Week 25

HOLA!!!

So, this week was pretty darn good.  To be honest, this week went very fast. We spent a lot of the week finding new people to teach, and the people that we found are just so great.  The people here are sooooo nice, and friendly. 

Not in order... but things that happened this week-

1-Divisiones.  On wednesday we have divisions with the STL's and I went to Tarimbaro with Hermana Christen!  Hermana Moncada had the opportunity to visit Aeropuerto again (haha my old companion).  It was just great there.  And kind of funny, because in the morning we had a few lessons, then we ate, and then all of the plans we had after we ate (so around 3)  no one was in their houses.  But, something that I really liked, was that even though all of our plans fell through.. we walked and walked, and tried to find people who were not originally in our plans, but we worked hard. 

This week was especially good because an investigator that I have been working with my entire time here finally accepted a baptismal date!!!! It's pretty much a miracle, so i am very happy.

While we were in divisiones my companion had a new lesson with Hermana M.  We originally contacted her this past week and they visited her on wednesday with her friend Hermana R..   We then visited her on friday, and this time her friend Hermana R.  was there.  So we taught them more about the Restoration, but treated it more as a first lesson.  These two ladies are sooo nice!  While we were having the lesson Hermana M.  invited us to eat with her when we don't have anyone to eat with.  Which was kind of funny, because Saturday we technically didn't have plans to eat with any of the members (don't worry, it was just that the member lives really far away, so we couldn't really go eat where she lives).  So my companion said 'oh Hermana, you answered my prayers!'  So we had lunch (or the main meal here) with them on Saturday, and we had corondas (i think that's how it's spelled)  which are the favorite of my comp.  We had another great lesson with them, and we taught completely the Restoration.  But something that I loved, was that the day before we had invited them to pray to know if the message we taught was true and if the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  Hermana R.  told us that she did pray, and that she felt such a good feeling, a feeling very strong of peace, and just overall felt very good.  She has been struggling with a few hard things in her life, so Hermana M.  told us that after R.  had prayed, she was kind of a new person, much more at peace.  Ahhhhhhh, how great!! :)

We also had our Zone Conference with our Mission President, that was as well very good.
I don't recall mentioning this before... but something that I have done a lot here now is sing.  I sung with our zone leader at the last Zone meeting, and at this conference, I sung once again with Hermana Casanovas!!!  Oh man, talk about nerves.  I also ate something hot before we sang, so it wasn't very good... but it is something that my leaders keep asking me to do.. I later sang solo at the baptism of the Hermanas Capacitadoras (STL's), because before their baptism was the baptism of a man in my ward of the Elders. 

And then, General Woman's Conference!!! How great was that??  Kind of weird that just 6 months ago I was there.. and now I'm here in Mexico, listening to the conference in Spanish.  But very cool.

Then, today for P-day we went to the central of Morelia!!! and it was soo great, I love Morelia.  Because there are a lot of holidays in Mexico right now (2 weeks ago on the 15 or 16 was Indepence day for Mexico, and today or tomorrow is the day of Morelia.. or something like that)  So there was a giant flea market.. oh man (my family knows how much I like these).  :)  And I tried this super delicious ice cream that had little balls of strawberry (i think..)  but was suuper good.

So... that was my week!  Oh, also on a more spiritual note, yesterday we had another new lesson with a mom and her 2 daughters (10 and 9 years old)  and I could feel the spirit so strong.  At first when I invited them to be baptized I wasn't sure they were going to accept, because the 2 daughters go to a Catholic school, but they accepted!!!  I'm not exactly sure the words I said, but I could definitely tell that the words weren't mine, that the spirit was there to guide me, to know what to say so that they could accept to be baptized.

Love you all!!! :)

Hermana Morelia Zimmerman

P.S. almost forgot!!! this week i was reading in Moroni 8 and wanted to share this last thought.

 

 2 My beloved son, Moroni, I rejoice exceedingly that your Lord Jesus Christ hath been mindful of you, and hath called you to his ministry, and to his holy work.

 3 I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

it was pretty cool :) love you tons!

