Heading to a New Area

Hi everyone!!

Important Spanish words and phrases they never taught me in high school Spanish:

de repente -  all of a sudden

chanclas - flip flops

¡a poco! - Really? How great!

nos vemos - see you later

So cambios, I mean transfers, are tomorrow, and after more than 4 wonderful months here in Cumbria, I´m finally being transferred. I´m off to Aurora tomorrow. I don´t know much about that area, but I´m excited to meet new people and work hard to help and serve them. I´ll tell you all about my new companion and area next week. 

Quick miracle for you all. For a number of weeks we had an investigadora named Santa Rosa who was progressing beautifully. She was very receptive and was searching for her answer. Then about two weeks ago, she disappeared of the face of the planet. We couldn´t find her at home, she wouldn´t answer her phone, she wouldn´t respond to our messages. We were really worried, and we were fasting and praying that we would be able to find her again. We continued trying to contact her every day. Well a couple of days ago, she finally responded!!!! Turns out she is on vacations right now, and for that reason we couldn´t find her. She gets back this coming Saturday, and still wants to keep learning more.

The pictures this week are me and Hermana Loyola with some of the sisters in the ward, Hermana Villa and Hermana Reyes, and then with Hermana Villa her daughters, Sigh... I´m gonna miss this ward.

So, I finished the Book of Mormon this week!! Actually, I finished El Libro de Mormón, because I read the entire book in Spanish. I have heard promises from certain general authorities that if a missionary reads the Book of Mormon in his mission language, he´ll receive the gift of tongues and learn the language and be fluent and all of that. And while I´m still far from fluent, I have definitely learned a lot and felt the power of the gift of tongues that has come from that book. I also read with a certain topic in mind, and I also learned a ton by reading the Book of Mormon with a focus. I´ve started again, and this time I´m going to read with a special focus on repentance. I talked last week about how I´ve been studying repentance so that I can better understand, apply, and teach it. Well, no I´m going to read the whole Book of Mormon to learn even more. If you have never read the Book of Mormon with a specific topic or question in mind, or if you have a specific question that you want answered, read the Book of Mormon, start to finish, looking specifically for the answer. I can promise you that if you read it prayerfully and humbly, you will find your answer. 

The Book of Mormon is true. It is so true. This church is true. The restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith is fact. This is true. It´s all true. I know it. 

Have a fantastic week everyone! And remember to always sing in the rain.

-Hermana Herron

Declaring Repentance

Hi Everyone!

Ok, all of my life, when we would celebrate Mother´s Day and Father´s Day, I would always ask, "How come there´s no kid´s day?" And my parents would always tell me "Every day is kids day." Lies. There is a real kids day. All of Mexico celebrated it this past week. We had a really nice primary/ward activity to celebrate it. There is most definitely a kids day.

Anyways, I hope you have all had a fantastic week. My week had its share of ups and downs. You may have noticed that I haven´t really been writing about any of my investigators lately. That´s because we have lost the majority of our investigators. It´s been very sad to lose these people that I care so much for. But I have the hope that even if they don´t receive the gospel now, they may in the future. The seed is there now, and I just hope and pray that they will always remember how they felt when we bore our testimonies to them.

Even though we´re a little low on people to teach, we are still working very hard. We are in finding mode right now. I don´t know how much time I have left here in Cumbria, but when I leave it, I want to leave it progressing and stronger than it was before. And I want to leave the missionaries here with plenty of people to work with. 

Quick miracle for you all: We almost never have phone service, so often when we need to make important calls, we use the public phone right by our house. One morning this week I was making a bunch of calls and no one was answering, but the phone wasn´t returning my 5 pesos, so I was spending a lot of money trying to make these calls. Well that night, when we went to the phone to say that we had returned to our casa, the district leader didn´t answer right at first. But the phone returned my pesos this time, and what more, when I reached down to grab them, I found all of the other pesos I had spent that morning. I got the exact amount back. That was a nice, if somewhat less spiritual, miracle.

This week I have been studying a lot about repentance. In a zone training we had a couple of weeks ago, our mission president said something that really stuck with me. We need to understand thoroughly repentance. We need to study it and understand it and live it. We need to have personal experiences with the Atonement of Jesus Christ every week, every day, or how can we possible help other people to repent? As a missionary, I am here in Mexico with the purpose to "declare repentance," but how can I do that if I don´t personally understand what that means? I don´t have much time today, and I still have a lot to learn, but next week, I hope to share a little bit more with you all.

Have a wonderful week! I love and pray for you all!

Hermana Herron 

5 Month Mark

Hi everyone,

 Today I´ll continue my list of important Spanish words and phrases that they never taught me in my high school Spanish classes:
a ver - it means "Let´s see," "Let me see," "we´ll see" They use it all the time. 

que padre -  "How cool" I don´t know why, but they use padre (father) to mean cool a lot.

así - like that, or like this

The article I mentioned last week is called "The New and Everlasting Covenant" by Elder Marcus B Nash in the December 2015 Ensign or Liahona. 

One of the basic doctrine of the church that we take so much for granted is the knowledge that our families can be together forever. The majority of the people we contact or talk with day to day either have never wondered if their family can last forever, think that an eternal, happy family will just happen automatically, or just don´t believe in eternal families. That honestly makes me so sad. I know that our families can live together forever, but only through the ordinances and covenants available in the temple. Again, like I talked about last week, ordinances and covenants are so important. 

As I´ve listened to all of conference again, (in English this time!) I´ve noticed that they talked a lot about temples and families. It was a little sad at times because I´m not physically with my family right now, but hey, that´s what a missionary is: Someone who leaves their family for a short time so that others can be with their families for all eternity.

I love my family, and I´m so grateful that I´m sealed to them for all time and eternity, and that is the same blessing that I want for all of you and all of these people here in Mexico. 
 
Love you all!
Hermana Herron

Continuing to Work

Hi everyone, no time this week, so sorry if this is a little short.

This week was, well, another week in the mission. Hermana Loyola and I have been focusing a lot on trying to find more investigators, because we need more investigators. It´s been a little rough because it seems like no one that we contact here actually lives in our area. In Mexico we can´t go knocking doors, we´re only allowed to street contact. But slowly but surely we are building up our pool of potential investigators. 

I spoke again in the ward yesterday. That was fun.

I read an article this week in the Liahona, or the church magazine, about covenants, and it was super good. It talked about what exactly is the "new and everlasting covenant" that is mentioned so often in the Doctrine and Covenants. Basically, it is the sum total of all of the ordinances that we do and covenants that we make that allow us to progress and someday return to our Heavenly Father. If you aren´t a member, a covenant is a sacred promise between God and us as individuals, and an ordinance is a sacred act by which we enter into covenants, such as baptism. Basically, the entire plan, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is that we make and keep the covenants necessary. Then  through the mercy and power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will be prepared to reenter into God´s presence.

The article explained it a lot better than I can. But I don´t remember what it´s called or even what month it was from. It was either December or October.... I´ll find out and let you all know next week.

Hope you are all doing fantastically! Have a great week!

Hermana Herron

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.)