Cumpleaños Feliz

Hey!!

What a week!! It was my birthday and we saw a ton of miracles this last week. To start off the week we lost our phone and just as it is terrible to lose your phone in your house it is worse in the mission because there is no way to communicate with your leaders or the people you are teaching. What happened was that we went with the other sisters to site see last Monday and I think someone robbed the phone from my pocket because we got home and it wasn’t there. But we spent the whole week trying to find ways to communicate with people, we felt super distant from everything. Until Saturday, my birthday, they found us a phone that is the phone of the elders in another area and we are using that until our new phone comes in December. We had to pay 50 soles each, it was quite the experience.

 We had a work visit this last week. The sister leader was in my area with my companion and I went with the other sister leader in her area. I was with another North American and my companion was with a Latina. It was pretty funny, because we talked English pretty much the whole time. But we had some pretty cool experiences. We were teaching and there was these two ladies waiting for us outside of the house and she looked and at me and motioned that I should come outside. We went outside and she asked us if we do therapies. And we were like, no, we don’t do that type of stuff we are missionaries. And we explained and they were like, we have someone that we want you to visit. We made an appointment for them to show us the house a little bit later because we were in a visit at that moment. We came later that night and they showed us a family that the mom had had a stroke and she couldn’t move any of her body, only her arm and her hand. She can’t talk or anything. We went and taught her and her family was super sad and was crying, she has been like this for two months. But the elders came and gave her a health blessing and they are doing better. But the spirit was so strong and it was such a cool experience.

We also had a mission night where we watched a video and played games. It was super fun, we played a ton of Peruvian games and watched a really cool video about a family that got baptized together. Not many people showed up to the activity but we enjoyed it with the branch president’s family and some other members that came.

The next day was my birthday and we had a ton of fun, my branch president and his family and the elders in our branch surprised me and we went on a little adventure. We ate fried chicken and rice on leaves with bark spoons. And they surprised me with 7 eggs on my head and flour. It is a tradition in Peru that when it is your birthday that they celebrate with eggs on your head. So I got 7! And it was terrible they also poured a ton of water on me too. It was like a cake on top of my head. It was super fun though. I think my hair still smells like flour and eggs. J Then at night another member surprised me with a family night with cake and popcorn and all kinds of treats, it was super fun, everyone said something and I wanted to cry because I love this branch so much, they are like my family here. I have made such good relationships with these people here.

Then on Sunday it just got better. Well, our investigator that was going to get baptized this week didn’t attend church so she will not be getting baptized this week but she will be getting baptized the next week and she is still super excited. But we had a family that is super cute and sweet that attended church and that is having a lot of problems and they loved church! The daughter loved young womens and the other daughter loved the primary. It was seriously a miracle to see them in church.

I don’t know if you guys remember a less active family that we are teaching that the husband drinks and used to hit his wife. Well we called them the last week to remind them about church and the husband was drunk and said some weird stuff and then we didn’t talk with them or visit them a lot during the week. We tried to find them but it never worked out. And then the husband found me when we were in our work visit in the other area. He was super embarrassed and felt super bad and was saying sorry and everything., which never happens with him. We went to visit them last night and they are progressing so well, they have changed so much; I was noticing that they have changed so much comparing to when we found them. It made me want to cry. I love this family. They have so much more unity in their house right now. I love Moyobamba J

Well there is not much to say. I love you all J Enjoy every moment because we only have this moment

Hermana Larsen

La Lluvia!‏

Well, this last week we had a huge rain storm! I mean, huge!! We were going to have a mission night, an activity friday and it started to rain, SUPER hard. So NO ONE came to the activity. And all of the missionaries got soaked in the rain. It was pretty funny, because no one showed up, at all.

This last week we had some pretty cool experiences, we have this family of investigators that we found as a contact one day and we taught them for a couple weeks and then out of no where we went to go visit them and the dad went to the hospital as an emergency. The found out that he has liver cancer and doesn't have that long to live. The elders came to the house and gave him a health blessing and he was a little bit better but he is really close to dying and we are serving his family, on Saturday we helped them make their lunch and they wanted us to stay and eat with them but we were late getting home so we had to say no. But they are probably the sweetest family ever. I feel very blessed that we found them, the angels were seriously guiding us to them. 

