Querido Familia y Amigos...

HOLA! I hope that this letter finds you all well :)

This week has been so crazy busy! We had THREE Noches de Hogar (Family Home Evenings) this week, a Zone conference, traveled to Piura to visit the doctor (for the THIRD time ;), I gave a talk in church, we got trained to use FamilySearch.org, and now have two investigators with a baptisimal date!!! It seriously has been amazing to see how much the Lord's hand has been in our lives this week. 

As I've mentioned in my letters, the last few weeks have been pretty difficult number wise. This week started off looking like it was going to be about the same. It's pretty rough when we're putting in all of our efforts, but we don't recieve a lot of support from the ward or our investigators aren't home for our appointments, but it's also so amazing how much the Lord still blesses us in every single day. This week, as I mentioned above, we were able to have 3 noches de hogar...which is AWESOME becuase it meant that we were able to go to the houses of members with our investigators and have really neat opportunities to be creative with the lessons we shared (a little more dynamic and with lots more pictures and games) aaannddd of course there is always food involved (turns out that Peruvian Mormons believe in the 11th commandment of food too hehe). It was really such a blessing for us. 

In our Zone Conference on Thursday we talked about the story of the rich young man in the bible that tells the Lord that he's lived all the commandments all his life, but when asked isn't willing to give up all of his riches to follow him. The conference was focused on the question he asks "¿Qué más nos falta?" (I think in the English scriptures the question is What lack I yet? or something to that affect). It was really inspiring for Hermana Rios and I because it was a chance for us to take a step back and really look at the things we have been doing and what we can do to try and improve in every moment. Also, as a mission we've started this thing where we ALWAYS have a Libro de Mormon in our hands. It's amazing to feel how different I feel walking around with all the power of that book in my hands 24/7. You should try it sometime ;) Apart from that, the whole conference was a much needed spiritual boost, and the letters I recieved were very much appreciated as well! Thank you for those who have written me! (Also mom...the package didn't come.....but maybe this weekend when we have multi zone conference?)

On Friday we traveled to Piura after our weekly planning. That was quite the adventure. They have some pretty crazy ways of dealing with medical things here in Peru...for example we had to be in the doctor's office at 4pm to pay and get an appointment for later that night at like 7:30. We got permission from Hermana Rowley to go work with some other sisters in the area (which just happened to be the last area Hermana Rios was in) so they could have divisions and we could have something productive to do haha. So that was really neat to get to work with them...it always amazes me how much I learn when I go out with other Hermanas, no matter how long or short the time is. But yeah, so after we had divisions in Ignacio Marino with Hermana Peterson and Hermana Millano, we went back to the clinic and met with the doctor for about 5 minutes, only enough time for him to tell us that we needed to come back in the morning at 7 to get another appointment at 10ish....long story short, we ended up going back to Ignacio Marino and stayed the night in the apartment of Hermana Peterson and Hermana Millano.

Hermana Garner & Rios at the other Hermana's apartment

 It was actually really fun...just about the closest thing that can come to a sleepover on the mission haha! They're both from the US, but Hermana Millano's parents are both from Venezuela so she grew up speaking spanish and english and she looks latino. It was really fun to have a chance to get to know them a little bit.

Waiting at the clinic (Hermana Rios & Garner)

The next morning we headed BACK to the clinic, got another appointment, had some breakfast, then waited until 12:45 to finally meet with the doctor. He gave us the perscriptions for about 3 billion pills that my poor companion needs to take....then we headed back to Sullana! Haha it was quite the adventure, and involved a lot of down time to talk about really deep doctrinal mysteries. It was actually a really good time for us to build our companionship a lot more :)

Hermana Rios with her medication

In other news, two of the daughters of a man that has been inactive from the church for about 10 years accepted a baptisimal date this week! One of them is about to turn 13 and the other is 10 years old. They're both really brilliant and are learning everything so quickly...and they're SO excited to get baptized. We're having their baptism on the 31st...it pretty much feels too good to be true! I'm so excited for both of them :) It's really amazing to see how much the Lord has prepared them for this step in their lives.

Annnddd that's pretty much all for this week folks! I'd really encourage all of you to take some time this week and ask yourself ¿Qué más me falta?---What more can I do?

Love you all! Remember to look for the blessings of the Lord in your life in every moment. :) 

Con cariño,

Hermana Garner