Monday, December 29, 2014

Me encanta el Evangelio!

Dear everyone,

This week was absolutely amazing! The best part was celebrating the wonderful birth of our Savior by seeing the people that I will get to be with forever and always: my family! It was so much fun talking to all my siblings and seeing Élder Zubeldia through a confusing 3 way Skype call. Everyone has gotten so big! I have pictures of my family here on the mission, but I have realized that they are very outdated. I have a feeling that everyone is taller than me now, except for 5 year old Soraya. I am so thankful that we have all been sealed together for time and all eternity.

Here are our goodie bags wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
We spent Christmas Eve as a P-day, so we decided to be creative in that we would start working at 6pm. Hna. García and I made goodie bags of cookies and marshmallows, along with cards of "Él es la Dádiva" ("He is the Gift") and passed them out to members, investigators, and people on the streets. We found some awesome references and even a new investigator! I love knowing that the Lord blesses us in our efforts to help others learn about the Gospel. Everyone learns about the gospel in their own way, in their own time. It's so much fun finding new and creative ways to reach out to others, discovering if it is their time to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday was probably the best way to end the last week of the year! Hna García and I were asked to give last minute talks in Sacrament meeting because it seemed that the designated speakers were not coming (they ended up making it to church, but we were still asked to speak along with them). After sacrament meeting, we were then asked to teach the single adults because their teacher was on vacation. We were able to give a lesson about missionary work (oh yes!), the light of Christ, and the power the single adults have as missionaries. Everyone participated, which was fantastic! I love this gospel!

But it was after church that was the amazing part. I've had a little cold and sore throat this week due to the cold weather (After getting used to 120 degrees, 60 degrees is super cold, trust me!) and my blanket isn't the best help in the world. After finding more blankets for our home and discovering that I wasn't getting any better, my companion and a woman in the ward suggested a priesthood blessing. We called the Elders, who were about 2 minutes away from where we were, and they were able to come to the sister's home to give me a blessing. I love the power of the priesthood! I know that this power is real and that it heals. I know this power comes from God and that the Elders, my dad, our leaders, and many others have the privilege of holding this power. The Priesthood is an ancient, yet timeless, power that God gives those who are worthy so that all can enjoy it's blessings. It was so amazing to understand this power a bit more as I was receiving the blessing and discovered that my throat no longer hurt. Again, I love being a missionary!

Wow, this letter is long! I'm almost done....

It was awesome! We put vanilla pudding, then cookies, then chocolate pudding, then crunch bar! What a wonderful way to feel good about the day!
Fun moments of the week: We made a pie! All by ourselves! It was probably the best pudding pie I have ever tasted ;). Also, we made cookies! Real ones! We helped the bishop's wife on Saturday learn how to make soft chocolate chip cookies. My grandma side came out as I was finally able to use the measuring cups that I brought with me on the mission (one can never know when they might need measuring cups). Needless to say, I was super excited!

Okay, no more pictures of food... except this last one! We made cookies that I have been craving ever since I left the states. And they tasted the same! That was the tastiest service project I have ever done :)


Also, we officially caught Nehor/Korihor! We bought a mouse trap, finally, and the poor guy was caught within a few hours. Hna García felt super bad about the whole scenario, but neither her nor I want him scuttling around our house any longer....... he died an "ignanimous death."

I love you all!

Hermana Zubeldia

Merry Christmas Picture

​Haha okay, all I'm sending are pictures of us with food, but we actually do work! To celebrate our last week of the transfer, Christmas, New Years, my 7 month mark, and P-day, we bought a Little Ceasar's pizza. We didn't know where to eat it, so we sat down on the curb by a school and ate it on the street :) Hooray for the sister missionary hobos!

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Feliz Navidad!!!!!

¡¡¡Felíz Navidad a todos!!!

Last week was such an amazing week! I don't even know where to start!

We were able to help two great youth, Claudia (16 yrs) and José (12 yrs) get baptized on Saturday (happy birthday, Élder Zubeldia!) and I have never seen so many ward members and investigators come to a baptism! The Spirit was so strong. Claudia and José are going to remember Saturday night for the rest of their lives, and it was amazing helping them make it a spiritual experience.

We helped a member in our ward make a piñata. I might make piñatas for a living!
After the baptism, we had the ward posada (Christmas party). Maybe that's why there were so many people at the baptism.... :) We plan well :D. One of the families we are teaching even came to the baptism and posada, which was fantastic! We're planning on working hard to help all of the people in our area to help this ward grow and become strong. !Poco a poco, todos están progresando!

