Letter from the Mission President

A message from Hermana Drew's Mission President

Elderes y Hermanas,

We live in a world that seems to have stopped listening. Sound bites have replaced conversation; texting has displaced telephone calls; rhetoric has supplanted dialogue; and multitasking has divided our attention. So often, listening isn’t on the list of things to do and so it gets overlooked.

Famed solo percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie, who performed with the Tabernacle Choir during the 2002 Winter Olympics, began losing her hearing at age 8, and by 12 she was deaf. But though she could no longer hear, she found that she could still listen. "Listening to music,” she contends, "involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums.” She describes listening in her legs and feet, her face, her neck and chest. She performs around the world and, in one sense, never actually hears either her music or the applause it inspires. But she feels it and sees it and understands it deeply. Her goal, she says, "is to teach the world to listen” 1 the way she does.

Evelyn Glennie’s insights apply not just when listening to music but also when listening to people. So many cry out, "Listen to me,” but only those who truly know how to listen can even hear them. Listening is much more than hearing with our ears. It requires shifting the focus from ourselves to someone else. It takes time and often is not convenient. With our ears, but also with our eyes, our minds, our hearts, and our actions, we say, "I’m listening. I’m hearing and thinking about what you are saying. You matter to me.”

In this loud and noisy world, think how much it means to someone when you really listen, when you take time to understand their woes and challenges, their joys and excitement, their dreams and aspirations. Consider the gift of love you give when you show that you care by truly listening.

During the Worldwide training for full time missionaries Elder Bednar taught us that true conversion comes as our investigators listen to the Holy Ghost. We must be the vessels that will allow them to see, feel and understand the tender whisperings of the spirit.

Be happy! Make your goals!

I love you,
President Whitehead

This week marks a year!

MOM!

Hailey and Robert are now closer to me!  I can´t believe that they moved so far away!  It is one of the things that I didn´t want to happen.  I want our families to be close so I can visit them a lot! 

This week was great!  I GOT YOUR PACKAGE!  It was the best thing that I have received!  My companion loved the necklace and the pjs from grandma and grandpa!  She almost started crying when she saw them!  She is excited to visit you guys in person!  We are working on her English so that she won´t have any problems there! I especially loved the book about the adventures of Hermana Drew!  I laughed so hard!  Hermana Whitehead was there when I read it and she thought that you are so creative!  She Loved it too!

ANTONIO WAS BAPTIZED!  I love that moment when we see the investigators change so much in such a little time!  I remember that the second time that he went to church one of the members came up to him and said that they are long time friends!  Also this past Sunday the same thing happened!  I know that he will be taken care of here in  Zitacuaro!  He seems so much happier now!

His baptism service was so special!  We went for him in the taxi with the member that was his friend.  As we got there we introduced the taxi driver to Antonio and told him that he was going to be baptized.  We invited the taxi driver and he came and watched his baptismal service.  I watched his face as Antonio come out o the water and he had the biggest smile on  his face!  We asked him if he would like to be baptized too (being the great missionaries that we are) and he said that he would like to but he needed more preparation!  There are miracles in every place!  We passed the reference to the other sisters that work in Zitacuaro and I am excited to see his progress too!

I love the mission with all of my heart!  I am glad for the chances that we have to erase what has happened in the past so that we can be better people in the future!  I love the gospel!  I love you!

Hermana Drew

High fives!

Baptism

Antonio

Hermana Rameriz and I in our Christmas pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa Drew

Antonio's baptism

High fives

The ruins

Opening my Christmas package!

Reading The Adventures of Hermana Drew

Happiness!

MOM!

Things are going great here in Zitacuaro!  Our investigator Antonio is really progressing and might be baptized this next week!  We also have a lot of new families that we are teaching!  There are a lot of people here who accept listening to the message and we visit them but the hard thing is helping them get to church!  We are praying a lot and fasting and making sure that we can pass by their houses to help them get there.

