First Transfer!!

 TOMORROW WE HAVE TRANSFERS AND I AM GOING TO BE TRAINING A NEW MISSIONARY!!!

I am really happy that i am not transferring areas, but really nervous to train! I am sad to be losing Sister Chavez, but also really excited for the future. My Spanish is ready! I just need to listen and pray more in the lessons so that I can really understand the needs of my investagators. 

We have the familia rivas and thier baptism PRONTO!! We have been working with the mom who didnt want to be baptized and now she does and back and forth....yeah well now she wants to be baptized and we are really happy for that! (with her daughter.:) )  

Service Project on P-Day

We had a service project on Tuesday, and we went to literally the boonies of Mexico and cleaned a elderly ladies house. We went with our district, and it was seriously a blast! It was so much fun to clean up everything outside of her house!!

Post Christmas Pics

Christmas Dinner 2015 - Street corn

Mission Christmas Devotional

Investigator on the left, Sister Chavez on the right

Merry Christmas!! First Skype call!!

It's almost Christmas!!!

Hi guys!!! I am here. We had a good week, worked really hard, but we have been having some crazy trials here! I know that it is not because of my obedience or dilligence, but it has been really really difficult.

So we have a family of investigators that all want to be baptized, but have had a really hard time with just progressing. The daughter is 14 years old and wants to be baptized so badly, but we have been working with the mom for the entire time we have been here, and like three weeks ago she told us that she wanted to be baptized, but wanted it to be a surprise for her daughter, for her birthday which is in the second week of January. We were so excited!! I think i told you guys a little bit about this, and so we have been visiting her tons and trying just to prepare her for baptism, but she just hasn't been reading the BOM, and never really has had an interest in it. 

Soo on Friday night, we went to go visit her and we found her daughter was there, but her mom wastn. We had a member with us and so we started talking to her, and we decided to put a date for her baptism with her. This is like the first green light on baptism that she has ever heard, because before her mom was super against baptism and the whole shabang. Soooo, in order for us to teach her, she has to be progressing, and defined in Preach my gospel, a progressing investagator is one who has a baptismal date. So, of course we put a date with her!!

Like twenty minutes later, we get a call from the mom saying that she is livid because she wanted to tell her daughter, and not us. Let me be super clear, we did not tell the daughter, who still does not know that the mom wants to be baptized. All in all, the mom told us to stop seeing her and that she doesnt want to be baptized anymore. 

The most crazy hard week of my life. we have been trying to visit her, and talk and explain why we needed to establish a date for baptsm, and nothing more!! 

Hi Dad, 

It's alright that you can't write today. I really hope that your presentation is great today and I said a little prayer for you when I read your email. I am super excited to hear all about the christmas boxes this year, and I am definitley going to print off this weeks!! 
 
This week was really cool because we got to see two of the dedicatory sessions of the Temple in Tijuana! I really loved two talks. The temple president is the son of President Hinkley, and his wife gave a little talk in spanish, and it made me feel like I can speak spanish better. Even though her spanish words sounded a lot like english, It was so amazing to hear her bear her cute testimony, and have the true humility that comes with speaking a foreign language. 

Another talk that I loved was about inviting more holiness into our lives. I think I like a lot of frilly words, and this totally caught my attention. Referencs to holy things are mentioned 265 times (holy scriptures, holy prophets, holy temple, holy God...) and its amazing! The fact that is mentioned so many times and that the scriptures say that we need to 'practice' holiness is an indication that we dont have it right now, at least not in its fulness. And so, I want to set a little goal to try and have a more consecrated, holy week this week. We totally can, and we can 'be holy unto him, because he is holy?. Moses 6 (i think) 

One of my favorite scriptures that I have been studying this week is DyC 93. It is a prophecy of John.. about how even the Holy Son of God did not recieve the fullness... but grace for grace. I love that concept, and even though I am tyring my little heart out every day here in crazy Mexico, I know that its enough. I have such a confidence that it is simplly enough. Another homework for you and the fam: In this ensign of December there is an article by Todd D. Christofferson, that is called Peace, be still (or something like that) Its really short, but super powerful and i ripped it out and hung it above my bed with all my precious pics of you guys. :) 

I hope you have such a great week, and want to quickly bear my testimony. I really know that this church is the true church on the earth today. We have the same teachings and principles that Jesus taught, without blemish, and that is pretty amazing. I love the happiness that the church brings me and really know that Jesus Christ is the one person that will never leave our side. We share all of our joys as well as our sorrows with Him, and through that we are truly never alone in this journey. 

