Proclamation to my Family

Buenas Dias yáll

My shoes are already so worn. Since we have no money, we walk everywhere, it takes about 30 minutes to go from cita to cita a veces (appointment to appointment sometimes). Which means I arrive sweaty and wet. Haha, great image right? I love to walk, so it´s fine, but we also don´t like losing that time. This next month I told her we´re going to do finances and proportion out the money we need for Marzo (March). Ugh, probably the longest month of the year, and this was the shortest! I wish I could pay tithing, so we could be blessed with that financial security. Alas....there are others ways to make this possible. 

So this week was better, companionship wise. We both realize we need to make changes to teach better, feel better, act better, and when we constantly help the other remember these metas, we accomplish them more often. I think the turning point for me, was realizing that she does share these same goals, and that i´m not in this alone. And I think that she gets less frustrated with me because she has realized how hilarious I am. These last 8 weeks have been rough because when I was dropped into a different culture and a different language, I really felt like I lost my identity. I knew how to be clever in english, i knew how to make jokes in english, i knew how to make people laugh, without entirely offending them, in english...I knew how to be myself in english. And it has honestly been so hard. But I feel like myself again, for the most part, with the people here. What a gift this is. When we can share happiness, when we can share laughs, it really feels like home. This is just like the gospel! When we can share our testimonies when we can share our knowledge of God´s plan for each of us and the HOPE and the LOVE and the JOY we can have in this life for the life to come. WOW, in this work we can truly find ourselves, in this work we can truly feel like we are at home. I testify that when can share this joy with others, our joy increases. When I can share my humor with others, I feel like they understand who I am, what I enjoy. When I can share this Gospel and my testimony of it, I feel like they understand whom I represent and how I want to live my life and what makes me happy. I know that with or without this missionary plaque this joy can be shared! 

CHALLENGE: especially for your missionaries serving in the Google, Facebook mission, share what makes you happy. Share a part of your life with others, help them conocer (know/understand) the source of your happiness.

The Great Thaw of ´14

Would you please send me pictures!!!! I want to see your faces! and pictures of the Ice Age EEUU (USA), because it´s hard to believe anywhere could be colder than 80 degrees. Haha, it was 75 degrees and overcast yesterday, so Hermana Martinez and yo wore sweaters. 

My dearest Katherine! I hope you feel better, I know you LOVE bananas, especially con (with) peanut butter, so eat up! Bananas are stuffed full of potassium. I love bananas, the ones here are pequenas (little), but muy delicioso! and Despite the millions of other fruits here, I still have an ifinity for these. oh yea and this challenge goes for you too! DAILY, could you share your testimony with someone new? I know you can do it! you´re so friendly, and i want a picture of you and your family too! I want to see your beautiful smile! it´s contagious after all!

How is the work on the Indianapolis Temple coming? When will it be completed? The people here have to fly to Lima to visit the temple, and the people in Iquitos! wow, if they´re wealthier, they fly. if they´re everyday citizens, members of the church, they take a boat down the Amazon for 5 days and ride in a bus for 2 or 3 and spend a few precious hours in the temple of the Lord and return the same way. Dedicacion, si (Dedication, yes)?

So this month, we didn´t have any baptisms. We have been working with a woman ,and her family, the fma. villanueva. Let me tell you her story.....

For ten years, she has accepted the knocking of missionaries, elders and hermanas and let them into her home. For ten years she´s listened, once she visited the church with her two sons, 12 and 8 years old, and had never returned.

