I Believe in Miracles!

"I can almost see it.

That dream I'm dreaming, but

There's a voice inside my head saying

You'll never reach it

Every step I'm takin'

Every move I make

Feels lost with no direction,

My faith is shakin'

But I, I gotta keep tryin'

Gotta keep my head held high

The struggles I'm facing

The chances I'm taking

Sometimes might knock me down, but

No I'm not breaking

I may not know it, but

These are the moments that

I'm gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep goin',

And I, I gotta be strong

Just keep pushing on, 'cause

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be an uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side

It's the climb"

"I'm just a little bit caught in the middle life is a maze..."

This week has been interesting, good, but interesting. I have thought a lot about my life before my mission, and what the heck its going to be like when I get home. Its weird. I realized yesterday that when I go "home" my home will be gone, blown away by the sands of time. My friends will all be gone, the land I loved won't be mine, I will have to learn a new life style and make crazy decisions.

WOW! How did I grow up? How did I come to be where I am now. I honestly don't know.  I just know it has been a miracle. 

This week my comp and I taught a man who said he didn't believe in miracles and he is a member!  I just sat there thinking how sad. Then I realized that I think a ton of times I take miracles for granted or don't trust in the Lord to give them to me, this brings me to the subject of gratitude. Here is a little list of miracles I am grateful for: 

Life: Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk with one of the members who lives in the same house as me and my companion.  She is a YW leader and really neat. Lots of people have had hard lives here, their families are broken and people around them make bad choices. We ended up talking about birth, controversial matters, broken families, adoption, and the gift of a strong family in the Gospel, etc. My thoughts couldn't help but go to my dear little sister, Abbi, who is adopted. I love that little chica, and what if my family didn't have the Gospel and couldn't be with her always? What if her life had been ended before it even truly started, and I never had gotten the opportunity to be her sister? Then my thoughts went to my loving parents, and the good example of a strong, faithful, loving marriage that they have set for me. They have had hard times, but in the end they are in true love, and I am truly grateful for that. I am truly grateful that I have never had to choose between my parents, live separated from any of my siblings or have to wonder if I was part of some sort of problem, etc. I am SUPER grateful for the miracle of being born into a gospel family. 

The Gift of Toungues: I relized this week that my thoughts are now in Spanglish, and its super hard to think in perfect English. Entounces, soy agradecio por la milagro de el don de linguas. How crazy is it that I can speak as well as I do in only three months when it takes a child years to learn their native tongue, and a regular adult years to learn a second. 

My Heritage: I am grateful for my heritage, in particular the legacies of faith my ancestors have set for me. Its kind of hard to be a foreigner here when everyone around me is so VERY Mexican, but I can draw strength from my Heritage. I am in love with my Scottish heritage and I find the motos of my families to be quite fortifying at times. I am stubborn because of my German Scottish blood, and I won't go down without a fight. I am grateful for the miracle that my ancestors are mine, and I am who I am.

I could go on and on, but let me talk a bit more about my week, and with some luck you will find more miracles. 

I am starting to feel like my dad... My father is a very punctual person, and if he is late he freaks! Well my companion is late to EVERYTHING, and it drives me crazy! The worst part is she gets kinda of bugged when I point it out to her. I also hate that she forgets to call people when we can't make appointments. I really don't want people to hate us, so I wish she would be on time. I woke up a few days ago and realized that this was my father coming out in me. This is actually the only problem I have with my companion, hallelujah!

Before my mission, I am shamed to admit I never read the Book of Mormon all the way through for myself. I have heard my parents read it a thousand times over but never read it for myself. Anyone who knows me will probablly be suprised by this confession. Before I left for my mission my bishop asked that I read it all the way through, and my branch prez in the MTC asked the same. I have been reading it a ton latley and am loving it! It brings sooo much peace into my daily life, and I find myself drawing upon what I read in my lessons a ton. 

If you have not read the Book of Mormon you should, I would like to invite my whole family to read it with me, and even my non-member family. Even if you don't think its scripture or anything the stories themselves are just plain amazing, and you can learn so much from them. I actually owe part of my high reading level to the Book of Mormon. So please READ IT! 

Its funny, everyone always talks about having dreams in their mission language, and you would think that since I practically only ever hear Spanish that I should have dreams in Spanish right? Well I have only had dreams in Spanish twice! CRAZY! But I find that its ok because I have tons of dreams about my family, its kind of like visiting them at night. I think it might be a tender mercy of the Lord. 

