Monday, January 27, 2014

Week 38



Queridos Familia Y Amigos,
 
Had a rockin´week. Last Pday, we had an awesome BBQ style lunch with the zone and it was really fun! One of our zone leaders made Mac N´Cheese for us, that he got in his Christmas package. oh man, it was so delicious. The things that I´ve taken for granted nowadays:) We watched emperor´s new groove in Spanish and it was hilarious! 

Flavia and Christina are doing well, we have a FHE tonight with them and another family that are less active too. 

Mendoza family. An hermanita from the ward, Fidencia accompanied with us to both of the lessons that we had this week and they went really well! But sadly, Maria flaked out on church yesterday, Fidencia was gonna pick her up on her way to the chapel-but Maria called her and bailed:( 

Had a super funny lesson with a part-member family this week. It started out to be a less-active, Melich, and her mom, watching the Restoration video. Then, Melich left and the dad started watching it. Then the other daughter who´s a less-active member too joined us. then the parents slowly disapeared and so by the end of the video, it was us with Manjory. haha it was hysterical. 

A son of a recent convert, remember Pablo? We started teaching his son Henry and he´s awesome! has a baptismal date for February 15th. It was really funny tho, his dad was interrupting sooo many times while we were watching the Restoration video. oh my goodness it drove us crazy! haha its awesome how excited he is for his son to learn about the gospel, but oh man it was too good-he kept talking during the video. practically narrating everything. haha 

Marlene and Hart are the greatest! Their the less-active friends of Flavia and Cristina that are gonna have FHE with us tonight. Hart accompanied us to some of our teaching appts. this week, he´s 21 and starting to develop the desire to serve a mission!! 
 
ahh there´s loads more I want to say, but only 2 minutes left.
huge surprise for last-transfers are tomorrow and I´ll be leading my area with my new companion! Hna. Portillo is headed to Esperanza and will be in a trio for a week until one of her companion is headed home. We´ll be super busy, rushing around and saying goodbyes to everyone today. I´m excited to show my new companion around and for the members to meet her:) her name is hna. semorille and I remember her from the sister´s meeting. really funny and nice!

also we got a random call from hna. marler yesterday, cause hna. huaman wanted to see me before she left to go home. it was so awesome to see her!! man I have so much respect and love for my trainer! an incredible representative of Jesus Christ. 

love you all loaaads and stay tuned to hear all about my new companion! 



Monday, January 20, 2014

Week 37


Wahooo, happy happy 10th Birthday Grant!! I hope you have an awesome day, whatever your up to:) And on Thursday, enjoy your beautiful birthday mammacita Bonita!! Hunter, thank you so much for the family pictures!! I cannot believe how big everyone looks-especially McKay!! Santa Vaca, everyone looks all grown up:) 
 
My companion and I with the other companionship of Hermanas that are in our district randomly talked at a belorio on Monday night. A woman in the ward passed away and the RS prez asked us if we could talk about the Plan of Salvation. There were about 30 to 40 people all squeezed in the house and the casket and loads of flowers were in the main part of the house. We each took a little part of the Plan of Salvation to talk about and it went really well! We didn´t know the Hermana before she passed away, but it was awesome to be sharing such a beautiful message with so many about how we´ll be able to see our loved ones after they die. 

Yesterday, both Jose and Luis Galvez received the Priesthood!! Jose will probably be blessing the sacrament next week:) Luis has been super busy and stressed with all these projects that he has to get done, so we´ve been helping him finish a bunch of different print-outs for various activities and dances that he´d been hired to design and have. 
 
We´ve been continuing to visit loads of less-actives and have been seeing MANY fruits of our labors!! So many came to church yesterday, Flavia and Marlene for the 1st time and for all the meetings!! hooray:) One part-member family came yesterday, Vanessa Y Jose. Jose is less-active and we´ve been teaching Vanessa for quite awhile now. They have twins and a little toddler. Except they´re not married and he doesn´t want to tie the knot...but they all came to church yesterday!! Little, by little:)

We visited Marlene and her son Hart yesterday with Jose and like always, asked if there was anything we could do or help with. She looked kinda puzzled for a minute and mentioned that the fish tank needed to be cleaned and that Hart hadn´t done it yet...haha No one EVER takes us up on our offer to give service, so we were pretty excited. haha we took each of the 8 fish out of the tank, one by one with our hands. they all chilled together until after we cleaned the glass tank and brought them back into their cleaner home, one by one.  it was so random & so fun! couldn´t help´but just CRACK up as the little fish squirmed around when we were trying to fish them out (haha get it?) to clean it. the best part was that while all this was happening, Jose was taking pictures. and after, I said ahora un foto con los padres de los pecados. pecados=sins. padres=parents. common mistake folks:) haha we were cracking up for so long. 
 
