KIWIS, CAMBIOS, and MANGOS

Que tal mis amigos y mi familia? Como están?

This week was pretty average, BUT we had 4 people come to church AGAIN. I finally have figured out the trick. And shoutout to the fam because they gave me the idea. To teach investigators IN the chapel during the week. At first I was hesitant to plan something like that but I did it and have taugh 3 lessons like that. And PEOPLE ARE ATTENDING.

Transfers are in the morning tomorrow and I am actually so nervous. I have the strongest feeling that I am going to leave Oquendo. I really dont want to because we are finally starting to progress forward. I love these people, this dust filled area, and the horribly scheduled sacrament meeting.

Pic description:  The Tuero Family... Bishop Tuero and his wife and 3 children.  Sister Tuero is Hunter's Pensionista.  She makes them lunch every day and does their laundry once a week.  The church employs members to serve the missionaries in this way because they do not have access to laundry facilities and they are so busy during the day that they do not have time to prepare a healthy meal.  Their lunch prepared by the pensionista is their biggest meal of the day.

World cup season is starting here and Peru plays New Zealand (Kiwis) this month. So I have to pretend to hate a country that I am actually in love with, or I will, in fact, die. Dont worry my Kiwi friends, y'all are still sweet as bro!

Mangos. Just mangos. I eat like 5 every day. That is all.

Elder Garzon and Hunter are buddies... he has so much fun with him.  Hunter has always been a hugger-- glad Elder Garzon is ok with it!  hahaha :)

I dont really have much more to share but I want to leave a scripture in the Book Of Mormon. Every body knows this chapter, 1 Nephi 8. Its Lehis dream, but something very important catches my attention later in 1 Nephi 15:27. Nephi says that his father was unable to see the filthiness because his mind was focused on better things. How can we do the same? How can we weed out the filthiness in our lives and focus on whats good?

*** As Hunter's mother, can I just say how much I love this observation???  I needed to hear this right now as my life is SOOO full of craziness.  Not all of the craziness is filthiness, but I am definitely struggling to put the most important things as priority due to the pure chaos of our moving/selling our house/working full time/house hunting situation.  I love learning from my son... what an example he is to me.

Have a fantastic week, I miss and love you all!

El Olivar Zone

Baptism of Carmen Villalta and PRAY FOR FRAY!

Hello all of my friends and family. I am going to start making creative titles to my emails because naming the weeks is kinda boring.

WE HAD A BAPTISM BABY. Hermana Carmen Villalta es lo maximo!!! We love her so much and have full confidence that she is going to be such a strong member in the church. Her husband still has yet to recieve an answer of baptism but he supports her in everything. Such a great family. Pray for them please!

My spiritual experience was AWESOME this week. It came after the Zone Conference in a lesson with our investigator that night. We arrived and started asking her how she felt about her baptism this coming Saturday. She told us she felt unprepared and honestly didnt want to get baptized. My heart dropped, because she was one of the investigators that I thought was super firm in her desire. We thought of what to do in that moment and we decided to share a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Alma 7:14-15. She read it and was taken a back. She knew the invitation for baptism was hers and that she should do it, she just needed the impression of the Spirit. We asked her, "Hermana Carmen, have you honestly prayed and asked specifically if you should get baptized this Saturday?" She shook her head no. We asked if we could get on our knees and pray right there in th

at moment. Her prayer was simple, but powerful. But after, she stayed there on her knees for a solid 3 minutes before finally getting up and saying..."So what do I need to bring Saturday?" YESSSSSSSSSS. My heart was filled with joy and with the Spirit and I know hers was too.

I had an exchange with Elder Garzon from Medellin Colombia this week. He is so funny and we had a blast in this place called Parque Porcino. It is a pig farm and it smells TERRIBLE. But we found some amazing people there wanting to hear the gospel. Also I held a pig:)

Finally I want to tell yall about our good friend and BAPTISMAL DATE Fray Vasquez. He has a baptismal date for the 11 of November. He is a friend of a member and he owns a restaurant. He gives us free food EVERY time we go. He is like 23 and is such a bro, like we laugh and joke like long time friends. We finally taught him for the first time this past SUnday, IN THE CHAPEL, AFTER SACRAMENT MEETING. It was perfect and he started to cry when we gave him a Book of Mormon with our names signed inside, the first I have ever done. I love this guy and we have a lesson with him tomorrow.

I studied the general conference talks more this week. Doctrine and Covenants 3:36 is my scripture to leave! I love it so much!

I miss and love you all, have a great week. Also VAMOS PERU CONTRA COLOMBIA MAÑANA. COPA MUNDIAL BABY

Lucky week number 13... or not

Hello my friends and family!

This week was a rough one to say the least. Our baptismal dates fell because no one came to church. This is really testing me yall. Really hard to connect with investigators and share a relationship with them when they arent progressing. We can teach them so many time but they will never recieve an answer or the Spirit if they dont come.

However, I have recieved tons of advice from you all, and I am determined to put it to use. I am promising you all and myself that next week I will have at least 1 person come to church. I have the tools and the abilities I need, I only need to put them in action.

Other than that this week wasnt too bad. Today is kind of weird because they switched our Pday to Friday because we get to go to the temple. WOO HOO. I am very excited for that to say the least. But today I have been proseliting and all of the sudden we came here to email. 

I went to Interpol this past week and good news, I can stay in Peru. I would really hate to leave (again lol). But what was funny is I went with all the new missionaries who arrived 3 weeks ago and ALL of them were gringos. So I had to help out a lot as the Interpol workers with DMV attitudes were barking spanish at them like the hairless dogs here. They all thanked me at the end of the day which felt funny because I still feel new here haha. I will say that my Spanish is doing great, I havent had a problem speaking in like 2 weeks. 

I studied Ether 12 this week and verse 27 really hit me. It talks about how God shows us our weaknesses to make us humble, and if we stay humble, he will turn our weaknesses into strengths. Right now my weakness is getting people to church.  I am relying on the Lord to help me in all things. I would invite you all to read this scripture or chapter if you can, and figure out a way that you can be humble and just let go of everything, handing it to the Lord. He will bless you for your broken heart and contrite spirit. 

I love and miss you all, oh and I guess my family is moving to Los Angeles California so LETS GO DODGERS BABYYYY WORLD SERIES BOUND. (but the mission presidents son told me they are on a 12 game losing streak :( 

**Thank you elder SIVLEY for announcing our move... lol!  We were waiting to tell others until we told him.  But he just did it for us! :)

Other fun things from his letter to us this week:

-- Something funny that happened this past week: I met a cousin of Lance Hall, Hermana Abby Lee. She is in my mission and is super cool! She was one of the new missionaries at Interpol and she was born in Plano so we talked a ton about good ol Tejas.

-- Something you learned this past week: To always carry my dog dazer at night because the hounds be crawlin this time of year.

-- FOOD: We eat Pollo a La Brasa every Wednesday as a district after district meeting. It is the best. rotisserie chicken with french fries, hot sauce, salad, and wait for it...asian fried rice called CHAUFA.