Teaching Piano

Hola everyone!

Quick fun fact about Misión Mexico Norte, we are not allowed to wear watches when we´re out and about during the day. They don´t want anyone to think we are super rich wearing expensive watches. Which is funny, because I´m pretty sure my watch was about $5 from WalMart.

So it finally happened... I tried a seso quesadilla. Seso is brain. I´m pretty sure it was brain of cow. Really, for a meat it wasn´t too bad, but it´s meat, so it was nasty. I was happy sticking with my quesadilla de queso. 

This week we started teaching piano lessons in the church. Hermana Gonzalez doesn´t play the piano, so that means I started teaching piano lessons this week. The first one was a little rough because I didn´t know any of the music vocab in Spanish, but now I have a nice cheat sheet of all the music terms I could ever need, so hopefully it will go better this week. The whole point of these lessons is to find new people to teach and to help involve members, recent converts, and investigators, and already we are seeing that happen. In the first lesson we had an investigator and two less actives attend. So we are pretty excited about that. 

Another big achievement for me this week was the talk I gave in church yesterday. I was a little nervous about it because of the Spanish and all, but when I started speaking, all of that worry disappeared and the Spanish came out rather easily. Still far from perfect, but easier. It is so cool to see instances like that when the gift of tongues is so obvious. And I couldn´t have asked for a better topic either, The Atonement of Jesus Christ.

By the way, if any of you have not seen the talk None Were With Him, by Elder Holland, go watch it right now. 

Yesterday was a little frustrating for me because once again no one came to church, and I just really want to have a progressing investigator, or an investigator who keeps the commitments that we extend to them. But something my district leader told me really helped. He reminded me that everyone has their agency, and sometimes I´ll be disappointed in the choices they make. But if I am working hard and doing all I can, I will never be disappointed in myself. And I still know that if we keep working hard, we will see miracles here. 

Ok, last thing, the mission president's wife shared a really beautiful song with us that just about made me cry. So I thought I would send you all part of the lyrics. If you can find the whole song on lds.org, definitely go listen to it. 

"It´s Not About You"

You look into your father´s eyes when he

takes his hands off your head

He whispers that he´s proud of you

and he knows you´ll do your best.

You say you wonder if you can do it,

that´s when he says

It´s not about you

It´s not about you

It´s for the people who are blessed by what you do

It´s not about you

Everybody´s gathered ´round you

Eyes all aglow

You start to read that piece of paper

To see where you´ll go

And you wonder if you´re ready

But you already know

It´s not about you

It´s not about you

It´s for those who are searching for the truth.

It´s not about you

Sure you´ve become much better

Because of what you´ve been through

But it´s not about you."

Love you all!

Hermana Herron

Cambios and Combis

Hello everyone!

Well, I officially made it through my first cambio... uh, transfer. Each transfer is 6 weeks long. I`m going to be here for at least another six weeks with Hermana Gonzalez to finish my training, so no changes, but it is still a big landmark.

For Valentines Day, we made 26 paper roses for the women in the Relief Society in our ward. It was a lot of roses. But it was a lot of fun too. 

Fun fact, there is a form of public transportation here called a Combi. It is basically a van with some benches inside, and as many people as possible squeeze in together. I hate combis. I always feel carsick in them. But they are really good for contacting. This past week Hermana Gonzalez and I contacted an entire combi full of people. One of them ended up being a returned missionary, so I guess he didn`t count, but it was still exciting to contact that many people. 

So quick update on my Spanish. I still have trouble understanding most people, and my ability to speak is still very very very far from perfect, but I am learning a lot and getting a lot more comfortable with this language. Today I was practicing some English with Hermana Gonzalez (I help her study a little English every day) and as I was speaking in English, Spanish words kept coming out on accident. That was kinda scary, 

I hope you all know that I`m not here to learn Spanish though. I`m here because I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that His atonement is real, and that it really works in our lives. I know that because of what He suffered, He understands perfectly everything that we go through, all of our trials and triumphs, strengths and weaknesses. I have no idea how I could do this without both the cleansing and enabling power of the Atonement. 

I love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Herron

Looking for Miracles

Hey everyone!

So, first little miracle, for the second week in a row, we had five new investigators! We contacted a family in a park, and they are just golden, we are so excited to start teaching them.

