This morning I woke up and decided that I wanted to re-read Jesus the Christ. I want to understand the new testament more and know my Savior more. After studies, we went to internet. I had a lot more birthday wishes! :) Thanks everyone for the great love and support! After internet, we went to lunch at Leonardo's restaurant, but he wasn't there...how sad (que triste) :( After lunch, we headed home and grabbed our scriptures and headed to our little piece of grass on the beach. As we were napping, the phone went off. It was Martin. The conversation went like this, Me: "Hola?" Martin: "Hermanita. Donde estan? Tengo sus galletas." Me: "Estamos por la playa." Martin: "Okay." Then the phone cut off. Ten minutes later, Martin was there next to us with cookies. :) He sat for a minute and then said he needed to go, but would return soon. He was gone for a bit, and then returned with apples. As we sat and talked, he drew pictures and wrote letters to us. Then he said that he had to go get Carlitos, so he left and returned soon with soda, but no Carlitos. I came to the conclusion that he must have traded Carlitos for the soda. haha We sat and talked and read until 5:30pm.
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| Martin |
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| pictures and notes from Martin |
She let us in and the family came into the family room and joined us for the lesson. Arturo- Dad, Gerine- Mom, Belen- 11 year old daughter, and Jose- 5 year old son. They told us to sit down. Their couch is most comfortable couch I have sat on since I've been in Peru! Anyways, we talked with them for a bit about who we are, and they had questions about how we got sent to Peru. I explained the process of mission calls, and that we use our own money to come and live in another country. They thought that was cool that we are here dedicating our time and money to the Lord.
Then we started teaching them the lesson. It was so smooth and was guided by the Spirit completely. It was beautiful. They were intently listening the entire time. After we finished explaining about Jose Smith, we asked them what they thought. They said that they liked it, and that it is very different than their Catholic religion. They proceeded to say that they don't have a "real" reason as to why they are Catholic, except that it is just the tradition of their family. At the end of the lesson, we invited them to pray to know if our message is true, and we promised them that they would receive an answer. They agreed to it and then invited us to a snack that they had prepared for us. It was mini Hawaiian pizzas, and they had a tray with five different drink options for us to choose from. They are such a cool family. They wanted us to return earlier, but the dad is going out of town for work and won't be back until Sunday, so we planned to go on Monday again. I am so excited to see how they progress. They have so much love and Spirit in their family, and I know that by having our church in their lives, will just bring more love and guidance to them.
After their lesson, we went to teach Luis and Janeth, but on one was home. We did end up running into Gerson, and he was so happy to see us!
We contacted a couple of other people and then we headed to dinner. (beets, carrots, and girl turkey- haha) It was really yummy. During dinner, Bruno came in and talked to us and then we left so we could head home and plan.
During our closing prayer of planning, Hermana Lideres called. They informed us that we will be doing intercambios tomorrow and that I will be heading to Chiclayo, in the area Las Americas to teach. I will find out my companion tomorrow. I am excited to check out that area in Chiclayo. It is a busy city, so it will be different than what I am used to. After we stopped talking on the phone, we tried to finish our prayer, but got interrupted again by a screeching teapot from downstairs. Thankfully, at one point, we finally finished our prayer. :)
Martes, 28 de Octubre del 2014
We had a district meeting this morning. We talked about making goals and how that when we make goals, we need to make sure they are realistic. At the end of the lesson, Elder Coons said that he had a game. It's called "You need to answer these questions correctly or I walk away with this box of packages and letters." We all started freaking out....okay....I started freaking out because I knew it was my birthday package. We didn't answer some of the questions correctly, but luckily Elder Coons was super nice and let me have it. I got new clothes, skittles, lemonade packets, socks, pictures of me from when I was a baby till now, and also a card. It was so fun to receive gifts!
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| Hna Dodson in her new birthday shirt |
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| Hna Dodson (in new birthday outfit), Hna Hawkes, Hna Martinez, Hna Kingsford |
Then we taught a young woman named Fiorella. (16 yrs) She has a five month old baby. She is less active and today we met her older brother Cristian (17 yrs), who is a less active member, too. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and they seemed really excited to come back to church.
Then we taught some members about the importance of paying tithing. I bore testimony multiple times about how my family and I don't have much, but that we always have enough food and all our necessities, because we always pay our tithing. I know that when we pay our tithing and keep the commandments, God will pour down blessings upon us.