January 01, 2014, Ella had made yearly goals, had written them on little pieces of paper and put them away in a jar. This morning she remembered those papers and pulled one out, her goal for this year would be....have a unified family in the Lord....Later that day around 11am, Hermana Martinez and I found her name on our list of antiguas investigadores (old investigators) and found her cleaning out her garden, we offered to help and after shared our message of the Gospel. She accepted a return visit and we have been slowly teaching her, and her now three sons, renzo 18, frans 17 and leo 15. She accepted to be baptized and she could teach anyone the story of the Restauraccion of this church. But she has chosen to wait for her husband to hear and accept this gorspel so her whole family can be baptized together. She wants to be married to Fernanado for time and all eternity in the temple of the Lord and to have her family with her forever. We didn´t make our goal for the number of baptisms we wanted this month, but in the coming weeks we will try to teach her husband and help him gain this desire to be with his family for eternity and to live the commandments of God and to be steadfast followers of Christ. It´s times like these, that I remember the work and the glory of God, and not the statistics. 

When in doubt, Grill out

So sometimes our pencion is in his house, and sometimes he´s not. So we, mi companera and Elder Henriquez and Elder Nina, were all waiting for dinner, which is supposed to start at 5. and still no cena! We were hungry, and Hermana Nimia, the pencion´s mother, and our mother essentially too, told us to just eat something that night at the baptism. Well, this was not fun to hear for the two Americans. Hermana Martinez and Nina hardly eat anything anyway, but Elder Henriquez and I were like......uh, can we have something small to eat?  She looked at us like, what is there to eat, what could you want? She´s used to Mario preparing a banquet of fried food, and she knew we didn´t have much time. So I proposed we make grilled cheese sandwiches, because that´s quick and simple. She had no idea what this was, Elder Henriquez and I buttered up some bread, and made some delish grilled cheese for us all, and THEN haha, we used their tomatoe paste ketchup stuff to dip it in. WOW, was it satisfying. You can´t go wrong with American food from time to time. When in doubt, Grill out. 

