Hayley Imbler	Dec 9 (6 days ago)
to me, Michael, Michael

Happy Monday everyone!!!

I´M A MOM!!!! Hahahahahah... Ok at least that´s what they say here in the mission, but really I´m just training a new missionary! It´s definitely a big responsibility and I still am a little nervous, but so far all seems to be going pretty well! 

Tuesday.. Transfers.. I was able to catch up a little bit with Hermana Huerta which I loved! We had pizza with the newbies and then had the meeting where we found out who was going to be our companion. I was super nervous.. but I knew I would be training a Latina... mostly because there were 11 new Hermanas and 10 were Latinas.. haha! They called my name and the name of.... Hermana Callejas! She is from La Paz, Bolivia, is 22 years old and has a lot of desires to really work hard in the mission. I´m not going to lie and say training is easy, because it´s hard work, but it´s really worth it! 

Wednesday we got to work! It was hard starting off my first day as a trainer, I´m still fairly new to the area and struggled with knowing where to go or who to visit, but Katlin, a girl in our ward, came with us during the night and we were able to find a less active member Liz and had a really great lesson with her. She has a 13 year old daughter, Bridget who hasn´t been baptized, but every weekend she goes to her Dad´s house and isn´t able to go to church.. sad news. 

Thursday.. probably the hardest day of the week for me. We went to a lot of different houses and no one really wanted to open their doors for us, either that or they weren´t home.. I felt a little bit lost and like I wasn´t being a good senior companion because there was nowhere to go..but everyone has those days in the mission. There will always be a day when we get discouraged and don´t feel like we want to keep going.. BUT.. prayer is a magical thing because the last three days of the week were pretty great!

Friday.. We had a training meeting for the new missionaries until lunch time. It was pretty good, we learned a lot about how important it is to plan our days so we never are lost. Well I have planned my days, but then when plan c and plan d fall through it´s a little more difficult. but that´s in the past! We visited the Zegarra family, they are less actives as well, and everything went well they had lots of desires to start reading the Book of Mormon again. Then.. Brandon´s baptism!! Baptism´s are always crazy, but everything turned out to be really good. There is nothing that brings me more joy than watching my brothers and sisters enter the waters of baptisms and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. I really have learned that there is no other way to true happiness than by living the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we really put our effort into living what we believe we will obtain what we all want, which is to live with our families forever in the eternity with our Heavenly Father. 

Saturday.. training meeting in the morning which was pretty good. Then we had a lesson with Edgar.. turns out he drank on Saturday at his brother´s wedding.. I was super sad, because he had been progressing so much.. we tried to help him understand the importance of living the word of wisdom, but not much luck. in the evening one of our visits fell through... the investigator was hiding behind a taxi from us.. super sad as well... so we went to visit some less active members, and there we found Jerson! He´s 15 years old and is a friend of the son in the family. We had a great lesson with him and are planning on visiting him this Tuesday as well. 

Sunday.. Church.. Only Henry showed up in sacrament meeting, he´s an old investigator we´ve had for a while who is struggling to accept a baptismal date because he wants his wife to get baptized with him, but she doesn´t really want to listen to us yet. I gave a talk about missionary work and it seemed to animate the members a little bit because that afternoon we had 4 lessons with members. We found Magaly who is super receptive and then we were able to find Stefanni´s husband (the step dad of Nayeli and Cesar). He also was super receptive and has stopped working Sundays for now so we can continue teaching him!

Overall this week started off pretty rough and then ended really great!! I hope you all are doing well at home and enjoying the snow! I´m super jealous, it doesn´t really feel like Christmas time at all here... Remember how much I love you all, and how much I think about you all! Never forget that little things can bring great things to pass.. Do the little things.. Pray, your Heavenly Father wants to talk with you as much as your earthly parents. Read your scriptures, they literally have the answer to any question you have. Go to church, it´s a promise that we will not have hunger or thirst (spritually) if we go to church. 

Have a wonderful week everyone!!

Hermana Imbler

Lovin´ the mish in Libertad

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Hayley Imbler	9:19 AM (11 hours ago)
to Kathleen, me

I´M ALIVE!!! Ok I guess none of you heard, because it wasn´t that big of a thing, but I lived through a 5.8 earthquake! Last Monday was Pday and my companion and I went to one of the very few malls here in Lima North because my companion needed some new shoes. So we were in Payless (surprise that they had that here, but the shoes aren´t as good of quality haha) and we were looking around, then all of the sudden the windows started shaking, and then everything else. People started running and yelling that the roof was going to fall, but after a little bit it passed. Hermana Cruz and I of course were both freaking out because neither of us has ever felt an earthquake. But hey everything is all good now! Later that day we went to look for Cheyla, but she wasn´t there so we ended up talking with one of the less active sisters (she is the mom of Cheyla´s boyfriend) and her other son Alonso. We found out that he hasn´t been baptized yet, so we are working with him to prepare to be baptized this month! It was also Cesar´s birthday so we went to celebrate a little with him, Nayeli, and Estefanni. 

Tuesday was a day I will never forget.. We had our normal District meeting and then went to lunch. We were walking to one of our lessons with Rosario (a little girl who got baptized before I came). There was construction in the street and so everything was a little messy. I stepped off the curb and felt a really sharp pain in my foot.. so I stepped again and it was worse.. I yelled for my companion.. I sat back down on the curb and some kind of nail-ish thing had gone through the bottom of my shoe and in to my foot... Ya ouch.. we pulled it out, drained the blood and cleaned it with alcohol... Probably one of the most painful things.. And one of the most frustrating for a missionary who has to walk all day every day! 

Wednesday we painted the outside of a house of some new converts in the ward. A bunch of our zone came so that was super fun. We also were able to find a new investigator, Ricardo who was really receptive. We´ve been struggling a lot to find new investigators lately.. We aren´t receiving many references which are usually our best bet for finding new people to teach! 

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday (Sorry I always combine these days.. I start writing a lot and then I run out of time..) We´ve been working with Brandon a lot this last week to get him ready for his baptism this Saturday and he´s excited to have his Grandpa baptize him. We´ve been visiting Nayeli and Cesar this week as well. they didn´t come to church on Sunday, which made us really sad, we are headed there today to see what happened. We talked to Edgar on Saturday and he was doing pretty good, he´s had problems with the Word of Wisdom in the past, mostly drinking, so we´ve set some goals for him. He went to a wedding Saturday night, and then all day Sunday he didn´t answer his phone and supposedly wasn´t home.. Super sad.. he was also supposed to have his interview to be baptized this Saturday, but now we´re going to have to change the date.. Really sad because he is always really receptive and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and everything..

Today we are going to find out transfers, so we´ll see how everything goes, where I end up, and with who! Hope you all have a great week! Never forget how much value you have in my eyes and in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. You are all his children, and we are all brothers and sisters, one big family! 

Hermana Imbler

Hayley Imbler	Nov 25 (1 day ago)
to Kathleen, me

First off.... HAPPY 28TH ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!! I really hope that you had a wonderful day! I am so lucky to have you as my parents! Thanks for all of your support whether I´m at home or across the equator! 

This week has gone by faster than fast, next week is transfers so we will see what happens, it´s always scary the week going in to transfers because you never know exactly what will happen! But that´s ok I´ve learned to trust in that the Lord knows where I´m needed and he tells President! I don´t think I´m leaving Libertad quite yet, but you never know!

Monday.. P day, big surprise right? We played a little soccer and then went to Hermana Jenny´s house. If we don´t have much to do on P day we just head over to her house and eat lunch and talk. I finally heard about the Philippines..WOW... all I can say is how amazing that all the missionaries are safe. I have lots of friends there so I am very grateful, Heavenly Father really takes care of his missionaries! Later that day we had a lesson with Brandon (the ten year old boy who is going to be baptized in a week from Saturday).. We also talked to Cheyla and she had so many questions about Joseph Smith and the restoration the only sad thing is that we only can visit her on Mondays, so we will see what happens tonight! 

Tuesday: we had a training meeting from 8 in the morning until 5.. wow it was a very long day.. but very good. I learned a lot how to be a better teacher of the gospel and how to really focus on the real Doctrine of Christ. We then had a lesson with Nayeli and Cesar and talked about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Pretty much that was Tuesday due to the training.

Wednesday: We were able to find Edgar during the week.. miracle! He had hurt himself playing soccer at work, and by hurt I mean his whole face was scraped up.. but anyways we talked more about the importnace of The Book of Mormon and he committed to really read and pray about it which was great! We then had a blitz in another area. All of the missionaries in our zone went to one area to work to find references for those that are working there.

Thursday: We found a new investigator.. Anthony! His little sister got baptized a couple of months ago. He told us that he doesn´t believe in God.. woah, never thought I would get one of those investigators, but it´s a challenge I´m willing to take on! He even said the closing prayer! Then we had another Blitz which was fun.. got to talk to a bunch of different people and even found an old aquaintance of mine from my old area, Jorge, who is a guy that was always outside our house smoking.. haha.. 

Friday: Today we saw Anthony again, he told us that we should visit him every day so that he could learn more faster.. awesome! He also accepted a baptismal date for December which was really unexpected, we´re helping him believe more in Christ and in God.

Saturday: ELDER NELSON CAME TO TALK TO US!!!! More about this the next week because I´m getting kicked off the computer, but... I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Have a great week!!

Hermana Imbler

Lovin´ the mish in Libertad

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Hayley Imbler	Nov 18 (1 day ago)
to Kathleen, me

HOLA!!!!

Happy Monday everyone, and happy 5 month mark to me!! Seriously every month that goes by I feel like passes so quickly! I know I say that every five seconds, but I really can´t believe how fast the mission is going. Before I know it I will be skyping with you all on Christmas!!

This week started off a little rough but ended off AMAZING!! So Monday was P-day and we had a waterballoon fight with the zone. We celebrated Mom´s birthday with icecream brought by Hermana Jeny (she´s like the mom of the missionaries and I just love her). We then went to pick up Nayeli, and Cesar for a noche de hogar with a family in our ward. There we found their step dad and were able to talk with him, but he works all day every day so we won´t be able to have another lesson with him..Then we left for the home of the members, there we talked about the faith and all went super great! 

Tuesday we had our usual district meeting which are always super fun.. haha no but really I always learn a lot from our leaders. We then had a lesson with a less active member Olger. We are really trying to focus on reactivating those members who aren´t currently going to church so they can remember the testimonies they once had. I´m not worried about baptisms, what I´m worried about is helping people make covenants with their Heavenly Father and be able to remain active in the church so they can return to live with their families in the Eternity.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.. Saturday, Sunday: Sorry I´m going to mesh these days together a little because not a whole lot happened, but I´ll do my best to explain what I can. We had quite a few lessons with Nayeli and Cesar to help them prepare for their baptism. We were able to teach Edgar this week as well so that was good. He went to the baptism and to church on Sunday, but is really struggling to accept a baptismal date. He always says that he wants more time, but I think the last lesson that we had we were able to reach his heart a little bit more. He is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray.. really pray to know. I´m just hoping he follows through with it, because he really is a great guy! Like I said we´ve been working a lot with less active members and we are hoping that through them we can find members of their family who aren´t members of the church so that we can teach them. 

Saturday.. BAPTISM of Nayeli and Cesar. A part from the fact that we had to wait an hour to get the baptismal clothing everything went smoothly and we were able to see two wonderful kids enter into the waters of baptism. They were nervous, the water was cold, but they were so happy and you could just see the light in their eyes after they came out of the water.

Sorry that this email wasn´t quite as good as the last, I was working on a little project that I had to do.. But I hope you all know that just because I don´t write a whole ton every week doesn´t mean that I don´t love you all tons! Have a great week everyone!!!

Hermana Imbler

Lovin` the mish in Libertad

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Hayley Imbler	9:17 AM (8 minutes ago)
to Kathleen, me

First off.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Just because she´s sending this email to everyone I´m going to let you all know that you should be jealous, because I have the most wonderful mom in the whole world, don´t even try to tell me otherwise!

Ok now..

This week has definitely been interesting. I`m really sorry that I have been slacking on my emails to everyone. I`ve had a lot going on on this end, but I promise from now on I`m going to be better! First off I`m not really sure what I said the last week so I will just start from the beginning of this week and hope that is enough...

Monday.. P day as usual, we ended up heading back to a part in my old area and I got a little sad that I couldn`t stay there is La Pascana for a little bit longer and see my old friends, but hey that`s the mission life I guess! That night we had a lesson with Nayeli and Cesar, I think I mentioned them last week.. but if not Nayeli is 12 and Cesar is 9, they are the kids of a less active member Stefany. They are getting ready to be baptized this Saturday and we are so excited!! We gave them their Books of Mormon this week and I drew a picture of a temple in Nayeli´s and in Cesar´s a CTR or Haz lo Justo in Spanish shield. They loved them and have been reading a little bit. They also came to church with their mom on Sunday which was awesome, I think she`s going to keep going now for good! Also we are working on finding her husband, but he works a lot so we haven`t been able to get in touch with him yet. We also had a Noche de Hogar (Family home evening) with a less active family and the Bishop´s family, we watched a movie about the Atonement that was really awesome and every time I watch it I feel the Spirit so strongly. If you get a chance to watch ¨To this end was I born¨ do it!

Tuesday.. Oh goodness this day was just really interesting.. haha. We went to a different area to teach an investigator that we haven`t been able to find for a while and we ended up talking with her sister who is an investigator of the Elders along with her husband. We were able to console her and explain a few things that she didn´t feel comfortable asking the Elders. We then went to a bakery that I´m telling you has the best bread I`ve ever eaten... They are like rolls with pie crust on top..mmmmm! After we went to visit some less active members in our ward. Socorro, is 83 and she fell about 5 months ago so she hasn´t been going to church. She is literally the happiest little old lady and we laughed for about an hour with her about lots of things! We then had a lesson with Jose Alberto who we have been teaching for a while. He is sick and is always complaining about how he is feeling, but this time we were able to talk more and feel the spirit a little better.

Wednesday.. I went to INDEPENDENCIA... I had a 24 hour work visit with another Hermana in Violetas. She is from the U.S. and has one transfer less than I do.. but the thing is is apparently my Spanish is pretty good, because I taught the majority of every lesson, but I learned so much from being over there. It was such a fun experience to be in a different area for a little while and see how other missionaries work!

Thursday..Back in my area again we had a lesson with a cute girl Rosario who was recently baptized but hasn´t been coming to church. She is really loving and listens to what we say, but she´s had it hard because her and her cousin Maricielo are the only members in their home. We then had another lesson with a less active member Dustin who we are working to try and get him back to church, he has a testimony and everything, he just doesn´t want to go to church for some personal reasons that we haven´t quite figured out, we think it´s with some of the members.. We then had a lesson with another less active member (there are lots here.. very sad) and we committed him to pray.. like really really pray. Then we had another Noche de Hogar with a cute family that live pretty high up on one of the hills and talked about the importance of family prayer, reading scriptures together, and having family home evening. 

Friday.. we found another boy who is 10 years old, Brandon, his mom is a member (less-active) who committed to being baptized. His brother said the closing prayer and I almost died of laughter... I know you shouldn´t laugh during prayers..but it was so funny. He prayed that his mom wouldn´t be lazy and would want to go to church and that ¨Oh hala that my brother gets baptized PRONTO¨ So anyway I just had to hold back the laughter... I´m just about dying right now remembering it.. Then later we had another lesson with Nayeli and Cesar. This actually was the day we gave them their Books of Mormon now that I am remembering. Stefany, their mom, was like, why don´t I have a picture in mine? I think she was a little jealous.. haha. 

Saturday... We had a lesson with Edgar. He is a new investigator that went to church on his own the last Sunday. We found him the last week on his computer with the church website opened up which was pretty cool. This lesson we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ or faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. He was really receptive to everything, but when we invited him for a baptismal date he said he wanted lots more time to prepare and asked us if there were specific classes to take to prepare... haha we said those classes would be the lessons with the missionaries.. or us! We had a lesson with Elibet.. her and her husband have been inactive for years and recently they are starting to come back to church, we are really working hard with them so they can get married and sealed in the temple with their three little girls. We also had another lesson with Jose Alberto and we talked about marriage as well with him, he wants to obey this commandment so we will be working to get them married.

Sunday.. Stefany, Nayeli, and Cesar went to church on their own, we only needed to call them which was awesome! Edgar didn`t show up to church and I was a little bit sad, and then we couldn´t visit him that night because my companion wasn´t feeling very good, so we will work on finding him again this Saturday to see what happened with church. Jose Alberto came to church and then told us after that he pretty much hated it... OH NO!! He explained that the kids that were talking or running around were very distracting and that he didn´t feel the Spirit at all.. We explained to him that not everyone is perfect in the church only the gospel is perfect, but he didn´t listen much, we´re going to do our best to work out that little problem asap! That night we also had a little lesson with Nayeli and Cesar about a few commandments.. We are planning their baptism for 7 this Saturday and they are all excited.

Hope this letter was sufficient for all of you ;) haha really I apologize for slacking, I will do my best to try and write more.. But I do hope you know that I love you all and think about you every day! Gotta run!!

LOVE YOU ALL

Hermana Imbler

Lovin' The Mish in Libertad Nov. 4th

Hola!!! Happy Monday! I seriously love the days that I get to write all of you! I hope that you all are doing well in whatever place you may be!

This week was literally wonderful!! I was able to go to the Lima temple this Wednesday and let me tell you I will never take going to the temple for granted again, because here I can only go twice a year. If you can go, GO! There are so many blessings waiting for you there! 

So I don`t have a whole lot of time, as usual, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my investigators here. This week we were able to find to really cute kids Nayeli (12) and Cesar (9). Their mom is a member but she is less active. We had two lessons with them this week and they both want to be baptized. 

UH OH they kicked me off got to go, promise will write more next week!

Love you all,

Hermana Imbler