Chambon

There is this word that everyone says here that all the North Americans learn really fast. The word is Chambon. It means like a person that is a  rulebreaker, that always plays jokes, is a tease. My companion and I use that word a lot and people always laugh at us :) I've incorporated it in English too, so that I can use it when I get home :)

This last week kind of was hard. We didn't have a lot of success in finding people. A lot of people weren't home and we ended up walking a lot to visits and finding that people weren't home to teach. But when we did have lessons, the spirit was super strong and we found that the spirit was talking and we were just the instruments.
We have learned a lot this last week about the mission life. I have learned that numbers are not everything in the mission, that we get to focus on these people because they are children of God and they deserve our full attention and us being outward focused. When we do that, miracles can happen. I love the story in Ether when the brothers of Jared are asking for help and asking God to touch the stones and light them up so that they can have light to make it through the river and they keep saying 'I know that you can do this God' and so God puts out his finger and touchs every stones one for one. And Jared sees Gods finger and sees that it is exactly like ours. I love that story because we know that God is just like us and we can create miracles with the assistance of God. We can create miracles everyday :)
My companion got pretty sick Saturday night and we couldn't go out in the morning to go pick people up for church but when we got to church we found that we had four people come to church by themselves :) it was awesome :) I love our ward and the people we have come in contact here. :)
Transfers are today and it is more than likely that I am going to get transferred and I'm pretty sad because I have made so many connections in this area. But I know that God is with me and there is a time and place and a reason for everything that happens :)

Have an amazing week. Create a miracle :)
Hermana Larsen

Perrita‏

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!!! 

Well, we started this week off with a bang, for last pday we made homemade popcorn and decided to watch a movie, we got permission to watch 17 miracles. And if any of you have not seen that movie, WATCH IT! It is so worth it. It was pretty fun.

We have a little friend that has been hanging around our chapel lately. It is a dog. Now the chapels here have bars all around them for the safetly that people aren't going to do graffiti. The dog fits its way through the bars and just hangs out by the door until people come and then he trys to get in the chapel. We had to clean up some of his accidents when we were cleaning for our baptisms. Haha, but I think the dog has a little fondness for the missionaries, because he always follows the missionaries. But he is officially the church dog.

We had two baptisms this last Saturday and they went so well. Norma, was perfect she was super happy and was content with her decision :) Clara, the one that is 17 years old, the poor thing was super sick. She has gastritis, that is a really common disease here because of all the fried foods that they eat. But she was throwing up and she just didn't feel well at all. But she came and got baptized and she said she started to feel better but then when we went past her house in the morning she was still super sick and was throwing up. So she didn't get to church for her confirmation. So later on in the day we went to her house with the elders so that the elders could give her a blessing. We are hoping that she is feeling better. 

This last week was really good, we got a lot of good work done and are seeing a lot of cool things happen in our area and with our ward. Our convert Johnny is going to be our ward mission leader. And we are so happy for him. He is awesome. We had a really cool lesson with him and his wife the other day because he is thinking of going to Lima for work, for years. And we were explaining to him that there are many possibilities where he could be with his family and still be able to pay his bills. Because he has 2 kids under the age of 6, they need their dad. But all in all, he is going to pray about it :)

Woooo :) Time for another week. Bring it on :) 

Hermana Larsen

Caminando

We walked a ton this week! We walked all over our area 4 times probably. We didn't really have money that we could spend to take motokars, so we walked a lot. We were pretty sore during the week because we need to walk pretty fast so that we can get to our appointments on time.

This week we taught a lady that is going to get baptized the 21st. She told us about her son whom  she gives him money to for the bus when he leaves for school. He secretly saves it so that when they don't have money for food he can give it to his mom so they can eat that day. These kids here are seriously amazing.
We are teaching a 17 year old girl with less active parents. She is getting baptized this Saturday. She is so sweet and cute. Her name is Clara. She is so excited. She has been a miracle for her family, literally. She was the one that kept asking her parents if they could go to church because she wanted to see what it was like. And that's when we came in the picture because they live right in front of one of our recent converts, the family that we married. Clara would always say to them that she wanted to go to church and then our recent convert told us and now we are assisting her family in returning back to church and assisting their kids in getting baptized. They are amazing. The kids are so well behaved. They just sit there and listen and are super interested ALL the time. Thanks to mom I could give them little stickers that say I am a child of God in Spanish:)
We are also going to have another baptism this Saturday for a woman named Norma. She has been taught by missionaries for YEARS but never wanted to get baptized because she wanted to be sure. And she always says that baptism is not a game and that she has to feel the desire in her heart. So, one day we went to her house to teach her and she suddenly went out and said 'I feel it and I want to get baptized either this Sunday or the next' We couldn't believe it.
We went Saturday to teach this a man whose wife isn't a member and neither are his kids. We got teach them for the first time and they are so sweet. He started to tell us how he wanted to serve a mission but he ended up not going.  We started to talk and he started to tell us that he used to be a nurse and that he was very successful in his profession and then all of his family got super sick and they spent all their money because he couldn't work. Then one night he was looking out his door outside late at like 8 at night and he saw us walking outside. He thought to himself  'it's pretty late'. And then he suddenly got a huge feeling in his heart. He said he went to go pray and at that point he decided things were going to change and the next day he found work. :) What is cool about this story is that we are never thinking about those things when we are walking. We are just thinking about the next visit we need to make and what we are going to teach. But it's amazing the impression that we make on people and what a simple smile can do.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

Hope you guys have an amazing week!
Hermana Larsen

This is a picture of mamay, the delicious fruit I talked about picking last week.

Villa Selva‏

Hola!!

We started out this week good. We went and visited this less active member's house where the dad isn’t a member. The son is 17 years old and wanted to serve a mission but the dad doesn’t really understand why he wants to and just put him in school instead and now he thinks he can’t go because he needs to study. It was one of those lessons that just reminded me of how blessed I am and how much I love my mission and how I am so so grateful that I chose to come out here. Even though sometimes it’s tough and we get sick and are tired. The impact that we are making and the results we see are so worth it.

We explored a whole new part of our area this last week, it’s called Villa Selva. And we have never ever taught in this part of our area before because our area is so huge that if we don’t have references in a certain part we don’t really go there. But we found this list of less actives and a lot of them live in Villa Selva, so we took Friday and Saturday morning and decided to go explore our area. It was awesome. We found a truck load of less active members. And every lesson just seemed to be the perfect timing and what those people needed in that moment. And then the next morning we were walking, looking for one of the less actives and we saw a part of the river (yes the Amazon River) and there were these houses that were built on it and there was this little walk way you could walk on and we felt that we should walk that way. And we found the coolest couple, they were so so sweet J She told us that they have to change the house every 6 months because the Amazon River rises into their house so they go live in a different part of Iquitos until the river goes down and isn’t in their house. They thought it was so cute when I talked; they were like `so cute to see a gringa speaking Spanish’ Haha J That happens a lot.

My companion and I talked in Sacrament meeting again; they love to tell us about 5 minutes before the meeting starts that we have a talk. But this was probably my 5^th time and probably the best, I just felt the words coming to me the fastest and the spirit a lot more. J

Today my companion and I decided to wake up and climb a tree. We absolutely love this fruit named mamay. It is red and on the inside it is bright white. And it smells like roses and is super sweet and juicy. And there are trees everywhere so this morning we climbed the tree and got a ton of the fruit for the week. It was awesome J

Well, Nothing much else to report. Still living the dream J Hope you all have an amazing week! J

Buenas!

This week was crazy, all week we spent getting ready for this wedding and baptism we had Saturday. We did go visit our recent converts the other day, the lady that has downs and her mom. We walked to their house and we heard music coming from their house and I said to my companion 'Rocita is probably dancing' and sure enough we found her dancing. And she saw me and she was like 'mi amor' (my love) she said 'come here' and we danced together, it was pretty cute. :) She is absolutely adorable.   

We had to finish the papers for the wedding that we had during the week and we had to go talk to this guy that is kind of a jerk and all the missionaries know it. So we had our appointment with him and we were talking and i didn't hear what he said and he basically said to me 'sister, you don't understand what I am saying, so I am going to talk to your companion.' I got a little mad and said 'I do understand, now please explain again.' But that is a little example of what happens a lot here. Ha :)                   

Then the day of the wedding and the baptism came, we spent all morning Saturday cleaning the chapel and then in the afternoon we spent blowing up balloons. But it was totally worth it because it was perfect. It was beautiful. It was funny because we were super clear with the couple and said to them 'you need to make sure to be at the chapel at exactly six thirty because we need to start the wedding at seven. And then they were there at seven and then the witnesses for the wedding weren't there on time so we didn't start the wedding until eight and his baptism was after. So RIGHT after they got married we went straight to the baptismal font and he got baptized it was pretty funny. But they were so happy. He told our district leader in his final interview that we were angels for his family and that we changed his life. We are so excited for them. They are seriously the most perfect family. We are so blessed to have known them :)  

We got stuck in another rain storm this last week, I know, nothing really new with that statement, but we love it when it rains because then it is not near as hot :) 

I also held another monkey this last week, it was a little baby :)

Have a wonderful week, and may all your wildest dreams come true ;) 

Hermana Larsen          

 

   

Whoa!

Whoa! Well, we started out this week with preparing for this activity that we were doing for the couple that is getting married this week, we had to gather up all the money and buy everything. Then we found out that we couldn't be at the activity because we found out that we had training so we weren't there. But we made all the money except 11 soles. So we were p`retty excited and it's gonna be this week, they are going to get married saturday and afterewards he is going to get baptized. 

Things are good, it was great to talk to you guys yesterday, everyone looks so great. There hasn't been a lot of rian this last week. It's actually gotten pretty hot. 

Just wanna give a shot out to the moms. Because this last week, I have has a huge feeling of gratitude for my mom. She has taught me so much that I am using in my life right now and I am so thankful. Thank you mom for all you have done for me :) 

I don't really have much to say this week. Love you guys, have a great week! 

Hermana Larsen

El aro‏

What a week! I don't have a ton of time so this may be a short one. But things are going good, we had a baptism this last week, she is a single mom and she has three kids. Her job isn't very good and there are many times when they go without eating. But the whole time that we have been teaching her it has been pretty funny because she has this fear of the movie 'the ring' and here the baptism clothes are a little different. They look like these little square white dresses. So she was scared to wear it because it reminded her of that. But we got her to her baptism and she was in her regular clothes and I told her it was time to change into her baptism clothes and she said 'no, I wanted to get baptized in my casual clothes' but then we finally convinved her to get changed and she would NOT look at herself in the mirror at all. Then, I said we were going to go back into the room and listen to the messages and she started to have an anxiety attack, she was scared to death. So a member who is a returned missionary came and said that he would help her, so he took her into a room with her kids and started to teach her for like 30 minutes and she came out, and she kept her eyes closed the whole time. Even when she got baptized. It was funny because before she got baptized she was really persistent on having the bishop baptize her so we made sure that the bishop would be there but then she had her eyes closed the whole time and she asked us afterwards if the bishop baptized her. Haha it was quite the experience :) 

This last week was really good, we have a lot of people who are progressing, I just love everyone here so much, I love the ward, I love our investigators, everyone is awesome. Today we have transfers and we are crossing our fingers hard that we don't get transferred. I don't have a lot of tme, but I love you all!