This day we didn't do a ton, but a lot happened. First, we went running and stopped by the bank to take out money from home. Then we went and got ready for the day. After our studies, we went out shopping. I tried to find some more cute pants, but they didn't have any. They said that more would be coming by the end of the week. I needed to get a USB and the guy said, "You can buy a normal 8GB for 30 soles or a cute character 8GB for 32 soles." Obviously I bought the character one, and in the end, he only charged me 30 soles for it, because he thinks Americans are cool. haha
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| my cute USB |
After internet, we went to lunch at the Dulceria and ate papa huancayina (sp.) I love it so much!! I am going to learn how to make it and I am going to live off of it everyday! jaja
After lunch, we went home and cleaned our cuarto and reorganized. I put up my pictures and then we put up our new fire alarm. I really hope that it doesn't go off by accident, because everyone here burns their garbage and sometimes smoke enters into our cuarto.
After we cleaned up, we laid on our beds and talked about future plans. By the end of our conversation, the spirit was so strong, and by the time we went out teaching, we were radiating with the spirit. We felt really good. We grabbed a moto and had him take us to our first cita. I contacted the driver and he was listening so intently. He promised that he would go to church on Sunday. When we tried to pay him, he wouldn't let us and then told us that we could pay for the next ride we got. :) Hna Furness turned to me and asked me how I did that. I was confused at what she was asking...then she explained that I was just radiating so much light and love that it was no wonder that the moto driver was totally interested in what I was saying. I decided after that, that I want to always be like that. So I tried to keep the same light during our lesson with Luz and Leonardo. We talked about faith, and that faith without action isn't faith...it is just a belief. For example, I can believe that I can become a doctor, but if I am not working or doing my part to become a doctor, I won't become a doctor. They were really digging it....and you could tell that they both had beliefs, but weren't really doing their part, so they got excited to apply this principle into their everyday lives.
After their lesson, we went and taught Gina. We gave her a pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation. She seems really excited to read it and learn more about where her husband, mom and brother are. (because they all passed away)
Then we went to dinner (fruit salad) and while we were eating, Mila came over and said to me, "You're going to lose that skirt." I asked why, and she responded, "Because I want it!" I began to laugh hysterically.
After dinner, we decided to contact for a bit. Every single contact was crazy. The first woman told us, "Mormons are dumb. They don't remember anything. Everything goes in one ear and out the other!" The second guy tried to hug us and told us to be careful because there are lots of crazy men out here....haha. The third people denied us and lied by saying that they were heading to church at that very minute, but they weren't dressed for it and had bags full of food from the mercado. After them, we decided to just head home. On our walk back, we tried to contact another man, but he just yelled at us and he ran away saying, "Stop trying to speak Spanish! It's not your language!" We both just busted up laughing. We decided that hateful people were walking the streets tonight. :)
Once we got home, we planned and got ready for bed.
Martes, 13 de Enero del 2015
This morning Hna Furness woke up with a high pitched squealing in her ear, so the entire morning we were trying to find a solution. During that time, I got super nauseous, so I laid back down. After we were both feeling better, we went to lunch. They had music from the Grease movie playing in the Dulceria. It was fun.
After lunch, we went out teaching, but no one was home. After what felt like forever, we found Victor Vilchez, and he basically told us that he has enjoyed our visits but right now is not a good time, so we don't need to come back and visit him anymore. When we left his lesson, Hna Furness started crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she wouldn't tell me anything. So we just walked to our next cita. On our way, we stopped by Celia's house (member) to have her come teaching with us. While we were waiting for her to get ready, she fed us pineapple jello, cake and oro (it's like a soda). Well the woman we wanted to visit, actually came over to Celia's house. Her name is Maritza. So we taught her at Celia's house. During the lesson, Hna Furness said that she was sorry and then ran out of the lesson crying. I apologized to Celia and Maritza and chased after Hna Furness. She finally confided in me some personal emotional challenges that she was having about the mission. She feels like she will never be a good enough missionary. After she was able to feel better about relieving some of her emotions, we went back inside the house and rescheduled the lesson for a different time. We decided to just walk and talk, hoping that would help her feel calmer. She started feeling a little better, so we went to our last cita with an inactive woman named Joana. We shared Moroni 10:32 and talked about being perfect through Christ. We also talked about that if we want to show God our love, we need to do all those things that He asks us to do. We need to build up good habits and continue to stay strong. Hna Furness shared her feelings about not feeling like a good enough missionary, but that she will become better as she builds up the good habits that God wants her to. It was a beautiful lesson, for not only Hna Furness, but for Joana as well. It was good for Joana to hear that missionaries have habits that we are constantly trying to change and work on, and that it takes hard work and time to change them. We challenged Joana to start making changes in her own life, and to come back to church. She said that she wants to and explained her hard situation that she and her husband are in. We helped make a plan for her and hope that it will all work out.
