Week 49: No P-Day Monday (Mar. 23, 2015)

Hola mi gente... no pday today. just 5 minutes to let you all know. I will email on Friday :) Love you all bye!!

Week 48: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Visits (Mar. 16, 2015)

This week has been crazy!! So on Tuesday I got my daughter. Her name is Hermana J. and she is just wonderful. She is from Lindon, Utah and we figured out that we live within like 5 minutes of each other!!! Crazy crazy!!!! She is so pumped to be in the field and just rocking it.

Also on Tuesday we had a lesson with a lady named Rafaela. The Hermanas before were working with her and didn´t see much progress, but a few weeks ago she finally came to church!! She is a big lady with a very big personality and when I first met her, she was really ticked off my something. I honestly was so scared of her haha!! But now that I know her better, she is such a sweet person. She calls me and Hna J. her porcelain dolls ;) In this particular lesson we talked about the Doctrine of Christ which includes faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. When we were talking about baptism, we decided to extend her a baptismal invitation. My cute hija extended it, only having just a few hours in the field, and Rafaela accepted!! :) She has come to church 3 times now and is more and more prepared each day!! She greets everyone at church like they are old friends and I just can´t wait for her to be baptized.

On Thursday we has the wonderful experience of having Elder Jeffrey R. Holland visit our mission. One of the Elders put together a small choir to sing for him and I had privilege of singing in it. We sang Grande eres Tu (How great Thou art). It is a stunning arrangement. Afterwards Elder Holland said that it was the best missionary choir he had ever hear (now I know he might have just been saying it, but I like to think he is a good follower of Christ who doesn´t break the 9th commandment). He invited us all to sing it at his funeral ;) We also got the sake his hand which was crazy cool!! He is the most piercing blue eyes and just like I imagined it would be, I felt like he was looking into my soul. Instead of talking from the pulpit, he walked around the chapel as he talked. At one point he actually grabbed an Elders neck and face and I though he was going to choke him haha!! But it was an awesome experience that I will never forget :)

Low point of the week: I´m sick again. This dang gripe (cold) has got me beat. It seems like each time I get it, it´s a little worse. I actually started to lose my voice. My poor comp is scared it will go completely and she will have to give every lesson. It´s made this week a little more stressful, but thus goes the mission. I´ll live.

Surprisingly it was a really long week. I´m excited to see what new adventures come though :) Love you all

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 47: "I'm going to be a MOM!!!" (Mar 9, 2015)

This week was probably the most crazy week of the mission. It started on Tuesday when Hna N. came out proselyting with us. It was way fun and I learned a lot. And it wasn´t so bad to get to drive to all of our citas ;) Something that is a big bummer is that basically all of our progressing investigators had one problem or another. I guess it is just the Lord saying that we need to work harder.

The whole week I was really anxious 1) because of things going on in the house, and 2) because of things I have been struggling with for a good chunk of my mission. I got talking with one of the Hnas in my house while making brownies one night and it turned into a deep conversation. She ended up helping me find an answer to that thing that I have been struggling with. One thing she helped me see was how much I have changed as a person and how this change is good. I really do feel like a different person. My voice even sounds different to me... Odd. Part of that answer though, came through the words of my dad. My mom sent me a quote last week of something my dad said the Thanksgiving after getting sick. He said, ¨My faith in Jesus Christ and God gives me the strength and courage to face any challenge and accept any outcome...¨ Those words really got to me. My dad was and is such a wonderful example to me.

So big news... I´m going to train!!!! I´m so flippen scared, but excited at the same time!! I just hope to give my daughter the best experience and start her off right. It feels like I was just in training... Now I have 11 months... I honestly can´t believe it.

Sorry this is so short again.. I just don´t really have the words to describe this week. Crazy crazy.

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 46: "I ate a chicken foot" (Mar. 2, 2015)

Not much time today sorry this will be short.

So this week was a little rough.  I got sick again with a little one day flu bug.  One day in the house.  No fun.

One of our investigators Jose is doing awesome.  When the hermanas were teaching him before he didn`t really take them serious.  But then we started with him again and he has been really receptive.  It was awesome to clear up his doubts and questions.  We gave him a BoM to read and he has only read the intro and the testimonies and he already thinks its true.  He has come to church 3 times now and we don`t even have to remind him.  He is awesome.  I have no doubt he will be baptized soon :)

Interesting thing this week:  I ate a chicken foot.  It´s a normal food here.  It was kind of weird.  Just tasted like chicken (duh) but it was really hard and has a really scaly texture. I don`t know how much I really liked it haha!! But at least I tried it ;P

Love you all sorry it´s short

Love Hermana Perry

Week 45: Electricity is overrated anyway :) (Feb. 23, 2015)

Hola mi gente!!

This week was really good.  We didn´t get as good of numbers as last week, but something President said the other day really sums this week up: No todo que cuenta podemos contar y a veces lo que contamos realmente no cuenta. Translation: Not everything that matters can be counted and sometimes not everything we count really matters.

So the other day we found a new less active Miguelina.  She, her parents, and her brother were all baptized like 25 years ago. A few years after being baptized they moved and the chapel that we now go to hadnt been built, so they went less active.  We are now teaching her, her dad, and two of her children (not members).  The other day we talked about the Restoration and asked them to pray about it.   During the week between visits, President assigned us to study chapter 11 of Preach My Gospel in preparation for the Zone Conference that talks about Commitments.  So I studied it.  When we went back to Miguelina and her family to teach them about the BoM a few days later and I remembered what I had studied about commitments and the last point the chapter talks about stood out in my mind: Follow up.  So I decided to ask them if they had prayed and if they felt they got an answer, thinking I´d get a ¨se fue la guagua¨ or ¨Si puedo no senti nada hasta ahora¨ Which basically means nope.  But their response was completely different.  Miguelina started by saying that their house felt different.  She said it is calmer and kinder.  She also told us that the Jehovah´s Witness missionaries had been coming as well, but that she felt something different with us.  Ahh I was blown away!!! The her father commented that he too could see a difference in the family.  Then her 22 year old son Isaac began to talk.  He started out by saying, "Look, I don´t have patience," and I thought he was going to say he hadn't received an answer but he said, "I have had so much patience this week.  It does feel different in this house." We asked them what them feeling this way could mean and they were all agreed that it was an answer to their prayers.  It was absolutely amazing!! I´m so excited to teach them :)  Tonight we are going to set baptism fechas with Isaac and Ashly (her two kids).  They have been prepared so much to receive the gospel.

On Saturday we had a Cosecha (a ward activity to find less actives).  My comp and I went with the bishop and one of his councilors.  We went to find this one lady, Katerine, who they have been looking for for a while.  When we went to her house, she was there!  So we started talking with her and she told us how she was offended when she was 14 by someone in church and hadn't returned for about 10 years.  We talked and got to know her more and just as we were getting ready to say the last prayer, she said, ¨Last night I was crying and asking God to help me find the right church to go to (she has been visiting the Evangelico church or something) and now you guys show up at my door.  I didn't call you.  I know you were sent from God.¨ Wow it was crazy to hear her say that.  The bishop was almost skipping as we left her house, although she was like the only person we found that day.  We answered her prayer without even intending to.  God didn't say ¨Hey so she has been praying to find my church, go rescue her.¨ We just happened to have the Cosecha that day and her name was on our list.  That experience really strengthened my testimony on the power of prayer and acting on simple promptings.  This gospel is awesome :)

Yesterday was a great day as well.  We had Elder Zivic of the Seventy visit our ward with his wife.  They spoke and I think everyone really enjoyed it.  We had 6 investigators come to church which is the most I've ever had on one Sunday!  Something that really caught my attention that Hna Zivic said was ¨if the Savior came to visit for a few days, what would you have to change?¨ It was close to the last sentence she said in her talk.  Then Elder Zivic spoke and almost the last sentence he said, quoting President Kimball, was, ¨It didn't matter to me if I died because I know my life is in order.¨ Both my comp and I were kind of floored by those words.  It really got us thinking.  So I will ask you consider their profound words as well.

So on Wednesday night, the guys from the power company shut off our power.  They needed the light contract, but since the office has it and not us, they cut the power...  So we were without electricity for about 5 days.. Not fun.  All of the food in the fridge went bad, we couldn´t wash, we couldn´t use the fans, nothing.  Talk about annoying!!  Our landlord must have felt bad for us today because he FINALLY hooked us up to his power.   Hopefully the problem will be fixed soon.

