Week 36

Hola Everyone! Okay, it’s been really busy and being sick is just gross but thanks for the prayers! This is what happened this week:

 On Tuesday, we had our last district meeting and it was super fun because we went a little earlier to have kind of a party. We made these pizzas with tortillas, pasta sauce, and cheese. And our zone leaders... I will forever be happy with this... They found ROOT BEER!!! Root beer here in Mexico! I was so happy, so I savored it and it was good :) it’s my favorite fizzy drink and I haven’t had one of those forever! I also had a "horribly lovely" experience with the comida. So the doctor told me that I am not supposed to eat greasy stuff and dairy for a few weeks. So we go to the comida thinking that the Hermana remembers that I can't eat it.... She made something barbacoa, which had the most grease and irritants I have eaten in the mission. I was sicker than a dog.  I couldn't sit during the lesson or anything! Luckily I had an appointment with the doctor, so we went straight there and we told me that the grease is what makes the illness worse so I need to MAKE SURE that people know I can't eat it. He also gave me a powdered fiber I need to eat every morning, which has been working. The hard part is that it is so bad to not eat what has been given! It is very hard to say no! So most all of us missionaries are sick!

 I was finally able to have progress in our English classes on Wednesday! People came!  We had our investigators Marisol and Yazmin come to get some help with their English homework. They're really sweet girls and I hope they keep coming and invite their friends :)

 Ay! Thursday was the saddest day ever in the transfer.... So we went to the church for Mary's second interview for baptism. But when she got there she was different so we talked to her about what was going on. She told us that she seriously wants to be baptized, but her dad wants her to get baptized in her uncle's church, which we were aware of the situation. But she then told us that a few days before her dad sat down with her and said that he doesn't think she is ready for baptism. He thinks that she needs to analyze the Bible a more and its doctrine so she can be fully prepared. But we told her she doesn't particularly need that for baptism, she can be baptized knowing just the basics because she's going to learn the doctrine in the church throughout the years. But she doesn't want to ruin her relationship more with her dad, so she went in with the interview, but she will have to wait more time for a baptism. It was so sad to see her crying and everything…I appreciate being a member of the church, I think I’ve taken it for granted! But we will get her baptized this transfer! She will hit the water :)

 On Saturday I finally had my first choir practice for the Christmas Program. And I can say I was pretty freaked out when I first got there because I didn't know if anyone could sing, read music, or anything, but some of the music might be a bit hard for some people.  But it turned out pretty good. We have a few who can sing and I think that if we just keep practicing they can get it!  It was a good day too because President and Hermana Madsen were there to help me out and they brought my birthday package with them from Oaxaca!  Thank you for the letters and cards! I loved reading what y'all had to say. I also got a letter from my friend Stephen! Thank you, Stephen! I love getting mail, we are far away from the mission home and don’t have our own address so we have to wait extra-long weeks to get mail and sometimes some of us don’t get mail even then so all mail is precious to us so please write :)  We also went to the baptisms the elders in our branch had for their investigator Samuel and our branch president's son. They have such sweet testimonies and you could see how happy they all were afterward.

 Yesterday Domingo was a pretty good day, full of unexpected things happening. First we had this inactive teenager, Omar, come to church with us. He's one of those people I have no patience with, but I'm trying. Patience is a problem!  But he came to all three hours. We had a really good lesson in Gospel Principles about the faith, and then we were able to have a farewell devotional for Julio, a new missionary who left this morning. We were also able to see Mary, Soledad, and Zoyla in the church. But when we left for the comida Omar followed us…when we left there to go to Mary's(member) house, he came with us…we made tortillas with her.  Then we went to Mary's(investigator) house, and he followed us…we didn’t know what to do with him!  This time we were able to talk with Mary’s dad a little about our life on earth and the things we are supposed to do on the earth, and that includes baptism. That got some of his doubts away about baptism. He's worried about being baptized twice in different ways, so we explained the differences in baptism. He understood more and hopefully he allows Mary to be baptized soon. Then we saw Hermana Lucina and she took Omar!  But before leaving them, we had a really good lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation too. Usually we don't have much order in lessons with them but we had perfect order this time….and Omar gave the closing prayer and he did really well with it! Usually it's a joke to him to pray, but he really took it seriously this time. Maybe it was good for him to walk with us all day. I need to be more patient and kind:)

We didn't get to bed until 2:30 last night because we had to dry all of our clothes. We washed them all until midnight on Saturday and left them to dry.... Then the rain came during church today!

