Guided By the Spirit and Faith is Like Mangoes

This week, I had some experiences that really strengthened my testimony that we are guided by the Spirit. Saturday morning, all of our citas fell through, so Hermana Larsen and I were walking, we had the thought that we should go and visit a house that has two investigators in it, a mother and her daughter. Normally they aren't home during the week, but we decided to just go and see. It turns out, the mother was home. At first she seemed reluctant to let us in, but she told us we could share something for ten minutes. We went in and she started to cry and told us about how she is having difficulties with one of her daughters and is really worried for her family. We were able to share with her about how God loves her and her family, and all she needs to do is pray for guidance and strength to be able to overcome her challenges and soften the heart of her daughter. THe spirit was super strong, and I know that she felt it touch her heart. Now when we come to visit her and her family, she is happy to see us and lets us in right away.

These are the Elders we are switching areas with. Here we are working
together on the balloon animals for Paulo's birthday party.

Last Sunday, we were running a little late for an appointment with a family. So when we got to their house, nobody was home. Just as we were about to leave, one of the daughters in the family showed up, but she didn't have time for a lesson. We were talking with her for a few minutes, when one of the counselors in the Young Women and two young women came up. They were out visiting young women in the ward who are less active (because there are many), and we were able to introduce them to our investigator, Katrina, who had come to Church that day. We were also able to take them to the house of a less active family that has two daughters in Young Women's that they didn't know about. It was meant to be that we were in the right place at the right time in order to show them where some young women lived in the area. The Holy Ghost is always guiding us to where we need to be, we just have to listen and have the confidence that He will use us to further the Lord's work.

Later that same day, we went and had a Noche de Hogar with the same less active family. The Mom and three of her seven children are members. The Dad and the other little kids aren't members, and so we'd been trying to meet him and help them come back to church and baptize one of their kids who is 9-years-old. Last night we were finally able to have a lesson and the Dad was there! He told us about how the Elders had come to his house two years ago and helped him and his wife get married. He bore his testimony about marriage and how it has blessed his family immensely. He told us that he just about got baptized with the Elders, but then they were transferred and he never did. Since the Elders will have our area after this week, hopefully they can work with him and help him get baptized this time around!

Anyways, we had a Noche de Hogar with this family, and since they have lots of little kids, we shared a short lesson. We told them about faith and how it is like a seed that we can help grow. The kids starting asking about what kind of fruit it would be. It just so happened that earlier that day, we had been given mangos by a less acitve member and we still had them in our pockets. We pulled them out and the kids thought it was an awesome surprise! It was perfect for the lesson, and now the kids will always remember how faith is like mangos!

Missionary Craziness on the Bus (see me in the back?)

So next Saturday, we have cambios (transfers), and our Mission President already told us that he will change our area so that now the Elders will have our area and we will have their area. It is probably a lot safer that way. The Elders found a house in our area, but so far we haven't found anything in their area because we haven't been able to go up to the Elder's area to look. The ward is helping us, though, and we might be able to live in a small house! That would be awesome! I really hope we can have an oven so that I can make cupcakes! Anyways, we'll see how this next week goes. Have a happy halloween chilling and watching movies! Eat lots of candy for me!

Hermamientos, President's Interview, and My Crazy, Blond Hair Helps Again

This week, I learned how important it is to have members in the lessons. When we have a member present, especially one that can be a hermamiento, we can see a difference in how the investigators and menos activos respond to the compromisos. They are much more likely to complete their compromisos. When a member testifies of how a doctrine or commandment has blessed their life, or even just bear their testimony of Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon, there is a lot of power and the spirit is so strong. Having a member in lessons is much more powerful.

I also learned that we really don't know who will be baptized after we first meet them. I had the opportunity to go back to El Olivar with Hermana Solis for exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders. Of the people that I met while I was there, four of them had been baptized, one of which I helped find when I was there a few months ago. Those people that we had dropped or had thought wouldn't progess had made the changes necessary in their lives to be baptized, and it was really amazing for me to see the difference it had made in their lives. Sometimes we really won't know who will change their lives to live in accordance with the gospel, so we have to work hard with every single one of our investigators.

