they cook it in different ways

well how's it going!! i'm just chilling over here busy gathering israel...hehe i miss you all! can't believe its monday again! i'm having a lot of fun training. my daughter is awesome! she works hard and tries hard! she's fun as well and she's learnning the lessons really fast. its been a good week. i've learned that i still need to mejorar with my patience... its hard.. training and being the family history consultant of iquitos and having to monitor and handle everything. stressful but fun as well. i sometimes wonder if i will be the same bina when i get off the plane. that would be sad. i hope that i've changed for the better . the mission really is awesome. i've met so many kind wonderful people. sometimes when i'm walking i take a look around and can't believe i am where i am. its crazy that i live in the jungle. its been a really awesome experience and i'm so happy for it. it is awesome to be in tune with the spirit and see god do miracles. i hope that you are all choosing the right and enjoying summer cause it'll go by fast! time seems to fly by faster and faster and faster.... uh oh. i can't even remember when its like to eat north american food. all there is here is rice and chicken and they cook it in different ways but that's all. i'm used to it but its weird to think about pizza or spaghetti or arroz aguado or roast with gravy! hahah its weird to think about all the modern stores we have there too! because there are NONE here.i know it'll be a culture shock to see technology again. but i like it because those things aren't here to distract me. here, you never hear modern music.  its all weird peruvian music! hahah it really has a weird twang. but i want you all to know i love jesus with all my heart. i know he lives today. he is alive and directing his church. its important to follow the prophets and pay close attention to what the prophets say and obey them because god speaks through them. love you all!

Well I hope you’re all being obedient

Hello! Well wellll. that was a wonderful letter dad! thank you!! i love info like that!!!

wellll Hna arone went home and i was sooo sad! This was the fastest change in all my mission because we had so much fun!! So I got my pensinistas daughter to stay with me over night till they told me who my new comp was going to be. So I was sitting with kari in family history and she was like I gotta go to the bathroom… and books it out! And I was ALL ALONE! And I was like AHHH!!! So I ran out the hall and she wasn’t there and I went to the bathroom and I was like KARI YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME ALONE! And she was like oh right sorry,. Hahaha what's it going to be like when i'm home! THANK GOODNESS I'VE GOT LANA! She will be my companion for a while! So I talked to my president and he said it is possible so hook my flight up with lanas! At least in Vancouver!!!!! AH! So she just has to get permission to extend a week so she can fly the same day as me. Cool eh? So we will keep you posted on that.

 

 

   Sooo I'M A MOM! I'm training! Hahah its awesome! There were few sisters who came in this change but i'm happy I have this opportunity to train and do family history and have my area to work in! it’s awesome. So her name is Hermana Arteaga. She’s from Bolivia. I love people from Bolivia. They are SO kind and humble. So I love her very much. I protect her from everything and treat her the way I would want to be treated because I remember how hard it was for me when I was being trained for three months. She tells me she prayed hard to have a good trainer and says she is so grateful for me but i'm more grateful for her than anything. With her... I’ve realized the things I need to do better. It really is close to being a mom with a new baby! You want to be a perfect example for them and when you mess up you feel terrible! But she makes me feel good. Yesterday we walked out of a lesson and she goes “when you teach my jaw drops because I feel the spirit so strong” it made me feel so good I almost cried because sometimes I feel like I haven’t changed at all and that I have a LONG way to go before I become a good teacher but she made me realize that maybe I should give myself a little more credit. The goal is to become like Christ! I love the way Jesus taught. He uses inspired questions and good examples. (something dad does very well that I admire) but I like to study the teachings of Jesus to see how I can do better, or what I can add to my teachings that compared to him need lots of improvement.

 

   Well I hope you’re all being obedient and applying the gospel principles. Obedience is living proof of the faith we have because if we have faith we will obey and trust that god will bless us and help us on our journey back home to him.

 

Les amo mucho! Deseo el mejor por cada uno de ustedes. Espero que Brendan puede reflexionar su misión y recordar la significancia de siendo un representante de Jesucristo. No se olviden de leer las escrituras. Quiero que pueden leer 2 nefi 33 juntos como familia. Es el testimonio de nefi. Es EXCELENTE! Me encanta porque el es bien directo, y yo testifico de cada uno de sus palabras. Lée lo! Medítenlo y aplícalo! Y piensan en maneras que pueden ser mejores testigos de nuestro salvador del mundo.

