Our Missionary in Mexico: {Week 42} Polanco

So this week has been fun! We've been seeing lots of Tender Mercies from the Lord. I love it here in Mexico and I love my ward. We have a few differences with a few of the people there, but it's all good - the important thing is that we keep doing our best. And last night (Sunday) we got the phone call! Hna Mercedes has cambios. Every other time I got a new comp it was under strange circumstances - sickness, finishing the mission, special changes, or changes on Monday just for the sisters. This is my first cambio that is 'normal' - as in they call us Sunday night and then Tuesday morning we'll go to the stake center with every other missionary that has cambios and the president will announce all the changes right there. It was really funny - when they called and told Hna Mercedes that she had cambios, they also told her that is was 'sin maletas' - without luggage. That means that she'll be staying in this zone. When the cambios are 'con maletas' -with luggage - then you are going to a different zone. But she didn't know that, and thought that sin maletas meant she was getting a new comp but not a new area, so I was the one with changes, and she was so mad! She was going on and on about how she already has 6 months here and doesn't want another cycle and stuff like that - but then I explained and she was very relieved lol. I'm sad to see her go. I'm glad she'll still be in my zone, but I'm going to miss her :( She's a great missionary and a great friend. We got along great and learned a lot together. I'll miss her!

Us in Gustavo's house - turns out he makes skulls out of sugar to sell for Halloween.

There are only 20 sisters in this mission - 10 companionships. I arrived in Mexico the end of January with 5 other sisters, and then in the next cycle, 1 more sister arrived in the beginning of March... but since her, we haven't had any new sisters. And they say that no more are going to arrive until next year... which would be in February. When the elders have changes, there are a ton of places they could go and a ton of possible future companions. But when we have changes, it's not hard to figure out who will likely be our next comp and where we will be heading. We all love each other, but we're also anxious for some new faces!

Almost our whole zone - we're missing a few Elders.

So there have been some developments with Aaron - I'm not going to go into detail here. But for awhile we thought he wasn't going to be able to be baptized due to some circumstances. But now it turns out that maybe yes, maybe no... we're hoping and praying that yes!

And Gustavo! On Thursday when we went to visit him, he told us that his cousin hurt her back, so he wasn't going to be able to come to church for his confirmation because he had to go help her. But with conference next week, that means it would be 3 weeks without the Holy Ghost... so we taught him about the Holy Ghost and keeping the Sabbath day holy... but he still told us he wouldn't come. But then on Sunday morning, in he walks, bright and early, white shirt and tie! He got confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was so great! We were super happy. He's awesome - he's so happy he keeps buying us stuff and he's making us both a tiny piñata that we're going to go pick up in a couple hours. It's been great to teach him. Love being a missionary!

Me and Gustavo and a piñata.

And Fabiola is our new investigator. She's 9, and is the granddaughter of less actives and her mom is completely inactive. We've been working with her grandparents a lot lately and they've started coming to church again - and Fabiola just turned 9 so we've started working with her. She's super sweet - reminds me a lot of Katia :)

And Ana Maria is great. She just got a new job so she works all the time, but she comes to church every Sunday without fail. And she just finished reading the book of Alma - that's been awesome to see - she always has her Book of Mormon with her and is constantly reading it - and applying it! We were teaching her the other day about fasting and how that can help us when we have a special need and she said ''oh just like Alma the older when he fasted so that his son would be ok''. She's reading, understanding, and applying. She's amazing. (and her daughter is super cute!)

Us with Ana Maria

Ana Maria and her daughter Geraldin

Adolfo is also doing really well - he keeps inviting his friends over to listen to us - the only problem is that his friends never live in our area, so we can't teach them and have to pass the reference on lol. He was sad when he found out we would probably have cambios - cried just a little bit. It's been so amazing to see the lives of people change here - I love it!

Random funny stuff that happened -

- We knocked on a door and said that we were ''misionaras''. So the guy came and opened but was disappointed to see us. He told us that he thought we said we were ''cocineras'' - cooks lol.

- And there were some little boys running down the street shouting ''Sangre! Sangre!'' (blood! blood!) They grabbed their dad and dragged him over to see where there was ''mucho sangre'' - but when they got there he just cuffed them on the head and said ''that's not sangre, that's salsa!'' it was pretty funny - All day long Hna Mercedes and I were saying ''Sangre! Sangre!... no, salsa!''

- last night Hna Mercedes and I both had trouble sleeping. We ended up chatting for awhile and then woke up again around 4. At 4:30ish I asked if she was sleeping - and she said ''No!'' and the way she said it was so pathetic we died laughing - then chatted a bit till we fell asleep again around 5. And then this morning we were sitting there waiting for the water to boil so that we could shower, and then after half an hour we realized we forgot to turn the stove on... oops! lack of sleep lol.

I've been studying charity lately - it's a great topic. It's the pure love of Christ, and Christ was willing to give EVERYTHING for us. If we have charity, we too need to be willing to give all that we can to help others. Mosiah 28:3 is great for that. I'm striving to be like and have this love for everyone.

So yeah! It's been a great time with Hna Mercedes, but I'm excited to see what changes come with my new companion. I love being here and am learning tons all the time. I love you all and hope you have a loverly time doing your stuff back home. The house and yard look great dad!

Be good, say your prayers, and have charity for everyone!

Love Hermana Taylor

MOM - I don't think I need more shoes, but if you wanted to send me a package of random fun doodads or gifts or whatever, I wouldn't complain :D

DAD - no one has even mentioned Quezoacoatle. They're always sharing the history of Mexico with us, but they never bring up that part, and neither do we.