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.

 

 

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...

 

 

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

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!

 

Normalllll

This week was pretty normal. We taught lots of new lessons, but no new baptism dates. Sad, but it´s okay. We're just going to keep working hard. I am currently listening to ´Let's Get Ridiculous´ by the people who sing Party Rock and I want to go walk up to the kid who is playing it, hahaha, aishh public computer places.

 

Anywho, I am so excited for Maritza´s baptism this Saturday. It is such a beautiful thing to watch others come unto Christ. This week Casi was able to read a little bit more of the Book of Mormon and it just made me soooo Happy. This work is so marvelous and every new day is a learning day for me. I wish I could share this amazing happiness that I have with all of you.

 

I would also like to share with you guys that our mission president and his wife are THE BEST in the world. We just had an interview and every word they say just motivates me to push harder and try my best. We have so much work to do before the Savior comes again.

 

I love you all!!!

-Hermana Wattles

Crazy Week

Where do I start? I got to skype my family on Monday! That was pretty amazing! I love them so much and I have grown to know the importance of families more and more here on this mission. Families really can be together FOREVER and how wonderful that I get to share the eternity with such amazing people!

Okay a few stories...

Story 1:

This week we had kind of an amazing experience. It was late and we went to an appointment super far and up on a hill. Usually this late at night is supposed to be dangerous... I guess... that's just what people say but we´ve never experienced anything. After the appointment, we decided to walk to our next appointment which was about 2 miles away because we had lots of extra time.(at this point it was about 7:45) We started walking down the hill and I noticed a man walking behind us wearing a vest. I just ignored it and kept walking. We turned a corner and he went straight to go talk to a woman so we just continued. It was when we rounded the next corner that out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he was still behind us walking at the same distance. I ignored it at first but then after about 15 minutes and him still walking right behind us, I asked my companion if she thought it was fishy and she said that she hadn't noticed. So, I just ignored it thinking that maybe he was a police officer with his vest and he was watching us because it was dangerous or something. I had no idea. I never once felt in danger though. Another couple of minutes and he was still following us. We arrive to our destination and slow down to see what he does. He slows down too and looks at us. He then asked us if we were the sisters so we said yes. He then told us that someone had been robbing him so he got away and jumped on a bus. He went all the way to the end of the route with the men following him and he saw us so he got off his bus and decided to walk with us knowing somehow that we would protect him. He followed us all of the way until we stopped and then asked us if we would escort him to the corner so he could get home safely. What faith?? Things like this remind me that I really am a representative of Jesus Christ and it makes me not worry of the things that will happen because I know that my Father in Heaven is watching over me and all of the people around us.

Story 2:

Do you all remember Casi?? The 76 year old woman who only spoke quechua that we recently baptized? Well we´ve been visiting her and lately she has picked up the desire to read in spanish! So we come over with our paper, pen, and Book of Mormon. She can read the front cover of the Book of Mormon and everytime we come, she understands more and more of spanish. What a miracle??? She is always on time to church and her desire to learn is like no other that I have ever seen, despite her age, her speaking abilities, and any of her other circumstances. She truly makes me open my eyes and want to try harder every day.

Story 3:

Last one,
Baptism!!! How amazing is it to witness two young sisters come unto Christ through baptism. Truly warms my heart and helps me realize the love that Heavenly Father has for them. Both of these girls have been coming to church their whole lives but they have just recently been baptized. I can see the Lord's love for them. I am so sure that he is so happy with them and the choices that they have made. They have such strong testimonies and they truly understand their purpose. It is just so amazing.

The other baptism was a little 8 year old girl. Her name is Allyson. She is SOOOO cute and I wish I could just take her around with me everyday. Before she gets baptized, she looks at Elder George and she goes "your hands are HUGE"!!! so funny.  Then, when it's time for her to be baptized she gets in the water and loves it. (the water was super warm and usually it is FREEZING) The kid baptizing her grabs her hand and she freaks out because it's wet and rubs it on his chest, ahhhaha  then after she's baptized, we tell her to get out of the water and she won't because its so warm. We tried to drag her and it was so funny.  Children are so innocent and so close to Christ. She is the most adorable girl in the world and it makes me so happy to see that her and the two other girls made those decisions for themselves to come unto Christ.

 

I love the Gospel with all of my heart and I thank the Lord for all of my blessings! I can't wait for the day when I stand with Him and shout for joy for all of the people who chose to come unto him.

I love you all and I only hope happiness and joy for you all.

 

-Hermana Wattles

 

 

Better Late than Never

Note from Mom:
The Mother's Day Skype happened one day late due to computer issues but was as sweet as ever. It was wonderful to see Hermana Wattles beautiful happy smile. She is doing great and we couldn't be more proud of her. We miss her like crazy but we know she is in the right place and she is doing the Lord's work so we couldn't be happier. Until next time...Love, Mom

 

Dad was on camera duty