Family!

How are you guys? I hope everything is going well! Well, these past few days have been pretty crazy with all the changes that are going on. On Saturday our zone leaders called with our changes. I knew that my comp was going to leave because she has 7 months in this area. Insane, I know. And the other gringo missionaries told me that I will probably get a companion who has more time than I have in the mission because that is what happened to them at this time in their mission. But, nope. Haha I am now going back to my old area in Buenos Aires to train a North American newbie. Wow. Never saw that coming. I can already tell that this transfer is going to be the fire of humility. I still feel like I am new at this and I have SO many weaknesses. But, this is an opportunity to rely COMPLETELY on the Lord.

Sorry, I have pics but this computer won’t let me load them. My new comp is from Arizona and has a super super out-going personality. She loves to talk and have fun 24/7 haha. She is completely opposite of my last companion, Hna. Rivera. Hna. Rivera was completely chill and liked to lay low but now, haha totally opposite. But it’s perfect. Hna. Guymon has an unbelievable desire to work and always can make me smile! Hna. Rivera got transferred to Central which is like a half hour away from Zamacola. It was super hard to let her go today. I was bawling like a baby when the taxi pulled off. She taught me so many things that I honestly can’t even describe. She was an angel, and I know that she will change even more lives in her new area.

Yesterday we visited the members, less-actives and investigators, that we have been working with. Wow, it’s was an extremely emotional day for the both of us, especially Hna. Rivera because this has been her area for her entire mission. And I found as we were visiting all these people that I may not have gotten very many baptisms in this area but I created a real bond with the less-actives and the members. The single adults in our ward put together a whole program for us, giving us gifts like a big slab of meat, some yogurt, etc. haha. But honestly, this ward has turned into my family, especially the young people in this ward. They have the pure love of Christ always, and at times I feel like I was sent to this area to learn from their example. Haha I was a wreck after this little program that they had. Never thought I would get so close to them!

The miracle of this week with one of our investigators. We have been working with him for the past two weeks and has a MAJOR problem with drinking and this is practically the cause of all the faults in his life. We have been teaching about the cleansing power of the atonement and at first we saw zero progress in him. But just this last week Mady (the Norwegian--this investigator is her brother-in-law) called us on the phone and asked, "What did you guys do? My brother in law refuses to drink and has completely done a 360. He is a new person." This is evidence to me of the true POWER of the atonement and through this atonement ANY person can overcome their past and get over their biggest weakness. We did absolutely nothing haha Christ and the power of His atonement did it all. He came to church yesterday and loved it! But, now that I am leaving the area, I have to make sure that the other sisters take hold of him really fast! Wow, isn’t Heavenly Father amazing?

Wow, sorry I can’t right tons with all the changes that are going on today. But KNOW that I love each and every one of you and I pray for you each day. What I have really learned this week and I am sure I will continue to learn this this next transfer, that the only way that we can overcome our weaknesses is to GIVE them to Christ in order to make them our STRENGTHS. The power of the atonement is not only for our sins but for our weaknesses, doubts, heartaches and disappointments. He knows how to PERFECTLY succor every one of us. Trust in his perfect knowledge of your soul. I love you all so so much! Talk to you next week! Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

Hey everyone!

How is everyone doing? I hope this week went well for everyone! This week has been good; just a lot of work to do in this huge area of ours. I swear our area takes up half of the mission alone. We are really trying to step foot in the majority of our area that we can right now in order to start up these parts that haven’t been proselyted in in years.
 
Let’s see. . . the other day we had a multi-zone conference with the president and his wife which was extremely special. The wife taught a health class and had her notes in Spanish typed out line by line. She was trying so hard to speak but by the end she just said, "Oh I give up haha," and the president translated for her. She is the cutest thing in the entire world. The president’s message was amazing. He spoke about the "eye of faith" Either 12:19, and how as a missionary, and you guys too, can pass through the veil of your limits. Meaning, looking passed what you think you are capable of and seeing with your eye of faith–what god sees you are capable of accomplishing. He is such an unbelievable man and I connect with him so well. He is so happy ALL the time and has a heart of gold and cries at just about everything. He reminds me a lot of Dad that way–always wiping away a tear in Sacrament meeting haha.
 
If you remember the family that I was talking about who has a child who is a member but they are not? Yeah, we are really trying to get them to set a date to get married, however, that dad keeps making excuses about how he has to finish his house first. The mom calls us every week for our help in helping him make the decision to get married. Ah, I know for a fact that the mom has the desire to get baptized, but first they have to make this decision. We are praying for them each day and working as hard as we can to make him realize that this is the time to follow Christ in his life. Please pray for this family!
 
Gabriella is doing well. She is participating in the activities with the young women each week and loves it! However, right now we really need to work with the mom in order to have her realize what a blessing this is in her daughter’s life. Her mom is a little cold towards us right now but little by little we are trying to gain her confidence.
 
