Dearest Family,

Happy General Conference week!  I am super excited to watch General Conference.  We had the opportunity to watch the Relief Society broadcast on Saturday.

This week was lovely.  Two younger girls were baptized.  One of the girls is the daughter of less active parents.  We are still working with the parents to help them remember their baptismal covenants, but I am excited that the daughter chose to be baptized.  The couple`s son should get baptized this next week.

A while ago Hna. Benites expressed to me that she had an idea to have a companionship of missionaries in Puerto focus on less active families. Hna. Benites surprised me because that`s what Mom and Dad are doing, and she had the same idea.  I suggested to Hna. Benites that we propose the idea to President Calderon.  I wrote the idea in one of my weekly letters to President Calderon.  He hasn`t responded, but I really hope that he considers the idea.  I`d love to have that responsibility.

Everyone asks me if the heat kills me.  It doesn`t do me in like some of the other missionaries.  I feel very blessed.  For our preparation day activity last week, we rode in the back of a truck into the jungle to a place that has a soccer field.  We also walked into the jungle a little bit.  There, we all hung from the type of vines the Tarzan swings from in the movie. 

Happy Birthday Rita!!!  I can`t wait to talk to you!!!!   I love you very, very much.   Happy Birthday!!!!!

I`m not actually sure what I`ll do on Thursday, but I`ll definitely eat some ice cream!  Maybe everyone in Oregon can enjoy a piece of marionberry pie for me =) and some French muffin puffs too =).

Please say hi to everyone for me!

Love,

Hermana Blunck II

Hermana Lynette Blunck in Puerto Maldonado Peru.

September 19, 2011
Dearest Family,
How are you doing?  This week a wonderful investigator named Carina
was baptized.  Carina has been a testament to me that there are really
people prepared to receive the gospel.  They just don`t know where to
find it until we talk to them.  Carina is a single mother.  She lives
at home.  None of her family members came to her baptism, and before
her baptism they all told her that she was making a mistake.  Carina
didn`t let her family`s comments shake her even a little.   In her
testimony, Carina shared, ｴeven though my family didn`t come today, I
know that I have a family here.ｴ  This really touched my heart.

Love to you all,
Hermana Blunck II

Sept. 12, 2011

 Dearest Family,

 Thank you for writing to me.  I love hearing about your adventures.  Has everyone started school?  I can`t believe how the time is flying.

I`m really grateful for the time I spent in Urubamba because it`s helping me to have hope for our branch here in Puerto.  This week in Puerto was eye-opening.  I realized that the branch needs some support.  Missionaries before have worked hard to have lots of baptisms and they`ve done that, but the branch has been neglected along the way.  I`m not exactly sure what a good starting step is to help a branch improve, but I`m confident that revelation will come.  What ideas do you have?  Something else that I realized this week is that many of the baptisms that have been enacted were for youth.  Unfortunately, many of these youth have gone less active.  I continue feeling an urgency to look for families to teach.  This last week we actually found a promising family.  The mother`s name is Eve.  Even though we didn`t teach any lessons to the family before Sunday, the family attended church because we invited them.  I`m praying that this family can progress.

 This week has been a fun week discovering jungle fruits.  Hna. Benites and I have gotten to laughing really hard as we chucked rocks at trees in hopes of knocking down fruit.  This week we discovered guanabana and kaimito.  Kaimito is my new favorite fruit.  We also found coconuts, and a little girl hacked open the coconuts for us with a machete.  I was quite impressed. 

Love,

Hermana Blunck  II

My new companion in Puerto Maltonaldo,  Hermana Benites.
Sept.5, 2011
Dearest Family,

Thank you for your beautiful letters.  I am sweating it out here in Puerto, but I am content.  Puerto is a place very prepared for the gospel.  We have found many wonderful people to teach this past week and they are progressing.

The work in Puerto feels very different for me.  It`s less stressful.  Whereas my companion and I taught in all of Urubamba and the nearby cities before, now my companion and I only have our small area where we focus.  There`s a small number of members that live within our area, so there aren`t members frustrated with us because we don`t have time to visit them.  The fact of the matter is that we don`t leave our area.  Hna Benites and I don`t walk as much as I used to, but that`s okay.  I liked feeling that we have a little space in our agenda to contact well. 

 Love,

 Hermana Blunck II  

August 29, 2011

Dearest Family,

Thank you for writing me such lovely notes.  My new area is Puerto

Maldonado.  I`m about three hours away from the Bolivian border.  I`m

in the jungle!!!!!!!  I am super feliz!

My new companion is Hna. Benites.  She`s finishing her mission this

transfer.  I feel very privileged to be with her because she has lots

of experience.  Normally, missionaries with lots of time in the

mission are put with younger companions.  Thank you for remembering

me—this week I complete one year in the mission.  I`m not sure yet

what we`ll do to celebrate, but Hna. Benites and I are planning

something.

Hna. Villegas is in Puerto Maldonado.  I didn`t think that President

would send me to Puerto. 

I know that I need to have lots of faith and excited for the next few

months while I`m here.

I send you all of my love!!!!

Love,

Hermana Blunck II

 Lynette still is serving in Urubamba Peru.  Urubamba is located in the heart of the sacred valley of the Incas.  It has been an incredible experience for her to serve here.  Lynette has grown to love the people here and her companions.  Recently our son Stephen visited the Cusco region and was given permission to see Lynette so these are a few photos he brought back.  Her companion is from Chile, Hermana San Fransisco.  They have been very blessed to live near a senior couple, the Schellenbergs from Utah. 

 Every zone needs a zone t-shirt.  Here the hermanas show off theirs at the top of Machu Picchu where they met Stephen and his wife Shara. 

Stephen and Shara spent a wonderful preparation day with Lynette and her companion at Machu Picchu.  Lynette is fluent in Spanish and she is happy serving the Lord. The first of September she will have served one year.  Time had flown by. Sometimes the hardest things we do in life turn into some of our greatest blessings. 

Dearest Family,

 

Hna. San Francisco and I continue to work in the Sacred Valley.  We`re starting to spend more and more time in Ollantaytambo because there are many people there who are prepared to receive the gospel.  Hna. San Francisco and I even wrote to President Calderon suggesting that he put missionaries in Ollantaytambo.  We`ll see what happens.  Hna. San Francisco and I would love to be sent there.

 

For the past two months Hna. San Francisco and I have been visiting a senora called Mari.  Mari owns a restaurant here in Urubamba.  Mari`s told us that she likes The Book of Mormon and that she wants to come closer to God, but she`s never come to church.  We couldn`t figure out until yesterday why she`s never come to church.  Yesterday we visited Mari and shared with her the importance of obeying all of God`s commandment, including keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Mari then agreed that one can obey all of God`s commandments if she has the desire and will-power to do it.  Mari quickly changed the subject after she made this statement and started talking about how she likes the Book of Mormon.  When Mari changed the subject, I thought `Mari recognizes the power of will-power.  We can`t drop the subject of the Sabbath day so quickly.` With that thought, we asked Mari `Do you have the will-power to keep the Sabbath day holy`.  This direct question turned out to be a key for us.  We were scared to talk so pointedly, but Mari ended up explaining that she has problems in her personal life that she is trying to resolve.  We believe that Mari might get a divorce from her husband.  This problem is the overwhelming concern for Mari right now.

 

I have a bigger testimony now of the importance of talking directly.  First I learned with my companions that no matter how much it pains me, I have to talk honestly.  Now I`m learning that I have to do the same with our investigators.  I think it`s possible to talk pointedly and with love, it just takes practice.  Not talking is more painful than talking. 

 

Hna. San Francisco and I feel a little weighted right now because everyone (members, new members, investigators, and leadership) are asking us why we don`t visit them.  We are working our hearts out to visit everyone, but our area is quite big and consequently we can`t be with everyone all the time.  When I feel overhwhelmed I try to think about the Savior.  I know that he makes up for our weaknesses.  He helps us carry our responsibilities.  I know that what we feel is only a portion of what Mom and Dad feel, for example.  I can`t even imagine how the prophet feels.  What a blessing it is that we have a Savior that makes up for us when we fall short.

  

Can I ask you a favor?  If you`ve written me recently will you write me soon?  During our day in Cusco on Tuesday, the backpack of a missionary that contained lots of letters for me was stolen.  I feel a little sad that I didn`t receive those letters.   

 

 

I sure love you!

 

Hermana Blunck II

Dearest Family,

 

I hope you had an especially lovely weekend with Alison`s wedding.  Congratulations Kristin on your upcoming wedding.  I received the letter you wrote me today.

 

This week was terrific.  We experienced several miracles and had lots of fun in an event called Inti Raymi.  Inti Raymi is a festival that the Incas celebrated every year to worship the sun.  Cusco has an reenactment every year of this festival.  President Calderon gave us permission this week to take our preparation day on Friday to watch the event in Cusco.  The festival includes many dancers that are dressed natively and includes actors such as the chief Inca.  The festival takes place in three places, such as the Plaza of Armas and Saqsawayman.  We watched the event in all three places.  The photo I`ve attached shows Hermana San Francisco and I in Saqsawayman.  Saqsawayman is a huge temple complex which the Incas built.  It includes huge stones the are all cut to fit perfectly together.  It is really quite magnificent.

 

One of our miracles of the week relates to our day at the Inti Raymi festival.  After returning to Urubamba, we realized that we forgot our cell phone in the taxi.  This put us in an instant panic because cell phones are usually stolen instantly.  We just received the cell phone from President Calderon on Sunday practically brand new.  Hna. San Francisco and I ran to the terminal but the car had returned to Cusco for the night.  We called it and called it, and nobody answered.  On Friday night, we prayed our little hearts out.  On Saturday morning, we went to the terminal at 5am because we knew the we had to intercept the taxi as fast as possible.  Through the tender mercies of God, one taxi driver helped us to find the taxi we`d riden in because we didn`t see our taxi when it pulled in the terminal.  Once at our taxi, the driver told us that he`d just cleaned the van and didn`t find a phone.  We were heartbroken, but we called our phone and miraculously it started ringing within the car.  It had fallen way underneath the seats.  I can`t give all the details adequately to explain how many tender mercies we experienced in this event, but it was definitely a miracle.  Maybe this experience seems simple to you, but it was very special to us.  I know that God looks after us in every need that we have.  He helps us when we are doing His will.

  

I`d love to receive a few letters from you!

 

 

All my love,

 

Hermana Blunck II

Dearest Family,

I am with a new companion now!  Her name is Hermana San Francisco, but don`t be confused.  My companion is not from the U.S. =D.  She is from Chile.  I think it`s the most beautiful thing that I am having the opportunity to have companions from many different countries while in the mission.  President Calderon came to visit our zone right before the change meeting and named three different hermanas that could be my new companion.  When I heard Hna. San Francisco`s name, I got my hopes up that she would be the one.  We got to know each other a little bit while I was serving in Cusco.  It turns out the she was the one.  Hna. San Francisco just completed six months in the mission.  Speaking of time in the mission, I completed nine months in the mission this past week.  Can you believe it?!  I honestly cannot believe it. 

Quite honestly, I was nervous to begin this new change, but I`m getting over the nervousness.  Hna. San Francisco and I work well together.  We hadn`t practiced together, but during our very first lesson we were able to blend our teaching together.  My goal with Hna. Francisco is to have very open communication.    I told her right away exactly how I was feeling and I think Hna. Francisco appreciated it.  All of my life, one of my weaknesses has been speaking honestly with people who are not family members.  I believe that the mission is finally helping me to improve my communication. 

Hna. Francisco and I are trying to begin working with less active members.  I feel really excited about this.  We are also trying to plan our lessons with a purpose.  Of course, we are striving to do lots of contacting.  I pray that with these efforts, God will open the windows of heaven.   

Please send my greetings to all the extended family members.  I do receive their letters, so encourage them to keep sending them.  I try to write them as often as I can.   

  

 All my love,

Hermana Blunck II