The Saints of the Latter-Days!

                                          Our picnic stop on the way to Jaen. No rest stops.
                                           No grass or tables. We just stand while we eat.
                                       

This may sound a little weird, but there are two things that I really look forward to in Peru: Chocolate and owls! It has become a tradition on our road trips to Jaen to watch for a little city called "Chocolate".  I only noticed it a few months ago. We had only driven to Jaen at least 15 times before we were even aware that it existed! It is very unique. Every single business, cafe and restaurant in Chocolate is called "Chocolate". I have counted and there are 28 signs that say Chocolate something. The funny thing is that there are only about 28 people in this town. Okay, maybe 100, but it is tiny! One day we decided to stop, because there are also many signs that say "Vende Chocolate" or "Chocolate for sale". We stopped and asked if they really sold chocolate and they started pulling out all kinds of chocolate in all shapes and sizes. The lady said that she had a "factory" in the back and that she makes all the chocolate herself. The chocolate wasn't that good, but it was very interesting.

There are at least 6 Chocolate Cafes in Chocolate.

This is the really classic one. It is an abandoned,

falling apart building.

I just noticed on our last trip that just before you come into town, a few hundred yards before, there is a sigh that says "Chocolate Armageddon". Somebody in Chocolate has a sense of humor!

Zone leaders and Elders in Jaen. Sometimes the 

rooms look like a very nice garage.

A common sight on road trips. No space is ever

wasted in Peru!

Now about the owls. I have mentioned before that we have a whole flock of burrowing owls that live in our neighborhood and I have fallen in love with them! They are so adorable and fun to watch!

They peek up from over the sidewalk or from the bushes. It is amazing how they blend in with the surroundings. The way they hop around is adorable. These are one of the common birds that cause problems at construction sites because their burrows are in the ground. So now I have a little owl collection and some Elders that I mentioned it to have even contributed! It's fun!

My owl collection. They paint gourds and make 

owls out of them. They also carve them out of rock. 

I know no one cares about the

owls, but I do!

The house across the street is coming along, very

slowly. Sometimes the workers do not get paid,

so they stop working. It's hard to see, but there are

all kinds of sticks to support the second floor. They

are just getting ready to pour the cement for it.

Construction is very different here.

Hermanas teaching

We attend baptisms every Saturday. Of course, they

are always a highlight. This is why we are here!

This is a popular, famous park in Chiclayo called 

"Las Musas". We had a little date and walked 

around one night. It was our first time to see it in two years!

 The park has a dozen statues of Muses.

 This is the one that inspires knowledge.

Visiting another room in Olmos.

This is how some families travel, believe it or not!

This chicken got left behind! This is how chicken is transported.

No, this is not a refrigerated truck!

The baptism of this lady was pretty special. She 

lost one of her legs not too long ago and did not

have a lot of hope about life. She said that she felt

something special the minute the sister missionaries

walked in her door. The gospel has totally changed

her perspective about everything in life. She has

a new peace and hope that she never had before.

This is why we are here!

My husband really likes to take pictures of me

when I am eating and I really don't like it! I am

trying to smile and look happy in this picture.

Another great group of missionaries going home. 

It gets harder to say goodbye every change. We

grow to love these Elders so much.

The Sister Leaders with me at Leadership Counsel.

The cuy (quinea pig) eating machine! I don't think

he will ever eat it again. I got the Elders

to eat mine. I just couldn't do it. I have

a hard time eating meat that is so rubbery

 that you can't cut through it.

 If you want a McDonald's breakfast in Chiclayo,

then you have to make it yourself. This is my

healthy version of egg biscuits. They were

actually pretty tasty! Much better than cuy!

Many times when we visit rooms,

my husband ends up fixing something.

He is quite the handy man!

 Multi-Zone Conference role play in Jaen.

My husband always has to be a part of it!

They are all smiles on the way to the airport.

Zone Conference lunch in Jaen. 

Chinese food is actually

very popular in Peru.

Sweet Sister Cachi visiting from Bolivia.

