Monday, June 29, 2015

Power of the Priesthood......


Well another week in Moquegua. My dad said that Saint George is incredibly hot right now. I think Moquegua can beat it haha. I think its getting hotter everyday. Last pday we hiked to some waterfalls in Tarate, it was pretty cool! It reminded me of home a little because of the red rocks. Today we are headed to Ilo which is why im writing early. We are playing soccer against the zone in Ilo. I heard the weather is a lot cooler there so im excited. 
I had some pretty cool experiences this week that Im excited to share. On saturday we had a baptism at 5 in the morning and a restuarant just opened up next to our house and has been having fiestas every single night until 4:30 in the morning. We are so lucky to have one of their speakers right next to our window. We don't sleep. Last night they also had a disco ball that lights up our room. It's the best. I am now caught up on all of the new latino music. Yaayyy. So we've been a little tired this week. 
But I had 2 experiencias this week that strengthened my testimony SO MUCH about the priesthood. On Friday we left to our lessons with our bishop and another hermano in my ward. We have been visiting a less active that said she's been having problems in her house. She said that she's been hearing things in her house at night and can't sleep. So we went with our bishop to bless her home. When we entered her house it was really dark and really disorganized so we talked for awhile and when we all knelt down to pray it hit us all really hard. The ugliest feeling I have ever felt. My heart was beating super fast. But as the prayer went on the more the feeling went away and at the end of the prayer the feeling was SO different in her house. It was amazing. The bishop said after that he was super nervous and almost couldn't talk during the prayer. So after that visit we decided to head to another less active. We've been visitng him for awhile. He got baptized three months ago and before his baptism he said that he could hear voices. But after his baptism they went away and it worried him so he told us that he wanted to invite them again and he now he doesn't believe in God. Everytime we visited I left really frustrated and could never feel the spirit in his house. Well when we went to visit him on friday he opened the door and had like 5 new tattoos all of different distored faces and weird things. It freaked me out. So we started to talk to him and then the bishop and hermano Jesus started to get really serious with him and started to talk to him really loud and kind of rude. Hermana Bustillos and I were starring at each other like what the heck why are they being so rude. As they continued to talk the Hermano got more and more nervous and wouldnt look any of us in the eyes and said he needed to sit down. He then started to say weird stuff and stood up and yelled nothing exsists after this life and slammed the door. I was standing there like what the heck just happened. But after we left our bishop told us that he is posessed and that we need to have the priestood with us with we visit him. He told us to go home and that we will be protected. I had chills for like five minutes after. They were being really straight forward with him and really direct because they knew there was something wrong with him. It was the craziest thing ever. But my testimony of the power of the preisthood was strengthened so much. I know that the preisthood is the power of God here on earth. After I was thinking a lot about it and I was thinking about when joseph smith went to pray in the sacred grove and the power of the adversary that he felt before he prayed. How strong that must have been. But we can draw comfort knowing that we are stronger than any of that because we have a body of flesh and bones and they don't. I know that the power of satan is strong but we are stronger!!
Something that I have noticed as we meet new people and new families is that the FIRST thing they all say is how worried they are about their children. How scary the world is and how they want to be closer to God more than ever. We dont even know how blessed we are to have a knowledge of the gospel. It doesn't mean that we aren't going to be challanged by the things of the world but that we have something so strong and so sure to hold on to. I can promise you all that if you hold on and honor your convenants with God your convenants of baptism and of the temple that you will be protected. That you will be stronger than the things of the world. 
I made a promise to myself to make my letters more uplifiting and longer because i feel like i've been slacking haha. I get super laazy when it comes to writing so i promise to be better. I love you all. I'm so grateful for the support that I have. The mission is the hardest thing I have ever done honestly. But when Im going through trials i think of all of the people who love me and support me. IM CRAZY BLESSED haha. talk to you next week!
HH




Monday, June 22, 2015

Templo....

