Not Much to Report

dear all:

this week: 

my american comp got taken away from me.... turns out she has  ulcers and had to have surgery.after a long debate, weather to do the surgery in a third world country or go to the US, they dicedied....Peru was more convenient.....

so i have been with my native comp for a week, and let me tell you. its hard! my whole mission life, all  6 1/2mo i have been in a trio and always with another american! this week was PURE SPANISH! not a lic of entlish! and my weaknesses were laid before me like no other! AND i didnt know being in a pair required more work! who knew. but it was a good week. 

also, elder nelson came to our mission! he and his wife, the mission pres and his wife all spoke about THe work of Salvation! no longer called "Missionary Work".... and it requires us to work EVEN  harder! ALL OF US! EVEN the members. hope youre all inviting those less actives over. . . . 

other than that. its been a good week.nothing to report. 

read luke

then evaluate how the Savior is LITERALLY walking with you! its a matter of weather you can see Him or not. 

its been incredible to LEARN to recognize the saviors hand in my life. HE is there. you just have to open your eyes. 

have eyes to see. ears to hear. 

con amor

hna gonzales

Happy Birthday to Me!

Dearest Family and friends,

 

what an interesting week.

last week was B.A.D. bad!!! and i was praying that this week would be better. it was. mas o menos.

first of all, thank yo ALL for the happy birthday emails. im STOKED to read them all!!!! i have not recieved any of the foretold packages yet.... im praying they arent in mexico or china by now..... ill keep ya posted. no stress. but maybe, send christmas packages next week to be safe.... just a joke.

 

Birthday celebration with the members. They are fun and I love them. They make me feel pretty loved. I don't know why they made me wear the funny head band. Weird Peruvian traditions I'll never understand.

Happy birthday to me!

Surprise birthday from my Penchionista. Lo maximo! We had a grand old time. I taught them all the cup rhythm and we were so loud, the neighbors called and told us to be quiet. But we didn't care. We were laughing too hard. Life is good.

 

 

we had a baptism!!! BY A MIRACLE! let me tell you about Lucia. she is 64  years old, but she doenst know that. she cant remember her birtday. she had an accident and her memory is AWEFUL! we showed her a picture of joseph smith and asked "who is this?" she replied "jesucristo".... this happened four times. you can imagine how our lessons went..... she cannot read or write, and she is teh cutest little woman ever! she is the classic peruvian woman who carries straw on her back for miles. she is the one, her most prized posession is her sheep. if you remember me telling you about her. she takes care of her two grand babies, who dont have support form their mom. mom refuses to pay to take care of them and she works in a bar. ugly situation. very humble people. and it breaks my heart. well thats lucia for ya. 
so get this, so we go to pick her, with the baptism all planned, and everthing ready to go, including a taxi outside waiting for her.... and she says, "no voy a bautizarme"..... (translation: i am not going to be baptised) my heart sank-. not again. i could not believe that this was happening AGAIN! we already lost trust with our members cause our LAST baptism fell through, i could not believe it was happening agian. i was slipping back into that dark place again. and i could see my companions were doing the same. 

we sat there convincing her for about 20 minutse, and i could tell the spirit was NOT THERE! she felt bombarded, and why would anyone want to be baptised with that feeling there. i got the thought, what if we started like we normally do, and invite the spirit. with a song and a prayer. so i asked my companions if we could do that. they were so frustrated, i think they thought it wouldnt work and it was a waste. but i didnt care. i knew it was a prompting. so we opened up the himario to my favorite hymn, Granderes tu, and sang two verses. then, we knelt in prayer with our investigator. i said it,. and president, i have never said such a fervent prayer out loud in my whole mission. probably my whole life! i knelt there on the dirty ground, in my pretty yellow dress and my curled hair, with what seemed like my last ounce of faith, and cried to the lord. help our investigator remember (and she has memory issues due to an accident) the feelings of the spirit and why she wanted to be baptised initially. 
at the end of the prayer, as we were all in tears, she stood up, adn with out a word, went to change into her pretty pink skirt to get ready for the baptism. it was a miracle. and my faith was restored.

 

i dont think i have ever rejoiced for a soul saved like i did for her!!!

the baptism was beautiful. i know it was Gods birthday gift to me. :) feliz hna gonzals

 

Lucia, our recent convert

Lucia's sheep

 

 

also this week, our biggest weakness as a companionship is contacting. we are supposed to contact 70 ever week. and we have been getting 50 or so. so, to make up for this, we did somethign kind of fun in the park. i said, i want to stand up on this bench and start singing. my comps thought i was crazy. so i said, how about this, i WONT sing on the bench if we can find a guitar.....

guess what. a member walking home from school with his buddies walked by WITH A GUITAR! DONE!

 

so we contacted 25 teenagers and 3 families with music. and some had this little spinning top toy, you wrap it up with a string and throw it and it spins on the ground, and you can pick it up WHILE its sinning and it spins in your hand! i learned how to play with one of those, and the boys thought i was so funny trying my hardest to do it just right, they ended up giving it to me as a gift. to the gringa misionera. its so sweet! im excited to show you in a year.

 

we had a noche misional, and we did the tree of life adventure! they walked through different rooms in the church in the dark, holding onto the iron rod until they came to the tree of life and took a white balloon with candy inside off the tree. (the fruit) i was pretty proud of our work. it was a success.

 

Noche misional. Tree of Life activity. We were the guides like Lehi was guided by an angel through the darkness.

 

 

lots of fun parties witht he members as well for my special day. 

YAY 20! birthday in peru! not everyone can say that. 

soy muy contenta y feliz. les amo much! 

 

con amor, 

hna gonzales  

 

 

ps i searched 15 music stores for a ukulele. elder brown had baughten THE LAST ONE! didnt buy one for my bday.  . . :( one day ill have a ukulele. learned another song.

learned granderes tu (how great thou art)

:)

New Humble Abode

Doing Hna Marler's hair. Washing it in the sink.

Our new humble abode. Best you can find in Peru. LO MAXIMO. A tender mercy and an answer to prayers really.

Milagros Existen

dear all,

 

Its been an outstanding week! its been a hard week getting back in the groove of missionary work and working hard. but we are getting there. first of all, 
WE FOUND A HOME!!! i never thought i would be so relieved. now dont get me wrong, slumber parties at your house was a blast! and very warm and comfortable. and it was hard to leave. but it was nice to finally find a place and have less stress. its like a burden has been lifted. it was fun making a room become a home. moving in, putting up pix of christ, and having the elders bless our room. its amazing how you can change something ordinary into something spiritual. like the lives of our investigators.  and our personal lives. 

¨(sigh of relief.) yay!

second, i had an amazing experience this week. we had cambios with hna skirvin and she was such a blessing to have with us. i love her a lot. i know she has been struggling with feelings of inadequacy, and insecurities and has asked to go home a few times. so we are doing our best to keep her here.

well, this day while it was me, hna flores and hna skirvin, we were teaching a lady named Romi, a reference form alzar la voz. she is awesome .she loves God, and has a special love for the bible. she loves comparing the mormon doctorine to what she studies and she calls herself a missionary too. well we were teaching her and giving a great lesson about the Book of Mormon, we had one prepared to give her with hna flores{s testimony written in it and everything. but, durring this lessons, there was banging, construction going upstares! and i thought, Heavenly Father, how can we bring the spirit if there is all this ruckus going on! 

then, i remembered how i studied about our Power and Authority this morning during my personal study, and the story of hna downs came to mind, and i have been praying that Heavenly Father will show hna skirivin some miracles durring her time with us. if not for me, for her. and i thought, i can stop the noise. i am a missionary for God! 

so in my mind i said " in the Name of Jesus Christ, stop the banging." it hit a few more times, and i thought, guess i need more faith. so i did it agian, with more faith and less doubt, "in the name of Jesus Christ, stop the banging now. we need to spirit." 

there were two more clangs, and it stopped. and hna skirvin gave an outstanding testimony of the Book of Mormon. it was PERFECT!!  and we finished a good lesson. now we just pray she comes to church with us this week.

 

i was also asked to speak in church this week. and i changed my talk at the last minute! the thoughts came to me as i was walking up to the stand. there is this little blind girl in my texas ward that i heard gave an outstanding talk, and in the beginning of her talk, she just stood at the pulpate. for a long time with out talking. after a while she said, do you feel uncomfortable? good. cause that is how Heavenly Father feels when we dont talk to Him.

 

i did the exact same thing. every one was looking at me so wierd.... they were so confused. it was kind of funny. but it got the point across. i taked about how each member should be praying. should be praying for miracles. miracles to spread the gospal. and if they do that, and they communicate with their father in heaven, he will guide them to someone who needs the gospal. and i re extended elder perrys challenge he gave in conference about finding just one before chirstmas.

i feel like i did a good job. i got the point acorss. and i might have cried a littlebit. it was a good week.