Right after that, we went to a house of a less active man and his wife, who is an investigator. Before we got there, Hna Martinez told me that the husband is difficult and cold hearted, so it may be hard to teach them. Well, we entered in and began teaching Paola, the wife, about the Family Proclamation. She was really enjoying it. Then her husband walked in. He sat down with the complete intent to ignore us, but I wasn't going to take that, so the entire lesson, I kept talking to him and joking around with him. By the end of the lesson, he was involved, and when I asked him to pray, he said yes!
When we left, Hna Martinez turned to me and asked me how I did that. She said that he never prays, and never participates. I just told her that I let him feel the love of God through me, and made sure that he felt the importance of the words I shared. It felt good to know that I did something good, even though it wasn't really me. It was God working through me to soften his heart. I hope that when they return to teach him, that he will listen.
We headed back to the chapel to have a meeting with the Lider Misional of the Las Americas ward. When we got there, we were alone with the leader, so we stayed outside and watched little owls eat as we waited for the Elders to show up. (Elder Noriega y Elder Lalli- who is from Bountiful, UT!) Well, they didn't show up until 8:45pm so we talked for only a minute, and then headed to dinner. (eggs, potatoes, cheese bread, and ecco) After dinner, we planned and got ready for bed.
Miercoles, 29 de Octubre del 2014
Well, we woke up and did our studies. After breakfast and during our companion study, we received a call saying that Hna Martinez had to go to the doctor because they have the results of her blood test. So we left and sat at the doctor's office for about 2 hours. We talked and shared pictures. It was an adventure. When it was finally our turn, we were in the doctor's office for about 1 minute and 17 seconds, while the doctor told us that there was nothing wrong. :)
We ran out of the hospital to catch a combi to Pimentel to trade back companions. When we made it back, we were in our cuarto talking, when Hna Kingsford tells me that they taught some German girls in English. That is my dream, to teach in English! Luckily, the girls want the missionaries to return, so I will get my chance to teach in English!!
After we said goodbye to Hna Martinez y Hna Hawkes, we went to lunch. (rice y chicken) After lunch, we went out teaching. As we were walking around, a man named Augustine called us over to say hi. We walked over to him and he was with some buddies, so we contacted them all, and one of them was really cool. His name is Alex, and he can't hear very well, so he likes it when people can use sign language with him. I told him that I can sign in English. He was excited and wants us to come by and visit him and his family. He said that he would teach me some sign language in Spanish! :)
Then we headed to visit Ana. We read Alma 36 with her. In the end, we invited her to baptism. She accepted and in her closing prayer she said, "Please bless the hermanas that they can continue teaching and finding new people that they can bring to our church." I almost fainted when she said that. It was a beautiful surprise to hear how serious she is about baptism. I really hope that we can prepare her well enough for her to feel completely ready.
After that, Pres Carlos Vigo called us and said, "I need to talk to you. Come to the chapel." Well it turned out that his dad, a non member, wants to finally get baptized. He's had missionary lessons multiple times, and has never wanted to be baptized, but now he does! We are very happy that the news he wanted to talk to us about was good news. We were nervous at first....:)
After that, we started walking back into the main part of town, contacting everyone as we went. On our way, we ran into Leonardo and the father of Leonardo. He is a cool guy and is always talking to us. Quite some time ago, we had set a time to go over to their house to teach them, but something came up and it didn't happen. But when he saw us tonight, he grabbed my arm and said, "I was just praying in my heart for help from God, because we are having family problems, and you just showed up. I need you to visit us. Can you come tomorrow morning?" We didn't have time, but asked if we could come at 3pm on Friday. He accepted and was so excited to have us come over. He is a giant teddy bear and he looks just the same as his son, Leonardo.
We contacted a few other people and then headed to dinner. We ate, went home, planned and got ready for bed.
Jueves, 30 de Octubre del 2014
Daniel Diaz helped us teach people this morning in Pimentel, and each person that we taught, begged for us to return. It was an awesome experience to see them in the beginning not to want to hear our messages, but then in the end, to be begging us to return. :)
We went to lunch (rice, eggs, fried bananas, and soup). Right after lunch, we headed to Fonavi.
