Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Wonders of Wonders Miracles of Miracles - 11-28-2016

Hola familia!
Ok so if y'all have seen the musical fiddler on the roof my subject line will make sense! HA this last week has been a week of miracles for me!!!! To start off Jose the 81 year old man is going to get married 19 of December!!! And we finally got to teach his pareja!! She is awesome!!!! This is 2 miracles for ya. Third in our lesson with Maria (Pareja de jose) she has been prepared for this gospel and I was able to really participate in the lesson!!! And she understood all of my Spanish!!!! That is a miracle! We were talking with the mission leader for this ward after and we was just amazed at how well I was able to communicate the feelings of my heart and help Maria! hashtag gift of tongues!!!! Literally is amazing what you can accomplish with the Lord!!!!!!!

This last week we had a conference of the mission because the area president came and talked to us all and it was so good. I was a little nervous going into it because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand it all. But about five minutes into the conference I about had a dance attack because I was understanding it all!!! It was truly amazing!!!!!!

The work here in this area is going great and sadly I don't have to much to report. We are doing a lot of contacting because lots of people I was teaching before with Hna. Chaparro have fallen and so now me and Hna Chacon are getting to know new people! 

Sad story actually my recent convert Victor has been really sad Hna Chaparro left, and this last week as well his girlfriend dumped him. And he drank 1 beer. But immediately his mom called us and we got one of his really good friends who is a member over to his house, and this week he is gonna talk with the bishop. He had it rough but hes gonna make it right. But one thing i thought was amazing is that his mom called us, she isn't a member, but she knew that we cold help him and I am just really glad she has that confidence in us!!!

Hope y'all have a great week!!! Thank You so much for all the support!!!!! As we go into December remember who is the Light of the World!!! 
Love you all!!!!
Love Hermana McNamara


Monday, November 14, 2016

Drum Roll Please - 11-14-2016

Hola familia!!!!!!

Well this last week has been good!!!! 

First off : Well Ivone got baptized and her confirmation is this next domingo! Now her baptism service was quite interesting. So it was scheduled for 5 and there were quite a few members who came, but at 5 there was no Ivone! We waited 45 and then we decided to go and try and find her. So we left and while we were gone she came. So we went back to the church and when we were walking into the church there was a lady there that we had talked to before in her tienda. Now this lady was not very nice and so I was a little confused why she was there. Well it turns out shes prima de Ivone and she came with Ivone to try and talk her out of baptism. That's why Ivone was late. Because right as she was leaving her prima came. Now Ivone was strong and she said no I'm getting baptized. She got changed into her white clothes and was waiting for it to start and yet again her prima tried to talk her out of it, but Ivone said no I'm getting baptized. So the service started and the ordinance was performed. And after, part of the program was that a few selected members would share their testimony and then Ivone. All the  members bore their testimony and before Ivone could stand up her prima stood up and started talking and she didn't say really really bad things but she brought up stuff that really just wasn't important. But before her prima finished you could see she got really uncomfortable and she ended kinda fast. Then Ivone stood up and bore her testimony and Oh my goodness! Her testimony was so powerful!!! It was amazing!!! then after Ivone bore her testimony the second counselor in the bishopric was welcoming her to the ward and he said " satan is going to attack you" and when he said this Prima de Ivone stood up and left. Haha last part is kinda funny. But it was literally such a powerful experience!!!!
 
Now why the drum roll??? because transfers is this week and ..................... Hermana Chaparro is leaving the area and her trainer is going to be my new companion!  I'm sad Hermana Chaparro is leaving but I'm also really excited to see what me and Hna. Chacon can accomplish here in Centenario. My time with Hna. Chaparro was good. Sometimes it was really really hard, and I'll be honest there were quite a few times that I thought I couldn't do it, I thought a few times about going home. But every time  before I could pick up the phone to call president. The mission of Christ would pop in my head, and remind me that His mission was not even close to easy so why should I think that mine would be. This thought got me through my time with Hna. Chaparro. It was hard but I definitely learned a lot from her. 

That's about all the excitement that I can think of this last week. Oh we did do a service project for the people here in this stake and I got to power wash the Stake Center. Ya there is a lot of dust here and power washing makes it like 10x worse. 

hahaha anyways 

Hope you all have a good week!!! Love you all and thanks for all the support!!!!
Love Hna. McNamara
 















 

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuun - 11-07-2016

Hola Familia!

