Monday, December 16, 2013 -

Hola mi familia! Sorry for not writing sooner but we have been busy with transfers and helping missionaries in getting to new areas and such. Just so you know this letter may not be very lengthy. Like we expected, we didn't get transferred and I will finish my last transfer here. Just one transfer left....and this one is will be 7 weeks because this past one was only 5. That is so crazy! My last transfer...just 7 weeks left...less than 50 days now...so crazy! But not thinking about that. This week has been kind of a slow and weird week. We look at everything...all the names and plans and stuff, and it seems like we have quite a bit of work, but at the same the same time we have times when and walking around a lot looking for lessons and people to teach. However, we have been able to find a few new people. I don't have a lot of time right now but in just 1 week we will be able talk, so I hope that is okay. Friday, we had a sweet experience. We went to go look for a reference that a member had given us. This woman had a little store and so when we arrived and there were a few customers but luckily they left and we were able to not have distractions. We decided to share something quick since we didn’t know if more customers would come in. We began by singing a Christmas hymn--"Away in a manger". It was a beautiful hymn we did with a little harmony thing. By the end of end hymn we looked up at her and she had tears running down her cheeks and thanked us. We began to share a scripture about Christ, but at this time there were a lot of people beginning to come in and we were getting interrupted, so we decided to just go. She thanked us again and told us that we could come back and sing to here whenever we wanted to. This week we have been trying to meet with a new lady that we found last week that we told you about, but we just couldn´t find her. She was never at home. However, one day we passed by and her 20 year old son was there and he invited us in and wanted to listen to us. We had a nice lesson with him and taught ¨The Restoration¨. He seemed interested and said he would like to go to church with his mom one day. We were finally able to find the mom on Saturday and we shared a short scripture and invited her to church. She said she really wanted to go and that she would make an effort to go. Sunday came and she actually showed up! We were so happy! She could only stay for the first hour, but she seemed like she really liked it and she said she wanted to come next week too, but stay the whole 3 hours. So we will see! She doesn´t have a baptismal date right now, but if she continues going to church ever week then we are looking at the 18th of January, so let´s hope so! The 12th of December, Mexico had a really special day! It was the day of the Virgin Maria Guadalupe! Haha! Apostasy is running big in the world! It was basically a day to celebrate and honor and worship the virgin. Last year, there were parades and a bunch of things in Nacozari, but is seemed like here, either we weren´t around the festivities or there weren´t too many. We did see a few altars at night and people reciting things and all that. The story goes that in like the 1500s an Native Indian from Mexico went to the top of some hill and the virgin appeared to him and he went and picked a bunch of flowers for her. When he gave the flowers to her, apparently an imprint of the virgin was left on his tunic where he had the flowers in his arms. Apparently this same tunic is in Mexico somewhere on display. Kind of interesting, so this day was celebrating this. One day this week, we were having a really really tough day and were having no success, so we decided to say a pray and ask for a lesson. We said a prayer and then after I said a small one in my head pleading for someone to be put in our path that needed us and that needed the truth. After we were walking by and we say a Nativity set outside someone´s house and the nativity set was complete, but the baby Jesus was missing from the manger. We thought it was weird and we were kind of playing around and said, let´s know them, so we knocked on the door. A man in his late 50s answered and we asked him why they didn´t have the baby Jesus and he explained that they don´t put the baby Jesus in their nativity set until Christmas Eve signifying his birth. We asked if we could share a message with him and he invited us in and we sat on his porch. We talked with him a good bit and taught him ¨The Restoration¨. He was a very knowledgeable man and was talking a lot about religions. At the end of the lesson some people arrived at his house for business and so we couldn’t really talk too much, but he said he was interested and he said he would read a pamphlet we left. I´m not really sure he was the answer to the prayer I made, but maybe so. God always answers prayers and sometimes works in mysterious ways so we will just have to see where we go with him. These last 3 days have been quite crazy! Sunday morning they called us with the changes and boy, were there changes! They really shook our zone up! Almost everyone in the zone had changes except for us and maybe 2-3 other companionships. It was sad! Even the sisters that were in our ward BOTH got transferred and it was hard to see them go because they were really good friends to us. Yesterday, the first group of American Sisters came! Mexico officially has American Sisters! There were more sisters than Elders that came in I think. There were about 8 American sisters who arrived and then about 5 or 6 American Elders. My old comp is leaving this transfer (tomorrow actually) and so he came to Hermosillo. Pres. had all the ones who were leaving come in on Sunday night and they asked him to stay with us. It was really fun to see him and be with him again. He will get home and be able to spend Christmas with his family and then 2 weeks later he will go directly Utah to start Winter Semester at BYU. Yesterday morning we went with a sister who is a widow and we did a service of putting up her Christmas tree. She wasn´t going to put it up, but she is having a daughter come into town and so we convinced her to do and it and offered to do it for her. She made us breakfast while we did it. We then had to go to the offices to pick up another Elder who was going to stay with us too until Today. At the offices all the Gringos...and Gringas...were there so we helped them all get their luggage into Taxi’s to take to their new areas. It was pretty funny! Elders who can´t speak Spanish is one thing, but Sisters trying to speak is even crazier! After that we had to do a few things and them and some members had invited us to their house for a Carne Asada for my old comp’s last dinner and so that took up all our day, alas I am writing today. I hope this isn´t too bad of an email this week, but my mind is a little scattered with a lot of different emotions right now.....friends leaving and finishing the mission, friends being transferred, only have 1 change left--a mere 7 weeks that go really fast, etc.....Hopefully next week will be a better email! Sorry! Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! Just one more week till Christmas Eve and one week and one day till CHRISTMAS DAY!!!! And then we will be able to skype and chat!!!! And then just one month from that we will be live in the flesh...crazy! Enjoy what I am thinking is your last week of school before vacays! Yay! You did it! Christmas Break! I love you all so much! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner