Maria!

   Another great week here in Casa Blanca! The work is finally starting to move forward, slowly. Haha. We`ve decided to focus a little less on the ancient investigators who have been listening to the missionaries for months but haven`t been progressing, and focus more on finding new people to teach.

   Oh also WE HAVE A FECHA! Hallelujah! If everything works out Maria will be baptized on December 20th. A Christmas miracle. We actually found Maria at Church. She`s been attending for a while now with her cousin and everyone just assumed that she was a member, including us. Until last week when her cousin told us that she isn`t. So we called her and she said that she`s been wanting to be baptized but the missionaries have never really contacted her. So that was easy. Haha no but she`s so great. She really has a desire to change and to come unto Christ. And she wanted to be baptized before Christmas, kind of as a Christmas gift to herself and as a way to start the new year. We`re so excited and hope that she will be ready by the 20th.

   As missionaries of course we do a ton of service. It`s a great way to meet new people and gain their trust. And almost always when we ask them if there`s anything we can help them with they look at me and say "You can help my son/daughter with their English". Hahaha so I do a lot of that. It`s great and helps me to learn as well. We do a lot of cleaning too and that`s a little less fun but it`s still good. A lot of people just have us come over and clean cause they know we`ll do it so that`s great. Haha. But service is great and I know that as we serve these people they can see the love that we have for them and that eventually their hearts will be softened.

   Also I wasn`t sick at all this week! Which is such a blessing because we`ve been able to work all day every day and focus on the work.

I love you guys so much! Thank you for all your love and support! It means a lot. Have a great week!

Hermana M

Testigos Arriba!

Another great week in the field!

   I feel like a ton happened this week but at the same time everything is kind of just a blur so I have no idea what to tell you guys. Haha sorry. Plus I used to write out all my emails before hand so they would actually be decent but I haven´t had time to do that the last couple weeks.

   I was sick again a few days this week and confined to our lovely cuarto but after a round of miraculous antibiotics I´m good to go! They wanted me to go to the hospital to take tests and stuff but I said that I think I´m good. Hahaha no thanks.

   I´m sure at least a few of you are wondering how the pickiest eater in the world is surviving in Peru. She´s cheating. Luckily my companion is the sweetest person in the world and if she can tell I don´t like something sometimes she´ll eat it for me. Also I always always have a little plastic baggy in my bag and when our pensionista or whoever else gives us food leaves the room I really quickly put the food that I don´t like in the little baggy. Also the dog in our pension is my savior. We´ve become pretty good friends. At every meal he just sits by my feet and whenever I feel like I can get away with it I throw the food that don´t want to him. Hahaha. I´m the worst.

   This week we found a golden family! Well we hope. We contacted Gerardo in the street one day and made an appointment to meet with him and his family later that week. When it was time for the appointment we went to his apartment building but we couldn´t get up to the top floor because the door was locked. We didn´t have a phone number so we couldn´t call him, so we left a picture of Jesus with our names and number in his mailbox and left. A few days later on Sunday Gerardo called us wondering why we hadn´t come to teach his family. He said that he and his family had been waiting and were disappointed when we didn´t show up. This NEVER happens. Almost always our appointments with street contacts fall through and they don´t really want to hear our message. Anyway we made another appointment with him for Saturday. That night we went to his house and had the BEST lesson with him and his family. They´re so great and I really think they will progress. We´ve been praying to find a family and I think this family is an answer to our prayers.

   This week when I was sick I had plenty of time just resting in our cuarto and I watched the movies that I had purchased from the mission office. I absolutely loved On the Lord´s Errand, which is about President Monson. I encourage all of you to watch it. A quote that I absolutely loved from the movie:

"The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it, and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone´s prayer or someone´s need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, I will run that errand for Him". Thomas S. Monson

   Also I´m sorry that I haven´t sent pictures in a few weeks. It´s a little complicated because I need some adaptor thing to put my camera´s memory card into the computer that I don´t have. But I´ll try to figure something out so that I can send pictures.

P.S. "Testigos Arriba!". Many people confuse us for Jehovah´s Witnesses. Which we definitely are not. Hahaha

Anyway I love you all and as always I am so grateful for all of your love and support!

Hermana Marshall