April 21, 2014- Week 15 in Tehuacan!

Well, Buenas Tardes Familia!

This week was a busy one. And kinda crazy! So this weekend was Easter weekend and because everyone here is Catholic...it got a little crazy. The week here is called, "Semana Santa" and it's pretty much and excuse to close all of their shops and party in the churches haha. But they have some very interesting traditions, and it was interesting to see all of the different things that they do here for Easter. The hard part was that none of our investigators (who are Catholic) wanted to meet with us Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday....so we just visited a lot of less-actives and members and tried to do the best we could!

We also served in a nursing home on Friday. The nursing home is ran by the Catholic church, and none of the elderly have ANY family that wants to take care of them. It is really sad :( But we were able to work in the kitchen preparing their food, and talk with many of them. It was a really good experience!

Well, we now have 6 investigators with baptismal dates...Marina and her kids and Mikaela and her sons! Unfortunately...once again, none of them came to church yesterday :( We are definitely going to search for something more that we can do to help them attend church. But two other investigators came  Guadalupe and her son, Etson! They have been listening to the missionaries since June, had dates and everything...but her husband didn't want them to get baptized. But I think now, things have changed and they really want to! So hopefully we can see them get baptized really soon :) 

Training has been going pretty well! I hope, haha! I feel like we're learning a lot, and Hermana Gomez is getting better and better every day. It is crazy to think that she's already been here for 3 weeks (and I turned 5 months old yesterday...que loco!) But it's all good. And the ward is really starting to work with us now, so that has been really good. 

So I've been craving brownies a lot...and all of the members want to know what they are (you can't find them anywhere here).... can one of you send me a recipe?! It would be greatly appreciated :) Haha

This week I have been thinking a lot about the temple....I've been studying in Moses the past couple days, and I've been reminded of my experiences in the temple. I know I've only been gone for 5 months, but I miss the temple so much! I miss feeling the peace and comfort that we can only find in the house of the Lord, but I'm glad to be here and help others to work towards going to the temple. I've been thinking about how blessed I am to have an eternal family, to have the knowledge that we have... and I'm so grateful that in Utah, you can turn any corner and find a temple, haha! I am definitely going to cherish every moment that I will have in the temple when I go home. (I don't want to think about that now, but it's true!) So to all of you who live close to a temple...I invite you to go this week! I know that if you do, you will find answers to your prayers, and you will receive the spiritual strength to press forward.

I love all of you so much, and I know that I'm exactly where I need to be! I hope you all have a fantastic week! 

Love always, Hermana Smith