"There's Been A Change In Me..."

Hola Mi Familia! I enjoyed your emails as always! It sounds like you all are just having a dang good time with your summer activities! I'm supes jeally of the play, mom and dad, especially getting to spend an evening with the Hobbs! So Jealous! First off, "Feliz Dia De Los Padres!" to my Papi, Papa, and Grandaddy! I think it is quite rude of the Missionary department to allow phone calls on Mother's Day and not Father's day as well. How blahh!!! But I thought about you all! I was reminded of lyrics from "A Little Princess": "Oh Papa (Mi Papi), I miss you so, And I pray that you know, Papa (Mi Papi) that I love you so, Just to have you right here, Holding me near, Papa (Mi Papi) it could be, Would be the best gift of all..." Hope your day was filled with joy and that you enjoyed that Homemade Mushroom Soup....YUCK! About the Bishop's letter...I did send it right when I wrote it, so yeah I guess it does take that long....sucks! I'm guessing mom hasn't received her Mother's Day letter yet and that means Dad won't get his till probs August! Great... Mom, Congrats on your calling? Haha! I'm sure it will be fine! You will be fantastic! And with Sister Ritz and Sister Harris, my BFFs! How fantastic! Good luck!!! :) So well, I don't really remember what happened this week as far as work goes. Now that I think about it, we did have some difficult lessons with people not keeping commitments, not being available for appointments, and having crazy beliefs that we have to try and work through, but other than that things are great! I'm really surprised at myself and all of these things. So many times I hear people say how hard it is and depressing when you go to an appointment and no one is there, but surprisingly nothing really gets me down. It seem like it would be easy to get depressed and upset not having lessons or people keeping commitments, but I never let it get to me and try to always keep a positive attitude...maybe it's a gift? I did have to speak in church yesterday with only a 30 minutes notice. It was awful! I don't do well with unplanned talks. I like to write out my words and especially with Spanish...it wasn't good. And then we gave the Sunday school and priesthood lesson also on missionary work to help get the members to help us more. My Spanish was bad then too! Ugh! So upsetting! I do remember one thing that happened that was depressing. We learned that one of our investigators, one of the 3 siblings that we have been seeing for awhile, one of the sisters has started getting into drugs. This was really disappointing. It was just us and her and she was telling us about how she has thought multiple time of killing herself and how whenever she gets mad with her family--mad with stupid small things-- she uses drugs to help take the problems away and help her keep calm. This was quite a shocker and both of us couldn't believe it! She is just a 15 year old teenager! And thoughts of suicide and using drugs. We talked to her for a good hour and a half trying to convince her of the self worth and how important our bodies are and to keep them clean. She hasn't been using the drugs for too long and so we wanted to stop her before she gets really addicted. We offered to help her throw them out, but she seemed reluctant. Pretty soon, her siblings came and we had to go to mutual. So we will hopefully keep trying to help her. I just love the thought of how much God loves us and I have a strong testimony of God's love. However it is frustrating in a situation like this when I want to try and help people understand their self worth and importance and show them how much God loves them, but I don't have the vocabulary or words in Spanish to tell them. It is annoying! So this news was upsetting. We've become close to these siblings! It was like my own sister telling me these things. It hurt! But, enough of that. Apart from work, we had our last Zone Conference with President and Hermana Velez this week. It was a combined Zone Conference with our Zone, Penasco, and another Zone about 2 hours away, Caborca. So in all there were about 20 missionaries. It was Friday morning, so we were going to leave Thursday night, but when we called for van tickets there weren’t anymore vans scheduled so we were left to take the next van the next morning at 6AM. So yeah...I got up at 4:30AM that morning....not fun times! The conference was really sad! I mean it was good, but knowing this was the last time that we would see Pres. and Hermana Velez was sad. I played piano and another American Elder and I sang "God Be With You..." in Spanish and another Elder accompanied us on recorder. It was nice. I took a video, but it is too big for the email...sad, I know. President and Hermana Velez gifted us all with a DVD they had made for us with advice on it and photos, and also their address. Ugh! I am going to miss them so much! I love them so much and they are just the greatest. Afterwards all of us went out to eat at a Member's restaurant. The assistants brought my package from the youth! So I finally got that thankfully! It was nice to read all the letters...I can't believe I didn't get a letter from my own sister....the whole youth, plus some and even Alex, but not Elise....well, well, well.... :) After this Zone Conference and just a lot of things that I have been thinking about how it really changed me and my perspective on things. I think I am now just beginning to enjoy the mission! I have been thinking how fast time moves and before I know it I won't have this time ever again. I better savor and enjoy it while it lasts. I will admit that many times I have thought what it will be like to come home, being in the U.S. again and the airport, and then I think about being in the airport in Hermosillo and how sad that will be to leave because of the memories I have already made here and what this place already means to me. And I think deeper and I think of when I come home and meet with the Stake President and he tells me to take off my Name Tag.....I won't be able to do it. I always here how everyone always cries at this part and I know I will. How great is this calling! To be a representative of Jesus Christ for 2 years! To preach His Gospel and help people change live! I wear a name tag with His name on it AND Mine! I love putting on the name tag everyday and I take pride in the opportunity I have to wear it and be that representative that I know Christ wants me to be. How great is this calling! So mom, I actually received the very same exact letter from our President. It said that is was issued by the area authority of Mexico so I'm sure all missionaries got it. It made me a little uneasy, especially to read about those two other missionaries somewhere in Mexico. I'm not completely sure what this all means or what the cause of it, but I feel confident that if we do what we're supposed to, when we're supposed, we will have the Spirit. So hopefully this isn't too alarming and that it will pass in a few weeks. One thing that Hermana Velez told me twice in one day during the zone conference was how strong of a spirit I have and how it is always present! It made me feel good and lifted me up! This isn't the first time I've heard this. A few members tell me the same along with my comp! I like this quality. I hope that my spirit and actions speak louder than my words.... So we are having transfers a week early this change so that President Velez can do it before the New one comes in 2 weeks. So changes are next week and I'm not really sure what will go down and if I'll be able to write that day. It may be Tuesday. We will just see....we are pretty sure Elder Melchor is getting transferred and I'm staying. Love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner