Spiritual Eyes

Hola! 

This week was filled with tiny miracles that my heart might explode with gratitude. Sadly, time is short and I'll just share one of my favorites. OK, so my first week here in Nanacamilpa, the bishop said he had someone  very special that he wanted us to meet. It turned out to be his nephew Alberto. I have heard about a mid-life crisis before but I have never really seen one. Alberto was right in the middle of it. I have never seen a man so low on his life before.  We could see that his past actions have had severe consequences. One in particular was his addictions. Alberto was someone that needed to feel the love that his Father in Heaven has for him. 

We have been teaching him these past few weeks, and it's been a very trying and growing experience to everyone that is involved. His progression has been a miracle. He hasn´t drank any alcohol for 2 weeks. He looks and is a new person. Now how is this possible? 

This Sunday, we had a meeting with our president with all the people that are going to be baptized in April. He asked a specific question to the investigators in the room. How have the missionaries helped you develop your faith? All of the sudden Alberto stood up and said: ¨The hermanas and my family first had faith in me. That helped me develop my confidence and knowledge that I am a child of God. They loved me with a love that I think that Christ has for me and it is through these things that I'm standing here and being prepared to be baptized.¨  In other words, the answer is what the bishop told us when he said ¨I want you to meet a very special person.¨ 

I love that and I have witnessed this throughout my mission. When we have testimonies of Jesus Christ and what He did for us, we want to be more like Him. We do this by loving and supporting one another. 

Another cool experience this week was when we did a huge demonstration of the plan of salvation. Hermana Galicia and I had the celestial kingdom. We were in a small room, that had lots of images of Christ. As people walked in, we explained about the requirements and the blessings to reach this kingdom of glory. As Alberto walked in, I could feel that this is where he belonged; that the Lord loved him and wanted him to be here. It's amazing to see that the Lord sees our potential, what we as humans can't see with our physical eyes. But when we desire to come closer to Him and serve the people around us we can receive spiritual eyes that will guide us to do our small part in His great plan.

Love you all and have a great week! 

Hermana Herrera 

My reality!

CELESTIAL KINGDOM!

Alberto in the middle, Bishop (his uncle) on the left and President Nelson

Our tryout for the sister missionary catalog

Feel the rain on your skin NANNA

It's cold... like really cold. The rainy season is starting and since we are at high altitude the wind is nuts. I'm doing well and love working here in this small town of Nanacamilpa, Tlaxcala. 

Something that's very hard but very worthwhile on the mission is developing Christlike attributes. This week my compa and I received blessings from our district leader. Mine talked a lot about how important charity is and if I am charitable I will be able to see a lot of miracles in my area. Reflecting on the drive home (our area is about an hour away) I was thinking about what aspect I needed to focus on. I think Heavenly Father wanted to make it clear by sending me an impression with a great flash of lightning at the same time... that I needed to work on forgiving others and forgetting. Lemme tell you guys, forgiving and forgetting are not my forte. I usually just push forward and try to take whatever I can learn from the experience. This is not the Lord´s way and He made that really clear. 

On the mission, there are many people that can do some hurtful things like negative comments and not being supportive, but that's ok because that is why we are here, to represent Christ and to experience a little bit of what He did. But it doesn't have to be painful all the time because we choose happiness and forgiving is a way of feeling that happiness. 

I think one of the greatest miracles I get to see every day is confirmation of the truth or doctrine of the church. I love when my investigators or people we teach know for themselves that Christ is their Savior and Redeemer. I know that I need to have these experiences also because sometimes we need trials to receive greater testimonies of doctrine. Right now, it's my turn to learn and gain a stronger testimony of forgiveness. I invite you all not to avoid hard things but to embrace them with open arms and maybe clenched teeth and let the Lord teach you.

Love you all

Hermana Herrera

p.s. I love this quote about forgiveness by Elder Kevin R. Duncan

"Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son, so let us rejoice in His offering to heal us all. The Savior’s Atonement is not just for those who need to repent; it is also for those who need to forgive. If you are having trouble forgiving another person or even yourself, ask God to help you. Forgiveness is a glorious, healing principle. We do not need to be a victim twice. We can forgive"

8 months and new adventures

Hola familia and amigos!

