Week #17 - Granados

This week went super well, and was full of super good, but also disappointing experiences.

Zone Conference went super well, and I absolutely loved being with the rest of the missionaries and President and Sister Marble. Sister Marble´s Spanish is pretty funny, but she´s working so, so hard and I love her so much for it. Hna. C and I gave our 10-minute training to all the missionaries, and with the help of the Lord it was exactly 10 minutes, and the missionaries really liked what we did. I can´t believe the Lord gave me the opportunity to do that so early on my mission, but I´m so grateful that I had the chance to do it. 

This week we went to visit the familia Quispe to introduce them to the Book of Mormon. Their family is literally a family of gold: they´re super happy and friendly and just had a baby. They also have a daughter named Naomi who is an angel and is 13, and they aren´t attending a church right now. We visited them 3 times before. However, when we went to visit them this week, to our dismay and utter disappointment, Carina (the mom) told us that she had talked with her husband Abraham, and that she has doubts and doesn´t want to continue with us. She´s Catholic, but had doubts about Joseph Smith and many other things. She told us she had prayed and still felt a little unsettled in her heart. I know that if she would have faith, that the Lord would help her see. But the time isn´t right, and I know that her heart needs to be softened first. It´s so hard to have to leave familias and people that are so wonderful. 

We also encountered a crazy Catholic lady who is the mom of one of our new Investigators. She started talking bad about Joseph Smith and told us Pedro in the Bible was the first Papa and all that.... she literally ratted us out for 20 minutes outside her house. I cried a little bit afterward, because sometimes I don´t understand how people who believe in Jesus Christ, still treat people in such disrespectful ways.

My companion keeps threatening me saying she´s going to throw huevos (eggs) at my head on my birthday next Monday, because that´s a tradition here in Perú. I was talking with my pension this past week about how my hair has been changing and is breaking and is pretty dry, and just last night after dinner, she asked if she could put palta (avocado) in my hair. She´s seriously and angel. So yesterday she gave me a spa treatment and put some avocado in my hair. Today it´s feeling soft. Blessings.

Today we had the chance to go to the temple today and it was so amazing. Seriously so beautiful! We get to go every 6 months, and luckily with only 3 months out on the mission, I got to go. I bought a cool Peruvian cover for my scriptures and also a hymn book in Spanish because sometimes there aren´t a lot of hymn books in the capillas to play piano. After our session at the temple and before pictures, I met a temple worker who is from Cajamarca, and as I was waiting for my companion to get ready to leave, she spoke with me and asked me how long I´ve been on the mission. She told me she served a mission and knows how hard the first 4 months are. But she told me to stay strong, to tell your companion you love them no matter what, and always pray for strength to carry on when you feel like you can push through and further. She told me that the mission goes by so fast, but that I need to be strong and do all I can to return to my family in honor. She looks at me so sincerely, and I felt so touched that someone who didn´t even know me, knew what I needed to hear because she was so in tune with the Spirit. It's selfless acts like this that truly help people to remember who they are and what they´re capable of. Both her and I had tears streaming down our cheeks, and she gave me a huge hug. The Lord literally sends me angels here on the mission to give me an extra push everyday. I feel so blessed to be here and to have met the people I´ve met. 

The people of Perú are truly special and so open and loving. Just yesterday we visited Leticia, who was going to come to church with us this past Sunday for the first time. We went to pick her up before church, but her Grandpa got sick and had to head to the hospital, so she didn´t go. It´s crazy how Satan works sometimes. But we visited her yesterday, helped her wash some dishes and do chores so we could read 2 Nephi 31 with her. It was the best. She really understood what we read a lot more easily and we could really tell she was feeling the Spirit. She was supposed to have a baptism date for the 17 of this month, but she needs more time since she still hasn´t attended church due to her Grandpa being sick a lot. SO we reset a day for the 3rd of March, and we´re going to work and pray super hard to get her to church. After our lesson, she asked if we could help her with her math homework since she has a test this Wednesday. I truly have seen that it´s through our actions that we build the trust of others. Hna. Cahuapaza has practically forgotten all her math haha, so I was able to help Lety with her Geometry. I don´t really know how she was able to understand better with a gringa teaching her math, but she said it helped her a lot. Pretty sure the Gift of Tongues played a huge role in that haha.

This Sunday I gave a 10-minute talk in Spanish, and I´m not quite sure How I actually did it. I prayed super hard to have the spirit with me to help me, because I was pretty nervous to say the least. But todo salió muy, muy bien, and I felt good afterwards. 

Sorry for the disorganization and everything. This week was pretty crazy. I left my camera in our cuarto, but I´ll send some pics separately from my comp´s camera. I love you all so much and hope this week is amazing. 

BESOS!

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Hermana Doney