January 25, 2016 " My First Week in Tepic"

Well this week has been one to remember. I’m not sure if that is in a good way or bad way yet. Hermana Muro and I finally found a house! Well I shouldn’t say we found it. Her Aunt Francis did by some miracle.

Our (hopefully) future apt.

 It was Saturday morning and Hna. Muro and I got out of the house early to try and find a house because we were desperate. The Hermana we are living with is named Irma. She is older and is very nice and doesn’t speak any English. She has a cute little house and a little extra room where we were able to put our mattresses on the floor. She lives in the top of our area.... and its takes about 45 min to walk down to the end of our area where everything is. There is a ton of construction on one of the roads leading to Hna. Irma’s house and its terrible.  We have to cross a busy road to get to where we need to go and there are a million dogs by Hna. Irma’s house and they think it’s fun to chase us. I can’t remember if I told you about the time Hna. Muro almost got attacked by a dog. It was before I got here. She fell down a hill trying to get away from it and had to get stitches in her head so now she is terrified of them and will jump behind me every time there is a dog. But it is mostly funny because the dogs never hurt us but she will jump behind me even if it’s the tinniest dog. haha

Huge Random Candy Store

But on the brightside there is a random huge candy story in the middle of our area. We were excited to find that.

Oh yes, so Saturday we were out looking for a house and were not having any luck until Hna. Muro’s family called her and told us they had found a house in the exact area where we wanted to live. It was by pure inspiration that Hna. Muro’s family was able to find this apartment building. There were no signs or anything. Her aunt had just asked if any of the apartments in the complex were for rent. She just asked someone on the street and they said yes the top one is and the owner lives somewhere near Ley (a grocery store) and he is a dentist. So we got in the car and drove all around to find this guy and were not having any luck until we went to his work, he wasn’t there but by his office were some other office buildings that were for sale. Francis had a feeling to call the number just to see if it was him and guess what...it was!! It all was one big miracle! The owner was telling us how he was going to put out signs that the house was for rent in a few weeks and what not.

Great bakery in Tepic

The little apartment is perfect. It’s in our price range and is all neat and clean. And not to mention in a busy part of our neighborhood and only 8 minutes walking distance from the church! We won’t have the money until tomorrow but we are praying all goes well so we can finally move in! I’m so grateful for your prayers!

We weren’t able to do a lot of teaching this week because everything was crazy trying to figure out how to do everything and not having a house... But yesterday we were able to find some less actives. There is actually only two in our whole area... ha for those who have been on or are on a mission will know what this means. We had a district class to talk about our new areas and how they were all being split up. They took the area book and started taking out all the papers and giving them to the areas they belong and no joke everyone had a huge stack of papers for the investigators, converts and the less actives. Hna. Muro and I had 7 papers. 3 were all for the same less actives and about and one of the old investigators is dead! It just made us laugh forever. So we have two members in our area and two less actives and no investigators. The two members are Hna Irma and Hna Magaly. Hna Magaly is really nice and is a mom of 3. She has a daughter our age. Hna Magaly owns a Zumba studio. She took us there because we were going to do some visits with her and she needed to grab something. It made me miss being able to actually work out... But she also owns a few houses that she rents out and she gave us a TON of references! We are excited about that since we have almost nothing. She was so helpful.

Tepic is a more wealthy area then Vallarta. So everything feels really different. The houses aren’t as small people dress a little nicer, its very different. The ward here is more organized and is excited about missionary work. There are now 9 missionaries in this one ward... Really. There are two sets of elders, a 3 some of hermanas and Hna Muro and I. It’s pretty crazy. But everyone is really nice and about half of everyone speaks some English so that’s been good. Sunday was our ward conference so I sang with the choir and Hna Muro played the piano. Quick story.

Hna. Mura learned all the hymns by the time she was 7!

Hna Muro is really good at the piano and she was telling me a story that in her ward back at home when the pianist in the ward didn’t know how to play a hymn they would ask her to play... the funny thing is she knew how to play all the hymns by time she was 7. So when an adult couldn’t play the hymns they would ask little 7 year old Hna Muro haha. Anyway, it was nice to sing and it helped us get to know everyone. The ward mission leader Hno Valdivia, is way cool. Him and his wife and his parents all actually lived in Utah for a while! But only his wife knows a little English... but they are really nice and have already helped all of us a ton... they have fed us so many times this week! They have a daughter that is getting married in the new Provo temple. They showed us her engagement pics and everything. It’s sad though because they aren’t going to be able to go to her wedding.

Our Chapel

The ward had an activity Friday that was meant for people to come and learn more about the church. They printed off 1000 cards for us to hand out with all the information and everything. Everyone set things up in all the rooms to explain what Relief Society is and so on. Everyone passed out all their cards and everyone put so much work into this activity and only 7 people showed up... and that’s only because we dragged them off the street. It was sad to see how much effort everyone put in the activity for it not to be very successful. Everyone stayed positive though and we had a little devotional after. It was still really nice.

Now to answer some questions, the ward here is a little bigger than Vallarta, there aren’t as many less active members here.

One of my pictures in Playa Larga before transfers

The area we are opening is the nicest/ richest part of Tepic which is fun to see the houses but no one is outside... so it has been harder to find people. But it is a nice area. It’s not very big at all. Everyone we have met from the ward always tells us they are mean for sending us to this area. Ha we are staying positive though we know there are people here to teach! The nights are crazy cold here and still there’s no such thing as hot water. At Hna. Irma’s house I fill a bucket with water put a water warmer thing in it and shower that way haha. Still better than a cold shower!  This week has been full of new things and has been challenging but things are starting to get back to normal and feel comfortable. Although it’s different and strange am grateful to be here in Tepic! 

-- Con amor

Hermana Acor 

"Grandma Reyes, Mom Muro and Me"