Fam!

How are all of you!? Well, this week has been a good one, especially with getting new investigators that I feel have a really bright potential. I am beginning to see how meticulously Heavenly Father works in order to guide us to those people who are just waiting to accept this gospel and to come unto Christ.

Noelia; the girl who I told you about last week, we had another lesson with her. As we started to talk she just didn’t want to listen.  Her eyes were all over the place and we just felt like our words were passing right through her ears. However, through the power of the spirit, our conversation slowly switched gears to the topic of the atonement and repentance. Didn’t know why at first, but as my companion and I began to say words like "clean", "lift your burdens", "forget your past", her eyes immediately focused.  Like Holland says, "through her EYES we were able to find her need".  She began to tell us how she wants to be a new person and by the end we committed her to a baptismal date for the 21 of June. Please pray for her!

Gaberiella; we met her mom on the street and for some reason she wanted us to visit her daughter because she needs guidance in her life. Well, from this comment we were expecting this girl to be a little rebellious and will not want to listen. But, as this 14 year old girl began to talk about God I felt I was talking to a 30 year old, spiritually. We began to talk about Joseph Smith and she was captivated by the idea that he was 14 years old as well and she wanted to learn more. She has such an amazing potential. Seeing little miracles like this each day makes me realize how much God knows me and the people we teach. 

Jaime; one day as we were walking along the street, feeling discouraged.  All of the sudden I caught the eye of a woman with her baby in hand walking on the other side of the street. As I made my way over to the other side of the street, I didn’t even say one thing, and this women says "Come to my house and share your message with me. I am free right now". Haha wow, this has NEVER happened to me before. It goes to show how a little smile and eye contact can affect a person. She is completely receptive and we gave her a BOM to read. She is beginning to share everything she is learning with her husband and is progressing!

This last Saturday we had a baptism of yet another little 9 year old whose parents and practically whole family are less-actives. It was amazing to see this process of his. At first this boy had no interest in this message but little by little I was able to see the change in him.  All the way to the point of him asking when he could be baptized. He has such a strong desire and he has changed so much. To see the little smile on his face when he walked in the baptismal font was priceless. At the end of the service we asked his parents to bare their testimonies and they were both just bawling. I could feel the spirit working on them, allowing them to remember the joy of the gospel. 

This last Sunday was the Sunday of less-actives.  We were able to get five families that we have been working with to attend this last Sunday. It was such an amazing site to see, to see people enter into the ward after many many years. Causing them to remember the spirit and happiness they once felt many years ago. 

I am going to end with the lovely prayer one of our less actives offered in one of our activities.....Padre nuestro, que estas en los cielos santificado, se ha tu numbre venga a nosotros tu reigno, hagase tu boluntad aqui en la tierra como on lose cielos. danos hoy nuestro pan de cada dia, perdon nuestros ofensas como tambien nosotros perdonamos a los que ofenden......................what? haha This can’t be happening right now, I thought as my companion looked at me with a smile. haha Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor. Oh the things that happen each day here are crazy.

Well, this was my week! i hope all of you are doing well. Just remember this week to LOVE those around you. You may forget the nice comment, the little smile, or the small act of service that you did.  But for the person receiving this love, will never able to forget it. Watch the talk of Pres. Monson again if you can. I love you and miss you all more than you will ever know. Talk to you next week!

Love, Jess

p-day fun

FAM! 

Hey! How is everyone? Thank you so much for all of your pics and emails. They really keep me going each week! Let’s see, yesterday we got the call for our transfers and......haha no change. I am positive that the Lord wants us to be together for a reason. And if we work with all our hearts, minds and strength we will find why we were meant to be companions for this time!

Well, this week has been a little bit of a struggle with appointments falling through and such.  But its ok because there were lights at the end of the tunnel! You just have to look for them. There were some mini miracles that happened this week. Many of them were with inactives. 

There is an inactive single mom who has two kids who live in conditions that are extremely extremely poor. The kids maybe eat two slices of bread and one glass of milk each day. And at times I don’t think the mom eats.  But despite this, she has the desire to completely change spiritually. She has made many mistakes in her life and because of this she hasn’t entered the ward for 12 years now. She doesn’t feel worthy enough to attend. However, wow, this last Sunday as my companion and I waited at the door of the ward house, the time had passed to enter but all of the sudden as we began to walk back. We heard the voices of her two little kids behind us. It was such a spiritual experience to watch her walk into the Sacrament room, after 12 years of inactivity. This day was her day to change. The Lord gave us a miracle that day.

