First week in Esperanza

HEY!

So, this first week in Esperanza has been amazing! 

My Zone is just the Esperanza companions so we run into everyone a lot since we share most of the area of the Esperanza Barrio. There's three main places- Esperanza, Alemeda, and Villa Bonita. 

Most of our investigadors are in Esperenanza but we have a few in Alemeda and some awesome references we're going to visit this week in Villa Bonita.

I'm so excited and just absolutely loving it here. I have also found out that- no surprise really- I love love love contacting! It's so awesome to just talk to people especially about Jesus Christ. The people here are also really open so that's awesome. 

We have two investidagors this week I'm super excited about. One of them is named Maria. We met her while we were lost while trying to find the house where we were going to eat for lunch, and well, my sense of direction is awful and Hermana Rubio didn't know the member who we were eating with so we were just kind of walking along asking people if they knew where the address was. I'm sure it was pretty funny becasue we probably just looked lost, and there was a woman kind of walking the same direction as us also looking lost, and she asked if we knew where the Papeleria was and thankfully, Hermana Rubio knew and so we walked her there. All the whil ewe were talking and of course, people ask where I'm from and why guerrita is in Mexico, and one thing lead to another and she was telling us that she had been to a lot of different churches but always felt like soemting was missing. and so we we're obviosuly super excited becasue this is someone the Lord had put in our path. So far, we've only taught her one lesson, but I invited her to be baptized and she said yes! I am so incedribly grateful to the Lord for allowing me to participate in this work because I love being able to share my testimony every sigle day, multiple times a day. And also, teaching real people is somehow less stressful than the practice teachigs in the MTC. 

The other investigador I'm super escited about is Isabel. She's the daughter of Maria, and we talked to her while we were out and about and decided to drop by and see if Maria was there. She wasn't but her daughter was and Isabel is super awesome as well. She was super open to talking to us and gave us water which was much appreciated, I could feel the spirit so strongly when we were talking to her, it was awesome. Also, which is kind of fun, Isabel's son, Jesus, is trying to learn English but needs some practice because in his class only the teacher talks and he needs to pass an english class to get into the university and well, I happen to be a native speaker and my companion speaks english really well and so we're going to help him out a bit. Unfortunately, this pat weeken he got really, really sick and it was bad. But, we called the Elders and they gave him a blessing, so he's ging to be okay. We're going tomorrow to see them and teach them some more. 

I absolutely love this work, guys. This is so amazing and it's only the first week! I can't believe I get to spend another 16 or so months doing this. And granted, it's also my first week and that means I haven't faced too many moments of sadness and rejection, but hey I've alreay ran into and tried to contact somewhere around 5 Jehovah's witnesses and a man who thought he was an apostle so I guess we'll see. Also, Jenson's right, they do talk a bit weird here and so every one in a while I have no idea what they're saying. There's one recent convert we visit that even my companion has trouble understanding. Usually I can keep up okay though, so that's nice. Thank you Latino district becasue most people right off the bat think I have more time on my mission than I do, just based off my spanish. 

I love you guys!! 

Con mi amor eterno,

Hermana Rawlings