Week 2

So the 4 of us (the 4 of us hermanas that live together and are in the same ward) had to give talks yesterday. but oh my gosh i played the piano in sacrament and it was worse than my worst recitals when id forget my song completely and start over, because i couldnt start over clearly. so yea it was wretched but people were still impressed? either they were just trying to be nice or only heard me pang out the first and last few notes with confidence? i dont know. but since i had the strong prompting last week that i should play (since nobody plays they just play a cd player into a mike), i knew i had to redeem myself this time. even though it seriously was one of my top ten embarrassing moments. my companion said the best part was when i played the last note of the last song with enthusiasm, like "hey i know that one." but anyway people were still appreciative and they asked me to play again next week. its not like i can practice or anything! i know i just need to have an insane amount of faith haha. it was like when Peter walked on water and once he realized he could do it he freaked out and started to sink. totally was me. i would be in the middle of a good line and think hey ive got it and then id forget what song it was or something terrible like that. WELL. but my comp wrote me a cute little note saying how talented i was and how lucky she was to have me. how cute. but really im a horrible pianist. 

Enough about me though. christmas was the best day ever. it was another normal proselyting day and we taught members and investigators. ok the Balboa family. their dad is the first counselor in the bishopric and an awesome guy. anyways theres 5 kids 11 and under and theyre so loud and adorable. the youngest 2 are 5 and 6 and they always fight over who gets to pray when we visit them. imagine a little 5 yr old boy praying in perfect spanish for everything he is grateful for. heartwrenching!! but i took over that snow in a can that you sent me mom and they were craazy about it!!! it worked pretty well but they were all just fascinated that i had snow in a can with american writing all over it. they made me a list of spanish words to look up and define that are must-know words. i have lots of random pics bc the 6 year old ailine, took my camera and wouldnt stop. so cute. we went over there when the power went out when we were in the middle of one of our scariest streets, and they were playing games with candles. it was bingo with words and they said okay youre going to call out the words bc you need to practice your spanish. p.s. this is all bc i told them to always correct me. so we are crowded around this little table and ailine whispers to me across the table and points at me saying "me cae bien" which translates to "you fall well with me." basically like i love you or we´'re tight ya know. SO CUTE. she reminds me of trinity pilimai a bit. with gorgeous long dark hair. 

So we mostly visit less actives because theres TONS. one little cute old lady thinks when the bishops out of town theres no church. aaaand were pretty sure she doesnt know the difference between a chapel and a temple no matter how many times we try to explain. so everyone here has incredible faith, even if they arent members. they recognize that everything in their lives is from God and Jesus Christ and love them so much, BUT dont come to church. i never realized how heartbreaking it would be to visit a less active and become close friends and see them multiple times a week and have them say theyll be at church but theyre not. i just havent figured out why people wouldnt want to keep the commandments when theyre promised infinite blessings. the other day i was just thinking this, how lucky are we to have commandments!! ways to actually show our heavenly father how much love we have back for Him! AND to make us ten times more happy! so thats one thing i need to figure out, why you wouldnt do all in your power to live happily and on top of it receive and incredible amount of blessings. i have wayyyy more to say but im running out of time. oh also since i dont wear makeup (except sundays when i should be presentable) people are always fascinated by my "amarillo pestañas" or yellow eyelashes. they just make me close my eyes so they can observe hahaha.

ALSO last thing we have a reference, Marcos, and he owns a little boutique. so we went to visit him for the first main lesson cuz he says he will always listen to the word of God and we ended up teaching the entire plan of salvation lesson with little pictures spread out on his counter. and i dont know WHY i asked him to be baptized (ha yea i do) but it happened and he said yes and i was blown away. so was my comp so thats cool, she says shes proud of me. so im okay guys haha just need to study more spanish and more everything!! 

Everyday wake up and do something more. love you all with all my heart! everyone reading this!

con todo mi amor, 

hermana zimmerman!!!

Week 1

Monday Dec. 23, 2013

okay family, (immediate and extended and ward and friend family),

seriously do not even know where to begin, but why would anyone ever deny the chance to serve a mission. all you need is faith. not faith in yourself, just faith in the Lord!!! faith that you and your companion will be best friends even though the only thing she can say in english is "your are the best missionary" and faith that the lord can put the correct words into your mouth even though you have no idea what your investigator has just said. 