Another really cool experience I had was with another inactive. She is 21 years old and is the daughter of the former Bishop who is extremely strict and I feel like this is part of the reason she fell away from the church these past two years. She has been going to a university and hanging with people who are not at all keeping with the standards of the church. She has not wanted anything to do with us these past few weeks. But one day we really felt impressed to go visit this family, and sure enough she was there. We all sat down with her and the parents, and the funny thing was as we began to talk, the parents slipped out of the room haha. We began to ask her questions about God, and if she thought she had a potential. There were questions that came out of my mouth that were not my own. And it came to the point where she began to cry and told us her desire to change the direction of her life. Once again, this was another miracle that Heavenly Father gave us this week.  The light at the end of the tunnel! 

Yesterday, we headed to a house of an inactive member but when we knocked on the door a young girl answered to tell us he wasn’t there. AH dang we thought. But right then we got the feeling to go in and share with her this message. It’s hard to say this but I think she has been the most prepared person spiritually that we have taught. As we asked her questions about her faith in God and what she wants for her life the spirit has never been so strong. And during that whole time I just thought that she is one of the people just ready to accept this gospel. And at the end of the lesson she asked "When can you come back?" What a miracle. I know Heavenly Father wanted us to find her and he led us there.

Funnies of the week:  As we went to teach another less-active, he answered the door with black hair all over his hands. And guess what he was doing? Skinning, by hand, cuies . . . rats. Yep. And all of the cuies he had dehaired were sitting in a vat of water. Dead. Mmmm lovely. 

Another one was, as we were reading the BOM with a less-active mom. All of the sudden her son who is 12 years old, who could probably pass off as a nose-guard for the NFL, walked in the front room with his tiny little towel just to get a snack to eat in the shower, he told us. Haha wow. These little things just make my day. Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor. 

Well, that was my week! The big thing that I learned from this week was that in our lives, amidst all the disappointments, we always have to be attentive, always watching for the small tender mercies of the Lord each day. If we look, and have hope, Heavenly Father will always put a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is hard to recognize at first. 

I love you all so so much and I miss you more than I could ever say. Thank you for your prayers, I can feel them each day. Talk to you next week! Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

My Zone

FAM!

Hey! I can hardly believe that I got to talk to you and see your beautiful faces yesterday. Everyone seems to be doing so great which gives me so much comfort! Anna, Milo just seemed like one of the family sitting there in Midway. Ah and I can’t believe how big Mills, Eleanor and Abey are! It just about broke my heart when Abey gave me a kiss over the computer.  And how Mills was repeating every Spanish word that I would say. Ahhh it was so amazing to talk to you guys and realize I actually have a living family still.

Well this week has been great but a little bit of a challenge. It all started during planning.  My companion had a really bad migraine and soon enough we were in the emergency room with her. She went into the doctor and he said that she would not be able to work for four days due to the stress of the mission. Soo she stayed in the hospital and I had to direct the area for three days. Each day I had to call people to be my companion for the day.  Both of them were 17 years old and in the ward. During this time every decision, turn of the corner and every lesson depended on me and my young companions just followed along. I felt so weak but somehow I did it. I’ve only known this area for 5 weeks but things seemed to work out ok. The last night of these three days I went back to my penchanista’s house and Hna. Rivera said the doctor checked her and absolutely everything was fine with her. Was this a coincidence? Absolutely not. Hna. Rivera and I were talking later that day and came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father gave her this health problem in order for me to grow and get a little taste of what it is going to be like if she leaves this transfer. During this transfer I have been struggling with having confidence in myself. However, through this experience I was able to realize that I have the capacities, but I just have to have the faith. Heavenly Father lets us struggle because he loves us and this is definitely what I learned through this challenge. 

Let’s see  . . . like I told you yesterday, Jose Maria wants to get baptized but is waiting for a couple weeks due to family things, traveling and such, but all that matters is that he has the conviction and the desire to enter into this covenant! I’m pretty sure he is going to be the next prophet in the future.

Our other investigators that I was talking about last time, Rene and Marisol?  Yeah, during a lesson this week we were talking about the sacrament and how "those who have made this covenant with Heavenly Father, which you haven’t yet." They both looked at each other and said, "Well there is something we haven’t told you yet.  We have been baptized..." WHUUAA??  This completely threw me off.  For two weeks now they have been acting like they are investigators. But no worries. It is not only our job as missionaries to help others come unto Christ through baptism, but help these people through the most important part of all this, enduring to the end!

