Gripe Navidad, Feliz Año Nuevo!

Shout out to my older brother, HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVEN!!!!

Well, I have a lot to say because I haven't written a letter for more than two weeks! Haha where to start. Well we had a couple baptisms. They are amazing. It is a couple that my companion was teaching when I got here, they had some problems they almost separated like a week before they got baptized. But they got baptized and they have SUPER strong testimonies. The husband is all about the priesthood and going to the temple. And the wife, well the night before they got baptized she was super scared because her mom basically told her that she was going to hell if she got baptized in the church of the Mormons. We explained to her about baptism and shared scriptures but in the end I told her that she just needed to pray and take a risk :) And they got baptized! It was great. It was fun, they are a super special family.

In the spirit of Christmas this last few weeks we have been doing service on Wednesdays and singing in a choir with all the missionaries in Pucallpa in the boiling hot sun with our Santa hats. Haha it has been interesting, Christmas eve we all got sunburnt. All of the North Americans didn't feel like it was Christmas, I am still waiting for my snow :) 

Christmas was super fun, we taught and we got to talk to our families!! :) We woke up super early because our zone wanted to play soccer for our exercise in the morning. So, we woke up at 5 in the morning and we went and played soccer with the two zones in Pucallpa, I slept on the grass...haha then we went and made pancakes with the other sisters and I got to talk to someone from Moyobamba, a member that just moved from there to here for his work. I was so excited! So we went to go visit him and they are doing really good and he was actually talking to the branch president from Moyobamba when we went to go visit them and I got to talk to the family. I was so happy :) I also got a card from my old companion that is still there and she broke the news to me that an investigator that we were teaching that had cancer passed away, I was super sad but I know that we will see him again, I am writing cards to his family to cheer them up a little bit. After all that happened we went and played volleyball and ate with the other missionaries and we watched a movie, Ephraim´s Rescue. All the sisters cried. Haha, it was really good. Then I got to talk to my wonderful family. I am so glad that they are doing good. 

The rest of the week was good. Everyone is sick here with a horrible cold that gives you a terrible fever and all that fun stuff and of course I came down with it, but I am feeling better today. Yesterday I rested and now today I feel a lot better. 

Lots of rain these last few days :)
I hope everyone has a wonderful week, Love you all!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D







 

 

Fe

Well this week was fun, and SUPER busy. We started out the week with training with the president for Chirstmas, it was fun, we all had Santa hats, we played jeopardy and we learned about the  gifts of Christmas, it was super fun, I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

We had a couple miracles happen this week, we went to go visit a family on Monday that was going to get baptized this last week and we got to the house and the husband was leaving the house super fast in his motokar and the wife was crying super hard, we walked in the house and talked with her and they had been fighting and he said that he regretted getting married to her and things like that, we made her some dinner and shared with her some scriptures and then we left, the next day we called and the husband still hadnt returned home. We didnt lose our faith we still had faith that everything would work out. Then we called and he was there and we went to go visit them that night with a married couple in the ward and it went really well, this couple now are like a newly married couple that just returned from their honeymoon and they are so excited to get baptized, the husband is super excited about the priesthood and we are super excited for them. They are going to get baptized this week. Faith can move mountains. 

Our mission president gave us a challenge to apply a Christ attribute every week and the last week was faith and this week is hope, I love this challenge because everyday in personal study we have to study this attribute and then rate ourself at night how we did. I like it 

Also for Christmas all the missionaries in Pucallpa, we are doing a skit thing. Half of the missionaries are going to act out the birth of Christ and the rest of us are the angels and we are singing while they are acting, so we practiced that this last week. It was fun, I am excited to see how it turns out. 

Well, I dont have much time, But I hope that everyone has an amazing week and keeps up the Christmas spirit

Hermana Larsen

Pucallpa

Well, it happened! I got transferred, it was a huge shock because I seriously didn't feel like I was going to be transferred. I thought I would stay in Moyo for another 6 weeks and then go somewhere else to finish my mission but apparently God wants me in another place. I was super sad to leave, I said bye to everyone and we had a family night Monday night with my branch president's family. We all cried a lot. It was a little rough with my companion because we were getting along so well, we were like best friends and they changed me. She is the one companion that I have had for the shortest time. Then the next day I got to take a car for two hours to Tarapoto and I got to see my old companion Hermana Resanovich! And then we had to fly to Iquitos and I stayed in Iquitos for a day and I ran into some people that I knew from my first area! It was great, I was so happy. It reminded me how much I have grown as a missionary. Then, it was off to.........drum roll please....Pucallpa! Pucallpa is awesome, it is a lot like Iquitos but with a lot more dirt that flies in your face when you are in a Motokar. It's super hot! It has been kind of a shock going from cold to hot again. But it's pretty. Our area reminds me a lot of my first area in Iquitos. The people are super nice. I don't know a lot of the ward yet, but from the members that I have gotten to know, it is great. My companion is super cute and skinny! She only has twelve weeks in the mission. She just finished her training. She is from Equador. This week we started out the week working. We had meeting and we had stake conference. It was fun! There is one stake in Pucallpa. It was funny because all of the talks were about getting married and all that fun stuff, so all of the missionaries were feeling the heat for when we finish. Then last night we got to go to the Christmas devotional. That was fun, I am so excited for Christmas!!!! :) 

But all in all, I am just getting to know my area and the people and Pucallpa, Everything is good and really hot! :) 

 

Hermana Larsen

My new companion!

He crecido como misionera‏

Buenas Días!

Well, where to start. This last week we had some fun experiences. We went to the caves last pday.  We had to walk up a lot of hills and in the caves, it was pretty funny, we were all walking on the dirt hill thing that was really weird and we were all asking what this dirt stuff was and then we all noticed that it was big piles of bat poop. Haha but it was awesome. These were different caves than the ones that we went to when I first got here. They were awesome J

 

 

 

 

We have an awesome family that is preparing to get baptized. It is a single mom and her two daughters. We found them with Hermana Resanovich. She didn’t seem like she wanted much to do with the church so we stopped visiting her. Then Hermana Centeno came and we were walking and I was guiding her through the area, and to be honest I had no idea where to go and who to visit. Our appointments weren’t home and so I asked Hermana Centeno, I was pointing to two houses that were old investigators that we had not visited in a long time. I asked her, ‘which one?’ and she pointed to the house of this family. We taught them and it was super different. She listened and was all about going to church and everything. Then my companion went to go visit her when we were on the work visit the other week and the family was not okay. They were having a ton of problems. Apparently the mom had a boyfriend that was abusing her daughter in many different ways. He was super abusive with the family. We started to focus on them more and now the boyfriend is in prison and they are going to get baptized in December. They are amazing and the mom will just call us to talk and when she wants to see us. We seriously have a special part in our hearts for this family J Angels are guiding us J

We found some more people this week that we feel are going to progress really well. We love our area so much. Oh! I don’t  know if you guys remember a family that we are teaching that the husband is really sick with cancer. Well, we went to go visit them the other day and he is getting better, he is talking and he is wanting to eat and wanting to pray, it is awesome. We are seriously witnessing miracles in our area every day.

We also had an activity this last week with recent converts where we watched a video and we had a testimony meeting and we ate a ton of ice cream! It was so much fun! There was a ton of ice cream! Maybe that is why I liked it so much. Everyone in the branch makes fun of me because I love ice cream so much J

Also Friday we had a meeting to talk about our investigators and the branch and everything with the elders. After that is was sport night in the branch, so the elders and my companion and I played volleyball and basketball and soccer. It was super fun for the members and for us! We were playing in our skirts and everything, I love being a missionary J

We had a pretty hard experience this last week with a less active family of the elders. We were walking in our area and talking with our mission leader and suddenly the elders called and were super serious and said we had to go straight to the branch president’s house and tell him to call the elders. We ran to the house and the president called them. What had happened is the boyfriend of the sister was abusing the daughter, terribly; this girl is 14 years old. It was super hard on all of us as missionaries, so the next day the four of us went to her house to visit them; they live super far away, like 20 minutes in motokar.  But we went and visited them and the elders gave them a comfort blessing and my companion and I talked with the daughter and they are a lot better. It was great. The spirit was super strong and I am so grateful that we had this experience. God seriously guides us as missionaries and trusts us with these people.

I hope everyone has an amazing week! Today is transfers. Everyone pray that I am not going anywhere!

Hermana Larsen

 

I love these kids!