So Elder Nina and Enriquez have been really succesful lately, their investigadores have really felt the desires to change. and their baptisms have been these last two saturdays! Enrique, from my previous letter is in this picture. He has such a LARGE HEART! and I love that Hermana Martinez and I could help him conocer la iglesia. The other night he gave me this sweet keychain, and he asked me what the significance was in english, It was ´Luis´ but it looked like Luz, which is light? and he said no, it´s a name, oh, cool......haha, he´s like it´s my name! I want you to keep it to remember me. It was really tender. I hope his children serve their missions in the US, and someday I get to meet them and feed them SO much food and help them baptize millions of my friends. So I can understand situations more and more now, and the conversation. My ability to speak is still lacking, but I can follow along with the conversation for the most part, unless people randomly change the subject, this is where I falter. We´ll be getting to know how someone has heard of the church or what not, and then they´ll be asking for a change, I hear the word cambio. ok......transfers? they were last week. no, they still look confused, ok, cambio, you want to change your life and be baptized? no, now my companion is giving me her ´you said something stupid´ face, ok, ask what the question is again.....she wants to trade eyes. yea, ok, sure, take them. no explain how that was relevant to what we were talkiing about. Haha, whenever we talk about the 10 commandments, and others that we as members should follow, whenever we talk about not coveting things, she always talks about my skin or my eyes. like freaking, i{m a missionary! not a posterboard you use to help you teach. woof, i´m struggling with her still, but hey, who doesn´t like a challenge? anyway, the spanish is SLOWLY improving, i think. haha, i hope. Last point..This saturday Maria Villanueve is getting baptized!!!! She has been visited by missionaries for 8 years now, and not until now has she accepted to be baptized. She is a lawyer and she had well, has SO many preguntas (questions) about everything. She is thorough and tough, and dedicated and faithful and strong. She plans on teaching her family and especially her husband so they can be married for time and all eternity in the Temple of the Lord. Her sons, Renzo, Frans y Leo, want to be baptized, but need to learn more and assist church. Our investigadores are few, but they are quality people! So, Morales is beautiful. It´s been really rainy lately though, which makes for more mesquitos. and uh....there´s a dengue warning for the area. A kid in our ward, Oscar had it this last month. but he´s still alive! So, I´m really very hopeful that if I get it, I will live. but really, my legs are so ugly. The elders have to wear hot pants...but at least their legs are covered. I{m going to have scars for the rest of my life, but I guess it can be something to show the children as evidence of my adventures in the Jungles of Peru! 
Yo tengo un testimonio del Libro de Mormon. Se que es un otro testimonio de Jesucristo y yo se porque yo leer cada día, yo meditar cada día, y yo preguntar a Dios in oracion si los contienes en este libro son verdadero. Como un misionara, yo nesecite un testimonio fuerte a dar mi conocimiento y mi testimonio para otras. Si yo no lo se, yo no lo ensenar. Yo se que Dios tiene un plan por cada de nosotros. Estoy aqui ahora, con Hermana Martinez, no a sufrir, para aprender y cambiar y desarrollar por mi experiencia. Se que Dios envio Jesucristo a la tierra a sacrificar y salvarnos de muerte espiritual y fisical tambien! Este es la Expiacion. Cuando Jesucristo vino, and suffrio en el Jardin de Gethsemene y muerte en la cruz por nosotros, el paved the way por nosotros a overcome our sins, our sorrows, our trials, and to even overcome death. That podemos volver a Dios con nuestros cuerpos perfecto y con un corazon y conscience perfecto. Este es mi testimonio, me ama este Evangelio y estoy MUY agradecida por los pactos yo hecho en el aguas del bautismo y en el templo. Se que este iglesia es verdadero, se que Jose Smith restaurado la iglesia bajo la direccion de Jesucristo, nuestros hermano mayor. Se que no hay un otra manera a volver a vivir con Dios y nuestros familias despues este vida sin el Doctrina de Cristo y un acceptance of this conocimiento. I love you all very much, and I am grateful to be here with my district, my companion, these members and siempre, con mi Padre Celestial and Jesucristo.
(I have a testimony of the book of Mormon. I know that is an another testament of Jesus Christ and I know because I read it all, registration I meditate, and I ask God in prayer if this book is true. As a misionary, I need a strong testimony to give my knowledge and my testimony to others. If I don't know, I don't teach. I know that God has a plan for each of us. I am here now, with Sister Martínez, not to suffer, in order to learn and change and develop my experience. I know that God sent Jesus Christ to the earth to sacrifice and be saved from spiritual death and physical too! This is the Atonement. When Jesus Christ came, and he suffered in the Garden of Gethsemene and death on the cross for us, he paved the way for us to overcome our sins, our sorrows, our trials, and to even overcome death. That we can return to God with  perfect bodies and with perfect hearts and consciences. This is my testimony, I love this Gospel and I am very grateful for the convenants I made in the waters of baptism and in the temple. I know that this church is true, that Joseph Smith restored the church under the direction of Jesus Christ, our elder brother. I know that there is no other way to return to live with God and our families after this life without the doctrine of Christ and an acceptance of this knowledge. I love you all very much, and I am grateful to be here with my district, my companion, these members and always, with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.)

Take care this week! HAsta la pasta

Hermana Talbert

Elder Henriquez

This is a featherless chicken. haha, the grandma had an idea to dress him, to keep him warm, and really for the wellbeing of everyone else, because it was quite disturbing to see him before clothes. trust me. 

how would you like your chicken nuggets to just get up and trot around the house. 

you wouldnt.

Hermana Talbert cooking some plantains 

Jessica and Goliath

 Can I just vent for a hot second. 

I am trying my hardest! To understand, to ask questions that they understand, to speak and to ALWAYS feel the spirits direction. and to try to trust and love my companion. But this last month, she told me has been the least successful of her entire mission.  haha, wow. sweet, thanks, i{m glad i can share this joyful experience with you too.

This is my first taste of a mission, idk if she realizes how effectivly this is painting a picture in my mind for the future. but, regardless, I have hope. Right now that is ALL that I can have, because we are poor, destitute, pretty little faces that no one, NOBODY, takes the time to listen to. For the past month we have been teaching over 50 people including families. and we haven´t had a baptism yet. because they dont keep their commitments. we ask them if they would like to change. like to pray, like to follow the commandments of God. Si si, claro hermanas....yo qiuero yo quiero......(yes yes, of course sisters... I want to I want to) but after 6 weeks. nothing. It really gets my goat that they don´t realize no one can change their circumstances except for themselves.

