Final Report

Hola hola,

Well..... this is going to be my last email from Mexico. My 18 months have come to an end ridiculously, unbelievable fast. This Wednesday I fly back home. 

I´ve been trying to think of what I would write in this email. It´s hard to put into one email all the thoughts and emotions I have had recently, but I´ll do my best. 

This time I have spent in Mexico as an official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ has been.... the craziest, most difficult, and most wonderful experience of my life. I would have loved to have stayed a little while longer if they would let me, but it seems like the Lord has other plans for me. But I am so so so so so eternally grateful that He let me come in the first place. 

This past Saturday, we had the opportunity to go to a baptism in Bellavista, which is the ward that shares a church building with La Aurora. I didn´t think I was going to see anyone from Aurora there because they don´t have their activities on Saturdays normally, but when we got there, almost the entire ward was there! We entered to say hi and to see what was going on and we learned that the ward mission leader and his wife had just been sealed in the temple as a family earlier that day! I love that family sooooo much and seeing them so happy made me so incredibly happy.

I have had a lot of little moments like that in my mission. Moments when I feel so much love and joy that I feel like my heart´s going to burst. Another one of those moments was today, when we went to say goodbye to Manuel. I told him that someday I´ll come back to visit, and that when that day comes, I want him to answer the door walking, and not in his wheelchair. And he told me that he would. I have seen the Lord work miracles in Manuel, literally he has been healing in front of my eyes, and I know that he will be walking when I see him again. 

This is, maybe, one of the most important things I have learned on my mission: how to love. How to give without expecting anything in return. How to serve with everything I have and feel real joy in that service. 

The Lord has taught me again and again in my time here that the blessings come when we serve. Way back in the beginning of my mission I shared with you all the lyrics of a youth song called "It´s not about you," and I have learned that principle again and again. When I forget myself, I am happy. When I´m feeling sick or tired, I know that the Lord will give me strength in the moment that I go out and contact someone. When I feel angry or frustrated, I know that I need to serve. 

And I know that when we truly give ourselves to the Lord, He can then work with us. He can change us, and then use us as instruments to bring about much good and many miracles. Sometimes we see the miracles He does through us, sometimes we don´t, but I know that they happen. 

 Honestly, I don´t really want to end the mission. But I know that while my official mission as a full-time missionary in Mexico may be ending, my mission in life is really just beginning. This Mexico mission has been like my training camp for my life mission. It was how I learned some important lessons and skills to help me in my future service, and how I expanded my sphere of influence. And now that I´m going back home, I´m returning with all the ganas in the world to keep serving and to always be a missionary.

I reread this talk by Elder Holland this morning, and it reminded me that even when some wonderful moments come to their end, the best is yet to be. I invite you all to read it, it´s really really good:

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/jeffrey-r-holland_remember-lots-wife/ 

I also invite you all to my little sister´s graduation party this Friday. I don´t know the details, but my mom does :) And I invite you all this Sunday to the Wadsworth Ward Sacrament Meeting, where I will share I few more thoughts about my mission and some important lessons I learned here. It´s in the Medina Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I don´t remember the direction or the hour of our services, so you´ll have to ask my mom about that too. But I hope to see you all there.

I know that God is my Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that He lives, and that  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His church. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, I really do. I know that I am His servant. I know these things with all my heart. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Herron

The Atlantes de Tula

Hello friends,

How´re you all doing? I´m doing pretty good. Today my companion and I went with a sister from our ward to the Atlantes de Tula, finally! I´ve been wanting to go for a long time now, basically ever since I got here to Arcos. 

So, Misión México Norte has two different sides. The first is the México State side, which includes Cuautitlan, where I have spent my entire mission. It´s more city, it´s basically a suburb of Mexico City. The second part is Hidalgo, which includes two zones, Tula and Atotonilco, which is a lot more rural, a lot more dust and cactus. In Tula, there are some ancient ruins that are pretty famous, so we went to see them. There are two pyramids (much smaller than those at Teotihuacan, but still pretty impressive) and on top of one of the pyramids there are some huge statue things that are called the Atlantes. Once again, I can´t send photos today, but I encourage you to look them up on the internet, they´re pretty impressive. 

But yeah, with one week remaining in the mission, I FINALLY got to go to Hidalgo.

