When Time Touches Eternity...

Holy heck, we almost died in a massive earthquake! Just kidding!  I didn't even know it  was an earthquake at first.  I thought I was falling asleep. Hahahaha, no worries :)

Well. It was a really bittersweet week. We actually had a lot of success! First off Fabiola was baptized on Saturday and it was great. She really has a strong desire to repent and  always be worthy. It is a huge testimony to me of the power of the Atonement. Also we had more lessons with Kathy, the pregnant lady, and she is amazing. She is so sweet and so prepared for the gospel it is ridiculous.

We also found a family this week! They were actually a contact from  President when he came and they are a family of 10!  I really have hope that they will progress as a family. But it was actually  also a really, really funny lesson. So we knew the dad had like a problem with his arm and couldn't work, but we had never met the rest of the family. Well, they let us in and we were just talking to him and his wife and his wife starts crying and telling us how hard it has been  because her husband was like shot and almost died.  Then this sweet crazy mamita lady stands up and starts unbuttoning her husbands shirt and we just about died. But really she was just  showing us the  bullet wounds all on his chest. Horrifying, but way less horrifying than I feared. But they really are a great family with a lot of needs that the gospel can fill.

In other random funny stories, we got in a taxi this week and he wouldn't haggle prices with Hermana Rush so we agreed to just go collective, which means we pay 1 sol and he can pick up other passengers on the way, but usually no one ever gets in. Well 5 more men got in and we were crammed in a little tiny car and it was so dang funny I almost peed laughing at our awkwardness. Oh,  the life.

Well, saying goodbye was horrible. First off I felt for her because she has been here so long and has so many strong relationships here. She just cried and cried, and they all cried.  She has changed so many lives here with her example, and love, and spirit. She is an infinitely stronger, more amazing missionary than she can see. Then it finally came time to say goodbye in the bus station and I cried like a baby. This change with her changed my mission. I literally fell in love with it. Every part of it. I feel confident and happy.  She taught me how to love people and my companions. She lifted me and made me a better missionary. She is a woman of great faith, and I will miss laughing and talking dearly, but I am so grateful for the time we had.

Well, I am excited to get back to work! Changes are  hard, but I have learned so much from every one. Onward and upward! I love you all so dang much. Be happy :)

Remember the moments when time touches eternity :)

Lauren

I Just Really Am Not Creative Enough to Title Emails

My Family Who I Love!!!

I love you all so much :) It is ridiculous. But! You already knew that :)  I consistently just feel like I am filled with a spirit of gratitude. I am so blessed :)

One thing I was really grateful for this week was the Book of Mormon. It just hit me how much I love it, how strong my testimony is of its truthfulness. I was reading in Preach my Gospel where it says that we don't have to answer the hard questions or the weird questions, we just have to ask them if they have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. When it all comes down to it, if the book of Mormon is true, and we have read it and we know it is true, nothing else matters. And the book is true. We were also talking to Diana this week and we were a little frustrated. She wasn't reading the Book of Mormon like she should be, and she was asking a lot of deep doctrine questions. Finally. we asked if she was reading the book of Mormon, and she said not as much as she should be. Then we just talked about how important that was, and I felt impressed to read Moroni 10:4 and then also 5 and 6. It just talks about how you can't deny the power of Christ. We were able to testify to her that you can't deny the power of the Book of Mormon and you will feel that undeniable testimony come if you are really reading it and praying.  That testimony will carry you through much more than just your doubts. I know that it will carry you through your fears, trials, and heartaches as well. That book has power that I can't explain. The little blue ones that we carry every day are just pages of paper, but opening that books brings a palpable feeling of the Power of God. Read that book like your life depends on it :)

I live in fear because there is a ginormous spider living in my dresser, like tarantula. But I don't know where it went so I just pull my clothes out really fast and squeal. I haven't seen it in like 5 days though.... so either it is planning an attack or it died. 

Also, i never realized how important white teeth are until I got to a place where they aren't. But they are. TEETH ARE SO IMPORTANT. Hahahaha new husband requirement.... decent teeth.

So yesterday was a typical stressful Sunday. We had assigned members to pick up all of our investigators and we had to be at the church early. Well one of the members who was in charge of like 5 of the investigators wasn't answering her phone and it was really getting close to time so we ran out to a taxi and sped all the way up to the top of the mountain to get Fabiola.  Because if she didn't come yesterday she couldn't be baptized this week. But we got to her so it was ok :) Stressful and hilarious but ok. The down side is that due to a family emergency, Kathy and Karmin couldn't come, so they are being pushed to September for their baptisms :( So that was a little rough, but it was unavoidable so it will be ok. Trials of faith :) 

Also yesterday, we were sitting up on the stand because Hermana Rush had to speak and two straight up Isrealites walked in and sat down in the back of the chapel (long hair, Jesus clothes and disciple shoes). It was so scary. Hahahah. Then after the sacrament hour the elders stayed RIGHT with them so they couldn't talk to investigators. They were actually really young and they talked to us and they just have really flawed doctrine. But they stayed for the second hour too and it was just really stressful, ahahahaha, but also hilarious. Oh the joys.

Then in the 3rd hour yesterday one of the members of the Stake Presidency taught all the adults and he talked about raising families in the gospel and it was a really great lesson. They talked about how the only place that compares to the temple on earth is the home. I am so thankful for parents who gave me that kind of home and I want to have that kind of home someday too :) I love this Gospel and the opportunities it gives to families. 

Well next week is cambios, so no email til the middle of the week :( I am going to miss Sister Rush, it has been a great transfer! I hope you all have a great week, be careful in all your travels and such :) Be happy! Happy first day of school!!! hahahaha suckers :) 

I love you!

Lauren

2 Timothy 1:7

This is the view from our balcony!

Do you not know I have had diarrhea since Easters?

Hahahaha Familia!!! Whom I love!!

The title of this email has reference to Nacho Libre. Please watch it in my memory :) hahaha

Anyway. It has been a crazy week! Well, crazy as any other week I guess. The weeks just feel like they fly by! It is a little terrifying. Anyway.

First we have a new (ish) investigator named Kathy who I think I have mentioned, but I just love her. We had another lesson with her this week and she just gets it! She read what she was supposed to and then just told us all about it. We usually have to like review it all so that they understand it.... but she just gets it. Hahaha it is really just refreshing. Her sister also has a baptismal date for the same day and just wants to move forward with her life. Pray for them to keep progressing :) We have a FHE with them tonight and they both have baptismal dates for the 30th of this month. They are family of the recent convert family that are just awesome. They are family of Jossy as well so they have a good support system. 

Also this week, President came for a training and it was really really good. We talked all about the atonement and how it relates to missionary work and it was just generally really,  really good. I learned a ton. And then.... he left with me and Hermana Rush to work. Which we had kind of been feeling like might happen all week.  Just when we thought we were safe he came and told us he had two hours that he wanted to spend with us proselyting. Talk about panic attack. We ended up teaching Rosemary's family and it actually went well enough. He also contacted in the taxi and the street and we just listened and followed him in awe. Hahaha. So that was really good :) Albeit terrifying.

Well, that night at like 2 in the morning I woke up and had some really wicked sickness. So we actually ended up staying in all Saturday and everything but church yesterday. It is like the first time I have had to stay in for me and I was a little stir crazy. But Hermana Rush kept me rational and sane. Hahaha, I feel SO MUCH better today, like huge change.  The hilarities that came out of the sickness were almost worth it. Like on Saturday, after we called the Health Elder and he didn't answer we got a text in Spanish that said, "did you guys call me?" So Hermana Rush answered in Spanish, "Yes my companion has a ton of sickness." And he answered in Spanish,  "Which one of you?"  And so she answered in English because he is a gringo.  And then he answered in Quechua and she was like, "what the heck?" So she answered in really ugly Quechua and then it was just letters in response.  And that's when we realized it was the Relief Society President who we also called that morning. Ahahahah.   Then that night I was so sick that I couldn't handle eating the fish some members gave us, and Hermana Rush sacrificed and ate it for me, gaining forever number one companion status.  Hahaha It has been very eventful, albeit a bit frustrating.

