Homeless

dearest family and friends, 

you didnt know it, but your missionary has been lost in peru for about 5 days.... homeless. and to be quite honest, its been humbling and discouraging, and satan has really been working on me. on us. i think its cause he knows that we are truly on the lords errend and doesnt want this work to go forward. but we know better. . . so we had some trouble with our pensionista....again. my companion hna downs has had some health problems here in good old peru and has been to the hospital a few times so her diet is very sensitive and she cant eat a lot of things. our pench knew this, yet still fed her things she could not eat. and would get offended when she wouldnt eat. there was a day when she told her that her sickness was just in her head.... and that kind of hurt hna downs feelings cause she just wants to be the very best misionary. hurtful words. also, the bathroom leaked into the down stairs, and mold started growing, and she waited til it was bad enough to say anything, so the church would pay for it. so..... we are moving out. ok we MOVED out. we are no longer living there. however, we dont have an alternitave either. we have been house hunting for the last 5 days. it has been a long discouraging five days. however, it has its perks too. I have been staying at the Presidents house! in the mission home! complete with carpet and everything. last nght we had Taco night, and invited an hermana who is struggling to enjoy tacos together. best taco ive ever had in my ilfe. i ate the presidents favorite cereal which happens to be my favorite too. captai crunch. and they have peanut butter! WE ATE WAFFLES SUNDAY MORNIGN! (shout out to my daddy who would make waffles every sunday as well). and it was the biggest tender mercy! I MISS AMERICAN FOOD! IM SO SICK OF RICE!!!! any ways...... he has a very nice home. and we have been comfortable. President plays guitar so we have been having a lot of music. in fact, today we played a lot of music together, preparing for the christmas program in the plaza. getting excited for that. 

but, even though it has been nice, it has been discouraging too. 

i had this sereal moment, it was like an out of body experience. the elders found a room. a small room. a very very small room. and us hermanas didnt have very much faith that three beds, three desks and a dresser would fit in this tiny room, but the elders had a lot of faith in it, and we trusted them. we cleaned it, scrubbed the bathroom and everything ready to live there.

so we were moving out all our furniture. we were sitting on the side walk with our bed pieces, drawers, and other room elements strewn  across the sidewalk, waiting for the elders to come back. just sitting there. like bumbs. three sad hermanas. with out a home. with this discouraged burden, and i remember thinking, 

i am a ninteen year old white girl, sitting on a side walk, in a foreign country, with a foreign language, confused, lost, unsure, and i just wanted to go home. TO A HOME! not to a dark cramped room with hard floor. i just looked at my self in the mirror i was holding, and thought of my warm home in utah. or texas. with carpet and parents who love me with warm open arms. i just wanted a mom hug. a daddy hug. a bethany, spencer, hailey or dannielle hug. or a mike hug. (or a kiss that would work too...) really just ANYTHING! it was so discouraging. i felt like Mary and joseph as they searched for a room. as the apostles of christ as they dropped everything thety had, their nets and followed christ with nothing but a testimony and the clothes on their back. these thoughts kept me going. these thoughts put things in perspective for me and i can do hard things. 

at this point, we have three options. but we cannot see them until tomorrow tuesady, so until then, we are sleeping at the presidents house. 

which is fun too. I gave hna marler )(the wife) a foot rub the other night, and last night, she surprised me with one back! yay! also, she asked me to dye her hair for her..... have i ever done that before? no.... but she doesnt know that. shhhhhh ill let you know how it goes. 

funny moments: saw a jungle man cutting his lawn with a machette. supper funny

our old investigatior was avoiding us. saw him walking on the other side of the stree.t when he caught sight of us he bolted the other way and hid behind a tree until we were done talking to this lady, and finally when he was sick of waiting, he looked around, found a bag on the ground, and put it on his head to hide his face, and he walked right past us..... he is about 62 years old..... and we were laughing SO HARD! 

oh well. its his salvation. 

also, i cannot believe chaz is an elder now. like a real live missionary!!!! HOW AWESOME!!!!! i love my family. i am so blessed. 

 

con much amor

hna Gonzales 

 

 

 

Making the bear

 

The teddy bears. Mine is the middle one.

 

Washing clothes for service.