We had a meeting with the institute and seminary council this week and they told us a way we can have more success here is involving the youth.  Getting them excited to do missionary work and making church fun and spiritual for them!  We are trying this week to visit the youth and let them know about an activity that we are going to have with them so that we can activate a lot more of the youth!  I hope that the youth activities are going great for you!

Also this morning I was reading a talk from Pres Utchdorf called, Great Aunt Rose!  It is so good!  I honestly feel like I am a little bit like Great Aunt Rose.  My life before this moment I had always looked for the bad in everything but I am making a change.  I don´t want to be sad hermana Drew anymore.  I am going to look at the bright side of everything!  I hope that we can all make this change together!

This week for Pday we went to the Presa that is a little bit out of the city!  It is lovely!  I felt at home!  Just listening to the water and looking at the mountains!  As we were driving to Presa, two old ladies on the bus with us.  One lady that was a little bit bigger and had a low raspy voice, asked us where we were going and what we were doing.  We told her that we are missionaries and we were going to see the presa.  She said that she would tell us where we needed to get off.  But she aslo started telling us a story.  She said that many people have been disappearing in the presa because there is a monster that lives there.  This monster looks like a dog but  lives in the water and it is a wild dog.  She said that the people say that the dog leaves the water and bites the people and drags them into the water.  And the people that are only bitten by the dog later have rabies.  The whole time that she was talking I couldn´t help but laugh!  HAHAHAHAH!  I also was just thinking of Perry the platypus.  That Perry is the monster that she was talking about!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Well this week was great mom!  Sorry that my mind is everywhere and that sometimes I don´t know what to write!  

Love!

Hermana Drew

The presa, a cow that lives by our house,  

A cow that lives by our house

At the Presa

Hermana Rameriz

Fishermen

Reminds me of home

New Year, New Me!

MOM!

I loved all of the pictures that you sent me.   Sounds like New years Eve was nice and relaxing but also fun!  New years is just something magical right?!  So many people change their lives in such a short time.  I feel like that I have changed a lot in this little time that we have in the new year.  

This week was great!  I learned so much!  We have been working hard in our zone to change the way we are thinking.  Sometimes, as missionaries, we get used to being rejected so we just think of the worst that can happen but this is not what we should do.  We need to look at the positive side of everything.  I have been trying to change the way that I think about myself too.  You know me.  Always thinking that I am not good enough but I talked to the mission presidents wife and she gave me some talks and some exercises that I can do to change the way I think.  It has helped me so much!

We have been working really hard here and we have been having  more unity as companions.  I love working with Hna Ramirez!  She has a strong testimony and has been helping me grow so much too!

We had concilio on Monday (that is why I didn´t write you.  You can expect that every first Monday of the month while I am an STL).  President wants us to follow the teachings of President Monson in being the example and light for the rest of the mission.  Sometimes we just need to help the missionaries know how to be happy, obedient, and work hard all at the same time.  I am going to be learning a lot too.

Really we didn´t have a lot that happened in this week but it was a great one! My card is in my hands now and also two packages arrived for me.  I will have them in my hands next Thursday!  I am so excited!

Thank you for everything!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Hermana Drew

We had a pinata

Little Truths

MOM!

IT WAS SO GOOD TO SEE ALL OF YOU!  I am such a bawl baby and every time I am happy I start to cry!  I had cried a lot that week....especially when President told us  that we could speak with you for an hour!  So How was my English?!?!?!......pretty bad right?  Well lets just say I am glad that I am getting a hand of Spanish now.  

This week was great!  I learned so much from my companion!  She helped me realize somethings about myself that are very important.  She told me a little story.....

They say that we should always live in the present.  But what is so wrong with remembering?  I had the goal of living and dreaming more realistically but the truth is we need to dream.  We need to hope.  We need to look past what has happened and remember how that moment changed everything.