Then we went to dinner, went home, and planned. Then we talked about our families. I told her about my sister's health stuff, and she wants to see pictures of Danielle's back (scar and xrays). haha
P.S. I got a call from Elder Dagley saying that a friend of mine was at his pension. When I asked who it was, he said that he called himself Mr. Sassy...It was Cesar Aquila, one of my teachers at the CCM. Cesar had asked Elder Dagely who the sister missionaries were in this area and when he told him I was one of them, he was excited and told him to tell me hi! :)
Miercoles, 14 de Enero del 2015
We taught some great lessons today and found some promising people to teach. First was Emanuel, Maria Jose y Mirella. We taught them about prophets and they were super interested in it. Emanuel is super excited to almost have a year in the church. Maria Jose is excited to be part of the church and Mirella is excited to get back involved in the church again.
On our way to our next cita, we witnessed a moto crash. We ran over to try and help the young teen girls that were inside the moto. They were fine, just in shock. After helping them, we went and taught Wilmer. He told us that he studies the Book of Mormon, the Bible and the pamphlets every day. He wanted to read in Joseph Smith history, so we read some parts from that and talked about his questions about repentance and the Atonement. It was super spiritual.
After teaching him, we contacted a ton of people and while we were out, a member named Juan Luis saw us on the street and called us over. He was with his cousin. When we got to them, his cousin asked me which part of Argentina I was from. Argentina!? haha When I told him I was from the States, he didn't believe me. He later accepted it as the truth. haha
Later, we went to set some citas and ended up making friends with some kids. They were hugging us and kissing our hands. We danced with them for a bit and then headed to dinner. On our way, we were contacting, and like always, we found some inactive members. There are so many inactive members here. We ate fruit salad, banana and fruit shake and fried chicken.
After dinner, we headed home, planned and got ready for bed. All day today, my eyes have felt so heavy from being sleepy. I hope I can sleep well tonight.
Jueves, 15 de Enero del 2015
All day today, all I heard coming from all different directions was my name being yelled. I didn't recognize anyone, but apparently they know who I am. haha
Today, we were blessed to have the help of Hna Meri (a member). She was amazing! Every house that we entered, she bore an amazing testimony!
We visited Luz and she opened up a ton with us and thanked us for being such sweet people. It was a long lesson, and right at the end, her boyfriend, Leonardo, showed up and set up a cita with both of them and left.
Then we headed to Moroni and Karen. The entire time, their little boy was screaming and crying, so no one could focus and it was hard to feel the spirit, so we set up a new cita with them and left.
After that cita, we went to dinner, went home and planned. At 9:33 pm, Hna Rossana knocked on our door saying that a young woman named Fiorella was outside looking for us. We went to see what was going on. So today, we had met Fiorella and and taught her and her friend Juan Luis (member)...well, tonight she had a little 8 year old girl with her named Diana. She told us that Diana wanted to kill herself, so we started talking to Diana. Turns out that she doesn't really want to kill herself, she is just scared from her parents fighting. She had run out and found Fiorella, who is her cousin, and she brought her to us....we don't know exactly why she brought Diana to us, but we said a prayer with them and then they left. We went back up to our cuarto and got ready for bed. Gotta love the mision!
Viernes, 16 de Enero del 2015
We had our planning for the next week this morning. After planning and after lunch, we headed out teaching and almost every single one of our citas fell through. Today, Patapo was a pretty empty city. I'm not sure where all the people went, but they were gone. We did visit with a 13 year old girl name Nicol. We talked about Alma 32 and it was really good for her to hear about faith and to realize what it is she needs to do to feel prepared for baptism.
After her lesson, we taught Maritza. She is so awesome. She almost had the Plan of Salvation pamphlet memorized. We talked about the kingdoms of glory and she was loving that there are 3 kingdoms and that your placement in a kingdom depended upon the acts done in your earth life. She understands it all and that God commands us to do certain things in this life to receive the Celestial Kingdom. I really hope she continues to learn and act upon the things we teach.
