Passport to Peru: Tumbes-Week 4

Queridos amigos y familia,

¿Como estan? Wow, it¡s hard to believe that another whole week has passed by! I really love being here in Tumbes...maybe that's part of the reason that time's flying by so quickly here!

But anyways, for starters I realized last week when I got home that I had sent you all pictures of what we did for our district activity, but I'm pretty sure I didn't tell you anything about what we did! Oops...sorry about that :) We went to the house of an hermana to make brownies in my honor (just cause I'm the only gringa and therefore the only one who's ever even heard of brownies before haha). They turned out really good, but not much like the ones that I made out of the box at home ;)

This week was a really neat one. We were able to help three of our investigators accept baptismal dates....we really have met some really neat people in the last few weeks...people that are really ready to accept the gospel in their lives. One of them is named Michael. He's been coming to church for the last 3 weeks, but by some weird misunderstanding we thought that he was a less active, but didn't check into it until this week when we went to visit him at his house! Anyways, turns out he'd only met the missionaries one time last year and they taught him a lesson, gave him a Book of Mormon, and then he had to move to Lima for a while. He just recently returned and started coming back to church. He's really awesome and he's super open and receptive to the gospel. If everything goes as planned, he'll be getting baptized on the 26th! Crossing our fingers that everything will work out for that!

Also this week, Hermana G. from Puyango spent Tuesday night through Wednesday night with us because her companion Hermana R. had to travel to Lima for visa stuff. It was a good time and we were able to do a lot of divisiones, but trios are always a little bit stressful haha. Thankfully she's really great and everything worked out alright :)

This Sunday I got your package! Turns out Elder E. (a district leader for the other ward that meets in our stake center) got sent back to Tumbes with the package and letter that you guys sent from the Garner family FHE!

I was super happy to get it...thank you so much! It was so fun to see everyone's smiling (and crazy) faces, and fun to be able to read all of the little notes from everyone :) Love you all so much!

(here are a sample of the pictures that we sent her:))

Garner FHE (everyone who was in town:))

Got our CRAZY on!

Notes to all our missionaries (we have 4 missionaries out from this side of the family, 2 more on the other side)

Haha and mom thanks for the package! The pictures for my family history book are PERFECT! (and also the memory card thing....so much easier to use) And I also think that now I have enough floss and chapstick to last me the rest of my mission! ;) hehe thank you so much! love you!

Today for Pday we were able to go to a beach in Zorritos with our Zone and the Zone of Puyango. It was a really fun time! We played all sorts of games in the sand and took pictures with crabs and crazy looking birds, and it was really fun! Then afterwards we went to lunch as a district. Have I told you guys how much I really love being in Tumbes? Seriously, everything about this place is wonderful...my companion, district and zone, as well as the ward, investigators, less actives, and the food of course ;)

This week, I'd just like to remind you all how important your role is as members of the church in helping the investigators and less actives feel comfortable and accepted in the environment of the church. I can't tell you how helpful it is for someone who's in a new environment-like the church-to find a friend who's willing to not only say hi, but sit with them and answer their questions and invite them over for dinner or whatever it may be! We have the power and responsibility as members of the church to make a difference in the lives of each of these people. Just think...what would Jesus do if he saw someone new in the church building? Would he just say hi and leave it at that?

Anyways, I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Love you all! Thank you for your love and support always!

Love,

Hermana Garner