Anyways, I just wanted to share one small experience with you. This Saturday our entire district went to a baptism that the Hermanas in La Aurora had. We didn´t know who was going to be baptized, but Hermana Jimenez and I were pretty excited because we both spent time there in la Aurora. And yes, I got to see a bunch of members there that I love so much, including Rodolfo, one of my the people I baptized there! But the best part was when I saw who was getting baptized. 

So about 3 months ago, a woman and her daughter came to church. They were driving by and the mother felt a strong feeling that made her want to enter the building. Her daughter did not want to come in and said that she would wait in the car, but her mom basically forced her to come in too. Well, they came in about half way through the Arcos sacrament meeting. They had some really strong spiritual experiences. Hermana Brady and Hermana Perez and I did our best to explain everything and to help them feel comfortable, and that night we passed the reference. And I had almost forgotten about all this until this Saturday when I got to see the daughter get baptized. The mother is going to be baptized this Sunday. 

I am so so so so incredibly grateful that the Lord let me witness at least part of this incredible miracle. 

This is a gospel of miracles.

I love you all!

-Hermana Herron

Exchanges

Hi Everyone!

Just in case you´ve all been wondering, I finish my mission and get home May 24th.

Now you all know. And now we´re not going to talk about that anymore because it just depresses me. 

Well, this week was crazy. We worked hard everywhere except our own area. Tuesday morning we started some exchanges which we finished Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon we started some more exchanges which ended Thursday afternoon. And all Wednesday and Thursday I felt a little sick, but nothing that could keep me from working. Friday we spent all day in a big meeting. Saturday we did a service activity in La Aurora (one of my areas!) where we helped clean an investigator´s field. By the end of the week Hermana Jimenez and I had spent about 5 hours working together in our own area :/ But this week should be a little more normal. 

Um, I really don´t have much time today.

But I want you to know that I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers. And He always listens. So pray away!

I love you all. 

-Hermana Herron

Another Wonderful Baptism

Hi Everyone!

So happy Día del Trabajo today! And happy Día del niño yesterday!

And happy Día de la batalla de Puebla Friday!

Mexicans really like to celebrate things. 

Well, the big news for this week is that Nallely got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures will have to wait for some future date.

It was a beautiful service, a lot of people came. Including my mission president and his wife. 

Yesterday we had ward conference in church, and as part of the program Manuel and Nallely were invited to share their testimonies. Manuel was able to stand and support himself with the podium to bear his testimony. He had written his testimony before hand to not mess up, and seeing him standing there, reading his simple yet sincere testimony brought tears to my eyes. Then Nallely´s beautiful testimony broke me down completely. I love those two so much. 

The baptism and ward conference were a beautiful ending to a week that was honestly rather hard. We were very very busy and had less time that we would have liked to do proselyting, and when we did get out, no one was ever able or willing to meet with us. 

I honestly did get a little frustrated sometimes that Día del niño celebrations would be so much more important than God in the lives of some people. But that was really just a good reminder that, well, if these people don´t understand the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I do. And that´s why I´m here. 

I know that this Gospel and this Church are true. I know it. 

I love you all!

-Hermana Herron

Secret to Being Happy

Hi Everyone!

So, every night we call our district leader to report on our efforts for that day. On Saturday, I was talking with my district leader, and he asked me, "So what´s the secret Hermana Herron? You´ve been super happy all week, why is that?" His question surprised me because Saturday was a particularly difficult day. We had a lot of appointments fall through, three families told us that they didn´t want us to pass by anymore, and I was honestly feeling a little sad about that. It was the end of what had been a very difficult week. But my district leader made me realize that I had in fact been very happy all week somehow. Which is weird, it was a very difficult and tiring week. Well, what I told him was that this past week may have been the week in which I have worked the hardest in my entire mission. And somehow, that made very happy, despite the disappointments. 

The gospel sometimes doesn´t make sense according to the world. But that doesn't change the fact that it´s true.

So, just some other news, they have been changing everything down here, and last week we were told that we now have permission to knock on doors. So, for the first time in my mission, almost 17 months in, I tried proselyting by knocking on doors. Due to the nature of our area, it´s pretty hard here, because most of our area is closed buildings and closed streets with security guards who only let the missionaries pass if they have the name and direction of who they´re going to visit. But there is one part that´s a little more open, so we tried it there, and we had a little success. We found at least one new family that way. 

