Learning

Hey Everyone,

I hope that you all are well. Well, this week has certainly been a learning week. I´ve been practicing my Spanish and talking more. It´s exciting, but at the same time it can be hard to have the people understand me better. I did get a compliment on my writting, which is great because I really do not know the grammer.

Overall, this week has been good. We have a new family that we taught last week and they actually came to Church this Sunday! It was amazing! Also, the topics for church were this: Sacrament was Temples (They are getting ready to go to Veracruz since the temple here is closed till next year), Gospel Principles was keeping the Sabbath day Holy, and (for the kicker) Relief Society was about Baptism! It was fantastic. I´m not sure what they taught in YW but I´m sure it was great. After the meetings, the husband came up to us and said, "I´m not exactly sure what they taught about in Priesthood, but I have the manual and I´m going to study it and study for next week." He is fantastic and we didn´t even get a chance to teach him because he works everyday except for Sundays. He is truly being prepared by the Lord. Now, we just need to find a time to teach him. (Sundays are really hard for us with Church and Reporting.) Also, their daughter is dating a less active in the Ward that our Elders are in.

Well, I think that´s it for this week for now. I took a lot of pictures this week, so I´ll space them out during the next couple of weeks. Love you all.

Hermana Trevino

Pictures:

Rainbow, there are a ton of rainbows here. I also saw a double rainbow once, but I didn´t have my camera 

My new District, I don´t have a picture of my old District, but it´s the same except for two people: Hermana C (I´ll have to look up her name again), Hermana Alveraz (She came in the same time that I did), Hermana Batz, Elder de Los Santos (District Leader), and Elder Rolph

Not Transfered

Hey Everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well. I have managed to survive my first 6 weeks here and they have certainly been a rollercoaster. I am starting to love the people here and I am starting to see the Lord work, through me and how they are prepared to receive the Gospel. It is certainly a wonderful work and a wonderful joy to see.

We have one person who loves to study the Bible and she is eating the words that we give her. She has already said that the Book of Mormon is true and that all of the words that we have given her make sense to her. Golden Investigator? Possibly. It sounds like she might be moving to the States, to join back up with her husband, in a couple of months. So, hopefully she will continue the lessons in the United States.

I found out yesterday that we are not haveing any exchanges so I am still in Volcanes for another 6 weeks. I really like it here and I really like the people in the ward. They are super nice and always willing to listen to the Gospel.

I´m afraid that I don´t have much else to say, so I guess I´ll be done for now. Also, I forgot my camera at the apartment so no pictures for this week. Love you all.

Hermana Trevino 

Transfers

Here in Mexico is fun. My companion, Hermana Boyer, was transfered this week so it is just me and Hermana Batz right now. Let´s just say that communication is not our strong suit right now. We are trying though. I have also gotten quite a few compliments on my Spanish and I teach a little bit more in lessons. I´m also understanding more. I´m not perfect yet, but I´m still learning.

I´m finally giving my teaching time, we missed it the first week and Hermana Boyer was sick the second time, but it´s happening today. I´m excited and a little scared about it, but it should be fine.

We have all been trying to learn how to better teach our investigators. It has been a challenge but I feel like we are starting to get it. I´m feeling the Spirit more and I can slowly see the change in the people that we are teaching.

We are also trying to get the Ward more involved in helping us with teaching people. It´s been exciting seeing the Ward work towards this and last Sunday´s talks were all about missionary work. It was fantastic. Hopefully we can use this burst of energy to have more people help us in the future.

Now, probably the biggest question that you all have. How is the food? Well, it´s not bad. We usually start off with a soup, no matter what the weather is, then it´s the main course, usually consisting of some sort of meat. I´ve had tamales, a taste of chincharos (pork rinde or pig skin, aka not my favorite), steak, french fries, etc. It´s not a whole lot different from the States, amazingly enough, but they eat a lot. One meal the Wife was just handing us taco after taco, they don´t usually eat with us just serve us and watch us eat, I only wanted maybe 3 but she ended up handing me a 4th and tried to give me a 5th. I apparently eat very little here and because of that I´m usually the first one done, which never happens at home.