My companion Sister Romero

Right now we are serving in Deportiva 1. there are two, and hermana lowe and hermana lopez are covering the other side of Deportiva, (2). so the 4 of us live together in this cute little disgusting apartment, but its ours! i feel safe wherever i am, but my biggest scare was last night when we were walking in the depths of this alley around 8, creepy random groups of people, and then we were all alone on one street to a members home and i feel my companion grab my elbow and say "muerte" meaning dead and i look and theres this guy sprawled out completely ´passed out. my heart skipped a lot of beats. he never moved. not sure if he was dead or just passed out.  Our area is huge, and on wednesday, my first real missionary day, we walked at least 75 blocks.

Hermana Guillen lives in the far end of this little alley with her husband, daughter, neice and nieces boyfriend, and her other daughter lives right next door with her two kids. hermana guillen is the only active member and was baptized 3 years ago. when we got there her husband bolted and we havent seen him since. but she made us food and these cute little 3 and 5 year old were sitting with me. but when we ate we ate alone. nobody else had food. i whispered to my companion asking if i could share, but she said i couldnt. so i really had no idea what to do except mirror my companions every move.  The members are so good to us. hermana guillen feeds us every single wednesday and she is so humble and kind, about 4'10 and always happy. right now we are focusing on reactivating her 23 yr old daughter and her husband. everyone is SO nice i just cant understand why they wont go to church or keep commandments! they have all the right answers!!! we are also teaching her 13 yr old niece Ana and her 23 yr old boyfriend, not members. but theyre 3 months pregnant and i know theyre scared out of their minds. last night after i hugged Ana when we first got there she starting crying and didnt stop. her bf is usually quiet but he talked a lot last night. one of the most frustrating things is when i cant understand people, and he mumbles and speaks quietly. but i have come to learn that it doesnt matter if i understand them it only matters that heavenly father knows their needs and can put into my mouth exactly what i need to say. i was sitting their quietly thinking about ana and her little growing body with another inside of her and my companion turns to me and asks if i have something to say. i said no, but she said no say what youre thinking. i said well im just thinking about Ana and then i just started crying. i was trying to stay composed, but its the 3rd time this week ive cried in a lesson. i told her how i felt and what i was inspired to say, and they looked so confused that a white girl would come into their home and cry over their discouragement. it is so easy for me to love these people. i want the best for all of them. and im always so excited to visit them, even if we walk hundreds of blocks.

I love you all so much. thank you mom and dad for everything you have given me. i am so undeserving of all my many blessings, im trying to make up for the deserving part. thank you for always loving me and always going to church, and always being nice to the missionaries. i am honored when people even offer me a glass of water. i didnt realize how much it would mean to me to have someone call their house my house and tell me to stop by whenever and have whatever i need. i am so ridiculously blessed to be entrusted with these people and be responsible for helpíng them!!!! oh also, an 18 yr old girl Aranza came to church with us yesterday!! and she agreed to be baptized last thursday!! im so happy for her she looooves to learn and is going through her parents divorce. so many great people here. 

p.s. family when you read scriptures i want you to pray beforehand. and pray with a question or problem or any concern in each of your minds. then have something to take notes while you read. i promise you that wherever you are reading, if you invite the spirit, your question or concern will be answered. and write down your feelings!!!!! try it and tell me how it goes :))) people that know a little english always want to speak to me in english or want me to teach them. i taught my comp how to pray in english last night!! her accent is so thick its adorable.

con amor,

hermana zimmerman

I'm in Mexico!

On Tuesday, December 17, 2013 9:46 AM

MOM IM IN MEXICO. you would never believe everything thats happened already. but im safe and everything went well and i have never seen my hair do the things its been doing!!!!!! my mission president and his wife are SO GREAT and they have 2 gorgeous daughters that are 14 and 16 and they are the sweetest and i always ask them to help me learn spanish better. everyone here thinks that my spanish is way good which is surprising!! but that just means that i have lots more important things to work on. my president is hilarious i wish i could call you write now and tell you everything thats happened. everything is green and its humid and i looooove this weather!! even tho my hair is out of control just like all the otro hermanas. last night they drove us to an apartment where 8 elders live and had us stay there and kicked the elders out. havent met my companion yet, later today perhaps. he says he hasnt even decided exactly where we will go. all the food here is SOOOO GOOODDD IM IN HEAVEN i knew id love the food!! anyway the apartment was little and sketchy but way cool and this morning they made us walk back to the mission home in the rain. 3 blocks. with my little carryon and holding my blue blanket and my heavy sidebag. it was probably hilarious to everyone that saw us. then this morning we had a bunch of pictures taken then walked another few blocks to breakfast at a place called vips. the president said ¨´we are going to vips because you are all vips´ but he said its vips rather than vee eye pee. hes hilarious. IM SO HAPPY AND EVERYONES NICE. the elders are all freaked cuz they say that havent seen american women for so long. 

