Mi Corazón Está en Cusco

Well, I`m going to start this letter like all the other ones. It was another GREAT week in Los Alamos. We`ve found so many solid investigators. A less active family that we`re working with is doing really incredibly well as of lately. Hna Hill and I are getting along splendidly. The members are really stepping up and helping us a lot. We had a really good stake conference. Life is good! I love working in Cusco.

That being said, no wonder that I have a change! Yup, going to PUNO as a new sister leader. YIKES. It`s gonna be really cold, maybe a little more stressful, but it`s gonna be good! Like always, I`m sad to leave my sector, especially now, but I know it`s in really good hands! I`ll be here until Wednesday for a training with Presidente Harbertson then I`m off Thursday morning. A little nervous, but I`m really excited! I don`t know if y'all would remember Hna Valverde. She lived with us for 3 transfers then went to Puno. I`m sure I`ve sent some pictures of her. But she`s going to be my new companion. Yeah, pretty stoked.

So yes, that`s the biggest news. We handed Boris over to the elders this week. We thought maybe it`d be better if he was working with them, being a single man and everything. We have a new lady ALMOST with a baptism date. She wants to get baptized. Working hard all around.

What else happened this week? Hna Hill broke her toe. Sort of. The doctor says it`s not broken, but she`s been limping around all week. We ran into a good handful of carnivalers. A dog peed on my backpack so I`ve been using your red one. Besides that, pretty chill week :) In missionary terms anyway . . . I guess it`s never actually very "chill."

Love you all! Until next week from Puno Central!

Xoxo,

Amie

                                        Straight up licked my face!

                                                           Yay P-day!

  

                                                          My Cusco family

          They loved the Valentine hearts!

Just a Little Reflection

Well, another good week for the records! We have some really great things happening. Boris loves the church. He still won`t accept his date because he doesn`t want to pay tithing, but he`ll get there. We contacted 20 families in the street this week. Working with two new families and lots of appointments set up for next week. It wasn`t blazing hot (rained like crazy but hey, better than the Cusco sun). Hna Hill is doing great! She`s ready to finish her training next week. I`m so proud of her. Just lots of good. 

The rest of this email is just gonna be a nice short, one year kind of look back. 

A year goes by really, really fast. And six months goes by even faster. Time to work harder and make everything I`ve learned in this past year worth something. I feel like I`m more motivated to work harder now than I was when I first got here with that "greenie" attitude. Now I know what I`m doing and I realize how precious time is. The Lord has helped me so much. Even when I was being stubborn or lazy or whatever else, He`s helped me so that I could get to this point. 

The church is true. I`ve met people every day this past year who deny it, but it`s true. Those who will listen will change their lives. I`ve seen it first hand. More than that, it`s changed me so much since last February. Still the same me, but so much closer to my Savior. Maybe I took it for granted before my mission, but I love the gospel. He did everything for us, for me, and the least I can do now is work harder and closer to Him. 

Short and sweet. Somehow I always manage to lose whatever I wanted to say when I get to the computer. The important thing is that I`m still happy and I still love being a missionary. I`m starting to think of ways I can avoid getting on the bus six months from now... :)

Love you,

Amie

Happy "it's been raining all week" picture! 

street contacting

Happy Valentines Day 

Hna Hill thought it would be funny to tape this up on the ceiling above my face . . . 

¡Feliz Carnival!

Where to even begin with this week?? It was so good! For starters, the whole month of February is a huge "carnival" in Peru. Baciscally a huge water fight. We´ve had lots of water balloons thown at us. I´ve heard it gets worse through the month, and they start throwing paint or foam or something like that. It´s kind of fun for now. Kind of dreading later in the month. But kind of funny I guess :)

We have a LOT of people that we´re working with right now. Boris is one of them, obviously. He´s doing so great. Every lesson he just gets more and more excited. He came to church with us yesterday and couldn´t stop talking about how much he loved it. We challenged him with a date for his baptism but he rejected it. I´m hoping now that he´s been to church he´ll be more open for the commitment. But he´s doing great. We´re excited for him.

Edward and Diana. We actaully didn´t get the chance to talk to them this week. But, we were passing by one day and decided to try to talk to them even though we didn´t have an appointement. We found his brother outside. Long story short, basically all of his brothers are already members, just less active. So now we´re teaching Edward and Diana, reactivating his family, and teaching all of their wives and children. Or at least we´re starting to. It looks like maybe it´ll be a bit of a process with some of them, but I´m excited to be working with such a big family!

Lots of good things happening. 

Gonna end with some funnier stories from yesterday.

We were walking up one of the big hills here in Cusco trying to find a referal that we got the other day. There was a lady sitting there on our way up, and we started talking to her. About 30 seconds into the conversation she invited us to come up to her house to meet her family. We went happily. The whole way up she kept offering us basically everything that she owns. We get to her house and she starts feeding us and showing us her children´s birth certificates (8 of them, by the way...) and making sure that we are completely comfortable. Super sweet lady. We kept trying to teach her a little bit about who we are and why we´re here. It was hard to get any words in though because she kept singing in Qechua and asking us to teach her prayers in English. Didn´t quite get it. She then offered us a live cui to take home to cook. Then actually gave us cui to eat. I was excited at first becaue I really want to try it before I leave. When she gave us the head, fur, eyes, whiskers, everything still there, my ... animo?? (*I think the word she's looking for is 'enthusiasm') went down a little bit. Hna Hill almost died. It was an interesting visit. We´re going to try to go back another day, more prepared to handle everything and maybe actually teach something.

On the way down from her house we saw a family that we wanted to contact. I won´t go into all the details for this one, but it ended with the wife asking us to touch the husband´s head and heal him from the devil inside of him. We obediently patted his head and they went on their way. Definitely a first. Hna Hill and I both walked away a little confused.

So many things that happened this week, just not time to write it all. But the important thing is that the Lord really is guiding us and the people we´re teaching right now. The church is true and I´m loving the work!

Love you all. Keep me posted on, well, everything :)

XOXoooxxOXoXoo (can´t remember the exact order, but this is a Nacho Libre reference),

Amie

!Happy Carnival!

More Cusco

Some church members we are working with.

This is Hna Hill in denial after she ate 'cui' ear . . . (*guinea pig)

 a fan of the stickers :)

Last P-day, just touring around Cusco

P-day friends

In honor of Valentines this week . . . "come and kiss me"

Just doing some pottery in his house when we came to teach.

Yay sisters leaders!

Sometimes I Forget the Title

Well, this was a pretty fantastic week!

We had our zone conference with President and Hermana Harbertson. Incredible as always. We focused in on the doctrine of Christ- what it really is and how to really apply it every single day. Not only for the people that we teach or for the members of the wards that we`re working in, but for every one of us personally also. And not only right now during the mission, but forever. I love having a mission president who`s so wise.

We ended the conference with a video called "The Refiner`s Fire is Real" or something like that. It talked about how there are some really, REALLY hard things that we have to go through, but the outcome, if we are faithful during the "fire," is something truly great. Anything that I say about it won`t really do it justice, you should try to find it. Something we can all apply. (It has a man working with fire and metal and a lady talking about some of the things she`s had to go through with her family. There`s a little snippet from one of the general authorities too, if that helps you find it)

The Refiner's Fire | Mormon Channel

We found people! We got to go teach some of the people that we met in the street last week. Three really solid people!

-- Boris- he contacted us in the street while we were waiting for a bus last week. He`s been investigating some churches for a couple years. He remembered talking with some Mormon missionaries before, but then he moved and lost contact. He`s been looking for us for a while. We had two really incredible lessons with him this week! The thing about him that impresses me the most is his desire to be better. He knows that there are things in his life that he needs to change, but up until now he didn`t know how. He`s willing and ready.

-- The other two are the two people that I told you about last week. We contacted them. He has two siblings who are members. Found out this week that they have actually passed away. He was going to church for about a year and never got baptized. He still has his doubts, but together with his wife (kind of, they still need to get married... bump in the road) they have SO much potential. Again, just ready and willing to learn and change and be better. 

I`m praying SO HARD that I won`t have a change this next round. Which probably means that I will have one... we`ll see. But there`s a lot of good people popping up and a lot of good things starting to happen in Los Alamos!

Other news for this week, we ate something called "tarwid" this week with one of our investigators and her family. I don`t know if that`s how you spell it, but that`s how it sounds. Maybe you can look it up. Buuuut, it`s possible that both Hna Hill and I were sick to our stomaches and lost a day of work because we could barely move after eating it. Lesson learned. It was bad. It was bad after the first bite. Then I had a whole plate to eat. Hna Hill got stuck into eating a second plate. I couldn`t help her... felt bad. Safe to say I will never complain about food in the States ever again.

So anyway, good week :) We`re still happy. Working and happy. Have fun in Kansas City and Miami. Sounds fun!

Love you all!

Amie

My sweet pensioista and her family are moving today

Let's Be Honest . . .

This is going to be a really short email. Not because there`s not a lot to say, but because the space bar on this computer doesn`t work very well, and I`m not patient enough to write it all out like this.

This was a good week. We didn`t find a whole lot of new people, but contacted a couple that I`m excited for. We met one family. He was investigating the church a couple years ago and for some reason that he wasn`t really sure of kind of dropped it. She knew hardly anything about the church but was really interested as we were talking in the street. We have an appointment with them tomorrow! 

I sent a picture of a lady and me. Her name is Juana. She`s less active in the church. She actually left for Lima the day after we met her, but she`s a hoot and a half. She`s super sick and hasn`t done anything but lay in bed for several months. She was super sad when we first got there, but by the end of our visit she was laughing and smiling and having a great time! One of those miracle visits in my mind. One day later and we probably never would have met her. She kept telling us (as she was trying not to cry as we left) how she felt like we were angels sent to visit her.  She couldn`t even remember the last time she smiled.

Sorry this is short. The sector is getting better. We`re happy. The church is true and being a missionary is the greatest job in the world!

Love you all. I`ll make sure I get a good computer next week so that I can write more :)

Chao!

Zoe's 6th Birthday

Angels for Juana

Line Upon Line

Happy Monday!

Well, for starters, opening and closing a sector at the same time is really hard. Hna Hill and I got transfered together so that we could finish her training, which is good, but it`s hard leaving a sector behind not knowing how it`s going to be taken care of. We got to show the elders around one day though, and they seem really sharp. Not too worried, just still a little sad. But, the Lord has a plan for all.

Alamos. Is. Huge. This new sector is bigger than my last two sectors put together. I kind of overshot it one day and told Hna Hill that we didn`t need to take a bus to get somewhere on our second day. We ended up walking for about an hour with the catch phrase "just a little bit further" for the last 40 minutes of it. And that was only about half the sector.  Just to give you an idea. But it`s a great sector with a lot of potential. The hermanas that left didn`t leave us with a lot so we`re kind of starting at ground zero. Again. I`ll be a pro at that by they time I come home. But it`s fun. Stressfull at times, but a cool experience. 

I was SUPER stressed out the first couple days.  I read a talk from Boyd K. Packer from either the April or October 2014 conference. No recuerdo. It`s called 'A Reason for Hope' or something like that. Incredible. There`s one part at the end that I really like:

"(Jesus Christ) is no stranger to His servants. As we move into the future with quiet confidence, His spirit will be with us."

The Reason for Our Hope - By President Boyd K. Packer

That`s kind of the theme for this change. Replace fear with faith and just do the work that I was sent here to do. Doesn`t matter how many hours of the days we spend walking around lost or how badly our feet hurt from walking all day or how many times we get rejected as we contact and try to find people to teach. He is no stranger to us and will guide us if we`re just willing to put in our all. 

We haven`t had a lot of luck finding real solid new people to teach, but that`s okay. A little bit every day. Joseph Smith didn`t restore the church in one week, and we won`t have a super successful sector after one week either. Line upon line. Faith. Diligence. Patience and charity. That`s the plan for now.

I love being a missionary. It`s SO much harder than I ever expected. But it`s so much better than I ever could have imagined also. The Lord takes care of us, and there is no greater privilege than to be here in the middle of His work.

Love you all. Until next week!

Love,

Amie

P-day shenanigans!

Balcon del Diablo.  One of my favorite places in Cusco

Saying "Goodbye" in Ttio

Selfie with another parrot!

First day in the new sector

Cambios . . .

. . . are the worst!

Once upon a time . . . I´m training Hna Hill right now so we weren´t expecting anything for changes. President is moving both of us to another ward in Cusco. Just like Puerto, I may be sitting here in tears again.

So much good happened this week. Jorge and Gloria and their kids are doing SO WELL. Every lesson we teach, they accept like they´ve known it their wholes lives. You can see how much happier they are and they are so excited for their baptism. We won´t be there for that, but I guess that´s not the important part. I couldn´t be happier for them, and the elders that are coming in and taking our place better take care of them! 

I sent a picture of the familia Cuadros. They´re a less active family that I´ve been working with my whole time here. They´re tough. I have said SO many prayers for this family. This past week alone they made incredible progress. I almost cried in our lesson with them last night. The difference that people feel when they can just let go of bitter feelings and put their trust in God is amazing. And that´s what happening with them. They know what´s most important, how to get there, and know they´re willing to do it. They have a goal to get back to the temple as a family again and everything. The two older kids aren´t in the picture, but I love them all so much. 

Everything is just great here right now. Hna Hill is doing wonders. She´s such a stong missionary. I don´t think that she gives herself enough credit, but I´m so proud of her! Training her is easy.

About our class on Wednesday, Hna Hill had to go to Lima, so we had to switch some plans around. It was moved to this next week, but . . now we won´t be doing that. Sorry for both of us. 

In shock. A little sad. Just kidding, a lot sad. But with faith and trust that the Lord knows what He´s doing even if I don´t want it at all. I´ll let you know how Alamos is next week I guess. 

Have a great week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon! It´ll do wonders. Love you all.

These are the kids of the family we are working with.

(the boy and the little girl in front of him)

I'll be honest . . . don't know the other two girls 

Familia Cuadros

You should have seen the sidewalk . . .

Spanish bananagrams :)