Oreos for Breakfast

Family and Friends: If this church wasn't true the missionaries would have messed it up a long time ago. I don't remember which apostle said this but I know it to be true. I am thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost in our lives and especially in my life right now as a missionary. I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything without the help of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We are nothing without Him. I have learned many things since I have been here in the mission. One thing I have learned is that the mission brings out all our weaknesses and refines them to strengths if you let it. I have seen many weaknesses of mine and I know that if I humble myself and ask the Lord for help, He will turn my weaknesses into strengthes. I have a lot to improve on in order to be the daughter of God that our Heavenly Father wants me to be. This week we attended the wedding of one of our investigators. Her name is Gabriella. She married Augusto, who is a less active member. When they get back from their honeymoon we are planning on baptizing Gabriella and reactivating Augusto. During the wedding ceremony I was thinking that something was missing. I am thankful to have the opportunity to get married in the temple for time and all eternity. The temple is a beautiful place. This week I went to Lima again for more paperwork for my visa. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to go to the temple. We didn't have enough time to go through but I was able to see the Lima temple and go inside for just a little time. The temple is beautiful and I miss going to the temple. I look forward to going to the temple again! Thankfully we have a temple so close to our home! This upcoming week we have plans to work with investigators and less actives and have them go out and visit with us. Diana, our investigator, is 19 almost 20 years old, and she is having a hard time right now and feels really alone. The saddest part was that on Sunday she told us that she took 18 pills and wanted to end her life because she didn't know where to turn. This broke my heart. Diana is an amazing woman and I am so happy that she is here with us. She looked good when we saw her and I am hoping that we can help her in any possible way. So we will work with the members in our ward with her so she can have more friends and not feel so alone. I don't know how else to help her, I just hope she will know her worth and we can bring her to the gospel and help her realize her purpose here on the earth. Sunday was a little bit of a downer. After the experience with Diana we went to pick up Gabriella and her brother Lalo to go to the ward at 2pm. Lalo had been doing so well but when we came to get him he was making excuses why he couldn't go to church and then he got into an arguement with his older sister about not obligating his younger sister to go to church when he didnt want to. It was bad. After he left my comp and I both cried with the older sister. My heart was broken again. I felt like we gave it our all for Lalo and I don't know why he feels this way. After this experience I was really bummed and just wanted to go to the apartment and cry but we visited one other family. I feel bad because I didn't say much and let the experience bother me. After that we went to the chapel to meet some members to go out visiting with us. I talked with some of the Elders in the ward and they helped me realize that there was nothing more that we could have done and I just need to enjoy the moments that I do have and love everyone around me no matter what. Just as Lalo let us down on Sunday, we let our Savior down everyday but no matter what He is always there to love us. I didn't think I would be so upset by someone not wanting to go to church haha Welcome to the mission! haha Cultural adjustments; Ï believe that I have finally gotten use to the large amounts of rice that they eat here! Finally! haha Peru is great and I know that the Lord has called me to serve here as a missioary. I am thankful for this church and belief that I know this church is the church of Jesus Christ. This mission would be much harder if I didnt know this. Thank you for your love and support and your emails! You are all an example to me! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo P.S. I've never enjoyed double stuffed Oreos more in my life

Another great week in Arequipa!

