Week 13: Weddings, Secret Missions, and Other Interesting Situations

Yo! This is Hermana Springer and Hermana Pattillo coming to you live from Peru! Well half alive.. Henry the Rooster made sure to wake us up extra early this morning… If I had a gun Henry would already gotten his transfer call to the next life... But I’m a missionary. Can’t really go around killing roosters while also trying to teach people the 10 Commandments and how “Thou Shalt love thy neighbor…an thou shalt not kill…”

This week was insane. First thing I have to say is we sure do have an even greater appreciation for all that the APs do.. We worked together a lot this week as a team with our investigators! We had 2 marriages this Saturday so the entire week consisted of running back and forth finding documents, scheduling doctor’s appointments, and helping our investigators stay motivated and excited! So many weddings fall through because Satan always works his hardest on families coming together.. One of the hardest struggles has been teaching families who have that roadblock of just the marriage certificate between them and baptism. Nobody likes to get married here! We are not forcing them into marriage.. but we help explain the blessings that come with doing so, so that they can be baptized and then in the future be sealed in the Temple! We want to bring them home to the temple. The two families that were married are our miracle families.. They are incredible! There is no possible way to write in an email how much they mean to us. One of the families the missionaries have tried to teach would never set foot in a church.. The mother even would always say how the Church ruins families and that, “It’s better to have a single daughter forever than a married daughter.” Her daughter has now been married and baptized and the mother was married Saturday!

The change in their entire family has been remarkable. They even come to church! And now they are working towards baptism! They just have this wonderful light now.. you can see it. It just shows how when you put Christ as the center of your home you are happier. And “A happy home is but an earlier Heaven.”

I am so excited to watch them continually grow stronger as a family.. This is just the beginning! I hope I can also always stay a part of their lives.. Who knows maybe I will have to just come straight back to Peru after I get hom to see some sealings in the Trujillo Temple! Y’all are invited.

Anyways, so that was what we were up to most of the week.. Playing wedding planner, missionary, APs (asistencias). We even felt like secret agents half the time too haha! There was one night where we HAD to get the legal documents and IDs of the people getting married THAT NIGHT and we never go into a certain area that late because it is dangerous (we just go to the other side of town during that time usually). So we had to get a taxi because it was too dangerous to be walking, and we told the taxi driver to wait, put our hoods up covering our face and hair and booked it to the house. Probably looked more like a drug deal.. But really we are just bringing people to the Celestial Kingdom!

When we got back to the taxi we saw that the taxi driver was outside his car pacing and was extremely worried about us hahaha.. The whole drive back we got a big long lecture how it is not safe and how he was worried.. We tried to explain to him maybe a billion times that we had permission. We also invited him to church.. He just thought we were crazy gringas.

Ok back to the wedding craziness. There are so many perks of sharing a ward with the President’s assistants. At one point one of the families couldn’t find their birth certificate and the assistants were able to find it and save the day! It was in another city in Peru.. Long story. We felt pretty cool running errands for them all week.. We loved the stress level!

Finally the hard work paid off and we had a wedding Saturday! Woohoo! Yeah really it’s just signing a paper.. But you should have seen their faces. They were so happy! It went from 3 to 7:30 because a lot of couples got married as well.. There were so many missionaries! After it was all over we drove back with the newlywed fam in a taxi.. After a while I realized how weird it kind of was that we got in the car with people just married because that’s not usually how it goes.. Just kind of sat there thinking, “Well this is a very interesting situation!” (Quote from “It’s a Wonderful Life” hahaha.) The first.. and last time that will ever happen.. Haha so weird. There was a huge party for them at the church after.. Peruvians know how to party! We had to leave though.. no dancing.. one day hahaha. I’ll have to show you all the Peruvian music they listen to here. It’s awesome.

Blurry.. But they were so happy!

I’ll end with our Sunday. Sunday we went to go pick up our investigator L.! We got to her door and she told us she was extremely busy with costumes (she is the most amazing seamstress I have ever met) because next week is a Peruvian holiday so she had a lot of costumes to sew. We said, “Oh! Do you need help?” She said no because we had church. We responded that we had 30 minutes and then she responded that she had to fold stuff.. We said we LOVED to fold.. It continued like that with her telling us what needed to be done and each time we responded with, “oh we love to sew.. We fold clothes all the time.. My companion Hermana Pattillo LOVES to iron..” (Got a glare from Pattillo for that one hehe.) She finally let us in and we helped her organize, fold, iron, etc. Then she handed me a needle and thread and a jacket… I realized she thought I was serious that I could sew. I ended up sewing a button and then realized I sewed it in the wrong place. . Yeah my sewing days began and ended in the 8^th grade. I’ve accepted that I will never be a crafty mom haha. I got out of sewing because then it was time to leave! She came to church! T. also came and one other investigator named S.! It was a great Sunday. T. is getting baptized this Saturday! Keep him in your prayers!

Ok I have to add a funny story that happened Sunday because Hermana Pattillo and I are still cracking up about it haha! Sunday night we went over to the church to meet up with a member to come with us for a lesson with our investigator. She was running a little late so we sat on the ground and waited. I started singing the song, “Homeless.. Like the Christ Child was..” all teasingly and we started laughing saying people probably thought we were homeless. THEN this lady came up to us randomly with a very concerned face and asked if we were indeed homeless.. We hurried and stood up realizing, “Shoot.. people REALLY do think that?!” We started explaining all excitedly that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We asked what her name was and she said back to us that she had a place to stay for us. We explained AGAIN that we were perfectly fine… She continued by asking if we needed food… then a jacket. We told her no and that we were missionaries, have food, have a place to stay, and would love to share a message with her. She nodded and said, “I can write down a place for you to stay.” At this point Hermana Pattillo and I were worried a little.. asking each other, “Yo, do I look homeless?” “No.. But here’s my brush, brush your hair!” We asked her if we could share a message with her and she said yes so we asked for her address. Then she wrote down and address and gave it to us…of a homeless shelter. So we tried to share our testimonies but we are pretty sure she still thought we were homeless.. Obviously learned our lesson that you should never really sit as a missionary haha.. Our friend came only a few minutes after we sat down.. But it still was enough time to convince someone we were homeless.

This week I read the talk, “But If Not..” by Elder Dennis E. Simmons! I loved reading it. Especially this week as I am away from Grandpa not knowing what is going on. I know I got maybe a billion emails saying not to worry… But he is my family so of course I will worry.. But I will also continue to work hard to share the Gospel that he loves so much. This talk helped me during the week to remember that I need to trust in the Lord and remember that He is watching over my family.. He is THE greatest physician and comforter.. And even if things don’t turn out the way we hoped, “Faith is more than mental assent, more than an acknowledgement that God lives. Faith is total trust in Him.” I also thought of this quote I once saw that said that we should never be afraid to trust the unknown future to a known God.

I hope you guys have a great week! I love you!

“I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun, not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else.” –C.S. Lewis

Hermana Springer (Flaboomba)

MORE PHOTOS:

Week 12: Teaching Peruvians the Art of Roasting Marshmallows

Well, we had another successful week here in our beautiful country of Peru! I honestly don’t know what to write.. I just talked to you guys! Obviously I am always so extremely excited to talk to you guys and open up your emails.. But really.. are the weeks going as fast as they are for me for yall back home or is that just the mission life? A part of me just wants to read your emails and not send a big email.. But I probably would be murdered.. So I’ll continue.. ya know, to keep the peace. Really I just can’t wait to tell you about these experiences and people in person. That will be a lot better.

The fourth of July was a success! I loved starting the day off reading all of your emails and seeing pictures of the McConkies’ homecoming! I started crying at the computer looking at the pictures.. it wasn’t sad tears though.. I was surprised that tears started falling and realized that it was because they just made me so extremely happy and your emails helped me feel like I was there too and I got to experience the grand reunion with everyone. In Carly’s email to me she said, “If reunions are this beautiful and wonderful on Earth, can you imagine the reunions in the afterlife?!” I can’t even imagine that feeling.. especially when just seeing pictures of my family reunited I felt as though my heart would burst. Don’t worry, the real homesickness kicked in after emails at the grocery store.. I had that choking cry feeling hit me missing you guys and so I turned to my companion and she gave me a big hug. I sure am grateful for Hermana Pattillo! She really is my best friend! She makes me laugh SO hard.. Every day we laugh so hard we have tears streaming down our faces.. We’ve been struggling with comp prayer because once we started laughing so hard while trying to pray that now EVERY time we try to pray we start cracking up about who knows what.. Sound familiar fam? Remember when I couldn’t say the dinner prayer for like a month because I would start laughing, then Sarah, then Dad haha.. So anyways we are working on that..hah..

Ok back to the 4^th of July. After emailing we all went back to change into Red, White, and Blue stuff and headed to a park where the zone set up a BBQ! Haha some of the Elders went a little too overboard with a fanny pack, flag in their pockets.. It was pretty funny. They made us all hamburgers which were way good! I don’t think I have ever ate that much junk food.. Plus I am pretty sure we all have an Inca Cola addiction.. We need to quit. We played soccer for a few hours after and we all about died.. Never again haha. That night we had an FHE with some new members and investigators! We shared the movie “Legacy”… Very cheesy but a great message! Then I shared my family tree and talked about how each of them could be pioneers for their families and change generations from their example to follow the Gospel. Hermana Pattillo helped me with telling it in Spanish because it was a lot of new words but it went great!

BUT, here comes the best part… We then taught them what a S’MORE was! We taught them how to roast marshmallows!! Yall really thought I would go 18 months without s’mores? I’ll always find a way.. Even if it is with a candle… They loved them! They thought we were crazy. But I’m pretty sure we got them hooked on them now haha! They were obsessed! I don’t think they understood that you put it OVER the fire… not IN the fire.. So they burnt theirs to a crisp every time but still thought it was super good.. Oh if only they could experience the real thing! Kills me a little haha. And ever since that night Hermana Pattillo and I have been a little obsessed with roasting marshmallows with matches at night after planning… Basically we’ve been camping out too because Buenos Aires power keeps going out so we have our little candle to study and roast mallows. SO while yall are camping in Utah..we are too! In Peru.

Camping out

Just in case you need to know how to make THE PERFECT marshmallows at the ranch next week.

Ate all the marshmallows so we went to bananas next. 

The rest of the week was great! We had lunch with the President at the mission home Tuesday, T. came to church again along with some of our menos activos, we had transfers, aannnd I really need to look at my planner for the rest.. I keep going blank! But guess what I found out this week! You know how my CTR ring is 3 rings together? Well I totally realized I could use it to teach about the Godhead!! It looks like one ring, but then it is three. God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost work together as one.. But they are three separate personages. It is really cool being able to use it in lessons! Who would have thought. SO, cousin Hyrum, if you ever need to teach someone about the Godhead use our CTR ring!

Ok… I’ve come to the conclusion that I am just going to make a list of the pros, cons of this week because 1. Lists are fun sometimes, 2. I don’t have patience to write. Haha.

Pros of the Week: (Highlights)

1.  Found a geico (Hna. Pattillo made me write that) [Carly: She means gecko.]
2.   Made s’mores
3.  T. came to church
4.  3 couples getting married (then they can be baptized!)
5.  Moved more dirt.. To save houses.. We are still sore!
6.  Helped T. with the restaurant he is opening
7.  We have water again! (Prayers are answered)
8.  We have the protection of our Heavenly Father.. and also pepper spray now!
9.  We have wonderful investigators!!!
10.  Watched the sunset at the ocean during dinner.

Helping with Hermano T.'s new restaurant!!! The whole zone loves him!! We love our investigator! 

Our friend.

Cons.

1. Dropped “Our Heritage” in the toilet (The book…Don’t ask)
2. Hermana Pattillo has a killer cold.
3. No water..again..after it came back haha.
4. No power
5. The new accessory (pepper spray) was almost used on a drunk guy!

Obviously the pros always outweigh the cons.. I could probably think of a lot more highlights! But I really am not feeling the whole writing thing today. I will end with what I learned and we will call it good for this week because really I am just excited to read your emails and talk to you and about what YOU are doing.

I’d say I learned a very important lesson this week… Something was really bugging me. In all of our lessons I love to tell our investigators how God knows each and every one of us personally and also that we can receive answers to our prayers through the scriptures.. We talk to God through prayer.. He talks to us through the scriptures. Well the truth is.. I realized I never think highly of myself when it comes to thinking God knows ME personally. I have always just had the attitude that I loe God and I love our brother Jesus Christ.. But they have more important people to know! I always hear about peoples’ crazy conversion stories or experiences and wonder why I haven’t been given a huge sign that God also knows me personally without showing me a sign. I’ve kind of just accepted it because I love Him. But as I have been telling that to people.. Looking them in the eyes telling them that I KNOW God knows us personally, I realized I was not practicing what I am preaching. Therefore I can’t tell them that without true sincerity. I prayed about it ALL week. I prayed a lot to have comfort that my faith could grow WITHOUT a sign. 

Then I realized another thing I always say, “You will find an answer to your prayers in the scriptures!” Duh. So the next morning I opened my scriptures. I started the Book of Mormon over and right now I am in Alma 32. My favorite chapter! I just read it the other week as part of long distance study.. But I was surprised to see a verse I never even paid much attention to until now. (You will always learn something new! That’s why we can read the Book of Mormon a billion times a billion.) I read verse 16, 17, and 18. It just immediately opened my eyes about how God knows each and every one of us even if He gives you a sign or not.. He still loves you even if you just have your faith and you have not had some grand experience. The veil is a reminder of God’s tutoring and patient love! You guys could get something completely different from that verse.. But it really was an answer to my prayers.. and what perfect timing to be in Alma 32 that day. I also read a talk by Sheri Dew given May 1, 1998 at a BYU Conference called “This Is a Test. It Is Only a Test.” After reading it at this point I was just thinking, “Ok ok I get it, I’m sorry!” Haha.

