Week 25 New President!!! July 7, 2014

Our Missionary Stand

Hola familia y amigos!

The new president has arrived!!!! Tuesday our zone and a few others headed over to the stake center anticipating the moment we had all been waiting for...meeting our new mission president. We all sat down in the chapel...patiently waiting. When the moment came and the new president walked in with his wife you could feel the spirit that they brought with them. Sister Stutznegger already had tears in her eyes and President Stutznegger had a HUGE smile on his face. They walked in and immediately started greeting each one of us one by one (keep in mind that there were probably over 100 missionaries in the room). Sister Stutznegger shook my hand and continued on followed by the President. When he shook my hand he turned to his wife and yelled, "Hey! You've got to give her a big hug from her mom!" She turned around, came back, and had me stand up in front of everyone to give her a hug. She hugged me and quietly said, "This is the hug that I promised your mom I would give you." That's when the tears came....I sat back down totally crying...I'm sure the missionaries were wondering why Hermana Ingram was being a bawl baby but it had meant the world to me.

After having greeted each one of the missionaries, they stood up at the pulpit and began introducing themselves. What a change! They had us all laughing our heads off! Hermana Stutznegger doesn't speak any Spanish but she stood up to introduce herself and in her best effort said, "Buenos tardes!" She finished introducing herself in English and the President translated for her. They are the two sweetest people and you can tell they truly care about each and every one of us. They focused on how we were going to be a mission of "exact obedience" and how by doing so we would have more success than ever as a mission. I just about stood up and gave a giant HALLELUJAH! I can't wait to see where things go in the mission and to become a mission of exact obedience.

Thursday we went as a district to the area of the other Hermanas to help them contact and find new investigators. We carted over a table, Books of Mormon, pamphlets, hymns, pictures, cards, etc. and set up a "missionary stand" where we contacted people and taught them more on what we believe. It was actually kind of funny because we were right smack dab in the middle of a bunch of other stands. There was the lady to the right of us butchering whole dead chickens, the man to the left of us selling tacos playing mariachi music....and us...preaching the gospel battling the mariachi with our hymns! We ended up contacting a couple hundred people who were pretty interested in what we had to offer.

FELIZ 4 DE JULIO! What's the 4th of July with out a little BBQ??

4th of July Celebration

Hermana Lopez got baptized yesterday! (The sons weren't baptized but will in the next couple weeks). After the church services yesterday we gathered up the ward and had the most spiritual baptismal service yet...Hermana Lopez was tearing up the whole time along with the rest of the ward. When we opened up the font doors her 1 year old son kept saying, "In the bath? In the bath? In the bath?" (he thought he was going to get to take a bath) with the most excited face ever...super cute. I've never seen someone so happy to be baptized before...she was absolutely beaming.

Later that night we went over the Lopez family's with a cake we had bought the day before to congratulate her. We sat down and the dad immediately started crying, thanking us for the blessings that we had brought to their family. That's when EVERYONE started crying and Hermana Lopez said something I will never forget. She said, "I want you to tell your mom something for me. Tell her THANK YOU for giving you up for a year and a half. It's because of her that my family can be eternal." So that one goes to you mom. You know what they say: A missionary is someone that leaves their family for a short time so that others can be with their families for an eternity. I still remember making the drive to the MTC full of emotions, knowing that in just a few hours I would have to say my last goodbyes to the ones I love most. I remember walking away from my life as I knew it wondering if I had really made the right decision. The mission is hard...the hardest thing I've done yet..but it's during times like these that I remember why I gave up everything to be here...why I said goodbye to my family for a year and a half.. There are people here waiting for the knock on their door! And I'm here to find them!

¡Gracias por todo! Les queremos muchísimo. ¡Nunca lo olvidan! Échenles ganas esta semana!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

My Zone before cambios

This is how hard we're working.....a hole through my favorite shoes