I love thinking about the Atonement. All day yesterday while I was sleeping and being irrational, I kept thinking of the song "Breath of Heaven". I just love this Gospel and thinking about my Savior :)

Alma 26:22!!

I love you and miss you all so much! Congratulations on all the success at the fair. I am so proud of each and every one of you!  I have the best family in the whole world :) But i already knew that. I love you!

Hermana Bailey

First Llama I have seen.  It was in a sketchy zoo.

Baptism

Where in the Heck Did July Go??

But really. Where did that go?

ANYWAY!

I just love being a missionary. It is a little ridiculous. Like for real. I have never been so happy in my life! And so aware of my purpose... a mission just makes you reflect a lot. You see people and how their choices affect them and how they are doing in their lives and just think a lot. I have never felt so strongly how important the temple is and how important having a family and fulfilling the plan is. It is such a beautiful feeling! I just feel happy. I am so incredibly grateful for Hermana Rush. Being with her for this transfer has really lifted me up and helped me to be the missionary I want to be. It is insane. This gospel is so true!

Hey Mom. When I was little did you sing "As I Have Loved You" to me a lot? Random I know. But I have memories I can't place...

SO this week was really good! Jossy was baptized and it was a really powerful and spiritual night. She bore her testimony about fasting so that her dad would give her permission and it was really great, and we actually had a little ward support! So that was good. Then, we also had 4 investigators at her baptism! It was so rewarding and just beautiful to see how deep that little girl's testimony is.

This week we have also been teaching a woman named Kathy. She also came to the baptism and then in the very next lesson she accepted a baptismal date and just kept saying how she felt different in the baptism of Jossy and it just felt good and right and that she knew this is what she needed in her life and her future family's life. She is pregnant and super open and willing to learn so much. She wants the gospel in her life. And then she came to church yesterday in our recent rescue and her family's huge van full of missionaries and investigators!

Another really cool thing that happened yesterday was that after Jossy was confirmed in sacrament, they announced that there was a baby blessing and they blessed Diana's little boy,  Alvaro! We had no idea they were planning on doing that or that they even wanted too. I just started to cry because Diana and Jossy really just GET IT.  Please pray that Diana will be able to get married and baptized. She is just so amazing :)

Yesterday... was a great day. Our whole ward fasted for the missionary work and then we ended up talking about it in Relief Society and it was just really powerful. Then, after church,  we were teaching a less active and offered to help her peel garlic cloves.  So we just sat on a dirt floor and peeled garlic cloves and talked about the gospel for like 2 hours.  Then we went to another less active's house for dinner and while we were waiting for her to finish it, we washed her clothes for her family. On the roof. By hand. In freezing air with a beautiful view of Ayacucho. I think it is really important for them to see that us two gringas are just here to help and love them :) It was a great, beautiful day. I love this ward and this area, and I love seeing how the gospel works in the lives of humble people who are so happy to know it.

I also love Hermana Rush. I am just so happy and comfortable with her as my companion. It has just jump started my growth. I look up to her so dang much :)

Oh funny story I forgot. We locked ourselves out of our house Friday morning going to buy toilet paper and after trying like three times to go full cheerleader to get on our balcony thing and almost dying, we went and borrowed a ladder from a mamita and broke into our own house. Funniest thing ever.

Well. I love all of you with all of my heart. Have a great week at the fair! I expect pictures... hahahaha I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!

I love you!

Lauren

It is Independence Day in Peru and I Smell Barbecue :)

My Dearly Beloved Family!

How are you all?? I miss you so much! But I really am actually falling in love with my mission. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN 6 MONTHS?!?! 6 months ago I was having a break down in the Bountiful temple and packing and getting set apart. Oh how fast the time goes. I decided the other day I would never go backwards in my mission. I don't regret a single day, but i just love moving forward. I think that is a metaphor for life. We can't go back, and we should be compelled to progress until the final, perfect day. I don't even know if that makes sense but I am like over self reflecting since it has been 6 months. hahaha ANYWAY!

