I LOVE Being a Missionary!

Hola Familia!!!!

How are you all? Hope all is going well! So I am here in Mesa and I am absolutely loving it. I am serving in the Mesa Stake, Liahona 3 branch (It used to be a ward, but yesterday they split it into 2 branches). I live RIGHT outside the temple. Like one house down from it. The temple is SO gorgeous.   

So my companion's name is Hna. Leon. She is seriously the greatest. She is from Utah but her parents are from Mexico, so her Spanish is really good (thank goodness!) She is a Visitor's Center (VC) sister, but right now she is full-field since she is with me. So actually she has only been out for one transfer. Can you believe that? She's been out for 6 weeks only and now she is training me! She is soooo great though We are having a lot of fun trying to figure this out together :). We live in a little house right behind a member's house and 2 other sisters live with us - Sister Demille and Sister Mayorca.

So guess what? Haha we don't have a car and we are riding bikes! Its really not that bad. Its kinda fun. And I've only fallen off once so far hahaha! (last night... embarassing). The heat really isn't bad. The only bad thing is that we are ALWAYS sweaty and have helmet hair, so we never look nice. (The sweat is giving me some lovely acne too...) And I am always thirsty. You can't drink the tap water here because it tastes HORRIBLE (worse than Utah x10000) and some say that it can make you sick. But its nice because people always offer us some at their houses. 

It was like a monsoon outside! Pouring rain! So we got to ride our bikes through the pouring rain and of course run through a few puddles too.

Okay... Spanish is hard. People talk fast and use words that I don't know. Normally I can at least understand what the conversation is about. I am trying my best to contribute! People usually know at least a little English too if I really need help. But it’s really going pretty well! People tell me I speak really well for how long I've been out. There's just SO many people to meet and keep track of and lots of things to remember and keep organized. Hna Leon and I have really been trying to organize and get things in order so that we can use our time efficiently. There's A LOT of work to do here. About 2/3 of the branch is inactive I think (but I guess a lot of people moved back to Mexico but there records are still here). We have a few investigators right now. I haven't gotten to know them super well yet. Most of them feel more comfortable talking to Hna Leon because they know her and she knows Spanish ha ha but I'm trying to be outgoing, friendly, and helpful.

This week we also worked with a few recent converts. Rene, Omar, and Carolina. They are all sooo sweet and so faithful! It is really cool to see their strength. There's so much that they still don't understand about the gospel, but they feel so blessed to have this in their lives and they know that it is the truth. They all have a lot of hard things going on in their lives right now, but they are striving their best to follow God.

Rene, in gray, and Omar, orange, & niece and nephew!  I kept having to ask if they were just really excited about the gospel or if they were just laughing at my Spanish I'm pretty sure it was the Spanish!

This is at the Naumann's house. They are basically like our grandparents. They are so great. They help a lot with investigators and all the missionary work. They are stake missionaries. But with the ward split, we lost them to the other ward :( They literally just live right across the streeet! But anyways, they breed dogs, so they have 2 week old pupppies right now! I died!

Us with Sister Naumann! She is the sweetest!

God is really sustaining me in this work. He gives me all that I need. I see His hand in my life every single day. I LOVE being a missionary. There's nothing else I would rather be doing right now. Even though we are hot, sweaty, thirsty, exhausted, we are SO happy! We are soooo blessed! I love these people here so much. 

Okay well, I think that's all. It's been such a great week and I love this work so much. I know that this is the work of God and I just pray that I can do all that He wants me to do. Remember to pray and study diligently - it really makes all the difference! I really know this is God's gospel. I really, really know that. The people here have SO many questions, and it just breaks my heart that I have had this knowledge my whole life, and these people want to know, but they just never knew where to look. Don't take this gospel for granted! We are sooooo blessed! (Share it with everyone :) ). 

Love you all and I'm always praying for you! Stay happy and stay strong! 

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes