Preparations

Family and Friends!! This week was a week of contacting. On Tuesday during district meeting we talked about contacting people on the street. I have never been good at contacting and never liked it. My district leader read us a scripture in D/C, It was Section 60 verse 2 and 3. It says, But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their mouths, but they hide the talent which I have given unto them, because of the fear of man. Wo unto such, for mine anger is kindled against them. And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful until me, it shall be taken away, even that which they have. This scripture burned a little. It was exactly what I needed. I didn't like contacting on the street but after we read this scripture my whole attitude chaged and now I have been contacting like a crazy woman! And now I like it! It's pretty fun. People are nicer than I thought and it has made us happier because we are sharing the gospel more! On a normal week we have about 3 contacts per week, which is really sad. This week we had 61 contacts! We are working hard on imrpoving our contacting skills, opening our mouths and using the talents that God has given us. It has made the week better, I know it. This week we have been preparing a musical number for when Neil L Andersen comes THIS thursday! I'm so excited! Wednesday we had a womens conference with all the sisters in Arequipa. It turned out to be pretty good! Funny highlight of the day. While we were at the mission home, President Zobrist was talking and joking around with Carol, the bishops wife in our ward, about how we were troublemaker missionaries and saying how we just cause trouble. Then Adreano, Carol's son, the 3 yr old boy, hit president in the leg and said MALO! Bad! He's bad! hahaha we were dying laughing and had to reassure him that President was only joking. It was just a joke. It was super cute to see our little friend protect us against President haha I was dying laughing so hard haha At the womans conference we learned that we need to be more united as missionaries, especially between the girls. Apparently there is a lot of problems between the cultures and when we are all together we need to speak Spanish instead of English so everyone feels included. We also did a fun activity where we wrote our testimonies on a piece of paper and tied them to balloons then got another hermanas testimony, took the balloons to our areas and let them go for someone to find them. It was an awesome activity. Highlight of the day on Thursday. We went to the Visiting Teaching Training for our ward, Graficos. The leader got up and was speaking about how the sisters need to have sincere love for the sisters they go and visit. Then she looked at me and said, This is why I love to see Hermana Flora, because she is always smiling and happy. It was super sweet to hear, especially because I don't know her that well and I haven't had many experienes to talk with her so I felt good knowing that I have an impact on people that I don't even realize. I got the letters from the family that they wrote at family camp! There was a pile of 15 letters! I was so happy to read each and everyone of your letters! Thank you so much, it made my day! Letters really are the best thing. We made goals with the bishop this week to improve the ward and the ward council, since it's been slacking. We have already seen the improvements! This Sunday we had more people at Ward Council and the new way to run ward council was much smoother and more successful! Poco a poco. WE GOT A BAPTISMAL DATE! One of our new investigators that is a refernce from Hermana Lady and Marjory accepted a date to get baptized. This was on Dads birthday! What a great present for us. It has been awhile since we've had an investigator with a baptismal date. I love baptisms so much because we get to see people literally coming unto Christ and literally changing their lives. What great joy. Her name is Iessa and she is 13 years old. She had talked with missioanries before but apparently never came to church because missioanries never came to get her to go to church. Well, that's okay because we are here and we will come get her! This lesson was the best lesson Hermana Ogden and I have had in awhile. We were both feeling the spirit so strong. We were in perfect unity and teaching by design of the Spirit. Lessons like these are THE BEST! If only we could have every lesson like this. It was so good. Also, we got permission from our other investigator, Enzo! He had been out of town for 4 weeks and just got back, but last we heard was that his mom said no to baptism. We were super bummed since his parents live far away, in another mission, and have no way to talk to her and teach her what we know. Welllll....when Enzo came back, his mom was with him! NO WAY! So we had a Noche de Hogar with him, his mom, and Noelia, the member that he lives with, and Hermana Deby and her husband. We taught the mom about our purpose here on earth and about the form of baptism that we do. Well, by the end of the lesson, she gave us permission that if Enzo knows with assurety that the church is true then she will sign the papers! Yeaaa! We assured her that this was our goal too! Sunday. Our other investigator, Nicole, ended up coming to church with her aunt, Amparo. YEAH!! After sacrament meeting, we introduced her to Marjory and Nachme, 2 young women around her age. We sent her off with them to go to the Young Women classes. We checked on her after the second hour and everything looked like it was going well. By the end of church they were just talking, getting each others numbers and having a good time together. THANK YOU YOUNG WOMEN! This is such a blessing! I just loved seeing Nicoles face and how happy she felt to have more friends and to feel wanted. When we found her she had a fight with one of her best friends who said lots of mean things to her so we both knew that she had been feeling lonely for awhile so it was good to see her happy face! Just another good week here in Arequipa Peru! Hope as is well at home! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

Arequipa Day!

