The Miracle of the Rat

 Well another week chambiando en good ol' TEOPISCA..... Hermana Arellano and I had grand plans of waking up at midnight on New Years to sit on our roof top deck and watch fireworks. But we slept through it all. Whatevs. What's funny is here there are wayyy more New Year's celebrations than Christmas ones!! Everyone was really friendly on New Year's day and said hi to us ..... well most of them were drunk but they were all friendly drunks!

So something.... interesting about Teopisca is that they have the biggest rats I have ever seen. These aren't your Tuxtla city rats... these are field rats that probably eat cats for breakfast. I guess with the hobbit hills comes hobbit sized rats. And there are literally so many of them that about once a day we find one plastered on the road. We've learned not to look down at our feet as we walk. Haha!

It's interesting because in Tapachula there were pancaked toads and here we have pancaked rats. I'll take a pancaked toad over a rat any day. My companion is soooo traumatized by Rats. It doesn't matter where we are.... if she sees a rat alive or dead she screams bloody murder. There have been like 3 times when a rat has come out during the middle of the lesson and I just start praying that my comp doesn't see it.... and she never has!! Miracles in Teopisca!! 

But our biggest rat miracle occurred on New Year's day. We went out past the hills into the country looking for one of our street contacts. After about an hour of asking and looking we finally found her!!! We couldn't enter her yard because there were vicious dogs... so we ended up giving her a lesson standing outside of the gate. She was inside and her three boys were running around behind her. One was about 7 and the other two were 2 year old twins.

Right in the middle of the lesson, one of the toddlers comes running up holding a DEAD RAT the size of his head. I am not kidding you. It was the biggest dead rat I have ever seen. He was standing right behind his mom. Luckily, my comp was so focused on the lesson that she didn't see him. Suddenly, he drops the rat. Then the 7 year old finds a stick, and they start playing hockey with the dead rat. By some miracle, my comp didn't see it.

We left the lesson, and I immediately turn to my companion and said, "Did you not see that giant dead rat?" 

She had not seen it... but as I started telling her about it... she almost starting crying in the street!!! Haha! I've seen a lot of miracles on my mission, but I never thought I would see rat miracles until I came to Teopisca. 

Hermana Hansen

Skyping with our missionary on Christmas Day (best gift ever!)

We loved skyping with Hermana Hansen on Christmas Day! Our call was delayed, as it was difficult to find a cyber open on Christmas. But after an hour and a half of shenanigans...they finally found a cyber they could skype from (the original place they had made previous arrangements with were no-shows). While we visited, the cute people that owned the cyber brought them a yummy holiday drink only made around Christmas time.

She said when they woke up Christmas morning they had no running water or electricity...Merry Christmas Hermanas! haha She also said they had attended a fun Christmas party with other Elders and Hermanas in their District earlier that day.

District Christmas Party! Games and yummy food!

On Christmas Eve, they visited with a fun family who had bought fireworks for the occasion. Hermana Hansen was in charge of dessert and taught them how to make S'mores...this was a new experience for them.

I attempted to record part of Hermana Hansen's testimony. Sorry for the poor quality...we had a bad connection...and a very noisy 4 year old.

Christmas Caroling, Family History & a Trip to the Zoo

Hermana Hansen & Juarez went to Tuxtla Zoomat on their last P-day with a few families from their area

Ayyyyy mi HERMOSA FAMILIA. Mucho gusto a verles esta Navidad! Beckham está demasiado grande y no muy me gusta eso pero es la vida eh? Sav está bien guapisima y Austin está bien..... hipster. Que padre.
(ay my beautiful family. It was great to see you on Christmas! Beckham is getting too big and I don't like this but it's life, eh?  Savannah is looking good and Austin is very ....hipster)

I had a great Christmas! We had Christmas dinner with Hermana I. after we skyped! But the best part of Christmas was on the 23rd. We went caroling for a ward missionary activity. We caroled to all of the neighbors of the church, giving them hot chocolate and pan and Christmas DVDs (pretty much bribing them to set up an appointment with us... haha). 

It was so beautiful! Well, not at first.... at first ...everyone was slamming doors in our faces saying they were Catholic or Cualquier (whichever) other religion....or drunk and yelling (and swearing.... I think) at us and I was thinking: "What the heck were we thinking?? This is a distaster!" 

But after a while we changed our tactic and just started saying, "Buenas noches! Tenemos un regalo para usted!" (Good evening! We have a gift for you!) And then we'd start singing and passing them chocolate and it turned out being really cool. 

Who would have thought a year ago that I would be spending this Christmas in the streets of Tuxtla singing Christmas carols? It was awesome. We had a couple of investigators come as well and the spirit was so strong as we sang of Christ's birth. I know they felt it!

So as a mission we are working A LOT with Family History and family search. Before the mission I just thought it was a boring hobby that our grandparents do. But here on the mission I've learned just how important and critical it is for our salvation.

Something cool that I discovered while on Family Search the other day is.....I'm related to John Tanner!

If your not a missionary you might not know who he is...but he played a huge part in the restoration of the gospel with Joseph Smith. All of the missionaries know who he is because there's a whole video on him on one of the DVDs we use with members and investigators a lot.

Since discovering this, we now have a little presentation that we do. We show our investigator/member the video... talk about it... and then BOOM throw in there that I'm his great great great great granddaughter... and I only found this out recently through family search... so they should really get on their 'A' game and do their family history.... so they can find out if they're related to someone cool!

Haha it's pretty fun. But really He is an amazing example of faith... and donated a whole lot of money to the church. And because of this Joseph Smith promised all of his prosperity that they would never again have to beg for food.... no big deal. 

Moral of the story: do your family history!!! 

Love you all!!! 

Hermana Hansen

P-day at the Tuxtla Zoo