In a rut

welp.....

honestly loved ones, 

there isnt much to report for this week. i feel like im stuck in a rut. and its not fun 

its breaking out from going through the motions. 

its like searching for the sunshine in a very grey cloud. its not a black cloud but its not a white cloud either. its just..... gray.... and i know the sunshine is on the other side but im jsut trying to get there.... tis wierd. im not sad, but im not like way happy either. its such a strange feelign really. 

but we are doing well. 

this week....

we did intercambios. my first as sister leader. and the sister i was with is doing good. she has a hard companioon. and ironically enough her last name is gonzaleZ..... heheheh but we talked about leadership and how to be a christlike leader and how to correct with love and with the spirit. somethign that I AM stioll trying to learn. strange. 

we have no one progressing. and had ONE in  church this week. we are preparing for the home teaching training. cause no one does it. its hard to retain if you dont do your visits. or QUALITY visits either. so we are planning that 

and the most exciting part of my week was the eath quake....

but i dont know if you can really call it an eathquake cause the pictures on the wall stayed on the wall. they didnt even fall off. it was about 10 seconds, and it started off small then got big, and then died off. not too long. not too bad. i think my reaction did the most damage.... im such a wuss. i was all shakey after. hahah and we were teaching a lesson. is it embarrassign that my investigators stayed more calm than i? he said "peace, its ok.... we are with  God...." as i was up bolting for the door. hahahaha 

how embarrassing..... 

welp. thats the latest. 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! they are needed. 

love you  all 

love hermana gonzales 

 

 

Went to the pool. It was SUCH A TEASE! because we couldn't get in.

 

Got dared to eat a lot of "aji". It's like Peruvian jalapeno and I DID IT! And guess what? It was GOOD! Still a spicy Mexican.

Going Strong

queridas familia y amistades

it was a good week. 

 

some high lights. 

 

celebrated one year! May 8th treated myself to some tres leches. yummy. my favorite. 

 

we had a baptismal interview. sometimes when our investigators arent progressingw well and there is obviously something holding them back, we throw them in an interveiw withan elder and they find their hidden doubts. it works great! i have a lot of confidence in the elders. well, turns out, hermana suley, has a girlfriend. yes,. a GIRL friend. she is homosexual. adn doesnt even feel bad about it. she doesnt want to change. so we are back to square one with finding. well the next day a miracle happened and victor came to church. he has visited with 6 different missionaries and came to church for the first time in 5 years. and he accepted a baptismal date! AWESOME!  he is ready. and we are here to harvest. WHAT A BLESSING! we are also working with lucho. the son of my recent convert. we are gonna complete this family one person at a time. so far we have mom, daughter, and now we are working on son. and there is a  7 year old who will be preparing for her baptism in the next 6 months. AWESOME! 

 

happy mothers day to all the beautiful influential women in my life. it was SO AWESOME skyping home to mama and miss heidi. i am so blessed with such wonderful parents. i dont know what i did to have such righteous examples in my life. i had to ask mom for forgiveness for ever being a bratt. being far from home for a long timemakes you realize a lot of things. FOR GIVE ME MOM! i will forever help in the kitchen with out complaining. i will forever do the dishes with out being asked. and i will always be there at dinner at 6 on the dot. I LOVE YOU! 

 

thank you for your prayers. they are definutely felt. 

this week we are planning on doing a work visit and next week we will do two more with the sisters int he other zone. (about an hour away) and we are planning a training to train the ward how to do their visiting teaching and home teaching. cause they ARENT DOIN GIT! how are we supposed to keep our fruits? and we are still planning hte stake activity. don tthey have planning committies? oh well. this work is definutly WORK! and i love it. im in love with his work.

 

love you all. keep the faith! keep putting the lord first and i PROMISE you he WILL BLESS YOU! but maybe in ways you dont expect. keep your spiritual eyes open. cause His hand is all around us. we just have to notice it. 

 

love you all

loooove

 

hermana gonzales xoxoxo 

 

 

Short, Sweet, and to the Point

dearest family. so today is p day but its a wierd one. 

hermana marler (the presidents wife) is going to come with us on a lesson. hermana marlers grand son just died. he is two. and she just got back. our investigator, rosio, just suffered the death of her two year old son. he fell from teh third floor of house at his birthday party. then at the funeral of her son someone told her that this was punishment for a sin. 

broke my heart. i am so grateful for the gospal. for hte plan of salvation. i know htat hermana marler will be able to give her such awesome advice and comfort through the scriptures and her testimony. 

i am so grateful for the knowledge that i have. i know that GOd does not punish. i know htat he may withold blessings, but he does not punish. i know that we may suffer the consequences of our actions from disobedience, but GOD DOES NOT PUNISH! and i hope that throught he perspective of the gospal, she will find that there are miracles hidden amongst our trials. i hope that she will come to unerstand that her baby boy has already achieved salvation. now she has to do her part and achieve what her son already has. to be with him agian one day. 

im excited for this lesson. its worht the sacrivice of a p day. 

this week we had DOUBLE MEETINGS! had no idea. supposedly a sister training leader is like the zone leader for the sisters. so we have to go to all the same meetings as our ZLs. this picture is of all the sister leaders in the mission after meeting we go play sports and eat lunch in the mission home. its awesome! then we had a meeting witht he stake presdient, and i have a reputation for putting on activities after my Parque Grande FHE so now im a sister leader guess who is in charge of hte STAKE activity..... ya. this girl. 

its gonna rock. i have a few ideas stewing up in my brain. 

 

 

funny story. 

we are teaching our Dueña (house owner? idk in english...) her name is Luci. and she is a funny lady, this week we asked her to bring her bible and her book of mormon for hte lesson. she said "ill bring my bom,. but i cant touch my bible".... i was so confused. like did i interprerate wrong or something? no.... we asked "hermana lucy. why cant you touch our bible?" she replied "cause im on my period" like duh. no one should touch the bible when they are on their period.... i said "hermana luci. who told you that?" she said "the bible says!" i said "hermana lucy,. where in the bible does it say that? " she said "i dont know..." well. maybe its there, i dont know but hten i replied  (trying with all my might not to laugh out loud" "well hermana, i dont know where it says that  but i know that I NEED the bible EVEN MORE when im on MY period....and my companions can attest to that...." then we started the lesson with the good old book of mormon. but it made me even more grateful for the RESTORED gospal. the TRUE CHURCH! with the things that REALLY matter. 

well. 

thats the latest and greatest. we are doing our best to get Suley, luis, and lucy progressing. they are tough cookies. but its coming

thank you for your love and your prayers. 

mom and heidi, im STOKED to see your pretty faces this sunday. 

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! 

loooooove 

Sister Gonzales xoxoxoox 

If you liked it then put a ring on it!

Dearest Family and friends,

week one of this new cambio. and its going awesome! yes i miss my daughter. but training is hard.... 

my new companion is a gem. she is wonderful. i couldnt ask for more. she is teachign me to be an hermana lider. (leader) 

Her name is Hermaba Carbone she is from Lima, she has 14 months on her mission, she has trained 4 times, has been an hermana leader for 2 or 3 of those times. she can do miracles and she is a cookie cutter missionary. she is AWESOME! she is humble, quite, full of the spirit, and laughs like squidward from spongebob square pants. but i want to be JUST LIKE HER!! she truly cares about this work and she works hard and is exactly obedient and has TONS OF FAITH! wow. but she too has been through a lot. it sad that you have to go through such hard times to become so wonderful. i want to become as wonderful as her, but i dont know if i want to go through what she has gone through to get there. but thats how it goes right? i have a feeling that for her, my area and this companionship is just what she needed. she is very happy to be here. and i am very happy to be her companion. she is THE BOMB!! 

at the same time, i have a feeling that this is the calm before the storm. i have had small storms here and there, but i have a feeling that now, as an ahermana asignada and time i have on my mission, heavenly father is preparing me for something. i dont know what yet, but its coming. and im a little nervous. but i am going to take advantage of what i got while i have it. and as of right now,  i am happy . 

found out this week that we are hermana asignadas for 2 zones! 6 hermanas. AWESOME! and guess what! hermana rejala is in the other zone! MI HIJA! so i can do work visits with her! yayayayaya! happy sister gonzales.however this other zone is an hour away! so it will be an adventure everytime we do work visits. which will be at least 2 times per change. im excited. 

