ok im the worst at this whole write everyone and send pix that take forever to upload and get all my stories in. guess ill  hvae to skip some. adn just hit the high lights. ill have more to tell when i get home

first of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH AND HAILEY! WOOOOW best sisters in the world right there, hands down.

also GO AGGIES! first day of school today! wooow

 

sweet,. so this week we had our second baptism! FJuan carlos, and it was a MIRACLE!! this guy kept getting cold feet but eventually we restored his faith. and the spirit was strong. and im pretty sure he knows he did the right thing. he is awesome and very special.

also, we didnt have a musical number, so naturally i volunteered. we found a guitar (which it was a miracle we got it cause the guy didnt have time and neither did we) and i rehearsed once before the baptism then performed i stand all amazed in spanish. then, the movie that was supposed to be prepared for the time when he was changing fell through, so....hna gonzales played more hymns in the guitar in spanish. that was kinda scary adn deff a first for me. but i was grateful to bring the psirit through music

 

 it has been amazing. his name is Juan Carlos, he is 21 and he lives with his family who are members. he has been prepared!

he is awesome. he really accepted things well. we might have had to go over the law of chastitiy with him a few times but ,. i think he gets it. it was a very spiritual ceramony. we were nervous he wasnt going to make it. to be honest, there were a lot of miracles when it came to this guy. he almost didnt go to his interview. that was nerve wracking, after his interview, at his final lesson, he started to get scared and almost backed out, but through lots of prayer and thru the spirit, we found his doubts, brought a strong spirit and restored his faith. it was close!

 but i think he knows he made the right decision. it was really neat.

 

 

 

 

 

also, i rann into a convert from an elder in my ward. Elder Harper baptised this lady karen aroruiz and we got talking and im pretty sure the one from my homeward baptised her! cool! terry harpers son

this week we taught some pretty poor people. my heart broke again and again. i mean plant weaved roofs and dirt floors and their prized posetion is a sheep to make blankets to sell. two babies, and an abusive grandma. why why why does the world have to be so hard. and its winter here! i couldnt bare to imagine those two babies in their dirt home sleeping in the cold. my heart.  all i can do is pray!

also this week, i got sick. the peru is getting to me. i got a dang nasty cold and a good deep chest cough. but nothing is stoppig this missionary. also, it was crazy, the day after i sang at the baptism, i lost my voice completely! thats a close call right!! crazy.

but we are good. i found a hair and a bug in my food this week. yum! protine! and we have a church dog. yes there was a dog roaming around durring sacrament meeting. that was strange....

oh ya and tea and coffe are ok here i have had tea and coffee for breakfast like every day. (but its peruvian kind so its made different and president said its ok.) plus you cant really argue with your pensionista....thast super awk. we are looking for a new one cause she is drama

 

. welp thats the latsest.

 

love hna Gonzales

 

Finally in Peru

DEAREST FAMILY AND FRIENDS,

i made it! im actually here! who knew this day would actually come! 

and its everything i imagined AND MORE! 

check out the blog: (i made it to the mission blog) 

kurtandkathymarler.blogspot.com

 

ok where i live: i feel like im camping all the time. dont touch the shower head while you{re showering cause it will shock you. and make sure you wear sandals in the shower or you will get bugs inder your nails. or worse. we live in what they call [a room] cause its just one room out of someones house, except someone different lives down stairs and some one different lives up stairs. i cant even explain. but its small. just enough room for three beds, three desks and a bathroom with a shower curtain for a door. home sweet home. yes we have hot water. thank the heavens! i love my comps. im with Hna Boody who i knew in the mtc, and a native, my mom aka trainer is FHna Huamon (pronounced woman) and she IS the woman. so small, so cute and very peruvian. so no more english for us. if we want to communicate, its spanish. solo espanol. woow! every where is dirty. like i said, i feel like im camping. lol its rare to find a paved road. the driving is CRAZXY here. if there are laws, nobody keeps them... if you know me well you know im an anxious driver, if in not the one driving, and the worst back seat side seat driver. day one i was crammed in the back of a mini van with 7 missionaries, and im pretty sure i grew an ulcer, cause that van was swerving inand out of cars like nobody sbusiness adn there was nothing i could do about it.finally after gasping at every other car and humabn we lamost hit, i decided to just save my self the years and gray hairs and lose my eyes. i covered my face wth my delta blanket andby a miracle we made it to the hotel. LOCO CRAZY my friends.

