Okay so I know you want to hear a lot and I want to write a lot but I dont really have a lot of time today, we are in an internet cafe and we did our laundry at the stake presidents house this morning and we spent a lot of our time there because it took a couple hours or so...maybe next week we´ll schedule it differently.  But I am now in the Zaragoza ward in the Moctezuma stake and the ward was just split this transfer into two areas, the elders who were here before are still in the ward just proselyting in a different area, and me and my companion Hermana Medwin (the one who I exercised with in the mornings in the vc, and shes Canadian) are in the our area.  It has been a rollercoaster week, difficult, but also enjoyable, also discouraging, and a huge learning experience.  Hermana Medwin has 5 months on the mission, and she speaks spanish pretty well, but has a difficult time understanding everything.  I have gotten much better at understanding, but lessons are interesting because everyone LOVES to talk and tell long winded stories, and we really don´t understand a whole lot of it.  It has been hard and I feel that we work well together but we just have different personalities, but all in all it is good.  And as time goes by we are learning to work better together.  In our area there are a lot of less active members and there isnt a whole lot of unity in our ward, which is what us, the elders, the ward mission leader, and the bishop are trying to improve.  Our goal is to have a family home evening with at least one family every week, and give 2 lessons a day to members, and have one lesson with a member present everyday if possible.  I have hope and am excited to focus on these goals.  We also have a few new investigators.  I talked in church yesterday about service, I think it went really well, I really do feel much better about my spanish.  Also, it is sooo hot here, at night its fine but during the day I feel like I live in an oven. Although it has been difficult this week there really are tender mercies everyday that make it all worth it. Ok Thats all for now, have a great week!

Mas Foto's

Que Pasa Calabaza

This week was really good, Im kinda sad that it is my last week in the visitors center, but I am also looking forward to being in the area full time, tomorrow I find out who my new companion is and my new area.  Today our pday started at 3pm, the half day thing is only for the visitors center though, so next week my pday will most likely be on monday and it will be until 6pm, and then we work for a couple hours and have to be in by 8pm I think.  Today was my last day in the visitors center and it was so good, we gave three tours, one with some elders who brought two members from their area and two little boys who´s family are being taught by the missionaries.  They were so sweet and fun.  And then a couple, the wife was a member and the husband is getting baptized the 27th of April.  We  talked to them about the importance of temples and showed them God´s plan for Families video, and at the end the wife was crying a lot, and said she never thought she would have the chance to be sealed to her husband and she was so happy that he is getting baptized and that they will be able to go to the temple in a year (or when it opens).  And the third was really special, they were a couple who were Catholic (by tradition at least) and some missionaries had given them an invitation to the Centro de visitantes, and they came just becauuse they were curious, but they were so nice and we taught them about prophets and the restoration and the book of mormon and they really felt the spirit and were excited to read it and continue to learn more.  

This week has been good, but also sad because one of the senior couple missionaries, Elder and Sister Yates, who work in the vc had to leave becuase elder yates had health complications.  And then Hermana Zobrist, another one of the senior couple missionaries, had a stroke caused by a brain tumor, and was rushed to the hospital and the surgery went well but she is still recovering.  My companion and I fasted and prayed for her, and we are still praying for their family.  

I know that acting in faith is very important, we all have challenges and weaknesses and trials, but they are all for a purpose, and if we continue acting in faith, trusting in the Lord´s plan, praying and reading the scriptures we will be able to access the grace of the atonement of Jesus.  I love the scripture in Jacob 4:7 that says ¨Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by His grace, and His condenscensions unto the children of men, that we may have power to do these things.¨ Basically this is saying that we are given weaknesses so that we will learn to rely on the Lord to make up for  what we lack, and when we are able to accomplish things that are difficult we recognize and know that it is by the grace of our savior that we are able to it.  But we still have to act in faith and try our very best.  So I encourage all of you to continue praying sincerely and reading your scriptures because they really contain all of the answers, and will help you to be happy.  

More Pictures!!

Pictures!

