Aguas de Mormón

So basically this week has been one of trials and miracles for us, but we´ve definitely learned a lot, and we just love the people here. I´ll start with the end in mind. At the beginning of the month, our zone leaders gave us a goal that every companionship was going to have a baptism June 27, and we were going to have a stake baptism called the Aguas de Mormón. 

Ok, so now the begninning of the week. On Pday we got to go into central and bought some cool soccer jerseys and what not, it was nice to enjoy a day because basically we´ve always had something on a pday. Then on Tuesday we went to visit one of our investigators. We were actually preparing her to be baptized for this activity and were super stoked to visit with her and help her prepare more. But during the lesson she basically counterargued everything that we taught and we realized that she really isn´t ready, and we´re probably going to have to leave her behind for some time. At first we were bummed that we didn´t have anyone for this activity, but then we felt like it was ok, and that Heavenly Father was happy with the work we´ve put in. 

Then on Wednesday we were trying to find new people to teach and I started to feel really bad. Turns out I had a fever, and I was able to stay with a member for a couple hours while Hermana Dansie was able to work with another member. We´re pretty sure I caught chinkakuya, which is basically a fever and pain. Everyone´s been dropping like flies pretty much, so we´ve been waiting for it to hit one of us. Wednesday when I woke up it was way worse and we had to stay in the house. 

But then Friday was our day of miracles. Hermana Dansie actually told me that Thurdsday night she prayed that friday would be a day filled with miracles, and it sure was. For one, when I woke up I felt a lot better, and we were able to work. Usually people who have caught this are in their house for a week but I just had the bad part for a couple days. Another thing was that our water tank was getting pretty low and we were worried we were going to run out of water, but that morning when we woke up we could hear it filling up.

Then the really cool thing. We had been thinking that we shouldn´t give up for this activity, and we remembered that there´s a 10 year old in the ward that hasn´t been baptized because he´s afraid of water. We decided to go visit him, and he told us he wants to be baptized but doesn´t know if he can do it because of his fear. Then our district leader came to interview him and afterward he said he could do it. It was really the best feeling ever for this kid, that he really felt like he could overcome his fear. And it goes to show that if you really do want to see a miracle, and you put your faith in the Lord, he´s going to provide a way. 

Saturday when we went to talk to the family again they decided they´re going to wait a week for the baptism, so we ended up not having anyone for the activity, but it was still just a miracle. We were thinking about it, and if we had just decided not to look for anyone else, this kid wouldn´t be getting baptized next week either, I´m really just super excited for him. 

This week I was reading in 2 Nefi 5, and it´s talking about when they split up into the Nephites and the Lamanites, and how the people of Nephi are living. Although they had to start over their lives and community to get away from the Lamanites, in verse 27 it says, "y aconteció que vivimos de una manera feliz." so something like "and it came to pass we lived in a manner of happiness." Although times weren´t the best they still followed God so they were living in a this manner of happiness. I encourage you to look how you can continue on this path of living in happiness. 

Les Quiero 

Hermana Leavitt

Miracles

Well, there´s not really a whole lot to tell this week. Pretty much we´re trying to find new investigators because the one´s we´ve had havn´t been progressing. But pretty much we´re just crossing our fingers and having faith that we´ll keep seeing miracles. 

We´ve visited a lot of our less actives and recent converts lately, it´s been cool to see their progress. It´s cool how with every visit our recent converts want to learn more and know what the next goal is. So how about for us, what is our next goal in order to progress in the church? I think sometimes we may take for granted the things we learn at church, and don´t always realize just how blessed we are (at least that´s what I´m learning for myself anyway). Oh and plus this week, we had a less active that we´ve been visiting since before I got here, and that hasn´t come to church practically since he was baptized last year, come to church yesterday! I was pretty happy. Literally when he walked up to us I couldn´t even talk because I was so happy that he came. 

A miracle that happened this week was that we were walking in the street one day and a young couple with a son walked by. They stopped us and told us they just moved into the area but were listening to the missionaries before and want to be baptized but they need to get married. We haven´t been able to visit with them because they´ve been busy, but we´re keeping our fingers crossed. 

So our district leader has invited us every day to look for a miracle, or recongize a miracle, so I want to extend that invitation to you too. Every day this week look for miracle that has happened, and write it down so you don´t forget!

Love ya!

Hermana Leavitt

Flip Flop Week

Well this week was definitely all over the place for sure. It started out last p-day after we got back to our house from getting groceries and what not that I had the stomach flu. So pretty much all afternoon I was pretty miserable. But shout out to Hermana Dansie! She cleaned our house, washed my clothes along with hers (and that´s handwashing), and practically fought our flooding house, all meanwhile taking care of me too. So it also rained that day, and we have an enclosed patio that it all tile. There´s a drain but it´s pretty small so all the water built up like 4 or 5 inches, and it started coming in the house, it was definitely a sight to see. Tuesday I slept. For nine hours. Hermana Dansie was really bored. We pretty much got up at 6:30, I studied until 9 then slept. Then I woke up at 12 and we went to teach a lesson and ate at a members house. Then we came back and I slept until 9 that night. It was pretty funny, I walked out of our room and immediately hear, "Holy crap Sleeping Beauty is alive!" 

