Ward Conference

Well lots happened this week…

On Tuesday we went to cambios or transfers. Cambios was literally a mad house. It was so crazy, over 80% of the mission was there. Well at transfers I got a new companion. Her name is Hermana Lopez. She’s from Guatemala. Ha, all my companions are from Guatemala. She’s had 6 months in the mission and is really such a sweetheart. We have only been companions for one week so its hard to know if we are going to be homies or not but I feel a good vibe from her so that’s a good sign. Ha, she loves my hair and she tells me everyday which is nice. She told me yesterday that I have doll hair. Ha, well yeah maybe if the dolls she has back home have 5 different colors in their hair and a million split ends. Yeah I don’t really know what to do about my hair right now... any ideas???? 

This week we had ward conference so everyday we had an activity. On Wednesday we had the sociedad de socorro (relief society) open house. Ha, it was sweet. A girl that we contacted in the street came to the open house. Apparently she knows the president of soc. de soc. but sadly she lives in the Elder’s area. They ended up visiting her and now she has a date for baptism. 

On Thursday the activity was visiting the less active members and inviting them to the conference. This was perfect for us because we did divisiones (splits) and taught twice as many people. Stephanie, the girl we baptized last week came with me and wow, in the lessons she was like a new person. Every time I asked her a question she was beaming and like loved to share her testimony. Gosh that’s the best thing about the mission seeing how people change for the better.

On Friday the activity was a camp day at the Faldas de Almalincha. It was soooo fun and really pretty. We played soccer and also kick ball. Man kick ball was intense. Ha, we were playing kick ball in the woods and I felt like I was in the movie twilight, lolz. Yeah my team lost in kick ball which was a bummer. My ward was like freakin competitive with the whole kick-ball-thing, which was kind of scary. Ha, the next day I woke up sore. 

On Saturday we cleaned the chapel wooh! Party! Ha, no it was fast except for right now the chapel doesn’t have water so we have to use buckets to flush the water and the only water we have is the water from the baptisms a week ago so yeah we have been cleaning the church with sin filled water. Ha. After we had a soccer tournament. Ahhh, I loved it. My team was the bomb. We literally could have won the world cup! Ha, we were undefeated so yeah we were the champions. Every team had a girl and a kid on there team but my team was stacked. A new investigator family came and one of the kids from the family pointed at me and told his dad. "ésta es la guera que juega el futbol bonito". Yeah, that was definitely a highlight of my week.  Ha the next day I was so sore. Ha, that’s bad. 

Yesterday we had ward conference. Holla, it was awesome because so many people were in church. The choir actually didn’t sound that off tune.  Ha, I mean it was still off tune but lots better. Ha, after the Stake President came up to us and asked us if we would be willing to sing in Stake Conference. Ha, I’m down I just hope I’m still here for it. That night we ate at a families house who has 7 dogs and like 45 cats. Okay maybe more like 4 cats but a lot of animals. Anywhoo the member told us that one of her dogs ate one of the other dogs. Scary huh. They need to have like a dog elimination program here or something. 

Well I miss you all and I also miss pumpkin chocolate chip bread but all is good with me.

 You guys are in my thoughts and in my prayers. Stay sweet.

xoxo hna han 

So worth it!

Well people this was my companion’s last week in the mission so we did a lot of getting her ready to go home. I found out this week that I will be staying in LOMA FLORIDA for at least 6 more weeks so yay! Tomorrow we have transfers so I will be going but only to drop off my companion and get a new one. Dang, so strange! I hope I get another good companion. Really I have been so blessed with good companions so far. One of the assistants told me that I have the best trainer in the whole mission so I will be sad to see her go. 

