Livin' on a Prayer

dearest family and friends.

 

i have DEFINUTELY felt your prayers this week as we have found 3 outstandingly prepared souls to baptize. ok just FOUND. ill be at rest once they actually enter the waters. but thank you for praying. thank you for your love and support. its been a little rough. but we are hanging in there.

 

i sould like to explain the pic.

 

let me introduce you to Martin. He is the one on the far right in the wheel chair. HE IS SO AWESOM! he lives out in the boonies of Chakarilla Barraza.wich is about a 25 minute walk, or a 5 minute taxi ride. we rarely go out there cause it takes all day or a whole morning. but we felt since we werent having much success here close in el bosque, we had to go do some serious searching. so this last monday we had a noche de hogar (fhe) with this awesome family. not all are too interested, all are nice, but martin showed a special interest in the church. he came to church this sunday. faithfully in his wheel chair and with his old libro de mormon, combined with D&C. (gifted by a member from our fhe) and he was very alert and attentive all during church. he is the happiest guy ever! so full of light and joy and said if we fixed moto, he would go to church faithfully. so we got the ward council involved and tehy are going to fix his moto this week! so he can take the ride to church and activities. he also accepted a baptismal date! PRAY FOR MARTIN! he is GOLDEN!

 

it was awesome. we had this fhe, and at the very end, the lights went out. (this is normal for this area) so (as depicted) we whipped out the candels and finished this fhe. it was fun. and we had soda and crackers. typical fhe treat for peru. this family lives out in the fields. they have onion and vegitable fiends, and it smells sooooo good! and lots of animals. and they sell everthing to live. its awesome. a humble wonderful family. he has a neice, angie, who has also showed special interest, but she sells with her mom on sundays, so she could to this week to church. but pray for her. she also wants to be baptised.

 

so thats the latest miracle from your prayers.

 

this week i got a call from a convert of other sister missionaries saying she was movnig to el bosque and she needs a place to live. so since i have been in el bosque for 7 months (aka half my mission) and we were looking for a house, i should know all the hot spots for living. so this week, aside from prosoliting, i played real estate agent. WOO HOO! she told me how much she could pay, for how many people and when she could move. adn we went contacting slash house hunting. and we have found a few good options. im excited for her to be a part of our awesome ward. they will give her a beautiful welcome.

 

this week we "rescued" a family of menos activos, and we have 2 more ready for bishop interviews next week. to me, rescuing menos activos is almost equal to a baptism. feeling pretty good.

 

today (sorry letters are late) we went to the SECOND oldest dirt in peru, La Huaca, templo del sol y la luna ( temple of the sun and the moon) its AWESOME! absolutely BEAUTIFUL! you could see the dried blood where they did human sacrifices. google it. its SAWEET!

 

thats the latest and greatest.

 

the comp is awesome. she LOVES to talk. like REALLY loves to talk. . . . about all kinds of things..... and she talks in english (we need to make more rules). she loves to multi task, sometimes i wonder if she listens to me durring training, but she will catch on. she LOVES dogs. she loves to pet every one. every single one. and there are a lot in peru.... and she LOOOOOVES ice cream. so we eat a lot of ice cream. she is fun. she keeps me laughing. and i love her very much. we like to read scriptures and cuddle. or i give her a foot rub with my special oilsand listen. and listen. and she talks. and talks. and i love to listen.

 

shout out to aunt bobbi and aunt bev. i got liek 6 letters from them on valentines day. thanks for making me feel so loved.

 

 

con mucho amor.

hna Gonzales

 

 

More de la Huaca (really old dirt). I LOVE this culture. It's so rich and bright, and brutal and crazy, and awesome!

Met a 97 year old woman. So cute! How often do you find a happy, little, old Peruvian like this. HAD to take a pic.

 

 

Happy Half Way

dearest loved ones in my life:

 

9 months and going strong! WOO HOO!

some missionaries at their half way, burn things. well thats against the rules ill have you know, so.... us hermanas stuff our skirts and call it "voy a dar a luz" (im glowing).... 

 

 

this week:

first, we had to MAKE a map, yes, walk around in the peruvian heat and draw, corner by corner, of Nueva Barraza. found out two days before that we were to do some serious hard core, the whole zone involved FINDING! we call it "alzar la voz" (raise the voice) BUT you cant invite 18 missionaries to pros with out a map! so we MADE ONE! and it looks gooooood..... so does my farmers tan. lets just say, ill be rolling home half peruvianm, half american. WOOW! so hott right now.

 

 

 

you know how every missionary hits a "dry spell"? well, i think i hit mine. i read my  letters this last week and it seems like THE WHOLE WORLD including my grandma, is BAPTIZING except me! hmmm.... ya the missionaries in my zone and district, chaz, my friends, dad, mom, grandma, cousins,..... how do i have such amazing people in my life.... i hope i can live up to them. well. havent had a progressing investigator since christmas. and ya know, after a few months, its kinda hard to NOT feel like youre wasting the lords time, your time, your boyfriends time, presidents time.... ugggg. and i have to remember that this isnt MY mission, its the Lords mission (thank you mr arteta who reminded me of this a few months prior. i thnk it was prophetic). i have to remember that nothing happens in when I want it to happen. this week we found 19 NEW investigators. and how many of the 19 went to church? 2.... but i am DANG PROUD of those two! and i just keep praying that i am doing everything right. am i missing something? am i doing something obviously wrong and i just dont know it? i am analyzing myself and my work to death! all while keeping a smile on for my comp. hoping she is not feeling what i am feeling. doing my best to help her feel successful all while i am feeling like a failure. its quite the war inside. sometimes i just cry in secret. sometimes i just ponder. sometimes when i have no strength to smile i smile any way. i just work harder to make sure that i am NOT wasting ANYONES TIME!

 

but dont get me wrong. the work is still good. i did have a few tender mercies this week. durring "Alzar la Voz", i got to put all the companionships together. (a new companion for a few hours always makes thigs fun and interesting) and for some reason, i put my new companion with another new sister companion. it didnt make sense, but i did it any way. hoping i did the right thing.... well, it turns out, my comp needed to feel like a leader for a change (makes sense, i know thefeeling) and hna Paiva, my temp comp needed to cry. she has been struggling with her companion Hna GOnzaleZ from argentina for the last two changes.- going on 3 changes. she has been trainging hna gonzalez. but hermana gonzalez is kind of proud and doestn listen to her trainer. she puts everything she says down and does her own thing. (disobedience) and hna paiva is the QUEEN of obedience. so when she was with me, she said "hna gonzales, i have no desire to smile anymore or laugh. i cant keep doing this." it was then i knew, why i made the strange interchange of sister missionaries. hna paiva just needed to cry. to vent and to cry. so i said, you know what, i planned this alzar la voz and i can do what i want. i think its moments ilke these, heavenly father just says "take your dirty, sandy walking shoes off, put your sore toes in the river, and cry to your temp comp.". so that is what we did. and we talked about how the savior could carry his cross to the hill to be killed. so he had angels help him. we couldnt see them, but im sure they were there. when she doenst have the strength to smile any more, let the savior smile FOR you. laugh and listen to your investigator FOR you. cause you just cant do it anymore. (i could say all this, cause thats what i have been going through this week.) when i jsut cant seem to do it anymore, I DONT! and the Savior DOES!

its amazing. then the investigator doesnt SEE hna gonzales or hna paiva. they see the savior. and thats how its supposed to be right?

 

it was a special moment we had under a bannan tree, a mango tree, with the smell of onions from the fields and our toes in the streem. and we felt gods love through his nature and through our words as we cried together. also,

we found two families to teach from alzar la voz.  we have a family home evening with one of them tonight. the uncle is a midget and sits in a wheel chair all day, but he is the happiest, funniest guy ever! He will be a great latter day saint.

also, we had another miracle.

 

we went to visit another family. the parents arent married and they have three beautiful daughters. we taught the daughters to pray and now they LOVE to pray! they pray EVERY morning and night. its so precious.

 

well. one day we went to visit, and the dad was there (havent met him yet. named carlos.) but he wouldnt join us for the lesson. he was busy banging on bricks of the house with a crow bar. i was so confused as to what he was doing. i stood up and walked over to him and asked "que esta haciendo?" (what the heck are you doing??) turns out, he was trying to break a brick out of his house, so he could break down the kitchen doo cause they were locked out! they were locked outo f their kitchen!!! how can they eat!?

 

so i said a prayer. (obv. im a missionary) and i said " Heavenly father? if we get this door open, do you think he will listen to us and maybe by showing him your hand, a miracle, they will go to church?".... well i looked over at my comp, and pulled a bobbi pin out of her hair. i was going to attempt to pick the lock. heck, if it works in movies, why not real life..... im a missionary. wierd things happen all the time.... didnt work for me. so she pulled another one out and with the bobbi pins began opporating ont he door why the dad, carlos continued beating on the bricks..... well, after about 2 mintes, the door opened! hna rejala looked at me like.... who opened the door?. did the mom get in on the other side? no. was it her? she didnt think so. we were both stunned. did it really work? we concluded that it was an angel. cause it just opened so smoothly!!!!

 

i turned to carlos the mom and the three daughters adn said, "creen en milagros?" (do you believe in miracls?) and i said it wasnt a cooincedence that we came in a time of need and opened the kitchen door.

 

we found out, that 10 years earlier, carlos and saida had been investigating the church cause she was pregnant and they wanted to get married in a church!

well i said, hey, we can help with that!

we will see waht happens with this family.

 

 

well thats the latest and greatest.

pray for andi, he is progressing just cause of work cant go to church but is reading and praying and knows its true!

pray for jorge, after 3 months of investigating, he finally got friends and is active in the single ward activities. jsut needs to go to church....

pray for marielena that she can get permission.

and the family in chakarilla barraza.

 

con amor

hna gonzlaes

What it means to have a Savior

Dearest Family and friends.

 

ITS A GIRL.... ok obv.... i have an amazing new companion. she is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!!!

her name is Hna Rejala. she is from Paraguay, she is 20 years old, she speaks ENGLISH!!! oh no.... when will i ever have a comp where im forced to use spanish. COME ON! but she is helping me a lot on my spanish. just corrections here and there. hey no body is perfect, even after 9 months..... she loves clothes, shoes, soccer, running, chocolate, music, being goofy, laughing, TALKING, and is like, a better, paraguayan version of me. like mother like daughter. she is  awesome. she really opened up to me right off the bat. she told me all about her past. she has a hard past. her mother has skitsofrenia, would beat her and yell at her. she has a sister who died, a brother on a mission and a leziban sister who is very active in the church. this girl, has seen and been through it all! she is definutely a tomb boy, and she is always telling me (in her cute accent) "just be a tough girl". and in reality, that is just what i have needed to hear.

 

 

 

this week, we had 2 service projects, a big ward activity, and teaching this sweet girl the obra de salvacion!. it was kinda crazy week. only a little bit of stress when NONE of the members showed up to help our recent convert move, and when the vidio for the ward activity didnt work, (saved the day with a back up dvd i keep in my backpack always.... thank you holy spirit) and i didnt realize how you really have to explain EVERYTHING to a new missionary. getting her to focus is fun. she loves to talk. and to top off an outstanding week, sunday we went by all our investigators to bring them to church and NOT ONE CAME! we went by 4 families. and got to church JUST IN TIME to watch EVERYONE (except us) taking the sacrament..... awesome. how am i supposed to tell my investigators to go to church if I CANT even get there on time... UGH! but its fine right? .... i did my best not to act stressed in front of my poor brand spanking new companion. and i did hold my cool pretty well. she didnt act stressed, so i think that means i hid it well. lol OH YA! we also had to move rooms AGAIN this week cause now we are 2. not three, which means less space which means less money which means move. AND our pensionista is going on vacation for 2 weeks so..... guess whos searching for a pench again. this girl.... some times i feel a littel bit of a burden and cant remember to do everything and the things i DO remember.... well. i do my best.

 

 

 

my testimony has grown this week. i have learned more of what it means to have a SAVIOR. someone who saves you from yourself. when youre burried really deep and you cant seem to breathe or smile, or have charity...... the savior steps in and somehow, i smile. somehow i give big warm hugs.... somehow i make people feel loved.... and i know its not me. cause there is nothing of me left to give. its completely the savior. wow! he really is there. its hard to see in teh moment, but he is. and through his grace and mercy, he makes up for what i lack. and i lack a lot. training really shows you all your weaknesses. and i hope and pray that i can make her to be a better missionary than i am. im sure thats what moms say when they have a child. i hope i can raise this one to be better than me. its A LOT OF PRESSURE! whew!

 

but we are doing good. just hanging in there. doing our best. keep smiling and laughing, and loving the people. i am doing all i can and i know that is all that hte savior expects. all that he wants. and that is why our loving Heavenly Father gave us his son. so that we can be perfected by Him. THrough him.

AND THANK HEAVENS!!!!! cause i cant do it a lone. and sometimes i feel a little alone.

 

but we are doing good. i love my companion. she is wonderful and strong, and humble, and willing, and happy and has such young faith. i love it! we already have a good bond. a good unity. and we give each other hugs and kisses before bed and she is so sweet! i call her "hija". i say "vamos hija" (lets go daughter) and she obeys. heheheh she calls me "mami". and we love each other.

 

i love you all.

i know that the Savior is very much aware of us. He loves us so much and is patient with us. i know that everything happens for a reason and what doesnt kill us makes us stronger.

 

hide the tears, seguir adelante. and just love everyone to death. cause they deserve it.

 

with all the love and affection in my heart,

Hna Gonzales