Family and Friends!! Happy Birthday Donny! Big 21...is that real? I don't believe it. haha crazy! This week was filled with some good work here in Graficos. One day this week we went out with two young women in the ward and did divisions. We ended up getting some good references since some of our appointments fell through. It was fun going out with the Young Women. The one I went out with is Marjory. She was asking me about the mission and how I decided to go on a mission. She is thinking of going on a mission as well but her parents want her to finish college first. We shall see what happens. I loved seeing her excitement with the work and how willing she is to help us. If only we started going out with her sooner! At least we know now haha We had a zone meeting with all the missionaries in Arequipa city. Its always good to hear from President and to see Hermana Zobrist. Our CCM group was together for the first time since the mission, all we are missing is Hubert! It was so good to see the other hermanas. This week on Friday was Dia de Arequipa! Arequipa Day! 474 years of Arequipas birth. There was a parade that went through the city. As a zone we met up and then went contacting around the parade. What a cool experience. We saw an entrance to the parade with an officer standing by the entrance. And I just decided to see if we could get in just to look at the parade so I entered. The police officer said nothing to me so my comp and 4 other elders in our district followed. One of the benefits of being white in Peru, they just assume we have no idea what were doing. haha Anyways we were walking in the parade! We had little cards with Jesus and with the Salt Lake City temple on it so we started walking in the parade and passing the cards out to people sitting and watching. I have never had people beg me for things of the church ever in my life. If someone didn't get a card they were dramatically waving their arms at us saying that they didn't get one. Wow. If only thats what people did to get into the baptismal font. haha After that experience we escaped from the parade when we ran out of cards and pamphlets and started contacting and talking to those on the street. It was a fun experience. By the end of the night we were DEAD. We were walking allll day in the sun. We crashed at the end of the night. Happy Arequipa Day! Saturday started off pretty well. We went to a Young Womans and Mens activity for our ward, got a cake for Hna Lady's birthday and celebrated her birthday with her for a little. Later at night we went to visit Ruso, Juan, and Ines, the Condori Family with Hna Ladys husband, Wilfredo. We had a Family Home Evening with them. Started off with reading a scripture in the Bible saying to Suffer the little children to come unto me...something along those lines of not stopping the children to come unto Christ. Well, long story short. Juan got really offended and told us that he knew where we were going with this scripture and he stands where he stands about letting Ruso get baptized. He wants to wait until he gets better and then Ruso will get baptized. The pride kills. We were both bummed about this news. Ruso has been ready for baptism for about 6 years. Its just sad that the only thing holding him back is his parents signature. We fasted Saturday night and Sunday for Ruso and the family. We are going to put our faith in God and pray for Him to help us. Tuesday we have a lesson with him and we will come EXTRA prepared, with inspired questions, a game plan of how we can get through to Juan with a humble heart. We want to offend him again but I feel like we just need to tell him how it is. How can you do that without offended someone? Well, we are counting on the help of the Spirit. Please pray for Ruso and for the heart of Juan to be softened. Thank you for your love and support! Happy Birthday to Dad this Saturday on the 23rd! Hope Dad and Donny both have wonderful birthdays! Love you both! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

Family and Friends!! This week was transfer week. I was worried this whole week because I didnt know what was going to happen. I was either leaving to Tacna or staying with Hermana Ogden and I really wanted to stay with Hermana Ogden. We find out transfers Saturday night. The highlights of the week. The Choque family, the Condori family progress, and the Pioneer walk with the Stake. First, the Choque family is a family of converts. The last one out of the family to get baptized was Francisco, which is the dad that Hermana Bazan and I were able to see get baptized. I never realized how great of an impact I had on the family. I guess I just underestimate myself at times. But anyways, it was a blessing to the beautiful notes that they wrote me this week because we didnt know if I was staying or leaving this week. They thanked me for my service and for the work that Hermana Bazan and I did for their family and how they will never forget