Beatboxing and speaking Spanish in my sleep

HEY.

About five months later, I would like to revise my definition of Mexico. Mexico is:

Yelling street vendors. Huge stray dogs. A million different smells at once, all with an undertone of "sewer." Pastel and neon-colored boxy houses. Corn. Spicy powder on literally everything. Humidity. Lizards. Jesus on the cross in every available space. Shrines for the Virgin on every corner. Silver teeth. Raw chicken being sold everywhere you look. Drunk guys who band together, never shower, and sleep on the sidewalk all day every day. Loud music that is always playing. Newspapers with a front page that consists of a dead person and porn. Fresh juice, always. Soup before every single meal. Peaches and mango as dessert. Out-houses. Soccer. Bright lipstick. That one area you avoid because it's where some select members of the town always go to the bathroom. Oxxo instead of 7-11. Mazapán, peanut. Margarine, not butter. Shoe-shiners. Tamales on-the-go (being pedaled around on a bike). Combies and camiones. Rice with bananas. Mole. Tortilla machines, stacks of tortillas wrapped in brown paper. Whole families, grandparents cousins and all, living together in one or two rooms. Everyone smoking. Master house painters. Awful soap operas. Tacos al pastor. Pay phones. Catholic by tradition. Everyone sleeping in late every day because school starts in the afternoon. Cheetos, Doritos, and Fritos that are 100% different than in the states, different flavors and different textures. Lala milk. People opening their window to talk instead of coming to the door. Never ever carpet, always concrete. Businesses that attempt to have an English name (who wants to head over to "Cute Girl?":). Motorcycles that stop for no one. No traffic laws. Little tiny 7-11-type stores literally every 3 or 4 houses that have the exact same selection of chips and drinks. Oranges always on-hand. Clothes drying on the rooftops. School uniforms. Bakeries, bakeries, bakeries. Little family-owned paper stores. Piñatas for every occasion. I LOVE IT. It's my home now, crazy as that is! Also, this week was better! We didn't spend tons and tons of time contacting because people kept a lot more of their commitments - we taught a lot of solid lessons this week. Some highlights:

Tuesday, Hermana Bravo told me in the morning that I was speaking Spanish, laughing way hard, and BEATBOXING in my sleep. No, she didn't use that exact word...but she demonstrated. Also, I remember I was dreaming something about being a rapper, so makes sense... Also, we taught Ernesto a few times, and he surprised us all by asking about serving a mission! Keep in mind, this is a kid who told us he didn't believe in God only a few weeks ago... I ate food de Argentina with a member, super good. Hermana Bravo found a Woody doll in the street and kept it, and the funniest thing I heard all week was when she randomly said in English "I love you, Woody" in the sweetest voice in the world. Also, she had a really random funny moment when we were contacting some soccer-playing niños, and she kept poking the kid in the chest and talking about how 'special' his jersey was, jejejeje. Saturday was, of course, dedicated to getting people to church, and in a moment of discouragement I was praying SO hard that the next lady we were going to visit would, by some miracle, accept, even though she didn't seem very likely. Well, she did, and she's now progressing! She even through into her acceptance that she loves listening to me speak Spanish and she feels something really special when she listens. A guy told me this week that I have a French-sounding Spanish accent, and also for about the 5th time someone asked if I was from Germany. Here I am, love me. Here's the low-down on our progressing investigators:

Estefania, has a baptismal date, but might not be able to come to church next week...please pray that she will! She's awesome, even went out a bought herself a dress for church yesterday!

Ernesto, pray that we can arrive at the point where he will be ready to consider baptism this week.

Liliana, pray that she'll open up to us and give church another chance, because she wasn't thrilled about it the first time.

Marcos and Isabella - our miracle, the family that's always excited to see us and gathers the family to talk. Pray that they'll continue reading the Book of Mormon and that they'll make it to church this week!

Saul, pray that he'll answer the phone, that we'll make contact with him and that he'll recognize our invitation for what it is. He's a little depressed because the returned missionary in the ward he wanted to marry is getting married to someone else...

Hilaria, pray that her kids will get excited to come to church this week, because they're the key!

Maria Guadelupe, pray that she'll realize that this is the right path for her family to take, and most importantly, THEY'LL FOLLOW IF SHE LEADS. 

