half way done! - May 1st, 2014

can you believe that i am almost half way done? where did the time go!i love it here so much though, i have made really good friends with the Hermana's in my district! they´re amazing and each one has specific strengths that blow me away everyday! my zone has had a few problems with obeying all the rules and so earlier this week some of the missionaries from another district came and talked to my district and apologized for being bad examples and how we all just need to do better and obey all the rules. i just keep thinking of the quote obedience brings blessings EXACT obedience brings miracles. the sisters are pretty good the elders just have a hard time staying with their companions all the time, but its getting a little better! 

This week i have really been studying la Expiación...the Atonement and every time i study it i am so grateful for Jesus Christ and his willingness to follow God's will and perform the Atonement for me. For one of our investigators we want to teach him about the atonement and while Hermana Heacock and i were talking about it we both thought that he needs to know that Jesus Christ did this for HIM. he performed the Atonement for each one of us individually and he knows each one of us personally. I think it is so amazing.that someone loves me that much that they would go through all that pain and sorrow so that i could one day return to my Heavenly Father. in one of my classes we read Mosiah 15:5-9 and in verse 9 it says that Christ has compassion for us, and our teacher asked us why he needed to have compassion, why was that so important? and so i have been thinking about it, and if Christ didn't have compassion for us we would't have anyone that would understand completely what we are going through, but he does have compassion and he does understand exactly what each one of us is going through, and he is there to help us when we ask him! this week we have had two investigators and for one of them Hermana Heacock and i talked about how we would teach him about the restoration and how Joseph smith was a prophet, but after we had our personal study and came back together we both realized that we had studied and felt like we needed to talk about the atonement and how we are God's children and he is our father.we were both kind of amazed how we both felt like we needed to talk about the atonement and not the restoration. it was a really cool experience for me to see in a way how personal revelation works.

This week was a hard week for me. On Monday i was not feeling it. Every little thing that someone did bothered me, and we had a lesson with an investigator and all the Spanish i knew left my brain i couldn't say anything at all. and all i wanted was to be able to have 5 minutes by myself. haha but as the day went on it started to get a little better.and later that night we had a little devotional with our zone because one of our districts was leaving the next morning and i felt their spirit and their love for all of us and that helped me a lot. luckily though the next day was a lot better and yesterday was a really good day. Hermana Heacock and i have memorized Moroni 10.5 and 80 new words in Spanish in the past two days, and i have started to work on the first vision! so we have been a lot more productive and it really is awesome how much i am learning . Keep praying for me and that i may receive the gift of tongues!!! yesterday we did this thing called TRC. its pretty much just tracking. we were in one o the buildings and each classroom had an investigator and we would knock on their door and tell them we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we would ask them if they had a few minutes that we could share our message with them.we did it three times! the first one was ok i think because it was the first time it was a little ruff and we didn't know exactly what we were going to say, but it went pretty well. the second one though was my favorite. I felt like i knew a lot of Spanish and i was able to say the things that i needed to say and i understood her more than i usually do. so i was really happy with that one, and than the third time was with this 15 year old boy. and we go in there and introduce ourselves and ask him if he has ever heard of our church and he says yes, and so we ask him if he believes ion God and he says yes and that he is catholic. so were thinking to ourselves ok cool this is good he believes that there is a God. so i start to talk about how our church has been restored on the earth through a man named Joseph smith and i ask him if he has ever heard of Joseph smith and he says yes again.so we asked him about the book of Mormon and if he has read it before and again he says yes. so we ask him if he has prayed to know its true and he says yes again, and Hermana Heacock and i look at each other and we're like what do we do? haha we have never had someone that easy who just already believes in everything. Hermana Heacock looks at me and whispers baptism. So i invite him to be baptized, and that is something i am proud of i have memorized the baptism invitation in Spanish so that was a relief, and he says yes, and i was like alrighty sweet! and the first day that popped into my head was Sábado. so i asked him if he would prepare himself to be baptized this Saturday. and he was like ya i will do that. Hermana Heacock and i left that appointment feeling pretty good. we were both so taken back because we had never had anyone that was that easy before. i must have set a record in shortest time for someone to prepare to get baptized!!! but it was pretty fun i like doing that a lot.

Sundays are probably one of my favorite days. i love going to relief society and at night we watch church movies and have devotionals.One thing though that really stressed me out this past Sunday is for our sacrament we have it with our zone so that's about 30 people. and you are given a topic and you have to prepare a talk IN SPANISH and you don{t know if you are going to have to give it or not. they announce who will talk when we are there so you need to be prepared. luckily i didn't have to give mine this Sunday though. it was pretty rough. my topic was fine but translating it into Spanish is hard. that's one thing i still struggle with a lot is conjugating all the words correctly and they say things backwards in Spanish so its all confusing. one elder that got called read his whole talk straight from preach my gospel. that's where we get our topics from it was kind of funny. the movies that we watched on Sunday though were pretty good. the first one was about a man named John Tanner. he was from another church and one day he saw a sign on a wall that said come listen to LDS missionaries. and so he was going to go there and tell them how wrong they were. one thing that you need to know about John is that he had a diseased leg that needed to be amputated or else he would die. and he told the doctor he came into the world with his leg and he would leave the world with his leg. He knew he didn't have a lot of time left so he decided that he was going to set his affairs in order and do as much good as he could for the rest of his life. he was also a very wealthy man. anyway he went to listen to the missionaries speak but once he got there and heard there message about Joseph smith and the book of Mormon, he decided to test it out. so he started to read the Book of Mormon and him and his family started to meet with the missionaries. during one visit the missionaries asked John if he would be baptized, but because of john's leg he wasn't able to it would be to hard and painful for him to do that. one of the missionaries sat there for a minute and than said, "John do you have faith that Jesus can heal you? John pondered for a moment and than said confidently yes! the missionary than commanded John to be healed and walk, and John was healed and he made the missionaries baptize him that very night! it was pretty amazing. The faith that both of them had in Jesus Christ was truly incredible to me. but his story doesn't end there. John provided around 13 wagons for families that were going to Nauvoo and than one night he had a dream that he needed to take his family and move to Nauvoo as well. this was right around the time that the temple was going to be taken away from the saints because they didn't have enough money to pay the mortgage on it. in his life he ended up giving the church around $50,000 to the church. at one point his family had to beg for  food because they didn't have any money left. he consecrated everything he had to the Lord and he did it humbly and  never asked for anything in return. it was a pretty inspiring story. the second movie we watched was about Christ's life on earth and his crucifixion and resurrection. again it testified to me again that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful for his willingness to do that for me and i love him so much. i am so grateful for this opportunity to be at the CCM and learn more about his Gospel every day it is amazing and has blessed my life so much! i'm so grateful to have been raised by goodly parents who taught me about the gospel and raised me the right away! i love you guys so much and miss you but there is no other place i would rather be than right here on my mission!!!

Estoy muy agradecida por esta oportunidad de estar en el CCM y aprender sobre el evangelio. Sé que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y Redentor, y que realizó el Expiación para mí para que yo pueda vivir con él otra vez! Amo chicos tanto y estoy agradecido por los maravillosos ejemplos estás a mi!

Love Hermana Bateman

p.s on mothers day i will be able to skype you guys around 2:30!!! and thank you dad for sending me Rachael's letter keep forwarding those to me! and happy anniversary Devin and Carli and Mike and Breeann!!!! I love you guys!!!!

the first one is of my district in front of the CCM sign, the second one is with Hermana Telea and hermana Finau. Hermana Telea is the one in the middle and we have gotten pretty close! and the last one is with Elder Fernandez and Elder Oyola. i met them one night and they started speaking to me and i would try to speak spanish and they would try to speak english. they are so nice!!!

MADE IT 1 WEEK!!! - April 24th, 2014

Hola!!!

¿Como estas? It feels like i have been waiting for this day for years! i have this story i have just been writing in my head all week long of all the things that have happened! first full day here seemed like an eternity by the time it was lunch i felt like i had been awake or ever, but it got better after each day.So i wake up at 6:30 get ready for the day and than we have breakfast at 730. after breakfast we had class and met our instructor for the first time. He is funny he is from Mexico and has been off his mission for a little over a year now. he always has his phone out translating spanish words into english. he is pretty good at english which is a blessing because we definitely don't know spanish yet! ok but a normal day goes like this. we wake up at 630  have breakfast at 715 and than we usually have personal study time for an hour before our teacher comes. and than from about 9 to 1130 we have class and we will study the language with are teacher or he will teach us how to teach from preach my gospel or coach us on how to plan those kind of things! after that we have lunch and than we go to TALl which is just a program that helps you with your spanish. they have all the lessons on it and so you can learn words or phrases in spanish. it also teaches you grammar and conjugations. so we have that for an hour and than we have study time\ language study for an hour. and than we go to gym for an hour. i usually play volleyball or basketball when i go to the gym. after that we have daily planning and than dinner and this past week after dinner we have been teaching our investigator which i will talk about more later. than at 915 we have a little meeting with are zone and than its personal time\companionship prayer. and lights out. that a pretty normal day for me.

