CAMBIOS (pero no en la temperatura)

Dear Family,

Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much (maybe to Kolob and back) for your letters and Birthday Wishes. I feel the love even if you aren't here with me in person. 

This week has taught me a MILLION things. Maybe I'll share a few.

1. New Compa HERMANA PLATA is from Mexico (don't ask me where because it's a place that I always forget what it is called :) hehe) She has three months in the mission and it is her second area and second companion. She has beautiful curly hair (that reminds me of McKayla's hair when we were littles) and the coolest colored eyes!! She loves to work hard all the time and to learn and share the things she learns every day :) She is a very animated person about missionary work and helps me to remember the things that one forgets with time. I've learned to love the new energy that she brings to Pinos :)

2. I HAVE GOTTEN SOOO LOST IT IS NOT EVEN FUNNY. I have learned where to go but even better where not to go and which buses NOT to take. Thank goodness that our investigadors have paciencia with us as I am trying remember and learn every nook and corner of our area. Thank goodness that my companion has paciencia too :) With much time spent on my knees and walkpraying I am finally learning more of the area and how to be a better missionary. 

3. FAMILIA CRUZ BOLAÑOS ACCEPTED TO BE BAPTIZED. Before they were sort of maybe so if i feel it going to be baptized but now they have a date set- a GOAL- and very excited to be working towards this goal. They found out that it was my birthday this upcoming Jueves and decided that they are going to celebrate it with me :) Even though I can't have my Family de Sangre my family here in Mexico will be celebrating with me :) 

4. WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS WEEK. C, 14 years old, has decided que SI she is going to be baptized. Pictures and more coming soon (next Monday to be exact).

5. B. B is the gma and "mama" of C. All this time she hasn't had the desire to be baptized but she enjoys going to church with C. This week when we were in the class Principles of the Gospel we talked about the Temple and the work you do inside. I noticed a change in her attention for the things they where saying and also  her desire to participate in the class. After the meetings were over, an Elder in our ward was talking to her about baptism and later told me that ya she is prepared to accept the baptism challange. Story to be continued...

Thank you thank you thank you, I can't thank you enough. You guys are some of my grandest blessings and I thank you for that!!

MUCHO LUVIN' from Celaya to Cedar Hills,

Hermana Beardall and Hermana Plata

Pinos are Pine Trees

Dear Family,

I cannot believe that I have been in Pinos for six weeks and ya we have transfers.

My companion, Hna Gimenez is going to Queretaro in the same area she was in before she came to Pinos. Apparently she didn't finish the work she did in Queretaro.

As for me, I am staying in Pinos :) :) :) :) :) Oh how I love Pinos!!! I am recieving a new companion- Hermana Plata. They put me as Senior Companion y oh nelly am I nervous but excited!! What an adventure we are going to have, Hna Plata and I!!!

They are putting elders in Pinos again and elder Torres, who was in Pinos, is returning with Elder Carlson who came to mexico the same time I did. Pinos is very big and thank goodness Hna Plata and I don't have to cover the area alone!!

As for C, we don't know what happened but he didn´t show up on Sunday. We confirmed with him on Saturday and he said he would go, but nothing happened. Hna Plata and I are going to pass by this week to see what happened.

I don't remember if I said anything about I but she is an old investigator that we found and are teaching again. She has had all the lessons and was just about ready to be baptized when the missionaries stopped visiting and she stopped going to church. The bishop tells us that she was pretty much a member besides the fact that she wasn't baptized. She went to every activity and everything. We are teaching her de nuevo and preparing her for baptism. She is nervous, but she wants so badly to be sure of her descision to be baptized and that's what we are there for :) to help her feel ready for her baptism. Her son, D (22 or 23 yrs old)  has been joining us in the lessons and asking when we are going to come back. He wants to read the Book of Mormon and when we didn't have one to give to him, he was taking his mom's to read. Don't worry, he has one now and he is pretty excited to read it! 

