Nov 16

Buenas tardes familiaa! Still lovin the mission life, hope all is going good at home.

This week was awesome! There is always something awesome happening in the mission. Life is sweeeet. In our ward, on the day of La Navidad Blanca with all the baptisms, we are going to do a live Nativity. They all nominated me to be the angel hahaha SO yeah I was looking forward to this awesome day of baptisms until I got assigned to act a part! No, it is going to be good. I am so excited for that day. Viviana is counting down the days til her baptism. She was at church this Sunday, and she is doing awesome. As for our other investigators, no one else came! It is something that we really need to focus on this week. They need to attend 3 times before they can be baptized, and there are 3 Sundays left until December 12. So that is going to be our focus this week. 

Yesterday our ward had their primary program. It was AWESOME. Something that I love about the members here is they make EVERYTHING a big deal. For the primary program, every kid was matching and there were tons of people there. They made invitations, and people have been talking about it for weeks. So finally we had it yesterday, and I loved it. The kids here are the cutest. But I love the enthusiasm that all the members have for every little thing. Every event here for the church is something to get excited about.

It was not a very good week of progress unfortunately, but it just motivates us to work harder this week. We are trying to get investigators ready for baptism on the 12. As of now we have 3 investigatores preparing for this day. I hope we can get them to come to church.

Im now the English teacher in my district, so that should be fun haha. It will be a nice engish break for 15 minutes once a week. Woo. No i am loving speaking Spanish all the time, it is a weird feeling sometimes I dont even notice. I feel like Im speaking English. But life is awesome, and I love seeing what each day brings! Hope you all have an awesome week, thinking of you and praying for you always! Xoxox

Hermana Richan

PS jeaous of your snow! It is getting even hotter here but LOVIN IT because its mango season :))))

November 9th

Holaaa Fam! SUCH a good week!

So like I said last week, my comp is Hermana Arce from Paraguay. And she is AMAZING. Seriously I still dont understand a lot of peoples Spanish accents... But i understand her perfectly! Its the best. She is the funniest person I have ever met, and such a good missionary. I saw a lot of miracles with her this week.

For one thing, we had a ton of people contact US this week! Which is super not normal. Makes missionary work a lot easier haha. But these people are so awesome. One man that has attended the church a lot in his life, but has never been baptized. His name is Roberto, and he came to church this Sunday. And another woman named Claudia contacted us, telling us that she needs God in her life, and she has been looking for us. And she wants to change. We are excited about working with them.

This week we found this panaderia (bakery) with the BEST bread. We bought 2 soles each (like 10 pieces) and downed it in like 10 minutes hahaha. Sooo bad, never doing that again. But it was so good. Anyways, we were feeling pretty sick after that. So we took a sit, and next thing we know, a man approached us. His name is Manuel, and he told us all about how drinking has ruined his life, and he has been losing his family because of it. And he has all the desires to change. So we set an appointment, and told him about the church. And sure enough, he CAME. It is just crazy because it is so hard to get investigators to church here. But After church he was so excited to start taking the lessons. We pass by his house every once and awhile, and he keeps reminding us about our appointment. He is awesome, but with his problems it might take some time to work through them. But the blessings of eating bread until we were sick.

Viviana also came to church with us, and she is doing so well. Still looking forward to her baptism in a month. She has been making friends in the church, learning all the hymns, and inviting her kids to church now. She is awesome.

Ive never been happier! I am learning so much now that I have to speak Spanish all the time. And I feel a lot better, and more confident with it. And I know that is it the Spirit that guides everything we do and everything I say, because I definitely wouldnt be able to say the things I do on my own. Everyday I gain a greater appreciation for this work and I LOVE IT!

Have the best week fam, love you all so much! 

Hermana Richan

Nov 2

FAMILY hope all is well!

This week was a bit crazy, but good. Alwaysss good. Sad not to have Halloween with the fam (my fav.) but we celebrated as a zone with Pizza Hut haha. Mucho mejor.

Tuesday morning, I was praying to know who i should study for during my personal study. Then I got up and started reading in the Book of Mormon, and for some reason my mind could not focus on anything. And all the sudden Viviana's name popped into my head. It was the weirdest thing, but I felt like an overwhelming love for her and desire to help her. So I told Hna. Bazan, I think we need to go see Viviana. We cut our studies short to go see her, and sure enough Jaime was back with her. And it was the week she was supposed to get baptized. Sadly we had to break it to her that she could no longer get baptized this week and she was devistated. She was begging us, and saying she would live with her son, but now the plan is they are going to get married.. So now that is what we are working on, but she is planning on getting baptized on the 12th of December. It is a process, but what is important is that she keeps working to the goal and i KNOW she will be baptized. She is awesome, but it is frustrating when problems like this get in the way.