about me. They told me that I better not forget about them. I was just really touched by all that they wrote me. Also, Francisco travels a lot so we dont have the opportunity to talk to him very much. Thursday we called him to just ask when he will come back to town. When he realized it was Hermana Flora on the phone his tone of voice changed and was filled with so much joy. I was so surprised to think he would be so happy to hear from us! He told us he is coming back this Tuesday and wants to get an interview to get the priesthood! I just feel blessed to have the opportunity to get to know the Choque family and hopefully be able to see them go to the temple in one year! They are the strongest family that we have taught. They still have a long way to go since they have their weaknesses, as we all do, but I hope to see them progress more in my life. The Condori family. Juan and Ines. This week was the last week to turn in papers in order to get married here in Arequipa for FREE. In order for the family to progress Juan and Ines need to get married. Juan says he wants to get baptized and Ruso, 15, also wants to get baptized. We have had so many good lessons with them and they have been the best progressing investigators that I have ever had. Well on the last day for the papers we came back to see the final final decision. Ines wanted to get married before but Juan had always put it off. She told us that she wants to wait until he gets more things in line and in order before she marries him. Its also a little bit rushed for them both. How many years have you two been together? 16 years. This was a huge crush on me. We read scriptures about keeping the commandments and the blessings that will come both temporally and spiritually. But they were more concerned about other things. Sad. Sad. Sad. On this day I had never felt so much sorrow in my life. I know the blessings that they will recieve. I know the happiness they could have. Why cant they just listen and do what is right. We came back to the apartment and I just cried. How come people just dont understand? Its just so easy if we keep the commandments and obey. Why wont people just do it? During this experience, I would like to say that I was able to experience just a tiny piece of what our Savior Jesus Christ must feel every day. There are so many people in the world that know the gospel but choose to reject it and choose wickedness over righteousness. They put the things of the world at a greater importance than the things of God. How sad. I felt this sadness that day. This makes me want to be a better person because I dont want Jesus Christ to ever be disappointed in me. I know I will not be perfect but I want to try my best. The pioneer walk. It was an awesome Stake activity. We dressed up as pioneers and had the carts as the pioneers and walked from Independencia to PorVenir, which was about 5 or so miles. Up and down hills. We walked for 2 hours. They put us into our wards and we walked together as a stake. I really liked the activity because we were able to bond more as a ward and we got to get to know the members better. As we were walking all through the town we got many stares from the people and people wondering what in the world we were doing haha We passed out flyers of the history of the pioneers to all the people we passed on the street. What a great idea of contacting! The spirit was really strong through the activity. Everyone enjoyed the activity and had just a small little piece of how the pioneers felt. Well Saturday night came as slowly as ever. I didnt know if I was staying in Graficos or leaving. Elder Wells called and told me that I was off the Tacna. I was a little bummed since I wanted another change with Hermana Ogden but I know all is in the will of the Lord. We were both a little bummed. Then an hour and a half later Elder Wells called again and asked if I was packing and I by then I knew he was playing a joke on me. I am staying in Graficos for one more transfer with Hermana Ogden! Yaayyy!! I am so happy! I was so mad but he was getting me back for all the jokes I pulled on them. Sadly Elder Wells is leaving Selva Alegre. He has been my Zone Leader since the time Ive gotten here on the mission. But my new zone leaders are Elder Meza and Elder Murdock. It will be fun! I look forward to having this last 6 weeks here in Graficos. We have a lot to look forward to in the work. Hopefully Ruso will get baptized this week! We had more attendence this week and are 2 people away from reaching our goal of 100 members in the sacrament meeting! Also we had 3 different less actives come to church today! We have a lot of blessings coming our way these next few weeks! Keep barrio Graficos in your prayers! I hope all is well at home and everyone is healthy and reading their scriptures and going to church! Keep doing the good work and remember to share the gospel with your friends! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

