Family!

How is everyone? I hope you all had a great week. However, I know this week we lost an unbelievable member of our family...Barbara. It was really hard for me at first to take in this news but we really only have reason to rejoice because we have the knowledge of the plan of salvation. And now it is our responsibility to share this plan with others assuring them that they all can live eternally with their families again after this life. She was an unbelievable example to me of courage in the face of trial and I will miss her so much, but I know she is here right by my side.

This week has been good! We are just trying really hard to find those who Heavenly Father has prepared for us. In response to this desire to find these people, this week we planned a "zone blast" with our zone. We got the map of our area and split it up into seven parts with the seven different companionships - each in a specific area. And in two hours, we went out, knocked doors and contacted on the street. They all came back and gave us their references and the next day we went out and tried to contact all of them. It was truly an amazing experience.  I could truly see that we have found those who are searching for the truth!

As a companionship our goal is to bring more unity to this ward and also to get each of the members involved in this work. Because honestly, without the members we cannot reach the divine potential that this area has! So, this last Sunday we passed out a sheet of paper "a ticket out of sacrament".  On this slip of paper each person had to write the name of a friend or a neighbor that came to their heart and mind. And after, they couldn’t leave the doors without this ticket haha. It was such a special experience to see the light of this work burn within each member as they meditated about these people in their lives, who are searching for happiness. So, this week we have a lot of references to contact! haha

From these contacts we found one who was truly searching for this gospel. Our area is huge and we realized on our map that there was an area in my area that had literally not been touched and we felt strongly that we needed to take the time to know the people in this area. This week as we knocked on the doors, we found one young kid who is 21 years old. He had known about the church at age 12 when he was in Tagna and wanted to be baptized but since they moved he had lost contact until now. What a miracle.  Goes to show that Heavenly Father knows perfectly each one of his children and their desires and through the spirit we were led there!

This week we had a sister conference at the mission home.  It was such an unbelievable experience. They had returned missionaries from grandmas to other sister who just came home recently to come and speak about their experiences and give us advice. It was an amazing refresher to remember our talents and duties and sisters on the mission. 

This next week we will be having this conference with Elder Anderson.  I am so, so excited and am trying to prepare spiritually every day for what he has to say to this mission. 

This week we have seen many miracles and I know there are many more in store. I miss all of you so, so much and I can feel each of you standing by me each day and each step I take on this mission. Our family is my motivation, comfort and strength on this mission!

I love you! Keep smiling!

Love, Jess

Sister Conference - reunion of the sisters of the CCM

Fam!

Hey! How is everyone? It sounds like everything is great down there in Utah. Well this week was a little crazy. On Monday night I left for the mission home to have dinner and to have a training for all of the trainers. There were 28 elders and three sisters, including me, training this transfer. All of the elders slept at the mission home and the three sisters stayed in a hotel nearby which was a blast! One of them was Hna. Bazon from Honduras and the other sisters was from Australia. Her Spanish accent mixed with her Australian accent was amazing, I loved it! The next morning we went to the chapel to wait for the arrival of our new kids. As they all came off the bus, they were almost all North Americans and as I asked them where they came from. 80 percent of them said Utah, the factory, they say here. There were three new sisters. One who was from Idaho, the other from Ecuador and the last from Trujillo!

The president loves to be funny so he had all of the newbies close their eyes and we had to hug our new companion from behind the back. He showed me to the back of my companion, Hna. Mendo from Trujillo! Right then, she whispered in my ear, “I know it was going to be you, I just knew it.” She is so amazing. She has three other brothers who are on missions right now. Her whole family are members except for her dad, this is a true challenge for her. From the pictures, just guess how old she is. She is 27 years old! But as she says, “I KNEW that Heavenly Father wanted me to come on a mission, and to Him time doesn’t exist, and it doesn’t to me either!” haha. She couldn’t be more humble, which surprises me because if I were that age and a teenager was training me, I’m not sure I would be as willing as she is to learn from me and from the spirit. Her experiences in her life have created her into an unbelievable person and a beautiful, strong testimony.

Our new area in Hunter is beautiful, however, the entire area is hill after hill. And the incline is ridiculous, but no worries, we have a fun time in the morning when we go out and run through the streets. Well, our apartment is tiny, tiny, probably half the size of my room at home haha. I walked into the apartment and the first thing that I opened was the area book, and good, it didn’t have any investigators in there. So mostly this week we went around to each of the houses of members in the directory, asking for references and scheduling specific days that they could each show us around the area and teach us which houses were of the less actives and converts. The first few days I felt like Heavenly Father gave me a heightened ability to do things that I could never do before. As you all know (Dad), I am not the best with directions, however, in two days I was able to memorize all of the streets and get us around. This is truly a miracle. I could never learn an area that fast without the help of the Lord. This is evidence, that if the Lord calls, He will give you all of capabilities to carry out this calling.

We met the bishop, he is awesome. And we got our lovely welcome to the ward with a 10 minute talk, which was so much fun haha. But I can tell that this ward has potential but we just need to work hard to get them excited to work side by side with us!

Although this week was a little rough trying to figure out how to direct this area in the most efficient way possible, but I am positive that we are going to see many miracles in this area. My comp is an extremely hard worker and is a spiritual giant. We now just have to ask the Lord how we can best use our talents to find the people who are searching for the truth in this area!

On the 29th as an entire mission, we are having a special conference with Elder Anderson and one of the members of the general bishopric!!!!!!! I am so excited! The mission president’s wife put together a choir with the areas that are close, and my area is one of those! So we have a choir of 12 sisters and 12 elders who are going to sing for Elder Anderson! This will be such an unbelievable experience and I cannot wait to prepare spiritually for the words that we are going to hear from him.

Well, that was my week--just trying to jump into this new area, figuring out how to direct it. But I am positive that Heavenly Father has sent us to this area for a reason and he will not leave us to ourselves in this calling. I am excited to work with all my heart, mind and strength to bring out the best in this area. I love all of you so, so much and I pray for you each day! Keep smiling!

Love, Jess

982 -- at the mission home!

My Pench, Hna. Lucy

Our Street!

Hey fam!

So yep, I have transfers today! I am leaving to my new area in Hunter, which is about an hour and a half from my area now, .and all I know is that it is full of steep hills so that will be a blast haha. I am not really sure what is in my future at this point. I packed up my bags last night and am ready to go where the Lord wants me to go! After I drop all of my bags off at my new place, I will be going to the mission home to do training with the president on how to be a trainer, which will be fun. And then I have no idea where I am sleeping haha. But on Tuesday I will be going to the mission home again to go get my new hijita! I haven’t gotten any info on who it will be but we will see I guess! I am a little nervous but no worries, everything will be great!
Yesterday we went around to visit several people and to say goodbye. There was a little miracle that happened yesterday. This week, the family of four told us that they didn’t want to be baptized anymore. I honestly have never been so confused in my life at this point. They were completely ready and all of the sudden they just kind of rejected us and the idea, which was really sad for a while. And we constantly asked ourselves, “What did we do wrong? What else could we have done?” However, yesterday we just had the feeling to stop by just to say goodbye even though they were not getting baptized. And right when I started to say my goodbyes to the whole family, Carmen, the oldest, all of the sudden interjected and said, "Can I and my three other sisters get baptized this Tuesday?" Whaaaa??? I couldn’t believe it. In this moment I learned that we need to trust in the Lord’s timing, even when at times it may seem hard to accept at first. If we put all of our efforts in we can wait in peace until the will of the Lord is brought to pass.

We also visited Vanessa and her partner. They have COMPLETELY changed, especially him. At first I honestly thought that he would never progress. However, I can see his change through the atonement of Jesus Christ. They both remind me of the story of John Tanner. After we taught them about the Word of Wisdom, the first thing they asked was, "Now, how should we get rid of our big bag of coffee?" They have a faith larger than life and they are willing to give up everything in their power in order to come unto Christ. They are getting married this month and I hope that I can get permission from president to go because they want us to be their testigos. They have the goal to go to the temple in their future! It was extremely hard to leave them but I am going to keep in contact with them for the rest of my life!

We also visited Familia Berrio, the less-active family that we helped teach. They are planning on going to the temple this next October to be sealed as a family! Nichole, the one who just got baptized is their daughter. It was such a sacred experience to see the dad do this ordinance. Because for a long time, he has been working with the bishop and us to be able to get to that point and he made it!

