Alonzo                 

                                                                            Flora's

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Hayley Imbler	9:13 AM (11 hours ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

Another week gone by and today we will find out transfers! Can´t believe yet another 6 weeks has passed by so quickly! I´m a little bit nervous for what will happen, but I know that the Lord will put me where he needs me!

This week has been WONDERFUL! Haha ok I feel like pretty much every week of my mission is wonderful, but hey that´s how it should be right?? Hmm.. where to start... How about from the beginning..

Monday...We went to visit Alonso´s mom and she told us that her friend´s dad just recently passed away. We shared the message of the Plan of Salvation with her and gave her a pamphlet so that she can share it with her friend. We´ll follow up with her this week on how that went. Then we had Henry´s baptismal interview and........He didn´t pass... Ok JUST KIDDING! Everything went really well and he´ll be baptized this Saturday!! I really feel so blessed to have been able to see baptisms 4 weeks in a row, it´s truly a miracle!

Tuesday was a day full of lessons (my favorite days.. teaching for hours is amazing, if you can believe it). We were able to visit Romelio, his wife is a member but they haven´t been able to get married because of troubles with documents.. darn, but we´re hoping that they will come soon! But they live on the hill so we had to climb a bunch, when we got there they had a rooster and 3 other chickens.. so if you know me I had an anxiety attack.. because they were just running around wild..but I survived. Then we had lessons with some less active members and Sergio, who is doing great by the way! We then went to visit Flora who was to be baptized on Saturday.. she was doing really good and was super excited for her baptism! Then to finish off the day we had a lesson with Miguel Angel who is also a less active member and he told me that in the U.S. it´s like insanely cold right now? I had no idea... oops! Don´t get updated much on weather over there! Hope ya´ll are staying warm!

Wednesday we went to visit a reference of less actives and we found Rosa, she has pancreatic cancer as well as something else and isn´t doing too well, but we were able to share with her about the power of prayer and brought her some comfort. We then found a reference that we´d been looking for for sometime, an older man Manuel. He accepted our visit and then came to the baptism on Saturday, but left when he found out it was the church of his brother, I guess they don´t get along too well.. Later we found Holger and Jessenia who we´ve been teaching, she´s less active and he´s an investigator. Everything went good and they promised to come to church on Sunday.. (but.. didn´t come, after calling them and everything..)

Thursday we had lunch with Flora and her grandson who is 16 years old. We were able to teach him a lesson and he told us he would come to his Grandma´s baptism! Then later on we were able to have a really good lesson with Henry. In the closing prayer he asked that everything would go well with his baptism on the 18th. It made me so happy! He pretty much acts like a member already, we are feeling super lucky to have met the people we have met here in Libertad! We then had a family home evening with a family who are less actives and we talked about covenants then played some games. It was a really great night!

Friday... One of our slower days, but we were able to have lessons with the Bishop, his first counselor, his second counselor, and the ward mission leader. Talk about a lot of support in one day. We found a new sister who is less active and were able to help animate her a little bit, but then she didn´t come to church.. sad day. Then we had a family home evening with another family who are less actives and we talked about eternal families.

Saturday was a full day! We talked with Sergio again and he said he wanted to come to the baptism of Flora.. he is doing so well I just can´t believe it, it makes me SO happy to see him participating in everything he can! Then we found two new investigators who we taught a lesson, but then the second time we went back they said that they can´t listen to us anymore because they have their own religion.. maybe one day! Then there was the baptism. It was beautiful and lots of the members came to support Flora! That night also it rained more than I have seen here in Lima... but still not nearly as much as what we have at home.. by a lot I mean it´s the first time I felt real rain drops here! Then we taught a lesson to Jonathan and everything went well, he promised to talk to his mom about being baptized, and to come to church.

Sunday.. in church only Henry showed up, we did a lot to help others, but no one else came. That means that Jonathan will have to be baptized the first week of February.. In sacrament meeting we found out that Sergio is going to recieve the aaronic priesthood, I almost cried, a true convert!!  Then in the afternoon we had a ward activity where us and the members left in companionships to visit the less active members. Sergio also came (seriously he is the best little 78 year old man, super converted, even though he only had two weeks of lessons before his baptism). We did divisions and I left with Kathleen (yes mom she spells her name just like you!) she´s 24 and she loves practicing english with me.. she´s pretty much my best friend in the ward haha. We talked to Gladys about the Book of Mormon and she was really interested. We then went to visit Holger and Jessenia and they weren´t there so we had a lesson with one of her many cousins that lives in the house. Jhon, is 24 and was really receptive and had a lot of questions, at the end he prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for sending these sisters to help me. 

And that was my wonderful week! Hope this week can be just as good! Now I´m off to transfers, so the next week I will let everyone know what happened. Remember always to pray, prayer is one of the most powerful things we have and one of the most beautiful. Our Heavenly Father has a lot of qualities, but one of them that we sometimes forget is that he knows how to listen, and he will always be waiting for us to talk with him. 

Love you all!

Hermana Imbler

Lovin´ the Mish in Libertad

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Hayley Imbler	9:13 AM (8 hours ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

Happy Monday! (I think I say that every pday..oops, my only excuse is that it really is a happy day for me to be able to write all of you!)

This week started out a little slow but then got better and better. We couldn´t find a place to do internet this morning so I´m not going to have a whole lot of time to write, but I will try to do my best. We were able to visit Sergio multiple times this week and when he found out that we wouldn´t always be the missionaries in the ward he got pretty sad, but he said I will never forget you because you were the first and you were the ones who taught me. Super cute! He is really excited to prepare to receive the priesthood so we are working with him on that. 

On Monday we were able to talk to Rosmery, Henry´s wife and things went pretty good, but I think if she is ever going to want to be baptized she will need a really good friend in the church. We also talked to Alejandra again and she´s been strugglin a lot. She isn´t praying or reading and we´re having a hard time helping her with it, if she doesn´t put in her part there isn´t very much we can do.. 

Tuesday was a really slow day we weren´t able to find many people to teach, but we did have a lesson with Alonso. We taught him about Tithing and fasting which are always interesting lessons, but I love the testifying part because I have a such a strong testimony that if we pay tithing we will never lack anything that we need. As well as fasting, if we fast with a certain purpose the Lord will help us accomplish what we need or give us the answer that we need.

Wednesday was the real Pday, we had a little barbeque and then after played soccer. I fell pretty hard because my shoes didn´t have good traction and my back hurt for a couple of days, but I´m getting better. Then after we moved to our new house with water all day, never thought I would be thankful for something as simple as running water. Then that night one brother in the offices that helps with stuff came to put in our shower, it lasted until 8:45 so we didn´t have the opportunity to leave the house and teach lessons, bummer!

Thursday was another slow day, we were only able to talk to 2 less active members and we felt pretty down at the end of the day, but we decided that Friday was going to be a better day and that we were going to do everything possible to have lessons. We also had two interviews.. well we were supposed to, Alonso didn´t show up for his baptismal interview which meant he couldn´t be baptized unless we did it on Friday (thank goodness all went well with that). Flora, one sister who has been coming to church for almost 4 years and paying her tithing faithfully, is finally going to be baptized. There were a lot of problems because her husband didn´t want to get married, but she now is separated from him and can be baptized!! We were all crying of pure joy!

Friday and Saturday were days FULL of lessons which left my companion and I feeling really good! We were able to talk to Jonathan who is one of our newer investigators who is 14, but we are planning his baptism for this month, we´re praying that everything turns out well with him. 

Sunday as well was a great day and we were able to get a lot accomplished. We were able to have a lesson with a sweet lady Gladys who I think is going to progress rapidly. We are also receiving a lot of help from the members, they are coming with us for lessons which honestly helps a lot! They can bear testimony and befriend our investigators as well as the less active members. 

Whelp out of time, yet again, but just want to let you know how much I appreciate you all. This last week I received a lot of letters from ward members which left me just feeling AWESOME! Keep ´em coming por favor!! Hope you all have a great week!! 

Hermana Imbler

Hayley Imbler	9:16 AM (9 minutes ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

Happy Monday!!!! 

How did Christmas go for everyone?? Hope that it all passed well and that you could all spend time with your families! I know I was so happy to be able to talk with my family! It was wonderful to see their faces and know that all is well there at home! I also got to see a little bit of the snow which made me super jealous!                                                                                                 

Sorry I´m going to go a little backwards in the order but it´s because I just can´t contain my happiness about what I am going to tell you! The baptism of Sergio was probably one of the best days of my mission!! Saturday morning at 10 our mission leader called us and said that everything was ready for the baptism at 6 that night, we were super stoked, we finished our study time and went to lunch. Right before lunch the 1st counselor in the bishopric called us and said that there wasn´t water in the chapel. OH NO... How is it possible to have a baptism without water?? Doesn´t happen! So we had to have the baptism in the stake center! Sergio showed up with his family at 6 o´clock wearing his Dad´s old suit, white shirt and tie. I almost started crying. He is the cutest 78 year old man and I just wanted to hug him (too bad that´s against the rules...) We took pictures and started the baptism. Everything went smoothly just as planned. At the end of the baptism he bore his testimony and began to cry, so of course I began to cry as well. He talked about how God had touched his heart and he had really changed from who he was before. I have never felt more grateful than to have been a part of the change in his life. On Sunday after he was confirmed he shook the hand of everyone that was sitting on the stand, super funny!

This week was a little slow considering it was Christmas and all, but one other super cool story. Henry has been investigating the church for months and months, I think about 6 or 7. His brother is a member and he has gone to church with him. We had been trying to have a lesson with him for weeks and we finally tracked him down on Thursday. We were with the 1st counselor in our ward and we entered his house. We shared about the plan of salvation and talked about the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us. I asked him what he was willing to do to show his gratitude for Jesus Christ and he said I suppose follow his example. Which led in perfectly to talking about baptism. I then invited him to be baptized and he said "Claro que si" which is like of course! And then we decided that this January 18th would be the date. He then continued to tell us that before he had accepted baptism and a date, but wasn´t really ready to commit, he felt like he needed more time. He said that now is his time and that he has the support of his wife and his mom which was a big factor. I am so excited, we are going to visit him quite a bit this week so I will keep you all updated on that for sure.

We talked to Holger and Yesenia this week about getting married and we found out that Holger´s documents are in Ecuador so we don´t know how long it will take to figure that out. We´re a little sad, but we´ll see how everything turns out. 

Looks like I´m out of time again.. We are switching P day to Wednesday this week for New Years so we can have a little fun together. I will also be moving to my new apartment this Wednesday and will finally have water all day long instead of only until 2 in the afternoon. 

Hope that you all enjoy your new years holidays! I hope you all have set some good goals for the New year. I have realized that a life without goals is not really much of a life at all. Take care everyone and remember how much I love you and how much Heavenly Father loves you all!!

Hermana Imbler

Hayley Imbler	Dec 23 (3 days ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Can´t even imagine how it is right now to have a white Christmas! I am so beyond jealous, I´m here in Peru gettin´ sunburnt and sweating up a storm. The weather may say 75 degrees or something close, but the humidity makes it feel like a blazing 100 degrees or more! I´m super excited to be able to talk face to face with my family this week, just hearing their voices for five minutes just got me super excited for Wednesday!

I don´t have much time today because the internet was acting up for about 45 minutes, but to be short in everything we were focused a lot this week on teaching, teaching, and teaching! We have a new goal for teaching lessons, so we are trying to always be teaching. It´s so true that sharing the gospel and being able to teach others brings so much more happiness than other things. 

Monday we were able to talk to Alejandra and her mom about the Book of Mormon and everything went pretty good, but she still hasn´t read. We also visited them on Wednesday and talked more about baptism. Alejandra is a great girl and likes listening to us, but she is struggling to follow through with her prayers and reading. We are going to have to work hard to put a desire in her heart to listen and follow through with things that are going to help her to better her life. 

Alonso didn´t come to church this week. There is a possibility that he can still be baptized this Saturday, but our District Leader wants to have an interview with him to see if he really is ready to make the commitment. Granted he is only ten years old, but we want him to be able to go to church every week and right now he can´t because he has to visit his grandparents almost every weekend. It´s sad because he is a sweet kid and every time he prays he says "I know that the church is true" but we will have to see how everything goes!

Sergio is progressing really quickly. He went to church again on Sunday and we have decided together that he is going to be baptized this Saturday! He´s nervous because it has all happened so fast, but he truly has had a big change of heart and I know that he will continue to progress because he feels in his heart that this is what God wants for him and he knows that he will find happiness in the church! He always says poco a poco, which means little by little. Everything that we do is little by little. We can´t wake up one morning and be a different person. We change little by little, which is why those small things have so much importance in our life. Our little comments, thoughts, actions can change who we are as people. So remember that who you are is composed of the little things you do. If you want to be better or change something, start small and in time you will be able to reach the goal you want.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and that you can remember the true purpose of this season. Next week I will do my best to give a full report of everything. Hope that the internet treats me well on Monday! Love you all and am wishing you the happiest of Christmases here in Perú (is Christmases a word? Hope so!)

