#64

I loooooved the focus of Women's Conference. I found a lot of guidance for my life. I'm slowly leaving the comfort zone that I have made for myself here in the mission, and the things that I learned in Women' s Conference are going to help me with that.

Well this week had some bummers and had some Miracles. 

We always start with bad news right? 

I talked about Elidia last week and how she was going to get baptized this week. Well that didn't happen. There was a HUGE misunderstanding about her sister and a strike that was going on in Machu Picchu and angry words were spoken (mostly by me) and tears were shed (mostly by my companion) and it was just a  big hooplah!  Now, we're not entirely sure what's going to happen with her, but we're hoping she'll be able to get baptized the 7th of October (it's so weird that that is soooo soon.) So yeah, bummer of the week.

But like we learned... 3 months ago maybe, is that there can be miracles when you believe! (has anyone listened to that song?) 

So I was in divisions with Hermana Johnson, she's new in the mission. And we were trying to find our appointment,  ( which we never found) and we were knocking on doors that could possibly be the door of the lady. Well a young man opened the door. At first sight, he just screams PUNK! Like screamo listening, back tatooing, house ransacking punk. I wasn't going to contact him, but something told me that I should. So I did and gave him the card. set an appointment, and we left. So we had our appointment with him Saturday. He's seventeen, got blond hair, wears scary shirts, and has piercings. Like I said, punk. But when we started talking, I asked him why he had accepted our visit. He said he wanted to know God. That simple. He didn't say anything else. Just that he wanted to know God. Well we thought that was just as good a desire as any other. So we continued. We asked him what he felt towards God. He said nothing. And that's why he wanted the visit. He doesn't know if God really exists. First person I've met in allll my mission that has said this. But he wants to know. He talked about repentance. we bore our testimonies of a real living loving God. He listened. It was special. We asked him to pray, and he was really nervous, but he did. He gave thanks over and over again for our visit, saying that he was very content, very happy that we had come. He asked God to help him believe. And then we set another appointment. I have yet to see a youth so.... hungry to know. His name is Ivan and I'm really excited to see where he goes. 

But I learned a valuable lesson. That God looks not upon the outward appearance. And how WONDERFUL is that. He loves blond haired, pierced, and tatooed Ivan. He loves loud mouthed, zitted faced, crazy Hermana Rust. He loves us regardless. And that's what I learned. That we are all children of our Heavenly Father, and each one of us has the light of Christ in our hearts. Each one has the capacity to feel, recognize, and act on that light. Regardless of how we dress, where we are come from, or what we have done. And Ivan has felt that light. It was probably something that he had never before experienced. And I was there to experience it with him. How cool right?

Well weeks will always have there bummers, but they also will always have their miracles. And that's a promise. 

Send my love to all! I'm gonna send some pictures of my P-day with Travis. Best P-day ever! 

Love you all!

Hermana Rust

That's us at Koricancha. 

We bought matching pants. And jumped in the street. And that's an undershirt, worry not. 

Also, Travis found a gross soccer ball and decided it made him look more "street". He was right.

He posed in all my companions pictures.  

We all tried taking selfies, but he's just so dang tall that he had to do it. He did it well!

 And the girlies.

Candid!

# 63

We had a baptism!!! It was kinda sorta a last minute thing, but it went off without too many hitches. I don't know if you remember René, he never showed up to his first baptism and he's the one who had the alcohol addiction, but he went sober and got baptized. It was a simple service, Obispo Dueñas baptized him (The one who served with Brandon) and it was all just super nice. We went to go pick him up, and when we knocked on the door, he opened it, quickly said "Nobody is here! Bye!" slammed the door, and then opened the door again with a big smile and said "yeah just kidding, come in!" Haha it was funny, and then we left! He's been a long... kinda hard process. But after everything, he did it and he grew a lot in his faith because of it. If there's something I've learned on my mission, it's to never give up on anyone. Even the most lost of causes. There is siempre a miracle that can take place in their hearts. And that miracle took place in René´s. 

