Hi! From a Mountain Top: #28 Angels We Have Heard On High

So we have started a missionary Choir! And guess who is the director? Yours truly! Haha mom you'd be so proud of me! We are singing two nights a week in the main plaza of Puno and contacting as we do so. And our first night was Saturday night! And boy can we not sing. But it was still so fun and because Puno is a super touristy place, we had people from all different countries watching and listening to us! It was the best! And they enjoyed it! Everytime we stopped, they begged us for more! Don't ask me why because we sure weren't angels, but maybe we had a couple accompanying us that day. I like to think so. And then at the end, we were geting ready to leave, and a mob of moms and little girls came up to me "Perdon senorita, pero una foto por favor? una foto por favor?" and you know me, I like to please the fans so I posed and smiled and did all that famous stuff. So yeah I think it's safe to say I'm Puno Royalty or something. I'm going for it. And they didn't ask anyone else for pictures, just me! (insert hair flip here)

Ok my moment of pride is over, we'll get back to the good old missionary work.

So this week was kind of slow... We have two investigators that are just awesome and I love them both so much but they are driving me crazy! Neither of them will accept a baptism date! No matter what we do, they both just say no. All the time. WE fasted for them both yesterday and now we're hoping for a miracle. One is Isabel and she just wont talk to her husband about marriage. I don't understand why nobody here is married. It's really getting on my nerves. She's afraid to talk to her husband about it and she knows that she has to because she has to get married before she gets baptized, and she knows the church is true, but there's something else wrong that we've gotta figure out before she can take the plunge into marriage and the baptismal font. Right now I'm just really hoping for a miracle of extreme measures for her.

The other is Julio and he's been attending the church since... Julio. Since like my second week here. And he too knows that the church is going to bless his life, but he doesn't want to accept a date until he knows everything. We're trying to get him to understand that he doesn't need to know everything yet, that what he's got is enough faith to be baptized, but that's not good enough for him either. He's not reading the Book of Mormon a lot, so we're trying to put more emphasis in that so he can really get a testimony. But those are our two, stubborn, investigators that I just love with all my heart but they are really driving me bonkers. I guess that's true love though,. right?

This week we also had a a great and terrible lesson with this new family we are teaching. Their names are Giomar and Maribi. Giomar is a less active of... 12 years. He lives with Maribi (They aren't married of course) and she is an investigator. They have a 2 year old son named Ivan and they are going really well. We've only had 2 lessons with them, but we've got big plans for a wedding and a baptism. But this past lesson we had was just kind of... rough. you see, Giomar has a lot of... doubts. And one of these is why all the people, all the leaders, of the church are from The United States. And he is very vocal about it. It's one of the reasons he fell away he told us. And I've never even thought about that before. It never even caught my attention. I mean we know that there are leaders from all parts of the world, but his beef is that the 12 and first presidency, with the exception of President Uchtdorf, are all American. And I didn't have a clue what to say. I mean its a bit awkward because I too am from the United States and I felt almost a little attacked, and I wanted to fight him on it. But I didn't because what good would that do? So I just told him that I had faith that God knew what he was doing. I told him that I had faith that God loved all his children, not important where they are from, what language they speak, or how they looked. I told him I had faith that God was preparing people in all parts of the world to be instruments and leaders in his hands. I don't know if what I told him gave any peace to his mind on the subject, but he did back down and accept what I said. I told him to pray to find peace in this; to find a way to maybe not understand, but to accept. And at the same time, I received peace and comfort from this too. Because it's easy to get caught up in these little things. To think that God doesn't love me as much as others because I don't have the priesthood, or because I was born into a certain family, or whatever the problem may be. But we can't let our faith lessen in respect of how much our Heavenly father loves us. How he loves all of us the same. That we are all his children. So that was our interesting lesson with Giomar and I hope that he can receive peace from these feelings.

Well that's all I've got for you now folks! But I just want to wish a very very happy birthday to my Beautiful mother who prepared me for this moment of fame I had as choir director. I learned everything I know from her! I love you mom and I hope your day was awesome and that beebz was nice to you! Also Happy Birthday to Danny Boy. You've got a beautiful son thank's to your beautiful wife (you're not too bad yourself) and I just hope that you guys are having the best time as your little family. Seriously that boy is beautiful. I can't wait to meet him! Oh and it was so fun to see Emily in the Christmas devotional all up close and I screamed when I saw her and all the missionaries got mad at me but I didn't even care because I got to see PB!!! It was the best. Well I love you all and hope the spirit of Christmas is all a glow in your homes and Hearts! Two more weeks and I'll see ya'll real soon! Love everyone!

Hermana Rust