Stephanie was baptized this week. We were worried because the zone leaders had to do the interview and they were an hour and a half late. They were playing in some stake soccer tournament. Dang Elders. Her interview was also around 2 hours, which is very long, but after she said she felt good and all ready to go. Her baptism was AMAZING. All her friends, the whole ward, and even her very, very catholic mother came. Her friend Abinadi who introduced her to the church baptized her. After we were waiting for her with her towel and her dry clothes. I asked her how she felt and she told me she felt ‘without words’. Ahh, guys I really am so happy for her. She really has changed so much. I felt like yes me and Hna. Reyes taught her the lessons but that Heavenly Father really did all the hard work. He gave her the answers to her prayers and he helped her with her testimony. He is the one who is going to be there for her when we leave. It was so great. She has changed so much for the better.

Late that night at 9:50 we got a knock on our door and its the 2nd councilor to the Bishop’s daughter and she was all, oh yeah Hna. Ramirez I forgot to tell you that you have a talk tomorrow in sacrament meeting. I was thinking what the heck but instead the words that came out of my mouth where oh yeah, that’s fine. It ended up being all good. My companion helped me a lot with it and it all ended up being okay. She had me practice my talk a lot with her. Every time I would finish she would ask me if I was Mexican. After church we had choir. Ward conference is this week and I’m pumped. 

Today for p-day we went to Puebla to visit some members from my companion’s former area. We made some really good Mexican food. It is like a 50 step process but it was so worth it. 

Well people I am extremely tired but I love you muchhhhly! 

han 

"The American"

Well last Monday I forgot my camera memory gadget at the Internet place where we always write letters. This internet place isn’t in our area so we asked the zone leaders if they could stop by and get it when they had the time. They told me that when they ended up going to the place the lady that owns the Internet “lugar” was looking through all my photos. They asked her if she had seen a memory left by two girls with the same plaques as them. She said " oh yeah let me just look for it" then she pretended to look for it. With her other hand she grabbed my memory out of her computer and was all “oh yeah, found it". Ha, I have no idea why she was looking through all my photos but if she ever gets baptized I’d like to say I played a part in it. 

Ahh the 4th of July was this week. Don’t you worry I still repped my country hard core. When I woke up I sang all the America songs that I knew to my companion. I wore red white and blue and my socks that say USA. For breakfast I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. So yeah, I might be in México but i will never forget about the land of the free and the home of the brave! GOD BLESS AMERICA. Later that day we were at a cita (appointment) with the Aragon family (a less active family) and they asked me if honestly life was better in America or here in México. I just laughed and said that you really couldn’t compare it because its so different. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question though. I think we have a lot of things in America that we could do without but at the same time I think that México needs to learn the importance of the toilet seat. 

Right now all of the kids here are just getting out of school so we see a lot more teenagers now. The other day we were waiting in the combi (like little taxi busses) and these two teenagers sat next to me. They were obviously an item because they just started totally making our right next to me.. they stopped for a minute, but only to ask me if I wouldn’t mind scooting over. I should have handed them a chastity pamphlet, but instead I just scooted over and they just kept on making out. … #notafanofPDA 

This week we had to go to the mission offices because my companion had to take her English exam. When we got there I see that one of the assistants to the president has like all these bandages on his nose so naturally I asked what happened to his nose. All of the secratarios started laughing and continued to tell me that a nose job was a perk of being the assistant to the president. The poor Elder just gets made fun of every day and he also cant shower so President Christensen gave him baby wipes. lol. While we where also in the offices Hermana Christensen had a bag for me of stuff that said Hermana Ramirez the American. Now everyone is going to start calling me that "the American". Whatever, I love America. 

This Sunday was a great one. In the morning meeting we have with all the leaders of the ward we started planning ward conference. Ward conference here is the bomb because they have like an event everyday leading up to the conference on Sunday. We are planning like lots of games and stuff. I hope I will still be in this area for the ward conference because its the same week as cambios so I really don’t know. For sure I have to go to cambios to get a new companion but I’m hoping that I get to stay in this ward. 

