Tarapacá - HUÁNUCO!

Week Forty-three!

Well this week was a little bit crazy, you didn't hear about cambios last week because they happen on Tuesday nights.  While we were in a meeting with one of our less actives the zone leaders called, and told me about how I am getting changed to Huánuco.  So we left the house, there was some crying, told the pension I was leaving and went to the house and started packing the next day we spent all day driving to Huánuco.

My new companion is Hna Defina, and she is awesome, she is one of the Latina sisters that came in 2 weeks before me, so we will be going home together in July, and it is so much fun.  Oh yeah, she is from Argentina, and we are in the ward Tarapacá with Elder Torres, from Peru, and Elder Moore. (Remember him from my time in Chilca?)

It’s hot here, and everyone says that its getting cold and they are all cold, and I’m just like dying of heat.  Here there is air to breathe, we had to run from the bishop’s house to our house the other night because we were a little late and I just wanted to keep running when we got back to the room.

It is so beautiful here and I am so happy to be here.  This week I want to talk about Prayer.

In the December Liahona, I don’t remember who said that when we need our faith in god to grow the first step we should take is pray and that when we give the 2 minutes to god to pray he will give us the time to get the blessings we need.In Moroni he explains that we should "Pedid al padre con toda la energia de nuestra corazón" and with "un corazón sincero, y con verdadera intention" [Ask the Father with all the energy of our heart "and with" a sincere heart, with real intent] and that when we ask with those things, you can receive an answer to your questions.  

One of my favorite examples in the mission is an investigator from Chilca named Paul.  Our first visit we talked about the restoration of the church and asked him to pray about Joseph Smith.  The next time we returned we asked if he had prayed about it, and his response was "not how I should have".  We were a little taken back because people usually don’t say that or don’t know that.  So we talked with him about how we should pray with the true intent and be sincere, and we left him with the challenge to pray again.  Since that point he had more faith than I had seen in some people that we taught.

The Other thing is that many people think that they only have to pray about something once, and they will get their answer, or they have their answer and yeah, that is the end, but from that we look to Alma as an example,

Alma had one of the strongest testimonies of the truth that we can see in the Book of Mormon, and in the 5th chapter and 46th verse we can see where that testimony comes from when he says. "He aquí. he ayunado y orado muchos días para poder saber estas cosas por mí mismo"  [I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself].  So we don’t need to just stay with one insincere prayer, we need to be like Enos, and "tener hambre" to know the truth, even if we know the answer we should pray again so that our testimony can be confirmed, then our prayers will be answered.  Then we will have the faith to endure to the end.

That’s all for today

Love you

Hermana Peters

Huaytapallana

Week Forty-two!

Sorry I’m writing so late today and I probably won’t write a lot because we climbed a really big mountain and we got back late.  I’m really tired, the soreness is just starting to hit.  But it is like the big thing that the zones in Huancayo do and you basically die because there is no air and you’re climbing at a huge incline and then you eat lunch and take photos and start back down a different way at an even steeper incline.  So that was fun.  I kind of felt like Moses climbing a mountain, and trust me, there is a lot of prayer involved.

This month there is no holiday in Peru because everyone is getting ready for Christmas and it is all happy and cheery and we eat lots of paneton (which is like fruit cake but yummy) and its yummy, so I’m going to gain like 1234235346 lbs.

I’ll write more and send photos next week.

Love you.

http://www.tinkuyperu.com/Huaytapallana.html

Half Way There

Week Forty-one!

This week is the last week in the first half of training of Hna Pfister.  This cambio has gone by pretty quickly which I am grateful for, and as cambios get close we begin contemplating the things that might happen during this change and we have ranked them from the most likely to the least.

1. We both stay and I finish the training of Hna Pfister

2. I leave the area and get a new companion

3. Hna Pfister leaves me, (how rude)

I have been thinking about my time here in Mantaro and how long it actually feels, and I feel like you guys see it to from Dads comments last week.  When really if I leave this next Tuesday I will have the same amount of time here that I had in Chilca.  But it has been a lot slower here.  The people are a bit more closed than Chilca, and not just to us but to everyone.  That is why a lot of our investigators have been progressing really slowly, and we are working with a lot of less actives.

But I hit that point where I am starting to get tired.  The work is hard but rewarding and like every missionary will say after a time yeah I’m really tired but I still have steam in my engine and I will be pushing forward from this time out.

The dog I have permission to take
home at the end of my mission

The wig we found in the street

So The Goal is to Finish the Lost Thoughts

Week Forty!

(Sorry that everything that is a reference is in Spanish but you can find the translations, I don’t have them in English)

This Week I would like to finish all of the things that I meant to write last week, before Oasis cut me off.  I would like to start off with almost all of the scriptures say that we need patient.  But I found one scripture in James chapter 5 the 11th verse says: He aquí, tenemos por bienaventurados a los que sufren. Habéis oído de la paciencia de Job, y habéis visto la finalidad del Señor, porque el Señor es muy misericordioso y compasivo.  [Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.]

So I was like, apparently I need to study Job and other prophets to know exactly what patience is because in my head it was always just being happy in everything.  But I read through Job quickly and he was down, he shaved his head, he laid in a pile of dirt, He was not a happy camper the whole time.  But the things that stood out is that he did not murmur in those times, and he always went back to praise god through all of it.

Find the reasons to be grateful in these times as taught by Dieter F. Uchtdorf when he said "Permítanme proponer que consideremos la gratitud como una disposición, un modo de vida que es independiente de nuestra situación actual. En otras palabras, lo que quiero decir es que en vez de estar “agradecidos por cosas”, nos concentremos en estar “agradecidos en nuestras circunstancias”, cualesquiera que sean" [Let me suggest that we consider gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that is independent of our current situation. In other words, what I mean is that instead of being “thankful for things," we focus on being “thankful in our circumstances,"]

And in this talk President Uchtdorf also did the same thing that taught Santiago.  Showing that really we should be looking to the prophets as our example of patience.  " la decisión es nuestra; podemos decidir limitar nuestra gratitud, basándonos en las bendiciones que pensamos que nos faltan, o podemos decidir ser como Nefi,..Podemos escoger ser como Job...Podemos escoger ser como los pioneros mormones...Podemos escoger ser como el profeta José Smith Podemos escoger ser agradecidos, pase lo que pase."[The choice is ours; we can decide to limit our gratitude, based on the blessings that we think we need, or we can choose to be like Nephi …We can choose to be like Job ... We can choose to be like the Mormon pioneers ... We can choose to be like the Prophet Joseph Smith.  We can choose to be grateful, no matter what.]

So we should use this opportunity that we have to choose to be grateful and use our patience to the fullest. Yes you can be stressed and sad, but don’t murmur. As President Uchtdorf continued in his talk this last April when he said "El ser agradecido en tiempos de aflicción no significa que estamos complacidos con nuestras circunstancias; lo que sí significa es que mediante los ojos de la fe podemos ver más allá de nuestras dificultades actuales...El ser agradecidos en nuestras circunstancias es un acto de fe en Dios que requiere que confiemos en Él y que tengamos esperanza en cosas que no se ven pero que son verdaderas"  [Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances; What it does mean is that through the eyes of faith can see beyond our current difficulties ... Being grateful to be in our circumstances is an act of faith in God that requires us to trust in Him and have hope in things not seen but are true.]

Luzmila turned 70

  Don’t lose your faith because you are passing through a hard time. My best friend Elder Lovin said it perfectly when he said "Also the other thing. People always forget that Heavenly Father loves us, it makes me wonder when they think he’s mad at us. He sent His Son to give His life for us. He didn't send His Son to condemn us.  I fail daily, yet Jesus still came to earth so that we can become clean.

I was Hna Brigman for Halloween

I’m not perfect. I’m rude.  I’m immature.  I don’t care about others all the time and I’m not a perfect person, yet Heavenly Father still sent His Son here so we could all be able to live with him again. That doesn't sound like an Angry God to me. That sounds like a God who loves us and wants us all to be happy."

And we can see this also in the life of Job. Yes God allowed all of this to pass to him so that he could grow, and not only did he grow spiritually, He received more than double of what he had before as blessings from God.

