Three-O

Hola mi Familia,

This is what happens when you decide to not bring your
umbrella and it starts to rain like mad....
and you have to look for shelter and juuuust wait...

A week full of heat and hurricane-like rain. It is hurricane season here in Mexico and since we are no where near the ocean, we DO receive the "after math". Curtains of rain, streets flooded and a BUNCH of lightning. Slightly scary but SUPER fun!

We helped Hna Vera at el central, EAARLY in the mornin'

We had a district meeting in ENGLISH! Wanna know something kinda weird? I like the district meetings better in Spanish. Haha! Anywho, we learned about how to have ONE voice in our companionship(s). 

On Sunday, I received a secret note from Hna Albornoz saying how much she was suffering with her companion and how she didn't know what to do. Well, I gave her every single piece of advice I have in my 118 lb body and she rejected EVERY bit. hahaha! Poor thing. She ended up convincing ME to talk to the zone leaders because she was "too scared." Annnnd BOOM - "Special transfers."

Hna Vera was transferred early to Aguascalientes and President never assigned a companion to Hermana Albornoz. So I am going to be in a trio until the 16th when we have REAL transfers: so our area grew since NOW we have to work in the area of Hna Albornoz also. Please pray that I can keep my patience, my strength, and my health this week.

My health this week? Ehhhhhh...it's there! hahaha! I did find medicine/probiotics, but keep praying for me! Maybe it's because of the huge weightloss or maybe it's another awesome sickness that I inherited...haha. WHO KNOWS!

We taught Diego and Luis- and it was REAAALY hard this week. Their mom, aunt, and dad do NOT help us at all. They leave the room so that we can babysit them and after the mayhem this week, yeah, it's obvious Diego does not want to be baptized. Luis, on the other hand, wants nothing else BUT a baptism. But his parents push him to the side because he is 8 yrs old and the bishop is in control of him, not us. BUT their parents don't help AT ALL. When we ask them to help us, 1) they pout, 2) they make up excuses so they don't help us and go into the other room and watch TV, and 3) When they DO help us, they get their boys MORE distracted. 

We had an appointment with them on Friday but they never showed up. When Hna Paty Luna called them, "Oh we forgot, but we're coming right now!" Well, after 2 hours of waiting...they STILL never showed up. We had to leave because we had another appointment. But we left 2 pamphlets for Diego and Luis to read. We asked Hna Paty on Sunday if they ever showed up, and she said no! And they never answered their phones! The mom of Diego is a member, the dad isn't but they BOTH told us that they would help...well, it's incredibly sad to watch Luis (who WANTS to be baptized) be pushed aside by his incredibly unaware and lazy parents.

My favorite food here! Molletes! Bread with beans, lettuce,
tomatoes, creme, and weritos! (parts of pig stomach)

Maria de Lourdes LOVED church!!! She didn't go to church this last Sunday because of work. She HAS to work because she is incredibly poor and has no food. So we are working around her work schedule to give her a baptismal date. We had an awesome lesson with her and Hna Acosta about repentance and The Atonement. She hasn't accepted a date because she is SUPER scared...and doesn't feel ready. But she is not only SUPER ready, she is CHOSEN! Keep praying for her!!!

Roxanna really wants to be baptized ASAP but her sister asked her to participate in her nephews catholic baptism in December. But if you are a member of the Church, you can't participate in things like this. And she wants to have a baptism AFTER December so she can help her sister...GAH. December is SO far away :(

Ok, this week was hard, when we talk language-wise. There is a member who gave us a reference and went with us to visit this family. And of course, I am not perfect in the language (that's obvious), but this brother began to ridicule me IN FRONT of the investigators. We finished the lesson and we went to go eat with a member family. I tried letting it roll of my shoulders this day. 

Paty Saldaña's daughter finished her mission!

Then on Saturday before going to go eat, we visited the SAME member and his wife because we could not find ANYONE else. We were sitting down chatting and he goes, "Look, Hna Winsor, I have no idea what you are saying. You make me sad because you have been here for 9 months and you can't speak - what have you been doing here? Are you at least trying? Do you even understand me?" HE GOES OFF! And I just sat there, and I took it all in. Yes Dad, I went silent because I was going to burst into tears if I said something. "Stop trying Hna Winsor, you are wasting your breath." 

Yeah, it was hard. I definitely burst into tears right after we walked into the other members house, where we were going to go eat. The other member, Hna Liliana, thought I was sick. I explained what happened and she says, "You really believe what he said? Yeah, you are not PERFECT in the language, but neither are we as natives of Mexico! We can understand you and you can understand us. Don't worry about him; he has no idea what he is talking about." She hugged me, gave me tissues and then told me the food would help me feel better. Hahahaha! I really appreciated her love and help. She shared this scripture with me: 

"But I say, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, 

and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." (Matt 5:44)

She told me to pray for this member, that he can feel the love of Christ more in his life. THEN, she said I need to talk to this member privately. I laughed and said, "I am WAY too scared." Then she shared Isaiah 41:10:

​Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; 

yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 

​

I have no reason to fear, Heavenly Father is with me and he is with US. He will NEVER abandon us. I can speak the language, it is evidence that Heavenly Father has always been here with me.

I love you family! Keep strong, come what may & love it! Keep practicing Spanish so that you can come here to San Luis Potosi and see how amazing it is! LES AMO TANTO! :) Nos vemos en 9 meses :)

Con Amor,

Hna Winsor

PS. I sent a package to Mom and Dad, a letter to Hna Calderon and a letter to Sami Nielsen :)

We went to El Centro here in San Luis Potosi (po-TOE-see) last Monday - I forgot to send these :)