Mi corazón está en Cusco: Going Strong

Hello!

Well, it was another fantastic week in Puno! I´m already in love with Puno. Everybody talks about it as a terrible place where the people are closed off and mean and it´s cold and miserable. Pero, es así. The ward and stake leaders get how to do missionary work and are more than willing to help. There are TONS of families out and willing to chat with us for a little bit. A good amount of them are willing to meet with us again later too. We have literally had an appointment every hour, every day since the second I got here. I´m pretty much exhausted all. the. time. But I love it so much. It´s easier to focus and be happy when we´re working as much as we do. On top of that, beautiful weather (pday pictures will show, it was a great day at the beach this morning/afternoon- playing soccer and hiking and all!) No complaints. At least none worth wasting my time worrying about.

Oh! We also had our conference and interviews with President Harbertson. Still convinced that he will be a prophet someday. If anything was out of line, which it wasn´t, that always gives me the little extra push that I need to keep going and work a little harder.

Hmmm, people we are working with. There are a lot.

We have one investigator that kind of sticks out among the rest. Her name is Vicki. She had a baptism date for last weekend, but she went out of town and a whole bunch of other things, and the date fell through. We´ve been trying to find her since I got here with little success. We finally found her and got to talk to her on Saturday. It was kind of a miracle, just kind of ran into each other in the street. She told us that she didn´t want to talk to us anymore or come to church because she was embarassed about not being baptized on the day that everybody was expecting. She didn´t want anyone to judge her. We talked to her for a little bit trying to just commit to coming to church on Sunday. She was hesitant but finaly agreed. Sunday comes and she´s not there. About 30 seconds before we start the sacrament she walks in and sits down. I´m pretty sure the whole congregation could see the smiles on Hna Valverde´s and my face. We had a lesson with her afterwards, just talking about where her head and her heart were. Long story short, it was a great lesson. There were some tears, but ended with her committing to baptism again. This time for sure. She´s pretty incredible.

Ahh, so many people but not enough time! One more. We are working with a less active lady named Luzmila. Hna Valverde and her old companion had never talked to her before. We just passed by her store one day and Hna Valverde said, hey, I think there´s a member who lives here. We stopped by, and surely enough, we found Luzmila. My heart kind of broke when I listened to her story. When we first talked to her and asked if we could stop by again to talk she was very closed off and a little rude. I judged her pretty hard, I´ll be honest. But the Lord humbled me. Within 30 seconds of our lesson she was all in. It´s only been a couple days, but she is already starting to turn her life around. It´ll be a process, but she´s willing and reayd. I´m SUPER excited to start working with her more and more.

So there´s two. I´ll start telling you more and more as I have the time to do so.

Consilio this week!! We leave tomorrow morning. All day with President and the APs and everybody on Wednesday and come home Thursday. I´m pretty stoked. This is probably the thing I´m most excited for now that I´m a sister leader. I get to listen to President in a more serious setting once a month!

Gotta go. I have a lot more to say, but it´ll have to wait until next week. But I love you all!

Chao!

Amie