Well we went to internet right off the bat, so Hna Kingsford could read all the Birthday wishes from everyone! After that, we met up with all the people in the district. (Elder Salas, Elder Cardoso, Hna Mariano, and Hna Cruz) We went to the Super (the grocery store in Pimentel) to buy all our ingredients to make tacos mexicanas. When we finally got all of it, we went back to our pension to make them. It took forever to make them, but in the middle of us making the tacos, Edilver showed up with a huge cake to celebrate Hna Kingsford's Birthday. We all ate lunch together, sang Happy Birthday and then shoved Hna Kingsford's face into the cake and then ate the yummy cake.
 |
| Hna Kingsford, Hna Cruz, Elder Cardoso, Me, Hna Mariano, Elder Salas |
 |
| Edilver, Hna Kingsford, and Me with the beautiful cake he brought |
 |
| Lucy, my pensionista with Hna Kingsford |
After we finished eating, we got into a big circle and played keep away with the dog. It was lots of fun! Then we said goodbye to everyone and went shopping because we needed more snacks. Then we went to these little shops of hand made crafts in the park, I bought Hna Kingsford 2 pairs of earrings and a cool wallet. (I bought myself a wallet, too) Then we went to the beach, and the place where we went had grass!! So we sat in the grass, drew pictures, read our books and ate our snacks! I've really missed being able to relax in grass! It was the best P-Day ever!
At 6:00 pm, we went out to teach, but no one was home. Edilbuer met up with us at 7:00 pm and we ended up finding a cool family to teach- Pedro Antonio (24 yrs) and his mom, Imeida. After that, it was late, so we headed back to our pension. Before we went upstairs, Edilbuer said, "I want to dedicate my life to God. I am praying everyday for the success of you both and the work of missionaries in general. I also ask for guidance for myself to share the word of God with all!" He is so awesome!! I can't wait until he is a member.
For dinner, we celebrated Hna Kingsford's Birthday. We had chifles (dried/fried bananas), shrimp flavored chips, broccoli, carrots, anis (tea) and tres leches cake! We celebrated with the whole family, including Tonio.
 |
| Lucy, Hna Kingsford, Tonio, and me |
 |
| Hna Kingsford with her Tres Leches Cake and wearing new earrings! |
After we ate cake, Tonio wanted us to eat chicken foot soup. I said that I would eat the soup part, but NOT the foot....so I ate the soup, and Hna Kingsford ate the nasty foot!! haha It was so grose!
All day and night, our phone was ringing off the hook because EVERYONE was wishing Hna Kingsford Happy Birthday. It was a fun day!!
Martes, 16 de Setiembre del 2014
We had a district meeting in Monsefu and Elder Salas kept making faces at me so I kept laughing, but no one knew why. Trouble maker! haha We left the meeting and went straight to lunch. (meat, rice with peas, and spinach soup -so yummy!) After lunch, we went and taught Martin and Carlitos. It was awesome to actually sit down with them and teach a real lesson. We talked about baptismal covenants and the importance of renewing those covenants each week by partaking of the Sacrament. During the lesson, Carlitos stopped us and said, "I trust you two, and I am grateful you have brought this happiness back into my life." At the end of our lesson, Carlitos said, "My door and heart are always open for you." So sweet.
After a couple other lessons, we contacted moto drivers because we like to teach families, and moto drivers always have families! :) A bunch of them want to come to church on Sunday, so that's exciting!
Then we contacted a couple of men who own restaurants, because I needed to use the bathroom! One of them had a real interest and said that he would come to see us at church!! yay!
Then we went to the park to have our lesson with Miguel. (the marine from the beach), but when we got there, he called to let us know that he had to take someone's shift at work, so he couldn't meet with us today. :( So we went and met up with Edilbuer and headed to Fonavi for an activity (noche Misional) at the house of Marieta y Carlos. We had 2 investigadores there: Edilbuer y Lucido. They are both amazing! We watched a video about the Plan of God and after they both shared their thoughts about the video. They talked about their feelings of knowing that they are children of God, and the importance of following God in all things.
At the end of the discussion, we had popcorn and pina juice. We started throwing the popcorn at each other, to try and catch it in our mouths and I caught every single one!! Everyone was so impressed!
After the activity, we headed back to Pimentel and sent Edilbuer on his way home and we ate dinner. Then we went home and planned and got ready for bed, because we were so exhausted.
Miercoles, 17 de Setiembre del 2014
We made our sign for the activity we are going to have soon. The sign says, "Quien somos?" (Who are we?) It's super cute. haha After that, we went to lunch. (pasta with parmesan cheese and meat) It was really good.
After lunch, we went out teaching, and we found a new family. They are really humble and loving. Their names are Jimmy, his wife Giannina and their kids Jordin (12), Abigail (10), Aaron (8) and Ebner (3). They want us to visit them twice a week.