We just finished up Multi-Zone Conference last week and we felt like it was a huge success. We felt the spirit in abundance and felt the great spirit of the missionaries. They are so amazing! They are literally the best young adults in the whole world! We constantly marvel at their dedication to the work and their desire to find the elect that have been prepared to receive the gospel. These missionaries literally see miracles on a regular basis. Not every day is perfect. Missionary work is tough. They suffer a lot of rejection, but they just keep going! Through diarrhea, parasites, ingrown toenails, pulled ligaments, painful feet and aching backs! They just keep going. I cannot believe what they are willing to endure sometimes. The sacrifices they make are great, but of course, the blessings in their lives are to phenomenal. 

Mark taught them about the significance of living in "the latter days". He taught us that we are in the "eleventh hour" (D&C 33:3) and that the Savior is coming at "midnight" (Matthew 25:6) Therefore, our responsibility to teach the gospel "this last time" (Jacob 5:70-71) is extremely urgent. I followed up with a discussion of D&C 133. It is an amazing section of the Doctrine and Covenants. We discussed the importance and responsibility of preaching the gospel and declaring repentance because Christ is coming! I love a quote in Preach my Gospel that says, "As you teach people to understand the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel, you "declare repentance." The missionaries do this every day! They do not need to stand on a street corner and "cry repentance." They simply need to teach that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and that a living prophet gives us guidance about how we need to live.

My husband did such an outstanding job of teaching the missionaries. He has a gift for teaching by the Spirit with power and authority. The missionaries love to hear him teach! There is never a problem with missionaries not paying attention. They have such a great desire to learn and are like sponges that absorb every word! A wise leader once told us that the missionaries will listen and do whatever you tell them. You just have to tell them the right things to do. 

My husband shared this quote given by President Ezra T. Benson to the youth of the church. He said: 

"For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord...God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest and most valiant children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly. That is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God. In all ages prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation."

My husband asked me today what I learned from Multi-Zone Conference and I told him that it is how elect and chosen the missionaries really are. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord says, "And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. And they shall go forth and none shall stay them for I the Lord have commanded them." Those that "go forth" have been chosen by the Lord to be a voice of warning in these last days. I have a firm testimony of this from the experiences I have had the last two years.

It is always a great opportunity to spend this time with these fabulous missionaries. We love them so much! We role played teaching the Word of Wisdom, tested their knowledge of Preach my Gospel with a game, introduced a new booklet from the church about using technology in the mission and just had a great time! One missionary wrote me and said, "Well thanks for the Multi-Zone. It was amazing! I won't forget that moment." We feel the exact same way!

President Benson also said, "There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us. Never before on the face of this earth have the forces of evil and the forces of good been so well organized." We are at war. As the faithful of the lord, we are all under attack constantly. I have felt the fiery darts of the adversary at various times of my life, but never like I have in the mission field. All I can say is that I know that Satan does not want us to succeed in the good work that we are doing. In the scriptures, we are told two very important things: In D&C 45:57, it teaches us, "For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived. . . shall abide the day." And Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:37, "And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived." Unfortunately, it seems that in our day most of us, including "latter-day saints" are taking the internet for our guide, rather than the Holy Spirit and the scriptures. Because of this, many are being deceived! It is so troubling to see the untruths and confusion that are being spread through modern technology and to see all those who accept them without searching the right sources.

We have a great responsibility to seek the Spirit, to search the scriptures and to flood the earth with truth and with our testimonies. We also have a living prophet on the earth to guide us in these troubled times. Why would we not give heed to his counsel? The counsel of prophets has been a blessing in my life and the life of my family. I am so thankful for the organization of the church, for its ordinances and the huge blessing they are to me and my family. I know that President Monson is the mouthpiece for Jesus Christ and that Christ leads and guides His church. I am so grateful to be a part of His church and His work. What a privilege it is to serve Him as a Latter-Day Saint!

Building the Kingdom of Heaven

I should have known things were not going to end well when the Relief Society President introduced me as "Hermana Risso", the previous mission president's wife. Yesterday I attended a ward I have not attended very much. My husband had gone to his Lambayeque District for meetings with his counselors. This ward is close to our house and has some sister missionaries in it. Things went fine and smoothly until Relief Society. I was sitting with a sister missionary on my left side and a recently rescued (reactivated) woman on my right side. She and her family are preparing to go to the temple soon. Her 18 month old was very tired and a little out of control. I was trying to be nice and help her out, giving her pencil and paper to color, etc. Finally, the woman and child had to leave. There was nothing more we could do.


                                   We are official now! We have a welcome sign for our new
                                            missionaries. Our new assistant is Elder Perez.

Right at this moment, the teacher looked at me. In my mind, I was hoping it was not me she was really looking at, because I had no idea where we were or what we were talking about. Then she said, "Hermana Williams, would you help us and read the next paragraph?" I paused a minute and said, "I'm sorry, but I'm lost." The sister missionary at my side tried to help me, but she was obviously lost also. The teacher explained the page and paragraph and it still took us three tries to get the right one. I finally read it. No problem. It was short and not too difficult, although there were one or two words that I didn't know. She looked at me again. It got even worse! "Hermana Williams, what are your thoughts about that paragraph?" Because I had no idea what we were talking about, I really hadn't understood the paragraph at all. I looked at it stuttering, trying to figure out what it meant. Finally, I made some brilliant statement about needing to attend the temple again to do the work for others and then we would be blessed.


                                Edna and her newly set apart missionary son. She has two
                                children on missions now: Eric in Bolivia and Danny (daughter)
                                 in Chile. She is the Primary President in her new ward.

After I spoke, I looked at the page and the paragraph closer and realized that what I had said had nothing to do with what that paragraph was about. The sister missionary kept trying to reassure me that what I said was fine. Later, I related the experience to my husband and I said, "So basically for being nice and trying to help someone, I was able to embarrass myself. My husband replied, "And it won't be the last time!" I really appreciated his feedback!


                                                    Recent converts. Mother and Son. He dresses
                                                    and cares for his mom. She reads the Book
                                                    of Mormon to him. He is blind. Her husband
                                                    passed away just two weeks ago.
                                          

The Fourth of July really felt like a Fourth of July holiday this year. It is our third Independence Day in the mission and the last two we barely remembered it was a holiday in the United States. We had all the Sisters in the mission (there are 20 now) come to the mission home for a good old fashioned Fourth of July barbecue. The Fourth of July fell on a Monday this year which is our P-day. It was a fun privilege to have them in our home. They were so polite and very helpful. They insisted on helping with the last minute preparations and on doing all the dishes. It was amazing! They laughed and shared advice and war stories with each other. We had the traditional barbecue menu and two cakes for dessert, one for America and one for a sister who had her birthday the day before. The most fun part was that many of the sisters dressed up in red, white and blue. They were so cute! The Latina sisters were gracious to support "our" holiday and were excited to learn our traditions. The other great thing was that we were able to get a picture of all the sisters together. This does not happen often.

The Whole Group: Looking funny. . .

                                                      And Looking Nice!!!

                                               The Burger Master!

Lots of yummy food!

                                            Dessert. Star Spangled Cake!

Several months ago, maybe 6 to 8, I shared a story about giving a copy of the Book of Mormon to my hairdresser, who is a very nice, sincere person. He really seemed interested in it, but has made no effort at all to read it. About two months ago, my husband encouraged him again to read it and told him how important it is. About a week later, I went in to get my hair cut. I really did not want to talk about the Book of Mormon again. After we talked about the usual, how is your family doing, etc., I felt like I should say something, but I really did not want to! Finally I asked, "Have you been reading the Book of Mormon?" "Yes" "So what do you like that you have read?" "I like the teachings of Moroni about baptism." We talked about baptism and eventually I mentioned that I have a huge painting of Moroni in my office. I told him he should come with his family and see it and have a tour of the mission office and the church. Then he could even see the baptismal font. He seemed really interested and said he would like to, but needed to check with his wife.


                                  Teaching with missionaries is such a great privilege.

For some reason I started to talk about the fact that we have a Heavenly Father and that he loves us, that we are all brothers and sisters and that he is my brother. I told him that this is why we are here in Peru teaching the gospel, because we want to help our brothers and sisters. I told him that this doctrine has always and still gives me great peace in my life. Because I know this is true and it makes me so happy, I could not stop the tears from running down my cheeks. He was very quiet and did not say much. I left knowing that he had felt the Spirit and hoped that it would encourage him to want to know more. Two hours later, my husband and I were eating lunch and I got a phone call. It was him! He said that his wife had said that would be fine and they would really like to come the next day. We set a time and he clarified three times the day and the time. I was so happy and so excited that they had accepted my invitation! I was very excited all day.




                                     Celebrating an office birthday with lasagna. Elder Wright;
                                         Financial Secretary (front right). I grew up with his
                                              Grandparents, aunts and uncles in Modesto:
                                                                    The Hamilton's.

