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FRIJOL

This week we went and taught a darling family.  The parents really aren't interested, but the kids LOVE US.  They sit quietly and listen attentively to every word we say.  They eat it up and just love it.  They love to sing the hymns and they love to say the prayer. 

We started teaching their neighbors too, and they follow us to almost every appointment.  They just sit quietly and listen.  They soak it all in like little sponges.  The older one is about 7, but he acts like a full grown adult - offering us a glass of water, giving us the bigger chairs, telling his 2 year old sister to fold her arms and to be quiet while we talk.  He is darling and I love him with all my heart. Oh how I would love to just wrap him up and bring him home with me. 

His parents are always working and he and his little sister just wander here and there all day.  His little sister has big chubby cheeks and she always has a thick layer of beans all over those darling cheeks.  No one bothers to wipe them, so all the dust and dirt just sticks to them throughout the day. We asked her what was on her face one day and she mumbled, "FRIJOL." which is BEAN in English.  She said it so cutely and so funnily that we call her Frijol now.  I love Frijol.

Her grandma tells us that every time we leave she cries.  Maybe they will never be baptized and maybe their parents will never let them go to church, but I just hope that one day (someday) they will find the missionaries and remember the two girls with name tags that used to sing with them; that taught them to pray; that made them feel special and loved and important. And I hope they listen once again to this message.  Planting seeds.  Just planting seeds.

TOUR

Me and Hermana Mitchell went on tour this Saturday.  Well not really, but it felt like it.  In our district there were three different baptismal services and somehow we ended up playing the ukulele and singing at every single one.  We started with one of the Elders' baptisms in the morning.  It was a family, and as we played Secret Prayer, she began to cry.  The spirit flooded in.  We sang the first 3 verses more upbeat and happy, but on the last verse we slowed it down and sang sweet and slow.  It filled the room right up.  Maybe I never taught these people, but at least we could help make their baptism something special. 

The second baptism was another family that the other Elders were baptizing.  We played at the beginning and made them all cry too.  So fun.  Then we ran off and taught a few lessons.  Then we came back AGAIN for a third and final baptism and sang once more. 

Once again, the family cried.  I looked up a lot as I played and I looked them all in the eyes.  I hope they felt the love, because I sure did.  Oh and fun fact: the last family that got baptized was actually people that Hermana Rivas and I contacted.  We sent the reference over to the Elders and they went and started teaching them.  The family wanted to be baptized since day one.  So golden.  All my crazy contacting and talking with everyone IS worth it.  I just know it.

LOVE

We were in a lesson this week and the investigator began to ask us a lot of questions about who we are and what we do as missionaries and why we do it.  We explained it all to him.  He thought about it for a moment and then responded with a low voice, "Love. Thats a lot of Love."

It really hit me when he said it.  It is TRUE.  What I do all day everyday is about LOVE.  It's not about money, or duty, power, or fame.  It's about Love.  Why do I do what I do ALL day EVERY day?  Love.

HIERVE DEL AGUA

We got special permission from president to go to a touristy place today and check out some natural hot springs and some intense crystalized waterfalls.  Basicially, it was just a bunch of cliffs with no signs and no railings.  Haha.  So Mexico.  We had a blast and took a bunch of cool pictures.  I love Oaxaca.  We work hard and we play hard.

*coolest district picture ever taken.

*we also went to the big crystalized waterfall in the background and took pictures on the edge! We're some of the first missionaries that they've let do this.  SO MUCH FUN!

*didn't realize how giant of a cliff I was sitting on until we hiked over to the one in the background....such a beautiful place.  God exists.  And He sure does love us.

*shouting it from the rooftops (or the cliff tops) THE GOSPEL IS TRUUUUUEEEE!!!!

*Heirve del agua.  A minealized (stone) waterfall/ hot springs.  We didn't get to swim ;(
but we got to take some pretty cool pictures and stand on some really cool cliffs!  I love Oaxaca.

*the family that got baptized.  Contacting everyone and their dog IS worth it.