Week 47

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

I found a nice scripture that talks about the Fourth of July so I thought I'd share it with you all! 

Ether 2:12
"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things 

which we have written."

LOVE IT!

Gaston & Aleyda & Family ... They are the best - a wonderful example of humble obedience!

Our Pensionista - Janeth and her daughter, Angely

So this week went by super fast! What happened?

This past week in Branch Council our Branch President says "Okay everyone .. first order of business - we need a birthday party for the primary EVERY MONTH!" and he talked about the details of this party for about five minutes and everyone was just like "okay"... I guess he forgot that there isn't a Primary President right now! She was released last Sunday! hahaha. So apparently there´s going to be a primary birthday party this Wednesday.. but we don't know who´s organizing it! hahaha

This past Wednesday was another holiday in Peru (or probably just the jungle, I don't know) but it was San Pablo and San Pedro´s day, and no one had school! They didn't do any cool celebrations like San Juan, but pretty much everyone was in their home sleeping! 

A baby chick hatching!

With Chelsy ..such a cute little boy!

Felipe and Sara are doing awesome! They started reading their scriptures! They were all ready to come to church yesterday and then Felipe´s brother called and said that his mom is really sick and they needed him in the hospital, so they went to see his mom.  BUT  Erika, their niece came to church! She even accepted a baptismal date for the end of July so we´re excited to help her progress towards that goal!

Raul, didn't get his baptismal permission slip signed, he´s a little sad, but I know it's in God´s plan and everything will work out soon!

That's pretty much all that's going on! We´re just happy to see how much people are coming closer to Christ!

Love you all! Happy Fourth of July!

Hermana Gurney

Week 46

June 27, 2016

So this week was.... SAN JUAN!!!!

The jungle has it's own holiday on the 24 of June called San Juan, where they celebrate San Juan el Bautista, or John the Baptist.

Basically what happens ... on the 23rd they all spend the whole day making juanes. I'll send you a picture of juanes, but it's just chicken, rice, an egg, and an olive wrapped up in a giant leaf. Usually it's in a ball shape so it looks like John the Baptist´s head.  It's a little harder to make them that way, so the juanes we were given are just like square tamales. Everyone LOVES juanes here, but honestly, they're not that good! hahaha. Anyways, then the 24th they pack up all their juanes, buy their soda, and go spend the day at the river or lake or somewhere outside of Tarapoto! 

Branch council .. someone brought juanes and papas rellenas

Juanes!

Elena and Edelia were making juanes when we showed up to visit them!

So basically when we went to go work on Friday... no one was home!! We walked around for about three hours with NO appointments.  It was rough, but at least that night we were able to go to a meeting with President Gomez to say our goodbyes!

This Tuesday, President Gomez ends his mission! It's a sad week.. but on that same day our new president, President Li comes.  He looks pretty awesome! He and his wife are converts that were found by sister missionaries, so apparently they have a lot of love for us sisters! I don't know when we´ll get to meet him though... I'll let you know when I do!

Also, the good (but also kinda bad thing) about San Juan is that everyone hands out juanes! We were given seven juanes! We took a picture... but in the picture there are only four because our pensionista made us each eat one at lunch (the ones that she made) and then we accidentally lost the other one.  It was funny cause they all gave us juanes but sad because we couldn't eat any of them.. we took the picture and then threw them out!  (Just a little note ... the missionaries have strict rules about what we can eat!)  We would have given them back out but they had gone bad by the time we took the picture!

Our Juanes!

So Felipe and Sara are still awesome.  They didn't come to church yesterday though, mainly because it rained and they were a little lazy. :(  We had a really nice lesson with them yesterday where we really felt the spirit and they promised to come to church next Sunday!

Raul´s birthday is today and he said he´s going to ask his parents for his baptismal permission today.  He said he's going to say it's the only thing he wants for his birthday! We´re praying that it works and he can get baptized soon! That's really the only thing he wants!  So sweet!

So yeah, that was my week... happy San Juan!!!

Love you all!! Hope you are enjoying your summer! 

Hermana Gurney

Week 45

June 20, 2016

So this week was fun! Nothing really strange happened like losing water, but it was still awesome!

First off... HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!! 

I hope all the fathers out there had a great day and were spoiled by their families!  It is also Father's day out here in Peru, but we didn't really do anything special! Most people just went out to eat as a family!

In terms of missionary work...

We decided to stop visiting Meli and her family for sometime.. we were kinda stuck in a rut... they said they hadn't received an answer but then told us they felt peace when they prayed ... and that was their answer.  It just repeated like that every lesson. We even prayed with them in the lesson to have them feel the Spirit, but they didn't recognize it. So we´re going to stop visiting them for sometime and give them a little space.  I think it will really help them notice the absence of the Spirit. 

In terms of Felipe and Sara, the kids didn't come to church because the mom got sick.  The kids did tell us they prayed and felt that the church was true and accepted a baptismal date for the 16 of July! We´re going to work really hard for that date.  They might not be able to be baptized that day if their parents don't start coming to church, but I know we can really help them this week!

Cute kids climbing the trees!

We got locked out of the church!!

We did service this week with Cesaria.  She is an elderly lady in the ward ... who is awesome. (The funny part is that her name literally means c-section!)  She had us clean her doors, which were actually really full of dirt, so we wiped off the dirt with a rag and then she handed us petroleum to wipe on the doors "to make it shine!"   I just really hope no one takes a match over there soon!!! We also swept up her dirt floors and then she told us "Wow, there's so much dirt!" and we just laughed cause, of course there's dirt... its a dirt floor! hahahaha. She really is the sweetest, I keep meaning to take a picture with her but always forget!!

Raiza downloaded her scriptures on her tablet and has been reading them like that and it's so cute! She showed us where she is and how she´s been marking it ... we were just so happy!

This week was also the soccer game between Peru and Colombia and literally EVERYONE was watching it. EVERYONE! We walked past a house and we could look in, see the score, and then keep going! We were well updated! They even set up a projector in the town square where people got together and watched the game! It was funny! I took a picture! It was awesome, until Peru lost :(

Photo of town square ... sorry it is blurry!

So yeah, that was my week! pretty good!! I hope everything is going super well back home!!

Miss you all!!

Hermana Gurney

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