Peru's Fourth of July

Dearest loved ones. 

mom. i love you. and you are the best. just so you know. you need to know. 

shout out to aunt bobby and betty newman, THANKS FOR THE LETTERS. i love letters. i think every missionary loves letters. and please. dont forget about me. just cause im at the end of mymission doesnt mean i dont need letters. i miss the dear elders. 

ok thats all 

ether 6:3 to all my lovced ones and friends. you have been a light and love to me. 

noche peruana- fiestas patrias: this week (aka today) is the FOURTH of july for peru. they are all in parties and red and white. its awesome. so to celebrate we had our stake mission nite. Noche Peruana. and it was AWESOME! the sister leaders (aka my comp and i ) were put in charge of the decorations. and they turned out awesome. and the sister missionaries of the stake prepared a number for the show. we did my style of i am a child of god with the ukulele in 3 different lingos. english spanish and quechua (the native lang. here) it sounds like japonese.... and it turned out great. also we did our italian number agian. 

sorry for the short letter. we had a good week. we will be traveling to Chimbote (three hours away) this week for a training. with pres and his wife. jsut my comp and i. we are excited fot that.

con amor 

hermana gonzales 

ps

wickedness ..... does not produce rational thought. 

spoke in church alma 11:17. and tied it to temple work. read it and pnder it. and see how i made the connection. its pretty sweet. 

love you all 

Hablo Italian?

dearest family and friends 

first of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER MAN!!! TOMORROW!!!! i thin kyoure turining 12?? is that right?? wait no.... after doing a little math you are gonna be 15??? that cant be right. 14?? ya 14 sounds good.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE STUD! but quit growing please. 

a recap of my crazy but AMAZING week!!!! 

hope everyone did thier world wide indexing!!! its still going today so get on that. we have temples to fill! THIS IS SALVATION!!! 

this week was also president s birhday and we had a small surprise bday for him . complete with clown noses

we had our ward talent show and i was asked on tuesday to learn a song. an opera song to sing with a member. its called O Sole Mio and its in itlanian!!!! DO I SPEAK ITALIAN? NO! do i sing opera? not really.... can i sing with a member.... only if my comp is with me. and she is tone deaf. so what did we do? we got permission for her to DANCE! she dances tango and lyrical. so we permiso and i learned the song by a miracle and she did ribbon dancing and we ROCKED!!! we were the last number and the members LOVED IT! they loved it so much, they asked us to do it again this saturday for tHE STAKE activity! AWESOME. im learning a lot on the mission. 

Hermano Shanir. Sang O Sole Mio with him.

also, we did a musical devotional with nothing but music, mormon messages and testimonies from recent converts. and i have not felt a spirit so strong in so long. about 1000 people went! and i was asked to do a musical number wtih two other sisters. so i learned "abide with me tis even tide" on my trusty ukulele and we did some AMAZING harmonies"! it turned out beautiful. these sisters are so talented. i explained the bible story a little before singing and the spirit was just so strong. we were the last number on the program and i felt liek it was very appropriate with the words. i would invite ALL to read in luke about this hymn and then sing it. its amazing. 

also some spiritual experience. 

let me share all that happened before we found ana. she needs some prayers. but she is progressing. and her husband is activating. he too participated in our talent show. it was cool to see how the ward supported him and welcomed him back by havnig him participate. ok but back to ana. or well. what happened before we found ana for the first time. 

i saw the pwer of the devil. and then i saw the power of an almighty god. and my poor comp had to be the medium of the two powers. i saw herman apaiva  in the depths of despair. i saw her cry the discouraging tears. and i saw how she had absolutely no will or desire to go out and preach. she was so discouraged!!  she was giving heed to all the wrong voices. and she did not have the spirit. or well, it was kinda far from her. i did my very best to comfort her by the direction of the holy ghost i ssaid what i thought the spirit and heavcenly father needed her to hear. i had her read her blessing  and everything! but she was still in absolute sadness. then the story o f christ, fasting for 40 days came to my mind. i said to hermana paiva " you are a missionary and you are listening to all the wrong voices.  what did the savior say to satan when he was weak from fasting? he said "satan, get thee hence" itold her SHE needed to do the same. 

i think that touched her heart. i think that worked. cause after that she calmed down and blew her nose in my favorite red sweaterand we said a prayer. SHE said the prayer and we left. the first place we went, we found a prepared family! WOW the power of God is real. this is powerful stuff.and he loves us so much. 

my eyes are being opened little by little. i am realizing just how powerful the adversary is, and even more powerful the power of God, the Savior, and his atonement is. 

what a blessing. i hope we all can open our spiritual eyes and see such amazing power. cause its there. we just have to look for it. 

i love you all 

i love my mission 

all is well. 

con amor, 

hermana Gonzales

PS...this is how I feel for anyone with a tag or calling Mormon 5:10 

Rooftops of Peru

this is the scar from my ring worm. its the same size as the spots on my sweater. awesome 

Sweet is the Work

dearest family and friends

had cambios. 

 

staying here in california peru with my companion hermana paiva

 

this week 

we rescued another soul. this less active is now active. 

we have rescued every weekend but not baptised in a while.... i just need to accept that in not here for baptisms. im here for CONVERSION! and it is just as sweet to see someone take the sacrament and renew their covenant. it is so sweet!!! 

this week we are finishing the final prearations for our talent show. its called CALIFORNIAS GOT TALENT. and the sister missionaries are doing CHIN PUPPETS as their act. we are opening and ill pray my uke and sing you are my sunshine. yes even the latinas will sing you are my sunshine. its gonna be good. 

