Happy New Year

Family and Friends!! What a great week it was to celebrate Christmas and be able to see my family! The Christmas tradition here is super fun. They stay up until midnight the day of Christmas and EVERYONE sets off fireworks and starts the Christmas celebrations after. When midnight came we went on the roof with the other hermanas and watched all the fireworks going off. It was CRAZY! What a celebraion. It was fun being here for Christmas but Im glad that I will only miss one Christmas away from home since the real celebration of Christmas is with the family. As for the work, we are almost positive that we are going to have 2 baptisms in January! They are brothers and want to get baptized on the same day. The mom is super supportive, Margarita, and she would love to get baptized but as for now she cant since her husband and her arent married. She would love to be baptized but its sad because she cant. Other good news is that we had 2 new investigators come to church this Sunday! They came to our ward activity for Christmas and we set up a day to go visit them and invite them to church. Best news is that one of the members, Cielo, already knew them so in the morning she came with us to go pick them up at their house. They both came! January we are hoping to see baptisms! Baptisms are the best. I love seeing people come into the church and be converted. This week was a good week! Hope you all were able to feel the love through the Christmas spirit this year. I love Christmas time! Love you all! Hermana Flora

FELIZ NAVIDA

Family and Friends!! This is the week! Christmas has finally come! I look forward to seeing my family this week. As for our time here in Peru this week. We have been able to celebrate the holiday season. We had a christmas party with some of the missionaries and President in Tacna. We also had our ward Christmas party which was the best. We ended up having some investigators come to the activity and tell us they wanted to hear more about the gospel. It was great! We have some good references for the next week. The activity was super good because it gives the less actives a motivation to come back to church and it makes it easier to invite friends to the church in a less intimidating way. Thanks to this activity we had some less actives come to church and also non members! This week we are planning on going out with members to go caroling to less actives and some people we are teaching. I love sharing the holiday spirit here along with missionary work. As for this week of Christmas. We are going to go out tomorrow to go singing to different houses and then Wednesday we are going to a plaza to carol with the ward. The tradition for Christmas here is to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve and celebrate then. A bunch of fireworks go off and they have their feast at 12 in the night! Its crazy. As for us, we wont be staying up until midnight haha but with the other hermanas we are going to have a sleepover. Im excited to SkypeN with our families. Im looking forward to this grand week! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and spend lots of quality time with the family! Love always, Hermana Flora

El Nacio

Family and Friends!! This week was our Recital Musical for Christmas called El Nacio! It was also transfers!! Everyone thought I was going to leave down to Tacna but Im staying here in Moquegua for one more transfer with Hna Bourque! Im happy to be here for the holidays and be with Hna Bourque and with the people in San Antonio! The Recital Musical ended up turning out really well. It was stressful but was more than worth it! I directed the choir and it was super fun! From the Christmas Recital, we received 4 new investigators! I got to be on the TV to announce and talk about the Recital Musical with 4 other missioanries. It was really cool. My first time on TV and it was in Spanish, I was just a little stressed haha Im excited to see how this new change will go! The work still moves on. I really hope to see another baptism here in San Antonio before I leave. I hope all is well in the States and that the Christmas Spirit is being felt! Love you!! Hermana Flora