In conclusion and to sum up a little from what I got from the talk as well, God does answer our questions.. It’s ok to ask! It doesn’t mean you are weak or lack faith. Also that the scriptures ARE the way that God can answer our prayers. It’s like the teacher’s book with all of the hidden test answers.. A Cheat Sheet for life! Well more like this Earthly test is open book. Remember how excited you would get when your teacher would say, “Ok there’s a test tomorrow..” (all the kids whine, “NOOO.”) “But, I guess you can use your books.. So I better see good scores! No excuses!” Use the scriptures.. They are the answers to our prayers! The test is OPEN book! Hollaaa. So grateful for open book tests.. Only way I passed Nutrition…

Well fam.. Have a great week! Be expecting a package full of letters! I am sending it with Elder C. who is headed home to Utah! His fam came to pick him up and they are traveling so I am not sure when he is dropping it off! And I put chocolate in it.. So you might have chocolate covered letters if it melts.. Didn’t think about that one. Enjoy hahaha. Carly, I’m loving all the songs on my iPod! Especially Gentri! They are SO good. Keeps me going! Remember, 1. Orar cada dia, [Pray every day] 2. Leer las escrituras. [Read the scriptures] 3. Asistir la Iglesia [Attend church] 4. Servir [Serve] 5. Ir al Templo! [Go to the temple]

“Cuando es un sacrificio, recibimos MAS bendiciones” ["When it's a sacrifice, we receive MORE blessings."]

Siempre,

Flash

More photos!!

This morning before emails at our waffle place!! Probably my favorite place in Peru... 1. Waffles.. 2. They play Adele music.....

Week 11: A Day in the Life of Two Burnt, Sore Little Happy Lobsters

Happy 4^th of July fam bam! And WELCOME HOME McCONKIES!! Wow what a week for you guys! Honestly, trying not to think too much about fresh corn on the cob, Tagees fruit, BBQs… I’ve already failed but it was a good try. It’s ok… I’ve got 50+ more 4^th of Julys to celebrate with you weirdos. I hope you have an AWESOME 4^th! Can’t wait to hear about all of the things you are doing to celebrate today and see some pictures! We are having a zone BBQ later today so hopefully that will help with the homesickness… probably make it worse haha!

This week was crazy.. I think our Thursday sums up how almost every day is like in the mish..so I will give you a little day in the life summary..ready? Ok here we go.

Thursday Woke up at 5am. Couldn’t sleep..fell back asleep at 6. Woke up to the extremely annoying Spanish-speaking alarm clock at 6:30 (it says “es hora a leventarse la hora es seis hora treinta minutes"). Read scriptures, exercised, got ready, walked to breakfast. Got to breakfast and got a call saying we were going to meet the new mission president at 8:30 in Primavera. So we put our forks down not even taking one bite and told Hermana N. (our pensionista) we didn’t have time for breakfast.. That don’t fly with her so she forced us to bring a huge carton of milk and our broccoli pancakes WITH us.. so we booked it down the street with our milk and pancakes and caught a taxi.. 

The taxis here..

We shared our milk with a cat and other missionaries. We met the new President (who is AMAZING! I will talk about him in a minute). I’d say it went quite well! Even though we were holding a carton of milk, I just threw my hair in a bun, and I was wearing my dress that could also be used as a picnic table cloth.. I think we made a great impression for sure.. I should probably learn how to do my hair. Anyways, that went till noon so then we went to contact some references. Next, ran to lunch for 20 minutes, then..back to work. We knocked on a door looking for a member and met a man named T.! If you haven’t noticed we knocked on the wrong door a LOT. 1. Because everyone just gets up and moves.. 2. We aren’t the best with directions. But we taught T. and he is a new investigator! He is this awesome old man who has this hipster site about peace and love in the world. So it’s fun. Also, before we even began teaching him he told us about this diet called the Word of Wisdom (La Palabra de Sabiduria). He just told us he heard about it once so we kind of just turned to each other and smiled and said, “Well we can tell you all about that and more!" (In Spanish.. I stink at spelling in Spanish. Hence why I always write like we were speaking in English.)

