Raegan's Mission to Mexico: March 9, 2015: So, Apparently the Lord Thinks I Speak Sufficient Spanish......

Hey everyone! It sounds to me like you guys had quite the week. I'm glad everything has settled back down. You guys should just wrap yourselves up in bubble wrap and stay in space-hazard suits and never leave the house, that way nothing will happen. Ha-ha, live your lives, but don't have a week like this one again :) I love the emails, thanks so much for all your words of encouragement and love. I also got the package, loved it! My comp helped me eat everything except the Rolos, I told her that was something I just couldn't share ha-ha. I LOVE THOSE!!!!

To start off, I ended up naming my knitted cat: MUFASA!!! I'm kind of proud of it so I wanted to tell you guys. Okay, now the surprise of the week: I'M CURRENTLY RAISING MY SECOND BABY!!! Yeah, we got a call on Tuesday morning and Hermana Zepeda left for Casas Grandes and I am training a brand new missionary again. We packed up and in were in the mission offices in 30 minutes. I guess you could say they didn’t give us a lot of time. My companion is from Green River, Wyoming and her name is Hermana Ferrell. So, apparently the Lord thinks I speak sufficient Spanish...we are two Americans navigating the streets of Juarez and only one of us speaks Spanish ha-ha. She is really cute and just got out of high school. She is anxious to learn and is always asking for vocabulary words in the streets to memorize. She is going to be a really good missionary!!!! It was a little weird to speak in English sometimes...mine has gotten really bad. I saw Hermana Sutton in the mission office; she goes home the next transfer!!!! :( I'm so grateful for all that she did for me. I can't believe I almost have the time left that she had when I got here. I remember when I thought it was an eternity away, now time is flying!

Maria de Jesus is the cutest thing in the world. She is smiling so much now, it makes me so happy!! She is making changes, slowly but surely. I don't think she will make her baptismal date we set, but we will put a different one. I know she will be baptized. I feel the same way about her that I did about Hermana Patlan, so I know she will get baptized. Actually, a hermana in our ward said something really stupid to her about coming to church in pants and that she was lacking respect by not wearing a dress or skirt. The mother bear almost came out of me...but I refrained from pouncing on the hermana. Maria let it roll of her back and said, "I will come in a skirt when I feel like it." Really, it's not that big of a deal. We told her everyone wears skirts, but it was okay to do what she felt comfortable with. Her kids and her used to come in hoodies, and they came this week in brand new nice sweaters. Those types of things come with time; I wish people would just understand that. That's not the important part right now in the process. So please, never say dumb things to investigators!!! We went to visit her after church and she wasn't too worried about the incident with the hermana and just started talking about how much she loves the church. She got very serious for a second and asked, "Do I have sufficient faith?" We assured her that of course she did and talked about Alma 32 and how she's nurturing her faith with her prayers, by going to church, etc. She was beaming at the end. She has invited her neighbors to come to church with us next week.

So my thought for you guys is about the Atonement this week. I've been thinking a lot about it since I was memorizing that part in the end of the first half of the Living Christ this week. (Where are you all at?????) Anyways, I was also reading in True to the Faith about the Atonement. It said there that it was the most supreme demonstration of our Heavenly Father's love for us and of Christ's love for us and for the Father. We can NEVER DOUBT THAT WE ARE LOVED!!!! So yeah, come what may...my Father and Savior love me. (Oh and my family too :)). I'm so grateful for the Atonement of Christ, without Him, there is no way I could make it through a year and a half away from you guys living in Mexico. I could not make the changes that I need to make without His help. I would still probably be that bum I was when I was 14. It makes me think of the scripture in Mosiah:

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Through the Atonement, we can have support in our trials, free ourselves from sin, and become the men and women that God wants us to be!! The Gospel, the Plan, the Atonement, it's all centered in the love our Heavenly Father has for us.

I love you all so much and miss you all a lot!! Have a great week! I'm living the dream and am happy here. Keep on keeping on and have a blast! XOXOXOXOXOXO

Con todo de mi amor,

Hermana Anderton