 

Look what I found!! A car with a license from Utah :)

 

 Missionaries in Aeropuerto!  haha we ate with our mission leader after church, and they had these pretty cool glasses.. :)

 my comp and I in Morelia :)

 CHURROS!!! here they fill the churros with chocolate, or this caramel like stuff :)

 shout-out to my girls.. haha this was in an antiques shop in el Central :)

Morelia :)

 

Semana... yeah. :)‏ Week 24

Hola everyone!!! One more week gone my in good 'ole Aeropuerto.  This week wasn't too busy, and there are always things that I can improve on.  

This past week we had a lesson with a less-active family.  We are reading with them the Book of Mormon, in chapter 3, and a few verses stuck out to me.

 

(haha, yeah i know the first 2 verses aren't quite the 'spirit' but helps with the message about what I learned)

13 And behold, it came to pass that Laban was angry, and thrust him out from his presence; and he would not that he should have the records. Wherefore, he said unto him: Behold thou art a robber, and I will slay thee.

 14 But Laman fled out of his presence, and told the things which Laban had done, unto us. And we began to be exceedingly sorrowful, and my brethren were about to return unto my father in the wilderness.

 15 But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth, and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.

 16 Wherefore, let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; therefore let us go down to the land of our father’sinheritance, for behold he left gold and silver, and all manner of riches. And all this he hath done because of the commandments of the Lord.

This might not make complete sense, but as I was reading this passage, I thought about the mission, how I am here.  In this part of the story, (we all know), Nephi and his brothers were sent to retrieve the plates from Laban.  Laman went first, but didn't have success, and was already ready to return to his father.  BUT- Nephi says in verse 15- 'we will not go down unto our father...until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.'   What I felt, was that no matter what happens, and whatever missionary, we can have the courage to keep all the commandments and be faithful to our Father in Heaven.  When we as missionaries received our mission calls, it states for '18 months' or '24 months'  not 4 months.. 1 week... the complete time, UNTIL WE HAVE FULLFILLED WHAT OUR FATHER HATH COMMANDED US.  Yeah.. I liked that a lot. :)

I feel that I shouldn't share any of my lessons this week.. but let it be said, that the range was from awkward to tears... :)  But don't worry, I'll share when I return ;)  And let it be said that teaching the 10 Commandments to Catholics is a lot harder said than done.

Also, we had a short meeting with an 'investigator' (isn't married)  and she said 'Oh hermana Zimmerman!  When you first arrived here you were a lot skinneer! But don't worry, you look a lot better now.'  haha oh crap.... I blame it on pan de dulce and tortillas.  

Love you all!  

Hermana Morelia Zimmerman

(The Bishop gave me a new nick-name) :)

 

 

 My new companion Hermana Contreras!! :)

This pic was taken in the area of the Elders (it was my area.. haha)  and behind me is basically my area!  The hills are super fun to climb, #JustSayin

CAMBIOS!!! (translated means changes) - Oh wait..not really ;)‏

Here we go!!!  Well, today we had transfers.  For me kind of 1-2 of a change.  My companion left me here in Aeropuerto 2 to be a Sister Training Leader in my same District.  So I will still see her often, but she will now me my STL :) Or here they are called Capacitadoras.  :)  So as of right now every single one of my companions are now STL's.  haha, and this will be my 4th transfer here in my area.  

My new companion is from Puebla, Hermana Contreras  and has 2 more transfers left in the mission.  So far we have gotten along very well (well..the past 2 hours :))  and I am very excited to be working with her!  On our way to write our families, we were talking about a few of our investigators, and she was already coming up with ideas of how to get the members more involved.. and will be a great help here. :)

This past week in our district meeting we learned a lot of things that I really liked.  I would like to share one-ish points about what kind of missionary are we, or.. what is our purpose here as missionaries.  My DL talked about how sometimes we are an 'echo' of our companions.  We see another missionary teach in a certain way and we copy them.  Or with our companions we let them teach all of the lessons, and we are kind of their shadow.  Well, THIS IS NOT OUR PURPOSE AS MISSIONARY.  We are not here so that our companions aren't alone.  So that it is a missionary and a tag-along, so as not to break mission rules.  We are here to be missionaries, not to just be someone's companion.   My first 2 transfers here in my training I realize that I was more of a shadow.  I followed my trainer, and did as she did.  Taught as she did, and acted as she did.  But my purpose as a missionary isn't to copy other people.  I HAVE A PURPOSE

 

I have a purpose here as a missionary.  Sometimes when we leave the members or investigators also don't remember us... and only remember our companions.''oh, I remember so-and-so... but who was her companion?'  and yeah.  We didn't do anything so that they could really have a change in their lives.  So I hope that I am learning to stand on my own two feet. To teach with my own knowledge so that I can be a good influence on the lives of the people here.  

This past week I was reading in the Ensign of General Conference talks from Elder M. Russell Ballard about 'Follow Up'.  I loved this a lot!  Because it talked about the missionary work.  Also, for me before the mission I felt like I hardly knew anything really about the Gospel.  My question was 'How can I teach people, when I don't know everything.. or don't have a firm knowledge or testimony??'   In this talk, it talks about how we as members can have Preach My Gospel, and learn from it ourselves.  How often as family members we wonder what our sons-daughters are doing in the mission.  Well, PMG has it all.  :)  So my invitation to all of you is to get a Preach My Gospel.  If you can't buy it, it is on LDS.org, and you can download it.  I learn so much from this little book, it is great, and my testimony has really grown from studying.  

This transfer we have had a lot of new investigators, but also a lot of these new people.. well we aren't going to visit again.  Also, we found a few couples that unfortunately aren't married so they can't have baptismal dates.. I think the most frustrating part of this week was that  1)we had a lot of set meetings, that when we went to visit them, they weren't there. and 2)We had finally put a baptismal date on our investigator Hermano V, and he wasn't baptized.  The frustrating part is that it is so hard to get the investigators to go to church on Sunday, and here he is, every sunday, and is talking classes in Institute, but won't accept to be baptized.  Grrr... but I really hope that he will accept eventually the Gospel fully in his life.  

I hope that all is well with friends and family at home, and my wonderful friends that are also serving missions.  Best of luck to all, love you tons!!

Hermana Zimmerman :)

 

 one of me and a  daughter of a member in the chapel

 we were in the house of some investigators, and this was a little girl's room.

 This morning when we had transfers, my companion arrived from Guadalajara, so we had to wait a few hours, and went to the area of the Sister-training leaders for a few hours and ate Tortas!! Basically a sandwich, but mine had hotdog, tomato, and onion...I think :)

Sister Moncada and me in front of our Chapel :)

 

5 Months- Check!‏ Week 22

Querido familia y amigos,

Hola!  So this week our numbers were pretty bad... haha not because we were lazy, but for 2 days my companion got called to go to Guadalajara as a special invitation for a Leadership Meeting, and I was in Prados Verdes for 2 days with other Hermanas.  My time there was great, but their house.. oh man, they don't have hot water, so we showered with freezing cold water!  They don't like to heat up the water.. so I felt like I was back at Oakrest showering with frigid water.  But it was only for 2 days. :)  

News Update- WE HAVE HOT WATER AND A SHOWER HEAD!!!  Woohoo!  Just short of 4 months in Mexico, we fixed our shower, and I had my first normal shower last week.  And it felt soo good. :)  

This Sunday we only had 2 investigators at church.. we were expecting more, but they didn't show up.  BUT, we have a family that we are working with, a single mom and her 3 kids (8 yrs. old and the other 2 younger than 8..)  she couldn't attend church, but we had ward members bring them to church.  So we had those 3 kids and 2 of their friends.  It was pretty funny, we joked that we brought a 'kinder'  or elementary school to church.  :)  They are so great, and were all dressed up with their hair all nice and done pretty.  

This past wednesday we had a plan to visit Hermana M.  A new investigator, but we couldn't visit her because we had a sudden change of plans, and we weren't in our area.  So instead, we visited her on friday but her 'husband' (because they aren't married)  said she wasn't feeling well, so we left.  The next day we stopped by and she was leaving her house but said 'ahh Hermanas, come on in!'  She explained that she had to be somewhere right then, but God came first :)  She then explained that when she heard someone at the door the day before she asked her husband who was there, he said it was us, and she got super mad at him and told him to go out to look for us.  Because it was raining, and she was all 'You didn't let them in?? It's raining!  You need to show some humility and should have let them in'... something along those lines.  She asked us why we weren't there on wednesday, because she had prepared a little breakfast for us with cookies and coffee.. which is probably a good thing we weren't there because we would have had to reject the coffee.. but still, how nice!  :)  She also said she would be at church with her son, but didn't show up... 

Everything else is good in this area! The more I've been studying and teaching the more I can feel the truth of this message I carry.  

Love you all!

Hermana Zimmerman 

 

 My zone (haha we couldn't take a really good picture)

 My comp and I after our zone meeting

We ate with a member this week, and this is what we ate.  I'm not sure what it is called, but the meat was basically a type of sausage and bi-steak I'm pretty sure, and I ate 2 of these. :)  They were SOOOO good!

You can call me a homemaker- yes I did chop this super good looking lettuce.

Casi logro 5 meses... (I've almost completed 5 months!)‏ week 21

At least I hope that is how my 'subject' translates... haha :)

This week was pretty good!  We've been trying to have more lessons with the members, so this week we had 4!! Woohoo!! :)  Haha the 'key indicators' for the mission are a lot more than 4 each week... but we are working on it. 

This week we had a few more new lessons with future investigators, but out of the 7, only one accepted a baptismal date (we invite everyone in the first meeting to be baptized).  Also, something that I've come to a conclusion here is that everyone is Catholic, and if they aren't Catholic, they don't have a religion.  No, not really, but it seems like it a lot.  And what is pretty funny is that in my area is a Catholic school called 'semenario'  and so a lot of times when we talk with the people and say we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ they always say 'oh, from Semenario?' And we say 'no..'  and they say 'ohhhh.... well we are Catholic..' and then yeah.  

For expample, one new lesson that we had this week, I was scared that is was going to go south.  We started talking about religion, and the woman said upfront- 'Listen, I'm Catholic...'  but then started listing off a bunch of things that she didn't believe that the Catholics do.  So all was well, and she asked for a Book of Mormon!  But she is living with another man, so she can't have a baptismal date (she isn't living the Law of Chastity), so we talked to her about it and she said if her boyfriend doesn't want to get married, she'll drop him. :)  She also said she would be at church, but she wasn't there... However, we have a meeting for Wednesday!

The best part of this week probably was that we had 109 at sacrament meeting!! Woohoo!! When I first got here the assistence was about 75.  We have been working hard with a few less-active members, that did show up to church, and also we had 4, FOUR!! investigators at church :)  What was even better is that one of them is Hermano R.  Usually when we went to go teach him he was drunk.. but understood a lot :)  Well, he showed up to church, and we didn't even recognize him!  He called out to us 'Hermanas!'  and then we realized it was him.  Dressed pretty nice, his hair cut (more than before), and was all 'didn't recognize me did you?  I've changed.'  Oh boy it was great to see him there :)  Unfortunately we didn't have a lesson with him last week, and we can't this week because he is going to be in Morelia all week, but he is doing very well.  :)  

With everything else, besides the investigators, I feel that I am changing.  Becoming a different person.  Which is pretty weird, because before the mission I felt that I was a 'good person'.  I'm not saying that I wasn't a good person, but I can already feel a change.  That's what the mission does to us I guess.  But it is a change for the better.  To make better our strengths, and to help us with our weaknesses change, and not do the things that are keeping us from progressing.  At least that is how I feel.  So my advice right now is for those people who are considering going on a mission.  In reality, yes it is hard some days.  But the things I have learned in the past 5 months (almost ;)) will affect me for the rest of my life.  

Also, I couldn't count them all, but right now I think I have about 15 mosquito bites in each leg... Fun Fact.  :)  Also, we fixed our water, so we are going to have hot water and not have to use buckets!!! If we buy a shower head today. :)  

Love,

Hermana Zimmerman

 

 

 We found a new way of Transportation.. but I'm not sure if my Mission President would approve.. #MyCompanionWeighsATon  #JustKidding ;)

 My comp and I in Morelia for a Meeting with the President!

My Frog Prince.  Of course we didn't kiss, that's against mission rules. (look closely on my hand)