Sick

Birthday Party for Mahonrri (he turned one and
had an adorable cake of the little boy from the movie UP)

So this week SO much happened! Starting with Monday, we visited the Arodondo family, because their only son turned 1 year old and there were several other members and investigators at their house to celebrate with food and an adorable cake!  All the little kids were busy jumping in the bouncer and giggling with delight, while the adults chatted and took pictures! It was cute and fun. And afterwards we taught one of the investigators in the house of her friend, who is a member.  Sometimes the people think that just because we are missionaries we can't laugh and have fun - but I am glad they are realizing that that is so not true! Hermana Perez and I are always happy and smiling and saying hi to everyone.

On Tuesday, one of our visits was with a less active family that moved from Northern California last year and have had a hard time adapting to the church here in Mexico. They say that the gospel is different in the United States - and since I am from California and now have 9 months here in Mexico I testified that the church or the doctrine and gospel of our religion is the same everywhere.  Of course there are differences in the culture, and perhaps the people, but I know that no matter where we are serving or living we can encounter the truth in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints :)

Then on Wednesday I ate Chilaquiles for the first time with one of our investigators named Mary (by the way, half of the women here are named Mary). haha   Pretty much chilaquiles are torn up and fried tortillas with beans, onion, cream, and meat (like nachos kinda). It was yummy and fun to help Mary prepare her famous "chilaquiles" for her Hermanitas ;)

Wow, Thursday was pretty rough. At lunch we ate with a member and her family, but afterwards it was apparent that my stomach was not happy! We ate chorizo (which is a form of pig meat) and the spaghetti had a lot of cream. The combination was not good, and I felt super nauseous. We returned home and, after buying some 7-up, things weren't getting better.  Luckily there are Elders who have the priesthood authority with the power to give  blessings. They came over and I received a blessing from Elder Chavez and Elder Montes de Oca, and afterwards I was able to take some vomiting pills and fall asleep.  In the morning I woke up better and left to continue working :) Plus Hermana Perez was so caring and helpful! She made me a yummy apple and Jamaican tea and is just so great in general.

On Friday we had our monthly zone meeting which went well. We have two new zone leaders who gave inspiring talks and motivated us to continue being obedient and working hard. I especially liked that they established some goals for our zone like contact 10 people each day.  If we are talking to more people, we will find more people who are prepared and ready to accept this gospel, and in turn will have more baptisms and success in our areas.

The sister missionaries in our zone (when we had our zone meeting this week)

Okay, Saturday was just awesome.  Apart from eating Costco pizza for lunch and visiting a lot of people, in the night before our last visit, the funniest thing happened to Hermana Perez and I!!! This whole week it had been raining, and Saturday there was a down pour, so of course the streets were flooded and we needed to cross a major street to get to our next lesson.  We saw a speed bump that now served as a little bridge that could help us cross the first part of the street and arrive at the thin plantar that divided the cars driving in the opposite direction.  Once standing in the muddy plantar we realized we had made a major mistake.  There were cars passing on both sides of us and we only needed to cross the second half of the street, but had to wait.  And while waiting, we saw a big bus approaching and creating a wave of water in it's path.  Literally this bus was like a boat creating a wake because of the flooded streets.   Hermana Perez and I were stuck with nowhere to run!!! We just said "OH NO!!" and then screamed as the bus sped past us and covered us with a wall of water. The only way I could describe this wall of water that completely soaked us is ... if any of you have visited Sea World and know that Shamu the killer whale during his show, splashes the people in the "soak section seating" with his tail ....Yeah .... that was pretty much what happened to Hermana Perez and I ;)  I literally was busting up laughing for 10 minutes afterwards and we trudged home, soaked head to toe!!

RAIN!!! Holy guacamole!! It rained SO HARD and so much!! The streets were literally rivers!!

You can´t really tell in the photo, but this is Hermana Perez absolutely soaking wet.

On Sunday I randomly started having a lot of pain in my mouth and throat.  But I tried not to focus on it because the day went great!  Nayeli and her daughters and Miguel all showed up to church!!!!! WAHOOO!!!! I was bubbling over with joy and so happy!!  Before bed I used our cellphone light to see in my mouth and saw that it was raw, bright pink/red and had white dots covering the back of my throat and tongue.   This morning it was worse, and it hurt to swallow anything and talk, so we went to the doctor and sure enough he diagnosed me with farigitis (and that is in Spanish) but in simple words its a really bad throat infection.   SO.... after a shot (OUCH!!) and a prescription for three different medicines, he said I need to rest for 48 hours and then I should be good to go again. He said it was caused from drastic changes in the temperature, stress, etc. 

So yeah that is my week in a nut shell! So much more has been happening, but there is literally no time!! I hope everyone is doing fantastic, and I will try to send out all my replies that I am behind on next week :) I LOVE you all and keep you in my prayers.

I know this church is true, and I am proud to be a missionary :)

Con amor,

Hermana Eliason

This is Hermana Emilia Mendoza who is a less active member we are visiting.