P-Day Email :)

ok I sent you a ton of pictures! yay

Okay here it goes I will try my best to answer all of your questions :) 

Oh and i got your email right after I sent mine last week...I was able to read it because i just printed it off real quick so no worries.

Pdays are always Monday from now on. In the visitors center they have it so one week is half of the day and the next is the entire day, Im fine with it really.  It trades off with the two districts that work in the vc so that there is enough people working or something.  But this is my last week in the vc...next Monday will be my lats pday in the vc and it will be half day. And then we have CAMBIOS...which means i'll be moving and getting a new companion and i'll be in the field full time.  So im excited! 

Im not sure why american misisonaries are only in the field...i guess there are latina missionaries in the field too, but many of them are in the field and in the area like my companion.  

My week was great.  The mtc kids come here to have tours about once a week, and this week they were american! So I got to give another tour in english, I gave it with hermana Nava who speaks english pretty well.  It was really fun and reminded me of when I was a young lad in the mtc 3 weeks ago.  Oh those were the days...just kidding.  But it was great.  And Ive been exercising (seriously) in the mornings...me and my companion wake up 15 mins early and go to the gym and hermana medwin who is from canada leads us in exercises that are really hard...and ive been pretty sore, but I feel great.  Hopefully I can keep that up because most of the hermanas whove been here for a long time say theyve gained a lot of weight.  Which I can understand because especially in the visitors center we dont walk all day...mostly we stand or sit.  And in mexico they eat huge lunches and then we dont really eat the rest of the day...which maybe isnt healthy because then at night your hungry and eat really late.  I dont know....

Oh and I talked in church yesterday! Hermana Fowler was told that she was giving a talk and so she prepared and everything, but they didnt tell me that they wanted me to talk.  BUt since I knew that Hermana Fowler was talking I prepared a little something just in case...and then the bishop said that he wanted two missionaries to talk.  She took a good 10 mins or so, and then I went up and he told me to only take 5 mins because we didnt have time so I just shared a couple scriptures and my testimony.  It was fun because we both are not super proficient in the language but we shared a similar message and they understood I think :) haha 

And also yesterday we had a little program in the visitors center and I sang ¨never a better hero¨in spanish with hermana Nava and Hermano Miguel (who is a member).  It was really fun.  And after I had my first zone meeting, it was fun too.  And today we went to the city! the real city! i was so shocked that it looked like a modern city with tall buildings, becuase our area is pretty poor.  There was a Catholic Cathedral (I attached some pics).  I really wanted to go inside since ive never seen one before...but the other hermanas dont really like it becuase its kind of dark and weird feeling inside.  But i begged my companion to go with me just so I could at least see it...it was interesting, and it was kind of dark and there were lots of statues of saints and shrines and candles and elaborate things. But Im glad I got to at least see it.  

And sadly, our baptism that was supposed to be yesterday fell through, she basically fled the city, and didnt come back in time and wouldnt answer her phone :(. But we had some good lessons and some new contacts.  We have been taking the ¨Centro Para Visitantes¨ cards and inviting people and asking them if theyve been before and all that stuff, and many times they are usually really nice and willing to listen and we got a few phone numbers and addresses to go and teach them this week.  We also teach and visit a lot of less active members.  And everyday we are in the field we eat at a members house...usually its pretty good, I havent had anything I hated or loved yet though, just good.  And I feel that I am getting more confident with the language slowly but surely!

Well it sounds like you all are doing great.  It takes forever for letters to get mailed...Chad sent me one like 2 or 3 weeks ago and I still havent gotten it...so email best, but letters are fun too.  And I still havent gotten really sick...but usually at leaste once a day I just get a gross sick feeling in my stomach so hopefully that stops eventually. Ok well im not sure if I answered all of your qs but I have to go.  Love you! 

Earlier email than expected!

