Life is to be enJOYed, not just endured. This came true today. I got up feeling a lot better than the past week. BONUS :)
We decided since I was feeling a little better that we would go to Chiclayo to buy some needed products, send my package home that I've been working so hard to get sent, and then just to mosey around, taking pictures. We had it all planned out.
Well, we first went to the Paseo Yortuque, in Chiclayo that has statues and art that tell the history of the Incas and the Gods they had. We were only able to get some pictures because my camera died. haha I just smiled it off.
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| I spy Hna McGinnis..... |
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| Where's Hna McGinnis? |
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| "As we were taking pictures of the Inca culture, we turned around to see USA art. We laughed so hard! We had to take a picture!" |
Then we headed to the Serpost (post office) and it ended up being closed for their lunch break, so we decided to lug everything to another store to buy more stuff and to eat lunch. Our lunch was supposed to be fried chicken and french fries, but they deceived us. I'm pretty sure we ate plastic. haha At least it was cheap. :) Once we ate, we went back to the Serpost because it should have been open by then...but when we showed up, it was still closed. Then we realized that today was a holiday called "El Dia de San Pedro y San Paulo" which means, "go to the beach to drink and party." haha So we just laughed at the fact that I lugged around a huge box all day long and couldn't even send it. What a joke. :)
As we were trying to decide what to do, we saw some white people who were staring at us, so we waved, and they all came running over to us. They were from Utah, and they were Mormons! They were there to help with some humanitarian project in Puira. They were all super cool. They got so excited to see American missionaries.
Then we went to another store to buy Nutella and Peanut Butter! We are so excited that we have found peanut butter! Then we wrote home. After writing, we shared email stories and then we headed out to work. Everyone we wanted to see wasn't home, but we decided to try a contact. We saw a woman with some kids. It was awesome! We actually got her interested in hearing more. Then we walked another road and we decided to contact another woman. It was super successful, too. It was awesome....2 contacts...2 new appointments!
Then we went to dinner at Monica's. She is an active member and has 3 kids, Adriana (19), Pablo (15), and Ruth (10). Monica's parents-in-law came over with their daughter Olenka (27) and we ate pollo a la braza. I didn't eat because I was feeling sick, but I enjoyed the company. :)
Martes, 30 Junio 2015
This morning, we started intercambios with the sisters in Las Delicias- the other ward in Pomalca. I came back to Pomalca with Hna Monson. (Utah) She is adorable. Hna McGinnis stayed in Las Delicias with Hna Meneses. (she is going home in two weeks)
Hna Monson and I went crazy. We just started visiting everyone. We visited Milagros (less active) and she told us that she thinks that she is ready to return to church. Yay! It was cool to see her light up when she said that.
Then we visited Luz (less active) who also was grateful to us and loved the message and the spirit that she felt. We read from Alma 7. After that, we visited with Graciela, who in the end walked us to a tienda to buy us some soda. Then we went to lunch.
After lunch, we got talking about all our stories. It was really nice to get to know her better. She is super cute. As we were talking, President Williams called. Well, I wish that I wouldn't have answered because he told me, "You and your companion are going to teach at the leader's meeting for 30 minutes." Once I recovered my senses, we went out teaching in San Antonio.
We went and taught Cesar Rivera. He is so cool. We taught about prophets and how we have one today, and he readily accepted it. He promised to pray about it, so I really hope that he does. He has so much knowledge of the scriptures and has a lot of faith so he would be a perfect follower of Christ.
After that, we visited a few more people. They were great and powerful lessons. Our last cita of the night was with the Familia Ysique Garcia and it was really good. We talked about a conference talk by Elder Bednar about hushing fears. They loved it. We talked about how we need to do three things: 1- Look unto Christ 2- Build a foundation in Christ 3- Be steadfast and endure in our faith in Christ. It was powerful and the spirit was definitely felt. I have missed them. They are a special family. They really like Hna Monson and think that she is sweet. It was a special moment for all of us to sit around a little dinner table and share spiritual experiences by candle light.
After that, we headed to Pomalca to eat dinner and go home to plan and get ready for bed. During all our planning time, everyone kept calling us. It was crazy. Thankfully 10pm came, because no missionaries can call or accept calls after that....unless it's President Williams. haha
Miercoles, 1 Julio 2015
After studies, I packed up a bag for intercambios that we were going to have with the sisters in Patapo.
After Hna Monson and I were ready, we headed to the church for our district meeting. It ended up being a really good meeting. Elder Jarman had all of us close our eyes and he asked us reflection questions about our missions. It was a really special spiritual moment for all of us to think about the progress and knowledge that we have gained here in the mission!
After that, Hna McGinnis and I headed to Patapo. Once we got there, we started with a prayer and then Hna Nelson (Spanish Fork, Utah) and I headed to the Dulceria for lunch. Everyone was so excited to see me, and I was so excited to see them!
After lunch, we went home to study language and then we went out visiting. Everywhere we went, people were recognizing me. They would run up all excited and hug and kiss me. It definitely made me feel good to have everyone so excited to see me. During the time that we had to visit, I was helping Hna Nelson get to know the area. She was very grateful for that. We ended up seeing a bunch of members everywhere we went!
During our time out, Fransisca's husband Juan was on the search for me because he wanted to give me a necklace made of beads from the Incas. (shakiras) They are a super cool beads that are really expensive here.
After visiting a less active family, we stopped by to see Shirley and then headed to dinner. Juan was there waiting with the cool Inca necklace. He told me that I really touched the hearts of all the people in his family and this necklace is how he wanted to thank me. Juan use to be less active, but now he has started to go to church and he is super happy now.
