General Conference and finishing up the transfer...

¡¡Hola Famila!!

Another week here in Sabinas, Coahulia, Mexico. We were able to get a lot of new investigators from our contacts the week before and so we spent the week giving what is called lesson zero, where we explain who we are and what our purpose is.. that kind of weeds out who may potentially be interested. We have a couple that look pretty good and quite a few others who I think accepted out of feeling obligated. So we still dont really have too much progression, but poco a poco (little by little).

We visited Estella for the last time this week (supposedly last week we dropped her but we had one more appointment) and we decided to talk to her about temples, hoping maybe that would spark a more eternal interest and maybe connect the dots. It actually did go really well and we discovered she hadnt understood that the church is the only church that actually has the priesthood. We had been pretty clear about it before, but I guess not clear enough. Thats something we are working on as a companionship.. ensuring that we are clear, especially considering we are both American. She isn{t super comfortable with that becuase it goes against what she has believed her whole life, but she committed to praying about it, and she was pretty sincere. We aren{t going back, but she promised if she got the answer that it was true, she would contact us. That sounds sketch considering thats never a good answer from investigators, but it was sincere and we trust her to do it.

Javier is still out of town... I don{t feel too good about that.

Mere and Enrique are progressing in the divorce. Its just a waiting game for all the legal stuff, but Hermana is pretty happy with one aspect of it. Apparently the young men{s president here (who is like 29) has a huge crush on me and so he basically will do anything for us.. and he is a lawyers so he{s helping with all the details that we are clueless about. 

The other couple we can only work with on Sundays because they live in the town we are not allowed to go to and we didn{t have church this sunday due to General Conference so we havent really been in contact with them. They have to take care of all the marriage and legal stuff on their own anyways, we just give the lessons, so there shouldnt be much change there. 

We worked pretty much alllll week in a colonia called Las Virgenes and I am a little tired of that neighborhood if we are going to be honest haha. But we have one new investigator there who is still in the very early stages. We have another investigator named Yolanda that we really like who we contacted outside her house and discovered she has family members who live in Utah and are members. Her mother was a very valient member, but due to some things that happened at her death, Yolanda is slightly hesitant to accept the church. But we really feel there is some potential there and she gave a heartfelt prayer after our first lesson with her. 

With conference... ahhhh yes I did get to listen in English, but saturday was very stressful. We had talked to a member of the branch presidency in Rosita, where it was being broadcasted, and he had told us we would be able to watch in English. We show up Satuday morning and discover there was no other television or anything to watch it. We crammed ourselves (just Hna Barnard and I) in this little office with a computer, but the interenet in Rostia is hardly sufficient and we couldn{t get the feed. We listened to a few of the talks in spanish, and we were able to understand it to a point, but its really hard to have it sink in and receive inspiriation when its not in your native tongue. So we left and found an internet net cafe, if you can so call it that haha, and watched the last talk there. In the afternoon we did the same, but were surrounded by a bunch of kids playing video games and yelling. Once I was able to tune them out and keep my headphones close, I was able to truly tune in and listen. It really brings a different view to "Welcome to all those who are tuning in from around the world, in chapels and homes (and loud internet café's in norther Mexico)". I was feeling so desperate to hear the words of the prophet and I feel I wont take advantage of it again. The next day we talked to our own branch president and watched by ourselves in the Sabina{s building, where the internet is reliable. We had the whole church to ourselves the wholeee day and it was quite relaxing. It was so strange to watch conference in such a manner when the past two years I have watched in the conference center for most of the time. Conference was great though and I reallly loved the talks by Elder Bednar and one by a general authority with the name something like Jorge K. I have already downloaded almost all of the talks in both spanish and english to listen to in our apartment. 

I loved the foreign language aspect though!! When a native spoke in Spanish, I listened to those talks and that was really cool to be able to participate and understand in two languages. Its much easier listening to a native than to a translation because you can read their lips and hear the emotion too. I didnt understand everything, but got the messages and that was really sweet. I also am really glad they have people give talks in their native tongues too becuase seriously, in translations its not the same!! You miss the emotion and the pattern of speech when its translated becuase you{re not hearing it out of the mouth of the actual speaker. I feel bad for all the people around the world who all these years havent heard it in their native tongue because its just not the same. Still wonderful, no doubt, but not the same. 

The general authority that gave his talk in spanish in the last session was really good and I loveeeeee his voice. We were kind of sad his was shorter because we loved listning to him speak. His spanish is beautiful. 

Okay so some other funny things that happened this week. We stopped by Mere's one night and she made us dinner. So we are just eating and chatting and all of a sudden a huge cockroach jumps into Hna Barnard's lap... she flips out and then it jumps into her food, splashes (which only freaked her out more), and then it jumped back into her lap!! I was DYING of laughter! And then a few minutes later I saw a mouse crawl across the wall... whatevs, totally normal. Mere has named it because it and another one live in her house. We then proceed to video tape it has it ate food off the kitchen sink scrub brush. I have a video that one day I might be able to send home. But for now, Ill refrain as to save my mother from worrying that much more... ;). Welcome to Mexico. It was just totally casual.. "Hey, there is a mouse on your kitchen counter.". just casual hahaha. I dont even freak out at those things anymore. Not alllll the houses are like that, and many many people would find it disgusting also, but its not all that abnormal. There are soooo many things that go down here that wouldnt pass in the United States. I am POSITIVE the Lord is protecting me and building my immune system becuase there is no wayyyy I would still be disease free if He weren{t haha. Remember how I said we dont drink the water? Ohhh yeahhhh by now I am sure I have had my fair share of Mexican water. Fulllll glasses at a time. Hope I am not jinxing myself right now by saying this haha. 

Last couple of random things I thought of:

1)  I was asked if I got a nose job because apparently its perfect. The guy then proceeded to tell me it was better than my companions.. that was awkward haha.

2) I slept talked in spanish this week!! Whooo! I will probably progress faster once I have a native companion cause we speak in english a lotttt (its too weird to speak in spanish together, but luckily the spanish kicks in with natives) but I woke up in the night speaking spanish to my companion. She doesnt remember what I said, but she said it was logical, not just nonsense so whoo!

3) I bought some christmas presents this week.. so mom and dad I will probably take some money out of my account this week, if you are watching for that. Probably like $50 or something. 

4) hahaha totally showed up the young men in soccer this week. After the piano lessons they played and I asked if I could join. They were like "sureeee" and then I just started whipping out tricks and stuff (all in a skirt thank you) and they were like whoaaaaaaaaaa you have to come every week!! It was really fun. First time ive played in a long time and its amazing how I always feel like myself when I play.

LOVE YOU ALL. I wanted to share something more spiritual, but there were random things I wanted to tell this week. Prayers please for my companion and I! Last week of the transfer!

Still couldnt send pictures, but hopefully one of these days I will send a TON!

Con mucho amor y gratitud,

Hermana Roberts