Week 41

This week was SUPER COOL because we got to listen to a 70's talk and it was maybe the coolest day of my life. I am forever changed. Elder Uceda came and talked to us and it was all just so spiritual and cool. First his wife talked and just burned us for like an hour and made us all feel horrible and then Elder Uceda talked and the light came back into the room and we were all just in awe. haha. I learned SO MUCH. Im not even joking when he talked you just knew it was directly from God, it was So powerful. He told us over and over again to KILL OUR FEARS. To get rid of them all. I loved that. He also talked about the voice of the spirit. If we truly know the voice of the spirit like the voice of our own mom. It was cool. I wrote all about it dont worry. We also went to Tacna for the meeting so I got to know Tacna. It's super close to Chile and a heck of  a lot bigger than Moquegua but i was happy to come back to Moquegua. I got to see hermana Bustillos. I love her to death. 

For my birthday my pensionista made me a cake and my favorite food. It was super cute and then we had a bunch of lessons that day. So i was super happy with how the day ended. 

I'm sorry I have nothing to say this week. Only that I love each and everyone of you. THANK YOU for all you all do for me.

have a great week

HH 

 Mi Fiesta

My comp...Hermana Alvarez

Thank you....

Heyyy everyone. THANK YOU for the birthday wishes. i feel super loved! i made sure to make ALOT of lessons tomorrow so that we didnt have time to celebrate my birthday haha. im in denial. 

But anyways, this week was GREAT!! I had so many experiences this week that Im excited to share. First of all we had a record number of people in church yesterday (52) so I was way excited. We had 6 investigators attend church yesterday. The past 2 weeks I have been praying so hard to see miracles in our area and Ive been feeling like He hasn't been listeing to me. But yesterday I felt His love SO strong. sometimes it is so hard to be patient hah. 

I had a really cool experience on Friday. I have been kind of really beating myself up about alot of stuff. Everyone keeps telling me everything im doing wrong (so that I can grow) but about my acne about my weight my comp always has a lot to say and i know that all of it is only so i can grow and become better but its been kind of getting to me lately and on Friday I had one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission. We were in a zone conference and my zone leader was talking about the atonement. But it wasn't a normal lesson about the atonement. Everyone of us could feel the spirit SO strong. After we got done we all just sat there in silence for about 20 minutes, enjoying the spirit that was there. None of us wanted to leave. I have been on my knees a lot the last couple of weeks and i just felt like this week a lot of my prayers were answered. I felt so strongly the love of my Heavenly Father and felt the spirit bare testimony to me of the power of the atonement. That Jesus Christ not only suffered for our sins, he suffered for our sadnesses. Our pains. He suffered for it all. EVERYTHING that we are going to go through, and everything that we are going to feel. I find SO MUCH strength in the atonement that I didn't ever understand before my mission. It's amazing when you can really understand the love that our Heavenly Father has for each of us and that our savior Jesus Christ knows us better than we will ever know ourselves. 

Last night I met Lorena. She is a single mom and is going through SO much. I have never had a lesson like we did last night.. I have never loved someone that we are teaching so fast. I wanted to do everything I could to help her and comfort her. This is something that I love aout the mission. The ability that we have as missionaries to see people differently. To see them as our brothers and sisters and the strong desire we have to help them. I hope thats something that I never loose. 

I love how much I am growing. I love all that i am learning and the people i am meeting. 

Thank you for everything. I love you guys.

Hermana Holt 

(still 19) 

Holaaaa......

This week went by super fast. Last p-day we played soccer and games. Basically nothing. This morning we starting building a house for a member in our ward that doesn't have legs. I had no idea what we were doing. Building a house here is like building a fort in your back yard at home. But he was super happy so i was happy haha. A lot happened this week but it was so fast sometimes i can't remember everything we did. The pictures that I sent is a family that we are teaching that we had a family night with. They don't have hardly anything and she didnt want to have a family night at her house because she didnt have seats for us to sit on. When we showed up that night for the family night she had bought plastic seats for us to sit on and was so excited for them. It was adorable!! We played games and ate chocolate pudding that we made haha. 

Another experience we had this week is that we met an old man that couldn't remember how old he was so we had to help him remember how many years he had and then ended up teaching him after, it was great. 