 So for transfers.....

Hermana Valdivia is going to her house in Tijuana... I am going to have a daughter!!  As in I'm training a new missionary!  Her name is Hermana Valverde and I’m guessing she's Latina by her last name. But I am excited and nervous at the same time.

 Anyway that's what's happened this week. For Christmas I am dying for cinnamon candies!  For some reason the Latino’s here don’t believe there’s such thing as candy containing cinnamon!

I know we've had a break from the Book of Mormon, so this is the challenge this week: Chapters 11-20 of Alma.

Love y'all!!  Have a good week!

Hermana Walker

Week 35

Hello Everyone, Feliz Noviembre!

So, I finally went to the Doctor to see what’s wrong with my stomach…again! He tells me I contracted amoebic dysentery :P sometime recently and they say it’s from the water but everything I eat will make it worse. Especially grease, beans and everything they eat here!  The Doctor gave me some meds to kill the amoebas and another med to keep them from coming back but I think I will have this until I go home next year.  He checked my weight and I am back to the same as I was when I left home but I tried on my jeans and they are loose. I feel so full and bloated all the time though and I live in the bathroom.  It’s hard living on water and I am afraid to eat any fruit and vegetable because it isn’t clean, I don’t think! This is gross :P!  I’ve felt better these past couple days but it hits very fast and hard all the time and it’s impossible to go by the Doctor’s orders and not eat anything but fruit and water when the Hermanas want to feed us all the time. We can’t say no--my Dr. said I need to force the issue with the Hermanas but it is hard. Sister Madsen, the MP wife said I am doing well if I say “no” about taking food and if the Hermanas feel offended that we should explain and blame our “sensitive American digestion”!  She is in charge of the health stuff and I trust this Doctor. He is Latino but studied for years in the States. This disease is so common here though, dozens of missionaries have had parasites and bugs, food from the street, flies everywhere, the bad water, washing fruit and veg is nothing here and we have to trust the water being clean when we clean them ourselves. I am happy though :) the life of a Central/South American missionary! I am on a diet of bread and water for the next 3 weeks. Yay me! Below the pictures are of me and Hermana Valdivia. She goes home next week!

She is such a sweetheart. She lives in Tijuana and has served her mission well. I will miss her when we have transfers next Monday.

We don’t have a church building here in Santa Maria because we are a branch. We rent out these 2 rooms in this building for church. It is called our “Prayer House”. It has a kitchen and in these photos we are making mole and tamales for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, “Day of the Dead”.  It was so cool but weird to see how they memorialize the day: a lot of people drinking in the street but all the culture was there—fireworks at noon, Orange Mums flowers EVERYWHERE, “Bread of the Dead” to feed their loved ones, skulls and lots of chocolate and altars and photos of their dead paraded around the streets. (I hope Annekke took photos of this…she never sent any though!). Pan de Muerto looks like an Irish Hot cross bun and tastes sweet. They eat it at the graves of their family. 

 I LOVE how busy it is here in Santa Maria in the Huatulco. It really is beautiful and busy. We walk and walk from city to city all day. It’s awesome! So sad, our investigator, Mary, didn’t have her baptism like we though this week. She drank coffee three days before her interview! :P  But she is getting baptized this Saturday.

Until next week, Have a great one!

Love, Hermana Annekke Walker!

