Hola!
This week I have a million things I could write! It was amazing! Since I don't have that much email time I'm just going to give a few points with my favorite things from this week. - This week we visited Narciso and his family and they brought out a "surprise" for us. The surprise was a Book of Mormon they still had from about 25 years or more ago when Narciso met the missionaries and started investigating the church. He got so busy with his work and things that he never was able to continue but he still remembers a lot from that and it was so cool seeing their Book of Mormon from so long ago! - Funny story: We ran out of Books of Mormon for about a week and a half and we kept reminding the Elders until finally on day we randomly ran into them on the street of the church. They told us that there was a whole box in a secret cabinet in the church and then they decided that they should just get them for us now. We all started walking to the church and saw a huge group of members hanging around outside. They all just kept saying the Elders couldn't go in and couldn't go in but the Elders just took it as a challenge and ran in. After they ran in we saw all this crazy fog come out. They were fumigating the chapel! The Elders ran back out in about 3.5 minutes gasping for air. BUT they had the box of Book of Mormons for us. We had no clue what was even going on until the Elders ran in haha Elder Franco was really happy after though and said he felt like he was in a movie. - This week we went to go visit a family and when we were leaving we ran into a girl and her mom - Linda and Hermalinda. They were really interested in what we were doing here in Mexico and ended up having a lot of questions - it was a perfect contact. And after when we started to leave Hna Jensen saw that she had a huge white hairy catapilller on her shoe. Hermalinda (Lindas mom) grabbed her own shoe and started smacking it off of Hna Jensen's. Then she started spreading the catapillers guts on her leg...It was such a classic moment. Linda just gave us a "Yeah. That's my mom..." We set an appointment to meet with them again at their house and invited them to church with a Restoration folleto and then headed off. - Remember Linda? She came to church! We were late for church because we went to go try and find a couple investigatores and we walked in right before the first song. I went straight to the piano to play and a member ran up to Hna Jensen and was like "Your contact is here!" I was so surprised after the opening song when I looked up to find Hna Jensen sitting by Linda! She is so great! She loved church and how the LDS church is really about families and actually helping us as people. We are so excited to find her again and teach her more! - Miguel is the brother of Misael who we've been teaching the past few weeks - ever since Misael was baptized. This week they did EFY here and Miguel and Misael went. We were so excited for Miguel to go but also we were really worried because we still need to prepare him for his baptism! Our district leader got really worried because we hadn't taught him the Law of Chastity and if he's not living this his baptism date has to change. So we called him up one night and taught him la ley de castidad #awkwardmomentwhen You have to teach Chastity over the phone - Miguel bore his testimony in sacrament meeting about EFY and he said in his testimony that he knows the church and he recieved that strong witness this week when he bore his testimony of the spiritual day at EFY. It was so amazing! We are so excited for him and his baptism next week! I could write a million more great things from this week but these are just a few of the best. I love being a missionary and having amazing moments every day! I hope everyone has a great week! Hermana Terry Here's a picture of Hna Jensen and I just so you all know we're still alive and well here in Nogales! (Two white girls in Mexico... we're thinking about writing a blog or something when we get home haha) 6 Months in the Mission!