And this is our Zone before the missinoaries in front left! Hermana Alvear,
and Elders Woolsehenulm (spelling, sorry) and Anderson left for home! 

Now for the stinger. As I was pondering this message last night before bed.....I was always told writing begats thinking...well, I have a testimony of how true that is. We are having a hard time finding people, refinding these people to teach and then being obedient missionaries. Our circumstances aren´t missionary picture perfect, we don´t have a lot of the tools to be ´THE DISTRICT¨ missionaries. I want to follow every rule all the time, but its hard to be punctual to be this to be that and so on. so many excuses. I am SO frustrated with myself and a veces con mi companera (sometimes with my companion) and con los personas aqui (with the people here). This is my investigadores feel like. and it hurts. Literally, my heart aches! Each of us knows what change looks like, and we are told how we can do it..but we don´t know HOW to do it for ourselves, and apply this change in our set in stone lives. The decisions we make day to day impact our eternity. 

The people here have taught me so much. Today, after this, we´re going to go find out los cambios (transfers). Who stays, Who goes and so on. If I stay I know it´s because my investigadores, hardhearted as they may be, have potential, or there is someone here who needs me......or I need them.

If I go, I go, and I will always remember my mistakes I have made, to mejorar(improve) myself as a missionary, teacher and companion in the next area. 

Elder Nina, ENRIQUE, Elder Henriquez. Enrique is a giant.
giant head, giant feet, giant hands...
but he´s not even that tall by American standards.
 His heart though, probably the biggest of all!

Also, let me tell you about the rama! the branch here.  Elder Henriquez and Elder Nina baptized a gem of a person this last Sabado (Saturday). Enrique Isquierda is a motokar driver. His mom was baptized years ago, and left his family for the US. Throughout his entire conversion he has faced oposition mostly by his family. His mother, called him the day of his baptism and told him she didnt mean to be bapstized in that church, she was practically pushed into the font. and lots of other things like that. He has a lot of regrets, but we alll reassured him that the atonement takes care of all of that. Want to know how we found him? One evening, Herma. Martinez and I were LATE like so late to the noche de missional friday night, so we took a motokar, we had a rough lesson, so I was just praying and sitting in my solitude, she shakes me shoulder and says, where are we? where are we?! the motokar guy was taking us a wierd way to the church. my first thought, hm, i wonder if we´re getting kidnapped. but mostly bugged that was interupting my conversation with God, I said, calm down, i{m sure he knows where hes going.....so we make it to the church, and invite him to church, and to the activity then and there. To our surprise he said yes! and told us he had taken some missionaries here before once. It was elder Henriquez and Nina! So he walks in, and we tell him about the reuniones and stuff, and Elder Henriquez, comes and is like hey! remember me?  Can we come teach you? and the rest is history. He has the strongest testimony, and so much faith in prayer. One day before his baptismal date, he had just finished talking to his dad, who said we get payed for every baptism and all this other crap. He was alone, it was a rainy day and he was eating a muffin by his motokar. He said he was praying to see Elder Henriquez, just for comfort, for answers, and lo and behold, all six of us missionaries come walking down the road coming back from a service project at another families house. He said he only asked for Elder Henriquez, but he got all six of us in return. I hope when he moves to the other side of Tarapoto this week, he always remembers that the Lord listens to him. I will never forget his testimony and his desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ.

Hey, did you know I´m teaching english classes here every saturday? Elder Henriquez helps me teach, he´s from Arizona. But it´s been fun, haha, i´ve been teaching simple verbs, grammar, how to pray in english and other random words. A veces, we´lll get the students that just want ot know how to say, i like you, i love you, will you go out with me.......yea, entonces (anyway), we´re just sticking to Gospel topics. haha, I love the miembros (members) here. They are SO intelligent, all of them are in summer classes an they always want to learn. They try to speak engligh to me sometimes, which is sweet.