The world is full of big lies that we will never be that person, that we will never get that award, that we will never amount to anything but our plain simple selves.  BUT the little truths give us hope.  The little truth that if you try you´re one step closer than you were before.  That when we lose ourselves we are set free.  That no one knows what you can and cannot do.  And through these little truths we know who we really are.

So dream big this next year.  Don´t erase your past, remember it  and improve this next year,  Don´t give up hope,  Trust. Change what you usually do.  Love.  But don´t ever forget what little truths shape you, what the past taught you and who you´re going to be tomorrow.  

I hope that this next year we can all say that we wouldn´t change a thing  that happened.  That we can all keep moving forward!  

I learned a lot from her.  The most important is that it isn´t bad to hope or dream.  We need to be happy!  

I am still waiting on my package but I will let you know when it gets here!  

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Hermana Drew

Christmas with our Zone!

Me and my companions

Zone Christmas party

NAVIDAD!

Our Tree

Feliz Navidad from the Hermanas

MOM!!!

Can you believe it!  IT is almost time to talk to you guys again!  Here is the low down... We will be calling you at 11 or 12 mexico time I don´t know what time it is there but have everything ready so that we can use our time effectively!  Woo Hoo!

Sounds like you guys have had a lot of fun this week with the hospital!  I am glad that I don´t have to go to the doctor a lot.  I have had a lot of problems with skin rashes but the medicine here is really cheap and helps me a lot!  I am just glad that nothing serious has happened...

This week we set up our Christmas tree!  It looks so pretty for being a little tiny thing.  It has the presents under it too, but they are all for Hermana Ramirez......hahahahahaha just kidding there are some gifts for me too!  I have been praying that my package gets here soon but if it doesn´t that is alright.  As long as it arrives.

I have learned a lot this week about being a leader. Sometimes I feel torn because of all of the different things that people are telling me but then I remember that I only need to do what the Lord wants me to do and everything else will work out.  

Sometimes I feel like I shouldn´t be an STL  because it requires gaining the trust of the sisters and sometimes I feel like I am not the best at talking with the sisters.  I never know what to say and I feel like my companion should be STL #1 and I #2 so that she could show me the ropes but for some reason I am here in this position.  

I am so excited to talk to you guys!  I miss you tons!  

LOVE!

Hermana Drew

Feliz Navidad de Hermana Drew and Hermana Ramirez!

Surprising Changes!

MOM!

I AM AN AUNT!  I can´t believe it!  Just call me Aunt Cait! Baby Drew is so cute!  I wish that I could hold him right now!  But I will just wait until he is a little bit older!  (Note from Mom: Caitlin's oldest sister had her baby.  He is the first grandchild, so it is kind of a big deal!  That's why Caitlin is so excited.)

So you heard right.....We had transfers!  Hermana Ramirez and I are staying together but......our assignments changed.......We are the NEW Sister Training Leaders here in Zitacuaro!  I honestly can't believe it.  Usually they have one who has been a sister training leader to train the other but Hermana Ramirez and I are tag teaming it again in learning what our responsibilities are as STL´s!  I am a little stressed but I am hanging in there!

This week was a little slow but things are going to change this next transfer!  It is going to be great! We are going to work hard and enjoy every moment!  

I have been looking for a nativity here but......I am a little broke and don´t have any money.....

We are actually practicing Christmas songs for our multi zone conference!  I will let you know how it goes!  We will prepare something great for you!  Don´t worry!  (Another note from Mom: I asked Cait to prepare a song to sing for when she calls.  I'm so excited!!!!!)

I haven´t been to the ruins yet but it is on my list of things to do!  Zitacuaro is beautiful!  I love it here!

We have a few people who could be baptized for Christmas but we will see what the Spirit says!  It would be great to have a Christmas baptism!

I love you more!  One more week and we talk! Woo HOO!

Hermana Drew

Photos of Caitlin's Zone Conference.  She looks like an Amazon woman next to the natives!