Obedience and hard work brings blessings.....

This week was the most challanging/best/hardest week of my mission (so far) haha. I am so happy though. I can honestly say that I worked my very hardest this week. I've never been so tired or felt more accomplished than I have this week. For most of the week I was with different members but for the last three days I have had a hermana from a ward here. She's super cool and we've been getting stuff done! I just know through my obedience and when I give all that I have the Lord will bless me this change. Its hard without a comp but it makes me want to work that much harder. This week we found two new investigators by knocking on doors that Im super stoked about. Our first investigator had been receiving lessons before a long time ago and has a testimony of everything except...Joseph Smith. haha the most imprtant thing. This is going to be a challange for me that i'm super excited about. So i mean if any of you have advice i would love to hear it. The second person we found this week is named Harry. He's super solid and interested in what we have. We have another lesson with him today. Anyways....I dont really have a lot to say. Just that I know obedience and hard work brings blessings! I love you all so much! 

xoxoxo

HH 

Cambios (transfers)

Last pday we went to Yura which was SO much fun! it was a lot like zion...we hiked up a canyon, well basicaly a river, to these giant waterfalls and all got drenched. it was super super fun! I dont have pictures because i didnt take my camera so i need to get those from other missionaries. next week! Ya this week is cambios. Hermana Andia and I had big dreams for this change haha I wanted to train and hermana andia wanted to return to Tacna to finish her mission....well Hermana Andia is leaving to paurcurpata which is really close so we will still be able to see each other on pdays! This week was very different with her. Im really grateful for the time we had together. We both talked in church yesterday and were both in tears at the end. I learned SO much from her. On Saturday we found out our new changes and I found out that I dont have a companion this change...Im REALLY trying to have a good atitude about it. Im having to find a member or someone that can be my companion for this whole change but so far no luck. I know that through this I will be such a stronger missionary. I have a lot of goals this change and a lot i can improve! I dont know if i've got alot more dramatic here or when i get sick its a lot worse here haha but i got the cold from hell this week. its hilarious because every single time ive talked in church ive had a cold and sound like a man...but oh well! 

We have been teaching someone named Faustino...he is good friends with Isabel..or so we thought haha yesterday they told us that they are engaged. weddings are super super casual here its weird. but he wants to get baptized first. SO i am now trying to figure out all the paper work so they can get married. Im super super happy for them both! 

I want to wish my dad a happy birthday this week and hope all goes well with your surgery...ill be praying extra hard for you! 

I love you all! thanks for everything! talk to you next week

xoxox

HH 

We received a package from Kinzie with letters for each one of us and fun things from Peru. I hope she feels the same way when she receives packages from home because it was awesome!! Better than Christmas, for me anyway! haha

"Eyes of Christ"

Oh man this week was great. Full of a lot of great things! We are writing early today because we are going to Yura. It's like a bunch of water falls or something im not really sure but im excited!

I learned so many things this week. We had a big multizona this week with all of the missionaries in Arequipa. ..almost all of us! I got to see Hermana Menlove so i was happy. I LOVE president Zobrist. I feel so inspired everytime he talks to us and just love him to death! We talked about having the eyes of Christ. If only we could see everyone like He does. Ive been thinking about it so much this week, with my companion, with the members, with the people we are teaching and helping! EVERYONE is so important to our Savior and He loves them all SO MUCH! If only we could all see the people the way he does. He is so quick to love and forgive EVERYONE no matter their circumstances. imagine what we could accomplish and how different the world would be! I have a couple challanges for you all this week so one is to have the "Eyes of Christ." We also have a new "rule" in our mission, We are now challanged to invite everyone to be baptized the FIRST lesson. Im stoked about this and am excited to see the outcome. Its good to be bold...In our zone meeting this week we talked about the faith. It doesnt matter how many times I study faith or we talk about faith I ALWAYS learn something new. We talked about how important it is to have faith in our Savior Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost and ourselves. It basically was a slap in the face for me because I have been praying diligently for confidence in myself with my spanish. To have the confidence to follow the guide of the Holy Ghost and speak up, but i realized that what I should have been praying for all of this time and what I really have been lacking is faith in myself. Some people are a little farther along with their faith and others are just starting to understand what faith is. One of my zone leaders is one of the biggest examples of faith I have seen. He shared with us this week that his mom passed away last week. None of us knew. He talked about the faith that he has that he will see her again. His faith amazes me, I hope to have this kind of faith someday!  Me and Hermana Andia had an activity this week "night of the salchipapas" we made home made salchipapas and invited EVERYONE. Well, we didnt have a really big turn out but it was good. We eached shared our testimonies and watched the video "gracias que el vive" it was awesome! my second challange for you all is to really think about who Jesus Christ is for you..the importance of him in your life and I want you guys to write your testimony down somewhere about our Savior Jesus Christ! I can promise you as you sit and think and write you will be able to see His hand in your life and will be able to strengthen your testimony!