Gratitude

Family and Friends!! Congrats to my baby brother for being ready to leave this Tuesday for Salt Lake City West mission! I love you Donny! We will be serving together!! Hermana and Elder Flora! Monday. Went to the office and got to see President and sadly he said that he might transfer me after this week and send me to a new area to prepare me to train. I really would have liked to have another transfer with Hna Ogden since we get along so well but I know that everything happens for a reason and it will be a fun experience to train. It will be scary at first but I know that I will grow and learn a lot from the opportunity. We shall see what happens! Tuesday. After District Meeting we visited Juan Condori in the hospital and Ines was there too. We were just talking and Juan told us that Ines wanted to see my figures that Jessica made me for the Plan of Salvation. It was perfect so then we taught the Plan of Salvation to Ines and Juan. She said she really liked the plan and didn't see anything wrong with it. The lesson went really well! Juan is still reading the Book of Mormon and telling us about all he is learning. This just makes me so happy. Then they talked to us about the temple and how Juan wants to go someday. He told us to never forget about him. Of course we will never forget about them. I really hope to see them go to the temple someday! I think Ines is happy about getting married. I want them to get married and have the wonderful experience of being sealed as a family for eternity. They will be a golden family. Juan is filled with so much faith. Wednesday. Went to help Hermana Zobrist in the mission home with the binders for the new missionaries who are coming next week! Then we went to the Family Choque house and taught about the General Conference talk from Russell M Nelson about Demonstrating your Faith. I love this talk because it talks about our priorities and where we put in our first priority. Do we put the World Cup in more importance than the church? Was a question we asked, since they love the World Cup here. Thursday. This morning we went running in the Selva Alegre park. I love running! When we were done we were waiting to get on a bus to take us up to the top of the hill to our apartment. One said Independencia on it which is the area of our Zone Leaders and Hermana Smith and Sullivan so we just jumped on it and thought we could take it up to the top but then instead of going up all the way it took a turn and I thought it's okay it will go back but nope! We were going to another Independencia in Central which is the opposite direction of Graficos. This was a problem especially since we didn't have our phone or money for another bus. We only brought sufficient enough money for ONE bus. We were getting lost! An older lady got on the bus and was struggling to get on so I got up and helped her get on. Thankfully I helped her because she ended up being our blessing. She paid for our bus fair and walked us to the place where we needed to take the right bus back to Graficos. We would have been lost with no way to communicate with anyone, in PERU. I don't like thinking of how bad that would have been. Lesson learned, always ALWAYS help those around you because you never know when you will need help from others. Mosiah 2:17, when you serve others you are serving the Lord. I will always remember her kind service of paying for our bus fair when we didn't have enough to make it home and for her service of getting us to the right bus and making sure we were safe. She was a blessing to us in this day just by her small act of service. I would hope to have such an effect to others as she had to us this day. Today we went to visit one of our investigators but she wasn't home and ending up finding Nicole, Amparo's niece. She looked as if she was crying. We asked if we could share a message about Christ and our purpose here on earth and she invited us in. We had a lesson with Amparo, who is a convert as of a year and is SUPER strong in the church. We taught her about Christ and His Atonement for us and how He knows how she feels and knows the burdens she is going through. The best part of this lesson was when Amparo shared with us that she was praying for help while she was talking with Nicole and then two angels came to her door right after she finished her prayer. She was telling us that we came as a blessing and answer to her prayers. Wow. That made me feel good. It's crazy seeing the Lords hand in everything and in our planning to do the Lords will. I never realized how we could really be blessings to other people. This experience made me super happy and realize that we are blessings to others. Our shower got fixed today! No more showering out of buckets haha It was actually pretty fun. Better than I thought it would have been! haha August. What? The time has gone by so fast. Today I wanted to express my gratitude to those that have helped me so far in