Email from Chalea last week of October

Happy Monday! :)

So yes, Monday is the new Pday. I am here in Santa Patricia. It is a mission district in the city of Lima. Wow, what a week! So I see Corbin is doing well..... Goldstar. haha! Glad you get to enjoy it Corbs. Enjoy it while you can.:) And if you have time, I would love to hear from you.....please:). A four way tie?! Dang! Who with? You will have to let me know how it goes. Having Nevada day off will be nice! That will be so nice to scrapbook Mom! Sounds very relaxing.  Dad, good luck with the mining.;) haha! One of the sister leaders in my zone is from Las Vegas, and she was pretty hyped about it being Nevada day. For Halloween we are going to try to coordinate outfits, color wise, and then we are going to dress up as missionaries! ;) haha. We will see if we can do much work that night. I heard that we have to return to our apartment early because it can get a little weird,but idk. Right now my trainer and compañera is Hermana Gifford. She is from Idaho and went to BYU I too! She is a really good trainer! I am here 3 trainee. We live with two other hermanas, Hermana Hazelton, who also was up at BYU I and Hermana Burgraaff. I know her a little bit from the MTC. At the moment, we live in a tiny little room, but after email we are going to move over by the temple!!! :D We are spoiled with this apartment. I guess it has three rooms and three bathrooms. Plus it is by the temple, and by our pensionista, so really nice and convenient! A pensionista is someone who cooks meals for you. We also have a lady who does laundry for us. It is nice.:) The food here is good! I have not had cuye yet, (knock on wood that I never will), but I guess it is a delicacy and rarely eaten because it is expensive tambien. The father of our ward mission leader raises them to sell. Anywho, yesterday we got to have a little Brazilian food. It was yum.:) Every Sunday for lunch we get to eat at a member's home. Yesterday we ate at the home of our ward Relief Society president. Her husband is from Brazil, and his birthday was Saturday, so we got to try frijoles Brazilaños. We also had super yummy cake. It was like banana bread with cream cheese frosting. 

Our ward is SUPER awesome! They are so willing to help us, and they are so excited to have sister missionaries here. Hermana Gifford and I are kind of 'opening' the area. We share the area with the assistants to the President, so in the mornings, they are working in the office. This area hasn't had sisters for about 5 or 6 years either, so we are really excited to be here. Our ward mission leader is, as we say here in Peru, lo maximo! De verdad. He is newly married and is studying and working, but he is always there to fulfill his calling and go to appointments with us. His wife is great too! She too studies and works, but she is always helping her husband help us. We are actually working in the 100th stake in Peru too. Dad, remember when you showed me that this summer? Well now I'm here! :) So yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. The second in two weeks because I spoke on my last Sunday in the CCM tambien. It went well though. The people understood my Castiano (Spanish) so that's a relief.:) My compañera and I both talked about the importance of members in missionary work. Really, members are so important! When we work together, we can accomplish so much more. Something I love about here is how willing the people are to go visit less active members. They are always focused on helping people grow in the gospel. I hope we can do that more at home, and that we can share the gospel more too. In my talk yesterday, I talked about a few simple ways we can share the gospel. One of the ways I mentioned was how at home, there are pictures of Christ or quotes from the prophets in our home and how this really invites the Spirit. Thank you family for living in a way so that we can invite the Spirit of God into our home!:) 

Ok, so a few things about the mission. First of all, President Ardila wanted me to thank you. He told me to tell you thank you for sending me here. He understands that it is hard, he has three beautiful daughters, but he wanted me to let you know that he really appreciates it. Second, we cannot recieve outside money without permission. Here in the mission, we want to be equal. We can recieve extra money from home, but there needs to be a reason for it. This is the email you can send it to. 2012359(at sign) ldschurch.org. If you have questions, contact President Ardila. I don't quite understand how it works and he can answer your questions better than I can. 

As for teaching... we have an investigator who has a baptismal date for the third week in November!!! :D No, I did not just snipe someone elses' baptism. The other day we were contacting people in the street. We saw this man walking with his mom and asked them if we could stop by and share a message about Jesus Christ, and they agreed. We taught him on Friday, he went to a baptism on Saturday, and all of church yesterday! He is reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized as Christ was. It is so cool, his whole countenance has changed. He smiles a ton and his whole countenance is just brighter. When we leave things in the Lord's hands, He really does work miracles! :) I know that He is with us! 