First, we stopped by Gaby's to ask her to come visit with us and to use her bathroom. During the time we were waiting for Gaby to change, we were given juice and cupcakes with manjar inside. We took some pictures with Gabriel (5yrs) and Ivan (8yrs). The entire time, Gabriel kept calling me Hna Karate. Gaby later told me that is what he calls me all the time...anytime he talks about us, he says Hna Kingsford and Hna Karate. haha I have no idea why, but it's a cool nickname! haha
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| Gabriel, Hna Kingsford, Ivan y Hna "Karate" |
As we walked around finding people to teach, Luzziel found us and tried to drag me to his house because, "Hna...I forgot your drawing again. Go to my house and get it." He literally grabbed my hand and sweater and dragged me down the road.
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| Hna Dodson with Luzziel |
He finally let go of me and we all walked together-Gaby, Luzziel, and Marieta (mama of Luzziel) to the house of Norma. She wanted us to come and talk to her because she wants her husband to receive the lessons and get baptized. Her husband agreed to take the lessons, because this is how Norma invited him. She said, "Honey, I am going to receive salvation, and it's your choice on whether we are going to receive it together as a married couple, or not." :) He agreed with good reason. Hopefully he will want all of this for himself, not just because she threatened him. haha
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| Norma with Hna Dodson |
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| Hna Dodson, Marieta (mama of Luzziel), Hna Kingsford |
After our lesson, Marco left and came back with our birthday presents. He gave me the child picture that I love of himself, with a written note on the back and a stuffed animal bunny that plays a song called "Tengo tu amor". It is super cute!
For Hna Kingsford, he gave her the same kid picture of himself with a note and a music box that is made of baby egg shells.
We took pictures with them and ate flan (pudding).
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| Back: Hna Dodson, David, Marco Middle: Papa, Mama, Hna Kingsford Front: Alicia, Clara |
Then we headed out and went teaching with Gloria.
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| Gloria and Hna Dodson |
We taught Ivan, the husband of Gaby. We taught the Ten Commandments, the Law of Chastity and keeping the Sabbath Day holy. It was such a good lesson. The spirit was strong and the attention was great. Everyone (Gloria, Gaby, Ivan and Marieta-Luzziel's mom) were listening and commenting. It was such a success. In the end, we talked to Ivan about the church and baptism. He said that he really wants to and tries really hard to go to church, but with his job (Army), he can't always make it. He does try hard and he is a great guy. We left them the For Strength of Youth pamphlet and Ivan was already reading it before we left. We took some picture with them. It was really fun!
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| Hna Dodson, Gaby, Ivan Sr., Hna Kingsford Ivan Jr., Gabriel |
Then we headed to dinner. Everyone hung around the table tonight and talked. I love how close we all are in the pension. We are like family. It's so awesome. After laughing, eating and playing around, we headed home to plan and get ready for bed.
Oh, one funny thing. On our way to dinner, Luis and Janeth saw us and called us over. We went over and invited them to church. Luis started to give some excuses as to why he couldn't come. I cut him off and in a teasing manner told him I didn't want to hear his excuses, and that I wanted to hear him say, "I want to go to church." And then anytime he tried to give me an excuse, I cut him off. We were all laughing pretty hard. In the end, he agreed to just come to church. Hopefully he and Janeth really come.
Oh, one more thing...Martin found us after talking to Luis and Janeth. He gave us apples and mint cookies. :)
Viernes, 31 de Octubre del 2014 [HAPPY HALLOWEEN!]
As we had our planning for the week we got a knock on our bedroom door. It was Berta saying someone named Hna Monja was looking for us. We went downstairs and Paola and Ede (Daniel's mom) were waiting for us. They came by to invite us to a baby shower tomorrow for a member named Nancy, and then they left.
For lunch we had turkey and mashed potatoes and of course some rice. haha It was so good! It tasted like Thanksgiving day, but Peruana style. haha After lunch, we went with Lucy next door to us to meet our new pensionista...because Lucy is moving....to Lima....next week. :(
Our new pensionista is the mom of one of Mayra's friends named Bryan. She makes and sews clothes. She is really cool. I am really going to miss Lucy but I am excited for this new lady.
After that, we went to our cuarto to study language and I got thirsty, and bad news, I left my water bottle in Fonavi...so I pulled out my 'Steripen' (the pen that cleans water) and we used it and made lemonade. Good news. It works because we didn't get sick! Yay!
Then we went out teaching. We stopped by Leonardo's, but no one was home. :( So we headed to Karla's, the aunt of our bud Sebastian. (the little artist) We taught about the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome. She really liked it and told us that her Grandpa was a member of the church!! What?! And also that her dad was a member before he died! How crazy!? After we taught her, she said the closing prayer and then offered us peaches and fruit flavored marshmallows.