Well after waiting 40 minutes my emails finally loaded...sometimes i do not have patience for the internet here...haha. Today is super duper hot and we are going hiking somewhere around here so im excited to get out and do something!
Last pday we went to a huge park and played capture the flag with all of the missionaries in my zone. It was so much fun. The best part was the angry llama that was chasing us around while we were playing. I almost peed my pants because I was so scared haha. On Tuesday we had our zone council. President came, It was super super good. I went up to talk to him after and he looked me straight in the eyes and said "are you ready for a big challange this next change?" I don't even want to know what he means by that. They are closing nine more areas in my mission. Crazy. After that we all went to lunch because they had the most baptisms in the mission in this zone last transfer. Pretty cool. Yesterday we had the amazing opportunity to participate in the temple dedication of Trujillo. It was amazing. President Uchtdorf gave the dedication and it was an experience I will never ever forget. All of the chapels in Peru were changed into temples so you had to have a recommend to enter yesterday. On Saturday night they had a big festival and they had dances of every part of Peru. Thats something that I love here, their culture. They have SO much culture here. It gave me chills watching all the different dances. It was a great weekend! 
Thanks for everything
HH

Monday, June 15, 2015

Patriotic....


ahhh this week was great. I love Moquegua. There's definitely some things that I would like to change like the fact that we have water like one day a week or the amount of dogs we battle daily haha look up pictures of peruvian dogs and tell me youre not scared. They are so ugly. But I love the people here. Last pday we went to the farm of the person we live with (hermana ofemia) shes an angel. She showed us all around her chicken farm and we ate all the fruit off her trees. It was actually kind of fun! 

I want to tell you about a few people that we are teaching because we have got some pretty awesome investigators right now. We are teaching a couple that are 68 (cefarino and marlene) and are so awesome. They have so many questions for us and have been attending church every week together. We are going to put a date with them this week. We are also teaching Dario. He's 14 and is getting baptized next week. He has SUCH a strong desire to learn. The only problem is his family, they are very catholic. I had a really ugly experience with his aunt this week that i will never forget haha. We had just go done teaching Dario when his aunt showed up and wanted to talk with us. She basically tore us up and down for a straight hour about our religion. I was handling it all well until she started talking about my country. idk what it is but you just get super patriotic when youre in another country. haha. It was pretty horrible. Me and my comp were in tears at the end and told us that she would never let her nephew join our church while she is living. BUT we talked to his mom the next day and its all goood. hes still getting baptized haha. About our gay couple..well this week he showed up to our lesson in the shortest shorts ever and had a t-shirt on that said "naughty," i couldnt take him seriously. He speaks a little english and told me that he wanted to talk to me because he has some feelings that he can only express in english. I'm scared haha. We're going to teach them the law of chastity this week. Should be fun. 
This sunday is the dedacation of the temple in Trujillo, Peru. I'm SUPER excited because i've never seen a dedication before. So that will be really cool. Everyone here is really excited. It's the second temple in Peru. They havent started the Arequipa temple yet and they said they won't start it until they see more effort from the members! 
I am so grateful to be here. To be able to be part of this work right now. I have been working so hard to be more consecrated more dedicated. But there is ALWAYS opposition in all things. I feel like satan has been working so hard on me lately. Trying to make me feel so inadequate and sometimes i do. Sometimes i feel like i can't do this. Some days i cant talk any spanish. But you have to fight through the hard times because I know that our Heavenly Father is always there, through every step. He will never eleminate all of our struggles but he will strengthen us. I've never felt his love more strongly in my life. I love you all so much!! Talk to you next week!
xxoxoxo
HH 






Monday, June 8, 2015

MOQUEGUA...


