Family!

How was the wedding and everything?! I hope that it was so sacred and special. Well this week was a little of a challenge but its ok there is always a new day and a new week to start over, working with all our might, mind and strength to make up what we faulted the week before.

Let’s see. We made tons of progress with this family of six! Their dad works in the mines and only is home for a couple days in the month and we met him the other day! He WANTS his daughters to be baptized into this church because he has already seen a major change in his daughter Carmen and he wants this for his entire family. As he was talking, I honestly couldn’t not get the vision of a bishop or a stake president out of my head.  He has a giant potential in this church, I am positive of that. His dad comes back in two weeks and we are going to try and have a baptism together with his three daughters, which will be extremely special and sacred for their entire family. Please pray for them.

We are working with a less active family right now with three kids.  They are really progressing! They both now have a calling in the ward and we are going over there each week to prepare them for the temple in October----ahhh which is going to be the most amazing experience for them. They have such a desire to follow the Lord and to become a family, united for time and all of eternity! These people here have such a desire to make covenants in the temple and I can’t wait to see the temple sitting on the grounds of Arequipa someday soon! What an unbelievable sight that will be.

We have an investigator who is so ready to be baptized but like everyone else here has the problem of living with her boyfriend without being married. But I am positive that she will quickly make the decision to either stay with him or not, because of her immense desire to start her life over and follow her Savior Jesus Christ. I don’t think I have seen any other investigator on my mission that has such a thirst for knowledge like she does. After we taught our "principles of the gospel" lesson on Sunday she came up to me and asked me for the book. And the next day when we went to visit her she was halfway done with it! She is amazing.  She just needs to repent, make this major decision and she is on her way to eternal salvation! :)

I cannot say enough about my ward and the help they are to this work. Just a little example; the other day we were waiting for a bus to go to an appointment we had with a new investigator and right then we saw 3 people from our ward walking towards us from different directions.  The first thing they all asked was, "Do you have an appointment we can come with you to?" Haha we ended up going to this investigators house with three members. :) Their testimonies were so powerful for this single dad and one-year-old child. Also, the other day we had a visit with the family of six and as we walked inside our bishop and mission were already in there talking to them. There is no power greater than the support of the members. Be one of those members for the missionaries in your wards!

Well this week was a little hard but I know that through the power of the atonement we can overcome our weaknesses and work our hardest the next week. Remember that the atonement is not only for bad people to become good but for the good people to become BETTER! I love you and miss you all so, so much. Keep smilin. I’m praying for you each night and thank you for your prayers!

Love, Jess

making my comp do some workouts from the missionary workout book. Haha not too happy----good morning!

Family!

How is everyone doing? I hope that everything is up and ready for the wedding.  That day is going to be so so special! Well, this week has been really good.  My companion is a true strength to me.  She knows how to work and have fun, make jokes and laugh all the time! We are working really well together and are beginning to see a lot of progress in our area, especially with the help of our mission leader and our bishop.  They are such strengths to us.

This last Sunday was a true miracle.  However, it did not start out that way. We set out that morning to go and pick up our investigator, Carmen, who is unbelievable. And I had no doubt that she was going to be dressed and ready. However, when we got there no one was at her house.  My comp and I stood there at their door just completely shocked, and as we walked away from their house I just had a giant clump in my throat trying to think of what we had done wrong or what we could have done differently. In sacrament meeting I was feeling a little sad as a result and I opened my hymn book to get ready to sing the sacrament hymn and all of the sudden I see in the corner of my eye a person in the doorway.  It was Carmen!  We waved at her to come in and sit by us but she insisted that we both come outside. As we made our way outside, I turned the corner and I see their entire family of 6 kids in their Sunday best waiting outside the door. This was a miracle and I couldn’t have asked for more that Sunday.  All the kids went to their classes and absolutely love it. Carmen is practically already a missionary and constantly baring her testimony to her sisters and her family. This is the golden family Heavenly Father has given us and I can’t wait to work with them this week to move closer to Christ as a family unit!

There was another investigator, Vanessa, who we taught on Saturday and she committed to come to church with us the next morning and she did! She honestly already seems like a Mormon.  The questions she asks and the answers she gave in the classes were perfect. She is so ready for this gospel in her life.