Health and Get Well Bears

querido familia, y mis amigos en el mundo,

 

its been an interesting week. lots of sickness. monday, p day, tuesday, hna flores felt bad so we stayed in most of the day. wendesday, normal, until the end of the day when hna Downs started feeling sick so we went home early. then Thursday, was rough. Hna Downs was still sick, so she stayed home with our pensionista and hna flores and i went out. Then Friday, Intercambios, we had hna Piava with us, and SHE got sick too!  so we stayed in most of the day and went out in the late afternoon and the night until we traded back. poor girls. then saturday and sunday was normal. Kind of. we had some drama with our pensionista. she told hna downs that her sickness was all in her head and that she needed to eat so that she would be healthy enough to eat. she said hna gonzales always eats her food and she is never sick. im sure her intentions are different than what we heard and observed, but it hurt hna donws´ feelings. she went to the bathroom and cried. hna piava and i tried to make her feel better. i felt bad for not sticking up for hna downs. i tried to stick a line in here or there or to change the subject, but it didnt do much. but still i felt like i had to do something, and the words of the white handbook came to my mind, if correction is needed, do it in private and with a lot of love. sdo thats what i did. that night, after planning and such, i said a prayer and asked for humility, and charity, and clerity of mind to go plead the case of poor hna downs. and i talked with mama tina. i asked her to be sensitive to hna downs. because hna downs wants so bad to have good health. she wants it so bad,  that she is kind of sensitive about her health that holds her back. and if mama tina could be sensitive to her feelings about it, and honor her diet. and to not be too offended when hna downs cannot eat all the food that is placed before her. and to come up with a solution, we offered to make a list of things she can have on hand that hna downs CAN eat. other options, so that if she cant eat what she has prepared, she has other options, because yes, like mama tina said, it is very important that she eats. entonces, we had a good talk. lots of love, i could not change her mind about some things, but i think she will be more sensitive. she is kind of a stubborn woman. but we love her. its kind of awkward right now, but its ok. the elders suggested looking for another pensionista. which for me, causes me a lot of stress. last transfer with hna boody she was having a hard time with mama tina too and was looking for another pensionista. but i fought it because i felt like the reasons to change were more selfish. just because she didnt like all the rice. no health problems or hurtful words or anything. so after praying together in a companionship with hna huaman, we felt like it wasnt right. but now that we are looking agian,  it is humbling and kind of embarrassing for me that we are moving. looking. again. i am worried that when hna boody finds out, she will resent me. so its been an interesting week. miricales none the less. we have a hard investigator whos family are all members, except him. and he has a hard heart. his wife fasts and prays that he will be baptised so that they can be sealed in the temple. she has been a member for about 10 years and he has resented the church a lot. but FINALLY, he is meeting and accepting missionaries in his home. THIS is a miracle. but he has been meeting with missionaries for about 5 years. i got the prompting to say something bold. which is not like me. i said  Modesto, if you really love your family, you will pay attention to the tears running down your wifes face and follow the same path as them. they have the potential to recieve many more blessings, but you are holding them back from recieving them. if you really love them, you will listen to what we are saying.

 

he said the closing prayer and said thank you for sending missionaries to touch my heart.[YESSS]  he went to the marriage class offered in our ward this week, AND he came to church this sunday. it was a miracle.i watched his wife weep tears of joy in sacrament meeting. 

 

i wont lie, i got kind of mad at him. i thought, if your the tears of your wife and daughter dont touch your heart, WHAT WILL! sorry..... keep the spirit sister gonzales. keep the spirit. 

 

so durring the time the hermanas were sick, what did we do? we got resourceful! peruvian style! i felt so bad, i just wanted to make things all better! i felt so helpless. so here is what we did. we found the bag of old sister missionary clothes from sisters past, and some old nylons and made, a homemade teddy bear. THATS RIGHT! a full on DOLL! a get well bear. who{s awesome. yes we are. ill send a pic in the next email. it was so good, we made two more! one ofr each of us. yay. 

also, we got to go the CHAN CHAN last pday. the oldest ruines in all of peru! it was pretty neat. and fun! check out the sweet pix. 

 

we are still working hard. hagning in there. my poor companions are troopers. and it makes me grateful for my health. 

con amor

loveing the work. 

the church is still truer than ever. 

 

looooooove Hna Gonzales. xoxoxoxo

Christmas, Planners, Dolls, and Ceviche

Dearest Friends and family

had a great week. this week we saw some beautiful miracles. and prepared an awesome christmas song for the christmas program- hna downs is very very talented! and it is an honor to be her companion. also, hna flores is so patient with us as she heard the same two songs over and over again. bless her heart. we love her. she is wonderful! we auditionioned our song this morning for the presidents wife and she LOVED IT! she said we are in for sure. she also had me audition solo. she might use me for something. yay. ALSO she mentioned that the christmas program is the biggest concert on trujillo! and last year they had 7000 attend the Plaza de Almas just to hear the missionaries. AND they invited the Arc bishop of the catholic church.... WHAT!!! ask me if im nervous, CAUSE I AM! anyways. 

also this week, my faith was strengthened. there was a family in the ward that the elders ran into durring alzar la voz that said they would like a visit from the missionaries. so this week we stopped by and found a grateful mother and her 8 year old son. she asked us to bless her home. she then explained that she feels uncomfortable in her own home. especially at night, and she often feels like there is something watching her. and she lives in "temor". she also told us about her trials that she and her family is going through. she compared herself to Job. you know its bad when they compare themselves to job. so we did as she asked. we asked her to use all her faith. we shared a scripture about faith. about how faith will give you POWER to do what ever is expedient of the Lord. we asked her to use all her faith. and to pray for hna downs as she gave the prayer. i did the same. the feelings that followed are hard to explain. she prayed very clearly and slow listening to the spirit. at the same time, i was offering a prayer in my heart. i realize that as missionaries we have a power and an authority, and i asked my Heavenly Father to show me what my power and authority can do. I also said, "Father in heaven, please fill this home with your angels and with your light." and as soon as i said it, the exact same words came out of hna downs mouth. the. same. words. i knew right then there was a special spirit with us. that it was doing its job of cleaning out the bad spirits. of filling that home with a different power. she blessed h e home and it was a powerful blessing. i dont remember everything she said. but its not important cause it was of the spirit. and it was powerful and the spirit did its job. i could tell she was more at peace and so was her 8 year old son. it was amazing. God showed me what power we have. 

also, general conference was awesome! saturday morning we got a call that said we had to find an investigator or MA to bring to the session. we got this call about 30 minutes before it was time to go. and we were not prepred. so we prayed really hard and went out looking. we knocked on abu t 8 doors, and called 8 more people, i spent 5.00 on phone calls! and nobody. so we decided, we did our best and went to the chapel. we got there and we were determined to be exactly obedient and find SOMEBODY! we did some awesome contacting. great referrals, but still nobody. i finally said "ok Heavenly Father, i have done my best! let me know if i need to keep trying, or if i can go in now!" and as soon as i finished, i saw a joven walking towards us, and almost out of spite, i approached him and asked him his name and if we could have an hour of his time and show him what was so special inside that chappel. hes began to hesitate and before he could finish we just started walking in. and he followed! we got in there just intime to hear Hna Carol Stevens give a discurso about priesthood! perfect for this kid. he stayed for a few talks, longer than i thought and he left. and we got his information. awesome! God hears and answers prayers. he is aware of his missionaries. and it was an awesome experience.

 

lost my planner this week. ok now THATS the END OF THE WORLD for a missionary. just saying. especially if you are the senior comp.... ok my WHOLE LIFE is in that thing! references, phone numbers, citas for next week (that means appointments) addresses..... i feel like i failed. i have prayed over that dumb book. cant find it anywhere. i think its gods way of telling me to calm it down a bit and quit over working your comps..... oops. but its ok. all is well,. 

 just keep going forward,

ALSO gen. conf. ok i never thought i{d look forward or enjoy something so boring SO MUCH ever in my whole life! and i worked my tail off to attend! it was beautifl . saturday was my favorite. let me share some things i loved

when you magnify your calling, you bless your family. its true for missionaries and for every calling in the church. so if you want more family unity and blessings,

magnify your calling. ALSO one friend to be baptised before christmas. IM HOLDING ALL OF YOU ACCOUNTABLE! 

 

con amor 

hna Gonzales 

 

the only kine of seviche we can eat. its made of octupus legs and its SO GOOD!!!! i absolytely LOVE it!



the dolls were made by a fellow hermana from argentina. she is like a real life princess. like enchanted. thats her. she very animated and loves LOVES everyone. she is sweet. and we are reeping the bennefits of her goodness. i love my doll