Feliz Navidad

AH Merry Christmas from Peru! Hope you are all enjoying the snow this holiday season. Today I chilled on the beach with flamingos and seals while jamming to Christmas music. But im sure you guys would rather have a white Christmas. :)

Was an awesome week! I LOVE Talara, my area is Talara Alta and Bello Horizonte. It is definitely a change. Going from one really strong ward, to two really weak branches. For example, I had to speak in both branches yesterday haha. I love it though. I am learning a lot, and as the mission goes on I am learning more and more to rely on the Spirit. 

The people here are different. Super humble, loving, and servicial. The people in Miguel Grau too, but even more so here. It is the cutest little town with colorful houses, markets, and donkeys hahaha. Love love love it.

So a couple weeks ago a lady was baptized here, and Saturday we had a baptism for her son. I already love this family, the cutest kids EVER. And always love seeing baptisms. One thing i love the most is that the church is the same everywhere you go. I had to come here to realize it, but it is a testimony to me that this really is the church of Jesus Christ. Im SO grateful to be here during Christmas and to really think about His life and how amazing it is that we have a Savior who lives and died for us. 

We have a lot of awesome things planned for this week, and im SO excited. Feelin the Christmas spirit here in Talara. And im SO excited to see the fam on FRIDAY! Love you all and SEE YOU SOON! :)

La Navidad Blanca

Familiaaaa! What a weeeeeek. 

Tuesday we had the Fiesta de Navidad in the mission home. It was so awesome, I feel way blessed to be in this mission with Pres y Hna Rasmussen. They definitely take care of us. We played games, had an awesome devotional, and watched Its a Wonderful Life. I had never seen it, and dad I know it's your favorite movie, so it was cool to finally watch it. It is always fun to be with a bunch of missionaries. 

And Saturdayyy.. LA NAVIDAD BLANCA. I cant begin to say how cool it is to see so many people at once be baptized. It was awesome to see the work of the missionaries in our stake, and feel the testimonies of these new members. Something I will never forget. Especially because Viviana was baptized. :) It amazes me to look back at where she was when we found her, and see how strong and happy she is now. It is amazing the love that I feel for these people. Awesome day, and awesome way to spend the Christmas season. 

That night, we received transfers. And now im here in TALARA! I was so sad to leave the people in Miguel Grau. I feel like that ward is my family and I LOVE THEM soo much. I feel way blessed to have started in that area, and for being able to meet these people. A member had a little farewell for me last night, and WOW it is hard saying bye to people knowing that it is possible you wont see them again. I think saying bye to Viviana was the hardest, but I know she is going to be an amazing member of the church. And Im so glad to have made a friend like Hna Arce, she is the best! Crazy to think that one of my best friends is from Paraguay. :)

 But i am SO excited to start here in Talara! It is about 2 hours from Piura and from the mission home. We are close to the beach, and the town is so cute. I know I am going to love it here. My new comp is Hermana Alvarado. She is from Ecuador, and I love her! She was in my zone my first 2 transfers, and i had an intercambio with her. It was my favorite intercambio. :) In this area we have 2 branches that we are in. Double the church wooo. :) It is going to be a big change. Im going from one of the strongest wards in Piura to having 2 pretty weak branches. It will be cool to help out in the ward. I know i am going to be learning a lot in this area! I came to this area last Monday because it is Hna Arce's old area, and already met a bunch of the members and the pensionista. Everyone is awesome, Im excited to be here. 

I love my fam! I find more reasons to be grateful for you all everyday and I am so excited to see you CHRISTMAS! Have the best week, and see you all soon. :))))

Hermana Richan

PS im going to start putting crazy Peru experiences of the week. So this week is that I let a member dye my hair orange....Or "Peruvian blonde" Jajaja just so you are prepped when you see me at Christmas mama. Love you 

 Painting

 Turning Hair Peruvian "Blonde"

 Christmas Party

 Hermana Arce

 President Rasmussen - Christmas Party

 Hermana Aida

 Viviana's Baptism

 La Navidad Blanca

 Viviana's Baptism

My favorite family and neighbors in Miguel Grau

7 Diciembre

Hope all is well over in Utaaaah, things in Peru couldn´t be better!

