Monday, January 27, 2014

¿Josè Smith estaba un gringo?

Aloha Utah!
This week, what a blur it feels like. To start off, one big thing that
I learned this week is that Latinos in the church have a ton of faith.
My companion expressed to me this week how difficult it is sometimes
for Latinos to believe in Joseph Smith because its this gringo in the
US. And I never thought about that. We had our investigator this week
who was ready to get married and baptized and he was questioning it
because he didn’t understand Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. And
it just made me realize how much faith the people have here. Perù is
ready to hear the gospel because they have the faith to believe. It’s
pretty awesome.
We had divisions this week because my companion had to visit the work
of other Hermanas in our mission, so I was with another Hermana in my
area while my companion was with the companion of the other in the
other area for a day. It went really well. There’s a lot more stress
when you are the senior companion.  Phew! But, I did it! And then
the next day we had a wedding and three baptisms! The wedding was
great, Ladislao just wanted to keep his shades on the whole time. It
was so funny, he sat through the whole thing with his shades and his
hat on and then took his shades and hat off for pictures. He seriously
is so funny. The coolest thing is that he was a contact and almost
never do people who are contacts get baptized. Normally it is
references, but he and his wife are the exception. They always say how
it was the perfect time and that we were meant to knock on their door.

 I’m really happy for them.
So, it is officially the rainy season until May. Rains pretty much
everyday and there was even a day in the last week where we wore our
boots to church.  Everyone loved my yellow rain boots.
But, yeah, everything is going really good, I can feel the time going
by faster and faster as I stay in the moment and enjoy what I get to
do here.  And as I connect with people here I realize that my area seriously has
the best people and the best ward. Our bishop is always willing to
help and the members like to make fun of us gringos in a loving way
always. I wouldn’t mind staying in my area my whole mission 
Share a smile with someone today. Cheesy, I know :)
Hermana Larsen
Oh the photos, one photo is of me.
The other is with the boy of one of our investigators in his motokar
with my companion.



Going to church in my boots!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Juany.....

Just a note to say that Cara told me in a separate email that she is really doing well. She is learning to trust and connect with the members like family and it is making a difference in her not feeling homesick. She has been in Iquitos for two months now and it seems that she is stepping into more confidence and peace with her experience. We are so grateful for your prayers and your love sent to her and those she is serving. I know my mom heart rejoiced today to hear how she is. I find myself ever grateful for angels seen and not seen.
 
This week has been interesting! It all started with our investigators not wanting to get baptized and married this week. They had a little trouble; they had a niece who is only 1 year old and she threw up blood the night before we visited them. They took her to the doctor and the doctor said that they couldn’t do anything for her and that she would probably die. That was hard, because the baby was crying in the house while we were talking with them and the nurse was trying to do all she could to calm her down. But a few days later the baby was perfectly healthy. It’s a miracle! J Now They are really excited to get married and baptized and the relief society in our ward is really excited to help decorate and make food for the wedding.
This week we were extremely busy. We did a lot of walking. It’s funny because our area is huge! If we don’t take a motokar, getting around takes a lot of time. It’s better not to because we don’t want to spend all of our money; but when we don’t it takes us 20 minutes just to walk to the street where our lesson is. So it kind of sucks when we feel like we have worked extremely hard but we don’t have that many lessons.
Wednesday morning we got a surprise visit from Hermana Gòmez! (Our mission mom) We were scared that we were in trouble, but no, apparently she just wanted to drop in for a visit. With the sister leaders here they do these visits called ammonitas where they drop in randomly and see if your house is clean how you are doing with teaching, with your companions and all that fun stuff. But normally we don’t get them because my companion is a sister leader. So Hermana Gòmez decided to do one with us, and it was really early, like seven in the morning. And she wanted to do a practice in teaching with me. I was kind of freaking out a little bit. But it went really good. She ended up telling my companion that I did really well and that I am definitely ready to train…ahhhh!
Saturday we went to eat lunch with a member and she gave us this soup, which I loved. It was kind of like ramen with a fried egg in it. Then the second part was Juany……….Jauny is this ball of rice with boiled eggs in the middle and chicken and these tuna things which are completely disgusting… it was a lot of rice. And the flavor was really strong. Well, I ate all I could and then I had to tell the sister that I couldn’t eat anymore. Then we went back to our house and I felt really sick….yeah I threw up everything I ate. Everything. And then I couldn’t keep anything down the rest of the night. Terrible. Now everyone of the members and my pensionista always say that I have a very sensitive stomach. I guess I do J But I am feeling a lot better.
Sunday, we went to church and normally every third Sunday is where a missionary gives a message in sacrament meeting about the mission. The night before we called and asked if we got to prepare a message and they said no. But when we got to church ‘Hermana Larsen, usted tiene la discus’ ‘¿què?’ So I got to prepare something fast. But it went really well J It’s amazing what the spirit does when the missionary is under pressure. 
But I'm doing really good, I'm loving Iquitos, more and more everyday, I love my area and I love the members here. :) Life is good :)

Hermana Larsen

Monday, January 13, 2014

Inferma Inferma...

Well this week, I was sick, again. This month is all rain, everyday.
So, in result of that I got a bad sinus infection. But I’m doing a ton
better.
This week we spent a ton of time working on papers for weddings,
waited in line for two hours. Then….
Our investigator that is getting ready to be baptized and married broke the
news to us that they wanted to get baptized and married on February
22. WHAT?! One of us might not be here! Because transfers are February
10.They want to because then their kids from Lima can be there, yeah
that is a good reason but, we all wanna be there!  We told him to pray about

 it and I guess we will go from there.
We have been finding a lot of cool new families that wanna hear about
the gospel.
This week I have been extremely grateful for the members who are so
willing to help out. All the members wanna help with the work and
visiting people. It is awesome. 
As I was sick this week my companion made me not work yesterday. I
was with a member in my room and my companion went with another member
to work. Wendy, the member I was with, and I just watched church
movies and talked yesterday.
I wish I had more to tell you guys this week. Things are good, God
really does watch over his missionaries. Especially when they are
sick, and his angels are always with them.


Hermana Larsen

Monday, January 6, 2014

Secada 2‏

Still in Secada with Hermana Salinas! :) I'm happy because now I get my full 12 weeks of training. Plus, I absolutely love my area :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I cannot believe it 2014. My how time flies! For new years eve, it was like Christmas. No one really wanted to hear about the gospel when they were either drunk or having dinner with their family, so we went back to our room and had panetòn with hot chocolate and had dinner with our pensionista's family. It was a nice way to start the new year :)
This week we have been busy organizing weddings and baptisms and finding new people, we were really excited to find out that we can marry people for free so that our investigators that don't have the money don't have to worry about it. :) So, that means we can have two weddings this month! With baptisms, yay! :)
It's amazing in lessons lately, I can understand basically everything that is being said. And it almost seems like it happened overnight. The only thing is I get to trust myself more with what to say :)
We taught a new family this week where the father doesn't have work. We first came to teach the daughter because she was a reference as a less active. She is twelve years old and the oldest child. Everyone in her family is a member except her mom and her 9 year old brother. She was baptized less than a year ago and is a less active because her father doesn't work and she has to stay home and watch over her brothers. We were talking with her and she was telling us things like they didn't eat yesterday and that her dad can't find work. But she had that tough face on, until we told her it was okay to cry. She is so sweet. We are going to find time to visit her at least once a week.
We have another investigator who we are hoping to get baptized and married this month. The first time we taught him, my companion was awesome and taught the restauration completely from the bible and he understood everything. He said he wanted to get baptized but his work is strange and never knows when he will have to leave town to work. So in his prayer he said I know I have to work but please make it so I can get baptized in this church. It was so sweet.
The perfect people are coming into our path to teach. We are really excited about this month. It's going to be a good year, I can feel it :)
Love you all :)
 
 
Hermana Larsen
 
 

Here are some pictures from a day in the rain.


This is FELIZ CUMPLIAÑOS! to my brother Steven!
 

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hey Hey hey!
Where to start, this week almost seems like it was years. It was so great to talk to my family, can you guys believe that Christmas is already over and it is almost a new year?! AH!
Well, this week seemed like a lot of p days. Monday we had internet in the morning and then we had to stay in the city because if we paid to go back to our area we would have just had to turn around and come back, so we stayed in the city and shopped and ate at this amazing restaurant, I got to have pasta! Without rice J The next day all the people were getting ready for the dinner that night, because I don’t know if I told you guys but here, Christmas is like happy new year. They stay up until late and eat dinner at like 11 at night then when it turns midnight…FELIZ NAVIDAD! Then they stay up all night dancing and having fun oh and a lot of fireworks. We thought we wouldn’t get any sleep that night, but once we got in bed, we were dead. Haha
Christmas morning our zone went to the chapel and made French toast and hash browns! It definitely wasn’t the same as home, but it was a nice shot. But after we all talked to our families we went to the bishops house and had lunch, it was awesome. They made all of our favorite foods, it was the best, we had potatoes, chicken, ham, oh and all the gringos were really happy because they had gravy! They never have gravy here, ever. J After that we went and sang with all the missionaries in that program, that was cool, there was a ton of people and we sang English songs and Spanish, so we were all happy J
The next day, Thursday we got a reference from the elders in our zone and apparently it was way deep into our area, a part that neither of us had gone before. Because our area is huge! So we started walking and the lovely Iquitos weather took over…It started pooring rain. So for 15 minutes we sat under a hut thing and just watched the rain then found a motokar, still haven’t found the house. Haha J
I was kind of bummed this week because the couple we were going to baptize and marry, we couldn’t this week it won’t be until January 11. Because they get to pay some money and it is difficult for them right now. But hopefully I’m here for January 11 J
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Love you much!
Hermana Larsen