We had fruit salad, tres leches torta and a yummy strawberry smoothie for dinner, and then the greatest thing happened. Jose Sandoval walked into the Dulceria. As he came closer, he realized who I was and then he stopped and just stared. I got up because my heart was so full and tears were coming to my eyes. I walked up to him and he had tears in his eyes and he said, "I must be in a wonderful dream....this is undreamable."
We talked and I shared some scriptures with him about how he needs to pick up his cross and go, and by doing so, he will receive the promised blessing. I got pretty direct with him because he hasn't been going to church...but after our conversation, he knew what he had to do. The spirit was so strong and he promised he would go to church every Sunday to keep his covenant with God. He offered the prayer before we left and it was so sincere. He thanked God for my words that I shared with him because they helped him remember what it is that he promised God.
We went home, planned, talked, shared stories and got ready for bed.
Jueves, 2 Julio 2015
This morning we went out visiting and when one of the citas fell through, we decided to stop by and talk to Maria (Emanuel's Grandma). We found her taking care of her parents. Jesus is her mom (88 years old) and the entire time Jesus kept talking about how "Maria prays that God will take me away (die) so she can live a normal life...but everyday I pray that I can stay longer just to make Maria suffer longer." They were both giggling about this. Then it got even better. Maria began to talk about a Christ video she saw on the TV and that she loved it, especially when Christ looked so lovely. Then she looked at me and said, "Christ had the same hair as you do." I started to giggle because that is first time that anyone has told me that I have hair like Jesus.
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| Maria, Jesus, Hna Dodson |
By lunch time, it was time to switch back. Hna Nelson thanked me for doing intercambios and for helping her learn more about the mission and herself. She is a great missionary. I really enjoyed being companions with her.
We switched back and headed back to Pomalca. We were an hour late for lunch, so we hurried to the pension and ate as fast as we could, and then met up with Clara Cortez (member) to go on visits with her. She ended up dragging us into the elders area and presented us to all of her friends. We gave the elders a lot of references. :)
Later, we visited some other less actives and the spirit was really strong because we have been reading the Book of Mormon with them to help them get more excited about the Book of Mormon.
In the night, we went to an activity at the church (karaoke) but we had to leave before it got started. Everything starts super late here...it drives me nuts!
Viernes, 3 Julio 2015
Today was a normal day until we went and picked up Katia to go visiting with us. Everyone that we tried to visit wasn't home, except for Elsa. As we were visiting with Elsa, her son came into the room and picked up the table and carried it outside, and then he came back and got the TV to take outside. We were thinking that he was trying to give us a hint to leave so he could watch the soccer game, but then he told us that he was just taking it outside for a better signal. haha
On our way to take Katia home, we decided to stop by Rosillo's house. (less active- at least we thought) Well, she has been sick for 10 days and was really needing help, so the three of us stayed with her. We sang hymns, prayed, and comforted her. After we left, Katia let us know that Rosillo was baptized but never went to church to be confirmed. This whole time we just thought that she was less active, but turns out that she is an investigator because her baptism is incomplete. Crazy stuff.
On our way to our cuarto, we made a really good contact with a man named Eduardo. He had a lot of questions for us and really wanted to hear more about what we testified of. I hope something comes of him.
Sabado, 4 Julio 2015 Feliz Independence Day!
This morning as we were leaving to go visiting, we started talking to a man sweeping and we always offer to sweep or clean for him, but he usually always denies us, until today. He just handed the broom right over to me. Once I started sweeping, I realized why. There was so much dirt! There was a mountain of dirt that I got stuck sweeping. It was ridiculous! :)
We also made some funny contacts today. One was especially funny. We tried to tell a man that we were missionaries of "La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los..." and he cut us off and said, "Ahh yeah....La Iglesia de Los Santitos (little saints)...we giggled at the "little saints" thing. haha
We visited a lot of people and the best thing happened on our way to our cuarto. We were already down the road when we heard someone yelling, "Hermanas! Hermanas!" We turned around to see the Patriarch of the Pomalca stake wobble running towards us. We stopped and walked toward him. He told us, "I have a friend, and you need to come and visit him right now!" So we walked with him and when we got to the house, we saw that his friend was Eduardo. (the contact from last night) God really wants Eduardo to hear the message. :) We couldn't enter to teach him, because there wasn't a woman there to teach with, so we set up a cita for another day, so we can get another woman to be with us. I am super excited to teach him!
Domingo, 5 Julio 2015
Well....I am leading the music again. haha
In the night, when we were visiting, we stopped by Anaximandro and Victoria's to see how they were and they let us in on some good news. The divorce of Anaximandro and his "ex-wife" will be final next Wednesday! Victoria and Anaximandro can't wait until they can get married, and then Anaximandro can get baptized! I love them so much! They are very special to me.
Later, we visited the Familia Espinoza. I love them, too. We talked about baptism and enduring to the end. We had a good discussion with them.
Oh yeah, I forgot....at church today, a young man read his mission call over the pulpit. He is going to Ecuador and leaves for the CCM in Colombia, in September. He is really excited! He is the nephew of Cesar Espinoza. Also Cergio, the son of Cesar and Diana Espinoza, received the Aaronic priesthood today! He is so excited!
This week was an awesome week. It felt good to be able to put my whole heart, mind , might and strength into the work again. I love this work. It just brightens my life! I can't believe how fast the time flies. In three months from today, I will be on a plane to Lima, to take a plane back home...crazy.
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