Bold

Family and Friends!! This week I had a goal to teach with more boldness. As missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ we have the great opportunity to promise blessings. This week I have been focusing on using this great opportunity of being bold and promising blessings. In my efforts to do so I have seen great miracles. As I attempt to be closer to the Spirit and teach what I feel like the investigator needs I have felt the gift of tounges in my life. My Spanish still isnt perfect, nor will it ever be, but when I have really been focused into the needs of the person and testified with boldness, I have spoken PERFECTLY without hesitation! It really surprises me as well as my comp and the people we are teaching. For example, we recieved a reference from a member named DONNY! He is the best, mainly since he has the name of my little brother! haha Anyways, we went to the house of this family. There is one member named Tania, who is less active as of 2 years more or less. Then her mom, Maria, who isnt a member but who has asisted before. The daughter, Tania who is 27 years old, accepted to come back to church easy, the difficulty was the mom. The mom, Maria, told us that there is NO WAY her and her husband can come to church on sunday because it is the day that her husband goes to the farm and they both go there allll day. Its his tradition to go every Sunday and they cant go anyyyyy other day because.....excuse, excuse, excuse. Last week I probably would have told her to try to go and that its important, but this week I was testifying more boldly because I think this has been my fault with some of our other invesitgators. So this time after asking her why they had to go to the farm on Sunday instead of Saturday I told her that she has to come to church on Sunday because its a commandment from God, its not just something that I want but its what the Lord wants. There will be trials and sacrifices right now but the blessings will out weigh the trials or sacrifices you had made. She told us that she wanted her husband to go to church and wanted him to change so then I continued to tell her that he will not change or go to church unless you change and go to church. When I was teaching this I could feel the Spirit sooo strong. We explained to her that we have 6 days in the week to do whateverrr we want and only 1 day the Lord asks us to dedicate time for Him, only ONE day. At the end of the lesson, she actually accepted to see if they could change the unchangeable habit of going to the farm on Sunday. I was surprised! I shouldnt have been since everything I was teaching was true, but I was happily surprised and thankfully. We promised her blessings that as she strives to change and go to church the Lord WILL bless her in her obedience. I am praying and hoping that next week when she said she could come to church, they will show up together as a family. This week I have learned to teach with more boldness. Because its all true! The Lord DID give us commandments, DID promise us blessings, now we just need to teach this to others or help them remember! I love being a missionary! Teaching and testifying of Christ is the best way to have the Spirit of the Holiday Season. I encourage all of you at home to be a little more bold, have a little less fear, because the Lord WILL be with you. Dont doubt what He can do. He is ALL powerful. Do you not think He could change someones heart? Fear not, for the Lord will be with you! Be BOLD. Its all true. Love always, Hermana Flora

Baptism!

Family and Friends! As you can all see from the photos, we had the baptism of Nicole! It was such a great day! I didnt save much time to write but it was such a great day and I will write more about it next week. The photos should explain the day. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Love always, Hermana Flora /Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Our little family in the misión.docx/Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Nicole and her mom after the baptism.docx/Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Program for Nicoles Baptism.docx/Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Baptism de Nicole.docx/Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Ilo.docx /Users/bettyflora/Desktop/Noche de magica.docx

November 17, 2014

Family and Friends!! The weeks have now been passing faster and faster. I cant believe that its already Monday again. This week has been a little crazy. In general I have been looking for the miracles all around us because sometimes I let the little disappointments bring me down. Since I have been looking for miracles I have seen many! The first miracle has been the transformation of our ward. When I first got here we never had Consejo de Barrio....Ward Counsil. In my 2 months here we only had it twice, when we were supposed to have it every week. Now the bishop is really trying and making a huge effort to get everyone back on track. It is going to change the ward if we can have a support group with the ward. Another miracle. This Sunday we got a new mission leader. This is such good news because we didnt get much support from the other mission leader. Then they also called 6 ward missionaries. Hermana Bourque and I and the 2 other Elders in our ward had the biggest smiles on our faces! We are going to have a HUGE support system now. I can now feel like there will be people to help us with our activities, lessons, being friends with our investigators, and everything! Im so excited! The last great miracle. When we were sitting in the sacrament meeting an investigator just walked into church! Shes friends of a member, whos name is Donny! He asked us to come visit her so we set up a time to go visit her with Donny this Tuesday night. Also, that night after a conference we recieved another reference from a member. Our Relief Society president gave us the information of a family that wants us to come and teach them. Wow! The miracles really do come in our hard work. We have both been worried about who will be our next new progressing investigator since Nicole is getting baptized this week and is our only invesitgator who has progressed the most. So now we are excited to see and meet these new investigators. And of course the best news of all. Nicole is getting baptized this week! 20 de November! Im so pumped! Its going to be such a good baptism. We planned the whole baptism and are inviting the whole ward and making assignments based on what Nicole wanted. We are also going to have a choir with the mujerers jovenes...Young women. and some other members. Its going to be great. So next week you will see many pictures from the baptism of Nicole! Im so happy! The finish up the week. This Saturday we went down to Tacna for a rehearsal for the Musical Recital that they are going to do down there. Hermana Bennion and I are the only ones in 5 Stakes that can play the piano. So she went down for the other rehearsals and I told her I could go down if she needed help since its a 2 hour drive down in bus and takes up time out of our area. But I told her I would be happy to do it. I have used my piano skills so much in the mission and I have loved it! It has been a blessing to have the skill that I do and I can feel the Lord helping me in my weaknesses. There are many miracles all around us. We just need to open our eyes and take note of what we see. When we do this we will be happier and find joy in our lives. Open your eyes and count the many miracles that all of you have around you! I will be doing the same here in Peru! Thanks for your support and love while Ive been here on the mission. The onther day marked my 10 month mark....I cant believe it but I am sadly on the downhill. The time is FLYING! Remember to count your miracles! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