You all sang the subject line I know it. Whether in your head or out loud it happened. 
Ok so this week has been good. We are heading into the last week in this transfer and we are gonna end it off with a baptism!!!! Yay!!! Now its not the Famila Aldabe and its not Jose ( the 80 year old guy getting divorced). Its Ivone and she decided this last week that she is gonna get baptized this Friday!!!! 
Now her testimony on how she got her answer for baptism is really really amazing. SO down here in the great land of Peru dreams have huge significance, and Ivone had an amazing dream. In her dream she saw a guy dressed in a white tunic and sandals ( me and my comp and all the other missionaries in my district think its Jesus) and she said that she didn't recognize him, but she felt good and safe. Now she goes on in her dream that he hands her a card with the original goal for baptism. She then met with us ( still in the dream) and during this meeting with us the date changes to 11 de Noviembre. And so Ivone is getting Baptized this Friday. 11 de Noviembre. Pretty amazing!!!!! 

Now this last week as well we taught a man named Christian and he is really nice and really receptive. Now when we taught him he could not let go that the catholic church is the true church. Every other sentence he was mentioning the catholic church. So near the end of the visit we asked him " are you Catholic?"  we assumed he was.... ya his response. "no." hahaha it was just so cheeky. He couldnt let it go and he wasn't even a part of the church or had plans to be a part of that church. haha but he accepted a goal for baptism the last day in December. How cool is that. 

Anyways so we are now in November and here in Peru they don't have Thanksgiving! They don't really even have a holiday here in November. Its kinda sad. I really want some mashed potatoes!  Everyone eat a plate of mash potatoes and think of me. I'm pretty sure though when I get home I'm not gonna want anything to do with potatoes or rice. I'm already sick of it haha and I have 13 more months, ahg! Oh well one thing I'm adjusting to. 

Also one thing I've learned this week. I really nickname Mormons.... I'm not even kidding we are members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So many people here won't listen to us because we are Mormons. We were in a lesson with an investigator and we introduced ourselves as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Now he listened to everything and was super receptive up until the Book of Mormon. When we introduced the Book of Mormon he asked are you guys Mormons" yes that is just a nick name though" ya it went down hill from there all because he said that Mormons don't believe in Christ they believe in Mormon. Now why do I add this in my email??? I have a challenge for all of you, when you introduce yourself to someone with what your religion is, first say that you are a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints then after use Mormon.

Anyways!!! Love you all so much!!! Thank you for all the support!!!!1

Love Hermana McNamara






Massive Weddings and Cui - 10/31/2016

Hola Familia!

This week has been good. Its definitely been rough but I'm pushing through. Yesterday during sacrament meeting I was sitting next to our investigator Ivone and it was a good sacrament meeting until right after the sacrament I felt some on my neck. I thought it was just a hair but then when I went to go brush it away with my hand it started moving faster. So I got my hymn book and got whatever was on my neck on the hymn book. Ya it was a spider. It was not SMALL either.  SO I couldn't scream I couldn't make any noise. Haha right in the middle of sacrament meeting. SO I was very quiet about it but I got the spider on the ground then killed it. Yea not a fan of the bugs here. 

This morning Fransico and Yovanna got married in a massive wedding! Haha and massive weddings are just weird. There were 21 couples getting married in this massive wedding. Talk about long and boring. But it was good because now Fransico and Yovana can get baptized and I think this matriomonio will be the motivating factor for Hermano Fransico to get baptized. We'll see how it goes. We are hoping this Saturday they will get baptized but it could be another week. Trusting God on this one. After the wedding we went and ate lunch with them and I tried Cui now Cui translated to English is Guinea Pig. Its actually really good. I liked it a lot. It was so good I forgot to take a picture of it before I ate it but I took one after I was done. 

This last week as week we had a ward activity and it was so much fun I got to learn how to cook Peruvian food and try a bunch of different ones as well. It was definitely good and then after we got to play volley ball and everyone was impressed that I could play volley ball in a dress. I'm totally terrible at it but it was so much fun. My favorite food from the activity is called Picaduras and they taste like donuts but they are made from squash. It was so weird but really good.

Not much else really exciting happened this week. Just pushing through down here. Oh Halloween is thing here but they don't go trick or treating its too hard to try and get to people doors haha. I'm a little nervous for tonight because we don't have special instruccions but ya know just praying everyone waits till after 9 to come out. 

Love you all so much!!! Thanks for the support!!! 
Love Hermana McNamara