leadership lunch. as leaders, we meet more often. this week we had our normal district meetings, then the next day we had a meeting jsut for leaders and my companion and i had to speak. (im not qualified. obv. but i wung it the best i could) then after we went to lunch! AWESOME! and next week we have another leadership meeting with ALL the leaders in the mission for activites and training and lunch and service. SAWEET! im stoked!! 

mom went to lunch with hermana downs and elder smith! like what the?? i saw the pic of elder smith standing so close to a sister missionary and then i remembered, oh wait, they arent missionaries any more. its ok. calm down. and whats more NEXT TO MY PARENTS! like ahhhh! a combo of two very different worlds all in one!! all teh people i love so dearly next to each other. it brought tears to my eyes. and im so happy that they had such a good time together. what a tender mercy. i am so happy. 

talked in church.... and my ward knows that i do wierd things in my talks, in the past i had them all stand and say our objective of missionaries. or raise their hands when i ask who here loves jesus? i MAKE them listen. this time, as i was praying about what to say, the spirit brought a memory back to my head. about one time, brother marzan in my home ward in utah put a big far of gumballs at the podium. but never said anything about it the whole time. we were all paying attention waiting for the explination.... but he never said anything! i decided to do the same. this week i got my easter packages from my dear sweet parents. so i put items from my packages at the pulite. an easter egg. chocolate bunny, my pezz dispensor.t hings that they have never seen before and i just left them there. finally at the end i made a relation how the things they see they are curious about. they want to try it. they want it to make them happy like it makes me happy. i talked about how in the church we have funny traditions like family night and mutual and it makes us happy. and people want what we have. and some hope that we share with them. 

i shared a lot of things in my talk. .like my experience when i recieved my endowment. it went well. i cried. they cried. they paid attention.  iw as happy. all was going great until....

i looked down and saw a note on the corner of hte podium that said "tiempo hermana"...

(aka time is up sister) i had been talking for over 25 minutes! and i hadnt realized! but the spirit was so strong!!! 

so i wrapped it up. felt good. and we didnt have time for the rest hymn and the stake rep had to shorten his talk. like a lot..... hahahah but its fine right? 

 

but after wards a lot of members told me they were sad that i had to cut it short. that made me feel good. one member came up and puta  ring on my finger.... that was a little wierd..... 

 

the ward makes lots of jokes about the time i have here. cause i have 10 months in el bosque. hahah that is wierd. i know. not many missionaries can have the time i have in one area. but i would like to share some of ward jokes:

 

"hermana gonzales, have you baught your house yet?" i reply " yes! bishop bought it for me already!  with your tithing! thank you so much!!"

"hermana! are you immortal?"

"how many companions have you killed?" 

"hermana! did you see the memorial of you in the park?" i reply " ya! its next to the Virgin Fatima!" (there is a shrine to a vergin in the park. ppl pray to it)

"hermana, how many ward callings to you have?" i reply " three. im the bishop and the counsilors now"

 

and im sure there are more jokes to come. i love this ward. i love my mission. i love my companion. its definutely the calm before the storm. but im ready. bring it on. im a missionary! and i have power and authority! and i know God loves me. sometimes i feel like im his favorite. i am so so incredibly blessed. the work is coming. if you could pray for Suley. she needs a spiritual confirmation still. 

con amor

hermana gonzales 

ps. MOTHERS DAY IS COMING!!! WOO HOO!!! 

 

 

Birds, Guinea Pigs, and Fish, oh my!

Well my friends, this transfer has come to an end. my daughter has grown up and all fully trained. she is such a hard worker. she makes me so proud (sniff sniff....)

and we had an awesome week!

Monday: LOVED reading my letters from home and had an awesome noche de hogar with teh first counsilors family land a family menos activo.

