Acts of kindness by ordinary people who made a huge difference in our lives.

Happy Halloween and Feliz Dia de Muertos (for the kids tomorrow on the 1st and the adults on the 2nd of Noviembre)! Here in my area one of the main streets that we walk on is jam packed with people buying food, trick-or-treating with the little kids dressed up in costumes, and viewing the ofrendas or "offerings" for the “day of the dead” put on by a few of the regional high schools. I will try to send some pictures. It is a really neat tradition here. They make altars with flowers, candles, fotos, favorite foods of the person who died, and other things to honor the dead. All of the high schools did this for a group project grade in their schools but it is to preserve the traditions here in Mexico. After I finish writing we will head in for the night. Tomorrow should be interesting because they will still be celebrating and it may be hard to get from place to place for our appointments.

This last week was a little tough but had some real gems. Although we struggled with helping the people we are teaching to progress, we had some neat experiences from following the guidance of the Spirit. One of which was we passed by a woman sitting on a moto-taxi on the side of the road and I felt the need to talk to her. They had some sketchy (I don't know how else to describe it haha) music playing and it just looked kind of uncomfortable to talk to her so I didn't say anything and we kept walking. I felt it again but stronger this time so we went back to talk to the woman. She definitely looked a little surprised to see us but as we started talking and asking how she was doing she told us she was not too well because her mother in law had just passed away days before. We gave her a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation and shared more of that with her. She does not live nearby but I hope that she can get in contact with other missionaries. Another neat experience we had was during a Zone activity in another area doing a similar thing we did in mine -- looking for people who are less active in the Gospel. We went to a certain house and out came a less active woman who has been unable to attend Church for awhile due to declining health. She was so happy to see us and told us that about two weeks ago she had a dream of missionaries coming to her door and visiting her. It was a special experience to be able to really help someone out who had been waiting for a visit. Another neat experience was when we went to the home of a contact we made in the street. An older woman answered the door and after we told her that we are missionaries and representatives of Christ, she asked us if we would like to come in and drink some water. She was so kind to us. We were able to visit with her and her husband who is really ill and declining fast. I asked them why she had decided to let us in and she said that it was because of what she felt when she was with us. She sensed that we brought goodness with us. They accepted an invitation to learn more. It will be really hard for them to make it to Church due to her husband's health but we are excited to teach them more. Our wonderful investigator Berenice in the wheelchair is so incredibly powerful. She loved Church last Sunday and is praying to know if the gospel is true. This last week during one of our visits when introducing the Book of Mormon to her, her eyes lit up as we talked more about it. We assigned the introduction to her as homework for the next time. She cannot read while lying down so she asked us right there in that moment to help her sit up. We got her situated and, after asking for the book, began to read the introduction right then and there. I love her! We invited her to be baptized and, after she said yes, we began to talk to her about a specific date and that through her faith and our's she would be at a point physically when she could be baptized. We extended December 3rd (my last weekend here in the mission) and she said, "Oh yes, that will totally be fine!" and was very happy because that is her dad's birthday. She wants him to baptize her. It is going to be so beautiful and we are so happy for her :) Well, we have two awesome Elders here in the Ward with us now. We spent a bit of time showing them around and presenting them to people. One of them got sick during the week and, being new in the area, had nothing to eat in their house so we went to buy them some food. We stopped at the tienda of a man we had contacted before who did not have interest in learning more but recognized who we are. After trying to figure out what we could feed two Elders, without a whole lot of money to feed them, and asking this man for the price of every single thing in the store, I handed him the money that I had which would exactly cover what we needed to buy. He accepted one bill but the other he handed back to me and asked me to please take it. He said that he sees us walking all over, back and forth-back and forth, in front of his store every day and knows that we are here doing something good. He insisted that we take the rest of the money and said that whenever we need anything, ANYTHING, we can come to him. I teared up a little as I thanked him. After that, we crossed a super busy street in which a man stopped to let us cross first even though there were a lot of people behind him. We stopped by the Elders' house and learned that they did not have any drinking water, so we went to another tienda and had just enough money to buy water for them thanks to the man in the other tienda. It was a series of very incredible miracles and acts of kindness by ordinary people who made a huge difference in our lives. I went home very grateful that night for Heavenly Father's love and awareness of us in our little spot of the world. I am sure that there are more incredible things to tell you all but I honestly cannot remember them but I have them written in my journal so don't worry. I love you all and wish you a wonderful first week of November!

Love Hermana Jones

PS I am so sorry but my camera has a virus so it is really hard for me to send pictures and I need to get home now. Next week when I have more time I will dedicate a good half hour to do it, I promise.

We had a great day. President and Sister Stutznegger were kind enough to take us to Plaza de la Ciudadela...it has a bunch of Mexican handcrafts and is a little overwhelming haha. I was able to buy some fun things.

President and Sister Stutznegger are the best! They found out that I wanted a pumpkin to carve for Halloween and they found one for me :)

We also had a surprise birthday party this morning for one of our zone leaders, Elder V in the blue and white soccer jersey just above me. It turned out really well and was a lot of fun :)