Ohhhh Mexico

mi familia!

holy cow. ANOTHER great week in merida. i love it here! 

to start off with some interesting news... i finally got sick from the food... and that food was dominos pizza at mission conference. im not kidding! out of ALL the food that ive had here... which is basically everything the travel clinic said to not have... i get sick from pizza -___- 

also, mexicans here are crazy! this week was the start to a mexican holiday that is apparently bigger than christmas to some people. people decorate huge shrines of mary with flowers, candles and lights and then set up rows and rows of chairs to worship. and then they have a huge party. the first night of the holiday there were fireworks and music the entire night. luckily its died down but apparently some people celebrate the holiday until christmas. so crazy. 

also, im not only a missionary but a house hunter. we received a call TWO DAYS ago saying that we have until today at 6 to find a new apartment. holy cow it has been so hard. mom i wish i had your house hunting skills.... or maybe just the internet. yesterday after sunday lunch and a few lessons we had a few hours to go and visit all of the apartments that we found. every apartment was terrible... tiny. scary. dirty. community bathroom. you name it. we got to the last apartment at 8:30 and it looked even worse than some of the others. we knocked on the door and no one came and then we saw a sign that said info aqui so we went and knocked on the door and a cute old lady came out. when she went in to grab the key to the apartment we prayed and prayed and prayed and basically said "HELP" well the lady came outside and started slowly walking in the wrong direction of the apartment. hermana infante and i looked at each other and we were both trying our hardest not to laugh because we thought she didnt know where she was going... well it turns out she did know where she was going and i am so grateful she did because the apartment was PERFECT... clean. spacious. oh and BEAUTIFUL. heavenly father answers prayers. this week has been so great. 

our investigators our so great! our newest investigator is azael and his wife lady. we found azael in our old area book. he had taken a few lessons from the missionaries and had followed through with all of his commitments but stopped because his wife was very against it. we decided to visit their house the other night and met their niece that lives with them. she is so sweet! as we were leaving lady was just getting home. we were kind of nervous but introduced ourselves and talked with her and met her cute two month old baby. we talked with her more and then gave her a small message about the plan of salvation. surprisingly, she really liked it! she invited us to come back over next week. we teach her tomorrow! i am so excited. i will update you all on their progress next week. 

oh mi familia! i love you and miss you all so much. the other night hermana infante showed me a picture of the salt lake temple decorated for christmas and she asked me what it was like. i couldnt even explan how beautful the temple is during christmas time. i am so lucky to live in salt lake, but right now i am so lucky to live in merida! i love it so much. 

my christmas is on the 23rd! all of the missionaries in the merida mission are having a christmas dinner, devotional and a gift exchange. i am so excited! oh and i bought my christmas present so thank you all very very much for the christmas money! i bought beautiful hand stitched cases for my book of mormon and bible! i will show you all on skype. holy cow! we get to skype so soon! i am so excited. i love you all so much.

have a great week!

hermana williams

oh my gosh. i almost forgot! today is my two month mark. time flies when you're having fun!

oh and also... the other day that gangman style song was playing in santiago park and i didnt even realize it was a popular song until the end hahaha, i thought it was just some random mexican song lol. 

mi familia!

its been another great week in mexico. i am so lucky to live here! i love the people here. especially the members of the ward! 

on monday night after our district meeting we were walking home hna infante had the impression that we needed to stop by and visit the valencia familiy. lin valencia is a single mother with six kids. she has very little and has been through many trials. when she opened the door her face lit up! she let us in and gave us fresh fruit and bread. she said she had been praying for us to come visit her the entire day but that she hadnt wanted to call and bother us. we sang a few navidad songs with her family prayed and shared a scripture and to cheer her up and towards the end of our visit she called us her angels! i am so grateful for the peace and comfort this gospel brings. i am also so grateful for the spirit of chirstmas cheer! it is everywhere! it is in our lessons when we sing hymns. in the lights covering centro. in the nativity scene outside of the merida temple! i really am so lucky to be spending the christmas season in mexico. 

last night was the church christmas devotional! did you all watch it? i loved seeing the conference center. it is so beautiful! i was in awe. i am so lucky to live 20 mintues from the conference center and from the salt lake temple. 

