Monday, August 25, 2014

el Morro

 
 
Hey Hey Hey!
What a week, we started out this week with a coconut and a knife.  Pday at night we had coconuts and I wanted the meat of the coconut, so I started to try and cut the coconut and I cut my thumb, kind of bad, but I wasn’t screaming or anything because it didn’t hurt but we live in a house of girls and they were freaking out. Haha, but everything is okay, I just had to get a band aid and I am taking pills so that it doesn’t get infected. But now there is always a joke in the zone about Hermana Larsen and a coconut. J
We had a really good week; we worked super hard and found the most awesome families. Well, I had another work visit but with my other sister leader this last week. And we went to go contact a reference and we found a guy that has been a member for 30 years and wasn’t attending church because he moved. And now we are teaching him and his wife. It was pretty awesome.
We also had a family night with a less active that lives in Chile but is living here until December and she wanted to have this family night, so we went and she invited a ton of her friends that are not members, and it was awesome, we played a game, ate popcorn, and drank chocolate milk. J
We also attended the wedding and baptism of a couple that the elders were baptizing in our ward and it was so cute, this couple is so awesome. They had their little party and everyone danced and had fun, they had a ton of food for everyone and almost all of the branch attended, it was great. J
I also got awesome news from my other companion in Iquitos and 3 of the families that we were working with are getting baptized and married!! J I am so happy and the attendance is up to 290 people in Secada, I am so happy to hear about it J
Well, I don’t have a ton of time this week but I am going to send a picture of where we are going today. I am super excited J
Have an amazing week, love you all J
Hermana Larsen

Oh, other story!! we were walking the other day and we hear 'elders! elders!' because a lot of the members thinks that we are elders too and don't know that we are sisters. But we looked and it was a guy that was in the circus. There is a circus in town right now and it is in our area. So we always pass it like everyday. But he was like 'soy miembro. me bauticé en Chiclayo con Elder Delgado de los Estados Unidos.' ( I am a member, I got baptized in Chiclayo with Elder Delgado from the United States.' I was super excited and he started to tell us that his friends were reading the Book of Mormon and that he wanted to know where the church was so that he could attend on Sunday, we told him and he was awesome.
I love moments like that. 
 
 


    Monday, August 18, 2014

    Actitud vs Aptitud‏

    HOLA!!
    What a week full of the clinic, trainings, and miracles. We had a good week we started out the week beginning with finding an awesome family. We approached this door our first week in Moyobama and made an appointment to visit them and not unlike many appointments, it fell through because either we couldn’t or they weren’t home until last Monday. We were walking and my companion was on her crutches and the dad came over and was like ‘what happened’(¿que paso?)  (this happens a lot when we are walking). We explained and then he started to say that his wife is a physical therapist and that she can help us so we were like, ‘yeah, why not’ (si, ¿porque no?) so we entered the house and started to talk with the whole family and then the dad started to talk about the book of Mormon and j
    Joseph Smith...that’s when our mouths dropped open. We asked him if missionaries had visited him before and he was said, ‘along time ago’ (muchos años atras) but basically he has read the Book of Mormon and knows a ton about the church. So we taught them an awesome lesson and they are progressing really well. And the mom started to explain about my companion’s foot and helped her a little bit.
    But that is where the good news comes in! My companion doesn’t have a cast anymore! She can walk without crutches. They took it off Saturday morning. She was so happy and she is doing great, we just can’t walk a ton. J But I have my companion back J
    We went to the clinic for that this week and we also went for my health and the lovely water here gave me parasites, again. Haha, I just laugh about it. But the doctor said that I cannot drink the juice that they give us in the lunches here... that I can only drink bottled water. But we were in the clinic Tuesday all of the afternoon because they had to do tests and all that stuff.
    We had a funny lesson yesterday with a couple that are less active. We were teaching about baptisms for the dead and I asked ‘don’t you think that your grandparents deserve the opportunity to be baptized’ and he was like ‘yeah, I can just dig them up myself and go to the temple and baptize them’ . Hahaha I was dying and he was dying too because he knew what baptisms for the dead are, but he likes to give me crap. J
    And we are started to experience fruits in our area lately, well that phrase probably sounds funny, we see fruits every day, like bananas and mango but I am meaning fruits of our labor. We had one of our investigators attend church the other day, the first one in months and he and his wife want to get baptized! But they feel like they need to be more prepared, like usual but we are having amazing lessons with them and we found them the other day reading their Book of Mormon J We are pretty excited.
    We also had training with the president this last week and we were invited to remember when we first came in the mission, our excitement when we basically didn’t know anything about this mission. And I realized that I have changed, but not in a bad way, I am still the same person and I still laugh at everything J but I realized the success in the mission all depends on our attitude and the way we look at things. If we get super frustrated and don’t see the good news in things than things are just going to go terrible but if we have a good attitude things are going to go good. I also learned we cannot give away what we don’t have. If I do not have love for myself, I can’t give love to others.
    Things are going good lately we are excited to work this next week. I hope everyone has an amazing week. And don’t forget to love yourself and find the good news in every situation J
    Hermana Larsen