It is the equivalent of the 4th of July today in Peru and it is psychotic, and i just want to eat food. We are fasting until after internet and I can smell every single good smell in the world outside at this giant fair thing and it is driving me insane. But it is actually really cool. And cultural. And loud. hahahaha

I feel so scattered. what happened this week? Well I had an intercambio with Hermana Jameson and it was actually really great. We just talked and talked and talked. I really do love her.  She is an amazing person and an amazing missionary. And I learned a ton from her.  I want to be able to teach like her when I have 14 months in the field. Let us pray. Hahahaa. She just teaches the restoration so concisely and animatedly. People just love it. 

Then on Thursday for service we went with Hermana Quist and Hermana Wilkins to do service in the garden of this lady who is less active and sort of thinks she is a catholic.  It was highly entertaining.  Partially because all of these little kids kept passing and it was like a gringa zoo. We were all fenced in and everything. Oh life.

Well, the work is a little slow here in Ayacucho and it can be a little frustrating. We were just walking and walking and walking one day because appointment after appointment fell through and I was thinking about the pioneers and how they just kept walking and walking and walking. I somehow know that this is preparing me, and us,  and this area for something amazing. I know that if we really build our faith and trust and if we just keep on keeping on, miracles are going to happen. Not to say that miracles don't happen every day. That is another thing I have learned on the mission. There are miracles every day in every way. There is something every single day to make everything worth it. 

For example, Jossy is going to be baptized this weekend! Everything is all set to go and she is so amazing. She just gets it! She is only 14 and she understands the scriptures amazingly. Today we are fasting with her and her older sister so that her older sister's husband will want to get married so that she can be baptized too and so that Jossy's dad will accept everything that is changing in her life. They are just so amazing and strong.

Another one is one of our other progressing investigators Fabiola. She really wants to change her life and be a better parent than hers were. She just has such a desire to change and be in the church, so we are working really hard with her so she can be baptized the next week.

The best lesson we taught all week was last night to a family of amazing recent converts and their two little nephews. They had some really great questions about the sacrament and why it is important to be focused and how we can think about the Savior, and also about the plan of salvation and how we can always repent.  It was just very spiritual, and therefore our Spanish really flowed! It was great. I absolutely love being a missionary. I love Ayacucho. I love love love love being companions with Hermana Rush :) I am learning things every day. We are stepping out of our comfort zone and really growing.

Pray for us! Pray for our area more than anything :) For Jossy and Diana and Fabiola. Pray for us to find the people who are waiting to find happiness in this world :)

Read Alma 42. I love it :) I didn't even know there were two trees in the garden of Eden.... it  is blowing my mind. Hahahaha But in a good way :) I love you all so so so so much. I will look for weird Ayacucho things today to take pictures of and send next week! This week went by so fast. My mind is jumbled :) But I love it! And  I love you! and I will see you......, IN JUST ONE YEAR!!! have a great week :) I love you!

Te Amo!

Lauren

Sometimes I just forget I am in Peru, and then it hits me and I am like, "Holy crap I am in Peru"

Dear family and friends of mine...

I am really sorry ahead of time because the aaaa on this stupid keyboard is possessed. So it may cause aproblems that I am too lazy to fix. But onward and upward!

Anyway. these last few days have been super insane but super good. I am learning so much and we are being forced to grow a ton because we don' t have a companion to just boss us aroaund and do everything their way. So we just run clumsily through life up and down the mountains of Alameda 2. ahahaha I think it is lovely. Although seriously my legs have never been this sore in my entire life and sometimes while I am sleeping they charly horse and I consider chopping them off  with a  spoon. But enough drama and whining about the literal mountain that is my area.

Well to start out our first week together in an area that is sort of dying due to the sickness of the last missionary here, Hermana Rush got deathly ill. Well, not deathly. But she puked on the floor and it was both sad and hilarious. Just because it was one of those things that only happens in Peru on a mission when you are 2 little 19 year-old girls. Then, we just went out every day and winged it.  Our teaching was and is a little choppy  just due to lack of the mastery of the language and experience and ateaching together. Buat after having a really long, difficult, jolting lesson on aFriday, we went to the house of a less active girl and taught her and her family and it was amazing. The spanish and the spirit were there and it just flowed. So then we felt a lot better about life.

