Week 46
April 28, 2014

Hey Family!

This week went by really fast! The Lord always blesses us for obedience and protects us. I am going to attach a picture of my companion and I with the Familia Sinchi in front of the church (before they demolished it). They are a family that we have been working with. It has been a cool process to see because Hermana Smedley visited them back in the day but they just didn't progress much and we had to leave them for a little bit. But the ward has reached out to them to help them with some special needs and we have returned to visiting them. They are progressing so much more and attending church. They live in very humble circumstances and the Hermana had to work a couple of Sundays to prevent the bank from taking their home. She told us she misses church! They are being changed by the gospel and are just happier. They even have their 20 year old nephew living with them now and he is listening to us too! His name is Jorge. 

In other news, I might be a sleepwalker. My companion has woken up a couple times and I haven´t been in the room. And I don´t remember getting up to go to the bathroom or anything.

Also, we are teaching family history which is awesome! And even more awesome thanks to the great pictures grandma sent me. The Peruvians say I look like Great-grandma Brown. Yes!

Well, this is short and sweet. But pictures are worth a thousand words! Love you all and have a great week! 

OH AND MOM. I got measured this week and I'm 5-10! remember when I was sad I wasn't quite 5-9? I've grown! That was exciting. You should probably add that to the blog. Very exciting. And tell all your friends. I'm so tall! Well, gotta go but love you tons!

Semana Santa

Week 45

April 21, 2014

Holy Week. That means on Friday Cusco people eat a traditional 12 plates for lunch. Our pensionista loves us and only did 6 or so, but don't worry, people we visited later on in the day made sure we ate much more. I ate seaweed, oysters, fish eggs, and toad eyes (they don't eat meat, just seafood during Easter week). The pictures are of everything I ate that blessed tarde. Also, I would like some credit because I ate pretty much all of it. I only hid an itsy bit in my shoe (thanks for the crocs mom!) and my pocket and my neighbor's bowl. In one of the photos there is a green bouncy ball looking thing in my spoon. That is a HUGE toad eye that I ate.

Well, this week, for my mother I am going to talk a little bit about conversion. One thing that is awesome about the Cusco people is that, by nature, they are very believing. I have had more that one first lesson where we share the Joseph Smith story and they believe it right off the bat.  But conversion is a lot more than just believing in something, it has to sink in until it becomes part of who they are. And although they usually say it could be true right off the bat, people aren't always very inclined to want to pray about it and really study it out and gain a real lasting conversion through the power of the Holy Ghost. One thing I learned this week is that as missionaries we need to take the time to find out how their prayers are REALLY going. One of the reasons a couple of our investigators aren't progressing is because they aren't asking specific questions in their prayers and they don't understand what to expect as an answer. But we took some time this week to go really in depth, not just follow up on the service and it helped a lot. I don't want to be a robot missionary that just follows up on the invitations we give people, but to ask inspired questions to find out how it really went for them. It is impossible to be converted without prayer! And sincere prayer is key.

We had a member in our lesson comment on the word of wisdom- animals can run so fast without getting tired because they keep the word of wisdom. Haha love it! 

Also, some things just don't exist here. I was trying to explain to my companion what a tanning bed was, and she got it and was just like ohhhhhhhh, I saw one of those in a horror movie once!  Hahah. 

This week went by so fast I'm not really sure what all happened! But I am so grateful for Easter. Jesus Christ was perfect and never did a single thing wrong. But He gave his life and suffered for all our sins and pains willingly. And after all that He is still able to love us perfectly. I know He lives and I am so happy to know that I will meet Him one day, and that is only possible because of His infinite sacrifice for me. Death is conquered, man is free, Christ has won the victory!

Love you guys! Have a great week! 

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids

Week 44

April 14, 2014

 a picture my companion took of my crazy self and a cake our pensionista made.

Hey Guys! I hope you had a great week! This week went by fast but I´m not really sure what happened so here are some random thoughts

Our 3 baptismal dates for the 26th turned into 0. That always hurts a little but it´s okay. It´s kind of funny because in Ollantay we were always stressed because we didn't have people to teach. Well, now we have them, but they just all have problems! Haha. It can´t be easy though, because we want them to have a lasting conversion.

We taught Dante repentance and shared the scripture about if you repent, God remembers the sin no more. He excitedly asked to make sure. "You mean, God forgets it?" It was such an innocent question and he was so excited about the doctrine of repentance. We can repent.  YAY!

Trix. No carpet, air conditioning, or heating here, but I found TRIX and the kind of trix in shapes! I´m completely willing to call that one a tender mercy of the Lord.

This week I saw a speed limit sign! What´s that? It said 30 km per hora and I was curious and was close to the driver so I noticed he was going 50. Haha but nice try Peru. It´s a nice thought. President Harbertson was right. He told us that we have angels protecting us because he´s seen the buses we ride in. It´s so true. I've thought so many times there is NO way we are going to make this turn and we always do! So don´t worry mom, we have a lot of angels protecting us! A lot. And strong because they push big buses around.

They don´t have lawns, and they don´t have lawnmowers. But occasionally someone has a little strip of grass. In which case, they would cut it with school scissors.

My companion was a little mal del estomago, Peruvian style, if you know what I mean, a while back and was going to the bathroom a lot. We went to visit Ernesto and Margarita and when Margarita saw my comp she was just like, Oh, do you want to go the bathroom? hahaha.

We visit a less active and her awesome son who has autism. She told us that he always wakes up in the morning and just stares up and just keeps saying, ¨he´s there, he´s there! I liked that.

Hermana Valverde and Hermana Gonzales (another Hermana we live with) are learning English. Hermana Valverde asked Hermana Gonzales the opposite of the word smart and Hermana Gonzales was like AWESOME! Wait, no! Haha. 

Guillermina and I, we need psychological help

So it was a fun week. And this is the most random email ever!

Love you guys and have a great week!

HermanaBeckstead

Hey Mom, I held a baby puma!

Week 43

April 7, 2014

Hey Guys! I hope you loved conference! Wasn't it the best? The other gringa sister missionary and I listened to the first session in English but it was really pausy so we listened to almost half in 2 hours. So then I just watched the rest of Spanish. And guess what, the church is true in Spanish too, (rhyme haha). I liked the part (I don´t remember who) that said we should get to know Christ better so that we will recognize Him at the last day. We get to know Christ better by studying Him in the scriptures and being obedient. This is so true! I have learned new things about Him by marking in the Book of Mormon His words and what others say about Him. I recommend it!

Also, we got kind of a pat on the back slash spankin. We have been working hard with less actives, and the attendance rate in our mission has gone up 10 percent since January. So, good job missionaries! But then it´s like, you need a bigger chapel so we are going to tear down yours and build a bigger one and it´s like hey wait...But it´s okay. We are going to share someone else's building and attend at 2 in the afternoon. And one day we will have a nice big capilla! Apparently they have added on to it before so the foundation can´t take any more renovations.

The pictures are me holding a parrot and sloth (don´t die Mary) and a baby puma leopard thing. The leopard animal was a little more scary but the other two were perfectly docile. I love Peruvian Zoos! 

Love you tons! Have a great week!  

Just Rub Some Lime In It

Week 42

March 31, 2014

Peruvians always seem to have a great natural remedy for everything. Sometimes I get lots of bites. From fleas or something. You get fun different advice. Like pee on your legs (Hermana Farfan) or let´s just squeeze lime all over your legs (my companion). Lime sounded better than urine so we tried that one. It stung, but I actually highly recommend it. It makes your skin nice and soft. 

This week we were in a lesson with Roxana and we were talking about the law of chastity, getting married, all that jazz. And she was kind of putting up some excuses and so we talked about if she wants blessings now or in 20 years (now is the time to prepare to meet God) and that with God, everything is possible. In that exact moment the power went out. Everywhere. Pitch black. Haha, it was so awesome!  I had my flashlight with me so we continued the lesson by flashlight. That was fun because it felt like we were camping and just talking around a fire. Our member shared her awesome experience about getting married and we talked some more very straight-forwardly and then we asked Roxana what she was going to do. She kind of paused, then just said, ¨get married¨. And as she said those words, all the power came back on. I couldn't help myself from telling her I thought it was a sign. That was really cool.

So President and Sister Harbertson are in our ward but they have come once in all my time here because they are always traveling through the mission and visiting and stuff. So we are always making jokes about our less active family, the Harbertsons. Like, we need to bring them up in ward council, we need to get the home teachers, etc. Well this week the visiting teachers of Hermana Harbertson called the house. Our housemate Hermana Gonzalez answered and they asked her for Sister Harbertson's address and stuff and we all heard and just burst out laughing. The poor Hermana was probably so confused.

Dante is still doing great. And yeah. Love you guys! Hope you have a great week! 

And I may or may not be going to an Andes zoo today in a little town called Tipon. I heard you get to hold the animals. So hopefully you will get more pictures next week. These pictures are to make up for 2 weeks without pictures. These are from the flour and egg and cake in the face birthday fun. And with the Family Farfan  (my favorite less actives)

Love you guys!