Hey Family!
I love you all so much! Thanks so much for your letters. I have a Little less time today (it seems like I say that every other week) because we went to Parque Guadiana and got back a Little late, and I had to send the progress reports.
This week went really well. My new companion is awesome. She´s very patient and easy to get along with, which has been so nice. She speaks really fast though...sometimes I have a hard time understanding her! Ha ha. She speaks almost no English, but likes hearing about American culture and is super excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with me this Thursday.
We had intercambios (comp exchanges) with the Sister Training Leaders this week and I stayed in my área with Hna Cervantes, who is awesome. She is from México D.F. (the capital) but lived in Colorado for 10 years, so she speaks pretty perfect English. For language study we just spoke in English for 40 minutes and it was so nice. It was such a good break from speaking Spanish all the time, and I felt like I was just talking to one of my friends. It was a nice Little tender mercy this week.
So this week was a good one! Two investigators, Rosa and Roque accepted a baptism date for December 6th. Roque is Diana´s husband and Rosa is his mom, and Carlos´ sister. It´s so awesome to be able to work with this whole family! It´s been amazing watch how they´ve all supported eachother as they´ve learned more about the Gospel. And some other exciting news: Roque and Diana are getting married in a few weeks! They´ve been together for about 7 years and when we first started teaching Diana she asked us if they would have to get married in order for her to be baptized. When we told her yes, she began working immediately to get that in order so she could be baptized. But Roque wasn´t too interested in the Gospel and she ended up leaving him, saying it would be better for her and her kids to continue in the Gospel without him. I was shocked when she did this, but it actually was so good. From that moment on Roque changed completely. He got a Little taste of what life would be like without his family and immediately began doing all that he could to bring them back together. I am so excited for all of the changes they´ve made together, and for the future they have as an eternal family.
Also, funny story from this week. There was a Ward activity this Friday and we invited all of our investigators. A good number of them wanted to go, so Hno. Pepe from the Ward was going to pick them all up in his suburban. After we had loaded 3 adults and like 20 kids into the suburban another member of the Ward who we had been talking to earlier that day called us to let us know that we had messed up the date and that the Ward activity is actually this Friday. Hno Pepe and his wife, Hna Adriana totally saved the day and took everyone to an activity that the other Ward was putting on that night. From what we Heard it was a really cool activity, and I´m sure the elders of Barrio Mesquital appreciated that someone went to their activity!
So I already told Mom this, but guess what....I´ll be home for Thanksgiving next year! This Thanksgiving, I´m grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and I´m grateful for Heavenly Father giving me the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical strength to serve. I´m thankful for your support, for the wonderful family I have, and for the fact that we´re an eternal family. I can´t imagine life without you guys. Even though we may not be together now, I hang on to the promise that we´ll be together forever. We´ll be back together before you know it (I complete six months in the misión this Friday! I can´t believe it.) and right now I am so grateful for the opportunity to help others build their own eternal families.
I love you all SO much and will talk to you next week!
Love,
Hermana Southard
These pictures are from when we went to the park today! I took them just a few hours ago (:
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| The statues of the dancers are for you, Jenna! |
