Feelings of Happiness Overcame Me

First off, Happy Birthday to Grammy tomorrow, Jonah today, and Aunt Cassy this week. May is such a birthday month for us!

This week was SO amazing. One of the best I have had yet. I have put some goals each transfer so I can make the most of my mission, and this transfer I am trying something new everyday, and making my mission a spiritual adventure. Well, this week we rocked it on the goals. Spiritual adventure would be an understatement. Man, I love this place.

So every morning we have been doing this crazy workout program (Gotta get in shape, am I right?) And exercising seriously just starts the day off the all the energy ya need. I love it! Plus, last week was transfers, and we got President Monson's body guards SON up here. He is awesome. He`s working us into the ground. Every day after our work out we go up the main road and get our quinoa and sandwiches.

We have been working a TON this week with a man named Victor. He`s the one that owns "Hot Stone Pizza". (Perfect, right?) Haha. He is so awesome. He came with us to church on Sunday, and all the new elders thought he was a member. He was sitting there taking notes in sacrament meeting, and singing like a champ. It was so cool.

This Sunday was probably my favorite that I have had in my entire mission. As we were taking the sacrament yesterday, I really tried to focus on the Atonement, and how the Lord sacrificed so much, so that I could be clean each week, and each day when I repent with a sincere heart.  I sat there pondering about what the Atonement means to me, and if I truly understand it. I am proud to say that I don`t. Why? Because it gives me the opportunity to learn more! I am come to love studying the scriptures, and the words of the prophets, and I know that when I read them the Holy Ghost is teaching me. As I sat in sacrament meeting, I had an urge to cry, and laugh, and yell, and smile, and every emotion good was just exploding from inside of me. I can`t even begin to explain the feelings of happiness that overcame me completely. I quickly pulled out a notebook and started writing down everything I felt so I wouldn't forget it.

I want you all to know that this gospel, this church of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to find happiness in this life. I know that with everything I have, and I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, that God lives. We CANNOT find the eternal joy that God has prepared for us by searching in any other place.  The world will do everything to tell you other wise, but I know with every bone in my body that the happiness that the gospel brings is the best in the world.

This week I got a phone call from a family that I worked with a TON in Tacna telling me that they went and got sealed as a family in Lima last week. I almost cried as I thought about the ordinances we do in the temple, and how we truly can be sealed together for all eternity. That is why I am here. To help others realize that, and the power of the priesthood that we have here on earth once again.

I love you all! Have a great memorial day!

 Peruvian sunset

  was doing great on the diet until I was offered a piece of tres leches cake…and finished it

 

The twins school dance recital. Huge hit!

 

Surrounded by our english class students. Love them!

 Hot Stone Pizza

 

Peruvian security system. Nobodys gonna be climbing over those walls.

District Chivay

Keep the branch of Chivay in your prayers.

Family!!

First off, Happy birthday to little Colton this week. I can`t believe he`ll be a teenager on Wednesday. He`ll be the favorite teenager cause he`s so obedient. Miss that little guy.

Well...This week Hermana Weller and I got sick, so two of the days this week we were quarantined to our rooms.  Funny how just a couple days inside can make you SO excited to go outside and work. Maybe it was just what we needed.

On Tuesday it was Elder Mayletts birthday so for his birthday...(of course) we planned a surprise party that turned out to be a HUGE hit and was bigger than any ward activity we have had yet. There were 3 members (nailed it) and 13 investigators. It was awesome! Birthdays are a pretty big deal here in Peru, so even though we planned it like 2 hours before it started and ran around town inviting everyone we knew, every single person showed up. It was so great!

This week we received a LOT of blessings and some pretty incredible miracles.  Remember Brenda? Shes 14, and one of the investigators that we have been working with here for the last month or so.  Well, this week we taught her the restoration, and gave her a Book of Mormon. We invited her to read it, and told her to pray to know if it was true, and that we would be back the next day to check up on her. We brought her to church yesterday, and then last night went over to see how her reading and prayers went. She told us, "I want to get baptized this week. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that is needed for us to understand Bible completely.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that he translated the Book of Mormon. This is the church of Jesus Christ. Baptism is just the beginning for me. I am so ready to change." AH! Hermana Weller and I were literally almost in tears. We have been praying so hard for that girl, and the Lord has just blessed us so much.  I know that the Lord is teaching her through the Holy Ghost, and that we are only instruments in His hands to bring her children to the knowledge of the truth.

We had transfers yesterday, and we are both staying here, which means i`ll probably be finishing up my mission here. I`m so excited. I absolutely thrilled to be here in Chivay doing this work with a people who are SO prepared to hear the gospel. I love my mission. It means everything in the world to me. This week as I was laying on my deathbed (just kidding mom I`m totttttallllllly fine.) I realized how little time I have left, and how important it is that I gave every ounce of myself these last 12 weeks of my mission.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week. Keep our branch of Chivay in your prayers.

Lets get to work...

Family!

It was so fun to see you all yesterday on Skype! Weird to think that it was the last time to talk to you all until I get home. Glad I got to see ya on your day mommy!

This week was another great one. We were in Arequipa Tuesday and Wednesday which is always fun.  It´s another world down here. They drive cars here instead of llamas.  While we were here we had a zone conference.  We talked a lot about goals and how we could work a little harder to reach them if they are truly something that God wants. Like I was telling you yesterday, Hermana Weller and I really wanted to be guided by the spirit as we set a baptism goal for May.  We prayed for about a week asking the Lord how many people He had prepared for us to be baptized this month in our new area. After a few days I told Hermana Weller that I received an answer. I told her 7.  She looked at me and said..."That's what I got too"  So right then we knelt down and prayed and asked the Lord for a confirmation to our souls that He really did want us to baptize 7 people in our area. The answer was clear for both of us. We stood up and said..."Let´s get to work".  As of right now we don´t have 7 people that are ready to be baptized...but we know that God is a God of miracles, and He will help us if we do our part.

When we got back to Chivay on Wednesday we jumped right back into working.  There is SO much to be done in our area.  The people we are teaching are starting to progress and it´s definitely nice to start seeing some results after this first transfer of getting things up and running in our new area. 

Hermana Weller and I planned a surprise "Happy 1 year" party for an Elder that is serving in Chivay with us, and it was a HUGE hit.  We got cake, balloons, coloring pages, poster board, you name it...we had it. As he walked in and we turned on the lights I screamed "SURPRISE!" so loud that I scared the entire family that let us use their house for the party...it´s been a while since I´ve been to one of those...I guess I forgot how they work.

This last week we were asked to start reading the Book of Mormon as a companionship every day for 15 minutes. Never have I felt so strongly the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon in my entire life. I do not doubt that the Book of Mormon is the work of God. Each time we read we are filled with a spirit of confirmation telling us once again that the things we are reading are coming straight for our Father in Heaven. 

On Saturday the Elders had a baptism, and it was so beautiful.  We got to walk down to the river and watch it done as Christ was baptized. What a blessing. After hiking and climbing over rocks in a skirt for about 20 minutes...we made it! We sat down, prayed, sang a hymn, and watched a sweet young girl become a member of the true church of Jesus Christ. I love this work!

We also got rejected this week...and for the first time in my mission we were literally told "Nobody is home!" Haha. I always thought that was just a joke.  We thanked her for answering us, and left.  Classic.

The church is true. I know it!

Love you all!