Well, I think that´s all for now. I will encourage you all to read the conference talks. I´ve been reading mine slowly and it is certainly a joy and a good reminder to look to the future and to help people get there. Love you all.

One of my favorite graffitis. It is in a park and it reminds me of Princess Mononoke

The Elders showing us how to do special effects with our cameras

the first compaion that had a problem with the doll

Fútbol

Hey Everyone,

A lot of thing have happened this week. I had my first multi-zone conference, my first baptism, and my first Fútbol practice. I also caught my first cold here.

First the Multi-Zone Conference. It was really good. I didn´t fully understand everything, but we received a talk about our health, which was ironic because that was the first day of my cold. We also had a talk about the Restoration and how to be fully obedient. They also taught us how to fill out the forms properly. Overall it was good and I got to see Hermana Frandsen again. They also fed us really well.

I´m going to skip the Fútbol practice because the baptism was really good. The Fútbol practice was fun. It was my whole district and we did a mini tournament between us. We were split into 6 teams and then we played 2-3, 12 min long games. It was fun. We ended up getting fourth place, which was great because I am almost over my cold and Hermana Boyer is starting her cold so we were basically down two players.

Now, the baptism. It was really good. It was with Emanuel, the 9 year old. He was super excited and 20 ward members were able to be there. It was a huge amount of support for him. We also had a fantastic lesson on the Holy Ghost. He talked about how it is a light and how we cannot see or listen to the voice if sin is in our way. It was fantastic and I know that his family was really excited as well.

Oh, I wanted to say that I received some letters and they took about 2 weeks to get here, so if you haven´t heard back from me in like a month or two then remind me. I am going to put some letters in pouch today, but I´m not sure if they will get sent today, tomorrow, or next week. I hope you are all still doing well.

Hermana Trevino

Emanuel´s Family, Kevin, Jacob, Emanuel, and their Dad

All of us together, Me, Hermana Boyer, Hermana Batz, Emanuel, Their Dad, Jacob, and Kevin

The Elders that Baptized Emanuel, Elder Rolf, Emanuel, and Elder Artunez (District Leader)

Learning and Growing

Hola Everyone

It has certainly been a week that has stretched me. I said my first talk yesterday and I´m giving a 10 min. lesson in our District meeting today, all in Spanish of course. I won´t be able to say all of the words that I want to say on my own, but I am growing and learning more and more each day.

We have the opportunity to have a baptism next week and we are super excited. His name is Emanuel, pronounced Manuel, and he is 9. The rest of the family is baptized and they didn´t baptize the youngest for some reason. That´s ok by me. We have gotten the chance to get to know his family, which consists of two older bothers and their dad, their mom unfortunately died at a young age. They are a really nice family and one that is certainly very close. They are a strong family and they try to learn the Gospel as much as they can.

We have also been able to do some service this week. Not anything huge but we helped a less active with her wash and we helped a member prepare food for her family. I know that they both really appreciated it.

I´m going to talk a little more about the culture this time. It is a very interesting culture. They actually listen to mostly American Music, which does not help me with being of the world but not in the world. They also have graffiti everywhere. Some of it is really cool and they took a lot of time on it and others are basically the name that was written quickly in spray paint. They love Disney and PacMan. They also love Fútbol, which is nice since mostly everyone is watching the World Cup right now. They have humungous speed bumps, high enough that it will/could scrape the bottom of your car. They are also some of the nicest people that you will meet. They will give you their clothes off of their backs if they could. They live in houses/apartments that are two bedrooms, usually, and one bathroom with a giant room on the main floor for your kitchen and living/dinning area. You do your laundry outside. Cleaning is interesting because they use brooms for mopping and for sweeping. It has been a little weird to try and figure out how to mop with a broom. There are dogs everywhere, but they are usually pretty nice. Also, the people will feed you and feed you. Like in Italy they would always ask you if you wanted a drink until you said yes, it´s basically the same here except with food. Well I think that´s about it for the culture for now.

