Sadie Peine's LDS Mission to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico: Missionary Search and Rescue Party

Our backyard/ pond in the rain

Unplugging the drain to keep the house from flooding

This week was great! I love being a missionary:) These experiences we get to live are unlike any other. We had quite the surprise this week, as we became on the wards lost and found list...

So last Friday we came back to the house as usual at 9:00 p.m. and planned until 9:30. After planning our district leader always calls us at 9:30 to check up on us and talk about our day. So we sat by the phone and waited for him to call. 15 minutes went by and he hadn't called so we talked and made dinner as we kept waiting for him to call. 10:00 came around and he still hadn't called. "Maybe he forgot us?" we said. But since that had never happened before we both knew it was very unlikely! As 10:30 came around it was time for bed so we laid down in bed and I checked the phone one last time to make sure we didn't have any missed phone calls. As the phone lit up I noticed something...we didn't have any service! "Oh no," I told my companion, "that explains why he hasn't called us, we don't have any service. He's probably pretty worried about us." Since there wasn't anything we could do we decided we would go to sleep and see if we had service to call him in the morning. We were fast asleep when 12:00 came around and I heard strange noises from outside. As I opened my eyes and woke up a little bit I realized someone was tapping on the window and calling "Hermanas, missionaries!" I got out of bed and walked over to the window to see what was going on. We live in a 2 story house and we sleep up stairs so I opened up the curtains to look down on the ground and see who was knocking on the front door downstairs. To my surprise I heard the voice again calling for us and realized it was right next to my ear. I turned my head to see a young man in the window looking at me. I jumped and gasped waking up my companion who also screamed out of surprise. "Hey, we're here with the bishop," he said. I looked down to see a group of 6 or 7 people gather around until sure enough I saw the bishop standing there. "Come down" he yelled to us. So we both got up and stumbled down the stairs. "What is going on?" My companion asked me. "I have no idea," I told her. We opened up the door as the group of people sighed in relief. "Thank goodness you're o.k." They said. As I looked at them closer I realized they were all members, the bishop, his counselors and their wives with a few others. "What's going on?" I asked. "Your leader is very worried about you two," they said. He has been calling you since 9:30 and says your phone goes straight to voicemail, we've all tried calling and it does the same." "Oh," I said, "That's because we don't have any service." They all looked down at their cell phones and they didn't have any service either. "Your leader is very worried," they said. "He's called the assistants, the mission president and both the bishops from our ward and the other ward. He called us and sent us here to see if you are o.k.' "Yeah we're doing great" I told them. "We've been in the house fast asleep the whole time." They all laughed. "But why did you have to have Adam climb up the house to tap on our window?" I asked. "You almost gave us a heart attack!" "We spent 10 minutes knocking on the front door and yelling for you but you never heard us," they told us, "And we had to make sure you were there to see if you were o.k." We both laughed. "It was a long day of work and we were so deep asleep we didn't hear anything." After laughing about it we decided we should call our District leader and tell him everything was o.k. So we walked out to the corner in our pajamas until we had service to call him. He was so relieved to hear our voices and know we were o.k. that I thought he was going to cry. We explained everything that had happened and that we were o.k. and just didn't have service. We then said goodbye to all the members and thanked them all for worrying and checking up on us and went back to bed at what felt like 3 a.m. missionary time! It was quite the event.

Cutting lemons for lunch

We were also able to witness several beautiful miracles this past week that I am very grateful for. It was such a great week! I am so thankful for all of the love and support we receive as missionaries. Thank you all for all that you do. You guys are so great!

I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Paini