The meaning of a mission

Dearst all. how is eveyone. congrats nick for starting your second mission. what a good example. all these weddings and missions. I LOVE IT!!!

My MIssion. and it means something. 

6 For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that whichis good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except heshall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing.

 7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.

 8 For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth itgrudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he hadretained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.

this is my calling. this is what i do. and i love it. 

 31 And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance,and to fulfil and to do the work of the covenants of the Father,which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the wayamong the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ untothe chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony ofhim.

and this is why i am here. 

24 Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored withoutceasing, that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I mightbring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; thatthey might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.

25 Yea, and now behold, O my son, the Lord doth give meexceedingly great joy in the fruit of my labors;

26 For because of the word which he has imparted unto me,behold, many have been born of God, and have tasted as I havetasted, and have seen eye to eye as I have seen; therefore they doknow of these things of which I have spoken, as I do know; and theknowledge which I have is of God.

we are doing good-. i am working hard. 

we are having a baptism this saturday. he is a gift from heaven and already wants to serve a mission. 

i am tired. i am working hard. i feel like im 80.but i am happy. 

keep the prayers coming. we are going strong to the end.  

love 

hermana gonzales 

P-Day All Week

DEAREST ALL

i know it says p day all week. let me explain. it was an awesome week. like it was p day every day! almost.... we only prosolyted a few days... like. three.... heheheh 

let me explain. 

President asked my companion and i to do a presentation in the Mulit zone conferences on how to teach lesson one in a dynamic way under fifteen minutes. and focus on joseph smith and the book of mormon. we did so good the first time, they asked us to go on the road with them! so this week, tuesday and wednesday we went to Chimbote Peru, the furthest area of the mission, to do the multizone with president, his wife and the assistents. i felt like a sister assistent for a few days. and this week we are doing two more. we will be going to the whole mission training missionaries how to teach with more power and authority. with more spirit, on why our church is different. every church teaches peace, hope and love. and all teach of god and use the bible, but why us. why are we differetn and how do we know and why are we so faithful? 

thats why we are here. that is why the Prophet sends us to the whole world. and it was SO FUN to share what i live and love with other missionaries. we woke up tuesday morning at four, took a two story bus, (yes there wer two levels. SCARY!) and slept all the way. where we checked into a SUPER nice hotel. havent seen a hotel, or  A NICE ONE at that for a looooooong time. and it was so nice. they treated us well. 

Crazy in the hotel

then we went to hte multizone. i hear hte same things every time, we did four in total so far, and every time i learn somethig new, presidetn really loves his missionaries. and he is very in tune to the spirit. i can never get sick of hearing him speak. while we were there, one of hte area 70 showed up! just out of the blue and asked my companion and i to help him teach a principal. we did a role play with him and he too, is very powerful. you can see authority. and feel his love for the work. and you can tell he takes it seriously too. sometimes i feel like i should take this stuff MORE seriously. but it was AWESOME° again. an amazing spirit. 

so that was a good two days. and we got to visit hermana paivas recent converts cause she was "born" or started her mission in chimbote. that was neat. 

then we traveled home in the presidents van with the office elders and his wife and listened to Wicked. didnt know we were aloud to do that. but we did! cool. 

then when we get home, we had an impression to call the sisters in the area next to us. turns out they were locked out of their house, and they had a bad day, and one of them has depression and she had a little bit of a break down and peed her skirt. so..... we bring them to our place. give them new clothes, make some beads, and rub some oils on their feet to calm them down. and put them back together again emotionally. that too was a spiritual experience. we love these girls and sometimes the mission is really hard. but i feel like amissionary when im able to pick them back up and put them back together again. i stole the sisters pill bottle and decorated it with a scripture and a ribbon. im helping her "make friends with the enemy" and now she will be excited to take her pill every day! and she will FINISH her mission strong. (she really wants to go home...)

the next day was Consilio., the leadership meeting where we are pumped up by the spirit to help our zones do some intercambios, and move the work forward. then we eat delicious food and do something fun. we had a picture scavenger hunt. and we had a blast. if you can imagine about 50 missionaries running around down town looking for certain things and taking crazy pictures. 

driving the giant coca cola truck for the scavenger hunt 

then that night, we get home, we are talking about doing intercambios with some sisters when we get a knock at the door. one of hte sisters we live with said that hermana calle, the mission doctor is having a migrane crisis. didnt really knew what that ment until i saw her rocking back and forth crying and holding her head like it was about to explode! then she ran to the bathroom to throw up! so what do we do? we RUSH her to the clinic!! where they gave her a shot. a few shots to calm her down. we were at the clinic until 11:30 at night. then sister marler came and took the sister to the mission home. WHEW! what a day! the poor sister. 

and to top it all off.... we had  a miracle this week. 

Rodrigo. he is dating hte bishops daughter and has been going to church for 7 months. but never accepted missionaries or anyone to teach him cause he was afraid of being forced to baptism..... 

and finally he accepted missionaries!!!! it was a miracle! and we had SUCH AWESOME lessons. i cant tell you the spirit that was there when we testified of joseph smith and gave him his very own book of mormon. i cannot tell you how strong the spirit was when we taught him of baptims and hte gift of the holy ghost. and i cannot tell you how happy i fel twhen he ACCEPTED a baptimal date for the 16th! 

YESSSS!°!!! God is blessing our efforst .even if they are small and we arent out doing what i feel like we should do as missionaries, like, focussing on our own areas... but he lord is seeing our sacrifice and blessing us. i cannot explain it, but its real. and its amazing. Heavenly Father is VERY MUCH aware of us and our situations. and he DOES bless us. in ways we would NEVER expect. dont doubt. just believe.  sometimes you just need to lose yourself and go to work. and stand back and Know that He is. and He is in control., and this is HIS MISSION. not mine. im just the medium. 

i am happy. im ready for a new week. i love this work and i am feeling loved. 

thank you for your prayers. 

con mucho amor

hermana gonzales

ps we were asked to do our O SOLE MIO number again. but htis time, for a multi stake YSA activity in esperanza. they are expecting 700 young single adults. 30 de Aug. WOO HOO! 

also

please send pix of grandparents and their birthdays. im doing a small booklet called My Family for geneology. 

moroni 8:16

Dont be afraid to open your mouth. and do it with love. 

moche

huaca de luna y de sol with hermana jeffrey 

I love Peru!

On top of the world on P day

making huacas 

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