Hola familia! This week was really good. We taught a ton of lessons and worked really hard.

This was taken at the Johnson's house

 I don't really know what to say about this week so I will just write my list of happy moments from this week.

Tuesday we got a phone call that said we have cambios. The word in English is transfers, I asked someone else who spoke English. We have cambios de cama or transfers of beds. Meaning we get to stay in Huancayo for another 6 weeks. My companion and I were so happy. 

This is a girl that I love who was baptized.

We got a cell phone this week! My companion is one of the new leaders of hermanas so we get a cell phone. Its really exciting because I am so sick of pay phones and phone cards. It makes the work so much easier when you can contact people.

We had an activity this week and we had a lot of investigators come. Like 10. But the best moment was watching little Fran who was baptized only two weeks ago inviting one of them to come to church with him on Sunday. It was really sweet.

At the Johnson's house

I lost my camera this week for a day. I looked everywhere and went to all the places we had been. Finally that night when we got to our apartment and I fell on my knees and prayed that God would help me found it. I found it 2 minutes later deep inside one of my tennis shoes. I´m not sure why it was there or how I felt to look there so I know that it was an answer from heaven.

The little boy that we are teaching that I told you about last week whose mom was drunk is getting baptized and he is so excited. My favorite moment with him this week was his prayer. He loves to pray, and he told us that he always talks to god. He started out by saying, Good afternoon Heavenly Father, and his prayer was like a real conversation with him not something he had learned. He prayed that the things he would learn might bless future generations and because we told him he could ask anything he wanted he asked God why so many people are divided in their beliefs about him. We proceeded to teach him about the apostasy and the restoration and how we newly have prophets and apostles on the earth. He was so excited. 

Just your average everyday soup with chicken legs

These things are berries in the clear hair gel type jello.  They are pretty good.

We have been visiting a less active member who hasn't come to church for about four years. He is about our age and all of his family is inactive. The first couple times we just went and talked with him at his work and didn't share anything. He is an amazing guitar player and writes his own music. We invited him to participate in a talent show and he said maybe. One day this week we called him and said we were nearby and asked if we could visit him. He said yes. We came over and were there for too long but after awhile he opened up to us about everything. He told us he was happy where he was and he wasn't going to go back to church but he hoped that we wouldn't think less of him. He said he had been talked to by so many missionaries and none of them had changed his mind. We asked him why he had let us in. He said I don't know, Ive never met missionaries like you. In the end we didn't ever tell him he needed to come to church but we did invite him to pray and after fighting it, he did. He made two of my happy moments this week. Watching him kneel on the ground and pray for the first time in a long time was one. The second was watching him and his whole family walk in through the back of the chapel and sit down at church. It was a huge miracle. 

This is the less active who came to church. 

The most dangerous play toys I have ever been on.

Last week for pday we went to a sports facility and just had fun while all the Elders played soccer. Hermana Gale and I found two baseball gloves and a baseball. We played catch for about three hours. I was so happy with a baseball and glove. I wish I would have brought one because it was really stress relieving and they are super hard to find in Peru.

I don't remember if I have talked about Pamela or not in one of my previous letters but if not I will tell you anyways. She is one of the very first people that I met here in Peru. She is a little girl that we taught with her brother. Her parents are always drunk and they beat her. The first time that we went to take her to church she went to ask her mother and we heard her mother screaming at her and hitting her in the background. She came back out and quietly told us she couldn't go. She turned around to go back in the house and we realized she was crying. We hugged her for a long time, wiped away her tears and told her to be strong. Every time we walk down her street she runs to us and wraps her arm around our necks. She is such a sweet little girl. This week we found out that she has been going to church with a teenager that takes her for some time and that she might be able to get baptized. It was the highlight of my week. I hope that she can. 

Above and below pictures are both at the Johnson's house.

I have to go but I hope all of you know that I have a testimony of this work. I know without a doubt that God lives and that Jesus Christ is my Savior. 

Hope you have a great week.

Hermana Rhoten

 

Note from Miranda's mom: The Johnson's are a family that Miranda is teaching. She talked about them a few weeks ago.  Their home is a museum of all sorts of jungle animal skins and they have real parrots too.  It is like a real museum that people pay to go and look at things.