Loving Those You Serve

Hi Everyone!

So for the fun fact this week, here is a list of some of the most important Spanish words that they never taught me in high school Spanish class:

pues - um, or well, or just a word to say when you don´t know what to say.

órale - an exclamation that means something along that lines of wow, fantastic, way to go, how awesome.

íjole - an exclamation that means just the opposite of órale, something like how awful.

andale - another exclamation, basically means keep going, that´s right

entonces - basically one of the most important words in all of Spanish. It means so, but can also be used like pues, you just say it when you don´t know what else to say.

To be continued....

This was a week of lots of ups and downs. It´s really amazing how a mission is like that. We lost some investigators, which broke my heart. But we also had some really amazing lessons with some investigators who are starting to progress, and I wouldn´t have traded those for anything. 

I don´t know how it happened, I don´t know how he did it, but Heavenly Father has given me a love for these people that I have met and taught in this area. It´s really weird, actually. I haven´t known any of them for more than 3 months, most of them I still struggle to communicate with, but this week, I have just felt so much love for so many people here. 

The mission is a crazy, hard, wonderful, beautiful thing. 

Hope you all have a great week, and that you´re reading your scriptures and praying every single day. 

Love and miss you all!

Hermana Herron 

Conference! Conference!

I love conference. I´ve seriously been counting down the days since January, and I´m already looking forward to the next conference.

But first things first. I have a new compañera, Hermana Loyola, from Culiacan, Mexico. She has just one transfer more than me, in fact, she only entered the CCM two weeks before me. So, we´re both pretty new. It´s been fun though, she is very sweet and sincere. It´s been interesting though, because now I´m the only one who knows the area and all the people and members here, so I´ve been the one who has had to take the lead.

Yesterday, for the first time since I´ve been here in Mira Azul, we had investigators come to church!!!! We had two investigators, well, two and a half (one doesn´t live in the area, but we´ve been teaching her a little) come see conference! WOOO-HOOOO!!!!! One was Jair, our eternigator who really has problems making the commitment to come to church. The other was Santa Rosa, the same investigator I taught by myself a few weeks ago when we did divisions. We also had a number of menos activos come, it was so great! I am so excited to be seeing these miracles here!

Ok, conference! For those of you who aren´t members, every April and October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a world-wide conference in which the prophets and apostles of the Lord, as well as other church leaders, speak to us. 

I saw both of the morning sessions in Spanish, in the ward building. I understood the messages, but I am really looking forward to reading the talks later on so that I can get the most I can out of those talks. It will be like conference all over again! I got to see both of the afternoon sessions in English in the stake center.

So, even though I only saw two sessions in English, the Sunday Afternoon session was definitely my favorite. In fact, it might be one of my favorite sessions of General Conference ever, it was so good. Every talk. I especially loved the three by the three apostles, Elder Hales, Elder Oaks, and of course, Elder Holland´s.

One thing that Elder Holland said that I really liked was that the atonement of Jesus Christ saves us from the effects of sin and stupidity. I mess up so often. I´ve said plenty of stupid things during lessons, it´s honestly a miracle that we manage to gain or keep any investigators. But that´s just it. It is a miracle. The Lord is there to save me and the work every time I fall or do something stupid. And just like Elder Holland said, even though we may not be perfect, even if we don´t progress very much, in this gospel we get credit for trying. And I am trying the hardest I possibly can.

Elder Holland´s talk also reminded me of an article that I read earlier this week, "It isn´t a sin to be weak." The author pointed out something really interesting. A very famous verse in the Book of Mormon says "And if men come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble..." I´m pretty sure I´ve commented on this verse before, about how it is exactly when we are coming unto the Lord that we see our weaknesses most clearly. But in this article the author pointed out that while sins are encouraged by Satan, our weaknesses actually come from God. They are not the same thing. And while we must repent of our sins, weaknesses require a different response. They require faith, and humility, and patience as we work to overcome them. 

I encourage all of you to read that article. And to watch conference again :)

Love and miss you all!

Hermana Herron

Feliz Pascua everyone!

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all enjoyed your Easter. Easter itself isn´t really that big here, even among members. La Semana Santa, the whole Holy Week, is huge among the Catholics though. And basically everyone here is either Mormon or Catholic or Jehovah´s Witness. 

