Dearest Family,

It was wonderful to hear from you.  There is never a dull moment in life.

I´ll do my best to recap some of the highlights of the past week.  One
of the biggest highlights was having the opportunity to proselyte for
a full day last Saturday.  We drove two and a half hours away to a
city called Huaral.  There, Hna. Haggard and I proselyted and looked
for ten inactive members with our teacher.  It was a great experience.
We were not able to find most of the inactive members on our list,
but we did find one person.  This person´s name is John.  He is about
18 years old, and he and his father are inactive.  We we first started
talking to John, his facial expressions indicated that he was not
thrilled to listen to us.  After my companion brought up the subjects
of serving a mission and entering the temple, John´s facial
expressions completed changed.  It was amazing to see.  John felt the
spirit at the end of the lesson, and he quickly agreed to attend
church last Sunday.  Hna. Haggard and I have an appointment to teach
him again this Saturday.  We are going back, and I pray that he will
remember how he felt last Saturday so he will have a desire to receive
our message.  It was an incredible experience to teach a real person.
I cannot wait to enter the field next Tuesday.

Here´s one more story about last Saturday.  We made a contact with a
woman sitting in a mototaxi.  At first she was not very interested,
but she become interested when my teacher invited her to read Alma 40
to learn about where her child is, who has died.  We walked by this
mototaxi about 45 minutes after making the contact, and the woman was
still sitting in the mototaxi.  To our delight, we saw her reading
from the Book of Mormon with a friend!  I think this picture of a
woman sitting in a mototaxi reading a Book of Mormon will stay in my
mind forever.

Another highlight of the past week was seeing Mom and Monday.  It was
amazing because I had felt on Monday morning a deep yearning to see
Mom.  I was thrilled on Monday afternoon when a missionary told me
that Mom was sitting outside the caferia.  It is like Mom read my mind
and heart.  Last week was a little challenging, but that is okay.  In
one devotional Elder Holland gave to missionaries, which we recently
watched, he said some profound remarks.  He said that missions, of
necessity, must be hard so that missionaries can be worthy to wear a
nametag with the name of Jesus Christ on it.  He said that
missionaries must take a least a few steps in the Garden of Gethsemane
so they can appreciate Jesus Christ.  Please, do not get me wrong!!!
I did not share these remarks because I am feeling sad.  I simply
shared these remarks because I believe they are very profound.

Hna. Haggard and I continue to get along great.  It will be hard to
leave her, but I also know that it is what I need to do.  I can´t wait
to be speaking Spanish all the time.  On Monday, we had an English
fast where my whole district spoke only Spanish the whole day.  I
loved it and wanted to say ´Why don´t we do this all the time?!¨´

Last week, Hna. Haggard and I had a meeting with the CCM president.
We wanted to know how we felt about our instruction here.  We were
positive because we have loved our experience here, and we also shared
a few ideas about how it could be better.  It was a little difficult
for me because I have the hardest time talking openly when I fear I
could hurt someone, but I am glad we did it.  It was a very good
learning experience for me.  I honestly cannot believe how much I am
learning as a missionary.  I am learning about myself, the world, the
Spirit, other people, and news ways of thinking.  It is so funny
because I thought I had life and the gospel figured out pretty well
before I became a missionary.
Thank you for all of your love and support!


Love,

Hermana Blunck II