On Wednesday we had a special devotional by President Titensor and his wife and an area seventy, Elder Ismael Mendoza. It was really good, and I got to play the piano for it, which was fun.

Fun fact, all the parks in Mexico City have exercise machines in them. Still not exactly sure why, but people do use them.

So, I´ve been having a lot of thoughts this week, hopefully, I can organize them into something that makes sense here. 

So last Monday, our mission president really started focusing us on our Standards of Excellence. These are goals that we have in our mission to help us aim higher and increase our faith. They include things like 10 contacts everyday, one baptism every month, and thrity lessons with members every week. He sent us the story of a missionary in Uruguay who had so much faith that in an area that hadn´t seen a single baptism in years, he baptized 18 people in only 25 days. After reading that story, I felt totally invigorated, like "Yeah, we can do this, we have the faith, let´s do this." And then in the next three days, we had one of our 10 set, fixed appointments. All the rest were cancelled, or they weren´t home. We spent a lot of time this week walking around our area finding people not at home. That was really hard. I started wondering if maybe I wasn´t having success because I didn´t have enough faith, or because I wasn´t working hard enough. 

Something I realized though is that no matter what I do, I can´t force anyone to come to church or to get baptized. Whenever I have a week where we reach our goals, it is a gift from God. And yes, I need to have faith and work hard to receive that gift, but even when I do everything I can, I might not have a lot of success reaching those standards. But that doesn´t mean I´m a bad missionary, it just means I need to be patient and keep working.

A really famous scripture in the church is 1 Nephi 3:7. If you are a member, you know what it says. If you aren´t a member, you can find the scripture and the story in the Book of Mormon on lds.org, I´m pretty sure. It says that God will never give us a commandment without preparing the way. And even then, Nephi had to try 3 times before he succeeded. So even if it doesn´t happen right away, I am confident we will see miracles here in this area.

Hopefully some of that made sense. But I will keep you all updated on the miracles I do see.

Love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Herron

I´m loving life as a missionary in Mexico!

Hey everyone!

Ok, fun fact. Here in Cuatitlan Izcalli, we are at an altitude of over 8,000 feet. No wonder I get so out of breath during exercise.

We lost our water for a few days this week. That was fun. Not just us, all of Cuatitlan was without water. I´m still not exactly sure why. 

So I thought I would describe my schedule for those of you who aren´t already familiar with the missionary schedule.

Every morning we wake up and are out of bed by 6:30. We exercise for half an hour, eat breakfast, shower, and get ready for the day. Then at 8:00 we start studying. We have an hour of personal study, an hour of study together as a companionship, another hour of study together that is a special training program for me, since I´m new, and finally another hour of language study. We leave the casa at noon and start proselyting. We spend a lot of time in lessons with investigators, less-active members, and recent converts, but we also spend a lot of time walking around looking for people. We usually have comida with members around 2 or 3. We finally retrun home at 9:00 at night, plan for the next day, and then are in bed by 10:30, every night. And that´s how life goes for me. Some days are different. We have district meeting every Wednesday morning andchurch every Sunday. Mondays are our Dias de Preparacion, so from 10 to 6 we have time to buy food, email, clean the casa, wash clothes (by hand) and all that. 

Not too much happened this week that was really exciting. Sorry if this is a kinda boring email this week. 

I do have one thought that I want to share though. It´s something that one of my teachers in the CCM pointed out, but that I have learned a lot more about since. So, we usually don´t hear words directly from our Heavenly Father. He speaks to us through the Holy Ghost, through prophets, through His Son Jesus Christ, but He usually doesn´t speak to His children directly, and when He does, it is usually to announce His Beloved Son. But in 2 Nephi 31 ( in the Book of Mormon) there are two verses that have words directly from the Father:

11 " And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of My Beloved Son."

15 "And I [Nephi] heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved."

If the Father is saying these words Himself, they must be pretty important. And I know that this message is important. We all must have faith, repent, be baptized, and then endure to the end. This is the Doctrine of Christ, and this is my whole purpose and message as a missionary, the why and what of my work here in Mexico. This is the most important message that I could every share with anyone. And I know that it is true. This is the path that will lead us back to our Heavenly Father someday.

I love and miss you all. Have a fantastic week!

Hermana Herron

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