Passport to Peru: EL TRIUNFO!

Dear family and friends,

Well I sure hope that this letter finds you all happy and healthy, and if it doesn't that you at least can be comforted to know that there's a sister missionary down here in Peru praying for each and every one of you!

What a week this week has been. So, I pretty much really love my companion. It's so amazing to me how she is always so positive and so hard working EVERY SINGLE DAY, no matter how tired she is or how much her body hurts after 18 months of constant work. She's such a wonderful example to me! We have been working super hard every spare minute since she's gotten here, and even though I'm more exhausted than I've ever been in my life, I've never been so happy!

This week has been a major week of recognition. Ever since I've gotten here (as I'm sure you all know by now) I have pretty much been in love with everything that has to do with Tumbes...my ward, my companion, our area, everything. Unfortunately...like they say, sometimes love is blind right?...I think that that has made me miss a couple of things that are going on here. One of those was that we were spending a lot of time working with investigators and less actives that weren't progressing, and even though I love them all so much, and it's been a little hard for me, Hermana S. has really helped me realize that sometimes I need to learn to let go a little bit. As I've told you guys in the last couple of letters, we've been doing tons of contacting the past couple of weeks, and we're finally starting to see the results! We now have two of our new investigators that have accepted a baptismal date, and we have two or three new families that we're working with that are really wonderful. It's been such a blessing.

A lot of times, we hear some pretty crazy stories about what the other missionaries that have been here have done...spending crazy amounts of time with one investigator to help them get to baptism. Sometimes I ask my companion why we can't do that, and the other day she told me something that really hit me. She told me that back then, all that stuff was okay. But today, the Lord is hastening His work, and we're part of it. Just like we as missionaries need to be more prepared than ever before, we also need to find the investigators that are more prepared than ever before. Also, in the multizone conference that we had this week, President Rowley told us that We're supposed to be looking for the people the Lord has prepared in our areas for us to find and teach. Those chosen people will listen to us, and they will progress. These comments have really helped me to change my focus lately, and helped me to recognize more than ever why I'm really here, and why I shouldn't just do things the way I think is best.

This week we also had our Multizone conference with Puyango, and it was really amazing. It's always so powerful when President and Hermana Rowley come. The conference was centered on the Holy Ghost and recieving personal revelation. It was also a major reflection moment for me...as there are a few brand new North American missionaries in our zones, it was neat for me to see how far I've come since I was in my first multizone conference (both with my spanish and maturity wise). Conferences are the best.

After the conference, we had intercambios and Hermana S. went to La Cruz with Hermana V., and Hermana G. came here with me! We had a great time, and I really learned a lot from her. She's from California but was also going to BYU, so we'll get to see each other when we get back! She's a super powerful missionary with a wonderful attitude and a lot of really great ideas. It was neat to be able to spend that time with her and learn from her example. She's also about to finish her mission...it's her second to last transfer! Crazy how time flies.

One of the most impactful things that happened this week happened yesterday. There's a less active family that we've been visiting every once in a while since I got here...the G. family. They're really amazing people and have such a powerful spirit in their home. Their situation is pretty interesting...they had some problems with our former stake president, so they haven't been coming to church. But the interesting thing is that they're still active, just in every other ward in the stake besides ours. I'm not really sure what happened exactly, but from what I know, they're amazing people that just have let themselves get offended...it's so sad to me that people let little things like the mistakes of other imperfect people get between them and their spiritual progression. Anyways, yesterday we went to visit them with a member from our ward that's been their friend for a long time. We had planned on talking to them about keeping the sabbath day holy, but when we got there, the sister that was with us just started bearing her testimony to them and it was so powerful there was no way we were going to stop her. She talked about the example they've been for her and really how much the ward needs their family back. Even though they didn't really change their position, it was extremely powerful and it was amazing how you could see that it affected them a lot. I walked out of there thinking "now THAT was an effective use of our time." Wow.

Every single one of us as members of the church have a responsibility to preach the gospel. I know that there are so many other things in life that are demanding our attention, but I'd invite each and every one of you to take at least one hour out of your week to go on visits with the missionaries. As permanent members of your ward, you have a perspective that has so much more depth than that of the missionaries, and can really be a powerful tool in the conversion of the people there...whether it's the conversion of an investigator or the conversion of someone who never really had a testimony, or just helping someone remember the conversion they had. I love you all and I know there is something that we can each do in every day to help move the work of the Lord forward! I testify that this work is true, and it's from God. I know that we live in the last days, and that the Lord really is hastening his work. Don't miss the opportunity to be a part of it.

Love you all so much!! Hope you have a fantastic week and don't ever forget how blessed you are to have this wonderful gospel in your lives! Appreciate it!

Love,

Hermana Garner