hallo, ( a little dutch for you all)
man was this week long orrr yes haha. but super super good. I LOVE MOQUEGUA. its super different from arequipa but i love it. Everyone here calls me hermana Hulk. Like it was funny the first couple of times but now I don't know if they're just calling me fat or what haha jk. The people here are awesome. My ward is so small but i love them already! My area is likeee....a giant hill. I could probably have a great butt after my time here haha because all we do is hike up and down a dirt hill all day. Some of my area has real streets but most of it is just dirt. (mom, if you want to hit me up with some new zapatos for my birthday that would be cool haha) I love my comp. Hermana Bustillos. Shes super awesome and wants to work work work. I know we are going to see some miracles this cambio! Shes super inocoent and sweet though. I met one of our investigators this week and the minute he walked into the room I knew something was off. Well, he later told us that he has a boyfriend but has such a desire to learn more. My comp was super confused and didnt sleep for like two days after haha. We have no idea what to do. I do not know what is going on with my body but I was more than exhausted this week. I actually feel asleep in a lesson this week. (que horrible) haha I think my comp got sick of me saying "no entiendo pero tengo TANTO sueño" haha. Today we are going to a farm of the person we live with (thats what my comp wanted to do) shes super nice and makes us tea everynight before bed! Anyways, Im super happy to be here In moquegua. I love you all so much!
Have a great week!

xoxoxo HH 




Monday, June 1, 2015

CAMBIOS....

I am literally in the middle of no where....haha yep we had changes!! I was so nervous for changes because I had heard that I was going to train and have 3 more months in my area buttttt nope! So im coming to you live from Moquegua...ya look it up haha I am in the middle of the dessert. I have so many things to say so I will get back to changes later...
So first off, last night we had our recital in Selva Alegra with the missionaries in Arequipa and it was SO beautiful. I got to play my violin and loved every minute of it and we sang. I can not even tell you how strong the spirit was. its amazing the power that music has! After the recital i got home at like 10 and had my last bowl of arroz con leche from hermana Juanita (i will miss it) and decided to start packing. Me and my comp decided just not to sleep last night because we had way too much to do haha. I left Arequipa at 6 this morning and just got to Moquegua..long day. Its hilarious because everytime that I told someone i was going to Moquegua all they said was good luck...haha but i am SO excited to be here. Its such a change from my last area and im just super excited to start working and getting to know the people. I dont know much abou tmy companion yet (i just got here) but shes from Bolivia and seems super nice..a little shy but I know we will get along great! 
This week i had the most interesting lesson of my life. On Saturday I found this old Liahona that was all about Joseph Smith so i was thinking wow how perfect is this for Edwin. So we stopped by his house in the morning to drop it off and invite him to the conference on sunday...well saturday night we were sitting in a lesson when we get a call from Edwin and he said that he wanted to have a lesson with us that night..So we left our lesson and were walking to Edwin all excited like "im super positive it was the liahona" "oh yeah he probably wants to get baptized" "wow this is going to be super cool" well on the way I had a feeling to call a member to come with us...so we called hermano Juan and we all headed to his house. Well when we got there he had this super weird like love music BLASting and shut all of the blinds and locked the door (i was 100 positive he was going to kill us and was planning an escape route haha) and he sat down and began to cry...We were all super confused until he started to talk...he was drunk..super drunk. haha he was SO frustrated because he felt so bad that he drank and didnt know why he felt bad. he was so mad that he felt bad when he drank and didnt go to church...it was hilarious because well we knew exactly why he felt bad but he just didnt get it. we tried to explain to him that this was probably his answer. he KNEW these things were true. But after an hour of talking to him we all gave up and decided there was no use in giving a lesson to a drunk man so we promised him we would come back when he was alittle more sober haha. good times. good times. 
I also got my hair cut this week...I was going for "just a trim" but left with half of my hair gone haha. I almost cried when i saw how much she cut off. buttt it will grow back...i hope. 
anyways....I feel exicted/nervous for this change but i know its going to be great! Im SO happy to be here. no matter how hot it may be haha. I love you all SO MUCH!! thanks for all of your love and support! have a great week! 
xoxox
HH