This week I had a very spiritual experience separate from the experiences I have with my investigadors and I wanted to share a little of my experience or mas que nada my testimony with you. This week I have faced some experiences that were pretty difficult and I felt it was necessary to ask for a priesthood blessing. The blessing confirmed that Y'ALL  are my support and my smiles that keep me going every week. Also, the scriptures. God knows that words are important to me and knows that I needed to hear Him tell me that I can find comfort in your letters and in the scriptures. Entonces, THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORDS. 

Also, something specific that I can't forget is this: "Dios te ha creado para tener pruebas" or God has created you to have pruebas (sorry, I don't remember how to say this word in english). Normally, these words aren't that comforting but in that moment I knew that I agreed when I came to this earth to pass these trials and that I am strong enough to overcome them. 

I want you to know the same, that YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH. Know that you are strong enough to overcome your trials and that before you came to this earth you agreed to pass these trials because YOU KNEW YOU COULD DO IT. Don't forget what you promised God you could do. If you forget for a moment, your Heavenly Father is there to help you remember that you can do it and gives you His power and strength (POWER and STRENGTH not from man but from God) to keep on movin'.

YOU CAN DO IT.

JUST DO IT.

Les amamos,

Hermana Beardall y Hermana Giménez

TODOS SOMOS UNO

Dear Family,

Ok mercy has been given to me and I can write you a quick letter :)

This week has been a whirlwind! 

Thanks for praying for Victor! I know he has a potential very big as a member of God's church but it is hard to help him see the potential he has. This past week we have passed to see him reading the news and I thought that surely he had lost his interest to read the book of mormon and learn more, but just the other day we saw him reading again :) 

As for the Cruz Bolaños family, we haven't seen them much this week but they are still receptive to our message AND are sharing the gospel with their family and friends that also need the blessings of the gospel! It is beautiful to see them share the gospel light that has entered into their hearts and has given them the hope they need in their life. 

Answer to your question: Their daughter was 23 years old.

Here in Mexico there is some trick or treating but not much. Not everybody hands out candies. The day of the dead is actually two days where they make an alter-like thing of their loved ones that have passed away with a little bit of the dead's favorite food and flowers because they believe that the dead comes back in this night to eat the food they have left. They also worship a Saint that is called the Saint of Death. Interesting, eh?

We had an activity as a Zone this past friday to help strengthen the Ward Pinos. The activity is called, TODOS SOMOS UNO (We are all one or something like that...) We worked together in our area (Pinos) to visit Less Actives, and Old Investigadors, Investigadors, etc. The purpose is to strengthen the ward and find more people to teach. The elders of Pinos were taken from our area and sent to Queretaro right before our activity and my companion is a sister training leader and was working with other missionaries, so together with my Zone Leaders we scrambled to put together what the elders of Pinos left us (which wasn't much) and what my compa and I had to make an activity of success for our zone. All things said and done, the activity gave us many fruits and MUCH to work with! It was a blessing that came in perfect timing!

As for the elders that I recently mentioned, we know very little for why they left. All we know is that now we are going to be the only missionaries in Pinos until Cambios or who knows when :) 

We found an Hermano named Carlos where we go to write practically every week. He contacted us asking us who we were and if he could go to church. This week we passed and saw an hermano of our ward talking with him. We introduced the hermano to Carlos as a member of our church and the next appointment we had with Carlos he asked about baptism. It is a testimony to us that God is preparing his children to hear the gospel. I have a strong feeling that Carlos is going to be very strong hands in the kingdom of God, here in the earth strengthening and inviting God's children to know the gospel. Stay tuned to hear more about his story.... NEXT WEEK :)

Whelp, Tango que irme! 

Les amamos!!!

