Week #27 We are not alone

Hola family and Friends!

This week I noticed a theme among my investigators that was a bit discouraging. Everyone seemed to be struggling with the same problem, loneliness. It doesnt matter who you are or what your circumstances we all feel loneliness at some point in our lives. Hermana V felt lonely because her kids don't call her to just talk. Hermana K,  doesnt feel accepted in church  so she feels lonley. Hermano J just came out of a coma. He can't move and can't talk, obviously he feels lonely. I had the opportunity to share my testimony about feeling alone with each of these individuals this week and I want to share it on my blog as well.

Lonliness is the opposite of how our heavenly father want us to feel. He has given us friends, family husbands, wives, and  children so that we can feel accepted and loved. His whole plan of Salvation is for each of us come to the Earth and find JOY, true joy through the relationships we form with others. Although we can't see him,God is not far away from us. Acts 17.27 8 explains that God wants us to seek him. If we seek, he is always there to hear our prayers and to help  us find joy. If anyone feels like God is far away and not willing to help them they are being tricked by the Devil. God is here, and he is listening, we are never alone. In Alma chapter 33 of the Book of Mormon, verses 1 to 11 Alma reminds the people of the words of the prophet Zenos. He explains that God is a merciful God and will hear us. ¨Yea, thou art merciful unto thy children when they cry unto thee, to be heard of thee and not of men, and thou wilt hear them." We are never alone. EVER. When were are feeling pain, sorrow, lonliness, far from God, far from everyone, this is a tool of the adversary. Satan wants us to feel lonely because it gives him power over us and keeps us from looking up. I pray to you all please dont let Satan trick you, dont give him the opportunity to come into your lives. Alma 24.39 says ¨Yea, and I exhort you, my bretheren that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be lead away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not over power you, that ye may not become his subjects at the last dayñ for behold he rewardeth you NO GOOD THING." ¨If your feeling that God is far from you I invite you to follow the advice of Alma and pray. Pray with all your heart. Follow the example of Enos "änd my soul hungeredñ and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer."¨ 

I bear testimony that God listen and answers our prayers. We prayed with Hermana V this week that her family would have more unity, that she would not feel alone, and that her children would call her. That SAME day her daughter called for no reason, just to get caught up and talk with her mom. How amazing is the power of prayer? How amazing is God to answer our prayers? I know that he is my Heavenly Father. And just like any other father he wants the best for all of his children. We are never alone. God is close and he is listening we just have to build up the faith and courage to kneel down and ask. 

 

Love you all

See you Next Summer

Hermana Huish

Week #26 Investegator Update

My new companion is great!

It is the middle of winter in Peru and the nights are freezing cold!

My comp and I have to wear several pairs of fuzzy socks each night to stay warm, brrrrr!

Hermana Pintado taught us how to make a pineapple cake.

The finished product.

Everyone loved it!

Lots of ups and downs this week. It has been somewhat crazy adjusting to life in Begonias. We are focusing on working with less actives and recent converts. There are millions of them!!! I thought that if we are always working with menos activos and recent converts we would never have baptisms because we don't have investigators, but I was very wrong. By working with them we are able to find people who aren't members within their families. This is a plus  because they already have some background with the church and they have a built in support system. This week we have been working with M. He has been through a lot in his life. He has gone through drugs and rehab (Grandpa John, I can hear you on your soapbox already!)  and now he is finally ready to make a change. Immediately after leaving rehab he sought out the missionaries. His mom is a recent convert and has the strongest testimony. We taught him the story of the Anti Nephi Lehis, and how their repentance process included burying their swords profundamently into the earth, and then being baptized. We explained to M that he too needs to put the past behind him.  Dig a deep hole, put  away all of his past sins, try  never to commit them again and then come unto Christ. We all make mistakes. The good news of the gospel is that we have the atonement to fix things. Applying repentance daily is something we all need to do. Every day we need to be progressing forward and becoming better, trying to find a way to become more like Christ, and leaving our selfish natural man behind.