We are also working with a less-- active family with 5 kids.  It was extremely hard at first to get them to church but this last week they came with their entire family and we are seeing such progress with them. Our goal is to point them towards the temple.  Can’t wait to work with them a lot more this week!

This week we had a Karaoke Night with our entire ward and our investigators. It was an absolute blast. I have never felt so much unity and love in a ward.  They all just feel like family. I wish I could send some videos, because wow, our bishop really put on a show--showing his hidden talents of dancing and singing. haha

Slowly but surely we are continually making progress here and I am seeing miracles each day. The secret is that we just have to LOOK for these blessings in our lives. This is such an unbelievable work and missionaries are not the only ones called to carry it out. Each of you have a badge painted on your heart and as a result we need to try to fearlessly share this gospel with all those who are looking for it. I love you all so so much! Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

two of our investigators and my penchinista on the right

 

Hmmmmm....I wonder where the hot water knob is?....Oh wait...we don't have one haha

Family!

How are you all doin? Happy 4th of July the other day. No worries, my comp insisted on wearing red, white, and blue so I did celebrate haha. And a shout out to Mills, Nichole and David Bennett this last week. I hope your birthday´s were all that you hoped for. I hope you know how much I love you all!

This week has gone well. It was a little overwhelming at first because I don’t know the streets, the houses and I have the responsibility to teach my comp also. However, I am positive that Heavenly Father knows our weaknesses and is helping us fulfill this calling despite them. But one of the strengths that He has given us is being 2 gringos in the same area, calling attention everywhere we walk. I love my new companion. She is always super positive despite the disappointments that we pass each day. She is truly a strength to me. I really don’t feel too much like a senior comp because I am trying to stress the fact that we have to work 50-50. I don’t have more power than she does! But, we are working well together and have set many goals to make our companionship stronger!

This week I was just trying to get to know all of our investigators, members and less-actives. A lot of information to take in all at once but I know with time I will be able to accomplish what my Heavenly Father wants me to! We have one really amazing investigator; she is 15 and is so so intelligent! We can truly see her becoming converted. This week without us even telling her, she signed herself up for seminary and wants to come to all the activities of the YW. We are hoping to baptize her this month.

We had several cool experiences this week. One day this week, we set out to look for a contact that we had made the day before. And oh yeah, we don’t know the streets and half of the streets don’t have names or numbers on them haha. We asked everyone in our path the direction,"Mas arriba. Mas abajo" haha. Wait what? We kept finding ourselves in the same place. We wanted to give up after 45 minutes of looking for this house, however, just as we were about to give up a man came up to us and offered us a helping hand, finally finding the house. We went in to the house of this mom and her 3 children. We began to ask her questions about her beliefs and all of the sudden she stops us and says, “Well I have been baptized in this church and it has been 20 years since I have assisted. And during this time I have been missing something spiritually in my life.” Wow. In this situation I learned 2 things: 1-that Heavenly Father never forgets about His children that are lost, and always finds a way to bring them back to His fold. EACH soul is precious in His sight. 2-Although we have weaknesses (like finding directions in this area), if Heavenly Father has called you he will qualify you. We all need to look past our weaknesses having confidence that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can make these weaknesses our biggest strength.

We also taught a new family the other day. They have 4 kids who were completely excited to learn about the gospel. This house they have is probably the most humble home I have seen in my time here, which is hard to top. But despite this the light of Christ shines through their faces and I can truly see a future with this family. We will see how it goes this next week!

Well, although this area is only like 10 minutes away from my last area it is a completely different world. Each area has their strengths and weaknesses. Economically this area is A LOT more humble which makes them be a little more humble as well! Our bishop and mission leader are dreams come true. Their support is unbelievable and I can’t wait to work with them throughout this transfer.

Well, this week has gone well. Through this process of training I am truly learning how to be humble and have complete trust in the Lord because without him, I am nothing. But in his strength we can do ALL things. Always remember that (Alma 26:12). I love and miss you all so much! Know that I am praying for your happiness and safety each night. Keep smilin!

Love, Jess

My old ward who threw a goodbye party for us. These are the young people and and a lot of the less-active people that we reactivated.

One of the less-active girls in our ward


Me, Hna. Rivera and Hna. Gymon

Me and Hna. Gymon