Dear incredibly amazing fam and friends!
Sure love you all to pieces! :) Oh my heavens Mom! Thanks so much for the fun 1/2 way package! So much fun...we are still enjoying the yummy goodies...and holy cow...I just got ANOTHER package from you all this morning...with the cutest shirts, headbands, scrumptious granola bars that I am going to cherish, pics, and notes! I have the bestest family ever!!!! :D
Wow! So crazy...but this week I hit my half-way mark...9 months! Wow! Definitely a time to ponder and think about the wonderful and not so wonderful experiences I have had so far in this adventure and special time in my life and what I have learned from them all. It also was a time to think...wow! I only have 9 months left to give my all...every little bit of myself to the Lord in this wonderful work! What a blessing this time is. Something that stuck with me that I heard this last week...is that the mission is like the CCM (Missionary Training Center) of your life...wow! So true! We are preparing to be strong members who are ready to fight against Satan and stand strong...because this life is not easy and it is not going to be. An interesting thought.
A funny tradition they have in Peru for the sisters when they hit their half way mark--9 months!! :-) Here is Jennesa with her 9 months pictures!! :-)
Mom! I loved the "Half"-way package you sent me!! (We cut everything in half!) You just "half" to laugh at that! :-)
We were able to have a good Capacitacion de Zona (Zone Training Meeting) this past Martes (Tuesday). We were able to get pumped up and more motivated to strive to be consecrated missionaries and to really give our all and our everything to the Lord at this time!
We were able to fast on Thursday for a hermana (Sister/female) that the Elders are teaching and also for some of our investigatores (investigators) who are really on our minds...one of them is Julio Ramirez...he is 56ish years old and his wife and three sons and daughter are all members. His daughter is less active...but his son is a returned missionary and is sealed in the temple, one of his sons is on his mission, and the other is 10 and is very strong and active with his mom. Anyway...Julio is set on getting baptized when his son, Jaime, returns home from his mission. (So that his son can baptize him....his son will return home in April). We have told him many times how special it will be if he is baptized now so that when his son comes home they will be able to soon after be sealed in the temple as a family! :) But he wasn't praying to find out for himself. He knows in his mind that it's true...but I think he might be a little scared to receive an answer to act on it. His wife is so faithful and patient with him and his whole family is trying to help him. Yesterday we were able to have a wonderful experience with him...we were once again talking about his baptism...and I remembered that when Hna. Sarat was converted the missionaries told her to go to her room directly and pray on her knees...I had always thought that was a bit direct of them...but it came to my mind as a prompting. So we invited him as representatives of Jesus Christ to go directly to his room after we left and kneel and pray with all his heart to find out from Heavenly Father what the answer was. His whole face changed...it was incredible and he told us he would. We are praying and so hoping that he did just that and received an answer from our Father in Heaven that this is the right path for him! :)
Whoooo Hoooooo! This Sunday we were able to have an Alma Rescitada (when a less active member has all the lessons and is assisting church regularly...equal to a baptism)....Willian Minchola! :) He came to church all three hours! :) So great! We are working with him now to work up to be able to baptize his 9 year old son! :) He is such a humble and wonderful man! :)
RANDOM:
-Both me and Hna. Maydana have weird bites on one of our legs...I have bites that look like fleas...or something...different than my mosquito ones I had before...and poor Hna. Maydana is enjoying the lovelynewby bites...remember my lovely fotos (photos) and stories about my bites? I am hoping the creams I have will help her!
-Our lovely shower...switches from warm to super cold...and you always know when it's coming because the bathroom light gets brighter when it is about it get really cold! And goes dim when it is about to get nice and warm! jaja! (ha ha) Gotta love it! :D
-The road in front of our apartment is all torn up because they are putting new water pipes in...reminds me of NSL! :)
FUNNIES Y INSPIRATIONALS:
-We are able to laugh a lot with the other two hermanas who live with us...Hermana Smith and Hermana Pineda!
-So about the torn up road...we were returning home from proselyting one night and Hna. Maydana accidentally dropped her water bottle down into the great big hole...so I went on the rescue for her...and we were able to rescue her water bottle! jaja! little adventure...little dirt in my shoes! :)
-So incredible! This week Hna. Maydana was trying to talk to her family on the phone because she was only able to talk to them for 15 minutes on Mother's Day (it's a different day in Bolivia)...she was trying to get the cell phone to connect for about an hour and nothing was working...she was getting discouraged...I didn't know how to help her to I sat on my bed and said a prayer and right when I said amen in my head...I heard her say..."Mamita?!...Mama?!"...it was incredible! Prayer works!!!! :D anyway it was very sweet and tender...and afterwards she totally opened up to me and told me about her sweet family and we were really able to bond. She has always been very quiet about her life before the mission and her family so this was so special! An amazing answer to my prayers!
I learned the word for tender mercies this week during my studies..."tiernas misericordias"...I LOVE IT! I invite each one of you to look for the tender mercies in your lives this week! Look for and RECOGNIZE the sunbursts in your life! And ENJOY and RECORD them!
Loves,
Hermana Coleman :D
This is her wall with all the pictures
Bree, Jarrett and others have sent her!
"I sure love my picture wall!" :-)
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