La Segunda Semana Hermana Cheever esta en Atlixco!

Querido queridos,

I am loving it here in Mexico! On Friday we had la comida (the main meal of the day, usually eaten at around 2, and the meal that we have with members) with a cute family, and I ate what was quite possibly the best food I have ever eaten in my life! And to top it all off, there was ice cream. I don't feel like much happened this week, just the day to day missionary stuff like walking, talking, more walking. A little more talking. A lot of listening. Estoy mejorando a escuchar y comprender espanol cuando miembros o investigadores. I also hope that I am getting better at speaking Spanish, but it's hard for me to judge my own progress.

OH! On Monday something spectacular happened! Well, I hope it turns out to be spectacular...We visited a lady named Laura quien trabaja en una clinica. She had told Hermana Campos (my companion) and her former companion that she was interested in having the missionaries teach her. So we stopped by last Monday night when she was at work and intended to share a short message concerning el Plan de Salvacion. Her boyfriend Orlanif was there as well, and we taught the both of them. It turned out to be a fantastic lesson, I bore my testimony of baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the cleansing power of the Atonement. They both had such a hungry look in their eyes when I was telling about how baptism is a rebirth. My companion invited them to be baptized, and they accepted! Buuut we don't have a date. Nevertheless, it was still a good lesson. Especially because they could know the voluntad de Dios y obtener un testimonio de la veracidad del Libro de Mormon por medio de la oracion. Pero, we hadn't brought a Book of Mormon to the lesson (missionary tip: always bring a Book of Mormon to the first lesson). We were about to leave, urging them to pray about the Book of Mormon, when the thought came to me "no pueden orar a descubrir si el Libro de Mormon es cierto si no tienen un libro!" entonces, I left my copy of the Book of Mormon with them to study a little bit and pray about. They were very grateful I was willing to lend them my precious book. I wasn't very worried about it because hemos fijado otra cita para miercoles. Solo un dia sin mi sopia del Libro de Mormon, y en Miercoles, we would trade them for their own copies. But Wednesday came and Laura wasn't there. The whole week we coudn't get a hold of her! And my book! Another lady that works at the clinic told us on Friday that Laura was traveling, and would be backnext Wednesday. So I sincerely hope that happens because I am missing studying from my Book of Mormon. But if it is helping her to come closer to Christ (I am praying that she really is indeed reading it), then it is vale la pena.

One other experience! On Saturday we had a baptism for a jovencito se llama Andy. La manana del bautismo, mi querida companera me dijo that I would be giving a talk at the baptism! Yay me! I guess I am grateful that I didn't have more time to worry about it. The moral of my story is...the ward mission leader typed up the programs for the baptism and put my name as "Hermana Chevere". He knows my name is Cheever, but he thinks it's funny that it's so close to chevere, which is a Spanish word that means something like cool, awesome, nice, etc. The ward got a kick out of it. I am glad I can bring a little bit of sunshine into their lives.

Well, thank you all for your prayers and your emails! My spiritual thought that has kept me going all week is that every person has their agency. Cada quien tiene la libertad a escoger el bien o el mal. A veces personas escogen el mal, y eso afectua nuestras vidas en negative ways. BUT we also have our agency, and we can use it to be happy despite the choices that others have made. Remember that you are in charge of your own happiness. You are in charge of your own destiny. Don't let the choices of others get you down.
Keep being awesome! And if you're not being awesome, then be awesome!

paz afuera (oh the woes of being stuck in a world between languages),
Hermana Cheever :)