Week 44

6/13/16

So this week has been pretty crazy!

First, I would like to share some scriptures to help illustrate what happened this week-

Exodus 15:22- "So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water."

Helaman 12:16- "And behold, also, if he say unto the waters of the great deep—Be thou dried up—it is done."

So take your guesses...yup, that's right, for three days this week we didn't have water in our apartment! 

It rained super hard on Wednesday afternoon and apparently that caused some pipe to break somewhere and that stopped all water from coming into Shilcayo.  So all of Shilcayo was without water for three days. Luckily for everyone who isn't a missionary...there are some natural reservoirs of water and people went out there and brought back buckets of water. We however, were a little too busy saving souls that we couldn't go get water. ;) We almost had to resort to buying water bottles in the store and using those to shower! Luckily, the water came back just in time! 

 

So remember Felipe and Sara and their kids? Well, the parents had to work yesterday and didn't come to church :(  But their kids did!! They all showed up dressed nicely, and they even brought their 3 year old sister! They seemed to have a really good time.  We´re going to visit them tonight and see how much they liked it! We were so proud of them for coming on their own!

Meli keeps coming to church with her grandkids and her husband Gerardo is still travelling back and forth from their farm.  He just never happens to be in Tarapoto when it's Sunday! She's still unsure if she has received an answer, so we´re trying to work with her to recognize her answer and also to understand more of what were teaching. I know she´ll start progressing soon!

Family Home Evening with Raiza and her family!

That's pretty much all that has been going on this week.  It was a pretty fun week! We hope to find new people this week and I know it will be awesome!!!

One last thing- my new favorite scripture, I wrote it on my agenda for this change...

Doctrine and Covenants 6:33 - " Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward."

It's a great scripture that reminds us to always do good, cause if we do good, we will be blessed!  I've also learned that numbers (baptisms) don't reflect the missionary.  As long as you try your hardest, God will bless you the most ... that could be in baptisms, or it might not be, but what is important is that you try.

Dad's car showed up at the hospital in La Banda!

Awesome View!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Gurney

Week 43

June 6, 2016

So, the moment you have all been waiting for....I didn't get transferred!  hahaha!

 

Three transfers in Shilcayo with Hna Velazquez! I guess these transfers were the time of not changing anyone because only one companionship in my zone had transfers!!! and there are four companionships that have been together three transfers now.

My Zone!

The Elders wanted us to pose as Special Forces ... not sure why?  

Anyways so Shilcayo is pretty awesome ... this week was elections again! Last time, they narrowed it down to two candidates and yesterday they decided between the two. So there wasn't church again yesterday :(

The new president of Peru is... PPK! I have no idea what his real name is, but everyone calls him PPK and I don't even know why hahaha.

 

This week we had a really cool miracle... in the branch directory there was a couple named Felipe and Sara and we decided to go looking for them the other day.  Their address didn't exist and the the people in the neighborhood didn't know them, so we gave up looking for them since we had no way to find them! Then this past week we walked past a man with his little daughter and Hna Velazquez felt like we should contact him, so we did. We started talking to him and he told us that a long time ago he attended church there. Then I felt like I should ask if he was baptized in this church, which we usually never do in contacts, but we asked and he said yes! So we asked him his name and he said Felipe! How crazy is that! So he gave us his new address and we´ve started visiting them! They were baptized a looooong time ago, maybe 10 years ago when the Elders came to visit them. They were baptized the same day that the Elder that found them was transferred, They felt pretty discouraged and they just stopped coming. Now they have three kids and are raising their niece who vaguely remember church and have never been baptized! The second time we visited them, we came in and their kids said "This week, we´re going to go to church!" without us asking them! Of course, then we had to explain that there is no church this week because of the elections, and they'd have to wait a week hahaha!  We feel really blessed that we found them.  

We have been working really hard with a recent convert of two years named Yetty, who is the only member in her family and recently hasn't really been coming to church. We don't really know what's going on with her, but she always accepts us and loves our visits! We have asked her for referrals all the time, but she always says she doesn't know anyone.  So we invited her to pray to know who we should share the gospel with, and she said she would. This week we went to visit her and she said that she thought of a lady that lives nearby and she used to visit with the previous missionaries.. so we went and contacted this lady named Rosa Mary and she is super cool! She and her husband are looking for a religion to dedicate themselves too, so we´re super stoked to start working with them. As we left, Yetty told us about more people nearby that she knew! She ended up giving us a ton of references that have tons of promise!! It totally animated her to share the gospel more and she says she'll come to church with us this Sunday! That was a miracle! So all of you who say you don't know anyone to share the gospel with when the missionaries come over.. pray about it! and someone cool will come to your mind :)

This week I was reading a conference talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf and I really liked something he said... "Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count". I think that is a great way to live life.  Many times we stress about what other people think or see about us, but it is exactly that kind of thing that does not count. What really does count is things like how much we love and help one another. I would challenge all of you to try and do something to serve a friend or family member this week, and you will really feel a whole lot better :)

Love you all!!

Hermana Gurney

Week 42

May 30, 2016

Well, it's transfers again! It snuck up so fast... I keep forgetting that tonight is transfers!! I will literally be happy with whatever happens though... if I have transfers or not, it´ll be good for me!

So this week... what even happened?

Well it rained literally ALL DAY last Monday and last Tuesday. It just didn't stop... so the environment suffered consequences....three houses fell down a hill!

Yup! You heard that right... three houses fell down a hill. I even took a picture.

it seems like the ground beneath it just got so wet that it couldn't support the weight of the houses, and they just fell down! Luckily, no one died! One family said they were sitting in their house and heard a loud bang, but they just kinda ignored it... but then they heard it again and ran outside to see what was happening. When they got outside, their house just collapsed and slid down the hill! Crazy right??

Wo the government bought then a few tents that they could sleep in at night, and other people in the neighborhood with extra mattresses lent them places to sleep until they figure out what they're going to do!

 

Meli accepted a baptismal date for the 25 of June!! Her husband still hasn't come back from his trip to their farm, so were not even sure if she'll be able to get baptized that day, but that's the goal! If you could all pray that her husband comes home soon, that would be really appreciated!!! He's really stopping his whole family´s progress with his absence!

The other day we were waiting for a member to meet us on the street before accompanying us with an investigator.  We had been waiting for a few minutes and we started feeling useless... we weren't doing anything and we needed to do something! There was hardly anyone on the street to contact, so that left us without anything to do... until we realized that if we stood on the corner right in front of the stop sign, the passing motokars would stop at the red light and we could contact them from the street!  We did that a few times! The people kinda got annoyed with us and drove away as soon as the light turned green, but whatever, at least we tried!! One person told us they would go to church though! hahaha. It proved to be a pretty effective method because, with the red light, they couldn't go anywhere! They couldn't escape! hahahahahaha

Yesterday we had the awesome oportunity to go visit a family of recent converts in the Elders area... we had an activity at the church where all the members and missionaries are supposed to unite to go visit the less actives, but this week only two Elders showed up... so they sent me and Hna Velazquez to go visit the Mendoza family.  They were baptized in November and have a girl who's only 15 days older than I am and a son who is 11.  They have the COOLEST backyard... they grow raw cane sugar and papayas.  They also have bananas and bamboo, anyways it's so cool!! They cut off the raw cane sugar and let us eat some and it was so sweet. I took pictures of their backyard, so i'll send them this week. We also set up a service with them on Wednesday, so if I don't have transfers you'll see more cool pictures of their backyard!! The Elders found this family for the most jungly reason.... there was a monkey in their front yard and the Elders wanted to pet it! hahaha  So they asked to pet the monkey, contacted the family, and now the family is baptized! How crazy!! 

Oh also the fun part about visiting this family, is that the Branch President took us in his motokar with his daughter and dropped us off.  His dog (who was at the church for some reason) did not like the fact that he was leaving... so he ran after us!! He followed us all the way to the Mendoza´s house ... without getting hit by a motokar! How crazy is that?? It's one smart dog... anyways week took a picture of the dog :)

So that was my week! It was pretty fun! Hope everything is going well back home!

Love you all!

Week 41

May 23, 2016

So this week was pretty fun for one main reason - I got to go back and visit Partido Alto!!!

The sister leaders are serving in my old area in Partido Alto, and this week we had a work visit.  So one of them came to work with Hermana Velazquez in our area, and I went with the other sister to Partido Alto!! I feel super blessed, because usually, this doesn't happen! Anyways, it was super fun! I got to see some of the people I visited, and I got to see my old pensionista!! It was so fun! She even made me a bit of cake ;) haha  It was also a little awkward, because there were a few of them who didn't remember me! I guess three months is a long time... hahaha.   Most of the people who didn't remember me ... I only visited a couple times.  

