Prayers Requested!!!

Isabella's Letter

How is everyone? i have hardly any time again. we have been praying to find this less active family, activate them and baptize gimmena.  we prayed alot and it happened! we found them and gimena will be baptized jan 29 th ! johnny should go on a mission but he just got a grant.... there is an opposition to everything. we testified of the importance of a mission, the eternal impact it has on the children of men. and then we prayed so that lord could show him the importance that we couldnt.  that same night our quecha speaking member canceled on us and we needed a translator. she recommended we ask johnny. we called johnny and he came with us to the lesson. of the experience he said it was better than being in love! we said isnt their salvation of more importance than your grant? and dont you think that the lord will bless you anyway? and he said you know that experience was an answer from god. i will get my papers started. there are somany people in my area who dont speak spanish they speak quechua and my heart swells for compassion for them.  the catholic religion has done much good and much damage among the culture and not being able to communicate with them makes me sad. i have poured my heart out to be able to speak quechua. to teach the people that I think could most benefit from learning the commandments that would prosper them in the land. saddly these people are the ones in the most need financially.  they have very little education. so have prayed over and over to have heavnly help to reach them and save them. and the lord answered. i have 3 families that only speak quechua. and i have been learning some basics to tell them i love them and want them to prosper. one of them in particular touches my heart its the familia Ibarra. they come from the field. they are farmers. they live in a room a bit smaller that jonathans and they have 4 kids and only 1 twin bed. the girls are adorable but you can tell that they have been trained to ask for money. the first time they spoted me they said ñañitay ñoqa munani colque? little sister i want money? i had learend to say so do i and laugh and pet their head they laughed too. the dad has been going to everyday to find a job and looks very stressed.  and  i have been also praying to have wisdom to lend a helping hand but as joeson said help them use their brain and here i had an opportunity to practice helping with wisdom so i knew the lord answered that prayer too. so while sitting in their little room i thought what could i do. so i prayed again and as soon as i mentally said amen the wife started to tell us that she makes hand made skirts. her dream is to have a sewing machine some day so immediatly said make me one how much would it cost she said 140 bolivianos that like 20 bucks. and i told her how much is the material 102 bs i told her so all this work you do how long does it take you she said like 3 days so i told her you would spend more on material and taxi and would only make 10 bs a day for all her work and that isnt enough for 1 person to eat let alone 6. she was greatfull for me helping her figure that out and now she will be making me a skirt to save for her business. im so happy to see the hand of the lord in all of our dealings. hopefully they will progress and be baptized b/c that will help them for all eternity.

i love you all this has been one of the best experiences this week.

Christopher's Letter

So...

Today is Monday.  Again.  And we have changes again in two weeks.  Which is... nerve wrecking. 

Because there´s a family here that I love a lot.  Like a lot.  And I´ve fasted and I´ve prayed for them 

a lot.  I want so badly that they can receive an answer that this church is the only true and living 

church.  That it´s the same church for which Moses was prophet and that Christ established.  ´More 

than anything I want them to know that they can be with their family that´s died.  I have two favors 

to ask (that don´t have anything to do with money!):  1) is that I would like to receive your testimonies 

and experiences on Eternal Families, 2) one of the things preach my gospel says is to pray for your 

investigators by name.  So, I´m going to give you their names and that you might included them in 

your prayers by name please.  

Belinda Montoya, Luis Carlos Medina Montoya, Cathia Medina Montoya, Jizel Montoya, Jose Luis,  M

ontoya, Gloria Calderon, Mario Flores, Celeste Flores, Oneda Borjas, Suyapa Flores.

This is one family that I´ve basically fell in love with.  Their dad died two years ago.  I´ve taught them 

since my second week (almost 4 months), and they are the sweetest people on earth.  They´re just 

very "duro" or hard people about their religion, which is fine.  It´s not easy to change after 30-50 years 

of living a certain way, but it´s worth it to know with a surety that you can see your father again. So, 

please do that and thank you so much.

In other things, yesterday I got suuuuuuper sick.  I puked 3 times.  I was fasting from Saturday to 

Sunday.  Sunday when I was ending the fast, I drank a bag of milk.  Ten minutes later, I felt like 

I was going to die in route to the house of Family Diaz.  There I threw up hard core, like a dragon 

breathing liquid flames (of milk), and after I felt great, like nothing had happened.  So I ate chicken 

and rice, and then rested because I suddenly felt woozy.  All of the sudden, I remembered that 

we had a lesson to teach, so we left and ran to the lesson.  Half way through the lesson I got 

super sick again, like I was going to puke, was dizzy and my head hurt really bad.  So we returned 

to the house.  Almost immediately there,I threw up again.  And after I felt horrible and great all 

at the same time.  So, yesterday, I slept from 4 or 5 in the afternoon to 6 this morning.  And I still 

felt pain in my stomach.  But all is well.  I just finished eating ice cream, so... I think I´ll live.

