Tumbes--Semana de Milagros

Querida Familia y amigos,

It's kind of crazy when you take a step back to look at your life and realize that you've been in a foregin country speaking a different language for 7 months, but I guess it's really true what they say about the mission flying by. It's even more crazy because I still feel so new...there's so much I still have to learn, but I don't really have that excuse anymore! 

But overall, this week really was a really neat week. Hermana S. and I continue to search up and down our area contacting pretty much anyone that will listen to us trying to find some new investigators. As a result, this has been one of the most tiring and yet happiest weeks of my life. :)

Recently we've been working with the son of our pensionista (he's a returned missionary that's having a lot of trouble with the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, but is really a neat guy). This week, we were able to help him and his girlfriend put a date for their wedding! They also had interviews with the man in charge of our ward, and it was really neat. We also fasted for them and we pray for them every day because they've been trying to get married for quite some time...this isn't the first time they've been working with missionaries and it's not even the first time they've put a date for their wedding, but we have a lot of faith that this time it's for real! All we can do right now is help them all we can, pray a lot, and leave the rest up to the Lord.

This week we have been putting a ton of focus on contacting families, and it's been amazing to see the Lord's hand in helping us to get to know them. Since our area is in the center of Tumbes, sometimes it's a little bit hard to find families that actually live in our area, but we've been sending the references to the respective areas and hopefully the other missionaries can find them and that they can also recieve the powerful blessings and changes that this gospel can bring to their lives. This week, our zone leaders had us do an activity on Saturday that they called "El Día del Milagro". It basically consisted of a zone-wide effort to be even more exactly obedient, and with all our faith in the Lord for at least one day, look for the miracles that He would bring....then to record all the miracles that we saw. It was such a neat experience. 

Even though a lot of the things we did were pretty normal missionary-wise, I had the distinct impression throughout the day that there were literally angels acompanying us. It was such a powerful blessing. 

We were able to meet some really neat people and have some lessons that were so filled with the Spirit...even more than normal. It was amazing to see how much of a difference it made to just put a little more faith in the Lord and go to work. I can definitely testify that my faith grew significantly through that experience, and I'm really grateful for the blessing it was to participate in that activity. The other amazing thing is that it's given my companion and me a completely new perspective. When the day was over and we were reflecting on all the miracles, we thought "what if EVERY day we tried like we did today to exercise that much faith in the Lord?" and with that attitude, the miracles continue. 

One of the biggest miracles is that we're starting to really find some really neat people. Last night we had a lesson with a family-a mom, dad, and three kids-that are super receptive and we really felt the Spirit so powerfully in their home. Wow. 

Anyways, I'm out of time! Love you all! 

Hermana Garner

Here are a few questions Samantha's dad asked and her answers

Dear Sammy,

Hope this note finds you happy and healthy.  I was thinking that now you have been on your mission for 7+ months, so I thought I'd throw out a few questions for you:

1. What are your favorite Peruvian (food) dishes?

 Lomo Saltado, Ensalada Russa, Arroz Chaufa, Aji de Gallina (kind of like chicken and rice), and pretty much every thing else that they eat here!

2. Any crazy dishes or delicacies that the Peruvians like, but most N.A.'s find gross or an "acquired taste"?'

They eat a lot of duck here that really is NOT my favorite kind of meat, but oh well! And there's a drink they call cebada that's really gross...but if you put in enough extra water and sugar it's not too bad :) 

3. What other cultural traditions, beliefs, practices have you observed that are different from here in the U.S.? (e.g., I've heard that many believe that if you sleep under a blowing fan, it will make you sick ...)

YES!! Haha they think that if you have the fan on or live in air conditioning that it makes you sick (and not just something normal like a cold, but that it gives you the flu and other things like that), also, if you drink things cold you're going to get a cold, and if you save food for leftovers (even if it's in a perfectly normal fridge) you're pretty much asking to get sick. Pretty funny, but it's their traditions, so oh well! 

4. As a blonde-haired, blue-eyed N.A., do you stand out?  Are people surprised that you live there and are learning Spanish? (On my mission, Americans were kind of an anomaly, and we were often able to use that as a contacting tool when on buses or otherwise out in the public).

Yes, I definitely stand out. It's really funny because I really don't love being in the spotlight, but there's not really much I can do to hide the fact that I'm pretty different from pretty much everyone here, but it hasn't been too bad of a problem yet! Like you said, it's a really good tool for contacting, but sometimes that means that the contacts are kind of duds because all they want to do is ask about where we're from and what it's like and such. A lot of people are really surprised when I start speaking spanish...often assuming that only my companion speaks spanish and she's just there to translate for me or something silly like that haha.