The Longest Week

Week Thirty-five!

This week was really long but I have learned so much.

It all starts with the cambio.  Hermana Salinas went to Conception to take the place of another Hermana Lider.  I was talking to Hermana Henderson and she said that they could not find a mini missionary to go with me.  A mini missionary is someone preparing to go on a mission that play’s missionary with people like me.  But I didn’t have one.  So right now I am in a trio, while at the same time being alone.  When I don’t have someone to go with me I am with the girls from the ward El Tambo.  But I am in charge of my area alone and still need to keep the work moving forward there.

So because it was so short notice I didn’t really have a lot of members to go with me but this week should be a little more organized since I got to talk to the Relief Society about people going out with me so it should be better. This week I got to baptize Omar 2, Eva and Xamiel,

Eva is the grandma of Xamiel and they have the same birthday and we met them through a less active member.  Eva has so much faith, she has some debts but was willing to close her restaurant to go to church and was able to see the blessings immediately.  So when we taught tithing, she was like, I know I need to pay tithing so that I can get the blessings and she is so cute.  Xamiel is also so great, he is 9 years old, and loves primary so much he goes to all the church activities with us and they are so faithful.

I was able to see them all baptized this week and I know that their faith is so strong and they will endure through the end it was so beautiful

Other than that we spent a lot of time running between the areas and weren’t able to see a lot of people but I know it can only get better next week

Love 

Hermana Peters

Are you training others now?

No, it was an emergency cambio so someone went home and Hermana Salinas took their place, there are more girls in the mission than there are people coming in, so I might not get the chance to train.

How has the ward training plan been working?

Our ward mission leader took my idea and turned it into something that would never work, so we are taking the opportunity of Family Home Evenings and teaching the people these things in their homes.

Eva and Xamiel

Omar 2

BYU-Idaho

Cambios de Emergencia

Week Thirty-four!

This week there is some bad notices, last night we received a phone call from the Assistant to the President and Hna Salinas has received the sad end of an emergency cambio, so, she is leaving tonight to Conception and I get to stay in Huancayo for another cambio to show my new companion the ropes.  I still don’t know what will happen with me, I might be with El Tambo the next 2 weeks, or I might get a new companion for these two weeks the thing is they never really tell you what’s happening.

But that is just today.

This week has been really good.  We met with lots of less actives who we didn’t even know existed and some of them really just needed to hear that we needed them back.

Like right now we are working with Hno Carlos and his wife.  The first day we stopped by he said no I’m not interested, I have work come back later, so we went back 2 days later.  He had broken his hand and he was like I know the church is true because after you left I broke my hand.  Then he went to church this Sunday and it was really awesome.

Omar 2 is doing really good, and He wanted to be baptized this last Saturday but we only taught a few lessons so we put his baptism for this next Saturday we will see how that goes.

This week was ward conference, and every night in the church there was an activity.  It was something beautiful because everyone was there and worked together to make it work and it was really good.

There is no snow, it cooled down to like 50 degrees and started to rain.

Hermana Weixler, Hermana Collanque, Elder John, Elder Cook, Hermana Salinas and me.

 ñauinpucio

 ñauinpucio

P.S.

What was the place, in the photos, called? ñauinpucio

When you are looking across the valley is that looking back at Huancayo? Well kind-of, Huancayo was further out but in that direction, the part in the pictures were just peoples fields

What were the ruins? I have no idea, probably someones house

Who were the other missionaries? my district, Hermana Weixler, Hermana Collanque, Elder John, Elder Cook, and me and Hermana Salinas

Elder Uceda

Week Thirty-three!

This week we had a very special and very spiritual Multizona with the President of Northwest South America, Elder Uceda. He spoke a lot about the blessings of being obedient as a missionary and it was really inspiring and was a lot like how you feel after Jeffrey R Holland talks, like how you need to repent for only being the Better of the Good Better Best, and not being the best. 

It feels like he spoke so long ago so I don’t really remember what stands out to me, that and I have a little bit of a head cold so my mind is a little scattered. 

We met some white kids

But its September now which means that the August festivals of Santiago have ended and that the September ones begin. That means there will be a lot of people dressed like white people this month. So that is cool.

Omar 1 isn’t getting baptized this week we are waiting for a bit more time. They have upped the requirements for someone that needs to be baptized and we are so blessed to be serving in this time. Before people were baptizing just to baptize but that lead to a lot of less actives in the area. Now we have the privilege to baptize those who are truly ready to live the gospel and also we now have the challenge of rescuing those who have gone less active and this is such a blessing because there are so many members who live around here who are less active or inactive and helping them is the greatest blessing we have. It feels so good helping to remind people why they were baptized.

And now I get my bragging moment. This week 3 people have noticed the amount of weight I have lost since I have been in Mantaro. I haven’t had a recent count but the last time I checked I had lost 15 lbs. and that was 3 weeks ago, but this week I feel really good about it. Mostly because people are starting to notice. Especially one of our less actives named Martha, almost cried, and she’s like Hermana you’re skinnier every time I see you, you need to get fat again and that was funny.

I feel great this week, except the whole cold thing, but yeah.

