miss[ionary] in mexico

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Life in the Pines

Dear Family,

We had transfers yesterday but I have the GRAND BLESSING to keep living in the Pines and Hermana Guevara is my compañera!

In April when conference comes again I will have 6 months in barrio Los Pinos. Wow. Time flies. Honest truth: I absolutely love it here (can I finish my mission here please?)

Another honest truth: I don't know what it is like to have dry feet or dry shoes. Practically this whole week has been raining and raining and raining. For a day and a half it was raining non stop. But ya it has stopped-for now.

This week has been really hard to find our investigators or to keep our appointments with them. We have lost contatct with almost all of our investigadors. This week we are on the search to find them again :)

But walking through the streets that are more like rivers amidst the pines I got super wet and lost a pair of shoes because the velcrow (or however you spell it) was so wet it wouldn't stick. We walked barefoot for a while to get to the bus stop but the bus never came. We called a member and they helped us get home.

I almost got really upset but then I remembered something that I had learned in my personal study. I read the talk by President Dieter F. Utchdorf called Agradecidos en cualquier circunstancia (sorry I can't remember what it is called in english).

Jokingly I started to list things I was grateful for to make my companion laugh. When the bus still didn't come, I kept listing my blessings and the two of us began to list many things but now with more sincerity. We learned the importance of elevating ourselves even in the moment of trial. In place of feeling bad for ourselves, we began to laugh and feel a greater joy that one can't experience eating chocolate (and thats a lot of joy). In place of crying over our circumstances I wanted to cry tears of gratitude for all that I had. And I have A LOT, gracias a Dios (or thanks to God) as they say here in Mexico for everything but I say it with so much more meaning.

Read the talk if you would like, it is pretty great and inspiring (especially the part that talks about how we are not made for endings but I am not going to spoil it for ya...)

Fotos:1. Us and Hna Torres una Hermana that we helped come back to church--WOW this Hermana is PODEROSA.

2. Irene-- do you remember me talking about her? She calls me Guera (white girl) because she can't say Beardall. Ya ni modos.

3 y 4. Gorditas- basically a stuffed thick tortilla with cheese and meat and salsa y all the Mexican food goodness. En fin, this is what we ate for breakfast in PDAY.

Hermana Beardall

March 9, 2015

Dear Family,

On Friday we had a ward actvity about the Plan of Salvation. The Elders put it together and assigned every orginazation a theme- the example in the pictures A FIESTA and FHE. The investigators and a few members held to a rope with "the guide of the Holy Ghost" or the elders to two rooms. They had to choose a room and according to their decsisions they made they went to one of the three kingdoms.

I had to go in to the Terrestal Kingdom and explain to the people that they hadn't accepted Jesus as their Savior and so they didn't make it int the Celestial Kingdom. I can't imagine how it would be like for God to do the same for all of his children. It was sad to see their reaction to what I told them but it gave me peace to know that now they understand the importance of obedience and to make good decsisions.

Yesterday I had an experience that hurt but taught me a valuable lesson. I had the first door slammed in my face. We lost contact with our investigator Erica that was planned to be baptized this upcoming Saturday and yesterday we went to see what happened (because she didn't come to church). We knocked, they responded, but didn't come out to talk with us. We called her phone and she turned it off and ignored us. Then while we were waiting outside thinking what we should do next, Ericas mom walked by and asked what we needed. We said that we wanted to talk to Erica. She entered the house to look for her and the next thing we knew, her dad came out and began to speak angerly at us and told us that he never wants to see us again or know about us teaching his daughter and that "this house is catholic and always will be catholic" It hurt but in the sense that I felt like in place of uniting the family with the gospel, we managed to separate them a little more.

I read the talk The Priesthood Man by Pres. Eyring and found peace in reading the part where it talks about prayer. I applied it to my self and my situation and to pray with gratitud for the experiences I had with Erica and to ask forgiveness, etc. I felt a huge change within me that I can't express with words. I really felt the peace that I needed to know that Erica was fine and that her family also was fine.

I know that prayer changes who we are to help us become the children of God he knows we are.

Love,

Hermana Beardall

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

It's July Already!

Dear Family,

The weather here is like the middle of July and I am roastin'!!

Anywho, let me tell you about this week:

1.We had divisions with our Sister Training Leaders and I got to work with Hermana Nielson again!!!! Everytime we get to work together I always feel like I am companions with McKayla. She's got that same weird personality ;) We talked about the food we missed (rootbeer floats, oven baked cookies, and egg salad sandwiches to name a few) and how all but two months of Hermana Nielson's mission we have been in the same zone. She taught me a lot about confidence and taught me a few excercises I can do :)

When we finished divisions we went to the Fuentes House and to our surprise our companions had made pupusas (a food that they make in El Salvador and Honduras) and left us beautiful flowers. Pupusas are like Gorditas here in Mexico. Its basically a fat tortilla with cheese and beans inside and you cook it, put salsa on top and YUMMMMM. Don't worry, I am learning how to make them!

2. For a while, we had a lot of our investigadors come to church and come by themselves but now we are starting to have problems. We make plans and everything is set to go until the morning of when we reconfirm the plans for the hundredth time and it turns out that they can't make it.

R and M have decided with their parents that they are going to wait until their parents return to be baptized. They have no idea when they will be able to come back. I hope they get baptized before Cambios and they change me.

