My Farewell Party

This week was so great!  We started off the week in Tuxtla where we had a leadership council meeting with our mission president and the assistants.  The zone leaders along with the sister training leaders from all the zones in the mission met together and we received inspired council for our zones.  We were instructed on how to be better teachers and to teach with the spirit.  It was a great meeting!

After the leadership council with president we were sent out to teach and apply what we had learned with our zones.  We held our zone conference on Wednesday and instructed our missionaries on what our president had taught us.  It went very well and was very successful!  Wednesday night the branch here gave me a farewell party in the chapel.  They set up tables and tied balloons to all of the chairs as we all sat and gathered around together.  It was quite the turnout.  Just about the entire branch came!  We had a little dinner and the members thanked me for my love and service.  I am so grateful for them, they are such great people!

On Sunday we were able to attend the tempe dedication of the Mexico Tijuana temple that was broadcasted in Tuxtla at our stake center.  It was such a beautiful service!  President Uctdorf spoke along with Gordon B. Hinkley's son who is the president of the Tijuana temple and his wife.   The spirit was so strong!  It was such a great experience and I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be a part of it!  We have been working so hard this week and I have been loving every minute of it!  I think that one of my favorite days this week was the day that we taught 11 lessons!  It was a great day and a record broken for the most lessons taught in one day:)  Being a missionary is the best!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Paini

His Gift to US!

This week was awesome!  I learned and grew a lot this week.  We had our mission Christmas activity which was very beautiful.  We had a talent show in the morning that everyone participated in.  My district put on a skit demonstrating the day in the life of a missionary on Christmas day.  My part in the skit was the missionaries exercise routine in the morning.  We acted  out as if I was teaching them zumba and they attempted to follow me.  I did a lot of gymnastics and some stretches and they followed after me...it was hilarious!  Afterwords the elders in our zone did a dance that hermana Martinez and I choreographed.  Wow, I have not laughed so hard in a long time...it was so funny!  After the talent show we had our combined zone conference which was my favorite part of it all!  As the assistants counseled us on Christ-like attributes and what we can give to Christ this Christmas I felt the spirit so strong!  They also talked about the gift that our Savior has given us and passed around a wrapped box for us to open and look at and ponder at what it is that he has given us.  As we each opened up the box we found a mirror inside and saw our reflection looking back at us.  The gift that he gave us is our life.  They asked us to ponder on the following questions: How long did the Lord spend in making me?  As a creation made from the hands of a perfect being how much is my value?  What can I become in this life?  While I reflected on these questions I felt the spirit so strongly in knowing how much meaning being a child of God holds and how infinite and limitless my potential truly is. That I have the potential to become as the perfect being who created me.

This gospel is truly a message of so much happiness!  When one comes to the understanding of where they came from, what their purpose in this life is and where they can go after death a new light of hope enters into their life.  Similarly, the message of Christmas is a joyful one.  That a Savior was born 2015 years ago and he lived and he died.  But he lives again!  I invite each one of you to think of what you would like to give him this Christmas, it can be a changed heart or service to your fellow men, it doesn't matter what the gift is.  But when it comes from the heart as did the treasures from the wise man, it is the best that we have to give!  I love you guys and I hope you have the best week yet!  Give him your gift and see the joy that comes from it!

Love, Hermana Paini

Minor Surgery

What a great week it was.  Nothing went as we had planned this week, but the Lord's plans are always so much better than ours!

I had a little accident this week while we were in Tuxtla, I stubbed my in-grown toenail, which has been in-grown and infected for over 3 months now, very hard on a big rock.  We were with a big group of people at the time so I couldn't scream and jump up and down so I just stood still in silence while tears filled my eyes.  As I leaned over and told my companion what had happened she looked at me and said, "Oh no" and wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly because she knew how much pain I was in.  The group of people we were with also noticed what was going on and let me sit in their car and put my foot up and they gave me a paper towel to soak up all the blood coming out of my toe.  As the taxi dropped us off at the house we got out to walk inside.  As we were in a trio for the companion exchanges we were doing at the time with my companion and I along with a sister in our zone I had two people to help me hobble into the house.  My companion let me use her foot to step on top of in order for my bare foot not to touch the ground and hermana Lopez, the sister we were with put her arm around my waist and let me use her to lean on.  As soon as we walked through the door one of them ran to get me a chair to sit on and another to put my foot up while the other filled a bucket of water up to heat so I could soak my foot.  A bit later in the week I was able to be operated on.  As my companon is a certified doctor she was able to help the doctor who did the operation.  Another missionary who had recently had surgery and was recovering in the mission home let me squeeze her hands while they put shots in my feet and worked on them.

I have felt so much love and support this week from so many people.  I am grateful for the kind hands of all those who cared for me.  My mission president and his wife were also so good to us to care for us and let us stay in the mission home while I was recovering and took us out to eat.  I have felt so loved this week!

I am also able to start walking a little bit this week so we are very excited about that. Yay!  Missionary work is the best :)  I love you guys, have a great week!

Love Hermana Paini