Week 10: Una Elfa en un Mundo de Hobbits* (*An Elf in a world of Hobbits)
HOLA TODOS! Me encanta escribiendo ustedes cada semana. Es lo máximo. ☺* (*HELLO EVERYONE! I love writing you every week. It is the best.)
On Wednesday, the super largo viaje* (*long trip) to La Merced from Lima began. Long ride, little food, and lots of people trying to sell us everything from Asian ginseng miracle tea to butter. We got back to La Merced just past 6 and met our zone leaders before I got to meet back up with Alva! She was with the hermana lideres* (*leader sisters) in San Ramon the whole time I was in Lima, and I’m super grateful to be juntas* (*together) again. She’s literally the greatest. We get along incredibly well and I am so grateful that my first companion has become my best friend.☺ We traveled with the Hermana lideres, Hnas Cruz y Gaspar (both from Mexico) to San Ramon and did divisions. I went with Hna Cruz and we visited a menos activo and taught from Palabras de Mormon* (*Words of Mormon). Then we met back up with Gaspar y Alva and went to their pension* (*in Peru missions, they have a family that cooks their meals for them) for a fantastic meal of mazzamorra with manzana pieces and arroz con leche! While we were there, their pension said, “Parecemos como Hobbits y usted es una elfa*!” (*We seem like Hobbits and you are an elf!) After getting back to our cuarto* (*apartment), Alva and I shared pictures, caught up, told stories, and planned.☺
On Thursday, WE FINALLY GOT BACK TO OXA! We missed our area tons. It’s pretty much the greatest (minus the Internet factor, jaja. The internet aqui es lo peor*). (*here is the worst). We ate breakfast with the pension of the hna lideres before coming back, and we even got back in time to study a little! Despues, we went to the parque to visit with a contact we found about a week ago. This lesson was honestly one of my favorites we’ve taught together. At the beginning, Antonio, the investigator, had lots of questions, and I kept having the thought to open my Book of Mormon. I had absolutely no clue in the slightest what I would share, but I opened it nonetheless. While he was talking to Luz, the member with us, he said something about fe*. (*faith) I immediately knew I had to go to Alma 32:26-27. I’m usually really horrible at remembering scriptures, so this was definitely a miracle. Luz was sharing, and Antonio looked at me and asked, “Do you have something to share?” I said yes, yes I did! I shared the scripture and both Alva and I could tell he felt something. We talked about faith and how he could exercise it to pray about whether or not our church is verdadera*. (*true) Afterward, I was talking to my compi and she said she had the thought of faith the whole time as well! It was super chevere.☺ Then we spent an hour or so running around all of Oxa to send the papers for our pension to the zone leaders in La Merced. We addressed the envelope from Hermanas Sherlock y Watson (claro que soy Sherlock*) (*I am clearly Sherlock) to make the whole experience fun.☺ Then we visited Maruja and talked about God’s love before visiting Nadia and talking to her about diezmo and ayuno* (*tithing and fasting) in preparation for her baptism on the 30th! (more to come about this later- not the best news. :( ). Then we had noche de deportes* (*sports night), and it was chevere.
Viernes* (*Friday) was a bit different in the morning; we cleaned and rearranged our entire room! We put my bed back into a bunk bed, so I get top bunk for basically the first time ever haha. However, we discovered LOTS of mold in our room, which is only slightly worrisome. We cleaned a TON, studied, and I learned tons about church history because of reading Our Heritage! (Side note- I miss reading for fun.) Citas fell through lots today, but we got to visit Luisa y su hija Angelica after a long time of her not being in casa! We taught about fe con ellas, and gave them a Libro de Mormon. ☺ Then we went to Nadia to give her the paper for her permiso bautismal because she is 14. Then we went to Pilar (the bishop’s wife) and talked to her for a while. She’s absolutely fantastic and so fun to be around.☺ She told us that Ada and Antonio, a new couple of viejitos that just moved to Oxa from Lima, were looking to accompany us to citas, so we went and got them and they walked with us around the whole of Oxa looking for a lesson. We finally got to Hedvit y Rita, and taught them a testimony lesson about Jose Smith, which was fantastic. Despues, we had Noche Misional and while we were playing tag, the elders had to leave early because they tried to play leapfrog over one another, resulting in some ripped pants, which was beyond hilarious.
En Sabado* (*On Saturday), I got a call that I would be giving a talk on arrepentimiento* (*repentance) on Sunday, so I spent my estudio del idoma writing it… only to get another call later saying I wouldn’t be giving it. However, it was great time to learn more about the strengthening power of la expiacion*. (*the atonement) ☺Despues de almuerzo y doce semanas* (*after lunch and 12 weeks), we went to Durania and both of us felt prompted to give her a Proclamation to the Family, so we did. It’s been really cool how guided by the Spirit these last few days have felt.☺ Then we went and got Maruja to come with us and visited with Yisela’s daughter Veronica and talked to her about the reality of Christ as our Salvador y Redentor. Despues, we went to Katty Paredes and read Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life with her and explained the symbolism and discussed the tres grupos de personas en este vision*! (*three groups of people in the vision). Then we went to Mariella and taught about arrepentimiento. We also got to teach Celeste y Arletti about la obra missional* (*missionary work). It was a super eficaz* (*effective) day! Then we had clase de ingles, followed by a noche de hogar con los elderes at the family that has guitars, so I got to play guitar again!!! ☺ We talked about the importance of having Christ as our firm foundation and did an object lesson with folletos* (*handouts) we have. That family’s fantastic and so are their guitarras* (*guitars).☺
Ah, Domingos* (*Sundays).☺ We were called on Saturday night and told that we were going to teach Sociedad de Socorro* (*Relief Soceity) on anything we wanted, so we taught it on a talk given by Elder Christofferson called Como Encontrar tu Vida* (*How to Find your Life) en the March Ensign.☺ We focused on how to dejar del lado al mundo* (*leave the world) and how we could use our knowledge and success to help others. It was a really good lesson and I’m so glad for the help of the Spirit, for we didn’t really plan the lesson and kind of winged it.:) Despues de almuerzo, we visited Ana, a menos activo we recently found, and taught her about Moroni 10:3-5. Then, after lots of citas fell through, we went and taught Brigitt about the Fortaleza de la Juventud* (*Strength of Youth). We also got to visit Carmen, a menos activo who is Obispo’s mother, and shared with her about how she is a child of God and how we all have the potential to become dioses* (*gods). J We also got to teach Irma, a menos activo, who we thought was moving to Lima but changed her mind and moved back! We talked about el evangelio con ella* (*the gospel with her).☺ Sadly, the day went a bit for the worse after that, when we went for Nadia and she wasn’t there. We called her and she rescheduled for Wednesday, and we called her back later and it said the number didn’t exist; meaning she blocked our number. She was prepping to be baptized this next Saturday, but there is so much more we have to organize and, without meeting with her before Wednesday, we can’t have the service that day. Regardless, we are trying to keep fe y buen animo* (*faith and good cheer) with her. We can only invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo a traves del bautismo* (*invite people to come to Christ through baptism); we can’t drag them to the font.
Today, we ate at Feliz Dia and we are planning on going on a bike ride to Chontabamba and going to some cuevas alla! Despues, we will be heading to La Merced for our district meetings and we will be doing divisions in San Ramon con los hna lideres on Tuesday. Another week out of our area. I am loving life, loving my compi, and loving Oxapampa, as always- despite the fact that all door frames are much too short for me.☺
Con amor y mis oraciones para siempre* (*with love and prayers forever),
Hermana Schmid
(*italic translations by Karissa's mom using google translate)
