New Changes

Family and Friends!! Its been another good week in Zamacola! I now have a new companion, Hermana Alducin from Mexico! She is really sweet and speaks English almost perfectly! She has 10 months in the mission. Its always weird getting use to a new companion but I know that we will get a long really well. This week we have been focusing more on having lessons with members and its been a good success! We are also super excited for this week because Denilson is going to get baptized! He talked to his mom and this Sunday they announced it in the ward! The bishop also pulled him in to give him an interview. I really like this ward here in Zamacola because we receive a lot of help from the members and it makes the work a lot easier when we have support from them. This week we are also going to have a Noche de Videos and watch some videos in the Chapel and make popcorn. Hopefully we will get a lot of investigators and members to come. I hope all is going well at home :) I love you all! Love always, Hermana Flora

See you Laters

Family and Friends, This week was super crazy. It was the last week I had with Hermana Waldron because she finished her mission. I'm going to miss her but I'm glad that she lives really close so I'll just see her in a few more months! I was able to see Hermana Waldron's family come in to the Airport. It was a long wait because they got pushed back 2 days more than they were supposed to. The Recital Musical was really good this week. They got it all recorded so I'll send it home when I get the copy! Transfers are today and I'm getting a new companion from Mexico. She has about 10 or 11 months in the mission and I've met her before and she seems really nice! We're going to keep on working hard here in Zamacola and seeing more miracles. Hope you all have a good week! Love you all! Hermana Flora

Reunions Recitals Baptisms

April 13, 2015 Family and Friends!! This week was fulllll of activities, meetings, and the baptism of Paul and a young boy Rafael in the ward. It was such a good week. Also, this morning we woke up at 2:30 in the morning to go to Chivay which is 4 hours away and visit the sights there. SUPER PRETTY! Where to begin, The Recital that we had was a pretty good success, we hoped to have more people but thats okay. The people that all came LOVED it and want to come to the nest one that we will have in Umacollo this Saturday. Paul. Got baptized! Its been a good time that weve been working with Paul (19) and we have honestly seen a true change in him. He has testified of feeling something different while reading the book of mormon and attending church. He was really worried about getting baptized since his mom was super against it since she said that he had already been baptized in the Catholic church before. I shared an experience that I had with him about having courage in what we believe in and going to the Lord with our desires and how that with our Faith we can see miracles. We invited him to pray and ask God to give him the proper words for his mom to accept his desire to get baptized. He accepted. We went back 2 days later and he shared his experience that he had with him mom and he too had seen a miracle. His mom accepted and said that if it were his desire she would accept it and support him! What a miracle! It was so great to see his ánimos (excitement) to get baptized! Another miracle this week that happened was from the Recital Musical that we had on Friday. We decided to sing in the Mercado (Market) and pass out the rest of our invites. We talked to a group of jovenes, boys, that seemed interested. One in particular seemed more interested than the others but we just invited them to the Recital and left. I had a strong impression to go back and talk to them. I wasnt sure if they would still be there but 2 of them were and one of themwas the one I wanted to talk to! His name is Johnaton. I felt super weird going back up to him but I decided to do it anyways....well guess what!? He SHOWED up to the Recital SOLO! We set up a time to visit him this week. But it was really cool to see that the Spirit was guiding me to go back and talk to him even though I felt weird about doing it, Im glad I followed :) I encourage you all to follow the directions of the Spirit and do what is right even if we might feel uncomfortable about it. I know that the Lord has a better plan and vision of what will happen through our acts! I LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a great week! Read your scriptures Love always, Hermana Flora

Conferencia

April 6,2015 Family and Friends!! Wasnt Conference just the best!? It is such a blessing to be able to hear from the prophet and the apostles every 6 months. From Saturday Afternoon, I liked the talk by Wilford W. Andersen, Keep Practicing, about Music and Dancing. The dance steps are like the steps of the gospel but the music is the spirit. We need to feel the music in order to dance. I loved this talk. Then I liked the talk by Dale G. Renlund about the Joy of trying again. A Saint is a sinner that keeps on trying. From Sunday morning I loved Jeffrey R Hollands talk and how we need to better understand the Atonement of Christ. Sunday afternoon, Kevin W. Pearson about enduring to the end and how it is the real test of discipleship and that once we make a covenant with God there is no going back. Then Russell Nelson about the Sabbath Day. He taught that True Believers keep the Sabbath day holy. It was a good conference weekend. I encourage you to choose a talk every week and reread it, re watch it or re listen it to so that we can better learn from our latter-day prophet, apostles, and leaders. Here in Peru this past week is known as Semana Santa, Holy Week. They celebrate almost everyday of the week, but more than any day they focus on Friday, the day of Christs crucifixion. There were many parades in the streets this week and on Friday many people were going around passing out pamphlets about the death of Christ. But its sad to think that the most important of all the days is the day that they dont really celebrate, and that is Sunday! The day that Christ resurrected to live again. We know that He lives! What great news it is to know that Christ overcame the world and that because of him we too can be resurrected. This Friday is our Musical Recital, El Vive. He Lives. I am super excited because I know that its going to be an activity unforgettable. We are going to have it videotaped. President and Hermana Zobrist are going to come. We are going to have a slideshow presentation and talks about the Atonement, the love of Christ, and the Resurrection. The music is really powerful and I know that many people will feel the spirit in a very special way this night. We are hoping to have the chapel FULL of members, nonmembers, less actives, and new members. Im so excited! Denilson is now officially ready for his baptism! He had his interview after the conference Sunday morning. All we need to do is plan the baptism and he should get baptized this Saturday! This past Friday, we had an Easter Dinner with the Hermanas that we are in charge of. We had them all write down the attributes of Christ then at the end have them pick an attribute that they want to work on or get better at. We all went around and talked about these qualities then committed to get better with just this one quality and little by little we will become more like Christ! The attribute that I choose was patience. Every since, Ive noticed that God is giving me more opportunities to practice my patience. haha By the end of the mission I should be full of patience! haha What Christlike attribute do you want to work on? We can help each other become more like Christ! Let me know what you have decided! I love you all! Remember that Christ loves you too, more than you know. Love always, Hermana Flora

Family and Friends!! Its been another good week here in Zamacola with la Hermana Waldron! For the past 2 months we have been trying to visit Hermana Berenize. She is such an incredible woman. She is 30 years old and has 3 young and beautiful daughters the age of 5, 3 and 1 years old. Her life has been pretty difficult the past 3 months because she had fully committed to seperating from her husband. He had been really bad to her and didnt allow her to leave the house for anything, not even to visit her family or friends. She use to go to church about 4 years ago but then he stopped permitting her to go to church. She told us that she would escape and go to church if he didnt come home because he was out drunk somewhere. She always looked at the church as a refuge from the world. About 3 months ago she got the strength and courage to leave her husband. She knew that it would be really hard for her and her family since she doesnt have a job, and she would be seperating her family. But she prayed a lot about the situation and knew it was what she needed to do in order for her children to grow in the church. This past week was the first time that we have been able to teach her in her house. Right now she is living with her mom and her younger sister in their home. She is a very humble lady and has expressed her desires to us about getting baptized but when the time is right. We know that she is going to be such an amazing member and will help many others in the church. She is such a brave woman and has such great desires to do what is right. We hope that she will find great comfort within the church. My favorite thing that she told us was that nothing in life matters if you arent spiritually strong. You can have it all but none of that matters if you arent with the Lord. Remember that this is true. Nothing matters if we arent doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. I love you all! Have a great week! Love always, Hermana Flora

The good fight

Family and Friends!! This week has been a lot different than normal. We had divisions, leader meetings, choir practice, and an all day activity with the stake of Umacollo. The highlight of the week was probably the Stake activity in Umacollo. It was called, Un dia como misionera, one day as a missionary! It was for all the Young Women in the Stake of Umacollo. They asked 8 hermanas to come and help out with this activity since there were only 2 sisters in the whole stake. It started at 8am and ended at 5pm. We got separated into groups and each missioanry went with either two or three young women. In my group there were three jovenes, 13, 16, and 18. They were the sweetest. We started the day off with personal study, companion study, and then District Meeting. Then we got some names and left to go visit! The girls were super nervous and asking me what they should do and say. The first 2 doors we knocked on denied us, but with persistence we got into the house of a member, Jasmine, who is less active. At first the girls were really nervous but once we started teaching and talking with the hermana they started opening up and the lesson was super good! After, we came back for lunch and ate as a Stake. The girls were still excited about the work that they asked me if we could go out and pass out the rest of the folletos, pamphlets, while the rest of the girls were still eating. We left for 10 minutes and the girls were trying so hard to pass out the folletos to the people they found in the street. It was super cute seeing their determination. It reminded me of the spirit that I had when I first came to the mission. I loved this activity. At the end, we had an inventory and talked about all the qualities that we all had. I didnt realize how much they looked up to me until this moment. Then at the very end of the meeting there was a testimony meeting. All of the three girls got up and bore their testimonies about how they loved going out and look forward to serving a mission in the future! It was great. After the activity we came back to our area and visited Denielson. He is 16 years old and he is golden! He had many good questions. Hermana Waldron asked him what he had learned while we was on divisions. He remembered basically everything about the lesson, which was the Restoration. He then said, your church is true because it has the priesthood! He then asked a bunch of good questions. For example, he asked if he could get baptized twice. Hermana Waldron then explained that it is important to get baptized with the correct authority. Denielson then said, I need to get baptized! WOW! We were both dying inside with excitment. We then invited him to pray so that he could recieve an answer from God and feel secure about his decision. He accepted to prepare for the 28th of March. Yayy! Its been a great week. The best part of the mission is teaching someone and having them understand and want to change because of it. As missionaries we are here to invite them to come unto Christ. We arent obligating people to come unto Christ, just inviting. But the best part of the mission has been when people have accepted and felt this great joy that we feel. If only everyone accepted what we have to teach. He peleado le buena batalla, he acabado la carrera, he guardado la fe. 2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Keep up the good fight!! Love always, Hermana Flora

Cambios

Friends!! Today we have changes. Basically half of the whole zone is leaving and were going to be getting all new people in the zone. I'm really excited because Hermana Bourque is coming to the zone!! Hermana Bourque (mi hija!). I'm super excited to see her today when she comes! This week has been another great week here in Peru. We keep seeing more and more miracles. This week as a mission we have been working more on asking for References from everyone, EVERYONE. I feel like we had been asking like crazy but it has turned out to be great! I don't know why we never had been asking like this before. It's really the best. We've gotten some new references from the members and we can tell that they are more excited to help us out. One of the miracles that we saw this week was when we were in Consejo de Barrio, Ward counsel. It was definitely the best ward counsel that I've ever been in here in Peru. There weren't many people but we still had counsel. All of the members were participating and coming up with ideas to help us in the work. We are seeing more progress with the help from the members. Our new Mission Leader has also been helping out a ton, it's been a huge blessing! This is the last transfer of Hermana Waldron. I can't believe that we now only have 5 more weeks together. Its super sad, but were going to make sure that she ends her mission working harder than ever. Hope all is going well at home, Love you all! Hermana Flora