Love

Hello family and friends!  I hope everyone had a fantastic week and all is going well.  I wanted to start off by saying how grateful I am for all the love, support, and letters/emails I’ve been receiving.  Each Monday (our Preparation Day) we are given 1 hour to email - and I have been receiving so many emails that sometimes I don’t respond until the following week or two and my responses are pretty short.  But regardless, I hope you all understand how much it means to me that you are thinking of me and keeping in touch.  I love you all and truly appreciate and miss each of you … so a huge thank you!

This week flew by, like always, and was great.  Hermana Perez and I are working really hard and loving every second of our time here.  Our area has a lot of potential, and we’ve been keeping super busy with all our visits and lessons.  Today we completed 6 weeks together!  :)

Our investigators have been progressing, but the hard part is getting them to attend church.  Almost all of them say it’s too early (starts at 9:00 am) and we’ve been doing all we can think of to help them.  For example, we call them the night before, and pass by their apartments in the morning, but they don’t open the doors because they’re all sleeping.  So that’s kinda rough - but we’ll keep working on solutions - maybe we can give them each a pet rooster :) hahaha

The weather this week wasn’t bad at all.  It never got to the point of a down pour like last week, but occasionally it would drizzle on and off.  And I liked when it was cloudy, because Hermana Perez and I weren’t dying of heat.

Funny story:  So, it takes a while for Hermana Perez to fall asleep, while on the other hand, as soon as my head hits the pillow, I am fast asleep.  Apparently, she was a little startled one night when I said, “Hermana?” to which she replied, “Si” and I asked her, “Porque siempre estamos pidiendo perdon?” (Why are we always asking for forgiveness?)   In the morning, she asked me what I meant by my question during the night, and I (of course) had no idea what she was talking about.  So, we found out this week that I talk in my sleep … in Spanish  :)  hahaha

This week was America’s Birthday (4th of July)!  I hope everyone got to see some fireworks and celebrate.  :)  Here it was just a normal day  (The Mexico Independence Day is in September)  so we did our visits and taught our lessons like any other day.

Posing for the 4th of July in the house

We had a zone meeting this week, which only happens once a month with all the other missionaries in our zone (about 24 of us in total).  I love seeing all the familiar faces and catching up with how everyone else is doing in their areas.  One thing I’ve learned about the mission is how happy someone can be for another person.  Although I hardly/barely know the majority of the people here, I love them all so much and get so excited to hear how they’re doing.

Here I am with Hermana Martinez (she arrived in the mission
the same day as me, and was companions with Hermana Flores in the CCM)
She is super nice.

Here are all the Hermanas at the zone meeting.
Each transfer, more and more American Hermanas are arriving.

On Saturday, we visited Sinai Romero - who’s been in the hospital for about a week.  She lit up when we entered the room and said it meant a lot to her that we stopped by.  For about an hour, we just sat by her bedside and listened to her talk about her life and tell stories.  Sometimes people just need to be heard and know that someone who cares, is listening to them.  It made me wish I had time to visit all the people in the hospital who are lonely and need cheering up.

“Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet.  Pure Christlike love flowing from righteousness can change the world.” - Jeffrey R. Holland

I love this gospel.  I know that it is true with all my heart and that it can bless the life of every person.  I love being a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  And I also love you all dearly and hope and pray for your success and happiness.

xoxoxo,

Hermana Eliason

This is the son of a recent convert named Miguel
jumping on his cute little trampoline :)