Funny story . . . we were walking in a park one day and this man came up to us, greeted us very nicely, started talking to us about religion and he started to get really heated and said, "Anyone who has white skin and blue eyes is from the devil!" Wow. All we could do was laugh it off for the rest of the day!

Well, that was my week! We will see what this week brings me with all of these new changes! But I have peace that everything will be fine because with the Lord, all things are possible! I love each of you so much. I am praying for you each night! Keep smiling!
Love, Jess

Last pic with the Bishop's wife

The beautiful Salcedo Family

Vanessa is getting baptized soon.  She wants to give me her Peruvian dance dress.

Nichole's baptism

Family!


"Where are we living?" This is the phrase that I woke up to this morning with my companion haha. The Catholic Church outside our new apartment was having a party all night long and at 5 in the morning they set off cannons for about three minutes continually--it practically shook our entire apartment. I think that is the first time I woke up just laughing. My companion is amazing and can always make me laugh at the drop of a hat. But, unfortunately I will not be with her for this next transfer. We had interviews with the President this week and he gave me a little sneak peak at the new changes coming up this next week. He wants me to train in a new area with a new and fresh missionary from the CCM. I’m not sure where I am going or what her name is but all I know is that she is from Trujillo! Haha wow, this will be hard but with humility and help from Heavenly Father, anything is possible (Alma 26:12). I am just praying that their area book is good or else we will be completely lost at first haha. We will see how this goes! But you never know, he is one of those presidents that changes things at the last minute, so this is not completely set in stone but it’s about 98 percent.


We had to move this week because the child of the owner of our apartment was coming back so we had to find an apartment in three days, which was so much fun. However, Heavenly Father truly blesses His missionaries, not only spiritually but physically, because right as the day came that they were going to be kicked out, we found an apartment right across the street from our penchanista! This was such a blessing because our last apartment was super far away from her and it was completely inefficient to get there and eat each day. But now our apartment is right there which is super nice! Our pench wants to lose weight so from now on, today was the first day, she is going to come out to run with us. Haha I was just laughing all morning because all she could say was "no puedo, no puedo, no puedo," every time she would do a crunch or run around the park. She cracks me up like nothing else! Her life is extremely hard but she is always laughing and looking to serve those around her. She is such an unbelievable example to me. I am going to miss her a lot.


This week we were planning on having a baptism of three this past Saturday but their dad could not make it so they decided to make it for this week on Saturday. They are so amazing. However, it is a blessing that they didn’t have their baptism this last week because I had the overwhelming feeling that they were not quite ready to make this step in their lives and if they were pressured into this covenant without knowing exactly what they are promising I would feel that they were not truly converted, which is what matters! So this timing was a blessing because Heavenly Father knew that they were not quite ready yet. The parents are planning on getting married this month at the mass-wedding which is so excited and such an amazing step in their lives.


We worked a lot with less-actives this last week which was so fulfilling spiritually to me. To be led to these people who have forgotten the covenants they have made is a blessing, to help them realize the happiness they once knew. Honestly all we had to do was go to their house and Heavenly Father did the rest, because each of the less-actives we visited returned to church this last Sunday which was such a miracle to see. Heavenly Father made this miracle possible and it was so touching to see the faces of these people in sacrament as they participated in the santa cena. There was such a change in their countenance!


We have two more baptisms for this month. They are so amazing and have such a desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ, although their road of repentance was not easy we are still working with them to prepare for this special day that is coming up in a month! The way we were led to these two was a miracle and only through the guidance of our Father in Heaven we were able to find these souls who were waiting to hear the gospel!


Well this week was a challenge and a blast like each week in the mission! Each day I am learning of my weaknesses -- I have a lot! However, through the power of the atonement, you can all make these weaknesses into your greatest strengths. I love each of you so much. We will see what happens to me for sure next week. But until then . . . keep smilinggggggggggggggggg!


Love, Jess

Happy Birthday last Tuesday, Dad!

We had to move apartments

Taking down our bed

She's wiping off dirt from my neck after the day

Christmas lights for our new bed