This week Elder Godoy of the seventy came to speak to us. It was the COOLEST meeting, something I wont forget. He told us that of our mission area with 32 missions (i think), we are the lowest baptizing mission. But the interesting part was that he found that we are actually an obedient mission, but the problem is we are focusing on saving ourselves rather than the people here. So he told us we need to focus on saving the people. He gave us a lot of tips on how we can be better with this. I´m excited to apply what I learned from him and hope to see new changes aqui en PIURAA.

On Sunday, Manuel didnt come to church. We had been fasting for him and Viviana that all would work out for their baptisms, but Manual needed to attend in order to be baptized. But we are happy for how it worked out because we were feeling like he might need more time to gain  a testimony, and this was God's way of letting us know that yes he needs more time. He has a lot of faith, and is reading and praying.  I know he will be baptized down the road, but for now he is progressing and i know he is one of those people that God has prepared!

Viviana is better than ever! I couldn´t love her more and im SO excited for her baptism this Saturday. It is so cool to see the difference in her from when we first met, to now. She is glowing and SO happy! I feel like its been a long crazy journey with her, and FINALLY she can be baptized. I know it is going to be an awesome day.

Meanwhile, Piura has been Christmas preppin! Our street is full of Christmas lights and it makes me SO happy hahaha. I wasn't sure if people would do that here, but they do. Fun Christmas facts for the week: Here in Piura, EVERYONE eats TONS of panetón. Fruit cake. I love the food here, so im expecting to like it hahaha. And for new years, a tradition here is that you make a life sized Muñeco (doll), and you burn it. Usually of someone that hurt you this year, or to represent something bad from the year. My neighbor said she is going to make one of me. ;) hope she's kidding.

Love you all, hope youre enjoying the holidays! EXCITED TO TALK TO YOU ALL in a few weeks :))) xoxox

Hermana Richan

30 Nov

FELIZ DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIAS. Hope you all had an awesome Thanksgiving, it sounds like you did. I was thinking about how grateful I am for my fam and how grateful I am to be in PERU. Lots to be grateful for.

This Thanksgiving there was a moto taxista strike in an area called Tambo Grande, so the hermanas had to come stay with us for a few days. Both of them are from Bolivia, so they made us some sweet Bolivian food that night. So yes, I feasted on thanksgiving. :) And for lunch we had my favorite thing here, Causa Rellena. The BEST.

This week was a little crazy, we did a lot of divisions with members, and with other missionaries. My comp is feeling a lot better, so Im excited for a new week. We have two people that we are preparing for baptism 12 de Diciembre, Viviana and Manuel.

I dont think ive expanded much on Manuel, but he is amazing! He lives with his two brothers who are BIEN borracho all the time. When he found us, he was determined to change his life. Because of his drinking, he just about lost his wife and his kids.  He told us a few days ago that he prayed so hard to God to be able to maintain his family, and change his life. And he told us that he heard a clear voice telling him that all was going to be okay, but he needed to keep moving forward. And then he found us, that day we were sitting down in front of his house. When we met him he was at rock bottom. Didnt have a job either. Now he has a job, and he told us that he hasnt been drinking since the first sunday that he went to church. And he is supposed to work sundays, but his boss lets him take the first few hours off to go to church. He reads the Book of Mormon everyday, and even more than we assign to him. It is so cool to see how the Lord prepares people, and how much the gospel can really bless their lives. I am super excited for his baptism, and grateful to see God's hand in everything we do.

Today makes 5 MONTHS a missionary! Cant believe it. It is too fast for me. And tomorrow is DECEMBER. YAY my first Christmas in the HEAT. People are starting to decorate here and im lovin it. In the center of my area there is a massive Christmas tree with a giant Peruvian nativity. It's bien bacan. Yesterday the church launched a new video for Christmas HA NACIDO UN SALVADOR. (A Savior Has Been Born), and it is awesome. Helps us to remember the true meaning of Christmas. I am so happy that I can be here teaching of Jesus Christ during this time of year. 

Love you all, hope life is good in the cold. Meanwhile I am getting tanner everyday and sweating more than I thought possible.:) xoxo

Hermana Richan

Recent Pictures in Piura

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