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

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