Baptisms and blessings

Well, in 3 days I will officially complete half of my mission.  I will be completing 1 year, which since I've decided to serve the mission of an elder, 2 years, makes it my halfway mark:)  Wow does time fly by fast!

This week my companion and I had the beautiful opportunity of seeing an investigator we have been teaching be baptized.  He is an 8 year old boy from the group in the mountains named Andrick. Though he is the first member of his family to be baptized we know he will make such a great example for his family.  His parents, one of which is hermana Flor who I talked about in last weeks letter and his younger brothers will soon be able to follow his example and be baptized as well.

The baptismal service was amazing and the spirit was felt so strong.  The mission president and his wife both came.  The elders in the other ward that meet in our same chapel also had a baptism so we did a combined baptismal service and did them together.  President and his wife performed a special musical number along with us and the elders.  After the baptismal service was over we asked Andrick how he felt and with a big smile on his face he told us, "I feel happy."

Being able to see such miracles in the mission field makes every pain, every trial and every heartache worth it.  One of the greatest blessings of being a missionary is being able to completely forget about yourself and focus on others.  Things like hunger, thirst and sleep are no longer such a priority.  What matters most is being the instrument in the Lord's hands that his children that surround us need.

I love this gospel so much and am so grateful for it.  It has been such a blessing to be able to see the blessings it brings as it comes into the lives of others and is something that I hope never ends.

I sure love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Peine

The well where they get  water from at hermana Flor`s house

The Parable of the Oranges

Another great week here in Chiapa de Corszo!  It was a great week filled with hard work and learning.  Yesterday our church services were amazing, especially sacrament meeting.  Only one investigator came to sacrament meeting yesterday.  However, that one investigator traveled from an hour and a half away to do so.  Her name is Hermana Flor de Maria.  She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met!  She is an investigator who has one of the strongest testimonies ever.  She knows the gospel is true and has such a desire to be baptized.  However, the person she is living with, the father of her three sons is an alcoholic.  They are not married so she is deciding if she will either marry him or get separated in order to be baptized.  Anyways, she woke up at 6 am and left her little town in the mountains with two of her little boys to come to church here in Chiapa de Corzo.  She arrived at the chapel at 7:40 and waited outside until 9 when the doors opened and the services started.

While we were in Sacrament meeting a brother who spoke gave a beautiful talk that reminded me a lot of Hermana Flor.  He told a story about a parable of oranges.  The story talks about 2 employees who were working for the same company.  One of the employees had been working for the company for 5 years and the other for only 6 months.  The employee who had been working for 6 months suddenly was given a promotion and got moved up.  The other employee of course was very frustrated and wanted to know why the employee of 6 months got moved up when he had been working in the same company for 5 years and didn't get a promotion.  He went to his boss to ask for an explanation.  He walked in his bosses office and explained exactly how he felt.  "I understand your concern" his boss said.  "However, I would like you to run an errand for me quickly and then afterwards I will explain.  The employee agreed so the boss gave him some money and explained the errand.  "I would like you to buy oranges that my wife asked me to get that she is going to need for a party tonight."  So the employee went to the store, bought the oranges and brought them to his boss. As he arrived at his office his boss asked him, "What class of oranges did you buy?"  The employee shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know I just bought what was there."  "How much did they cost?" his boss asked.  "I'm not sure," the employee replied, "But you gave me 50 dollars and the change left over is 30 dollars so they must have been 20."  "Alright, thank you" his boss said.  "Now take a seat and pay very close attention."  The boss then called the other employee in and asked him to run the same errand.  As he returned the boss asked him, "What class of oranges did you buy me?"  "Well," said the employee, "There were many options to choose from and they all looked very good, but I remembered you telling me your wife needed them for a party tonight, so I called her and aksed her what she was going to use them for.  She told me she was going to use them to make juice so I asked the worker selling oranges which oranges would make the best juice and he said the valentina brand because they are the sweetest and most juicy.  So that is the kind I bought.  "Very good," his boss replied. "And how much did they cost?"  "Well that was the second problem," the employee said.  "I didn't know how many you needed, so I called your wife back and asked her how many people would be attending the party and she said there would be 30, so I asked the worker how many oranges would be needed to make enough juice for 30 people and he said I would need 15.  The oranges are usually $1.50 per orange but because I would be buying several I asked if he could give me a discount.  He agreed and gave them to me for a dollar each so it only cost me 15 dollars.  The boss looked at the other employee sitting in the chair.  "Now I understand," said the employee.