So basically the whole town of Moquegua has been worried about my acne so a hermana in my ward took me to a natural doctor the other day because thats basically all they believe in here and he like put a weird spell on me and made me a weird mud mask. It is an experience i will never forget haha and my acne got a little better. It was weird. 

We changed pensions this week, it was sad but we had to for some stuff that was going on. Our new pension is with some elders here and im super excited because she cooks healthy and is super cute. 

I wish i had more time to write, but I love you all! Thanks for being so loving and supportive!!

xoxoxox

HH

So Happy....

This week went by super fast. Last p-day we played soccer for like five hours as a zone. I didn't know we were going to play soccer so I had sandals on and my feet got stepped on a bunch of times and later that night we were in a family night and when we got back to our room i couldnt get my shoe off because my foot was super swollen. ya, i cried. haha it was the most painful thing of my life and i saw my whole mission flash before my eyes. Like how the heck am i suppose to walk up hills with this foot? haha i thought my foot was broken for sure and Im not even being a dramatic sister missionary. So i said a prayer and put like seven socks on and went to bed and when i woke up it was still all blue and stuff but i could walk and i was super happy. On Thursday we went to Ilo for a zone conference with our president. It was the first time my comp got to see the ocean. She was in awe. The conference was super good. We talked about family history and obedience. I had to give a five minute talk on obedience. It was cool. I have no time to write this letter im sorry. But i love traveling with my zone. They're all like my brothers and sisters. It's always a good time. I still make a fool of myself on a daily basis and it's just like my brothers back at home because the elders make fun of me all the time. haha I havent changed. In one lesson this week my dress got tucked into my garment some how and i walked to my next lesson with my garments just chillin. Don't even worry about it haha. 

I loved this week because I finally realized something. Something that I've known for a long time but really put in practice this week and that is the importance of listening to people. I learned so much about the people we are teaching this week and honestly truly enjoyed listening to them. I always stress so much for our numbers every week and those are super important but this week i focused on the poeple we are teaching more. I learned that Julio is like a guitar legend in Peru and plays crazy good. Stuff like that haha. It was such a great week. I feel myself growing SO MUCH and I love it. I love when i have times like that in the mission. When i can feel myself progressing. I can also see my comp progressing so much. Just in her prayers. 

Me and my comp started running at 6 in the morning. Since we have a variety of hills to choose from in our area and we both have been dead this entire week but SO HAPPY. haha. That's the best way to explain the mission. You are SO tired all the time but SO happy. I LOVE IT! I love it here. I love the people here. I wish i had more time to write this but i don't. I hope this all makes sense. I love you all so much and am so grateful for the support that I have. THANK YOU!!!
talk to you all soon!

xoxoox

HH 

New companion.....

yaaa this week went by super fast. Last Monday I went to Arequipa and stayed in the mission home. it was super fun. we had dinner with president and then talked a little and then we all just chilled in the kitchen and ate his cereal and talked. I couldnt sleep that night because I was so nervous haha me and hermana Anderson stayed up talking until like 2 in the morning. shes in my old area in Arequipa. The next day we all made french toast and chilled until the new missionaries came. I had heard that there was one missionary from Bolivia so I automatically knew it was my comp haha and guess what it was. Shes my third comp from Bolivia. Her names Hermana Alvarez and she's super sweet. She's here to work and shes awesome. We had such a great week together. She's a convert of one year so shes still learning a lot, but shes great. On tuesday I woke up with the worst cold ever and have had it ever since. My ears are so plugged i've been reading lips all week haha. Tuesday on our way back to Moquegua our bus broke down so we got here at like midnight. 

This week we found 2 new investigators and have two more baptisms. We're having a "noche blancha" (white night) this week because we have more than 5 baptisms saturday. our whole zone will be dressed in white. I'm super stoked. It's going to be beautiful! 

We are going to see miracles this change in Moquegua I can feel it. Our goal is 7 baptisms. We are going to work hard this change and be obedient and we are going to see miracles. 

 

 23 For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; andI will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday,today, and forever; and I work not among the children ofmen save it be according to their faith.

I love you all! have a great week!!! 

"Just as we do not desire food until we are hungy, we will not fully desire eternal salvation until we recognize our need for the savior." 

(I read this this week and loved it.) 

xoxoxox 

HH

Cambios......

hollaaaaa 

Well first off...big news....peanut butter m&ms are now available in Moquegua. haha someone literally told me that yesterday in church. pretty exciting sutff. But other than that we have changes today. and yess.....IM TRAINING. im actually pretty scared haha. my comp has changes to Tacna (my dream) shes a new hermana leader in the mission and shes perfect for it. I have LOVED this change with her. i learned so much from her and she will be amazing in Tacna. I am leaving for Arequipa after internet. We have a training tonight and then we all sleep in the mission home then tomorrow i will meet my new comp. yaayyyyy. im super nervous. 

On Saturday night we had a bonfire as a zone in an abadoned jail (creepy) and roasted marshmallows and listened to cambios. it was super fun. I love Moquegua.

BUT this week was great! We found 4 new investigators that are 100% an answer to my prayers. Julio just moved here. He has a daughter thats four and hes AMAZING. The first lesson that we had with him we could feel the spirit so strong and were able to put a baptismal date with him the first lesson. He will be such a blessing in the church because hes super great. he has such a desire to learn and change. another person we found this week is Jaime. He came up to us in the street and started talking to us, my comp thinks its hilarious because I thought he was a member because he knew alot about the church but when he said he wasnt a member my comp said that my eyes lite up haha. i was stoked. also, Gina. shes been listening to the missionaries on and off for 11 years but would never commit to  date or attend church. she has a date and attended church with us yesterday. shes awesome. anyways, the point is that I know that God is listening to me. hes answering my prayers. hes putting people in my path. I feel like Moquegua is where i am suppose to be. I havent felt like this all of my mission but I feel like I have a purpose here. that the people here are my brothers and sisters and I need to help them. I really have such a deep love for this place. its the promise land for me haha. 

This weekw as great. This change was great. I LOVE MY LIFE. I'm so excited for this next change and this next challange. Thank you all for the love and support. I love you all! 

Something hilarious that happened this week....we were studying language and my comp looked me straight in the eyes and said "your life is a mess, you is a jack***" I died. I do not know where she learned that. and the sadest part is she doesnt even know what it means haha. the mission is the best. I love latinos so much. haha. anyways ya. talk to you all next week!!!!

xoxoxoxo HH 

"Bacam".....

This space bar has desafios so I will probably write a short letter because it basically takes all my strength to use the space bar haha. So ya this week was great. Last pday we went to ilo and played futbol and ate lunch on the beach. Twas bacam. (i learned that word this week haha they use it up north, means cool) We had like a huge wind storm the other night and my window broke haha. It was REALLY hot wind and then the next day was freezing. So we are all just waiting for an earthquake. But i am enjoying the colder weather. 

THe mission is SO HARD and sometimes i just want to sit in my room and cry haha but we don't have time for that. I am so confused as to why i'm fat because we walk up and down huge dirt hills all day. But its cool. hah We were suppose to have a baptsim this week BUT our investigator (jose) went crayyy. He told us that he is organizing his own church called "la iglesia de misioneras moquegua" we are pretty sure he is using our folletos and book of mormon to preach. APOSTASÍA haha. He even got up in church yesterday and announced it to everyone. I wanted to die.

But other than that my week was great. Something i love/hate about the mission is that everyone you come in contact with here is going through something and well we have this wonderful message that we know can change their lives, but alot of people just don't want to accept it. You don't even have time to worry about your own problems because you are so worried about everyone else. Sometimes it's overwhelming but so cool that we get to help people with our message and I can testify that it does change lives. I've seen it change people. 

The mission really is the best. Moquegua is the best. I watched my first chicken fight here. It was whack. They train their chickens to be fighters (idk how) and then they tape knives to their legs and they fight to the death. They all bet money and get really into it. I think the people in Moquegua don't know what to do with their time haha. 

I am now in charge of leading the music in sacrament meeting and its horrible. I have no idea what i am doing and everyone just stares at me haha, i think my bishop did it just to laugh at me haha. I also got up to say a prayer yesterday in church and started my prayer with "nuestra mensaje" instead of "nuestro padre" dont even worry im just still a white girl trying to make it in peru haha. BUT i love it. and i love you all so much. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!

i am so done with this spacebar. 

chauuuuuuuuu