    Tuesday, August 12, 2014

    jfaoienadslfjoi‏

    WOO, Pday!!
    It is one of those weeks that I am so happy it is pday. This last week was a long one, but fast at the same time. Well, my companion couldn´t work that well because she is on crutches with a cast on her foot. So she spent a lot of time in the member’s houses while I left with members and worked. It went well; we had a lot of cool experiences. We started out the week with service on Wednesday we went to a members house and cut grass with a machete for a wall of clay that she is making. It was fun, but then when we were returning to our house we were on a street that not one motokar was passing. It was like a deserted road. And my companion was on crutches, so if you can picture this, I was walking calling for a moto and we walked for about a half hour until we ended up calling a member that has a motokar. I love the members here. He came right away to take us to our house. It was a miracle J haha
    I just get to tell you guys too that our branch president, his family is probably the absolute best. They are so sweet. Their house is like our house. I feel at home when we go to eat there. I am so happy that his wife is our pensionista for dinner. They are pretty awesome and are assisting us a ton in this time that my companion can’t work that well. Last night we had a family night in their house and we ate hamburgers and the best juice ever. There is this fruit here that is so good, the name of it is really weird, but it is super sweet and when you get to the center you have to be super careful because it is super spiky and it can hurt. But this family night was fun J
    We have a less active that we are teaching that is super sweet and has two kids that are absolutely adorable. The little boy doesn’t talk that much at all, he is almost 4 years old and when I am teaching and talking it is so cute, he takes animal crackers and sticks them in my mouth. And I am always like ‘gracias’ and then I continue the lesson but that happens probably 20 times and if I don’t eat it he gets frustrated. J haha
    We are started to find some really cool people that we love and are super excited for. We are learning to trust ourselves a lot. We did a cool game last night in the family night where you have two lines and a person has to have a spoon in their mouth with water and they have to walk this line without letting the water fall and if the water falls you have to start over and then the people in the lines are telling you, you can’t do it and that the water is going to fall and everything. I love this game because it just always reminds me that no matter what, if we have a goal and we trust in ourselves and believe in ourselves, it doesn’t matter what happens or what people say. J
    Have a wonderful week. J
    Hermana Larsen
     

    Tuesday, August 5, 2014

    Free Fallin‏

    Whew!! What a week. Well, to start off, remember how my companion was having trouble with her foot. Well, we went to the clinic and she started to work again but her foot started to swell up again. And so we were stuck in our house again a lot this last week. And then the doctor decided to put a cast on her foot to help it, but never explained why he was doing it or what was going on with her foot. Sometimes I get really annoyed with the medical care here. But now she has a cast on her foot for the next 15 days. So I get to work with members the next two weeks while my companion relaxes. I just hope she gets better. J
    We had transfers last week, and one of the girls that lives with us, the companion of our sister leader got transferred to Pucallpa. We were super sad, she is awesome. But now we have 2 sister leaders. In the mission they changed it that now the sister leaders are companions. So now Hermana Hernandez lives with us, she is awesome she was in my ward with me for one transfer in Secada. J
    We have started to teach English classes in our branch on Thursdays. It is so much fun. People bring their friends that aren’t members. This last week, we taught in the class how to pray. And it was awesome, and I realize every week that English is super difficult to learn compared to Spanish. But I want to thank my mom for putting me in Thomas Edison, because it has helped me a ton to teach English in this class J
    We have a cute recent convert that is 10 years old that is awesome. But his dad is well, yeah. He hits the family. He is very abusive. And what is hard in Peru is that the police system is different. But we have been visiting him and helping him and he is probably the cutest kid ever. He doesn’t like to read the Book of Mormon a lot because he says that its boring. J
    Also this last week we were teaching an investigator and I was praying to start the lesson and I felt the spirit super strong and the all of a sudden I felt the room shake. The house was shaking and I heard the sister gasp and it was a mini earthquake. Don’t worry, everything is fine, nothing happened, it was super short and then I finished my prayer. My companion looked at me and was like, ‘you have a voice of a trumpet.’ Haha J