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Hayley Imbler	9:51 AM (18 minutes ago)
to Kathleen, Michael, me

Another week gone by and this week was definitely one I´m going to remember. So I suppose the last two weeks I forgot to tell you all about Rafaela. Rafaela is a 23 year old single mom (she got divorced from her husband). She was a referral from the zone leaders and we started teaching her about two and a half weeks ago, maybe three not exactly sure, but anyways she is really sweet and we just love her. And the best part is this last Saturday..she was baptized! Finally I got to experience the joy of watching an investigator enter the waters of baptism and make the best decision they could ever make! It was so wonderful to get to experience that. Saturday was a massive baptism.. ok not massive, but I think about 15 people were baptized in our zone. What a cool experience!

 

Friday we had a matrimonio massivo in the chapel connected to the mission offices. 21 couples were married, 13 of which were getting baptized the next day in different areas. Hermana Flores and I got to wait in a room with the witnesses and the couples, share the gospel a little bit, and talk with quite a few people. I´m going to try to send the pictures I have of the chapel and maybe some others if I have time.

 

So this last week we had 5 days of wonderful beautiful sunshine, and of course, the last Pday I got sunburnt, again. Haha I realized that being closer to the equator isn´t always a good thing. But I promise I have learned my lesson and from now on I am going to wear sunscreen.

 

Wednesday we went up to the top of the hill (mountain.. whatever) for our service project and turns out they had nothing for us to do.. so we went up higher took some pictures and then had lunch in their home.

 

I´m struggling to remember what I had to say this week so probably my letter is going to get cut short, my apologies, I will try to be better next week.

 

This week we had a new investigator, Perla who has had a friend who was a member for a really long time. She tells us that every time she comes to church or talks with us she feels this wonderful peace and joy. I´m telling you right there that that is exactly what the gospel brings, peace, joy, happiness, and all the other wonderful things you can think of. This life is definitely not easy, we will all still have trials, but the gospel of Jesus Christ makes those trials and difficulties seem much smaller and we can know that through our obedience to the commandments the Lord has given us we can be happy throughout our short time here on earth.

 

We also had another lesson with Walter this week. He seriously blows me away every time we meet. The last lesson we had assigned him to read 3 Nephi 11 and he read all the way to 3 Nephi 24 and then said ´´Sorry I don´t always have much time to read..´´ haha yeah not much time to read, only 13 chapters that´s all. Our lessons fly by and he drinks in everything he can that we teach him, the only concept he is struggling with is baptism and why it is necessary. Unfortunate, because baptism is our first covenant with the Lord and is our passage into the narrow pathway the Lord has set for us to return to him.

 

I hope everyone knows that I pray for you always. If you have time to send me just a quick email I would love to hear from all of you, emails really mean the world to me.

 

Know that the Lord loves each and every one of you as do I. Remember if times are hard you can always look to Him, He knows what you are going through and He wants you to be happy. He never wants for any of his children to be sad or hurting, find Him and you will find true happiness, not only temporary but lasting happiness. Have a wonderful week everyone!

 

Hermana Imbler

On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 9:59 AM, Hayley Imbler <hayley.imbler@myldsmail.net> wrote:

HOOOLLLAAA!

Well hey there everybody, yet another week has passed, and today... I´ve been out for 2 months! Honestly I really can´t tell you how fast time flies here. It´s honestly unbelievable, I promise you that my last P day was 2 days ago. Ok obviously it wasn´t, but it feels that way! 

This last week was a tough one for many different reasons, but at the end of the day I´m grateful for the learning experiences I had. The week started off slow and pretty much normal, except for the fact that I was feeling a little under the weather. Tuesday night came and I was feeling pretty bad, but was still working. Thursday we had a meeting with our zone and two others with the President and his wife that lasted until about 6 pm. I wasn´t feeling super great during the meeting, but I lived through it, and after two of the elders gave me a blessing. That night came along and I was feeling worse so we went home a little early and I slept. The next day I woke up and let me tell you I haven´t been that sick in a long time. I literally was in bed the whole day and part of the next. But... the next afternoon I was up and kickin again. (Hermana Erickson thinks I had the swine flu that was going around Peru). But thanks to my priesthood blessing and lots of rest I was able to get back to the work I´m doing here. So don´t worry about me too much (Mom.. haha)

Saturday we visited Hermana Consuelo. We had given her a Book of Mormon earlier that week, but she told us that her husband didn´t want to read it. He said it wasn´t true and that none of the prophets in it were in the Bible. She didn´t really know how to explain it to him so she asked us to come back later that day and explain to him. When we returned, we knocked on the door and Daniel answered. Pretty much from what I heard was that we kept preaching and preaching to them and nothing was happening, they still had struggles and nothing was getting better, then he slammed the door in our faces. I can´t tell you how sad I was. Consuelo was really my first investigator in the mission, but she doesn´t want to do anything without the permission of her husband (significant other...whichever, here it´s pretty much the same even if they aren´t married). This is our major struggle because if he doesn´t want to listen then it´s really hard for her to progress. 

That night we had a meeting at the chapel with a man named Americo. We had contacted him on the street and he seemed really interested. He is the leader of a different church, but wanted to know more about what we believe. We took him on a tour of the Capilla... Chapel? And then had a lesson in one of the classrooms. I felt really nervous the whole time, and both Hermana Flores and I felt after that we shouldn´t continue teaching him. He seemed to be more interested in the way the church was organized and the things we teach rather than knowing if they were true. Almost as if he wanted the structure for his own church, so unfortunately we won´t continue. 

Sunday Alberto came to part of church (the young man who contacted us in the street haha). Later we went to his home for a lesson. I didn´t think it was possible, but he literally didn´t have any church related knowledge. Like Adam and Eve, Noah, Jesus Christ.. he didn´t know anything. It´s going to be a little difficult starting from the beginning, but I think that things will go well with him. He´s a little quiet, but I think if we find him a friend in the ward things will go a lot better for him in the learning department.

All in all this week was really interesting, many lessons that were strange, but this week I know is going to be better. I can´t wait until the next week when I can write again and let you know how wonderful things are because they always are here in Peru. I hope my emails make it seem that way, because honestly it´s the best thing being here serving the Lord.

 

Hermana  Imbler

View from Hayley's apartment.
Aug. 12, 2013

Hayley Imbler	10:17 AM (10 hours ago)
to me, Michael, Michael

Buenas dias!!

 

Hola familia y amigos! How goes it? Yet another week gone by, I do not understand how the time passes so quickly, it feels like I was just sitting in this dirty computer lab yesterday, but all is well I´m super happy and lovin life in Peru!

 

Where to start..

First off.. it´s absolutely freezing, I was expecting warm in Peru but boy was I wrong...good thing August is the coldest month. Also last week I got my packages, ahh thanks so much for sending me my calender with my pictures of all my favorite people! Not going to lie, I got a little teeny bit homesick seeing pictures of everyone, but it´s all good that has passed and honestly I love Peru with all my heart!

 

This week was a little rough, we didn´t have any of our investigators show up for sacrament meeting.. one new investigator came for the rest though. I never realized how hard it would be to sit in church and just pray that someone would come through the doors, and then how disappointed I would be when no one came. I want so badly for these people I teach to know the joy of the gospel!

 

This week we went to visit Valerio (86 years young with a cane like Moses) haha he really is a character. 3 times we went to visit him and on the last time he was finally able to make it downstairs to talk to us. In our other visit though we did extend a baptismal invitation to another member of the family, her name is Lola, and she is a three month old goat. She seemed really excited. Ok in all seriousness now... Valerio was supposed to be baptized this Saturday, but he hasn´t been able to attend church so we have to push back his date for another 2 weeks. It´s really sad, he loves learning more about the gospel but just never comes to church and that is one of the most important parts.

 

This week I also learned how important it is to be an example to everyone! Your words and actions have an effect on many people. Last week I talked a little bit about Consuelo and how she attended church and stuff. This week we went to get her for church and she didn´t want to come. We talked to her and apparently there is a woman in our ward who lives in the same house who hasn´t been very kind. I won´t go into much detail but pretty much that is the reason she didn´t go to church, she felt very uncomfortable knowing that her neighbor went to that ward. So make sure that your words and actions are always kind and friendly, because you never know who is going to be affected by the things you do.

