Letter from May 4, 2015

Thanks for the email. Mom and dad I loved seeing the pictures. Looks like you guys are having a lot of fun. Mikey is also in Hawaii this week, so I got a lot of pictures from both of you :) 

OK so YES I GET TO TALK TO YOU GUYS THIS SUNDAY. Mom I already sent you an email about this, but yeah it will be sunday night I think around 7:30 my time. I might be able to call you this week as well to confirm. But no promises. I will have about 45 minutes to talk. I know its short, so lets try to get all the crying out BEFORE we make the call :) 

This week was another full week of adventures. Every cambio (so every 6 weeks) we have a day that we do visitas de trabjo with the sister trainer leaders. Pretty much its when we split up as companions to work with them for 24 hours. This time I stayed in my area and one of the sisters came to join me. I was super nervous to be in charge of my area without sister Guzman, but it was such a good experience for me. The sister trainer leader that I worked with is Sister Karratti. She is from St. George and reminds me a ton of Sarah Judd. (which I heard she is engaged and that is crazy). It was fun to have a north american companion for a day. Anyway, she gave me a lot of great tips and told me not to worry. For the time I have in the mission, she says I am doing just fine. It also made me realize that in 4 weeks, Im not going to be one of the "new missionaries anymore. There have been missionaries that have trained after their first 3 months. And the group coming in next is huge I guess. So Hermana Guzman has really been pushing me to prepare me for whatever will come next transfer. Sometimes its super frustrating cuz I just want to say in english "I dont know what Im doing!" But I simply open my mouth and try my absolute best. I dont know if people can understand me, but Im talking. haha 

This week we found a family! Which is awesome because we have had trouble with that lately.

They are a younger couple who has one kid. We taught them and they were very receptive to the gospel. They have to get married before they can be baptized, but they already had plans to be married. So we are trying to help them. So if you guys could pray for J and N, that would be great :) 

Overall, I am starting to adjust more and more each day. And I am gaining more confidence. Every Sunday night we do splits with members of the ward. So last night I went with Allison. She has her mission call and will be leaving in June. Anyway, like always, we did more contacting in the street. I felt an impression to talk with a mom that was sitting with her two kids. So we started talking and she called her husband over to listen. They were very interested that I was from the United States and had left my family to preach the gospel. Like you said in your email dad, as missionaries we really are set apart from the world. We have a light with us wherever we go. haha so I am trying to just keep smiling and praying that the Lord will guide my words. 

This sunday Hermano E got to bless the sacrament! That was so amazing because he has become a completely different person than who he was when I got here. His family is so much happier and whenver we visit them, we can see the difference the gospel is making in their lives. It was also fast sunday and a ton of the recent converts bore their testimony. Sometimes the simplest testimonies are the most powerful. I was sitting by one of the converts during church, Hermana Leslie, and she said someting really profound. She is 19 years old and speaks pretty good english, so she loves to practice it with me. Anyway, in her broken english she said something along the lines of "isn't it cool you can come to Peru and feel the same spirit as you felt in Utah?" and thats the absolute truth. I am in a country where EVERYTHING is different. However, the gopsel doesnt change. The gospel is the exact same all around the world. I have found so much comfort in this the past 2 months in the field. The Savior understands every language, and most importantly knows our hearts. 

I love you guys and love reading your email every week! Thank you for the pictures as well. 

The house looks great :) haha 

 

mucho amor

Hna Vernon 

Letter from April 27, 2015

Hey Hey familia! 
Thanks again for another great email and pictures! Emma you looked so pretty in your dress! I love your dress. That's a great color on you. It reminds me a lot of my senior prom dress :) I always LOVED school dances and I am glad you could go to prom. 

Ok so I know you all want to know! I am still with Hna Guzman. We have 5 more weeks together. Which I am very grateful for. She knows the area so well and the people here adore her. She is very good at focusing on people and not lessons. I am trying my best to learn from her so when she leaves I can do my best to carry on the work we are doing here in Independencia. We also have two new missionaries in our zone. One is an elder from South Jordan, and one from Colombia. The truth is, it was fun to see how much I have improved these past 6 weeks when talking to the new elder. It's hard to see progress when we are measuring it day by day, but I have realized that the Lord is truly with me every day as I work hard. 

Thank you for your prayers for S. We met with her mom this week. Haha Hna Guzman compared it to talking to the father of Lamoni. I couldn't understand all that was being said because her mom was talking super fast, but I could see the spirit working through Hna Guzman. S has permissionn from her dad to be baptized so the truth is she can be baptized. She just wants her mom to agree as well to the baptsm. When we left after talking to her, she had softened her heart a bit, but we are stil praying daily that she will accept the baptism. However, S passed her interview and has a date set for May. She has a very strong testimony. We also have a date set for another investigator named C. He is 18 years old. We are also having problems with his parents, but he is old enough to be baptized without permission. He is the boyfriend to one of the girls in the ward so he has a lot of support from her family. The truth is, there are a lot of youth who don't have the family support in the church. When they hear that all of my family is members, they are usually shocked. We are very blessed. 

Overall, I am adjusting really well. I will admit it has been so so hard. And there are still some days where I question what I am doing. But then we go to work and I feel the spirit so strongly that I cannot deny that I am in the service of the Lord. We did splits again this week. I went with a girl in the ward named S. She leaves in 2 days for her mission to Guatemala. She is super nervous and she asked me if I was nervous before I left. I told her, the truth is, I am still nervous cada dia.  Sometimes I feel like no one is listening to my words. But I remember the story in Mosiah about Abinadi. He stood as a witness of God, even when every one around him wanted to kill him for his beliefs. But because of his testimony, he was able to reach the heart of Alma. We dont always know who we are helping or how our testimony will help them. But if we dont share it, then there is no chance. I am trying to remember this when I have fear to talk or bear my testimony. 

The leader of our zone knew I have had a bit of trouble finding the courage to speak. So he has given me a challenge that I need to personally contact at least 8 people a day on the street. He told me he was going to check up with me at the end of the week. Well yesterday because one of our lessons fell through while we were doing divisions, Solmyra and I decided to go to the park and contact. We contacted over 20 people. She was super nervous so it was fun to do it together and help her. When I reported back to Elder Nelson that I had in fact reached my goal every day and even contacted 20 people that night, he was very pleased. He told me that the secret to being happy in the mission is fulfilling our goals. Its the truth. I am most happy when I am being completely obedient to the tasks I have been given. 

So even though the language has been hard, I havent had a problem enjoying the food. They serve us soo much here. Im scared I have gained a few pounds, but every time I tell the people I want to eat less, they say I need to enjoy the mission. Also its completely normal here to call someone fat. Its part of how they describe people. 

Its starting to get chilly here. The nights are colder. But the mission has provided us with blankets. I think today we are going to buy jackets. My watch that we bought me broke. So I only have the only that you guys gave me for Christmas. I love the watch, but I am worried to wear it on the streets sometimes. So I am going to buy another. We didn't have warm water at all this week. So I have been taking cold showers. ALSO they had to shut off the water one day.and of course it was right during my shower. Luckily we had buckets of water in the bathroom. So i ended up washing out my shampoo like I was a pioneer. Each day is filled with so many different adventures. 

I love you guys so much and thank you for your examples! Its so nice knowing I have my own little support system back home. All my love from Peru!

Hna Vernon 

Hermana Juhl. She was the only gringa besides me but she was transferred. I will miss her. 

Our Zone before transfers.

My new mission bag.