February 15, 2016 "On the Search for Committed Investigators"

Wahoo it’s P-day! This week has been pretty normal but exciting! First Happy Birthday Dad! Well, on the 9th but it’s all the same right? I hope you had a good one and you ate cake and Mexican food (;

Roxanna was baptized 3 months ago and is 14.
She wants to serve a mission so badly.
Her tag reads "Future Missionary"
She is adorable.

More and more every week I feel better here in Tepic. We have been focusing on two investigator families. The Bustamentes and Karyme and Lizuet family.The Bustamentes are a really cute family with kids. They were actually one of the only investigators that were being taught in our area before we came here. We had a really good lesson with the mom, Paty on Saturday. She opened up to us and told us how she has really bad depression problems and how she wants to find something to make her life better. I know this gospel is exactly what she needs but she and her family won’t do what we ask of them, no reading no praying, not attending church. And even on Saturday she finally agreed to church, it was such an amazing lesson. We went to pick her up Sunday morning. She was making breakfast for her kids and would meet us at the church in 5 min and we thought she really meant it... But they didn’t show up. We were pretty bummed. We aren’t sure if we are going to be able to continue teaching her. It is hard when people don’t put effort into their conversion. It’s really hard to see that this church is what people are searching for and they just won’t put the effort into finding that out for themselves.

Divisions w/ other Sisters

With Karymes and Lizuet family we are really excited. When we first found this cute little family they were outside their house and when we introduced ourselves the oldest daughter Lizuet (18) had actually had lessons from missionaries when she was 12 and agreed to have us come back. If you remember Karyme her younger sister who is 12 actually came with us two Sundays ago to church without us even having to teach her. We now have been able to teach her and her sister. At first her mom didn’t really like us coming over and wasn’t super friendly but wow so has done a total 180! She loves having us there now. She will sit and listen to the lessons and ask really good questions! She even asked us last time we were there if she invited us to have tacos if we would come. Of course that answer is yes! It was adorable. And not to mention her dad has always been on his phone when we are there and shows no interest in us at all but yesterday he asked us to tell him about the restoration and SMILED at us when we left. Hna Muro and I both were totally shocked! Ah I can just see this cute family now all being baptized. Oh that would be perfect! We will keep working with them!

Not much else has been different! Our zone leaders finally got us a fridge wahoooo! Oh on Friday we have interviews with our Mission president. Hna Muro and I were told that Hna Clayton will be coming on divisions with us after our interviews... we are pretty nervous. We are supposed to have appointments set in stone but no one here really keeps their commitments so we will see how that goes... That’s all I have for now. I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!   

Con Amor,

Hermana Acor

Our new apartment in Tepic

Thanks Jen Elmont for the
chocolate covered
cinnamon bears!

February 8, 2016 "Ups and Downs"

Tepic Cathedral

Things feel more and more normal every day here in TEPIC! I’m slowly liking everything more and more. We have a good pool of investigators and have been able to find some more Menos Activos in our área so we have been kept busy! We had a Ward talent show on Friday and oh my goodness it was so much fun! It did start an hour late which was so bad because we had an investigator family agree to come with us named the Bustamentes. We have been working really hard to try and get them to go to church. When they agreed to come to the activity and their daughter agreed to sing with the Young Women, we were so excited! We went and picked them up and Patty the mom came with all three of her kids! We felt so bad they had to wait so long for it to start we were so worried they were going to leave but they didn’t. They stayed the whole time and it was so fun! The Young Women sang a song call “Corre” that is really popular here and Hna Muro played the piano for them. Then they danced to the whip song ha! People played the guitar. The primary kids dressed up and danced to “Thriller.” The second counselor and his little boy sang a song and dressed alike. They sang “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story. The Young Men did a break dance thing it was fun. The music was really loud and all of the missionaries were like “uh can we be here” haha. It was well attended and everyone had so much fun not to mention we had tostadas after hmmmmm.

I guess I’m going backwards but Thursday was such a great day for me. I can honestly say it was one of those days where I really truly felt like a missionary. Sometimes it’s hard because of the language barrier for me to really teach and help someone but on Thursday morning we went and visited a less active, Irving. He had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and it was the greatest thing. I was understanding all of this questions and without help or anything I answered all of this questions and it just felt so good! After the lesson Hna Muro told me that I sounded so good and I said everything correctly. And honestly the rest of the day felt like I was on a spiritual high or something haha I hope I can say that. But I can honestly say it is because I had an amazing personal study. I gained an even stronger testimony that our studies really do effect our day. But of course, this amazing feeling didn’t last forever... Our entire building didn’t have water starting Friday night till this morning... it was terrible and put us both in a pretty bad mood. And then Saturday, nobody was home. Like at all. Our investigators left for the weekend so we did a lot of walking around trying to find people to at least contact. The Bustamente family promised they were going to come to church but when we went to pick them up they weren’t home.... neither was the less active that promised he was going to come. We were way bummed. And it was slow with everyone still gone. But on the brightside we got our water back this morning and we went to the Centro here in Tepic where they have a ton of places to shop and eat. And we have appointments tonight so let’s hope everyone is back from vacation! Although this week been all over the place, it has had its good and bad, but I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I hope you all have a good week!

Con amor,

Hermana Acor

February 1, 2016 "Finally Settled In!...Being blessed more and more with the gift of tongues."

So we finally have a house! We were able to move in last Tuesday by some miracle. Today though was our first day to actually being able to organize our house and fully unpack. So now everything feels so much better! Our house is super cute and is no joke 3 blocks from the church! And not to mention Dominos, it also always smells like pizza... sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes not. We basically always want pizza.

Getting ready to learn at Zone Conference
(pics from Sister Clayton)

We had an amazing zone conference on Wednesday! Hna and President Clayton are just the best in every way. Whenever they give talks or lessons I always leave feeling like I can do anything! And we had an awesome lunch. I just love gathering as missionaries. There’s just something so powerful about us being all together. And I got more packages!!! I got Jennifer Elmont’s, Grandparents Acor package and letters and Grandma Merrill’s letter! Nothing is better than packages. Its funny because whenever someone gets a package all the missionaries stand around and watch them open their package.  Everyone is always like “whoa that’s cool” or “wow what’s that?” We are all very into it. So with that said I loved everything I got! Not to mention the almost 3 pound bag of chocolate covered cinnamon bears I got from Jenn. haha.

Tepic and Santiago Zone

We also had divisions again this Friday! They were in Santiago with Hna Turitich and Hna Otazu. They are actually the only two people from Paraguay here in the mission and they are companions! Dad Hna Turitich is from Luque, Paraguay. Her ward’s name is Moroni. Did you serve anywhere near there? Anyway Santiago is about an hour and a half from Tepic so we got on a bus at around 11 am on Friday and meet them there at the bus station. Hna Muro went with Hna Otazu and I went with Hna Turitich. Oh and Hna Muro has actually been companions with both Hna Otazu and Hna Turitich so she was with three of her companions at one time! But I loved being with Hna Turitich. She was the one who I actually had divisions with my very first day in the mission! She’s one of my favorites. She knows some English but not a lot. At first I was kind of scared to be with someone who doesn’t know English but as the day went on I was more than totally fine. We were able to have good conversation and she was able to teach me even more Spanish! It helped me realize how much I really have been blessed with the gifts of tongues. Because 3 months ago I didn’t know any Spanish and now I can talk and understand natives! Now that’s cool.

Cleaning up the church after training

As far as investigators go we have some that were a reference from a sister in our ward. The one who is progressing the most is Celia. She’s really open to listening to us and wants to find a religion. She loves everyone. We have tried to teach her twice and have spent a lot of time at her house but we haven’t been able to really teach a lesson because oh my goodness she loooooves to talk. She has a lot of amazing experiences and miracles that have happened in her life and it’s amazing. But we need to help her realize that our message is what is really goning change and bless her life. We have been praying a lot to find a way to tell her that nicely. OHHHH and we had an investigator come to church on Sunday!!! Her name is Karyme and she is 12. We actually haven’t taught her yet but she really wanted to go to church so she came! The sad thing though is she doesn’t understand me at all when I try and talk with her.... It really does depend on the person I guess. I have had investigators tell me I speak good Spanish and others who turn to Hna Muro and ask her what I just said. I like the ones who can understand me (;

Time to go catch the bus back home,
You can barely see me in the back.

Our ward has an activity this week on Friday it’s a talent show! All the missionaries are preparing something I think Hna Muro and I are going to sing “Come unto Christ” but in Spanish. Hna Muro translated it. It’s really pretty and I almost have it memorized cause we sing it so much. Karyme wants to join the Young women in their activity so wahooo! This week has been so much better. we are finally starting to get organized! It only took 3 weeks. (: We are more excited with this new area as we see more and more opportunities to teach. I love this gospel and I love this mission! 

Con amor,

Hermana Acor