Week 76 (December 18, 2017)
Hey guuuuuyyss! It's me again! This week was pretty slow! But we did have one miracle.
We received a new goal from President of 9 New Investigators every week. That's a lot haha. He wants us to boost our finding efforts and do even more than we have been doing. So we went into the week just so excited to find some people. And we found absolutely no one... All week long we were contacting and talking to people. We did everything we could. But every single appointment we set was a lie. So we were a little dishearted, but we kept on working and smiling and doing the Lord´s work.
And then on Saturday, we had our miracle. We thought we should go and talk to a family in the chakras that we contacted, at around 4:30 pm. So we went, and didn´t find them, but instead, we found one of the daughters we had never met. Her name is Edith. We asked if she had some time and she said yes. So we talked. And we taught her the restoration. We invited her to pray and she agreed. So she told us we could go back at 8:30 the next morning.
Cool.
So we went back, and we asked her how her prayer went. At first, she didn´t want to say anything. But then commented after a few more questions, "I felt like a relief being taken off my shoulders, what was that that I felt."
HOLY SMOKES. So we explained that it was the Holy Ghost and that He had spoken to her heart. We explained that to understand what she had to do now that she had to read the Book of Mormon. She had to pray about it. And then she had to follow it based on the answer she would receive. Wow.
We contacted Edith, taught her, she received her answer and we verified in all less than 24 hours.
That was our little miracle for the week.
I´ve come to realize here that if we want to have success in life, we cannot get discouraged. We cannot stop doing the Lord´s work. Because our work will always fail. But the Lord´s work never fails.
I was reading in Mosiah 4 this week. And I came across something I loved. I read in verses 11 and 12. And I received an answer to my prayer. Lately, I´ve felt very sad. I couldn´t figure out why. But King Benjamin tells us that if we want to "always rejoice" There are things that we have to do. And I had stopped doing those things. If you want to know what those things are. Go read Mosiah 4:11-12.
I love you all so much! Have the best week of your entire lives!!
Week 75 (December 11, 2017)
Well, this week was a good one. We are working hard and finding some new people to teach and we´re seeing God´s hand in our lives.
Monday- We practiced a dance we´re going to do for our mission Christmas party. It's going to be hilarious, I´ll send it on Christmas(:
Tuesday- We had our district meetings and I studies with my greenie for a while. We have to study a lot when they´re still in training. It's fun to go over all the stuff that I´ve learned in my mission to be able to help him out too.
Wednesdays- On Wednesday we went and visited a little old lady named Margarita. Margarita can´t walk and she just sits in her house all day long, so we take a little while every other day to go and talk with her so she doesn´t feel lonely. It's fun to do that service and help her feel the love of God. She´s not a member but her kids are so maybe she´ll get baptized????
Thursday- On Thursday it was kind of a slow day. We only had 1 lesson all day, but that 1 lesson was awesome because we had it with a few girls who we have been teaching English to in our weekly English classes Ruth, Gladyss, and Yovana. I got to explain the restoration in English and that was so weird. It was like learning how to teach all over again.
Friday- OUR DAY ON FRIDAY WAS PACKED. We had appointments every half hour all day long. And only 3 failed us. It's A MIRACLE. No, but seriously when an appointment doesn´t fail its a miracle here lol. We´re trying to help our investigators understand more completely that our purpose is for them to make covenants with God. Because a lot of people here just think that missionaries come just to be friends or just to talk about "the word".
Saturday- We spent a long time studying and talking about how we can teach better our lessons. We had some good lessons and that was that.
Sunday- We were practicing for a stake music program in the church and the time got away from us and we missed one of our appointments. I was kind of frustrated, but as soon as we were heading for the door an atheist investigator walked into the church building and told us that he wanted to talk. They were going to close the church so we took him to our house and he told us he was going through a break up lol. So he felt discouraged. So we read alma 7 with him and it was awesome. We told him to pray, and he agreed. Maybe it's his time???
This week was a good week! I'm loving the mission and I'm learning so much. IM SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS CHURCH.
I love you all so much! See you next week!
Week 74 (December 4, 2017)
Welllllll another week has come and gone. time is flying. I have my son now. He´s so young and innocent. It's going to be a good few changes.
Elder Mueras
Well, my son´s name in English is literally "kill yourself". People make fun of him all the time for that one. Elder Mueras is from Lima, Perú. He is a fresh 18-year-old kid. Ambitious for the work and likes to contact everyone, but doesn´t know how to do so I end up doing it haha. It´s a good time. He was born into
the church and never went inactive so like us kids from Utah he doesn´t know a lot of things when they get to the mission. It's been fun to help him and see him start to figure stuff out.
Monday- It was my birthday, so we went to 2 FHE´s and they all threw eggs on my head and smashed my face into the cake.
Tuesday- I dropped E´Pabon off at the terminal and he left. Then later I spent the whole day with E´Bolduc. If you don´t remember E´Bolduc I was with him in Puno and we became like best friends so it was a fun day.
Wednesday- I traveled to Cusco to pick up my son!!! We had a ton of trainings for the greenies and I fell asleep. But then we went and told people about the #LighttheWorld thing that the church is doing and handed out cards in the Plaza de Armas in Cusco.
Thursday- We traveled back to Cusco and we got right to work. We visited a few people and it rained and at the end of the day, my comp was in shock. We had a good conversation about how to get through the mission.
