Week 20 I Love my Mission! June 2, 2014

Hola amigos y familia!

We had cambios this week! My last week in my area was bien chafa... The president called and told us that he was going to close our area to Hermanas and put in Elders. He told us we needed to spend the week looking for a house for the Elders. So...that's what we did...we walked every street in our area searching for a house for rent only to get a call the next morning from the president saying that we didn't need to look for a house anymore... He told us we needed to sell the mattresses, fumigate the house, and scrub every square inch of the house with bleach to kill any chinchi eggs. So, we went out into the streets looking for anyone that wanted to buy our mattresses when we heard the famous jingle coming from a truck 'colchones....estufas...lavadoras...' (men that drive the streets looking for anyone selling old stuff). We flagged them down and asked if they would be able to stop by later but they told us they wouldn't be able to but that if we wanted we could hop in and go grab the mattresses right then. So, two of the men hopped into the bed of the truck (along with 2 elders) and we rode to the house up front with the friendly driver with the all too famous 'colchones!' in the background. We ended up selling our two brand new but chinchi infested mattresses for 10 pesos each. Later, our house got fumigated and we spent the next 3 hours scrubbing the house down with bleach...what a process...

Selling Mattresses

Remember our "perdoname!" investigator Isabel? She hunted me down! I came out of church Sunday and there she was coming towards me with her arms outstretched. I couldn't believe it...she then gave me a hug and started bawling begging me to come back... How she found me? I have no idea... But we talked for awhile and I invited her to continue to listen to the missionaries in her area.

We had a funeral for the "Señora Mendoza" this week and let me tell you...it was hilarious.

Sunday I still had no idea where I was getting moved to or who my companion would be. I got a call that night from my zone leaders saying that I would be going with Hermana Bennett in Neza. 6 weeks in the Distrito Federal and they're booting me back out to the boonies!

Monday (my last day in my area) a family took Hermana Mendoza and I to breakfast to the nicest restaurant I have ever seen (in Mexico that is). I felt so weird being there! I felt like I didn't know how to act! They brought out the menu and everything was at least 50 pesos...(it felt like a fortune to me when in reality it's only 5 bucks...I must be getting used to living in the ghetto). That night we headed over to a member's house to have a little going away party for Hermana Mendoza. I felt the spirit so strong as they each bore their testimonies and as Mendoza did her going away schpeel. It was then that I first realized that I love my mission. For the past 5 months I haven't been able to say that...but now I can. There is nothing that can compare to serving a mission!

Saying Goodbye to Members in Distrito Federal

Saying Goodbye to Hermana Mendoza

My new companion is Hermana Bennett and she's from Boston. We left the MTC at the same time. She is 23 years old and has already graduated from BYU. We're pretty different (she's more serious than I am) but that just means that I've got to bring the party to Neza! And I am still the senior companion. 

Flooding in the Streets

The rainy season has begun! It rained for a solid 5 hours Friday...and it rained HARD! And it didn't matter if we used umbrellas or not because we got soaked regardless. We got to the church when it started raining and when we left 30 minutes later there was an inch of rain water covering the church floors. We trekked our way through the lake of a parking lot and headed to our area where we picked up one of our investigators for a baptismal interview. A little background on our investigator: Her name is Rosa and she is 19 years old. When I got to this area I thought "Who could we baptize this week?" They had been teaching her for a solid 5 months straight and she wasn't progressing...at all. My companion told me it wasn't worth visiting her anymore and that we needed to drop her. But she kept coming to my mind in the streets...so I told my comp we were going to visit her. I set up an appointment with her the next day to have one more baptismal interview (she had already had 2). Anyways...back to the story...we jumped into a convi only to hop out 20 minutes later because the roads had turned into rivers and no cars could drive. We finished the walk to the chapel wading through water and cars. I have never seen anything like it. What happens is that when it rains enough here, the garbage in the streets clog up the city's drainage system and as long as it keeps on raining, the water keeps building and building. People's houses were flooded with a foot or more of water and all they could do was wait it out. There were miles and miles of cars on the roads that weren't able to drive anymore....CRAZY!

Soooo....I'm here to testify that miracles do happen! Rosa got baptized the next day in a font filled with ice cold water. Woo hooo!!!

Hermana Ingram, Rosa, and Hermana Bennett

My comp and I are working harder than ever right now and people are listening. We're seeing miracles everyday. Hard work and exact obedience pays off! 

We celebrated with cake!

Les extraño muchísimo! Gracias por sus oraciones y pensamientos! Espero que tengan una semana de éxito!

Con amor,
Hermana Ingram