I took pictures with all of them!  

This sweet lady is named Ylaria and she lives in Partido Alto but was going to the branch in Tarapoto ... until we visited her!  She was so excited to see me again!!

Katty, her brother Jose, and her mom Salvit!  They are also super cute!  They were in shock when I knocked on the door!

Hermana Mili, my old pensionista!  She's still going to church and wants to get baptized!!

Meli and her grandkids came to church again! Gerardo couldn't come because he had to unexpectedly travel or something on Friday and didn't get home in time.  We finally taught him about the restoration though! He says he feels like the church is true and he wants to keep coming to church as much as he can.  He wants him and his family to get baptized!  Even Meli said she would like to get baptized... which is a miracle because before she said she didn't feel ready!! We´re super stoked.  We were planning on teaching the law of chastity to start getting them ready to get married, but when we went Gerardo had already left for work!  So this week we´ll teach that! They're a super cute family ... they always read their scriptures and come to church, even when it rains! I just love them so much!!

Love you tons!!! Have a great week!!

Hermana Gurney

Week 40

May 16, 2016

WHOOO week 40, so this week was pretty cool... it went by SUPER FAST!

So we have been teaching a less active named Karina who is super cute and always happy to see us.  She always gives us food (which is the best part hahaha) but she just doesn't have quite enough faith to stop working on Sundays. We´ve been trying to focus on keeping the Sabbath day holy so she can go to church.  We´ll see how it goes.  Her son is named Cesar and he just recently turned eight.  He could very well get baptized, so we´re trying to really focus on Karina so that not only can she return to church but so she can help her son get baptized.  The funny part of this story is that we met Karina and Cesar when we first came to Shilcayo, like our first night (almost three months ago) and from that moment until this past Monday, we thought Cesar´s name was Lozano! We saw him on the street all the time and we´d shout "Heyyyy!!! Lozano!! whats up!" We'd talk to his mom and ask "How's Lozano?"!! This past Monday, we had a family home evening with them and Cesar told us his name was actually Cesar and his last name is Lozano!! We were so embarrassed!!! and now when one of us says something about Cesar, the other one of us gets confused and asks who's Cesar?  hahahaha. Anyways, the story gets better... 

Remember Yudith? The investigator who we didn't think would be that interested, but then came to church and is reading the Book of Mormon? Well we also learned this week that her name is Ludith! with an L!!! The funny part is that I wrote on a pamphlet "Yudith" and asked if that's how you spell her name, and she said yes! but it's not! hahahaha.  So now we´re a little self conscious about our ability to know people´s names.

Meli and her grandkids keep coming to church. Meli even put on her nicest shirt this Sunday and it was so cute! We took a picture with her. She´s still listening to her grandkids read the Book of Mormon to her. She says she feels that this is the true church, because her life has changed a lot since we started visiting her and since she started going to church. She says shes always going to go to church ...but she doesn't want to get baptized. She keeps saying "one day, one day" and so we´re really struggling with helping her understand the importance of getting baptized now, rather than later. If anyone has any tips that would be cool!

Meli is the lady standing next to me.  She looks so happy!  I love it!

With Yetti, who is super cute!  She is 18 and the only active member in her family. She hadn't been coming lately so we went to visit her ... and she came the next Sunday!  :)

Funny stories (besides the name mixups)

We were in a motokar going back to our area and it ran out of gas in the middle of the street! So he had us get out, then he tipped the motokar on its side, put it back upright, had us get on, and then it started again!!! hahahaha  He then went straight to the gas station, but we were just in shock that tipping over your motokar actually works when you're out of gas! hahaha

Another motokar passed by us the other day and there was a turtle tied to the backseat.. but this turtle apparently didn't like the ride cause he was about to walk off the motokar.  The driver just put his hand back and pushed the turtle back further into the motokar! He just acted so natural about it and we were just confused!

Miracle of the week: yesterday night we were super hungry because our dinner was really small and we really wanted to eat something.  We couldn't buy anything since it was Sunday. Anyways, we walked past this lady who sells on the street and is kinda our friend.   We started talking to her like we usually do and she said, "I want to give you guys cutacho!" (which is like our favorite food here, it's like a ball of peanut butter, mashed fried bananas, and I don't know what else, but it's super good).  So she gave us both cutacho and we were so happy!! Even though we didn't pray for food, God saw we needed some and gave it to us!   :) 

So that was my week!!! Hope everything is SUPER DE DUPER back at home!!