Note From Jana:

I always email Mariah by Saturday or Sunday but this week didn't but since I knew her pday was on Tuesday planned on emailing her today...which I did but too late!!!! She now has pday on Monday for a while at least. That's my disclaimer before you read her weekly email:)

Mother, 

I assume nothing new or exciting has happened since you didnt write me :( but that´s okay...they changed the pday schedule so that it is always on monday (at least while I´m still in the visitor´s center) and one week we have pday from 9am to 3pm and the next week we have in from 9am to 9pm.  Today I have half day, it was good though, we woke up at 6:15 and went to the gymnasium/cultural hall thing and one of the Hermanas who is from Canada has a work out book with a bunch of hard exercises, led us and it felt great :) haha. And then we cleaned the kitchen and I took a shower and washed my clothes. Then we came to check our emails in the morning, we do that so we can print them and write back later since our time is limited...but I only had two, and you didnt write me so I wrote you an email telling you to write me so I could write you back now, but you didnt. But dont worry I still love you.  Okay, and then we went to the store and bought some food for the week and bought ice cream cones, which made me very happy.  And then we went home and slept for almost 2 hours, it was great.  And then at 3pm our pday ends.  We have companion study and then tours the rest of the night.  Its usually not very busy on mondays or any week day... most likely becuase the temple is closed ( I told you that right), the temple is closed for 18 months (starting in nov) so usually the VC is only really busy on the weekends.  I like it though.  But I will most likely be full time area starting next cycle , which is in two weeks, and will finish my training in the field, most likely with an american companion bacause only american sister missionaries are in the field, not in the visitors center...since my call isnt to the visitors center.  

Also I sent Kenyan a letter, it costs about 30 or so pesos to mail a letter from the post office which is what I did, but apparently if you have american stamps, it is free and one of the leaders or someone travels to The States and mails them their, which might be better.  So if you send me a letter or a package, if you could mail me some stamps, that would make it easier for me to send letters.  Im not sure how long it takes for stuff to mail though, last week Chad said he sent me a letter, and I still havent gotten it...so it takes longer than a week haha.  

Anyways, this week went by very fast, we had some good tours, and good visits with members and invesigators.  I got to do a tour in English! It was funny becuase me and my companion traded roles, usually she talks a lot and I just chip in here and there and share my testimony or something but this time I talked a lot and she shared her testimony about the book of mormon at the end.  But even her broken english testimony was still meaningful, and that made me feel more confident to try and talk in spanish even more because I realized that even though she only said a few sentences, they still listened and recognized the importance of her words.  But I still was happy to be the one talking more and understanding everything they were saying, even if it was only once.  But after that, I felt like I was more confident in speaking spanish in our other tours.  Okay and about that corn on the cob with mayo...it was so gross.  I should have known since I am not a mayo fan, but anyway it was corn on the cob slathered with mayo, dipped in white shredded cheese and sprinkled with chile powder, everyone seems to think its heaven on a stick, but I really wanted to puke, I cant believe I ate that. And I tried tacos from the street for the first time, one of the bishops owns this little taco stand.  I thought the meat was chicken, but apparently it was cow...? and it was good, but my stomach was not happy with me after I ate it.  I havent gotten really sick yet, but my stomach just always feels kind of off, who knows I probably have a parisite.  Just kidding I dont think I do, its probably just adjusting to the new foods.  One of the hermanas fractured her foot walking on the sidewalk...since its really unlevel. And she is using crutches, we have a picture of me pushing her in a wheelchair, but no one sent it to me yet.  Anyway, she was in the area fulltime, but now she is in the visitors center until her foot heals... and hermana fowler is her companion so she is still going to the area everyday but with a different companion everyday, so we are having a lot of exchanges to accommodate.  Its pretty exciting.  So, tell people to email me, I want to hear what is going on in WA, Bapa told me church was cancelled because of snow! thats hard to believe since its so hot here! Love you, take care, and keep me updated. 

Love, Hermana Young

ps

oh and when/if you send me a package...like for a holiday or something, I would like some good crackers because all they have here are plain ritz...I need something with some pizazz lol and a new outfit would be nice too lol.  okay love you