Worth of Souls

Family and Friends!! Another great week here in Peru trying to serve the Lord the best I can! Highlights of the week... We met Nicole's mom this week! She's great and has no problem with Nicole getting baptized, she just wants her to be secure with her decision, which we told her that this was our goal as well. Had a great spiritually guided lesson with Evangelina about the Plan of Salvation. She told us about her sister who had passed away a few years ago and she wanted to know where she was right now. As we taught we described to her the blessings that could come if she were to be faithful in this life and the blessings that could come to her sister as well. She was very interested in this message of hope that we all have to share. Evangelina told us she wants to hear more. This week we had Stake Conference and Elder Uceda, from the 70 here in South America, came down for our conference and also President Zobrist. It was SUCH a great conference. Saturday night we brought Nicole, one of our investigators who is prepcole was inviting Jasmine to come again to the Sunaring for baptism, and she ended up inviting her friend! Her name is Jasmine. We had our special musical number that I played piano for. We used the arrangement that I came up with for our other ward conference for our stake choir for the Saturday night session. Then Elder Uceda taught with such power, the whole conference was filled with the Spirit. Called us all the repentance. The missionaries and the leaders. Taught us how we can more effectively have Ward Council and for the missionaries how we should teach more carefully. We talked about rescuing the Lost Sheep. We are looking for converts not baptisms. I love this concept because we don't want to baptism people just to have more numbers, we want people to stay for life! This is true! That night we met Jasmines mom and she invited us to come over whenever to teach her daughter. We might have a new family to teach! YEAH! Sunday conference was super good as well. We had Nicole and her friend there too! Her friend seems excited to listen to us. We set up a lesson with her with Nicole this Wednesday. We shall see how things go with Jasmine and hopefully her family! This morning we went to Seminary! My comp had the great idea to teach a lesson in Seminary. The assigned chapters were Mormon 5 and 6. Its about the battles that went on as Mormon as their leader. Talks about how sad it was for him to see the death of his people because they wouldn't repent. We had them draw a picture of one of their friends thats not a member on a piece of paper at the beginning of class then saved it for the end. When we talked about the destruction of Mormons soldiers we took out their papers of the drawings they drew of their friends and ripped them up. We repeated the scripture that said that all the people died and said that their friends would have all perished. They were like the Mormon leaders to their friends. They were all shocked when we ripped up their friends pictures and the girls almost all cried. But then we said that thankfully we have repentance and we still have the chance to bring our friends unto Christ! We pulled out their actual drawings of their friends, because we only ripped up papers that looked like the papers that they drew their friends on. Their faces were priceless! They were so happy to see their friends drawings again. Then shared the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 18 that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God and how great will be our joy when we bring souls unto Christ. It was such a great Spirit driven lesson. The Seminary teacher, Noelia, thanked us for our service and after the lesson told us how Mondays were the hardest day for her to teach Seminary and sometimes they don't have lessons so we told her we could help her out and she invited us to teach Seminary every Monday. It was super fun so I look forward to have the opportunity to teach every Monday morning! Another successful week here in Peru. Just trying to do the best we can here in San Antonio! Hope you all too can help bring others come unto Christ. We are the light of the world and have the light of Christ with us. We need to feel guilty if we are not sharing this with others. Remember that the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight of God. Love you all! Hermana Flora

Family and Friends!! This week I hit my half way mark in the mission, 9 months. That explains the prego pictures haha Its kind of crazy how fast the time is flying. It makes me a little nervous but gave me time to think and reflect on what I have accomplished so far and what I want to accomplish before I go home. Basically I just decided that it really comes down to living everyday to the fullest, that is the only way we can live without regret. Big events this week. We did a missionary activity for our ward, Noche de Magica. Magic Night. We invited all the counselors to come. We made indiviual invitations and took pictures of each person and asked them how they felt about their calling. We turned these photos and their responses into a slideshow with videos that we made as well. During the activity we played games, had fun, and got to know each other better. It was a really good idea to get us closer with the counsels in our ward. Then we did the Musical Recital in Ilo that we had earlier in Moquegua. It went pretty good. Good news! One of our investigators, Margarita, her son Cristian lives in Ilo but one day last week we ran into him at her house and invited him to the Musical Activity and told him we would be coming down. We got his information and sent it down to the Elders in Ilo. When we saw him at the activity he had his Book of Mormon in hand and the Elders told us he is preparing to get baptized!!! I was so happy! Even though we won't be able to go to the baptism we were just happy to see that we found him and now he is on the path to happiness! It was a blessing for us. The work is universal and I'm just happy to help everyone in the work. Plans for the work in our area are to hopefully see 2 weddings then 4 baptisms in total! The weddings would be of Carlos Salinas and Paula who is a member. They have 4 kids. Then Ruben and Margarita! They would both get baptized. Then we have Nicole, who could get baptized any day now! Pray for us to reach our goal and help the Lord in this wonderful work of salvation! This story is a little long but READ IT! I read this for the first time on a bus on the way to district meeting and was holding back tears. I love it. Here it is.... The File Room In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index'card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemed endless in either direction, had very different heading. As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read ¨Girls I Have Liked. I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. Thie Lifeless room with its smll files was a catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldnt match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files. Some brought joy and sweet memories, others a sense of shame and regret so intense taht I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone were watching. A file named [Friends[ was next to one marked [Friends I have Betrayed.[ The titled ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. [Books I Have Read[, [Lies I have Told[, [Comfort I Have Given[, [Jokes I Have Laughed At[. Some were almost hilarious in their exactness. [Things I have Yelled at my Brothers.[Others I couldnt laugh at. [Things I Have done in Anger[ [Things I Have Muttered under my breath at my Parents[. I never ceased to be suprised by the content. Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. The sheer volume of the life I had lived overwhelmed me. Could it be possible that I had the time in my 20 yearsto write each of these thousands or even millions of cards. But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature. When I pulled out the file marked [Songs I Had Listened to[ I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tigthed, yet after 2 or 3 yards I hadnt found the end of the file. I shut it ashamed. Not so much by the quality but more by the vast amount of time that the file represented. When I came to a file named [Lustful Thoughts[ I felt a chill rush through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size and drew out a card. I shuttered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recored an almost animal rage broke over me. One thought dominated my mind, No one must every see this card. No onemust ever see this room. I have to destroy them. In an insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didnt matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end, and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and puled out a card only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless I returned he file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long self pittying sigh and then I saw it. The title bore [People I Have Shared the Gospel With[ The handle was brighter then those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box, not more than 3 inches long, fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained in one hand, and then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that the hurt started in my stomache and shook through me. I feel on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear filled eyes. No one must ever ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears I saw Him. No, please not Him, not here. Oh anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He bagan to open the files and read the cards. I couldnt bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bear to watch His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read everyone? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at my with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didnt anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things, but He didnt say a word. He just cried with me. Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. NO! I shouted rushing to Him. And all I could find to say was, NO, NO! As I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldnt be on these cards, but there it was. Written in red, so rich, so dark, and so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written in His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I dont think I will ever understand how He did it so quickly but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, It is finished. I stood up and He lead me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written. This story brought a new meaning of Christs Atonement to me. I hope this story touched you as it did me. Thanks to Jesus Christ we are saved. We owe everything we have to Him. I love Jesus Christ and I am thankful for this time I have to serve a mission! I love you all! Share the good word and love as Jesus loves. Love always, Hermana Flora

Conference!

Friends!! What a pleasure it was to watch General Conference this week. Just one week later than everyone else haha It was nice hearing about how much everyone loved conference before so it got me even more excited to listen to it. I have never been so excited to listen to conference before. Everything that I heard was for help to us in this wonderful missionary work. I'm just a little sad that it is already over, it went so fast. I will never take advantage of the great opportunity we have to listen to the prophet and apostles. I didn't realize how much a blessing it is until I began to teach everyone about it and the feelings of sadness I had when many people didn't show up. It really is a bummer to not have the opportunity to listen to a prophet but we do have the opportunity! At the least, 2 times a year, so we better take advantage of it to the fullest. This week, I feel like the weeks are all mixing together by now and the time is flying. This upcoming week will mark my half way mark, 9 months down and 9 more to go. Weird. I can't believe how the time comes and goes. In these past 9 months I have been able to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover, and this week I will be finishing the Book of Mormon cover to cover in Spanish! It has taken me awhile to read it in Spanish but I know that it has helped me enormously with my ability to learn the language. With my companion we have a goal to read the Book of Mormon together in Spanish and finish it by the end of her training which is in 3 months. It will be something that we need to be extremely diligent with in order to accomplish it, but we both have the desire to do it! For this next 9 months I have the goal of reading through the whole book Jesus the Christ. I have been reading through it but I really want to put more emphasis into it and read the whole book and learn more about Christ. My other goal is to read through the Book of Mormon in Spanish again! I know that this will help me become more prepared and become a better missionary to all those around me. With the mission field. Everything is still going great. I love being a missionary. The joy of bringing souls unto Christ really is the greatest joy we could ever receive. I loved Conference so much! Hope everything is going well at home. Help the missionaries out, share the gospel with those around you. Remember that everyone is watching. Try to be like Christ in every moment. Just as our prophet taught us. Follow Christs perfect example. Walking where He walked is less important than walking AS He walked. Strive to put Christ in the center of your lives! I will be working on this as well! I love you all! Cuidense mucho. Les amo! Hermana Flora Family and

Perseverar

Family and Friends!! This week we had a little bit of some set backs because my comp and I were sick. My companion had a stomach infection so we stayed in more than normal to try to get her back to normal. Thankfully now we are both doing great and my companion can now keep down her food, thankfully! I didn't tell you last week but we weren't able to watch conference this week because here in Peru there were elections yesterday and it is illegal here to have meetings on the same day as elections. You are basically forced to vote. They make sure you have no excuses haha so there was no church this Sunday. It was weird! We will be watching conference as a Stake this Saturday and Sunday! The end of this week was very successful. Karina committed to a date to get baptized! Only one little problem, she just told us yesterday that they will be leaving for a trip to Chile for a month or so... just a little bit of a setback so we will have to change this date for when she is ready. But the good news is that we had a lesson with her whole family on Sunday night and we found out that her older brother was an investigator before, he knows SO much about the church and is reading the Book of Mormon, was reading it earlier. He told us that the only thing he faulted was to get baptized! Well theres two of them in the family that told us they have desires to get baptized! Our goal is to baptize the whole family! It will be a while from now, a month or 2, because of their plans to travel. But we are both excited for their family. Other good news, Nicole told us on Sunday that her mom is happy about her decision to get baptized and she can get baptized if its her desire! YEAH! We are really happy for Nicole, she also is super happy about it too. She is one of our best investigators. I always love coming and teaching her since she is always prepared and ready to learn. I want to find more people like Nicole. She is awesome. She is also starting to do Personal Progress. She has told us she wants to pay tithing. She is golden. We are hoping she will get baptized this month. Her mom lives in Tacna which is about 2 hours away on bus so we need to plan a day that will work with her mom so she can come to the baptism. We are going to meet the mom this Wednesday so we will figure out a day then! We're excited for this! Other than our little setback at the beginning of the week, we were able to move past that and work hard at the end of the week. Hermana Bourque is awesome. She is a hard worker. When she was sick and throwing up she still wanted to go out and work. So we did as much as she literally could. She is a stud. I hope you all enjoyed Conference! I look forward to watching it this week. Remember to apply the things that you've learned from Conference. Follow the prophet! Love always, Hermana Flora