At our missionary posada, we had to make the prettiest and tallest temple. Ours might not have been the tallest, but our "Provo temple" was definitely the coolest!
My companion and I with our newspaper Provo temple

To celebrate Christmas, Hna. García and I are going to try and make a pie (we have no oven, so I am super excited to see how this plays out). We had our missionary posada yesterday to celebrate with all the other missionaries in Mochis and Guasave. I got to see my sweet "mom", Hna. Shiraki! She's still as short as can be and we were thrilled to be to some moments together.

Presidente Munive, su esposa, y nosotras
Before our missionary posada yesterday, we had an amazing training meeting. Wow! I love being a missionary! I don't even know how to describe how wonderful the training meeting was, helping us all focus on the reason we are in México. I am here to serve my Savior. I am here to represent my loving brother who suffered what no human can/could suffer. My Savior and Redeemer paid the price to save the souls of man, and I have been called to help in his efforts and invite others to come unto him. I know that this is a marvelous work and a wonder. I know that my obedience and willingness to serve not only blesses my life, but blesses the lives of everyone else who depend on the missionaries to understand this Gospel. I am so happy that I still have much time to serve and dedicate my efforts to this cause.

This morning, I was reading Elder Uchtdorf's talk during the October Conference Priesthood session, "Lord, is it I?" Wow! I invite everyone to read this amazing talk! I would share snippets in this email, but there are too many snippets to share.

I love you all! See you tomorrow on Skype!

Hermana Zubeldia

ps- we found Korihor/Nehor!!! Turns out, he was hiding underneath our stove, eating our cupboard top. We put the stove on top of the fridge, and he hasn't come back. He sadly did not fulfill his name and is still somewhere in Los Mochis, but he no longer enters our home.

Here are some pictures of the missionaries in our Christmas party. The first picture is the serious one, the others are just goofy.






Monday, December 15, 2014

I saw the mouse!

Dear family,

Hello everyone!!! I hope that  your week  went amazing because you all deserve it! My week was so great! Hna. García and I are working hard on protecting everyone so that we help all the people in our area come unto Christ. The Lord has been so good to us this past week, which makes me just want to work harder and continue helping the wonderful people here in Los Mochis.

Our good friend, José, is doing excellent! José is a 12 year old who is a Nephi at heart. We have been teaching him these past 3 weeks and he has been reading the Book of Mormon faithfully, then helping his 16 year old sister, Claudia, do the same. He also found a study book about the gospel principles and the life of Joseph Smith, and has been reading it the past week. This guy is a future Moroni! We taught him the importance of tithing, fasting, and the word of wisdom yesterday during church, and accompanied him to the youth Sunday School and a class with the bishop. The class with the bishop was about tithing (I love how the Lord works) and José blew everyone away with all the answers. Really, he is such a spiritual giant! It has been so humbling to work with him! He is very excited for his baptism this Saturday.

Alex is also progressing tons! We have finally become one of his friends, which is fantastic. His friends on the block have also started coming up to us, too, which is even better! It was so much fun yesterday to go get Alex for church and to have all his 15 or more buddies come running over to shake our hand :). We'll be having a fun family home evening with him and his friends to teach them all the 10 commandments :D.

Hna. García is so amazing! She taught me a way to share the scriptures that she learned at the MTC that is awe-inspiring! She is such a great missionary and has so much energy to serve and to love those around her. We have both learned so much since we've been together and we plan on learning even more.

I found the mouse that has been hiding in our house :) All we have to do is find a way for it to stop coming in.... we named it Korihor because Korihor was trampled in the scriptures..... we hope to find a mouse trap soon. Can someone please tell me who was the antiChrist who died the "ignanimous death"? I've been looking for that scripture for days now because I want to change the mouse's name.

I know this Church is true. Anyone who doesn't know can read the book of Mormon, a testament that tells the world that Christ lives, he loves us, and our salvation depends on him. The Book of Mormon is the key to our mission efforts, the key to knowing that what the missionaries are saying is true, and the keystone of our religion. I am so grateful that God loves us so much that he gave us this book. I know that anyone who chooses to read it, with real intent, will discover of it's truthfulness through the promptings they receive from the Holy Ghost. Read this book! Then, share this book with others! The Book of Mormon changes lives. If you don't believe me, read it! Find out for yourself!

I love you guys! See you on Christmas!

Hermana Zubeldia

¡Todo está bien en Sión!

Monday, December 8, 2014

What a week!

