This Is Going to Be Boring. . .

Whoever said it was easy to baptize in South America is a LIAR!!!!! It is not easy at all. We have worked sooo hard and had no visible success. It is hard to just walked and knock doors day after day and have people yell at you in spanish and then have drunk people just stare at you because they have no idea whats going on and then to have people look out the window and hurry and run away because they see who you are. Its hard work but i just want to help someone have the joy of the gospel like I have! Everyone here is so content with where they are and they dont even realize that there are things even greater out there! what can you do besides just keep working and trying harder. nothing.

Cambios were this week and im so blessed to be with Hna Holland once again. She really is my best friend i love her a lot. I got to see a lot of the new missionaries that just came in this transfer and i love it! Im not the newbie anymore but also i have been able to see how much i have grown in just the past six weeks. its crazy how much i have learned and how much i will continue to learn.

So since we havent had much luck we decided to make something for the Hermanas in our ward to gain their trust. Its way easy and sooo yummy! Its just a can of milk a can of sweetened condensed milk and seven limes and you lay down a layer of gram crackers and then that milk lime stuff and then another layer and then more milk stuff and then put it in the fridge over night. Try it!! Its so easy and so yummy! We went around and shared a message about missionary work so hopefully that worked.... 

So its crazy how close to the spirit you really are as a missionary. You can feel it leave immediately. We had a less active member who wanted to show us a picture of her friend. Well we looked at it and little did we know she is a devil worshipper! haha and the spirit literally left so fast. Its crazy how just little tiny things we do can ofend the spirit. Thats why we need to be so careful of what we do. Im grateful for that guide in my life though. It really is such a precious gift that we all have from our father in heaven so make sure you use it for your advantage!! Im grateful that it is in everything we do as missionaries. We know which streets to walk and who to talk to and what they need to hear. We were talking with this menos activo and she was baptized 25 years ago and the missionaries have been visiting her forever. She has a testimony but just wont come to church. We were so lost and had no idea what to teach her. Its frustating because she already knows everything but we both felt like we should teach tithing. How weird. She said she wasnt paying it and we promised her that she would have more success in her family if she did. You could tell the spirit was testifying to her and she felt guilty for not doing it. Hopefully something changes!! 

So funny of the week but kind of sad. we have to carry around that book of mormon case thing and this stupid dog ALWAYS! barks at us and i pretended to chuck my book of mormon at it because they usually run away when you pretend but i didnt pretend... my book actually went flying and he ran after it and chewed it!! Now i have teeth holes in my book haha. Dogs,.... They are annoying.

Well i love you all a lot and God bless each of you!!

XOXO

Hna Rasmussen 

Fish Fart

So this week has been tough but can you believe i am done with one transfer! We find out cambios tomorrow. Im pretty positive Hna holland and i are staying together which thank heavens because i love her so much. 

So we went to visit this lady named Sonia a couple weeks ago and she was very hard hearted and very catholic. i didnt really think anything would happen with her so we just kind of put her on the back burner. Well last week we were walking past her house and i had the biggest feeling that we should visit her. She accepted us and boy is she prepared now. We taught her how to pray and she just bawled as she prayed and all i could say to her was how much God loved her. She has had a really tough life but its cool to see how the lord prepares people!! I love that she is somewhat progressing. No one has been doing anything and then  in the same day all of our people told us they were reading their book of mormon. It was like finally!!!! I just wanted to cry because i was so happy someone actually did something. 

I read D and C 1:23. I love it because the gospel can be preached by the weak and let me tell you i feel weak a lot but that doesnt matter. I can do it!!! The scriptures are amazing. I know they can help with every single problem in this world. I love this gospel.

So yesterday for lunch we had shrimp... and idont really like sea food but i ate it and it sure was squishy. And Hna holland put it in a napkin and put it in her bag. Well we go to church and she opens her bag and it smelt soooooo bad!!!! Haha i thought it was pretty funny. she forgot it was in there. She opened her bag and yells ew it smells like fish fart. haha it was good.

Sorry this is so short but i love you all so much!! Thanks for everything! Oh yeah and we tried to make cookies and that didnt really work out either.. just tasted like flat burnt chocolate with oats. but it was a good little taste of home. Lve you all!

XOXO

Hna Rasmussen

Almost Done With My First Transfer

Familia!!!

This week has been my favorite yet. We strive to work really hard and we could see so many more miracles in our lives. It is amazing how the harder you work and the harder you forget yourself the Lord really does bless you. And also with the whole exact obedience thing, you really are so blessed when you are exactly obedient. The borders are not good. We have another investigator from a member. He is a single dad and already has a baptismal date for the first week of November. He is very prepared. We taught the mom that we thought was so prepared. I dont know if she will get baptized. She really loves talking about God but she still goes to the catholic church. She hasnt really felt the importance of just one true church on the earth. We took her to a baptism and when they went under the water she started laughing... so i dont know what that means exactly.

We did our first service activity. We forgot our camera and i was so mad but it was still fun. We went to the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere peru and picked up trash. It was fun. But they didnt have gloves for us... haha and then the only logical peruvian thing to do with all of the trash we collected is burn it. There was this field they dumped it all in and then they burnt it. The smoke was really heavy and dark and it smelt so bad haha. And it was so hot!!!! But it was fun being with the members. My ward really is great. We just got a new bishop and he has a lot of good visions for the ward. After we went and got ice cream. This creepy old lady with rotten teeth came up and started feeling my leg up and down for money!! and then she wanted my hair so bad haha. I was a little creeped out but the elders just sat and laughed. Please dont touch my hair lady.

Speaking of hair. i plugged in my curling iron and since the voltage is different here i put it low but not as low as i should have. I put my hair on the curling iron and it burned to bits instantly!! It smelt so bad! and i freaked out a little bit but luckily you cant tell that my hair is half gone. 

Another funny story is we were sitting in the church alone waiting for the elders to finish their meeting and this guy that was a little handicapped walked in and started talking to us. We couldnt understand him at all but were a little creeped out. And then he gave us an advertisement for a massage. Then very clearly he says i have killed someone and just stares at us. We looked at each other and freaked out! We stood up and just ran to the elders. It was so creepy!! Haha but we felt bad because i think it hurt his feelings. We just laugh about it now.

And yesterday we fasted. We went to lunch so excited to eat!! We couldnt wait and guess what we had, cow heart and chicken heart. It was really interesting. I felt like i was eating it straight out of the chest because i swear i could taste blood. The chicken heart was better even though i could see the straight arteries... i have definitely been blessed in the food here. It hasnt been extremely weird yet besides that. Our pension was just laughing at us so i hope we didnt hurt his feelings! haha

Someone thing i have learned that i dont think people understand here is the importance of church. ALL 3 HOURS!! The ward council was trying to make all of these excuses for why its okay that these women dont come. One has two little babies, um there is primary for that. Another has a 19 year old son that she needs to cook for. Let me repeat that, 19 year old son. I dont know why people think its okay to skip. Christ gave his life for us and we cant even give three hours once a week?? How sad. I hope everyone at home reevaluates why you go to church and go with a better attitude. Its to help us! Not be an annoyance. I know this gospel is the only true church on the earth. I love you all and God bless you!

XOXO

Hna Rasmussen

Is Your Water On?

This week was interesting in the fact that it was just weird. We had interviews on Tuesday with President and i loved it! It was so nice to get to talk to him and just feel his fatherly love haha that sounds weird but its true. I love him a lot and am so glad he is in my life to guide and direct me. Then  Hna Holland got a little sick. So that was definitely not good. We changed pensions so we think it might have to do with that. He owns a restaurant and his food is very good and very peruvian. But Im not sick so its really weird! Just cross your fingers its not coming. Then this is the funniest part, so we were just finished praying to start planning for the next week when our district leader calls us. He tells us that they are going to shut off the water for the whole city of Huanuco for three days. And we need to hurry and fill up all of our buckets with stuff. Well we only have two little trash cans and then a bucket for our mop. That wasnt enough so we go ask our landlord lady who is so old and cute and she gives us a bucket a bit bigger than five gallons and then this massive massive metal bucket pot thing with handles. We went back to our room to fill it up. The only water that worked is the one from a little faucet close to the ground by our sink. Its randomly there. haha so we take two hours to fill up these things!! Two hours! We wasted so much time. And then Hna Holland is like dang it i should have washed my hair this morning! So we thought it would be the smartest to hurry and wash it while we have some what of water. So she was like laying on the toilet and i was washing her hair. We had no room because of all of the buckets full of water! She was laying there and saying i think im going to pass out. Hurry hurry! It was the funniest thing! Then we go out and work and come home and guess what. our water works... Like are you kidding me! So we were practically praying that our water would be off the next day so we could use the water in the buckets haha. And guess what it wasnt. it has worked this whole time. It was a pretty exciting experience. And then we had to find random time to finish planning. but i love Hna Holland. We have a really fun time.

We are teaching a single mom with three kids. They are so cute! They accepted to be baptized and i love teaching them because i stumble a bit on my spanish and it doesnt even matter because they are still being taught by the spirit. They have given us a lot of new investigators through their family and friends and are amazing people. Its true when people say you just love them so much and you dont even know why!

We are teaching another 22 year old mom. She has so much knowledge! We asked her to read the book of mormon intro page and she read all of the testimonies and when we asked her what she had learned she recited the whole joseph smith story like she was reading it. It was amazing! She really wants to get baptized but needs to get married to her husband first. So we might be having a wedding in the future!! Woo hoo!

She even came to conference with us. She really liked it but her daughter is one and kept running around so that was a distraction. And i watched the first session in spanish! I could understand the gist of things but wish i could have watched it in english but thats okay because i watched the rest in english. its fun watching conference with a lot of missionaries. it really is a lot better actually! I loved conference. Its interesting how they kept warning us to prepare. Prepare and love others. We need to really look at our lives and evaluate them and change them where needed. The prophets really can see what we need for the future so try a little harder to be a little better.

Heres a little tender mercy. So we have to carry a book of mormon in our hand 24 7 and sometimes you forget it because you have so many other things to carry. Well we have like case things to put a book of mormon in. Well last p day we went out shopping with our pension who is so sweet and bought each of us two new skirts... and were coming back with our groceries. Hna Holland forgot her case and BofM in the mototaxi which there are millions and theres no way you honestly could get it back. I felt bad because she had lost it already before and had to buy a new one so when she realized she lost it again i felt so bad. She would have to buy her third one! So I kneeled and prayed and then two min later there was a knock on our door. It was our landlord lady holding her book!!! The guy realized she left it and brought it back. Ah i couldnt believe my eyes. There are so many moto taxis here and there is no way they are that nice to come back. The Lord really is watching over us and answering prayers here even simple little ones. He loves all of us so much!!

I hope you all are doing amazing and if i can help let me know!! Even though im in the middle of peru.

XOXO

Hna Rasmussen