Five Months tomorrow!

Hello family and friends!

We had a really special week this week. Diana was baptized on Friday and confirmed yesterday. I really wanted to send you a picture, but the computers in the internet cafe we're in today don't work with my camera :( But Diana is so, so special. I really feel like I was assigned to this specific mission for her. She has such a strong testimony already. She even shared her testimony with the taxi driver we were contacting on the way back from her baptismal interview!

It seriously has been such a joy working with Diana. She is so excited to finally be a member of the Church and I want so badly to return next year when she goes through the temple to be sealed to her kids. She has two kids, Diana and Rodrigo, who are 5 and 2. They are so cute! She's already taught them how to pray and it melts my heart. Little Rodrigo's prayers are always, "Mama, Papa, Nana, amen." Right now we're also teaching Diana's mom, dad, and brother. Her mom has a baptismal date for November 15 and says she doesn't feel ready yet, but we'll keep working with her to prepare her. 

Also, I wanted to thank you all for the prayers you've said on my behalf. I definitely felt like I had angles 'round about me this week to bear me up. I know that the Lord is protecting me because of your faith and prayers!

I love you all and hope you have a happy Halloween!

Love, 

Hermana Southard

Hello!

Hello family and friends!

I hope all is well! I'm already out of time for this week, but I wanted to share a scripture I read yesterday and really liked. It's Alma 46:15, which says: 

"And those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, allthose who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly,the name of Christ, or Christians as they were called, because oftheir belief in Christ who should come."

I liked this scripture because a few verses before it talks about how the name "Christians" was given to the people of the Church by the dissenters of the Church. But the people took upon themselves the name gladly because for them, it represented their faith in Christ. I thought about how we should have the same attitude about being members of the Church; like the Bible says, we shouldn't be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! We should be brave in sharing the knowledge that we have with others. Our recent convert, Juanita, is such a good example of that for me. She isn't afraid of sharing her testimony with her family members, even though they want nothing to do with the Church. But yesterday her mom's husband actually came to Church and we're now teaching him. He told her that he's seen the changes she's made and recognizes it's because she joined the Church, and he wants that. Because of her example he's now willing to learn more about the Gospel. How wonderful is that??

I love you all so much, and I promise a better letter next week. (: Have a great day!

Hermana Southard

Sí Señor, yo te seguiré

Hello family and friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful General Conference Weekend! We got to watch it from our building live, at 11:00 and 3:00 both Saturday and Sunday. This weekend was honestly the most beautiful conference weekend I've ever had! It was a bit odd at first, watching something so familiar in such a foreign place. But that's what made it so great. Even listening to the sessions in a foreign language, I still felt the Spirit and received personal revelation, which is what's important. 

My personal favorite talk was Sister Esplin's talk on the sacrament. She did such a fantastic job of outlining the repentance process we should go through every week as we take the sacrament. I loved how she said that the sacrament should be a time of holy communion between us and God as we review our week and what we're going to change the next week to be better. 

And how great were the talks in the speakers' native languages?? We were very excited to be able to listen to the talks in Spanish live, without the voiceover translation. Like the first Elder who give his talk in Spanish said, it's a fulfillment of the prophecy that the Gospel will be preached to all people in their native tongues. I had the same thought during the talk that was given in Cantonese; I was listening to the Spanish translation of a Cantonese talk, writing my thoughts down in English. The Gospel truely is spreading to all parts of the earth, and I'm so humbled and blessed to have the opportunity to share the Gospel here in Mexico. The Lord really does love all of His children. It's amazing to see how He has guided both their lives and ours to the point where we can share the Gospel with them and they can make the covenants necessary to be able to return and live with Him. 

My testimony of General Conference was strengthened this week. It is such a special blessing that we have to not only have a living prophet and apostles here on the earth, but to hear from them the revelation they have received from the Lord for our benefit. I testify that this is the Church of Jesus Christ, the only Church with His authority. He directs us through His apostles and prophets, and treasuring and following their words will help us to be happy in this life and return to live with Heavenly Father in the next life. 

I love you all so much, and hope you have a great week! I'm praying for all of you. I know this Gospel and the Church are true!

Love,

Hermana Southard

Maricruz who was baptized last week

Members who fed them between conference sessions