I really love being a missionary. :)  Even if we have to rough it sin luz (without light) for a few days.  I saw some beautiful miracles this week and I can´t wait so see more in this area. :)

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 44: "Don't leave their house without leaving a commitment" (Feb. 16, 2015)

Hola todos,

This week was kind of slow :P We had a lot of lessons and made some progress with some of our investigators, but I still feel like something was missing.

On Friday we had a Zone meeting. We talked about how we have to leave commitments every time before leaving the house and we talked about why it is important to do so. They prepare us to make covenants with God and lead to many promised blessings. Really if we don´t commit our investigators to do something between visits, it´s like asking them to not repent. Commitments mean progress. Progress means repentance. Repentance means a change of heart. And a change of heart is what the Lord wants from us.  They said something that I really like.  "Don't leave their house without leaving a commitment.  Don´t leave your house without remembering that you have made of covenant with God."

Something they also talked a lot about was the mission schedule.  It was like a slap in the face because our whole house has struggled to get to bed on time, either because we have a lot to do, or because we get talking among ourselves.  They reminded us that the mission schedule has been inspired.  We can show our willingness to obey and be a true disciple of Christ by living the mission schedule.

Sorry this is super short :P  Not much to report this week.  Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 43: "Who knew you could catch a cold on a tropical island!?" (Feb. 9, 2015)

Hola todos!!

This week had some greats and some not so greats.  One of the not so greats was that I was really sick like the whole week. Starting Tuesday I got gripe (a cold) really bad and spent two days in the house with no energy, headaches, sore throat, and overall just feeling lousy.:P  But I survived the worst and yesterday started feeling better thank goodness.  Who knew you could catch a cold on a tropical island!?  Me being sick really threw off the whole week for us which is a bummer.  I am determined to really learn the area this week and make it the best.

So this Saturday we went back to see the guy who really just wanted to fight with us.  He has different beliefs about the Holy Ghost so we studied up good in the Bible about it before the cita (appointment).  In my personal study time I looked for a scripture from the Bible that would really knock his socks off.  After spending the whole hour on that, I didn't find what I was hoping for, but I learned something possible even more valuable:  The Bible is not complete.  It is missing sacred doctrine and principles that are so vital in the church.  My testimony of the Book of Mormon, D&C, and Pearl of Great Price was really strengthened.  But unfortunately, the guy Julio, didn't want to hear anything that wasn't in the Bible.  He wouldn't even let us sing a hymn because we weren't reading directly from the Bible.  So we began to teach out of the Bible the point we wanted to make and in his attempt to battle us, my companion used his own words against him and asked him to support his belief with a verse in the Bible.  We sat there for a solid 5 minutes in silence as he looked for his scripture before we decided to throw some more at him.  He continued to search for the duration of the lesson but never found anything to support what he was saying.  What was really cool though is at one point we asked him if he had ever felt the spirit and he said he didn't know.  We read him the scripture in Galatians that talks about the fruits of the spirit and the whole room filled with the spirit as he understanding grew.  I thought for sure we had him to the point where we could whip out the Book of Mormon to slap some more doctrine on him, but something that we said didn't fit his beliefs.  It so quickly sucked the spirit from the room and he began to contend again.  He is going to be a tough cookie to crack, but I´m not going to give up on him.  Something deep inside of him is screaming for the truth.  He just doesn't know it yet.

So this Sunday was my first normal Sunday in the ward and I was absolutely amazed.  My comp and I taught Young Women's and the classroom was full.  Not one empty chair.  But what shocked me the most was Sacrament meeting.  The chapel (although small) was full.  I didn't hardly see any empty chairs.  I was very much surprised.  It was such a wonderful feeling to see so many people at church.  The Hermanas told me that it wasn't even that full.  SO COOL!!! The church is true. I love the gospel.

On last quick thought:  Something that I have noticed happens a lot here is that people receive answers to prayers or personal revelations through dreams.  We had an investigator tell us a few of her dreams and they were really cool.  We explained how they could be answers from God telling her what path she should take.  Super cool.

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry