Warning: This email could be veryyyy scattered and full of lots of randomness...
However,
Here I am, in good ol Campeche, absolutely lovin it! I even love the
HUGE hills that we walk up and down all day every day, and showering out
of a five gallon bucket in the morning. My life is the best. I´m not
even kidding.
My
companion and I both got sick this week. The weather here is a little
more extreme than Merida in that it´ll get really cold at night, and
then really hot during the day. I wake up literally shivering in the
night, and because of the humidity, adding more blankets does absolutely
nothing. The changes in weather make everyone sick, so the good thing
is that we aren´t the only ones. With a little bit of orange juice and a
whole lots of prayers, we´re feeling better :) Thursday
I felt absolutely awful, but immediately thought of the testimony of
one of the assistents to President who shared his testimony a couple
weeks ago before going home, "Enjoy EVERY moment of your missions, the
good days, the bad days, when baptisms fall through..everything," he
told us. So, I decided to enjoy being sick. It was the first time I´ve
tried, and it was fun! I just kept trucking on with a smile, and my
wonderful companion did so as well. She is so wonderful, and she´s going
to BYU next year so we are working big time on her English. She makes
me pray in English, but I have kind of forgotten how and my prayers
sound a little funny and I speak much slower. But it´s all good.
One
thing that I LOVE about being next to the ocean is that everyone here
eats seafood!! This week we ate with Hermana Carolina and she made us
fishhhhhh. It was delicious.. She didn´t even give us utensils, we just
used our hands and tortillas, threw a bunch of chile habanero on it, and
called it good. It was probably the best fish I have ever had. It was
the first time I had to take the head off of a fish before eating it,
and then leave it sitting on my plate, but...there´s always a first for
everything, right? :)
Our
area is great. We are teaching a lot of teenagers here, a big change
from teaching the old folks in Garcia Gineres. I love teaching them
because they always have so many great questions. Usually they´re hard
questions that make me think, or make me go home and study and then come
back and answer them..
We´re really
excited to work with the active members and less actives here, because
they need help. We´ve visited a lot of them and realized that the their
testimonies aren´t super strong and so we want to teach them the
missionary lessons as well, so that they grow in their strength and
understanding of the gospel, just like investigators! Sometimes, I think
we focus so much on the investigators that we forget about the members
too, that they also need our help! We have been visiting a less active
named Erendida who is so happy to be back at church. On Wednesday,
after our lesson, she made us some apple tea to help our sore throats
and then told us, "Hermanas, don´t worry so much about finding new
members, because there are old members like me who have fallen away and
need help, and I´m so grateful you have come into my lives and are
helping me come back to church. Don´t ever forget about the old members
too." We left that lesson and had a lot to talk about on the walk home.
It opened my eyes a lot and made me think about what the will of the
Lord is for us in this area. Yes of course, he wants us to find, teach,
and baptize, as usual, but also to really focus on strengthening and
serving the less active and active members. Oh the things one learns in
the mission, I could go on all day, but I won´t!
That´s all for today. P-day next week is Tuesday, because we´re going to Merida on Monday to spend Christmas with the whole mission! Woohoo!! I love you all :)
Con amor,
Hermana Melody Maki
