Our Missionary in Mexico: {Week 13} Aculco

It's been crazy! And I need to catch you up two weeks!! Ahh!

Us at the zoo!

The zoo was lots of fun. It was Hna Aguilar, Hna Gutierrez and me, and a member family that came with us and drove us. It was a good time! Then Hna G left the next day - I was sad to see her go, but I know it's for the best.

Goodbye to Hna G in our landlady's house. We live above here.

Hna Aguilar and I worked the rest of the week and found some new investigators... not sure how interested they are though. We also went on splits twice with a lady in our ward and her daughter. The daughter Daniela (17) and I went and searched out a whole bunch of less actives and contacted a bazillion people while Hna A and Claudia (the mom) took care of our appointments. That was a lot of fun. One contact we had is named Angelica, and she was super interested in The Book of Mormon. We've been teaching her, but we think she's more interested in just learning, not changing. But she is reading the BoM and has finally started to pray with us... she wouldn't do that for a long time.

Tuesday was cambios (transfers - new comps and all that) but on Monday we got a call that the pres wanted to do cambios that night to make things easier for sending Hna A home... so Monday I got my new comp, Hna Cruz. She's great. I love her! She's 21, and is from Veracruz, so is Mexican . She likes to work hard and likes things neat and tidy... pretty much my dream comp! We get along pretty great, and have a lot of laughs during the week. A couple times we had some confusion with the language barrier, but we're working those out as I learn Spanish! And I'm learning tons... but I still have trouble understanding sometimes, and some people can't understand me. Apparently my accent is bad... but I can't really tell the difference. We're working on that.

Hermana Cruz!

So on Monday we went Bowling, and Hna Aguilar's friends all came because it was her last Monday. Hna Ingram's comp is one of her friends, that's why she was there. And Elder Torres came...Elder Torres and Hna Aguilar met on the mission, had an attraction, told President Morales, and were sent to different areas for safety. Basically they're going to get married some day, and they were being super careful not to mess up on the mission. But he came to the party which was sweet. His comp Elder Uresti was there too (of course) and had fun mocking my Spanish lol.

All of us bowling - you can figure out who is who!

We've been working super hard this week. But even with working hard, we're not having much success, and frankly we were starting to get depressed. We're exhausted by the end of each day because we've walked so much, but our numbers aren't showing how hard we're working because appointments keep falling through and members keep cancelling on us. Saturday was really hard. We had 10 appointments, but only 2 of them actually happened, and everyone that we searched out was busy, didn't want to listen... stuff like that. We had started to fast Sat for success, and we've been praying really hard, but nothing was happening. Here, you eat at 2, then fast until the next day at 2. So Saturday night we were starving and depressed. Then on Sunday, about an hour before we ended our fast, we received a reference for someone who is apparently escogido (literally means 'chosen', translates like 'golden investigator'), then the Elders had a baptism, so that lifted our spirits, then we were happy because 6 of our less actives came to church, and one of them suddenly has a billion references for us! We contacted a whole bunch of them, and a lot of them seem really interested! Basically, I've gained a huge testimony of fasting and prayer. It works! Our mission scripture is Alma 17:2-3 and talks about fasting and prayer.

Freddy's baptism. Hna Burgoa, Elder Arcia, Freddy, Elder Sibrian, Hna San (the lady
we live with), Hna Cruz, me, and Valerie and Andrea.

The less active that provided the references is named Jesus (hey-sus) and is hilarious. We've been working with him a lot lately. He's 55ish, and really smart. I was so happy when he came to church. He's been introducing us to all his friends, which is awesome!!

Me with a puppy! One of Jesus friends had puppies! Elder Arcia in the back.

And I'm going to have an English class with Elder Arcia! He's from Utah and is Elder Sibrian's new comp - Elder Zapeda had cambios. They're in my ward and are great.

Elders Sibrian and Zapeda.

I love it here. The people are amazing, the weather is beautiful, and my Spanish gets better every day. I know the church is true and this is where I need to be. I love you all so much!

Be good, say your prayers, and give the birthday girls a hug for me!

Love you all,

Hermana Taylor

And now for some more pictures . . .

There is grafiti everywhere here. This is my favorite! It's close to my house.

Us on Monday at the food court. There's a mall close by where we hang out on Pday to bowl, shop, eat, stuff like that -Elders Perrea, Torres, Uresti, Hnas Ingram, me, Mendoza, Aguilar, Ingrams comp (don't remember her name), Mendoza and Mercedes.