 

then my comp and i are participating in a skit called THE CONVERSION. we play the roll of the missionaries.... duh 

but its all music! its a bunch of latino songs put together in one. (obv i dont know them but im learning) and its pretty sweet. im excited to see how it goes. 

also this weekend we have the devotional in Esperannza ( kinda far) two other sisters and i arranged "abide with me tis eventide" in spanish with the ukulele. its gonna be pretty. its a devotional of all music and mormon messages and nothing else! no talks, just pure music and videos. what a strong spirit. we are pretty excited about that. 

 

 

El brujo

 

 

this week my companion hurt her foot in football so i had to go out and prosolyte with a member for a day while my comp stayed in bed. but she is better now (thank goodness). but then the next day she all of a sudden got sick to her stomach and we couldnt figure out why,,,, the pensionista said " its CHUKAKE". let me explain.... chukake happens as a result of deep embarrassment and it makes you want to puke. there are only two ways of getting rid of it. one, by passing a guinie pig (cuy) over your body, arms legs, head.... then cutting open the poor animal in the gut and there, you will see (physically) what it was that you had.... you find THE CHUKAKE and it is now in the animal and not you and you feel better,,,,

second way.... if you dont have a guinie pig on hand, you use an egg. well in this case, we used the egg. my pensionista took an egg, and procedded to run the shelled egg over my comps stomach in the shape of a cross then her legs and arms then her head, then turned her over and her back.... and i just sat there in awe.... more like terror at this which craft. she then took a glass of water and cracked the "infected" egg into the glass. she skeptically analyzed the raw egg in water and then exclaimed "there!!!! THERE IT IS! your CHUKAKE... its out! youll feel better very soon". i looked at the glass and saw..... nothing.... but i wasnt going to tell her that. i then proceeded to be excited with her..... yay its out..... i guess. 

 

hahaha it was pretty wierd. but cool 

and that was my week 

 

i learned spiritual things too dont worry. like how to rely on the spir it and have charity and be PATIENT. lots of patience this week. 

 

i love you all 

happy july 

love 

hermana Gonzales 

 

 

Desires and Unconditional Love

sometimes.... you just have weeks where you have atleast ONE meeting everyday. and sometimes two. and sometimes its like weekly planning EVERY DAY!!1 and you only have a few hours to do prosolyting. but guess what, when there is sacrifice, there are miracles. and we definutely saw miracles this week. 

 

we had concilio this week and we went to the beach again (i would lnclude pix but found out that my camera card has a virus so i gotta fix that before i cansend pix again. sad day)

 

then we planned how to portray all that we can learned for the rest of the zone. im pretty excited. its some good stuff. how we will build these missionaries so that they can be cleaner insturments. more pure, more sanctified to be better in the lords work.  how to teach more by the spirit. how to be more sactified? its through repentance and the atonement and becoming SANCTIFIED! that means no mean thoughts, cleaning the inner vessel, no contensious feelings. being pure in heart and feelings and intentsions, and continual service. and unconditional love. becoming christlike and putting off hte natural man. its not easy youknow. but it is possible. and its through the atonement. we are going to show some good videos and testify a lot!!! 

 

this week we also did a work study with one of the sisters. found out that t here is iniquity in the zone. some one has opened her heart. and it is not the first time. 

 

just some thought that i have been praying about. 

 

how do you change the desires of ones heart?  how do you call repentence without burning them? how do you help them realize that what they are doing is wrong and have the DESIRE to change?  i realized, this is what we do everytday. and then it occured to me that i cannot take away their agency. and this stuff is not easy. and how do you get a closed person a hard hearted person to open up? how do you get them to trust you when they easily do not trust? how do you reach their heart? 

those have been my prayers and my questions to god. we did a fast and we are doing everything we can to control the situation. being a leader IS NOT EASY! and when there are four of us, who all think we have the answers, its not easy. i cant imagine being the prophet, and haveing 12 leaders.... 

 

i also learned somethign about unconditional love this week. 

while doing companionship inventory and putting personal goals, i really realized our faluths and how hard it must be to live with me. i know that a mature relationship requres communication. and htat meands they are goin gto see the uggliest part of you. apposed to holding the problem in and trying to fix it you self, you have to communicate! your companion will see the things you are FIGHTING(luchando) to overcome. and they dont judge you. they still love you. even if you look like a bad person. a sinner a far, very far fallen from god person. still. THEY LOVE YOU. and STILL dont judge you. and I  must do the same. learn to love unconditionally. i imagine to be god youd hear prayers and many repentatn prayers, and the thoughts and feelings of us imperfect people. and he STILLL loves us. cause its unconditional. and we are in training to become gods. so i must learn to love unconditionally. not to judge. and love them with all their faults and short comings, cause that is how god loves each of us. 

 

we had some good lessons learned this week. and change is hard. puttin gin practice thes things is hard. 

 

but we are coming along. 

 

i am happy. i am studying i am seeking and finding. and i love my mission. i love these people. 

 

ana didnt go to church, but her son and her less active husband did. so they are progressing. 

 

yay 

 

thank you all for your prayers. i love you all 

i am so very blessed and i love this work. 

 

con amor

hermana gonzales