Sorry for my email last week being a bit of a downer! This mission is a crazy, cool thing, and I realize that heartache is an inevitable part of it. I want you all to know that I'm trying my best. I'm so far from perfect, but slowly but surely I'm becoming better, I'm becoming stronger. I love you all so much. I know that this is the church, this is the organization, in which God wants us to be. I've said it many times, it's a piece of His kingdom on the Earth. I love it, I love my Savior, I love my mission, I love you all so very much. Have the best week!

Beeeeg Keeees, Leeeeeeetle Keeeeees

Hermana LeSueur

Man, I miss my girl-- but she sure loves MEXICO!!!

Restoration

Hey all!

So. This week was hard. Super hard! Haha, it's one of those times where we completely wear ourselves out physically and emotionally every single day, and at the end of it, the people just don't want to accept. I think we had the record of lessons falling through this week, so that was sad, but we did find lots of new people for this week. The Familia Ledesma was a bit of a let-down, because we literally had the whole ward praying for them, and we visited and taught and the mom suddenly starting ranting to us about how she doesn't believe in God! It was so weird and random and sad and we tried our best but they're not progressing. Weird and random and a bit sad pretty much describes the week - so many not-fun surprises, like we had a super awful lesson with some recent converts that spouted from the mom asking some hard questions about the sacrament and then in response my companion asked if she had a testimony of Joseph Smith and the mom and my companion ended up super offended and it was just so sad because they're my favorite family! our other family of recent converts forgot about our lesson, and we always look forward to our lesson with them every week, so that was sad too. We worked all week with the awesome and baptism-ready Estefania and confirmed about five times that she was going to meet us in Puerta 3 to go to church with us on Sunday, and we went and she never showed up! These are just a few of the not-so-fun things that happened this week that really just caught us off-guard. I'm learning so much about PATIENCE, quite honestly. Sometimes we just have to "wait on the Lord." Of course there are lots of things we can improve and we're working on lots of goals, but at the same time I can truly say I gave it my all this week and for that I know that Heavenly Father will bless us. Please pray for Estefania, Saul, Annie, Maria Guadelupe, and the boyfriend and son of another recent convert, Brenda, who we're teaching also. I can't believe I left home six months ago! I officially have less than a year left. I love you all, I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I can feel myself changing for the better, and even better I can see the people we're teaching changing for the better. That's just what living the Gospel does. I know it's true. I had a cool spiritual experience this week - my companion and I decided that we were going to convert each other - that is, teach each other from square one AS missionaries, as us, with our own needs and problems. this morning, Hermana Bravo taught me the rest of the Restoration and I couldn't help but start bawling as she was explaining that I COULD KNOW FOR MYSELF through the Spirit if these things were true. I've received the answer so many times, but yet again, I felt that inexplicable feeling of happiness. I remembered the moment after my baptism, when all my silly little-girl anxieties melted away and i felt that same undeniable feeling. I've probably said it before, because i say it all the time, but I encourage you all to ASK. Again. And again. AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE, every time. I love this church. I love it, and I know that it's a slice of God's kingdom on the Earth. It's where He wants us to be. I love you ALL SO MUCH, have a safe and happy week!

bEEEG Keeees Lieeeetle Keeees

Hermana LeSueur

Emma's new zone.  Our Stake President's niece is in her zone!

Just a little note to me from Emma that I thought was cute:

oh, momma, thanks so much for worrying...i definitely got your letter! and i loved it! i printed it and read it over and over on my bed while my companion slept a bit until we went out to work again (6 o clock we go out to work on p-day, i bet that's the same as your mission?) 

i still haven't gotten my package or my Christmas card, but thank you so much in advance! if you could send me the Christmas card digitally i would love it! mom i'm sorry things can be hard with being stake young women president. like you said awhile ago, though, it makes me feel closer to you that we're doing hard things together! this week we were asked to go help the stake young women's president with an activity where we had to teach the girls how to be missionaries. she told us to show up way too early so we helped her set up and do the food and such and it was so funny to be helping with stuff like that...i was just thinking about you and your calling and all the fun activities i know you've already done! with about a minute's notice i had to play the piano in front of everyone and explain how to be a missionary to your inactive family. it's so funny how i can just do that kind of stuff without batting an eye, now. every day i'm called upon to do the scariest things, but i just do them and things work out fine! i'm definitely progressing in so many ways, and for that i am grateful, and i know you are too momma!
it's so funny because that's exactly what's always been scary for me and i literally do things like the piano and speaking thing like 20 times a day! and it's purely my calling, quite honestly...it's purely the strength of the lord. i was telling my companion this morning how it's funny that i was nervous to get baptized because i would be in front of people and now i'm a missionary! it's crazy what the mission does for you! 

