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