Week 34

I have been asked by Hermana Madsen, the MP’s wife to direst a Christmas choir! I’m so excited! I‘ve asked my family to send me the music of “The First Noel” by Dan Forrest. I love this arrangement! The concert will be in Santa Maria for the branch members there. I love the members here. They have absolutely nothing which makes them the happiest people around. It’s so interesting to watch the food being made here, and to eat it :) We eat a lot of fish!! Mole is eaten a lot too. We eat a lot of eggs and home- made tortillas and beans… lots of beans! I’m finding it quite hard to stay healthy with such starchy foods. My companion, Hermana Valdivia is an amazing cook! She gets offended if I don’t eat with her or the food she cooks so Hermana Valdivia is often ill. Luckily I’ve got a good water bottle and DoTerra oils to help!! DigestZen and Clary Sage to the rescue!! :)

Speaking of health issues, I’ve been sick this past week, first, with a horrid eye infection but it is better now. I couldn’t put makeup on so I walked around “looking like a man that’s been crying for days”… ahha!  I still haven’t been able to get over a bout of nausea and vomiting though, it could be the food but it could also be the weather. It finally started raining and the mosquitoes are out with a vengeance—the bites are bad.  There are swarms of them! My District Leader has contracted denge and is in the hospital.  Prayers all around to these missionaries so they can all get back to doing the work! All of this going on the same week as Divisions… I got to serve with my old companion Hermana Olsen!  It was a blast serve together again! She is serving in the “Istmo”, the very indigenous area of Oaxaca, in the mountains where it seems the people haven’t been touched by modern civilization since the Book of Mormon times… I really hope to be able to serve there sometime during my mission. Oaxaca State is the most diverse, indigenous state in Mexico…19 different dialects spoken in that state alone. They say that each area has its own dialect of Spanish to learn.  I’m so happy I’m a quick learner, though learning Spanish has been one of the hardest things. Knowing German sort of caused the conjugation of the Latin language of Spanish to come on pretty slowly for me, but I’m still holding out hope that I’ll be able to teach someone the Gospel in German!

We may have a baptism at the end of this week! Mary may be baptized! We’re so excited for Mary! She is so smart and very knowledgeable of the basic tenets of the church.  We will find out next week! 

I finally got my hair cut! After 8 months! I got “Mexican layers”. :P

We do our washing outside in a sink near their house. I feel like I’m getting really big arm muscles because of all the scrubbing.

Hermana Valdivia and I get along very well, though Hermana Valdivia only has 3 weeks left in her mission. I get to “kill” her… which means that she is finishing her mission as my companion. The mission phrases are so funny! When you go into the MTC, you are “Born” and you “Die” when you finish. Haha! :)

I am very glad for my mission. I never thought I would go and do something like this. I am very glad I am here right now. 

I love everyone and hope you are happy and enjoying life!

Hermana Walker

Week 33

The weather near the coast is quite different than in Oaxaca City. It’s even more humid, if that’s even possible!! If you look at a map of the State of Oaxaca, Santa Maria Huatulco is on the Pacific Coast directly South of Oaxaca. It is very dry on the coast too but it rains more than in Oaxaca with a lot of thunder and lightning. The climate looks ‘just like Ireland’ but in an extremely hot and humid sort of way haha! I am still looking forward to eating Iguana and is constantly being chased by huge black bees. I live with tarantulas too! The mosquitoes are enormous and they have a horrible bit. Even with all the sorts of repellents I put on, they never leave me alone! The bites on my legs over the past 7 months will scar, but luckily I haven’t gotten “denge”, a disease contracted by mosquitoes—there are 2 types of denge, the one that kills and the one that doesn’t…you get fevers and your bones ache like crazy. The locals drink fresh grape juice and they say that drinking it helps a lot with the symptoms. I heard that one of the Elders contracted it a while back but after a blessing from Presidente Leyva he recovered well.

Spanish is coming very well now, after having 2 native companions who don’t speak much English at all. I actually now start my prayers in English and end in Spanish :P!

The work is going slow but well, there’s potential with “Mary”, the golden investigator!

Hello to everyone and would love a letter from all of you for Christmas! Packages are slow to not getting here at all so I recommend no packages, unless you use “Global Mission Shipping”. They are fantastic, go through DHL and have tracking and confirmation through Customs to the mission home. It takes 4 days to get to the mission home but takes weeks to get to the coast where I’m at as the leaders only go to and from Oaxaca every few weeks!

Please write!