One of the running problems we have had this week  is teaching investiagators or less actives that didn't or won't progress because someone in the ward has offended them... ait is kind of a big proablem  here. We have had a lot of really good and spiritual lessons explaining that salvation is personal and that while people aren't perfect, the gospel is. Only to have them tell us they will not come back to church. So that has been slightly discouraging. The ward is a tad dysfunctional.... like how there is only one counselor in the bishopric and the ward clerk is like a16. But we are working on it,  hahaha.

On Saturday we contacted this mamita who luckily spoke decent Spanish (they usually speak Quechua) and her niece. We taught them the whole first lesson and then ataught them how to pray.  They just weren't getting it and we literally explained for almost a half hour.  It was  a serious trial of patience ahahaha and I got bit by abouat a8 million bugs sitting in the grass in front oaf their house teaching. But it was worth it because even if they don't progres.  That little girl now knows how to pray whenever she feels that she is alone. And I count that as a win.

We also were teaching an  investigator that actually alives in our house.  One night and at one point Hermana Rush asked me how to say steps in Spanish.  I messed up and actually said pasas instead of pasos which is raisins.  So she taught the whole lesson on how baptism is only the first raisin and I know they understood and they didn't laugh or anything.  But when we were laying in bed that night I told her and we laughed so hard we almost died because we still can't believe he put the two youngest hermanas in the mission, who also are gringas and struggle, together.  I love it, ahahaha.

One of the most hilarious things I have ever seen is a daily occurrence here and I literally almost pee my pants. People just let their animals graze and herd them through the streets and such, including their horses. But they don't want the horses to run away.  So they tie their atwo front feet together and so when the horses want to move they do this weird hop thing.  It is literally the funniest, most comical thing ever.  I had to sit down in the street the first time that passed in front of us.

Also, yesterday, we decided to go explaoring for people up at this part that is in our area but has never been touched. It is called Yanama. So we got on a bus and first went on the most twisty turny edge of a clifff bus ride ever with about a50 mamitas with atheir bags and live chickens and so forth in a very crowded combi for about a half hour. Hilarity. Then we got off and it was literalaly like walkaing into another world. There was a little stream where everyone was washing their  clothes and adobe houses and literally everyone was a mamita. We just walked around in shock and ran from chickens and ginormous pigs that people just have tied out in front of their house and tried to contact.  We decided we are going to baptize everyone there and open a new ward in Yanama.  It was the most adventurous, beautaiful, thoaught provoking, hilarious day of my mission so far I think.  I love ayacucho.

I have been reading all of the histories of my ancestors today and it has been so fun and spiritual. I am so thankfu and proud for the pioneer heritage we have.  I love this gospel and I love the lord. I know that this work is true and that it is directed by the Llord. I love you all so danga much it is ridiculous and I hope you have the abest week ever. Remember who you are and how much  I love you! Because I do. Laike a laot.  Even if you are all praying that a llama spits on me. Jerks.

Te Amo!

Lauren

Who'll be a Witness for My Lord?

Hello My Dearly Beloved Family!

How are all of you? Every time I sit down to email, my thoughts get super scattered and I can't remember anything that happened this week.  But  I will try my hardest :)

Well first off, we are still just plugging along, two gringas in a foreign country. It is actually really quite hilarious, and also very humbling. I am hit everyday with the testimony of how very much we are watched over and prayed for. And how blessed we are to have such a beautiful burden of trust and this opportunity to be instruments in this work. It really is a divine, tender mercy that takes on more and more meaning every day as  I reflect and think about it. Which me and Hermana Rush do A LOT. We just talk and talk and think about how blessed we are and how awesome our parents and families are and just generally think a lot. Which is really interesting. It makes me realize what I want in life and how blessed I have been in my life.  I am literally filled with gratitude everyday and just want to be so much better. I am learning who I want to be.