Take care and i love you all!!

in my dream we are usually companions

hello dad. wellllllll i am proud of lana for getting through training her comp! now she's sister leader! that is so awesome. i miss lana a lot. i dream about her often actually and in my dream we are usually companions. its great! well this week was sad. it was my comp's last week in the field. she was very sad and i was sad because we had a blast this change. the change went by really fast and now i only have 4 left. 

 so right now my companion is gone and i have no companion so i'm hanging with hna miner. she was my comp in the ccm for a day before they changed me to the latino group. she is awesome! she's making me feel better cause i feel a little empty without my companion. i'm nervous to see the changes when i get off this computer  but i bet the lord will comfort me and make me feel better. i have been reading the book of mormon like crazy these past few days. i have been skim reading it and now i'm almost done it. i feel like i just can't get enough of it. skim reading puts a lot of info into my head at once and i'm learning a lot about the 2 nations. or the "other sheep" its so crazy how gods plan is perfect. i love the way he brought to pass the gospel.. the great apostasy... the restoration... the translation of the book of mormon... etc. this gospel has blessed my life immensely. 

   dad you mentioned that you can feel that lana and i have changed. and that it'll be hard to get back into the real world. that is very true. that's the thing i'm most nervous for. i don't even know how i'll deal with it. it makes me anxious and scared thinking about it. i am just so grateful that lana will be with me, she can be my companion for a while. i know that we are going to be sleeping in the same room together and driving around and going everywhere together. i just don't think i'll be ready to be alone without a companion. its crazy cause before the mission i loved being alone. now i feel like it is a hard thing. but everything will fall into place i'm sure. i love you all. i hope mom has a blast in australia with vicky! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY TEENY TEEENAGER SISTER! i still tell everyone on my mission that she's like my baby. i can't believe how fast she is growing up. one year and she will be going to youth dances! AHH!!! watch out dad! 

love you all very much. xoxoxox

quistococha!! all the newbie missionaries wanted to go there...they were soo excited. it was my fourth time going . so funny story about this pic. me and hna miner were taking pics and all of a sudden we heard the elders yelling like little girls and two seconds later we started getting bit by these bee looking things! i got bit about 12 times and i kid you not it felt like someone was jabbing needles into my skin! HURT SO BAD!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

i bent down and grabbed his wrinkled skinny hand...

hello family! 

first of all happy fathers day yesterday to the best dad in the world! a dad who always made sure we had what we needed to progress who always did fun stuff with us and who ALWAYS told me he loves me! every day. and who honors and cherishes my mother :) thanks to my dad i am where i am! my dad is handsome and FUN! and once he accidentally blended up raw hamburger thinking it was frozen raspberries and he drank it before realizing what it was! HAHA (this has to go in the blog to dad. don't you dare take it out)

well this week was a little eventful. it was a great week. but a week full of emotion. well first of all me and my companion  get along excellently. she always laughs at me and says "estas LÓCA"(you are crazy) because she says i always do funny stuff. i don't know what... for example the other day i was climbing onto my bunkbed (the ladder is not secured at all because the zone leaders seem to not have time to secure it) and i fell right on the top step of the ladder! i crashed hard on the floor and my comp was killing herself laughing. then a couple minutes later i went to go up again being even more careful and i fell hard with the ladder AGAIN. and scuffed up my knee and my butt hurts now. so anyway she is not trunky at all. she is sad about leaving the mission next monday. so i also hit my one year mark and i thought it would be awesome to hit my one year but nope... we both moped around all day... all week actually. we were a little bipolar happy one moment and sad the next. we have been having success this change and seeing lots of miracles and elder Beas and elder Harmon have been helping us a lot with giving the sick and afflicted blessings and we just don't wanna go home. well i do but i don't. its crazy. 