After our lesson with T. we saw a family (a dad, mom, son..and baby pig) pushing a broke down car so we decided to help them push so that the little boy could sit in the car because we were practically on the big freeway (on the side) and the cars were driving super fast so it was dangerous. We pushed the car for what seemed like miles (it wasn’t I’m just a baby) but we went outside our area I’m pretty sure. Haha I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.. just these two gringas pushing a car in our dresses with this family and a little baby pig sticking his head out the window (I started cracking up thinking of that one commercial with the pig screaming “Wheeeee! Thanks, Mrs. A.” Haha! If you forgot about that commercial, go watch it now. It’s a Geico commercial right?) After pushing their car to their home, we talked to them and are now teaching them! Well not sure if we will or other missionaries.. We have another lesson with them but need to figure out about the area. 

Trying to be a thug...

After that fun adventure we taught a mom with the cutest little boy and a grandma. I couldn’t understand the grandma at all because she is from Cahamarca.. I better learn how to understand people from Cahamarca though because I have a feeling I will be sent there.. We taught them and it went well until Hermana Pattillo was talking and we noticed the old lady kept frantically looking above her head.. We were confused so we looked above us.. Yeah I regretted doing that. There was a HUGE spider RIGHT above us. We tried to remain calm.. But boy I have never said a prayer that fast in my entire life. There was no way I was closing my eyes for too long. 

A lady made this blanket!!

After, we went to visit members because we are trying to strengthen the ward. I had a super interesting conversation with a guy who happens to speak English who used to live in Alaska! He told me all about hunting and how he killed a bear and used the meat for tamales. Honestly not sure if it was true but I believed it. The tamales sounded way good.. haha! I’m serious. Yeah but that’s not the craziest thing I heard this week.. One lesson we had a guy telling us all about how he accidentally ate his cat. Haha supposedly their neighbors had a cat trap and they realized they caught their neighbor’s cat in it so they cooked t and told him it was chicken.. then they couldn’t find their cat and found his fur all over in the neighbors yard.. so if Rue is ever being bad just send her in a package to Peru.

Well, there’s a day in the life! Pretty sure we missed dinner haha. We collapsed that night! Also our bodies have just been aching and totally sore because we helped families move piles of dirt up to the ocean wall because the ocean is coming over the wall and houses are going to wash away! The streets were flooded the other day. So we are burnt, sore little happy lobsters! Really.. in all seriousness though.. This week was great. We had 5 of our investigators come to church which was a miracle of the week! Ok 4 because one is Fabio the baby.. But still! And Telofio was one! We really are so happy. I am finally feeling really connected to the ward.. it is probably the greatest feeling ever when little cute Peruvian kids come and hug you and kiss you and know your name. (Well it varies from Spina  to EsprinHair) I love it. I just tell myself I am never leaving.

Just dancing in the streets...Hahaha

This week went by incredibly fast.. There were so many miracles.. lots of ups.. and some downs too. An investigator of ours is struggling and it has really been breaking my heart. We also said goodbye to Presidente and Hermana Marler which was hard on everyone. BUT, we are SO excited about the new President! Oh man. I don’t even know where to start. Presidente and Hermana MARBLE are phenomenal. President served in Peru in the good old days and even had a black and white picture of him as a missionary in Central Trujillo! Also, Hermana Marble served in Germany! Not sure how else to explain them but let’s just say they are basically my life goals. They told us how they are going to have a Friday night date night each week and they are just so cute! They are amazing examples and you can just feel how much they love all of the missionaries already.

Hna. P wearing her cute skirt that a lady made for her in the ward.

Well I need to stop writing before my arms fall off.. (SO SORE L) ) This week I read the talk in the Liahona for this month by Elder Hugo E. Martinez titled “Prepare and DO.” It is all about preparing yourself and doing the Lord’s work will change your life. There’s a part where he says, “You don’t need a missionary name tag to do missionary work, because you carry the name of Jesus Christ written on your heart because of your covenants.” Always be an example..even to members of the Church! You don’t need a big calling, a missionary tag, etc. to be a leader and help bring others unto Christ.. The best leaders lead from behind actually I think.. They kind of just help people without praise or recognition. Everyone gets in kind of ruts sometimes. A lot of people who even go to church every week. Help those people and be a missionary reminding others that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know what I’ve been thinking about a lot this week? God is just planning a HUGE family reunion for us! It’s our job to hand out all of the invitations to EVERYONE so that we can all go together.. Let’s not get to Heaven and ask around where one of our friends is.. We need to have each others’ backs! Because it’s going to be a pretty great party haha.

Again, Happy 4^th fam. I miss you A LOT today.. Almost more than I miss ice in my water and my famous homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Siempres,

Hermana Springer

(Flash)

MORE PICTURES!

[Trying to be a thug] wasn't working out

Still a thug tho..

Candid shot of Hermana Patillo

Pday crafts

Waffle lovin..