Week 13 in Mexico Hermana Courtney Jones

Thanks for all the pictures, like usual :) It is crazy to see Hal with his name badge! In the letter he sent I had to double-check that it was him becuase he sounds so different hahah.It is funny to think of you guys on summer break because every day is the same here on the mission. I hope you are having fun and that Tyler is liking the job. I am also glad Allie had fun at girls camp even with all her mosquito bites. As for my eyelashes and eye brows it isn't that bad since I have bangs I can cover my eye brows at least :)

This week I ate some weird foods and some of the best foods I have ever eaten in my life! I had a quesadilla with flowers de calabaza (flowers of a large squash), and pig hooves. At first I didn't know how to eat the pig hooves because there is no meat on it! But you just eat the skin and the ligaments between the toes.... It wasn't the best food I have ever eaten but it wasn't the worst either. Then the best foods I have ever eaten was a quesadilla with oxaca cheese and mushrooms... mmmmm yummy! Also, tacos de pastor is my new favorite food. It is a taco with onions, beef, cilantro, and pineapple and they cook it on a skillet.

Anyway, other than food, this week has been good I have had lots of great experiences and some scary experiences. As for the scary experiences there is the best lady I have ever met in my life in our ward and afterward she talked to me and said that when bad things happen you can let them go to your heart or you can let them stop at the name that is over your heart (Jesus Christ). As a missionary, bad things will happen, but it is not because of who we are it is because of the name that we are representing. Sometimes I feel like there are angels here in El Oro but they are in the form of members of the church.

This week I have never been so cold in my life.  It has rained every day, but it has also been freezing cold because we are up in the mountains. I think this is the first summer of my life where I wear a hat and gloves every day....but I prefer that much more than getting sun burnt every day.

These past couple weeks we have had an amazing experience with an inactive family. The mom has been a member for 25 years and two of her daughters were baptized, but her youngest son, who is 19, was never baptized. At the beginning of the last cambio we worked with him, but he said he would be baptized if his mom ever went to church again because he liked the person that she was when she would go to  church. The only problem was we visited her twice last cambio and both times she was really mad and a little rude and wanted nothing to do with us. We stopped visiting Raul, the son, because he didn't want to go to church or be baptized but the 5th week of the cambio he saw us and came running and said that his mom wanted to meet with us. She said that she didn't want to go to church but wanted her daughters to come to church.  They are 25 and 30 and have 3 kids between them. So the next week the daughters came to church. When we went to visit Maria Teresa (the mom) again she said she had read the pamphlet on the Plan of Salvation and all she wanted was for her family to be united and she knew it was through the church that she could do that.

So we started teaching her all the lessons that she had forgotten, and she is going to come to church this Sunday. It is amazing to see the change in her from the first time when she slammed the gate and said all types of rude things, to the lady who now gives us food and hugs every time she sees us. This experience made me think of my zone leader who always says "Every member a missionary, every member an investigator". Whenever he eats at peoples houses he teaches them the things he learned in his studies, part of one of the lessons, has them commit to read part of preach my gospel and he says it's because we are all investigators and once we stop investigating that's when we start losing our testimonies of the truth of the gospel.  

This week was great, and everyone was super excited that it was our first week as a ward! My favorite scripture this week is in 1 Corinthians 12. It talks about how every member of the church is a member of the body of Christ and how can the foot say to the eye that we don't need you. Every member has their talents, their gifts that help the work of the Lord and when we are missing members the work continues but it isn't quite as effective.  Have a great week. I love you all. 

Ok, I know we shouldn't have favorites but Yaretzi and her mom come and teach with us two times a week and this little girl is so funny :) she reminds me of myself when I was younger...super bossy and sings all the time!   Also, here's a picture of the El Oro ward.