the mission because with Amparo yesterday I learned how good it feels to receive gratitude for the things that we do, so I wrote a letter to Elder Wells, my zone leader who has helped me the whole time I have been here on the mission. Elder Petersen, who was my District leader and taught me a lot about being an example through your own actions. Hermana Smith for just being her and being a wonderful friend to me. And of course to Hermana Ogden for being a wonderful companion and all the things she has taught me. It was fun writing the letters and giving my thanks to others. It just makes everyone feel better when they realize that they are doing good in the world. I love gratitude. Saturday. Found out that Donny is going back to the mission this Tuesday. I was dying of excitement when I found out! I think I almost had a panic attack when I realized how fast he was going to be leaving. But I am so proud of Donny for his decision to go back out after all he has gone through. That's my baby brother! Saturday morning. We met up as a zone and went to the park to do personal study and then share with the zone after. We got to go to the Selva Alegre Park which is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. The park was beautiful! There were monkeys there too! I went to touch the monkey and he grabbed my finger and was pulling me in the cage! I have a photo of the after damage when my finger is all red from the monkey haha it's funny. At the park we went around and each shared our conversion story. We got to learn more from the zone and feel the spirit from each of our conversion stories. What a good activity. It was fun to bond as a zone. Sunday. Fast Sunday. It was happy to see the fruit of our labors when 5 less actives came to church that we taught during this week. I know that this is all with the help of the Lord. What a blessing to know that we are really changing lives and bringing them back unto Christ. This calling is very stressful because we have peoples SALVATION on the line! That's just a little pressure. We still have a lot of work to go, but we are changing the world here in Graficos one person at a time! I love this time I have to be a full time missionary. Time is going faster than I ever expected. I want to take advantage of all the time I have. I love you all! Love always, Hermana Flora xoxo

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

Family and Friends!! Such a stress filled week but such a good week. Tuesday we visited with a new investigator that we contacted on the street last week. His name is Marcelo Diaz. He was super impressed that we came at 10am sharp. He has been one of our good investigators because he read the pamphlet that we gave him and had lots of questions. He said that he wants to be a better person. We scheduled another lesson with him since we forgot that we had District Meeting at this time. Tuesday afternoon we went out with a member and he gave us some references to go visit. The reference we went to visit was a 19 year old boy who he went to school with. When we were talking to him his parents drove up with his sister and they started unloading lots of boxes out of the car. We instantly went to help and at first they were resistent but then accepted our help. This was my goal for the week, to find more opportunities to serve others. It was a good way for them to build confidence with us. Then they invited us in. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation. He didn't know what happens to us when we die but after the lesson he really liked the whole idea of the Plan of Salvation. He was really interested and focused during the lesson. He said he would pray to know if the church is true. Later we went to visit Jorge and Camilla and Ghilmar. We taught them about the Book of Mormon. We told them about our activity coming up that Friday and they seemed pretty excited to come. Wednesday. In the morning we visited our new investigator Marcelo Diaz at his work. He seems very interested. He is progressing since he had read everything that we have given him. In the lesson we taught him the Restoration. The spirit was really strong in the lesson when he asked us how we got our testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel. We told him to pray and if he prays he will receive an answer for himself that this church is true. In the afternoon we went to the mission home to help Hermana Zobrist out with notebooks together for the new missionaries coming in August and September. At night, we went to visit Samuel. We asked him why he didn't come to church and then he told us that he really didn't know what to believe and why he needed to go to church. We began to teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the five things we need to do while here on the earth. Which are Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Recieve the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. He told us that he