November 10, 2014

Family and Friends!! This week has been revolutionary. We are seeing a lot of support from the ward members and we have a member leave with us everyday! Some days we have 2 members and so the whole day we are always with a member. This week we had 12 investigador lessons with members present. This is the highest Ive had in my whole mission. We can see the excitment of the members to do the work with us. Another highlight of the week was Sunday. Nicole called her mom who lives in Tacna and she set up a date to come up the 20th of November for her baptism! Its official! Im so excited! Then that same day she came with us to a baptism in another ward just to see how a baptism is. She was so excited to see what happens and what will happen at her baptism. After the baptism she told us she was more excited for her baptism. It was a really good experience. Thats exactly what she needed. Another highlight. I am now the new English Teacher for the Zone. I have the responsibility to help the latinos in my zone learn English and give them English tests. Im happy to take this responsibility. So now Ill be calling the Latinos and checking up on their English and giving them tests. Its actually an awesome opportunity that the latinos here have because they can study English everyday for 30 mintues to an hour their whole mission and take these tests, and at the end of the mission they can take a test run through BYUI! And they can be certified in English. This certification also can count for credits at BYUI. Its pretty awesome. Another highlight this week was when I let Hermana Bourque take charge for one day. I gave her the phone, the keys and gave her the opportunity to be Senior companion for the day. At first she was all happy and leading during the studies, then when it was time to go visit people the nerves started coming, especially when the phone rang. The poor girl was trying her best but I could feel the stress leading up. For me, it was nice just following her around. By the time we got to the room she was looking for the keys and they were no where to be found! If she wasnt stressed before...haha thankfully she found them 5 minutes later. But when we got into the room she took the keys and the phone and put them on my bed and said theyre yours now, Im happy with my role! haha The rest of the week shes been thanking me for the work I do haha I think it was a little much for her so Im just going to start giving her little responsibilites to prep her for when she will be in charge. I know she will be a leader so I want to prepare her to be a great leader. Funny incident that happened this week was when we were ordering chicken one night and Hermana Bourque turned to me and asked me how to say leg in Spanish and I said, pie, and then the lady looked at her like she was crazy. Then a guy that was sitting right by the lady said, Pierna! haha Then I realized that I told Hermana Bourque Foot instead of Leg. hahaha everyone started laughing when they realized that we just asked for a foot haha Its been another great week here in Peru! Im loving this opportunity I have to be a missionary. Love always, Hermana Flora Next week we are going to Ilo with Ruben and Margarita to see their son get baptized! His name is Cristian and we were the missionaries that found him and taught him his first lesson and then passed his information to the missionaries, Elder Petersen, in Ilo since he lives in Ilo. Im excited to see him get baptized and I think it will also help the testimony of Ruben and Margarita.