Week 42

A wonderful and super sunny week! Here´s how everyone´s doing:

 

Luz is moving this week, so we´re loosing her as an investigator:( 

We visited Cesar this week, but he wasn´t feeling well and couldn´t make it to church. 

Henry´s baptism date has been postponed again cause he didn´t come to church yesterday:( we visited yesterday about how he needs to take this a little more seriously. 

Gloria, Flavia, Cristina, and Tula (less-actives) are all doing well and coming to church again! 

 

had an awesome alzar la voz en la campiña, our district leader´s area. we taught a recent convert and her mom with 2 members from the ward that accompanied us. gave service in the house and got some lucuma down from the trees. its a sweet fruit that they make marcianos and cremoladas with.their area is so beautiful! I worked with Hna. Martinez from Chile. 

 

Us 4 hermanas visited a bunch of members and less-actives this week so the members in my area can know the other companionship too. Also, us with the 2 elders that work in the office made plans to visit each leader from each aux. organization to get to know each a little better and see how we can more effectively serve each. There was a lot of contention in ward council this week with activities that we want to plan, so hoping that if we visit and get to know each, we´ll be able to be more united and work together. 

I´m so grateful that its P-day!!! I threw up a few times last night and at 2am this morning, so I´ll be getting some much-needed rest today. My district leader´s going to give me a health blessing after we finish emailing. Oh man I haven´t felt this out of it in a really long time and I don´t know why, but I think I´ll feel much better tomorrow. I had a really strong headache yesterday and took medicine with a little bit of bread at our landlord´s house when I started to get super dizzy and nauseated. Then my face started to sweat and I felt like I was going to vomit. Hno, Roger went out to buy chocolate and juice cause they were talking about how pale my face was and that sugar helps elevate blood pressure, when I threw up in their family room. I felt so bad! aaaall over their pillow and floor. and my pajamas. classic. Hna. Blanca and my companion were so nice and helpful while I showered. and then this morning I felt the same and threw up again. not really sure why...we ate pappa rellna last night and I put a lot of ahi on it. and there´s this Peruvian culture idea that when someone talks really strong to you, your body feels the bad energy or spirit or something. yesterday our current pensoniesta talked kinda strong and direct with us about why we were changing and my companion thinks thats why my body freaked out last night. I don´t know if I buy it, but either way-I felt awful. our future pensoniesta that we´ll be going to the 1st of march has been such an angel. she made us breakfast this morning, but I still don´t feel well enough to eat anything. and my companion studied nursing before her mission, so that's been a huge tender mercy too! 

Time is absolutely flying by and its crazy to think of how quickly transfers are coming up! Its sad to be planning out the last week that my companion has on her mission. I don´t want her to go! oh man i never want to be released from my calling to be serving as a full-time missionary. I never want to leave this incredible people of Peru, they mean everything to me. I never want to come home, which is why I always try to enjoy everyday and live it to the fullest cause I know whether I like it or not-this greatest adventure has an ending. that's my 2 cents, make the most of every situation and just be happy. 

The gospel is the pathway to that happiness. It´s how we can progress: forgive and move on. Jesus Christ has already paid the price, there´s no need to suffer. Through repentance, we can be made clean and be more like the Savior. I´m so grateful for this infinite atonement that allows us to progress and change. I love my Heavenly Father and the joy that His love brings to my life. I love you all tons and hope you know how thankful I am for everything:all your support, prayers, thoughts, encouragement, and love. take care and have a delightful week!!!

PAZ Y AMOR

Week 41

buenas tardes! another great week here in Monserrate 2:) here´s how everyone´s doing:

 

Luz. a cousin of a less-active that we've been visiting. has LOADS of questions and is pretty receptive, but wasn't able to make it to church yesterday. the new representative of YSA is awesome and she picked up Luz for a dance that they had this week. We have a FHE with her tonight, so we´ll see how that goes! 

Edingson. he´s a boyfriend of a member that we have been visiting who doesn't think that God has a body, that he´s just a spirit. so working on the trinity...got kinda contentious and he walked out of the lesson. 1st time that's ever happened to me. praying that his heart will be softened and opened to learning more about the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

Henry. Doing good, making sure that the desire to be baptized is really his own, cause his dad is SUPER excited about it and a strong influence, but we wanna make sure that its Henry who is truly progressing in the gospel and that he´ll be ready to make this covenant on the 28th. 