Hermana Annekke Walker

Week 32

Alright y'all. This week was AWESOME!! I'm loving this new area! It's such a humbling experience because these people really don't have anything except for each other. It's gorgeous too with all the palm trees and such. And we get the real beach sunsets:)

Lunes: Today we had a good p-day, although we were running around like crazy! We cleaned the house and then we went to Sorianna to buy. We are about an hour away from any grocery store, so that's a little different. So it took us a bit longer to do our shopping than normal. But after we went to Mary's house and helped her make tortillas. I can say that I can make a real tortilla... Mom, I will be making them when I get back on our fire pit:) Then we went and saw a member named Nicole and taught her about prayer and Soledad about the sacrament. And we had to wash our clothes in the dark because earlier we didn't have room to hang them up... It was kind of scary... And I tripped and fell and cut my foot. It hurts:P

Martes: Today we went out by sorianna to the church to have our district meeting. And it was awesome! Our leader is Elder Vance from Utah and he is really cool, and we share a ward with him and his comp. And our district has all sisters... and them. But it's cool:) We learned about the importance of teaching Family History. Then we went to the comida with the familia Nolasco. The wife is the relief society pres. With them we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then talked about personal revelation because each person applied the chapter differently. Then we went and saw another member named Claudia and talked about the same thing:) Then we did service with a member named Adela and her family. Then she gave us tamales and we shared a message about the Book of Mormon as well. And we went to visit a new family. We met them at the house of Hermana Adelina last week washing their dishes. But when we went it almost turned into a bible bash, with lots of doctrine being thrown out in the air. But they want us to keep coming. So we're going to have scripture study with them in the topics of the lessons. But if it gets out of hand we're going to stop.

Miercoles: Today was a good day. We went out to Mary's (the member) house again to help with tortillas and then we helped teach her how to read by using Moroni 10:5 and taught a lesson using that. We were also able to see Katy, but her husband was sleeping. He works in a hotel on the beach. We taught her about the importance of baptism. She really wants to get baptized, but she wants to with her husband. But he's stuck in the habit of drinking. It's sad...Then we went and saw Abby a member. She was working so we had to hurry and capacitate her on how to teach chastity because she's going to accompany us to teach it. Haha! Her boss came in right when we finished.... Pheh..... We ended our day going to see Lucina and her family. They're menos activos and we taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon, but we learned that she really doesn't know anything about the gospel. So we're going to start from the beginning:)

Jueves: Today was good too. We went and saw Silvia because she sent us a text a little weird and we worry for her a lot. She's doing good, just a little downhearted because her husband doesn't want us to come by. So we read from the Book of Mormon to cheer her up. Then we went to the familia de Hermana Rosario for the comida and I met the President of the branch. And with her we planned a family home evening for her family. Then we saw Higinio the husband of Mary (member) and we taught him about how he can be clean from his sins. We want him to get baptized but he's stuck under the influence of alcohol too.... That night we went to see Katy and Antonio, but he was sleeping. So we taught Katy about tithing and she's going to live it!:)

Viernes: Today was awesome! We went and saw Mary (investigator) and taught her and her mom about family history using the model that Elder Vance gave us. And we ate with Silvia today and it was awesome. Fish:) And read a bit more in the Book of Mormon with her. She really dos love it. I just hope her husband stops being stubborn and starts listening to us again... Then we went and saw Dianna and taught her about repentance. She is so smart! Answered everything:) Then we saw Hermana Perez, a menos activo and we talked about prayer. She's going to start doing family prayers and hopefully they will feel the spirit that we promised her. Then that night we went to see Hermana Adelina. She still doesn't understand the principle of the Great Apostasy, so we went and taught her about prophets. She says that she understands now:)

Sabado: Today was absolutely awesome! We first went and saw Mary (investigator) again with a joven named Julio that will be going on a mission in November. And we talked about baptism and why we are baptized. I really hope that we're helping her in this change because sometimes I worry if she's gaining a testimony. And her baptism date in in a couple of weeks. Later we decided to go and contact a reference from the elders. And we walked a lot to get to this house, but it was so worth it:) We found a family of 10 and they are all interested:) We taught them about the pre-earth life because they had questions related to the plan of salvation. The only thing is that none of them can read except for 2. So hopefully we can get some members to help us out:) Then we also went and contacted one of their relatives who lives close by. She's listened to the missionaries before and when we found her she was reading the Book of Mormon in her hammock. Awesome! And we got to talk to her about the atonement because she was feeling sorry for something that had happened previous in her life. But they are all so ready it's insane:) We were also able to visit the kids of Hermana Dulce and we read the chapter in the Book of Mormon when Nephi is building the boat:) And to finish the night we had a FHE with Hermana Rosario and we talked about the family and showed them a video of the Proclamation to the World. They really liked it and we ate tostadas:)

