Anda Peru

Hayley Imbler	9:57 AM (9 hours ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

........................I SURVIVED!! Haha..Hola everyone! Happy Monday.. and happy day to me who gets to continue here in Libertad and with my cute companion Hermana Callejas! It was a big surprise last Monday when they told us we were both going to stay here in Carabayllo! It was so fun to see how the members reacted when they heard I was going to stay, I really felt so loved! We had quite a few that said they prayed that I would stay in their area.. I honestly wanted to cry because I never thought that the members of my ward would care about me as much as I care about them! Later that day we had lessons with Cesar and Paola, and Rosalinda. Nothing really great and wonderful happened that night.. but the next day was wonderful!

Tuesday was the best day of the week! We were able to start an hour earlier because Hermana Callejas finished her training and we ended the day with a total of 11 lessons!!! The most we have ever done in one day, it was literally the best feeling! We found a total of 6 new investigators one of which was July a cute 19 year old girl who lives with her baby and her aunt. We also had some really great lessons with less active members. We talked to Vladimir about the word of wisdom and he was super ready to obey it, just like he had been with all of the other lessons we taught. He really is a great kid.. although the last week I said he is going to be a great missionary, this week we found out that a couple years ago he had a girlfriend and she had a baby, so he´s a dad.. oops lots of things seems to come out later in our lessons, but it´s ok because he still will be a great member of the church! We also made a mistake and knocked on the wrong door of a house and we were able to teach a girl named Veronica. She has a ton of faith, although she tried to preach to us a little bit the lesson ended well, and then we couldn´t get in touch with her for the whole week... 

Wednesday was probably one of our hardest days.. we were feeling pretty tired and run down, but we did our best. We found a family of less active members that we are going to help them return to church. We also had a lesson with Vladimir and he accepted baptism really easily. He was super excited and had been reading his Book of Mormon a lot. Every time we go to his house his grandma, Josefa, gives us something to eat.. She´s super great.. At first her personality was a little strong but we have come to love her so much! She is a great member of the church with a super strong testimony.. 

Thursday was a slow day as well.. We had a good lesson with Rosalinda and some friends of her son about the word of wisdom.. one of the friends Michael, was super receptive to everything, but the other Juan just laughed about everything we taught.. well that´s some 14 year olds for ya.. haha. Gotta love it. We were able to visit Vladimir again.. like we do practically every day and we talked about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. He was planning on working the night shift on Sundays, but at the end of the lesson he told us that he was going to find a solution. I really am a firm believer that keeping Sunday only to worship our Heavenly Father and be in families is SO important and it really brings miracles during the other days of the week! When we give one day to the One who gave us everything he gives us more than we had before. 

Friday wasn´t a really memorable day so I won´t get into detail for lack of time. Saturday we went to do service in a park in the area of some other sisters. I never thought I would sweep a concrete soccer field, but I did. Haha.. it really was a good service though. We talked to one guy who lived close and he asked Hermana Day and I if we were going to marry Peruvian boys while we were here. We explained to him about the church and they are going to visit him this week. Later Vladimir left during the day and didn´t come to his interview, we were worried.. so we called later and turns out he didn´t show up until 4 in the morning on Sunday.. He showed up just in time for Sacrament meeting and we went to visit him later. He said he was struggling a lot and that he felt pretty alone. We had a super powerful lesson about the atonement of Jesus Christ and I was able to explain to him that it is never too late to change. We will always have another chance. God will always love us. Satan will work on us so that we will be miserable just like he is, but in the end we know that God will win the war and we want to be on His side. We have the gift of being able to repent and be better every day.. and in the long run it´s really not important what anyone else thinks of us, but what God thinks. He will be the one to judge us in the end, and I know personally I want to be able to say I did all I could. 

Remember how much God loves you, and that it is never NEVER too late to start over, to change the things you want to change, and to be welcomed back with a fiesta by our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and those angels who have been waiting just for you!

Have a great week everyone!

Hermana Imbler