 A giant snail I carried home from our pencionisto´s house we named him Goliath

Don't Count Every Moment, Make Every Moment Count

Spanish is for Spaniards and Mexicans. They speak Castellano here. Quien Supa (who knew)?

Like the apostles of the Bible, or the missionaries in DyC (D&C), we have been promised that we will  have sufficient for our needs. This is true, seeing as I am still breathing, but in all honesty, we are living just barely above poverty. For days, my comp. and I have had no money, because we both spent the rest of our personal accounts for this month, and the missionary fund money ran out the 2 week after paying rent and food. We get by, and we´re not suffering, but this is definetly a humbling experience. So that´s the sitch ahora (now), and esta bien (it's good).

Last Friday was noche de missional, it´s like a mini mutal every friday at 7:30! the Missionaries direct and have a message, a mini lesson, then games and refreshments. This week, Hma. Martinez and I were in charge and the Bishop asked us to teach about fasting. So we showed this hilarious video from the 80´s about this guy fasting. and WOW, it was me about a million times when I have been fasting. Obviously, I´ve learned through the scriptures and through example that we fast with smiles on our faces and end with simple meals, and what not. but the one scripture that I learned the most from...is in the LDM (Book of Mormon), I think in Alma, it talked about the sons of Mosiah, fasting. It´s cool, because even as missionaries, who have dedicated all that we HAVE. literally our time, comfort, sanity, money, pride and dignity to this work, we still need to work even more for the help of the Lord. That´s how important this work is to Heavenly Father. The sons of Mosiah fasted for miracles. We need miracles in this area. Our area of Morales 2 has NO members. 0 help 0 references 0 people coming to church when they said they would. But I little by little, I know our fasts, our prayers and our work will be answered. In fact, this Sunday we except 6 poeple to come. we called and waited. they didnt show, but in sacrament meeting were 7 people in our area, that had come, 7 people who we hadn´t even met! and one was a family we taught once. Hma. Martinez was a little glum that our progressing investigadores didnt show up, because that means their baptisms are delayed. but the LORD asnwered our prayers. idk about her, but I really was just waiting for the poeple of our area to show up. and indeed they did. We don´t command God. He commands everything in this world. When we fast for miracles, I have a testimony and the faith and the HOPE, that miracles we will receive, no matter what form they may be in. 

So anyway, after the lesson we were excepted to entertain around 30 jovens (youths) with a game! They can be a tough crowd, especially with us, because we´re knew, and we´re sisters. BUT, don´t you worry, I won their hearts with a good game of ´do you love your neighboor´or ama su vesino....something like that. So I explained the game to Hma. Martinez last night to explain for everyone at the noche de missional, haha, and no one understood. So I got up and tried to explain it and everyone was like, oh! ok, now we get it. So now, whenever soeone tries to explain something vague, they just say, ask the gringa to explain! Not because I{m just so much more eloquent, but because I speak in terms of a child right now, and so if a child can understand me, anyone can. So that was fun, especially since I was always running around because i never knew what they were saying, so I lost probably 10 times. Something they do here, with with people who lose a game more than 3 times, I was def. one of these, they bring them to the front and have them do the pato. It´s like the chicken dance, but the duck dance. we all looked silly and you look dumb doing it, but  if it makes the people happy...

Thank you a million times over for everyone who has given me little pieces of advice, of comfort and of guidance. Everyday has its struggles, and everyday, I know that the Lord will let me capably survive the next day after that. I shared what Charity told me with the branch in noche de missional, and roughly translated it into spanish for them. It lost its charm, but not its significance. She told me that, I should not count every moment, but to make every moment count. I likened it to fasting, and I liken it to my days, my weeks.