 
Had intercambios this week, which was great to see a different area and the chance to work with a different missionary. Except during personal study, we got a random phone call that we needed to head to the chapel in centro near the institute building for an activity with FSY. For the strength of the youth, aka. peru´s efy. and hna. bedoya that I was with and hna. allred that my companion was with are sister training leaders and needed to prepare for the activity with the youth. so we switched back until the meeting, then switched again for the rest of the day. haha it was such a cool opportunity that we had to be with the youth!! they were all super pumped from the week-long spiritual experiences that they were having and friends that they were making. we did a practice with them about how they could naturally and easily talk about the gospel with their friends or invite them to activities. I loved the group that my companion and I were with, they were such sweet young women with a desire to serve the lord and share the gospel. 
 
One of the main directors of FSY served his mission in Trujillo ages ago, when there was only one chapel in Trujillo and now they´re be a temple here next year!!! His Spanish is still pretty spot-on, except he looked at my name badge and said mucho gusto Elder Boody......haha WHYYYYY does everyone call us Elder/Elderes? alllllll the time, people scream out Elderes and we just ignore it and say Hermanas! por favor! let´s get the gender right people.

So yeah our sister training leaders have such an awesome room! its huuuge, they got a hook-up cause their pensoniesta´s mom owns it and no one was living there. separate room to study in, 2 bathrooms! man I was living the dream for 24 hours. she has such an energy to teach and I admire her love for these people. and their pensoniesta lives on the level beneath in the apartment complex, which is so nice to have so close! she gave us ice cream with our lunch-haha. Laureles 1 has got it goin´ on! 

Trying to find new investigators, cause all of the ones we have are old and not really progressing:( 

Today we´re making anticuchos with the zone (chichka-bob) style meat and playing volleyball! watching emperor´s new groove too! haha should be awesome. 

I keep forgetting that Johnathan Erickson served in my same mission! Obsipo Freddy de la Lavanderia says hi! haha what areas did he serve in? maybe we know more people in common:) 

Love you all so much and hope all is well! Man its so hot here, but I love the sunshine:) and the breeze makes everything just so beautiful. I know Jesus is the Christ and that God lives! The gospel is so incredible, it makes me so happy! 

Monday, January 13, 2014

Week 36


My heart is so full of joy and happiness! This week was deeeelightful:) We had a wonderful zone training meeting, luis galvez`s baptism, and stake conference!! Jose`s been accompanying us to lessons and he`s such an awesome new convert!! Has his own friends in the ward and has his interview to receive the priesthood tomorrow with the bishop. such a good kid! 

Our zone leaders gave a wonderful training on how each missionary and especially in each companionship, there are qualities that we each individually have and ones that can be developed, by learning from the other companion or missionaries. and how we can teach more like the Savior. Just think of the Quorum of the 12, each have their own individual profession and career, but all of them have the gospel in common and can together perform miracles, under the direction of the Savior and as He can use them as instruments in His hands.
 
Luis`s baptism went really well!!! About 26 people and his cousin made delicious tamales to share with everyone. His aunt and 2 cousins are members and used to be inactive, but have started to come to church again as we`ve been teaching him. He`s a wonderful example to many!! He was confirmed right after his baptism, since this weekend we had stake conference and when he shared his testimony after, he said as though he felt like a baby...haha man I love Luis!! 
 
Stake conference was so wonderful, an area of the seventy came and talked with us about temples and family history work, and a huge emphasis on faith. I loved it!! and Luis showed up for the first time in a TIE!! ahh my companion and I were both beaming with joy:) 

This week I hit my 8 month mission birthday and JUSTO the bottom part of one of the pairs of my shoes dis-attached itself randomly one afternoon. my companion was dying laughing at the noise it was making, like a flip-flop, until some 50 centimos super glue did the trick. haha it was a hilarious surprise
 
Thanks for the PB cups, mom!! My companion tried one for the 1st time ever and loved èm! You da best! 
 