Family and Friends!! This week has been filled with many excitments. I believe that my companion and I have finally been able to work well together and we are now having much more success. Diana and Jaime were one of our most golden investigators but 2 weeks ago something happened and they wouldnt answer our phone calls or visit with us when we came to their house, nothing! We were so bummed and confused and then figured out what happened. They had an interview with the bishop and said that they shouldnt get married until Jaime gets a job. They both felt really unanimated to get married and for Diana to get baptized. We were finally able to get in contact with Jaime because we used the District Leaders phone to call him haha we met up with him and Diana that night and we got them excited to get married and for Diana to get baptized! They set a new date for marriage for June 6th, the birthday of Diana! I am super excited for them! Then Diana will get baptized the next day! The next news isnt too exciting but ended up being good. Edwardo Lucas, I was so excited about him. We had a 2 hour lesson with him! I mainly taught because he speaks English, but after the lesson my companion and I felt drained spiritually. He kept wanting to know where everything we were teaching him was in the Bible. He knew the bible PERFECTLY! It was super intimidating and after I didnt feel like I was adequate to teach him. Also we both didnt feel good about the lesson and felt like he was trying to convert us to his religion and beliefs. I really liked teaching him because he has lots of questions and desires to know more, but....his questions are SO DEEP and it just wasnt good. For example, he asked..what do we do in the celestial kingdom, also he was trying to teach us that we could have the priesthood and be prophets. I definitely learned that simple lessons are the best. And we decided that right now is not his time and there are others out there that are ready to learn. I also learned that without the Spirit in our lessons, there is no success because we are only the instruments in the hands of the Lord. In my studies today in Preach My Gospel I read this quote by Ezra Taft Benson that says, The Spirit is the most important single element in this work. With the Spirit magnifying your call, you can do miracles for the Lord in the mission field. Without the Spirit, you will never succeed regardless of your talent and ability. I have learned this to be 100 percent true! When we rely on the Spirit to help guide us in the lesson we will have much success! Another success of the week; our zone has decided to create a new goal for contacts. I dont know what the goal is for the mission but our goal is 70 contacts a week, which is 10 contacts a day. This new goal has made this week feel more like a mission because now we are talking to more people everywhere we go and spreading the word to more people. We are looking for more investigators right now and trying to work hard in our circumstances. For example, since my companions foot has still been hurting her, when we went to the clinic for her foot this week we have been teaching people in the clinic and have met some really great people. On Thursday we had interviews with President Zobrist, the mission president. It was my first interview with him since I never had an official first interview with him. The interview went really really well! He is a great president! He reminds me a lot of Bishop Lindahl, so of course he is awesome! haha I look forward to having more interviews with him and getting to know him and Sister Zobrist more too! MORE good news! This whole time that Ive been here we have been working with Lalo. He is 19 years old and is less active. We have taught him all the lessons and have been trying to get him to church. He came to church 2 weeks ago but then after that Sunday we went and taught him and he said he felt like he didnt need to go to church to be saved and that reading the scriptures was good enough. I was super bummed to hear this and thought there must be a reason why he believes this. Something must have happened. Later we found out that he felt judged by the ward members because of the clothes he was wearing. NOO!!! This made me frustrated because it took him a lot to get to church and then to have the members not welcome him. Of course he wouldnt want to come back again. Then I talked to him about his priesthood responsiblity. He is the only one in the house that is a male member. When we taught him earlier we said that because he has the priesthood he has responsibilites to do. One week passed after this lesson. Then on Friday morning Hermana Bazan called his mom to confirm the baptism of her daughter for Saturday. Then the mother asked if we have been teaching her son and we said why. Then she said that he has changed a lot. He has been reading his scriptures a lot and has been helping out around the house! I was SO happy to hear about this because we didnt really know how he was doing. He has been up and down but we knew he had a desire to change. It made my day hearing his mother say that she sees a change in him. I was filled with so much joy that I literally teared up and was crying! haha Woman can be emotional, but this was a super exciting moment for me. Lalo is one of my favorites and nothing makes me happier than seeing or hearing about a change in someone that you have been working with. The gospel really can change people for the best. I am thankful to have this gospel in my life and I feel blessed to have been born into the true gospel. Saturday morning we went to the house of the Choque family with Elder Pezo and Elder Paredes for the interview for the baptism of Fransisco Choque! Fransico is 57 years old and is the father of a family with 4 children. The whole family is members but him. The mom was super nervous the whole time leading up to his baptism. He passed his interview and was getting baptized 2 hours later! Right after we went to the chapel to get things ready for the baptism. We had to figure out how to get warm water for the font because Fransisco had an accident and has nails in one of his legs and he cant be baptized in cold water. We couldnt figure out how to get the warm water for awhile but of course everyhing worked out because baptism is a righteous desire and everything is in the hands of the Lord! It was a really special day. This baptism was really special because the whole family is now members! The mom was so happy to see her husband get baptized. After the baptism she bore her testimony and when she bore her testimony she teared up and said that this was a birthday gift from God since her birthday is tomorrow. The most special part of today was when Fransico bore his testimony. He loves the part of the gospel that families can be together forever and when he started talking about this he teared up and the Spirit was so strong in the room. This day was a really good day and very Spiritual. The thing that makes me happy is that the family is now complete in the gospel. I hope to see them go to the temple in 1 year from now!! And I would love to be able to go to the temple with them sometime in a little more than a year from now! I loveeee the temple! Sunday was crazy but crazy good! In the morning when we arrived at church we saw Diego! He is 9 years old and is our best investigator and wants to get baptized but his dad wont allow him to get baptized and says he is too young and has to wait until he is 18. It was so sweet to see him because he said that he took the bus from his mothers house to come to church, which is much farther than his dads house. We were both so excited to see him come to church! Diana and Jaime also came to church! After sacrament meeting we were looking for Jaime and Diana and get them to the second class and couldnt find them so we went out to the street and saw them walking up the street so we yelled their names and told them to come back haha they said they were just going to grab something really fast them come back. Then after second hour I saw them trying to leave again so I followed after them and told Diana to come to Relief Society. She thought it was funny when we kept coming after her haha Jaime is a little lazy at times and we both think that at times he brings Diana down and they both need a little push so this is why we kept going after them and bringing them to class haha I am so excited for their wedding and Dianas baptism!! This week has been a good week and I look forward to what success comes in our area this next transfer! So far we have 2 weddings, 4 baptisms, and a ward activity planned to get more members involved to invite their friends to come to the church for a fun activity then we can get to know them and teach them! Always remember your testimony and who you stand for because there are many people who would like to see you forget. Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