I was reading in the Liahona this week for the month of April and came acrossed this quote that I really loved.It was in a talk called "the power of faith."

“Is there not wisdom in [HeavenlyFather] giving us trials that we might rise above them, responsibilities that we might achieve, work to harden our muscles, sorrows to try our souls? Are we not exposed to temptations to test our strength, sickness that we might learn patience, death that we might be immortalized and glorified?

“If all the sick for whom we pray were healed, if all the  righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. No man would have to live by faith.” 

I Love you all so much! I hope you are all happy and enjoying this beautiful life! talk to you soon

xoxoxo

HH

Eating a giant fruit bowl. I was real happy.

A lady here made this and hand painted this for me. Its a case for my scriptures and its me and Christ here in Peru.

Conference weekend......

Wow conference was amazing no? It was like christmas eve. I couldnt sleep because I was so excited! I was able to watch it in english with two other american elders in my zone in a tiny closet with no air haha but it was great! best weekend of my mission. The whole conference people kept coming to my mind. It was great! I was truly truly inspired. This week was filled with lots of good things! On Friday we had a conference with all the hermanas here in Arequipa and we talked about the gifts that we have. It was really fun to be with all the hermanas! We all switched tags with our comps and introduced ourselves as our comps. We were able to say all of things that we liked about our comps and the gifts that they have! My comp has a little bit of a hard time giving compliments and so when it came to me she literally said nothing. It was weird but the whole conference was great! This week our investigator Edwin was completely MIA. We havent had contact with him for a week or so, so were super worried about that. We also are teaching Faustino right now. He's a single dad and is super interested in the gospel but needs time he said because he doesn't want a drastic change in his life. He's really great though! We contacted a ton this week around our area and were able to find people that could possibly be new investigators. So im excited to work with them more this week and see what happens! On Tuesday we went to the doctor for my comp because she has been complaining about pain in her legs. The doctor basically said nothing but we've been doing a lot of divisons with the members this week because i like to walk a little faster and get things done haha and i love it because i feel like i can take more of a lead in the lessons! 

Easter week in Peru is crazy. Everyones super drunk and crazy haha I wanted to take a picture of the market on Friday because it was the most people i've seen in the streets in my life but i also wanted to keep my camera so sorry i couldnt share that with you guys haha. But they had a big parade with the virgin mary and the crucified Jesus Christ. We watched a little bit of that and it was pretty interesting. There is a TON of catholics here. 

I feel like my letter is all over the place today so im sorry haha. This week was great though! i am LOVING my new pensionista. We are BFFS! We sit and talk everymorning and she makes me oatmeal masks for my face. Its great. I want to be like her when im older. She has more energy than I do and shes 80.

Last p`day we found a mexican resturaunt near the plaza de armas which is amazing. It was a golden treasure haha. Something funny and kind of sad that happened this week that i wanted to share is with the family Ramos. They are our rescues (i think ive talked about them before) but they have this dog that they love and we were at there house this week and the dad came home crying because he had been at the vet with their dog and found out that it has down syndrome. I wanted to laugh so bad because they were all crying for their dog because the dog had no clue that it had down syndrome. haha i thought it was hilarious... anyways, I hope you all have a great week! i will talk to you soon!

xoxo

HH