A stormy week

Soooo, What a week!

 

I don’t know if anyone from up there was watching our weather down here but ¡Que loco che! I think it was Tuesday when it hailed here with a huge storm! Then on Wednesday, we were in a family home evening, and the hermana went outside and returned super scared and told us that we had to leave, right then! Because the storm was coming in fast!

 

So we ended with a prayer and we left! As we got to the bus stop, the hail started, and heck, they were the size of golf balls! I had never seen hail so big in my life! They have hence told us that in an area super close the hail was the size of baseballs!

 

The hail started and Hermana Huarcaya and I were cuddled together trying to not get hit on the head and die. ha-ha. The bus came and we got on and by the time we got home it was just raining, but raining hard. That night at about 11pm the hail started again and it was the size of baseballs. The wind was strong and it was nuts. The next day there were tons of houses that didn’t have roofs or things because of the hail.

 

It has been a crazy week, because then the heat came, and heck, it was HOT! And then today as I am writing right now to you, the storm came up and the glass door to the cyber just shattered to pieces.... and the lights went out.... I almost had a heart attack! ha-ha pray for us! This weather is LOCO!

In my area it is basically dirt roads, and the dirt here is RED, so that has been interesting too, when everything turns to mud from the rain. Let’s just say that your clothes don’t stay clean very long! haha.

 

Other than the weather, life is going really well. We are getting to know the area more. The members are great and they are helping us out a lot! This past week we got a reference from a member for Alisia. We went by and talked with her and her 16-year-old son, Lucas. They are super great. The other day we went back and we talked just with Alisia. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and wow, that was a spiritual lesson.

 

It was amazing. The spirit was so strong and Alisia had so many questions and you could see her face lighting up as we taught. You could tell that it was what she needed and what she was looking for. The spirit was so strong and she could feel it too. This week she is going to pray and ask if it is true and I know that she will receive an answer.

 

That lesson made me really think about the Book of Mormon and that I would not be who I am today without that book. It truly is another scripture, and by it and through it I have come so much closer to God than I would have without it. If I don’t study it I feel like an emptiness and I have to at least read a verse from it!

 

The week was very good, Hermana Huarcaya is amazing. She is learning so much and is teaching me so much as well. I wish that I knew at the beginning of my mission all of these things that I now know. After a year and a half one finally has it down... and then there isn’t much time to put it into practice.... but that is why the mission work never stops. We have to be member missionaries as well!

 

This week was full of miracles, and honestly, every week is, and sometimes we just don’t take the time to realize them!

I know that God lives, and loves us and as we put him first, the rest comes. (: 

Hermana Newell

Another Week of Miracles

What a week!!!! 

Hermana Huarcaya celebrates 1 month!

Our home

Oh, my gosh, this week was honestly amazing. It was filled with so many miracles! Hermana Huarcaya is amazing. I have learned so much from her. You get a missionary who is finishing and one who is starting and you get a lot of excitement! We are inviting everyone to be baptized!  We have three baptismal dates planned for this transfer and we have a lot more who are thinking about baptism. We are really seeing the miracles as we invite all to be baptized (:

 

Our District

The Assistants left their car unlocked!

But heck, this past week it rained, like down poured all week long!!! It wasn’t too great to contact and be out there as we got soaking wet! But then, oh my gosh, yesterday was like being in heck it was so hot out! We almost died... literally!

Here is one of the many miracles: So I have written about the Renoso family, the family that I met in Encarnacion, but that live here in my area now! Well, yesterday we had lunch with them, and it was only the mom and the 8 year old daughter Bianca. We talked about the restoration of the gospel. The mom had to leave for a sec and so we taught part of the story of Joseph Smith with just Bianca. When the mom got back we had Bianca tell her mom the story and a miracle happened. We hadn’t told Bianca yet that Joseph Smith had received the answer than none of the churches were true but she told that to her mom!!! Hermana Huarcaya and I looked at each other, super confused, because Bianca really did remember these things from the pre-earth life. God is really amazing and I have such a testimony that this is his church and that we knew about it and his plan even before coming here! 

This week was amazing, and this coming week will be too (: I love you all! 

Hermana Newell

Starting from scratch

White wash!!!! aaaahhh, what a week!

First things first: my new daughter is Hermana Huarcaya, from Lima, Peru! Another companion from Peru. I think I have something with Peru that I never knew before, haha! 

But heck, she is AMAZING! She is 21 and like honestly so much fun and so excited to work. She has so many ideas and so many desires. She speaks good English and so Pst. Svec told us that we have to speak in English as much as we can so that her English can get even better. So we have passed whole days speaking in English, but sometimes we get bad at it and speak in Spanish again. It is easier but we are trying to speak in English as much as we can!

This whitewash has been nuts! The area book, before we got here, had been caught in a rain storm.... so we were given this super wet, moldy area book that we are trying to use which is not very helpful. We have thrown out a lot of papers and got everything new. We are working on copying some of the registros and putting them onto new papers. It is quite the job. We also have gotten lost a couple times but we are doing much better now! 

Also we didn’t have ANYTHING in the house so we had to buy plates, cups, rags, soap, etc.  We got a super old phone and they didn’t give us a charger, so for the past 4 days it has been dead! We had to use our assigned monthly money for the buying so we now don’t have any money and Hermana Huarcaya could not take out money from her mission card until today. It has been crazy! BUT!!!!  It is amazing here.

So for the good part, we have lunches with members every day! The Mission Assistants and the zone leaders are in our same ward so they have been helping us out a lot. The house, oh my gosh, the apartment is a little house. It is soooo nice and the bathroom is AMAZING! It has sofas and a real kitchen and it is sooo cute! Honestly, I’m in love, haha. The ward has like 120 who attend, so it is huge! They are baptizing a ton here. The members are willing to help us. The ward works like it should! Like what else could I want???

So life is great. Everything is going super well. Hermana Huarcaya is amazing. She teaches so well and is great at talking to EVERYONE. We are contacting everyone we see and really enjoying the work. She is so great and we enjoy every moment. She is a little stressed out because of it being her first week, and all these things have happened, so today we are going to buy an ice cream and relax a little bit!

This past Saturday there was a member baptism and it was super sweet. And I had to play the piano!!! I don’t play the piano!!! I had to do it a little in my last area but it makes me so nervous!

We have found some people who are amazing and we are anxious to see how they progress.

Oh, and so do you remember the familia Renoso? I wrote about them the other week. I met them in Encarnacion, but they were from Posadas, in the area of Barrio Jardin!!! I am going to call them today and see if we can visit them! It is incredible how God works!

I love you all, everything is great here!

Hermana Newell