Last Monday, we had a pretty crazy day. We were enjoying our normal Preparation day activites, playing games with the zone, eating food, and going shopping. We got back to our apartment at about 5:00, and saw that we had missed two calls from Pres. Archibald and one from Hermana Archibald! We called back and he asked us to come in for an interview in an hour. We quickly changed and hopped on a bus to get to Metro.

We had a really good, long interview with Pres. Archibald. He has been calling in everyone who hasn't had a baptism since he arrived in the field. Hermana Larsen and I are both on his list, and so he went over our area with us, and we talked about some of the things we can change and improve on in order to help our area progress. He gave us some really great advice and showed us some of the resources that we didn't know we had to help us find part member families. These next couple of weeks, he's going to be talking with the leaders in our stake and ward, and making changes in the boundaries of our area. It will be super exciting to see some of the changes that will be made, and we are going to be focusing even more on part member families in order to help us find people to teach.

I've decided that on Halloween I will eat candy to celebrate! Oh, I do miss all the yummy fall soups, desserts, and carving pumpkins, but I'll get to see how they celebrate here. Peruvian food is really good, but I would kill for some homemade cheese and broccoli soup with pumpkin pie for dessert! On the other hand, it's getting hot here and soup doesn't really sound good all the time, so I guess I can wait.

One thing about it warming up and the sun coming out is that I am definitely getting tanner and my hair lighter. People here are crazy about my blond hair. They really like to akwardly stare when I walk by, so that's kind of fun. One good thing did come from my hair, though. When I was on exchanges with Hermana Solis back in El Olivar last Friday, we were walking through her area when we saw some people staring at us from the second floor of a house. Hermana Solis decided we should contact them. They are super nice and want to hear more about the Gospel. We asked why they were staring at us and they said it was because of my hair!  So maybe I can use my blonde hair to help us contact people...we'll see!

Anyways, lots of really fun stuff for Halloween! I totally made decorations and I am going to eat lots of candy for Halloween. Hermana Larsen and I decided that we're going to swich our nametags and be each other for part of the day Halloween. It will be fun!

Example, Balloon Animals and Halloween Decorations

Riquel and her son, Paulo. What a cutie!

Yesterday, I learned how the little things that we say and do can affect the life of another. Sometimes, we don't know who is watching us and studying the quality of our lives in order to learn how to change their own lives. The young adults in this ward are amazing, and without realizing it, we have helped more than one of them want to come back to church, live more righteously, and even serve their own missions. It has been a great experience to work with the young adults and learn from them as well, because they are so strong in their families and have amazing testimonies. Even when we don't think we're really making a difference, people are taking note of what we say and how happy we are, and this example can help them want to change their lives for the better.

This week has been pretty routine. One fun thing is that we were able to give some service for Riquel for her son Paulo's birthday. He's turning one, which here in Peru is a huge deal. They do lots of over-the-top stuff for a child's first birthday. Anyway, we helped clean and decorate and sala for the party. She didn't have a lot of stuff, but my parents had sent me a package in the MTC that contained some balloons and instructions on how to tie different animals out of the balloons. So our district made a bunch of balloon animals for the party. It was super fun!

Just trying to bring a little
"Halloween spirit" to Peru

I made some Halloween decorations for our garage too, and I bought some candy at Tottus! Growing up, my Mom always decorated the house with festive Halloween decorations and I realized I really wanted to have something festive up here! It's a work in progress, but little by little we'll be ready for the holiday.

Noche Misional y Servicio con un Machete

At the Noche Misional: Jynette and Melanie are twins who
are recent converts, and between them is
their friend (and our investigator) Nichole.