So first things first, I'm in Nanacamilpa, Tlaxcala. It's a new change but I really like it. My new compa is Hermana Galicia from Queretaro, Mexico. I love her and her love for the people here. I've never realized how much I missed trees and greenery until I got here, like I got teary eyed and everything.. well that's the usual on the mission. It renewed my dream of living in North Carolina one day. 

Something that really stuck out to me are the members here. The bishop has a huge family of 12 brothers and sisters! It reminds me of my big families back home. Our investigators are references of their family members. There is nothing more joyful than helping people have eternal families. It brings me the most joy and it makes the hard things worth it. 

We have the challenge that our church building is about 45 minutes away, so we are trying to get creative with the members to have English classes and family home evenings here in Nanacamilpa. One thing that I have learned on the mission is that FHE is a big deal and works miracles.. It doesn't matter who you are, everyone needs to feel loved. When we have this special time together every week we can be strengthened by the spirit and the teachings of Jesus  Christ. We have stronger relationships with one another and gain a greater vision of what's important in this life. The best part is it doesn't just have to be family! It can be your friends, neighbors or anyone! I will say that the conversions we have had on our mission were all possible because we had FHE with members. It's a great key of conversion, that's how important it is.

I love you all!

Hermana Herrera

New Horizons

The dream team is back again!  Herman Cervantes is my Sister Leader!

The district.  My cute compa, Hermana Galicia, is on my left.

Transfers

Well, what can I say? This Sunday in the middle of our ward council (and eating delicious empanadas) we received a call that we would be closing our area and be a part of a mass of emergency changes. Through the tears, I packed my bags and headed to CALPULALPAN, TLAXCALA. Now, my mission is Mexico Puebla Norte but it also includes the tiny state of Tlaxcala. The funny thing is, it's the farthest place we can go in our mission. I have to say though, IT'S ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.

I will fill you guys in next week!

Hermana Herrera 

Zone Conference

Saying goodbye!

Crazy how the members are straight up fam!

Nos vemos Hermana Vargas!

Lesson learned

Hello all! 

It's funny, because whenever I think that I understand something from the Gospel fully I just give it a little time and the Lord will show me that I truly don't know that much. For example, something that I learned a lot about this week was the Christlike attribute of temperance. We had our interviews with our President and I asked him what temperance meant to him. He showed me Mosiah 4:27  which basically says that a man shouldn't run faster than his strength. He later shared some personal advice from Elder Oaks when he came to visit our mission a year ago. ¨ President, your job is hard. It will be impossible to accomplish everything that you need to do throughout the day. So I will tell you what I do, I get on my knees and pray that I can have the spirit to guide me to do the most important things, even if that means things that I didn't expect. ¨ So basically temperance is being diligent but according to the Lord's will. This made sense and I thought I understood it pretty well... but shocker I didn't and the Lord showed me why.

This Sunday was not what we had hoped. Our investigators didn't join us for church and we were pretty disappointed. During church we received a call that one of the older ladies who is less active was in pretty bad  condition in a hospital about a half hour away. Thinking that is was possibly her last day here on the earth she specifically asked for the Hermanas to come and visit her. As we looked at our plans we were anxious to get to work and find our investigators in the afternoon. We decided that we would ask for permission, knowing it would probably be a long shot. To our surprise we received permission and this family arranged to pick us up to go to the hospital. Although I was thankful for this opportunity, I still was stressing about our day. 

As we entered the hospital room, we saw Hermana Isabelle very weak and sad. It was also hard because she's blind. As we said hello and she felt our hands her eyes filled with tears. She expressed her fear of dying and the failure she felt that her children weren't active in the church. As we listened, we felt impressed to sing "I need thee every hour" and "Come come ye saints" to invite the spirit. Afterwards we spoke and gave counsel which I know was from the Lord because I don't remember anything that my companion or I said. As we said goodbye, I took her hand to introduce myself because we have never met before. She said, "I can't see your face and I don't know much about you but I love you! I needed my saviour and he sent me you." 

That's when it hit me! We were literally messengers to give this daughter of God the peace her Heavenly Father wanted her to have. What an honor to be a representative of Christ and to minister to God's children! That's when I truly understood the meaning of temperance.  Sometimes we fear man more than God. We care more about opinions of our fellow humans than we do of our Heavenly Father's.  I personally was frustrated because we didn't have the ¨success¨ we expected but in return we did something more worthwhile. We did what the Lord wanted us to do that day and what a satisfaction and tender mercy. I felt the pure love Heavenly Father had for his daughter Isabelle and it inspired me to always follow the spirit in my doings because that is when we are truly doing the work of the Lord. My invitation is to do what Elder Oaks does, to go on your knees everyday and ask to have the spirit guide our day. I know that this is important and truly the way we should live our life. 