faults repentance. We then talked about the importance of the Atonement and how repentance is a HUGE blessing from God. While he was talking I started thinking about my testimony of repentance. I told him that was my favorite part about this church, then I bore my testimony on how I felt about repentance. I started crying and saying that only through Jesus Christ we can feel the burdens of sin leave us and have happiness come back into our lives. He then wanted to know the steps of forgiveness and wanted the pamphelt that talked about repentance. He told us, Voy a arrepentirme! I am going to repent! It was such a good lesson! Thursday. We spent a good part of the day planning for our awesome activity we were going to have Friday. We got a few things that we needed and then invited more people to come. We planned this activity to get investigators to come to church, to get less actives to come and to have more unity in the ward. We were getting so excited for the activity. It was super stressful since we did 90 percent of the whole acitivty all by ourselves. Friday! The day of our activity! The theme was Este es Guerra, This is War, which is a TV show here in Peru that EVERYONE loves. It's a competetive game with obstacle courses, games, trivia, and other similar things. There are two teams, the cobras which are blue and the lions which are yellow. So for our activity we had two teams, The Lamanites, blue, which was my team! and the Nephites, yellow, which was Hermana Ogdens team! We put up yellow, blue, and white ballons and decorations. When the people started coming we divided the members into different teams. Little to say, the activity turned into such a success! It was STESSFUL! I never want to plan an activity again! But this one happened to be worth it. So for the activity we had different games similar to the TV show, such as cup towers, obstacles courses, and trivia about the gospel and about the members in the ward. We got everyone super animated during the activity! It was so fun. Thankfully the Elders came and helped us because we couldn't have done everything on our own. Anyway, my favorite part of the night was the end. The final game or challenge was when we asked for the most powerful man on each team to come up. We had them do an arm wreslting contest to see who was the winner. We then told everyone that because he is the most powerful man in this chapel he will recieve a huge prize. It was two big plates of cookies. We asked him if he would like to keep this all for himself or share with everyone at the activity. He said he would share so then we started passing them out. But when we gave the cookie to one person we said that the winning man had to do 5 pushups for each person to recieve a cookie. By the time we passed out 8 or 9 cookies we had people yelling at us saying CASTIGO! CASTIGO! At the time I didnt know what that meant but I knew they were getting a little upset haha One member came up to me and said that we needed to stop since people were getting upset. We continued on but the people got more angry with us. Finally Hermana Ogden said, Who doesn't want a cookie: Then I said that he still needs to do a pushup for them. I thought the members were about to kill me at this point haha the commotion was so strong and SO LOUD. Then the second I said this is the same as what Jesus Christ did for us. It was dead silent. I said that since he was the only winner in this room, Jesus Christ is the only perfect one in the world. He is the only qualified one to do that job. The cookie is significant to the great gift that he has given us, Whether we accept it or not it will always be there for us. He suffered for us whether we want it or not. Then we asked them to think about people they knew that aren't partaking of this great gift that Jesus Christ has given us. We ended up getting some references that night but more importantly we had a super spiritual ending to our activity. My favorite part was seeing the change in the people when they were yelling at us to the dead silence in the room when we compaired this activity to Jesus Christ. SUCH A CHEVRE ACTIVITY! Saturday morning we went to Independencia to give service to the less actives in Hermana Smith and Hermana Sullivans ward. We moved rocks from one side of the yard to the other. The sun was so strong that day, but it was fun to be able to serve the sisters and the people in Independencia. I love service! Sunday. This week had just been a week a stress. We were both dead by the time Sunday came around. Hermana Ogden and I both were assigned to give talks. We were planning our talks in the morning and I was getting a little nervous because I had been praying for awhile to recieve inspiration on what to talk on, but nothing really came. I prepared my talk and everything. When I got up to start speaking I got though half my talk when our investigator came in the room, Marcelo Diaz. I instantly felt that I shouldn't read the rest of my talk. I then stopped reading my talk and said that I wanted to try and express the feelings that I had in my heart. I could feel the Spirit testifying through me and helping me be able to speak the desires of my heart. Never would I ever do that in English but here I go, just speaking from my heart in SPANISH in front of my ward! Wow, things have changed! haha This is good!! In this experience I gained a testimony on preparing for a lesson or for a talk but then changing based on the needs of the Spirit. The Patriarch, which is the house we live at, told me that I did a really good job on my talk. It was like recieving a compliment from my dad because he doesn't just give out compliments unless he really means it. He told me that he understood everything I was trying to say also that I was an instrument in the hands of the Lord because I was letting the Spirit testify through me. This week was filled with lots of stress and Hermana Ogden and I have been super tired but I haven't been happier. I am thankful for this opportunity I have to be a missionary and to be able to share this wonderful gospel with those here in Peru Arequipa. It's not always easy, but it's always worth it. Thank you for all the support and love that I am recieving from home. I know that I am being blessed while here on the mission. I feel blessed to be able to speak and understand the language so fast. I feel comfortable with the language and I have no more fear. I can't speak perfectly and I learn something everyday, but this is the life. Change. As long as we are changing for the better this is a success. Everyday try to think about what Jesus Christ would do if He were in your same position. That's what I try to do everyday since I have his name on my chest. I try to do my best to be the best representative of Jesus Christ that I can be. Siempre gracias, Hermana Flora xoxo

This is the Mission

Family and Friends!! Another good week in Arequipa. Tuesday we went and visited Lalo who is 19 years old and hasn't been coming to church. He got to know Hermana Ogden and we had a good lesson with him. We are trying to get him to come to church this Sunday since it's been awhile. We are planning on visiting him with a member that's around his age so he can have some friends and feel more comfortable coming to church! Tuesday afternoon we visited with Elsa, she is the sister of Hna Amparo, she is a recent convert of about a year and is SUPER strong! We planned on teaching her about the gospel of Jesus Christ but we both had the impression to teach the plan of salvation. We felt the Spirit super strong in the lesson and ended up giving her a book of mormon. She accepted it and wanted to know more! She also accepted the challenge to pray if our message is from God. We are excited to see her progress. At night we visited Marianela Fernandez. We have been working with her for the past 2 or 3 months, basically since I've been here. But she hasn't come to church yet. I am losing hope and running out of ideas. We are buds but she's just not coming. She wants a divorce from her husband but she is still living with him because of her 6 year old daughter Camilla. Marianela is from Lima which is an 18 hour bus ride away and Camilla doesn't want to go to Lima so it is either leave her daughter or stay with her with her husband. We are trying to get them to stay together. Her husband, Frank, wants to be with her and is committed to save their relationship. So tonight we talked about forgiveness. She opened up more to us and told us that she doesn't feel worthy to go to church. It made me sad but also frustrated because Satan wants her to feel this way. God wants her to come to church and repent. God never wants us to feel so bad about our sins that we turn away from Him. He wants us to feel bad about our sins so that we would turn away from our sins and turn towards God. We shared this with her and shared Matt 18 about forgiving other 70 times 7 times. We also taught her that she needs to forgive herself as well. Sometimes it hardest to forgive ourselves. Wednesday. In the morning we had zone conference training. The Zone Leaders taught us about what President wanted all of us to know. Then while we were in the chapel there was an EaRtHQuAkE!! It was pretty strong since we were about 2 hours away from the epicenter. It was a little exciting. Nothing happened though, just a little shaking and screaming haha Nada mas. Thursday Hermana Ogden and I had divisions with our Sister Leaders. I stayed in our area Graficos and Hermana Odgen went to Casa Blanca. It went really well. Divisions are always fun because we get to know other hermanas and learn more from other people. The Hermana Leaders told us that they wanted to do divisions with us first since they know that we're not having any issues and they wanted an easy division first. We're the best! haha just kidding. But really Hermana Ogden and I are doing super