During this past week, we were able to have a Noche Misional (Missionary Night), and about 40 members, menos activos (less active member), and investigators came. It was a great experience, and I think everyone had a good time. We are super grateful for the help we had from our ward mission leader and other members in the ward to make it really great. This ward is amazing!

At the Noche Misional: On the left is Sol, a recent convert,
 and Sharon, an amazing member who comes with us
 all the time and is preparing to serve her own mission

General Conference was great this past weekend, but listening to it in Spanish was definitely an experience! It was really hard in parts to know what was going on sometimes, but overall I was able to understand most of it, and I took some really good notes! I totally sang the hymns in English, though! In order to watch on Saturday, we went to a ward building in the zone leader's area of San Diego, and on Sunday we went to our ward building. Hermana Larsen and I went down in to the offices during the last session and watched it on the computer in English! It was really nice to listen in English and have to try so hard to understand, and just enjoy it. I loved the talks by Pres. Uchtdorf and Nelson!

Here, it is now warming up a little bit, and there are some days I can go out without my jacket! It's nice. Hermana Larsen and I decided that we're going to make some Halloween decorations for our apartment! This morning I made a little ghost and put it on our wall -- ha ha!

Pulling weeds around Hermana Carmen's patio.

This past week, we had three less active families that we wanted to focus on. We had looked at our list of ward members, prayed, and then chosen three families that we didn't know who they were, but that we wanted to visit. Our goal is to activate each one of these families, and help them feel welcomed back into the Church. We were able to contact each one of the families during the week, and even find some new investigators through them. This was a great experience for me in trusting in the Holy Ghost to guide us to where we need to be, and who we need to visit.

Trimming, raking, and gathering debris
 in Hermana Carmen's yard!

Using a machete is a lot harder than it looks!
Don't try this at home.

Our District also performed some service from Hermana Carmen, who lives in Shangri-La with her daughter and granddaughter. We had passed by her house before and we are trying to reactivate her daughter and granddaughter. Her family has a little money, so she owns a hill and she also has a little restaurant inside her home. Her house reminds me of the United States a little bit because she has a yard and a patio. 


No one here has a yard and a patio! 
Anyway, we helped her clear out lots of weeds, trim her trees, and remove some bushes.

My First Llama and 'Bailando Mi Trompo'

Guess what!? I saw a llama!!!! I saw my first llama in Peru! If I hadn't been running late for an appointment, I totally would have stopped to pet it...oh well, next time!

In my current area, I have really learned how important the members are for missionary work to succeed. When we have the help of the members to go with us to lessons, to help invite less active members to activities, and to befriend investigators and help them come to the chapel, there is a huge difference in the ward. There is much more success in reactivation and church attendance.

This past week, we were able to talk to several less active members that have been a little standoff-ish since we got here. It was really great to finally be able to talk with them and begin to see their needs. In fact, there is a young adult in our ward that when we got here, she and her family weren't coming to church at all. We began to visit with her and her family, and we had the help of another young adult to invite her to activities. She began to come back to church and to ward and young adult activities, and yesterday, she told us she wanted to serve a mission! It's really amazing to see the change in her, and we are super grateful for the help of the young adults in our ward. They are awesome!

I am really curious to see what they do here in Peru for Halloween. I'm starting to think that they don't do anything super fun like in the states for Halloween. I have seen a few tiendas with a couple of costumes, but that's about it. Regardless, I will definitely buy some Halloween candy, and if we don't get any trick-or-treaters, than we'll just have to eat it ourselves -- ha ha. What is Halloween without some chocolate? Maybe I'll make some decorations for our apartment.

We're still looking for another apartment, but no success yet. Although we had transfers last week, I'm still staying in Prolima 2 with Hermana Larsen. Almost everyone in our zone stayed the same, and we welcomed another set of elders to our zone. With all the new missionaries coming in, we can have even more missionaries in each ward. Anyway, we are really hoping to find something soon. We really want to cook for ourselves for breakfast and dinner, because we are really sick of rice and most the time we aren't even hungry at night because people like to give us stuff. Anyways, still looking.

