Caminando en Chiapas

Monday, January 12, 2015

Earthquakes, Zone Conference and 96 Blessings!

So, we had two earthquakes this week! I don't know why but I have a rep for being really calm during earthquakes... but I'm not gonna lie this last one was a little frightening.

Funny story: We went to Chiapa de Corzo and ran into the Hermanas from our district there too!! Party!

They always seem to happen while we are sleeping or eating.... if we are eating everyone's screaming and ducking under the table and I just continue eating my tortilla all like, "This too shall pass".

Hermana Martinez (she goes home in one week...triste)

And when it's at night and my companion wakes up screaming, "HERMANA HANSEN WHY ARE OUR BEDS MOVING IS IT AN EVIL SPIRIT?" I'm just like, "Ya calmase (calm down). It's just an earthquake" and continue sleeping.

But last night there was a really strong one around 2 AM. Hermana Juarez screamed at me to turn on the light so I did, and our whole room was shaking. Usually you can just feel the vibrations, but I literally saw our whole room shaking and our beds were moving A LOT.

Bartering like pros

So that went from the cool level to, "We're on the second floor of our house and probably gonna die" level real fast, but then it was over and no pasa nada (nothing happened). Whatever, I'm over it.

Ummmm we may have gone a little peso loco....

So this week we had an AMAZING zone conference. Like, I'm not even gonna describe it because you just had to be there. But needless to say, my zone is the absolute BEST.

Our ward is progressing A LOT. Which is so satisfying to see! Almost 5 months of hard work in this area and I feel like it's finally paying off! It helps that our ward is now on the 10 AM schedule and not 8 AM....it really does effect the ward attendance.

Hermano A decided to go to California....triste Hermano A....adios!

But we had 96 freaking people in church yesterday! A new record! and 6 investigators! God is blessing us so much in this area! There have been some weeks when we only had 15 people starting out and about 30 by the end of the meeting.... so to have almost 100 is huge.

Thanks for taking care of our Hermanas Mama C!

I love this work! El campo esta blanco YA para la siega!!! (the field is white and ready to harvest)

Hermana Hansen

More pictures from Hermana H's week..

Breakfast

DÍA DE REYES

The night before P-day

Monday, January 5, 2015

Intercambios, Chasing Butterflies and a Baptism!

Intercambios with the best Capacitadoras in el mundo (Hermanas Juarez, Hansen, Coronado and Juliana)

Dudes, tomorrow I turn 5... months. I don't want to talk about that actually, because time is passing way too freaking fast... so moving on.

We had intercambios (exchanges) this week and it was possibly one of the greatest experiences on my mission thus far. I worked with Hermana Coronado from Texas for a day and honestly it was a day that changed my mission life!

I learned so much. I feel like I can now be a more efficient missionary with UN BUEN ESTADO DE ANIMO (a good frame of mind). She taught me how to work hard but still have fun.

For example, while we were trying to find a reference we ended up finding a beautiful butterfly and chasing it down an entire street trying to catch it..until we lost it when it went inside a huge Christian "temple".

Pancake tacos cuz we are Mexican

When we turned around, we found one of our menos activos (less actives) in the ward staring at us... After which he waved and said, "Uh... buen dia hermanas" and ran inside. Hopefully he keeps coming to church even though we are weirdos... haha.

And Hermana Coronado is going to BYU when she gets back so the chasing butterfly madness doesn't have to end!

Hermanas Coronado & Hansen & cute Chicas

With mis chicas

This week I was able to witness a huge miracle. One of our old investigators got baptized! I say old because he's technically not our investigator anymore...but here's the story.

The former Hermanas de la Salle found Hermano A. and helped him start to change his life around. After they both got transferred, the new Hermanas de la Salle started teaching him...until they looked at their map and realized that he wasn't in their area. They assumed that he must be in ours.

All of the Hermanas who taught Hermano A

So we started teaching him. We fasted with him and helped him to STOP DRINKING! (He's been sober ever since the fast). We worked with him, encouraged him and taught him and everything! Only to realize that he wasn't in our ward...but the ward Juarez.

So they taught him for one more week and he was baptized in their ward. But through it all, it really doesn't matter where he was baptized. We really are just instruments in the Lord's hands.