Kimberly is still awesome as ever, and we are excited to see her progress and be baptized on the 12th of December!

Today i got a new COMPI. I was so sad to say bye to Hna. Bazan. I learned so much from her. She taught me how to be patient with myself especially while learning a language. And she taught me how to love these people, but I really love how she learns from every experience. She tries to learn new things everyday and apply them in her life and in her teaching, it is awesome. So i am grateful for what I learned from her but my new comp is AMAZING also. Her name is Hna. Arce, and she is from Paraguay. She does not speak English, but I already feel more confident now that I have to speak in Spanish all the time, its awesome. She is soo funny, and I can tell she is so easy to get along with and love. She only has a couple transfers left, so it is possible that I will be her last companion. But I stayed in the area, so i am hoping everything will go okay without Hna. Bazan! 

Every week I appreciate this experience more and more. I wouldnt change it for anything! Love you all, Feliz Noviembre! Cant believe it is already November. Time flies here. Have the best week!

Hermana Richan

Oct 26

Que tal mi fam? Such a good week, not sure where to start!

I`m pretty sure last week I mentioned that we are doing a Navidad Blanca, and have the goal to baptize people on 12 de Diciembre. And this week we found a new investigator named Kimberly. She is 20 years old, and has a little baby. She lives with her grandma. And she is AMAZING. On the first lesson we invited to baptism, and she said yes. She told us about how she has been wanting to change her life, and we found her at a good time. She came to a ward karaoke activity with us, already has made friends in the ward, and loves everything already. And she talked to her grandma about being baptized, and she is supportive. So we are planning on her being baptized on this day! Super excited about her.

All along we set the date for Viviana to be baptized October 31. She has been living with this guy unmarried, but for some reason I have just felt like it was gonna work out for this day all along. And a few days we got a call and found out they are no longer living together! She has the greatest desire to be baptized, and it is cool to see her faith as she has had to make this decision. So as of now, we are planning on a baptism this Saturday! Hoping everything works out, but there are a few things to work out still. But i'm so excited for her, and feel unworthy at times to teach people who have so much faith for knowing the church for such a small amount of time.

Sooo we just eat here all the time. There was a day this week where we had like a ton of huge meals. One after another. And that night, we had a ward meeting. And yet another big meal got brought out. And i was SO FULL, and it was just funny to me. So of course I started dying laughing, i dont know why. I tend to start laughing sometimes for no reason, and then i cant stop. And it was super awkward, no one knew what was up. And then my ward mission leader started dying laughing, just super funny. But anyways, I made it through the meal! And never wanted to eat again hahah. But also i discovered this fruit called maracuya. And im obessed. It is super sour, kind of like a pomegranite, but tastes like a lemon. Soo yeah new favorite thing.

This is probably my last week with Hna Bazan! Im sad, she has been so awesome. Im not sure what is going to happen, if i will stay in the area or not, but by saturday i will know. But for now, i know we have an awesome week ahead! Love you alllll have a happy halloweeen! Im super sad i cant dress up for my fav holiday, but maybs i will switch name tags with my comp or something. Les extraño mucho! xoxo

Hermana Richan

Oct 19

Hola Familiaaaa. Not much happened this week, but it was good!

We had a Conferencia Multizona this week, and it was amazing. President and Hermana Rasmussen focused a lot on perspective. Everything is in an eternal perspective. Every trial that comes will be for our good. Every companion will teach us something. We need to look at the bigger perspective so that we can be happy in everything that comes our way and keep moving forward with faith. It was fun to be with a bunch of missionaries, and see how everyone is doing. 

Transfers are in a couple weeks, so Im getting sad that i probably wont be with hermana bazan for much longer! We got new elders in our ward, and they are the zone leaders. They are really cool, and really motivated, so it is helping us to be better motivated too. We are doing something called La Navidad Blanca (White Christmas), where on Dec. 12they want everyone in the stake to have baptisms. Should be pretty cool, so we are looking for new investigators to work towards this day.