364 days to keep watching and learning

My family. My sweet, sweet family!

First of all, I love you SO SO much, and I miss you. Seriously. Second: as of yesterday, I have exactly 365 (364, now) days left in my misión. NOW begins my year! Is that crazy or what? I guess you could say "see ya in a bit!" - which is scary. So much to do in these 365 days! No doubt it will be some of the craziest 365 days of my life. The most unique. The most FULL. The days that will change me and shape my life.

Okay, so as of this week, we have collected a pretty solid investigator pool, almost solely from contacting in the Street! We have lots of faith. We've been finding tons of new people every day, and it makes me so happy to see my full planner!

Here are a few who are progressing:

Galilea is an awesome 14-year-old girl who's been praying about the Book of Mormon and feels she hasn't received her answer  She's coming to church this Sunday

Estefanía is a 22-year-old single mom who has a baptism date! She's a reference from some other missionaries, and she's great. We had some really good lessons with her this week. The thing is, somehow we lost contact with her yesterday and Saturday, we went to pick her up for church and she wasn't there. Weird.

Hilaria is a single mom also, of two Little girls who LOVED going to church with us. She patiently listens but isn't completely open, especially to something that's not the Bible.

Patricia is a Young mom of two, a Street contact who's really quiet but way nice. The problema is, she just barely got ajob that makes it hard to listen to us. She has the desire though, and told us she's willing to meet with us even if it has to be a bit late or a bit early. We have high hopes.

Maria Guadelupe also has two daughters. She's been to church four times now, and we've taught her everything. She doesn't want to be baptized. I think she wants her whole family to be  baptized with her, and they don't want to, so she feeds us all sorts of excuses every lesson.

Familia Ledesma - the miracle of the week! They were a Street contact as well. We were teaching with a member, we finished a lesson late and decided to see if possibly the appointment we made with Joseline and Adriana Ledesma was serious. They were waiting, along with the dad. The Spirit was SO strong. We almost immediately began lesson one. I decided to tell them to close their eyes as I recited the first visión, and when they opened up their eyes after I could see a change. The member we had with us testified, and it was super powerful. We are SO excited for this family!

So there you have it, a few of our investigators we're excited about. If you could keep them in your prayers I would be forever grateful, along with our investigator Saul who had a baptism date and has now decided he's too afraid of what his family will think if he gets baptized and doesn't want to follow through. I'm loving Palmas and my sweet companion. I have never felt such great joy in my life! I have seen the change this Gospel can make in the lives of our brothers and sisters, and I'm so grateful that I have 364 more days to keep watching and learning. I love you all!

Beeeeeg Keeeees, Leeeeeeetle Keeeeees

Hermana LeSueur

Since she didn't send any pictures, here is a pre-mission picture that I LOVE of her.  What a beauty inside and out!

REALLY Ready

Hello from Palmas!

