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Monday, July 29, 2019

Water balloons and chocolate cakes


lunch by the river with Hna San Martin    (notice her watch tan line)
Hola Todos!!!

This Sunday we had two brothers come to church! The 20 year old Rey Artalejo (it was the second time) and the husband of a member who we´ve been visiting for a while now, but hadn´t come to church the whole time I have been here in the area, so that was exciting! They both said they liked it a lot and are going to keep coming, so we are very hopeful that they can become true converts to Christ and His gospel!


birthday celebration

cake fight?

chocolate cakes (and froot loops)
We also made a couple of cakes for some people we´ve been trying to teach and for a sister who had her birthday this week! So a lot of baking. Also, we had a water balloon fight and got completely soaked, so that was fun!

water balloon fight (before pic)

Little short but don´t have a ton of time this week! 

Hope you all are doing well! Love you!!

Hermana Naatjes

post-water fight soaked pic #1

soaked pic #2
soaked pic #3

Monday, July 22, 2019

A week in the life

 Introduced my companion to shakes and s'mores. 

Hola Todos!!!

This week was good! Don´t have any super exciting news or anything, but life is good, my companion is fantastic and incredibly strong, and the gospel is true. 

In the last year of my life I have come to realize that there is so much more to life than we realize. All too often we lose ourselves in search of money, fame, recognition, and all sorts of things and don´t remember the things that are truly important. We are here for such a short amount of time. Use it. Use it in the way that you know you should. Do good things. Help people. Become the person you want to be in 10 years, today. 

She loved them.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Naatjes


Tuesday, July 16, 2019

11 MONTHS!!!!


 
 Hola todos!

News of the week: I´ll be in Colonia Juarez at least 6 more weeks with Sister San Martín!


This week we had high hopes that a lot of people were going to come to church, but they all fell through (slept in late, got sick, had to work, a surprise visit from the fam, etc.) so that was sad, but we´re gonna do everything possible to make sure they come next week!


Had another appointment with Nery, and he is progressing even more. On Friday, for the first time in his life, he felt the spirit and God´s love. We started the lesson singing "Abide with me, ´tis eventide", and he began to cry. We asked him how he felt and he just told us he didn´t know. That it was something he had never felt before. He is ready and willing to fight and endure to the end. 

Not much happened, but took a bunch of pictures (thought I was going to get transferred) so here you go!


Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Naatjes


Monday, July 8, 2019

Happy 4th of July!!!



happy fourth of July from Mexico!
 Hola Todos!

This week was good! We are getting more familiar with Mata Ortiz, and seeing miracles.

an awesome family
We have been teaching a brother named Nery for a few weeks. He is a member, who after getting baptized almost immediately fell away from the church. He has had a very difficult life, and one of his biggest challenges that he has faced in these few weeks is that he is afraid to pray, because every time he does, something bad happens. 

The first time he prayed with us, the next day he broke his ribs, the second time a scorpion bit him in the night, the third, he woke up with a rattle snake in his bed (that was not there when he went to bed) etc. We have been doing our best to keep supporting him and encouraging him to keep praying, but it has been difficult. 

Yesterday, when we went to visit him, we began to speak about the plan of salvation, and asked if he was willing to keep fighting for the short time we have here in this life, so that we can be with Him after. Nery looked at us, with a mix of fear and determination in his eyes, and told us that he has to keep fighting. He started to explain to us all of the tender mercies he had seen. How with the scorpion, even though he was not able to make it to the hospital for almost 12 hours, only his arm had gone numb and that now he was fine. That with the rattlesnake, something woke him up and warned him, so he was able to get away before it bit him. He told us he finally can feel that someone is there protecting him, and he is going to keep fighting until he gets through this fight.

a cake made for us by Nery

I hope we can all learn to be a bit more like Nery. Too often when bad things happen we blame God, asking why He abandoned us, when we really are failing to see His protection. Look for His hand. Recognize His blessings, and ALWAYS keep fighting.

Love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Naatjes


learned how to tie a cherry stem with my tongue!

Monday, July 1, 2019

SCORPION!


hot days in Chihuahua

 Hola Todos!!

This week was good! Met my new mission president on Saturday so that was pretty neat! He's from Utah and used to be the director of a high school, but left it all to fulfill a calling from God.

zone conference

Also we found a scorpion in our kitchen sink, so that was an unexpected surprise! 

Scorpion in our kitchen sink

we caught it

Sorry the email is a bit short this week, but I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hermana Naatjes


 la familia Artalejo Gaytan