 

Another investigator that we have been working with is E. Her daughter L recently joined the church But E is a little bit more skeptical.  She also has been through many trials and has a lot of problems. Teaching her has made me realize how important the plan of salvation is. When E was young she witnessed her dads death. His killers were never found and she said that it haunts her every night that they might still be out there. She has cut her self, her husband is cheating on her, and she is going through a lot in her life. She is in a really sad place. This week we started to teach her about the pre-mortal life and how we chose to come to earth to receive a body and be tried. As we explained this to her she said she would have rather just stayed as a spirit and never came to earth. It makes me so sad that any one could think this way. I hope that once she understands the whole plan of salvation that she will have a little bit more hope, faith, and strength to keep going. A lot of people ask why Mormons are so happy and I honestly believe its because we understand the plan of salvation.  We know our purpose hear on Earth and what is going to happen when we die. The plan of salvation gives us hope, strength and faith. I'm so thankful for it in my life and I am thankful to be on a mission to share this plan with others.

Our other Investigator is R. She was a reference from the previous sister missionaries. She has been attending church for 3 weeks and she really likes what we have to offer. She is a single mother of four active, crazy children. She works at a little fruit stand and tries her best to keep her kids calm and respectful. I think she loves the church because it is so focused on family. Hermana Pintado and I have  had two noche de hogars with her family because she really wants her kids to have religion and develop a spiritual respect. One way to calm her kids down is singing hymns! R loves to read the scriptures and said that she reads an hour every day. We invited her to be baptized but she needs a little more time to prepare.  I can see her as a great member and I Know that the gospel will bless her  family in a million different ways.

I really love  my new ward. The members are so fantastic. The other day we had an activity with the relief society. Hermana Pintado knows how to make keke de pina., basically a Pineapple cake. So we motivated the Sisters to do their visits by making keke de pina and then going out to do their visits with them. I am really thankful to be in Peru because I am learning so many new things!! I am learning a new language, a new culture, I know how to flag down a taxi and navigate the bus everywhere. My companion has taught me how to dance a little bit and its awesome! I love the opportunity I have to develop all these cool new skills. My mission is literally the BEST,  I LOVE it. And even though there are ups and downs I try to always look at the bright side and find the good in things. 

Love you all!

See you next summer!

Hermana Huish

week #25 TRANSFERS

I was transferred from Magnolias to Begonias this week!

My new area is huge.

Last day with Cadenas

Working hard

 

Goodbyes to all my friends in Magnolias

Goodbye to my Penchinista Edith, I love her!!

 

More families I love

 

HELLO Family!

So BOOM no one expected but I got transferred! It definitely came as a surprise. We were all preparing for Hermana Cadenas to leave because she has more time in the area but I guess God needs me somewhere else. I was really sad to be leaving Magnolias because I felt like we were just starting to make progress in that area. We had a lot of good investigators who I really loved. But that is the life of a missionary, as soon as your comfortable, things change. So Monday I packed my bags and made the rounds to say good bye to all the investigators and members. Tuesday morning we woke up early to get to the district offices. I was so nervous. New companion, new area, new everything! 

 

Companion:

My companion is Hermana Pintado! She is from Puyra Peru. So far she has been super awesome! She is a really hard worker and a great teacher. She is loving, caring and fun! In all honesty I am thrilled to be with her because she wants to work hard. Hermana Pintado is focused and she loves the mission. I think I’m going to be so happy with her because we can work even more! 

 

Area: 

MY new area is Begonias. IT IS HUGE!!!! It is about 4 times bigger than my last area. We have to take motos and buses between citas because it is too far to walk. Despite the buses, there is still  a lot,  a lot of walking. A LOT! By the end of the day I am literally dead, but for some reason it feels good to be nearly dead when we get back to our room, it shows that we given  our all throughout the day. The members here are fabulous! They are soo welcoming, and understanding.  They come with us for lessons, and  give us tons of referrals. I am pretty sure that we get at least one reference every day from the members in the ward! It is wonderful to have their support.

 

The only problem with this area is that when we got here there wasn’t much going on. Hermana Pintado was also new to the area. Her companion had an emergency transfer to Colombia so when we both arrived in Begonias we had no one to teach. Fortunately, we have found so many people in a short amount of time and our days are filled already!  I can really feel the spirit here in Begonias. The other day I think we had three people crying, the spirit is strong here. I can tell that with a little bit of time maybe a month we will start to have success with baptisms!

 

Penchinista:

My new penchinista is awesome! First off, she makes us really healthy breakfasts every day with smoothies, fruit, yogurt, eggs and vegetables. I love love, love her cooking! But she is less active so we are also teaching her. She has three sons. One is 17 and the other two are 7 and 10. Yesterday we had a lesson with her boys. They read their scriptures every night, and have questions for us about them. These little boys are better than a lot of our adult investigators. They are so sweet. In their prayers they always bless the missionaries, “the hermanas”, that we can be safe and that nothing bad will happen to us. The youngest one is already asking questions about serving a  mission!  He is only 7and hasn’t even been baptized  but wants to prepare for a mission.  It was so cute he said he was a little nervous about serving a mission because he doesn’t want to leave his family for that long. (I can relate!)

 

Other Fun Fact! 

The first baptism that I had in the Mission was Paulo form Comas Retablo. I found out that he is doing great! He is a strong member of the church and is the ward mission leader! How sweet! It was only a couple months ago that I was teaching him and now he goes on lessons with the missionaries almost every week! WAHOO! Go Paulo! 

 

Love yall!

See you next summer!

Hermana Huish

 

 

 

 

Week #24 Moving mountains

Tarde Blanca

Dear Family! and Friends 

Woww Woww Woww This week has been so wonderful and I had so many great experiences!

First, we had a service project high, high, high up in the serros. The serros is a neighborhood built on a hill side. Unlike in the US where the houses are more expensive at the top of the hill, in Lima, the higher you climb the poorer it becomes. We basically hiked to the very top to a little shack that consisted of four plywood walls leaning against eachother. It looked like a tiny tree house. In my area we don’t have any serrors so sometimes I forget how destitute the people can be. This service project was a good reminder of how blessed we all our.  Our job was to flatten the ground in front of the house. Literally the missionaries were moving mountains that day. We had to move so so much dirt. We worked with shovels and pik axes the entire day, our hands were covered in blisters. My hands at one point started bleeding! Despite the hard work, service is definitely one of my favorite parts of the mission. Service not only brings and bonds people together, but it also brings the spirit. I love service!

POR FIN!

Another great experience, I got the package from my mom! We had a mini district meeting so I was able to share all the cookies and  the candy. It was a little taste of home! Couldn’t have been sweeter! Every one says THANKS AMY!

Our investigator Y is progressing nicely. She has been going to church for over a month! She has a strong desire to be baptized and the only thing that is stopping her is that she needs to be married. This week we brought Y and my favorite little girl Rosa to a church activity which turned out to be my third good experience this week. It was such a cool event. The relief societies from 5 different wards, put on a dance festival. Each ward performed a different dance from peru! It was so awesome! All the performers were dressed up in beautiful, colorful vestiment's for their culture. And the dances were awesome. That is another thing I love about Peru, the culture, and the way the people celebrate with dance. All the dancers wanted pictures with the missionaries so we took photos with all of them!

Finally, to cap off the week, we held our Tarde Blanca! BOOHYEAH! It was so perfect! Hermana Edith made Hermana cadenas and I matching white skirts so that we could be in all white! We were looking fly! Our investigator J was baptized! It was such a great experience for him! He has been coming to church and going to seminary for about a month. The day before his baptism we asked him to share his testimony with us and we told him to write it down so that he could have it forever. His testimony was so simple. He said I want to change, I want to be a better person, the hermanas have taught me about this church and I know that this church will help me make this changes that I want. I know Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet and that the scriptures a true. His testimony was simple but perfect. We were thrilled. He has some family problems but we were touched to see that His entire family was at the baptism to support him including his little sweet old grandma. This month I'm almost pretty sure that our Zone had 20 baptisms!!! This is awesome I am really happy with everyones work!

Today we have cambios! Dunn dunn dunn! I don’t think I will be transferred this time around but you never know. I think Hma Cadenas might possibly be transferred so I will update you next week about whats happening!

Lovee love you all

See you next summer

Herman Huish

Ps. The future is as bright as your faith

Week #23 Pancha Manca

guinnea pig, 

The Pancha Manca, basically, food cooked in a hole in the ground.

Dear Family and Friends,

Sooo were still working hard down here in Peru! We have our tarde blanca this coming up weekend, I'm really excited and it should be fun!

All of our teaching is going  well! J is preparing for baptism. He is 16 and has been attending seminary and church for about a month. He is ready for baptism this Saturday at the tarde blanca! We have been through ups and downs with J because at first he just wanted an excuse to get out of his house, and his parents would let him leave if he was going to talk to the missionaries. However, after talking and teaching him, he has developed a testimony of his own and really has this desire to be baptized into the church!

Other investigator is M. We were so, so happy because M finally came to church this week! We found M about 2 months ago he has a huge desire to be baptized but is having a hard time with commitments. I think we finally broke through to him when we gave him a tour of the church.He is now more comfortable and is even assisting with some of the activities with the young adults!We are trying to teach him the importance of enduring to the end,and  that repentance is a process not just a single baptism event.  He came to church on SUnday and although I know he thought it was extremely boring he stayed for all three hours, and even came back for an activity Sunday night! His baptismal date is for next month!

For p-day we made pancha manca de la tierra! It was so interesting, here is the process:

1.       Dig a pit in the ground.

2.       Heat up giant rocks.

3.       Put the potatoes in the bottm of the pit

4.       Cover the potatoes with some of the hot rocks

5.       Throw in the different kinds of meats. Which included pig, guinea pig, chicken.

6.       Layer it with the hot rocks.

7.       Put the tamales on top

8.       Cover the hole with tarp

9.       Cover the tarp with dirt

10.   Let everything cook in the ground with the hot rocks for 1 hour

11.   Uncover the hole and take everything out!

 I would never think to cook something like that… its probably not super sanitary either! But it  tasted really good actually! It was like a pot of stew in the ground with meat potatoes and hot rocks! Just kind of crazy but its traditional here so that was cool that all the missionaries were able to try it.

TESTIMONY:

I have been thinking a lot about my own testimony lately and one way that my testimony has really grown is through the power of prayer. Almost every single lesson we teach we promise people that God will answer their prayers. I really do testify of this power, if we pray and demonstrate our faith, God will answer us. recently, we have had  a difficult time finding new people to teach so we said a prayer for references, the next door we knocked on had a reference for us! Milares is a jovencita and her friend has been coming to activities but not to church. It was a perfect answer to our prayer.

GIFTS FORM GOD:

This Sunday we had a lesson on los dones del espiritu. The gifts of the spirit. I started to think about how I have witnessed every single spiritual gift on my mission.

1.       The Gift of tongues, interpretation of tongues and translation.

I am a witness to these gifts every single day that I am in Peru. It is a MIRALCE  how far I have come with the language in 5 short months. I came into the field not knowing hardly any Spanish, I couldn't speak or understand. Honestly, it was one of the most challenging and frustrating things that I have ever been through. But now just a couple months later, I understand, I can teach, I can express my self in another language. I can read. I pray for the gift of tongues multiple times a day, during lessons, in the morning, and studying the scriptures. Once while we were teaching a lesson, I was really frustrated because I couldn’t understand what our investigator was saying. I could pick up some words but I just couldn't focus on what she was saying. I said a quick little prayer in my heart for the gift of interpretation of tongues. Immediately after I said that prayer I started to pick things up, I understood her needs. She was explaining to us how she felt like she was never good enough, and how she has been though a lot of trials and a lot of mistakes, she also  has 3 kids, and no husband.. I was so thankful for the gift of interpretation of tounges in the moment because I was able to help her feel better, and explain to her Gods love for her. I have experiences with the gift of tongues almost daily and I know it is real. 

2.       The Gift of Knowledge and Wisdom

I have witnessed this gift in my companion. Hermana Cadenas was baptized when she was 18, not giving her a lot of time to learn or opportunities to learn the scriptures before her mission. When we were first put together as companions she had a hard time finding the scriptures that she wanted to share making teaching a challenge.  NOW she is a scriptorian! She can flip to any scripture and her knowledge of the bible, the book of Mormon, and all of the other doctrine grows daily. Its amazing how God has blessed her with the knowledge and the wisdom to be able to teach people and the gift to know that Jesus is the Son of God. 

