FAM!

Hey I am just going to do some bullet points of the miracles that have been happening this past week and I will tell you all the details when I get there!

---Well this week we have been work with a couple named Nancy and Ulde. Nancy is less-active but has been coming to church with her partner who is not a member for a month now. They are not married and we talked to them about the commandments of God and their responsibility to make family as God has shown us and ever since we taught them that they have gone through many difficulties physically which hasn’t permitted them to make a set decision. However, this last Sunday they both had an interview with the president of the branch and they both came out beaming with happiness! Saying to us, "We made a decision. We are going to get all the papers done this week!" Then Ulde is going to get baptized! I don’t think I can explain the happiness that I felt in my heart in that moment. They are in the starting process of repenting and starting an ETERNAL FAMILY! I am sad i won’t be here for this process, however, I am sure without a doubt that they will go to the temple! Please pray for them!

---Also, one of the members gave us a reference the other day and we went and she was so ready to hear the gospel! She has had so many difficulties and problems in her life, however, NOW she is ready to give God a place in her life. So, this Sunday she came to church all three hours with her two kids! And she told us that she had never felt so much peace in her life before coming here! This was such a miracle to me. She is now on the path to heal her past and start a new life for her and her two kids!

---Also, our YW president has always told us about her mom who has fallen away from the church and just doesn’t have ANY desire to go back. We began teaching her a couple of weeks ago and yesterday she was the first one in the chapel. She hasn’t had the opportunity to take the sacrament in 7 years! Such a miracles. She is amazing!

Well, there were a billion other miracles this week but I don’t have to time to write all of them down. This is unreal that this journey is coming to an end but I KNOW that I will always continue to be a servant of Christ for the rest of my life. I just want to thank each and every one of you at home for being the angels in my every footstep here in the mission. I could feel your strong prayers pushing me along the roads of Peru. I love each of you so much! I will see you all this week and your SMILING faces!

Love, Hna. Mahas

They definitely smashed my face into a cake.....love that tradition! haha

FAM!

It sounds like everyone is doing just great, which makes me soooooo happy! This week has been a great one filled with miracles as always.

One of these miracles was the baptism of Brian.  If you don’t remember him, he was the one who would always tell us when we walked into his sister house, "I know everything about the Bible.  I don’t need to listen to you." However, really, he was just sitting behind the wall the entire time listening every time we went to his sister’s house. But his baptism day was very, very special.  The moment that he was baptized the spirit just filled the room with light. My favorite part always is when they share their testimony. He said, "When I went into the bathroom to change by myself, I just looked into the mirror for a minute and I just felt and looked like a completely new person, ready to serve the Lord for the rest of my life." He has such a strong testimony of his Savior and he is completely ready to serve a mission! Such an amazing kid!

This week we were in a copy place making copies for our consejo de barrio and we began to talk to the 20 year old kid that was helping us. He had a major desire to know and strengthen his relationship with his savior, Jesus Christ. However, he told us that he was from Arequipa and was going to leave soon. We took down his information and gave him a pamphlet not thinking anything about it. On Sunday some of the members came up to us and said there is a young kid looking for the two of you in the other room. It was him! I don’t know how he got there or knew where the church was but he was sitting there ready to learn! We are going to take advantage of these two weeks that he is here to teach him everything that we can about the gospel! Heavenly Father truly guided his steps there, so amazing.

Well these are just a few of the miracles that happened this week but I can’t mention them all! Just one last little experience about "smiling". I was doing divisions with a sister named Hna. Owen, we waved down a taxi and they wanted to charge us tons more than it should be and all my companion did was smile as big as she could and he completely changed saying, "Alright get in."  At the end of the ride we went to give him the money and he rejected it saying, "Your smile made me happy today.  That’s enough." We never know when just a simple smile could change someone. So SMILE each day and your smile and light could be the start of someone’s conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you so much for your prayers and love.  I can feel each of you here! I love each of you soooooo much!

Love, Hna. Mahas

Leadership Conference

P-day at the beach in Camana

Brian's Baptism

FAM!

Hey family! it sounds like each of you are doing so well.  I am so happy to see that there is another precious soul in our family.  Another future missionary to defend the faith in these last days.  I can already see it in his cute little face! I hope you all had an amazing father’s day. My father’s day was amazing because we had the grand opportunity to go to two sessions of the temple dedication of Trujillo. It was such a sacred and special experience for me. President Uchdorf and Elder Bednar were the general authorities presiding. And as they went out to put in the cornerstone of the temple, all of the little Peruvian kids were out on the temple lawn singing. And it was so sweet to see Pres. Uchdorf try and talk to them with his accent "muchas gracias niños" with a giant grin on his face. There was a spirit of joy and happiness running through all of Peru yesterday because as Pres. Uchtdorf said in his talk (with his translator translating every sentence which was really special to hear) "Each temple that is built in the world decreases the power of satan upon the earth, especially here in PERU!"  I could feel just that yesterday. It was a once in a lifetime experience. We saw the LIVE session in Camana which is like an hour away from Predregal because we don’t have satellite in our capilla, but it was really special to travel with all the sister and elders there to witness this sacred event!

There have been many challenges this week but also many miracles as always.  We have been working with a less-active for a few weeks named Cynthia.  She is about 22 years old and she hasn’t come to church for 10 years. It was a little hard to break through her wall and understand her needs, however, this week we challenged her to go in and have an interview with the president of the branch and we just happened to be in the chapel when she walked out. As she lef .the president came over to us with a smile on his face and he whispered to us "We just opened her papers to go on a mission". This was such an unbelievable moment for me.  I couldn’t believe it. Cynthia has gone through so many difficulties in her life during these years that she hasn’t been coming to church and I KNOW that through those trials that she went through she will be such a POWERFUL missionary. We are now going out to visit to her and her testimony is getting stronger and stronger each time she comes out with us and each time we study PMG with her! Such miracles!

Last night was a very special night with us filled with the hand of the Lord in all the little things. For example, we had a NDH planned with a less-active family, however, the 10-year-old son came to the door and said that no one was there.  Disappointed we began to walk off, however, (we had never done this before) we both stopped him before he shut the door and asked this 10 year old kid, "Do you have any friends or classmates that we could go and teach?"  Not expecting an answer he immediately said, "Ya!  Over there in the corner where the little store is with the gray door.  His name is Carlos (which is usually the directions we receive with the Peruvians here haha)." So we decided to go and look.  We didn’t know how but we were going to find a way. My companion said to me, “We should ask for "Juana" and if they say no we can just ask for their name.” :) Perfect plan.  We knocked and a little kid answered and said his name was Carlos (ahhh perfect, that’s him!) "Is Juana here?" "No, but my mom is!" It was so special. His mom came out, we began to talk to her and she said to us that she was so confused as to what path to take in her life, especially right now. As we spoke of the atonement she began to tear up with joy. Now we have a NDH planned with her husband and all her kids! Just the little miracles in each step! 

These were just a few of the little miracles that happened this week! Through your prayers and love these things are happening here in the area of Pedregal! Thank you so much for your support and love in each step that I take here in Peru. Keep looking for the little tender mercies each day in your lives and THAT will give you the strength to move forward during difficult times! I love each of you so much! Sigue Adelante and KEEP SMILING, like always.

Love,  Hna. Mahas

My old companion!

FAM!

Hey sorry, I don’t have tons of time.  I had to send some pictures and written stuff to the office this week that they were asking for! But this week has been so amazing! There were many miracles that happened with my companion and I. I absolutely love teaching with Hna. Brown.  She is so in-tune to the spirit and it just seems like we are in sync!

Our consejo was so amazing! I am in awe always of the example that president gives us of having fun but also being the most diligent leader that I know! We had such a spiritual experience there because each person in the consejo bore their testimony about something distinct and no one stayed quiet as we each gave our opinion in how we can help this mission grow and progress!

We have been working with a less-active who has come home from her mission for 20 years now, but has completely forgotten what she promised when she got baptized.  It has been such a struggle to try and get her to understand what she had promised because she worked on Sunday. She just kept saying no no no, and all we could do to help her was be very direct and pray. This last Sunday she walked into the door of the capilla and my heart jumped when she did!

We had a lesson with a less-active family yesterday.  We walked in and to our surprise the entire ward was sitting in that room and we knew that this was heavenly father giving us the opportunity to bare our testimonies about the power of the sacrament and the 10 virgins who were locked out because many sitting there came late to sacrament! It was such a powerful experience.  it was practically a testimony meeting with the entire ward!

Sorry I didn’t have too much time to write but I am doing so well--thanks to all your prayers and faith.  I couldn’t do this without you! Keep moving forward always with a smile! I LOVE YOU.

Love, Hermana Mahas

The group that is leaving