"Hermana Eyring le extrañamos en la actividad! Pues... por su pelo."

I feel like all my weeks jumble into one and thank goodness I write random things down throughout the week that I want to say because if not I would be so lost haha. This week was good and pretty eventful!

* On Tuesday-Wednesday we had intercambios and I left and went to the area of one of my sister training leaders and it was super interesting. We taught a family that believes in God and everything but they also pray to the Santa Muerte and have images and little figures of her in their house. They believe that God does miracles and the Santa Muerte does "favors" hmmm haha. It was a super powerful lesson and the first lesson I’ve ever had like that!

* On Wednesday we found out that in our area, on the same street as 2 of our investigators, a man was killed and chopped up into pieces in his house by his "esposo" so yeah now we’re super sketched out and are being very careful at night with where we walk.

* This week we had to teach a lesson outside sitting on the "sidewalk" because the girl’s parents didn’t want anything to do with us. (She’s 16 and awesome and we see a lot of potential in her!) Also we had to teach in the dark because one of our investigators, Marta texted us asking her to come to her house and her power was cut so we used the flashlight on our phone.

* Yesterday we were at La Comida and all of a sudden everyone ran to look outside so we all went and looked and the police had just pulled over and arrested 2 men who were driving a camion (mini autobus) super drunk. They also had girls in there with them and a bunch of beer. I saw them putting one of the men in the back of their police trucks and he was out of his mind drunk. Thank goodness they got them before we left in the combi!

* We walked in last night and we didn’t have light because there’s a little fair going on in our area and they used all the light source or whatever! We still had to finish our studies and make decorations for an activity we have this week so that was interesting to do in the dark hahah. Thankfully it came on after about an hour and a half.

* In our emails from President this week he told us that we’re going to be closing a bunch of areas in the mission this transfer and we’re super nervous that we’re going to have to close our area :( We’ll know on Wednesday! (Also on Wednesday we’ll know if I’m going to be a trainer or not… ahh.)

* So the rumour that I talked about in my last email... IS TRUE! (: Background information: About 6 months ago they introduced a rule in our mission that we can’t have zone activities anymore and we can’t have more than 4 missionaries together in public (and of course Elders and Sisters can’t be in pairs so we couldn’t do anything with the Elders on P-day). Just the other day they changed the rule and we can now have zone activities again!! Everyone is so excited because seriously the whole mission I guess was depressed after they announced the rule 6 months ago. There are still rules with it though. The activities have to be in the church and we still can’t have more than 4 missionaries together in public, but that’s okay we’re still super excited!

* Since the rule changed, today we had a zone activity in the "backyard" of the church. It was super last minute so we only had less than half of our zone there (me and Hermana Lopez and 8 Elders) but it was fun!! We played soccer with us missionaries and some boys from our stake. Also... I got hit in the face and in the head and in the stomach super hard with the ball, so yeah I still have a bit of a headache and they wouldn’t let me take a nap because they are afraid I have a concussion or something. (I don’t think so). It was hilarious because the Elders felt so bad about it but it really wasn’t that big of a deal to me. We played Americans against Latinos and it was awesome. We’re excited for all the Mondays to come!

* Something that I’ve really learned this week. Humility is essential to being a missionary and just life in general. In order to change and be better you need to have humility. In order to get along with people you need humility. In order to use the Atonement, you HAVE to have humility. I see the difference so much between missionaries that are humble and ones that aren’t. It’s something that is hard but I think we all need to work on.

* Also, this morning for personal study I was reading in Alma 5 and seriously everyone should read it. It’s very straightforward and basically a self-assessment. 

Well that’s about it for this week. We find out on Wednesday if we are closing our area and if one of us is going to train. We also find out on Saturday who has transfers! So we’re gonna be super nervous all this week and I’ll have a lot to tell you next week.

Hope you all are well!

Les quiero mucho,

Hermana Eyring

Mi mejor amiga Sami. (After this picture she was doing my 

hair and tryin to brush it with a dirty sponge hahaha.)

I miss my MTC district so much!

But most of all I miss Hermana Sellers!

Throwback to my first zone in the MTC!

"Elderes, vamos a invitarles a un kiss" "Un qué!?"

Well here we are again... Email time! I seriously feel like I just emailed yesterday... as usual. This week was pretty good!

* Something I realized about the difference between food in the US and here: They don’t use sauces at all here. They use straight up salsa for EVERYTHING. Like literally the word sauce translates to "salsa" here because their sauce is salsa... And it’s always super spicy. The other day I ate a jabañero chili pepper and another day this week I ate this thing that was the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten. My eyes were watering and nose was running and I was coughing but I ate all of it because the family doesn’t have much to share so I would have felt bad. I was so proud of myself. Also, they have a food here called Chincharon. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it but it is literally pig skin. It’s either cooked so it is super soft and mushy or it’s fried so it’s like the texture of Cheetos. It’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. For La Comida the other day we had straight up chincharon and rice. I wanted to die. I was literally gagging as I was trying to eat it. And I somehow finished all of it. I think I’m pretty much invincible at this point.