     so yesterday we married a couple. i love this couple. they are olddd. one is 88 the other77 and they were sooo excited to get married it was ssoooo cute. but its a matrimonio where many couples get married. so there was music blaring LOUD and they were talking loud into the speakers and the other couple kinda just sat there not knowing what was going on but they had to be there so we brought them there. so they were sitting with the rest of the hundreds of couples and we were standing there with the elders and my comp looks and me and says she feels light headed. and i'm like UH OH! cause she faints really easily and when she feels like that i have to take real good care of her. so i made her sit down and put her head on my shoulder and i fanned her while a lady went and got us some water (cause i couldnt leave my comp and she couldnt walk at this point) and so the whole time i had to make sure she didn't fall asleep aka faint. i was ready there with rubbing alcohol just in case she was to faint cause i'd have to make her smell it to wake up her senses. but thank goodness she felt better. but all that night she felt sick so i stayed in with her and her stomach was killing her too. she told me that she was sick because i made her laugh too much hahah. i discovered that i'm good at immitating voices so i was doing that to cheer her up. but i called the elders and elder beas gave her a blessing. his blessings are awesome. he is a very very spiritual elder who absolutely loves jesus and his priesthood so its always uplifting to hear when he gives a blessing. he is very sensitive. so the next day my comp felt better! which was awesome because we got to watch the dedication of the Trujillo temple! it was BEAUTIFUL!!! i was so happy i got to watch it. it is the closest that i've been to being inside a temple since a year ago. so we got permission to go to the first 2 sessions. after the first session a lady came over to us frantically and was like "Felicita is here because her mom is going to die and she needs you there now!" felicita is the daughter of the old couple we married and are going to baptize... and i was like woah what! so we ran over to felicita and she told us what was going on.. she had been waiting for the temple dedication to finish to find us. so i told her we would go over there right then and there with the elders to give her a blessing. i was so sad because i love rovertina and oscar very much (old couple) so i ran over to elder beas and harmon and was like hey guys rovertina is sick and needs a blessing! and beas was like oh yeah hey i wanted to ask you something about pday tomorrow.. and i was like not now elder rovertina is sick. can you give her a blessing? and he was like yeah sure what time cause elder smith wanted to ask you something too. and i was like NO ELDER WE HAVE TO GO NOW!! haha so the got into a motocar and sped off when they realized she was going to die. so we go over to the house and all the family was there and we go to rovertina and i touch her face and and i have never seen anyone so sick in my life! and that's when the tears started streaming down my face. and i look up and Elder Beas was praying... preparing himself to give her a blessing. his eyes were teary too. so he blessed her and in the blessing he said that she was going to get better and next saturday enter into the waters of baptism. it was super cool. so i felt comfort in that moment because she was going to live. the ambulance got there and was able to help her. but we left to go to the second session of the temple. the whole day i felt like it was all my fault that rovertina got sick. dad... they are starving. they never have food. they don't have pension and i'm pretty sure no one helps them out. very rarely. we will go over there to teach a lesson and they tell us they haven't eaten since the day before. they are super skinny and i buy them their meals everytime i go there. they can't cook because they can't  see well and they can't hear well. we yell everytime we teach them so they can hear. maybe i feel like its my fault she's sick because i sometimes miss days where i don't see them and therefore don't buy them food thinking that maybe someone in her family will feed her. but it was sad because when the ambulance was there i was saying bye to oscar and he says to me as tears streamed down his cheeks " i don't want her to leave me. i don't want to live without her." i bent down and grabbed his wrinkled skinny hand and told him not to worry and to trust in god and the blessing she got and to say a prayer in his head. i was definitely in tears when he said that.. me dio much pena. mi corazon se sintio pesado y en ese momento estaba pensando en cuan dificil es para vivir en la selva a comparado a donde yo vivo.  

     i know when i go home i will value things alot more and complain less. i've never had to go to bed with a hungry belly. My eyes have been opened a little more since the mission and i see the world in a whole new way. i wish everyone in canada could be more grateful. including myself. because we have got it pretty dang good up north. but one thing i do know is that god loves us. very much. the atonement works and all thanks to Jesus Christ we will be perfected one day and have a risen and glorified body. we can be an eternal family! 

   se que el evangelio bendice a las familias y que milagros existen. nunca podré entender lo que jesucristo sufrio por el mundo. avecez me siento triste por la manera que las personas trataron a jesucristo. pero siento mucho consuelo en sabiendo  que el ha resucitado y esta feliz y las personas no estan lastimando le. yo amo a mi salvador. estoy bien agradecida que puedo arrepentirme y empesar de nuevo. aun que no puedo entrar en un templo porque no hay uno aqui cerca, mi testimonio de convenios y la casa del señor ha crecido muchisimo. dios es un dios de convenios y la obra del señor es sagrado y perfecto. nuestro amoroso padre celestial ama a todas las personas y por eso es posible que tambien las personas en el mundo de los espiritus puedan escuchar sobre el evangelio de cristo. amo el libro de mormon. me ha cercado mucho a mi padre celestial por medio el libro de mormon. ni puedo explicar en palabras lo que siento cuando leo mi LDM. espero que ustedes estan leyendo cada dia juntos :) les amo muchisimo y espero que estan felizes y disfrutando el verano. se va a ir bien rapido!!! y bien pronto voy a estar en los brazos de mi papá. alguien que estaba en mi mente todo el dia para el dia de padres. cuidense. xoxox 

  tu hija quien te ama mucho

    Hermana Blackmore.

i feel blessed to be able to remember scriptures

hey guys what's up! i can't believe ten went to a ysa thing! that is crazyyyy i bet the ladies were all over them hahaha. i hope he enjoyed himself. well this week has been a fun one. we had lots of lessons and taught lots of awesome people. its funny because sometimes when i'm laying in my bed i think about how much i've learnt and try to think about how my life was when i didn't know any of the things i've learnt on my mission. i feel like before i was a lost little sheep who thought i knew my way around. its crazy how blinded we can be as humans! there were questions that people would ask me about the church that i felt i could not respond but now i feel blessed to be able to remember scriptures or things i've learnt in conferences or experience on the mission to answer questions. but this morning i was reading the scriptures and i'm in the beginning of alma where he goes to preach in ammonihah and he gets discouraged because the people didn't want to listen to him and called him crazy and spat on him and kicked him out. he turned his back on the town and thought he would never go back when an angel appeared to him and said he was the same angel who appeared to him when alma was a bad man leading people astray. the same angel who scared him and he was struck dumb. its kinda cool because the same angel appeared to him in that moment but this time he comforted him and blessed him and gave him strength and told him to go back and preach the gospel. its awesome.(alma chapter 8) that chapter gives me lots of hope because sometimes people don't want to listen to us or lie to us or all of a sudden just don't want anything to do with the church. but we aren't being spit upon or kicked out. so this chapter reminds me that we are the lord's servants and instruments in his hands and it doesn't matter what happens to us its only important that we follow the spirit and do what god wants us to do. being a missionary isn't easy. and god knows it and that's why he is constantly comforting us and reminding us who we are. i love this work. its awesome. super fun.

         oh yeah... HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! almost.. haha i sure am grateful for my dad! he's the best dad ever! thanks dad for supporting me and teaching me the principles of the gospel and helping me grow spiritually and always protecting me and making sure i'm healthy and feeling beautiful. my companions always tell me i'm lucky to have you dad. and they are right. i think about what it'll be like when i get to hug you! its been a year since i've hugged the priesthood! LOVE YOU!

it really is the key to our religion

well what's up!! glad to hear everything is going well! i can't believe ten is graduated! only one kid left and then we will all be graduated. how crazyyyy. well the family history thing is great. its cool cause we actually get to proselyte now too. so we have to take care of our area and family history. you feel the spirit so strong there its awesome! so last monday when i got off the computer i went to go visit carlos and españa. i saw españa laying on her bed so i stuck my face right in front of her and woke her up and she fell off the bed and i tried catching her cause she was so surprised! hahahah her baby (cielo) is so big now! and she recognized me right away! it made me cry when i hugged her because i was so happy. españa was crying too. and she told me that they are going to amputate carlos's other leg to. that hit me in the heart. makes me pretty sad. so i phoned carlos cause he's in the hospital and talked to him for a while. he's very sad and feels like he has no reason to live. i wish i could help him :(

      this week was awesome though we have been focusing lots on the book of mormon and we ALWAYS in every lesson leave something for them to read and then verify the next lesson to see if they read and if they didn't we read with them. and we have noticed that the people we are teaching are having even more of a conversion to the gospel when they read what we leave them, its crazy how the book of mormon is so powerful. it really is the key to our religion. i love love love it. its sooo interesting and fun to read.

    so we moved houses.... and man it was such a hassle. the zone leaders helped pick out the house and they called and were like hey we found you a house and signed the contract! and we were like cool hopefully its a good room. so we go and there's NO WINDOWS that lead to outside! i was like elders what the heck! and they were like do you like it? and i was like yeah when we have room revisions hermana gomez is going to make us move. AGAIN. but oh well. so last night in the middle of the night i got up cause i couldn't breath! i HAD to open the door cause it was sooo stuffy. so we will see what happens. now i understand why the women pick out the houses. heheheh silly zone leaders.