3.  I also sincerely believe that to have faith is gift from God. The perfect example is a family that we are teaching. The parents J and C are complete opposites. C definitely has the gift of faith. She is so accepting of what we teach. In fact,  the second time we went to visit her she told us that she knew the Church of Jesus Christ was the  true church. She has a tremendous amount of faith in God,and it is evident by the way she carries herself. It is such a blessing to have this gift because she doesn't doubt anything, she is steadfast and immovable in faith. On the other hand her husband struggles with faith. He somewhat believes there is a God or some superior being, but doesn't believe in churches or religion. He thinks they are all here as businesses. Its really hard to teach someone with out this gift of faith because they cant understand.

4.       The gift of prophecy

The prophets receive revelation for the entire world, but we can receive person revelation. I receive personal revelation every single day. In lessons, walking down the street, before I go to bed. I'm always listening for the promptings of the spirit.

5.       The Gift of Healing

In the Church worthy priesthood holders can give blessings of health. Last week I was really sick. I don’t know what it was, but we went to a members house for her birthday and literally the entire time I was laying on her sofa throwing up, it was awful. There was no way that I could have gone out and worked, I had no strength and  I was so sick. We called the elders to come give me a blessing of health. Elder Moody blessed me and said that this wouldn't interfere with my work, and that I would be healed and continue to serve. It was literally a miracle. After the blessing I truly felt better I stopped throwing up, and I was able to go out for all of our proselyting hours. We taught 5 lessons in 3 hours. It was a little missionary miracle.

I bear witness of all of the spiritual gifts that we can receive. Its important to realize what gifts we posses and utilize our gifts to the best of our ability. Because every single person is different and posses different gifts but we all have them, and we are all witnesses of the miracles that they bring.

Love you all! See you next summer!

Hermana Huish

Week #22 This week was the Maximo!

 

Mission conference with Elder Oaks

 

                                                    My little friend from the grocery store

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Hey family and friends!

This week was the maximo! We had a conference with ELDER OAKS! It was amazing, the way that Elder Oaks speaks is so powerful and motivating. The entire Lima North Mission had the privilege to shake his hand. I loved every word he said. One of my favorite parts was when he talked about humor. He said without humor we would be nothing. Humor helps us get through the hard times and it makes us feel better. I love this because when something bad happens if we get rejected or if we get doors slammed in our face the best thing we can do is laugh and move on. Its not worth it to be mad, because the spirit can not be with someone who is angry. 

All of our investigators are doing well and our zone is packed with baptisms. Every single companionship is going to have a baptism this month, which is awesome! At the end of this month we are going to have a "Tarde Blanca". A Tarde Blanca is a giant baptism with everyone's investigators in the whole zone, and everyone wears all white! I'm really excited! Our investigator Jimmy is preparing for the 28th and so far he is ready to go. His testimony is growing so much, I can almost see the progress daily.

 

Sorry this is a short update but I was a little sick on Sunday and didn't have time to write much.

 

Love you all see you next summer!

Hermana Huish

Week 21, I love to see the temple

Hola Familia!

We had tons of great experiences this week! First, Hermana Cadenas and I were able to go to the temple! One of our recent converts is preparing for a mission so even thought the temple is not with in our mission boundaries, we received special permission to go with her. (For those non-mormons reading my blog, we make covenants in the temple, similar to covenants made at baptism.)  It’s a really exciting time! We went with a couple other sistesr to support and help her. The temple is such a sacred place and I love it. The whole week Hermana Cadenas and I were singing the primary song "I love to see the Temple." It is such a place of learning, comfort, enlightenment and peace, who wouldn't love that?  Also a side benefit of going is the distribution store next door. Our Mission doesn’t have a church book store or anything cool like that so the temple is the only place where we can buy "churchy" things! I bought  videos to share with our investigators and rings with the "CTR" (choose the right) logo on them and several other things to help with our teachings. But the day just kept getting better because we also stopped in Jockey Plaza. It was like entering America and hallelujah, there was a Starbucks so of course I ate there for lunch! Yummy! So over all the temple trip was a great experience. We are so lucky that the temple is somewhat close to us. I read an article in the Liahona magazine about a little old lady who traveled from Mexico all the way to Salt Lake City by BUS to go to the temple. She didn’t know any English except for the word apple so she ate apples the whole way there and back. Its kind of a funny story but I'm just thankful that I have a temple close by and that I can say more than apple in Spanish.

