Diary of a Missionary Mom!!: Tick tock goes the missionary clock

Another week has come and gone. AJ has been a missionary for 33 weeks (8 months) and Sarah has counted down 3 months.
They are loving their missions and continue to be amazed at how quickly time passes. Their days are busy, but filled with great experiences that make memories that will last a lifetime.

It's fun to receive our girls letters each week. As they learn and become more fluent in the languages of their countries we find that they throw words in that we can't understand. When we spoke to AJ at Christmas time she said that she has forgotten quite a few words in English and just uses Tagalog. Sarah hasn't quite gotten to that point in her letters, but we're sure she will also.

FROM THE PINES

First of all... HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!!!!!!! I hope you have a Great Birthday!!!!!!! Party like the Rockstar you are!!!!! (: Gosh I miss you so much mom and love you!!! Next year when I'm home we will celebrate Pines style!!! Have a great birthday mommy!!! I am sending you all my love!!!!!

Well this week was a fast on. I woke up yesterday morning and both Sister S. and I were like banal baka (holy cow) it is Sunday again !!! Dang this week was fast!!!

It was a good week though. We are very very busy. We are doing a lot of less active lessons this up coming week because once again...there are so many less actives.

The investigators that we have are Sister J. and Sister Jinky. The are 19 and 21 years old. They are progressing well however they said that church was really long and parang culture shock. They are both very receptive, so we are just helping them prepare for baptism on the 22 of February.

Another investigator that we have is Sister LA. She came to church yesterday and Sister S. and I were so excited, She LOVES the gospel!!! Her brother and his family just got baptized on the 11th of this month. Now there is a family who was ready to receive the gospel!!! They are amazing and we currently right now are teaching them the recent convert lessons. They have 5 children. 4 girls and 1 boy. We are teaching their second oldest daughter right now too. She said her testimony wasn't where it needed to be upang for her maging baptized with her family. PERO now her dad can baptize her!!!!

Everything is going really well with me! I am safe, happy and I am healthy...we workout everyday and every Saturday morning Sis. S. and I go on a bukid walk!! However it makes me miss my runs on the beach. Are you still doing that dad?? Are you still doing/training marathons???

Anyway ,I love Sister S.! She is awesome...we laugh a lot haha which is good dahil our area is rough...(we are very close to the temple site) pero last night we held a fireside for our ward about member missionary work. We really have our work cut out for us here in terms of helping establish the church. But we can do it!!!!!!

Dad before I forget...I love the beard!!!! love the trim but I liked it before (:

Well family, that is it for this week. I am sending you all my love always and pray everyday that the Lord continues to keep you safe...I know that he will. I love the mission and I am so glad that I made this decision to be here. My testimony has grown and so has my love for my Heavenly Father and my Savior.

Continue to help in the missionary efforts by small and simple things. Be obedient to the commandments and please be safe in ALL that you do.

I love you all so much and will write again next week!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Mahal

Sister Carr

FROM MEXICO

Can you believe it´s been another week? Crazy! I have officially completely 2 months in Mexico, that´s awesome! And 3 months as a missionary! AH!

Mother! I hope you have a WONDERFUL FANTASTIC TRULY AMAZING birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) You´ll get to party hard with AJ next year, but January 2016 is gonna be NUTS! Haha! I send you all my love mama!

I send all of you my love ALWAYS!

This week was good. Nothing too exciting. We continue to work hard and try our best. That´s all we can do right? We have a few investigators progressing which is great! We hope to have a baptism on Feb 8! I hope so! We are going to baptize a brother who is about 60 years old and speaks both Spanish and Mayan! He is hilarious and so kind! He likes reading the Book of Mormon better in Mayan and when we are in lessons and he reads it out loud, it´s awesome! It´s such a cool language! And quite a few people speak it here!

Speaking of language, Spanish is coming more and more. I am starting to notice a difference and boy am I happy! I´ve also noticed it´s WAY easier when I don´t really think about it. When I just have the desire to talk, I can. When I focus too much on speaking perfectly, that´s when the Lord humbles me and ties my tongue up. I can´t speak. He needs me to focus more on the gospel and less on being perfect! It´s a hard lesson to learn, but I´m learning! One thing I´ve started doing is reading the Liahona in Spanish when we walk. I read out loud and Hermana N. and Hermana C. help me with my understanding and pronunciation. It´s helping a lot! There are times when Hermana N. will be talking to someone and Hermana C. and I are walking and talking and it´s fun to stop and think: I am a 19 yr old girl, walking the streets of Mexico and being able to communicate with this other person. I think about the fact that I am able to have a conversation in Spanish! It´s moments like this that I don´t care what I sound like or if I´m perfect. All I care about is the fact that I am learning. I am growing and gaining knowledge and I absolutely love it!

The process of learning is extremely difficult, but I realize how much I love it. Even though it´s tough and I don´t love the process when I´m going through it, but afterwards, when I can see what I´ve learned, I praise my Heavenly Father for allowing me to have an opportunity like this. I need to be more grateful because He has truly blessed me! One blessing that has come from being a missionary is just being able to see more and more blessings. Big and small. There are times when I send a prayer to Him just thanking Him for the 10 seconds of shade we had, or a light breeze, or things like that. He blesses me everyday and I love being able to see more and more of His hand in this work and in my life!

This gospel is true! Without any doubt in me, I know this church is The Church of Jesus Christ! He is our Savior! Remember Him in every moment, because He always remembers us!

OH! Guess what wicked sweet fact I found out this week! The first missionaries to come to Hunucma were an American and a native of Mexico.Ya know where the American was from?? CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the first American sister to come to Hunucma is from CALIFORNIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ME!! How incredible is that! I feel even more connected to Hunucma and my mission now! I know this is where I´m meant to be!

I love you all so much! Please be safe and happy and faithful! And Dad, I loved the Duck Dynasty action you had going on! You´ll have to regrow it when I get back! :)

Con mi amor siempre,

Sarahbeara :)