Monday, October 21, 2013

10/21/13

Hermana Heather's Zone
I really am enjoying things more here. I am beat tired though. The other day, a pary behind our house started at freaking 4:30 in the morning! We dont know when it ended, but we didnt return till th night time. I was so irritated. Hna P said she was singing to the music, and enjoyed it a little bit. I just wanted to sleep, but I never went back to sleep. Blah. Hahaha. And Im just tired today, but still kicking! hahaha. Hna P was sick yesterday too. Ate too much food at lunch (at least 7 potatoes) and abunch of other food. We had pancha manca (tan rico!). So we werent able to teach in the night. We were at our pensionistas house for the night, and so I washed her dishes for something productive to do. Her husband was able to find another priesthood holder to give my companion a blessing. We werent able to get ahold of our zone leaders at all. I was a little irritated at them, but, what can you do. Lol.

I am definitely counting my blessings. Some things about the mission. A mission is not for the light hearted. You have to be committed to not giving up. If I had not made that decision beforehand, I might have gone home by now. Because whenever I think about wanting to go home, I think about my decision. "I am not going home until the end." This has helped me a LOT. The mission tries you in every way. Something my mission president told me a few weeks ago, is that if we dont try ourselves, or put ourselves in positions to grow, God will do it.   I believe it. We need to put ourselves out there so we can grow.

About some of our investigators, we had a baptism last saturday for a 10 year old girl, Milen. She is so cute, and loved having the discussions. She lives with her aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Her parents live in the states, but I dont know where, and I dont know when either. I think that would be really hard to be honest.
We have another investigator who is scared to go to church. At least I think so. She gave us every reason under the stars why she could go to church this sunday. We need to discover why.

This week we knocked on a door to contact a reference. We taught this lady, and she graciously let us in her home. She didnt have light in her home either. While we were teaching her, she started crying. I dont know why, but I felt the spirit in that room. I am glad that we knocked on her door when we did.

Well I think that is it for this week, thank you SO SO SO SO MUCH for all of your support. Send questions my way if needed, from anyone, and I wil be more than happy to respond.

Oh, I miss hamburgers. I just want a nice hamburger....hahaha.

Love you all!!

Hermana Heather

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

10/14/13

Transfers are next week. We will have to see what happens there. Nothing is secure. I learned that on emergency transfers. So we will see. I dont want to leave this area. I love it so much.

The stake is called Magnolias, and the ward is Magnolias. It might be easier to search on lds.org. A cool tid bit about our area, is that all the streets are named a type of profession.

To walk up to our apartment, the stairs are outside, and there are railings. From the roof, we can see the other roofs. Oh, on much of the roofs, there are different types of things. People have their laundry hanging out (like on ours). On our neighbors, there are lots of roosters in crates. On one across the street there are chickens, rabbits, and I think a sheep. Often there are dogs on the roofs of houses. On one house last week, we saw (for the first time) a bunch of yearling lambs on a roof. It was a bit strange, even for here. We just kind of looked at one of the lambs as it was bahhing at us. It was funny.

As for the people in this area, yesterday, we brought an older man to church. He is a member, but hasnt attended church for over 50 years, and he went to church yesterday! We were super happy. And there was another woman who hasnt been to church in years neither, and refused every time her daughter (members) invited here. And when we went to get her, she said that she was going to go with her family. WHAT?!?! Yup, and she was at church. So awesome.

We get a lot of offers for help from the ward members. Its so awesome. But we are a little confused on how to use them. So we will have to see what we can do with them. How to organize and whatnot. Because we also have offers from members in other wards (the girls want to go out with us, because the cant with the elders).

I am so grateful for this gospel. My body is always so tired and hurting, but I feel so great. It doesnt matter. I just want to teach. My spanish isnt that good, but I try and understand, and I find ways to speak. Where theres a will, theres a way. Joshua 1:9 in the bible. "Fear not, for the lord thy god is with thee, whithersoever thou goest"

Thank you so much. And good luck in all of your ways. Stay strong, feed your spirits with the gospel every day. I love you so much, stay safe!

Love Always,
Hermana Heather

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

10/7/13

Hola de Peru!

This week has been crazy. We had to move from our apt, and had two days to find a new one and move. We found something, not near as pretty. You have to walk five floors up, cross the roof, and then there is a small area that looks like it would be a room. When you open the door, there are stairs that curve down, and go into an apartment. Its kind of cool. I thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to get our things there. The stairs narrow significantly at the top. One of the elders said "with God, anything is possible." I told him I highly doubt that we would get the dressers up, because they are kind of big, and dont come apart. Yup, with a long rope, and some crazy elders, everything got up there, with a few bumps on the furniture, but that wasnt what any of us were worried about. So we are moved in, and have a alot to clean. We have a kitchen (ok, kitchens here consist of a sink, and a little bit of a counter connected, and you have to bring in your own stove, oven, or whatever else you want, they are really small, and not that extravagant, so we really only have the sink and counter). There are two bedrooms, and a larger study area. In one of the bedrooms we put our suitcases and cleaning supplies and whatever else we dont want in the way, and then we sleep in the other room. We have a bunk bed, and I sleep on top. Its not that bad. There are also a bunch of roosters that live next door (on the roof) so they tell us good morning everyday around 5 am. Its very welcoming. Hahaha

Yup, we watched conference this weekend. I didnt get a WHOLE lot out of it. It was really hard to focus. But I found Miss Nudd in the choir! That was a highlight. ;) I was able to take some notes. The notes are both in spanish and english, but mostly spanish. Something cool, is that Elder Richard G Scott does his own translations for conference. Its nice to listen to them in their own voice.

As for my ankles, I dont take much for them. The swelling has gone down considerably, I dont know why, and I am not asking questions. I dont have much ibuprofen, and I dont want to buy more. Plus, muscles dont really develop when taking pain meds so....Im at a little bit of a loss. Hahaha.

Our pensionita doesnt live far from us, about three blocks. We share her with the zone leaders. I like seeing them everyday and talking. Its way different from before. They both speak english, one is learning, but is really good, so I say he speaks english. I dont speak a whole lot of english to them though. Usually just when trying to figure out how to say things. Its helpful, and its calming for me.

Lessons this week were ok. My spanish is a whole lot better here than before. And Hna P even said that I am a lot more confident here, I speak more, and am more happy. I dont know why, I just am. The people here are awesome. Ok, yesterday at the church for the morning session of conference, a lady in the stake came up to us and hugged us so tightly and wouldnt let go of us, saying that she is so glad that there are Hermanas in the stake, and is so happy, and wants to take a picture with her. They ended up taking about 20 photos with one camera. Sheesh. Also, there is a family in our ward who absolutely ADORES us. We were walking to their house for lunch, and the daughters both had me, both holding my hands/arms. I feel like a little kitten being mauled by children. Hahahaha

As for the food....I am done with rice. If I never see rice ever again, that will be ok with me. We dont really eat dinner in this area, if we are at members houses though we are bound to get something. We kind of know where to go if we are hungry. Which normally we are not, because we eat a lot for lunch, and we also have food in our apartment if needed. You can do it mom, you dont need rice to survive! I wish the Peruvians knew that too.....lol.

Have a great week, thank you for all of your support!

Love Always,
Hermana Heather