A we haven't seen all week because she has been busy working.

E couldn't come to church this week because her dad came to stay for the weekend and doesn't let her go to church for complicated reasons.

Somehow I have remained absolutely calm through all of this and I am not stressed, I just don't know how to solve every problem.

I have learned, more than anything, this week about prayer. Moroni 7 talks about how we should pray sincerely or our prayers don't make it to God's ear. It hit me so hard and I realized that I need to talk to God with more sincerity so that He can hear my prayers and that the answers and blessings come. When we pray half-heartedly we recieve our answers and blessings half-heartedly. Think about that one for a while. A prayer so simple and sincere brings blessings so much bigger than the simple but sincere words that left our lips and reached the ears of our loving Heavenly Father. Ask sincerely and with love and you will recieve blessings from our Perfect God, Perfect Father who gives sincerely and with love that is bigger than humankind can imagine.

God loves you. Don't forget to pray.

have some good days,

Hermana Beardall

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Oh How Great The Plan of Our God

Family.

Let me tell you about A. Finding A was a miracle in itself. My companion and I wanted to be very specific in asking God to help us new people to teach and so we fasted specifically to find someone who lived in a Privada (gated community). Days after we had cambios and Hermana Guevara came, we recieved una referencia:Familia Correa Reyes. When we went to visit them we discovered that they live in a Privada.

Friday in the mornin we went to teach A. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. Little did we know, it had been 8 years to the day that her baby boy had passed away. A continually asked us in the lesson how we knew what she was going through. We told her that we didn't know anything but because we are on the Lord's errand and she was recieving God's message that he had prepared for her.

Our first visit with her she told us that she couldn't put another appointment until March 4th and that it would be almost impossible to come to church with us. We saw a change in her that no man can make in himself without the hand of the Lord.

My testimony grew a little bit stronger and taller as we heard A accept an appointment this upcoming week and to come to church with us, even if she could only make it to the first hour. I know that God works with his servants in his vineyard (Jacob 5:72) with his hands in the soil, preparing and givingthe nutrients that every one of his trees needs. He never gives too much or not enough, but just right and in the very moment of need.

The Plan of God is REAL. Not only is it real but it is perfect. God created a plan perfectly perfect for his children who in their imperfections are perfectly striving to become like Him and the end result is absolutely perfect. Our happily ever after isn't impossible but perfectly reachable.

Oh how great is the plan of our God (2 Nephi 9:13)

With love,

Hermana Beardall

Friday, February 20, 2015

A Week of Love

Dear Family,

First things first, BAPTISM.

It went pretty well. I had to play the piano because nobody knew how to sing the songs that E. chose for her baptism. Hehe I didn't know how to play them either :) She also asked me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.

We had a few problems my companion and I to fill the baptismal font but in the end there was water. The boiler didn't work and so the water was FREEEEEZING!!!!! I felt so bad :) In the end it was a beautiful experience for her and for her family that aren't members. Her brother, M. is even more excited to be baptized!!! What a beautiful family!!

This Thursday was my companions birthday so I asked the Hermana Perez that gave us the Comida if we could sing the mañanitas (spanish happy birthday). B and K sang and gave her a pinguino too (chocolate twinkie thing...)

This week I have had many opportunities to learn about weaknesses and finding hope to overcome them and become stronger. I was reminded of a quote from Pres. Utchdorf:

"The adversary uses despair to bind hearts and minds in suffocating darkness. Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances. It pierces the darkness with a brilliant dawn. It encourages and inspires us to place our trust in the loving care of an eternal Heavenly Father, who has prepared a way for those who seek for eternal truth in a world of relativism, confusion, and of fear."

When you pass a trial in your life, don't forget to look for the hope that helps you out, living and happy. My companion taught me that maybe it is a weakness now but God is strengthening us right now so that we can make is a strength when we really need it. This is a life of preparation and you can't loose hope in any part of the path.

I HOPE you have a great week,

Hermana Beardall

^^^IT CAME THANK YOU!!!!!!^^^

^^^Let Spring begin in Mexico...^^^

^^^Zona Celaya Norte^^^

^^^Celebrating her first of two birthdays in the mission!!!^^^

^^^My companion made me valentine breakfast :) I love her!!^^^

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

WEEK ONE

Ok so this week has been a little crazy. I have a new compa Hna Guevara from El Salvador and she has 3 months in the mission.

We had a miracle. Hna Plata and I had been praying and fasting a lot so that we could find new investigators and start to bapitze every week. Guess what? Almost every day this week (minus 2 days) we found one or more new investigators. GOD ANSWERS OUR PRAYERS and I hope you never forget that.

We have been preparing E for her baptism that will be this upcoming Saturday! She is more than excited and is taking the opportunity to be a missionary with all that she is doing to prepare for the covenant she is going to make. Her sister R decicded si or si she will be baptized 7 Marzo even if her parents can't come. We also started teaching their brother (11 yrs old) M and he wants to be baptized too. Even though she lives far away, their mom is reading the book of mormon and is trying to get in contact with the missionaries. It is amazing how the gospel changes and unifies a family!! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!

Whelp, pics and stories about the baptism later!! Thanks for all of your prayers especially those where you asked that we could find people to teach. Your blessings will be grand and glorious.

I love you tons,

Happy day of love or like it is here in mexico, day of friendship,

Hermana Beardall