Sunburns, Hills, Miracles, Baptism Dates, Father's Day and PUPPIES!

We ate with Hna Veronica on Friday and one of the MANY dogs in the house had puppies...I definitely turned age 5 and played with all of them.

  

Oh and another random note, the Soccer World Cup is going on...and that is the worst temptation EVER! I want to watch it SO bad! 

ANYWHO, Carlos and his son Carlos Jr (in English, his name is Carl Jr...bahahaha) will be baptized 5th of July. And we taught about the Restoration and the Word of Wisdom with him. And of course, like everyone in Mexico, Carlos drinks coffee. But when we taught him, he looked at us, "If all I need to do is give up coffee to be baptized, I will do it!" It was a miracle! Last Sunday, Carlos came with his son Carlos Jr, his daughter Monse (7 yrs old) and his nephew Angel (8 years old) to church!!! He loves church! FINALLY AN INVESTIGATOR WHO LOVES CHURCH! haha. The members are wanting to help us and have been doing pretty well with making him feel welcome.

Hna Fa'asa and I also spoke in church about activation and retention. It went really well! I also played the piano for Sacrament meeting, love playing! :) In Relief Society, we talked about el sacerdocio (priesthood) and it was on Father's Day, so of course I was feelin' homesick...but it definitely made my testimony of the awesomeness of the priesthood grow :)

Happy Birthday on the 21st to Brittany and Alex!!!!!!! LOVE YOU BOTH! 

Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Zacatecas for intercambos (24 hours) with Hermana Morales. Zacatecas is PURE hills, and they are not ordinary hills...they are STEEP San Francisco hills. I got a hard-core leg and thigh workout.

This is in Zacatecas, which is LITERALLY fulls of steep steep hills. I was on intercambios, and the other sister's house is at the bottom of all the steep hills in all of Zacatecas. And all of their investigators live on TOP of the hills. They start of their day climbing up this HUGE steep steep hill. Let's just say, I got some major leg work out.

And this is what I mean, this is outside of one of the many investigator's houses on top of one of the MANY hills in Zacatecas. You climb up to an investigator's house, then you walk down a hill and then back up a hill to another house...... what missionaries do... hahaha.

I mean do you see these pictures?!?! It is mountains and hills. But, we did have an awesome experience with an 11 year old investigator named Luis, who lives in extreme EXTREME poverty. Dirt floors, no windows, 14 family members living in a 2 bedroom "home." I have humbling experiences like that every day here. The mother of Luis took him out of school when he was in 2nd grade, and he has no idea how to read. So Hermana Morales and I helped him learn his vowels, and WOW. He showed us true dedication and a true desire to learn...it was amazing being with him! We then gave him a Book of Mormon and I read Moroni 10:3-5 to him, I started to cry. It is an amazing promise not only from Moroni, but from our Heavenly Father. It was a tender promise to His son, Luis:

3) Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

4) And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5) And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I mean, this is a direct promise to Luis. Through his faith and his desire to learn, he WILL learn how to read and spell through the Book of Mormon. It was amazing meeting him and the strength my testimony received through him. 

After returning from Intercambios in Zacatecas, exhausted, incredibly sunburned and feelin' awesome :) This is Hermana Morales from Sonora, Mexico!

Intercambios with Hna Morales was awesome and I truly learned a lot. She definitely helped me on how I can be a better trainer and help Hna Fa'asa. It was awesome and I have some pretty beefy calf muscles now :) haha

Riding our first camion (bus) ride around Fresnillo!!

Thursday, we visited Carlos with el líder misional, Hno Avila. We put a baptismal date with Carlos and his son, it was amazing :) He basically told us he had been waiting for us to ask him, haha! After 7 months of doing ALL I could, Heavenly Father has led us to Carlos who WANTS to be baptized and will do ANYTHING to follow the example of his Savior. These last 7 months were definitely a trial of patience, positivity and faith, and LOOK! After so many prayers, 5th of July will be a wonderful day! :) Thank you for your prayers and for never giving up on me :)

We also had a Father's Day Activity on Thursday right after we taught Carlos and he came! It was SUPER fun and Carlos even won something! (We had to leave early, because obedience and stuff.) But it is awesome how much desire he is showing to be a part of the true church!

It was a pretty good week, we taught more than 30 lessons and we received more than 20 references! The work is a-growing! The Gospel is amazing and, like, SUPER true :) haha. Les amo mucho y gracias por todo que hacen. Por favor, cuídense mucho. Su Padre Celestial les ama mucho y les conoce. Son hijos de un REY, ¡que genial! no? jaja. Lean sus escrituras, son armas contra Satanás. Oran SIEMPRE! La oración es protección, se que es la verdad. 

Les amo mucho :) Nos vemos y hasta la proxima semana! :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Winsor

PS: Recuerdan, VENGA LO QUE VENGA...DISFRÚTALO!  :)

  

When I went to Zacatecas for exchanges (intercambios) I saw a Arizona License plate!!!!! :)

Found the 2nd Arizona license plate in one week!! :)

When I arrived in Zacatecas for intercambios, Hna Morales showed me Lychee fruit, and they are SO expensive here and they are freakishly weird looking. On the left, that's what they look like before, like an acorn. Then you peel off the shell and you end up with what is on the right, it's a texture of a fish egg....
SUPER weird.

Went on exchanges for 24 hours in Zacatecas, put a bunch of sunscreen on...but missed a spot and ended up getting a LEGIT 2nd degree burn on my shoulder...yaaaayy.