Mom, thanks for always writing me! I love hearing about how things are going. Dad, thanks for sharing part of your talk! It is so important to see people's potential and to see them as friends. That is something I do to not be so scared. Mama, when I am down, I try to count my blessings too. This helps me to not be so sad. We are so blessed and the Lord knows what He is doing. We just need to lay everything into His hands and let it go. Corbs, keep up the great work! You are such a great guy! Be careful, and don't get too spoiled. ;)

Well, almost time to go. I love each of you so very very much! Thank you for your support and your examples! It makes things a lot easier here. Know that I pray for you every single day. I love you tons! Until next week!

Love,

Hermana Waite

Email from 10/17/13

Famililia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

How are my favorite people?! Sorry about your hurt hip bro! That stinks. :/ Good luck with playoffs, let me know if you guys make it there. Glad Cookie is still running strong (Only cool cars do that, right Corbs ;) ). And Mama, school is going well? I bet you are tired Dad! You all work so hard! Thank you for all you each do for me every day!

 

So before I forget, I was asked almost two weeks ago to be a sister leader! ( it is pretty much a zone leader for the Hermanas). Hermana Mack and I have been trying to be good leaders and help the North American girls out. Our Latina roommates are SO CUTE!!!!! I love them!!!!! Last night we had another Latina Hermana in our room and she was surprised at how well our Spanish was and at how tall we are. She asked us what we eat in the U.S. that makes us so tall. H. Mack and I were laughing so hard! :) Well, T-minus one week and I am out! We leave for the field Tuesday morning. I am going to miss our district and the CCM, but I am excited to go teach. I know this is where I need to be! The other day when we were playing soccer I was pondering about the amazing position I find myself in. Here I am in Peru, I was playing soccer, outside with the sunshine and a light breeze, with an opportunity to grow stronger in spirit more than I ever have in my life, and with the chance to very soon share the most important thing in my life with others. My heart just wanted to leap out of my chest in joy and gratitude to Heavenly Father for letting me be here! :) We get to go out on Saturday to go proselyting again. We are going to visit some less active members. Hopefully this time won't be as shocking as the last and that the Spanish will be better. haha! Spanish is starting to come along. This is my analogy. There is a forest; on one side is English, on the other side is Spanish. As you start to learn Spanish you walk deeper into the forest, and when you are on the other side of the forest, you know Spanish, but in the middle is a dark forest where sometimes you cannot remember the word in English, but you don't know it in Spanish, so you are sitting there flapping your hands around trying to find something to say. hahaha!!!!! Another thing I was excited about this week was being complimented by a Latino on my soccer skills. :)

 

Spiritual thought... Conversion has been on my mind a lot this week. Conversion is a process of becoming who the Lord needs and wants us to be. Central to everything we do is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Without Him and His atoning sacrifice, nothing would have meaning. Alma 5 has some great questions that can help us know if we have become converted. I really really am trying to become the person Heavenly Father wants and needs me to be. I know He is there, and I want to be on His side when the end comes, along with all my loved ones!

 

Well, that's all the time for this week. I am leaving on Tuesday for the field, so Idk when I will get to email next week. It might be next next week. Love you all!!!!

Hermana Waite

I'm late. Sorry

It's that time of week again! How is everyone? Good? Not too cold yet I hope. It is weird, people are starting to get Christmas decorations in the store and I'm thinking, 'Hey, wait! Isn't it turning summer?' Weird. haha.

This week was a pretty good week. Sometimes it is hard to be cooped up in classes all day, with the same people, but we have an awesome district! Our teachers are really great too! One of them, the one who teaches at night, always has us go run a few laps to wake us up when we are sleepy. They really know what they are talking about though and are really patient with us. They give us great feedback after our lessons and help us to reach our full potential as missionaries. I guess I will start with a spiritual thought this time. First of all, general conference. Did you guys get to watch all 4 sessions? I think that was the most spiritual one I have ever listened to in my life. Our branch president had us write down questions we had, and I kid you not, like a quarter of them were answered within the first session. When we do the Lord's work with a purpose, with the Spirit, and with real intent, I promise you that He will help us!!! Secondly, yesterday we were having a lesson about how the Holy Ghost can help investigators (and us too) to become converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our teacher did a great example that really hit home for me. He had a glass that had some water in it. He explained that the water represents our talents, and that each of us have varying amounts of talents. The empty space is where the Lord fills up the glass for us. No matter how empty or how full that glass is, He will fill up the rest of the glass for us if we are doing His will and putting forth our best efforts. Wow! It just really hit home that I don't have to be perfect, just do my best and exercise faith. Yes Mom and Dad, I said it, you guys are right. :) It just takes time a veces for things to get through to my head. Anyways, we also watched a video clip of Elder Bednar, and he talked about how sometimes we question if a thought or feeling is a prompting from the Holy Ghost or if it is our own thought. He said, Stop worrying about it! He explained that if we are trying our best, the Lord will guide us, and most of the time, we will not realize at the time that we have recieved a spiritual promptings. We need to be living our lives according to His commandments and He will guide us. It was really a testimony building lesson. :)

