August 2013

We just let the Spirit do the Work!

Familia Mia!!

 

Another week! I can´t believe I have already been her for 6 weeks! Feels more like 6 seconds! I have been learning so much and am so excited for all I will learn. Paita is great and the people are so kind and helpful.

 

A few things I learned this week. Dont peel an orange and then put your contacts in. It BURNS! also, I thought I already knew this, but dont touch a hot stove to see if it is hot. I successfully burned off my finger print I think. Anyways, I sure am playing the part of a child well. haha I really feel like I can understand how children feel now though. Not being able to say what I want to say, and knowing exaclty what I want. Patience is so important, and its true that by small and simple things great things come to pass! Each day I have been learning more, and I know with the help of the Lord I will one day be able to communicate all my thoughts in Spanish, be able to roll my R´s, and be able to form all my sentances correctly. I will keep trying. =) I love the moments when I completely understand what someone is saying. It is so exciting! And Hermana Rosas is so helpful. And trying to help her learn English is fun too, and it makes me realize how hard it is.

 

The other day Hermana Rosas asked me how to stretch, because she was seeing all the weird ways I was stretching in the morning. I said you have to go farther than you think you can and hold it, and then do it again and go even farther. IF you do this everyday you will be able to stretch in ways you never thought possible! Its like with our goals and in our lives. If you push ourselves a little more everyday, we will make great progress! But if we dont try harder, we will always stay the same. It is so simple but sometimes stretching is uncomfortable or hurts. But if you dont go through the pain you will never have the results you could have!

 

Carlos was at church this week and loved it! He said he could feel the spirit and that the peace and love he felt was his answer that the church is true! After teaching him part of the plan of salvation I invited him to pray to know if it was true. He simply relpied, Oh, Its true. (but in spanish of course). Its amazing how the Lord has been preparing his heart to receive the gospel at this time. All we as the missionaries need to do is let the Spirit do the work! Carlos speaks really quietly and thinks a lot before he speaks and asks great questions. He is someone in tune with the spirit, that´s for sure! For his job he dives in the ocean and repairs the ships. How cool is that! Anyways Im excited to keep teaching him and help him prepare for his baptism!

 

Happy happy birthday to dad today and mom this past week!!!!! I love yáll so much! You will have to add a 5th happy birthday song in Spanish. It is probably on youtube if you want to find it. haha

 

Well off to another week serving the Lord! I love learning more and more each day, and each day I am more and more grateful for what I have and for this gospel. it´´s true!

 

love

Hermana Garlick

Agua Por Favor!

Hola Familia!!

 

¡¿Como esta?! This week has been super busy, we have so much going on but I love it!

 

First off, Mayumi´s baptism!! The day before we got knews that there was no agua en la capilla!! This happens a lot actually, the tanks are empty or something and there is no water. It has happened to us like three times. (but we fixed our sink now so thats good news). There is a big water tower close to where we live.(like in c-stat, I love having that landmark) On the water tower it says ¨´Claro¨¨ which means like clear or sure. They say it so much here in converstions. It is fun to use. Well anyways, no agua. Yeah, big problemo because that means no baptism! And we had made a ton of invitations and invited all the ward and our investigators! oops! So we were praying so hard that there would be water and it would all work out.

 

Well that night we got a call saying there was water in the church now!! We were so relieved. The next day when we went to our meeting, we looked in the font, and there sure was water in there, but it was super dirty! ahhh! Long story short, we ended up having the baptism in a church building about five minutes away. Everything ended up working out, and la familia Bayona Benites even came!! The baptism was so neat and Mayumi was so happy and I could see such a difference in her! The water was freezing cold and she was shivering, but the warmth of the spirit was there! It was such a great experience. From the whole water experience I learned the Lord hears our prayers, and wont always answer them in the way we want, but everything will always work out!

 

We are making wedding invitations for the Familia Bayona Benites and helping them with a reception for the 7th of september! It has been so fun teaching them, they are so receptive and Barnove teaches me way more than we teach him!

 

All is well here in Paita, and every day I am more and more grateful for yáll, for the gospel, and for my testimony! Love you all so much and hope yall have such a great week!!!

 

love hna g

Couldn't be Happier!

Hola Familia!

 

Wow, it has been quite the happy week! I have been focusing on developing my faith and studying faith. Every day we have been walking by this brick wall that is being built. The bricks are like our testimony, and they are being cemented together by faith! Each day the wall is bigger, and soon it will be someones house. At first it was super small, but gradually and gradually it has grown Our testimonys are the same. They can become a strong house if we have enough faith. Last night there was another small earthquake, and I actually felt it this time because Hna Rosas yelled out my name and that woke me up! If we just have piles of bricks, they will fall over when an earthquake comes. But with faith to cement our beliefs together, we can be strong and not fall! I like what true to the faith says about faith, its believing while we dont understand all things, Christ does. Its showing our dedication to the lord through actions, even when its hard. All the people we teach, we invite them to take acts of faith. This is how their testimony can become cemented and strong Its amazing what faith I have seen in people this week. ANd its amazing that when we feel we are at the lowest of lows, that is when the Lord can make the most out of us. I have felt probably every emotion from stressed, overwhelemed, frustrated, and tired, but as I have turned to the Lord for help I have been given peace and added strength, and the spirit I am so blessed and my faith has grown so much this week!