Que Bendicion

Que Bendicion

December 11, 2013

FAMILY

im so high strung right now im so happy!!! i have less than a week left in the mtc! it becomes more and more real to me every day. yesterday especially since we were in las vegas all day. surprise! we woke up at 4 am yesterday, flew out at 9, sat around with a service missionary for literally 3 hours while he talked at us about mexico, then went to the consulate to get our visas. then had a flight at 5 pm to come back to the mtc!! showed up at our apartment at exactly 9:30 when we were supposed to be. que bendicion. and it was such a long exhausting day. the church is incredible for being able to coordinate that all so well. basically to explain, we had to make an appearance at the consulate, get our pictures for our visa and fingerprints, and that was that. the actual process took literally less than 2 minutes per person. BUT going out into the real world was the best part! everyone looked at us differently and some were extra nice and others were pretty short with us. did i mention putting my nametag on is the BEST part of my day? i am sooo lucky oh my goodness i cant even fully explain how much of an incredible experience this is. so when they got all angry at us for wearing them through security it felt so sad taking it off it was wierd. no wonder returned missionaries are so sad about coming home. parting with that is the worst!!

so yesterday we were approached by so many cute people. a woman came and shook all our hands at the terminal and she started crying. she said that she was about to go pick up her son after finishing his mission in Guatemala. we were asking her questions but she couldnt even talk about it without getting incredibly emotional so i told everyone to let her be haha. poor thing how exciting. she said she jokes with everyone that shes going out there cuz they have to drag him home he doesnt want to leave! then we were on the tram and we gave up seats for this little old chinese lady and her daughter. she got all happy and smiley and stared at us (10 hermanas and 1 elder) and started talking to her daughter in chinese. the daughter told us she said we were all very beautiful. how cute!! i wished i had a chinese book of mormon or something haha. hermana weaver told her she liked her hat and she replied (after it was translated) "china!!" all smiley still. hermana weaver said "yo tambien!" which im not sure if it was an offensive comment but it was in spanish and yea whatever but still so funny hahaha we were all like oh my clothes are from china too! anyway moving on..

LAST WEDNESDAY after i was already done emailing hermana riedelbach and i were at main campus to have dentist check-ups and apparently we both have weak mouths. interesting little old man with gold teeth let us know that. anyway so we were just walking around and by the main entrance getting directions and there was a woman sitting on the couches reading. she looked up and saw us and wanted to know if she could ask us a question. we of course said sure and she asked us if we believe in the bible. turns out shes an investigator living with her sister, and her sister doesnt like it when the missionaries come to her house so she comes and sits at the mtc and asks the missionaries her questions. what courage that is!! going right to the source!! we told her all about how the book of mormon and bible go hand in hand and asked her about her own beliefs and her life and she was so happy and interested and loved when we explained to her what we were doing and why it was so important to us. she didnt want a book of mormon bc she didnt wana upset her sister, but still, we were so glad to answer her questions and would have talked to her all day if we could have! i started asking every companionship that walked by us while we were talking where they were going on their missions and where they were from so she could see how diverse it all is. she was so surprised. anyway i hope she comes back and gets more of the correct info she is looking for!! 

i didnt tell you much about thanksgiving, but we watched a video about mormon helping hands and i thought about brandon geurts and sariah and amanda north and their clubs at school!! they have to watch a mormon helping hands video about cleaning up new york city after the hurricane. its incredibly inspiring. everyone HAS to go on mormon.org and find the videos they have. theyre so incredible and uplifting. on sunday a couple of us were in our classroom watching videos and sobbing because we were so touched. GO WATCH the video mountains to climb. id already seen it before and i was like dangit i know im gona cry and ive already seen this!! mormon.org and lds.org are SUCH great websites and they literally have every bit of info anyone could ever need. 

SARIAH - you know that blue flower with quotes on it that i put on your wall? well it means something!! look up the talk by elder uchtdorf called Forget Me Not. its so good!! 

everyone else i have a challenge for you!! when you are taking notes in church or at a fireside or devotional, draw a line in the middle of the paper. on one side write things the speaker said that you like, on the other side write things that you like that the spirit says to you. theyll be completely different but both awesome. 

this week for scriptures you should read alma 26. it reminds me of how all my friends and i will be when we get home from our missions and glory in the work of the Lord and all of the incredible opportunities that he has blessed us with. sometimes we dont know what we are going to say to people that we know we have the opportunity to help, but if we rely on the spirit which we are blessed to have with us, the holy ghost will be able to tell us all things we should say. everyone needs and can benefit from this gospel. i see miracles every day. this is THE true church of Jesus Christ, and we have an incredibly beautiful message of hope and happiness to share with so many. 

OH YEA BY THE WAY I HAD TO GIVE A TALK IN CHURCH ON SUNDAY. they choose 2 people out of the congregation on the spot so we all had to have one prepared. so first they say hermana riedelbach and i was like okay good i can relax, then they said followed by hermana zimmerman and i froze. great! hahah but it was fine and people said they liked what i said and it made sense. probably an 8 minute talk in spanish. yay! 

food for thought from President Monson, "the world would be much better if we could give the gift of understanding." in every aspect.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND IM COLD BUT ITS OKAY. ill be in Mexico so very soon!! apparently all the missionaries in our mission have been so excited for us to come and theyre all well aware that theyre getting american girls on monday!

oh yea another thing i heard that i liked, from the old service missionary guy that talked at us. he said "dont date a man that couldnt be called as a bishop right now." ....i was sitting there thinking what is he talking about?! but of course he explained that that would probably not happen, but set standards high because youre worth it. **cough cough my teenage sisters/all girls of the Orange stake** thats all!!! :) he may have been referring to when i come home, but still, watch yourselves. 

con todo mi amor!

hermana zimmerman

P.S. hermana weaver called me Zim-mormon. cant believe nobody else came up with that all my years of being made fun of. hasta luego!!! sorry this is so long

i have another hilarious story. our villahermosa elders are in the same district as elder bake. they told us the other day that bake's companion and one of the others, elder jeppsen, decided one night to cut up their sheets and make dress shirts. I DIED. they sat up until 1 am sewing dress shirts hahahah. then they wore them to a service acitivity and one of the employees was like "hey are those the sheets we gave you?!" i honestly dont understand elders sometimes but theyre all freaking hilarious. okay bye :)

Mi Mejor Familia

Dec. 4, 2103

mi mejor familia

so yesterday it snowed a good 8 inches. woke up to it snowing, and it didnt stop all day long. till like 9 pm. luckily i still have Bake's coat and it saves my life! the elder bake thats here always makes fun of me cuz he says brandon got that coat when he was like 15, he thinks its hilarious. whatever tho it keeps me warm!! i see him at least once everyday and it makes me so happy! i cannot believe it! i have made tons of awesome friends here that i could easily be friends with forever, people i just start talking to at random. then we see each other like everyday so yea i consider everyone my best friends. love it. but i do not like this snow. its ridiculous. 

last night for our devotional was supposed to be elder ballard, but because of weather he couldnt make it. so they call up Elder Bruce Hafen, never had heard of him, but they called him at 4:30 that afternoon asking if he could sub for elder ballard!! could you imagine?!?! umm yea ill come up with something for a couple thousand missionaries. but when they said it was someone different i was so excited and intruiged bc that means this guy was supposed to talk to us and someone needed to hear his message. and it was incredible. the spirit was sooo undeniable throughout the whole meeting. he said he was friends with elder holland since he was 3 years old and they went to each others birthday parties and everything. how cool. but he said he remembers elder holland being so hesitant about serving a mission because he would have to leave a girl behind. he almost didnt go. could you imagine if he had decided not to?? of course he doesnt regret a single second of his mission, and neither do i already. he talked about how on our missions, we grow up in the Savior and come to know God through our extremities. there will undoubtedly be hard times, so when they come ill be ready to accept them and know that i have been prepared for them. 

i dont have much time today and i have so much i could say, but nothing else major has happened!! spanish is coming along, i teach 1 to 2 15 minute lessons in spanish everyday to our investigators, and it gets tough. but everyday i am stronger and every hour i become a better version of myself. missions dont change you, they just make us more of who we really are. i love that. this is not about me. im not here to get what i want, im here to help others get what they want and what they need. que bendicion. i havent had a single doubt about the fact that i am EXACTLY where i am meant to be and meeting the people i need to meet. i love the mtc. its a dedicated place of love and diligence, and everyone is suffering through their own trials. you never know what a person is going through! its so difficult sometimes to put your own frustrations behind you and be there for everyone else. one of my very best friends here, hermana mcgary, just left last week. she went home. and i had NO idea she was leaving until the morning she left and she didnt show up to breakfast or any of her meetings. she had been having her own internal battle most of the time she was here, but she had been praying and fasting and attending the temple to know what she should do. and her answer was she was needed at home. i am proud of her for being able to be so in tune with the spirit that she felt that being at home was most important. so i cant wait to hear from her about the things she will be able to accomplish and people she will be able to influence. and its okay.

con mucho amor, 

Hermana Zimmerman

                                                                                   We wear Pink on Wednesdays