Bringing people to a knowledge of the gospel is such a happy work. I love being a missionary.

This week was a long week because we are both fighting a little bit of flu bugs. Sorry I didn't get to send a lot of pictures. But even in long weeks on a mission there are always lots of tender mercies. This week we might have a baptism on Sunday and we have a fun pday planned on Friday with a conference with president on Saturday.

Some of my favorite tender mercies from this week were:

Having a woman contact us in the street and then going to her house and her accepting a baptism date right away.

Teaching the elderly man and having a succsessful prayer after the lesson! It took us awhile but we finally got there.

The miracle of an investigator that we didn't think would come to church came to church.

I had some of the best scripture studies of my mission this week while my companion was sick.

Being able to eat the hugest plate of food at a members house when I thought it would make me throw up.

Listening to the honest prayer of a little boy. 

Reaching our goal of 100 street contacts in the midst of all the lessons that we taught. Funny story actually, we finished talking to the 100th person right next to a butcher shop and my companion turned to me and said Do you smell that? I said the smell of dead chickens? She laughed and said no, it's the smell of success we just hit 100 contacts. Oh, so that's what that smell is. 

This was our attempt to make Mexican food in Peru. Tribute to Marissa. Don't ask me what any of that is because I couldn't tell you. It's some sort of concoction.

If you have ever wondered what missionaries do on Valentines day, well I will tell you. You go to all your appointments and they all fall through, then you stop by other investigators, members, or less active members houses and no one answers. So then we spend a lot of time walking around the streets counting couples and trying to contact them so we can give them law of chastity pamphlets. Just kidding about the last part, we really didn't do that but we did count couples. There were lots. But all is well I got to spend it with my companion and she is the greatest!

My Valentines Day card from my cute companion

There were also lots of men yelling at us this night and we were a little bit nervous about going home because there were so many people that were watching us so one of us pretended that we were knocking on the door while the other one sneakily used the key to open the door. Then when it opened we pretended that we were greeting them. Just playing it safe. We aren't supposed to let people know where we live so we take safety measures. :)

This is tocush. It is a food they eat here that smells awful. You can smell it from a long distance. What it is is they put rotten potatoes in water for 8 or 9 months and then eat them. They say it has a lot of penicillin and that it cures everything. I mean everything, even cancer. It's a mission rule that we can't eat it as missionaries and I have never been so grateful for a mission rule. I don't think I could even get a bite down it smells so bad. It's always the center of mission jokes too. If someone looks like they aren't feeling good we say they have been eating tocush.

Speaking of how my companion is the greatest, this is the second transfer we have been together and we are learning that we have a super power. Its called reading each others minds and feeling exactly what the other person is feeling. It's sometimes a little bit creepy because our feelings are very specific like I was going to ask this exact question in that lesson but as I thought it, I heard my companion say the exact one. Or we turn to the same scripture at the same time. Or we have the same pain in our left knee, or we both really want yogurt at the same time. Its really weird but it has helped a lot in teaching. I feel like we have such great teaching chemistry and we are always on the same page about where the lessons need to go. Especially as my companion is learning Spanish and can't always find the words she is looking for.

This is out a ways in our area.

My other favorite tender mercy of this week that I forgot to mention is from one of my favorite investigators. We were sitting in sacrament meeting by each other and she turned to me and whispered so when can I get baptized? I said well your date was for Saturday but we haven't really talked about it since the beginning of the week. She said I want to be baptized then. I just feel in my heart that its time and I have felt so much peace lately. Bringing people to a knowledge of the gospel is such a happy work. I love being a missionary.

Have a great week! 

Hermana Rhoten