"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

Hola hola hola!

Okay,  to start off this email all inspirational-like...

I always heard/saw the quote in my subject line before and I always wondered... "well what do I stand for?" and I never really knew. But I think I'm starting to figure it out being here in the mission. Just a little something to think about this week: What do you stand for?

Okay anwaysss... what happened this week:

* Today is my 8 month mark wooh! 10 more to go. (:

* On Tuesday we had our 3 month zone conference in our 4-zone area. We were seriously there all day and it was awesome! We learned so much and I loved it. Then we had lunch after and got to talk with everyone and take pictures which is always great.

* This week we started doing the Insanity video workouts every day and oh my gosh... I think it's the closest I've felt to death, haha. And I'm pretty sure I pulled every muscle in my leg because I was just limping around everywhere this week. But hey I'm determined to get off mission weight I've gained.

* One night this week we had to buy something in this mini grocery store before we went home and as we were buying, one of the cashier ladies asked my companion, "does she speak english?" I was like yeah. Then she started asking me all about where I'm from and questions about English and pretty sure EVERYONE in the store - cashiers, customers, everyone - were all gathered around asking me questions and telling me to teach them english and it was the strangest moment of my life. But I kinda felt like a celebrity or something so that was cool. (:

* There are a lot of things that happen here that make it really obvious that people don't like "los Mormones." For example on Sunday we walked out of the church and someone had poured a bucket of kitty litter and dog poop all over the exit so that was great... Then as we were walking back from church this guy intentionally tried to hit me with his motorcycle and we had to jump on the sidewalk. Woooh I love people who hate us haha.

* Something I love about being a missionary is that people we just barely meet trust in us so easily. They tell us things nobody else knows and they trust us with all their problems and secrets and it's kinda cool. 

* Luis has his baptism on Friday and we're so excited! All of the 3 missionary companionships in our ward have baptisms that day so it's gonna be a big awesome baptismal service. (:

Scriptures I like from this week:

3 Nephi 9:14 (Book of Mormon)  "Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me."

Romans 5:1-8: 

1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I love you all a ton! Have a great week.

Hermana Eyring

Zone Conference!

Zones Amalucan Oeste and Amalucan Este(:

Found Elder "Carrascito" haha. Feat. Elder Lopez and Elder Longenecker

Ate "gringas" for the first time the other night. 

They were all joking and saying I was eating myself haha.

"Padre, bendice a esos niños que nada más vienen a hacer desastres en la capilla"- Hermano Zeniff

Hi friends...

This was a good week as usual, haha. Just want to start off with a scripture that I love that talks about what being a missionary really is:

3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

So yeah this week it snowed like 30 minutes away from our area and Hermana Perez was so sad because we couldn't go play in it and she has never touched snow in her life. Also it snowed in Tlaxcala so we were upset that we weren't in our old areas for it. 

It also was super gloomy and rainy this week which actually made me really homesick cause it was just like Washington. But then I got over being homesick and was just annoyed with the rain, haha.

I finally learned how to eat a corn tortilla the right way. Apparently I've been doing it wrong my whole mission. There's two sides to a tortilla. One is the "face" and one is the "back" and you have to put your food on the face side otherwise you're just doing it wrong. So one day this week in La Comida they were like "Hermana Eyring... why are you eating your tortilla like that...?" and taught me how, haha... but hey now I know.

So, I'm pretty much a pro at washing clothes by hand now... So that'll come in handy if I ever marry someone from Mexico and move here. (;

I don't know if I ever mentioned this in my other emails but because our mission isn't as safe as they thought, they're going to be lowering the amount of sister missionaries here.nSo this transfer only 2 sisters are coming and after that NONE are coming until December. What?! And so many Hermanas are leaving soon so there's gonna be none of us :( (They are lowering the amount of sister missionaries there from 98 to 50.)

Let me tell you about our two golden investigators. So I've already talked about Luis. He is AWESOME and his baptismal date is March 28th. He already completely quit his addiction! And he told us the other day that he has never been so sure about being baptized in a church as he is now and that he knows this is the right path. Our other golden investigator is Jose. He is new from this week. His son died about 5 years ago and his wife left him the same year. He's super sad and whenever he talks about his son he cries. He went to church yesterday and while we were in Relief Society (the class for women in the last hour of church) he was in the Priesthood class (the class for men the last hour of church). We got out late from Relief Society, so while they were waiting some of the members showed Jose the baptismal font and were talking to him, and then Luis even bore his testimony to him!! When we got there we talked to him about baptism and he said he wanted to be baptized so we set a baptismal date for April 17th!! We have only taught him twice and he has only been to church once and he said he already knows that this is the true church and the true path that leads us to God. Then after church we walked Jose out of church and came back in and Luis was talking to all the members and helping this old lady with her wheelchair and helping put people's things in their cars and aww, we felt like proud parents or something watching him haha. Wow we feel so blessed and we are so happy with how things are going. (:

It's amazing to see how the gospel changes people. That is my favorite thing about being on a mission. Getting to see people change their lives. Seeing where people were before and where they are now. The disposition that people have to change once they accept the gospel into their lives is amazing. God really is a God of hope and of miracles and I am so so so thankful to have the truth in my life. I feel like there are so many people who don't even know the purpose of their life and why they are even here on earth. And I feel so lucky to have that knowledge in my life and to share it with other people.

I love and miss you all more than you know and thank you to everyone for being a part of my life. (:

Sierra(:

Piece of advice from a chocolate bar... haha. We buy these 

Carlos V chocolate bars all the time and they always have 

different jokes, advice, weird things, etc. and I love it.

 What pretty much every day this week looked like... 
(View from our front balcony.)

The snow in the mountains! The other days of the week there was 

more snow but you couldn't see it well in pictures.

"Ustedes viven juntos?" "Sí!" "Uhhh tú no vives con nosotros..."

Hoooooola muchachos. This week felt like it went by so slowly yet so fast at the same time... but it was a good week! Today we had nothing to do so we got together as most of our district and made french toast and it was so good... wow I miss American breakfast food.

What happened this week...

* It was Hermana Pérez's birthday on Tuesday so some members invited us over for "family home evening" and when we got there they surprised my comp with cake and pizza. We were pretty happy haha.

* We got sick this week and are so mad. It's just a cold but it is bothering us so much ahhh like seriously one day we were perfectly fine and the next morning we woke up dying coughing...

* So apparently last Monday I hurt my wrist doing who knows what because all this week it had been hurting and wrapped up in a bandage. Then this one member here who is a nurse and bone doctor had me show it to her and she said I had a bone out of place... Cool right... So yeah she did some weird Mexican massage thing and got everything back in place haha so all is well now.

* I realized after writing my email last week that I had never actually said who Luis and Alondra were... Luis is the "bread guy" and Alondra is the girl that we contacted on the street that I talked a little about 2 weeks ago. Sorry for not explaining!

* So we were teaching Luis the other day and found out he has an addiction... So we made a plan to help him quit it and wow he's already progressing so much! He really wants to change his life completely and it's awesome and we're so excited for his baptism in a few weeks!

* On Saturday night we had an activity where we showed a movie and we pretty much contacted like the whole city inviting them but very few people that weren't members showed up so that was disappointing... But it was still fun and we did get a few new people who are interested in the church!

* So I have heard a lot of songs here in Mexico, a lot of them being love songs. I realized that love songs in Spanish are usually so much cuter than the ones in English and I feel like when I get home, for a while, I'll be listening to pure songs in Spanish hahaha.

Well yep that's pretty much what happened this week! We're already in the 4th week of the transfer and we don't want it to end!!

Hope you all are well and don't forget how much I love and miss you! (:

LQM,

Hermana Eyring

Making french toast for the Elders!

My wall in front of my desk so far! Send me more pictures!

Our District Leader carrying our tiny Ward Mission Leader... hahaha.

"Elder como se llama el villano en Phineas y Ferb? Dr.Doofenshmirtz? "Qué? Joseph Smith?"

Well this has been a really good week! We're feeling like March is gonna be a great month.

Things that happened:

* Today we had a district activity and our zone leaders came and it was so much fun. We had a Nerf gun war in the whole chapel (which is 2 stories high) and then played an intense game of basketball. Then we ate pizza and cake to celebrate the birthdays of my companion Hermana Pérez and of one of our zone leaders, Elder Lopez.

* So remember the new investigator we had, Luis? (The bread guy from a week of 2 ago.) He's gonna get baptized!!!! We set his baptismal date for March 28th and we're super excited about it and so is he. Yesterday he brought his 9 year old niece to church and she loved it and wants us to teach her too so we're hoping things will go well with her also. Remember Alondra that I talked about (I think) last week? She said she wants to be baptized too! We still haven't set a baptismal date because she hasn't been able to come to church and her mom is a little strict but we're hoping this week we'll be able to set one!

* Something I'm pretty sure I forgot to say before... But remember my investigator Marta, from my first area (Loma Florida), that always said she wanted to be baptized but "in God's time"? She got baptized!! Like 2 and a half weeks after I left the area. She emailed me and told me thank you for being her inspiration and I'm so happy for her and love her so much!

Scriptures I like from this week in my studies:

- Matthew 15:11 "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."

-Matthew 16:24"...whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

Well that's it for this week. I love and miss you all tons and hope this month treats you well!

Love,

Hermana Eyring

The only pictures we took this week were from today, sorry!

After our Nerf gun war and cake eating.

What happened to my finger/nail after playing basketball today...