I´ve officially finished my training now, and tomorrow we have cambios, or changes ( I honestly don´t remember what they´re called in English). Hermana Gonzalez is leaving me to go be a Sister Training Leader in the neighboring stake, but I get to stay here in Mira Azul! I don´t know my new compañera yet, but I´m sure she´ll be great. 

This week was a little rough. We lost a lot of investigators. I really hate losing investigators. It´s the worst. It makes me super sad. But we also found new investigators. 

I´m reminded over and over again that I´m not the one doing any work here, like I said last week. It is 100% the Lord. We spent a good portion of the week working to get investigadoras and hermanas to attend the Womens Session of General Conference on Saturday (which, by the way, was awesome. I mean, I watched it in Spanish, so I didn´t understand everything, but what I did understand was amazing! I loved the focus on love and service. And the music was beautiful! If you missed it, go to lds.org right now and watch it.) We invited and reminded everyone, and before the conference we called about 5 people and personally stopped by 3 houses to pick people up. But not a single one of them came. So we were feeling a little bummed as we sat in the conference, and then who should walk in but the wife of a past investigator who dropped us and a new investigator that we have only taught once! We couldn´t believe it! I just know that it wasn´t anything that we did that brought them, but the Spirit. Amazing how the Lord works sometimes. 

This week we did divisions. Hermana Gonzalez went with an hermana in our ward to visit some people on one side of the area, and I went with another hermana to visit people on the other side, so that we could have more lessons. The hermanas that were going to accompany us both canceled the day of, so we were scrambling a little to find two more. Eventually we found one hermana, but Hermana Bingham had to fill in for the other. Since Hermana Bingham only speaks English really, she went with me so that I could translate. I was terrified. I would have to do all of the talking, all of the understanding, and all of the teaching on my own, in Spanish. But it had to be done so I did it. The Lord more than made up for my efforts. I was able to understand basically everything, and we had a first lesson with a new investigator, and she is golden! She accepted a baptismal date and to come to church and she has real desires to learn and grow more.

Oh, fun fact. Here we drink aguas all the time, but hardly ever is it just plain water. It´s always water with the juice and pulp of some fruit. My favorites are agua de fresa (strawberry), de mango, y de mandarina. 

Also, quick reminder that you all had better prepare for and watch General Conference. It´s this weekend, and I am SUPER excited!

Love and miss you all!

Hermana Herron

ps. Pictures: Two more attempts to get a picture of my district (it´s really hard to get us all in there sometimes), the tlayudas we made today with Hermana Pilar, and Hermana Gonzalez and I with the sister training leaders.  (* For pictures above.)

pps. Pictures! They include my attempts to get a picture of my district and our little St Patricks day party (St. Patrick´s Day isn´t that popular in Mexico, but our district leader is from New Hampshire, so we celebrated it anyways), and a selfie that Hermana Gonzalez and I tried to take at the Ward Noche de Hogar.  (* Below - Pictures that were sent with last week's letter.)

Aleluya!

Hi Everyone!

 

My brother reminded me that I haven´t been including any culture fun facts lately, so here is one for this week: in general, Mexicans are very, very tone deaf. But they still sing loud and proud, which I love, even if I can´t distinguish one key to sing along with sometimes. 

Also, related to that, not all of the hymns in the English hymnbook are in the Spanish one, but there are some hymns in the Spanish hymnbook that we don´t have in English too.

 

This week was a really special week. We beat our record this week for number of lessons taught (27 in total this week!), and we beat our daily record twice (6 lessons in one day). Hermana Gonzalez and I have really been working hard to try to meet the Standards of Excelence in the mission, and the Lord has really been blessing us. 

 

Last Monday we had our first Ward Family Home Evening, or Noche de Hogar. We made invitations and really advertized it and worked hard to make it a success. But it turned out to be so much more of a success than I ever imagined! We had investigators, muchos menos activos, conversos recientes... Martin y Pilar brought their son, the whole familia de la Cruz came, Ana Lilia came. And so many members came as well! The Bishop said that we had about 80% attendence of a regular Sacrament Meeting! And everyone had a good time. This was the first time the ward has tried to do something of this nature, and Hermana Gonzalez and I could not be more happier with the success that we had. 

