Kylie in Cuernavaca: It's Really Hot

It's so hottttttttt here! Hna. Corriveau and I officially moved our beds into the front room of our house because our bedroom is like an oven and we would wake up sweating to death! We can sleep a lot better now that we have our beds out in the front. I literally sweat SOOOO much...I have to carry a towel with me or sweat gets in my eyes. It's really gross. I think I get the sweatiness trait from Pop. Haha. There have been a few days where we are walking and we think...are we in the Sahara desert? But we are trying to drink lots of water!

I've been keeping my foot wrapped up and it is still hurting but not as bad. I was a little worried that it might have been fractured, so I went to get an x-ray today and nothing is wrong. But it is still pretty bruised up. But the work will go on and I am just glad nothing is wrong with it!

OH...HAPPY BIRTHDAY EASTON. I thought about you on Friday, and Hna. Corriveau and I were going to buy a piece of cake to celebrate, but we had eaten way too much so we passed. But hopefully you had a good day.

So Mexicans are super weird and have all these weird beliefs about health. I fell and EVERYONE is telling me what I should do to fix my foot. The best suggestion was that I needed to get a massage and have the person put my ovaries back into place because when I fell, they fell too, and they need to be adjusted. The weird thing was that it was an hermano in the ward. I looked at him with my mouth dropped open like...what did you just say? My OVARIES fell? hahahahaha I was dying.

This week we did divisions with two companionships. I really like doing divisions because I get to know the sisters more. The first divisions we did were with Hna. Avila and Hna. Veylupek. Hna. Avila knows the Bastians and I went with her, and her companion went with Hna. Corriveau to our area. It was fun to be with Hna. Avila. She is a great missionary. Her companion is brand new and learning the language so it has been a little difficult (NATURALLY!). Hna. Avila knew the language pretty well before she got here so it wasn't too hard for her in the beginning. We all know that I really had a rough go in the beginning, so I gave her some suggestions on how to help her companion, even though I know she is doing a great job because she is awesome. We had a really good day and found this really awesome family of 4 in her area. They were so nice and all accepted to be baptized! It's weird because I know that they aren't in my area and I may never see them again, but I felt a love for them and I will make sure to ask Hna. Avila how they are progressing.

When we stay with the sisters, we usually prepare a short spiritual message to share with them. Pop sent me a letter a long time ago when I was really sad about the language that helped me a lot. It tells the story of President Hinckley and gives some great fatherly advice. I have it printed out and it is always in my scriptures and I have shared it with several missionaries. I left that for Hna. Corriveau to share with Hna. Veylupek and she said that she loved it. She was like, 'Who is this guy? I love him!' and Hna. Corriveau was like...Michael Durham! haha. So thanks, Pop. That letter has helped more than one sad, struggling new missionary. :)

We also did divisions with the other sisters in our ward. They are in a trio so I went with two of them (Hna. Peterson and Hna. Hernandez) in their area, and Hna. Corriveau went with Hna. Canales in our area. It was so fun to be with them. Hna. Hernandez loves me because she said that my eyes are really pretty. She made me some delicious food from Honduras and was teaching me words that are different there than here in Mexico. Hna. Peterson is from my generation and is really cool. I didn't get to know her in the MTC because she was from a different district, but I really like her a lot and we had a good day in their area. We took a moto-taxi because we had to climb this big hill and since my foot was hurt we decided to ride up in that. Ok, maybe also because we just didn't want to climb the whole mountain. We visited several of their investigators and menos activos. At the end of the day, my foot was super swollen! That is why I thought something worse had happened to it. But it's fine. It'll probably just get amputated after the mission.

We take this transportation called combis and they are like big vans. Since our area is so big, we have to take them a lot. One day this really white lady gets on and whenever we see Gueras like us we always get excited. But she spoke really good Spanish. We asked her where she was from and she said she was from Holland. And we were like...then why are you here?!?! She apparently has lived in Mexico for 30 years or something and she told us that she also was a missionary. We thought she was really cool because she spoke like 5 languages, but then she started preaching to us and I was like...ok, not as cool as I thought. I tried giving her a Book of Mormon and she rejected me so fast and was like...I only believe in the Bible, but then she was trying to give us these other books about the Bible and I don't even know because I stopped paying attention after awhile. It was super awkward because she talked really loud and everyone in the combi was looking at us like...oh dang, show down of the missionaries. Um, no. She doesn't even belong to a church...she just decided to be a missionary and just preaches what she believes. How is that ok? Not sure, but whatever. I should have known she was crazy since she voluntarily lives in Alpuyeca. hahaha.

We went to visit a sister in the ward whose son is in the mission. She is a convert of like 6 years and her mom just recently died. She has had several challenges but she is super faithful. We went to go visit her neighbor to see if she was interested in listening to our message and her friend was like, 'I'm doing laundry! I don't have time.' and Hna. Rosario looked at me and was like...Hopefully when Christ comes, we don't say 'Sorry, I'm too busy! I'm washing my clothes!' I was like, I know, right?! If people only knew that we are really representatives of Christ, they would probably treat us differently. But that is just how it goes sometimes.

On Sunday, we had several investigators in church, but what made us even happier was that there were SO MANY MENOS ACTIVOS and all of them we had visited this week and committed to coming to church. It was awesome. There were like 8 that came...but 5 of them were with their whole families! It was crazy. This one that we had visited a few weeks ago called us out of Relief Society to talk to us. He is a dad of a little girl who just recently got baptized and when we went, we only talked to her and his wife and he kind of hid from us. He called us out to apologize for being rude and to tell us that he really appreciated what we do. He said that he really admires us for our work helping people come closer to Christ. He said he just didn't feel worthy to talk to us because he feels like a sinner. We assured him that we weren't offended and that he definitely is worthy to talk to us and to come to church. He said that because of us, he feels like he needs to start coming back to church more consistently. My eyes started tearing up because it was so sweet. I didn't even remember that he didn't want to talk to us. That happens all the time so it doesn't even phase me anymore. But he wanted to apologize. It just shows that he is changing and wanting to be better. How cool!

The work is moving along here in good old Alpuyeca. We are so busy that the weeks are flying by! I love being here and I am grateful for the gospel in my life. It is the best, isn't it?

I hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Love,

Hermana Durham