My little sister asked me what I do in my spare time here. Well, I don't have a whole lot of spare time, but when I do, I have lately been practicing "bailando mi trompo." This roughly translates to "dancing my top" (the toy, not an article of clothing). I got one of those awesome toy tops like my Uncle Joel got when he was a missionary in the Philipines, becuase all the kids in Peru play with them too. I can get it to go sometimes, and I hope that I can get good at it before I go back to the States -- ha ha. Sometimes, I also work on my notebook that has all of my pictures in it, kind of like a scrapbook for my mission. It is coming along. Occasionally I draw too, but I haven't drawn in a while. We went running a couple times this past week, and we'll run some more this week, but we usually only have about 10 or 15 minutes to run. However, I enjoy the time I do have to run!

Sorry, almost out of time. I just wanted to share some of what I learned this week. I learned that I have been incredibly blessed in my life to have such great parents and a loving family. I am so incredibly grateful for my parent's examples and all the work they do for me and my siblings. I know that when I get married, I want to marry someone who is 100% committed to the Lord, becuase then I know that life will be ok no matter what. I want my kids to have a good example in their father, and have a good example in me. I can see the difference good parents make in the lives of their children, and I want to give that to my kids. Thanks you so much to my parents and my grandparents too.

A Sure Testimony, Exercise, and Obedience

This week, we finally have a promising investigator that has come to church and has a fecha! Our progressing investigator is Martin. He has been coming to church for a year and a half to help his daughter, Edith (who is the wife of one of the counselors in the stake presidency), with her kids. He has had lots of different missionaries come to his house in the past, but he has never been baptized. We had our second lesson with him last night, and we prayed that the spirit would guide the lesson. He really opened up to us, and we found out that even though he has been to church and had had lots of missionaries visit him, he really didn't know the answers to some of the basic questions in lesson 1 and that he really didn't understand the lessons. He told us that he wanted to be baptized! He wants to go through all the lessons again and be really sure, and we can only meet with him once a week because of his work, so his fecha is Oct 26. We're going to see if we can have him feel ready before then, but for now that is the date he accepted.

This week, I also learned the importance of making sure your investigators have a testimony of the gospel and even a basic understanding of the gospel. We taught a less active this week that is attending a Jehovah's Witness church. We asked her if she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and from that we found out that she didn't really know what the book was, or who Joseph Smith really was. She told us she had been baptized because she really liked the Elders that came and visited her, and that after they left she decided to go to another church. It was such a sad experience, and it was an experience for me that I know that we need to really make sure our investigators have the right motives for being baptized.

Preparing the completos.

The pictures are all from an activity that our zone had, eating completos, which is pretty much a beefed up hot dog thing that they eat in Chile. It was pretty yummy. Also, this is the conference we had with President Archibald after the zone completed it's monthly goal for baptisms.

Completos waiting to be assembled.

We started running in the mornings for exercise now...I have been super nervous to go running ever since I got here because there are literally dogs everywhere...there is not a single street corner that doesn't have at least 3 wild dogs roaming around. I've seen people get chased, nearly bit, and I have been barked at several times just for minding my own business and walking by. I am terrified of these dogs! But anyway, Hermana Larsen convinced me to go to the park one morning and just walk around. We got out to the park, and I didn't see any dogs really near by, and I have really missed running, so I was like, 'You want to run?' So, ya. Now we try to go running in the park for our exercise in the mornings! I am so glad to get back to running! Such a stress relief!

Some of the Elders in our Zone enjoying the
completos.

Anyway, last Thursday we had a mission conference with Elder Ucede of the Seventy. It was really good, and we learned lots of things we can improve on. We were told that we really needed to be exactly obedient and follow step for step, word for word, what is in Preach My Gospel. So to be more obedient, that is one of the reasons we started to exercise in the mornings (thus the running). We also learned that it is really important for everyone in the mission to know two languages. He really got after everyone who didn't want to learn English while they're serving. I really hope I can have a latina companion while I am here and that I can help her learn some English!