 

I dont remember all what I said about la familia Bayona Benites, but they were all at church on sunday! Barnove and Olga are not married, so we taught them about the law of chastity and the blessings they can receive tif they obey this law Barnove has been wanting to get married for a while now, but Olga hasnt wanted to. IN our lesson barnove stood up and proposed to her! It was such a sweet moment and all their 5 kids were SO HAPPY. Olga still says she doesnt want to be baptized, but will be married so Barnove can be. I am so glad the Lord softened her heart. Their son Gustavo, who is 14 has been going to seminary every morning and all the activities for hombres jovenes. Jairo is 10 and asks us so many quesitions and loves singing the hymns! Then there is Zoley, Diego, and the Elsa. They dont have many earthly possessions at all, we helped them make lunch and they have dirt floors and no running water. Its amazing to see their faith and to see the testimony of Barnove grow. From hearing him pray for the first time a few weeks ago to now, it is amazing to see the change in this family! I am so happy to know them and that we can be helping to bring the restored gospel into their home!

 

Another great part of this week has been helping Mayumi prepare for her baptism this Saturday! She is 20 and has a little girl Maria. The gospel has COMPLETELY turned her life around and she is so excited to be baptized. She has such great faith and shows it through praying and reading the scriptures every day! You can see the light she has now

 

Finally, Carlos. Our lesson with Ricardo fell through so we were walking down the street and saw this lady in a red robe at her door. Right in front of her house they had just poured a cement sidewalk. (there is a ton of construction here, its great they are paving the roads so there is not so much dust when we walk!) We walked up to her and hna rosas said she was a member of the chruch and had just gone through surgery. We talked for a little bit, and then were about to leave since there was no way we could get in the house to share a message with her Then hna rosas said, we can do it so we used the side wall of the house and hna olga is her name, hna olga helped us leap into the door. haha Well at first i didn´t realize how important this was for us to do , but now i do Her husband is not a member, and didn´t want anything to do with the church. She has been praying for years for him to listen.. Well we invited him to sit in on the lesson, and we could see his countenance change! He let us come back again,a dn we taught the restauracion and he said he wants to be baptized! Hna olga held us in her arms and could not thank us enough. Carlos had us sign his libro de mormon we gave him, The spirit was so stron gin our lesson wiht him and he was so receptive. THe lord really is preparing his children to hear his message when they are ready .

 

I am so grateful for this gospel and for how I have seen it change lives already, adn I have only been here for a month!

Seeing the joy the gospel can bring is the happiest thing ever! I love you all! family is what matters, the gospel is true. And the future is as bright as your faith! Have a great weeek!

 

con amor,

hermana garlick

Papayas and Crabs!

 A street we walk down every day. There is a moto parked on the side.

 Papaya!!

 The Mission Home

A friend at the beach!

Following the Example of Jesus Christ

Querido familia,

 

It has been another great week! Hopefully these pictures send. Anyways, thanks for all the emails! Sorry I don´t have time to reply to everything, but keep them coming, they are so great to read and to print out to bring to my room.

 

Here are a few fun things that happened this week:

 

Apparently I`m a deep sleeper now, there was an earthquake in the night and I didn´t even wake up! I wish I would have I want to feel what it feels like!

 

We were teaching a familiy and the uncle asked me to marry his nephew. I felt a little like Ammon in Alma 17. haha I kind of pretended to not understand. I said, lo siento, soy misionera. haha

 

A couple times this week when we were in a lesson and I asked a question, the person we were teaching would turn to Hermana Rosas with a confused look on their face. She would then repeat EXACTLY what I said, and they understand. I have a lot of work to do. haha I just keep trying and working on my Peruvian accent. Almost everyday asked to speak English by a kid here. I never knew English sounded so cool, but to them it does!

 

At lunch Marilu made us ¨¨chivo.¨¨ I didn´t have my dictionary so I didn´t know what it was which was a little scarey. I ate it and it was pretty good! I looked it up later and it was goat.

Fabiano, the son of Marilu says the cutest prayers. They remind me of Jareds when he was little, you don´t understand a word of it and then the Amen is nice and loud and clear. I wish I could record it, it´s so cute!  

 

I have been called gringa a lot, I sure stand out here! When we were walking to church on Sunday on man called us angeles de Dios. I liked that one. haha

 

We taught la familia bayona benites again and they are so great! We showed the video of the Restauration, and the sound wasn´t working-I was praying so hard and it finally did. They really loved it and love the church! The dad, Hermano Barnove, said after the video that he knew in his heart that this was true. It was such a happy moment! He said he feels like we are family. That was so great to here him say that. It´s so amazing being a missionary and helping people come to Christ!

 

There is a flu breakout in Piura, so we are supposed to be more careful-pray for us!

 

I am striving to follow the example of Jesus Christ more and more each day. He set the perfect example for us! Í am so grateful each day we have a new chance to show our dedication and commitment to follow Jesus Christ. I am so greatful for the scriptures that teach us how we can be the most happy in this life. The Bible and The Book of Mormon and so amazing and powerful, when we read them, apply them, and live the teachings. I am working on this every day!

Have a great week! Cuidese Mucho!

 

Love,

Hermana Garly (that´s what they call me here)