Oh...What a wonderful life!

Hola todos!

Samantha in Sullana on P-day 5/12/14

Crazy to think that it's really been another whole week! I just love it so much here in the mission...time flies by so fast! Started out the week with a new district leader after cambios...now I'm not the only North American in my district! It's actually kinda weird, but Elder Lauder is from Utah and he's really great. He's really humble and hard working and I think he'll bring a lot of energy to our ward and our district. 

This week we've still been having a lot of trouble finding our investigators...hardly anyone is at home when we come to visit them! It's a little bit frustrating, but as I've said before, it really is amazing how in this wonderful work no matter how rough or discouraging the day might be, when we come home at night, I'm filled with this joy and energy that is just like no other. I'm SO grateful to be a missionary! 

One thing that I would really like to impress on each of you this week is just how important the members are in missionary work. Seriously, the members are KEY. In our ward right now, we haven't had a lot of support...at all. No matter how hard we work to get appointments with the members to have them come with us on visits, it's just not happening. I just want each of you to take a moment and think about what more you could be doing to help the missionary work move forward just a little bit in your area. Maybe it's inviting a friend to church or to an activity, maybe it's inviting them to a family home evening, or maybe it's donating an hour or two of your time to go out on visits with the missionaries in your ward. Whatever it is, there is something that everyone can do, and I KNOW that the Lord will see your efforts and bless you for it! (and the missionaries in your area will be super grateful too!;) just a thought :)

One of the biggest highlights of this week was Friday night. We helped the ward put on a talent show/celebration for La Día de La Madre...it was a REALLY neat experience for Hermana Rios and I. The missionaries were assigned to put on two acts, and even though we met with the other four elders in our ward/district Thursday morning, we were having some trouble figuring out what to do. Thursday Hermana Rios and I travelled to Piura in another attempt to visit the doctor to help her with all her aches and pains (our joke is that she's dying...both in the sense that she's about to finish her mission and in the sense that her body is slowly degenerating...hehe). Buuttt the doctor wasn't there...again...even though we called his personal secretary this time and she told us for sure he'd be back by Thursday. It was a little bit frustrating, but we decided that everything happens for a reason, and hopped back on the bus to Sullana! When we got here we realized that the JAS (YSA) were meeting that night to organize their talent for the show. We figured that if we weren't going to do anything with the elders, maybe we could figure out something to do with the JAS.

It was so amazing because we went to the chapel that night and organized a really neat skit...one that Hermana Rios had seen in another talent show on her mission. It was basically a mute skit...we had this really neat song playing in the background and acted out essentially what we do as missionaries. We had an "investigator" that we found and "woke up" by sharing the gospel with her. Then there came a bunch of bad spirits that taught her the things of the world...drinking, robbing, killing, and obsession with money...to represent the temptations that Satan often tries to fill our lives with when we find something really good. Then in the end, the investigator has a moment of decision when all of the bad spirits are attacking her at one time and she's lost about what to do. In that moment the key changes and  Hermana Rios and I knelt down on the side of the stage to pray for her, and she stands up with determination to battle all the evil spirits. In the end they push her to her knees and she begins to pray and go through the repentance process. Then we stood up and went out to battle the spirits behind her, and eventually knock them all down. We picked her up off the ground, handed her back her book of mormon, and the song ends. It was so powerful to practice and even more powerful to perform...when we knelt down to pray for our investigator as she battled all the spirits I felt the Spirit wash over me and it was such an amazing moment. But that's not even the best part. Our investigator Alejandro just happened to be at the chapel Thursday night to play soccer with some of the JAS...and he volunteered to help in our skit. It was so neat to describe it to him, and I really think it was a powerful experience for him to get to participate. We decided that this was the reason that the doctor hadn't been there on Thursday...because the Lord knew that this skit needed to happen and Alejandro needed to be a part of it.

The funny thing about the talent show was that...in typical Peruvian fashion...it was supposed to start at 6pm, but didn't start until 8:45. We literally performed our skit, watched the one for the elders, grabbed some dinner to go, and went home. It kinda stunk that it started so late...especially because we had 4 investigators come at 6pm and were waiting the WHOLE TIME and hardly anyone was talking to them...but I'm pretty sure that it all worked out fine in the end :)

Yesterday it was amazing to talk to my family. I am seriously so grateful for the power of prayer...after having to go from plan a to b to c to d with the computers, spending 40 minutes trying to figure out how to work Skype on the computer and still not have the video camera work on my end (not to mention the fact that the connection was so bad we could hardly talk more than 7 minutes without it cutting out) It was SO great to see all of your faces and feel of your love and support.I'm just grateful that it got to work at all! 

This is what it looked like from Arizona:)

This is what we got to see (here in Arizona), at least Samantha could see us:)!

Today has been like the best Pday ever. This morning we had a Zone activity where we went to a soccer field in this area beyond the river that is in this kinda secluded area surrounded by tons of trees and played soccer and volleyball and all sorts of other games.

Samantha in the secluded area:)

Hermana's Garner and Rios on the soccer field.

Even though Hermana Rios and I were the only Hermanas there, it ended up being really fun and a wonderfuol way to start out the day! We decided at the beginning of the month that we were going to take two Monday's off for our pensionista and go exploring for some other interesting foods in the area, so today we ate at a Chinese restaurant in central Sullana. It was a TON of food, but so good and a nice change (even though there was still tons of rice in the meal haha). 

Chinese food in Peru!

I really hope that you've all been having a great week! Love and miss you all and am so grateful for your support! Remember to take a moment and think about what you can to do help the work of the Lord move forward in your area! Love you all! 

With much love,

Hermana Garner