Brave

Family and Friends! This week has been filled with great news. To begin, Monday, after Internet we went to lunch with President and Hermana Zobrist as a zone and then all the trainers went back up to Arequipa with President and Hermana Zobrist. It was a fun car ride up. I was filled with so many feelings. I was nervous, scared, and excited to train. That night we had the training meeting in the mission home. Hermana Riverin and I were both super nervous to be training. Its crazy how far we've come. It felt as if we were companions in the CCM just starting the mission just a few months ago! At first we were both nervous but after the meeting we were pumped and ready to be the best trainers we could be! That night I was blessed to be able to sleep in Graficos, my first area! I got to see Hermana Ogden and the family who I stayed with for the first 5 months of the mission! The next day we went and visited the bishops family and Hermana Deby. It was so great to see them all again! Then we went to a stake center in Arequipa to meet our NEW companions! They started the meeting with all of in the room and went over the basics of the mission then we all at lunch. After lunch is when the excitement began. At this point we had no idea who our companions would be! They divided us up into two groups, the trainers and the new missionaries. They called the new missionaries up first and had them put their backs to us then told them where they were going to go, then called up the trainers after to stand behind their back. When everyone that was in the same area got called they had the new missionaries turn around to see their new companions. It was so fun waiting behind my new companion and then having her turn around to see her great excitement to be together and her excitement to work hard! I just loved it so much. My new companion is Hermana Bourque! In mission turns she's my daughter! Since this is her first area and Im her first companion and training her, Im her mom in the mission. Hermana Bourque is from Washington and 20 yrs old. She has a SUPER good attitude, which is the thing I love about her most. Starting the mission is super hard but I know she will have a much easier time since she has a great attitude and well of course because I am her companion! haha jk chiste! She's great. I just hope and pray that I can help her have the best first 3 months that she can have! Its been an added responsibility to be the companion in charge and the one that speaks Spanish for the both of us. Thanks to this I have been growing a lot more and I can feel the Lord blessing me and helping me. Especially with the language. I can also see my companions growth as well just in these past few days. We made a goal to read the Book of Mormon together by the end of training. Which means 8 pages everyday. So far its been really good and I hope to continue on in this goal and see our Spanish improve more and more everyday! Together we have been working really diligently and eficazmente....efficiently haha We went out with 3 members this week and were able to meet more people and also get to know the area better as a companionship. I love how my companion is so brave and willing to speak. She just speaks the best she can and then Im here to help her if she needs it, but she is super brave. This week we had seen the blessings of our diligence. We went to pick up one of our investigators to go to church yesterday but she wasn't able to come. At Zone Conference this week with President Zobrist, he taught us that when someone says no it doesn't mean no, it just means that they need more information! So we applied this with Karina, our investigator, she said she would come later but the good news is that we ran into her brother. It was the first time we had ever met him but with this advice from President Zobrist we kept giving him more information about church and the blessings that will come when we go to church and also that he could only come for an hour to see what he thinks and we gave him more information until YES he came! This is never heard of! The first time meeting someone and having them come to church with us! It's a blessing to see the Lord help us out after we give it our all. We don't know who is prepared and ready for the gospel but we just continue to work hard and then the Lord will put those people in our paths. Another blessing this week. One of our investigators, Nicole, 13 years old. She is from a family of all members of the church who are less active but are returning to come to church. She is our best investigator. She came to church Thursday for me to teach her piano and then after we taught her a little bit about faith. After the lesson we gave her the pamphlet of the gospel of Jesus Christ to read before our next lesson on Saturday. When we came on Saturday she was all prepared and ready! She read the whole pamphlet! We asked her what she liked about it and then she went on to say that she liked baptism. We taught a little more about the covenant to baptism and how it's a blessing to get baptized. She ended up telling us she wanted to get baptized! The date isn't set but we told her that we are here to help her prepare for her desire to get baptized. YAY!! We will be seeing lots of success here in Moquegua! I look forward to these next few months that I have with Hermana Bourque! Love always, Hermana Flora