve. There's this thing called fruit cocktail that everyone makes here for Christmas (tradition) and it's really good. Our stake mission leader Moises (the one who I was telling you about who wants the beef jerky) actually invited us to his house for dinner even though he's not even in our ward... but he totally loves us so it's cool!

 I found these cute Missionary stockings at Deseret Industry [Camille speaking here]

Fun stockings!!!!!!! We absolutely LOVED them!

Opening presents!!

Wow Christmas sounds way fun!!!!!!!! I'm so happy you guys had a good time! I love looking at pictures of everyone! Miranda is so pretty and Em is soo cute! 

Color of my room.. hmm i don't know. surprise me. Something cute and creative. I trust Mimi. Haha I was kinda half kidding about the Mexican thing but if you can make it look bedroom appropriate that'd be cool! There's some cute Mexican looking fabrics and patterns and stuff so I trust that Mimi can do really great things with that! But honestly I'm not going to be there for that long before going to college right? So don't break your backs doing some great extravagant thing, I don't want you guys to spend a ton of money or anything. but the only thing I do seriously request is if there is a way to get the hooks on the wall so I can hang up my hammock, that would be awesome!!!!!!! 

Wow that would be so exciting to see Hailey in April! I miss her a ton!

Another thing, I'm inviting HW to come visit us in Arizona sometime for fall break or something next year. Hope that's cool.. 

Also, are you guys coming here to pick me up in April? When are we having family vacation here in Merida? I want you guys to meet all my friends here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm working on the application thing. let me know if there's something I need to do!!!! Also, could somebody look into how I could maybe get a job in the MTC as a teacher or something?

I love you all, Christmas went great, and the church is true!!!!!

HS

"I think I have sung every single Christmas song in the Spanish hymnbook close to 10 times so far."

December 23, 2014

SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!

I think I have sung every single Christmas song in the Spanish hymnbook close to 10 times so far.

We did an activity like 4 times where we go to these things called tianguis which are outdoor vendors and it's just people who sell random stuff and they have them a couple times every week. SO we went and sang and showed videos and contacted people. first we did it in the Elders area, and then our area, and then the other Elders area, and we got a ton of references! It was so cool to be sharing the Christmas spirit to the Mexican people trying to sell clothes and watches and toys and food to people on the street.

Christmas caroling activity! We did this 4 times this week and it was so fun! We're wearing hats not cause it's cold but because the ward made us hats. They're so cool!!

ALSO we had a baptism! We were so excited! E is wayy cool and it was kinda sad 'cause nobody in his family came to see him get baptized and his ex girlfriend kept calling him and bugging him, telling him not to get baptized, up until the very last minute, but he stayed strong and was like "I don't care I know this is true and I'm doing the right thing!" And the ward totally took him in and made him feel good:) I think we're going to try to skype at his house on Thursday so maybe you guys can meet him! He seems all serious and tranquil at first but he's really so sassy and sarcastic and hilarious!

Emmanuel!!!!!!! Got baptized! He's sooo cool!!! But I don't know why he doesn't smile in pictures... Mexicans never smile..

Also we're losing our investigators...  nobody came to church and we're worried but whatever. It's been a crazy week and it'll get all better next week. We didn't even have time to do divisions at all this week!

 Talent show! The sister training leaders and zone leaders of zone brisas sang and it was fabulous. and kind of lame but way fun!

 Mission party lunch!  The whole mission gets together once a year for Christmas and it's a whole day thing and it's so fun!!!!!!!!

Pictures with the hats that the ward made us! Nightlife in the mish

AH Ok I have to go but we'll talk on Thursday! Remind me to tell you about Torta Dan and our game that HW and I invented and "PERDON!" and a bunch of funny stuff I have to tell you!

Ok bye talk to you Thursday!

Thanks so much love you all!

HS

Yep we're totally saving souls.

December 15, 2014

Aww cookie swap! I bet it was way fun. Skype? Not sure about all the details yet, but I assume it's about the same as last year. I know we get to call on the 25th, and I assume we just use a members computer to Skype and it will probably be between the hours of 11am and 9pm.... haha sorry I don't know who we'll be with that day yet! But I know I'll be with HW. I'm so excited for you guys to meet her!!!!

The district with this less active family that feeds us the best food ever. Hermana Yoni and her husband Emir. He doesn't smile.

Missionaries Christmas caroling in the park!