Love you lots and my sister said that she might have the blog up by today. If you would just like to receive the blog posts then let me know and I´ll get you off of this email list.

Hermana Trevino

World Cup Pride, and she found Kinder Eggs!

Interesting Week

Hey Everyone,

It certainly has been an interesting week. We have been busy and not so busy all at the same time. It´s kind of weird, but not too bad.

I´ve been able to speak more during our lessons. I still don´t understand a whole lot, but I´ve at least have been able to speak more. I have picked up more words from the Natives, I just sometimes miss key points in their talking. That´s why we have Companions though. They are there to help and to try and help us do our best.

Well on Thurs. night we got to go and spend a night over at the Hospital. Hermana Boyer was not feeling well and everyone was telling her to go to the doctor so we did...at 11 pm. We didn´t get back until 2 am and we didn´t fully know what was wrong. We decided to go to the doctor again to see if we can get a more clear diagnoisis. I was instead transfered for the day.

The transfer was fun. It was in a different area taht was certainly more like a big city feel. It was kind of nice to be in the city. I ended up meeting a woman that goes to Houston 2-3 times a year to visit her Sister, who is unfortunately sick with cancer. It was nice to hear her story though and to listen to it in English. She is a great lady. We shared with her Elder Bednar´s talk from General Conference. I think it´s called "Our Burdens Become Lighter" or something like that. It´s a really good read if you ever feel like you have a lot of burdens on you.

When I returned back to my area, I found out that my companion has some sort of bug in her stomach. She is doing fine. She just has to rest for 5 days and take a lot of medicine. I also got to join in on being sick. Apparently Mole is not on the menu for newbies. Unfortunately, the people I was with on Friday, including the District Leader, thought that it would be fine if I ate it. The answer is no. So, for my fellow missionaries in Mexico. Watch out for Mole. It tastes ok, but you will not feel good afterwards until you have learned to stomach it.

We do have one family in my area that is both a dread to teach and exciting to teach. They are a family that asks a lot of questions. They are good questions, but sometimes they are really hard to answer (especially with the knowledge that they have about the gospel). We have finally decided that we have to have a member with us when we go and teach them. We picked the Ward Mission Leader. He is a little young for them, he is only about 25-28, but he is full of wisdom and knowledge and I look forward to working with him, particularly with this family.

Sorry that there are no pictures this week. I don´t know when the next time I´ll take a picture is, but I´ll certainly share it when I have one. Hope you all are doing well.

Hermana Trevino

Made it to Mexico

Hey Everyone

This week has been kind of hectic. (Also, excuse the spelling. It´s saying everything is basically wrong :P) I´m in the area of Volcanes Ixtapaluca. It´s a pretty nice area. There are lots of buildings and lots of places to see. The landscape is nice to look at from the top of the hill.

This area is mostly an area with less actives in it, so it´s fun to get to know the people of the ward and to see who all we can help. We are trying to find a way to agree with each other how to teach, and we are having a slight problem with the langague. I should back up a little and say that I am in a trio. It is me, Hermana Batz (who is from Guatamala and has been here for 5 months), and Hermana Boyer (who is from LA and has been here for 7 months). It has been fun trying to figure out which person is saying what. It also makes it a little hard to understand everything, since there is a middle person who speaks Spanish and English. We are slowly learning and we are getting along.

We did manage to go to the mall today and that was fun. It felt a lot like the malls in the US. Also, I haven´t gotten sick yet (knock on wood). The members are really nice and they feed us once a day. It usually consists of a soup and a main course. It´s usually a ton of food, but it has been pretty good. 

Sorry that it is not a lot this week, but hopefully I´ll have more to share next week.

Hermana Trevino

Pictures

Me, Hermana Batz, and Hermana Boyer with the skyline in the background

Panoramic of the skyline