Soila, who is the MA who we met knocking doors, turns out one day after our visit her son died. And now as their family is trying to find comfort and peace, they have seeked us out in order to give them this comfort. We had such a special lesson with them the other day. The husband and the daughter were there, who are not members, and we were prompted to talk about the plan of salvation and family history. It was unreal to them to know that the ones that they love are waiting for them to do their ordinances. I could truly see the spirit of Elijah working through them and I believe through family history we can bring this family into this gospel.
 
We have been working with this young less-active family for the past month. They have four ANGEL children who are the sweetest little spirits and always so polite. This family lives in probably the most humble conditions compared to just about everyone else we teach. We have been working on the goal of getting them to the temple which is a little bit of a struggle for them because of their living conditions. However, a couple weeks back we challenged them to change their job in order to come on Sundays. And through their amazing faith, they did! This last visit they told us that they can’t truly see the benefits of this change yet but have faith that they will begin to see miracles soon–a miracle to allow them to make the trip to the temple. There is no doubt that Heavenly Father will bless them for the sacrifice they have made. We are going to continue to work with them in order to see them off to the next trip to the temple!
 
Well, this next week is transfers and I am positive that my companion is going to leave, so we will see what happens! Next week though, we will be in a triple companionship because all the people from Central America are being sent to other missions because Peru will not accept their visas. So sad! The girl from Honduras is leaving this Wednesday to Columbia, her new mission.
 
Well, this week has been great! I am so glad to hear that all of you are doing so well! Know that I love each and every one of you so much and without your prayers and support, I know I wouldn’t be here today! Keep smilin! Talk to you next week!
 
Love, Jess

Hey Fam!

Sorry, this week I can’t be too detailed or too long because today we are only allowed to have 45 minutes. We are being "punished" because there is a rule that if someone in your zone reports a baptism and doesn't email the form to the assistants by 8:30 on Sunday night, the whole district doesn't get to have p-day. And well, that’s what happened to us. Ah man, my comp and I were so mad at first but hey, to look on the bright side it’s a great opportunity to learn how to forgive haha. Let’s see, I will just write out a few bullet points for this week.

If you remember me talking about the dad who came to church with his son, who we made an appointment with, well we went to his house, at first, to help the boy (the only member in his family) to learn about the priesthood because he had an interview for receiving this priesthood coming up. As we began to help the boy with his goals, his mom and dad were right by his side, acting even more excited and motivated to accomplish these goals. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, why don’t they get baptized already?’ As we began to talk to them we found out that they hadn’t gotten married now for 30 years! Wow, that’s why. We started to ask them why and several excuses followed. However, we tried to be direct and asked him to pray to see if this was the time for him to get married because this is a commandment of the Lord. Several days later we were walking the streets and spotted the mom and she said "My husband has completely changed his mind and all we are missing is a date." Wow, all I could think of in this moment was, isn’t God amazing? There are little miracles every day. We are meeting with them tonight to hopefully set a date. Please pray for them.

The other day we got permission to do divisions with the one other set of sisters in my zone; one gringa from Arizona and another hermana from Honduras. Hna. Amador from Honduras came to my area. It was really cool experience working with her. I learned so many things from her example. She is completely different from my comp but this made me realize that each sister has distinct gifts and it is my opportunity to learn and develop the strengths they have.

This week has been a little difficult with investigators. We set up appointments but they were not there, assigned people to pick them up on Sunday but somehow things go wrong. Satan is really trying in every way possible to get in our way right now with investigators. I know we can get past this but we need your prayers!

One last "funny" of the day; the other day we went to teach an investigator and afterwards, the mom brought in "anticusho" which is like a cabob of different meats. I started eating, it was super good so I naturally asked what kind of meat it was and she happily said "corazon." Ohhhhhhh wow, I don’t think I was ready for that answer haha. I have learned from this moment on, never to ask what it is, just eat it.

Sorry this was a little short due to our "punishment" but it’s all good. This week has been full of disappointments and miracles. Thank you so much for your love and prayers. I couldn't do this without the strength of my family. I love you all so so much. Talk to you next week! Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

Fam!

How are you all? Everyone seems to be doing great witch gives me a lot of comfort. Well, let’s see...this week has been crazy, like every week here in the mission! This week we have made a lot of progress with our investigators especially. But, our numbers were a little low this week as well and I was feeling really disappointed on Saturday. One of the reasons is because we are opening another area this week. They are adding this area to the two areas we have already which is a little bit of a struggle. But it’s all good! However, I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us because Sunday was a miracle day for us!

On Sunday, three of our investigators who are all 14 years old came to sacrament meeting. When they originally said they didn’t have time. Gabriella is one of these three and she is truly bonding with the girls in the ward and she is also coming to every activity! The other two girls brought a friend who is interested in the church also. 

Wow, it literally felt like investigators were falling in our laps yesterday. After sacrament meeting we met another man who is the father of a boy who is a member, but the father is not. He wanted to make an appointment with him in order to learn more about the church his son was participating in! 

After this, one of our less-actives brought her boyfriend who is interested to learn more about this church. The father of this less-active is crazy, down the line kind of a guy. And to our surprise, he set up some chairs in one of the class rooms to have a lesson right then and there! haha He started our the lesson saying "When you are baptized....." Wow, haha a little too fast there bud, But other than that the lesson went well and we set up another!