This week was also our zone leader, Elder Moody's birthday!  We threw him a little birthday party with cake, pizza and a  movie! The mission is all about service and the people we teach  but the missionaries can have fun too!!

We have two new awesome families that we are working with and they love us! Family O absolutely adore us and they invite us over nearly everyday. The Dad and Mom are not members yet because they need to be married first, but their sons J and M are baptized and their daughter Rosa was baptized this week.Yay! We are in the process of looking for their birth certificates so the dad and mom can be married. The other day when Hermana Cadenas and I had to leave Rosa the daughter would not let go of us! She just held us in a hug! And then when we finally got out the door she chased us down the street trying to get us to come back. She is a spicey and spunky little girl, you can't help but love her. I'm so proud of her decision to be baptized!

The baptism.

Sooo we planned everything the best we could but we always know that there are going to be problems. The baptism was at 7. We were at the church filling up the font at 5! Unfortunately we couldn't get the hot water going but we did manage to fill it with cold water. Rosa arrived in her beautiful little purple dress we had cookies, everything was ready to go! We ran back to our room to get the baptism clothes for President Erickson! Because President Erikson was preforming the baptism. When we picked up baptism clothes we found that they were too small for him and the suit didn’t have a zipper!!! Oh my goodness what the heck were we going to do? We couldn't give the president a jump suit that was too small and had a missing zipper! We started running around looking for other baptismal clothes but we had no luck! We took the jump suit to our penchinista who luckily makes jackets and had tons of zippers. But even when she tried to put a zipper on the zipper wouldn't stay closed. At this point it was already 7.30 and there was nothing we could do! We grabbed some safety pins and ran to the baptism! My companion even fell while we were running and busted up her knees pretty bad! But anyways we gave the jumpsuit to president and to say the least he was not happy. He came out with the jumpsuit on, and to be honest I couldn't help but laugh! He couldn't sit down because it was too small and if he did I'm pretty sure all the pins would have come undone! It was soooo bad, really it was awful, but at least it was funny at the same time. Besides the baptismal clothes everything was perfect! Rosa was baptized the young women came and brought a cake they had just made for their activity. We had great testimonies and everyone was happy! This baptism just reminded me that all the other things aren’t important, in all honesty the only thing that is important is that Rosa can become a member of the church and start her new life. This is the only thing that matters. I really do love this family.

Sunday

Sunday was another great day! I gave a talk in church about the importance of the Book of Mormon in helping people be truly converted to the gospel It went really well. I wrote the whole thing in Spanish by myself and it was actually pretty good! We had another baptism after church and this one went so beautifully. This family are recent converts to the church. R and M were baptized when I first entered the area. They are new, but they are such strong members of the church. This is the family that we helped to move their house a couple of months ago, literally we moved the house.… Im pretty sure I sent pictures!  This family is ROCK ON. M was able to baptize his son S. As soon as S came out of the water R, S's little brother, ran up to the baptismal font almost jumped over the wall and yelled [Hermano Como Esta![ It was pretty dang cute how much his brother looks up to him.  After the baptism S bore his testimony. I don’t have eloquent enough words to describe how beautiful this 8 year olds testimony was. He spoke for about a 10 minutes, quoted scriptures by heart, shared the story of Christ walking on water and how we need to have faith. He related the story of how he was first introduced into the church. It was beautiful and came right from his heart. Everyone in the room was beyond impressed, the bishop was crying, the primary president was crying and so was nearly everyone in the room. I love this story that he shared. He was walking in the streets with his mom when they came across the missionaries. S ran up to the missionaries with a question. His question was [Who created God?] and after that they started to teach his family and now they are all strong members of the church.

Over all everything has been going pretty great I'm really happy with the baptisms and with the work that we are doing.

Love you all!

Hermana Huish