I LOVE IT HERE IN SANTA FE!!!!! I don't have a ton of time, but I'll update you all with what I can.
People trash the north part of the mission so bad. They say it is impossible to baptize and all this stuff but I think that is a myth. We already found 9 new investigators this week!
My new companions are AWESOME!!! Hermana Martin (the blonde one) is going home at the end of the transfer and Hermana Wallis has only been out one transfer! They are both so fun.
Things I love about Santa Fe
-We are in the mountains
-SO many horses
-They recycle things
-Paper bags at the store
-Everybody lives in trailer parks (perfect for finding)
-We have an amazing branch president
-My companions love to RUN!!!!
-Most of our investigators are either always super high or deal drugs to get other people super high. Highly entertaining....but I now commit people at the end of lessons to be sober for the next time we come back. lol
The branch we are working in is so cool. They used to have about 100 active members and then they got a new branch president about 4 years ago. People got so offended by him that the branch got down to a total of 3 active adult members. INSANE. So this new president got called and the task is to reactivate and rebuild. We had 30 at church this week....including us....but the work is coming! I am so excited to see how much progress we can make!
Saying goodbye to my El Paso family was SO SO sad. I basically just had to slip out of there without saying goodbye to anyone from church because transfers were so weird. Apparently at church everyone was asking what happened which straight up breaks my heart. I wish so badly that I could have said goodbye!
Last monday night Angel and Mayra asked us to come see their new home. We had dinner with them and their member cousins (who referred them). We basically went over their whole conversion and we were laughing our heads off about how uninterested they were at first. And then we talked about how quickly they turned around and now they are such faithful, active members. Angel and Mayra both bore their testimonies and thanked us way too much. It was such a special/rewarding moment for me as a missionary, but the truth is it was ALL Heavenly Father. We deserve zero credit for anything. The gospel truly made all of their dreams come true. They are a happy FAMILY now! They never thought they would get that! And in less than a year their family will be sealed for all eternity.
Saying goodbye to them was SO HARD. Mayra and Angel stood in the door hugging and crying and waving. I got in Blancas car and LOST IT. Worse than any break up for sure. I felt like my parents were sending me off to college x100. They stood in the door way until we were completley out of sight! it was a little dramatic haha. Then we drove off and Blanca quickly turned our tears to tears of laughter. She was like, "all of my friends are worried that i'm going to start polygamy and I told them that's only the mormons that WANT to. Plus the sister wives are mormon and famous and now i'm part of that!"
We were like "NOOOOOO WE DON'T DO POLYGAMY!!" hahahahhahaha i can't believe she got baptised thinking that we were polygamists lolololol. She said "well the spirit told me it was true so I just figured whatever weird things you do must be true too." HAHA such a great lady.
Then the next day I said goodbye to Ruben. Bless his heart...he is kindof active still but Nephi killing Laban really tested his testimony. Then we went to Pablo's and he gave me some pretty flowers and we all just cried alot. Then saying goodbye to Hermana Garcia was really really tough. She is my little greenie! We worked SO hard together. There is nothing like stretching yourself together to bring a companionship together.
Man, I'm gonna miss El Paso. I learned SO MUCH in my time there. It is hard to put my experiences into words. We saw so many miracles. I learned that with faith in Jesus Christ, anything is possible. We saw faith change lives, heal relationships, cure depression, bring lasting peace, change hearts, fix addictions....i've even seen it cure cancer. It wasn't all easy, but it was worth it.
I am going to miss those people so much. And i will definitely miss my cat and my bike....but Santa Fe has so much potential and I couldn't be happier to be here!
Have an amazing week!!!
