Alexa Jean Crofts: Week 7: Dona Ana Ward, Las Cruces, NM

Hey from New Mexico!!

This week was pretty great!! It was a lot more busy and we met new people and got more lessons in which has been great! Mondays we always hang out with the zone, and that is always fun cause they are all pretty great. We normally play volleyball which is a blast. Tuesday, we had some awesome things happen! We were visiting some referrals and no one answered us. We stopped by Ramon's house, who's our guy on date and he wasn't there. He hasn't talked to us in 2 weeks, so that was frustrating. But as we were walking back to the car I saw this lady sitting on her porch and I told my companions that we should go talk to her. We walked over and we said "Hi" and she said we could come in the gate. We sat down asked about her and we told her we were Missionaries. We trailered( it's a thing we do in my mission where we teach a brief doctrine and then leave them hanging, kinda like a movie trailer) eternal families. She opened up to us how she's felt very lonely and disconnected to people during covid and that she's been wanting more interaction. She was crying and I was crying with her. She is very sweet and it was awesome after feeling a bit dejected the last week! She said we could come back and so far we've had a good lesson with her this week and I'm excited for her progress! We have this other guy Leo we are teaching and he is very flaky. He always cancels on us and yesterday we were driving to his apartment for a lesson and we saw him drive past us on the way! Haha it was kinda funny. A miracle that happened was that we finally got in contact with Ramon! He came to church so that was good, he also brought his brother, so bonus. We taught this lady Monica this week. He daughter is being taught by the zone leaders. She watched a bunch if YouTube videos on the church, so now she thinks we're a cult and thinks "Mormons" are crazy. We tried to teach her the restoration, but the lesson as kinda contentious with her daughter and she kept saying we were crazy and interrupting us. Lol it was funny, but she wants another lesson which is cool. Also there are a tonnn of dogs here, so whenever I see cats it's supper awesome cause I like cats better

We had lesson with Laura and Evan this week, and they are actually reading the book of Mormon and praying about it. We hope that the will gain a sincere desire to know and will get the answer they need. Friday, the whole day was one crappy day. We were all just cranky most of it. Haha just one of those days We had a lesson with this lady Brenda and some of her kids this week. She is Fernando Sr. Wife. Anyways, it went really good. She basically just shared her testimony with us and it was awesome! Everything she believes is what we believe. We taught that the devil doesn't want you to do good things so there is going to be a lot of opposition when you are trying to be like Jesus. I'm excited about their family. Sister Hallam is this super nice old lady in our ward who always goes to lessons with us and is just the best! We always visit with her and learn more preach my gospel or come follow me. Last night we went over and visited with her and she has the best testimony. I told her that I want to be like her when I grow up. We were all crying haha it was awesome and she is the best! She even said that when she knew she wanted to get baptized she said," the devil can't stop me!" And that's so awesome, I want to live by that, cause he doesn't have power over us unless we let him. Things are going pretty well with my companions. Every night before bed we do a sad, mad, happy and spirit--here we have to say one thing that makes us mad, one thing that makes us sad, one happy, and one time we felt the spirt. It's hard on the mission mostly because I struggle to recognize the spirit. But I'll learn more as I go. One thing I've really been wanting to learn more is about The Atonement. I'm currently reading the New Testament so I can learn more about Jesus. I love how up close and personal Jesus is. This week was good! Let me know how yours was!

Love y'all