Also on the subject of dreams, I dream very crazy, vivid, dreams, and I find myself having deja vu TONS here. Yesterday I had a really strong moment of deja vu and could even remember which dream it was from. I remember at the time when I had this dream thinking it was weird that everyone in my dream was Latino...I guess I know why now. lol. 

Its funny I find myself questioning a ton how I would say certain things in English. Yesterday one of the members that I live with was asking me what "holy cow" means and how to use it. And then I had to explain some other phrases. I say "holy mac & cheese" a lot, and so she wanted to learn that.   I taught her how to say it and then someone rang the doorbell. She walked over to the door  opened it and said "WOW! holy mac & cheese!" to the boy at the door with a thick Mexican accent. He just chuckled waved and said "Buenos dias, Hermana" I laughed pretty hard at that.

I just keep thinking about how these people need to be like family, like my ward back home. When I think like this, that these people are my brothers and sisters, it makes it a ton easier to have charity and serve. I think we need to be thinking like this always and with everyone we come in contact with, its then that we will find true happiness and true love. 

I also want to give a shout out to my little bro, James, who just had his 12th b-day and received the priesthood. I am so grateful to be a part of a family where all the men of age are worthy priesthood holders. The Priesthood is such a miracle in our lives. 

I think that the key to miracles is to trust that the Lord will send them, and to have gratitude for them.  

Sorry this post is a little all over the place, thats just my brain this week! Love yall! 

Hermana Shingleton XOXOX

Mushaboom

"Helping the kids out of their coats, but wait the babies haven't been born. I'm unpacking the bags and setting up, I´m planting lilacs and buttercups, but in the meantime I've got it hard second-floor living without a yard." -Feist

Hola lovely blog readers! This week has been a SUPER LOCO one! 

Its bad but this week I have really missed grass...and spring flowers. I live on the second floor of our house/apartment thing and we don't have a yard.

Anyways/entonces, first of all on Friday I experienced my first earthquake! OH JOY! I was sitting eating breakfast when all of the sudden my companion says "ES TEMBLANDO!" and I sat thinking what holiday is that?! Because the way she said it sounded like how you would say "Oh, its Christmas, and I totally forgot!" So then she heads for the door and says, "VEN HERMANA VEN" So I'm thinking "Oh, there's something in the street she wants to go see", so I get up and start walking then I loose my balance and feel really dizzy, and my companion says "ESTO HERMANA ESTO!", and I'm thinking "How does she know I feel sick?", and this sickness is really weird because my stomach feels fine but my head is not happy. Then one of the hermanas we live with says, "VENGAN HERMANAS VENGAN!", and I continue to think, "Oh, there must be something in the street", but that is when I saw the rest of the family in the doorway and one of the little girls crying.  Then the house swayed HUGE and I was like, "OOOOOH! Earthquake." The members here keep laughing at me when my companion tells them the story. I have to admit it is pretty funny. The thing was because I was  totally ignorant to the situation at first, I was calm and not scared. BLESSING! It was actually kind of fun. I hate to admit it, but it was a bit like a ride at an amusment park, just a high stakes ride. LOL. So, now my companion and I have a joke its called ¡FELIZ TEMBLANDO!, which means Happy trembling! I guess every year around Easter there is an earthquake.  Some of the members think it has something to do with the earth remembering Christ. Who knows.  LOL. But in 1985 they had a really bad one!  Here is a link to the wiki page...I hope it shows up in English for y'all:   http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terremoto_de_M%C3%A9xico_de_1985  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Mexico_City_earthquake)

Second, it rained buckets this week!  FUN!  But for two days I was completely soaked! I have also eaten crepes EVERY night this week except Tuesday. I love crepes with nutella! There are some members here who have a crepe shop and they let us missionaries eat for free, we also drink milshakes and I always get Oreo NOM NOM NOM DELICIOSO! Funny thing, here in México Dora teaches English. Nice.

On Saterday I spent ALL DAY painting a house, it sucked because the walls of the house were rough and gravely and it took FOREVER to paint. I also got to paint part of the roof that was fun and scary!  

Sunday was a bit sad because here in Mexico City, they don't celebrate Pascua or in English, Easter. So I was really bummed, and really missed mini and normal Cadbury eggs. Next year someone awesome please send me Easter candy! 