Hermana Beardall (y Hermana Giménez)

Just another day in Paradise (Or in other words- CELAYA)

Dear Family,

First things first, on Sunday I gave my first talk in Spanish. I was pretty nervous all week what I should say to our ward, but in the end all turned out well. Along with speaking in Sacrament Meeting, we started a new program or activity with our ward. Its called Ayuno de 40 Días or Fast for 40 Days. With this program the members have signed up on our calendar a day to fast for our investigadors. We remind them before it´s there turn and in that day they can fast for whatever they want and also for our investigadors. We will see how things turn out these 40 days :)

With Victor, we have ran into a problem. He has MILLIONS of questions about deep doctrine and random things that make it really hard to focus on the basic principles that we would like to teach him. He has lossed a little bit of the excitment that he had the past week but we are working on helping him towards making a covenant with God. If he doesn´t accept a baptismal date we have to let him aside for a while so that he can begin to live and choose the things for himself.

On a more positive note, we found an old investigator named Karla and she really wants to be baptized. She only has one hour free in the entire day so we work really hard to visit her everyday at this time. Her gma who is practically her mom (oh btw she has 14 years) doesn´t want to get baptized but Karla si. She is a bright girl who I would say is member for the light she has and gets along so well with the members and the young women in our ward. We are going to help her prepare for a baptism for not this saturday but the next! We will see how it goes!

We also recieved a reference of elders in our zone of a family really special. Familia Cruz Bolaños lost their daughter two months ago and it has been really hard for their family. We began to teach them the Plan of Salvation and we can see very clearly how our message as missionaries brings hope and blessings to families of every circumstance. They are very intentive to listen and want the blessings of the gospel, blessings of hope and comfort in these their hard times.

I invite you to accompany the missionaries if you can because it is a beautiful experience that strengthens your testimony- to see the gospel beginning to work in the lives of these people is something that you can't describe with words. 

WELP have a wonderful week and PLEASE BE SAFE.

I love you to pieces but I don't want you in pieces, eh? :)

Read your scriptures.

Keep a study Journal.

LIVE and ENJOY the gospel and the testimony that each of you have.

You all are spiritual giants for me and even more so here in the mission. 

Les amamos mucho (yo y mi compa)!!

Hermana Beardall

1. Meeting and interviews with President :)

2. The magic hole in the wall that takes us to where Karla lives :) I feel like I am entering a secret world every time we pass :)

3. Maybe we aren't that tall but our spiritual shadows, si :)

4. Halloween or Day of the Dead her in Mexico. Here we go.

Greetings from San Miguel de Allende

Hello.

We spent our Pday in SM and so I am writing here in SM. 

So here's the details of this week:

1. I gave away one of the LDMs that you sent me with your testimony to an investigador named V. He sells Pan Dulce Monday-Friday in the night and Hna V (member in our ward) introduced him to us about a week ago. He is VERY Catholic and when Hna V gave him a LDM he didn't want very much to do with the church. We began to visit him in the night (occasionally buying pan dulce) and trying to answer all of his dudas- HE HAS A TON!!!

One day, we had a lesson in Hna V´s house where we shared our testimonies and WOW was the spirit sooo strong! It was clear that every one of us felt the spirit!! I gave him the book and explained with a few tears how important this book is to me and to my family. It touched him that you wanted to share your testimony with him.

The next day when we passed to go home in the night, we caught him intently reading the Book of Mormon, to the point where he didn't even know we came up to greet him. 

He doesn´t want to accept a Baptism right now but he is reading into the church through the LDM looking for his answers. 

THANKS for sharing such a beautiful moment with me this week!!

2. We worked in SM this week because SM is part of our zone. I saw a member that had recently gone inactive (since I was here) and we shared a small moment with her. She has her trials and she said that the lesson we shared was just what she needed to hear.

The missionaries in the area told us that she went to church and went for all three hours- something she hasn't done in a long time.

Welp. time for me to go.

Love ya bunches!!

Hermana Beardall

PHOTOS:

1.My companion, Hna Gimenez gets really cold when we are studying :)

2. The two of us :)

3. Celebration of 50 years of marriage (The Hermana in purple is his wife)- Familia Guzman!!

1. Beautiful skies of Celaya

2. Vicky and Victor (the Vickys) after their casamiento (sorry I don't remember the word in english)

3. RS- EMPENADAS!!!

1.RS- EMPENADAS (don't worry I have the recepie... in spanish :) )

2. Our adopted daughter :) (I gave her a HLJ ring and she LOVED it)

3. Working in San Miguel de Allende

1. Member of Barrio Aldea in San Miguel de Allende Yoanna- VERY SPECIAL PERSON

2. Pday in San Miguel de Allende

1. Crickets. To eat.

2. Cricket number one

3. Cricket number two.

 WANNSUM? (In the words of baby Reagan)

1. Streets of SM

Historia Familiar

Hello familia,
We couldn't find a server with enough computers today so I don't have a full hour to write :( But I do want to write a few things and hopefully send pictures (if not I have TONS for the next week)

1. My companion got sick again :( But now she is feeling so much better :) One night when she was feeling really sick, we left our house only to buy medicine. We found three people and taught them a basic lesson in the street- now three new investigadors. It was amazing to see the miracles that God gives us every day (your prayers are being answered).
2. We had a workshop for FAMILY HISTORY!!! It was sooo cool to see the different family trees of other people and  one that went all the way back to ADAM!!! They had investigadors members and people for their first time in contact with the church there at the activity and the Spirit of Elijah was very strong inviting all of us to do our family history.
3. Our investigador V is getting married this Thursday which means..... SHE CAN GET BAPTIZED!!! This Saturday we are hoping to have her baptismal service. Prayers that all goes well!!

Ok. I will try to send some pics.

Les amo mucho!!
Hermana Beardall

CELAYA

Dear Family,

This week has been very interesting.

MY COMPANION: Hermana Gimenez from Argentina. She has 11 months in the mission and 

1. Before I came to Celaya, my companion had some problems with her hip. She had to stay in bed for four days straight. When I came to Celaya, she was still recovering from hip (and now back) pains and also a sick stomach from the food they ate at a consejo with Presidente. Because of this, I haven't really had the chance to know the area or our investigadors.

2. Speaking of not knowing the area and consejo with presidente- My companion is a Sister Training Leader with another Hermana in our Zone and they had a meeting with presidente Thursday. Hermana Montoya (comp of the Hermana Rodriguez (STL)) and I are both new to our new areas and we had to work together while our companions went to Querètaro. WOW. Talk about being absolutely lost BUT HEY- LO HICIMOS!!! (I finally understand what Dora sings at the end of each episode. Muchas Gracias.)

3. CONFERENCIA!!!!!! Oh wow didn't you just love conference? I watched conference in Spanish this time and I was surprised at how much I understood.  Also, I LOVED that the brethren spoke in their native language and YES I understood the talks in spanish :) I was amazed to hear that Elder Richard G. Scott recorded his own talk in Spanish- he has amazing spanish!!

Something that stood out to me this conference was the talk(s) (sorry I don't have my notes with me today so I can't be specific... :))  About obedience with exactness and not justifying anything but doing everything the Lord's way. I have been really reflecting on the importance of being obedient and being obedient with exactness. The mission has been putting a special emphasis on this concept for a while and I am starting to understand why. Excito viene por medio de la obediencia. We can't justify our choices with the voices of the world but live the words of the prophets in the scriptures and in our day and time. We will see a major difference in our lives when we remember the Lord in everything and do His will. I PROMISE!!!!

OOPS. So I received your package- and opened it. Haha sooooo here I am saying thank you to all for remembering me in my journey here in Mexico on the Lord's errand. Your words (y dulces :)) came in the moment when I needed them the most! THANK YOU A BUNCH!!

Ok. Times Up. I hope y'all enjoyed conference and that you take the time this week to reflect on what you heard in the conference and makes some goals. Start living what you loved from conference!!!

Les amo mucho!!

Hermana Beardall

 Last Photo of our Trio :)

 

Part of my zone

 

Pues, soy yo

 Kung Fu Panda anyone? Ya we are the furious 5 mas Po (our Ward Mission Leader) :)

Investigador/Mom of Ward Mission Leader/ A. M.- I am going to miss this special lady!!