Con mucho amor

Hermana Imbler

Hayley Imbler	9:41 AM (5 hours ago)
to Kathleen, me, Michael

Happy Monday everyone! I have big news... today is the 16th which means I´m on the countdown of one year left of the mission! I can´t believe that one year from today I will be on a plane headed home.. That just means that I am going to have to WORK WORK WORK in the short time that I have left! I feel like I have so much more to do here and I really hope I can get it all done in this short year I have left!

Monday was Pday.. surprise surprise haha! We didn´t do a whole lot, but that night we found out that we have to move houses...again! The daughter of the lady who rents the house wanted a contract and as missionaries we can´t do contracts.. So we now have until the end of the month to find another place to live, and let me tell ya, it´s not an easy job house hunting in Lima and finding somewhere decent. But later on we had a lesson with Alonso and everything went really well, it´s pretty easy to teach kids becaue they usually don´t have many objections and are super willing to listen and learn more!

Tuesday was a slow day, we had our normal district meeting and then studies. We went out to work and nearly all of our lessons fell through. It was rough and as the trainer I had to decide what we should do. Luckily we were able to have a few lessons with some less active members and try to encourage them to keep reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church. 

Wednesday: Service in the morning, we went with one of our zone leaders and our district leader to meet other missionaries at a house pretty much at the tippy top of one of the cerros (hill/mountain). We were late and we had to walk really really far so we decided to take a moto taxi, these little mini cars with three wheels. It was the first and probably last time I will have permission to ride in one of those, but it was super cool! The lessons were lacking again we couldn´t find many people that wanted to receive us, but we did have a great lesson about repentance with some less-active members. I never thought I would like teaching repentance, but it really is so cool and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to repent of those mistakes I have made as well as every other person, thanks to our older brother Jesus Christ.

Thursday: Another slow day (it seems like we had a lot of those this last week..) but we had one lesson that was just AWESOME. We found a 14 year old girl, Alejandra, and she is super excited to learn more. Her mom listened to us as well but they have a little bit of an interesting case. Elsa (the mom) is married to someone different than the dad of Alejandra, so in order to be baptized she needs to divorce her previous husband and then marry the dad of Alejandra.. that process is about 4 or 5 months at least.. but we are going to try to work with the regarless.

Friday: Hermana Choque, our sister leader, came to visit and do a 24 hour transfer to see how well I am working in the area. This day we had 7 lessons.. the most I have had in a long time. We talked with Alejandra again. We finally found Antony, but he didn´t have a whole lot of desires to learn a lot more, only 50% of the time he believes in God, the other no. After that we received a really good reference, Sergio. He´s about 70 years old, but really wants to get closer to God. We talked with a less active member Lysette and I shared the experience of how I will always be grateful to the neighbors that sent the missionaries to my dad and his family. It was a super spritual and she committed to share the gospel with her friends and neighbors. 

Saturday: We talked again with Alejandra and her family and she accepted a baptismal date for January 4th! We then had a lesson with Edgar, we talked about the plan of Salvation and he had a lot of questions, but he is struggling to progress. He always says "I´m in the process of preparing for baptismal, but I still need more time". I´ve done all I can to help him, I feel like I´ve taught him well and he still doesn´t want to be baptized. All we can do now as missionaries is wait for him to do his part and then help him again.. so I think we are going to stop visiting him for a while. 

Sunday: The classic primary program! We had 5 of our investigators come to church to see the program: Alejandra, Alonso, Sergio, Edgar, and Carmen (Antony´s mom). It was pretty great like primary programs usually are. Later we had our last lesson with Edgar, it went about the same as Saturday, and we´ve decided to stop visiting him for a while. It´s a little sad because he was doing well, but it´s just one of those things that missionaries have to do.. there are other people waiting for us to find them. We found one of those Sunday night. Luzmila opened her door, and we were looking for a reference. I asked her if we could share something short with her and she accepted. We invited her to be baptized, and she asked me how much she needed to pay.. never thought I would receive that question, salvation is free, we only need to want to follow Jesus Christ and obey God´s commandments. We´ll see if she continues to progress this week. 

Hope all is going well as you get ready for Christmas this coming week. It´s hot here so I don´t really feel like it´s Christmas time, but this morning we sang songs in a hospital, that helped a little bit. Eat some yummy treats for me since the only thing I´ll be eating is more rice and maybe a little panatone (fruitcake..mmm NOT) haha. Love each and every one of you. Remember this Christmas what we are really celebrating. The best gift you can give anyone is the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Have a great week!

Hermana Imbler