I love this story because it has a lot of comparison to life and the gospel.  We can either just go through the motions to get the job done because we are supposed to do it, or we can give it all we've got.  Hermana Flor is a great example of someone who has a pure desire and gives it all she has for this gospel.

I love you all so much and I am very grateful for each one of you.  Thank you for all you do for me, for your love and support.  Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Peine

Missionary Shoes

The Mattress

This week was awesome!  It was so full of adventures, spiritual experiences and answered prayers.

This week we received an answer to a prayer that we had been asking for awhile now.  We have an investigator named Daniel who is from the Dominican Republic.  He came here just to visit but then decided to stay and has been living here for a few months now.  He lives in an empty apartment and has been sleeping on the cement floor.  When my companion and I found out about his living circumstances we decided we were going to find him a mattress to sleep on.  We didn't know how and we didn't know where, but we were going to find one.  So we started praying and looking and asking around everywhere we went for a mattress for Daniel.  After several weeks we received an answer.  As we were in the house of a less active we are teaching named Ana Karen, I noticed a mattress leaning up against the wall outside of her bedroom.
I never imagined she would be thinking about giving it away but thought, "Well, I'll just ask in case." When I asked to my surprise she said she was just planning on throwing it away since they don't use it anymore.  She agreed to let us take it and give it to our investigator.  So we called a taxi and strapped it to the top and off we went. Hermano Daniel was so excited to receive his mattress and my companion and I were both so grateful for our answered prayer.

The mountain group are coming along great, we are currently working with a few couples we are teaching to get married so that they can be baptized in these next coming weeks.
I sure love you all and I hope you have a great week.  Thanks for all your love and support!  Love Hermana Peine

Mid day shower in my mission clothes

I have decided the calendar is wrong... I refuse to believe I complete 11 months in the mission today!

Wow was this week great! Though it felt like it was only a few seconds long, I enjoyed every moment of it!

I had quite the experience this past week in one of our lessons.  We arrived at our lesson with our investigators named Gabriela and her daughter Ana.  I asked them if I could use their bathroom and they said yes and showed me where it was.  The bathroom they have is one little room with the sink, toilet and shower all together. There is not any kind of separation or shower curtain to divide the 3. While in the bathroom I noticed that the shower faucet was dripping so I thought I would do them a favor and turn it off to not waste water.  However, as I turned the knob that was supposedly  going to turn off the water shot out at full blast!  I panicked and turned it the other way and the water came our faster.  Not knowing what else to do I continued fumbling with the knob until I was soaking wet, when suddenly I heard a knock on the door.  "Would you like me to help you?" I heard a little voice call.  I opened up the door to see Ana, the little 8 year old girl standing at the door.  She rushed in the door and after fumbling with the faucet for a bit she eventually got it turned off for me.  As I walked back out to where the lesson was my companion just looked at me and asked, "What happened to you?"  As I explained what had happened we all got a good laugh out of it.  My unintentional shower in my street clothes is now the new joke we have with that family:)

Where Sacrament meeting is held

Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit our mountain group again.  They are doing awesome and progressing as great as ever!  We were also able to see several of the less active members we have been teaching come to church yesterday which made me so happy!

There are so many other miracles and progress that we were able to see this week, but there is not enough time to write all of it.  So, since picture's are worth a thousand words I will try and send lots.:)

I love you guys!  Have a great week.

Love, Hermana Peine

My Birthday cake, it's a tradition

A member's pet!!

Trials Are What Make us Stronger

Mother's Day Dinner

Thank you all very much for all your prayers and support!  It helped me so much and I could feel each of your love from so many miles away.

Little boy who drew a picture for me

This week I have thought about trials and why we have them.  Though they may be disguised as pain and suffering, they are blessings from our Father in Heaven.  As hard as they may be I am so grateful for my trials and especially in my mission, I have been able to experience the atonement on a greater level, strengthen my faith in my Savior and build my testimony.

