"Well my sons a rapper and hes REALLY GOOD"

We ate with a member family yesterday and this mom gushed about how proud she was of her rapper son and how hes actually kind of famous. She started playing some of his videos and I was trying not to laugh. She said "I would show you more songs but theyre a little worldly and have bad words". Afterwards my companion informed me that she was surprised the songs they showed us werent the "worldly" ones based off the language.

My first transfer has officially ended and I am now in my second! I honestly feel like it went by SO fast even though my "mundane" life feels ages ago, but after adjusting to missionary life, it goes by REALLY fast!

This past week, I have felt like my spanish has improved a little and Ive had a lot of investigators and contacts tell me that my spanish is really good for only 2 months! Its all with Gods help! I even had a few people speak a few random words they knew in English to me, and I smile so much every time! 

Okay, biggest miracle of the week! We have an investigator, Angel, who is 15 years old h}and had the baptisimal date of 23rd of November, which has passed. As the time drew closer, he started to say he wasnt sure, that he didnt know if he wanted to, and stopping completing the commitments. My companion and I were about to have a make or break lesson (decide during the lessons to drop or continue based off their intentions) but decided to push it one more lesson because we had invited him to an activity with us that night. We decided to teach instead about the power of prayer, and at the end of the lesson, we had a kneeling prayer, and we told him in that prayer to pray if the gosepl was true. He did, and he also prayed for a happiness he felt as though hes always lacked. At the end, we all sat in our chairs and we asked how he felt. Angel is very closed, and doesnt show much emotion, but this boy responded "weird, I feel something in my chest ive never felt before" and then he broke down crying, and cried for a little bit. I would lie if I said I didnt start crying as well. We explained that it was the spirit giving him his answer. That night was really special and the spirit was so strong, we had other miracles that night too, but those are a tiny bit more personal to his life.

I hope everyone is doing super well!!! 

Hermana Shirley 

I remembered pictures! 

1. Me annoying my companion

2. me laughing because the third elder with glasses faceplanted right before the picture

3. being thugs

4. remember the alamo 

5. some of my best missionary friends in the field (dont worry 6A I havent forgotten about all of you)

6. 6 months of my companion

7. a member gave us money for lunch so we were living that high life eating SUSHI 

  7Attached Images

Week 6??

Well im already in my last week of my first transfer, thats actually crazy

Per usual, i have very little time but here it goes!!

This past week my companion and i were contacting and we knocked on a door, a man answered and informed us he was a less active member but he welcomed us in and we taught him a lesson. He hasn't been to church long enough to think Hinckley is our current prophet, and was baptized 15 years ago. We returned about a week later and he shared with us that the day we met him, he had been praying to God saying, in Spanish, "father please help me, I don't feel good and I need your help, please send angels or someone to help me." He finished his prayer, got up to get a glass of water, and right then we knocked on his door. He said we are his angels. I love this story for two reasons, 1. God hears every prayer. Prayers of members, non members, less actives, children, and old people. He hears EVERY PRAYER, and he is WAITING for us to plead for him to help because he wants us to receive it so badly, sometimes we have to wait to practice faith, but we always receive it, and 2. He made me an instrument in his hands. Let me tell you i have a LOTTTTT of work to do to become a good missionary, to become His disciple, but God took my weaknesses and flaws and mistakes and turned them into strengths, just like he'll do for all of us if well only serve him. 

I also read Joseph Smith history this week, its really short but its SO cool! How amazing is it that God manifested himself upon the 

Earth for the restoration? There is only one other time written that God visited the earth, but he visited for the prayer of a 14 year old boy because its THAT important. Please go reread it, it filled me with such peace.

There's a lot of fun stuff i want to write but no time, but WHEN I GET A PHONE ILL BE BETTER also i finally have some pictures but cant send them today lol, next week it is!

Vaya bien,

Hermana Shirley

Chickens actually sound just like they do in Minecraft

Our neighbors have chickens and a rooster that wakes us up every morning.

WELL PEOPLE WERE GETTING PHONES, i dont know exactly when, our president has to finish his training first, but Im hoping itll be soon so I can email better, I swear Im not ignoring you all, I just have little time!

  Two nights ago our next door neighbor had a party from 12-4 AM with LOUD music, and let me tell you, these Yucatecas know how to PARTY. 

 

We had a great lesson with a recent convert and his mother, she called us "angelitas predicando el mensaje de gozo" or little angels preaching the message of joy, and said she could feel our love so strongly and that she already loves us. Her husband is closed to religion but we have high hopes for her!! Right now a lot of our investigators seem to not be progressing very much, but were working through that, finding ways to help and learning to trust God that much more!

Saturday I was feeling a little discouraged, just a little tired and unmotivated, but our lesson at 7 oclock changed that. This woman is so sweet and prepared for the gospel, she was so open and receptive to our message, and she is for sure a woman of faith. We have another lesson with her this week, and were really excited! Afterwards her mom gave us some chocolate, tortas, bolises, soda, marshmellows, and these pipe cleaner flowers she made that she was so proud of. These people are very giving with their food, and let me tell you, its a love language I am NOT complaining about. The food and everything is amazing, but of cousre the most important part was that we have a new promising investigator!

The first little bit here I kind of just felt like myself in a foreign country, not a missionary, and to a degree its true, but the past week or two when Im in a lesson, I feel myself becoming more than I am, I feel the power of the spirit take over and help me say the things that I dont know how to. I feel the power of God working through my calling, and Im grateful for that help, because this is impossible without it.

I was also thinking about how amazing it is that I get to have a year and a half of just focusing on others. I have no REAL worries of my own, I just get to focus on helping others, and honestly its a blessing, its a work in progress though Ill tell you that much for sure.

Okay, not a ton more time, but Ill write next week! Rock on 

Hermana Shirley 

I dont know... Hymns are starting to hit different

Pues... Ive completed over two months! Ill tell you, my regular human life feels so long ago but my mission feels really fast!! 

Muy rapido, I might not be able to write the 23rd of december, only call on Christmas, Im not sure yet, ever mission is different with their rules and the same applies for the new year!

BUT another week is done and passed, another P day here again, and we had Halloween and Day of the Dead! For Halloween I dressed up as, like the elders in my district so loving call, Nappy Hermana, AKA my hair was a mess and I was dripping sweat. 

I am loving this place more and more everyday. I feel like somthing clicked this week, I started feeling a lot more happy and like it wasnt so difficult. In fact, missionary life isnt always easy, but I actually think this area is easy, which makes me think that Ill be going to a Pueblo next, God always wants us to be challenged so we can become more than we currently are. How wonderful is the Refiners fire? Not sacrastic at all! Usually you stay with your first comp for 2 transfers and then with a new comp in the same area for the 3rd, so I probably wont leave for a while, but well see!

I see miracles from God every day. This week I started feeling like a real missionary. My Spanish is extremely flawed but I havent been embarassed about my learning process at all. I feel the spirit help me with the words to saw in our lessons and we have a few promising investigators, Ill tell you, the people here are really really special. I have started to feel a lot more love for our investigators, and when we have someone immediately cut us off and call us Apostate for our beliefs, I have been blessed to not even be mad, just happy that they have such a testimony in God they feel that others need to learn the "correct" teachings. Some days it rains right when I feel like I need it, and I always smile because I love the rain. My shoulder hurts less and my feet dont blister now, and I was even thinking the other day that I will miss this place when I return. I havent had health issues, and the members are so generous with their food.

On Saturday a family gifted us peanut butter and nutela on our way home, and I was actually thinking about how I needed to buy peanut butter at the store. After we went to a cultural appreciation put on by the church and watch traditional dances which was SO FUN , and a member paid for our uber on the way back. Tender mercies every day.

Ive realized I feel the most light and happy after a lesson, when Im actually working, when Im trying to focus on God and trying to serve. I hope you all can feel the same way, feel joyous in the hands of God.

Sorry this one was kind of boring but Ill try to spice the next one up, 

Hermana Shirley 

Is Merida hot? HAHHAHAHAHAHHAH yes

Okay basically Im just sweating my life away everyday, and this is their cold season. Yes, prayers would be appreciated. No, its been hot but it hasnt actually bugged me much, tender mercies people!