Eduardo, Luis, and Jose. All doing awesome! Jose accompanied us this week and Luis gave us pollo a la brasa Y papas fritas the other day. Taught Eduardo about humility cause he´s been a little punky and prideful lately. 

Dia de Amistad was pretty fun! among the 4 hermanas, we did a secret gift exchange where we all picked a name. Hna. Martinez from Chile gave me some yummy chocolates, balloon, and rad pair of earrings. Lots of people weren´t home, but that's alright. we were able to help Hna. Rosalia in the afternoon. 

 

We´ve been looking through people that have been contacted awhile ago by other missionaries and were able to meet Cesar! he´s awesome, has a heart of gold and a desire to learn more about God. It was perfect, we met him a few hours before an activity that we had planned with our district in la campina that we were able to invite him and it went great! 

Sitting around the campfire, each of us hermanas bore our testimony and Jose did too! there was a special spirit that all could feel and afterwards we played games with the group of investigators, members, recent converts, and missionaries. it was a wonderful activity! 

 

Yesterday, a new ward mission leader was called so we´ll see how that changes our efforts to involve the members as much as possible! 

This week we have service to mi querida hermanita Oracia and will do some more de-junking and serious cleaning tomorrow! she has such a heart of gold and is always serving others that her own little casa has gotten a tad disorderly. holy cow, she has collected so much stuff over the years! Its been great fun to help her out and clean up! we´re getting other members to help us out too, more the merrier! 

I´m doing really good, working hard to find new investigators that can progress and enjoy all the blessings of this wonderful gospel. Thank you for all of your daily prayers and support. Always remember that Heavenly Father loves you and I do too! When times get challenging, keep in mind its God shaping you into who He needs you to be. We have great potential that sometimes we cannot see or recognize, which is why we need to constantly trust Him. This atonement is incredible and is what allows us to improve and progress daily. Jesus Christ is our advocate with the Father and the perfect example to follow. Hope all is well, I always pray for you all and hope all is well!! 

Week 40 Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

yeah..so I don´t know what happened yesterday, but the email that I was working on somehow didn´t send and tampoco got saved in drafts:(

had a wonderful week! 

1st, CONRATS mom on finishing your personal progress!!! how wonderful:) and now you can help the other young women work on earning their medallion too! I wear mine tons and its a great reminder of all the goals and projects that I completed in order to earn it and the testimony that grew all along the way. 

how awesome that AJ´s getting baptized! make sure he gets super involved with the YSA, its really hard to be a recent convert, when all of your friends don´t understand your decision at first. 

Last pday we all ate lunch as a district at this restaurant off avenida espana and my companion and I both woke up in the middle of the night super sick. took some good meds, disgusting electrolyte drink stuff, and 4 days of frequent bathroom trips to bounce back. oh man it was bad. stomach´s a little better these days:)

Got a jackpot with the mail this week, thank you so much for everything! I need to organize a service project with Prez for all the dental hygiene things.

Bishop had us over to make tacos and pizza and it was oh so wonderful. I miss Mexican food so much! Chipotle, Cafe Rio, Red Iguana, basically just guacamole and tortillas in general. it was so perfect!! 

Yesterday, there were a TON of people at church!! it was the first time that i saw the overflow open since stake conference. a lot of the aux. organizations have been re-organized with new leaders and i love their energy for this work of salvation! esp. the relief society! they have some awesome activities planned and its incredible to see them come together:) 

Today we went to the museo de huaca and sol! walked loooots and the sun was really strong. I love the history of moche and its awesome to see all the little crafts and things that they had on display. 

