Today God told me....

HOLA FAMILIA! 

This week has been good but I don't have a ton of new stuff to tell you! This last monday we went on a real hike! aka we hiked up to the very top of the cerros (mountains of DIRT). It was really fun, but I won't lie, it felt a little like we were walking up to the sun- it was so hot! The view was incredible. We could see in 360 degrees all of Comas hasta the ocean! It's too bad we can't ever visit the beach... While we were up top I looked over the whole city and yelled "arrepientense"!! (repent!) haha proclaim the gospel right? This week was really special because we were blessed with two great capacitaciones (trainings)- one by Presidente Erickson about the Godhead. The other was a live world-wide missionary broadcast put on by the General Missionary Council of the Church. The speakers were Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, and some 70's members as well as the President of the General Young Womens Presidency. They talked about basic Preach my Gospel principles that help us live up to our potential as missionaries including how we can learn and use scripture, not only to teach, but to bless our lives as well! With Presidente Erickson, we learned about characteristics of God the Father, Christ (Jehovah), and the Holy Ghost. I learned so much and was left with a lot to ponder and further study! One challenge Presidente gave each of us is to begin to write down the promptings that the Spirit brings us every day. "Today God told me..." I started doing it these last 4 days since the capacitacion and have already seen a difference that when we are looking for the hand of God, we can sure see it. There are various scriptures that say we need to "prestar atención" (pay attention) in order to fully benefit from the Restored Gospel. I hope each of you can begin to write down promptings that God sends you- whether it be to be a little more patient in a certain moment, to talk to someone, to send a text, something new that you learned from scriptural study, etc. Thanks for the love!

Hermana Stone

The wind is always ruining my hair! haha

My (pretty) house :-)

Locked outside of the church!

We Are Meant to Shine!

Hola familia! 

Ahhh it's still so weird to think about cold and snow (and cleaning the duplex... I guess you could say there's some things I don't miss!) 

This week was so good! We had a special multizona capacitación (multi zone training) with Presidente Erickson and that is always a treat- I actually want to spend most of my email about this training. The whole lesson was on how the Plan of Salvation really is a Plan of Happiness. First of all, to understand the plan de salvación, it's essential to have a knowledge of the Book of Mormon. In the bible it never mentions the word "plan". We know that the word "plan" means having goals with a point in mind, a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something, or an intention or decision about what one is going to do. Therefore, the Plan of Happiness is a way to achieve just that, VERDADERO FELICIDAD o sea, (or rather, TRUE HAPPINESS). He started out talking about how if we have a recipe to make chocolate chip cookies, it is literally impossible that IF we follow all of the steps, it will turn out as lomo saltado or causa or basically anything that is NOT chocolate chip cookies. Essentially, if we are living the gospel as explained in the Plan of Happiness, we are gauranteed happiness, or else God would cease to be God. There is no other option. We reviewed the basic overview of the plan of salvation- that we lived with God before but were not as He is, that  Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit for us to be able to come to Earth, that we are able to overcome the effects of the Fall por medio de Jesus Christ (through Jesus Christ), and that we have the potential to not only live with God again, but to be like Him. He simplified the Plan even more to talk about how Happiness= obedience to the commandments and laws of the gospel and a firm mind based in faith in Jesus Christ. We reviewed several examples in the scriptures where people, NO MATTER THEIR CIRCUMSTANCE, were able to experience pure joy and happiness. Our happiness does not depend on other people, sino (but) on how we show God that we are dispuesto a seguirle por medio de (willing to follow him through) obedience and faith in Him. I was reading a conference talk by President Monson from this last General Conference that talked about almost the same thing. President Monson was describing how in the Jersulem center the BYU students weren't allowed to proselyte (spelling....??) but the man asked "Well what are we going to do about the light in their eyes?" We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We know our purpose here in this life, where we came from, and where we're going. We have the light of Jesus Christ. WE ARE MEANT TO SHINE!  I know that we are so blessed to have the gospel. I have seen the light in the eyes of so many people- other missionaries, members, good people, and mostly in the eyes of someone who has made a covenant with God (Shout out to Moises our bautismo (baptism) this week!) Let people see this light. BE HAPPY!

Love always,

Hermana HappySav

At Moises' baptism!

Moises and his wife, Marta Luz (member). She's been waiting for this day for a long time :,)

almost like father and son haha (featuring Elder Martinez de Honduras)

Early morning soccer practice

Elder Martinez, Elder Kimball

Being "Doers" of the Word

Hola Familia!

I keep forgetting that we're getting a new mission president. I think it might just be that I'm in denial because I love my current Presidente Erickson! I'm sure we will all grow to love the new guy, but it'll be different. 

This week flew by, as we were working hard to get to know all 21 conversos (converts) in our ward. (21 people were baptized in this GINORMOUS area in the last 12 months) Unfortunately, some of them are now menos activos but we are excited to start working with them and other menos activos. This week I was able to have a visita de trabajo con mis nuevos hermana capacitadoras (work visit with my new sister trainers). I was with Hermana Hailstone (who is my grandma of the mission, o sea (in other words), she was the trainer of my trainer aka mom of my mom Hermana Haro! Yeah, we have weird sayings in the mission... :) Work visits are 24 hours and I went to their area and Hermana Eliason, the other capacitadora (trainer), came here to work with Hermana Magne. It is always interesting to work with other people because as we are teaching the "same lessons", every investigador/converso/menos activo/compañera is different! She taught with SO MUCH LOVE and I learned that maybe I need to show a little bit more of what she was doing. It was funny because with all of the contacts it went something like "I'm hermana Stone, and I'm hermana Hailstone" and the people just looked at us funny. It didn't help that we're two gringas!

This week I really had my testimony grow that God leads us to people who need the gospel. It's so weird because I always thought that God would lead us to people, but that I would feel drawn to a person or feel a really warm feeling in my heart or have names pass through my mind very clearly. However, it turns out that we get turned down by someone and our plan B isn't home and finally we end up at a house that has someone ready to change their life. In this same way, we came across a woman who hasn't gone to church in several years and told us of her desires to come back to the "fold of God". We went to teach her twice this week and were able to find her husband who now has desires to get baptized. We are working with them right now to get married in order to get baptized. (This happens a lot in Peru because EVERYONE it seems like is just living together, not married). They are a young family with a son named Sebastian who's a year and a half old and so cute. He likes to eat our restoration pamphlets haha. We were able to find several people in this manera (manner), and I know that God is blessing us with people as we show him that we are willing to work hard. 

I came across a quote this week that says: "Sin motivación, no hay sacrificio. Sin sacrificio no hay disciplina, y sin disciplina, no hay éxito." (Without motivation, there is no sacrifice. Without sacrifice there is no discipline, and without discipline, there is no success.) I was reading through the talk "The fourth missionary" (I think I've mentioned it before, but if not, read it! It is specifically for missionaries, but can apply to anyone) and realized that discipline and obedience truly are the basis of success, especially in God's kingdom. He has given us lower laws (commandments, ordinances) so that we are accustomed to obeying Him to be able to live the higher laws of heaven. By keeping the commandments, and keeping them without complaint, we show God that we love Him and trust Him enough to do what He says. I know that He always gives us counsel not to keep us busy or be needy, but because He really has our best interest at heart and knows PERFECTLY how we can be successful, be perfeccionado (perfected), and llegar a ser como Él (to become like Him). I know that He is our Father in Heaven. I know that He hears and responds to every prayer. And I know that as we SHOW our faith and do as He says, we will not only be hearers of the Word, but doers as well. And he. will. bless. us. I hope you have a great week and send some snow our way!

Love always,

Hermana Stone 

Con Hermana Hailstone

Stefy got her hair stuck in a tree and Jon Paul (who comes with us to teach sometimes who is preparing for the mission) had to help her. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has stuff like that happen to me!

Dinner with Moises and fam!

From Previous area (San Felipe)

New Year, New Comp, New Area

Hola Familia!! 

Holy nuggets I seriously am having the hardest time believing that you have snow and... bueno, that snow exists! I am literally dying of heat and am sunburnt and spending all my money on sunscreen, cremoladas (peruvian snowcones!!), and aloe vera haha! I also ended up spending a good chunck of my birthday money on buying new shampoo, conditioner, soap, makeup and all of the things that got stolen by a taxi driver in my backpacks. Yeah, I'm just laughing now because literally I have the WORST luck! So if you haven't figured it out by now about the taxi driver and my missing things, I HAD CAMBIOS (transfers)! I am now in the ward Belaunde, in Comas. This cambio, they closed the area of the Elders (there were in the ward one companionship of elders and one of hermanas) and now we have both areas and are the only missionaries in the ward! The area is HUGE and has literally thousands of houses and tons of people, aka super potential! We are basically starting from scratch in the area of the Elders (their area book was un poco crap) but we are ready to work hard and find new people to teach! My new companion is Hermana Magne, from Bolivia. We are from the same group from the CCM and are co-mayores as companions. I don't have any time but know that I am good and happy! Hopefully these pictures will go through... 

Love always,

Hermana Roca

My old district

leaders de zona San Felipe (bye!)

the last supper (with the familia lopez) featuring mexican tacos

Old and New (with Hermana Gaona and Hermana Magne)

new area, new year (dramatic caption, dramatic photo)

In our Orbit

Hola familia! 

So.... I guess I don't have much to say because we talked three days ago, but honestly this Christmas was so good. I loved talking to you guys and seeing your faces. It's crazy what six months can do to you- I'm not the only one who looks different ;) 

This week with all of the christmas activities I finally was able to get into the Spirit. We had a ward Christmas party with games, a nice video and a bunch of food (paneton, mas paneton, jello with paneton... Paneton is a fruitcake type bread in Latin America that Savannah does NOT love) We had huge success with having a lot of investigators and menos activos that came. We also did a little Christmas exchange in the zone. I was sad about not being able to participate in the big family christmas exchange but what we did was almost as good. About two weeks ago we drew names and then all traded and ate brownies. I gave Elder Kimball a basketball and received a really cute scarf. Then, of course, all of the festivities as the whole Mision Peru Lima Norte with the skits, games (volley, dodgeball, futbol...) movie and seeing everyone from the CCM and other districts/zones. AND TALKING TO YOU GUYS! En serio, fue muy divertido a verles (seriously, it was so fun to see you!). I can't believe that this year is coming to an end. And I can't believe we're already at cambios again! Someone told me that the mission is like the three grados de gloria (degrees of glory). The first six months is like the reino telestial (telestial kingdom), the next six are like the reino terrestre (terrestrial kingdom), and the final six are like the reino celestial (celestial kingdom). The time is picking up and I am feeling more confident and happy in our role as missionaries. 

This week I was reading an article about how God placed the star that led the shepherds to Christ's birth in orbit thousands of years before His coming and how God places us in "orbit" with other people in order to lead and help them. I got to thinking how the people placed in my orbit have affected me personally (especially after talking with the family) and how we all are affecting others lives. It may be with talking with friends, serving in a church calling, saying "no", accepting a responsibility, being an example, doing a secret service or offering a smile. With the new year rolling around, I hope that each of you can remember in your personal goals to look around your orbit and see how the goals you set can and will affect those around you. I hope your New Year is a good one! Thanks for all you do,

Hermana Stone

With Hma Kingston and Hma Adams

His Hand is Stretched Out Still

Familia!! 

Yay okay I guess I'm a little excited to talk this week. One thing about Christmas that I love here is that almost every house has a huge nativity scene complete with several little glass figurines. The best part is that almost all of them are peruvian, o sea, (that is) they all have little peruvian hats and braids and traditional clothing. Nothing like a little national pride eh? 

I was able to buy a new camera this week and I learned my lesson about backing up my pictures. I'm just glad that I still have my journal and a good memory :) This week for P day we accidentally got locked inside the church. Some people were locked inside the building, some of locked in the basketball court area, and two sisters outside the gate. The man doing the yardwork locked everything up and took the keys with him (which is why I was forced to decorate the sugar cookie through the window!) Elder Cowger's mom sent him a mix and we made them as a district.

 This week was really good. We were able to have another visita de trabajo with one of our zone leaders and although they always stress me out before hand, I always learn so much. He told us that we need to trust ourselves more, rely more in our own words which are brought to us by the spirit. Several times during the visit I wanted to stay quiet for him to answer the difficult questions or to teach something that I thought that he could teach better than me. He said to repent and trust in the Spirit of the Lord. We have the same right to the Spirit that he has with our callings as missionaries and just because his calling is a little different than mine, doesn't change the power by which we teach. I got to thinking a little about the role of the Spirit in our lives. I have always been one to freak out while making decisions and it is often easier to wait for someone else or a situation to make the decision for me. However, we as missionaries, and baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ, have the RIGHT to the companionship of the Holy Ghost. We have the RIGHT to his guidance in our decisions, in teaching, in parenting, in serving. We just have to be worthy of Him and looking for the subtle promptings that will always come. Although I have felt that I am not seeing BIG success or changes in the people we are teaching, I started recognizing how the Spirit is working small changes in the lives and hearts of these people. It may be one man to see that there is a difference between rezar and orar (to repeat prayers and to express our feelings and desires) and to make the changes to pray correctly. It may be a less active start to go to church again and give us references. It might be someone who is learning how to apply Christlike attributes such as patience to deal with their family in a loving, not violent, manner. Just as it says in 2 Nephi 28:30 "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, 'We have enough', from them shall be taken away even that which they have." God is working miracles line upon line and teaching me little by little how to recognize His hand. I know that he is aware of each of us and that "His hand is stretched out still". I hope that in this special time of year each of you can stretch out your hand to someone and remember not only that Christ came, but also WHY He did. I know that he is our Savior and that He is literally with us every step of the way. Until Friday......

Hermana Stone

PS something funny this week was while we were doing estudio del idioma (language study).The instructions said "Use el pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo en la clausula que empieza con siy el condicional compuerto (I can't translate this- even with the help of Google translate!)" I started laughing so hard because neither of us had any idea what that's supposed to mean.