We have an amazing family that we are teaching right now. It is a single mom and she has three kids. She lost her husband two years ago and now she says she is looking for the right path for her and her family. She is looking for comfort and peace during this time of unbelievable responsibility and trial. Tonight we are going to have a family home evening with this family and talk about the blessings of the temple and eternal families. I am so excited!

The topic of the temple seems to be theme of my mission right now. We are working with so many less active families and are helping them along the path to get to the temple right now. It is amazing to see the blessings that come not only when one goes to the temple but before, as these families prepare, I can see the change and the difference in their lives!

Well, I hope you liked my "chop" of a haircut. I don’t think my companion got the message that I just wanted a trim. But it’s all good--welcome to the mission! The unexpected! Wow, this week has been a challenge, but just know that through the power of the atonement we cannot only endure but ENDURE WELL. I love you all so much. Thank you for your examples in my life, without them I wouldn’t be here today.  Keep smiling through the tough times!

Love, Jess

Guess who I let . . . . cut my hair!

FAM! 

"How are you all?". . . (Huggy, please explain)  I think this week especially we have progressed a lot in our work here as a companionship.   But it was nothing we ever did, it was Heavenly Father pouring out his blessings in response to our fast in order to find people who are searching for the truth. On Monday we had a Noche de Hogar with a man named Raul. He has about 25 years and is so awesome. We showed him the Mormon Message of Uchtdorf with the man on the cruise ship who thought all the food and parties were not included in the ticket. It was awesome.  Watch it. Anyway, we began talking to him about the potential he has and how without the gospel he is living "under his privileges". And somehow the spirit led us to challenge him to baptism and he willingly accepted. However for 20 days he will be working in Cuzco which will be hard but we made him a schedule of things to read and pray bout each week and found a church in Cuzco for him to go to.

But, what the true miracle was that on Saturday we went to the house of Raul to have a lesson the day before he left. And as we walked in the whole family was sitting at the table and we ended up teaching the entire family. The grandparents are less-actives but the children are not members. But I honestly thought they were members, the way they spoke about god and prayer, etc. We invited them to church the next day and told them we would pick them up at 7:30 sharp haha (Arequipena time is 45 minutes later). The next day we knocked on their door and they were dressed and ready! What a miracle.  During sacrament meeting both the brother and sister, Rene and Malisol (about 25 years old), were asking us question after question and stayed for the entire three hours! Marisol was even taking notes during the classes.  They are so prepared. And heavenly father knew that!

Also, on Sunday a member brought an investigator, Carmen, who is really interested! Last night we were intending to visit Jose Maria but he wasn’t home. We tried again anyway to ring the doorbell, but oopps it was the wrong one. To our surprise this door was the house of the member who brought Carmon. And for some reason, my companion and I felt we needed to share a scripture with him. As we walked into the house, again to our surprise, Carmon and her whole family were sitting on the couch! So amazing. And she agreed for us to come and teach her and her family this Wednesday!

Wow, the little coincidences of walking into the family of Raul and ringing the wrong doorbell were things that only the hand of God could have directed. He is in every foot step, turn of a corner and knock of a door. These experiences are evidence to me that Heavenly Father KNOWS HIS CHILDREN so so personally and knows where to send his servants to find them. 

We had another lesson with Jose Maria. He knows he wants to get baptized but is a little hesitant. Yesterday we challenged him to pray to choose a date for his baptism and today we have a NDH with him and have been praying that he has found the date. Please pray for him!

This Saturday we have a baptism of a young boy, Mateo, who is 10 years old and is in kind of the same situation as the two boys we baptized a few weeks ago. The family is less-active but Mateo has all the desire to get baptized. Like family Hanco, I know this will spark in the family what they have been missing for so many years.

Funny of the week: We went to go visit our recent converts, the two little boys, to teach a lesson. They live in the 3rd piso, or floor, so we did the usual doorbell for these kind of houses . . . . throwing rocks at the window haha. We waited for a while and as I turned around to walk away something really hard hit me in the head. Oh wait, it’s a half-eaten chicken bone. I look up and there are the two Hanco boys laughing their heads off. haha They are crazy but doing so well. They are going to be such strong missionaries when they grow up.

Well, that was my week! I hope all of you had an amazing one. Just know that Heavenly Father is in every detail of your lives. I am so grateful for all of you and your amazing examples. I wouldn’t be who I am today without each of you. I love you soooo much. Talk to you Sunday!!!!! I will try as hard as I can to make this work. Pray for the Skype system ha. Love you and keep smiling!

Love, Jess

My little gym