 

the church is still true. this is the last week of this transfer and i PRAY they dont change me. i am getting along with my companions so well, i want to see our investigators through to the end, i jsut pray i stay. pray with me! i LOVE el bosque. we get the call friday night and change saturday. :( i hate cambios.

 

well thats the latest ad greatest.

love you all a lot xox

Staying in Elbosque

Querido Familia y amigos,

what a week. waht a good week. a lot of hard work and i feel like we are starting to see the fruits of our labors. AND IM SO HAPPY IM STAYING IN ELBOSQUE ANOTHER TRANSFER! GRACIAS GRACIAS GRACIAS! i love it here so much. and i feel like im really going to miss it when i leave. entonces, im going to enjoy it the most while i have it. i love my mission. i love this experience. i love everything about it!!! i love my  companions, i love my investigators, i love my zone and district and our leaders, i love my challenges, i love the gospal, and BAH! i just LOVE it all! i am one happy sister missionary. 

This week we committed two teenager girls for baptism and we are preparing them! Shayla WAS going to be baptised this saturday, but our ward council asked us to wait a week so the young women could be there. so, we will keep visiting, and preparing and guarding her from satan for the next week. also, we are hoping our second joven will be baptised the same week. so we potentially will have two young women baptised the 16 of november. YAY! just keep praying. 
We had great success in our "Noche de Dulces"(aka noche missional, except we dont call it that anymore). we had all our recent converts come, AND our current investigators AND new ones!!! AND a few menos activos, and you BET we asked for references. life is good. i love missionary work and i can see how God is taking care of us.

this week hna marler (presidents wife) asked me to dye her hair. it was so funny. she has this cap where we pull the hair little holes with a hook then dye it. it took FOREVER! so we recruited 2 more sister missionaries to help. hha downs, hna evans (from pg) and hna skirvin, (from alpine) just cheered us on. lol and lets just say, we were up WAY past curfew, but hey, if you are going to break the rules, who better to do it with than president and his wife. it was a blast! we were laughing pretty hard together. but, like i said, we were there pretty late.... like til 12:30 am.... and its a little dangerous to go out that late, so we stayed the night. since there were five of us in total, some of us had a slumber party in the living room floor. president made blow up beads and took good care iof us. hna Marler gave us some jamies and tooth brushes and we had family prayer and they tucked us in. lets just say I HAVE THE COOLEST MISSION PRESIDETN IN THE WORLD!

 

 i love hna evans and hna skirvin. these two sisters have been struggling to stay in their missions. they have asked president to go home a few times now, president has confided in us and asked us to KEEP THEM HERE!  i love taking care of them. han evans and i had a good chat. we talked about how funny it was we lived like five houses away from each other our whole lives, and never really knew each other until here in peru. i kind of feel like we were sent to the same place for a very specific reason. cause she needs me and i definutely need her. and i am so glad that we can take care of each other. i mean betwee dr downs and dr gonzales the sidekick we will take care of her AND hna skirvin, and who ever else. i am learning alot about charity and the atonement. what a blessing. 

life is good. i love being a missionary.

 

also this week, i learned to pay the ukulele! woow! got somewhere over the rainbow down and one more song and you and i by ingred michelson. my other ukulele song. woohoo! maybe ill invest in a peruvian uk. next. <christmas gift maybe? no se.

OH and most importantly, we found ANOTHER place to live. MUCH closer to our pench and ACTUALLY in our area! so we will be moving, yet again, on Wednesday.

 

life is good.

 

OH! and shout out to the young men and young women in the texas ward! totally got your poster with all the notes and it MADE MY WHOLE WEEK!" you guys are THE BEST! Muchisimas Gracias from Peru! les amo MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO! muchos vesitos para todos.

and shout out to THE BEST MOM IN THE WORLD!!! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY STINKING BIRTHDAY MOM! you are the greatest influence adn i love you so much. i would not be here if it werent for you. thank you for raising me by righteous example and making sure i stayed willing and worhty to serve the lord as you have your whole life. i love you and admire you and want to be a missionary like you are a mom adn just love and teach. the best example.feliz cumpleaños

ps expect a little something somethign in the mail. xxoxoxo

 

spiritual thought

D&C 110(dont worry its short)

but think about how we LITERALLY are ushering the second coming. the second coming IS HERE! the same church if christ is here on the earth a second time. and we are IN the last days my friends. its coming. this is the final preparation and we will see His face. Just remember that . keep that in mind and see how differently you live

 

i love you all. you are in my prayers. xoxoxoxo

les amo much

su hijita y hermana y amigita,

 

Hna. Gonzales 
con mucho amor.
hna gonzales