Cuye, marriage, and BAPTISM

Howdy yall!

Wow this week was so good!! Let me start by saying that really the Gift of Tongues is so real! I was asked to give my first talk in Sacrament meeting and to say I was nervous is an understatement. But it was AWESOME yo. Everyone understood me and actually learned something! I spoke on the Book of Mormon and the Bible and why both are equally important for us in this life! With both we have the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for this. I am learning to love the Bible just as much as I love the Bible and I know that both can change our lives.

So this week I saw my first Cuye dissection.... literally. HAHA ahhh I was dying. Cuye is Guinea Pig and they eat it here in Peru. Well we stopped by the house of an investigator and her husband had told us she was a little busy but that we could come in. Well we come around the corner and she was "preparing" cuye to send to her grandson in Lima. AHHHH we watched from when she was shaving them, to breaking their teeth, to squeezing out their insides. Yeah..... luckily I wasnt fortunate enough to actually eat the Cuye but Im not sure that I want to after this experience. Sometimes I forget that Im in Peru because so many things are normal for me now but in this moment I was strongly reminded that I am not in America anymore!

This weekend we were able to help with the marriage and baptism of a couple the Elders have been working with! SO INCREDIBLE. Seriously, this couple has been coming to church for over a year and was just now married and baptized! It was such a special day and our family who is set to be baptized was able to come! Ahhh the light in their eyes was incredible. So grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ and to help people change their lives and experience true joy.

Well, I love you all! In 3 week I will be done with my training and will be a REAL missionary with a different company! Es loco how fast the time flies here in the mission. 

xoxo,

Hermana Miceli

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

BLESSINGS

Wow so this week has been trying but good! I have been sick most of the week and with what I dont know but for this I have been confined to the house and my bed. It is horriblle when you cant work here in the mission! But I am getting better and pushing through so all is well. :)

This week was slow as far as lessons, but we were able to get super organized in our house! We have what is called an Area Book and in it we have records of all the people in our area - people we are teaching, have taught, recent converts, less actives, TODO - and what they have been taught in the past year up until now more or less. It is a guide for all missionaries! Well our Area Book was a mess, but Thursday during our weekly planning session we were able to organize everything and we found people who had been lost mas o menos. Hopefully from this we can find more people to help and reactivate!

Saturday was LO MAXIMO because I was able to get a Priesthood blessing of health from my zone leaders! I am so grateful for the Priesthood and although I didnt literally feel better, I felt better and I felt Gods love! Plus it was in English... #score

So things I still havent mastered in Peru and maybe (probably) never will:

1. NAMES. Muy dificil, en cerio. People here have 2 last names - the first in their actual last name from their father like in the US and the second is their mothers maiden name. For this I never know who anyone is and contacting is an adventure trying to understand. #PeruStruggles

2. DIRECTIONS. HAHA streets here are not really streets and mos direcctions are just names of areas in general. If I didnt have my trainer I would be lost.

3. Names of Food. I like tons of stuff here andI wish I could tell you all about it but I dont know what anything is called! #MysteryMeals

So this week I was studying in Exodus in the Bible all about Moses and the plagues brought upon Egypt before the departure of the children of Israel. How horrible seriously were the things brought upon the Pharaoh and his people however when pharaoh asked Moses to pray to the Lord and remove the plague the Lord always did so. However Pharaoh was still hard hearted and would not deliver the children of Israel. I was thinking that many times many of us are like Pharaoh - we have consequences for our bad actions and then we receive mercy from the Lord but fail to recognize his goodness and continue on in our ways. Dont be like Pharaoh! When you receive consequences, repent, and are brought back into the presence of the Lord strive to stay there and give him thanks!

I love you all muchisimo!!!

Hermana Miceli

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Cold Showers for the win

Howdy yall!

This week was really good!!! It was rainy and cold all week thus the title. We only have hot water when there is sun and this week there was no sun, so that was fun! Ive gotten really good at showering REALLY fast!

We walked a TON this week! We are really trying to find new people to teach and for that we have been walking and walking and walking. But we have new people! We have a new family who are actually old investigators who when they were first found werent really interested in the gospel and never had time to listen. But we found their names and decided to call them to see what happened. Well, now they are more than willing to listen to us! We had an awesome lesson and taught them The Restoration. It is the best! Everyone really does have their own time!

We also have a new chico who is the brother of a less active in the ward. My companion found him last week when we were on splits. HE IS GOLDEN. They had left him with a pamphlet on The Plan of Salvation and when we came back this week he had read EVERYTHING and had tons of questions! At the end of the lesson we left him with the pamphlet on The Restoration and before we even left he was already reading it! Seriously incredible. I really hope we can continue to work with him! 

So this last Monday was also cambios! One of the sisters I lived with was sent to another area in the mission and we now have another North American sister! YAY. One of our zone leaders also finished his mission so he is now en casa! WEIRD. 

In spiritual news this week I would like to share one of my favorite scriptures ever and one that has really helped me in the mission! It is in the Book of Mormon Alma 26:27. The scripture is about the Sons of Mosiah, missionaries like me who had the challenge of teaching wicked WICKED people. READ THIS SCRIPTURE WHENEVER YOU ARE FEELING DOWN. If we endure our afflictions with patience, the Lord will always "give unto us success."

I love you all! Thank you for all your love, support and prayers!!

Hermana Miceli

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

LO MAXIMO

Hello all! This week was so good and luckily I was able to watch all of general conference this weekend in English! As much as I would have loved to watch it in Spanish, I wanted to understand!

This week we had divisiones with our sister leaders for our area! It is only for a day and is essentially just a time to see how we are doing in the mission and how we are working. I was with another North American sister Hermana Essig! It was the best, and was a good change!

I have no time this week but I want you all to know how much I really do love being a missionary! Especially in this last week leading up to Easter. It is incredible everyday to be able to testify of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I really have been called as a representative of Him! I hope you all can come unto Him everyday, because He is the only way to gain true joy in this life. He loves each of you and only hopes for the best for you.

Ps Peruvians LOVE la semana santa the week before Easter! The Friday before Easter for the day after the cruxifiction they have a tradition called 12 platos. They eat 12 plates of traditional Peruvian food varying from sweets to seafood to pastas! Unfortunately, I was not able to indulge in the tradition but from what I hear it is loco. We had a tradition soup with what I was told was shrimp. Well I am in Peru so I should have expected it to be different.... EYES, LEGS AND ALL PEOPLE. I am surprised it wasnt crawling out of my bowl. A peruvian first.

I hope you all had a Happy Easter remember Christ!

Hermana Miceli

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.