We have another investigator that is going to get baptized on the 29th. We are super excited for her. We always called her (bread of god) I love her, she is 20 years old and is reading the book of mormon, praying, going to church, and studying. :)

Well, I don't have much else to tell you guys, Moyobamba is the same old same old, my companion is amazing, this week is my birthday!!! :) 

Hermana Larsen

 

Another thing that happened this last week was that there was so much rain that the roads got flooded and we ended up not having water for 3 days, we had to gather together water in buckets and use that for showers and everything, it was quite interesting :) 

 

 

 

 

Cuando yo me bautice‏

Woo!! Hello to all, What a week it has been, we started out the week with a pday of just the sisters. It was super fun, we went to Rioja, a city that is like 30 minutes in car from Moyobamba and we went to this tourist place that has a river that is super pretty. We ate there and went on a hike and got to put our feet in the water, it was great J I will be sending a lot of pictures. I love the jungle!

Also this last week my sweet companion celebrated one year in the mission! WOO!! We ordered special food to eat and we had a little picnic in our house, we also had cake and I also smashed eggs in her head for the celebration of her one year. J Haha, it was fun, she also taught me how to dance the salsa, now I can dance it when I get home! It was super fun, it reminded me how much time is flying!

We also had a baptism this last week!!! Wooo!!!! J It was such a great night, We were having a baptism and also the elders were baptizing a family so we had a ton of people there. We also sung a special number of music, we sang ‘When I am baptized’ in English and Spanish, the Elder Nerdin and I sang in English and Elder Trujillo and Hermana Centeno in Spanish. It was great, we didn’t practice or anything and it went really well, people liked it. But I messed up when we were singing because I knew it a little bit better in Spanish, sad I know, but we laughed a little bit as we were singing. But Milagros got baptized and it was wonderful, she said she was super happy and felt free. It was seriously amazing. Because we have been working so hard here to have baptisms and we haven’t had any for 5 months and this last Saturday was worth all the wait J I love being in the mission. J J

Oh and Sunday there was a primary program! It was so cute. The primary in our branch is super small but they are so cute. Oh, I just love this area and branch, I never want to leave Peru, I love it here too much. All of my family and friends should just come here and we can live here together. J

Well, There is not much else to talk about, things are going well, my health is getting better, my companion is awesome, the church is still true, I hope it is not snowing for you guys in Utah. Here it is raining like crazy! Every night lately it has rained all night and today we are writing and I am completely soaked from the rain J I love the rain.

 

Hormigas! (Ants)

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween :)

Buenos Días!

Well, this last week was SUPER busy, we started out the week finding some new investigators. It was really cool because they gave us a ton of references and then we found out that their references were their family. They are super awesome and nice and super smart as well.

We also had an awesome activity this last week for Halloween with all of the missionaries. It was great. We had three rooms with activities, we had bobbing for apples, cake in the face and where you had to try and feed another person blindfolded. It was super fun. We were in charge of the cake in the face. What we did is we had a bunch of eggs and we mixed them together so that it was a foam thing and we put them on plates and our branch president had to ask a question and if the person got it right them they got to throw it in the other person’s face. It was great. But with the elders in our branch, we decided to do it with them. I did it with Elder Trujillo and he is super good at math, and the question was a math question and I knew that he was going to get it right, so as soon as he answered the question I threw the cake in his face and then we started to fight with the egg with the missionaries and the members. It was so much fun. We also gave a cool message that we are all children of God and it isn’t important what kind of mask we wear or use because we are all brothers and sisters. It was definitely a success. I love our branch, so much J

This week we are going to have a baptism!!! Woooo!!! The first baptism in the area for 6 months. Her name is Milagros. She is amazing. She is a single mother and her daughter is a member. She has such a strong testimony and is going to be a super strong member in the church, she was going to get baptized a while ago but we found out that she had a boyfriend that was in Lima and we didn’t know if  he was going to return and they would want to get married and baptized together. But then she talked with him and now he is not going to return and she is super excited for Saturday. We are super excited. :)

This last week we also moved houses!! Surprise!! We now do not live in a barbie dream house. We now live separated. We don’t live with our sister leaders. We live right next door to a member, it is great, we love our new house, it’s super quiet and in our area, when we lived with the other sisters we didn’t live in our area so now it is easier because we live in our area and we aren’t paying as much money for transportation.

Yesterday was super fun we went to the branch president’s house and we ate ants for dinner. The pictures of those ants that we ate the other week. Yeah, we ate them for dinner last night. And they are super good. I know it sounds so weird but I LOVE THEM J I will bring some home, don’t worry J

Well, not much time left. I love you all and hope you have an amazing week J

Hermana Larsen

 

She won the best costume contest.