Edificando el Reino: Hermana Roberts en Saltillo, México

Querida Familia Roberts, I cannot believe this will be the last time I will be writing you all here in my mission! (Next up... family group texts....), but before I get into all that, heres the update from the past week. It wasnt the most normal week due to many extra activities, but it was super fun and we were able to... convivir... (yall are really gonna have to help me with the english).. spend time with lots of other missionaries. On Tuesday we had our final zone meeting where I was asked to give my testimony and then we took our final photos with the zone.  Wednesday  I had my final interview with President,  Friday  we had our mission christmas party where I was a judge for the talent show, and then we went to a big park in the center of Saltillo and showed the new christmas video, sang, and contacted everyone, and then  Sunday  was the First Presidency Christmas message.  I have been very fortunate as to not getting sick here in the...

This week Ricardo and Vicenta went to the temple in Monterrey and sounds like they had a really great experience!! We had more success in finding new investigators this last week and I have felt really satisfied with some experiences we have had, but basically we are just going through the grind! I hope to leave my little greenie with lots of work to do once I am gone so we are getting things set up for the future weeks. Thats basically what we have been doing... lots of prep and set up for future success.  This upcoming week will be rather exciting. We have several Christmas activities going on, which is sweet they are all happening before I leave haha, and the best of all.... CESAR IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON THURSDAY!! Cesar is from my area in Zarco.. Alicia`s son. I taught him the majority of the lessons before I left last transfer and set his baptismal date with him my last day. The other sisters, including Hna.Murset, had to move it back a few weeks because he struggl...

You really would think that by now I would have come up with another way to address yall in these letters, but lets just all understand I am not a creative person... Hello fam!! This week really wasnt very interesting. We dropped some people and some other people dropped us. We contacted a little more than usual cause we dont really have many people progressing in the teaching, and the temperatures dropped.  I have been accussed as being extremely white in this area. This make up dealer was just like dumbfounded by the whitness of my skin and a member told me I am the most güera of all the americans he has seen here. He was technically referring to my hair color cause almost all the other american sisters have been brunettes, but yeah. He also asked me why I am so short. I returned the question.... cause hes shorter than I am. Haha I kind of forgot that I am short cause here I am totally normal height, but then you put me next to the american missionaries and I am like "oh...

Hello hello This week Vicenta and Ricardo were baptized!! I sent another email, which was actually my companion´s letter home, but it has the picture from the baptism. They were definitely prepared and the service was really beautiful. The preparation from this baptism was a little different from those in the past though.. We went over to the church saturday morning because the elders informed us that the font hadnt been emptied from the last several baptisms because apparently its broken and the water doesnt drain.......... the same water from 2 months ago was still in the font..... We tried to find another solution, but in the end the only option was to baptize in really dirty water, or empty the font by hand. I decided we wanted them to have a good experience.... so we got to work and the four of us (the two elders, my comp, and I) emptied the font with buckets. Back and forth from the font and the bathrooms, emptying bucket by bucket. It took about 2 hours, which I actuall...

Week 2 in Oceanía This week went faster than the last because I got to know the area better and was able to lead out. My poor companions, I generally have to be the leader to feel comfortable haha. We did have more success this week though and found 5 new people to teach. Plus we have 2 baptisms this upcoming Saturday for Ricardo and Vicenta. Although I arrived only a few weeks before their baptism, I, with Hna.Tejo, have done almost all of the teaching of the lessons. They didnt have much when I got here, but they felt ready for baptisms within the few days I arrived and so we set dates and have been working to get them prepared. Cesar, in Zarco, also set a date. I actually set it with him the night before I was transfered, for the 21st of November. He was really excited and has a strong testimony already, but the sisters there have informed me he hasnt made it to church the last 2 weeks due to work and stuff, so he wont be getting baptized the 21st. But if he goes the next ...

Hello hello Well here I am in Oceanía! Its not too far from my last area in Zarco, but I am in a different zone and stake. My zone (and stake) is called Valle de las Flores. The mission office is in my area, as well as President Rodriguez´s house. We should be eating with them this month. I share an area with the assistants and we eat with them several times a week. They are pretty fun and as I have heard, sometimes its a competition cause we dont have divisiones of the area.... we share it completely. My new companion is Hermana Trejo from Tlaxcala, Mexico. Its south of Mexico City and close to Puebla. She is 19 years old and has one transfer in the mission. She is a fantastic missionary and has lots of potential. Sometimes I dont feel like I am her trainer. Shes great :). I hope to be a good example to her and be able to pass on all of my exansive knowledge and experience and charisma ;) in this last transfer. We were able to set baptismal dates with two of their investigat...

Just call me STEP MOM Well we finished up the transfer strong and were able to still get about 30 lessons in despite the fact that Hermana Cano got sick and we were out for about 2 days. Not a lot of the new investigators we found last week are progressing, but there is one that is fantastic. Her name is Sandra and a mother of 4 kids. She was a contact we made right before we went home one night. (Work until the last minute my friends.) She isnt married, but does live with her.... pareja... I dont know how to say that. Its the father of her 2 youngest children. Hes not too interested in listening, but hes still kind and doesnt have any problem with Sandra listening. We just started the lessons with her this week, but took a lot of interest in the Book of Mormon and has already read several chapters in 1 Nefi. She has a lot of questions, but very willing to listen to our answers and as it looks so far is very accepting of all we teach. We still havent gotten to the Restoration throu...

Hello hello, We had a good week this week! We weren´t having much success for the first half of the week and by Thursday we hadnt found a single new investigator. Last night we reported our numbers and reported 13 new investigators. We worked hard and are putting in practice some ideas we had in order to find those that are ready to listen. Of those 13 we hope that some progress and a few are baptized. :) Cesar is doing so well and I really will just have to tell more of his story when I get home in order to tell it well, but he is accepting everything we teach him magnificantly. Last week we taught him about the Book of Mormon and he testified of it being true before he read a single page. He said he just knows this is true and began to read immediately. He fulfills all of his compromises and understands exceptionally what he reads. He has even inspired me to understand the Book of Mormon better. He has been amazed by, as we told him, that he would be able to find answers to h...

Fam Bam, Alicia is doing great. She shows up at church on her own every week, with Lety of course, without us calling or passing by to remind her or anything. I think we need to help her understand the importance of scripture study a little more, but she already has that habit from beforehand and reads the Bible daily. I am pretty sure she is intergrating the Book of Mormon, but we probably could focus on that a little more. But she has a strong testimony of the church already so I am not too worried about her :). Its so true what you said though, there is that excitement when someone gets baptized, but there is still that constant stress of ensuring they form a firm testimony so that they become self sufficient in the gospel.  Right now we are teaching her son Cesar. I dont remember if I have mentioned him or not, but he is progressing well also. We have had some of the COOLEST experiences with him. He has already born his testimony about the Book of Mormon and basically ...

Hola hola!! We had a week filled with conferences! On thursday we had our lidership council with all the leaders of the mission, general conference on saturday and sunday, and this upcoming tuesday we have zone conference. Lots of learning to be done.  Things are going well here. Not too much to report still cause our investigators are struggling to progress, but we hope to see some progress this week. If not, we will just keeping being patient. There is always something to be learned and I think right now its just diligence and patience.  I really enjoyed conference. There were too many talks that I enjoyed to mention things I learned, but I can testify that those men and women are called of God. We are very blessed to have modern day prophets and apostles who give us direction and council concerning our needs. Its generalized, but very personal if we allow it to be. I am grateful for those who are called to serve and I am trying to magnify my callings as well. No...

Wazzzzzzzup Really not much special happened this week. There wasnt much progress in our area,or with our investigators, and we are kind of struggling to find new people to teach... pero ya vamos. Not every week can be fantastic. Today we packed up our whole house and are moving out! The owner is selling her house so we found a new one and we are lucky enough to get to do allllll the packing and moving haha. Good stuff.  Um yep. Haha.  Oh, mom asked about Alicia´s family. Her husband left her like 10 years ago and so hes not in the picture. We are teaching one of her son´s though (hes like 40 something) and he super great, we will just see how he progresses. He has a lot of potential. Lety, her daughter, doesnt need to be baptized due to her illness, but shes also active and very loved in the ward already. And one other daughter we taught once, but she hasnt been home since. She didnt have much interest though anyways. I am superrrrr excited for general co...

