My First Baptism!!

Hey everyone!

Fun fact: In this mission we are lucky enough to be fed by members most days. We eat one big meal around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. And dinner is usually some sort of snack after we get home around 9:00 at night. Oh, and I was under the impression that I would be eating rice and beans everyday, but what I actually eat everyday is soup. They love soup here.

This has been quite a full week. But it was very fulfilling.

First of all, I had my first experience being bitten by a dog. It was bound to happen eventually there are dogs everywhere here. Don´t worry, he didn´t actually break skin. I think he was just trying to scare us away. And it worked. We left pretty quickly and didn´t go back.

Ok, big news for the week, I got to see my first baptisms on the mission! When we came to the area we just had two progressing investigators, Martin y Pilar. They are an elderly couple and are awesome. It was so amazing to get to see them be baptized, and I can´t even express how grateful I feel to have been there. And they are so happy now. It just makes me so happy.

I wanted to write a little bit about some of the other people we have been working with lately. 

So first, MariCarmen. Her daughters and mother are all recent converts, but she hasn´t yet been baptized, even though she attends church often and has a testimony of the gospel. The first time we visited her, we asked why she didn´t want to be baptized, and she said that it was because she didn´t want to make changes in her life. The example she gave was coffee. We talked to her a little bit about faith and how with Christ, she can have the strength to do hard things. The next time we visited, she wasn´t home but her daughters were. And they told us, "We don´t know what happened, but mamá has basically stopped drinking coffee!" We were shocked! Miracles are real guys. We have seen a lot of progress in MariCarmen just in the three short weeks we´ve been here.

Next, Graciela y Regina. Graciela is a recent convert, and she is awesome, she has a lot of knowledge about the gospel and is truly trying to live it. We have been reviewing the lessons with her, and have also been going over the lessons with her daughter Regina. Regina turns 8 at the end of the month, so we are helping her prepare to be baptized, even though she isn´t technically an investigator.

We have also been working a lot with menos activos, or members who don´t attend church regularly. One in particular is named Conchita. We have been visiting a lot with Conchita, and even though she is progressing very slowly, she is progressing!

As you can hopefully tell, the most important part of my work here is the people. I didn´t come to Mexico for a vacation, I didn´t come for the Spanish or the food, I came here because I have something that these people need, and that is a testimony of Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His church. This work is not about me, it´s about them. I know that every person on this earth is a precious child of God. I know that He loves us all. And I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the  only way we can experience all of the blessings that He has for us.

Love you all!

Hermana Herron

First week of church

Hey everyone!

Well, it´s only been three days, so not much has happened since the last time I wrote. Except for yesterday, I finally got to attend church with my new ward. My first Sunday here was Stake Conference, so yesterday was my first sacrament meeting actually with my ward. I´m lucky too, the ward here seems really really great. I was a little worried at first when we walked in at 7:55 (Church here starts at 8 am. I don´t want to hear any complaining about 9 am church from any of you ever again) and no one was there. But everyone showed up before too long. I didn´t understand a lot of what everyone was saying during church, but the Spirit was still strong and it was still a really refreshing experience for me. As was the sacrament. The sacrament is always a really refreshing and spiritually-uplifting experience for me, and I really needed it this week.

Because I went so long between normal church and between Pdays, my first two weeks in the field felt more like one really long week. I keep hearing that the first few weeks in the field are the hardest and that after this the time will just fly by though. 

Mexican fun fact of the week: They don´t really have speed limits posted here. They have speed bumps. So really, the speed limit is however fast you can get in between speed bumps. And believe me, that can still be pretty fast sometimes, it doesn´t matter how close the speed bumps are. Honestly though, this speed bump thing seems pretty effective. At least more effective than any kind of sign with a number on it, which I´m sure everyone would just ignore.

And Spanish tongue-twister of the week: Tres tristes tigres tragaban trigo en un trigal. En un trigal tragaban trigo tres tristes tigres. It literally means three sad tigers were swallowing wheat in a wheat field. 

The picture is me and Hermana Gonzalez with the rest of our district and our treat for Three Kings day, which is a big holiday down here in early January. The ring of bread has a little baby Jesus in it, and whoever finds Jesus in their piece has to make tamales for everyone else in February. 

This past week I have really learned a lot about prayer. After going around all day not really understanding anyone or anything, it is always really exciting to kneel down and talk my heart out to Someone who understands me and my languages and all my feelings and desires perfectly. I have really been relying a lot more on my Heavenly Father through prayer. I hope all of you will take the opportunity to pray to your Heavenly Father like you´re talking to a friend, or to your dad, because that is truly what He is, your best friend and your Father. I know that He is always there for us and always loves us more than we can imagine. 

Love you all!

Hermana Herron

I'm in the Field Now, Eek!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I didn´t write on Monday, my Pday was changed to Friday this week because we got to go to the temple again! In this mission we get to go twice a year, once in January, once in July. What a huge blessing that is.

Ok, my first area is called Mira Azul. It is tiny. And the mission offices are literally right here in the area. It seems to be a relatively rich area, but it is still very Mexican, which I love. I´ll try to send pictures next Pday. The last missionaries that were in the area were elders who spent half of the day working in the mission offices, so they didn´t have very much time to actually work the area. So, we are basically reopening the area. This has been a little difficult for me because we started out without many investigators or lessons. We basically have two investigators right now, Pilar y Martin. But they are golden, I love them so much. They´re going to be baptized this Saturday, so we are super super super excited about that. 

My first compañera, or my trainer, is Hermana Gonzalez. She is from Oaxaca Mexico, and she does not speak much English. Which is good, it´s forcing me to learn Spanish faster. She´s great though, and a great example for me of how to be a great, Spirit-led missionary.

Mexican Fun Fact of the week, all of the women greet each other by kissing each others cheeks, though we really just touch cheeks and making a kissing sound. And I am totally used to it now. It´s great. 

This first week has been really hard for me. Spanish is hard, missionary life is hard. But it´s worth it, and with the Savior and His atonement, it´s possible. Not only possible, it´s easy. Elder Holland gave a talk to some mission presidents about the atonement, in which he says that every missionary at some point asks why this work is so hard, and if there isn´t some other way. But we aren´t the first ones to ask that. The Savior also asked if His cup might not be removed, if there wasn´t some easier way. He suffered more than I will ever ever come close to, and because of that, He understands exactly, knows exactly how to help me. I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, and that because of His Atonement, I will never have to do this work alone.

Love you all!

Hermana Herron

First day en el campo

CCM District

CCM District

The New Missionaries of the Mexico City North Mission

Hey everyone!

I have a couple minutes to email today, so just wanted to tell you all that I made it out of the CCM, survived the sketchy van ride here, and am now in my mission boundaries. I got to meet my mission president and his wife, Presidente y Hermana Titensor, this morning. They are wonderful people, and just like me, I know they were called to this mission by God. I won't have my new companion or area until tomorrow, so you all have to wait another week until you hear the really exciting stuff, sorry. 

My mission is so close to the CCM it only took about an hour to get here, even with all of the traffic. I'm super excited. This is a beautiful area. I'm excited to get started with the Lord's work in Ciudad de Mexico Norte. My Spanish is not as good as I would like, and I'm a little nervous about that, but I know how to bear testimony of the gospel in Spanish, and that's the most important thing I could ever say in any language.

Love you all, have a great week, y yo sé que Jesucristo vive, y que Él es mi Salvador.

Love,

Hermana Herron