Tusday:  our neighbor who has a little store, came up to us and handed us a bird.... yes. a real live BIRD! apparently it fell out of a tree and he didnt want to take care of it. we named him Manuel and took him home. aparently he wasnt even injurred!!! he could fly perfectly fine. he flew all around our room. well, time came to go prosolite so we took the bird with us, but for some reason he didnt want to fly away. he just stayed on my companions hand. we did some contacting and visited bishop for his birthday. we told him we caught him a bird for his very special day. jjajaja but he couldnt keep it. he has too many pet cats. so we kept the bird. finally, at 3:32 in the after noon....he..... flew away! what the?? nobody knows why?  he just decided to go. perfectly fine! we were confused. but it was nice to have such a beautiful creature accompany us for a few hours. we got some sweet contacts thanks to Manuel.

 

The bird whisperer

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, we broke up 2 dog fights. for some reason, all the street dogs wanted to fight. so we threw rocks at them to make them stop. it was wierd. 

tursday, a member invited us for Cuy! (guinie pig) i have never tried it before. and they heard that cambios were this week so they wanted to do something special for in case one of us leaves (most likely me cause i already have 9 months in el bosque) well, these members live in VERY humble cercumstances and to raise Cuy, is something that is their income. and cuy is expensive so they raise them all year, make them big and fat and sell them for christmas and stuff. 

well, the fact taht she wanted to give US cuy for FREE is quite the sacrifice.... and we couldnt reject. so we ate cuy. and boy was it GOOOD!!! made with love and everthing! so delicuos! 

however... i spent friday saturday and sunday on the toilet..... got the squirts. and boy is it AWESOME! however, now here is a miracle, it hasnt gotten TOO bad that i have to stay home from working. PHEW! but i do feel a little... off..... 

 

Friday: so here in peru, they celebrate "semana Santa" which means Holy Week. its like Easter, with out easter eggs, adn bunnies, and chocolate. instead they eat fish, NO MEAT! cause its the day christ turned the fish and bread to feed thousands. so no one eats meat. just fish so all el bosque smelt like fish. kinda cool. they also spend their time drinking. LOTS of drinking. kina ironic for a Holy Week dont you think? also, went to beautiful gardens in the back of a members house. complete with fish and frogs. TONS OF FISH°! 

 

Saturday: we were planning all tranquilo, whe PRESIDENT CALLED!!! president never calls you personally. its normally the office elders and the assistents. well, he called! and you bet we did a little panicing....

we were confused cause cambios werent until sunday night! we still had a whole day left! well.... he asked for me.... my heart dropped to my bladder. and well, not too big of a deal, he asked me if i would me an hermana asignada. :) SWEET! (sister training leader)  i asked him for what area? he said he would let the elders tell me.

sunday: cambios. seeing as i have spent my whole mission here, i let the ward members molest me about changing and so we took pix and planner a super FHE for tonight all thinking i would get changed. well the elders called that night. turns out IM STAYING IN EL BOSQUE!!! as sister trainer leader.... hahahaha go figure. however mi hija! SHE will be going to a new area. she will be opening an area. they have had elders there but never sisters. she and hermana lasike, (got stuck with her in the airport at the beginning of my mission) will be there. about an hour away. and i will have a NEW companion. :D her name is Hermana Carbone. i know nothing about her. just that she is "older" than me in teh mission, and that she is LATINA!!! NO MORE INGLES!  (al fin!) 

well that is the latest. this week we did some good contacting. we over achieved our goals. feeling good. working hard. letting the lord shape me. its not always easy. sometimes i wonder... have i changed? am i changing? im doing my best to put off the natural man. its NOT EASY that is for sure. im doing my best to show my desires to serve. im trying every day to love the lord and these people more. 

all i know, is that my testimony of jose smith, my savior jesus christ, and my heavenly father, is stronger today than it was yesterday. 

we did a fast this week. we fasted for a family. if you would like to add your prayers to mine, we are praying that the lord prepares a father, mother and child to recieve ordinaces of baptism and themple blessings .

i cant wait to go through the temple again

i miss it with all my heart. there is no other feeling in the whole world like there is in the celestial room of the temple. please. go for me! 

I love you all. this work is WORK and it is so sweet. the lord truly loves us. AND DONT YOU FORGET IT! dont ever forget your potential. i invite all to look at themselves in the mirror and see your potential. imagine what heavenly father has in mind for you. its amazing. explain this potential to someone this week. it feels good. 