I reached my half-way point this week! 9 meses el la mision! i´ve already grown and changed so much. had so many incredible experiences that I will never ever forget. people that have completely changed my life and i just KNOW that i needed to meet them. I am so incredibly grateful for my mission. yeah-its way hard and sometimes i get overwhelmed and frustrated, but I´ve also had some of the sweetest memories and experiences in all my life. happy 9 more months of moments that will forever change my life and lives of others too. the lovely and super trunky hna. semorile wrote me a nice note and left my favorite chocolate bon o bon on my pillow:) also our awesome landlord family made cRePES!! ahh they were perfect with manjar blanco and fried bananas. favorite food ever. I love hna. blanca and hno. roger! we´re thinking of changing pensoniestas since it would save a TON of time!

Gloria & stefanie. gloria is less-active, but has been coming to church a lot more lately! Stefanie is her 21 year old daughter that we´ve been teaching about the Book of Mormon. they both came to sacrament meeting and Gloria came with us to a family home evening that we had last night. she´s learning English, so I helped her a little bit with her pronunciation this week. 

Jose. still rock star recent convert! started back up with his classes this week and we´re so grateful for the strong testimony he shares to the lessons that he accompanies us. 

Henry. Pablo calderon, recent convert,´s son. he had the baptism date of Feb 15th, but needs more time. interested and learning just at a little bit of a slower pace. 

Julito. super cute 9 year old that I´ve been teaching for ages. the ward had a paseo and he went and had an awesome time! already has lots of friends in the primary, super receptive and we´ve been reading the Book of Mormon super slowly so he´ll understand it. love Julio, reminds me of grant!

Had a super awesome experience with a woman named Jannet that we felt impressed to talk with and share the plan of salvation, justo her husband passed away 15 days ago.

We´ve been working really hard as a team, so we can find new investigators! love you all and hope all is well! feliz dia de amistad! love you all tons! xoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Week 40

There was this one time when we all ate lunch together at this somewhat sketchy restaurant and got food poisoning. 4 days of frequent bathroom visits. #stomachwreckinghavock

Week 39

Guess who`s leading our huge area of Monserrate 2 in Trujillo, Peru with my new companion?!? yours truly:) haha its been a crazy challenging, but wonderful week!!  So much has happened, I don`t even know where to start.

Monday we ran around like crazy saying goodbye to everyone. Made cool earrings with Jose, a bunch of family home evenings, and pizza with a local chef. LOVE the Felipe family!! It didn`t really hit me that she was headed off to Esperanza and that I`d be continuing to serve in the area with a new companion until we prayed to leave for cambios and the chapel and it hit me. We experienced a TON together and it was bittersweet to say goodbye.

I have to tell you something really special about these cambios. On Tuesday morning, when the herd of missionaries were at the stake center to pick up/drop off companions, hna. marler took me aside. She said that very rarely she puts input with cambios, but felt really strongly to talk with President Marler. When president Marler put our pictures together on the huge board of all the missionaries, it felt right. the Holy Ghost verified that we needed to be companions. Hna. Marler told me about what an incredible missionary Hna. Semorile is and that she has a wonderful way of teaching the gospel. aaaaand also President wants me to be training a new missionary next transfer....ahh one thing at a time as dad always says:) 

With that being said...My new companion is Hna. Semorile from Lima. She`s on her very last transfer, I`m her last companion:) I`m already really thankful to be able to learn a TON from her. She has an incredible way of teaching the gospel and super willing to help me with Spanish.  We started reading el libro de mormon juntas & its helped with my pronunciation. Learning a lot everyday about how I can be a more effective preach my gospel missionary. I love her energy, humor, and love!! 

Here`s how everyone`s doing:

Vanessa & Jose. want to start a business-store or something to earn money to pay for a wedding. they have a cajillion family members that would want to come and its gonna cost a lot:( so...waiting for them to have a better income to get married to get baptized...waiting game:) 

Julio, little 9 year old that I`ve been teaching for months finally came with us to church yesterday!! It took awhile to get the mom`s trust:) he loved the primary and already has lots of friends! 

Flavia. we took her to a RS activity that they had and she loved it! her and another less-active came to all 3 hours of church together, wahoo!!!

Found 2 new investigators this week, an answer to many of my prayers and fast!! 

We had a really fun ward activity and continuing to work better and better with our ward council and leaders!

My poor companion had a fever this week, so I arranged splits with hna. marnit and hna. fidencia. 

love you all tons and hope all is well! sorry I `ll write more next time. always short on time yo.