Family!! My letter will be fairly short because I had a lot of tedicous and important things to do today concerning my education and all that jazz.... but this week was good! We are now working in a trio, Hermana Murset, Hermana Cano, and I. Things are going really well and I know we were put together for a reason. Its actually an honor because I know its an important work that we need to do this transfer. Alicia was baptized on Saturday morning. It was a simple and very beautiful service. I was veryyy happy with it. Alicia was perfectly prepared and she was shockingly beautiful when she walked out in baptismal white. It was paired with a smile which clearly made it that much more beautiful. She was very sure and calm and veryyyyy happy with the covenant she has made with God. It truely was a very sweet and dear experience to me.  We had a little celebration that night with the Family Mora where we explained a litle more in detail about the confirmation the following da...

Hello hello! Highlights of the week: 1) I was asked to translate at a health conference that was given. A doctor from the states came with his wife, how is a nurse, and she doesnt speak any spanish. She spoke to us sister missionaries and so I had to translate. First time translating for a large group and I could say it was a success! It was really really fun actually. 2)We had a zone goal this week of 100 new investigators and we fulfilled it! Hna.Murset and I fulfilled our part and found 9 of them. The zone got 110 by the end of the week. 3) I fulfilled the missionary stereotype this week and got bit by a dog. That little devil came out of no where, with no warning, and just bit me in the back of the achilles part of my foot. I wasnt evening doing anything, just walking along. No worries and no one call my mission office please, it was the first day I had worn boots in a month and I wasnt harmed.  4) The Mexico City temple was rededicated and we got to hear the ...

No one even commented on my tan line.... so much work for nothing. Haha well this week was eventful but I am basically just lazy at this point and ready to go eat some tacos. We are headed to the centro to go check out some authentic mexican stuff. This week we had our mission council again with all the leaders and it was great as usual! We made our efforts to help some other sister missionaries this week concerning problems they are having and I feel like the skills I have been developing here on my mission are really coming to serve me. It makes me even more grateful for my mission because I know they are skills that are going to help me in so many things in life.  The Mexico City temple will be rededicated this next weekend and although we cant travel to to Mexico City, we are particpating here in our church, it being an extention of the temple. Everyone is cleaning the stake center this week and getting it ready. We all have to get recommends and everything and it s...

Hello hello, There isnt too much to report this week, just still chugging a long. I feel good about the work we did this last week and the Lord definitely is helping us. Alicia is still progressing well and is excited for her baptism on the 12th of September!!  One cool experience from this past week was when we were just walking down the street and we passed this guy who basically started at us, and usually we kind of avoid those kind haha, I decided to turn around and contact him. His name is Luis Alejandro and he is a father of 3 boys (has a wife but they arent married) and he only has one leg. He walks EVERYWHERE, but on crutches. Anyways, we contacted him and he was super nice and accepted to have us pass by his house and teach. He was waiting for us when we went the next day and accepted to be baptized within a few weeks.... whoaaaa... he asked us to write down the requirements we had read in Dyc 20 verse 37 so that he could study it. He also committed to go to church...

Its my birthday!!!! I am officially legal in the United States! Whoo.... too bad Im not even there hahah who knows at what age I am legal here.  Welllllll we changed out pday cause we are going to el museo de desierto here in Saltillo! I have already been before but my comp hasnt and we decided it would be a fun birthday activity. two other sisters are going to meet us there cause one of them completed years yesterday. Fun stuff! and then we will be having a family night with a member family and alicia (our investigador) and some of the converts we teach to have a little party I guess. I dont know anything about it, but Hna.mora is being kind of secretive so we will see hahah.  We had some really great experiences this week, but the one I will share happened yesterday. We went to teach a fairly new investigador named Elizabeth whom we met when her member friend invited her over when she had us for lunch (good work, member!!). We taught her about our Heavenly Father and...