Then we headed to Youleidy and her mom Liliana. We taught about baptism and we invited her to get baptized and she said, no because she has already been been baptized and married in the Catholic church, so she can't. We then explained that her baptism wasn't valid, so she can be baptized again and that is when she said, "Even if I wanted to, I can't, because I am married in the church, so I have to stay Catholic." My heart broke and I now have different opinions about the Catholic church, because it seems like they "trap" people into their church.
After her lesson, we contacted and helped a lady shovel some dirt. We looked so good in our skirts in the wind shoveling...very professional. :)
After that, we went to ward council, and left early because we had a lesson with Edilver (I've been spelling his name wrong all this time...awkward...so anywhere where I wrote Edibuer, or Edilbuer, it is really Edilver!) Heehee We met up with him in the park and while we waited for him, I contacted this guy on the bench. He was really cool. He doesn't actually live here in Pimentel, but he works here a lot, so he said that we could call him and teach him some more. Then Edilver showed up, so we headed to Lucy's house to teach him. We taught him about the Ten Commandments. We also talked about his life and hardships. We gave him a little notebook with some of our favorite scriptures written in it, so he can have them and have the notebook to write down his favorites, too. After the lesson, we gave him a bag of apples and crackers, because he has nothing. He doesn't know that we know, but we do.
We went home to our cuarto feeling relieved that tonight he would have food. It breaks my heart, that most people here live day by day, and most of the time, they have nothing. :(
Jueves, 18 de Setiembre del 2014
The zone leaders came to drop off new agendas for us. They are great guys, and they both go home soon. Elder Chavez leaves in 4 months and Elder Smith leaves in 6 months. Crazy. After they left, we went to the house of Jimmy and Giannina to eat masamora (jelly dessert), but they ended up feeding us lunch, too. (pasta with meat, rice, fried fish, masamora and we drank chicha marda) It was all really yummy! Jimmy said that his little son Ebner (3 yrs) wouldn't stop talking about me after we left yesterday. He said, "Daddy, she is so pretty. She is funny." How cute is that?
After we ate and chatted, we left and went to Fonavi. As we were walking to our first cita, a huge gust of wind blew sand in my eyes, and right as I was about to complain, I heard a man's voice speak English, saying, "Got dirt in your eyes?" I immediately responded, "Yes" and then I thought to myself as I looked at the man talking to me, "That is a random line to know in English...it's usually hello, good morning or good night"....so I turned to him and asked him in Spanish, "Do you speak English?" and in a really sassy tone he says, "What does it sound like I'm speaking?" I was super surprised and excited, so I just started talking to him. He lived in California for 18 years when he got into trouble with the law and got deported back to Peru. (He was 1 1/2 years old when he moved to the states.) So now he is here in Peru working as a driver of a combi with a desire to live in the states again. He is cool, but he doesn't live in Pimentel or Fonavi....he lives an hour away. Oh well. After talking to him for a bit, we left and talked with a woman named Juana about when we could teach her and her husband Jose. So we set up a cita with her, and then headed to our cita with Lucido. We talked about the importance of going to church. He understands and knows he needs to go to church every Sunday. We also talked about bautismo and he still wants to be baptized. He is so cool and super funny.
Then we had a lesson with Marco Leyton and Clara. After the lesson, we chatted for a bit and looked at their childhood pictures and they really want to see pictures of me as a baby and a child. (send me some pictures please :) I get along great with them, and they really want to visit Utah and want me to come and visit them when I come back to Peru. I love them.
We headed back to Pimentel for a lesson with a member named Gaby and her non member husband. We watched the Mormon message from Thomas S. Monson, "Do what is right, even if you are the only one." It is really good. They really liked it.
Then we went to the park to teach Miguel, but he didn't show up, so we ended up calling Edilver and we went to the Malecon (beach walk) to teach him the Word of Wisdom. He was hesitant at first, but after teaching, all he said was that he wants to follow God, so if he has to not drink coffee, then he will stop. He said, "I'll do it for God." It was such a great thing to hear him say that he will do it. I love that he wants to change his life and live the way God commands.
We walked to our pension and said goodbye to him and went to dinner. (beets, rice, potatoes with spicy chicken sauce on top) It was really yummy. After dinner, we came home and planned and got ready for bed.
Viernes, 19 de Setiembre del 2014
We had a successful weekly planning. After planning, we went to lunch. (lentes-lentils, rice, and chicken) Lucy put aji (hot sauce) in my lentils, and when I got done eating, she asked me if my food "bit" me and I said, no, why? And she just started laughing and told me that she loves that I don't feel the aji. haha
After lunch, we headed to Fonavi. We met up with Gaby and she introduced us to a friend named Mary. Mary has 3 children (ages 22, 21 and 5). After the lesson, Mary offered the prayer and she prayed that we would come back often to teach her of Christ and God. Awesome!