Today, luckily, I did NOT fall on anyone on the bus. haha! I did get a nice bruise though from soccer this week. Hermana Mack and I play soccer with the Elders every day now, and the other day one of the Elders and I were going for a ball and had a collision. His nickname is Elder Oso (Elder Bear). He is a strong Canadian guy and it left a good battle scar.;) It is way fun! Sometimes it is a little frustrating, because you know Elders are not supposed to touch Hermanas and vice versa, so they sometimes just let us have the ball, when I want to actually play ball, but it is still fun. :)

I lov eyou all sooooooo much! I think about you often and pray for you daily! I invite you guys to re read the conference talks. I know that each of us can recieve revealtion through the prophets. I am so thankful to have a living prophet on the earth today. Good luck in Tahoe boys! and Mama, keep kicking tush in those college classes! I love you all!!!!

Until next week!

Love,

Hermana Waite

P.S. Hermana Mack and I got two new Latina roomates last night! so we are practicing Spanish for sure! :)

Email from Oct. 3

Buenos tardes!

 

How was everyone's week? How were the games? Hope you all are feeling better! This week was a really good week! First off, Hermana Mack and I got to teach yesterday, and it was SO AWESOME!!!! The Spirit really helped us to know what to plan and how to teach. Our investigator was really receptive, and we were all really happy at the end of the lesson.  Before I forget, here are some things I wanted to write about really quick. :

Corbs, I thought of you in class last week. We were talking about tener and one of our vocabulary phrases was, The investigator is thirsty, or El investigador tiene sed. WATER!!!! hahahaha!

 

Dad, I ate milanesa and alfajores this week. Also, we got to teach some members from an area called Chiclayo. At the end of the lessons, we were talking to them, and one of the men there said I was an Argentinian because I talk so fast. haha!  I thought of you. :)

 

Mama, I always think of you when I go outside. It is green and there are beautiful flowers everywhere! It would be so great if you guys could come down! I love it here so much.

 

Another great thing about this week was that Hermana Mack and I started playing soccer! We play with the Elders, and the first day we played, I was just running around smiling my face off. :) It  felt so good to play. The Elders are chill too, and we all have fun, nothing really competetive. Hermana Mack is also helping me to stay in shape. That coupled with about 2 pounds of protein in the meals each day, I'm going to be able to beat Corbs at wrestling soon. ;) Just kidding bro, I know you can still kick my tush.

 

So now for some spiritual experiences. This week we have been focusing on some grammar topics that I have had trouble with in the past. For example, one of these was por and para. Earlier in the week we had talked about the idea of focusing on praying for just what we need for that day, instead of praying for general topics. So that morning in my prayers I had asked for help with understanding por and para. We got to class, and things just clicked! We even did a worksheet, and I only missed two!!!! I promise that when we ask the Lord for help, He will help us according to our needs and what is best for us!

 

I know that God is aware of each of us! He truly does love us and knows exactly what is going on in our lives. I promise that He loves us ,and that as we turn to Him and pray to Him in faith, we will have the help we need to overcome anything that we are dealing with! I testify that I KNOW that this is true!

 

Sorry, this is scattered, but I just thought of another funny story. Today we were riding a bus home from town. Someone got up, so Hermana Mack and I decided to sit down so as to create more room for people on the bus. Well, she sat down, and as I went to sit down, the bus lurched forward, and I totally fell into this guys' lap! haha! It was embarassing, but it was funny. Today we also went to a store called Totus. It is like a Peruvian Walmart. It was really nice, felt a little bit like home.

 

Well General Conference is this week! I am excited to have the chance to hear from the prophets and apostles that God has called to lead us on this Earth today. I really hope you guys enjoy it! I know I will, and as an added bonus, I will get to hear English for a whole weekend! :D I feel spoiled. ;)

 

Our district is really great! It will be hard to leave them. All of the Elders in our district are going to Chiclayo, and Hermana Mack and I are both staying here in Lima East.  She, one other Elder, and I are the only ones  here right now who are going to Lima East. I've heard a rumor that it is the best mission. I'm just saying what I heard. ;)  Well familia, I love you all soo very much!!!! I hope you know that. I think about you all every day and pray for you every day too. You are such rays of sunshine and hope and love in my life and I want to say thank you for that!

 

I know it is hard to be apart, but know that this is what needs to be. I am so excited to come back and share with you in person all about my adventures, right after you get the biggest hugs of your lives! :) Please be happy, and know that I love you! God bless you!

 

Love,

Hermana Waite