I love the doctirne of agency. I love that we need to work out our own salvation, and we have been given all of the opportunities to do just that in this life. I hope that we can continue to press forward and when we have done all we can do, to stand still with the upmost assurety to see the arm of God in our lives. (Dyc 123:17)

I love you so much dad!! 

Have a great week!!

Maddi Jae

Things here in Mexico are so good!!!

Hi family and friends! Ever hoping that all is well. Things here in Mexico are so good. I have been so blessed with the opportunity to serve this mission! I really learn things every day, and I can testify without a single doubt that this Gospel is the source of true happiness. 

This week, we had some pretty great lessons. We also changed our chapel this week, and with that, and the new year coming up, changed our time to 12:00. I quickly want to talk about going to Church on Sunday's. I know that we can recieve answers during Sacrement Meeting. I know that if we prepare ourselves to partake of the sacrement, we can better find out the will of The Lord in our lives. This Sunday, as all Sunday's here, was really special, and I felt  the true cleansing of my errors of this week thanks to the Atonement. I want to challange all of you to think and prepare this week to partake of the sacrement! I know that when we put in the effort, it is repaid 100 times more. 

We had a really successful week this week, and I am truly so greatful for the progression of our investagatores. 

We had a really cool lession with one of our investagatores named Diosalina, who owns a pinata shop. She is really cute, and really believes that this gospel is true. The problem is that she doesnt want to attend church, but we are working on her!! 

Love attending Zone Conference!!  I so enjoy seeing and
being with the other missionaries!!

Also, we had a totally breakthrough lesson with one of our other investagators named Oliva, and she came to church for the first time yesterday! She was super content and I feel like really happy. Her daughter is a recent convert, and when we started talking with her, she thought that The Book of Mormon was a copy of the bible. It has been so cool to really see her conversion. We love her!!

Another great lesson that we had was with Hermana Brenda, and she is going to get married this week!! This is HUGE, because she kina needs to, in order to get baptized. But, her total dedication to the Gospel has really been a huge testimony builder for me and my companion!! She is pregnant and has two other kids, and I know that the gospel has brought them so much closer together!

Also, one of our families of investigators ALL came to church this Sunday, with one of their friends, who is also a really great investagator. This was such a huge blessing to have them all in church in Sunday, and afterwards, when we were talking to Areceli, the mom, she was so so happy and seriously like glowing. She said that she had many things confirmed to her in sacrement meeting, and it was just really great to see that she really is finding everything out for herself! 

Well, my sweet family and friends, I want you to know that I really do love you so much and miss you a whole lot, but I love the work. I love and thank my Father in Heaven every day for the opportunity to serve a mission! I know that this work is the work of The Lord, and it is one thing that has brought me immense happiness. 

I love you all, 

Hermana Maddi Beardall. 

Thankful!!

Beans for Thanksgiving....

How are you all?? I really missed Thanksgiving this week.:) 

I have something great to tell you, we went to the Visitor’s Center on Saturday! It was so great, and we had 5 of our investigators there too!! 

Hermano Marcos is great! He has a baptismal date for 26 of December, and is really excited to get baptized. We have had a lot of really cool lessons with him, and he always likes to share a scripture with us during our lessons:) He is super great, and I think that he is going to be such a great impact for our ward!

Another one of our investigators is named Ariceli, and the missionaries before us found her family and began teaching them in March of this year. They are all really great, and her oldest son that is 24 years old was baptized about 3 months ago. She has been super resistant to baptism, and we had kind of a slam-down lesson with her. We left the lesson feeling a little nervous that we were too bold, but when we came back for another lesson, in the first like 5 minutes, she told us that she wanted to be baptized! The spirit can totally change people. She wants to surprise her daughter for her birthday (because her daughter, Marisella, really wants to be baptized) and be baptized in January. Super cool!!

Maddi's investigators - not sure who is who - taken at
Mexico City Temple Visitor's Center

Another one of our investigators, Brenda, is the really young lady (23) with 3 kids. She has been totally a blessing for us, and we love teaching her! She just needs to get married and then we will be good to go with her:) 

Another one of our favorite times is when we have lessons with the Family Hernandez. They are a less active family of like 5 years, super young, but have totally changed, and have been coming to church every wee for the past four weeks! They are really an awesome little family, and I am so happy to know them!

Its been a busy week, but really special too!!

Also, we saw a guy on a motorcycle get hit by a car yesterday, and it was probably the scariest thing that I have ever seen. The car didn’t stop or anything, and that was equally as bad. The really great thing is that he wasn’t hurt or anything....yeah it was a little crazzzzyyyy!!!

Thank you so much you guys! I really miss you, but I know that I am completely different here, the changes are so real!! We can become so great in this life, but we definitely need to work at it!!

Love you all, and will talk to you in a week!!:):)

Hermana Beardall