a homemade turtle pen

Hna Ellgen and Martinez; sometimes we eat lunch together and it is just great.

a family that we are reactivating — I promise they are happy, it's just that nobody smiles in photos here.

the cemetery walk from today

the greatest mysteries of God.

dearest familia,

The days are getting a little hotter and the heavens a little more clear with the beginning of a new summer season that is sure to last until September. To celebrate the beginning of a new change of weather, we bought a handful of wild flowers and wandered along the concrete sidewalks of an old cemetery that we always pass and that I had always dreamed of visiting. It was a peaceful start to this week, reading the names engraved upon the weathered stones of a people that I have long grown to love and whose lives have forever become intertwined with my own. The visit to the cemetery marked the start of many new planned adventures, the next one being a trip to the zoo in Centro (we have already started planning this adventure that is set to take place in two weeks, because yes, it will take two weeks to make a very detailed plan of how we can make it to the zoo and fulfill all our other responsibilities, too). Among the few adventure we had this week, there were a couple funny happenings, too, such as:

+  one of our newest investigadores, Hna Nidia, stopped the whole lesson to tell me that I resembled Jesus Christ — um ... I don't know whether to take this as a compliment or if it is something slightly sacrilegious ... I guess it was something about my hair and eyes that day?

+  the assistants have begun texting all the missionaries every single day with reminders to ask for references and contact more people in the streets. They have become some of our greatest highlights during the day, because we feel like we are in Amazing Race or something whenever we read a text that says, ¨"Two hours left to find new investigators — who can find the most before 9?" or others that give live updates of them receiving references or contacting a new person to teach. Our favorite text of the week included, "¿Que haria Jesucristo? #ensenarparaencontrar." (What would Jesus do? Teach to find.) Believe it or not, it actually makes us want to work a little harder. 

This week we worked a lot with the less actives. We just so happen to have double (or maybe even triple) the number of less actives than members here in our little area so we are trying to reactivate a lot of them (and we think it is kind of working because we had a lot of them come to church the past two Sundays — yay!). On Tuesday we went to visit Hno Alonso, an eighteen year old who was baptized when he was 14, but who hardly goes to church now. We sat just outside his door on these really high chairs, looking into his house and into his soul that we found to be a little broken and worn. Every time we visit him he has a new problem or doubt — one day he decided he didn't believe in God anymore, even though he had felt His love, and the next he returned to his faith in a God, but in a God that didn't love him; another day he told us he wanted to get a tattoo, and the next day he had one. He is one of those sad stories, depicting perfectly the hope that God has in each of us and how sad God must feel when we dont quite live up to that person that He created our spirits to be. At times, Hno. Alonso gives us rare glimpses into the person that he really is and who he really could be with God, and every time we see these illuminating moments of his divine potential, the love of God and the reality of His love reigns a little bit more in the corners of our hearts. It was on this Tuesday that God visited us in His love once more. As Hna Huerta began the lesson with a prayer (note: she gives the best and most beautfiul prayers ever and I want to be like her), a voice entered into my heart and penetrated my soul with the words of that Being who speaks to all His children in a quiet ways, saying to me and testifying of another, ¨He is my son, and I love him.¨These two simple sentences struck me more than anything else as I looked at this son of God sitting before without the knowledge that he is loved and that he is remembered. It struck me in that moment to think that perhaps out of all the mysteries of God, the greatest mystery of all is that our Divine Creator and All Powerful Being knows and loves us in a personal and oh so gentle way. I knew in that moment that God knows Alonso Menez, a soul of eighteen years who lives in Calle 71a in a pink house with one couch and three chairs, and who has probably experienced more lives of sorrow than one can imagine. I knew in that moment that our Father is am Heavenly Father of gentlessness and kindness, and I believed in that moment too that God is a vision of the greatest version of the person that we can be, and that because of this, God is a lot like us — a God who likes to laugh and likes to experience joy, and a God who has a heart that beats to the rhythm of our own pains and feelings of glory. 

"The heavens they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine." (Moses 1:37)

Wishing you each of week of happiness and hope, with the knowledge that God loves you and is with you. 

xoxo,

Hermana Rhondeau 

(note: I have decided to end my emails now with Hna Rhondeau instead of Naomi, only because I am beginning to realize that I don't have a lot of time to have this title of a missionary #yolo)

a calle

an attempt and slight success with the self-timer. this is a family we are reactivating.

Hna Wilson and me with our hijas.

and us with our mamas.

we get creative with our FHEs

a family in the ward gave me their puppy — I'm not even kidding. I have to chose a name for it and return for it in a year. This is all because I mentioned the fact that dad wanted a chihuahua . . .

changing.

hola hola

After a glorious start to the week on Tuesday in the temple, the rest of the week proved to be a little bit of a trial, with a lot of our plans falling through and people falling through and our faith falling through just a little. We experienced a little bit of heaven with the hour we had in the temple together, and I don't think I have ever felt such a lightness or happiness in my heart than when I was sitting in such a holy place alongside my three companions, past and present. With Hna. Wilson and Hna Martinez and Hna Huerta all alongside me, a great feeling of gratitude arose within me as I felt of the merciful goodness of God in giving me such three lovely companions to know and love and have forever. Each of them are strength and goodness and steadfastness, and I am beginning to recognize how good God is in giving us relationships with people outside of our family that can extend and expand into the eternities, too. Hna Wilson and I have decided that we are going to be companions again (for the rest of the mission, preferably in Campeche) after we both finish training (because surprise — we had transfers yesterday. Hna Huerta and I are still celebrating the fact that we have six more weeks together in our little area of Mulsay). 

With the temple being the highlight of the week, the rest of the week didn't bring much change or progress for a lot of our investigators. While many things have yet to change and get better here, I came to realize this week that there are always little changes that happen within the daily threads of life and within the daily beatings of our heart — the types of small changes that shift a heart, open a mind, give eternal sight to mortal eyes. They are the small odds and ends of these changes that come together to make up a whole, better version of what was once there before. It is becoming more and more evident to me that this mission in changing me through the simplest and grandest ways, and this is because I am finally coming to the realization of all the things that I need to change or do in order to reach that eternal identity and potential that God in His goodness has given to each of us. There are so many small shifts in the universe that have changed me here — seeing the change in the prayers of Hno Alfonso. someone who used to have to read his prayers in order to say them because he was too worried and nervous to speak an unplanned prayer. And yet now, we listen to him every single lesson give a prayer that is more like a conversation with his Father. He really talks to God; really asks Him questions; really explains his soul. Sometimes he asks God to give him more faith so that he can understand and accept all that we are teaching him, and sometimes I think it is quite beautiful that this is his only request — to give him more faith. This humble father has changed the way I think of prayer and the way I think of talking to my Father. And then there is Hno. Mahonri and his wife, a young couple in the ward that don't live in our area, but always volunteer to accompany us to our lessons even though he is the second counselor in the bishopric, is studying at university and working, teaches night classes in the stake center, and has an eleven year old daughter to think of, too. They are incredible and have changed the way I think about my future. They have given me a vision of what it really means to live a good and successful life by showing me how much they love each other, how much they work together to accomplish the same goal, and how much they dedicate to the Church. They are the type of people that really live their faith, and I want to do that, too. 

I feel these words are inadequate in explaining the small changes that are really the grandest changes I have ever experienced or seen or felt in my life. They are changes brought about by these good people of the Yucatan that God has given so willingly, but most importantly, the changes brought about by our Heavenly Father. As much as I love to see the small shifts that are occurring in my heart because of the people here, my greatest hope is that God is the one that changes me the most, because I know it is only by His hand that we can return to the person we were designed to be and can become the person we are meant to be for the eternities. 

Thank you for being those people that have changed me and continue to do so — I love you wholly and look forward to the hope and knowledge that in one year from now (because yes, it has been six months in the mission now!) we will be together again. 

love always,

N