Week 49

Hola everyone!

Wow! This week went by and it was so awesome! I am so excited to be here in Zimatlan. There’s a lot of good work going on here and my companion is adorable:)

On Monday, I traveled the entire day to my new transfer so nothing much happened there. I was able to talk to an Hermana who is going to be in Barrio Reforma so I told her about people she needs to say hi to and stuff like that.  It was funny because Zimatlan was her first area! so she told me about this place too.  That night I got to know my new companion a little bit more. She is from where Cayla Ullman is serving, but she doesn't know her. IT IS FREEZING COLD HERE IN ZIMATLAN!!! I never, ever, ever thought I would say that it's cold in Mexico. But I am now wearing scarves, cardigans, sweats, and I’ll have to ask for another blanket from the offices…and I was thinking about sending all that stuff home...hahaha~ :0

On Tuesday, I think my favorite part was doing service for a member family. It's all farm country here and this member has a corn field. So today I got to use my hands a little bit and I learned how to take the corn off the cob so make tortilla dough. I'll just have to say it hurts to do this. The corn is all hard and you get cut really bad. AND this Hermana knows how to speak Mixteco, a dialect. And she's going to teach us! In fact, there are tons of Hermana’s who speak this language. It's so cool! :)

On Wednesday, we got to meet out new district leader and district. Our district leader is Elder Boynton from Salt Lake and he was in my zone on the coast. And it's funny because his comp in the coast is also in our district, but is training an elder from Salt Lake. And then we have the elders that we share Zimatlan with. I also got to teach English today. I guess they did English classes with one of the elders who was here before and I'm picking up where he left off.  We are also in charge of the ward Family Home Evening. We taught about repentance with the spider web game (like you do at girls camp), but no one could get through. And we used that to teach without Jesus we would be lost after our first sin. Then we watched a video called “His Hands”. It was beautiful.  To end we had one of our investigators, Roman, share his testimony because he has gone through the repentance process for a long time. A beautiful testimony.

Thursday was pretty awesome. We visited an investigator named Marta and before, we were debating about dropping her as an investigator. But when we got there she started crying when we sang, “I am a Child of God”.  We asked her why and she opened up to everything she's been going through. Her daughter died so she is taking care of her grandchildren, but one of them is super disrespectful and she doesn't know what to do with her. So we shared with her Ether 12:6-27 to help her feel better and we made plans to talk with her granddaughter and her together. And this Hermana gave us a shopping bag filled with mandarin oranges from her tree and fresh eggs from her chickens. It was super sweet. I also got to meet Roman and his wife, Guadalupe, and they are awesome people. Roman has been trying to drop drinking and has gone for a few months without it. All they need to do is get married (which is what they are doing this Wednesday!!! :) So we invited them to get baptized on Feb 14, so we're having a baptism this week!!

On Friday it was a bit rough. Because our area is so big we have to take Mototaxis everywhere. Basically all of our lessons fell through because we were so late to each one. But one investigator that I met was really great. Her name is Ines and we visited her with a member named Guadalupe and we taught her from Jesus Christ and his ministry to Joseph Smith. And we asked her to do the closing prayer, but to ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. And she did and started crying. But she didn't tell us why! She might have received her answer or it might be something else. We just have to figure that out.

Saturday was pretty good. I met another Hermana who speaks Mixteco. Her name is Margarita and we have to teach her by writing the lessons in a notebook, but in simple words because she learns slowly. But she is the cutest abuelita ever! She loves learning and reading new scriptures that we write for her. We also learned that we might not have a baptism. We talked to Roman's sister and she said that her husband and Roman came home the day before completely drunk and something happened and Roman hit Guadalupe.... So strange! Because he was doing so good!  We will wait and see what he says to us.

Sunday was pretty great. Zimatlan is still a branch, but it's big enough to have its own church building and we had about 80 people there!  The members are super nice and love the missionaries, which is awesome, haven’t had that in a transfer! :) Our ward mission leader is a teenager preparing to go on a mission. His name is Ramiro and he is the only member in his family and he's doing his papers alone. They don't know!  We also talked to our branch president about Roman. It's complete gossip!! So we will have our baptism! :) Exciting! :)

Today we were able to meet a member named Ismael. He's 26, has a dream of going on a mission, and is the only church member in a family of super Catholics. He is awesome and super sweet. He can make really cool things out of soda cans (he made me a flower :)) We also met with Guadalupe's (member) brother, Alfredo. He seems pretty cool and is willing to get baptized. It's just hard because his parents are super catholic and will disown him if he does. 

But that is what happened this week. I am super excited for the work I have here in Zimatlan and it is a big change.  My companion is very different from my last. A lot more open to be weird in public which I absolutely love. And she's willing to try new ideas. I am in the Atoyac stake, so different from Reforma. It feels a lot more safe and close-knit. The members seem to work a lot more with us here too. They go out and visit investigators by themselves and everything. It's great! Mom- I know I should get that package tomorrow because we have zone conference. So everything should be good. I love you all and I hope everything is going great! Talk to you next week!

Love Hermana Walker