 

we have a cute little pencionista who cooks all our meals. we cannot eat with memebers cause the food has to be cooked jsut right so we dont get sick. idk why cause i still have diaria..... name this movie .... ill probably have diarias since easters....

nach libre

anyways }twice this week the electricityh went out.there is a guy who lives in this house who has h1n1, it will be a bilagro if we dont get it. 

not too consistent

we walk every where. i have a ginormous blister on my left foot. and we cannot tgo to about 7 pther streets after 7:30 cause its too dangerous. is it fine tha tthe street we live is one of those streets? its normal right? any ways 

 

we hade a baptism this week! yes, fist saturday here and we had a bpatism. her name is josaphina and she is 73 years old. she has no family so we got to help her change..... and lets just say ill never be the same..... ill leave it at that. 

she is a sweet heart hto. she kept saying [mis reynas mis reynas[ which means my queens my queens. its so fuuny she iwas sooooooo stinking adorable. but she smells bad. she really needed a bath. so that baptism was REALLY good. i gave the talk. i did a cool demonstration with a penny, hhand sanitizer adn a match. i talked about how the spirit clenses by fire after we are clensed by water. it was neat. every one liked it. and the missionaries who attended couldn tbelieve i have only been out 4 months cause my spanish was really good! milagros milagros. (miracles miracles)

Picking up Josaphina for her baptism

it was a good day. very beautifulvery sweet. i found a bowl of guinie pig in the fridge.... fortunately that wasnt for us. but it sure looked gross. 

 

Surprise dinner. A delicacy called cuy. It's dead guinea pig. Yummy.

 

 

well thats the latest and greatest. athe church is still true

 

excuse my typos

i cannot figure out how to swith the computer to english, and the key board is different

 

i love you all

much love from peru

and im SO STOKED TO BE HERE WOOOOOW FINALLY!!!!!!!!!! 

 

love Hna Gonzales xoxoxoxoxoxo 

 

New comps

Where we go "knocking"

 

Peru or Bust!

So tomorrow morning at about 3:00 am i will be on my way to peru. and by 10:30 pm I should be in Lima. Here we go! Its funny that as soon as i stop praying for my Visa, it comes. as soon as i felt like we were getting somewhere here, they move me. BUt i have learned so much. When i think of Chino CA i think "always On Purpise, with Purpose". that is how i tried to live my days as a missionary. I think of the amazing food and the sweet Latinas. I am excited to get to know a whole new culture!

 

But, here is the report from this last week:

 

- Friday morning we woke up to a hellicopter circling our complex. it circled for about an hour and a half to 2 horus. and towards the end we heard it saying through a speaker "to the police on the groud... take caution of...." come to find out, there was a police chase and a fugitive hanging in our complex. you bet we locked the doors and hid! ok we didnt hide. but i defininutely wanted to. we passed about 7 cop cars with several dogs on our way out too. Wish i knew more details, but at the same time i dont really want to know what danger there really was.

 

-Sunday, the bishop asked me to bear my testimony for the last time in the ward. It was really sad. I have really grown to love this ward. the Chino ward. and i feel like i have grown close with the members, we relied on the members a lot, and they took good care of us. with all the meals and mexican food babies. i might have gotten a little emotional while mearing my thanks and testimony to them. It was sweet. it was also very rewarding when a member came up and told me that they remembered my first testimony, and were impressed with the amount of growth they could see from then to now. :) YAY! not all hope is lost!

 

I got 2 sweet packages this week! and i know there is one on they way from my very own dear sweet mother! I really am spoiled. I recieved a great package from Miss Heidi! thanks for the goodies Heidi! and i got a package of Mama Jeane B's cookes! SO GOOD! I have a lot of great women in my life. Thanks to all my moms! what a blessingt! i really do feel like a spoiled sister missionary. <3

 

-and last night was my last Noche De Hogar with the ward.

while we were setting up, this lady, Suemy, brought her family to come say good bye. Let me tell you something about Suemy. She is an investigator, we found her through a referral, but she didnt even know who they were! she is the sweetest little lady with 4 kids. She came to our free English class and brought her two houngest kids. they already know enlish, so i played volley ball with them. well we got talking to her, and instead of english, she really opened up to us. her husband has put her through a lot. and she wants really bad to turn things around. she is so patient with him, and is doing her best to raise her kids right. I KNOW that she needs this gospal. well we havent even had an official first lesson with her, but while we were setting up for noche de hogar, she brought her whole family, husband, all four kids and a little friend, to come say sorry for missing church, sorry they couldnt come to Noche De Hogar, but they wanted to say bye to me!~ the little kids each brought me a hand picked rose, and a card, with earings in side. SO SWEET! then Suemy asked if her kids could have pix with me. it melted my heart. Latinos are the most giving, heart warming, kind people on the planet! they hardly know me, and they made me feel so loved! i just pray that they get baptised!!!

 

Suemy and her sweet family <3

 

another similar story: Leslie cried. this 14 year old girl we found, needs friends. we have become her friends, and we have taught her two lessons. Its hard for her to come to church cause she doesnt have a ride, and she is under age, adn her parents are in Mexico, so its hard to get permission. BUT she is a sweet girl with a desire to learn more about God. on our second lesson she had marked some things in her BOM and had drawn each of us a picture and given us a stack of mickey mouse stickers. she lvoes us. when I told her it was my last day and she cried. and it made me feel so bad! i hope she gets baptised too!

