Hola Mi Familia y Mis Amigos!
Ahhh I have so much I want to say about this week in such little time! LOL I hope everyone had a merry merry Christmas! We had a real good time here! :) Here is what went down....
- Monday night, we had a giant Family Home Evening in the house of a member here named Liliana. She is the sweetest, a recent convert last February. We invited an investigator and the Elders also invited investigators. Hna Mamani and I were in charge of the lesson and the games. The lesson went well, but the best part was definitely the games. I taught them a game that Hna. Bazan taught me. Everyone had to choose a fruit or veggie to be, and we had to pass it around the circle like signs or Rah Dee Dah. buit the hard part was that they had to say the names without letting anybody see their teeth! It is so silly, and nobody can help but laugh. We had a great time! :)
- Tuesday morning we taught our second lesson with our new investigator Edgar. He lives alone, so we cant teach him in his house. normally we would teach in the capilla, but there was some miscommunication and people were late, so he decided to take us to the new super market in town where we taught a little lesson and ate a small breakfrast. We taught about the Book of Mormon. He is just eating everything up! He loves learning, and he believes it is all true! Even in a super market with noise all around, I could feel the Spirit with him. Later in the week, we taught in a gas station deli place LOL but I still could feel the Spirit confirming what we said. It is so cool! Now he has a baptismal date for Feb. 6!
- Wednesday morning, Brielles birthday!, we did some service for a member, Hna. Wilma. Us, the other Hna.s and the Elders all went and stripped the old paint off her living room walls and did a repaint. It was so messy and fun LOL afterward Hna. Wilma fed us, which also was yummy. We got watermelon slices!! :)
- Wednesday in the afternoon, our whole Zone went and invaded Negritos, an area in our zone that is lacking in numbers and needs some help. We went on a mass contacting trip. We received names to search for and we knocked on a ton of doors, each companionship in a different part of the area. It was really fun, not to mention that Negrios is absoelutely beautiful! I wish there were Hna.s in negritos...but no only one companioshio of Elders.
- Christmas Eve was a day I will never forget! In the morning, we had a Zone meeting. One thing that stuck out to me in this meeting was that we were sked to share the gift we want to give our Savior this Christmas....Each perosn shared something very personal and touching, and the spirit was so strong in that room. Then in the afternoon after lunch, Hna. Mamani and made brownies to take to the f. Paibas later in the evening for our dinner. we also made some to take to the f. Baltazar to say thank you for letting us use their Skype! Then came Skype!!! :) Just so everyone knows, as soon as I saw my familys faces I started bawling. Call me a baby, but their faces are just so beautfiul1 :) That one hour was such an awesome time! :) I will never forget it! After that, Hna. Mamani had some difficulties figuring how to talk to her family, so we went to the f. Caceres to use Walters cell to call her home to plan a time to Skype. It didnt work out to SKype that day, so we planned for christmas Day. At 7 PM that night, all of us missionaries went to the Plaza here in our area and sang Christmas carols! In our matching Skirts and the elders matching ties and Elder Herrera as Sant Clause! So so fun, and the little kids loved it! We did contacting at the same time, to invite people! Next, we took tons of pictures, of course! At the F.a Paibas, we ate a normal Peruvian dish, nothing too special, but also enjoyed our brownies. LOL we avoided the Panetone....Panetone is a tradition here in Peru for Christmas, it is like a soft fruit cake thing. It is gross. Just so everyoe knows. It was late, but we had told Hna. Elli, our Pensionista, that we would stop by. So we hurried over, and there we played some games with Hna. Luana, talked with Samantha, Alan and Hna. Elli. Hna. Elli gave us some super cute gifts that she made by hand, little ornaments. And then she gave us MORE FOOD! This time we had turkey, which was yummy but not like how we cook it at home. She also gave us Panetone...Luckily, it was a little bit better than the other types we had tried. still not great, but eatbale. We had to hurry real fast bakc to our room, and i fell into bed, I was so very tired!
- Christmas Day! We woke up early and went with our District to the beach in Negritos to do a little gift exchange! The streets were literally empty...The tradition in Peru is to stay up all night Christmas Eve to welcome in Christmasat midnight and eat a big dinner in the middle of the night, so everyone was asleep at 6 in the morning when we took the half hour trip to Negritos. The beach was so calm and beautiful in the morning, so awesome! And it was fun to just kind of mess around with the District, playing in the sand. we thought about getting breakfast, but everyone was still crazy full from out giant meals the night before, so we avoided food at all costs. Later int eh day, Hna. Mamani worked to talk to her family...I felt bad but we couldnt get skype to work. She ended up just talking to them on the phone because the internet signal in Bolivia was realy bad...But she still loved it. We cried a little together and rejoiced in getting to talk to our fmailies! :)
- One of our investigators is most likely going to be baptized on Saturday!! She just has to pass her baptismal interview Wednesday, and she is SOO ready!. Her testimony is so strong, and she made the sacrifices necessary to come to church these past two sundays. I am so excited for her! We have worked so hard, I have seen such a great change in her, and she has truly come unto Christ! :) Whooo Hooo! :)
- Saturdat we taught a less active, Rosa Arevalo. we taught her the final lesson necessary before she could be considered rescued, and it was on Eternal marriage and eternal families. I love that topic! I know it is the truth, families can be forever through temple ordinance performed by an honorable Priesthood holder! I know it! My family is eternal and I know I will one day see my family again after this life! I know I will see Grandpa B. Again! :) And guess what, now Hna. Rosa is considered rescued! She had her interview yesterday after church! :) I have baptized one person and rescued two! That is such an awesome feeling! :)
- Saturday morning, we went ot visit a recent contact we had made the night before. he wasnt there, but his family let us in and we taught his brother, Willy. Willy really wants to change his life, be better, he really wants to find God. And I was able to testify to him that it is in the Gospel and in the Church that he can find God. I was able to help him recognize the Spirit he was feeling! Hna. Mamani and I both felt the Spirit strongly and we were so very happy to help Wily, see that! We have another lesson with him this week!
- Today was a different Pday. There is rule fopr the rest of this transfer that we cant do any more Zone activites on Pday because we have had a lot of big group activites lately, and now it is time to work, or so said Presidente Rasmussen. So today Hna. Mamani and cleaned our room real good, then went and bought some food and ingredients to cook a lunch in our room. We tried one of the recipes mom sent me, Microwave BBQ Meatloaf. I literally felt like I had died and gone to heaven! I was eating realy good American food! It was amazing! :):) Thank you mom!! and we also made a fruit salad thing with bananas, grapes, and BLACKBERRIES and sweetened condensed milk. We c¡found Blackberries in the market, and we just couldnt pass them up! It was sosososososo good! :) A little bit of home!! :)
- One more thing...For New Years Eve, the tradition here in Peru is to burn a doll to like burn away the passing year. So we are going to make a doll and burn it!! Hna. Elli and Samantha are going to help us make a big, life size doll and we are going to burn it! e prepared for photos of some crazy pyro-technics! :) LOL we will be careful, mom, dont worry ;)
Well, that was my crazy full week. I real good week that I will always remember! :) Les extraño mucho, mis queridos amigos y familia. Ustedes son mi inspiración y mi apoyo. Gracias por todo, en serio. yo no podría hacer nada de esto sin su amor y ayuda y sus oraciones. Cuídense mucho, ya? Les amo! :)
<<< HERMANA BUCHANAN >>>
~ ~ ~ PERU PIURA MISSION ~ ~ ~
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