This week we met Presidente Cordova and his family in a mini Zone Conference. It was so great! I loved Presidente Trevino and I'm going to miss him a lot but I also am really excited for the fresh start and changes that are going to come with Pres. Cordova. He is really excited and something that he is really focusing on is retaining the members that get baptized. We have started digging in and trying to find all the recent converts to visit them and also to teach their families! It's been such a great week and we've been able to find a lot more people to teach by focusing a lot more on this. This week we also had a great experience with Narciso. He is such a perfect investigator! He stopped drinking coffee cold turkey from the second we talked about the Word of Wisdom and he is always just so excited! This week we had a lesson with him in a members house that's close to where he lives. We went to the lesson and Narciso was so accepting of everthing. The next day we were leaving the house and we felt prompted that we needed to go visit him. We went straight to his house and found him, his wife Teresa and his daughter Veronica. We started talking to Narciso and he tried to break up with us! He started telling us that it's been great but he doesn't think he should keep taking our time or that he should go to church. We were both speechless because we honestly could not understand where in the world this came from! We started asking him questions and he told us that he didn't want us to stop visiting and he still wanted to go to church but it's just hard for him becase he doesn't like feeling like a weight. The fact that he can't see is really his only challenge and it's been a big trial for him. We started talking and testifying and the spirit was just so powerful. He then told us not to worry and that he'd be there at church the next day. His family is just so excited for him too, especially his wife. It's so hard because Teresa wants nothing more than to go to church with her husband but she has to work on sundays to provide for her and Narciso. We're just going to pray for a miracle! And I told her I was going to send the missionaries to where she works so that they can get baptized and realize the importance of the Sabbath Day! haha Well that's all for today! Sorry that it's short and maybe boring (Also lacking pictures) I promise next week will be a lot better! Today our email time got cut short because we got called by a member that had an amazing family they want us to teach so we went fast to go met them! I am loving Nogales more and more every day, and every week! I can't believe I've already been here for about 8 weeks! It's been probably the fastest 2 months of my life! Tomorrow is officially my six month mark...Someone tell time to go a little slower! I can't believe I've only got a year left. It's definitely motivated me to put my shoulder to the wheel and start working harder! Well I hope everyone has a great week! Hermana Terry Hola Familia y amigos!
Have I mentioned that it rains here? Just about every day. Yesterday we were walking to a lession and the sky was bright sunny and blue when it just started POURING rain! We only could run for cover try to stay a little dry. I've tried explaining to the people here that it really is hotter in Southern Utah where I'm from then it is here but everyone thinks I'm crazy! Either way I am loving the huge blessing of being in the coldest area in the hottest months here. In Veracruz the heat is terrible! So I just thank Heavenly Father for the rain! This picture is us with Nester, Carlos and Evelyn. They are kids of two member familys that live here. Carlos (in the middle) Is seriously our new best friend. He's 6 years old (almost 7, he invited us to his birthday party next month haha) And he is so crazy and so funny. His two favorite things to do are make us laugh and sing Primary songs. Which are our two favorite things to do as well haha We sang about 6 primary songs with him on tuesday when we ate at their house and he got super sad when we said we had to go. We also taught him how to say Missionary in English so everytime we pass by his house he runs out and says "Adios Misionarys!" It's just so adorable. This week was great! We met some really great people and we have investigators that are so excited and we are so excited for them! We got called by a member this week asking if we could come teach her nephew that was visiting. We told her of course! And went to go meet and teach her 12 year old nephew Luis Angel. When we showed up we found out that he's from Chicago and that he speaks English more than Spanish! Who knows why God keeps putting chances in our path to teach in English but sometimes it's just really refreshing! Luis Angel told us about how his parents are Jehova Witness but he's never felt right in that church, that he tried out the Catholic church a few times and didn't like that either and now he wants to hear about the Mormons! It was such a great lesson and when we talked about Joseph Smith he told us he already felt that it was true. We gave him instructions to find the missionaries in Chicago and email us and tell us how it goes! And Hermana Jensen had an extra Book of Mormon in English that we were able to give him before he left too. It was honestly just such an amazing experience. A few weeks ago we were walking down the street for an appointment and we said "Buenas Tardes" to an old man walking by with his dog. He stopped us and started talking to us about how he's blind and he heard about the White Mormon missionary girls walking around peaching the Gospel and he asked us if that was us. We started talking to him and found out his name is Narciso and he told us to come visit him and teach him the word of God. So we made an appointment and he tried to explain where he lives. We ended up somehow double planning so we weren't able to go and teach him. We ended up running into him again a couple days later and he got mad at us for not coming and teaching him! So we made another appointment and went on our way. This time we made an effort to find his house but his directions were super difficult to follow and everyone we asked had no idea where the street 26 de Marzo was at. So 2 times we missed our chance but we still weren't very sure how genuine he was. Then on thursday this week we ran into him again walking his dog and he got upset again about how we always write his name in our Agendas but we never show up! We made an appointment with him for the next day and made absolute sure we understood his directions and then we went to find his house so we would know exactly where it was for Friday. Friday we show up exactly on time and he's not there! We ended up talking to his daughter Sylvia (Shout out Aunt Sylvia! Happy Birthday!) And she said he went to walk his dog. We waited awhile and then headed to visit another investigator that lives near by. Lo and behold we run into Narciso walking his dog and he got confused because he's blind and he didn't know what time it was. We ended up going back to his house right then and teaching him and Sylvia. When we started talking about baptism he interrupted us and asked "How soon can I get baptized?" He told us that he went to church about 5 or 6 times a few years ago and that he never really gave it a chance but now he is ready to accept the Gospel and he doesn't want to waste any time. And yesterday at church he asked Hermano Charlie to be the one to baptize him. Hermana Jensen and I were so surprised! It's just such a testimony to me of what it says in Preach My Gospel in chapter 9 "He will lead you to them or He will lead them to you." Well have a great week! Hermana Terry Well we had our last week of the transfer and found out cambios! Hermana Jensen and I are going to keep being companions here in Nogales for the next 6 weeks! I'm pretty sure they are crazy to keep us together but here we go! I'm excited for the chance to keep working with Hna Jensen. Who knew that when we randomly met on Facebook back when we got our mission calls that we would be in the same district, the same area, and now companions! Apparently Heavenly Father thinks there is something we can learn from the other!
This week was great! It wasn't without its ups and downs but we met a lot of really great people and worked so hard! Being with Hna Jensen has been great. We are both so dedicated to working diligently and being exactly obedient and it's been amazing to see the blessings of that and just to feel so great every day! Saturday night we went to go contact a reference that we receieved from a member. She told us that we could only go at 8 because they're only home at night. We left on bus and got to the area and we asked someone for help with the street name. Then this guy came up and asked us what the name of the people we were looking for was. He told us that he lives right next door and took us walking to go find their house. He was really excited to talk to us about our purpose as missionaries and about the church because he has never even heard of Mormons. He took us about 5 blocks to find their house and then told us that when we came back we should stop by and met his family in his little restaurant. We knocked on the door and asked for our reference and he lied to us and told us that his name was something else and that Fernando lived somewhere else. We just strugged it off and walked back to talk to Angel and his family in their restaurant. We met Angel and his wife, as well as his mom Reina and her grandaughter. They were so amazing! They felt so bad for us that Fernando didn't want to listen to us. They gave us free corn on a stick (Corn on the cob covered in mayo with cheese and chili...yeah haha) and told us that we needed to come back and share our message with them. It was such a great example of the things that can come out of giving the missionaries references. You never know what will happen. A lot of times the members never give references because they think they won't accept the missionaries. And sometimes it's true!...But you never know what other kind of good will come out of it. And then as we were walking to the bus stop to go back home I started trying to hail the bus in the dark but it didn't see me so I started waving harder and my corn flew out of my hands and got ran over by the bus. Luckily Angel and Reina didn't see haha But Hna Jensen and I were laughing about it so hard everyone on the next bus I'm sure thought we were crazy. Today Hna Jensen got a fever today so we couldn't leave the apartment until late so our email time is a little off today. But this week was so amazing full of tender mercies and challenges to learn from. Sometimes we don't know why something happens or the reasons behind things but we can always get through anything when we trust in the Lord :) I've loved reading and studying the conference talks from the last conference. Every single one has such amazing revelation. I feel so blessed to be living in this time with a Modern Prophet and the resources that we have. I know that the general authorities are called of God and that their messages are for us. That we should always be studying the Book of Mormon as well as our Modern Day Revelation. Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week! :) Hermana Terry |
My name is McKenna Terry and I have been called to the Mexico Veracruz Mission. These are my stories. Hermana McKenna Terry
[email protected] Hermana McKenna Terry
Mexico Veracruz Mission Calle Altamirano #27 Entre 1 de Mayo y Carranza Col. Flores Magon Veracruz, Ver 91700 Mexico Archives
July 2015
Categories |