I love primary programs (:

November 9, 2015

Hola (:

This week was great!

First of all, I realized I haven't really told you about my companion! Her name is Hermana Martinez and she is from Chihuahua, Chihuahua. They have this funny accent up there where "ch" is like "sh" so she is from "SHihuahua" and she like "leSHe" (leche-milk) and that reminds me: mom, you have to learn how to make arroz con leche because it's dang good. Anyway.... she's an awesome missionary and we are doing great. I like the way we are learning to teach together. We're getting pretty good at really teaching the person and not just the lesson and that's helping us see success.

Yesterday was the PRIMARY PROGRAM here!! AHHHH I promise there is nothing cuter than 15 adorable Mexican kids belting the primary songs out in Spanish. It was amazinngggg. I seriously felt the spirit so strongly and felt sooo happy to be here in the mission. I was blessed with a lot of neat experiences with our members this past week that really helped me to understand them. The church isn't as strong here as it is in Utah. These people are so active and work so hard to keep the ward going. We ate lunch with one of the members of the Relief Society Presidency and she started crying when she told us how much the gospel means to her. They don't take this for granted. A lot of them are converts and have seen the difference the gospel has made in their lives.

As always, I have a miracle to share (: About a month ago, we saw a 22 year old less active at a ward activity. After that we started teaching him and his mom and have become good friends with them. He had started coming back to church, but she had to work on Sundays and told us that she didn't think her schedule was going to change any time soon. We read 1 Nephi 3:7 and talked about how when we have commandments the Lord will prepare a way for us to accomplish them. Then we prayed with her and asked Heavenly Father to help her return to church. Well, this past week we went by to see her and she told us that, unexpectedly, her work schedule had changed and she was going to be able to go to church at least every other week! We were so excited, and even more excited because she recognized that this was an answer to her prayer and that Heavenly Father really had helped her out. 

It is so weird to hear how things are cooling down so much there, in Utah! The weather is seriously the same here. It might be warmer than it was when I got here.. because it doesn't rain anymore. I can't believe it's actually November. 

I love you all a bunch! I hope that you are doing well (:

Love,

Hermana Aubriana Wolferts

Hermana Lambert looking beautiful and Mexican in the streets of Mexico City (:

A recent convert that we took to the visitors center.

The classic meal we eat here is as follows. We almost always have 3-4 courses. I'm working hard to not get fat. That's actually not really true. I eat a ton. It's good that we walk a lot!

The first course is almost always some sort of soup, usually a pasta or vegetable soup, or both.

The second course is rice! I really like the rice here (: And people put either banana or egg on it sometimes and it's really yummy (I promise, it sounds weird but it's actually really good).

And then we have some sort of a main dish! I'm in love with salsa verde. I'm going to buy that stuff by the gallon from cafe rio when I get back (it tastes a lot like the cafe rio stuff, but that's about the only similarity between the food here and there).

And ALWAYS the meals are supplemented with tortillas. It doesn't matter what you eat. The people here are just SHOCKED when I tell them we don't have little tortilla stores on every corner back home. They all tell me I need to start a tortilleria when I get home. But the thing is that NO ONE eats tortillas in the states like they do here.

Here is a picture of a chocolate lollipop that my recent convert made me! He is so great and it was yummy. He's the same one who made me the basket and flower and box.

Another Miracle...

November 2, 2015

Hey!

This week was great! I have to start with my miracle of the day. I don't know if I was just a spiritual idiot before my mission and I didn't recognize these kinds of things or if being a missionary is just the best thing in the world.

SOOOOO, once again this miracle was necessary because of my lack of directionality. I'm really counting on Ether's words being true when he promises that we have weaknesses to make us humble and if we turn to the Lord he will make them strengths (Ether 12:27) because I wouldn't be bummed if I was magically able to navigate in a couple months. I think I've been sufficiently humbled at this point (;

Anyway, this morning we were trying to head to Walmart but I realized I had actually never gone without someone who knew how to get there. But because my companion is still fairly new here and knows even less than me about the area, we didn't know exactly where to go. I knew what micro to take (a micro is a small bus thing. There are TONS of them here and we take them all the time.) and I know where we get off but I couldn't remember what direction we had to go. UGGGH I wish I were better at this. Basically, I chose wrong and I realized it pretty quickly and hopped off, but we didn't have enough change to get on the correct micro. The only thing we had was a 500 peso bill (which would be the equivalent of a 30-40 dollar bill, if that existed) but NO ONE will give you change for that, even if you buy something (unless what you buy is close to that amount, but I don't have sufficient funds to be spending pesos like that!) So, we were sorta stuck. But I also knew that the Lord has ALWAYS provided a solution when we have been in situations like this. I started looking on the ground for money or thinking how the Lord was going to help us out with this one. But there was nothing. Eventually we decided to try to change the bill in a convenience store that's more of a chain and sells nicer things than the normal family owned stores, but they wouldn't change it, even if we offered to buy juices. As I was looking through every pocket of my bag waiting for a ten peso coin or something to show up, in walks a family of menos activos who saw from a distance that we didn't get the juice we tried to buy. When we explained that we were trying to buy juice to get change for the micro, they gave us money for the micro AND bought us the juice. AHH the people here are too dang nice. 

Basically, God ALWAYS provides the way. Miracles are REAL and they still happen today. Also, frequently God performs miracles through us, so listen to the promptings of the spirit and don't hesitate to do what it says. 

This week was a little weird, because we had to come home early 2 days because of the day of the dead stuff going on down here. It can get a little crazy, I suppose. But the traditions are actually really cool! The people make shrines for their ancestors and put their favorite things around it. It sounds a little strange to us because it's different, but it's actually really touching and respectful. The bishop showed us his family's and it was really cool. We also ate stomach while we were at their house that day. It actually wasn't all that bad.... the only weird thing is that one side of the stomach has the texture of shag carpet, but it didn't bother me really.