Buenas!

Family and Friends!! This week I had one of my favorite days on the mission. May 2nd was a good day. It was probably the most successful day on the mission. I felt like I gave it all I had and I was dead tired when I went to bed. In the morning, we met with an older lady who is having trouble with money. So my companion and I decided to buy lunch for her. When we brought her lunch she was so happy and filled with gratitude that she started crying and crying. This experience helped me remember why I wanted to serve a mission, because I love service and helping people. Especially those that appreciate our service and love. It was a wonderful experience that I will always remember. Later in the day, My companion and I came up with a little slogan. What would we do if it was our last day on the mission. This has helped us both work harder and give it all we have! Because if it was our last day we would want to do ALL we could and we want everyday to be like that! No regrets! I feel good about our companionship. We contacted and visted new people. That night, we met a man when we were contacting different houses. His name is Edwardo Lucas. My companion introduced the both of us and then said that I would explain the Restoration to him and I was superrr nervous but then my comp said that I was from CA and he said, you can speak in English if that is easier for you. YES!! I was soooo excited to speak in English! haha The best part about this contact with Edwardo was that he is GOLDEN! I taught about prophets and how we have a prophet on the earth today and he was so excited and shocked to hear there is a prophet on the earth today. I asked him if he thought it was possible that there are prophets on the earth today and he said yes, that's possible! He said he really likes members of the church and works with members. My comp asked if he was a member in the middle of the lesson and he said no, then I said Future member!! Then he said, yeah possibly! I like what the church teaches. These words are like candy to our ears! He is golden! I look forward to seeing his progress with us. He doesn't need much help from us since he has a lot of faith already, he just needs someone to guide him to the right path. This day was SUCH a good day! Sacrament meeting was a bust....Hna Bazan and I were super bummed because we had absolutley 0 zerooo investigators in sacrament meeting. We were fasting for our investigators and praying for them this whole week and nothing. Then during the second hour the bishop came into the class we were teaching and one of our investigators came in!! We were both SO happy! He ended up staying for priesthood meeting and then went to another sacrament meeting after! Then when we saw him we taught him about the Restoration. He is also golden! The only problem is that he lives in the city, not in our ward boundaries so we have to send him to the Elders as a reference, which is a little bummer haha but its okay because the work moves on everywhere! This week has been a better week. Sunday night I left Arequipa and went to Lima for immigrations. I SAW RIVERIN! My second companion from the CCM. We were both super excited to see each other! We talked and talked all during immigrations. We had some difficulties saying bye to each other haha the man in charge told Hermana Riverin at least 3 different times that she had to leave for her flight but we both didnt want to leave each other haha It was fun sharing experiences of the mission with her and catching up! This week has been a good week. There are many ups and downs but the good times overshadow the bad and make everything worth it. I look forward to talking to you on Skype on Mothers Day! I will be calling Saturday sometime during the day to verify what time exactly we will Skype! Live everyday as if it were your last. Life is too great to settle for anything less than the best. I love all of you and I am thankful for all the love and support I can feel from home. Love always, Hermana Flora

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