Wherein Maelynn has her FIRST BAPTISM!

March 13, 2017
   
      I'm so super pumped for Landen!  I just cant wait for him to get out here and join in the work!

Well this week was totes amaze! (haha, mom)

Our area is super great! I honestly love it and I feel so blessed to have been "born" here.  We find people every week that have been so obviously prepared by the Lord! It's amazing to be a part of this work! 

      The only bad part about our area is that its super touristy, so every Saturday and Sunday (and sometimes other random days of the week) for all of the random holidays and saints they celebrate down here, the streets are packed with people, and it's really hard to contact people. but other than that our area is really super awesome! I'm pretty sure that all of the other missionaries are jealous! and even though I've only been here for a month, I TOTALLY want to come back after the mission!  Actually, the second councelor in our branch presidency served his mission here and came back and married one of the members haha

Tepoz is FULL of cool murals all over the place!

[This is our abuelita friend, her and the little pollito both have baptism dates :)]

Well this week was totes amaze! (haha mom)

First of all, on one of the buses, they were playing U2 "With or without you!"

I'm really struggling with Spanish. I feel like I'm not learning very fast, but do you want to know something super cool? somehow I remember the silly little songs that Senora Contor taught me back in like 5th grade, about question words and about preterit and imperfect! I don't know how because that was SOO long ago, and I actually fell asleep most of 9th grade with her...oops.  But somehow I remember them and they actually help! 

Another thing that I find myself struggling with is goal setting. Just like ok we have 7 investigators with fecha, the most we've gotten in a week is 4, so we're going to set our goal as 14 for next week? why? my companion tells me I need to have more faith, which I guess I do! Lots more - because it just doesn't make sense to me. But I hope it comes!

OK - a funny story: This week before church on Sunday we passed by for an invest ]igator but he said he couldnt come but asked if we wanted cocas? We said sure - thinking he'd just grab a couple bottles of coke, then we hear him wacking something, so we looked around the corner. Turns out he said cocos like coconuts and he was slicing them open with a machete. haha so we showed up to church with 2 huge cocos!  And then after church we always go to comida with a member, Hna Elvira and she offered to open the cocos for us (because the invest just opeened them enough to put a straw in them)...So then there was this 50 year old lady just going to town with a machete on these coconuts! haha it was quite a sight! 

     And then after comida, she usually calls a taxi to take us home because she lives pretty far out of town, but I guess that they fxed their old truck, so she decided to drive us home. Well when she got in the car, she looked around for a sec then just started praying so we were like 'oh crap she doesnt know how to drive!'  So when she got done praying, Hna Shook asked if she remembered how to drive and all she said was "por eso me hago mi oracion".  I'm sorry but I couldn't stop laughing! Then we get going a little bit and the car starts to sound weird and I realize that she's still in first gear! so I  ask her about it, if she needs to shift and she just says "no estoy bien" as if shifting was just an option!   I don't really know how to drive stick, but I know enough to know that it's not really optional.  Then we get to the edge of town, stop in the middle of an intersection, and she just says "aqui"! Me and Hna Shook look at each other confused and then realize she's waiting for us to get out of the car.  Well ok then, we're only about a 30 minute walk away from our house.  Haha, so we got off and she drove off.  We laughed about that for quite a while! Oh Elvira, what a character! But we love her!

      Fernando's baptism was on Saturday and it was such a beautiful experience! We had lots of people show up (like 20 which is a huge chunk of our rama) and the members had everything totally under control with an official welcome and everyone gave him a hug to congratulate him (or just shook his hand if you were a missionary) and refreshments! 

     Hna shook and I did the special musical number, "A Child's Prayer", we sang both parts in Spanish and then combined them in English.  The best part, other than the actual baptism, was when his parents bore their testimonies, they both have really strong testimonies, and even though they're not baptized yet, they have such a firm understanding that the church is true, they strengthen my testimony, and we're working hard and investigating more to find somewhere for them to get divorced and marriend so that they can get baptized and then SEALED! I love this little family and our branch and Tepoztlan and being a missionary!

got to go, love you! bye!