Crazy, AWESOME week! We did so much this week, we were both so excited to find people that we basically contacted the whole world! We passed up every one of our goals by a mile, in every category, and I was so psyched. Hermana Bravo is this cute little Hermanita de Guatemala, super funny little voice and accent that is sometimes a bit hard for me to understand because I'm used to NORTH MEXICANA, loud and fast and clear! She's probably one of the most Christ-like people I've known in my life. Her dad died when she was small and her mom abandoned her. Her uncle and aunt raised her, in the church, but were dead set-against her serving a mission, almost to the point where they didn't go to her farewell and refused to send her anything. They're coming around, though. She's already planning on extending her mission! She just loves the Gospel and loves to serve and is SO excited and sweet. I can't even explain. I met a family that she baptized this last Sunday, in fact we visited them a lot to prepare them for their confirmation which happened YESTERDAY. This family is the BEST! We have a Family Home Evening tonight with them, to help them get going. They're super strong, super funny, and already completely immersed in everything MORMON. Familia Franchini. Love them so much. We have some super strong investigators, both that Hermana Bravo already had and nuevos that we found this week. We contacted a FAMILY of a mom and two daughters on the street that came to church yesterday, Hilaria, Carla, and Nicole! They're super great. Also, we have a baptism date for a teenager named Saul, and we taught him a lot this week. We have a few more we're expecting to definitely baptize this change, people we've met that are already so prepared! A fun little miracle, we went looking for Hilaria one day when we had an appointment, and were super bummed to discover that apparently lied to us. We started walking to another appointment, and passed her on the street! Turns out she didn't lie, she lives in an apartment with a weird direction. We set up another appointment and returned a few days later. Guess what? She didn't give us the specific number of her room. We set out to find it, because she was super golden (despite the fact that she didn't give us the number, haha), and we started knocking on a few doors. We got pretty down, and I asked my companion if we were going to keep looking or continue on to our next investigator in the plans. "Vamos a continuar," she said. "Vamos a continuar buscando, o vamos a buscar la proxima casa?" I asked. "Vamos a continuar con firmeza en Cristo," she said. And so we started to climb the stairs to keep knocking, and we ran into HILARIA and her DAUGHTER and her HUSBAND! And they were at church on Sunday. Boom. Also, there was a little red-headed boy that refused to shake my hand the other day because I had my hair in a braid and he thought I was Elsa from Frozen and was going to turn him into ice. My nickname in the MTC was "Hermana Elsa," and some girls in my other area said I looked like her too, so I'm feeling pretty good about that! Jejeje definitely one of my favorite parts of the week. I was truly so content in the work this week. We definitely wore ourselves out, and I loved every second. I was telling Kate today that THIS is that true, COMPLETE joy that we feel when we are truly trying to make Christ the center of our lives! I have definitely made such a huge change in my definition of "happiness," and that's just one of the things I will carry with me throughout my life. I love you all, the church is TRUE, have such a good week!

Beeeeeg Keeeeees, Leeeeeeetle Keeees

Hermana LeSueur

ps, momma can you send me an electronic version of the living Christ in English please? thank you so much! 

Emma and her adorable little companion

Hermanas LeSueur and Bravo

Ready

Emma was transferred to a new area and new companion!  She is excited for new adventures and getting out of her comfort zone. Her new apartment has a washer and dryer which she is thrilled about, as she has been washing her clothes by hand until now.  She loved her last area Lomas Verdes with all her heart and the people became family- but she is always up to push and stretch herself.  Though change is hard for her, she is always up to a challenge.  Thanks again for caring about Emma and your prayers for the missionaries mean so much.

So HEY from PALMAS! It's not TOO TOO far from Lomas Verdes, and my companion is pretty new in the mission too. She's named Hermana Bravo, and she's from Guatemala. Her accent is pretty different from Hermana Salinas and Hermana Mercado, both from north Mexico, but I'm getting used to it! Part of my area is like Santa Cruz, and the other part is city-city. I was expecting "deep pueblo" this time around, so I was surprised. What's funny is we live right by the offices of the mission and our district consists of President Whitehead's secretaries! My ward is supposed to be super super awesome, and Hermana Whitehead comes with us every Sunday apparently. Hermana Bravo and I are really excited to get working, she's had lots of success here in the last 12 weeks, and is going to start showing me around later today. Super sad leaving Lomas Verdes, which truly became my home in the 4 1/2 months I was there. We visited everyone yesterday, and I left letters for all the families that I love so so much. I was SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED to have been "born" in Lomas Verdes. The sweetest people in the world, and made me feel at home even before I could speak to slash understand them. Also, we baptized Enrique yesterday! He has completely changed since I first knew him. He went from someone who wanted to challenge EVERYTHING to someone who's willing to obey, wants to become immersed completely in the church, and smiles all the time! Definitely saw about 5 definite miracles throughout the course of his conversion. And Dominica...breaks my heart a little bit, but at the same time I know one of the things the mission teaches you is patience and being okay with the Lord's timing. Dominica wants to be baptized. I know it, she knows it. Her dad knows it too. We taught her twice this week in a park because he heard her say that baptism was a possibility and decided he won't tolerate us in his house anymore. She said it's destroying her family. She said if she gets baptized, she won't be able to continue coming to church because her dad won't let her leave and she doesn't want to completely go against his wishes. She's lived with her parents 27 years, and I can understand that it's scary. What's good is that she understands that once she's baptized, she is committed to trying her best to obey every commandment. She has the desire to be a GOOD member, not a one-Sunday thing. I was sad that she wasn't baptized yesterday, but I feel at peace knowing that she WILL be baptized. She said so herself, that once things are a bit better with her family, once she can figure something out, she will. 

