PATIENCE is a muscle?

Paciencia...Tan difícil desarrollar. (Patience ... So difficult to develop)

I can hardly believe how fast this time flies by. 

It has been over a month since Hermana Traylor and I began working here in Atlixco. Isn’t time so weird? We always want more or we want it to go by faster     or sometimes just stop entirely. But I guess if we didn’t have time we wouldn’t appreciate our moments here on earth. 

That makes me think of something cute that happened a few weeks ago.          We were teaching a couple and their 6 year old daughter, along with the bishop and his wife, about the Plan of Salvation and there were a few paragraphs in one of the pamphlets that we wanted to read with them. When we asked who wanted to read them, of course this cute little girl practically jumped out of her chair to let us know she was willing and ready. At first, when she began reading 

I’ll admit I was a little worried, like: "what if they don’t understand it because of how slow she is reading it?" but then as I sat there listening to her, I looked around the room full of adults and it surprised me to see that not one of them looked at all impatient or annoyed. Every single one of them was paying close attention to the eternal truths that she was teaching them!

At that moment, I learned two things: 

1- No matter how incapable and inadequate we might feel as teachers 

(or parents, or students, or whatever else God has called us to be), 

if we have the Spirit with us and rely on the help of God, all that are listening 

will be taught all that they need in that moment. 

2- just like that little girl, struggling to use the knowledge she had of reading, we are all here on the earth with unique difficulties, 

and regardless of how slow we learn, Heavenly Father is incredibly patient and merciful with every one of us. 

When I think of the process of learning that little kids go through, 

I can’t help but compare it to our own learning here on the earth. 

Our Heavenly Father is so patient with us the whole time that we are down here, making the same errors over and over again. If He could be so loving and kind to us when we get a word or two wrong in the book of life, why is it so hard to attain that same patience with those that surround us? 

Maybe that’s why they say "patience is a virtue."  

I think it might be something like a muscle: it gets stronger with exercise.

It amazes me at how little time I’ve been here and how I am somehow able to communicate my thoughts and feelings with those around me in a language that was completely foreign to me 7 months ago. Even more, when I see my companion, who has only had Spanish words in her vocabulary a little over two months, able to teach and chat perfectly fine. I know that without His help, we would definitely be two white girls lost in Mexico. 

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to help us reach our potential as His children and that if we will rely on Him and work as hard as we can, there is literally nothing to stop us from being the best we can be. 

I love the mission, Mexico, my family, and cream carrot soup (yeah, I tried it for the first time this week and it’s probably the best thing I have ever tasted).

Con amor, Hermana Jones