You know what President told us today over email? That the only reason we should be separated is when we get married! Haha he pretty much told us that if we keep having this much success in our area that he's not going to change us, He'll just keep us here in Chichen until the end of the mission!! Ahh we're way excited!! Seriously, Hermana Williams is so great and I know I'm so blessed to have her as a companion cause she works so hard and we push each other but we both know the limits and just think the same way and find a way to be laughing and having fun like every second of the day!

Yep we're totally saving souls. This week was a crazy week but ended way good! 

 We took Emmanuel to the temple Saturday, and I saw this lady from my first area! Barrio Tanlum!! 

So last Monday "Elder Schwab" a return missionary that served in Merida came and knocked on our door around 9 and gave us a giant box of chips and salsa (something that isn't very common to eat here in Mexico) and a bunch of cookies.  He served here about a year ago and came back to visit his mission and all of the houses that he lived in!! He's way cool and pretty much spent the week in Chichenitza playing video games with the members bur helped us out a ton and drove us around a little.  He's way cool.

SO the 12th of December is a holiday here. Its virgin day... :/  People here don't just put up Christmas lights, they put flowers and candles and blinking Christmas lights all over their virgin Maria or Guadalupe or whatever it is, and they have "novenas" which are where all the Catholic neighbors come over and sit in chairs facing the virgin and they sing and chant and pray to her for like an hour. 

ANYWHO so needless to say we didn't have much success that day.

So you remember that kid who I told you was GOLDEN that we met last Sunday? M's friend? So we taught him the restoration the other day and Elder Schwab and M accompanied us, and it went SO WELL! The Spirit was soo strong and he was asking inspired questions and he told us that he's really looking for the truth and he is reading and praying and really wanted to know how he could recognize the Spirit and everything. And he came to church on Sunday!! We were so excited and so sure that he loved it and was going to get baptized, but afterward he comes up to us to tell us that he loved the church service and everything that we were teaching him, but that he wanted to stay Catholic.. ..?? It was so lame!!! and THEN he stuck around after church with the P family ('cause he was going to go home with them) and took pictures with us!!! What is up with this kid?? That's like breaking up with someone and then taking pictures after! Elder Hainsworth told us that it's like keeping the dog in the house after it dies... We aren't really sure what happened, but we fully plan on seeing him again someday.

This is a picture of all the missionaries of Chichen with the family Palma Martinez. Kinda.. we're just missing a few. OK story, there's a kid in this picture who is our ex- investigator. You want to know what happened? It's that kid I told you about last week who was GOLDEN! and he DUMPED us after church!!! we cried

BUT cool story cause this guy H came to church and he told us he loved it and he is definitely getting baptized. He cried when we showed him the "He is the gift" video. he belongs to this alcoholics anonymous (however you spell that word) group and he's so cool.

I am really excited for Christmas!

Chichen itza is the greatest ward in all of Merida!!

If you want to know who to pray for, pray for Henry Mota, Charlie Chan, Emmanuel Moo, Mariela and Manuel Zavala, Landero, Hija and Juan Carlos to all get baptized and go to church, and Manuel and Miguel and Jasmin to stay active! 

Thanks love you all bye!

Sooo yeah the church is totally true:)

December 8, 2014

Yes Miguel is still feeling sad.. But at least he came to church yesterday and then came back for the devotional! He tells us it's cause he feels sick but I'm not sure... But on the bright news he is totally best friends with like everyone at church and he is like a professional mingle-er! And so is Jasmin! They love going to the classes and are making lots of friends!:) Its so great.

Pretty much all of the people who we visit are youth. Literally, we just noticed yesterday that almost all of our investigators are between the ages of 15 and 25... Our most potente investigator is named Emmanuel and he's super cool (20 years old...) and he's getting baptized on the 20th!!! Which is a way funny story cause at first we challenged him for the 27th of December but then we realized quickly that he was so prepared so we've been kinda trying to persuade him to get baptized a week earlier but he hasn't wanted to. But on Saturday he came to see this baptism with us (Another wards baptism) and afterward he tells us that it's cool if he gets baptized on the 20th. Haha I love teaching him 'cause he's so receptive and he's way funny too.

Yesterday was the day of changes and probably like the most successful day we've had in the whole transfer! So on Saturday, on our way to a lesson (we were bringing this 15 year old punk girl investigator of ours to a house of some really great members) this guy on the street calls out to us, and starts talking to us. He tells us he wants us to teach him our classes cause his New Year's goal is to be closer to God, and that he wants to come to church tomorrow. And actually even when people say that they usually don't ever come so we were a little surprised when he called us yesterday morning to tell us he was coming, and that we needed to wait for him!  He came late so church was already over but we were still there so we grabbed a member to accompany us and gave him a tour of the church! Within 5 minutes of being there, he's met a bunch of members, all 6 missionaries of the ward, and the bishop and his family. Then we're showing him around the church and he sees the picture of the first vision on the wall and stops and says, "Wow I really like this picture" so the member with us starts explaining what it is and everything and he says "I like it not necessarily because of what it is, but more how I feel when I look at it.." And while the member is kinda explaining the story, HW and I are looking at each other with jaws dropped and the elders are listening in equally shocked and super jealous I'm sure that we found this guy haha. So then we decide to take him into the chapel and teach him right then and there the restoration, and invite him to baptism and he says yes because he wants to be in the camino recto. Which would be like, the straight and narrow path that leads to heaven kind of thing. 

....

Whaaaaa?? This guy is soooo perfect!!!!! We're way stoked to be teaching him. His name is Charlie Chan.:)

Then later that day we go to the house of the Palma Martinez family cause M (the kid who teaches the gospel principles class and is way cool) invited his friend over to listen to us and he had told us beforehand that he wanted us to come teach him, but to take it slow cause he didn't want to pressure him or anything so we probably shouldn't invite to baptism the first visit. And we were like umm we have to.. its actually a rule of the mission to invite to baptism on the first lesson and if you don't, well that's what repentance is for. SO we're like... ummm we'll see. So we start in slow, but quickly realize that this kid is super prepared and so we show him that "He is the gift" video and get in to talking about baptism and we're like so how do you feel about all this up to now?  And he's like "you know, I think everyone deep down knows that this is true, and that it has been true all along, but people are just paying attention more to what the world says" and we're like..... do you want to get baptized? And he's like.... "Yeah I think so... I think that's what I lack at this point in my life.."  BAM two baptismal dates and golden investigators in one day. And then I wanted to punch M in the face for wanting us to go slow with him. But not really 'cause M is the coolest.

And then we watched the Christmas devo in English cause Elder Tobler is awesome and set it up in the family history center for all the gringo missionaries! And Elder Christofferson's talk was soo amazing. And so was Eyrings. Actually they all were. 

Soo yeah the church is totally true:)

In other news, the ward bullies me cause I don't iron my clothes.... I swear you don't need to cause its so humid here so as soon as you walk outside your clothes iron themselves!!!! But HW is like crazy about ironing stuff and always asks to planch [planchar = to iron ] my clothes every morning and every morning I tell her that she's crazy 'cause you don't need to. But yesterday she goes and tells the Palma Martinez family that I never planch anything and they all act like its a great sin or something.. I don't get it. 

In other other news, transfers came last night, and our prayers were answered!!!! The groundhog didn't see his shadow and there's 6 more weeks of winter!!! Yayyy too bad there's no such thing as winter here....!  Haha but yeah HW and I get 6 more weeks together here in Chichen!!! AND president gave us 2 less companionships of girls this time YAY so we're not going to constantly be on divisions!!

But the bad news is Elder Tobler is leaving the ward and he was totally planning a bunch of cool ward activities that we were going to do.. ET has been my zone leader for the majority of my mission because he was my zone leader in Ticul too then I followed him here. But it's cool because the new zone leader and elder in the ward is Elder Chappel, and I think Miranda told me that his family is in our stake or something cause she knows his sister! So that's cool.

UGHHH I don't have time to write now, but SO MUCH has happened this week!! I only just scratched the surface, I only wrote about Sunday!!!!!!

Well on Tuesday we got to do a session in the temple for the first time in more than a year, and got up at 3 in the morning to go, then had to give the capacitation in another zone for the zone conference, and then we went to this little town called Motul and I went to Kini which probably has a population of like 100 people... and then we did divisions again and then we had English classes that a bunch of people went to and then we ate this food called pibes which were sooo good and had another random capacitation and did an activity in the parque with a ton of missionaries where we sang Christmas carols to people and the assistants showed us how to contact an entire bus of people by singing Christmas carols. [note from the editor- yes this is a run on sentence but it gives you a more accurate representation of how she really writes!!! ] And a lot more but I have to go now so I'll write more next week!

Love you all bye!!!

HS