Change is hard, but it's necessary to learn and progress. I left behind people who I'm sure are going to get baptized with Hermana Mercado in this next six weeks - the dad of a formerly less-active family, Carlos (of the OTHER anti-Mormon family) - and others who were just starting to progress. But I'm so grateful that I was able to be a part of these peoples' lives for a bit. To hear Jose bless the sacrament yesterday, to hear Maria talk about how she's now grateful for her health trials because they make her stronger, there is truly nothing better. Jessica is getting a calling and becoming stronger and stronger, Luz is visibly happier every time I see her, Mario has been doing lots of missionary work, working with us to contact people. I even have been talking to a guy from Chicago, who lives near Enrique and came to church yesterday. He asked question after question after question and it was pretty fun to speak to him in English a bit! All in all, sad, but I need to move on and focus completely on helping the people of Palmas. I love the mission, I love you all! Have a great week!

Beeeeg Keeees, Leeetle Keeees,

Hermana LeSueur

Enrique's Baptism- such a happy day!

Emma's new companion, Hermana Bravo, from Guatemala- for the first time in her life she feels a little tall!

Favorite Family in Lomas Verdes

Lomas Verdes Hermanas

Lomas Verdes Zone

Emma has sure loved Sister Mercado!

She seems to be a lot colder than I thought she would be- she is always wearing her raincoat.

Signs. And a little allergic reaction.

WHAT a week!

We decided a few weeks ago that we couldn't keep visiting Dominica. We've treated all of her doubts, individually, several times...we've prayed for her and with her and she's been Reading and praying personally. She's recognized many answers to her prayers, but for her they're simply not enough to make her SURE that it's necessary to join the church, that she needs more than her personal perception and relationship with God. I have taught her, studied for her, prayed for her, fasted for her, and developed a deep love for her in these 4 months. I've always felt this understanding with Dominica. I've often thought, crazy as it sounds, that if I hadn't been born into the church, my journey to find the truth would be similar to hers. We think alike. I always understand what she's trying to say. From the very beginning, I could understand her - even when I couldn't understand her words. As a small part of her conversión process, I've lived what might've been. As I've grown and learned with her, I lived my own conversión from the beginning and felt my testimony strengthen immensely. You could say that I needed her conversión for my own true conversión. Dominica ultimately thanked us for what we've done for her and her relationship with God, I appreciate it, but I don't really need this. So, we left her. With a Libro de Mormon, every lesson taught, every pamphlet, every different approach we could think of tried. And she was silent for about 3 weeks. After battling problem after problem with Enrique, we decided to leave him, too. As Miley says, "there's always gonna be another mountain, I'm always gonna wanna make it move..." With Enrique, mountain after mountain after mountain...he didn't want to accept ANY commandment without a huge fight. So we left him, too. He refused to come to church because of experiences he's had with certain members, and plenty of other reasons.

Early this week, our Ward misión leader called and said that Dominica was doing everything in her power to contact us, but because our cell phone doesn't let us call anyone beside our leaders, and we use pay phones, she couldn't get Ahold of us. She finally found Hermano Rodrigo in Facebook. She felt our absence in her life, and she wanted to talk. We met with her, and she finally told us that she was starting to feel that baptism was a possibility. To hear these words from Dominica was unreal. Our next lesson, her dad got angry and wouldn't let us meet in her house. We had a member with us, and we went to her house. Dominica now has a tentative baptismal date for the 17th at the same time as...

ENRIQUE.

