One of my favorite investigators is an older lady who
never learned how to read. She lost both of her parents when she was
seven years old and spent her childhood searching for food and clothes
for her three younger siblings on the outskirts of Huancayo without
family. She learned to make clothes and worked as a very young girl. She
told us that she has always believed in God and she remembers praying
with all of her little siblings as a little girl asking for him to help
them find food and he was always there with them. We felt that we could
promise her that if she tried to open her Book of Mormon everyday she
could learn to read. We have been teaching her letters and stories from
the Book of Mormon along with the lessons.
We are starting to feel like we know everyone in
this city. I have heard when you are in an area for awhile it gets to be
that way. It probably helps that we stand out. But we walk down the
street and it seems like we always are running into people we know. We
also know where about everyone lives. When Hermana Soliz goes out of
town and I have divisions I feel like I can explain more than the
members who have lived here their whole lives can. This street is the ex
husband of that member who is now dating a less active member who used
to live on this street, the next door neighbors have a scary dog, the
next street over is a woman we taught three times named with three
kids...etc.
One person we always seem to run into is a moto
driver named Jesus. We see him everywhere. He was one of the first
people that we taught when we got here and the past two weeks he started
progressing really fast. He started calling us and reminding us of our
appointments. One of the saddest moments of this week was his phone call
to my companion saying that he is in love with me. Basically he is a
snake, and we think his intentions aren't real. We decided to let the
elders teach him and baptize him if he wanted still but when they called
him he didn't show up to their appointment.This has happened to us twice
before but it was really sad because we felt like he was really
progressing and he was so close to his baptism date.
With transfers Hermana Orellana got a new companion.
It is Hermana Procell, one of my first companions from the MTC. Its so
fun to have her here and to be able to talk with her at every meal. She
had a tough first week in Huancayo though, she got bit by a dog, had to
stuff pig in her underwear and was pretty sick from food. I have to
explain that we have really strict rules in this mission about what we
can and can't eat and pig is something we can't eat. The pensionistas
follow strict guidelines to make sure that food is clean but every
Sunday we eat at members homes for one meal just to be with them and
strengthen our relationships. Sometimes members forget our rules and we
don't want to make them feel bad so we have to find a way around it like
stuffing it in our clothes and bags when they aren't looking. I usually
have space in my bag and just wash it later. Anyways its been fun to
have her here and help each other figure out words in Spanish.
Hermana Soliz and I have just been really happy this
week. We feel like we are so blessed. We had one little miracle this
week that showed us Gods love for us. We were walking down a dark dirt
street at about 8:30pm completely exhausted from the day. Our last
appointment fell through and we were trying to contact for the last hour
but no one was out in the streets. We passed by a little tienda or
store and my companion said ¨I really want a chocolate right now. I was
like yea me too. But we didn't have any money so we went our way. As we
were walking down the street about ten minutes later we heard someone
yelling our name running down the street. It was a member of our ward
and he called for us to come back. He told us that he wanted to buy us
some chocolate and took us to a store and bought some for us. It was
something little but we know that the Lord was walking beside us, he
knows who we are and how we are feeling and that he loves us. We call it
our miracle chocolate.
I have a testimony that God lives and that Jesus Christ is my savior. He loves us unconditionally. We can always turn to him.
Tenga un bien semana!
Hermana Rhoten
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