I Love Being a Missionary!

Buenas tardes!

     Life here at the CCM is still pretty great! We got to go to the temple again and got to drive through Mexico City on a holiday. I was expecting a bit more excitement, but turns out they celebrated this past weekend when they had Monday off. It is neat to be able to see a bit of what Mexico is like every other week. Today we drove past the Basilica de La Virgen Guadalupe. Our branch president told us that for Catholics the Basilica is the most sacred place in all of Central and South America. He said that on December 12th, the day they celebrate Guadalupe, people from all over will come and crawl on their hands and knees for the last half mile or so of their pilgrimage. Also on the way home from the temple he bought us bananas from a street vendor. Probably one of the best bananas I´ve had up to this point in my life. :)

     This last week we´ve been busy teaching 2 ´´investigators.´´ With one we´ve extended invitations left and right and he´s done what we´ve asked, but it hasn´t helped him the way we hoped it would. The other we keep forgetting to invite him to do anything, but the lessons with him have seemed to reach his needs better. Each has been challenging in different ways and we have really learned so much from them!

     We´ve gotten to the point that just about every day has about the same schedule. Breakfast at 7...or 7:15 if your companions have a hard time finishing getting ready in time...My companions are great, but they require a lot more time to get dressed and do their hair and make-up. Study for an hour, teach our first investigator (who happens to be our morning teacher), and then class. Class could be anything from language study to a section of Preach My Gospel, or even something out of our missionary MTC manuals. Our morning teacher is Hno. Muñoz and he went to high school here before his mission. After our morning class we have more study time, lunch, language study, gym, TALL (technology assisted language learning a.k.a. Rosetta Stone missionary style), study/planning, dinner, teach our second investigator (who happens to also be our night teacher), and then class. Our night teacher, Hno. Galicia just got married a month ago and he served his mission in Sonora Mexico. This will be our basic schedule for the next three weeks. I don´t know when exactly we leave Mexico, but my estimated departure date is 9 Dec. 

     Last night we had a really neat devotional from Elder and Sister Valenzuela (he spoke at the last general conference). They talked about how much the Lord is hastening his work. He shared a really neat scripture about this hastening. ´´And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten...and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect.´´(Moses 7:62) We talked about how this wave that is flooding the earth is us (missionaries) and happening now. The members, the missionaries, and everyone who will be taught are being prepared. My companion mentioned how interesting the parallelism is. In Noah´s day God used a flood to kill all the wicked, but now in our day He is rescuing the righteous with a flood! It is so exciting to be part of all of this! Elder Valenzuela talked about how the work is moving forward and if we want to move with it we have to take an active part. It reminded me of the Noyana/Come Come Ye Saints arrangement that VocalPoint did. The lyrics roughly translate to ´´We are going. Are you coming?´´ So, God is marching on, and we are going. Are you coming? Will you join us?

I Love being a missionary! I have learned so much already, and there is so much in store! I love this gospel and I am so grateful for this chance to serve!

Con amor, 

Hermana Thacker

They are already decorating for Christmas here. I guess I would too if I wasn´t celebrating Thanksgiving in the middle :)

This is Hna. Granado, Hna. Miller, Hna. Porter, me, and Hna. Baird. Hna. Granado and Hna. Baird are so much fun! Hna. Granado is from Arizona, goes to Utah state, and has only been a member for 2 years. Hna. Baird is from Massachusetts and goes to BYU-I