Hermana Medeiros Texas Houston Mission: Mirrors, scissors and a pencil-Week 25

I'm getting transferred tomorrow!!! Hopefully I will still be in the same zone, I want to stay near by...man only time will tell, by next week I will have a new companion and be in a new area and know a lot more people! It's really bitter sweet leaving. I am happy to get a new comp but also I feel that if Hermana Coronado and I had one more transfer together it would be a lot better, yesterday was really bad for both of us, and then we ended up having like a heart to heart talk and then the stls (hill and carbajal) talked to both of us and then we talked in the car on the way to our appointment and I feel like we are just now really starting to understand each other and getting a long with each other. We both learned a lot from each other. I'm really sad about leaving the investigators and the members of our ward. But everyone who comes to the woodlands says that every ward you go to after the woodlands is so much better. The woodlands isn't very good with helping out the missionaries and everyone dreads coming to the woodlands. I'm really like the only person who has loved the woodlands from the beginning because I was born here! I can't imagine it being better or easier to work with the members but I keep getting told that my next ward will be a lot better. Tonight I'm going to say goodbye to a ton of people but I won't be able to say good bye to everyone because we don't have time for that, but my comp told me we can say goodbye to who ever I want. It's going to be really sad but I'm ready to go where god needs me at this point in my mission.

Avery is so smart and so creative! she is so science-y! I didn't have the mind that she has when I was her age! I wish I would have been that cool with my science fair projects haha remember the cookie one I did? Making regular chocolate chip cookies, making cookies without flour and the cookies with out eggs? haha that was the best I could come up with when I was her age!

What was the best thing that happened this week? God really does inspire people and it happens in the most craziest ways. last night (Sunday night) a member literally changed my mission. That is why the title of this letter is mirrors, scissors and a pencil. We went over to the members house to eat dinner and afterwards everyone started cleaning up the table and Hermana Coronado felt that she should get up to, the husband (hermano gasca) started talking to me and he was asking me what struggles I've been having on my mission and I told him that my struggle is the language. It's hard for me to understand people when they talk, he then asked me if I had any other struggles and I said yes but they are more personal problems. Then we started talking about how we have to go through things to change and then I brought up how we have to become humble and that the challenges we face make us humble. We started talking about humility and he then asked me if I'm humble and I told him I am trying to be. then he said "no that is not the answer, the answer is either yes or no, are you humble?" I thought for a minute and then I said "no" he then asked me what I can do to become humble and we talked about it for a little bit and then he went and grabbed a mirror and he put it up to me so I could see my face in it. he asked me "do you like what you see? are you happy?" I said "yeah" and then he told me that if I like what I see then I have no reason to change, he asked me if I want to change and I said yes. then he looked at me again and gave me a look and so I said "no I don't like what I see and no I'm not happy." we then talked about what I need to do and he grabbed a pair of scissors and made snipping motions behind me and he told me that I need to forget my past and move forward and don't look back. I need to cut all the ties I have to things of my past and move on. he grabbed a pencil and he asked "what happens when you bite on this pencil" he did the motion to bite on it and it makes the edges of your mouth go up and so it makes you smile, and that's what he told me I need to do, to smile and to be happy. Then he shared a story about the good wolf and the bad wolf and how both the wolves are constantly fighting to be the stronger wolf he asked me which one I'm letting win, I said that I want the good wolf to win but then he said "no not who do you want to win, but who are you letting win." I thought about it for a minute and then said "the bad wolf" then he shared Joshua 1:9 and told me that I need to be courageous, he told me that I am a special daughter of god and that I am a leader. He told me I'm going to do big things and that my family is receiving the blessings they need because I am here serving a mission. It literally changed the way I was thinking yesterday it was so good.

Where do you want our prayers focused? That I'll be able to adjust well into my new area :)

What made you laugh? umm lots of things haha funny things happen every single day :) um probably that I got to help our in primary yesterday by playing the piano and primary kids are crazy!!!

This week was so good and I am so sad to be leaving my woodlands and my ward and all my investigators but I know good things are waiting to happen and that I will be needed where ever I am called to go to next. It's crazy I never thought I'd leave my baby area, I mean I knew I was going to leave but I didn't think that it would be this soon! I'm so sad to say goodbye to everyone! I'm so grateful for all the miracles that happened while I've been here and I'm so grateful for all the people in my ward who have supported me and loved me and taken me into their families. I love this area and I'm definitely never going to forget it. I am always going to be a woodlands girl! I will never forget anything or anyone who is here in the woodlands!!! I know that who ever comes in here will be what the ward and these people need. I know that we all have people we are here to help and I helped these people as much as I could. Now I have the privilege of finding new people and helping those people and a new ward!