 

We are finally starting to see some success in this area, not really in baptisms, but in attitude of the members. They can feel the difference. We have more people willing to work with us and accompany us. This week was a little hard to get members to accompany us simply because we only had phone signal half the time, but we still managed to find members for all but three of our lessons, which is another miracle. Yesterday in the Ward Counsel some of the leaders thanked us for the work we are doing because they can truly see the difference. The funny thing is though, we aren´t the ones doing anything. I mean, we´re working as hard as we possibly can, doing all that we can, praying, fasting, teaching, improving, but it´s obvious to me that the one doing the real work isn´t us, but the Lord. Just an example, Israel. Israel is (or was) a menos activo who came to church yesterday for the 4th week in a row. But literally all we did was show up at his house one day to meet his mamá. We had no idea Israel even existed. And as we were talking with his mom, he came up and asked us what time church was on Sunday, because I wanted to come back. And now he´s attended four weeks in a row, just like that. And we misionaries didn´t actually do anything, it was 100% the Lord´s work. 

Speaking of Israel, the first time we visited his mamá, Lupita, she was willing to talk with us, but she had very very little desire to return to church. Well, that has changed. Thanks to the example of her son, everything about her and her family has changed. Now every time we visit them, she has questions for us from what she read, and now she has desires to return to church. It´s amazing the influence one person, like Israel, can have just through his example. 

 

As you hopefully all know, a very special day is coming up, when we will remember the life, death, and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. I encourage all of you to go see the Easter video that the church has put out, you can find it in English here www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah. It´s only about 2 minutes long but it is powerful. I know that through Him, and we can find new life. I know that He lives. I know it. I know that He is my Savior, and I love Him. 

 

Hermana Herron

 

ps. Also a quick reminder, General Conference is in less than two weeks!!! I have seriously never been more excited for General Conference before, I´ve been counting down to it since about mid January. I hope you´re all preparing to see it and learn from it and apply it in your lives. 

 

Happy Pi Day

Just a quick reminder from your misionera/math major to eat some pie today. Pie isn´t really a thing in Mexico, so I probably won´t be able to, which is sad but I suppose I´ll live. They do have pie in some places, but it´s not really the same, and the spell it "pay" which I think is funny.

Anyways, I hope you are all doing well. This week was a little hard for Hermana Gonzalez and I. We had a lot of canceled appointments. Every day was like a Saturday. The Missionary Manual says that we should spend as much time as possible proselyting Saturdays and Sundays because it is a good time to find families together at home, but that´s a lie. We can never find anyone at home on Saturdays or Sundays, and this week, every day was like that. But we still managed to have some success and some really good lessons. 

I want to tell you all about just one lesson in particular. It was with an investigator named Patricia. She is super happy and spirited and always wearing about 6 inch heels. For her work she designs children´s clothes. She is always fun to visit. Anyways, this week we had a lesson with her in which we introduced her to the Book of Mormon. And she accepted it so well right off the bat! It was amazing! We would say something like "The Book of Mormon is scripture like the Bible," And instead of asking why we need more, like most people, she would get all excited. We talked about how the Book of Mormon describes Christ´s visit to the Americas and she said,  "I always thought He came here too." It was so exciting to be there in that lesson, seeing someone I love discover for the first time a book that I love so much. I know it´s true, and I´m so happy she is willing to accept it, and I´m so excited for her to come to love The Book of Mormon as much as I do. 

One last thought, which is actually a scripture from the Book of Mormon. It´s one of my favorites, Alma 37:6-7.

 6 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

 7 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

I don´t know what God was thinking when He formed His army, the hope of Israel, out of a bunch of 18, 19, 20, 21-year-olds. But I suppose He knows something that I don´t. Every day I´m reminded of my weaknesses and of how small, simple, and weak I am. But then I´m reminded that this isn´t really my work, it´s His. It´s not really about me, it´s about Him. And it´s not my strength that this area needs, but His. I just feel so blessed that I get a front row seat to see the "great things" He is doing here.

Love you all! Have a great week

Hermana Herron

Milagros Son Reales!

Hey everyone!

This week started out very hard. We had very little success, no one was keeping commitments, members who had said they would accompany us kept canceling us last minute, we couldn´t find any one at home... it was just rough. I was also struggling because I started wondering if the reason we weren´t having success was something I was or wasn´t doing. I know I´m never going to be a perfect missionary, but I was really starting to think that our lack of success was because of me and my imperfections.