After that, Hna Celia (member) introduced us to her neighbors Sarela y Luis. Sarela is really sick and had been in the hospital for almost 20 days. So I decided to pull out my scriptures to look up a scripture about resting from our trials and hardships. Once I found the scripture, we had an opening prayer, and right after I said Amen, I didn't feel right about sharing that scripture anymore and I found myself turning to the story about the wise man and the foolish man. I talked about building our faith upon the rock of Christ, so that when hardships come upon us, we can stay strong. Then I shared my testimony. Sarela and Luis both just sat there in awe for a moment and then asked if we could visit again. We set up another cita and left. As we left, I thought about the beginning of my mission, and how my spiritual guidance was not very strong...like I feel now. I am really loving this feeling!
Sabado, 17 de Enero del 2015
This morning we got a call from the Bishop saying that the daughter of the Elder's pensionista wants to have visits from us. We penciled her into our busy schedule and then did our studies so we could go out teaching. We had almost all of our citas fall through, so we headed to the daughter of Dominga (the elder's pensionista). We got to her house at 11:00 am. Lili is the daughter's name and she is 30 years old and has 3 sons. She started opening up to us. She told us that her 'husband' had come over to the house at 10: 00 am today, and got really mad at her. We then realized that our other appointments were falling through, because Heavenly Father wanted us to get to Lili's house sooner. While we were visiting with her, the bishop came over and gave her a blessing.
Then we headed to lunch at the house of Cynthia. We went at 1:00pm and waited until almost 3 pm to eat. During that time, we talked with the Elders. We actually had an appointment at 3 pm, so we ran to the cita to reschedule with them and went back to eat lunch.
After lunch, we went back to work. We visited with Wilmer. I really love this man. He is so ready to be baptized and so ready to have an eternal family, but his 'wife' doesn't want it...at least not right now. :(
Then we headed to visit a couple of recent converts and less active members. We ran into some friends and they live right by a field of sugar cane, so they cut some up and cleaned it so we could eat some. It was weird, because you just bite a piece off, chew it a little and then spit it out. It is really sweet and really yummy, though.
Then it was time for dinner. I got a phone call from the bishop asking, "Did anyone ask you to give a 10 minute talk tomorrow in church?" I answered, "No." and he proceeded to ask, "Yeah, okay...well....can you give a ten minute talk tomorrow in church?" I said, "Yes." He told me my topic could be about anything that I choose.
So after dinner, we planned quick and because Hna Furness is the best, she did our area book while I wrote my talk. I ended up deciding to speak about agency, faith and repentance. Once I got the idea down on paper, I went to bed.
Domingo, 18 de Enero del 2015
Well, this morning we got to church and 2 investigators showed up! Maria Jose (9 year old) and Lili (the daughter of Dominga)! Right before we had the first prayer, Mr. Sassy walked in with his fiance. After the meeting was over and I was greeting all the members and our investigators, Cesar (Mr. Sassy) called me over and we were talking in Spanish this time! In the CCM, it was usually English, because I couldn't really speak Spanish. Anyhow, he was trying to remember how long I had been out on my mission....he thought it was just 6 months, so when I told him it was 9 months, he couldn't believe that much time had already gone by. We got to talking about CCM experiences. It was a fun reunion.
After church, we went contacting until lunch. We ate at the house of the familia Estela. The entire time I was eating, their dog would run into the other room and then return and jump up and put its paws on my chair, which would make my seat wiggle. It happened at least 15 times, and we would all laugh every time it happened! After lunch, we went out teaching with Hna Viviana.
First, we went to visit Victor Joel. He's the cool moto guy who didn't have change for a 10...anyhow, he let us in and we talked about his past of going to church. He was really religious last year, but towards the end of the year and beginning of this year, he fell farther and farther away from his church. By the end of our visit, he was so excited to have us explain more that he said, "Tomorrow, come teach me more!" We set up a cita with him and taught a few more lessons until it was time for Ward Council. I love working with this ward. It works a lot better when the members are involved in the work. During the entire meeting, Elder Dagley kept getting called Elder Dodson, so as a joke they started calling me Hna Dagley. They thought they were being so hilarious. Haha They said that we look like siblings, so that is why they confuse us. Haha Not. After ward council, we went to dinner and the Parent Trap movie music was playing. It made Hna Furness and I so happy. We both love and miss that movie!
After dinner, we went home and got a lot of phone calls. Elder Watkins told us that Hna Furness and I are the companionship with the most success in our district!!
P.S. Joana (less active) came to church today!!
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| The Dulceria, where we eat all our meals |
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