SO, how money works, Mom.  Each month on the 28th, I receive 2900 limpiras, which is like 150 

dollars.  I have a credit card to take out money.  We take out money once a month and then 

use it over the course of one month.  What happened this month is that I just spent more at the 

beginning of the month, simply bad managing and lack of planning.  But we´ll have money in two weeks 

more or less.  Right now I have, like, 150 limpiras.  How the money works here is that 19 limpiras 

is the equivilent of 1 dollar.  So five dollars here is 100 limpiras basically.  Which sometimes is great 

and sometimes doesn´t form things in the states.  Like for instance, a banana costs 1 limpira and in the 

states costs 50 cents more or less(10 limpiras).  So when you give me, let´s say, 15 dollars that means 

that I have an extra 300 limpiras (300 bananas, 30 coconuts, 6 pounds of cacao, 60 pounds of tomatoes), 

but when to buying, I don´t know, let´s say... Clothes! Clothes cost the exact same here.  I bought a pair 

of shorts, like, a month ago that costed me 400 limpiras (20 dollars!).  The only thing is it costs me 57 

limpiras to take out money.  Just so you know.

Also, I have no cacao!  :O   Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

And it´s hard to find, when I as a missionary can´t go to Mercado.  Which is fine.  Safety first.  Es cierto.

This week, we had a really tough week. We had 11 baptismal dates, but none of them came to church. 

So right now we have 0 baptismal dates, which is fine.  So, I forgot to mention the day before yesterday 

I got to meet Elder M. Russel Ballard, who is... really short.  Haha.  It was a really wonderful meeting. 

He spoke to us from the heart.  He taught us about faith in Jesus Christ and that God is our heavenly 

father.  He told us a story about faith.  There was a missionary in Canada, when Elder Ballard was 

President of the Alberta mission.  This new missionary came into his office for his first interview,

 and said that he was goingto be the best missionary that he had ever had.  And Elder Ballard laughed 

and said that that was good.  But the new missionary looked at him sternly and said that Elder Ballard 

didn´t understand.  He said,"No, from the flight to Salt Lake City to here, I have been praying for my dad. 

You see he doesn´t have the best of health and it´s almost certain that he will have died before return. 

But I´ve been pleeding with God that if I am the best missionary that I can be, he will let me see my 

dad again.  So, President, I am the best missionary that you will ever had."

Elder Ballard said that he sent this Elder to the most cold part of the mission, the north of the north. 

A few weeks later, this Elder and his trainer were eating with a family of members and his companion 

was carrying on a very appropriate conversation with the member, when this new missionary said," 

Elder...We need to go.  We need to go tracting."  

"What?" repsonded his companion, "It´s 20 degrees below zero right now."  

"No, you don´t understand.  We NEED to go tracting."

So the two young Elders put on their very heavy coats and went out in the harsh cold and the snow.  

Just as the door closed, the new Elder said to his Trainer, "Elder...You've got to help me. You've got 

to help me save my Dad.  I made a promise with God that if I am the best missionary ever, he will 

let me see my dad.  ´So, Elder... You´ve got to help me save my dad."

Tracting they went.  "And we actually found two families, and that they were.... teaching," said the Trainer 

to Elder Ballard, in an interview.  

Elder Ballard said that he had the priviledge to leave the mission with this Elder on his return to 

Salt Lake City, and the tears began to roll down his eyes when the joy hit his soul as he saw 

this Elder run to his father in the Salt Lake airport in the most warm and long-awaited embrace.

"That! is faith, my dear friends," Elder Ballard said to us. "The faith, the size of a grain of mustard."

Anyway, I hope you are all well.  I´m working, and I too will be the best missionary that my President will have, because also I would really like to see my family again and be married to Isabel for time and all eternity.

I love you so much.  Please pray for that family. 

Hey everyone it is me, the mom.  Dave and I are putting the family's names in the Temple.  Please pray for them and for Chris that he will be able to reach them.  Also please pray that Isabel will be able to communicate in Quechan, which is not Spanish, but a language of the indigineous people of the area she is in.  Thanks for your prayers!!!  Until next week! - Janice