Week 66: "Sister McGinnis, you have transfers. Sister Dodson, so do you."

Lunes, 6 Julio 2015
     This morning we went to a museum called Senor de Sipan.  He was a King.  The people found him and his wives buried in a pyramid here in the zone Pomalca.  We met up with the Sisters from Las Delicias (Hna Monson and Hna Meneses) and we went on a tour together.  It was super interesting.  I really enjoyed seeing the history.

     We were there for a while and when we wanted to leave, we had to walk until we found a car...we didn't get home until 2 pm.  When we got back, the sisters from Patapo (Hna Nelson and Hna Corona) called us and told us that they were coming to Pomalca to take out some money from the bank.  We met up with them and took them to a couple stores and then we went home and made some PB & J sandwiches!  After eating, we cleaned the cuarto and paid everyone with the mission money. (housing, food, clothes/laundry)  Then we went to internet to write home.  I love hearing from everyone!
     Then we went home and got our stuff ready and headed out teaching.  After teaching two families, we went to dinner with Monica and her family and the elders.  We ate pizza....and it was good pizza, because a sister from Canada showed Monica how to make pizza....so we ate some real Canadian Bacon pizza.  I love eating at Monica's, especially when the elders can eat with us, too.  This was Elder Brunis' last P-Day.  I am going to miss him.
   
Martes, 7 Julio 2015
     We went to Chiclayo this morning for the leadership meeting.  We taught about prayer, and everyone seemed to love it.  Many came up to us afterwards, to thank us for opening their eyes even more, to the reality of the ability to pray to our Father in Heaven.

Our Zone

Hnas in the Zone
McGinnis, Dodson, Corona, Nelson, Monson, Meneses

Hna Corona!

with Hna Meneses

     We ran into Elder Epperson at the meeting.  He says that he misses Pomalca.  Oh, Elder Brunis and Elder Epperson say thanks for the packages mom.  They loved them!  Elder Brunis put his socks on immediately.  He loves them.
     After the meeting and lunch (McDonald's), we went back to Pomalca.  We felt a little sick, so we rested.
     In the night, we went and bought pollo-a-la-braza.  Usually they give us ketchup to go with our fries, but they didn't have any, so we stopped by a tienda and bought salsa de tomate, which we thought was the lower class way of saying ketchup....nope.  Turns out that means spaghetti sauce....so...we ate spaghetti sauce with our fries.  It was pretty good....wacky, but good. :)
     Then we got ready for bed.

Miercoles, 8 Julio 2015     FELIZ 15 MESES!
     Time is flying by!  Fifteen months!?  How?
     Well, this morning we tried to visit Eduardo, but he wasn't home, so we went to Luis' house to see if he had returned from Lima, and he had!  We went in and talked to him for a long time.  He is just so excited to do all that he can to be on a good page with God.  He says he is feeling better, so we invited him to be baptized on the 1st of August, which is the earliest that he could, but he let us know that he will be leaving for Lima again for tests and results on his health status.  He really wants to be baptized, but for now, it is not his time. :(  He is completely turned to God, though.
     After that, we visited Elsa.  She fell asleep during our lesson.  We didn't realize it until we asked if she had ever heard of Joseph Smith before, and there was no answer.  Then we could see her head nodding off. :)
     Then we went and visited an old woman named Rosaelba (89yrs).  She is so sweet.  She does everything herself and she just loves to talk about God.  As we were teaching, her 5 year old grandson came in and joined us.  He even offered the closing prayer.  It was the sweetest thing ever! He calls God, Papa Dios. :)
     Later in the night, as we were walking down the street, we found Luis with a man.  Luis was talking to the man about how God can help him in his life, and then he started reading a part in the Bible to him.  Luis is awesome.  He told us that if he can be healed, he wants to go and preach every single day.

Jueves, 9 Julio 2015
     This afternoon we visited Eduardo.  He loved the pamphlets that we gave him about the Apostasy and the Restoration.  As we were teaching, a young mom walked in with her daughter, who was very sick.  Eduardo told us that he invited them over because he feels something special from us and he told us, "I know you can heal this little girl, Anali."  We explained the priesthood power to him, and it was at that moment that the Patriarch told the mom, Mabel, that he would be over at their house in an hour to give Anali a blessing of health.  We testified of the power that the worthy men in the LDS church have.  The spirit was really strong, and then we ended with a prayer that I offered.  The room was filled with the spirit and it felt "cozy".  It was amazing!
     Later, we visited Graciela.  She is quite a hoot.  Today we were talking about loving God and our neighbors, so I asked, "How do we love our neighbors?" Graciela responded, "Well...if you like them, you need to be nice...but if you don't like them, we might have to grab them by the hair and scream a bit."  haha  Obviously, I had to correct her thinking, but she always has some crazy ideas.  haha

     After that, we ate dinner.  Then we went to Noche Misional (ward activity).  We played a couple of games that got us all laughing.  The first game:  You pick a topic, for example, colors.  Then one person chooses a color and writes it down and then asks each person to say a color.  The person that says the chosen color gets water squirted on them.  The second game: One person has a rolled up newspaper and goes up to someone, and that person has to say the name of someone else in the circle, and the person with the newspaper runs over to that person and has to hit them with the newspaper unless they say another person's name first.  We were laughing so hard!  At one point, someone yelled, "Dodson!" so Teo, who had the newspaper, came running at me.  I sat there not knowing who to say, so I said, "Uhhhh..." SMACK!  "....Obispo! (Bishop)"  Everyone started laughing that I would send Teo to hit the Bishop. haha :)

Viernes, 10 Julio 2015
     This morning on our way home from breakfast, we saw something really interesting.  We saw a man walking with a bike, a giant cow, and a dog following, barking his little lungs out.  The best part was that they were heading to the slaughter house at the end of the road.  Welcome to Pomalca.

     In the afternoon, we visited Mara Marin, and she made us talk to her son who lives in Lima, on her cell phone.  It was pretty awkward.  haha
     Later, we visited Anaximandro and Victoria.  I love them.  Before we left, we took pictures with them.  After we took one picture, Anaximandro looked at it and said, "Something that would complete the picture is if I had my hat on."  Then Victoria said, "What hat?  You don't have a hat." Anaximandro then said, "That one...and points to a doughnut pillow sitting on the chair."  Then Victoria said, "Hombre (man), that is not a hat."  Anaximandro grabbed the "hat" and we took another picture.  I always leave them feeling so happy. :)

Anaximandro, Hna Dodson, Hna McGinnis, Victoria

Anaximandro's "hat"

     In the night, we visited the familia Espinoza.  We talked about the Word of Wisdom, and they loved it.  We did practices of what we would do if someone tried to invite us to use the 5 things we shouldn't use.  It went well.  After our lesson, they invited us to eat hamburgers and soda.  Then we took a picture with them.  They all 'smile' like Peruvians. :)

Hna McGinnis, Diana, Sebastian, Cesar,
Enrique, Sergio, Hna Dodson

Then we went home and planned.

Sabado, 11 de Julio de 2015
     This day was a LONG day.  First, we went to Gladys', hoping to find Luis, too....well he was there, but denied our visit because he was preparing to teach a class at some Evangelist church....

with Gladys

Then we tried to find a reference named Angelica.  We found her, but she lied to us.  We ended up leaving her a Book of Mormon because she wants to study it, but she doesn't want our visits because she is from the Evangelist church....
     Later, something completely heart wrenching happened.  We visited the familia Ysique Garcia. It all started with Maria explaining that her mom and sister Magdalena went to Lima to get treatment for the tumor her mom had.  While they were there, Maria's brother, who is a member of a church called MMM (Misionero Mundial).  Well, supposedly Maria's mom was "healed" by their church, so they committed themselves to that church.  When they got home, they began to bully everyone into joining the church Mundial.  They really got to Maria because when we got talking, she told us that she is really confused.  They also got to poor Pedro...Pedro now wants nothing to do with our church. The entire time we were there with their family, we were crying.  It was such a rough time.  We just kept testifying of the truthfulness of the Gospel.  I am so worried for them.  It is hard because Maria has a hernia and is super sick and wants to be healed like her mom....
     It is crazy.  In one day, we lost 2 investigators and in the process of losing recent converts.
     We left San Antonio crying, to head to an urgent ward council meeting.  When we showed up, it turned out to be a surprise party to say goodbye to Elder Brunis.  They went around the entire room to say something nice about Elder Brunis.  Then we took some pictures of everyone.

with Indiana, the Patriarch's wife

     After that, we went to dinner and to make copies of our progress report.  Then we went home, planned, got a call from President Williams, which was about our cuarto...which made us think that he is going to take us both out of Pomalca....today has been a long, hard day.  Pray for us and all these people. We all need help.

