When you lose yourself, then you will find yourself...

Hey friends and fam,

 

This week wasn´t all that eventful. I've been pretty sick all week with some kind of nasty virus. 

Anyway, I´ve made it to solo español! Which means we´re not allowed to speak any English, before, during, after classes."The only time it´s allowed is when you´re dreaming." I´ve made really good friends with the workers in the cafeteria here. I speak to them for 5-10 minutes at every meal. They always tell me how good my accent and my spanish is, so that feels good. Every time they see me they all say "Hey sister Se-ars!" They brush up my spanish, I brush up their English hahaha. They´re hilarious. 

Spanish is going well, Hermana Terry and I decided we would memorize 100 words/ day on top of class. I like the challenge. 

We´ve found a new way to keep ourselves entertained here. It´s scare Elder Curzon. He is the jumpiest person ever, so we take every opportunity. It´s all the entertainment we´ve got hahah.

It´s definitely rainy season here, the storms keep coming. Every single day around dinner time the clouds roll in and put on quite the show. Like no storm youve been in before, haha. The sky becomes a strobe light, the lightning is so cool. The power always goes off at night. (Shout-out to Hunter for the rain boots.)

Our district has become so close. They´re so great. Pretty funny, there was a particular Elder no one likes here (he´s "that guy") that kept sitting by me during sunday night movies and devotionals, and a couple guys in my district went and told him to leave "Our hermanas" alone. Lol

This week we were all sharing our feelings when we received our stateside mission calls. Everyone in my district is going stateside. Elder Curzon shared when he opened his, how he began crying, but as soon as he read his call the tears "literally went back into my eyes." hahaha we can all relate.

By the way, a tide to go pen from missionarypackagemx.com would be much appreciated. We can receive packages same day through it. My clothes are suffering ,haha. 

We got to go to the Mexico City temple today. AKA ,we finally got to leave the prison walls of the CCM. The city is crazy. But so amazing. And different. (Pictures included.) 

So I am the only missionary flying out to Pittsburgh, so I´ll be the only one flying solo haha. I´m not mad, it´ll be my last time alone for a year and a half. I´m not complaining. This time will be easier, haha. At the Salt Lake Airport when I said goodbye to you guys and stood om security sobbing, I looked behind me and saw the woman behind me had also started crying, noticing I was a departing missionary. And then the woman in front of me. And then another, until there were three ladies around me crying with me. Chain reaction I guess haha.

I´ve only met a few people here with connections to Pittsburgh, but everyone says how much the people they knew that served in Pittsburgh struggled. I guess people there are pretty closed-minded. The mission averages one baptism a year. I pray every night for the people I am yet to meet. 

Testimony will never be enough for a person. If you are truly converted to the Lord, not the church, a program, not the missionaries, you will never fall away. The church will always be true, but people will not always be true to the church. The people I will meet will not remember everything I say, but I hope they will remember the way they felt. You never know the impact you can have on people.

Elder Cope said something pretty powerful, that those people we will meet and help will be there on our judgement day, begging and pleading for our mercy.

It is hard not to be incredibly hard on yourself here. But in a few short weeks, my real mission will start, I just want to be ready. 

"If you go looking for yourself, you will never find it. When you lose yourself, then you will find yourself." 

I had a cool teaching experience this week. We practice teach our teachers, Hermana Dominguez and Hermano Salvador. This week I was teaching Hermana Dominguez. As I was teaching I felt like I should read a scripture, Ether 12:4. As she began reading the scripture, she started crying and couldn´t finish. She told me that today I was inspired to teach Hermana Dominguez, not Marisela, the investigator she was pretending to be. She told me this was exactly what she needed. The first time I have made a real difference. This is why I am here. As I spoke the words came to me so easily. In Spanish. 

That´s all for this week. Love you all lots. 

Keep the support coming. Hasta luego.

Hermana Sears