Love you all 

con mucho mucho amor,

hna gonzales 

 

 

PS! shout out to the young women of the leander ward. got their giant valentine

to the evans family. the cute twins and nichole for their adorably decorated note

and letter

and my aunt bev! WELCOME HOME NICK!!! aunt bev, i got your st patricks day note. so cute. so fun. your kids are AMAZING!! 

love you all }

love moe

I like to look for rainbows

Dearest Amistades,

i got THE BEST NEWS this week from home that i would like to share. 

Julia Liddell-- FOLLOW YOU HEART BABY! your heart is CLEARLY in the right place and you have THE MOST righteous desires. 

now i know you are all asking yourself.... what is moe talking about. well my cute darling cousin julia got her mission call to ARCADIA CALIFORNIA! where i was searving  before peru, and she was all set to go. but then, cute mark, her love, swept her off her feet. and after much praying, fastinga dn crying (i know this process, oh do i know this process) she has a set to marry the love of her life mark (cant wait to meat you) for time and all eternity. CONGRATS GIRL!"!!!! i LOVE love. its the sweetest thing. and i am so happy for you. 

now.... can you please postpone the wedding til december?? pretty please pretty please??? 

 

and kenzie huey-- MY OTHER FAV CUZ! she will be serving in  CALI TOO"!!!! spanish speaking baby! WOO HOO!! the latinos are Gods chosen people. i promise you that. you got teach some gospal girl. im excited to hear about your adventures. and all you learn. 

 

Porter WIlkins-- i gotta go watch priesthood session choir to find you! how did you get that gig?? im so super jealous! i wish i could sing in a choir for the lord and for the whole world to see and feel of your spirit. WOW! what do i gotta do to live your life. ps how is your cute new wife?? 

 

wow. my family ROCKS! i am so blessed to be part of such awesome people. Heavenly father truly loves us. and his blessings are SO REAL! 

 

this week. in the life of little Hermana GOnzales. 

first of all JORGE IS NOW OFFICIALLY A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH! wow. it feels so good. his baptism was saturday. and get this.... we show up to the church and there he is, with his mom (non member) and andre (who came home early from his mission, but now is worth of baptising) 

 

 

 

AND a rainbow! like for real...?? i thought stuff like that only happened in the ensign. there was a rainbow at the most meaningful baptism of my mission!!! i couldnt help but shed  a few tears. heavenly father approved. it was such a tender mercy. and the baptism went PERFECTLY! 

 

 

 

we had the whole singles ward, the members, two musical numbers, great talks, one by joan our recent convert and lidia, who is preparing for her mission. 

my comp and i sang I am a child of GOd. jorges favorite hymn. and since jorge also speaks inglish my comp sang a verse in inglish then we sang ingles and spanish together. so cool. the spirit was so strong. and my ukulele sounded AWESOME! 

the part of the song that says "has given me parents kind and dear" he touched his moms knee.... andi lost it. i was already emotional but that was the last straw. i started to cry right there in the middle of my verse. and then , HE started crying! AH! It was probably the MOST emotional and spiritual baptism of my whole mission so far. 

ah! i feel so good. 

and i feel like i accomplished what i was meant to accomplish here in el bosque. next week is transfers. we will see what happens. 

 

 

this week we also got locked out of our room. the owner left and was gone all day so we couldnt get in! i was this close to climbing through the window, ( of the second floor) when the apartment owner came out and asked what we were doing. and, of course, had a better solution. she left and came back with a shovel.... i was a little nervous of what she was going to do to that window with thath shovel.... well. turns out, she jsut needed to wiggle the knob lose and it opned easy breezy. peruvian winows are wierd. its hard to explain. but we got it. EXITO!" 

 

thats about it with the news from  my life. 

 

thank you for your prayers.(especially for jorge!)  thank you for your love. thank you for your faith in me. 

I love the lord, i love this work. yes it is hard, yes i am being pushed, and yes i am growing. growing into what heavenly father wants me to be. 

and i hope i turn out better than i came. 

the church is true. truer than true. and i am so blessed to be here. 

 

con amor

hna gonzales