Domingo: Today was my first time in the church here. Since it's a branch here we don't have a building, but we rent out one. And once we get 70-80 people in the church for a few weeks we can build our own building:) It was really good and we got the chance to teach Gospel Principles, though it was hard... Two Hermanas on the spot teaching about the priesthood. But I think it went fine:) Zoyla and Soledad were there in the church this week and they really enjoyed it:) We were able to eat with the familia Cantera and it was good. Fresh tortillas, beans and eggs:)) And we talked about family history and the importance of temples. They loved it, especially with the fact that the branch is going to the temple next week. Then we saw Abby and she said she could come with us to some lessons:) We were able to see Jose Angel, an investigator who's catholic. He has a few problems with the Book of Mormon, so we are going to work with him step by step so he can understand and accept it:) Then we went and saw Zoyla and Soledad and helped them make tamales for Edwardo's birthday. They were good:) And we shared a message on the law of Chastity. It went really well and we had lots of laughs:)

Well I hope you guys had a really good week:) Love y'all! And keep reading! It's good for you:)

Hermana Walker

Week 31

Hola y'all! I hope everyone had an awesome week, especially with the chance we had to listen to our prophet and leaders. I really hope you felt the spirit. And thanks to all who sent me birthday wishes. It means a lot:).... I really do not feel 21.... I can do more things than buy dry ice now.... But this is what happened this week.

Lunes: Today we woke up and cleaned the house so that Hermana Molina's comp would feel good in the house. Then we went out and tried buying stuff, thinking that since we only have two days before the new month they would put money in for the new transfer.... No.... These girls are living off of tuna and bread because that’s all we had money for... I also cut Hermana Molina's hair again.... I need to get mine done so bad...:P And we got to hang out with another Hermana while she waited for her comp to come from el Istmo. Her name is Hermana Jones from Tennesee... I will live there one day:) We ate pastor again.. Well actually I ate a gringa (if you guys know Spanish, no it doesn't mean a person). It's this huge tortilla with pastor, pineapple, jalapeño, and other stuff. It's super good:) Then we met Hermana Cortes, Hermana Molina's comp. She's a little quiet, so I'm hoping that they get along. We were only able to see Hugo today and we talked about families. It was a great lesson because he has a serious love for his family and he learned a lot of things that he can do to strengthen his relationship with his daughter.

Martes: Today I went on the LONGEST bus ride ever.... Well actually choir tour was longer, but I slept for most of that so it doesn't count. But I rode on that bus for 9 hours:P Gross.... And we had movies playing so that made it even harder... But now I know what I want to see when I get home;) But I came out with a few elders, and Hermanas Coles, Bigelow, and Mamani. Bigelow and Mamani are in my zone right now:) And my comp is super adorable. She ends her mission after this transfer and so she's going through mixed feelings right now. But she loves the work:) We were only able to go see one person due to time, but we found an Hermana named Soledad in her house with a friend named Eduardo. She made me a memela because I hadn't eaten all day and we taught them about Joseph Smith and invited them to baptism and they said yes:) I'm excited for the work here:)

Miercoles: Today I did more work than I have done in a long time. We had tons planned out and I loved it:) First we went to an investigator named Mary and her family. She has a fecha for October 25 and she is progressing really fast. Her family still has questions, especially her dad. He's catholic, but with the beliefs of a Jehovah's witness and a Baptist... A little hard to work with, but okay... Then we went to our comida and it was given by our investigator Silvia. She has been investigating the church for years and has been so ready for baptism for a really long time. I at first thought she was a member because she has tons of pictures from the church all over her walls. The only thing that's stopping her is that she's not married to her husband and he doesn't think marriage is necessary. But the food was awesome and we read with her a chapter in Mosiah to see how she can apply it to her life. Then we met Monika. She is a catholic and she’s  progressing a lot too. She just doesn’t know if she can be baptize because her husband doesn't know that she's interested in listening to our church. But we taught her about the spirit world after this life and invited her to the church for conference. Then we saw Dianna. She is 12 years old and is super smart. And her family loves when we come and read with them. We taught them about faith and read Alma 32 with them and invited them to conference as well.

Jueves: Today I think I showed off my Penelope side because I was sweating like a pig. It's so humid here!!!! First today we saw Adrianna, a less active. She wants to come back to church, but she doesn't want to come alone without her family. But we talked to her about the importance of the sacrament and she really enjoyed the fact that we can have that mini baptism every Sunday. Then we went over to have the comida, but the family completely forgot. They weren't even home... So we went over to the house of Hermana Fransisca and she quickly made us eggs and beans with homemade tortillas. That's what I love about this place. It's so small and tranquilo, but everyone makes tortillas por mano:) Then we saw Hermana Dulce, a less active as well. And we met her sister in law and taught them all about our Heavenly Father and why he loves us. I think they liked it, especially her kids. Then we passed by the house of one of our contacts... I can't remember how to spell his name so I'll call him Tamale Man because he makes tamales. But we went and taught him about our Heavenly Father as well and told him that we will help him stop drinking because he has that addiction. Then we saw Soledad again and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She told us she's going to start reading every day:)

Viernes: Today... It was hot again...:P..... But we went and saw Mary again. We talked to her about prayer and how she can receive answers from the spirit. She's really progressing. Then we went to the comida with a recent convert named Mary with the cutest little boy in the world:) We weren't able to share anything with her though because she was going to get her other son from school. So we went over to another less active named Jose Luis. We're trying to help him get over drinking too. We also saw a couple of other recent converts named Luz and Dalia and helped them understand the importance of Personal Progress because they are trying to do a few experiences. And they're going to teach me how to make piñatas:) We also saw Silvia again with Hermana Fransisca and read a chapter in Mosiah again. After that we had to go home because I wasn't feeling too good. And the heat made it worse :P

Sabado: Conferencia!!! And mi cumpleaños:) Today was so awesome because we got to hear our prophet and other leaders... In English:) And I found out that Hermanas Palominos and Sullivan are in my zone... They're from my generation of missionaries. But I was able to get so many things from the conference that I'm going to apply with our investigators. And I almost killed Palominos... She went to go buy ice cream for me in Sorianna for my birthday and she totally slipped on her knee and couldn't walk. And it was the funniest thing to see her and three other Hermanas trying to carry her across the street back to the church. But it was super sweet because the zone planned a surprise cake after the second session.... And I took the challenge to bite it... I got a lot of frosting on my face:)

Domingo: Today was really great too. Conference was awesome and I was able to receive a new bag that I have desperately needed for a really long time. Thanks family and all who put stuff in it:) Oh ya! And Mary came with us to conference. She was really excited to go. And we were able to see her and her family that night too:) We read from Enos about prayer and tried answering questions from her sister and dad... They have some really wild stories about the gospel and we still don't know where they are getting them... But we will work with them:)

Well that is my first week in Santa Maria. I hope you enjoyed:) Thanks again for the birthday wishes. And don't forget to read this week! This time we will read the first 10 chapters of Alma in a week.

Love y'all! Hermana Walker

Week 30

Alright... I wasn't able to write things out for what happened this week. So I promise I will try to remember most of what happened....

Lunes: We had THE BEST activity ever! We got to have my first zone activity and it the most fun thing ever. We played volleyball, soccer (Which I still am not good at), and basket. But me and Elder Winland killed it in volleyball. We have to do it again. In the coast:) And we also ate hotdogs, chips, cake, and I had my Boing... If you don't know what that is, that's a shame... But if not, it's like the best fruit juice ever. All Nat-ur-al. No added sugar:) By the end of the day we didn't have time to go out to Loma Linda like we planned, so we went and saw Hermano Hugo to see what his doubts were today....