Some bad news, hna.downs got sent home yesterday afternoon. long story and we`re headed out of this internet cafe, but basically her muscles need to be woven/knit back together. the hope is that she can get surgery and return in a few months, but not sure...please pray for her tons and if you`d like her address to send a note of encouragement, just holler and I`ll email it.

love you all TONS and hope you have a beautiful week!! I`ve never been so exhausted, yet so incredibly happy!!!!!!











Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Week 35


Happy New Year!! Crazy how time flieeeees. All the streets had yellow, red, and green decorations up. Yellow for luck, red for love, and green for money. We had to return to our room after dinner, cause the streets were CRAZY, but it was pretty fun. I treated my companion to a pedicure-used the nail polish from my package! her ankle may be still swollen, but at least her toenails are cute! we celebrated a little with our landlords and their family. Paneton and coca-cola! and I bought kernels to make some yummy popcorn. Their kids are really good singers, so they put on a little show for us:) were woken up at midnight by all the celebrating outside and saw some fireworks. 
 
 
Her ankle´s still not fully healed and its been almost 2 weeks since its happened. We saw President Marler on Thursday for interviews and he said to just take more taxis, so her ankle gets a little break. Reaaally hoping to get to the clinic for a x-ray. ahhhhh I miss running in the morning:( 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week, I started it my 1st full day at the MTC and its been absolutely  incredible to read it as a missionary and gain insights about this work of Salvation through all the chapters. Our mission´s reading it together, 5 pages a day that started on Christmas-so I started it again this week too. I KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true and the word of God, I always feel the spirit when I read it and enjoy coming to know and appreciate my Savior more everyday. Its so incredible. 

I earned my Young Women Bee!! But don´t actually have it yet, Hna. Marler is having her daughter send it from the states and it takes about 3 weeks for it to get here...but I´m excited! I´ll send pictures with it when it comes:)
 
It was kinda funny, on our way to our pensoniesta´s house for dinner, I saw an old lady carrying a bucket of cheese and offered to help. But she thought that I wanted to buy some, haha then I said that we could help her carry it. So we started walking with her, thinking that we´d be headed to her house or something to sell it. but no...she was en route to take it to a few different stores to sell it...haha and she was super nice and insisted that we took one of the wrapped rounds of cheese since we helped for a few minutes. 
 
We visited the YW president last night and she reminded me a lot of mom when she was talking about her son and all she´s done for so many years to make sure that he always had clean and ironed clothes and shoes to use for church. I´m thankful for all the may sacrifices that you´ve made all these years for us! Your an incredible mother with incredible faith:) 

and there was the cutest old little Peruvian lady in a hot pink blazer that gave such a pure testimony yesterday morning, she reminded me of Aunt Elizabeth. I love fast and testimony meeting! and the fact that the schedule changed so that now we have sacrament meeting at 10 instead of 8 has been beautiful.

Luis Galvez is doing really well!! His baptism is this Friday & his sister wants to make and bring tamales for after. haha. it was so perfect, we taught about keeping the sabbath day holy and he was saying that it would be really hard cause he needs to send his daughter money for school and is about 150 soles short, so it would be really hard to not work on Sundays. and yesterday, the lesson in priesthood was keeping the sabbath day too and helped answer some of the questions that he had when we had taught it, like why its Sunday and not Saturday. and right after the hour when he was getting in his taxi to go home, his taxi wouldn´t start. gotta be obedient to God´s commandments! Oh and it was HILARIOUS!! we were turning on the street where Luis lives and we saw about 4 groups of Jehovah´s witnesses knocking on his street and one group was at his door, talking to him. haha awkkkward...we visited Eduardo while we were waiting. too good! people confuse us all the time with their missionaries.

Jose and Eduardo are both doing really well, visiting ém and members have been great friends to each. Lots of less-actives have been returning to church and its amazing to see the fruits of our labors:) 

Something I´ve been thinking about for awhile is the concept of weak helping the weak. I don´t know a LOT about the gospel, but I know enough and with the Spirit, can teach others about the love that God has for them and how they can feel his love and protection in their lives. and others lift me up when I need a word of encouragement or hope. We´re all struggling, humble children of God that can be strengthened through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.