This week was really special, too, because well....I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM! YAY! FIESTA! It was yesterday, it was put together in about an hour but it was great and you could really feel the Spirit. Missionary work is amazing, and I love watching the Gospel touch peoples hearts, and changes them. 

Well I hope y'all are doing well love ya tons! Hermana Shingleton

Oh, and P.S. FELIZ TEMBLANDO! 

Roll With The Punches And Everything's OK

Well as always life is not ever normal as a missionary. I have been trying to learn to roll with the punches. There is a song By Lenka called roll with the punches that I love its basically my life. A very smart lady I once knew once talked about how as humans we cant be stiff like oaks we need to be like willows, firm but willing to bend when the wind blows so that we dont break. 

Another song by Lenka that I'm living by is Everything's OK. Christ gives me hope everyday, life is tough and sometimes Ill be honest all I want is to go home, but I pray everyday and I receive the strength I need. 

This last week we had interveiws with the President and he had me go to the doctor because I have been sick a ton off and on. So we went to the temple where the doctor that speaks English is! Sad thing, she said I had an infection in my stomach, but I don't know if I believe that, but for three days I could not eat chocolate, dairy, and pop. OK.. so what was I supposed to eat? I have no clue. 

We then got to frolick about the AMAZING visitors center for a while. SO MUCH FUN SO COOL! Then we went to the distribution center, and got some stuff yay! 

Well, also this week, our shower broke and we couldn't use it. To fix it they had to cut/dig a huge hole in it. Nice... There was dirt and dust everywhere it took forever to clean. 

Its funny people here have a hard time saying Shingleton. So one of my investigators call me Hermana Jinggumbells and the elders in my district call me Shingwungwongchung. HAHAHA! Its crazy.

This is mostly for my sister "I like tortillas, I like tortillas, I like em more, I like em more, tortillas are my entire world! Yes I ADORE torillas here!

I have had to sing play guitar for a few people this week, aaa scary! But it feels good to sing again. One sister was all like Oh you sing with the voice of an angel! WOW, thanks. Its funny I have been helping teach an English class and this week they learned the song Rolling in the deep by Adele for pronunciation practice. HAHA Sweet! 

One thing that seems to be a huge theme in my head latley is that Family is AMAZING and such a gift! I thank my Father in Heavan for my awesome family. Well Love yall! Hermana Shingleton

What is Reality?

Being on a mission is really weird, your flipped inside out and upside down, its kind of like falling down a rabbit hole. Your past life doesn't feel like it happened like a strange dream or the memory of a different person the somehow got into your head. It almost makes you dizzy, like, "Whoa! That was me?  No." And then the present zips past and is frozen all at the same time, you feel stuck in a moment and then all of a sudden you wake up a month later. Then the future doesn't seem like it will ever happen and then you realize its really close. AAAH! Talk about confusing! Its like magic.

This week I got to help teach an English class, that was cool! I love teaching anything! I also taught the first lesson to a girl in Spanglish, that was amazing! I felt so free like "YES I CAN DO THIS!" You could feel the Spirit so strong! YAY! 

I also discovered while being here that American tortillas are terrible and a total disgrace! I really like tortillas here. I also love MANGOES! But they have to be the completely orange little ones. they are amazing I eat one everyday. YUM! 

Want to try something very Mexican? Yogurt, jello cubes, and fruit, like bananas, mangoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, etc. YUM! Crepes are also a big thing here, Nutella, strawberries, and sweetened condensed milk yum! There is a soda here called jarritoes I think you can get in Walmart in the States the orange is the best!

This week was my companions birthday! YAY! I love birthdays! The district was sneaky and got her a cake, it was good and then we discovered it was mocha...nice! lol. Sad. 

I miss nature here, it is totally a city, the first week I felt like suffocating, I miss open space with trees and grass. Sigh. C'est la vie. 

The last three days I have been super sick. It made me really miss my mom. Ugh. I hate being sick and here its awful because i often have to work through it. YUCK!

Wasn't conference great! I learned so much! 

Random, I saw a Volkswagen van painted like the Mystery machine.SWEET! Mexico is full of surprises! 

Love y'all! 

Hermana Shingleton

Please pray for all the missionaries in the field.  This work is hard and we need all the help we can get!