Today I walked into walmart and realized it's time for the premature Christmas decoration and festivity madness! I bought Christmas paper towels and a mug and Christmas cookies! I don't know why I went so crazy... I think it's because with our perfect and unchanging climate here, I forget that time actually is passing and that things actually do change, so when I realized Christmas was coming, I decided to celebrate. 

Also we have new neighbors in our little apt. thing that we live in from Haiti! So they speak French, but we started trying to teach them Spanish when we were stuck in our apt. the nights that we couldn't leave! Teaching someone who speaks French Spanish when your first language is English is tough.... but I learned a little bit of French from it. (Very, very little, mind you). It's tough because the accent is really different and I keep wanting to pronounce everything like Spanish!

We also had a conf. with the head of the missionary dept, Elder Nelson! He talked a lot about obedience and really made all the missionaries excited to be here in the mission. He also talked a lot about working with menos activos and through part member families to both help convert people, and to help people get back to church, and we've been really working to implement that in this area! Things have been great here, I'm praying that I don't leave after this transfer. I'm not ready ):

I love you all so much! Also, I can't believe how tall Trevin is! That's so weird! Send me a picture of him next to you, mom!

Love,

Hermana Aubriana Wolferts

MIRACLES

October 26, 2015

Hellooooo!!! (:

I'm so excited to talk about this week! It was a good one! I saw a lot of really great blessings this week. I didn't even realize how many miracles I had seen until I started to think about what I wanted to tell you all!

1. About a month ago, the Elders in my district had contacted this 19 or so year old kid named Carlos who lives in our area. They set up an apt. in the church and gave us his phone number. Well, we went to the apt. in the church, but he wasn't there. So we called and he said he couldn't make it. So we tried to reschedule, but he didn't show up to that apt. either. We rescheduled again, but then he ended up in the hospital and couldn't make it to the apt! Eventually, we stopped trying to meet up with him. 

Flash forward to last week, and we receive a challenge from the zone leaders to contact until we have 10 people who accept an appointment. Well, we had a lot of appointments that day and we didn't have a lot of time to just contact, but my comp and I were determined to meet the challenge. We had our meeting with the ward mission leader at 8, and at 7:45 we realized it was time to head to the church for the meeting, but that we had only had 9 people accept appointments! I was so tempted just to head to the church, but my comp and I decided to contact another person and try to get a cita. We found someone on the street and thankfully, they accepted the appointment and we still made it to the meeting on time!

Flash forward to this past week, and we went to the guys house for the meeting. However, his niece answered the door and said he wasn't home. So we just started contacting her, and she told us that her brother, Carlos, had had the Elders talk to him. After a couple questions, I realized this was THE Carlos, the one we never found! They let us into their house right then and there, and now we are teaching Carlos. (: 

This just goes to show that God doesn't always work in the way we imagine, but when something is in his plan, he will make it work.

2. Anyone who knows me knows that directionality isn't a strength of mine. Well, since my companion is the new person in the area, I've been teaching her the streets and everything, which is terrifying for someone who can't navigate. I really am getting a lot better, but the other day we were trying to find a reference, and I didn't know exactly where the street was. I usually carry a map around for moments like this , but I had forgotten my map this day. I was walking with my companion finally accepting that I really didn't know where to go when I exclaimed that I really just wished I had a map when I looked down and saw a piece of paper on the ground. What was it? Some advertisement for a restaurant that HAD A MAP showing where the restaurant was. And the weirdest thing is that it literally just had a map of my area. Like, almost exactly our area. With that map, we were able to find the street and the family. SUCH a blessing.

3. A couple weeks ago I lost one of my name tags. I assumed it was lost forever, but this past week I saw this guy in the street who kept staring at me... it was kinda freaking me out until he pulled out my name tag! He told me he found it on the street and didn't know what it was... until he saw us that day and realized it matched mine! So naturally, we explained why we have these tags and we are going to visit him this week (:

I could go on and on about the amazing little things that happen here. I'm scared to not be a missionary any more one day because the little miracles we receive are so great! But I'm thinking I had them before my mission, but just didn't recognize them.

Funny story that I forgot to tell! Back when I was with Hnas Wong and Lambert, we were walking down the streets being missionaries and everything when this group of three 20 something year old guys walked by. One of them was looking at me... like how guys here sometimes do and Hermana Wong was starting to get all protective of me when he turned to his friends and said: "she gave me a pamphlet" all proud like. We couldn't even stop laughing! But really, that's exactly what I want people to say. I didn't even remember that I had contacted him, but I'm so glad I did (: I'm not sure if he is being taught, because he didn't live in our area... but it was great. 

Hna Martinez is an awesome companion and has really been teaching me a lot about working with the ward. And I mean ACTUALLY working with the ward, because sometimes it's felt like just a formality on both sides. We went to the house of the bishop on Saturday to have a meeting and talk about our goals and the things we can do better to help the ward. They fed us breakfast while we were there, and when they brought out our plates, it kinda looked like pancakes! I haven't had pancakes in a while and I was so excited, till I looked closer. It was a stack of tortillas with eggs in between haha. Sooo Mexican. But it was actually really good....

We're really seeing a lot of blessings here. We found a crazy number of new investigators last week and have quite a few people with baptismal date. I'm not sure yet if they are all going to happen, but we have a lot of good things happening here. Heavenly Father takes such good care of us.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your letters and love and support! Hope you are all happy and healthy!

Love,

Hermana Wolferts

PS. What happened with the hurricane? Nothing happened here... but the sky did look really cool! I'll send pics next week! And it cleared out the pollution a little bit! I saw the mountains surrounding the city! We were like "there are mountains here?" (: