Dec 1: ¿¿Diciembre??

Hey fam!

Good week good week. Hermana Rios completed one month in the mission! Yay! We were super excited! 

This week has been super full of experiences. Can i just say that we have so much fun together as companions. She is so much fun! I love it :)

This week Esmeralda got baptized. It was really sweet. Her mom came to support her, and was about to leave, but we talked her into staying. It was so good that she stayed. It was a great program. Super stressful because hardly anyone came. Including our Ward mission leader, and one of the bishopric! But, it all turned out great. She was super pretty in her little white dress. Ah i just love these moments. You really can feel the angels laughing and dancing and shouting for joy!

After the baptism we had a ward activity. A talent show/questionnaire/dinner. It was really fun! I don´t know what it is about the ward activities, but i get all weird and emotional whenever i go.. I love how everyone here just wants to have fun and be united. This culture is totally different than from what i was used to, but the gospel is the same. We are ONE family.

We witnessed a miracle this week. There is a brother who has been inactive for over thirty years. He has a long complicated story. He is one of the most stubborn men i have ever met. He is also very confusing. At first he says that everything that happened is God´s fault, then we explain, then he says that God doesn´t exist. Then we share our testimony, and he says God bless you. What?? It is almost impossible to teach him because he is always looking for excuses or reasons to argue, but is constantly contradicting himself. With some people i am not as direct as i am with others. Well, with him i was super direct. I straight up told him just how it is. 

His son was there too. He is 22 and hasn´t gone on a mission. We talked to them both for a very long time, then left them with the invitation to come to church, as always, and as always they don't come.One of the millions of reasons that he shared with us was that he doesn´t want to go to church alone. He wants to go with one of his kids, but they don't want to go. 

This Sunday, in walked the son! What?? We were so excited! We asked where his dad was and he said  that he didn´t want to come. He said, No! Why go? we are all wicked. Well, ten minutes later in walks his dad! This time the three of us were all shocked! He said, well, just like i said yesterday, i would go if only ONE out of my 12 children would go to church, just one! And then my child went and i didn´t go? Well, no. So here i am. 

I learned lots of lessons this day, but one that stuck out most is the importance of the ONE. It reminds me of Abinadi. (i don't remember how is name is in English) Anyway, he was just one person, then Alma was just one who listened, and millions were effected. Every individual has so much influence. You are important. You can change lives. You are One. and if we are one with God, we are everything. 

I made a Christmas tree out of paper today. I write quotes that i like from your letters that you have sent me and put them up on my wall. Hermana Rios wanted to buy a tree, but due to the lack of money and space and time, i made one out of paper. It is ugly and weird, but it was 2 pesos instead of 400 pesos. It will just have to do. :)

We went to the store to buy our food, everything is Christmased out. It was super funny listening to all the well known Christmas songs in Spanish. They are all super different. I love this time of year! 

Yesterday, we were with some less active members. They invited us to make pancakes for dinner. They left to buy some milk and the little boy ran back to the house. There was a huge fire! Everyone here burns their trash. It is illegal, but it doesn´t stop them. I always say, one day everything is going to light on fire! Yesterday it happened. The weird thing is, no one does anything. They just look at it and say, oh, fire, and continue what they are doing. This is the second time that we have been with members that something has lit on fire. The first time it was inside their house. I am living with a bunch of crazies. haha

A few days ago, we were in front of a store waiting for a member who was going to give us money to go and eat. A guy walked up to us and said that we should share that money with him too. We thought it was a joke at first. Then he got all mad and said that we should always give to the poor. He asked us who we were and the member told him that we were missionaries. He said ¡Que Lastima! or in English, How pitiful, or sad! You are all winning over the people and washing their brains with nonsense. Their is only one road to Heaven, and it is my road.


Then for a good ten minutes he just talked and talked and told us how terrible we are. I tried not to laugh. My poor companion was not used to these kinds of things, but after he left we laughed it off. I said, don't worry, you will get used to these crazy people some day. :)

In two weeks it is the Day of the Virgin Guadalupe, the same day that i arrived in Aguascalientes. 12 December. I will have been living in Mexico for one year. I love it here! I am so content and happy. I still have so much to learn and do before the time runs out! It is going way too fast! I think i am going to write a letter to the prophet asking if i can serve the time of an Elder. :) Lets see what he says! But really, i love being a missionary. I love having crazy experiences that make me think. I have heard and seen so much. I am so blessed to be here, serving the Lord.

I have a random question. Two nights ago i had a dream that Hna Rios and i got transferred to Japan. When we arrived, an apostle told us that we needed to go into the jungle and pray with the tigers in order to receive blessings. I know, this dream is super weird, Mom-type haha but what is weird is the next day we visited some less active members who we have never visited or seen before, and in their house they had a ton of things from Japan. Their whole house full of nun chucks, pictures, metals, everything. and what is weirder, is they had a ton of tigers too! Statues, pictures, everything! He talked a lot about them and that they bring luck, etc. This isn´t the first time that it has happened. I will think about something, or dream something and then the next day, what i thought or dreamed about happens or the theme comes up. My question is why? I know that this is weird, but i really want to know. Lots of people have told me that they can tell the future for things like this, i know that it is not true, but i also don't know how to respond. If you have insight, i would love to hear it :) Maybe it is just sub conscious, or who knows.

Love you lots! Happy December!

Exito en esta semana!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Anderson