Then we went to a different Karla, a recent convert. I love her so much. She is so faithful and sweet. We taught her about faith and the Holy Ghost. She is so open to the spirit and has so much faith, that God is always giving her exactly what she needs. She reminds me of my mom, because my mom is so faithful and spiritual, and so close to God, that she is always receiving exactly what she needs. :)
After we finished talking, we took some pictures and then she told us that we mean the world to her. How sweet.
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| Hna Kingsford, Karla, David (her son), Hna Dodson |
For our last cita, we went to a new contact named Marta. She was really excited for us to come over. We knocked on her door and a young boy let us in and told us that she would be there in a minute. Well, when we went in and sat down, the TV was playing Scooby Doo in English!! hahaha
Marta came down with her son Brian (12 yrs) and we taught them about prophets. They were really receptive. Brian studies at a school called 'Chino-Peruano' (Chinese-Peruvian). They teach Chinese there, so we made Brian speak to us in Chinese. Then we asked him if he liked his school and he said, "No, because there are a lot of kids that say bad words." My first thought was that they swear in Chinese, but when he said, no... I guessed that they swore in Spanish...and he said no again. Then he said that they swear in English. He said, "Most of them do not know how bad or serious the English words are that they are using. It's sad." I couldn't believe how spiritual and grown up he is.
Before we left, I took a picture of 2 stuffed animals she had on her couch. A Christmas bear and a Thanksgiving turkey. It was so cute to me.
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| Merry Thanksgiving! |
Then we went to dinner. (broccoli, sweet potatoes, and a surprise that she put on the table as we were blessing the food- CHOCOLATE CAKE!!) As we were eating, Bruno came in...he wasn't sassy and he was being really nice. After we told him that today was our last time eating here, he pulled out his phone and took some pictures, that he is going to put on Facebook. haha
After we finished eating, we took a family picture with those at the house. Gerson, Mayra, Nicol, Channy, Hna Kingsford, Lucy, Juanita and me.
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| Back row: Hna Dodson, Juanita, Lucy, Hna Kingsford Front row: Gerson, Mayra, Nicol, Channy |
Sabado, 1 de Noviembre del 2014 [HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIGUEL!]
This morning we went out running by the beach, and we ran into Clara Leyton. She told us that they are going to the hospital for the next couple days because their dad is not doing well. He has stopped eating and drinking. The doctor says that their dad just doesn't want to live anymore. We are praying that something good comes from this all. :(
Then we went to breakfast with our new pensionista. Her named is Chela. She is really awesome! She is out to please us and she is doing a great job. She gave us tea, juice, and boiled bananas with cheese!!
At lunch, we ate with the familia Tello- Yovanna, Cristhian (20 yrs), Oliver (12 yrs), Pamela (20 yr. She is married to the older brother of Cristhian and she has a baby). Lunch was delicious.
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| Pamela, Hna Dodson, Hna Kingsford, Yovanna holding Pamela's baby, Oliver, Cristhian |
After lunch, we tried to stop by our citas but no one was at home, so we started knocking doors. We were knocking on a house that was green everywhere...the windows, door, walls...EVERYTHING! (I'm green daba du daba di...daba du daba di....) Anyways, as we were waiting for an answer, I started singing Feliz Navidad...I don't know why (maybe the green color?), but it was fun. People were watching us from afar smiling and giggling.
We knocked a few more doors and found a chef. He told us that if we pass by on Saturdays in the late afternoon, that he will have treats for us. Awesome! :)
Then we went to a scheduled cita, but we weren't exactly sure where he lives because there is some fields next to Fonavi and he said that he lives over there. So we went searching and as we were passing a house with a gate with a huge wall around it, we both felt like it was his house, so we entered and it turns out it was the right house! Some small details about this guy. There was this day that we were walking down the road, when I heard someone yell out, "Dr. Dodson!" I turned around and saw this man building a brick wall, waving at me. We went over to him. We don't ever remember meeting him, so we weren't exactly sure how he knew my name, but he knew it. Well, we got his name, which is Oscar, and his "address" and he told us to stop by. Well today we went by and he and his "wife" (girlfriend of 20 years) are AWESOME! The entire time we taught them something from the Bible, they were so excited for us to explain it to them. They liked us because everything we were sharing was conforming to the Bible, and they loved that. They loved that they finally found people who teach them correctly. They said they have heard from multiple different missionaries from many different religions and we were their favorites. They told us that they tell people that they are Catholic, because they haven't found a church that conforms to the Bible and teaches things along with their personal beliefs. They begged us to come back.
