September 26

Hola fam :) Just got back from the beach hehe, hope you had a good week in Utah. :) But the beach was not the best part of the week!

Daniela (the cutie in a lot of my pictures) is a convert of about 2 months. She had an INCREDIBLE conversion, after heavy drinking and partying, she changed completely. And her best friend, Sergio, basically stopped talking to her and didnt want anything to do with the church. Made fun of her for it. And my first week here, he decided to go to a ward activity with Daniela, really liked it, and came to church the next day. And since then we havent really pushed him into anything, we have just been his friend and he was warmed up A TON to the church, told us he wanted to stop drinking, and that he wants to get baptized at some point. And that was without telling him ANYTHING just being his friend and showing him that life can be fun without drinking. :) So it has been cool to see how much he has changed in just the little bit of time we have known him.

Last week, our pensionista (Hna Lazo), brought her nephew, Misael, to church. So this week i was in intercambios with Hna Rodriguez (from California), and we went to visit him. Turns out after a lot of family problems, even an attempt to kill his wife.... He has the greatest desire to change. He came to church again on Sunday and seems super happy. So we will see what happens!

Im not sure if ive mentioned Katerine before but.. She is AWESOME. She randomly just started coming to church and taking part in everything. Has a lot of doubts about the Catholic church, so that is what sparked her interest. She went to the general womens conference and baptism with us, and loved it all. I love her because she is very sincere, and tells things how they are so it is easier to answer her questions and help her understand the gospel. 

And YES Carol got baptized!! Shes the cutest. Her little grandpa is a member from a different ward, so we searched him down where he works to ask him in he could baptize her. He was so excited that he had found and were teaching her grand daughter, and was excited to baptize her. Sooo Saturday, at the baptism, we were waitinggg and waitinggg and he never showed up. It was supposed to start at 5:30, and we were gonna watch the womens conference at 7. And by 7 we were still waiting. We told Carol we could wait to do it on Sunday, or a missionary could baptize her. She was so excited and ready to be baptized, and decided that an elder could do it. So Elder Meier ended up doing it with pants that were like 5 sizes too big. After a few safety pins and paper clips, the pants fit and she got baptized. :) It all worked out well, she was so happy, and we finished with the last little bit of the womens conference. Happy day. :)

Love this place, always work to do! 

Tumbecina and lovin it.

Hna Richan

Peru Hot Pots

Banana Trees

Carol's Baptism

The Spain

This girl talks with her eyebrows, hence the eyebrow raising picture

Beachin' It

Hna Maria Lazo (pensionista)

Sept 19

Beach w Daniela :) 

Convert- we are teaching her parents and a few of her friends right now

Leydi, Alver, and fam. Leydi is a recent convert, Alver is our investigator, and Carol is their cousin, the lil cutie that is getting baptized this Saturday.

12 September

Wrap up of the week, TIME IS FLYING.

I just love being with the members here, LOVE THEM. We are teaching English classes here, its the best. Mainly all the YSA come and bring investigator friends and it's HILARIOUS. But also makes me wonder how bad i actually sound speaking Spanish. We also had a ward mission night, we do them every Friday. Conveniently, we have interviews with president this week and they are going to be in our ROOMS. Which means our rooms need to be pretty clean. Sooo we basically cleaned out all the garbage and junk we had in our room, and the elders did it too, and we threw it all on a table and had all the members create things. And then we talked about the talents that God has given us. :) Worked out good, got rid of the random junk in our room, and the members/investigators went home happy with their new creations. :) 

We are teaching the cutest little 15 year old girl, Carol. She is a convert's cousin, SO awesome. Comes to church by herself, made friends with all the young women. But her parents have been super against the church. BUT turns out her grandpa is a member, and her dad just decided that she can get baptized! And her grandpa is going to baptize her! So we are super excited, that is on Sept. 24. :)

Also the coolest lady has been coming to church for the last few weeks that we still havent been able to teach because she keeps changing appointments on us, but comes to every activity and every Sunday. Katerine. She had been having a lot of doubts about the Catholic church, and she is LOVING everything she is learning about the church. So we finally get to teach her this week!

People are throwing referrals at us like crazy, sooo it's AWESOME we always have cool, new, interested people to teach. Life is so good, lovin it.

So NO i did not feel any earthquake here, actually had no idea there was one. But it has been raining and I LOVE IT. Rare for this place. 

Things Ill miss from Peru: street vendors walking through the streets yelling to sell their products at 6 AM. What am i gonna do when i cant get front door service of soy milk every day??

Ive been thinking a lot about conference coming up, so this week for some reason Ive been reading a bunch of old conference talks. And we are SO blessed to have a prophet and leaders in the church to guide and cousel us. Lots of my prayers have been answered by talks I have read, and more than ever I know that we have a living prophet. Also we just got the news that Elder Hugo Montoya is coming in October to the mission so that will be cool. Hna Spain and I are trying to put more emphasis on HOW cool living day prophets are because so many people dont understand that or know.

Love the mish more and more every day, The "youre coming home" reminders needa stop.:) Vengan a peru si me quieren ver porque Im never coming home!

Love and miss you all! Xoxo

Hna Richan

Ward Mission Night

5 September

A short wrap up of this week!

On Wednesday we headed out to Piura. 6 hours on a bus, stayed at the mission home (luxury here), had leadership counsel Thursday, and headed back Thursday night. So the week flew by, and then Harold got baptized on Saturday!

Harold's baptism was awesome, but the best part is when he bore his testimony on Sunday. He talked about how he had a lot of trials all day Saturday, but how they were all super easy for him. How it was like Satan throwing all these trials at him right before he got baptized, but God was helping him and it was a lot easier than he thought. So he knew he was making the right decision. His testimony made me think a lot about the mission. SO many hard things, but somehow (I know it's with God's help), and if we put our trust in Jesus Christ, our burdens are light and it is so much easier. I'm so grateful that God has helped me to see that it really is by HIS grace that I've been able to do hard things. Jacob 4:7.

 Love the members, investigators, the cute little family we live with, the street performers, foreigners, fish sellers, the people here are THE BEST. Never want to leave Tumbes. Of course this had to be my last area, now im never gonna want to go home. ;)

Love you guys, have a good week! 

Hna Richan

PS fam.. Hope you had fun in Filmore for labor day, i took a trip to Ecuador. 

Peru y Equador

Harold's Baptism

Consejo de Lideres