Then we picked up Daniel and went and taught Lucido the Law of Chastity. It went well. We used the For Strength of Youth booklet and he understood it all and Daniel was able to talk about what has helped him keep the Law of Chastity as a man. After the lesson, we were all talking when Cristian Tello showed up to get Lucido to go to an activity for the "single's ward", and he and Daniel asked us if we were ready for our talks on Sunday....we said, "We are speaking?" and they said, "Yes!" I didn't believe them, but when Daniel said, "I'll call Pres. Arroyo if you want?" and that's when I believed it...so now...I'm speaking in sacrament meeting again! After we discussed what we are speaking on (obra misional), we looked at Daniel's quarter collection. He has every quarter from the U.S. except for Hawaii and Georgia. If you find these quarters, please send them to me, so I can give them to him. :) I almost stole his Texas quarter for my mommy's Texas quarter collection, but I decided to let him keep it. :)
We headed back to Pimentel and taught Edilver at the house of Lucy. We taught about the fall of Adam and Eve and read the story from the Bible. After we discussed it, he shared a dream he had. It was very similar to the dream of Lehi and the Tree of Life. So we read that story and after I invited him to baptism, for the 4th of October, and he said, "I need to ask God, but I want to get baptized, so yes!" I was so happy because he is so ready to make this covenant. Right after this conversation, he told me that he didn't drink coffee today! He is really trying to change. And right at that moment, Lucy invited him to dinner! Which was exactly what needed to happen, because otherwise, he wasn't going to have dinner tonight. :( But he got to have dinner! Lucy is a great friend to him now. After dinner, he told us that we are his best friends (mejor amigas) and that he is going to be sad when we leave.
We planned, got ready for bed and did our stretches because our body's were tense. haha
Sabado, 20 de Setiembre del 2014
This morning, Hna Kingsford felt a little sick, so we rested until it was time for lunch. We went to a member's house (Familia Monja). Hna Monja is the Relief Society President and she reminds me a lot of Nana. :) haha A Peruana Nana...Awesome! After lunch, we went out teaching and while Hna Kingsford was buying ice cream from a man on a bike, I started contacting a group of construction workers. They are really cool guys and they want to learn more about the gospel, and the convenient thing is that their day off is Sunday! Meaning they can come to church, and they all live really close to the church, too!
Later we went to the Malecon (beach walk) to contact. We contacted 2 people. First one was a die hard Catholic who believes some crazy stuff and he wouldn't let us talk, so in the end, we just gave him a pamphlet to read on his break. He actually started reading it right after we walked away, and when we walked back in his direction, he held up the pamphlet and just shook his head. haha
The second guy was an agonostic- scientific man. He had no opinions about anything. He just said, "Could be" to EVERYTHING! After we got done talking to him, we met up with Ricardo. We taught him about the Restoration. He said that he believes it and wants to pray about it. He is the cool combi driver I met on the 5th of Setiembre. He lives with his girlfriend and their two kids. One is 8 years old and the other is 4 months old. His "wife" and kids are out of town so we only taught him, and we taught him right there on the side of the road on the curb. He wanted to see both of us, so he sat out in the road. :) Surprisingly, the spirit was really strong and we taught all of Lesson 1!
Domingo, 21 de Setiembre del 2014
We had 5 investigators at church today! (Edilver, Lucido, Mayra (Lucy's daughter), Ivan (Gaby's husband) and Kade ("husband" of Karla- a member of the church). I gave my talk and when I sat back down by Edilver and Lucido, they both told me they loved my talk, and then Lucido said something that was really heartfelt, but completely rude. He said, "Hermana Dodson, I will help you pronounce those words you can't." Haha It meant a lot to me, but it was a punch in the face. :)
After church, Daniel wanted to take a picture of Lucido, Eldiver, Mayra, Me, Hna Kingsford and himself in front of the church.
Then we headed to lunch in Fonavi with familia Cachay. They have a huge family. We ate ceviche de tollo, rice, and these tortillas made from smashed up cooked corn and fried in grease, and beans.
After lunch, we went to the house of Daniel because his mom, Ede wanted to measure Hna Kingsford to make a skirt for her. :) Once we did that, we left to teach a couple named Juana and Jose, but Jose wasn't home, so we taught Juana. Their four year old son named Luis came in and I started to play with him and now we are best friends! He is so funny and he is obsessed with Spiderman and he was trying to capture me in his webs the entire time we were there. :) After the lesson, Juana gave us arroz con leche. It was to die for!!
Then we went back to Daniel's house to teach Lucido about the Word of Wisdom. He told us that he wants to live it. And then he told us that he read 3Nefi 11, because I told him it was one of my favorite chapters. He said that he loved it and wants to get baptized ASAP. After the lesson, Ede walked in with a big chocolate cake. We were celebrating Hna Kingsford's Birthday. haha It was so fun and yummy.
Then we headed back to Pimentel and taught Elba about the Restoration, and she believes it! We didn't think she was ever going to progress, but after tonight, we think that she can. We just have to pray that she will act on her knowledge now.
We went to dinner. (papas rellenas, carrots and avena) Then we went home and got a call from Elder Salas to find out if we have cambios and he says, "Hna Kingsford, you have cambios..." At that moment both of us started crying...when all of a sudden, he says, "Just kidding." Then we started screaming at him. haha Luckily, we get to stay together another 2 months!!
No comments:
Post a Comment