Well, I know that this work that I´m in is God´s work. I know that we are His children, I know that He loves us with all His heart, might, mind, and strength. That´s why my all will never be enough to repay Him, but I´ll keep giving it :)

I love and miss you all!

-Hermana Herron

Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Easter!

Just really quick, I have a new companion! Hermana Jimenez, she´s my third companion from Oaxaca, México, and she is great. We both arrived here in the mission at the same time, and we started in the same district, so I´ve known her for a while already. 

So Easter! Easter in Mexico is very different from Easter in the United States. The people here in Mexico have many traditions and celebrations all throughout the "Holy Week." They have processions that represent the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Sometimes the reenact it. Some people walk on their knees to a certain place to show their devotion to Christ. I really don´t know that much about all their traditions, but it really is moving how these people show their devotion to the Lord by remembering His suffering for us. 

But something that I was thinking yesterday is that if we focus only on Christ´s suffering for us, we, well, suffer. But Christ didn´t just come to suffer, He also came to overcome that suffering, so that we don´t have to suffer like he did. 

"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;" -D&C 19:16

That is the real miracle of the Atonement, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that because he suffered for us, we don´t have to.

And the real real miracle is that Christ no longer suffers. He is no longer dead. He lives!

The focus of Easter shouldn´t be in His death, rather, in His resurrection and life!

I had the wonderful opportunity yesterday to reread "The Living Christ," I´ll put a link here so that all of you can read it. This document is the testimony of current day prophets and apostles that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world, and that He still lives. 

http://jesuschrist.lds.org/testimonies-of-him/articles/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?lang=eng&_r=1 

With the prophets and apostles of all ages, and as one of His representatives, I also testify that Jesus Christ lives. He overcame death, He overcame sin, He overcame suffering, and He doesn´t ask us to suffer and sacrifice anymore, He only asks that we offer Him our heart and soul and faith and love, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. 

I promise you all that if you turn to Him, you will feel of His peace, as I have felt it. 

I love you all!

-Hermana Herron

A Special Baptism

Hi Everybody!

So guess what.... Manuel got baptized this week! Yay! It was a really nice baptism, a lot of ward members came. Arcos is a really really great ward for fellowshipping. 

I don´t know if I ever explained this, but Manuel has had several.... I don´t actually know what they are. In Spanish they´re called infartos cerebrales, which literally translates to brain heart attacks. But because of this, he struggles to control is movements. That´s why he´s in a wheel chair, he can technically walk, but it is very difficult and very dangerous for him, because he falls a lot. That´s also why he can´t read and why he talks in a very slow, very deliberate way. In the baptism we had a chair in the baptismal font, but it was still very hard for him to get baptized. Either a hand or a foot or a knee would slip up without him wanting to. And even worse, his hands didn´t really have strength to keep his nose plugged and his mouth closed, so yeah, it was an uncomfortable experience for him. But after 4 tries, he got it! And Manuel is so great, he never complained and he never gave up, he knew that he wanted to get baptized, so that´s what he did, no important how difficult it was. After the fourth time finally worked, he came up out of the font and said, "They finally got my horns out!" It was pretty funny. He´s always been golden, and I know he´ll be a faithful saint. 

I love what he said in his baptismal interview too, our district leader shared it with us later that night. The two of them entered the room for the interview, and then Manuel started by saying, "Hermano, with your permission, I would like to be baptized this Saturday."

We really have been blessed here in Arcos, and we have been seeing a lot of miracles. Just one more that I really wanted to share with you all. This past week we had a lot of meetings, studies with other sister missionaries, consejo, the baptism, and basically a lot going on. So even though we had a high goal for new investigators, but Saturday, we had 0. After the baptism we only had a couple of hours to work, and it was full of appointments. One of the appointments fell, so we decided to look for some of our future investigators to hopefully teach one or two of them and convert them into new investigators. We went looking for one named Damaris (it´s actually an interesting story of how we met her and contacted her too, but that´s a story for another day). We knocked on the door and her sister answered and invited us in. Then Damaris came down, then their parents, and suddenly we had a family of 4 new investigators! But much more important than the numbers are the people. This family needs a lot of help. The mother, Lupita, has had major back pain for over 10 years, and she shared with us about all her trials that she has had. This family has basically every problem you can imagine. And  Lupita was considering suicide when we showed up. She told us that she knows that the Lord sent us there to help her and her family, and I know it too. I know that the Lord sent us to that family not to find new investigators, but to save. I just hope and pray that they accept this gospel, because I know it is exactly what they need to save their family and their lives.