 

Cute Leslie

 

 

Noche De hogar: we did the plan of Salvation, and it was yet another miracle that it turned out they way that it did. we set it up so that tehy were on an air plane, us hermanas the flight attendetns, and they "died" on the plane and had to go to one of the 3 kingdoms. we had an elder represent judgement and split up families into the right kingdoms. it was sad but awesome! it really put things in perspective for a lot of people. includeing me. there was a family of three, who all went to the celestial kingdom, who in reality are preparing to go through the temple!@ we had them bear their testimony and it was beautiful. the spirit was strong, and it was such a good experience. SUCCESS!

 

Noche de Hogar

 

 

hindu temple- last p day we found this Hundu temple. it was BEAUTIFUL! very detailed, learned alot about their religion. did you know they worship shrines? they feed, bathe, dress, these statures every day. they put little avatars on a little swing and you can go swing them and they call that their "recreation" time. very strange. we did not participate (obviously) but it was neat to learn. :)

 

The Hindu temple is so incredibly detailed! They do everything by chisel and hammer in India then ship it here and assemble it in front of a visitors center.

 

 

well that is the latest and greatest. im excited to call my fam (and bf) tomorrow! until next monday, where ill have peruvian adventures. :)

com amor

Hurrah for Israil!

Hermana Gonzales

 

 

PS. porter you and your bride look BEAUTIFUL! i hope you got my letter!!!! moseltoph (idk how to spell)

 

 

Piano lessons

Aunt Carol Sevens and Sis. Moe Gonzales :)

Fun service project

That one P-Day when I dropped my whole wallet in the washing machine. I noticed it was missing just in time. :0 Ya, everything was wet but it's ok.

 

 

 

Food Babies and Dopplegangers

Dearest Family and Friends,

 

 this has been a fantastic first transfer. I feel like a real missionary!

from this week:

-piano lessons: I put together a class every tuesday morning where i teach piano lessons for FREE! first of all, i have never taught an actual class before.... i do better one on one. especially when we only have one piano. secondly, i have NEVER, nor did i ever imagine i would be giving lessons in SPANISH! that my friends.... is a whole other ball park! i have a lot to learn. but it went well. one of the rules for the class, is that you have to bring a friend. and we had 3 non members come! it really works! Thank you Heavenly Father for this brilliant idea, and for helping me teach! it truly was a miracle that they learned anything. It was a good experience. I have another classtomorrow!

 

(see pic below)

this is what happens when you have two authentic mexican meals in one day.

Three months later im starting to show! (heheheh)

yay for mexican food babies

 (see other photo below)

this guy is JUST LIKE BEETHOVEN! and he is a PRO! he is lds, and has about 40 shows a week. he travels around so he only comes to our ward every once in a while.

as you can see from the pic, his music made the patriarch's wife cry.

he's THAT good.

 

 

so the elders had a baptism this week, and they didnt have anything for when the guy was changing, so last minute, (as in right before the baptism) they asked me to do a musical number.... uhhhhh ok.... so then and there, i arranged my favorite hymn "how Great Thou Art" on the piano..... yes. ARRANGED! do i arrange hymns? NO that is Chaz's forte! BUT, some how, i pulled it off. I know it wasnt me. I'm pretty sure, God sent all of his musically inclined angels to come down and move my fingers to bring the spirit. I dont know how it happened, but it did. and the spirit was there, and it turned out ok! YAY! miracles!

then, i finished.... and there was still time to fill.... uh oh. so i look at the missionaries and whisper "Get up here!" they came up, not knowing what we were doing, and i started playing a hymn ( another arrangement) adn they sang. :) Va Equipo! (go team!)_we pulled it off, filled the time, and kept the spirit. It was a beautiful baptism, and i was SO GRATEFUL that the Lord helped me out!

-got called tinkerbell this week

 thought that was a strangely appropriate parallel drawn....

 

oh ps:

I got a funny call this week from the mission office:(and every time the office calls my heart drops cause i think they are calling about my visa!)  they said: "Hna Gonzales, are you still looking for your scriptures?" i said "no..... i never lost my scriptures." they said "oh well there was an hermana who left them at the mtc and we thought it was you. never mind".... and i thought. "thats it???? you're not getting away that easy!" so i said to the elder "no that wasnt me, sorry good luck, but i AM still waiting for my Visa! any word?" he said "well. im not supposed to tell you too much, but i got an email about 30 minutes ago with a list of names of missionaries who need to be in peru by the 13th, and i can tell you that your name is on that list. but thats all you can know. sorry. bye"

AHHHHHHHH I WAS FREAKING OUT! i dont know much, i dont know if i officially have a visa, but i KNOW IM GOING TO PERU! omg omg omg omg is this really happeneing???

well. not sure yet.thats all i know.

ill keep ya posted! i have one more week  and then im gone. but i dont really know how i feel about it. its really bitter sweet. im going to miss my comps (who btw didnt get transfered) and im goin gto miss this ward, that i really have grown to love, and im nervous for a new culture and a countly where there is absolutely NO english.... it will be good for me thought. and I know im in the Lord's hands. so all is well in israil.

 

Well, thats the latest and greatest
Hurrah for Israil! the church is true!

 

Love Hna. Moe Gonzales

xoxo

 

My Mexican food baby

Beethoven's doppelganger