This Week I Got Proposed To!

This week was great!  I had quite the surprise this week when I got proposed to... I found out this week that one of the people from the mountain group fell in love with me.  I don't know how because I have only talked to him once.  Anyways, he recorded a video for me telling me that he was in love with me and that he wanted to marry me.  He told me several things saying that he loved me and wanted me to be his wife and that he was willing to wait for my answer.  I saw his video and then yesterday on Sunday he confronted me in church and asked me what my answer was.  I think it was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life, because I am a missionary!  We told him no and that as missionaries we are not here for that and we can't even talk or think about that right now.  He seemed to be pretty sad but I think he will be o.k.







We had a great zone meeting with our mission president this week and went to the temple with our zone afterwards.  It was an amazing experience.  I love the temple so much and I am very grateful for every experience I have to go as a missionary!

The news this week is that we have transfers.  I am being transferred to a new area.  I don't know anything about it but I'm sure it's a great area.  I will miss Chiapa de Corzo and my companion very much but I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me.  I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Paini

A new village we are teaching in

Note from Laurel (Mom):

Sadie had to fill out some essays and send them to me for colleges she is applying to in January.  I was so impressed with what she wrote in one of the essays I wanted to put it on her blog.  The question was, "What is one of the most difficult things you have ever done or experienced?"  This was Sadie's answer. "One of the most difficult yet rewarding things I have ever done has been leaving my family, home, work, and schooling behind for 18 months of dedicated service to the Lord.  Serving in the Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico mission has given me the chance to experiment and learn from opposition.  Various physical trials such as typhoid fever, salmonella poisoning, several bacterial infections, and an epidemic called Chikungunya have tried me more than I ever thought I was capable of withstanding.  However, in the midst of my tirals I have been able to learn one of the greatest lessons I have ever been taught which is to put my complete trust in the will of the Lord.  My experiences have served as life long lessons that I will forever treasure.  One of the most valuable things I have learned is how to put my temporal needs and emotions such as hunger, tiredness and pain behind in order to dedicate all of my heart might and mind to serving others.  I have learned that I can truly make a differnence in others lives.  I have learned how to lead as well as to follow.  I have learned to love perfect strangers and care for their progression.  By changing the lives of those around me I have in turn changed my life as well.  I know that I can be a force for good as I act instead of being acted upon.  I now know that I can make a difference!"

I never even knew Sadie had chikungunya.  She never mentioned it in her letters.  Apparently it was a disease that caused lots of pain and a high fever.  I wonder what else she has never told us?

Independence Day in Mexico

This week Mexico had it's day of Independence and we celebrated it by having a ward party called Mexican night.  We all dressed in red, white and green, Mexico's national colors and the hermanas from the relief society did a traditional dance, the quorum of elders sang and the primary put on a little program.  It was a great turnout and several investigators showed up and seemed to really enjoy it.

We had another activity this week as a zone.  The activity was a chapel open house for a chapel in Tuxtla that was newly re-opened after being under construction.  It was also a great turnout.  Several investigators showed up and all of us full time missionaries put on a program of the plan of salvation and then separated into classes for a question and answer session.  It was a really neat experience to hear their questions and be able to answer them bringing them hope and happiness that we have of the knowledge that families can be together for eternity and that we will be able to see those we love again after death.

I have been studying a lot this week about self-mastery, how we can have control over ourselves and put off the natural man.  It is a great study topic and I have learned so much.  We currently have an investigator named Bartolo who makes us study harder to give more in depth classes.  He has read the entire book of mormon, Jesus the Christ, and the Miracle of Forgiveness.  It is always great to talk to him and learn from him as well in our lessons.

It was a great week and I'm grateful for the chance I had to live it.  I'm happy to be alive, happy to be a missionary and happy to have this gospel in my life!

I love you guys and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Paini

                                    The new way of praying

  

My companions attempt at the new way of praying

Book of Mormon Miracles

This week was awesome!  I lost my voice for the first time ever due to a cold and couldn't talk for 3 days.  Teaching lessons and planning was fun... my companion had to listen closely as I whispered my ideas in planning session.  We were both very grateful when my voice finally came back:)

Yesterday we had the great opportunity of going to the re-dedication of the Mexico City, Mexico temple.  It was such a beautiful experience!  It was also fun to see Henry B. Eyring and Jeffrey R. Holland speak a little bit of Spanish:)

We also had a really great lesson this week with a family that are less actives.  We taught them about how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of our souls.  We used an example by letting them choose a question they had and we showed them the answers to their question by reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon.  Their question was, "Why does God allow so much suffering and wickedness?"  We read about it in 2 Nephi 2.  It was a powerful lesson that the spirit taught each one of us as we read.  After seeing how the chapter answered their questions they had a sincere burning desire to study the Book of Mormon.  It is very true what it says in Preach my Gospel that the Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is the best tool that can be used for true conversion.  I love the Book of Mormon and am so grateful for all the sacrifices that so many made in order for us to have it. Through daily study it is truly a book that changes people and changes lives.