This day was truly miracle after miracle. I couldn’t stop thinking about Alma 26, where it says "When their hearts were depressed and about to turn back, Heavenly Father came to comfort them". "Bare with patience your afflictions and I will give you success". Never forget this. At times in our lives it feels like there is no hope left, however, as we look forward with an eye of faith and wait with patience, “He will always comfort you and bring you success!”

One really cool story of the week, in our new area, Campo Verde, we were having no luck; knocking on doors, talking to everyone, nothing seemed to work. Since we could not find anyone, we decided to look for the reference of a less-active that lived there. We came to a house, Q 18, and my companion said, yep this is the one.  We knocked and a lady answered saying the person we were looking for did not live there. However, right as we were about to leave we asked if we could share this message with her. She then said "Do you know how to pray?" which I thought was kind of a weird question but we enthusiastically said YES! As we walked into her house her 25 year old son was sitting on a gurney with his skull half gone as a result of a car accident a few years back. It was as if he was a child. In this moment she asked my companion to offer a prayer of comfort for her son. And after this prayer we offered a message of peace. However, during this message I decided to share a scripture from the BOM. And before I shared it, I began to explain what the book was and right in the middle of my explanation she said "Yeah, I have read it before." What? Turns out she has been baptized but went inactive for 40 years! As we left the house my companion turned to me and said, the number of the less-active we were looking for actually lives in Q 28. Heavenly Father led our footsteps there because he knew one of his children needed to be found again!

I taught my first English class this week! It was actually super fun. All of the parents are fanatic about bringing their kids to learn. The adults and the kids are learning on the same level. I love it!

Well, anyway that was my week! Just remember that Heavenly Father is aware of every detail of your lives. And when times seem impossible, he will always come to comfort you! I love you all so much! Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

go-carting craziness!

Fam!

How are you all doing? It is so fun to hear about all that you are up to and accomplishing in your lives.  Everything seems to be going so great at home! Well this week has had its ups and downs but I always try to look for the miracles that have happened instead of the disappointments.  So let’s see . . .

This week we went to visit one of our less-actives. He is a man who was in the Bishopric in the past, has children married in the temple, was an extremely strong member of the church. However, for about 10 years now he has left the church, absolutely hating all the members and everything about the church. At our first visit he told us that he didn’t have faith and that we could never convince him to walk into the church again. But, through a lot of consistency, prayer, fasting and with the helping hand of the Lord we were able to bring him to church these last few weeks. And this last visit he told us that he doesn’t know how to write but he wants us to help him write his history of "coming back into the light," as he put it, and kind of his process of falling away and coming back. I told him our goal is to put this is the Ensign, so we are going to try to do that haha. What a miracle. Thanks to the guiding hand of the Lord and the power of the atonement he was able to change completely! Our next step with him is to get him and his wife to the temple!

Same with two other families that we are working with.  We are working as hard as we can to get them to the temple this October. This is one of my favorite things as a missionary, to work with these less active families and teach them about the eternal importance of the temple and sacred covenants we make there. There is no greater joy than to see these families changing slowly.  Through the power of this gospel, I am able to see the unity and love once again in these family's homes.  And as they have this goal of the temple in sight it is unreal to see the enabling power of the atonement of Christ work to get them to the house of the Lord to be sealed for time and all of eternity. 

We are making a lot of progress with Gaberiella, the 14 year old. She told us this last lesson that she feels like this is the path for her. She has believed all her life that God exhausts but now feels like she needs to DO something with this faith that she has. She is amazing. 

We met another lady who is a mom of 4 kids. We set an appointment with her and as we walked toward her house, she was sitting on her doorstep with her Bible and notebook in hand, ready to learn and ask questions. haha We were completely surprised, this rarely happens here in Peru! We began to talk to her and she started to tell us that she feels that the Catholic Church is completely wrong and every day she feels like she is missing something and needs to find the true path to invite Christ in her life. She is truly looking for the truth and I honestly think that she is one of the choice children of God that Heavenly Father put in our path.

One funny thing of the week; as I was walking in the street with my companion and I make the comment that "I just want to see a white person" haha I have no idea why. However, as we turned the corner I was shocked to see a lady with bright blue eyes and blonde hair. We began to talk to her and she is actually from Norway but has lived in Peru with her husband for 5 years. She speaks perfect Spanish but still has a really thick Norwegian accent. It was super weird to talk to someone with blue eyes. It kind of through me off. But we did set an appointment with her and are going to meet with her this next week. What a coincidence huh? haha

Well, that was my week! There are miracles each day; you just have to LOOK for them. I am so grateful to be a part of this work and I am unbelievable grateful each day that I have a family who I can live with for eternity.  And now, I can help the people here have this hope of an eternal family also! I love you and miss you all more than I could ever say! Keep smilin’.

Love, Jess

It was my comp's b-day on Tuesday

Tried to make it a surprise for her but the Peruvians here are not very discreet haha

lovely nap position