Passport to Peru: Happy August from Tumbes! :)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been another crazy busy, wonderful week here in Tumbes! This week it's been starting to get pretty chilly here in the night time...we've even had to pull out our cardigans a couple of times! I never thought that the day would come that I'd feel even a little bit cold...but it has come! Thank goodness during the day it's still hot, or else I might not believe I'm in Peru! ;)

Really though, it's been a really good week. Tuesday started out a little bit strange because it was still a day off for a lot of people for their Independence day celebrations, so there weren't a whole lot of people in their houses, but we were still able to visit a few families, and even had a member come with us! I was so grateful for the powerful testimony she bore of the Book of Mormon...not only were our investigators impressed and enlightened, but my own testimony was strengthened by hers. Makes me a little bit sad that I didn't take the opportunity when I was a laurel to go on visits with the sister missionaries...but thankfully I have a couple younger sisters who might be able to take advantage of that opportunity now...(cough, cough Paige, Amber cough ;)).

I also had a really neat experience with prayer this week. It isn't that big of a deal, but it meant a lot to me and I can testify with just that much more certainty that the Lord really does listen and answer our prayers. We were in a lesson with a new investigator that we have-Julio. He's about 85 years old and a retired marine, and he's really interested in the church. The only problem is that he's a little hard of hearing, and with my gringo accent, it doesn't really matter that much that I'm saying the words right, he has a really hard time understanding me. When we first started the lesson, I was trying to ask him questions about his family and his life, and he just straight up asked me "you don't know Spanish very well do you?" I'm not going to lie, that remark kind of hurt my pride... and my first reaction was to feel offended and discouraged--but then I realized that he didn't mean anything by it, he just wanted to be able to understand. So as my companion was trying to explain what I had just asked him, I said a quick prayer in my heart asking for help to not feel offended and that Hermano Julio would be able to understand me. I immediately felt a peace and calm enter my heart, and felt any hurt that I had felt melt away. Then, miraculously, the rest of the lesson, there were only a couple of times that I had to repeat what I had said to him for him to be able to understand. Wow. I walked out of that lesson so grateful for my Heavenly Father and the answers to the most simple, quiet prayers.

We were also blessed this week to participate in another baptism! Hermano Michael was able to pass his interview easily, (turns out that he had had some major difficulties the day of the interview the week before and went into it a little discouraged, so this week was a lot better) and with another baptism-in-a-day planning, somehow Hermana C. and I were able to make his baptism happen this Saturday. Of course, there's always SOMETHING that goes wrong, and this time we found a SCORPION in the baptismal font! At first I thought it was a leaf that got stuck in the drain or something, but then I saw it's tail/stinger thing, and freaked out. Thankfully the Elders were there helping us fill up the font, so they got it out with a stick and killed it haha. EEEW. The only other problem we had was that there weren't a lot of people that were able to come, so we only had the man from the high council that's in charge of our ward, the former 2nd counselor, and a bunch of elders there for his service, but it was still really special.

The next day we went to help an investigator get her kids ready and to church, and we were running way late and thought we might not make it for the Sacrament, but thanks to a lot of prayers, and the miracle of their answers, we made it just in time. Michael was also confirmed and was able to receive the priesthood.

All in all, a wonderful week. I hope you all have had a great one wherever you are as well, and that this upcoming one will be just as good, and if not, better!

Love you all!

Hermana Garner