Friday- We had absolutely nothing on Friday. We contacted for a while and got rejected by everyone. But as we got farther and farther down the street I heard something tell me to turn around and go back. So as I´ve learned on my mission I obeyed. And I noticed that there was a house that we had missed. So we knocked the door. And waited for a while. But finally, someone came out. IT was young women named Danitza. She was willing to listen to us so we talked for a while. She told us we could go back so we set an appointment for this week. Maybe we´ll see a miracle there??
Saturday- Even less happened today.
Sunday- We went to church and my son got to meet all the members and it was good for him to feel the support of the members and know that he has a family here. I realized how important members really are as missionaries in that moment. They aren´t just tools we use to teach with. But they´re really family for us here.
Well, thats been my week. Its been a good one. And to be honest I haven´t had time to study anything this week so I´ll go all preachy next week. LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.
Week 73 (November 27, 2017)
Well, today are the transfers! I´ve officially been in Sicuani for 3 months. Its gone by way fast, but its been full of challenges! My companion E´Pabon is leaving for Abancay, and as for me...... IM TRAINING. So excited to get a missionary who has energy to just go and get stuff done. I need it haha.
To be honest, the week wasn´t too exciting but there were a few things that were awesome!!
FHE with Ruben:
Ruben is an eternal investigator of the other Elders in my ward, but he likes us better so he invited us to have a FHE with him and his family! It was fun, we showed a video and talked about how the spirit works with us. Then we played a game and ate Panetón. (Its Christmas when there's Panetón)
Noche Misional:
This was a GREAT noche misional! We talked about the Book of Mormon and to do it we played games to reenact the Book of Mormon.
1) Nephi gets tied up by his brothers, so we played Tug of war. (genius)
2) We talked about how the prophets passed down the plates from generation to generation, so we played a game where people had to memorize a sentence and run to different stations and repeat what they heard.
3) We talked about the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites, so we played Dodgeball (they don't play that here)
4) And to finish all up, we talked about how Moroni hid up the plates and how Joseph Smith found them and now we all have to find the truth. So we hid 3 chocolates around the church and they had to find them. The chocolates had the scriptures Moroni 10: 3-5 on them. So cool.
Zapatitos Brillantes:
I didn´t take pictures of this one, But we shined shoes at one of the chapels in Sicuani. We contacted a lot of people!
Also my man Jorge is coming to church every week. He has been such a miracle for us. He wants to get baptized but he´s waiting for his answer for the Book of Mormon. PRAY FOR JORGE.
That's been my fun week! I love you all and You should all go read 3 Nephi 1-10.
Week 72 (November 20, 2017)
HIIIIII guys. This week was a good one!
Tuesday- We didn`t have a lot, taught Jenifer (15) and Joel (11). Jenifer doesn`t have a lot of time to follow through with her commitments. At least that what she told us. Joel is just a kid and he can`t progress without the help of his parents so we`re at a standstill with him. But it was a good day!
Wednesday- Today was great, we had a bunch of appointments, but the most important was with Jorge. This guy is so ready to get baptized. He just hasn`t received his answer yet. So we taught Lesson 1 the Restoration. SO SPIRITUAL. I know he felt it. At the end of the lesson, he shared with us that God was giving him another opportunity to accept the gospel. Because he refused it before. He`s realizing a lot of things!!
Thursday- I went on Divisions with Elder Austin. We talked English all day long and it was awesome.
Friday- We helped one of our investigators sew. He has a shop where he makes cultural dance clothes and that's like big business here. They love dancing. So we helped sew a few things and it was sweet. He`s making mariachi suits. Later that night we had a FHE with the ward secretary and he gave us... 13 REFERRALS. it was awesome. This week we are going to be contacting all of them.
Saturday- We had a bunch of baptisms to attend in the zone so we didn`t get to work. But it was a good spiritual day.
Sunday- We had an appointment with our investigator Maria Consuelo. She is a referral from our ward mission leader. And she is awesome. We had a lesson with them and it was ok. We taught and she kind of listened. But we had her end with the prayer and we were expecting a normal prayer, the basics. But we were so wrong. She broke down in the middle of the prayer and the spirit came in so fast. Wow. I hope she felt what I felt in the moment. I could feel God´s love for her. So we invited her to get baptized on December 23rd. And she accepted. SO COOL.
Today- IM IN CUSCO. We got invited to the Misión Cusco turkey bowl. So fun. It was really hectic because the Latins had no idea what they were doing. But it was still fun!
If there`s anything I could add, it would be a challenge. If you read this letter to this point thank you haha. I want to invite you to go and serve someone this week. And just look to feel the love of God for the person you serve. Then you will feel the love of God for you. The key to happiness is found in reaching out to others and working for something bigger than yourself.
"You don`t have to be larger than life to be a hero, you only have to be larger than yourself." -Mitt Romney
Love you all. Perdon the Romney quote, but I liked it lol.
Week 71 (November 13, 2017)
Well, I have absolutely 0 time to write an email so I´ll just write about an experience we had this week.
We´re teaching an investigator named Patricia who is 14 years old. Her whole family is Catholic and when I say Catholic I mean very Catholic. So the dad isn´t really open. But Patricia is. We gave a Book of Mormon to read and invited her to read it. We came back a few days later and we asked her if she did it. She did, and she received an answer! She told us, "When I read and prayed, I felt something really special in my chest. Like it was too big for me. I believe your church is the true church."
Miracles are very real.
On Saturday we had a talent night in the stake, but it was a really crappy talent show hahaha. It was still good fun! 3 of our investigators came and they got to know the church a little bit better!
Today we visited some tourist stuff. Always fun to be a tourist in Cusco.
Love you all! Go read Helaman 10
