Brownies! :)

Cara tells about making brownies at the end of this post and mentions including a picture of the event, however no picture came through. She has said in the past that the internet connection is slow and pictures take a while to load, so it may be that she ran out of time.

Hola!!
This week was probably the most stressful week that I have had. We had
a ton of problems with investigators. But it started out with the
coolest experience. My companion was a little sick, so I went
prosylyting with a member for one visit. And we went to visit the
couple that I told you guys about last week. The wife was drinking and
the husband was waitng for our visit. We arrived and I noticed she was
drunk and she sat outside while we taught her husband. He started
crying because he wants to change really bad but he thinks he can`t,
because his wife doesn't want to change. We taught him about faith and
that he gets to have faith in himself and be there for his kids. We
told him that it is his choice, no one elses. And it starts with him.
In the end of the lesson, I asked him what he was going to do, and he
said 'I'm going to have faith in myself because I can change.' I was
like YEAH! :) It was so cool. :)

Later on in the week things started to kind of get stressful. My
companion had a meeting with the leaders of the mission so I was with
another companion for a day. We went to visit one of our
investigators that is getting baptized on the 15th. She ran out and hugged
me and was really excited. But then, her dad came out and he was
drinking and was really mad. He started yelling at me, and I simply
said yeah, okay, we will leave. I did not understand a lot of what he
was saying to me. Luckily there were a lot of members around the house
so they were able to explain. But basically he was annoyed with us
teaching his daughter but apparently there were other problems
happening personally. Later on my companion started to explain to me
the reason why I couldn't unhderstand what he was saying. And I
realized when it is of the light I understand a lot more but when it's
not I don't understand anything. It's pretty cool, I think :) but now,
the dad wants to listen and learn. But from now on we are only
teaching them with members with us for our safety :)

I sure do love Iquitos. Here is definitely where I am meant to be in
this moment :)

This week I've really realized how much God watches out for His
children. We have transfers today and I'm almost positive that I won't
be with my companion and I'm ready to take on my new adventure. :)
Thank you for your prayers and your light. I feel it everyday.

Have a great week, oh and Happy Valentines Day!

Hermana Larsen

This picture was our last weekly planning together and we made brownies!! :)

pero aveces es un pescado‏

Greetings from Iquitos,
This week has been great, where to start, that is always the hardest
part of all these letters…Well, we have a ten year old girl and a 16
year old girl that are getting baptized on February 15, Kimberlith is
the 10 year old and she is absolutely adorable, she has wanted to be
baptized now for like 3 months but her parents are not members. Her
parents have a lot of problems, they fight a lot, but this girl is
just a ball of light all the time and understands everything we teach.
The 16 year old is Isabel and she is a niece of a member and she is
cute, she’s wanted to be baptized for a while now too. People just
keep coming into our path that want to get baptized and want to hear
what we get to say, it’s pretty cool. We had another single mom that
was gonna get baptized on the 15 also, but her family is really
evangelic. And one day this week we went to go visit her and she said
she didn’t want to learn about it anymore and that she didn’t
understand the music and basically slammed the door in our face. At
first, I was a little sad, but after I got this feeling that it’s not
her time right now, and my companion and I felt that when we first
taught her. So, esta bien
We also have a family where the father is the best, he wants
everything to do with the gospel, but the wife wants to leave for work
in Lima and they are three daughters. They are kind of tough but we
taught them and shared some personal experiences and she is still in
town. So, we are going to see if they are ready to get married and
baptized.
We had a funny experience this week teaching Kimberlith, she lives
right next to the 1 counselor of our bishopric so her best friend is
the daughter of the first counselor her name is Chantelle. We were
teaching the Word of Wisdom and the word for fish in Spanish is
pescado, and the word for sin is pecado. Well my companion was
teaching and when she wanted to say ‘sometimes it’s a sin’ she said
‘sometimes it’s a fish’ so everytime we see Chantelle now she says
‘aveces es un pescado’ it’s pretty funny. I hope I explained that
alright, it’s hard to explain it in English 
We went on divisions again this week, but this week I was with a
companion that only had six weeks in the mission, it was a little
different, but it was good. It’s amazing how god takes care of you
when you need it the most. And puts the most perfect people in your
path to learn and grow.
Well, it’s still raining a ton here, I still eat a lot of rice with a
little bit of meat. There is this one food that I absolutely love it’s
called maduro frito. Which is basically platano when it is yellow
fried in oil. It’s probably my favorite thing here right now. Or there
are chicken restaurants everywhere here and last week our zone went
and ate at one and we got I don’t know how to call it but it’s cooked
chicken that is really yummy with fries.  yummm  can you tell I’m
hungry?
I hope you guys have an amazing week!  Be in the moment, moment to moment ;)
Hermana Larsen

¿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!

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

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

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!

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