* You all know how much I love the sky and Thursday night was the prettiest sky I think I’ve ever seen in my life. The sunset was amazing and I wish I could have taken a picture but my camera sucks at capturing that stuff. Then the moon was HUGE and orange and I don’t know if you saw it in the US but yeah I was basically walking backwards cause I couldn’t stop staring at it, it was so pretty! Then we saw 2 huge tarantulas in the road so that was pretty freaky...(I don`t know why I added that part but yeah apparently there are tarantulas here.)

* We’ve been hearing rumors from credible sources of 2 super cool things that might be happening in our mission so in the next few weeks I might be super happy about some things(:(:(:(:

* On Saturday we almost got attacked by a huge dog and I think I almost had a heart attack. On Friday we looked for the house of a reference we got from another missionary and when we found it there was a huge scary dog chained up by the front door that was barking and snarling at us.  We were too scared to knock so we threw rocks at their window and nobody was home. So we went back on Saturday and saw that the dog was laying down so we thought it was sleeping and chained up. As we got closer it saw us and stood up and started barking super scarily at us and running towards us and we realized the chain had broken or something. I started bookin it because I seriously thought I was going to die but Hermana Lopez said not to run so we inched away quietly then it stopped running and sat and watched us as we turned the corner.  We got away from there so fast ahh my "fight or flight" instinct was crazy. Haha. I don’t think we’ll be looking for that house again any time soon...

* Today when we were grocery shopping they were blasting a bunch of Coldplay songs like Yellow, Clocks, etc. the whole time and I got all trunky because they were all cute songs and obviously the love life in the mission is pretty rough haha. They also played a bunch of other music from the US that I love so that was definitely a treat.

* This week I learned that you should never give up on investigators. One of our investigators, Sandra, has a baptismal date for November 21st (this baptism is my birthday celebration for you, Dad (; ) and she is seriously golden. She is progressing so much and is awesome. About a little over a month ago we were about to leave her because she had been being taught by missionaries for 8 months and still wasn’t progressing. I had only met her like twice. We went to have the appointment with her to tell her we were going to leave her and something  had changed. She told us she really wanted to progress and we set a baptismal date with her. Since then she has been trying so hard and has been going to church and keeping all her commitments and progressing so much and we are so proud of her and so happy. She told us that she forgets about her problems and worries about life when we teach her and it made me realize that this really is a gospel and message of peace and I’m so happy to be able to share it with people. But yeah, if you are a missionary or future missionary and reading this: Never give up on your investigators, at least not without a fight! I’m so glad we didn’t end up leaving her because she is seriously a golden investigator and I’m so excited for her baptism next Friday. (:

I love being a missionary and teaching people about the truth and light of the gospel. It makes me so happy to see the change and progression in the lives of our investigators and I know that I’m doing the best thing I could possibly be doing right now. I love you all so much and pray for your well-being every day! I hope you enjoy my emails, I’ll try to spice them up somehow if they’re boring (:

Have a fantastic week everyone!

Con muchísimo amor,

Hermana Eyring

Hermana Lopez and I with our super guapa investigator Marta at church yesterday!

Cheesy but sending kisses your way(:

Super cute tan lines on my super cute feet... Results of missionary life

"Tengo un gran idea!!... Sé que hemos hablado de esta para una hora pero sólo quiero que sepan que fue mi idea también"

How is it already November? Well this week was kind of a blur… as usual. Right now we’re in an internet cafe with tons of people and loud music and I can barely focus so sorry if this is all over the place!

* So we’re 90% sure all the chinches are gone... well at least we hope. But I’m still paranoid and check my bed every morning and night because I am not about to let those things back into my life!

* On Thursday we had our interviews with President Christensen (our mission president) and his wife and they were super good! We all think he’s going be an Apostle later in life because seriously everything he says is so inspired. In my interview he told me my Spanish is really good and that I’m a great missionary and off to a really good start. So I guess that’s good right? He also told Hermana Lopez that he’s happy to have 2 such powerful missionaries together (: While we were waiting for our interviews and after our interviews we got to talk with a lot of the Elders from our zone that we never get to see so that was really nice! Also at interviews we got juice and muffins and such. (:

* They celebrate Halloween here too and a bunch of kids dress up and go around asking for candy but it’s much different than the US and it’s kind of sad because nobody ever gives them anything :(

* Here they also celebrate Día de Los Muertos. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on but basically people go visit the graves of their loved ones during the day and at night they have paths of these orange flower petals leading to their houses for the spirits to enter and make their food offerings taste better or something. It’s kind of weird. It’s on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday we were trying to proselyte but there was literally NOBODY in the streets. Even the streets in our area that are usually filled with people. And nobody was home to visit so yeah it was pretty boring.

* Something they have here that I hate: nopales. It’s cactus. Literally. Cactus that’s cooked all mushy and ew I hate it. The other day for La Cominda we literally had nopale with chicken. A tiny piece of chicken smothered in nopales. Hermana Lopez and I almost threw up.

* Me and all the missionaries in our ward are planning a huge "Viaje a Hawaii" activity for the end of this month so in a couple weeks I should have tons of photos. It’s going to be awesome but a lot of work!

-* On Saturday we had La Comida at this family’s house and it was such a humbling experience for me. They live in the middle of nowhere in a shack that’s barely bigger than the size of my room at home. They have 3 little beds and their "kitchen" all in one room and I didn’t see a bathroom so I’m pretty sure it’s just outside, along with their shower. They even had dirt floors. But they were still so happy and so willing to share with us and never complain about anything. It made me really appreciate what I have at home and even in our little mission apartment.

The time has been flying by super fast! I’m almost done with my training and I have like 14.5 months until I see all your wonderful faces(:

I hope you all are doing super good. I pray for you all and think about you all the time! Have a great week. (:

Hasta la próxima semana,

Hermana Eyring

I hate nopales!

Thanks for the blanket-ponchos grandma(:

Our favorite niños on Halloween

"Hermanas encontramos un perro y queríamos darlo comida. Está en nuestra casa y se llama Daisy" - the Elders

Wow this week was a little bit of a blur. There were lots of upsides and lots of downsides. I’m too lazy to separate the good and the bad so I’ll just mix it all together as usual… ha ha.

* On Monday we had extreme Noche De Hogar (family home evening) at the house of a family of investigators and there were seriously over 20 people in their tiny house. It was super fun and a great way for our investigators to get to know some of the other families in the ward. Every family brought food so we had a TON.

* Everyone keeps telling me I’m going to be a trainer right after I finish MY training in like 4 weeks and I’m super scared.

* Thursday all the Americans had to go to the mission offices for our visas and it was super fun because they took all of us and left our companions and we went to this visa office and we were just talking in English and catching up the whole time. I always like going to the offices because we see so many people and it’s always a party.

* We had Victoria’s baptism on Friday and it was good! Not a ton of people showed up but there were enough and it was a little more personal. The water was super warm which was good because she’s afraid of cold water. We sang a musical number as always and she said she felt really good after! Now we just have to get her parents married and her mom to accept her baptismal date. She says she wants to be baptized but "in God`s time" which is a little frustrating because God’s not going to do it for her!

* I started reading “True To The Faith” in my personal study time and it’s such a good doctrine/principle resource book! Everything in it is so clear and really helps with understanding everything.

* On Saturday Hermana Lopez and I were both having a really hard and frustrating day so we watched the video “Missionary Work And The Atonement” on YouTube and we both bawled. I love that video so much and we really needed it.

* Well here it goes: the highlight of our week....

We have bedbugs. Here they’re called Chinches. Ugh! On Friday we were doing companionship study and I found all these bites on my legs so we looked in my bed and yep, there they were. There’s this pillow that was already here when I got to the mission that I didn`t use so it was always behind my head like against the wall when I slept and on it there were like 20 chinches and I wanted to cry. We killed all the ones we saw and threw away the pillow but we had to leave to go work for the day so we couldn’t really do anything about it. When we came back that night we only found like 1 in Hermana Lopez’s bed so we just slept in our beds in fear and the next morning I woke up with more bites on my legs :( We told some of the members about it and they all told us different things we needed to do to get rid of them so we called our Mission President’s wife (Sister Christensen) to ask her what we should do but she didn’t answer. We got permission from our zone leaders to sleep in the house of the other Hermanas in the zone next to us so we slept there Saturday night. (Their house is SO much nicer than ours and I’m super jealous). Last night we didn’t want to have to go all the way to the Hermanas’ house again to sleep because it’s a really long walk and a hassle at night and early in the morning. One of the members gave us a bunch of blankets to use to sleep on the floor in our house instead of our beds. Finally Sister Christensen called us back and told us what we should do to get rid of the chinches and gave us permission to sleep at our Bishop’s house and we almost cried with happiness. Last night we slept there, tonight we’re sleeping there and tomorrow night as well. Today we had to completely clean our house and fumigate it with this super strong bug spray stuff. We used a whole huge can and a half and it was the worst thing ever. I’m pretty sure I breathed in like a pound of that stuff and almost coughed up a lung. We were both coughing horribly and almost threw up. For a straight hour afterwards our throats were hurting so bad and we were still coughing. Now it feels a lot better but I still have a headache. We have to do the same thing again tomorrow and then hopefully the problem will be solved.

So yep that’s my week! I hope you’re all enjoying the comforts of America because you have it good up there. 

Despite everything I’m still loving being a missionary and my Spanish gets better every day and I like 98% of the food now. (:

Cuídense,

Hermana Eyring

Our District for this transfer.

At Victoria's baptism! Her parents Eduardo and Marta are next to me, her grandma Patricia (who we baptized 2 weeks ago) is next to Hermana Lopez. Marlin and Faustino are the 2 kids on the right (Victoria's siblings) and they are the cutest things ever! 

This morning before we almost died fumigating our house.