We still had an appointment with Enrique after he sent us that nasty text. We went, not expecting much. We encouraged him to pray, and ask to know if the church was true. The next time we visited, he told us that he prayed and asked for a SIGN telling him so. I didn't know how to feel about that - our answers come in many different forms, I wasn't sure if his way of seeking his was right. We dived into a lesson on the way the Spirit Works, and how he needs to study and pray and pay close attention to how he feels, and his ANSWER will come. Later that day, we saw him randomly in another part of Santa Cruz. He called out, "I still haven't seen the sign!" A few days later, in the morning before our pivotal appointment with Dominica, I got the random idea to go see him, told my companion that maybe we should check if he's good to go for church on Sunday. But honestly, I didn't know why I wanted to go see him...he doesn't like us to show up unannounced, and I felt confident in his slow-but-sure progress. Well, we showed up at his door, and there he was with a super surprised look on his face. He had been sitting there Reading his Gospel Principles book, which he got back in his Canada days, in the section about AGENCY. He said that, this morning, he had felt like he was at a crossroads. He couldn't sleep the whole night before. And we showed up, and now he KNEW that he needed to get baptized. He's willing to sacrifice. All of his problems with certain commandments, the people of the church, the fact that he won't marry his Catholic girlfriend, that he's afraid of what people will think when they find out he's Mormon...he's accepted it. He knows it's true. And he's getting baptized on the 17th of January, a day before I leave this área.

Lomas Verdes was good to me in my second-to-last week. Jose finally received the priesthood yesterday. That was one of the coolest moments of my life. Maria and Jose are extremely strong in the church, already. They are both ready for callings, and Jose will bless the sacrament in my last Sunday here (18th). I watched their conversión process from the beginning, the very beginning. And on Sunday, I watched Jose receive this special authority, because he's worthy and because he's READY TO SERVE.

What else, what else? I may or may not be allergic to octopus, so I've got that going for me. We ate at Hermano Hugo's house yesterday, for my companion's birthday. I ate everything they gave me, and left the house with my voice ten times lower because of my tightening throat and my skin hot and itchy and swelling up under my eyes and in my ears. I thought I was just being dumb, the only food I'm allergic to is hazelnuts and I asked them if the cake had hazelnuts. So we went to our next appointment, with Familia Cuevas (my favorite family in the entire world) who wanted to see us on Hermana Mercado's birthday. I wasn't better by the time we got there, I was a lot worse! My whole body was itchy and red, but I could breathe so it wasn't all that scary. Familia Cuevas was a Little freaked out, and rushed me back to Hermano Hugo's, because he's a doctor. He ran out and got me medicine, and they gave me a shot. I was back to normal in about fifteen minutes! Turns out I ate octopus at some point, and I think that was it. I was a Little nervous, but how lucky am I that Hermano Hugo was close and ready! Lomas Verdes has the best people in the world, I'm 100% convinced. I'm in the process of writing all of my family here Little notes, and it's taking quite some time! There really aren't words to describe my gratitude.

Oh, the power of prayer. The power of the scriptures.  The power and wisdom of God. The power of the priesthood. The power that each one of us has. The power of our KNOWLEDGE. You guys, I love being a missionary. How lucky I am that I can continue to be one my whole life? I love you all, I know the church is true without a doubt. It's confirmed each and every day, in just about a billion different ways. I love it, I love you ALL.

Beeeeg Keeees, Leeeetle Keeeees

Hermana LeSueur 

Hermana Mercado's Bday celebration.. pre-allergic reaction to Octopus...

Sergio loves Emma and her companion so much that he cries whenever her remembers that they will be transferred soon.  He drew this picture of Emma playing the piano and Hermana Mercado singing

Seventeen Miracles

Amazing letter from Emma this week- her way with words is a real gift!  
Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts, we love our girl so much and couldn't be prouder of all she is doing.
-Traci

