Monday, September 15, 2014

Hello Family!

I hope all is well! Thank you so much for all of your letters; I love hearing from you all. 

Our investigator Juanita was baptized this week! It was an incredible experience. Juanita has gone through literally every type of trial over the past year. We have worked so hard to help her stay strong, and she has so much faith. Her baptism date has changed a couple of different times, which has been frustrating, but when I saw the bishop lead her down into the font on Friday I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was a beautiful experience. 

She is an investigator that the elders began teaching in March of this year. She was always very receptive and accepted a baptismal date with them, but while they were teaching her she had a bad accident with her foot and was in the hospital for a month. The accident left her in a wheel chair for another month or two, so she wasn´t baptized while the elders were still here. My companion and I located her from the area book about a week or two after I arrived here, and have been teaching her ever since! She is wonderful, and has a new glow about her since her baptism. She loves talking about the experience she had and is so excited to finally be a member of the Church. 

That was the highlight of our week. Although another highlight was that we began teaching a family that were also investigators of the elders. We had actually stopped teaching them because we thought they weren´t going to progress, when they suddenly showed up at Church one day! They came again yesterday, which literally made my day. The members were so wonderful and fellowshipped them like I´ve never seen them do before. I´ll attach the picture we took yesterday with them. They have a lot of doubts and a lot of questions, but they are a special family who we care about a lot. 

I hope you all have a great week! Tomorrow is actually México´s Independence Day. Tonight at midnight the governor of every state will do La Grita. Everyone gathers in the center of town and the governor waves a flag and yells, ¨¡Viva México!¨ and everyone repeats it. We need to be back in the apartment early tonight, so we´ll be celebrating by eating a very American Dominos Pizza and going to bed early. We´ve seen little kids dressed in traditional clothing all around town. It´s super cute. 

Anyway, have a fantastic week! I love you all!  

Love, 

Hermana Southard
Family of Investigators who came to Church

Juanita who was baptized Saturday and Bishop Rosales who baptized her