Okay people, let me tell you, a mission is not easy, sometimes I feel really defeated and dont know how I can really do this whole thing for 18 months, but then I pray for help and comfort, and EVERY single time I have received that help. I look back on the day, and wonder when I started feeling so much better and happy. 

We have a baptism the 23rd of November!! We taught a brief lesson with this investigator, then I had divisions and was in another area for the day my companion extended the invitation, but we had another lesson with him and hes accepted!!! MIRACLES! 

Some cool little things about the mission. 1. I have gotten really good at not scratching mosquito bites. 2. Everyone sleeps in hammock here, theres built in holes and hooks in the wall to hang up hammocks, and ive decided, I love sleeping in a hammock. 3. A family took us out to eat and knew I was from Texas so they took us to TEXAS ROADHOUSE and I let out the biggest gasp, and I may or may not have been singing along to the country songs there. oops, ill repent later. It was so nice just sitting in a car and restaurant and eating those ROLLS ugh. 4. The hermanas arent really working if they dont get blisters the size of their mission their first 2 or 3 weeks 

I was reading Preach My Gospel and it said, enjoying the gifts of the Spirit should be one of your most earnest desires, and I think that applies to all of us. Enjoy the spirit, enjoy this blessed gift from God! 

Also my companion and I were talking about how so often, the last house you knock on is the one that needs your message. Our last house was an English speaker, a less active member who is having a lot of troubles and pain right now, she said she wanted nothing to do with the church right now but I insisted that we wanted to help her, thats our job. We stopped by a few days later, and she wasnt home, so we left a note saying we love her. Today, we got a referal for this same person, and she wants us to come teach her. How interesting that our last house just happens to be someone I can speak to in english? Not a coincidence at all. God prepares people for you, you have to find them.

I hope everyone is doing well, please email me if you need anything! Thank you for your emails!!!!! Until next week!

Hermana Shirley 

  5Attached Images

Shaved legs and Wheel Chairs

Elders are something else arent they

The elders came in to class saying they shaved their legs last night but one elder decided to leave what he chose to call, a racing stripe, on his leg because it looked cool apparently, dont worry, theres a picture. He said, wow isnt it glorious, its like a mohawk for your legs.

Another elder had to get his toe cut open to remove an ingrown toe nail and he was walking on it so much it wouldnt stop bleeding so they put him in a wheelchair, but he hates the attention, so all the other elders have been practicing their wheelchair wheelies and trying to play hackysack while sitting in it. Theres never a dull moment in district 6A I can say that much for sure. 

Every night my comp and I sing hymns at night with another district were tight with, and it always ends our night on a high note. 

General conference was so good, especially Sunday Morning! If you havent had a chance, go to churchofjesuschrist.org and give it a watch! 

This past week we had a temproary companion exchange and I was with a latina. We taught a lesson together, and then we took turns teaching each other, she complimented my spanish and I was able to understand everything she said. Ive realized with certain things I dont have to translate to english in my head anymore, Im just able to hear and undersatnd which is a huge blessing, but I have a LONG way to go. 

I found out that everyone in my mission, including the natives, sleep in hammocks, because if you dont, you can become dehydrated in your sleep and pass out from the heat, SO they give us hammocks to help prevent that. Apparently many people in our area have to take bucket showers and wash their clothes by hand in a bucket, so Ill be a pro at both when I come back! But because I wont have a device and will have to find public computers to email, shop for food,  and have to hand do my laundry, emails will probably be shorter and less frequent. Apparently the Mayan influence is stronger in my area than I thought! My teacher said Ill have a weird accent when I come back because the people have an odd one, and that they speak Mayan and Spanish there. An elder had a brother who served in the same area, and he said his brother was able to read the Book of Mormon in Mayan by the time he came back! I probably cant speak it, but I might be able to understand it! Ive heard that a lot of Mayan people are very humble, and thus are interested in hearing about our Gospel and will have quite a few investigators. Thats the hope!

I leave on Monday at 2 AM for my mission, so my days here at the good old CCM are coming to a close, Ill miss it honestly, but Im so ready for this next chapter!

Also I got the official CCM Mexican skirt in the attached picture so Im about ready to graduate!

I want each of you to read Doctorine and Covenenants 122. It only had 9 verses and is very short, but I LOVE verse 7. Please take a read, you wont regret it!!!

Since this is my last longer email for a while I want to leave you with a few things. I have felt Gods love for me and for all of his children so very much. I have seen how important it is to rely on the spirit to help you teach, we truly need Gods help in all things. I was teaching with my companion to our teacher who was pretending to be an investigator about the Restoration of the church. During it, I recited the first vision in Spanish from memory and suddenly I felt the spirit so strongly. I thought it was just me, but afterwards my teacher and my companion both asked me if I felt the spirit as strong as they did. In that moment I felt the power of those words, and the absolute truth of the work of the pioneers. I have felt the power of prayer. This entire church was restored through a prayer of a FOURTEEN year old boy. If a fourteen year old Joseph Smith can begin the restoration of this church through a single prayer, imagine what ours can do. I have seen time and time again, when I pray for something, that exact thing happens. Of course, we dont always receive immediate answers, and sometimes our answers are not the answers we want, but we recieve answers nonetheless. I love this church, I love this work, I love the trials I have been given and who God has helped me grow into. 

Please let me know if any of you need any prayers. 

Hermana Shirley 

  3Attached Images

Give em Heaven boys

I feel like that quote basically sums up the whole MTC experience, aside from everybody under the sun being sick, but hey! We've accepted our reality that well probably be sick for our whole missions as long as you're foreign!

Every week Ive tried doing a group email something goes wrong so here we are, finishing week 4! Let me tell you, the time has FLOWN by unimaginably fast. My spanish has been coming along really well, I am nowhere near fluent, but at least with my teachers, I can understand pretty much everything they're saying!

My ankle is healing better, but its still hurting a bit, but no worries, Im sure itll heal up in no time!

Another Elder in our district pranked us and told us he was going home early, and he got SUPER into it, and started crying and everything saying he was having a health issue, and when we found out it was fake we were all SO mad, but hey, it keeps class from being boring. 

Its really hard already to think of stuff to write about, our 16 hour days consist of meals, and class, and that's pretty much it, but our district is awesome, were constantly laughing so the days go by quick! 

I cant think of much else to write, so Ill just write about some spiritual insights I felt prompted to share. EVERYONE PLEASE READ MOSIAH 2, 21! Its just one verse, if you dont have the scriptures you can just search the scripture on Google and itll pull it up! This scripture struck me HARD, basically it says that God lends you daily breath, breath to choose of your own free will, to disobey him, to spite him, to stray further from his love. He gives us life to choose what we want to do. It mentions that if we were to try to repay him for allowing us to have that choice by being his servant every moment of our lives, it would be impossible to pay God back, the more we obey him, the more he blesses us, I know that to be true.

Ive come to realize that on this mission, Im not serving God, God is serving me. God can not take away our agency to believe in him or not, but he could easily perform signs and wonders to the point where it would be absolutely insane not to believe in him, but instead, he allows us a chance to do that work for him. He allows us to bring his children back to him, not only allowing us to form a stronger testimony and relationship with Him, which is the source of true and lasting happiness, but help others, allowing us and them to receive salvation. It amazes me at how loving God is. 

There is a quote someone shared this week from an Apostle that says, `I am asking that we spend less time focusing on the storm, and more time focusing on the sunlight`, and I feel like that is really powerful. Our happiness depends little on our outward circumstances, and more on our focus. 

There's also another quote that says, `If we knew the price our prophets and Apostles pay to receive revelation, we would have less doubts concerning what they say`, Elder Christiansen, and I feel like its very prevalent with General conference coming up

Well that's just about it for this week, but I want every single one of you to know that I have developed an unshakable faith that God is so very aware of each one of us and loves us with a love we can scarcely imagine, he is begging for us to turn to him so he can help us. 

Also, I invite those of you with concerns or questions to visit Church Of Jesus Christ.org and check it out! I hope everyone is going oh so well!

Hermana Shirley