Fam LeSueur,

Gearing up for the YEAR of my life that I will spend completely serving - 2015! Just think, I'm going to spend all of 2015 in Mexico, teaching and growing. I wish I could have adequately described to you guys what I've learned, how my life has changed. The difference, right now, the Gospel is my life - and I hope it will be forever more. The hour (personal) we have to study each morning is so precious, the change that we have to sit and learn and grow every week in church is something I truly look forward to. When you don't have the option of escaping to your cell phone, your bed, your music in your ear buds, when you're forced to be 100% part of, PRESENT, in the world around you, every second of every day, constantly aware of who you pass on the street and their needs, you learn so much. About others, about yourself. I have learned what can be done with just one day. I have learned that I can make it through ANY day. I have learned that every DAY we have countless opportunities to grow and progress. In a day, we can survive, or we can live. I have simply survived so many days of my life. Setting aside my any fear of being awkward, thoughts of what I look or sound like, etc... I have come to know what true success feels like. I have had DAYS, complete and full. Opportunities for service, they're everywhere. As a representative of Jesus Christ - a paper I carry with me every day endorsed by a prophet of the Lord, a name tag identifying exactly what I am for everyone to see - my moments of selfishness, sadness, doubt, are immediately turned around when I walk up to someone and begin talking. There is a power in this calling. I feel it. My instincts have shifted - as a girl who, quite honestly, wants to wear a sweatshirt every day, do my job quickly and quietly and retreat back to my house, it's a little crazy that what I'm doing is exactly the opposite. What's happening is that I'm truly converting to this Gospel. I'm becoming a true, active disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm learning of the responsibilities that we each have as members. I'm learning that putting God first guides every moment of your life. I'm discovering what I do need and what I don't need to be happy. What I need is my knowledge of the truth, and a few tools to help me continue to grow in it. Because, honestly and truly, this isn't just a Gospel of "good things to come." It's a Gospel of "all is well, all is well" right NOW. Since New Year's is a dangerous time to be on the streets as missionaries, President authorized another zone meeting and small activity - watching 17 Miracles. In a way, I'm being asked to pull the "sick wagon" on the way to Zion for a bit. I'm carrying a lot of people on my back, with Hermana Mercado - this whole area of Lomas Verdes 2. In our wagon, we have the sick happily riding along until they're ready to walk on their own and even help us pull. We have those riding grudgingly, not willing to admit they feel better in the wagon, headed in one sure direction, the handcart tracks in front, than on foot - following various footprints in various directions, the snow deep.We have those once-faithful saints in our wagon, who sat down to rest in the snow and started to freeze to death. This week, we've had some people jump out of the wagon and attempt to find help elsewhere, following these same footsteps that lead to places of quick, easy, and TEMPORARY help - a semi-warm cave, for example. The road to Zion is a rough one - for them and for us. We know the countless stories of pioneers looking back to see who is pushing their handcart - no one, of course. I look back each day - everyday, when I do things that make me scared or uncomfortable, things that push me physically, mentally, and spiritually - I plow ahead and I do these things, things I would have never had the courage to do 6 months ago, and I look back to see Jesus Christ, pushing my wagon with all His strength. And I realize that, without Him, I would barely be moving. The wheels might be moving, but I wouldn't be going anywhere. 

That being said, whether I'm moving or not - people are going to jump out of the wagon. This week was a little discouraging. We taught Enrique some of the commandments one morning, and after a struggle he accepted them and agreed to live them. That night, he sent us a really random text saying he doesn't want anything to do with the church. We called him, we still have an appointment with him, but a definite shocker and of course oh-so-sad. Carolina didn't show up to church, so we're going to have to push back her baptismal date. On the bright side, we started teaching two really golden "nuevos," Daniel and Belen. Daniel is a supposed Athiest who showed up to church after we contacted him in the street, now he's had a few lessons and is, by himself, asking about baptism. Belen is also a street contact, super open, wants to learn. We're working with the members more, and this week we're focusing on more effective street contacting (we can't knock on doors here in Mexico). 

I want to give a big shout-out to MOMMA TRACI LESUEUR for the 2015 calendar that was in the bottom of my Christmas package! I got to show off my beautiful Utah home to my companion, she loved it. It must have taken forever putting the dates and stickers on there! Thank you so SO much, Momma. Thank you all, for everything. I feel so much support and love. I'm so grateful to be doing what I'm doing, and I consider myself to be the luckiest in the world. LOVE YOU!

Beeeg Keeees, Leeeeetle Keeeees,

Hermana LeSueur

So grateful for families that had Hermanas LeSueur and Mercado in their homes and made their holidays bright!

Zone Activity- 17 Miracles Movie