Week 65 - Huaraz

One more week in the work has come and gone. It was a great week! We started the week of great last Monday and I learned a lot this week. This last Monday we went out to visit with our ward mission leader Hermano Jhon who is pretty awesome. He always has a super good attitude. We got to visit a family and talk to them a little bit about eternal families. The dads brother passed away about a month ago. It has been pretty tough on him, but I'm sure our message can give them hope and help them understand the opportunity that they have to have an eternal family. I really do love teaching and helping families. I think Ive said it a billion times, but I'm certain that the gospel blessed families and I know it will bless the families here.
This week we got to know a few members a little bit better as well, and they helped us a ton. It is so awesome to see the members get excited about sharing the gospel. One member introduced us to a bunch of her friends, so we are super excited to get to know them a little bit more and to teach them.
We have also been working with a sister named Estela. She has been progressing a ton and this week we got to see a little miracle with her. She has had a little bit of opposition from her family and from her neighbors as she has investigated the church. Her mom stopped talking to her for about a week, so Hermana Estela prayed so that her mom would talk to her. Her mom came and helped her cook in her little cafe this week. Probably the most amazing part, however, was when Hermana Estela walked into church this Sunday with her mom by her side. I was so excited for her. It was awesome to see that the Lord has helped her and answered her prayers.
One other highlight from this week was seeing one of our converts, Hermana Yaquelin, get a calling in the primary. wahoooooo!
This past week was a great week. Im excited for one more week in the work. I'm also excited for the Christmas season. We got to see the new video this week. Its pretty awesome. I'm very grateful to be a missionary. I'm learning a ton. I have really felt this week the importance of becoming more like the Savior. I'm grateful for his example.
Here I have included a photo of our leaders meeting we had last week. for more photos you can visit the mission blog.  http://beatrizymanuelrios.blogspot.pe/

 photo of our leaders meeting we had last week

Week 64 - Huaraz

This past week was awesome. I learned a ton and we also had some success in our area. Last Monday we had a family home evening with a family that we met with the help of one of the members in the ward. We all got together in their living room of their house and we filled it up. There were even people sitting on the stairs. We talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon a little bit. The kids in the family were super excited, and they actually surprised us with what they already knew. We had left a folleto with them and they studied it and were ready.
Last Tuesday night we went to Trujillo for a leaders meeting and it was so awesome. President Rios shared a talk with us from Neil L. Anderson about having the faith to find and baptize converts. We got to study it together and I learned a ton. I learned that if I do all of the little things the best I can and If I serve with the faith and hope that the Lord is preparing people in my area to receive and live his gospel I will be a successful missionary. He always reminds us that we have real power and that we have to remember it and believe it. After we got to go out to eat for lunch with President and Sister Rios with the other leaders. Then President Rios let my companion and I go to the Distribution Center by the temple to buy some big scriptures for a few people in our area that we have been working with that cant read little letters. It was an awesome day.
The next day we got back to Huaraz and President came here with the assistants to train and to interview the zone. It was really awesome to have them here for a few days. President Rios taught us a little bit about how we can better teach repentance. He explained to us that repentance is not just changing and become better. He taught us that it needs to be centered on Christ and the atonement.
One day this week my companion and I hadn't had many lessons all day, but we kept looking and we knew that we were going to find something. In the night we found two families to teach. I know that the Lord tests our patience at times, but he always blesses us if we press forward with faith.
I am very grateful to be a missionary. I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ changes lives.

Selfie with Comp on the Bus

Elder Miller in front of Trujillo Temple

Missionaries in his ward and the assistants.

A picture with my companion, the other misionaries in our ward and the assistants. The assistants are Elder Henao and Elder Benitez. Elder Henao and I were buds in the CCM and we throwed the football around a little bit. Elder Benitez is from Argentina he is a good missionary.  

Week 63 - Huaraz

Every week just seems to go by faster here in the mission. This past week was a busy and a great one.
Last Monday we had a family home evening with the Rodriguez family(the family that let me use their computer last Christmas to do Skype) and we talked about eternal families. It was great and I realized how much this knowledge changes our perspective and the choices that we make in life.
This week we invited one of the families that we are visiting to read the Book of Mormon. It was an awesome lesson. In the end the son told us that he didn't want to read the book, so my companion and I decided to be persistent and not leave it at that. We testified and talked to him a little bit more, and in the end he said that he would read. My companion is a great teacher of the gospel, and in the time that we have had working together I have learned a lot more about how to teach with power and authority.
We also got to read the Book of Mormon a little bit with one of our investigators that has been progressing quite a bit. There has been a lot of opposition in her path from her family and her neighbors, but she is enduring with faith. She is a great example. She has her own little cafe in her house, and for a couple of weeks now she has closed her cafe on Sunday. I know that the Lord is preparing his children and as long as we work hard and pray specifically for these people the Lord will help them to keep progressing.
One of the highlights of my week was seeing Hermana Agripina and her daughters bring a family member to church and to a family home evening. Seeing people become converted to the Gospel of Christ is one of the greatest things that I have seen on my mission. I am so grateful that they are still progressing and that they have the desire to share the Gospel.
I know that faith is powerful and that having faith in Christ changes our lives. I am grateful to be a missionary.

Week 62 - Huaraz

This week we had a great week in the work! We tried to work a little bit more with the members this week and were greatly blessed by doing so. 

Last tuesday one of the members that was going to help us got sick in the morning and didnt think that we would have time to go help her and give her a blessing. When we stopped talking to her on the phone we went to her house and helped her out. We were able to help give her comfort as well. She had been going through a few trials in her family. The Lord always puts us where his children really are in need. By the night time she was feeling better and helped us teach a new family that we met. 

This week one Hermana named Hermana Julia helped us a ton as well. She is a pretty funny lady. She talks to everyone in the street, and always invites them to listen to us. Im convinced that she knows about half of the popultation of Huaraz. We have been visiting one of her cousins and this past week we went to visit her cousin with her and she helped us a ton. Her cousin hasnt been able to come to church very regularly lately because she has been working, but Hermana Julia testified to her of the blessing that she would recieve if she could keep the sabath day holy, and by the end of the lesson she was excited to go to church. Yesterday she got to church about 20 minutes early, and she has been reading the Book of Mormon as well.

This past saturday we got to have a family home evening with Hermana Agripina and her family. They invited their neighbors over, who are Jehovas Witness, and we had a good little lesson about having faith and acepting the will of God. We ate cake and ice cream in the end. It was a good Family Home Evening.

This week I also had the privilege to work in my first area for a day. We had a companion exchange with the elders in Caraz. When I got there I remembered for a second how I felt a year ago when I first got there. I wasnt sure if I was going to be able to make it. The Lord really humbled me a lot and I learned to rely on him. I know that he lives and that he listens. Thanks to him I have been able to make it to where I am right now. I am so grateful for the mission. I am also very grateful for our Heavenly Fathers perfect plan and the opportunity we have to always progress and learn. I know this is the work of the Lord. 

lunch today with our new pensionista Hermana Gabi.(we dont normally eat in our sports clothes, but we had plans to go play basketball after today) She is an awesome pensionista! the photo isnt great, but its good enough ;)