Monday, June 29, 2015

Week 6 of Week 6

Okay so this time is going by way too fast! I have been in Puno for 124 days and I am leaving tomorrow. CRAZY!! At least I am leaving this amazing place with a bang.
 
This week we have had amazing success and we have met amazing people. I love it here so much and I can not express how blessed I am to be here and to meet all of these amazing people and allow them to change my life. Last week, I mentioned a man that we had invited to an activity not thinking he´d show and then come to find out.. HE DOES! He asked us questions and all that. So this week we decided to pass him to the elders in our area. We felt that he would grow so much more with them and have so much more success. It was a very hard thing to do and it seemed almost impossible, but finally we decided that if it was the right thing to do, then Heavenly Father would bless us... and he has. Heavenly Father works in such marvelous ways. After passing this man to the elders, we have found a whole family of 6 who are ready for baptism, a young girl who wants to get baptized before the first lesson, and another woman who accepted a baptism date the first visit. I never thought that we could meet such amazing people who just seem... READY... It is amazing. I love this work here and I am so blessed to have served in Puno and I can not wait to see where the rest of the mission takes me. I am learning so many things every day and loving this journey more and more. I wish I could share it with you... well I mean more than just these words. Peru is such a beloved country and Heavenly Father has a VERY special place in his heart for these people. I JUST KNOW IT. I hold a very special place in my heart for them too.

I love all of you. You are all bright lights in my life that help me to keep trudging forward. I wish I could perfectly express my love for each one of you because you are all so special to me.

Always remember who you are and remember your worth. Not your worth to the world but your worth to a loving Heavenly Father, a King. I love you all and I pray that you can all share your light with the people around you because when we share our light, the world can be a happier place!

I love you all from the bottom of my heart.

Les Amo y Cuidense

Con Mucho Amor

Hermana Wattles

P.S. This is a picture a sheep thinking about ramming me, and then a couple minutes later... he decided to ram me... like 7 times. It was super scary cuz they have horns and they hit really hard haha.
 


 

Monday, June 22, 2015

Milagros

Hi people.
How are y'all?
 
This week has been amazing! I have seen so many miracles happen and I have had so many prayers answered this week. I'm not sure if I mentioned my two weeks in Cusco this week but, yeah I have been in Cusco for two weeks out of this six week change. We have found that we are losing investigators and it is becoming harder to help people progress. Last week, as a companionship, we decided that we were going to work super hard these last two weeks. This whole week I have been praying that we could find the people who are ready to hear the gospel and that when we find them that they will be open and willing to listen. Let me first say that it is so hard to find new people. Usually, we contact the coolest people and we think that they will come to church and let us in later on... but usually not. mehh. BUT... this week we have run into the COOLEST people. One day we were heading to an appointment and we were frantically trying to find a woman to bring with us because it was an appointment with a man. We could not find anyone and we were becoming discouraged when all of the sudden we ran into two girls on the street and started talking to them. I decided to ask them if they had time and surprisingly they said yes!!! So we brought them to the house and the man wasn't home so we ended up just teaching them! It was amazing because I feel like all of that happened for a reason so that we could teach those two girls.
 
The next experience was actually just Saturday. One of our appointments fell so we decided to work through the ward list to find less actives and see if we could teach them. We came across one house and knocked on the door. After a minute or so, a man poked his head out from above the roof. We looked up and then said HOLA!! But then he disappeared. what. a minute or so later, someone comes and opens the door. We ask if the member is home and he tells us, no. We decided we might as well share a contact card with him and invite him to the activity that was going to happen that night. He said he´d come and then started asking us questions about our purpose as missionaries and what we had to offer him. We told him a little and then asked him to come the activity. (Usually when we invite people to activities, no one comes..)
 
Later that night, the activity ended and we started talking to people. Then, the man came up to us with his pass along card and told us that he really liked the activity. He then asked us what we teach and how it can help him. He asked us what he had to do in return to receive our help and then he asked us how much it costs to be a member of the church. We were so happy to help him with his questions and help him to understand some basic principles of the church. Then he continued to remind us of all of the upcoming activities in the church and when our next appointment with him was. It was so amazing to find someone who I feel is so ready. I am so excited to see how the church can help his life.
 
We also had other stories but ahhh, I would just take up your whole day writing about them. They were all amazing, I promise.
   
Heavenly Father blesses us in ways we can never imagine. The power of prayer is so powerful and if our hearts are in the right place he WILL bless us. I testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that through him we can be saved to live with our Father in Heaven again.
 
I love you all so much and it is so amazing to know that I have so many people backing me up because sometimes it is REALLY hard. You are what helps me make it through!
 
I love you all so much!!!
 
Cuidense y Les Quiero Mucho!!!
-Hermana Wattles
 
P.S. I really love pollo (chickens)
We like to play with them during studies...
 
 


Monday, June 15, 2015

Tomorrow Never Comes

Hiii Friendsss and Familyyyy!!!!
 
Can I just start off with how this mission is a blast! I'm literally in heaven, I think. Ironic... don't missionaries go to heaven if they die on the mission, haha. I´m kidding but it really is amazing.

Every day is an adventure and my companion and I were talking about how tomorrow really never comese so for this reason, we need to be our best today. Be happy now. Always be learning and stretching. All of our wants, dreams, and goals can start today because tomorrow really never comes. Live in the moment people!

Anyways, this past week I was in Cusco again, ahhh. I had a minor health problem but it's all good now! I am so happy and healthy!
Due to my Cusco trips, work has been slower but not any duller. Every day I am learning more and growning more. We always find new people who are so excited to hear what we say and those times when we don't it is alright because I know that someday they will.

In Cusco, I went on splitz with some other sisters and it was honeslty the time of my life. They are so cute and I am starting to learn that we can learn the greatest things from the people sitting next to us. We just need to open up our hearts and be teachable. Learning is one of the greatest things we can do on this earth and we should never ever pass up an oportunity to learn something new. Every day I'm learning new words, teaching methods, gospel principles, messages that come from the scriptures and other things and also... I am learning that I am going to come home and not know any of the new trends... shoot. It's okay though because I will make my own peruvian trends.... and this mission is so worth it.

Also I am going to add this picture of my favorite little girl in the whole world. She is so pure in heart and willing to give me a hug at every moment in the day. She was baptized a couple weeks ago and she teaches me how to be pure in heart. She is so spunky and cute but just like all other children, she loves the Lord and only has good intentions.
I am learning that I need to become like a child, submissive and meek and humble and all other things.

I am so thankgul for all of my many blessings I have and I KNOW this church is true without a shadow of a doubt.

I love you all!
Con Amor
Hermana Wattles

oh and FRENCH TOAST

Monday, June 8, 2015

Hola... again

Sorry I didn't email last week, hehe. I was in Cusco and didn't get back to Puno until late at night and so I kept all of my emails super short.. plus not much happened because we weren't home. But this week was pretty fun!!! I'm not sure which picture I should send! Can I just send a picture of my journal??? Just kidding.
 
This week we got to teach lots of people and contact a lot of people in the street too! We had a lesson with one of our recent converts and she has a store. As we walked in, in walks a man who had been drinking speaking english and come to find out he is a member and all of his family members were super strong in the church. He lived in Utah for a long time and that is how he knew english. Despite the fact that he had been drinking, I learned something from him. He continued to ask us if we serve and if we think service was important. For some reason this stuck with me and I was very impressed. The Lord commands us to serve our neighbors and I believe that through service we can find such strong happiness and love for other people. In another lesson (in a store also) , we quickly read a scripture about faith. I asked her what the scripture meant to her and she said that Faith is so important. We need to have faith even in the times when we see no reason for it. She said that many times we go through hardships like death or loss of job and that is when people lose their faith but in reality, THAT IS WHEN WE NEED IT. Her words touched me so hard I just had to share it. This week I learned so much from my investigators. What an amazing thing it is to learn. Knowledge is the one thing that we can bring with us into the after life. All of us can learn something from someone else, no matter who we are and who they are.
 
I love this work so much and I am so thankful that I have been called to it!
I am so thankful for loving family and friends.
 
I love you all!!!
- Hermana Wattles

Joke of the day: me and my comp were translating things that we say in the US
1. Burrito- in english is a little donkey because a burro is a donkey and ito means little
2. Santa Fe- in english is holy faith haha
so for a good day we walked around saying im going to eat a little donkey in holy faith.
Super lame but I thought it was hilarious hahahah

ya love you all!