That is real missionary work. That is the Lord´s work. The Lord doesn´t call us to bring people into the church. He calls us to serve and to save. That´s why Manuel kept trying until he could finally be baptized, because he knew that he wasn´t just joining a church, he was becoming clean of his sins, making a sacred covenant with God, and preparing to return to His presence someday. And that´s why the Lord guided us to this family, not to convince them of our religion, but to give them the opportunity to be healed through the power of Jesus Christ. 

And speaking of healing through Jesus Christ, enjoy Easter everyone! It´s the day that we remember the most important even that ever happened in the whole history of the world! The resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Well, love you all, keep reading the Book of Mormon every day!

-Hermana Herron   

Nayeli

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for not writing last week, I kind of ran out of time.

Quick news, I whistled for the first time in my life this week! It really wasn´t that impressive, but it was better than any whistle I´ve ever done before. 

This week was wonderful, because we had GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!  I love conference so much. I was particularly moved by President Monson´s simple testimony of the Book of Mormon. And his prophetic council is to study the Book of Mormon every day. I know that the Book of Mormon has a great power to it, I´ve felt it in my life and most especially in my mission. So, if you aren´t reading the Book of Mormon every day, follow the prophet and do it. 

I was also impressed by how many times they talked about "The Living Christ" and encouraged us to study it as well. 

I don´t know if I´ve told you about Nayeli yet. Nayeli was a former investigator who just kinda disappeared for a few months. She wouldn´t answer her phone and she was never home when we passed. Hermana Brady seemed to know her pretty well, but I didn´t meet her until two weeks ago when she showed up at church. She has really, um, recobrado ánimo, she´s really poniendo las pilas, um, well, she´s pretty excited now, she wants to be baptized, and she has a baptismal date for the end of the month. She also has a 7-year-old son and she wants him to serve a mission someday :) He´s adorable, he did an activity with us where we had to draw a picture, and then everyone else had to guess what it was. I drew the temple first, and everyone guessed that right, so then I drew a French horn, and no one guessed that. 

Well, if you didn´t see conference, please watch it here www.lds.org.

If you did see conference, review your notes, pray, and set some specific goals and plans (see Elder Ballard´s talk) to apply conference in your life.

I love you all!

-Hermana Herron 

I Love Being a Missionary

Hi Everyone!
I just want you all to know that I love being in Mexico. Even though I´ve been here for almost 16 months, there are still times when I´m walking in the street and I look around and see the people selling tamales and the signs in Spanish and the graffiti and the pollution and I think to myself. "I love Mexico."

And I also want you to know that I absolutely love being a missionary. I love everything about it. I love that we spend all day everyday out and about in the work of the Lord. I love that I have the opportunity and the authority to testify to every single person I see that I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I love that I get to see so many miracles as the Lord brings about his work here among these people I love so much. And maybe I´m going slightly crazy, but I even love when people reject us, because it is exactly when someone challenges us or rejects us that I most feel the Spirit testify that our message is true. And later on, when someone accepts the gospel, it´s just the sweetest thing in the world.

I love walking through the streets. singing hymns with my companion and getting weird looks from people because we sing so loud. I love praying and knowing that my prayers are heard. I love sitting in an intense lesson with an investigator who needs the gospel much and promising them with all my heart and all my soul that this is exactly what they need. I love serving, and I pray that I can serve with even more of my heart, might, mind, and strength while I´m still here.

My friends, this gospel is true. It´s all true. God lives. Jesus Christ is the Savior and Creator of the world. The Book of Mormon and the Bible are the word of God. And our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers.

Also, I hope you all know that I love you all!

-Hermana Herron

New Investigators

Hi Everyone!

So I promised I would tell you about some of the families we have been finding recently. 

My time here in Arcos has been very interesting, because our investigator pool has been completely transformed in my time here. We have had to drop or have lost almost all of the investigators that we had when I got here about 2 months ago (have I really already been here for 2 months?!) and so we have really been exercising our faith to find new investigators, especially new families. And the Lord has been blessing us a lot. 

One family we have found is the Lopez family. We contacted the father in the street, and he invited us to visit his family. When we went to the first cita, he wasn´t there but his wife was, so we started talking with her. They have 2 adorable children, Diego and Kenya. And every member of the family has a different personality and a different level of openness. The father is very thoughtful and more than anything, wants to change. The mother is open but also very skeptical and wants to be completely convinced before committing to anything. And Diego is adorable, he is the most open of everyone. During the first lesson he didn´t really make any comments or ask any questions or anything, but at the end when we invited them to come to church, he was the first to say, "I want to go!" And when we were arranging a day to come again, he told us, "Don´t come on Tuesday, because I won´t be here on Tuesday." I love this family!

Also, Manuel now has come to church 3 weeks in a row, and he is getting very very excited to be baptized in April!

Well, to end I just want to share with you my scripture of the week:

"33 Wherefore, be not weary in welldoing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

 34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days." -D&C 64:33-34

There is so much I could say about this scripture and how it has helped me, but I don´t have time, so I´ll just settle by saying that I know that this is the work of the Lord, truly a great work. And I really do know that it is the small things, the every-day diligence, the small acts of faith, that bring about the great miracles.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Pictures from Arcos

Hello everyone, I have no time today, literally. But next week I promise to tell you about some of the amazing families we have been finding lately.

I know this work is the work of the Lord, and I love being a part of it!

I love you all, have a wonderful week, you´re all in my prayers.

-Hermana Herron

Manuel

Hi Everyone!

I have no time today, but I wanted to let you all know that yesterday, an investigator named Manuel came to church for the first time! He is a very sweet old man, he is in a wheel chair, but is very humble and willing to learn. He accepted a baptismal date early on and every time we visit him, he reminds us "Hermanas, don´t forget that I´m getting baptized April 8th." And if he keeps coming to church, he will be. 

Sorry I don´t have time to share more. I still love you all! Have a wonderful week. 

-Hermana Herron

Our Heritage

Hi Everyone!

Well, this week Hermana Brady went home to Las Vegas, and Hermana Pérez and I are back to being just two, and it honestly feels really weird. Even though I was only in a trio for a few weeks, I really enjoyed it and I got used to it very quickly.

As usual, I have next to no time today, but I just wanted to share with you my testimony that I know that the same gospel that Jesus Christ taught and the same church that He established are on the earth again, and that they were restored through a prophet of God, Joseph Smith. 

This week I was reading a little in a book that all missionaries have called "Our Heritage," which is basically a small sketch of the restoration and history of the church. This week I was reading about Kirtland (yay Ohio) and I was really really impressed by the sacrifices that the early saints made and the faith they showed. Many of them gave up everything they had, including their lives, because of their faith. It really impacted me, because how many times have I complained for sickness (by the way I got sick to the stomach again on Saturday) or fallen appointments or people who reject us or cualquier little thing. I honestly don´t know if I would have been one of the strong, faithful, stalwart pioneers we always hear stories about, or if I would have been a little more like Laman and Lemuel. Maybe I´m not currently in the same kinds of circumstances, but reviewing those stories strengthened my resolve to be the best latter-day missionary that I can be. 

You´re invitation of the week for members is to ask the missionaries if any of their investigators are coming to church and to sit with those investigators in Sacrament Meeting. If you´re not a member of the church, your invitation of the week is to Pray with real intent to know God´s will for you, just as Joseph Smith did.

 

I love and miss you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Hermana Herron

Personal Progress

Hi Everyone!!!!

This was a pretty interesting week. As sister training leaders, we do exchanges with various companionships of sisters in Cuautitlan each transfer. This week we were planning on doing some on Tuesday and on Friday. Well, Tuesday Hermana Brady got really sick and was throwing up and everything. Because we´re in a trio, it wasn´t too much of a problem, Hermana Perez and I went did the exchanges with the two other sisters while Hermana Brady rested in the house of a member. Friday though, we ended up doing two exchanges at the same time. Hermana Brady went to the area of some sister missionaries with both of them to see how they are working together in their area, while Hermana Perez and I were going to do normal exchanges with another companionship. but that day, I got really sick with the same thing Hermana Brady had. So poor Hermana Perez was with the two sisters all day while I rested in the house of a member.

Yup, interesting week.

Quick miracle, there is a 16 year old less active girl here who until recently was a professed atheist. But apparently 4 years ago, before turning atheist, she promised her sister that she would finish her Personal Progress. And she felt the obligation to follow-through with her promise.  A few weeks ago she came to us asking for help to start her personal progress, and we have been working with her on the first few experiences. The first experience required her to pray twice a day for three weeks, and she has been doing it! We are seeing a big change in her, she no longer says she doesn´t believe in God, she no longer fights with her aunts and sisters, and  she wants to come to church again! Personal Progress really is an inspired program. 