Mom, I got your package! I am actually wearing the outfit right now. I love it. Although this is going to sound super weird,  when I pulled it out one of your hairs was on the skirt and I started to cry a little bit but it is just because I love you and this skirt sort of smells like you and I am so happy. Don't judge that, I swear I am not a weirdo. Well, I am, but no more than usual. :)

Ok,  I am going to organize this email by days I think, just because my thoughts are all over. So Monday was pday obviously and it was the first one of the transfer. Well, this zone is full of gringas. There are 6 gringas and 2 latinas. Hermana Bond and Hermana Wilkins are also here now, along with me and Hermana Rush and Hermana Jameson and Hermana Quist. There are two companionships of gringas... weird. But it is because Ayacucho is really safe! Even though it is the corner of death! The only super devastating thing is that we really miss Bott. Like reallly bad.  But we actually called her on transfer night and talked to her for a long time. She is doing really good and is actually loving her area in Chorillos. We just wish she was here :) It is crazy how close I feel to all of the girls from my group. Terrifying really. But they are all just really great and I look up to them a ton!

On Tuesday we had district meeting (when I got mom's package) and we had to do a practice in front of our district about well I actually don't remember but I think it was on Moroni 10 and inviting people to follow the invitation to ask why these things AREN'T true.   (I imagine it is something like that.... in spanish it is "si no son verdaderas estas cosas") and it mostly was just gratifying because we didn't look like complete idiots.  We felt the spirit really strong and were really excited to apply the practice to our investigators.

I don't actually remember anything specifically amazing about Wednesday,  but we did receive a ton of references that day and all this week that makes us really excited for this week. We mostly just need more investigators, plain and simple. But even when it is hard, and we have days of walking up and down and up and down with not very many lessons, we know that the Lord is preparing people for us to find. We just have to have faith and be diligent in doing our part :) Even if that means walking up and down and up and down the mountain. I better get skinny from this. Although I think the rice and potatoes is interfering. Hahahaha, but really.

Thursday we did service at our pension's house. They are a really great family. His name is Miguel and he is a convert (well so is his wife) and her name is Raida. I don't know how to spell it. They are really fun and they really take care of us. We had the elders from our ward there too, Elder Flores and Elder Taysom.

On Friday we had a lesson with an investigator named Rocio whose mom recently died. We taught the plan of salvation for the first time together.  It actually went really well and I felt the spirit very strongly. I love teaching. It really sort of terrifies me, but there is nothing that makes me feel better about fulfilling my purpose as a missionary, even if it scares the crap out of me.

On Saturday in the morning, we took the edge of the earth bus ride again up to Yanama to teach a reference we got. That lesson went really well too and we made a couple of contacts up there. It was way out there and just a little pueblo, but we really feel it has potential. It is just kind of a charming little place. That day we also had a lesson with a 14 year old girl with a baptismal date named Jossy (like josie) and she is just awesome. She understands the scriptures SO WELL and it is like the most rewarding feeling in the world to have investigators who just grasp it. She receives the lessons with her older sister Diana who is the same way.  She just can't have a baptismal date because her boyfriend of many many many years who she has a child with (devil adorable child named Alvaro) won't get married. Ugh. Pray for them. Then we taught another investigator with a baptismal date named Fabiola who is 18 and has a lot of really weird questions, but she is great. That night we had one last lesson with an old investigator who didn't progress because she won't come to church. We sat outside her house on rocks and just asked her how she was doing. It was a cool experience because me and Hermana Rush both thought of the same scriptrue to share (Ether 12:4) and it was good. We aren't counting her as progressing, but sometimes it is just nice to help people have a little lift.

Sundays.... are dang stressful. Like this Sunday Jossy HAD to get to church before the sacrament or her date would move. Again.  But, no one understands time here. SO basically we ended up flying down the hill in a member's like van thing with 4 (Yayyyyyy 4!!!!!) investigators in the back. It was the most accurate description of missionary life I can think of. It was great because we had 5 investigators in the church and it felt really good :) I love the high pressure moments, when they are over.

This week has been really a good week. Missionary work isn't easy, but it is the best thing I have ever done. I miss you all dearly, but I just love you all so much. I am filled with gratitude for all of you everyday. Remember your pioneer heritage! Send me pictures of the rodeo!

I love Ayacucho. It kind of reminds me of Italy in a weird, South American, third world way. Hahahaa I just love it :) It is gorgeous.

I love you so so so so so much!

Lauren