Our area is HARD. It is known for being a hard area, probably because it is one of the richest in my mission ha. But I love it, just feel like not much happens week to week. Viviana came to church this week, and she is still golden as ever. She knows this is the true church, wants to be baptized, but we don't know what to do with her. She either needs to move out from living with Jaime, or she needs to marry him. And she goes back and forth, so we are trying to help her with that.

Not much else happened, but we are excited and motivated this week to find new people and set higher goals. Time flies out here, it is crazy. But i love every second of it! It is the coolest thing being a missionary. Unlike anything else. 

Love you all! BDAY shoutout to Cambam. Have fun in Texasss i'll eat some cake for you because i do that everyday here anyways lol. (cake her is BOMB) xoxoxo

Hermana Richan

Nine months for Hermana Bazan

Oct 12

Such an awesome week!

Today we went to the beach in Paita, so so so pretty. I loved it. But i dont have much time, so this will be short.

But this week we found a man who has a friend in the church, so he already knows a lot about it. We had an awesome lesson with him, and he asked us for a Book of Mormon. So YEAH we brought one to him the next day. And he came to church all 3 hours. Participated in the lessons and all. So awesome. His name is Geraldo, we are super excited about him.

We also found a lady this week named Angela. She had the missionaries about2 years ago. She gained a strong testimony, was going to be baptized, but couldn´t because she isnt married. And the man she lives with was baptized years ago, but doesnt want to return to the church. But we know there is a reason we found her, and we can find a way for them to get married and her to get baptized. We can see her testimony.

Viviana still wants to get baptized more than ever, and she is amazing. Loves listening to us, and always talks about baptism. But Jaime is drinking. All the time. Day and night. They have no money, and she is so sick of it. And it is so sad because he told us at one point he wantedt to baptized too. We are still trying to figure them out, but praying a lot to know what to do.

We have another investigator, Egustaquio, who is super awesome. He has SO many questions all the time, and we are like WAIT we will get to that haha. But we had a lesson about the plan of salvation with him this week, and it was AMAZING. Ive never felt the Spirit so strong. Im grateful to have grown up with the knowledge of all these things, but it is so cool to see how it can affect someones life that didnt know it before. 

I had an intercambio this week, and it was the first time ive had an intercambio in my area. So basically i was in charge the whole time, getting members to come with us. Navigating. Initiating all the lessons. Doing a lot more talking than usual. And it was awesome! It made me realize that I know more Spanish than i thought, and it was cool. Im feeling a lot better with Spanish, and things are starting to click.

So yes it has been an awesome week! The longer im here, the more I love it. Love you all, tengan una buena semana. Xoxo

Hermana Richan

 Our area

  Our area

 Picture of the week

 The usual

   Hermana Bryce

 Hermana Bryce

 conference

 conference

 last week

Here on peoples birthdays, they crack eggs on their head and say something good about them

 last week

 Intercambios

  Beach in Paita today

 Beach in Paita today

 Beach in Paita today

 Beach in Paita today

  Beach in Paita today

 Beach in Paita today

Oct 5

Don't have that much time this week, but it has been an awesome week!

First of all, CONFERENCE. I loved ALL OF IT! I was blessed to be able to watch it in English with a bunch of missionaries, it was awesome. I went in with a specific question, and it was cool to see how every talk added to the the answer. I feel like most of the conference was centered on Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and how we need to put our trust in Him. I really liked how the new apostles mentioned that God choosed the weak and simple to share His gospel. I feel that way with missionary work too. God calls us to do that things that He needs done, not because of the works we have done. Though Him, we are able to do the things that He needs us to do. I am trying harder now to submit my will to His, and have the courage that I can do what is asked of me.

It was kind of a discouraging week with investigators... It is hard in our area to get people to progress. Viviana and Jaime were hard to catch this week because her dad is dying, and Jaime has been having other health issues. We are praying for them and hope we can move forward with them! But we got pretty discouraged this week.. We had a day where we had little faith, and felt like no one is ever going to progress. Then after a lot of prayer, the next day was amazing! We found 5 new investigators, all are awesome. One lady even had the missionaries before, but I think this time she is ready and interested. 

Other than that it has been a crazy week with conference and everything. Loving it here, and love it more and more every day. Learning so much and seeing blessings everyday and I love feeling so close to the Spirit. 

Love you all, hope things are all going good! Have the best week. Xoxo

Hermana Richan