Well, we find out today if we get transfered tomorrow or not. So far, our zone leaders haven't told us anything. I really hope I can stay here with Hermana Larsen because we feel like we are finally starting to get our area up and going. We have also been looking for apartments, but everything we found was too expensive and big. We'll have to keep looking, but for now we're staying in our garage.

 

Peruvian Conference, a Non-Member Missionary, and My Latino Heritage?

This week, we have been working hard to schedule lots of lessons, especially with less-active church members. Sadly, we didn't have any of our investigators come to church yesterday, but we had lots of less active members. We set ourselves a new record to beat! As we teach the less-active members, we are hoping to get more references all around.

Our supply of cookies. Essential comfort food
for every missionary after a hard day of work. 

What do you call it when a whole country has a conference? I'm not sure, but yesterday, instead of our regular church meetings, we had a special conference that included all the stakes of Peru. Two of the Twelve Apostles, Elder David Bednar and Elder Richard G. Scott, gave talks, as well as the second counselor of the General Relief Society Presidency. The coolest part was that all the speakers gave their talks in Spanish except for Elder Bednar. I had no idea that Elder Scott could speak Spanish! It was a really, really good conference and now I am super pumped up to have General Conference next month!

My awesome parents sent me some cupcake recipes, but I haven't gotten the chance to try them  yet! I really want to try them out, but we're kind of limited since we live in a garage and don't actually have a kitchen to speak of. Plus, the Relief Society already has activities for the next couple of weeks, so it probably will be another two or three weeks until I can cook with them. We also have an investigator who's daughters are members and she wants us to come up to her house a week from Sunday and help her make a cake! Ironically, the rumor going around the mission is that President Archibald wants all missionaries to have, at the most, only lunch prepared by a pensionista. If that is the case, we will have to move out of our garage. It would be nice to have a kitchen to cook in, but I really don't want to move again because the garage is finally starting to feel like home...well, we'll see how it goes.

Last night we had a good experience with an investigator. We haven't been able to meet with her for the past 3 weeks because something always comes up. However, we ran into her on the street, and she started telling us how she's been talking about the Book of Mormon with her family and inviting them to learn more! Wow! She's already a great missionary, and she's not even a member yet! She asked for another Book of Mormon because she gave the two she had to her family members to read. She's going to write up all of the references and introduce us to her family in the next week. Super excited!

Sounds like it has been super hot back home in Utah! They say here in Peru that this last winter was one of the coldest they've ever had here in Lima. Anyway, it's finally starting to warm up! Maybe now that the sun is out I'll start to get a tan! So I really like to show the picture of our family right before they dropped me off at the MTC last May. I've had people ask me more than once if my dad is latino -- ha ha! He is super tan in the picture and so people think that he is part latino! Here is the link to the Family Picture at MTC (look at the last picture), so see what you think. Super funny! It would be super cool if I had it in my genes for my skin to go that tan!

Me and Hermana Solis

Hermana Solis was with me for one day this week for a work visit! She came to my area and I had to be in charge of everything that day. I was so nervous! It went fine, and I realized how nice it is to have a spanish speaking companion. She was able to answer lots of the investigator's questions that I couldn't understand or answer very well. Anyway, it was fun to get to see her and talk to her. Back in her area of El Olivar (the same area I was in before I was transferred), she's teaching the parents of one of the families that we found, one of our contacts has been baptized and is super active, and one of our old investigators is preparing for baptism! It's cool to see how things have gone since I've left.

Even though we currently don't have any progressing investigators in our area, I have faith that the Lord will help us to find those people who are ready for the gospel, and that we will be able to help people come unto Christ. We have investigators that if they are married and baptized, they can eventually be sealed in the temple and have a family for eternity! I want to be able to help a family find this happiness and have these blessings, and I know that Lord wants it for them too. We just need to have faith that the Lord will help them make changes in their life and that we will be blessed to know how to help them.