There were also special changes this week with our elders, and so we have a new district leader. We think he´s pretty awesome. Except for the fact last night he called us, to talk to us about our goals, but he first started out by saying that there were special changes and I was going to Tapachula, a different area. But then he laughed and said it was a joke, but I´m pretty sure our hearts were still racing for a while. This week too we also had exchanges, and I stayed in our area again while Hermana Dansie went to the other again. It was a pretty cool day in honesty. The cool thing for me was that I was able to understand practically everyone, not just one or two people. But then there were also some miracles that day too. For one, one of the recent converts came out with us for a couple lessons. Usually he´s not too excited about coming out, but ever since, he´s just said that he´ll come with us whenever we need him. It´s cool to see the change just after coming to two lessons. We´re hoping that he´ll decided to go on a mission, but he still has a long time because he was baptized in April, the week before I got here. The other miracle was that we were looking for a new investigator, and I looked in my planner for their address and I read a street name so we walked there. We walked up and down it but couldn´t find the house, and hermana Dansie wasn´t there so I couldn´t just ask her. Then it started to rain pretty hard and we didn´t have any umbrellas, but a family just invited us into their house so we were able to share a little bit and they said we could come back. After that I looked in my planner again for the new investigator we were looking for, and the street name was completely different than what I had read before. I´m pretty sure we were meant to find this family, I can´t wait to visit with them again. 

Then to top off the week we had a baptism! Our convert´s name is Genaro. It´s been really cool to see his progress and be able to help him to learn the gospel and understand it. He´s awesome! Pretty much with every commandment that we taught him, he just said he´d live it, and there weren´t ever any problems. He´s a wrestler, and a trainer too. He told us the other day that he can bench about 400 lbs and squat 660 lbs. So don´t worry, even if it was dangerous here, we´ve got a body guard. 

I hope you´re all doing well, and always trying to be better. That was one thing I learned in exchanges, is to never be content with your testimony. Sometimes as members we just feel like we´ve gained our testimony and we´re good, but we can always be strengthening it. 

Love ya!

Hermana Leavitt

Another Full Week

Wow once again this week just flew by. It´s been good but it´s been hard too. We´ve had a lot of investigators that we´ve been teaching a few weeks but aren´t progressing because they´re not coming to church, so pretty much this week we´ve had to decide to leave pretty much all of them behind. But we´re focusing on finding new investigators and we know that we´re going to find some good ones.

This week we had a zone meeting, and it was pretty cool. We did an activity and all 16 companionships grabbed a Book of Mormon and went out in the streets for 15 minutes to have two lessons in the street. It was a cool experience. Hermana Dansie and I felt like taking one road, then another even though there weren´t any people. Then as we were walking we saw a guy sitting under a tree and we knew we had to talk to him. It ended up that he has taken the lessons before and was going to get baptized but then something came up. But he still wants to be baptized. We took his address and gave it to the elders that serve in that area. I don´t know what else to say other than it was such a cool experience. 

Then later that night we were out contacting in the streets and we ended up talking to a woman that has taken the lessons before and gone to church 6 times but never was baptized. We haven´t been able to see her again because her schedule is really busy with work, but we´re pretty sure it´s a miracle that we found her. 

I´ve really just gained a testimony this week that the people we talk to in the streets and give our number to are meant to happen. Each person we talk to in our lives isn´t just by chance. 

I hope you´re all doing good, love you!

Hermana Leavitt

What A Week!

There´s been so much that has gone on this week, but the hardest part is that a lot of it has been that we haven´t been able to focus as much on lessons because we had so much to do. But now we can focus and we´re pretty happy about that. 

So I forgot last week, but we had the opportunity at the end of the last transfer to go to the temple here in Tuxtla. It was a pretty cool experience. It´s definitely different than good old Saint George. For one it takes about an hour to get there, and two, I didn´t realize how quiet Saint George is, and how grateful I am for that. It was like walking into the temple it was so peaceful and you could feel the spirit, but when we left, it was like the world was hitting you with a wall. You opened the door and immediately you just hear music and traffic, it was pretty sad. So when you go to the temple, take the time to enjoy the spirit and the peace and quiet, it´s such a blessing. 

So this week we actually had the chance to go to the temple again, but with a recent convert. We´ve been helping him to work on familysearch.org and he was able to be baptized for his great grandpa, that was cool to see. We were kind of bummed because they wouldn´t let us go in to watch, I don´t really know why, but the doors were glass and we could see him through those. It was really just a neat experience to see him so excited to be able to that for his own family member. 

Pretty much the other crazy things this week were that we had to move. I guess they´ve been asking for months for the missionaries in this area to find a cheaper place to rent, and we found it! We pretty much only had friday and saturday to move, and we planned on friday but then no one in our ward had a truck, and I ended up being sick with a 101 fever so we weren´t really allowed to leave our apartment. But Saturday we were able to find someone with a truck and with the help of some elders and members we were able to move! Oh and funny story. So this whole time we´ve had three bedframes but one of them isn´t very sturdy so we don´t use it. But we found out that this whole time we´ve had bunkbeds and didn´t even know it! Sadly though the one piece is the unsturdy one so we left it for the member to take back to the mission home since it wouldn´t fit in our new house. 

This week we had some miracles happen too, it was pretty sweet. So here in Mexico our investigators have to attend sacrament meeting 5 times before they can be baptized. We have one investigator that is super excited to be baptized but he missed a sunday and had to change his date and was actually pretty bummed about it. The hard part is that he has school on Sunday´s, it´s the only days he could take the classes he needs at the university. But he leaves early so that he can come to church. So yesterday we get to sacrament and he´s not there, and the whole meeting we kept checking the door everytime it opened to see if it was him. Finally it was the closing song and I was pretty bummed because I knew we´d have to change his date again. I kid you not, we finished singing and the person giving the closing prayer was walking up to the stand and in walks our investigator. It was only a minute of sacrament meeting, but it was enough that he can keep his date. I don´t think hermana Dansie and I have been so happy before. 

Oh yeah, and can you believe it´s June already? Yeah, me either. 

Well I hope you have a great week, enjoy each day because they´re really short. Love you all!

Hermana Leavitt