Hello Begonias

So, we had cambios and I am now serving in San Juan de Lurigancho, zona Canto Chico, Barrio Begonias with my new companion, Hermana Apaza de Huanaco Peru. :)

It’s been a LOT of change, I was surprised at how different it is here. I thought all of Peru was like Independencia :) In my new area we don`t have any hills and the houses are pretty nice and it is HUGE! It’s taken some getting used to but all is well, it’s a great place to be. My trainer, Hna Mamani actually served in this ward for 9 months and so it’s been cool to meet all the people that she told me about.

Not gonna lie, I`ve been super homesick for Independencia, I think I`ve been more homesick for Independencia than I was when I left home :P haha but it’s part of the mission and I know that change is good and that eventually I will come to love it here as much as I loved Independencia! 

Something cool we started doing this week, my companion and I, is that every morning at 6 o clock we have been going to the house of a family that is less active and reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon out loud with all of them and then we say family prayer. We are trying to help them get in the habit of reading and praying together as a family, and we are hoping that it is something we will be able to continue doing with other families as well.

Something interesting about this ward, there are about 900 members in the directory, but only about 150 to 200 of them go to church. So. We have a lot of finding and reactivating to do and I am excited to work with them! My companion and I have decided that they are going to be our focus, and we know that it won’t mean less baptisms because a lot of times when we find a family that has been inactive we find members of their family that haven`t been baptized and so we are able to help reactivate a family and at the same time teach new investigators. It was also a promise Elder Uceda gave us. That the baptisms wouldn`t go down if we focused on helping less active members.

So anyways, that's about it for this week! In my new cuarto there lives a cat who is technically the pet of those who live next door, but he thinks he belongs to us. We can`t open the windows or doors without him running in and hiding under our beds. I have some pretty funny pictures of the dumb thing. We`ve named him Señor Gato and he reminds us of the cat from shrek with the big eyes, Puss in boots. I`ll keep you updated on his adventures :) haha

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep on reading your scriptures (dad that is so cool that you were able to finish the Book of Mormon in 4 days!) saying your prayers and going to church. Remember that it is the small things that make the difference! Love you all!!!

Cuidese mucho! 

Hermana Shelton 

Rachel and Hermana Apaza

Senor Gato