the work here is also so great! there is a lot of it too. we have two investigators, josephina and silvia that are good friends who take zumba classes together with hermana garcia who reffered them to us. they are both very catholic but have very open hearts. they are both reading from the book of mormon and josphina´s entire family is reading from the book of mormon. it os so amazing to see both of them and jospehina`s family grow and become so happy and close to god. 

i love the work here! i wish i could write more, i had to write my president a long email and i still need to send picturtes but i love you all so much. i hope you are all having great weeks. oh and we get to skype for 40 minutes on christmas!

i love you.

hermana williams

oh also funny story for the week. we got on the bus the other day and i handed the man my money and i turned around to grab the pole to make my way over to my seat and the bus driver stopped suddenly to pick someone else up and i fell right to the floor. im not kidding. the whole bus was laughing and i was laughing so hard that i couldnt breathe. i guess the only thing worse than that is tripping over a basketball -___-

1st week in Mexico

hola familia!

im in mexico. can you believe it?

it hasnt even been a week but i feel like ive lived here for years hahaha.

my companion. she is an angel! she is so sweet. so kind. so patient. she only knows about 30 words in english so it is hard at times but its forces me to learn. people talk so fast here! i thought i was pretty okay at spanish in el CCM but the first day here i could hardly understand a word. i can understand much much better now. it is still hard to speak but the more i speak the easier it gets. i am also studying the BOM in spanish! it is so helpful. and so amazing!

the work here is so great. we are opening an área so we are so so so so busy. the first night together we met with the first counselor of the barrio and him and his wife took us around to 7 or 8 houses or members and they all gave us so many referrals. it is so great! by the end of the day my feet feel like ive been at disneyland hahahaha.

one day while we were on our way to contact a reference we stopped to buy bread.. holy cow the bread is delicious.. and we met ana. ana is 19! we introduced ourselves and she invited us to come over the next day. when we went to her house we sang a hymn together, prayed and then hermana infante explained the book of mormon. her eyes lit up when while hermana infante was talking. it was amazing! then hermana infante nudged me and i bore my testimony of the BOM and said that even though i dont know the language very well and that it is hard to be here that the góspel brings me so much happiness and it is worth the hard times to share that happiness with others. the spirit was so strong! afterwards hna infante invited her to be baptized on the 4th of january and she accepted! we are visiting her again tomorrow and she is coming to church with us this sunday! holw cow. miracles.

i love it here! i live a mile from the city. its so busy and so loud all the time! the houses are right next to each other and they are all so colorful! when we ask for someones address we always ask for the color of their house hahaha. my house is green! the weather is so nice right now. it feels like Newport beach in the mornings.. but everyone here says its muy frieo......... so i am going to die come May. seriously! people are cold here. they wear sweaters and jeans.

oh i need to tell you more about the burgos family! hermano burgos is the counselor of the ward. they are seriously the best. they are 26 and 24 and remind me exactly of a mexican Emily and Travis hahaha. hma burgos has had us over for lunch every single day! her food is so so so so so so good. i ate the yummiest meal of toastadas and homemade horchata on thanksgiving so dont feel bad for me. luckily we dont have time to eat dinner or i would come home muy gorda! chiste. we walk so much i dont know it thats possible! 

oh the temple. ill send pictures! its so beautiful and clean. the chapel is right next to the temple! the chapel is so beautiful too. and the chapel is ALWAYS busy. seriously! if we ever stop in really quickly there is always something going on. the people are so amazing.

i love it here. it is really hard but really rewarding. everything is so different from home. i really love it so much though! this is the greatest experience in the world.

oh! also... everyday is a big temptation. hahahaha there are coke stands on practically every corner and were not allowed to drink coke. ever -___- its so hard. luckily i have horchate to tide my cravings over!

merida really is so pretty. there are chirstmas decorations and lights everywhere! it makes me so happy! everything is great. i wrote a letter for you all this morning! i love you.

hermana Williama

ps i did my laundry by hand this morning. i am an entirely new person.

pps jake! the sandals you bought me save my life. the shower is so scary hahahahaha and my feet kill by the end of the day. youre the best!

ppps send letters!! from everyone please!

I LOVE YOU ALL