Ok so first day here we go to lunch and they have this weird looking crispy tortilla thing with some stuff on it so i grab one, and than next to it they always have soft tortillas because they usually always have beans and rice. anyway i grab a soft tortilla too and the worker starts talking to me in spanish and its my first day so i have no idea what he is saying and i{m just standing there smiling and nodding, and than another worker comes over and he is like that's really weird to get both kinds of tortillas and than they just start laughing at me and i just smile and am like gracias and walk away. after lunch we went to this big room where there was an ´'investigator´´ and we watched these missionaries teach him. and seriously it was so good. his name was alberto and he was such a good actor that a lot of us where almost in tears.but really the spirit was so strong and it was such a cool experience. later that night i met my branch president his name is pres. torres and he is from mexico. he is the short cute man who doesn't know very much spanish, but he is really nice.

day 3 was crazy! we went to class and learned how to prepare a lesson and than we had to plan a lesson for later that night to teach to our investigator. and we had to do it in spanish which you know i don´t know any! so hermana heacock and i planned our lesson and we went to meet him. his name is Luis and he is like in his early 20s. we were able to introduce him and ask him how he was doing, but as soon as he started talking we were both like WHAT IS HE SAYING we sort of made it through our lesson but it was terrifying and frustrating because i was able to pick out every few words and than in my head i has what i wanted to say to him but didn{t know how to say it in spanish so i couldn´t say anything! the next time we met though it was so much better. it's amazing how much you can learn in a day, because the next time we met with him we were able to communicate with him a lot better and he is very patient with us and will explain things as best he can to us.inthe second lesson we asked him if he would say a prayer and he said he didn't know how to so in the best possible way i could i tried to explain as much as i could in spanish to him. i told him we start off by saying querido padre celestial, and than you thank him for the things that you have and than you can ask him for the things that you need, and you end it in el nombre de Jesucristo Amén. so he started to pray and oh my goodness the spirit was so strong. Hermana Heacock and i left and just looked at each other and were like that was amazing!!! The power of pray is so real i have seen it so many times here. in my own experiences and with others. an elder had a similar experience as mine where his investigator prayed and they felt the spirit so strongly, and than another hermana said that she had been praying all day for the gift of tongues so that she would be able to commuicate and understand what her investigator was saying and it worked! it's one of my favorite things here being able to look around and just see kids my age praying all the time. we always pray in the comedor (cafeteria).and before we study. i hve never prayed so many times in a day as i do here and i love it! every night for my personal prayer i pray in spanish and i think its so cool that i already know how to pray in spanish and i know that Heavenly father will continue to help me learn the language!

it's almost the raining season here so we have had a couple days where the weather has been crazy! when it rains it really rains, but i love it because it never get super cold and so the rain feels so good! also crazy we had an earthquake a few days ago. i thought it was just a mini one because i didn't feel anything, but i saw the lamp post swaying back and forth, but than the next day i heard that it was like a 7.2 and that it did some damage in mexico, luckily we just got the after shock of it. ok so expecially this past week because of Easter week there has been fireworks going off like crazy all day long, and everyone says that most of them our fireworks but they're a few that say some are gun shots so a few of us decided that they have their own hunger games in Mexico and everytime a firework or ´´gunshot´´ goes off we act like its the sound of the cannon in the games. one elder in my district even had our teacher translate ´´may the odds be ever in your favor´´ into spanish!

