I LOVE what the gospel does for people

My hammock!  The colors are way cooler in real life. Can I hang it above my bed when I get home?

 

 

 

Hola familia,

I am actually living in Mexico and I feel like I am actually doing actual good for actual people. I LOVE what the gospel does for people. AH--I wish I had time to tell you about everything! I only have a half hour to write!

Just got your letter. Right now I'm in Centro which is the fancy touristy city with cool streets and tall buildings and lights and shopping. I live in a suburby place called Madero which is in a smaller colonia called fracciamiento Mulsay. It's not inner city, but it has a grocery store and a bank. It's nice. There are lots of cats, colorful houses, and always flowers.

Hna Torales, if we have time before our district meeting tonight (its in centro-- the missionary office and the templo are in centro) we are going to teach a lesson on the grounds of the temple for a man named Fransisco whose wife is a member and who hadn't been that receptive. But my first lesson with him was SUPER potente and he's going to ask God whether his previous baptism was valid and now we want to teach him about eternal marriage because he really does love his family. We're going to sit in the temple garden tonight with another sealed couple and I'm going to play Nearer My God to Thee on the violin. I use it all the time). Anyway, if we have time before the meeting we're going to go walking in the fancy, super antiguo (old) parts of Centro and hopefully take pictures that I will send next week.

  

Hna. Torales is a better companion than I could have dreamed of. She is incredibly patient with my Spanish and so good with people even though she's naturally shy. She is a force of nature. Unfortunately, Presidente Garcia knows this and so every Tuesday he sends her to go with other companions in other cities and I stay here. So I'm a little worried because I still don't speak Spanish and I don't know where anything is, or the people we're teaching. But a sister from the ward who is going to serve a mission is going to be my temporary companion. Anyway, she's a dream come true because she really wants to work AND because she listens when I try to implement ways to do things that I learned at the MTC.

Jenna, thanks for your suggestion about 2 Nephi 9. I needed to find a scripture and it was the same one you suggested and now I am using it a lot.

I eat pork all the time. Lots of rice and this delicious substance called mole that I don't know what it is. But I'm not fat yet. Neither is Hna Torales. Even though she's smaller than me she can eat more than me.

Promptings of the Spirit are so real. I'm finally learning how to tell what the Spirit feels like. It really is an idea, but it feels better than when I have an idea and somehow I know it is a push from someone else outside of me. And it always makes me feel good about doing something, whether it's what hymn to play for someone or to take something extra with me when I leave the house or to talk to someone or what to say. I think it helps that we spend all day trying to figure out what Heavenly Father wants us to do and then you know when he's telling you.

When you are a missionary, is it okay to make your fast kind of like the prayer roll at the temple for a huge list of all your investigators, or are you still supposed to fast for specific things?

Ava, I found our receipt from our date to the West Side diner and it made me miss you like none other. I love you.

They distribute mail at the district meeting tonight so I am crossing my fingers! :)

Mucho amor y felicidad,

Hna Ludlam