good together and working really well and having lots of success. This is super good! When I was with Hermana Leavitt we went out with one of the members in our ward and taught some of the families in the ward. It was fun learning from Hermana Leavitt and getting a different teaching style. I like to see everyones teaching styles and ideas because I know that we can all learn from each other. My favorite part of divisions was Friday morning. We ended with writing a letter to Heavenly Father. It was a spiritual experience for me and it was a good way to better express my feelings. It was like a written prayer. I would recommend doing this if you can! Then the other part that I liked was something that Hermana Leavitt told me. She said that she wanted to study the Light of Christ, not because I said anything about it, but because you showed me the light of Christ. I was super touched by this and surprised to hear it, but it made to happy to hear that others can see light in me and that I am spreading happiness to those around me. Then Friday afternoon Hermana Ogden, my sissy, came back! We went and visited Juan Condori in the hospital. It was such a blessing to walk into his room and see him reading the Book of Mormon! It made me so happy! We taught him about my favorite character in the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni! He told us that he wants his faith to grow and he wants to get baptized! It was such a good lesson. He is super humble. At the end of the lesson he prayed and during his prayer he teared up and was full of gratitude. He told us how thankful he was that we brought this happiness into his life. I was filled with joy! I started to tear up when I heard him say this to us. This is the mission. Saturday. The stress begins. Today is the day for Diana's baptism! In the morning we went to the Pulcha Family house to do service. Elder Wells, Elder Meza, Elder Peterson and Elder Devenberg came to help us out. The Elders helped move things in their house and cut weeds, and we helped clean. It was fun giving service. This is one of our new goals, to give service every week. Then Hermana Ogden and I ran to get the font filled and to start heating up the baptismal font. We called Jaime, Diana's husband at 11 and said remember you need to be at the chapel at 2pm and pronto. They are always late because of him but we trusted he would come....Well at 2pm we were stressing a little because we told all the members that it really would start at 2pm. All the missionaries in our District came to support us so we felt bad that we couldn't start yet since they weren't there. Well we called Jaime and Diana and at 2:30pm Diana told us that she was all ready but the truth was that Jaime just got in the Shower! WHat! But actually everything all worked out. Some members came at 2:15pm but had to leave but a good group of members came at 3pm and said I knew it wouldn't start at 2 haha they just know Jaime too well. So at 3pm we started the baptism! It was such a wonderful experience. Diana was a little nervous but more excited. The baptism was really special because when she came out of the water she started tearing up. I asked if she was alright but she just told us that she was so happy. It was a sweet experience. The best part of the baptism was when she got up and bore her testimony in front of all of us. She told us that when she came up from the water she felt a huge peace come upon her and that she felt like her past life was behind her and she was forgiven of all her sins. She was crying a lot and thanking everyone that was there to support her and then thanked us for helping her get baptized. At that point I was tearing up myself! It was such a happy moment! This is the mission! All the bad times I ever had were all wiped away and I felt like I was helping people come unto Christ. This is why people serve missions. SUCH A GOOD DAY!! Sunday. Well it was just a little stressful. Jaime really has a problem with tardiness. 10am is our sacrament. There weren't there. We were just getting a little nervous. By 10:30 we were getting a little frustrated at Jaime. But the odd part was that there were many delays in our sacrament meeting. For example, they had to say the prayer 3 times and we sung the sacrament hymn twice. I don't think I've ever seen that before. Anyway, these little blessings made it possible for Diana to receive the Holy Ghost. Literally at the LAST minutes she calls us and ended up coming all by herself. She walked in with us right when they were closing the meeting. We sat down and then the first counselor said now we will have Diana come up and receive the Holy Ghost! What a blessing! It all worked out! At night we had a lesson with Edwin, one of the less actives in our ward. It went really well because he opened up with us and told us he wants to stop smoking and drinking and come back to church. SUCH A GOOD WEEK! I love you all! Love always, Hermana Flora