10 months already

Buenas dias a todos! Espero que todos tuvieron un muy feliz Pascua (aqui no se lo llama esto, celebramos la Semana Santa) y que pudieron reflexionar en todo lo que nuestro Señor Jesucristo hizo por nosotros. 

Guess what? I got your package! Thank you!!!! Also, that same day I got the letter from Aunt "Ont" Peggy :) thank you! I loved all the candy, that bag of jelly beans was gone within two days. But don`t worry, its cause I was sharing it with everybody. None of the latinos here have ever tried any of that kind of candy so I had to introduce them to it :) Also, I love that skirt. In fact! I`m wearing it in the picture I`m going to send from our baptism this last Saturday. My companion also says "Gracias" for the letter from you Mom. It made her really happy, and Hermana Apaza is really excited for her beef jerky :) 

Miss Abby, you are a very creative little girl. Where on earth did you come up with those ideas for your show? I laughed, and laughed when I read that :) 

Well, Easter is celebrated very different here. They celebrate La Semana Santa (The holy week) and Thursday and Friday are the holidays that everyone has off from school and work. And they don`t really make any mention of it on Sunday. It was a little bit different, and every time I tried to explain Easter they thought I was the weird one :) 

This last Saturday we had another baptism! N. is the daughter of a recent convert in our ward. She is 26 years old, but is special. Due to complications at birth she has the mind of an 11 year old. We were visiting her mom who told us that she would like N. to be baptized, but that N. didn`t want to, because she`d been baptized in another church. Her mom has been a member for about 6 or 7 months, and N. never wanted to come with her on Sundays. But the first time we talked to her we invited her and the very next Sunday, she came! And loved it. And has been coming ever since, and told us that she wanted to be baptized. Well. We weren`t so sure because she is special, and we weren`t sure if she needed to be baptized. But we talked to President and he said that if she had the desire, and if she understood what we were teaching, then she could be baptized. So our zone leaders came with us to an appointment with her and her mom to see how well she understood, and the truth is, she understands very well. They told us that if she wanted to be baptized, she could. She was so excited. She`s been reading the Book of Mormon every day, and she loves the gospel principles class on Sundays. 

Her baptism was really special, there was such a sweet spirit there. 

Her mom, La Hna L., is really special as well. She is a recent convert and her testimony is SO strong. She has a lot of difficulties in her life. Her husband is on life support in a hospital in Tarapoto, her son is in a rehabilitation center for drugs, and her daughter N. has a lot of special medical needs (today she is having her 25th surgery). L. doesn`t have a really steady job, she bakes cakes one day a week and sells them to the other moms at her sons rehabilitation center. And that is just a few of the things she is dealing with, but she just continues on! For example. L. loves to cook. and she especially loves to cook for the missionaries. The problem is though, that she doesn`t have a lot of money. She is actually receiving help from the Church so that she has sufficient to eat. But even through that she continues to give, without holding back, to the missionaries. One day she told us that she asked Heavenly Father to lead her to a verse in the Book of Mormon to help her that day and she opened up to the verse in Alma about Amulek letting Alma into his house and feeding him, and how he would receive many blessings for his service.

(Alma 10:7-As I was journeying to see a very near kindred, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto me and said: Amulek, return to thine own house, for thou shalt feed a prophet of the Lord; yea, a holy man, who is a chosen man of God; for he has fasted many days because of the sins of this people, and he is an hungered, and thou shalt receive him into thy house and feed him, and he shall bless thee and thy house; and the blessing of the Lord shall rest upon thee and thy house.) 

So she read us that verse and told us that it is a blessing for her to have us in her house. Another day we went to visit her and she ended up giving us this huge bag of fruit. We were sitting there and she just started packing up all the fruit that she had in her house, to give to us. And we were like, Hey! you don`t have to give us all of it. Leave some for you and N. But she just looked at us and smiled and said, ``I know the Lord will provide, don`t worry.`` And not even 15 minutes later when we were getting ready to leave her brother walked in with his arms completely FULL of....fruit! Enough fruit to replace all that she`d given us, and more. She just smiled serenely at us, and said, ``what`d I tell you?`` The lord always provides.

Wow. she`s basically incredible. We love going over to her house because you can just feel the spirit and love in the room so strong. Sometimes I feel like those I am teaching, are teaching me more than I could ever teach them, through their example. I absolutely love the Peruvian people. And I love this chance I have to live and learn from so many of them. 

What else, what else....Ah! this last week I completed 10 months. Can you believe it? I can`t believe how fast it’s going. This last week we had interviews with presidente and with him I talked a lot about personal conversion. It’s kind of been the focus in our mission this last month and my zone leader said something I really liked in our last district meeting. He said that our purpose is to invite others to COME unto Christ. We aren`t inviting them to "go find Christ" we invite them to come. Which means that we have to BE with Christ to be able to invite them to come experience what it is that we have experienced. I really liked that. And I have been thinking about that a lot, in where am I in my personal conversion. It’s something good to think about :)

Well, the time always goes so fast and once again I don`t have time to respond individually to ya`ll but thank you for all your letters and support!

Les Querio mucho!!!!!!!!

Hermana Shelton

fotos:

The baptism of N., Hna Aquino, Nayara, Me, and L.

Second foto, so this is me outside our house. It just so happens that we live right next door to the Movimiento Misionero Mundial, which is an evangelical church that sings REALLY loud at night. We hear their sermons every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday nights :)