The Golden Team

July 28, 2014 Family and Friends!! Last Pday we had an activity with the hermana leaders and all the hermanas that they are in control over. We went to the mission home and had hamburgers and tried on traditional clothes from Peru. The one that I tried on that will be in the pictures is from Columbia! It was fun! Then we wanted Frozen in Spanish and had yummy cookies and ice cream. Libre soy! Then after we did a little devotional in the mission home and we talked about companionships and the qualities that Jesus Christ has. Earlier they had each companionship come in and write all the good things or jokes or memories we have together on a board behind the other companion and we didn't see what the other wrote until the devotional. It was fun seeing what everyone wrote about each other. It was a super good day and ended really spiritual. We watched videos on Jesus Christ and what He did for us. The one part that I really liked was when Jeffery R Holland said something of the sort as to why aren't there more people coming into the church and why aren't we suffering from ammonia from being in the cold baptismal font for too long. Then he said, it wasn't easy for Jesus Christ. Why would we think that it would be easy for us. Salvation isn't easy. This time on earth is a test, unfortunately not everyone will get the same results but we need to do our best to be our best and help others to be their best as well. Tuesday we received 2 new investigators who were references from a member in the ward. References are the best! We visited a recent convert Fabriscio who is 11 years old. We read with him in 3 Nephi 11 about when Jesus Christ came down to the Americas. It was good that we sat down and read with him because the last two lessons with him we gave him a chapter to read and he still hadn't read them so we just read with him and explained the scriptures as we read. At night we visited Jorge, 14, who was the first person that I saw got baptized. The lesson went better than normal. His family life right now isn't the best. His parents are separated and I can see the effect it has on him and his sister. It's a bummer to see families separate. His mom is receiving the lessons from the Elders in Alto Selva Alegre and the Elders told us that she wants to get baptized! So we told him this and he seemed happy about that and more willing to come to church and do what is right. He said that he wanted to receive the priesthood. Hopefully he comes this Sunday! Wed. We had interviews in the morning with President, the Assistants, and Hermana Zobrist at the mission office. President told us that we are the Golden Team and he is going to keep us together for another transfer! We are both so excited about that! The Assistants said we were doing really good work together. My favorite part of today was seeing the Lords hand in today. Our lesson plans that we had all fell through but we ended up running into Hermana Amparo who introduced us to her husband Victor. Ever since I have been here we have been trying to meet her husband. It's been almost 4 months that we've tried to get in connect with him! At first he didn't want to let us in but we said only 10 minutes. Only 10 minutes! He let us in! We are so excited to teach him because his wife is a convert as of a year now and she is super strong and getting prepared to go to the temple this August. At first her husband, Victor, was SUPER distant and was telling us I'm not going to get converted, I'm Catholic. Super distant and the lesson wasn't going well at all. We were both a little nervous since there was a lot of pressure riding on just 10 minutes of a lesson....What do we teach in just 10 minutes? Hermana Ogden asked him an inspired question that led us perfectly into what he needed to hear. Plan of Salvation. He told us that he just believed that we die and there is nothing else. In my head I thought that must be really sad to believe such a thing. We asked if he would like to know what happens after we die. He agreed. Yes. The lesson was still rocky but I started praying for Victor to feel the Spirit and for Hermana Ogden and I to teach with the Spirit. Heavenly Father this is your child, please help us teach in a way that he can believe in the truth that we are teaching. As we continued, we talked about Jesus Christ. The Spirit came and was SO STRONG! I felt the Spirit guiding me in my testimony when I was telling Victor that he can know the truth for himself. He ended up being very receptive. What a great miracle. I remember during the lesson I pictured them both dressed in white standing outside the temple thanking us for bringing the gospel to Victor. I know that all things are possible with the Lord. I was so happy that the Spirit helped us in the lesson with Victor. We are just tools in the hands of the Lord. Lessons like these remind me of how much I love being a missionary and bringing this happiness to other people. Thursday. After lunch we went to visit Jaime and Diana. It was like marriage counseling. Diana was upset with Jaime for lying about things and it was just a little hectic. We ended up stopping them and saying that they needed to write down the positive attributes of one another and then also write down their goals they want to accomplish individually and together. At night we visited Marianela Fernandez. This lesson was sad for me. She told us that she is moving out of the house at the beginning of August. She will move out with her daughter Camilla, 6 years old. Another family that will be splitting up. It was hard for me to accept this. We asked her if she prayed about this decision. She said she did and felt peace. I still was bummed to hear this but told her that if you feel like this is your path then do it. If the Lord has told you this is right then it must be right. I don't know the answer to everything but He does. I don't know why the Lord would want a family to break up but I know there must be a reason for everything. I come from parents that had broken families and if they didn't break then I would have never come to earth. Who knows what the Lord has planned. Then I said all I want is to see you happy and coming to church. Marianela felt comforted after I said this because I was being sincere and I really do just want to see her happy. But most of all I want to see her going to church. I said that when I see her at church I will probably cry with happiness. We have been working with her for 3 and a half months and her progress has been coming, very slow, but she has been progressing. She said that she will go to church in her new ward, which will be in Elder Peterson's ward which is at 8am so we will be able to see her since our ward is at 10am! I just want to see her happy. It's rare when she is happy but when she is laughing and smiling it makes me feel like I have helped just a little. I just want what is best for her. Friday. Today started off really well. We went to visit Juan Condori in the hospital. It had been a little bit since we had last seen him. He was bummed that we hadn't come to visit him earlier. He started talking about how he had been reading the Book of Mormon. We asked what he had been reading, he showed us his book and pulled out a chapter in Mormon. Then he said that he had read what we left him all the way up to there. We left him Alma 34 to read and now he is in MORMON! He read more than 200 pages! Oh my gosh! I was so HAPPY! I couldn't believe it. We were both so happy. Then we talked a little about the wars and I started telling him about my favorite person in the Book of Mormon which is Captain Moroni and how he had so much success because he was FIRM in keeping the commandments of God. Then we flowed right into what we were planning on teaching which was keeping the commandments but more importantly the Law of Chastity since Juan and Ines aren't married they are just living together with their two children. Unfortunately this is really common here. So then we talked about the commandments and about how God has revealed more commandments through our latterday prophets, such as la ley de castidad. It was perfect. We told him about how there is going to a FREE matrimonio service on August 23, Dads birthday! This is a blessing because after the operation they won't have much money. Juan said that was great! He is going to talk to Ines and see what she says. He then asked us what else he needs to do. This is music to our ears to hear his great desire to do what is right. He also told us that he wanted to share the chastity pamphlet with his son Ruso. It was such a good lesson. His desire makes us so happy. He gets his operation next week and then he will start recovering after that. He is one of our golden investigators. He just needs to recover fast! Then we went to the chapel to help Elder Peterson and his companion get ready for their baptism. I just love baptisms. It's fun to see people change. After the baptism we went to visit less actives and then our District Leader called us and told us that the Elders emptied the water without turning off the gas, and we are the only ones that have the keys for the gas so he told us to RUN to the chapel. So we came running down the hill to turn off the gas. After we turned off the gas we found out that the Elders didn't empty the font and it wasn't as much of an emergency as we thought so then we thought it would be funny to pull a prank on our district leader since he made us run down the hill for no reason. We called him back and I told him that Hermana Ogden fell and hurt her ankle and couldn't move. He started worrying and said he would have the Elders come get us. Then he called us back and I acted like I was crying and told him that Hna Ogden was going into shock. He was frantically saying CALL THE NURSE, CALL HERMANA ZOBRIST! I was dying laughing haha then after it went on for a few minutes we told him we were joking. It took him a little to realize that everything was alright and it was just a joke haha That was a good laugh. Especially when we found out that he called the Zone Leaders and was so nervous and didn't know what to do. After that we went and visited Edwin Aguero and taught him about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose here on earth. After the lesson we went to the chapel and had a movie night with the Elders in the stake and members, our investigators, and less actives. From our ward we had some members come and Marianela came. The movie we watched this week was Tangled. We made popcorn for everyone and passed out drinks. We were the servers for the activity. It ended up being a really good activity and brought investigators to church and less actives too so we are planning on doing it every week! This week was super good. Lets just say I am loving the mission. I am so proud of my little brother for sending in his mission call. We will be serving together!! I am thankful for all the support and love from all of you! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxoxo