On the Family

So this week, the Garcia Family was finally baptized, after 2 long months of teaching, helping, explaining, almost begging, they were finally baptized this Saturday, it was so happy to see them entering in the waters of baptism as a family, but let me give you a little insight to the journey.

 

 

   When we first found the Garcia Fam. they fought baptism on the basis that they had already been baptized.  We explained and invited and they said they would read and ask God is the Book of Mormon was true.  After 2 weeks, the father`s sister made a negative comment about the church which didn`t affect him, but had a big impact on the mom.  From that moment until this past week, it has been a fight to stay in contact and teach to help them gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Then the mom`s sister came who is really Catholic and didn`t want her sister to be associated with any other religion.  For two weeks we fought with that, trying to stay in contact, teach, while she wasn`t to open to talk to us.  During all this time, the dad and son, were on board and wanted to get baptized. 

  Finally after almost a month, we were able to find them all together and the mom said that she hadn`t read, that she`s catholic and has been going to the catholic church.  We taught and at the end invited her to read and pray to know.  The next visit, we invited them again to be baptized.  A few days later, we brought the Zone Leaders and they interviewed them (for more than an hour).  When they finally got done, they told us that they decided they would be baptized that Saturday.  So this Saturday, they entered as a family into the church.

 

Now, many times during this journey, we had to consider the possibility that the mom wouldn`t decide to get baptized and what we would do. We really didn`t want to baptize only part of the family.  The family is the important element of the gospel, we are doing the work of salvation which ends in the temple.  We always start with the father, we never purposely divide a family.  We want eternal families, our goal is to bless families, not create division or baptize children that will eventually drift away.  We believe in blessing families and helping them becoming eternal families.  We do NOT baptize kids or teens by themselves, never.  Unless they are part-member families.  We can`t even teach a family unless the father participates and much less baptize without the dad.  I am so grateful for the perspective we have on the temple and I know that the gospel blesses families and that the families can be eternal "through Heavenly Father`s plan"  I love you all!  Have a great week! 

contemplating life?

Yummy sub sandwich

Baptism for Garcia Family

District Hermanas

Zone Activity

Worn out shoes

The Amazing Spider-Man

  So highlights of the week.  I got my very first spider bite, that I remember.  I didn`t even know what it was, it looked kinda like zit, but it was on my leg and was really red and it hurt.  But a member told me that it was spider bite, so obviously I was super excited thinking that I was going to start seeing better and shooting webs from my wrists....but she healed it (it was infected) and so far I haven`t experienced any heightened senses :(

  Other than that, we had a Mult-Zone Conference, I got to see Elder Halverson and we actually got to talk for a bit for the first time in a year of being in the same mission, it was awesome.

   We are also teaching a guy from the US so he speaks English, so I have to try and speak English, and I say try, because it`s really hard, all though who are serving/have served in other countries are going to understand....I can`t speak English anymore.

   Lastly, we played Monopoly today as a district.....I lost :( like always, but it was a good time, we were laughing the whole time, a lot of jokes that white people aren`t going to understand, but one that you all can appreciate, one of the hermanas rolled the dice and knocked over a bunch of houses that were on a property, so we all laughed and one of the zone leaders said "Geez hermana, calm down, acting all like `I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL`"  It was a good moment.  But that`s about it for this week.  I actually have pictures to send this week, but unfortunately, this computer doesn`t have anywhere to put a USB......maybe next week.  Love you all!

You Better Run, You Better Take Cova

The title has little to do with my week, that song was just playing outside and I`ve grow to like it quite a bit because they play it quite frequently here.  

   Nothing of consequence happened this week.  Other than me learning a bit of Portugese....I`m on my way to being Brazilian.  

   Also, I never take pictures anymore......I`ll try to get better at that.

 

Have a Great Week!  

I Want to Get Away, I Wanna Flyyy Awayyy

  No just kidding, I don`t want to get away, but I went to the airport this week for the first time in almost a year since I got here to Peru, it was crazy remembering how I saw it all when I first arrived, how new everything was, how different it all was, and how normal it is to me now.  It`s a happy-strange thing.    But being in the airport is obviously going to bring some emotions to travel, well at least if you`re me.  Not wanting to go home, just traveling in general....also, I`ve decided that the best place to find a husband is in the airport, just a tip for all you single ladies ;)  

   Other than that, transfers were this week, basically it worked out like this "I am here, you are here, you are me and we are all together"  If you know what I mean, if you don`t know what I mean.....educate yourself.  But I stayed here, my companion too, only our district leader got transferred from our district.   Our new district leader plays the violin.....you have no idea how lovely it is to have someone musical, that can sing bass/tenor and can follow me on the piano.....  :`) so nice.  