Martes: District meeting!! We learned an awesome model on how to fix our teaching and then we practiced a bit. Then we ate cake!! Hermana Molina and I went and bought a cake for Hermana Martinez, because it's her last week of the mish, and we hid it in the church oven. Then other Hermanas brought cake too, so we had double cake. And we wrote in each other's journals... It felt like yearbook day:) Then we went to Sorianna to buy a new electric stove because ours broke (we've been showering with cold water for two weeks)... Comida was with the familia Corso, and it was good as always:) And we taught them about their testimonies and challenged them to share their testimonies with someone before conference. We were able to go see Velia today and we talked about Joseph Smith and we challenged her to pray just like him. She's really getting interested in the church. Then we went to our meeting with Hermano Pino.... Oh Hermano Pino.... This sounds so sad, but I hope I go to another area this next transfer. In this meeting and the next we talked about the area plan for Mexico about how missionaries have to be in ward council meetings and the things that aren't being completed by the members and it was like they didn't care. And we have the salvation of souls on the line. So that night, after a good cry, I called the bishop and asked if I could give a talk on Sunday and speak about this.

Miercoles: Today we started out with a good mormon.org session... I found some good music to listen to:)... Then we went and found Hermano Hugo with Hermano Pavey because he's worried about him. And when we got there we found books from other religions on the table... He's been comparing these with the scriptures. No wonder he has so many doubts! So we talked about how we shouldn't be reading these books and that we should find books written by the church. He took it well. Then we had comida with Hermana Martinez and I tried my fourth kind of mole...I think it's called estofado. There's 7 different types of mole in Oaxaca:) Then we went to Loma Linda and found Marcos and we taught him about our life on earth and that our agency has a big significance in what is going to happen after this life. Afterwards we went and found Hermana Eveline and we talked about our loving Heavenly Father. I swear she is so ready! She says she's not going to change her religion, but she is so ready. Full of questions and insights. Like we don't have to ask her questions because she participates on her own:)

Jueves: Today was pretty good. We had our weekly planning and then we visited Hermano Hugo and asked him what he did with his books... Still hasn't gotten rid of them, but he's not reading them. We also had comida with the familia Cruz. We couldn't share anything with them though because the ward was going to the temple. In fact that happened all day. None of the members were home or couldn't come with us. We did find Hermana Margarita in her house and we were able to talk with her for a while. And we tried going to visit Julia with her, but she couldn't. So we went to Julia by ourselves and we tried talking to her about baptism to get a date, but she went off on the most random subjects and we ended up having to go home without that lesson.... So frustrating...

Viernes: Today was a bit hard.... We literally walked everywhere and didn't find anyone... So we ended up leaving notes for the women's conference on Saturday. We got to eat with Hermana Sollo and it was the best!! Then we went and walked around Reforma trying to find people, but we couldn't. And I started to get sick, so we went to the house to see what I needed. I've been having some weird stomach issues lately... Then we went to the church so I could get my journal back from other Hermanas, but also so that Hermana Molina could get a blessing. And I ended up getting one too:)

Sabado: Today we went to see Hugo with Hermano Pavey. He ended up teaching him about the atonement and it was so good! And Hermano Hugo was in love with the way he taught. Then we went to the familia Ferra for the comida and it was awesome!! But I started getting sick again and Hermana Molina's back hurt too. So we went to the house and called Our sister training leaders to see what we need to do. We called the doctor for me and I had to buy some medicine and drink tea de laurel. And we were sad because we couldn't go to the conference:(

Domingo: Today, my talk. It went really well. It was firm, but it didn't planch anyone. And everyone listened and told me that they were going to change the way they were working. I was so happy!! And Hermana Molina spoke too about the same thing. We ate with the familia Ramierez, but then we went home so I could drink more tea. I have no idea what is going on with my stomach.... And I don't trust doctors.... But we were able to see Hermana Margarita for a while:) And when I got home I crashed.... But our phone call woke me up ¡Cambios!

Alright y'all! This was my last week in Reforma and I hope you enjoyed it:) And remember your reading for this week. We will be finishing Mosiah:) Enjoy! Love y'all!

Hermana Walker