So we know that when this time comes, if we "sufrid con paciencia vuestras aflicciones, y os daré el éxito." [Bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give success.] Because The Lord loves us with every fiber of his being. 

Don't feed strange animals

And I love you!

Hermana Peters

Answers,

Yes I’m still in Mantaro

The work is working

The District: Elder Quispe, Hna Pfister, Hna Collanque, 

ME!, Elder Condori, and Hna Gonzalez.

and Hna Pfister knows more than I did when I started, but still needs help.

3 Things I wish I knew before the mission (MTC Lima and Missionary Life)

I have like 20 minutes left so I've been thinking about the things that I researched (or didn't) before the mission and that yeah, in Peru it is quite a bit different so here is a list of the things that I wish I knew before the mission.

1. Bring Scriptures In Your Mission Language. Maybe in the Provo MTC you get your scriptures in your mission language but in Lima, not so much. You should either bring a little bit of personal money to buy them yourself from the temple here. Or bring them with you, because the nice leather scripture here tend to fall apart.

2. Bring your own money to spend. Thankfully I had some but lots of people didn’t because they heard that they get a P Day allowance in the Provo MTC. This is not true in Lima and there will be things you need and want to buy on P Days in Lima.  You can bring the money in the currency of your country and they will change it without a fee in the MTC.  But also keep a few coins because people love seeing coins from different countries.

3. Should I Study Before The Mission?  Yes, you don’t necessarily need to study the missionary Lessons in chapter 3 of preach my gospel.  Or Study hardcore like you will in the mission, but to read a few things before, like…

a) Read the Book of Mormon at least one time all the way through before the mission, and challenge yourself to read it all again in the short time in the MTC.

b) Read through Chapters 1, 2 and 5 of Preach My Gospel, those are the foundations of the work and will help a lot in the mission. 

c) Read through the Missionary Handbook at least one time before accepting your call. They are the rules and guidelines set but the 12 apostles to help you be a better missionary, and if you don’t want to follow them for 18-24 months it’s better to just not leave in the mission

That’s it and now I have to leave.

Love You

The Patience of Having 9 Months

Week Thirty-nine!

This week there is going to be a big marking point in my mission.  On Wednesday I complete 9 Months in the mission. The Half Way Mark.  It has been pretty stressful, knowing that I am now older than half the mission is really weird and knowing that it has been nine months since I have gotten in the mission is also really weird.  It really doesn’t seem that long at all, like maybe six at the most but really it feels like it has been four.  As I sat at breakfast today I was thinking a lot about the things that I have done since I have been here and how much I have improved.

It is a real blessing to be training Hna Pfister in these days because before it was really hard for me to think of how far I have actually come in the mission but she makes the same comments about me that I was making about my trainer when I got in and how much I wanted to get to this point when I first started.  I wasn’t able to see all of this myself.

But now I am at this point where I can, and now I have new goals to do even better.  This cambio is all about the patience.  As everyone knows, nobody likes to grow in their patience.   Because the way God does it is that he is like, hey, to be more patient I’m going to put a lot of things in your way to make you angry so you can look back on it in the next part of your life and say hey at least it’s not as bad as that one time.

As I was reading in Alma 26 and studying how Ammon combated his afflictions in the work of the Lord I was really struck by the end of verse 27 where it says "Sufrid con paciencia vuestras aflicciones, y os daré éxito" which basically means, hey, don’t get angry and everything will work out, but in scripture talk.  That lead me to think of the life of Joseph Smith and his trails and how in Doctrinas y Convenios 121 yeah, he was pretty beat down and sick of the suffering, but towards the end of his life in Section 127 verse 2 he explains how he felt after everything by saying "como Pablo, siento deseos de gloriarme en la tribulatión, porque hasta hoy el Dios de mis padres me ha librado de todo ello"

So yeah, like I lost my train of thought because Oasis is playing in the Internet and I love this song.  SO I guess I will just leave it at that.  When we grow in patience we are blessed.

Sorry there are no pictures this week I forgot my cord, so next week you will get all the pictures from when we went to the zoo