Monday, September 30, 2013

Howdy, Howdy



Mi Querido familia,
Hola!!! I got mom's letter this week and also can print dad's email.  Thanks for the letters and it sounds like everything is going well at home! I'm interested to see how everything goes with conference this weekend.  Let me know the details! Also, do you know yet who the General Authority is that will be coming?

We had stake conference yesterday here, and it was a broadcast.  I think that all of Peru watched the same broadcast.  It was really cool.  A member of the 70 spoke, (I don't remember his name) and his wife.  They both spoke in Spanish which was impressive.  Elder Bednar also spoke, but in English.  They had it translated, and it definitely wasn't the same without his voice! But definitely still a good talk.  Then Elder Scott spoke, and he also gave his talk in Spanish.  The favorite apostles of the people here are the ones that speak Spanish because then they can actually hear their voices. The whole conference was cool because it was really focused on the family, which is good for Peru.  People were really excited about it afterwards and had a lot about of good to say about it.  We had three investigators come to church, so it was different for them but cool that they got to hear apostles speak and they enjoyed it. 
Yesterday was definitely one of my "Pay-days" as a missionary.  My first baptism, Jose, (Who I challenged to be baptized on my first day here) was ordained an Elder in stake conference.  Suhweet! I might be more excited than he is haha.  He also gave the opening prayer in stake conference and it was an awesome prayer.  I'm definitely happy about that.  

This week has been great, and it's crazy because it's the last week of the transfer already! I seriously cannot believe that I've already been here for almost a transfer.  Time flies.  Next week we'll found out if we're moving or what-not, but I'm pretty sure Hna Agle and I will be staying together here for another transfer.  

We cleaned a house with the Elders in our district this week.  It was fun. We cleaned the house of a man that was the FIRST missionary ever from Peru! Spencer W Kimball came to his house after he was baptized and told him to serve a mission.  He said that his dad didn't approve.  So Elder Kimball (at the time) went and talked to his dad for an hour and his dad let him serve! It was cool.  Anyway, some elders in our district live with him so we cleaned his house.  Cleaning houses in Lima is interesting because I think it's the dustiest city in the world.  The house hadn't been cleaned in a while either, so I was coughing all that day after we finished.  But, it was definitley worth it.  It was fun and the man was very grateful.  Luckily, Hna Agle and I got the easy job of dusting the living room.  the Elders cleaned the roof.  The roofs here are just another room, because the stairs just go up there but it doesn't have a roof or walls.  That's where people hang their laundry and that's where all the dogs live.  It's pretty much their backyard.  Anyway, this person's roof was covered in dog poop. So, the Elders got that lucky job.  :) 
We started with our new area and had to do a lot of finding these past two weeks.  We've found some solid people and now we are teaching them.  We have some baptismal dates set for the end of September/beginning of October.  We had the goal to baptize weekly, but switching areas put a little roadbump in the way.  So we've gone two weeks without baptisms, but hopefully this week will change that! We have two investigators that are siblings, and they are still recovering from chicken pox.  We're praying that they will recover so they can be baptized this weekend! 
It's cool to see the Hand of the Lord in the work.  I've never known how powerful are Faith and Prayers.  They seem like such simple things, but they WORK.  Having a postive attitude, a lot of Faith, a lot of prayers, and working hard brings awesome miracles.  It reminds of a quote by President Uchtdorf.  I wish I could remember the source that I got this from exactly, but I think it was my Texas mission president that told us, because an apostle shared it at the new mission president seminar.  The apostles and first presidency were in a meeting a while ago trying to figure out a difficult situation with the missionaries in Russia.  They spent a long time discusisng different alternatives, but could not come up with an answer to their problem.  President Uchtdorf said, "Bretheren, we have to let the Lord do the heavy-lifting." I really like that quote, because I've seen that a lot here as a missionary.  I can't make people get baptized, but as I work hard and pray hard, the Lord will do the "heavy-lifting." That can apply to so many things in life too.

esta semana, yo terminé el Libro de Mormón otra vez.  Cada vez que lo leo, mi testimonio crece.  El Libro de Mormón es verdadero y estoy muy agradecido por todo el poder en eso libro.  Es el clave de nuestro religión y puede cambiar vidas cuando los principios son aplicados correctamente.  ¡Léalo!

Thank you for all the love and support and prayers! Love you all.
Until next week,
Hermana Jones 

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