Family!! We have finished our first week here in Zarco, Hermana Murset and I. She is a DOLL and I absolutely love her. I think she is the perfect companion for me right now and I have a lot of faith that we are going to be a successful team. She has a lot of characteristics and skills that I hope to develop and I really admire her. We have been able to identify strengths in both of us that work well together and its almost relaxing to teach with her. When we teach I feel like we are actually being instruments for the Spirit to speak. Not that that really depends in us but we try really hard and the Lord blesses us.  Shes has 10 months in the mission and so we both have been able to get some experiences and develop skills that will serve us well. I imagine I will learn a lot from her this next change. We are the sister training leaders for all the sisters here in Saltillo, like last change, but shes new and pretty nervous, so prayers would be appreciated. We have decided to ...

Good last week with Hna. Walsh and now she is headed home to the States. First she is going to take her family around Saltillo, so it will kind of be a trial run for me when yall come in December, but shes out of here on Saturday morning. My new companion´s name is Hermana Murset and she is from Utah as well. I dont really know her well, but she is the sister that baptized Jorge in Sabinas so that will be cool to work together! I am staying her in Zarco of course and the work continues. Our investigators are fine and progressing little by little. If you want more details on that then ask mom for the letter I wrote her cause it talks more about them.  So I cut my hair last Monday... pretty short haha. Cant believe it cause the goal was to have it grow out really long by the time I got home, but whatevs. You do what you got to do when its basically all falling ut and youre gonna be bald. Despite the fact that the guy who cut it didnt do it as well as Cassie would, I still lik...

This week was a really good week because we got to work a lot!! The week before we had a million other things to do and didnt get to teach and work like we normally would, so it was great to have a full week. I felt the Spirit work with us both as a companionship and it really inspired the lessons and we feel that our investigadors felt it too.. so yay!! What more can you ask for?  Basically I am too lazy to talk explain stories and experiences cause its just the day to day kind of thing now. Is there anything yall would like to know about?  Some fun stuff I guess. Last monday night we had a family night with some investigadors and they gave us a huge clay mug filled with water from whats called a jarra, which is basically just this huge clay jug or pot thing. It supposedly is really delicious (or so they say) but the minute they left Hna. Walsh and I alone and went inside for a second (we were outside at a table), Hna. Walsh was like "this water is disgusting and we c...

Well I was going to send some pictures from this week because we had a really awesome conference given by Elder Pieper, a 70, who came to tour the mission, but it isnt working hehe. But the conference was amazing!!! I wish I had time to expound but basically my journal is FULL of notes and I truly felt the Spirit. We are already putting things into practice as a companionship and we are seeing the fruits. It has to do with people deciding their own baptismal dates instead of us setting them.. and a whole bunch of others things where they CHOOSE to do things. Clearly we guide them, which is where the trick comes in because we have to help them desire to do things... but its really cool to watch. Its going to take a lot of skill development and practice, but I am excited to see the success that will surely come.  Right now we are working with a family who apparently were baptized when they were little (the parents) but havent gone since. They are the family Hernandez ...

I dont really know how to start my letters anymore cause I always say the same thing haha... entonces... Hola Family!! Mmm not too much to report. Just working and trying to stay awake in the lessons in this heat. Haha mostly exaggerating but after lunch in this heat... listening to someone tell you a really long story... it gets hard, ya know? I only work about half the time in my own area now. We go on splits twice a week and the are each for about a day and a half so it gets kind of crazy sometimes. I have been leaving to work in the other sister´s area every time because I still dont know our own area well enough to direct it with someone how does know it at all, so I have basically been a traveling missionary. I love working with Hna. Walsh and we are a good team, just sad we are only together like half the time haha. But its been a good experience to get to know other sisters and try to help them improve and find what is keeping them from having more success.  A...

Another week in Zarco.. Things are good!! I only have like 5 minutes left so.... sorry. This week my companion Hermana Tah went home to Cancun which was super sad, but its good cause she will be able to recover her health. And now I have somewhere to crash when I take a trip to the beach ;).  We also had Mission Council this week which was my first and it was superrrr sweet. We had some really great training I was definitely inspired.  The work is progressing and we hope to help our investigadores progress as well this week. We have a fantasticccccc investigador named Leobarda who is doing great. She has been smoking for 45 years and wants more than anything to stop, and she is taking hold of the Gospel. She was smoking 12 cigarettes a day when we met here and just in a few weeks she is down to 6 a day. Prayers for her and her husband (once they get married...) who is also now listening too. Something I read this morning and really loved from the general conferen...