Dear family,

What a week! Hna. Garcia and I worked like crazy !!! We made sure that we had members present in as many lessons as we could, and we kept on working as if our lives depended on it (and they kind of do :) ). But really, this week was so productive! We are going to make sure every week is like the one we just had.

So, I have great news from my 2 siblings! 1) My sister,  Sister Susana Zubeldia, is going home from her mission next week! She has faithfully served the Lord the past 18 months and it  is now time for her to go home. She has been such a great example to me while I have been serving. Her letters, her advice, and her love have helped me every single week of my mission. 2) My brother was able to teach my family in Spain!!!!! After 25 years of my dad being a member, his family finally went to church, in the same church building where my dad met the missionaries for the first time. Even though my brother Pablo received transfers soon after, I know that his work in Bilbao (where the family is) has changed the lives of our loved ones forever. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for the Zubeldia family.

We're teaching a little boy named Alex, and it has been such a cool experience. He's 10, so we've had to change our teaching methods to primary-style. Wow! It is so much fun! We've been drawing pictures,  making 3D demonstrations, and all kinds of stuff to help him learn during companionship study. Great stuff!

Our bathroom is finally clean!!!
We finally finished cleaning up the disaster of a house we had! We tackled the bathroom, bought a new shower curtain (if you could call what we had before a shower curtain,  it's now in the trash) and we finally feel like we have a house of order where the spirit can dwell. It's so much fun fixing things! Two weeks ago, we were ready to find a new house... Now, after cleaning and adding a woman's touch (haha which is kind of ironic, seeing that Sister missionaries have lived there for a while) we are very happy to stay in our home for as long as the Lord allows. 

I love this Gospel! It has been an honor and a privilege to share what I know to be true with others. As we embrace this Christmas season, I invite you all to watch the video "He is the Gift."  The true gift of Christmas is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Watch the gift, love the gift, and SHARE the gift. I love you! John 3:16

Hermana Zubeldia
 

Our Nativity

Feliz Navidad!
 
We found a Christmas tree in our house and a Nativity scene. I love Christmas!
 
 

Monday, December 1, 2014

Los Mochis!

Wow oh wow! I love you guys!

This week has been crazy and full of fun! Really, I am so excited to work in Los Mochis! The atmosphere is completely different from Obregón, but my companion and I have enjoyed every second we have had here.

Hna. García and me, ready to take on the world! :)
Speaking of my companion, her name is Hermana García. She's a 19 year old from Payson, Utah, and she is a joy to be with. Her parents are from México DF, so she came to the field with perfect Spanish, ready to baptize the world. She is full of energy, has an amazing attitude, and we are having so much fun! The members and investigators just love her, and she has already met some people she knows because they have family that are in her home ward. The Lord knew what He was doing when He sent her to the Macapule ward. She's practically training me!

So, it's been pretty crazy trying to find our way around, but the Lord and the ward have helped us so much. The first day, we were completely lost, but we managed to find the bishop's home and talk to him about where he needs the missionaries. Then, it was work, work, work! A ward member, Hna. Hilde, has been by our side all week, helping us visit less actives, members, investigators.... everyone! She has been heaven sent! We plan on visiting with her as often as we can to help bring people to this Gospel :)

There are 2 investigators here ready for baptism, José and Claudia, and we are preparing them to be baptized on the 20th. They are a cute brother and sister, ages 12 and 16, who are eagerly accepting the truth. It was so much fun to talk to José yesterday about Nephi! He has read the first two chapters, and I told him to let me know when he read the part where the lion eats Nephi..... he said he'll keep on reading until he finds it..... ;)

Crazy moments of the week:
1. Our house was in crazy need of a deep clean! I can't believe that sister missionaries lived in our home! We spent a good portion of our P-Day cleaning up, and we can finally breathe in peace and feel the Spirit. We also put up a mini Christmas tree! Merry Christmas, everyone!
2. Our house doesn't really like me..... in the past two nights, my contact lenses case fell in the trash can.... and my glasses fell in the toilet.... ya.... it's the house, not me....
3. "You better watch out, Santa Claus is coming!" but seriously! Friday night, Hna. García and I were walking down the road, admiring a big blowup Santa, when I tripped on one of the strings holding Santa in place, and went crashing down to the floor.... Yes, I have battle wounds :D But I'm still alive!

I love this Gospel! I know that what I am sharing with others is true and I am so humbled to know that the Lord has asked that I serve here in Los Mochis. I know that the Lord has miracles in store for us to witness this month. I love you all! Have a great week!

Alma 13:24

Hermana Zubeldia

¡Todo está bien en Sión!