Monday, January 23, 2012

January 23, 2012

Thanks for Your Love and Support

Dearest Family,

I really enjoyed this past week.  Hna. Giron and I participated in
divisions with the other sisters in the zone.  One of the sisters from
the other sector served in Puerto Maldonado previously in our sector.
She came to Hna. Giron and mines` area and showed Hna. Giron the
houses of some old investigators.  I got to discover another side of
Puerto Maldonado.
I`ve been reflecting a lot this week about the importance of obeying
our leaders.  President Calderon has been talking for months about our
mission`s goal of having 100 percent retention.  For a long time, I`ve
been thinking that it`s impossible when many of the baptisms here have
been part member families.  The Spirit is helping me to recognize that my attitude showed lack of faith.  When our leaders invite us to do something,
it`s always possible to do it.   Sometimes we need to put a little more
faith in the Lord, and take the word of our leaders as if God himself
was counseling us.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to give a talk in our sacrament
meeting.  The theme was based on how we can receive blessings.  I
focused on following the counsel that President Monson gave us in
the last general conference.  I also talked about the counsel that
President Calderon shared with our district two weeks ago.  I
recognized two themes from President Monson`s general conference
talk.  President Monson invited us to pray more frequently and to
obey all of the ten commandments.
Remember that I praying for you every day.  I appreciate all of your support!!!!

With lots of love,
Hermana Blunck II

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

January Is Flying By!

January 15,2012

Dear Family,
This week was a fantastic week.  President Calderon surprised us by
coming to Puerto for a district conference.  He was here four days and
spent quite a bit of time with us missionaries.  Our zone conference
was very edifying and has given me ideas of how I can improve, such as
emphasizing the importance of family home evenings with our branch
members and investigators.
President Calderon accompanied Hna. Giron and I for a visit, and now
the couple that we visited have a marriage and baptismal date.  It was
exciting to see this couple arrive at the chapel yesterday for the
district conference.  Afterwards they told us that they really enjoyed
the conference.  Also, a sister from our branch invited one of her
work friends to the conference and now we have a lovely new single
mother to teach.  Something that I recognize is that God always
blesses us after He tries our faith for a little bit.
Faith is something that I have been trying to focus on learning the
last few months.  It`s my personality to worry and doubt.  What I`ve
been learning on is that faith, in essence, does not leave room for
doubt.  It`s choosing to be happy and hopeful because we know that God
bless us, more that we even deserve.  Faith is about having patience
with God`s timing and what He wants us to learn instead of what we
think that we should learn.
A conclusion that I came to this week is that if I put all my efforts
into serving God, the service that I give Him is like a grain of sand.
 It`s tiny!!!!  I`ve felt quite amazed that God`s work always moves
forward when our service, for most of us, is really quite small.
Sometimes Hna. Giron and I talk about how we always have willing
spirits but we have weak bodies.  I would love to work all day, but we
also have to sleep and eat.  I`m grateful for God`s patience with us.
I`m grateful the He blesses us for the little actions that we do, and
I`m grateful that He loves us even with all our imperfections.
I hope that you have a lovely week.  I pray for you and I always think
about you!

Love,
Hermana Blunck II

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

ANOTHER WEEK IN LA SELVA!!!!!!!

January 9, 2012

Dearest Family,
Thank you for writing me this week.  It`s always fun to skim your
letters a little bit before I print them out.

This week has been a little challenging because we do not have
investigators with baptismal dates.  I know that we are doing the best
that we can, but it is hard for our leaders to accept.  Something that
encouraged us is that our branch leader told us that he really
appreciates that work that we are doing.  We have several recent
converts that are going to receive the Melchizedek priesthood this
Sunday!  One of our converts gave a great testimony yesterday.
Hna. Giron and I have been trying to help the Relief Society of our
branch with their visiting teaching program.  We`re trying to help the
presidency catch the vision of their responsibility to excite their
sisters.  It was pretty funny yesterday because Hna. Giron and I put
up a big posterboard with stickers next to the names of the
companionships that have done their visits solos or with us.  As soon
as the sisters saw their names posted up front without a sticker next
to their names, they got crackin.  Everyone starting making
appointments with their companions to do their visits.  Even the
relief society president started feeling nervous.  Hna. Giron and I
pray that in the process of helping the sisters we can have more
references and we can meet less active families.

We`ve finally got branch fellowshipping nights going.  The big
challenge will be having enough members and investigators present to
make the nights effective.  The members always say that they`ll come,
but it`s never definite.  There is a companionship of elders in our
branch, and we`re coordinating the fellowshipping nights with them and
with the brother that is in charge of our branch until we have a
branch president.

I hope that you remember that I love and miss all of you.

Love,
Hermana Blunck  II

Please send my birthday wishes to Jana!!!!!


HOLA, HOLA, HOLA!!!!!!!!!

January 2, 2012

Dearest Family,

Happy New Year!!!  We enjoyed a great fireworks show in Puerto
Maldonado to celebrate the New Year.

Yesterday we had a neat contacting experience.  While Hna. Giron and I
were walking to an appointment, an older man sitting outside of his
motorcycle repair shop called my attention.  It`s funny because about
ten minutes before we contacted by him, I thought `I don`t really like
walking through this area because there`s never anybody ready to
progress.`  God, though, did have someone prepared.  I never would
have thought that contacting a mechanic would be so fulfilling, but I
left the contact excited.  The contact is named Jose Quispe.  He is
different than almost all the men of his stereotype because he doesn`t
drink.  Jose is a simple man, but I think he`s one of the `salt of the
earth` kind of people.  I hope that Jose and his family can progress
because we are really struggling to have people with baptismal dates.
Sometimes I don`t understand that we don`t have more families with
baptismal goals, but I try to trust the Lord.  The good news is that
Hna. Giron doesn`t complain about how many people that we have with
baptismal dates.

This week we`ve been making an effort to teach from the Book of Mormon
more and to invite our investigators to pray about the Book of Mormon.
 I hope that this can help us to have more people that receive
testimonies and commit to progress.

I love you all very much!!!

Love,
Hermana Blunck II