oh man Easter was pretty amazing here! i had such a good day. so i started off the day by going to relief society where we talked about same sex marriage and the importance of marriage between MAN and WOMEN! we read a letter from the first presidency that states our position on the matter, and than we read paragraphs from The Family A Proclamation to the Family. after each paragraph we talked about the doctrine that we found in each one.it was a pretty good lesson and i just love that this document came out almost 20 years ago in a time where no one even thought about same sex marriage or any of these things, but it is just another example that Heavenly Father really does know everything and he will prepare his people. after relief society we had sacrament and than we watched a live broadcast from the Provo MTC. and guess who spoke? Pres. Uchtdorf!!!! i was so happy when they announced that it was him! he started off by talking about how his family was there and than he talked about how one of his sons or grandsons had to learn mandrin for his mission and he was like you think spanish is hard try learning Mandrin and than he said that German wa the best and easiest Latin language to learn! i love him he is awesome!!!  He talked about how Jesus was crucified and resurrected and because of this he broke the band of death. he than talked about how during Christ-s ministry the apostles were kind of just witnesses and followed him. he started to specifically talk about Peter and how peter was a great man he had a lot of faith, but he also had fear. he told the story of when peter took that first step off the boat and onto the water and the amount of faith he had to do that, but when he saw the waves he became afraid and started to sink and asked jesus to save him. he than told the story of when Jesus told peter that he would deny him three times and peter proudly answers that he would never do that, but when the time came he did deny Jesus because he was afraid. Pres, uchtdorf than went on to say that once Jesus had been resurrected and met taught his apostles peter became a changed man! he was no longer afraid, every chance he had he would testify of Christ even if his life was being threatened. He had NO FEAR!!! Pres. Uchtdorf than told a story about a missionary who didn't have a ton of support from his family and because a mission was expensive he decided from the bery beginning that he would not waste a single moment. on the mission he soon got the nickname work horse, because from the moment he was out the doors he was talking to people and working hard. he got a new missionary companion who was new to the mission and started going to work. this companion didn't like the boldness and style of the older missionary so they had a hard time working together. there was one day when they were just on the street and split up to talk to people, and after two hours the younger companion hadn't talked to anyone he was to afraid where on the other hand this one elder had talked to numerous people successfully. they got back together, and seeing that his companion was frustrated asked him elder who are you? the younger elder thinking i got this answered with the primary answer i'm a child of God. his companion looked at him with love and than opened his scriptures to a verse in 3 nephi that says we are disciples of God and we can't be afraid. after that the younger elder decided he was going to talk to the next person who walked out of this fitness building. and of course it was this big body builder guy. who looked pretty intimidating, but he went up and talked to him and set up an appointment to meet again. this younger elder though still didn't like his older companions style of work and being so bold so they still had a hard time. after one particular rough day they were walking home and the younger elder just didn't want to talk about their day at all so they get home and he goes straight to bed hoping that his companion won't talk to him. this older elder though was a good missionary and grabbed his chair and sat next to his companions bed and said, "'elder there are two reasons why companions don't work well together. 1. when only one person is trying to do the right thing or 2. when they are both doing what is wrong'''. he than said so elder am i the one doing somthing wrong do i need to change? pres. uchtdorf pointed out that this missionary had so much humility and was such a hard worker.one thing that this elder also did was every morning he would look in the mirror and point to himself and say YOU FEAR NO ONE! he was a good missionary the average amount of baptisms in his mission were around 8 he had 100! so the message from his talk was NO FEAR!!! after that we had another meeting with one of the members of our stake presidency and we talked about temples and how we always need to be worthy to enter into the temple.than later that night we watched a talk that elder bednar had given a couple years ago about being a preach my gospel missionary. it was really good i recommend you go and look it up and watch it.

the spanish is coming a long they-re times when i get frustrated but than i think that i have already learned so much and i've only been hear for 9 days so its really kind of amazing. i have the missionary objective and baptism invitation memorized in spanish and i'm working on the first vision right now. Luis our '''investigator'' is getting baptized!! don't get to excited he said yes to everyone haha but it has been a really awesome experience teaching him and really being missionaries! my district is pretty awesome the other night we had a little extra time before our next meeting and we just started to sing hymns together. one elder is pretty good at singing and he was like start singing to me and i'll harmonize with you. i almost started laughing right than. luckily another sister was there and she started singing and we all just sang together. well i think that might be all. its been a crazy week with all sorts of emotions, but there is seriously no other place i would rather be right now than at the CCM in Mexico!!! i love it here so much and i know tha the church is true. everyday as i'm doing my personal and companionship studies it is just reaffirmed in my heart. and the scriptures have all the answers. as i've been studying them and reading them for someone else i can't go more than a few verses with out finding something that can help an investigator and myself. i'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission, and am so happy that the lord trusts me to do his work!! i love you all so much, and sydo you're my favorite don't tell the others!!! i can't wait to hear from you!!!!

love

Hermana Bateman

 me and my companion hermana heacock, and the other two girls are are roommates. hermana mills and hermana rucker and they are going to PROVO UT!!!! so find them and feed them yummy food!!! they're awesome

 this is my district 

 our room i'm on the top bunk!

 that's are house! they are all different colors its fun 

 that's hermana Luau and she is going to my mission as well and thats her companion hermana telea who is going to texas!

these pictures are us trying to be creative!!!

First Day - April 16th, 2014

I made it!!! i am at the CCM and it is so pretty. The drive here was a little scary i swear we almost got in three accidents before we had even left the airport. People here do not use their blinkers they just go in and out pretty much without even looking to see if your there. The flights weren't to bad we got to arizona and had like ten minutes before we had to board our next flight. They´re were four other missionaires when we got to arizona that we met up with and when we got to mexico there were a lot more. In total there were 20 missionaries that were in my group. At the airport though everyone just expects us to know spanish already. the workers there are speaking to us and we have no idea what is going on ha! But i met another girl who is going to the same mission as me. so in total there are four sisters going to arcadia and one elder. there is also two other sisters who are going to san jose california.My companion is Sister Heacock. she is from Seattle. she is nice and so far we are getting along just fine!!! by the way this keyboard is a little different then the ones at home so if anything is wrong thats why. I also found out that we can skype with you guys on mothers day!!! so i just need to know who's email would be the best to do that. also my p days are on thursday so thats when i will be able to email you. well i don't really have anything else to say. i'm alive, i made it and i'm officially Hermana Bateman!!!!! i'm so excited to be here and actually start my mission! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND MISS YOU ALREADY!!!

love Hermana Bateman