Hello!

Hello family and friends! I hope all is well. I really love being here in México, and here in Durango especially. The Lord has blessed me so much by allowing me to be here. I feel like I have a family here, which really helps when I´m so far away from you all. I realized this week that I have seen the Lord´s promise in Doctrine and Covenants when He says we will have ¨angels round about us to bear us up¨. For me, those angels are the members in this ward, and especially la familia Limones, la familia Hernández Salas and la Hermana Mejia. La Hermana Mejia is the mission doctor here in Durango and also a member of our ward. We were at her house a lot this week because she and her daughter in law both fed us twice. She is one of many incredible ward members we have and I look up to her a lot. She is so humble and so willing to help us all the time. And yesterday, as we were leaving her home she gave me a ¨mom hug´´ and told us that if we ever need anything she´s there for us. It was so, so kind of her and exactly what I needed. She also found out that I sing and my companion and I play the piano, so we´re going to do a special musical number next week as a part of the Young Women´s program they´re doing in Sacrament Meeting. I´m singing ¨Sigueme¨ by Janice Kapp Perry (¨Follow Me¨ in English) and my companion is going to accompany me. I´m super excited!

I attached the photo of  the lavadora we use to wash our clothes. It´s outside on our patio. We fill that yogurt tub with water from the faucet, pour it over the clothing to get it wet, rub the soap bar over the clothing and scrub it against the textured base. It gets the clothes really clean! Then we rinse it in a faucet we have on the patio, soak it in softener and hang to dry using the hangers on the clothes line. It´s not too bad having to wash clothes this way, really. No one has a dryer, even if they use a washing machine- everyone just hangs clothes to dry. Last week it started to rain after we had washed everything, so I hung my clothes on the shower rod and pointed the fan on them to dry. My new fear in life is that it will rain when I have laundry to dry! 

During a hard moment this week the Lord comforted me by putting into my mind the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 100:12, which says, ¨Therefore, continue your journey and let your hearts rejoice; for behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end.¨ Even though it´s hard, I love being a missionary. This week we helped two different investigators pray for the first time, which was incredible. I love bearing testimony that God is our Father and that He wants to hear from us and help us. Most people here in México are religious, but it´s awesome being able to help people find the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this Church.

Our investigator who is supposed to be baptized in a couple of weeks is experiencing a lot of challenges with literally every aspect of her life. The adversary is real, and every investigator we work with has their own difficulties.  And we are working hard with the members of the ward to help the investigators. I´m excited to watch what we can do together and with the Lord. The mission is so hard and so beautiful all at the same time.

I love you all! For the Dent Family, I can´t wait for you to come to México, my country (: Have a great week!

Love you!!

Hermana Southard