¡CAMBIOS! ¡VOY A SABINAS!

Dear Family,

I am SO SO SO sorry about the past two weeks.. I had no idea you did not recieve my emails. I will send them again, but I am so sad you did not get them. Mom and Dad, I am glad to hear you finally got the first of the written ones. Another one should soon follow that I sent about two weeks ago. I am sending this email only to yall to make sure it gets there, but Mom or Danielle, please look up the list of my friends from the previous emails and foward this to them.

This week was really good!! I took the ya´lls advice, as well as my own, and chilled out a little bit. I thought I was being patient before, but I somehow was able to figure it out a little better this week and as a result I feel much much better. There are several things that went into it, but it basically came down to RELAXEing. As well as the fact that after time and getting accustomed, things just natural start to become more comfortable. 

Okay so I told yall a little bit about Pedro last week (read previous email I will send about him) and oh my gosh... I love him. We taught him the Plan of Salvation this week and he is just so prepared. He can{t read small print very well, so he goes to a park down the street and reads there where it is light. He read the entire pamphlet and KNEW it.. when we were teaching him he kept bring up principles we had not yet gotten to and telling us what he knew about it. We were seriously so excited!! The people here talk so much so usually we have to teach each lesson in 2 sittings, but becuase he was prepared and he doesn{t talk very much, we were actually able to get through the whole lesson. I asked him how he felt about everything (he has a baptismal date) he just said he felt really good about it. Every time we ask him questions about whether he has wondered about certain things (like life before or after this life, etc) he just says he hasn{t, but now that we are teaching him it just makes sense. I love that!! I think sometimes we expect that everyone is just lost, when in reality, sometimes people don{t realize what they have been missing until they have found it. He told us about his wife who passed away (Im not sure how long ago) and we taught him a little about temples and how he can be sealed to her for eternity. It was really sweet. I don{t think he understood me most of the time, but he always smiles and I can just tell he is prepared. We gave him a Book of Mormon and I hope he grows to love it. 

A really funny thing that happened with him was that during our first lesson we taught him about prayer and the correct way to address Heavenly Father, etc. We asked him to close the lesson with a prayer and I started to instruct him on how to do it.. but he misunderstood and just repeated everything I said. So I said ¨We start by addressing Heavenly Father" and he said just that and then I told him "we give thanks" and he said "we give thanks" and then we "express our thoughts and feelings" and he repeated that exactly haha. We realized he was praying and we looked at eachother and silently laughed, and then I continued to pray and have him repeat it.. like you do at the pulpit when a child wants to bare their testimony in sacrament meeting. After leaving we just laughed and laughed, but he is just so anxious to get going. Its sweet because hes really quiet. 

We took a trip to Saltillo on Thursday (5 hour drive) and were there for Thursday night and Friday morning. We had a conference for las misioneras (only the sister missionaries) in President Rodriguez´s house. It is huge and super nice, but the conference was really great! All in spanish of course, but it was fun to meet all of the sister missionaries in the mission. There are currently 21 (which is why we have a trio), but one completes her mission this week which leads me to my next point which is... CAMBIOS (transfers)! 

We just finally got word this afternoon what all is changing and I am headed to Sabinas! Its an area really close to Rosita, in the same zone, and my new companion is going to be Hermana Barnard! I{ve gotten to know her a little since she was in my zone and hey, guess what! Shes American!! I am pretty excited about that. At first I was like "oh no.. im not going to learn spanish from my companions anymore" but I actually think this is going to be a huge blessing. I don{t know if she is planning on speaking Spanish all the time with me, but I imagine not because it is weird to speak a foreign language to someone that speaks your native language, but who knows. Hopefully we can find a balance and I think she will be able to help me a lot. Sabinas is just as hot so there isn{t really any relief there haha, but thats okay. It should start cooling down in the next month or so and supposedly it gets really cold here too (drastic climate) so we will see. I also think we are going to have bikes there! Whoo!! I don{t know if I have to buy it or what so just be aware of that.

Oh... MY BIRTHDAY!! So it wasn{t your typical birthday, but it was still really good. Mom, I recieved the birthday package you sent when I went to Saltillo, just two days after my birthday. I LOVE IT!! Oh my gosh the blanket.. you are wonderful. Almost just like my one at home and it is PERFECT, thank you!! And everything else in there too is great! I love the washcloths thank you! It was really fun to get and open. 

The morning of my birthday was our zone meeting because it was the last week of the transfer, so it was kind of like a party for my birthday even though we were going to have the meeting anyways. Haha but my companions bought me an awesome cake and one of the elders brought his guitar and everyone sang happy birthday. One of the other sisters had a brithday this week too, so she also had a cake :). Then at la comida (lunch) we ate with a family who}s grandaughter also had a birthday so had MORE CAKE. So much cake, it was awesomeeeeeee. Hermana Manzano (the member we ate with) gave me a hankerchief type thing as a present and seriously it was so sweet. Its nothing big, but it meant a lot that she thought about it being my birthday. Then the rest of the day we just worked and at 7:01pm I yelled a little bit in the street (my birth time) hahaha. I kept thinking about you Mom and prayed that the Heavenly Father would let you know I love you so very much. We talked a little about moms during the sister missionary conference too and I couldnt help but let a few tears fall. I love you so very much!! 

Okay what else... oh!! I am seeing some progress in my Spanish which is awesome. A part of my relaxing thing is allowing myself to speak in English some too. Both my companions understand a lot of english so there really is not reason that I dont express myself. Before I jsut wouldnt say anything if I didn{t know how to say it in spanish and so that was part of why I felt so alone. But I also am speaking more in spanish, both to my companions and just to people. I just start talking and hope all works out hahaha. And honestly, I am seeing improvement and I am happier. I think the relaxing thing is helping a lot and honestly I think it is allowing me to be more receptive to the gift of tounges.. I am showing more faith by not freaking out so much. I don{t know why I was trying to disown my own language and who I was before.. I guess I thought that was how I would learn faster but I think it just made things a lot harder. The transition would have been hard no matter what, no doubt, and honestly I really didn{t know enough spanish to try to speak before anyways, but I am happy with where things are going now. 

Hahaha okay something else funny... last night we were at an investigador{s house and their dog{s name is hahahahaha oh my gosh I just asked my companion how to spell the dogs name and its "puppy" hahahaha but its pronounced "poopy"... I thought it was spelt "pupi" but hahahah they literally just call it puppy. Anyways, I am super mature and kept laughing everytime they talked to the dog. David, I thought you would appreciate this.

Well I don{t really remember anything else I was going to tell you about, but I sent pictures to Mom and Danielle to post to the blog. I will go send the other emails again too!! I am SO SO SO sorry about the past two weeks, I feel horrible. 

I LOVE YALL SO MUCH and I thank Heavenly Father every day for yall. This time away only makes yall that much more precious to me, but I am so grateful for this. How cool.. I love in another country, learning another language, teaching people about the most wonderful and truthful thing I could give them. 

The church is true!!

Con amor,

Hermana Roberts