Love you Hermana peters

WE DONT GET GERERAL CONFERENCE UNTIL THE WEEK AFTER.  IT HAS BEEN POSTPONED IN THE COUNTRY OF PERU FOR ELECTIONS.  Actually, we don’t know what will happen.  Because in Peru you have to vote by law and so I don’t think that we will be able to leave our room either.  But some members are like we will pull it up online for you guys to watch in our house while we go vote but I’m thinking that president will do something in the office or in his house for us.  But really we have no idea, we might just have to wait.

Laguna de Paca

A new week in Mantaro

Week Thirty-two!

This week has been pretty good.  We are working with a lot of new people this week and they are all really good.  But I have been thinking about my time here in Mantaro and really there are a few people that stand out.

First is Omar 1:

Because there are two and I think I have said a thing here or there about him.  He is an attorney his wife is a less active return missionary and they’re about 30 but he also studies a lot about science and philosophy and he has some belief in a God like being, but also has a lot of questions.  It is so fun to teach him because I get to share the way I think of things.  Like I’m not just sharing my testimony I get to share my process in gaining a testimony.  Like he was talking about the Big Bang theory and because of the Big Bang Theory he thinks that God is more of an energy and Hna Salinas is like wut!  I’m just like, okay, let’s think about it because in the church we believe in this energy it’s the priesthood but something or someone needs to control it because you can’t just have baking soda and vinegar sitting on a table and expect them to mix and when we have someone controlling it, That is God and when He is ready (snap) bang.  It is so much fun and he accepted to get baptized this October

The other is Omar 2:

Yep.  He is a 19 year old kid and he says that he is a hipster and it is so funny but he is just so ready to listen to the gospel and is so open to new Ideas, he’s pretty cool.

And last but not least is Maricio:

He is a little old man.  One day this week we contacted him and he was like yeah I love learning about religions, come by and we can talk, and were like, yeah okay.  We went in planning on talking about the restoration, but he was doing all the teaching.  Like he was talking about how it’s hard that we are away from home but that it is a great learning experience and he told me that I have a strong personality I don’t show it but from the inside it’s a strong one and just gave us a lot of grandpa advice and let us tie it into the gospel and it was so cool and he is a great guy.

That’s really all I have today.

Love you

hermana peters

Hermana Salinas

Roy heard we were coming over...so he made bread

Compañeras de Nazca

Week Thirty-one!

That’s (the title) a joke because I have a new companion and she is from Nazca Peru, so obviously she has an in with the aliens, and I’m sure she is really sick of me talking about aliens.  But she is so good.  I feel like we have the same personality somewhat were just both laid back Pacific kids who are pretty quiet and pretty awesome so we have a good time.

This week we are officially, officially, starting the training of the leaders of the ward.  Our ward mission leader was kind enough to take all the credit because he knew he could because the only witness is now in the states, but yeah, that’s cool, if it all blows up its all his fault so I’m okay with it as long as they are getting trained.

I don’t really know what else to say today but everyone seems like they are happy in our district.  Elder Cook and Elder John are both from Idaho Falls and they knew each other a little before and had mutual friends so they are having a bit too much fun and were good too.  Everything is just starting to fall into place here.

End of the Line, (The going home and the new Beginning)

Week Thirty!

Well this week was probably one of the most difficult of the mission but it was so ridiculously rewarding.  This week Hna Polatis went to Lima with Hna Fernandez from Mexico to do some paper work to enter back in the US and Mexico, so yeah.

I was with Hna Sidan from Argentina who came to Huancayo with me and we had so much fun running around both of our areas trying to work and it was so great and we talked about Lord of the Rings for like 12 hours and then about dragons for another 2.  And it was really interesting because we were talking about the language and how when I got to Huancayo the only thing I knew how to say was (voy a morir) because she taught me on the bus ride here and we laughed and it was fun.  She’s really awesome and I love her.

Today I’m going to be really honest with you, Mantaro is a really hard area, and it makes me glad that I’m not in the states because it would be like this all the time.  The people have a lot of pride and it is really hard to work with them.  Our biggest problem is working with the ward because they say they will do visits and help our converts but really they forget during the week and it has been a big struggle for me because I watched 3 people that Hna Polatis baptized go inactive and 2 of them started drinking again after months of being sober.  It made me really mad.  I was talking to Hna Sidan about it and she was having a lot of problems with it also.  So we calmed down a lot and got rid of all of our own pride and anger and started to plan and we planned a lot of how we can help the ward how we can strengthen and support the members in their callings and how we can help them help our new coverts.  We made a 6 week training plan of 5 minute segments that we can share in counsel and we are going to put them into action this next week and we feel that with lots of prayers and lots of pestering of the members we can really help them see that also they are part of this marvelous work of Salvation.  This week being with Hna Sidan we really just built up each other’s animos (confidence) (I forgot the word in english) to build up the church in these areas.

I really don’t mean that to make Hna Polatis sound bad she is a strong hardworking missionary but this cambio you can really see no matter how diligent and hard working the missionary they are tired at the end Hna Polatis worked hard up until the last minute and was an awesome missionary.

I don’t know how much an effect I can have this plan be because today when I entered into my missionary account it said that my area didn’t exist in the eyes of the church and one of the Hermana Leaders said that they are closing a lot of the Hermana Areas and so we will see what happens with that on Wednesday.  If that happens I plan on giving my 6 week plan to the Elders because I really feel that it can help the ward and area a lot.