 

A little more about my companion: Hermana Flores... haha she is very different from me but she is an awesome missionary. I found peanut butter this last week at Metro (only the greatest store ever, ok in Peru) and my companion does not like it... haha I never thought I would meet someone who didn´t like peanut butter. Oh and that reminds me, she also doesn´t like the goldfish I got in my package...she´s crazy for sure:)

 

Last thing before I need to go... One of my favorite experiences of the week. We had a boy (probably 18) run up to us in the street. He asked us what church we were from and we talked for a minute or two. He had heard of Mormons but didn´t have any friends who were members or know what missionaries were, but he just ran up and started talking to us. We are going to visit him later this week. But wow talk about cool!

 

Hope you all are doing well and know that you are all awesome! Shout out to my home girls Tania and Losa for deciding to serve missions, it is the best decision you could ever make and I know you will both do great! And Laura 1 more month girly and you´ll be out! Thanks for all your encouraging emails!

 

Love

Hermana Imbler

 

HOLA FAMILIA!!!

Well it´s Monday, and yes that´s right it´s Pday!! Wow it feels like it´s been forever since I have written... probably because it has!! Goodness gracious so much to tell you and so little time to do it. Ok first off I´m in the field in case ya´ll didn´t know, but I´m sure you did. Wow it´s the best I absolutely love it here! I´m in the zone Comas in the area La Pascana.

Tuesday we left the CCM and came to the mission offices, we had a little training, had Papa Johns (yes they have that here) for lunch and then after we got assigned to our areas. My new companion is....Hermana Flores! She is 23, from here in Lima.. her mission was supposed to be Cochabamba Bolivia but her Visa is going to take another 8 months and she has been here for 6 so she talked to the President and looks like she is going to stay here for the whole time! Hallelujah! She is so much fun! She speaks hardly any English which is perfect for me because I need to learn and I need to learn fast! So for me it´s Spanish all day every day, but surprisingly it doesn´t bother me much! Mom, you will be happy to know that I have a pensionista.. haha ok only for breakfast but hey she´s the greatest. I barely understand anything she says because she talks so fast, but most of the time I catch ´´Oh hermanita!´´ not much more. For lunch we eat at members houses, so far it hasn´t been too bad, but I am required to eat everything on my plate. Which Saturday that included the stomach of a chicken... yeah... ok I can´t lie I didn´t eat it. That´s another reason why I am grateful for my companion... she took it while the ward member was in the kitchen. Haha oh and one another thing, the Hermana´s brother ate with us... definitely ate a whole chicken foot in front of me, super disturbing! But the sweet stuff here... wow it´s fantastic, they also have a drink here that is called Pulp and it´s seriously the best, I don´t know how I lived without it.

This week has been pretty awesome, we have a lot of new investigators. On my first day we contacted a reference we had. Consuelo is a 23 year old and has the cutest son, Americo. The first lesson we taught her she committed to a baptismal date, the only problem is she isn´t married to Daniel (her significant other). So many people aren´t married here... like tons, it is probably going to be one of the biggest problems we have. Every month or so we have a mass marriage for those who are getting baptized. So Consuelo and her husband will need to get married.. our next visit she said that she really wanted to be married so that´s all good! She also came to all 3 hours of church yesterday which was wonderful. Speaking of church, the pianist didn´t show up so I played, it was great, except for the fact that there were maybe 30 or 40 members there max. We supposedly have 600 members in our ward, but so many of them are inactive, so we try to visit them a lot. The 1st counselor in the ward is Hermano Pedro (Pedrito, or my Abuelito). Pedrito is my abuelito because he too is white.. haha it´s awesome. He struggles with my name though, most people here do.

One of my favorite things to end this letter: people stare at me, and by people I mean literally everyone. Being blonde and blue-eyed in Peru is seriously the funniest thing ever. People will just stare and stare, then I say buenas dias or whatever and they are all like: ´´Woah, she speaks Spanish??´´ it´s hilarious. The other day a cute Hermana in the ward told me that I had celestial eyes. It´s kind of fun being the different one here.  Whelp out of time, I´ll do my best to send a picture of my area!! Adios everyone!!

Hermana Imbler

Dear Imbler Family,
We are thrilled to have Hermana Imbler join us in the Peru Lima North Mission. She will e-mail you on her p-day which will be on Mondays.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Erickson