We also had a suuuuper cool ward activity brought to you by the missionary work (that sounds really weird in English, but makes a lot of sense in Spanish... por la obra misional! Nat will get it I think...) We had a  talent show. It started at six, and at six, it seemed like this talent show was going to a flop. But when 7 rolled around, there were still few people, but there was more promise. By 7:30, everyone was having a jolly good time. Peruvian standard time = 1 and a half hours late. But we didn't let that get us down. We were all singing and dancing and it was fun. The ward mission leader was MCing and there was an 11 year old girl who was dancing lambada for her talent and she pulled Hno Mandujano onstage to dance with her. He's a short little guy, so they made a good pair, until he dipped her, and with the momentum, fell on top of her and broke the microphone. Moral of the story is that we need to dance waaaaay more lambada in the talent shows in the states. It was hilarious. And then the son of Hno Mandujano danced the dance from The Mask (I've never seen it, but everyone said it was juuuuuust like the movie) with mask and all. Suuuuper cute. I have all the videos, so one day in the distant future we'll sit down and see just how cool Latin American talent shows are.

 

Well it's been a long, busy, exhausting week for the both of us. I had to pick up and drop off sisters all week for transfers and then plan an activity and then a baptism.. so hands full. But this week should be more chill. I mean, still jam packed but with all the stuff that I actually like to do!  

Send my love to alllll! Here's some pictures of the week! 

Hermana Rust

We had to say goodbye to our favorite district leader, elder Lopez. Transfers stink sometimes.  He went to puerto. He was always shooting us with his hand guns. He's basically a Peruvian Logan Call. 

Oh I forgot to mention that I sang in the talent show. I sang somewhere over the rainbow in a key that was waaay too high and waaay too low. And also, when I sing, I look slightly... well you can decide.

Las cuatro amigas. I lufff them. 

Rene got baptized! I hate taking pictures with guys. Its sooo uncomfortable. 

#62 *original post August 22, 2016

 When I saw Travis... holy cow it was wild. Like I was on a bus, and we were passing the corner where I live, and I vaguely see out of the corner of my eye a tall guy with a hoodie on. I remember briefly thinking "wow, he looks a lot like Travis!" And then when I took a closer look, IT WAS HIM! I started hitting the window to get his attention and everyone was staring at me, it was a little embarrassing, but he saw me, smiled, and then just hopped on the bus.  

But yeah I just started screaming "What are you doing here? Where are you going? What?!  Haha. Everyone was staring at us.

Not everyday that your brother comes to visit you... on your mission... in Peru. Haha his face kills me! 

 Got my nails did today. this manicure cost.... 2.50! Can you believe that?!?! 

We went to a zoo and he grabbed my hand. I made him let go, so I think that's why he is upset.

#61 Just a little note.

This is kind of going to be a short little email. Not much to report. I mean there are a few updates I could give. Reiner came to church yesterday! And it was cool because it was stake conference! And he came! He admitted to sleeping a little through it... but I mean I also did that.. so I can't judge. And then that night, my comp and I were in divisions, but when she went to go visit him, she invited him to be baptized! And He said YES!!! it was suuuper cool. I mean I wasn't there, but I imagine that it was super cool. 

That's basically what has happened this week. I was in divisions all week with other girls and so I hardly saw Hermana Conde, but I got to get to know a lot of the other sisters so that's fun. Now... I don't really have much to say but I will use my spare time to send pictures! So enjoy that. 

Love everyone and hope you are swell! Mom send me questions again. I need more material. 

Hermana Rust 

That's Marilia. She's 19 and just got her mission call. I lufff her!

I loook suuuper plastic in this, but that's hermana arza and hermana david. We visit them. Argentina and colombiana.

That's me and cusco. And the tahuantinsuyo flag. Try saying that I dare you. 

And this is an inca door.

we played futbol with president this past pday. Fue legit. 

#60 Everything is great everything is grand

I don't have a tooooon to say this week, just to start out with that. But I can give an update on Reiner. We had an appointment with him yesterday and he's still a little closed, but he's softening up. I can see the spirit really working through him. He´s got a long way to go, but we're getting there. Little by little.

This week I want to talk about René. He's an investigator that we have been teaching for a loooong time, since I got here. He had a baptism date, but he never showed up due to his alcohol addiction. He is a great guy, but he's suffered a bit his whole life with addictions and things like that. he´s 33. So he disappeared for like a month. then we taught him again. Then he disappeared again for another month and finally, yesterday, we found him!!! finally!! He came to church and then we set an appointment for that same afternoon. And we went in and it was kinda of like another declaring repentance type of thing. He was finally frank with us and his addiction and we were finally able to get somewhere. We set plans and goals for him to stop drinking and smoking, including deleting numbers from his phone and avoiding certain people. It was awesome! and he was helping us set the plans! Suuuper cool and he had like a different light in his eyes. Waaaay cool. And so now we've got that going. So the work is going. It's hard sometimes, but it's moving. 

I don't really have anything else to say today... everything is well, I'm a little stressed out about school and all that stuff, but it's all gonna work out. 

I'm just going to send pictures now... But I looooove everyone who reads this. 

Bye! 

Hermana Rust 

This week we washed blankets with our feet... 

that's hermana Stickle. I love her!

It's my group!! All together again! hermana Baker, Hermana Rust, Elder Vance, and elder Tsosi! 

that's hermana Vicky, my pensionista! 

And that's Zoe, the granddaughter of my pensionista. 

#59 There can be miracles...

Well this has been the TRUNKIEST p-day ever.

Here's why. We went to Chili's to lunch and then got frozen yogurt. 2 things that I have not done in over a year. Then a Michael Buble song came on in the mall. And then I logged onto my email to find emails about college, an email from the mission offices asking me questions so that they can buy my plane ticket, and an email from Elder Winzenreid saying he gets home next week! Like what the heck! I still have like 6 months left. So I'm nooooot trunky nor will I ever be. But today, yes it was trunky.

But we're not going to focus on that. 

Instead we'll focus on the miracles. There's a song that I always listen to that is actually from the movie The Prince of Egypt which I have never even seen but the music is top notch and it's a song that is called "When You Believe". The original from the movie is lovely, but I am partial to the Whitney Houston/Mariah Carey rendicion because you know I love it when the black girls belt it out (I strive to be able to do that better, for that I listen to the masters). I invite you to listen to them both. In the chorus it says "There can be miracles when you believe. Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill. Who knows what miracles you can achieve, when you believe, somehow you will, you will when you believe." Inspirational right? And now just imagine two powerhouses busting their lungs out singing it and try to hold back the tears. 

So this has kind of become my.... lema? how is that in English... 

Because you see, we had concilio this past week, and all we talked about was the missionary broadcast that there was this past January about preaching repentance and baptizing converts. Our new president is really focusing in on just that. So me and my companion were discussing about how we could better incorporate that into our proselyting and we decided to have repentance be it's own lesson because sometimes we don't put enough emphasis on that. But it kind of scared us because who reeeeaaaallly likes crying repentance to people? It's uncomfortable and awkward. But we decided that there was a reason that this had such a large emphasis, not only in our own mission, but in missionary work as a whole.

 

Well this determination that we had was put to the test yesterday. We found a new investigator last week. His name is Reinar. His wife is a member but he has absolutely ZERO interest in the church. He's heard the lessons before but quite frankly he just made fun of the gospel. Last week was our first appointment and it was... awful. His poor wife has been going through some hard stuff with her autistic son and just with being the only member. Struggling. And we tried teaching them that the gospel could help us cope with these things, that their son would be perfect in the next life, and that they could be an eternal family. He didn't believe it and wasn't too excited with our setting a return appointment. But we did and it was for the next Sunday, or yesterday. So we go to the appointment yesterday, kind of nervous and scared because we didn't know what to teach and we didn't know how he would take it. The night before we planned to do repentance as a show of our faith that this is what God wants us to do, but I don't think we really trusted in the promises that had come with the invitation to preach repentance. But we did it. 

We started the lesson, putting on our brave faces. We read with them from Alma 36, Alma's conversion story, and we just discussed it. How Alma felt, how we feel when we sin, how it feels when we repent. All that jazz. And during the whole lesson, the weirdest thing was happening. Reinar was LISTENING. Not just listening, but intently, drinking in the words, nodding in agreement, reading the scriptures, participating. It was a miracle. A complete 180 from the first time we had visited him. And we asked him how he felt, to which he responded that he believed that everything we had said was true. A miracle. 