Also this Sunday we had 5 investigators in church and Stephanie (an investigator) said the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. she did such a great job. Also we had 13 less active members in sacrament meeting. There were 85 people in sacrament this week. Its the most I have ever seen. It was also fast and testimony meeting this week and I felt the whole time that I should stand up and bear my testimony. I was really scared though because I was thinking ahhh, I don’t know what i would say. Then I just stood up and did it and went to the front and started speaking. The bishop said " we where waiting for you to speak". Haha, he’s a funny guy. I’m sure I made a million mistakes in Spanish but honestly I could feel the spirit thoughout my whole body when I sat back down. Sometimes its hard for me to feel the spirit because I’m just focusing so much on what the people are actually saying. But yesterday I felt it and it was so strong. I’m so grateful for this experience, I am so grateful to be here, and I’m so grateful for all of you. 

You guys are in my thoughts and my prayers.

love you muchly 

xoxo hna han 

Chicharrón

This week we started out by going to Puebla because my companion had to go do some stuff for her visa. We have gone to Puebla almost every week since the last transfers or “cambios” but that’s okay with me because when we go we eat at Subway so its all good. That same day we had the mission activity. My companion and I planned it this week and taught about the apostasy. After we played soccer, in the spirit of the world cup, and then had relay races. My team won so that’s what’s up. 

This week was also Mary’s birthday, one of the daughters of the Bishop. She’s one of my favorite people here so I told her that I want her to be part of my family and that she needs to marry my brother. Ha, now all the missionaries tease her about it. Ha she added Luke on Facebook. Luke, accept that friend request. For her birthday they had a world cup party and had tons of food. We worked really hard all day and then stopped by the party for night time. You know how it is, work hard, play hard. Haha, poor girl, every time someone called her to wish her happy birthday the Elders would ask her if it was my brother calling. Lolz. Sorry Luke for roping you into this. 

This week we had intercambions with the hermana leaders and I left the area for a day and a night. We went to an area called Chiautempan. It was a nice area but I have to say that Loma Florida is where its at. While there we had a lesson with a new investigator and one of the members of their ward came with us. While we were teaching the member just started taking over the lesson and started saying all these things like “When Jesus came to the Americas, every time he stepped flowers grew from his feet. Who knows, but she was a nice lady. That night I spent the night at the hermana leaders house and oh my. They have a house that’s like beautiful. They have crystal windows and walk in closets. I was uber jealous. I need to find me a new house with at least a toilet seat. 

Okay so let me tell you about a kind of food that they have here called chicharrón. It is just the skin of a pig (pig rinds). Only the skin! And then they soak in in chili verde and serve it just like that with nothing else just the pig skin sometimes it even still has some parts of hair on it. Anywhooo this week we got served this vile food and I about died. Every time I put it in my month I wanted to cry. Then the elders came and knocked on the door and the Hermana, at whose house that we were eating, got up to answer the door and I just started wrapping this pig skin in napkins and tucking it into my skirt.. (garments really). I got almost all of it into my skirt except then she ran out of napkins. The only part left was like this really hard part of the skin that had hair and it was weirdly colored so I wrapped that part up in a tortilla because I was not about to eat that. My companion was dying laughing during this whole charade. I am so grateful for the elders for coming to her house and literally talking to her for 15 min or I would have had to eat that nasty pigskin. After we left we went across the street to the Aragon family’s house (a less active family) and I flushed all that pigskin down the toilet. After I felt so relieved. Needless to say I hope I never have to eat that again. 

Other that that experience, this week went pretty well. Choir was a hoot as usual and one of our investigators, Stephanie, told us that she wanted to serve a mission in a year. I just about cried when I heard that. Isn’t that so great. Its so amazing to see the gospel change people. This Saturday we will find out if we have changes or not in my area. And then we have cambios the proximo (next) week, on Tuesday. i really hope that I stay in this are for more time.

Well I love you all to the moon and back. 

Xoxo,

Hna Hannah Ruthie Babes