Move That Bus!

Week 19

October 21, 2013

This week President Harbertson came to visit. We are hopefully about 2 or 3 months away from Ollanta getting their own casa capilla! A casa capilla means we can have church services here; it will just be in a rented room or in a home. So exciting!

Yesterday we were visiting a family and my companion asked them very frankly the reason why they weren't at church yesterday. The sister told us that they didn't have enough money. For their whole family to attend church it would be about 20 soles. After the visit my companion and I were talking about if there could be some help available to them. Later that evening we were visiting a family who is recently coming back to church. The father drives people in a car for a living, and has been trying to buy his own car for a while. He has reached his goal, and for this blessing, he and his wife have decided that in this 12 or 15 passenger vehicle they are going to drive the members of Ollanta to church. For free. They told us to spread the word and specifically mentioned this Family we had visited earlier. Wow! This is such a blessing for the members here to not have to worry about the financial aspect of attending. We are going to pack that bus, like in Sister Silvano´s book ¨Just one More¨. Oh, I am sohohoho excited. 

This week someone here asked me if I could cut off some of my hair and leave it to remember me. I guess curly brown hair is kind of special! But yeah, don’t think I am going to do it. Kinda weird.

We have a new ward mission leader! He is quite the enthused hermanito, and I think it’s going to help us a lot to work together with the members. 

Hope you all have a great week! Love you tons!  

I’m Grande, I still believe in Miracles, and I’m a Mormon

Week 18

October 14, 2013

 My new companion is Hermana Olivares! She is 21, from Peru, a great missionary and is awesome. One thing that makes her awesome- she bought a hula hoop for exercise in the morning. This is awesome, my friends.  She has 7ish, almost 8 months in the mission, but she already is such a great missionary. I’m going to learn tons!  One thing that is fun is that she is a little short for a latina, and I’m a little tall for a gringa.  So basically, I’M  GINORMOUS! I am reminded of the time when mom referred to me as the “big one” [of her daughters.]  I am indeed the big one.  So we make a fun pair.  One awestruck child in the street remarked how I am grande and she is chicita!  It’s pretty fun. We took some pictures skipping down the street and such to help show our heights. 

 

Well. Most of our investigators right now aren't married but are living with someone. So that is our main challenge right now. It's hard to help people to get married here because the tradition is a huge fiesta and really expensive. Very few of the couples here are married  Most just live together and and have kids together but don't actually get married. Margara isn't ready for the date we had set. We have to help them understand somehow that the size of your fiesta doesn't matter to God but that you keep His commandments and don't live together before marriage. 

 It has been a blessing to continue to meet with Luz Marina to teach the recent convert lessons. She is just so cool. She comes from very humble circumstances but accepted the law of the tithe and always finds the 6 soles ( I think) for her and Rajjoo to attend church. This week they were completely out of money. She searched her house but couldn't find a single sole. Her purse didn't contain any money but she was determined to go to church. She and Rajjoo got on their knees and prayed. She decided to go borrow some money from a friend. Later they were leaving to go to church so she grabbed her purse and 7 soles fell out. She then found money in other spots where there hadn't been before. They ended up with 30 soles, I think it was. I know that the Lord literally does open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings for keeping the law of tithing. Tithing is not so much of a sacrifice when you account for the blessings received.  God is so merciful and I’m grateful I have met Luz Marina and Rajjoo.  I have learned so much from their examples of faith and received so many blessings from their friendship than I could have expected beforehand.  It astounds me how much the Lord loves and blesses us and has prepared His children to accept the gospel. I love the Lord.

Have a great week! Love you lots!

Hermana Beckstead

Ollantaytambo, Round 3

 Week 17

October 7, 2013

Hey guess what? I'm not a baby anymore! I have finished my in-field training! Can you believe this is my third transfer in the field? Sunday I learned that I will continue to work in Ollanta. Hermana Caicedo left for Cusco this morning and my new companion is Hermana Olivares. I will meet her tomorrow and am excited to work with her. I have heard great things. She is from Peru and has about 8 months in the mission (I think, a little bit of guessing there).

Conference was AWESOME! I had been looking forward to the Conference for some time now, especially because I heard we would get to watch it in English. So when we arrived and they said no English because their TV was broken I was pretty sad. Fortunately Presidente Moises saved the day. We found another TV and I felt extremely blessed to be able to watch Conference in my own language, in Urubabma Peru. The messages were so good and inspired. I hope you were all able to listen, and if not, watch them on lds.org and read them in the Ensign next month! Also, I just have to add my testimony- that members your help seriously is vital to this work! Please invite your friends to hear the discussions, meet the missionaries, or volunteer to accompany the missionaries on a lesson if you ever have a free hour. It truly helps us more than you know!

This week Hermana Juana (pensionista, and in one of the pics) let me in on her little secret: I ate horse meat! Apparently it didn't taste weird enough when I had it for me to question what it was but the idea is a little weird. It may be a possible explanation for the fiesta but not fun kind) in my stomach not too long ago. 

We have a family! The parents aren't married and they have TONS of questions but they are cool. They are fun to teach because they are so attentive to the message. They have a 12 year old son and he is quite the pensive boy. He asked us questions like who created God and if God created other planets and stuff like that. Fun, fun, fun.

Well I hope you guys had a GREAT week! Love you lots!

Hermana Beckstead

It’s Spring in October!

Week 16

September 30, 2013

Well this week was one of those weeks where mysteriously enough it would appear that all of our investigators are working in the chakra (farmland) or are in Cusco, or whathaveyou, at the same time. All of them. Hmmm, I smell something fishy! But it’s true what they say about how we need opposition in all things. This week has helped me appreciate the weeks where we can visit the people we are teaching. So the week was kind of different, but here are some highlights and random thoughts. Also, here are some pictures from a p-day where we hiked to this waterfall and also a picture from Rajoo´s birthday. He’s 9! 

              This week my stomach was having a FIESTA. But not the fun kind of fiesta. That should be enough information about that.

                We were able to have some awesome lessons with less active members. It’s a little sad but it feels nice to find out the reasons why they are inactive. Believe it or not but it makes it so much easier to help them that way! There were two less actives from Ollantaytambo in church Sunday. Woohoo!

                 I am excited for General Conference as all get out. I’ve been looking forward to it for at least a month and it’s finally coming! Plus, I will get to watch it in English with the other gringos. We watch it at 11 and 3, so with the 1-hour difference I will be watching it at the same time as you Mountain Timers. Pretty cool.

                  No scorpions this week! This has to be a result of somebody’s prayers, so thanks guys! And the power of prayer is real! 

                This week I finally got to the try the cuy that everyone always talks about. (Cuy is guinea pig). I would say it was worth all the raving- it is pretty delicious. Bony, but delicious. 

So, yeah, sorry for the randomness and maybe slight boringness of this email, but this week hopefully we will be able to track down the people we are teaching and get back to having adventures! Love you guys a ton and hope all is well! Remember the best source of help is from above. Always look up! 

Lots of love,

Hermana Beckstead