Monday, May 18, 2015

What a week!



First Package from HOME!!!!
Hola Everyone!!
I hope everyone´s had a great week! Things over here yonder in Peru are kicking up! With a new companion, it takes a bit to mesh our teaching styles and how we work, but once they do, BAM! Miracles!
This week we had a baptism!! Zilary is 20 and has had SUCH a hard journey to get to her baptism!! Her family kicked her out of the house and a million other things. But she is SO strong and SO steadfast in Christ, its amazing. I learned so much from her in this last month we´ve been teaching her. The spirit was so strong during her baptism and after, she was just crying she was so happy! It was one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve had on my mission! There really are people prepared for the gospel. People who are just waiting to be found! It made me want to work that much harder to find them!

Also, a crazy cool miracle yesterday! We were short our goal of 15 new investigators and were just praying and searching for a family that would be receptive to the gospel and are prepared to be baptized and enter the temple in a year. Because that´s the end goal of all this, THE TEMPLE! And at church yesterday, a recent convert told us that she gave a Book of Mormon to a friend and the friend wants to know more! So we went with her to her friend's house and it turns out that she´s MARRIED (for 25 years!) and has 8 kids who all but 1 are over 8! We taught them about family home evening and they are super interested! So pray for the family of Sandra and Jose!

Other than that, not much! Lots of work and teaching! And we had an old investigator show up at church yesterday, Juan Saminego! So miracles are real!
I love this work and testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon! It changes lives! I´ve been reading in Alma 37 about prayer and holding fast to the truth! I love it!
Have a great week!!
Hermana Stephenson


Monday, May 11, 2015

The week it actually was a bit cold!!



HOLA EVERYONE!!!!
I hope you all are doing well and had a GREAT Mother's Day! Funny thing, in Peru, Mother's Day is like CHRISTMAS. Seriously!!! There are people out selling flowers and balloons and EVERYTHING you can think of all week. Then on Sunday there are just parties ALL DAY LONG! It was kind of hard actually, because no one we were suppose to teach were home!! And there was so much alcohol and loud music everywhere we couldn't really teach anyone either!
BUT we had a baptism this week!! Jose Ocampo was baptized and it was so amazing. It´s been a bit of a journey for him, but he wanted to change his life so bad. And the gospel was able to bring him the hope he needed! It was so cool to watch him change his life!
Other than that, lots of walking and teaching! I've got a new companion, Hermana Flores and she´s from Panama. I´m learning so much from her and the work is going forth!
Sorry this is so short but gotta run!
Love you all!! And have a great week!!

Hermana Stephenson


A quick note from MOM:



The Happy Missionary!


After 15 minutes of audio and visual problems yesterday, we were finally able to see and hear our sweet Megan! What an emotional experience for her and us. She is doing so well and loving her experience in Peru.  It was fun to listen to her communicate with the family she was with--fluent in Spanish--and to see that she has already forgotten several English words (such as the English word for "soccer") She is healthy, happy, and working as hard as she can while serving as a missionary in Peru. She sends her love to everyone :) 

We should still get a letter and pictures later today that I will post on her blog!

Thank you everyone for all the love and support you give Megan. She loves your letters and knows that many people are praying for her each day!

Monday, May 4, 2015

First Cambio!



Or First Transfer! They call transfers cambios over here :) Hermana Alonso is getting transfered!!!!! AAAAAGHGHGHGHGHH!! She´s been here for 5 TRANSFERS (that's a WHOLE lot) and pretty much knows everyone and everything here. And now she´s leaving and its just me! And I hardly know anything! It wasn't until like 2 weeks ago I stopped feeling like I was just being dragged around like a puppy on a leash and actually knew my way around a bit. And now It´ll be just me who knows the investigators, the streets, the members!! And I just KNOW I´ll get a companion who doesn't speak a lick of English!! So I'm more than a little bit TERRIFIED. But I know that It´ll be alright. That the Lord wouldn't take her away if I couldn't do the work in this area without her. So I can and I´ll love my new companion just as much as I´ve loved her! Buuuuuuuuut I'm still a bit nervous!

So this week was pretty crazy! (Like always) The weather is slowly changing and its starting to feel like a nice early fall in the mornings and evenings. In the afternoons I still feel like I'm going to MELT though! And I had a bit of a stuffy nose this week and EVERY SINGLE PERSON that noticed told me to stop drinking cold stuff and ONLY drink hot drinks and always wear a jacket! Apparently cold drinks and air conditioning are the only things in South America that can give you a cold! I'ts so great! Our penstanista (this sweet, old lady in our ward) even took away my juice and gave me this hot herbal tea! I love it.

Anyway so onto investigators!
Last week, we had a member from another ward come to our ward with a friend who lives in our ward boundaries. Her name is Zilary and she´s THE BEST INVESTIGATOR EVER! The Lord really does prepare people, and either we´ll find them or they´ll be brought to us! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and changed her work schedule to come to church! Her baptism date is the 16th and she´s so excited!
Bit of sad news, turns out a neighbor talked to Monica and Irene and said all sorts of horrible stuff about the LDS church, and now they won´t even open the door for us! They just told us through the door then told us to never come back. So bit of a bummer there. We were pretty bummed out.
But we found this single mother Clidia and her daughter Sofia who are AWESOME! Clidia was at one of our investigators house when we stopped by and she asked if we would come to her house too. She´d seen us walk by her house all the time, but was too shy to stop and talk to us. So MIRACLE! Love it. They have a date for the 30th!
Duber and Mercy couldn't come to church this week which was a bummer. They don´t seem to really be progressing all that much. You can REALLY tell how much an investigator is progressing when they go out of their way to come to church on Sunday! Its like a weekly test. So when they don´t come to church, we have to drop them because there are so many others who can!
I know this church is true and I know that It´ll bring joy and love to every family.

So that's about it this week!
Hermana Stephenson