Ashley's Mission Blog: April 13, 2015 Who Likes the Color White?

Well, at the moment...NOT ME!!!

Yeah...we are being whitewashed haha...it stinks. For those of you who don´t know or understand what that term means "mission-wise" it means...that my comp and I both have transfers and they are closing our area for a bit....how sad right!? I mean, we are in training right now still...they NEVER change companions when they are training.....don´t worry, we are still going to finish her training and all that. We are just going to finish it in a different area haha. Oh man. I am still in shock.... I can´t believe that it is happening. We didn´t expect it at all. We were sure that we would be together in our area for another month and a half haha and we had been telling everyone that we would still be there but...yeah no, they are taking us both out! It´s super crazy. And actually, the Elders are both leaving too and Sister Holman is finishing her mission so she is going home and Sister Garcia and Sister Slack also have transfers so....the only one of our whole District who is staying is Sister Campos....we feel so bad for her....she is going to be all alone....but we are all hoping and praying that her new district will be awesome! It is just crazy...

To be completely honest, this area has been really rough. The members do not support us hardly at all, there are a ton of less actives and in actives and also excommunicated people...and they just don´t live the gospel how they should. Also the churches are always so dirty and it makes me so sad to see them that way....those are just a few of the challenges that we have here haha but I can tell you more about those later if you would like to hear more about it. But yeah so, on top of all the difficulties in regards to missionary work it is also very heavy...like, we walk a lot but it isn´t just walking....it is hiking haha (as I have mentioned several times already). It is super pretty and all that, I can´t lie. It´s green and the climate is perfect and all but not only is it hard spiritually and emotionally, it is hard physically as well so....we have just been having a little bit of a rough time here. But it was so crazy last night when the Elders called us to tell us about the changes because we actually started crying when we found out. I don´t know, we finally were getting the hang of working together and finding out what worked best in the area and all that and finally we were seeing progress in the members and in a few investigators that we had. Things weren´t half bad....and we actually love and care about the people, despite the fact that they are very difficult sometimes, and then, what happens? We get whitewashed! Oh man.... but yeah it´s all good. We are excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in our new area and ward and all that. I will tell you guys next week about our new area :) the only good thing is that we will still be together so we don´t have to start completely from scratch haha ;)

But alright so I am going to tell you about a miracle that we saw this week!! (The only thing is that it is soooo sad because we won´t even be here anymore so...yeah it kind of sucks....) But here is the miracle :) It´s beautiful! So a few weeks ago we got a reference from a member who is an RM and she teaches Institute :) She told us that there is this young man who goes to Institute and has come to church a few times in the past and he likes the church and all that! We were so excited!! and what´s even better is that his girlfriend is also a member...how perfect right? Well, there´s a catch (like always) haha. He is hardly ever home because he goes to school late...and he is catholic. Well, the problem with that last part isn´t actually him...it´s his parents. They are really catholic and even though he is 20, they still have a lot of influence on his life...but anyway, so every week since that day we had him, Ignacio, in our weekly planning session and we even had a baptismal date planned and all that, but we never had the chance to go visit him in his house and contact him haha so he never actually counted as an "investigator" for us. So, a few weeks passed by and we still hadn´t had contact with him...but on thursday we had our weekly planning session again and we said, Alright hermana, it´s serious! We HAVE to find Ignacio and talk to him!" so we said that in the morning, finished planning and studing and all the normal stuff that we do and we went out to start proselyting. Well, that night at 7:00 we had our ward council meeting and we went to open the church and wait even though it was raining pretty bad. We waited for 30 minutes and still no one came....so we decided that we were going to just leave and visit a few more people before it was time to end the day. So we left and started "climbing" up the street haha. The streets are like rivers here because they are so slanted that the water just flows right down, like a river :) it´s a lot of fun :) but anyway, so we were tredging through the streets of Atexcac when suddenly, a red car pulls up and the man inside asks us where we are going. We told him that we didn´t have any fixed appointments so we were just going to walk around close by. We had priorly thought to go visit a less active member so we just told him that that was where we were going and he told us to get in and he would drive us there. We got in because there was a woman sitting next to him. And once we got in the woman told us that she was a member and that her name was Yesenia. Right when she said that I started freaking out inside because Yesenia is the name of Ignacio´s girlfriend.... and so right then I excitedly "hit"/"punched" my companion in the shoulder and mouthed "It´s Ignacio!!!" and yep, right then he said, "I´m Ignacio". Oh. My. Gosh. I almost screamed right then for excitement!! It was so crazy! so yeah, I gotta wrap this up haha so real quick we talked for a little bit and then he let us out at the door of the house. We knocked on the door and the less active member didn´t answer us so.... we decided that we would got to Yesenia´s house to talk to Ignacio since we were POSITIVE he was there haha. So we went and we knocked on the door and they totally let us in and we started talking and laughing with them and everything was perfect. We get along really well and nothing is awkward or anything. And...oh man this is the best part! We explained what a miracle it was that we ran into him and that he gave us a ride because just barely that morning we had talked about him and how it was urgent that we find him and then, BAM! Miracle! There he was in his red car offering us a ride on a rainy day. It was perfect! And then he told us that he and his girlfriend were actually just talking the other day about how they needed to find the missionaries so that we could answer his questions and start teaching him.... WHAT!? How crazy perfect is that!? Oh my gosh we DIED! We were flying in the clouds for happiness after that lesson! We also had another lesson with him on Saturday and my comp asked him if he would like to be baptized (at the end of the lesson she asked him). But he didn´t understand the question haha so I tried to invite him to be baptized after and I said it super directly haha and he understood and told us that he would like to be baptized and that we could pick his date and everything! He told us that we could pick the date for when we think that he will be ready and all that. It was perfect! He is perfect! And we were so happy! Until that dreaded day of the stinkin´whitewash! NOOO!! Ignacio was seriously like our light and hope that was going to get us through this transfer....but yeah...what can we do? Just pray so so hard for him that he can still be excited about the gospel and that he can search for other missionaries that will be able to teach him....Pray for him please! He´s a really great person! And he has great potential. That is the main reason why this change is killing us haha...but yeah, that was the miracle of the week and the crushing, heart-wrenching story of my mission life right now. Hope you all enjoyed it and that it didn´t make you too sad haha. I really am still happy and excited to see what new experiences the Lord has in store for me but....it isn´t going to be easy to leave haha.

I gotta go now but I love you all a ton and I am so grateful for your love and support. Keep moving forward with faith and always look for the light of Christ in your lives and pay attention to the promptings of the Holy Ghost as well, because when we are more aware of the Lord´s hand in our lives, we are more likely to recognize all the miracles and tender mercies that He blesses us with daily. Have a great week!

Love always,

Hermana Walker