Domingo, 12 Julio 2015
     Today I had one of those "proud Mom moments".  Cergio Espinoza (son of Cesar and Diana) passed the sacrament for the first time.  It was something really special to me.  He was glowing and he was so excited.  He even showed up to church 40 minutes early to be ready. :)
     After church, we tried to leave but no one would let us go until we took a picture with them, because they know that we have transfers tonight.

Hna Dodson, Diana, Enrique, Hna McGinnis

Diana

with familia Espinoza

Hna Dodson, Lucrecia, Betsi, Hna McGinnis, Mary

After taking some pictures, we tried to visit some people.  First, we went to Graciela.  She asked us to come back tomorrow, and tried to go buy us a Coke.  We said, "Hermana, it's Sunday.  We don't buy things."  Graciela responded, "I'm inviting you...there is no need for you to buy, I am going to buy it." We said, "No, hermana...as members of the church, we don't buy anything on Sunday."  Graciela said, "I always buy on Sunday...but I will wait until tomorrow because you are being so stubborn." haha  I love her.

with the "one and only Graciela"

     For lunch, we ate with Martha, Pablo and Olenka.  I love them.  We talked and shared laughs and smiles.  They told us that they have come to love us a lot and don't want either one of us to have cambios.
     After lunch, we visited Clara Zambrano.  We told her that there is a possibility that we are going to have transfers, and she started to cry.  She shared with us that we are her confidants, and she will really miss us.

with Clara Zambrano

     We also visited Vianca, Maria and Antero.  While we were there, there was a knock on the door. It was Diana.  She was searching for us everywhere and finally found us.  She told us that we had to go over to her house to get a goodbye gift from them.  We told them that we would go over in the night time. She left and we finished teaching.
     Then we went to our meeting at the church.  Hna Bertha gave us a report of all the visits she and the ward missionaries made this week.  They are awesome.  She is an amazing missionary.  We took a picture with our ward missionaries.

Elder Allgaier, Elder Brunis, Teo , our ward missionary,
Hna Dodson, Hna McGinnis

The misioneros de barrio
Front:  Bertha, Carlota, Maria, Elder Brunis, Elder Allgaier
Back:  Hna Dodson, Hna McGinnis, Silberio, Flavio, and
some man from the ward

     Then we went to ward council.  After ward council, we went to the familia Espinoza.  They gave us both pretty necklaces and a cute bag that holds cameras and/or cell phones.  They also gave me a beautiful bracelet.  The bracelet and necklaces are made from pearls that they find here in the ocean.

     Then we went to the pension and ate budding, which is a cake drowned in something really liquidy.  It is really good, but it looks like wet cake. :)

My Peruvian Family
Family of the pensionista
Hna McGinnis, Zuletzi, Bertha, Silberio, Cecilia with Kimber
in her arms, Hna Dodson

with Bertha
she is our 'companera'
(companion/friend)

     We went home and then our zone leaders called.  They called at the most inconvenient time...I was on the toilet.  So I hurried and got out of the bathroom and that is when I heard Elder Brunis say, "Sister McGinnis, you have transfers.  Sister Dodson, so do you."  Our reply, "Are you serious?  The both of us? Are they putting new sisters here?"  They said, "No. You are shutting down Pomalca 2."
We got off the phone and started planning, and then we packed.
     How crazy.  I can't believe I am leaving Pomalca.  I thought I would end my mission here....but I guess I'm not going to.
     We got a call from Hna Corona, who has closed almost every area she has been in and she gave us pointers on how to close an area.  It was actually helpful.

Me, McGinnis, Martha (in back), Jade and Fanny

McGinnis, Adrea, Me and Martha

Week 65: "Christ had the same hair as you do."

Lunes, 29 Junio 2015
     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.

I spy Hna McGinnis.....

Where's  Hna McGinnis?

"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 went to buy our souvenirs from a cool store, so I could fill my box for home all the way up. We ran into Enrique and his brothers (from Patapo) there.  They said that they and all the members in Patapo miss me.  They are such sweeties. :)
     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.

Maria, Jesus, Hna Dodson

     I really do love Patapo because everyone makes me feel really special all the time.
     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.