Hermana Emily Jones: There is something different about us.

P-Day was great. We got to go to the Pyramids at the ancient city of Teotihuacan. Pictures do not do it justice and I absolutely loved visiting it today! I would really like to learn more about it. Well, this Wednesday I will complete 8 months in the mission (almost halfway...que triste ): and my companion will complete three months! Time flies. The work is hard and, I'll be honest, pretty slow right now but it is so worth and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. This week was full of knocking on doors in one of my little pueblas where there is only one Church member that we know of. He joined the Church a year ago, is from Germany and speaks an interesting mix of German, English, and Spanish. He never has time for us because he works all day long in his very busy car shop. Hermana Tirado and I got to work together for a day in that same puebla and found ourselves surrounded by tons of people all carrying their "Niños Dioses" for Mass in the Catholic chapel there. The Niño Dios (which literally means Child God) is a tradition in Mexico of revering the Christ Child. Catholic Church members here have their own images of the Christ Child, which is honored and celebrated during the Christmas season...especially on Christmas Eve and on February 2 during Candlemas. One tradition is to dress the image in new clothing each year for presentation at Mass on Candlemas. We enjoyed learning as much as we could about the tradition from our wonderful Catholic brothers and sisters who were participating.

Neat experience this week. We have one investigator who is so wonderful and ready to be baptized! She is hoping to get married to her boyfriend whom she is living with. This past week during our lesson with her I felt impressed to simply invite her to fast and pray during this first Sunday of the month for two specific dates -- her wedding and her baptism. I promised her that if she did this with faith, Heavenly Father would answer her prayers. She looked at me with her large brown beautiful eyes that were filled with hope and said yes. We look forward to following up with her tomorrow. Also, this past week when we contacted a man named José who told us how he could tell that there is something different about us. He told us that he could see in our eyes that we are honest people and that we just want to help and that we have “a light” about us. I don’t tell you this to brag in any way; it just struck me that he noticed something different about us. I look forward to teaching him this Thursday as well.

We had a fun time last night with the Ward Mission Leader from one of the Wards and his family talking and laughing and singing hymns with their guitars. We are going to plan a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) in the Chapel where we will have a music night and people can invite friends to join. I would also like to begin teaching children English classes again to bring more people from the pueblo to the chapel.

To my wonderful family... I love each one of you and am so grateful for the support and love you have for me. Thank you for your emails. I love reading about how you're doing and what you're up to. Not gonna lie, feeling a little jealous that stinkin Jake P is taking my place in the family going to sweet home Chicago this summer but I guess if anyone is allowed to then he is a qualified candidate ;) haha just kidding super happy for you and I know it will be a lot of fun! Over this next month I will work on writing letters for people in Chitown and send them to you so you can take them with you. I love you and please remember the little things that we have to do to stay strong as a family (Alma 37: 6-7). Take good care of the missionaries in the ward. They are far away from home. Love you :) Keep my two pueblos in your prayers. We are starting from square 1 in a lot of ways.

Love your Hermana in Mèxico

My District :) Love them so much. The Elders are from Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, and North Carolina. The Hermanas are from Ecuador, Aguascalientes, Mexico, Guatemala, Tijuana, Mexico, Boston MA, and me! We had a really fun day together!