Howdy Y'all

howdy people!


i have been trying to incorporate more words like howdy and y'all into my vocabulary. even though i'm serving more in mexico, i want to claim the texas accent. this was a week of some pretty sweet miracles.

we had a zone conference and we studied a talk by elder holland called "the divine companionship." this month as a mission we're focusing on having the spirit more powerfully with us as we teach. sister martinez and i started the 'purification challenge' and we fasted about things that we can give up that are distracting us or poking at our own spirits. one of the things i decided (reluctantly) to give up is naps. not that naps are bad, but it was to the point where i'd be out working and instead of focusing on people i was thinking about when i'd get home to take my nap. so. with the exception of p-day, i am no longer a nap taking person. i don't know how i'm going to do it. but somehow i will survive and become a better and more focused missionary from it. i can survive from my 8 hours of sleep.

this week we started teaching a girl named jazzmin. yes, that is how it's spelled. she's the daughter of a less-active woman that we found on our first day here. we had no idea where to go or what to do or how to start being in a new area, so we just said a prayer that we would be guided to someone who needed us. we found this woman, maria. she had been baptized about 25 years ago but fell away from the church pretty soon after being baptized. she kept dodging our appointments for the first week we were here but then we finally convinced her to make some time for us. she completely opened up and was crying and remembered that when she got baptized, the elders gave her a blessing and promised her that she would be able to have children. she had been married twice before and the doctors told her that she would never be able to have children. so then, a couple years after her baptism, she got pregnant, at the age of 32. then she had another child at the age of 33. she said she had completely forgotten about that until we came. so she committed to start reading the scriptures every night and praying and meeting with us some more. so the next time we came over, her daughter jazzmin was there. she's 19. my companion and i both felt prompted to invite her to come and listen. we asked maria and she told us she didn't think she would want to, but we asked her anyway. she came and sat with us and the spirit was so strong. we taught her about jesus christ and faith and repentance and baptism. the spirit was so strong, i felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest. i asked them if they felt the peace. they answered without a delay and said they had felt it the whole time we had been there. we testified of the holy ghost. jazzmin cried. she accepted a baptismal date. maria suddenly remembered all of these feelings that she had from when she was baptized and was baring testimony about how she knew this was god's church. it was such an amazing experience.

i'm so grateful to be a missionary and to see heavenly father do his work. i know that he loves each of his children and is constantly preparing them. we can help him in his work if we are just pure and listen for the spirit to guide us.

hope that you all are happy and healthy and well.

love,

hermana morrill