Oscar gave the closing prayer and it was totally awesome. He is so spiritual. His wife's name is Mari-Isabel and they have 7 kids together. Next time we teach them, we are going to talk about marriage and eternal families.
After their lesson, we headed to the baby shower for a member named Nancy.
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| Nancy |
During the activity, a woman named Fiorella showed up with her son (13 yrs) who is a member of the church, but she isn't. She is really cool and wants us to visit her. We got her address, and she really lives far out, but we are going to try and visit with her.
We took lots of photos of the baby shower before we left.
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| Hna Kingsford, Nancy, Hna Dodson |
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| Gloria |
On the combi ride home, there were 2 white girls sitting by us. Hna Kingsford started talking in English to me about them. She asked me if I thought they knew how to speak English. Then they turned toward us and asked us where we were from. We told them Utah and they told us that they are from California. They are here working and teaching English. We only talked for a bit, but we gave them a pamphlet (in Spanish)...and now we are hoping to find them again, so we can maybe teach them. :)
We ate dinner (salad made of beets, broccoli, and green beans, chocolate milk, yogurt and cereal).
We went home and planned and got ready for bed. We got a call from Pres. Carlos Vigo reminding us of our meeting we had tomorrow.
Domingo, 2 de Noviembre del 2014
At church, it was testimony meeting and it was awesome! The members here in Pimentel are so spiritual. Every single testimony was radiating strength and light.
In Sunday School, Daniel taught about repentance. It was so powerful, like always. During the lesson, he was being very forward with a lot of people there. So today was a class of men/young men with us missionaries, and Daniel said, "If anyone of you are solely here because you think the hermanas are cool, you aren't always going to be here. The real reason we want to be at church is to grow and learn...not to look at the hermanas, because they will have cambios at some point, and they will not always be here." I am really happy that he said that, because it worries me that sometimes people accept us and come to church because we are white girls. Karla showed up, so that was exciting!
After church, we went to Fonavi for lunch with Susan (sister of Daniel), Cesar, her husband, and their kids Mathias (6 yrs) and Luana (2 yrs).
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| Cesar, Mathias, Susan, Luana, Hna Dodson, Hna Kingsford |
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| Mathias with Hna Dodson |
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| Daniel |
It was really fun. For dessert, she gave us jello and when she brought me my serving, she had another huge bowl of jello in her hand, too. She handed me the small portion and put the huge serving bowl near her husband...so I made a joke that I wanted to trade with him. Daniel took a picture of me with both because he thought it was hilarious.
After lunch, we visited with Giannina and Mariana. We laughed and took some pictures with them, and then taught them a lesson.
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| Hna Kingsford, Giannina, Mariana, Hna Dodson |
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| Giannina is the mother of Mariana |
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| waiting and waiting and waiting in the park... |
We ended up having a really good lesson with Aaron!! We taught him about the Restoration of the church. It was awesome. The best part was that in the end, Aaron said that he feels a difference in his life, because since we haven't been over to teach him in awhile, he can feel the difference in the spirit in his house. He also said that when we were teaching Omar, his younger brother, he had noticed a huge change in Omar's character, and that Omar was a better person. But since we haven't been visiting Omar, he has returned to his rebellious ways. Que triste.
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| Hna Kingsford, Aaron, his son, Daniel, Hna Dodson |
It was then time for dinner, so we headed over and our pensionista's son, Alonzo opened the door and joined us at the table. We just got to know him and Chela some more. Alonzo is 17 yrs old and he likes to run and play the guitar. Once we found out he plays, we made him go and get his guitar and play for us. As he was playing, he started singing. He is a really good singer and he sang a song called Flaca. It was really good.
We went home and we started getting ready for bed when Elder Coons called and asked if we had asked Lucy if we could make cinnamon rolls in her house. We hadn't, so at that moment, we ran over in our pajamas to ask her. She said that we could, but she doesn't have an oven that works right now, so she told us to ask Chela. So we headed back over to Chela's and she said that we could. :)
Once we got home, we called Elder Chavez....and he said, "Hna Dodson, your companion has a change"...meaning that Hna Kingsford has cambios and will be leaving Pimentel and me :( , but the best part is, is that she is going to be training a newbie and opening a new area! I am so excited for her, but she is nervous.
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