Today we celebrated Hermana Brady´s last día de preparación by going to a cemetery. Actually, it was really beautiful, and the main reason we went is because there is a HUGE statue of Jesus there. Pictures to come in some future day.

Well, this Thursday Hermana Brady ends her mission and flies home, so it will be just Hermana Perez and me here in Arcos. 

Thank you all for your support and your prayers.

-Hermana Herron

Never Get Discouraged!

Hi Everyone!

I almost couldn´t email you all this week because this computer decided to stop responding for the longest time, but surprise! You all still get an email from me :)

I just don´t have any time at all, so perdón if it´s really really short.

This week we were really focused on contacting and finding. After a lot of really really hard work, we ended the week with.... 0 new investigators. Actually, we had to drop some investigators, and others dropped us, so we ended up with a number considerably lower than we started.

But I´m not discouraged. I know the Lord is preparing people to receive this message. We might not find them when we want, but in His timing, He will put them in our path.

Never get discouraged! Always keep trying, keep working, keep loving, and keep your faith strong! All things will work together for good.

I love and miss you all!

-Hermana Herron

Ps. The bishop here in Arcos has the first name Oliblish. 10 bonus points for the first person to find out where his name comes from.

Fourth Floor, Last Door

Hi Everyone!!!!!

Today we went to the temple!!!! It was absolutely beautiful, but I have almost 0 time. 

So just 2 quick stories. First, this week my companions and I put the goal to find a new family that will attend church this week. Yesterday we were contacting and looking for future investigators like crazy! But no one was accepting. That´s when we decided to say a prayer, and to our minds came the talk from the General Women's session last conference by President Uchtdorf, "Fourth floor, last door." We decided to keep looking, and literally the last people we tried accepted us. I know the Lord is preparing a lot of people and families for us, and though they might be the last ones, if we are diligent we will find them. 

Second thing, we had a worldwide broadcast for missionaries last Wednesday. It was excellent. It was also very interesting, because they announced some changes to the missionary schedule and the key indicators. Supposedly our mission president was going to help clear things up for us, but President Urrea found out the same time we did. The church announced some of these changes in December to all the mission presidents, but for all the changes and confusion this mission had in December with our mission presidents, we somehow were missed. President Urrea also is beginning to implement his own changes in our schedule and other things in the mission, so, yeah, it´s been a crazy week. But I love change, it keeps us awake and it keeps us constantly trying to repent and be better.

Well, I love and miss you all!! Thanks for all your support!

-Hermana Herron

A Trio

Hi Everyone!!

Well, this week has been quite interesting. 

My new area, like I said last week, is right here in middle of all my other areas. It is very small, not quite as small as Mira Azul was, but still small, but a lot of people live here because there are a lot of apartment buildings. We live in one of them, 4th floor out of 10. And it is a really nice, rather rich area. Maybe La Aurora and Joyas 2 were just especially poor, but I honestly feel uncomfortable in some of these houses. But there is a lot of work here, a lot of people that we are teaching. 

Also, all the members here have friends or family that live in my other 3 areas.

My two companions are really good. Hermana Brady is my first American companion since the CCM, she´s from Las Vegas, and this is actually her last transfer, she goes home in the middle of February, before the transfer actually ends, which is why we are in trio right now. She has a lot of experience as a sister training leader and has the most time in this ward as well. She´s also the second person I´ve met here in the mission who was at BYU before the mission, like me. Actually, we lived in neighboring buildings in Helaman Halls the same year at BYU, but neither of us remembers having seen each other.  Hermana Perez is form Guadalajara and has just one transfer less than me. I´ve known here since her first transfer here, so we were both excited that we would be companions. She is really sweet. Actually, the three of us complement each other pretty well for how we teach and work, so things are working out well. 