   In other news......the hermanas in the zone all went shopping today at an outlet mall.  I`ve decided Outlet Mall is a synonym for "bargain shopping for millionaires"  It`s all expense and nobody bought anything.  

  Other than that,  I can`t think of much else that happened, just working, searching, growing and learning everyday!  Love you all!

I Stand All Amazed

 So two things, I got really trunky this week when we were in an investigators house and Back to the Future came on.... :´c That`s the power of love.  And I got a blister from sweeping while we were doing service.    

   So this week while visiting a less-active member, she expressed that she has been feeling a little shaken in her faith due to the death of a friend.  And she posed the age old question of "why does God let bad things happen to good people?" and "why is there so much bad in the world?"  Now the typical answer is found in 2 Nephi 2:11which talks about the need of oppositioin in all things to be able to progress and have righteousness and all feelings.  But really just thinking about the goodness of God and the plan that he has for each one of us, there isn`t room to doubt.  Because thinking about the complexity of how he made this universal plan compiled of every individual plan that crosses, connects, affects the other, and how every plan has parts where the plan of another person is necessary, yet is benefits both.  It`s so complex and so perfect that we can`t even begin to understand it.  And when people think that bad things are punishments and ask God why, they really need to do one of two things.  1) Ask themselves if they believe in a perfect God or an imperfect one, because a perfect God CANNOT punish the innocent, for he would be imperfect in doing so, so they can accept that bad things are trials or consequences of another`s actions or they can ask themselves 2) what did I do to deserve a punishment.  And I bet a whole lot more people will accept the first one because they don`t want to think that they did something wrong, they immediately want to throw the blame on God.  God is perfect and he knows WAY better than us what people need and we have ZERO place to question his doings.

Love you all!  Have a great week!

Waiting for a Rainbow

So a few things happened this week. 

 - I hit my one year mark.  I can`t tell you how I feel because my brain still hasn`t accepted it.  It doesn`t feel real at all.  But I ate some biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then had a normal day.

 

 - Ate McDonalds for the first time in the mission.....still not as good as Dairy Queen, but unfortunately, there isn`t that here.  You gotta take what you got. 

 

 - the Fam. Garcia has had a trying week.  The dad`s sister make a not so nice comment about the church to him and it really affected the mom, so we`ve been trying this week to help them get back to the basics of knowing if the BOM is true or not.  

  - It`s been a trying week, in more aspects than one.  

 

#vivaelperu

 

Let Freedom Ring!

  So Happy Fourth of July everyone.....on Saturday.  Even though I`m not in the land of the free, I did my best to remember the wonderful holiday (pictures below)  

    So this week was the finals of the Copa America.  This has been a real struggly probably in all south american countries because on the night of the game, EVERYONE is watching.  If you had appointments, you are either invited to watch or come back another day, but this week it finally ended.  Peru took third with Chile in first and Argentina in second.

   Another fun happening this week.  On Tuesday I open my drawer to see a cockroach scurry out and into the dresser, obviously being a calm, level-headed person, I panic, not because of the cockroach, but because it escaped and I did know how to reach it.  So we start trying to find it with a flashlight, but the drawers can`t be taken out, so my companion decides that the only option is take everything out of the drawers and tip the dresser over and lift up all the drawers to find it.  So we do that and the only way we can lift up all the drawers is with pamphlets of the lessons or dvd and books of mormon.  So we are there for an hour with a broom trying to find it and kill it, and to our surprise, we find a whole family.  3 cockroaches and two eggs that had been dwelling happily in our dresser.  Let`s just say that our house smelled of cockroach killing spray for a few days and the drawers still smell, but the cockroaches are dead.

     In spiritual news, the family that we are working with went to church yesterday and they loved it.  It was really a miracle because Thursday we visited them and talked about going to church on Sunday and the dad was a little worried because he had promised his brother to go and help him move on Sunday, so he said that he probobly wouldn`t be able to go to church, but that the next sunday he would. So we talked about the importance of attending church and proving our faith and putting God first. So he said he would think about it and give us an answer on Saturday when we came. So we go on Saturday and we get there the wife says that he isn`t home, so we are a little worried, but then she says that he had gone to help his brother move on Saturday so they could go to church on Sunday.  It was a happy time.  

 

Sorry it is sideways, can't get it to turn and load. 

I assume this is the bedroom, while looking for the cockroach!!