General Conference was wonderful!

All is well here in Mexico :) I ate a tamale on the side of the road for breakfast this morning before taking a micro ride (really ghetto bus) to another chapel for a zone activity and also drank coconut juice as well. So delicious. I also learned how to make tamales the other week from a family of recent converts and thought of friends back in Chicago who used to make them for us on Christmas Eve :) I also played futbol (soccer for my gringo friends) with bunch of Elders today and it was the best! My legs feel like they used to after soccer practice every day. I miss that feeling. It was really fun :) We had a zone photo contest today and there are some great pics that I hope to share soon :)

This happens to be my last week of training! Where has the time gone?! Next week I will most likely have a new companion and teach her the ropes of the area. Lots of mixed emotions but mostly excitement :) I have a lot of goals and ideas in mind for what I would like to do and accomplish. We have some new people who are interested in taking the lessons from us and I look forward to working with them. Change is always hard but life wouldn't be life without change and feeling a little outside our comfort zone at times. This last week I have felt a measurable growth in my Español. It is so wonderful to feel more like a companion instead of a trainee and I am looking forward to building on that in the coming months. All in all, the mission has been a humbling experience and has taught me that we are not meant to be perfect in this life. We can be perfect at trying though (great quote from “Meet the Mormons”). My companion and I have also grown really close these last few weeks and she has become a dear friend to me despite our many differences. I have had a great experience with her and will miss her. Sometimes we talk late at night and laugh ourselves silly :) It has only been the two of us for the majority of the time in our apartment during these twelve weeks; the only time others lived with us was during the Temple open house.

General Conference was wonderful! We had a person that we are teaching come to a session of Conference with us and I was able to watch it in English :) I was reminded of how grateful I am for living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. I know that they are inspired and called of God. Before Conference, I wrote down three questions and prayed to receive answers. All three were answered within the first session! The Lord knows exactly what we need. I loved what President Uchtdorf said about the Gospel being pure and beautiful like a lily. We need to not complicate things so much and just enjoy the beauty that the Gospel has to offer. Also, it is okay not to know or understand every bit of doctrine right away. The Gospel is simple enough for a child to understand and yet we could spend an eternity learning all that there is to learn about it. As a missionary, at times I feel pressured to answer every single question, but really my purpose is to teach those who are teachable and ready to hear the basic truths of the Gospel. I fully sustain President Monson, his counselors, the Twelve (I loved hearing the testimonies of Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund and am very happy for them), and the leaders of the Church.

Thank you so so so so so much for the package! Chocolate :) I almost cried. It is so expensive here so thank you. Haha I ate a package of old saltine crackers I found in our cupboards and as I was about to eat one I noticed some little yeast looking things on them so I quickly ended that. The “worm cake” never gave me a problem so I am trusting that my iron digestive tract will continue to hold true! Believe it or not, one thing that I have learned to love here though is chicharron -- fried pig skin. It really is quite tasty. However, it is not what you want race out and put on your top ten list of nutritional foods/substances :) Fun cultural fact...people mop the sidewalks here with soapy water and brooms. I love it :) 

We had a few earthquake alarms this last week and are preparing for a big one to come these next few months. Our District Leader called at midnight one night this last week to warn us to prepare to leave. As my companion was running all over the house, I just moved my shoes and clothes over to my bed in case we needed to run and continued to lay there. I don't have an emergency backpack yet and there's really nothing we could do at the moment but be on alert for an actual alarm. 

I love you all and hope you are doing great :) Pics next week!

Love you :)

Hermana Jones