I hope you all have a great week.... and don't forget to read your Book of Mormon.  You can't imagine how many answers inside those pages are waiting for you!

Love, Hermana Paini

Yay!! Little Ceasar's Pizza for the second time this year!

Missionary dinner.....fast and easy!

The Rescue

This week was so great!  We did an activity this week called "Al Rescate,"  which in English I think would translate to "The Rescue."  It was an activity that we did with the 6 of us sister missionaries in the zone in the area of the sisters in our district are opening an area.  The idea of the activity is that we can contact and find more people for them to teach.  We all met together in the park that is in their area and one of the sisters, Hermana Cook, played her violin while we sang church hymns.  Several people gathered around to listen to us and after each song we were able to contact them and take down their names and addresses so that the sisters would visit them.  It was a great activity and turned out to be quite the success!

This week we also had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know a new investigator named Maria Esperanza.  She is an older lady who has had a very hard life.  She grew up as an orphan since her parents abandoned her at a young age.  She had 11 children but only 8 of them survived.  Two of her children still live with her.  They are beautiful, disable adults at the ages of 35 and 27.  They cannot talk but understand well and are very attentive in the lessons we teach.  On Saturday Maria Esperanza was very sick when we went to teach her.  We sang her a hymn and said a prayer for her and then they took her to the hospital.  She has a tumor so they gave her some medicine for the pain and sent her back home.  Yesterday morning when we went to check on her to see how she was doing, she seemed to be feeling a little better.  She was laying in her bed in her church clothes and told us that she wanted more than anything to go to church but that she couldn't walk because of the pain in her leg.  So we called a taxi to come pick us up and take her to church and her wish was granted.  Her two children that live with her were also able to accompany us and they all seemed to really enjoy it.  After church she told us she was so grateful for the opportunity she had to attend and said that she hoped she would be feeling better next week to be able to walk to church.  She is such a great example and I have learned so much from her!

I hope you all have a great week!  I love you guys.

Love, Hermana Paini

An Instrument in the Lord's Hands

Well, I don't know where it went...but this week was sure great!  The members here have been working so great with us this past week.  They have been giving us several references of people that they know and love and accompany us to the appointments with them.  It has been awesome!  There is such a difference between a lesson with a member present than a lesson without.  There is a part in Preach my Gospel that says, "The ideal solution is when members invite others to be taught and our present for the teaching.  When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the church.  It is very true, there is a higher level of success in the work when we work with the members!

We also have been focussing a lot on re-activating less actives lately.  There is a story that we have used to motivate us and the members to work on a re-activation and never give up.  The story talks about an inactive young man who used to surf.  He would pend his time on Sundays surfing instead of going to church.  However, the ward assigned a member to reactivate him and bring him back to church.  Here is the story......

As a member of the branch presidency in Fortaleza, Brazil, Brother Marques with the other 

priesthood leaders developed a plan to reactivate those who were less active in his branch. One of those who was less active was a young man by the name of Fernando Araujo. 

Recently I spoke to Fernando, and he told me of his experience:
“I became involved in surfing competitions on Sunday mornings and stopped going to my

Church meetings. One Sunday morning Brother Marques knocked on my door and asked 

my nonmember mother if he could talk to me. When she told him I was sleeping, he asked 

permission to wake me. He said to me,‘Fernando, you are late for church!’ Not listening to 

my excuses, he took me to church.
“The next Sunday the same thing happened, so on the third Sunday I decided to leave early to avoid him. As I opened the gate I found him sitting in his car, reading the scriptures. 

When he saw me he said, ‘Good! You are up early.Today we will go and find another young man!’ I appealed to my agency, but he said, ‘We can talk about that later.’
“After eight Sundays I could not get rid of him, so I decided to sleep at a friend’s house. 

I was at the beach the next morning when I saw a man dressed in a suit and tie walking 

towards me. When I saw that it was Brother Marques, I ran into the water. All of a sudden, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. It was Brother Marques, in water up to his chest! He 

took me by the hand and said, ‘You are late! Let’s go.’ When I argued that I didn’t have any clothes to wear, he replied, ‘They are in the car.’
“That day as we walked out of the ocean, I was touched by Brother Marques’s sincere love and worry for me. He truly understood the Savior’s words: ‘I will seek that which was lost, 

and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and 

will strengthen that which was sick’ (Ezek.34:16). Brother Marques didn’t just give me a ride to church the quorum made sure I remained active. They planned activities that made me 

feel needed and wanted, I received a calling, and the quorum members became my 

friends.”
Following his reactivation, Brother Araujo went on a full time mission and has served as 

bishop, stake president, mission president, and regional representative. His widowed 

mother, three sisters, and several cousins have also entered the waters of baptism.

I love you guys!

Love, Hermana Paine