One Month in Mexico!!

Buenas dias famila y amigos,

This week was a good week! I had a few times where I felt like my spanish was progressing and few times where I felt like I wanted to lay down in the street and give up, but the good news is.. I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP!! Haha seriously, wow, I feel like people don{t understand what kind of perserverance this takes and I am not saying I am going at it cause I{m not, but wow wow wow. I love yall though and I want you all to know that I know this is worth it. Sometimes 15.5 more months feels like a century, and then there are times where I think this is going to go by so fast and I{m not going to know what happened. But I KNOW this church is true and I am grateful for the opportunity to share the beautiful message of the restored gospel with other people. Now.. if only I could make people realize how important the message I{m trying to share with them is haha. 

So my investigators: We are teaching a woman named Nora who I think is absolutely wonderful. She was a reference of a member in the branch and she accepted to take the lessons when we knocked on her door. We received a phone call from her the day of our appointment, which usually isn{t a good sign, but she actually asked if we could teach her at the church! So we met her there and she said "When I commit to something I commit, and I want to do this without distractions"... !!! Sweeeeet! We taught her "lesson zero" which basically just sets the scene for the things we are going to teach in the future and an invitation to baptism (she has not yet accepted baptism though fyi). She recieved the lesson very well and we gave her a tour of the church where she asked to see the baptismal font and then she asked about all the paintings,which included the Atonement, Joseph Smith recieving the priesthood, the 2nd Coming, etc. I was a little nervous that would be so overwhelming, but she liked them all. She didn{t come to church unfortunely becuase she said it was just a lot to take in, but we met her this past week and taught her the first part of the first lesson. She didnt{ come to church again, which made me SUPER sad, but I hope this week we can get her to. I feel like she is ready, but I also don{t understand a lot of what she says so who knows haha.

We also started teaching a woman named Yulianna who did accept my invitation of baptism!! Whoooo!! She also didn{t come to church which is also sad.. but we haven{t even taught her the first lesson yet so we{ll see.

We contacted a man named Miguel in the street one night who accepted us with a huge smile. We started talking to him and turns out he is an inactive member of the church! He was baptized in Acuna like 7 or 8 years ago, but once the missionaries who taught him found out he had fallen back into drinking, they were really discouraged with him and he stopped coming to church. He told us that he has seen us walk back many times and he{s just been waiting for us to stop and talk to him.. I was like OH MY GOSH. We taught him the first lesson the other night in his garage type.. thing. It{s kind of funny because I watch these training videos of missionaries in the states teaching lessons to people and its very much what you would expect in the states.. and then the same night I{ll go and teach the same lesson but we{re sitting on broken chairs (my companion was sitting on an empty fuel container) with a man wearing no shoes. Missionary work is so different than what many percieve (including myself before my mission). It{s really not glamorous and you work really hard to have the Spirit, but its not like we may think where the missionaries are just these glorious people beaming with the Spirit. Maybe we are and I just don{t see it, but its something that we have to work at. Anyways, Miguel is awesome. He also didn{t come to church yesterday, but I{m pretty sure its because he doesn{t have church clothes and he didn{t want to show up in his worn out clothing. 

BUT we had 2 investigators at church, and SO many inactive members that we taught this week! That was seriously awesome. This one family walked in right as church started and I was like "HALLELUJAH!!" It was great. 

Man I just want people to realize what we have!!! Seriously, we are SO blessed to have the gospel and sometimes I want to just yell "what you are looking for is right here!! I have it! I want to tell you about it! I am horrible at spanish, but I want you to have this! Even if you do not realize this is what you want... its what you want!!".. but unfortunately thats not how it works haha.

This morning we attended the funeral of a woman (86 years old) who lives below us (member). Its really sad actually (of course) because we visited her last week and we{ll sing her hymns. She sings her HEART out and usually cries and then will tell us stories about when she used to sing the hymn. She is just the sweetest even though I can{t understand her. We made plans to start reading the Book of Mormon to her every night because she cant, but the first night we went to do it she was in the hospital. And then yesterday morning she passed away. That felt a little strange considering I was planning on spending every evening with her... I lead the music at the service this morning. 

Let{s see.. we are taking painting classes (hoping to get Carmen, the teacher, to take the lessons) and it is really fun!! We didn{t get to do it this morning since we had the funeral service, but I look forward to it next week. 

CONGRATULATIONS to my best friend HAYLEY VOGELSBERG on her engagement!!!!! :)) Jeff, you are stealing my best friend, so you better get on my good side.. haha. 

Check out that tan line...

​

Well, I love you all! Please continue to pray for me, I am praying for you! You{re in my thoughts and prayers always. I appreciate all you do for me.

Con amor,

Hermana Roberts

"I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me; Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father" (Enose 1:27).

How great will be that day.. do all you can now to make this moment possible.