Though this week was very hard it was also very wonderful!  We weren't able to work most of the week because I was sick, but we were still blessed with 6 investigators that came to sacrament meeting.  We also were able to teach a few lessons that were so great!  One of them was with an Hermano named Daniel who is from the Dominican Republic. At first he didn't want to accept us or hear anything we had to say unless it involved the bible, but after teaching him about the Restoration and giving him a Book of Mormon we have seen such a great change in him.  Another investigator named Flor de Maria who is from the group we are teaching in the mountains spoke yesterday in the little sacrament meeting the group holds each Sunday.  She had never given a talk before but she did so awesome, we felt like proud parents as they watch their children grow up :)  She has such a beautiful testimony and so much faith I have learned so much from "teaching" her.

All in all this week was just fantastic!  Yesterday I had one of the best birthday presents ever because I got to spend the day serving the Lord.  I am so grateful for my mission and these experiences I can live!  

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love, Hermana Peine

Typhoid Fever

Hi mom and dad. It was so great to talk to you guys yesterday! You look like your doing great and that makes me happy. 

I would like to be honest with you guys but I don't want you to panic. When you asked me if I was sick at all yesterday and I said no I was completely honest with you. I felt great yesterday. However, today I didn't wake up feeling so good. I've had a bad migraine and a my body has been hurting. My fever was also very high so I called the doctor and he had me come to the mission home. I am here right now. He's not sure what I have but we are going to do blood tests tomorrow morning. The most likely is salmonella because I have salmonellosis, but we will know for sure tomorrow with the blood tests. 

Please don't worry about me. I know I will be ok and will get better soon. This is all part of the mission experience, but I am happy and hoping to get back to work soon :)

I sure love you both.  

Note from mom;

We got to talk with Sadie on the phone 2 days in a row.  She was able to call us from the mission home where she spent the night.  The blood test results came back saying she had Typhoid fever.  We are really worried about her but are keeping the faith that she will be watched over and cared for and soon regain her health and strength.  She has had a priesthood blessing, we fasted for her today, her name is on the prayer roll in a few different temples and there are many people praying for her.  They have started her on antibiotics and when I talked to her yesterday she said she was starting to feel better and her fever was coming down.  She has to rest for 4 days and then if she feels better she can start doing missionary work again but was told she will be tired and dizzy for a few weeks so she needs to rest and not push herself too hard.  We appreciate all the support, love and prayers from so many. Sadie said she can feel the prayers and they are helping her. 

Week of a Lifetime!

I think it's safe to say that this week was one of the best weeks of my life!  It was such a great week. Yesterday was amazing.  Remember that group of people I talked about last week who we received as a reference to go visit?  Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit them.  Yesterday after church we went on the adventure of a lifetime to visit the families.  We got in a combi which took us on about about a one and a half hour long ride on a curvy country road straight up into the mountains.  After getting ourselves lost for a little bit we eventually found where we were supposed to go and met with the president of the group to visit the people.  The group of people are a group of about 23 people made up of 6 families.  They meet together on Sundays to have a sacrament meeting.  The president of the group is a member who holds the meetings on a cement patio in front of his house.  There meetings are at 11:00 a.m. but they waited for us to arrive to start.  When we finally arrived at around 12:30 we greeted all of the people and then took our seats on the wooden benches that had been set out.  The president asked my companion and I if we could speak.  The spirit was so strong as I looked at each one of their faces and the exact words I needed came to me I could feel how much these people needed us and how the Lord had prepared them.  As the basket of bread and little cups of water were passed around for the Sacrament I could feel the power of the members desire to live the gospel with the little that they had.  As the meeting ended they brought out a little lunch they had prepared for us to thank us for coming and we ate it as we talked with them and got to know them. We handed out pamphlets of the Restoration and made an appointment with them on Saturday to teach them the first lesson.  They were so excited and so grateful for everything.  After the meeting was over we went back to the entrance of the little town called Soyalo to wait for the combi to take us back home.  The elders quorum president from our ward who accompanied us had us stand in front of the entrance to take our picture.  "This picture marks a part of history," he told us, "You two are the first missionaries to step foot in this area."

I am so grateful for the miracle our Heavenly Father gave us of being able to teach and get into contact with this little group of families in the little town up in the mountains.  Our Heavenly Father truly loves and prepares his children for the gospel as missionaries.  We are so blessed to be able to be lead and teach those he has prepared.

I love this work and I know it's true.  I will never regret the greatest decision I have ever made to be a part of it!

Love, Hermana Peine