Now he's still not the golden investigator that every missionary hopes to find and baptize, but now he's a man open to learning. Maybe he'll get baptized, maybe he won't. but I am sure that when he does get baptized, it is because he is converted to the Lord through sincere repentance. It's the only way we can be converted. 

So what I learned is that God knows what he is doing. He gives us the opportunity to act on his promises and then fulfills them. Every time. it was kind of lame of me to not trust in this promise, what can I say the flesh is weak, but every time my testimony is stronger and stronger about the fulfillment of the promises of God. He works miracles. If you believe. 

I just want to end making a few birthday shout outs and these people will get their own emails of course because I love them, but just so everyone else can see how great I am to remember birthdays even when I am on another continent ;) 

Happy Birthday to  my favorite of all the Chuppies, Phat Knat. You're a great sister and I love ya to Peru and back. 

Happy Birthday to my main Bae Ansley Jo. Stop having dreams that I'm going to desert you ok?

Happy Birthday to my Hal Pal who doesn't even know who I am anymore and calls me Natalie... kind of destroys my heart completely but I still love her and I hope she still watches Reba at 2 everyday and then takes a nap. That was our routine. 

And a very belated Birthday to my Poppo! I'm sorry it's taken so long, I'm a bad daughter sometimes, but I love you too Paps! 

Well that has been my week! Enjoy the 100+ weather, I know I will be enjoying the 60 degree weather here.

Send my love to all and remember that there are miracles when you believe! 

Hermana Rust 

#58 Transfers Week

Holy Hannah Montana, I am EXAHSTED. Like too tired to even try to  remember how to spell exahsted. So we will leave it at that.

And you must be asking why I am even tired. That's a very good question. Because i didn't even get transferred. Didn't even move. But I am tired because I was basically the mother to 19 hermanas this week as we picked them up from the bus station, took them to our house, made sure they had food to eat and a place to sleep, and then took them back to the bus station the next day to go to their new areas or to the hospital to work out all the stomach infections that go around here. I think we can say that I am pretty darn prepared and will have a good hand on motherhood. 

We had Hermanas at our house from Tuesday to Friday, and for that reason we weren't able to work in our area as much as we would have liked, but I think Heavenly father must have seen that we runned our little hind quarters off, so he gave us a few miracles by having a new investigator come to church yesterday and finding 4 new investigators on Sunday alone. It was exactly what my little worn out heart and mind needed. Tender mercies! 

But one of our lessons  yesterday, oy me asustò! She was one of the most closed off people I had ever met! Me and Hermana Conde were scared to death while we taught her. Like she would listen to us, but the minute we would stop talking, she told us how much she disliked everything we were saying. And I've never been in that situation before. Like there are people who don't really  want us to visit them, but at the end of the appointment, they still listen and are gracious and then just stop answering our phone calls. We part ways peacefully. I sooooo prefer that! But I think that this must have been a little test for me, to see if I could still, in the face of blatant opposicion,  share this message with the conviction and spirit it deserves. To be honest, I don't know how well I did, but it was something terrifying that I'm pretty sure that I had to go throw to test the strength of my own testimony. So It was necessary and it was what I needed. 

Well That's really all that happened this week. 

This Wednesday is our first concilio with Presidente Herrera, so that will be fun to kind of get to know him on a more personal level. Looking forward to it!

Hope you have a splendid week and we'll talk to ya next week!

Hermana Rust

 "Be happy!" 

This  is a perro peruano, or Peruvian dog. It's probs the ugliest thing I've seen because it does not have hair and it feels like a rat. For that reason, i have named it smegol (i knew how to spell that at one point... maybe thats right.) his owners weren¡t too  pleased with my naming it. But they should have picked a less repulsing dog.  

from this angle, he looks more like dobby. Smegobby I will call him. 

   funny story. We were picking sisters up from the terminal and we just so happened to run into two guys that hermana conde and I reactivated from Talavera!! what a strange coincidence that once again, 

hermana conde and I were companions! Fun small world stuff that happens.