The next day, Mark and I were so excited again and went to the office at the appointed time. My excitement turned quickly to depression, because they never showed up and they never called. About two weeks later, he called me and apologized and said something came up and that he had not had cell service and could not call. (This is actually very common here in Peru. People can only afford so many minutes and then they run out for the month.) The next time I saw him I mentioned something about the Book of Mormon and tried to show him, but it was obvious that he had no interest at all. The only good that came from this experience was that I understood for the first time the real rejection that the missionaries experience almost on a daily basis. How can you share something so precious with all of your heart and have your message rejected? It is a very difficult thing to experience.



                                           Father's Day, June 2016. We were finally able to
                                            sit down and eat at 4:30 after a double session
                                            Stake Conference and then interviews for Mark.

A week ago, we had another experience in total contrast to this one. We went to teach a really special family with two sister missionaries. This family has three children who are members, but the parents are not members yet. Their daughter is actually serving a mission at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. The two sons have not been very active until recently when the mother started going to church. The problem for the Dad has been that he works on Sunday in a bakery, but he was to the point that he was going to quit his job because he wanted to go to church. The lesson was on the importance of the Sabbath Day and Mark and I, along with the sisters, had the opportunity to share how living this commandment has blessed our lives. The father explained to us that he knows the gospel is true because he has already seen how it  has blessed his family. He has seen the changes in all of them. He had talked to his supervisor at work and told him he would be looking for a new job. This family is very poor and barely has enough money for food, but he was ready to make this sacrifice for the blessings of the gospel. The next day, the parents were in church with their youngest son and the father bore his testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

As I thought about the contrast of these two experiences with two different men and a completely different outcome, I could not help but think of the words of the Savior in the New Testament. It says, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." (Matthew 13:45-46) One man in this story is not willing to sacrifice in order to have the gospel. The other man has found a pearl of great price and has humbled himself and is willing to give up whatever is necessary in order to obtain that pearl, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the blessings of eternity.




                                            Recent baptism of a true convert. He bore his
                                               testimony of how grateful he was to have
                                                           finally found the truth.

We are in the middle of interviews. It is so wonderful to talk to the missionaries. I used to dread trying to talk in Spanish and it was really exhausting, but it is just truly enjoyable now and I do not even think much about talking in Spanish. I feel so blessed, especially because I can communicate so much better with these special sweet individuals. One thing new I am doing, that has been such a choice experience, is asking all the Latinos to pray in English. Of course, many of them are reluctant and think their prayers are not good, but because they are so simple and sincere, the Spirit is so strong when they pray. It reminds me of listening to a child pray. I have always loved listening to children pray, starting with my younger brother Tim (who said the best, most funny prayers) to my own children and my own grandchildren. My two sons always said really long and spiritual prayers. They loved to pray. This has always been a choice experience for me. Praying with the missionaries has brought back many fond memories and experiences.



         An amazing group of Elders going home. Missionaries are truly angels who publish peace.

I know I have said it before, but the easy part of serving in our callings, as Mission President and Wife, is to love the missionaries. The missionaries in our mission are obedient and trustworthy. We have total confidence in each one of them and their ability to find and teach the elect. We know we can trust them to carry our the Lord's work each day. In my last Sister Leader Meeting, we talked about the miracle of missionary work. In Preach my Gospel it says, "When you have faith in Jesus Christ, you trust the Lord enough to follow His commandments. . .You accomplish what the Lord wants you to accomplish. You help bring about good in your own life and the lives of others. You are able to do miracles according to the Lord's will."




                                          Missionaries preparing for another day. We study
                                           in the morning, work in the afternoon and see
                                           miracles in the evening. Our Mission Theme.

I asked the Sister Leaders if they believed that they could do miracles and not one of them raised their hands. Then I asked how many of them had seen a great change in the lives of individuals they have taught. This time every single one of them raised their hands. I bore my testimony to them that they have done and witnessed miracles. I gave my witness that all of missionary work is a miracle and the Spirit bore witness that it is. How many other churches can send out 18-26 year old young adults to live a whole bunch of strict rules and depend on them to do the most important work in all the world?! I only know of one who has been able to do that: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is because it is true and it is His gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish with all my heart that everyone could see the miracle of this great and marvelous work and take hold of the pearl of great price.