It´s been forever, so I´ll throw in a quick Mexican fun fact. Just like in English, there are different accents in Spanish. In the beginning of my mission I couldn´t hear them, I could just here people speaking Spanish, but now I can recognize a lot of accents, and it is really fun. For example, my mission president, Presidente Urrea, is from the north, from Monterrey, and he has the Monterrey accent very strong. Mexico City is famous for its chilango accent, which is very fast and sing-songy. Here in the state of Mexico it´s not quite as common or as strong, but I do here it a lot, especially in street venders and combi drivers. My favorite accent thus far is the accent of my past district leader, who is from Argentina. His accent is like a very very strong Italian accent. It was really hard for me to understand him at first because he says all of his y´s and ll´s like sh, while in normal Mexican Spanish we say the y´s and ll´s more like jy. But now I can understand him better. 

As for me, I have a gringo accent, but I´m working on it. 

Well, I love this work. I love the privilege of spending all my time and all my strength serving the Lord by serving His children here. I know that Christ is directing His work. 

I love you all!

Hermana Herron

Transfer Week

Hi Everyone!!!!

This week was a lot better for Hermana Morillón and I as far as the work goes. A lot more lessons, a lot more lessons, a lot of people progressing, we´ve been seeing a lot of miracles here and it has been very exciting here in Joyas.

So of course, they decided to move me. 

We have transfers tomorrow, and I´m off to Arcos. Once again, it´s right here in the same stake, about 10 minutes away in car. And, I will be in a trio, with Hermana Brady (an American) and Hermana Perez, who I´ve known for almost my whole mission. And even crazier, we three will be sister training leaders.

I have no idea how to be a sister training leader and I have no idea how it will be in a trio, but I guess we´ll see. 

It´s funny, because I´ve actually been to arcos before. In this mission, the new missionaries arrive on Mondays but aren´t assigned companions and areas until Tuesday, so that first Monday they spend with some other missionaries in another area. And my first day here in the mission, over a year ago, I spent the day with the sister training leaders in Arcos. That´s where I started my mission, and if the pattern keeps up, it might be where I end too.

Well, I don´t have much time, but I´m putting here the link to one of my new favorite talks of all time. It´s actually a devotional from BYU, and part of the reason I like it so much might be because he talks about math. But he also shares a message that I really have needed here in my mission. We aren´t perfect, we will never be perfect in this life, but if we do our best, God makes up the rest. I know that is true, because I see it every day. The Lord is the one who is doing His work here in Mexico, not me. I´m just so grateful I can be a part of it. 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/tyler-j-jarvis_thats-light-gets/

I love you all!

-Hermana Herron

Teotihuacan

Hi Everyone!!!!

First things first, the pictures! They are from this morning when we went to Teotihuacan. I don´t have time to tell you all about it, so I invite you to look it up. But it´s huge. It´s an entire city of ruins. There are two really big pyramids too, the pyramid of the Sun, and the pyramid of the moon. We can go once in our mission, and Hermana Morillón and I went today with la Hermana Curiel. We arrived super early, so at first we had the whole place to ourselves, but it was so foggy we couldn´t see anything. It was actually really neat, if felt like we were in the sky, or in a dream. Then it cleared up and we really enjoyed our time there. There are a lot of theories out there about Teotihuacan and whether it may be a place in the Book of Mormon. I personally believe it´s Zarahemla, but that is Hermana Herron doctrine, it´s not church doctrine, and it may be a biased opinion. 

Ok, working backwards, yesterday was great because a ton of people came to church! We had 8 investigators and about 17 less-actives that we teach come yesterday. I was so happy.

We were surprised how many people came too because we hardly had any lessons this week. The only day we had a considerable number of lessons scheduled was Wednesday, and Wednesday we had to return home right after district meeting for safety reasons so we didn't actually get to teach. It was the first day in my entire mission that I didn´t go out to do some sort of proselyting, which was a little sad. But we´re back to business now, no worries. 

We´re hoping for a very busy and miracle-filled week here. And I hope you all have a wonderful week too.

-Hermana Herron

Feliz Año!

Hi everyone, y feliz año!!!

I don´t have too much time today, but honestly I don´t have

very much to say. Almost everyone left on vacations this week, so teaching was a little slow. But it was still a really nice festive week. 

I am very very grateful for all that I learned and saw and did and became in 2016, and I know that the Lord has many blessings waiting for us in 2017. Remember, faith is for the future! 

A few pictures from last week. My companion and I with our capacitadoras the day of intercambios (I don´t know those words in English, I´m sorry) and a picture of our 3 assistents to the president dressed up as the 3 kings, delivering us gifts :)

Les amo y les extraño mucho!

Hermana Herron