Goodbye Independencia

                                                                                                                                             January 13, 2014

Hello Family!

Well, once again time for cambios has rolled around. And, guess what? I´m leaving Independencia! I don´t know where I am going yet, we find that out tomorrow, but all I know is that after being in Independencia for 6 months, it is time for me to leave. I honestly don´t know if I am feeling happy, sad, nervous, excited, I think I´m feeling all of them together. I am definitely going to miss my ward and the people in my zone SO much, but I think it will be good for me to have a change. I can´t think about saying goodbye to all the members of the ward and all of my investigators without crying so....I´ll think about that later and update you on what happened this week :)

One of the perks of being a sister missionary is that we get a lot of referrals from the Elders of single women and moms in their areas that they can`t teach, so they pass them on to us. Our district leader had a single mom and her 8 year old son that they started teaching and then passed them on to us. So we have been hiking up to their area for the past couple of weeks and on Saturday they were baptized! They are super sweet and I really enjoyed being able to teach them and help them get to their baptism. 

Another random thing from this past week, Hna Espinoza and I got to train in our district meeting on Tuesday! It was super fun. We trained on the ``importance of working with the members`` and Elder Urzola said that he is going to put us in charge of training the district from now on :) haha. He said he gave us that subject because he has really seen a difference in the way our ward has been helping us and he wanted to know our ``secret`` This is something that we struggled with at the beginning of our transfers together, but we prayed a lot for inspiration on how we could work better with our ward and one night it just, came to me. The next day in ward council we trained our ward council on the importance of the new Work of Salvation and how we really couldn`t progress in the work here without them. We talked with them for about an hour and I don`t really know what we said but the next week was like a light and day difference from the weeks before! And it has just gotten better from there, en serio.(Seriously) This last week we had more than twice as much lessons with a member present then without, and when our investigators came to church  they were swarmed by so many of the members that wanted to get to know them. I have seen such a difference in the work in our area in these last few weeks and I know it is because we are finally doing what it is the Lord wants us to do now, which is work fully with the members. 

In our district when we trained we used the example of Laman and Lemuel and Nephi that you can find in 1 Nefi 2. Laman and Lemuel are complaining because their father has told them they have to leave Jerusalem. Nephi as well mentions that he wasn´t too happy about leaving either. In verse 12 it explains the reaction of Laman and Lemuel, that they murmured because they didn´t understand the dealings of God. But in verse 16 it explains Nephi’s reaction that his heart was softened by the Lord and he understood why it was they had to leave and he didn´t rebel like his brothers. In my scriptures I have written something like, ´´Those who murmur, murmur because they don´t understand. Those who obey understand why they obey.´´ We likened that to the members. If they don´t understand their importance in the work, then there is no way they will want to help. But, if they understand, then they will be more like Nephi who in the next chapter says, ´´I will go and do´´ and then we went from there. And it is so true! Hna Espinoza and I feel like one of the reasons why we were here in this area was more to help the members. We were only able to have 4 baptisms together, but we were able to see our success more in the less active members that we were able to help reactivate, and then in the reactions of our ward to missionary work. So my time in barrio Independencia? Success. :)

We were also able to do a ´´mini mission´´ with one of the youth in our ward who is leaving on her mission at the end of this month. She spent 24 hours with us and it was a blast! It was really fun being with her and ´´showing her the ropes´´ of missionary work :)

Hey! Tell Aunt Holly I got her letters and that I loved them! Thank you for the music, and for your talk! I gave a talk in church yesterday and used the same talk from Elder Ballard that you did :) Also, I got the Christmas card from Grandma and Grandpa and I got the Christmas card from you as well. Thank you! :)

Well, we have a farewell lunch with the familia Boza right now (a family from one of the wards above us whose daughter always does divisions with us) our whole district is going to be there and Romina (their daughter who has helped us SO much-I am going to miss her like crazy) and I are going to play the piano and sing songs together so I better go. :) I hope you have all had a wonderful week, sorry I don´t have time to respond individually, but I LOVE YOU ALL!

Ciao! Cuidese mucho! Nos vemos! Hasta la proxima semana! 

Hermana Shelton

Up on my roof, next to like...one of the only flowers I've seen here in Lima:) haha

Baptisms! E. & Y. from the ward above us

So our first day together Hna. Espinoza and I realized that we had the exact same pair of shoes.
Companions for a reason maybe? :)  The little thing with our names was my Christmas present from her.
We thought this was a pretty sweet picture.

Me in front of Estaca Independencia!  I'm gonna miss this place.