maisie in mérida: July 6

Happy (late) independence week!

It's the week of changes! I cant believe how fast the time goes.. me and Hermana Falcon are staying the same, we are super happy about it!! but now.. we are las hermanas capacitadoras! its like zone leaders, but for the hermanas. It will be fun, and interesting because we both dont know what we will be doing. jaja a lot of trusting and using the spirit. which is always good, we grow more that way. And hermana Falcon and I get a long really well. She is such a hard worker and always has the spirit so strongly with her. shes always making me cute little cards. :) i love my compie.

The 4th here in mexico was a good one. the month of july is the month of the virgens.. which means a month of eating, drinking, and being merry :) theyre is currently a festival in the plaza of motul. its fun to see, but we try to avoid it because of all the alchohol. jaja. so every night we are dazzled by fireworks and music, on the 4th as we were walking home we bought some mariscos to celebrate! its like a crispy crepe with nutella and holland cheese. it was suppper tasty :) in the morning I was reading in 3 nephi 4, about the war of the gadianton robbers and the nephites. it was interesting to me how it related to the war of independencia. The Lords truly directed them both. it made me remember the words of one of my teachers in the mtc saying that when we share the gospel, we are setting others free from sin.. that this is the war that is raging... so let freedom ring, let the gospel be proclamed to every nation!! i love being a missionary to help others be free.

This week we had lots of tender mercies from the lord. we continue to visit with Rafael and his family.. they didnt come to church again this week.. we had a really powerful lesson yesterday as well. Helping them realize the eternal consequences of our decisions every day. It made me realize HOW IMPORTANT it is that we as parents lead out in example. WE are the teachers in the home, not the missionaries, not the sunday school teachers, but the parents teach the childeren.. i have been so blessed to have such strong parents. mom and day have been the best companionship. :)

We found Maria Valentina.. she is such a gem. she was a reference from a less active, when we went to contact her, we did our whole spill, somos misioneras.. etc and let us in RAPIDO. her little home was filled with beautiful hamacas. she has lots of different health problems. she trembles in the whole left side of her body, has a tumor, diabetes, and mucho mas. she told us that she receives all messengers of god, besides los mormones.. so when she told us that we were like ughh. what do we say? we started to explain to her why we are there and stuff like that and then told her we were los mormones, but she was like whow your a lot different than what I thought. she has had the hardest life.. her husband beats her and doesnt even live with them. her parents are both drunks, just a whole lot of things.. she cried in her pray. she didnt accept fecha, but we arent giving up on her. just helping her feel the love of god was what she needed that day.

CARMEN! she is one we found this week as well, with a very similar case.. she has had a lot of problems.. it was cool because she was actully a contact we made the first of the transfer but didnt want anything, then found her in the house of her sister and she asked US if we could visit her. we made an appt. and went. she cried to us expressing a lot of the problems that she is facing, we talked about the nature of god, the atonements so and so andout popped the question why are their so many different churches? expalined a litle bit, invited to baptizm and asked us authority?? ive never heard of that before. do i need another baptizm? we said yes :) we are excited about her.

Well lots of good things happeneing here in Motul. lots of sweating, putting our hearts on the line. I want to do this forever. :)

llove you all!!

hermana hobbs