I'll talk to you all next week!!

Hermana Gurney

Week 39

May 9, 2016

HAPPY MOTHER´S DAY!!!!!

My beautiful area!

Yes, they do celebrate Mother´s Day in Peru.  There are not any different traditions. Everything is pretty normal.

So this week was pretty fun.  The highlight was of course skyping my family, but there was lots of other cool things!! 

We were teaching a recent convert named Shantal (I think ive talked about her before.. she´s 10 and the only member and doesn´t like reading her Book of Mormon or going to church, so we´re not quite sure why she got baptized).   We were talking about the importance of prayer. The thing with her is she listens to us because were sometimes funny, but at the same time ... she doesn't really listen.  So we were like "its really important to always pray.. do you remember to pray Shantal?" and she responds "si, hermana" and so I asked her "Are you praying right now?" and she responded "si hermana".  She then stood up, went into her room, grabbed a dress, and changed.  The thing is we don't get annoyed with her because she is only 10.  Every lesson with her is just hilarious. We walk out of the house and we just die laughing hahhahaa. 

Lizbeth this week accepted a baptismal date, which was awesome, but then we had to talk to her about marriage because she´s not married. She talked to her husband and he doesn't want to get married, so thats our biggest obstacle with her right now.  She hasn't come to church either, so we need to go visit her today and find out what's happening. She´s literally the sweetest, so I know everything will work out.

Judith didn't come to church yesterday... even though her cousin (our old pensionista Noria) passed by. Apparently she was a little busy with Mother's Day or something like that. We´re going to go visit her this week again too to find out why.

Did I tell you guys about Meli? the grandma that is raising her three grandkids? She came to church again with her husband. She says she really likes our visits and feels more peace and less worry in her life now that we´ve been visiting her and she has been going to church. I'm glad to know she has felt the spirit. Her only problem is her husband. Her husband listens to us and comes to church but that's only when he's here. He lives in their farm and only comes to Tarapoto every once in a while.  We have to talk to them about marriage too.  I know he´s felt the spirit because he loves coming to church. so that will be our focus this week- teaching about marriage! hahaha

I hope everything is going well at home! Love you guys!!

Hermana Gurney

With Yvonne ... an awesome member that we are working with!

PIZZA!!

Week 38

May 2, 2016


So this week I was reading in Enos, first chapter and twenty fifth verse, which says "And it came to pass that I began to be old".  Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man that this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person was becoming old, I was. HA!  Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

So tradition in Peru for birthdays--- they smash an egg on your head. Lots of people told me they were going to bring an egg to church yesterday and egg me, but no one did! Thank goodness because I didn't want to have to wash my hair again!!!

My sweet pensionista bought a cake and made a special lunch for us on my birthday.  Here they sing "Happy Birthday" and they sing it in English, but they don't really know what they're saying! It's hilarious. My pensionista wrote happy birthday on my cake, and spelled my name right (WHOOO!) but spelled birthday wrong! haha!

Happy Birthday to me!  Thanks for cupcakes Mom!  

This week Hermana Velazquez went to Lima for her visa with another Hermana in our zone, so Hermana Arteaga (the other hermana's companion) came with me to work in Shilcayo. It was awesome! She's not quite as used to the hills as Hermana Velazquez, so we did walk a little slower than I would have liked, but it's all good!! The best part is, that Hermana Velazquez bought us Dunkin Donuts in the airport in Lima, so we had a nice little treat for when she came home :)

This week we met this elderly lady that we contacted on the street named Yudith. When we contacted her, the house smelled bad and she looked a little mean.  When she told us to come in and teach her, we were just planning on teaching a quick lesson and then leaving, so that we wouldn't get a headache. We started out teaching and she told us how she's catholic and she can't get baptized again.  She has a friend who's Mormon who told her lots of bad things about the church.  We nicely explained the restoration, proper authority, and cleared up all the doubts her other friend gave her.  We didn't think we made much of a difference, but apparently it did.  At the end, she told us to come back because she would think about being baptized the right way to save her soul! She even came to church with us yesterday! It turns out her cousin is our old pensionista! How crazy... we should have had more faith from the beginning that she would change!

My beautiful area!

So that was my week.. pretty cool!

Talk to you next week!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
Hermana Gurney