 I love you all and have a great week! 

Hermana Herrera 

I found out that Michelle and Cristian got baptized in Independencia.
So happy for them!

Celebrating Valentine's with pink tamales!

Mama Nelson!

7 months

Hola familia and amigos! 

So for the first news of the week: I'm officially dreaming in Spanish! Glorious moment! The bad news is my Spanish is heavily influenced by my many different companions and roommates, for example, poblano, Chihuahua, Argentina, chilanga (Estado de Mexico) etc. I don't think anyone is going to understand me when I go home.

And that is what I want to talk about this week, what is understanding? And how does it relate to the Gospel? I have come to see a great difference between our investigators who want to learn about the Gospel and the investigators who want to understand the Gospel.  During a lesson this week, we were teaching a teenager and his mom. They have been trying to work up the nerve to go to church with us and the teenager expressed some concern about following the word of wisdom. No matter what we said, he just didn't feel like it was necessary. As I sat in thought this came to mind and I would like to share with you all. There is a difference between learning about the Gospel and understanding the Gospel and I'll explain why. 

1. To know: The Gospel is easy to comprehend. Like the prophet Jacob said: "For my soul delighteth in plainness; for after the manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men." (2 Nephi 31:2) Here is the promise that if we listen we will know the Gospel, it is not difficult.

 2. To understand: I think the step to understand isn't just listening but it is the involvement of sacrifice, which means from the Bible to make something or someone holy, and through sacrifice we can obtain the blessings from our Heavenly Father. When we sacrifice, we understand that Heavenly Father has all power and that He loves us with a perfect love. Through this testimony we trust in him. 

The question that we asked the teenager was ¨Do you want to learn about the Gospel or do you want to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ?¨ His answer was to stand up, pull out a bottle of vodka and take a shot. Now this was sad but it confirmed what I know to be true, that when we follow the words of our prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and "choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong" we are making sacrfices and becoming more like Jesus Christ. That is our mission here on the earth and I know the blessings are just too precious to lose. 

I know that when we strive to do our best we truly feel the love and support from our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  In Luke 9:56 it says "For the Son of man is  not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Now the Question for you all is this ¨Do you want to learn the Gospel or do you want to understand the Gospel?¨

Love you all and Happy Valentine's Day! 

Hermana Herrera 

Hitting the 7 month mark. Que es eso?

The crew: Arizona, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Chihuahua, Tejana!

Happy Happy!

Wake up call

Hola! I hope y'all had a great week! 

Things are def new here in Xonacatepec! I traded my fields of flowers for tall buildings with many, many did I say many? stairs. But it's nice to have a change. Something I found out about my new area is something called ¨Bien Muerto¨ which means that there aren´t any new or progressing investigators. Although this may be discouraging at first, it's a new opportunity to start fresh and really rely on the Lord. 

Since Hermana Vargas and I have this opportunity, we hit the ground running; trying to find new people to teach without much success. On one particular day, I was asking myself what we were doing wrong? Aren't we serving with all of our heart, might, mind and strength? It was through the spirit that I received this correction. ¨Why aren´t you involving the members?¨ Even a seven monther like me needs this repeated correction. Talking to my compa about this we realized our mistake which I think helped us reach a state of humility that was greatly needed. 

As we prayed to know who we could ask for help, it came to mind that we needed to ask an older lady named Eunice  and her husband that are less actives. As we arrived at their home our humble attitudes permitted us to say that truly we needed their help and not only that but more importantly that the Lord needed them. This started our wonderful relationship and they introduced us to their neighbor who is truly willing to listen to the gospel. What was even better Eunice and her husband attended church this Sunday and she bore her testimony about missionary work. 

I know that working with the members is an important part of missionary work. I know that many are willing to do their part but sometimes wait to be asked. They are truly powerful tools that the missionaries need, that I personally need. I love the talk by Elder Uchtdorf named ¨Learn from Alma and Amuelek."  He says ¨reach out to them, teach them, inspire them, ask them. You may be surprised to discover a valiant servant of the Lord who otherwise would have remained hidden.¨

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Hermana Herrera