   well i love you all so much. i'm so proud of ten for the way he stands up for the church!!! he really is a good boy and good brother. love him a lot!

 take care! CHAOO!

a true disciple of christ keeps the sabbath day holy

hey guys! whats up? this week my comp got sick i felt bad for her but shes better now. so its nice because we get to be in the family history office with air conditioning and I just finished getting used to the climate here but its funny cause whenever i leave the office on a scorching hot day i feel like i get hit by a sauna.. its sooooooo humid outside and hot! and the air you breath is so wet. haha but that's okay i'm sure i'll miss it when i get home and its super freezing outside. i get cold now when it rains.. can't imagine what it'll be like when i get home in december . hahah i used to still be hot even when it rained at night..

    anyway this week was really good. i'll tell ya a little story. so we were walking on the street at night and a lady in her chair grabbed me and she was like mormons!! so we stopped and she totally creeped us out. like chills all down our spines. and she was like come visit me!!! i'm a member of the church... and we were like yeah ok and took out an appointment for this wednesday. so then yesterday we went to church and she came late. and she sat down on the other side of the room and would not stop looking at me. it was WEIRD. and so sacrament finished and she came up to me and was like HI i told my son that you guys are coming on wednesday and he is so excited to meet you and his girlfriend got mad at him because he was excited but he didn't care at all. he's a great cook and he works hard and he will be waiting on wednesday.... and the spirit told us both the same thing about her and i'll tell you what it was when i get home in december but it was crazy. so we went to the district leader the second hour of church and told him what happened and he was like yeah you guys are NOT going there this wednesday. and i was like nope we aren't. and so we were sitting there in the second hour and she wouldn't take her eyes off me and kept reminding me that we were going to her house on wednesday. it was weird! so then we left the room cause my comp and i felt real uncomfortable and then she came looking for me and so i kinda hid behind the elder and to my comp the lady was like wheres the gringa?!!! and then she saw me and was like ahhhhh you were hiding ...and i was like yeah go back to class ok? ... it was weird. we just got a super weird feeling around her so we will not be visiting her anytime soon.

    but anyway.. that's that.. so you know how there are those days where you are just so amazed with the atonement and you think about it alllll day long and you're in awe? well that happened this week. this week i have been so grateful for the atonement. i feel like in iquitos is where i have most felt that. iquitos is a special place. everyone needs the atonement but i know jesus christ is aware of every single person suffering here in iquitos and they ALL have access to the atonement. elder waddell from the 70 came and talked to us last thursday and it was absolutely inspiring. it made me feel so sad that i only have 6 months left. its soo cool that god trusts a bunch of young kids to preach his gospel. he is with us in every moment. elder waddell helped us realize the importance of missionary work and helping the people have a testimony of the book of mormon and prayer. it was interesting because out of all the scriptures he quoted he only used the bible once. he said he loves the bible and it is a precious book but the book of mormon is what converts us to christ. it helps us to understand the atonement more and more every time we read it. 

Elder waddell also helped us understand that GOD KNOWS ALL THINGS: its so true dad. sometimes i feel like things are so hard here.. and i wonder why some people reject the gospel even after they have felt the truths of it. sometimes i wonder if iquitos is where i'm supposed to be. but the answer is yes. i'm supposed to be here. god knows i'm here at this period of time. he knows all things and so as i walked the streets and taught lessons i couldnt get it out of my head... that he knows ALL things. its so true. we cannot lie to god either. its super important to work with all we have got and like you said dad, forsake all our sins and come unto him.

       well i love you all. i hope you all be good and remember to always keep the sabbath day holy... because a true disciple of christ keeps the sabbath day holy.

 LOVE YOU

 

my compy! she's from lima

 

she's in my group! SHE'S AWESOME! everyone says she looks and acts like anna from frozen! LOL

 

Add cmy district!! they are great!!!

 

we said to do a funny face and elder ahrmon grabbed elder beas and elder beas was like what the heck... hahaha

 

this guy is awesome! hes nutz in his mind and hes always like "BONANZAS AL ALTÍSIMO"! JAJAJAJ and whenever he sees us he starts praying and always asks us where the church is haha