Well, I did improve a lot as a missionary this week, thanks to that. But I believe now that Heavenly Father was just trying my patience a little bit. Because the second half of the week was absolutely amazing! We saw so many miracles, there´s no way I can write about all of them. So just to sum up some important ones:

An eternigator of more than 3 years accepted a baptismal date!

In a lesson with a very angry, very unforgiving menos activa, I felt prompted to ask her to bear her testimony. And her entire countenance literally changed. It was amazing.

We walked into the store of an investigator to visit her, and she had a friend there. We sat down for the lesson and her friend joined us. We were reading from 2 Nephi 31 in the Book of Mormon. Her friend, Angie, said that earlier that week she had heard a quote somewhere that said something along the lines of "There is a book waiting for you, with a message just for you." And she said that as we were reading together. she felt the Spirit tell her that this is that book.

We were in a lesson with a menos activa, and who should knock on the door but one of our investigators! An investigator that we have only taught twice, and who is often hard to find and hardly every home. We had no idea they were friends! She joined us for the rest of the lesson, and once again the Spirit was really strong.

Yesterday all of our appointments fell through, so we were headed for our plan C or something like that when we ran into another less-active. She asked us if we could get some hermanos to come give her niece a blessing, and without going into too much detail, it was really good that we were able to do that. The niece was not in good shape emotionally, and was on the verge of suicidal. The priesthood blessing, and the incredible mother-powers of the hermana who was accompanying us may have saved her life in that moment.

Just a few of the amazing miracles we saw this week.

I love being a missionary.

Ok, for a spiritual thought this week. This mission has a tradition of decorating our planners. On my planner for these 6 weeks, I have two quotes. I want you all to pick one of them, think about it, and share your thoughts with me next week!

"Unless we lose ourselves in the service of others, there is little purpose to our lives." - President Monson

"I testify that He is utterly incomparable in what He is, what He knows, what He has accomplished and what He has experienced. Yet, movingly, He calls us His friends." - Elder Neal A Maxwell

Oh, and pictures! The first one is just a fun one that I took with El Libro de Mormón for my mom. The second was an attempt to get a picture of my zone, and we got almost everyone in. The last two.... so a few weeks ago we had our water tank cleaned because it had a bunch of little bugs living in it, so we had to empty the tank so it could be cleaned. We hated seeing all that water go to waste, so we went ahead and used it to clean and wash clothes, with the facets all the way open. It was actually pretty fun. 

Love you all!

Hermana Herron

Happy Leap Day!

Because I couldn´t think of anything else to title this email. And I won´t be able to say that again for another four years, so why not.

I hope you all have had a great week. I don´t have too much time today, so I´ll just jump straight in. 

Listening is so important in missionary work. We had a really neat lesson this week with an investigator where we hardly taught anything, but we listened, and were able to help her a lot. This investigator has been going through some really hard times in her family recently. And during one of our lessons with her this week, she finally opened up to us and shared some of her worries and concerns. We were able to listen and help and comfort her. And even though we never actually taught our lesson plan, I felt so grateful to have been there to listen. 

Yesterday we contacted someone who has talked to a lot of missionaries before. He lives on the same street as the mission offices, so it´s not that surprising. He has a Book of Mormon and has read the entire thing! But he read it without real intent and without prayer, so he gained absolutely nothing out of it. That kinda shocked me. The Book of Mormon is such a powerful book. It´s true, it´s so true, and it is life-changing. I just can´t understand how someone could read the Book of Mormon and not be changed by it. 

I know that a number of you aren´t members of the church. But whether you are a member or not, my invitation for you is to begin reading the Book of Mormon. Begin with the introduction and the testimonies. If you are a member, read it with a specific purpose in mind. If you´re not a member, please read this book with an open mind and an open heart. It is not meant to replace the Bible, but to support it. And it is true. It is so true. I can´t even begin to express all that I have learned and felt from reading this book, or the power I have felt come into my life from it. 

I love and miss you all. Have a great week, read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and choose the right. 

Hermana Herron

ps, I was going to send pictures this week for once, but this computer isn´t cooperating with my camera, so you will all have to wait until next week. Sorry!