Week 29-No electricity & Progression

February 29, 2016

Hola Familia!!! 

¡Esta semana ha sido lo máximo otra vez! I am constantly amazed to see the hand of the Lord in our work. 

Wednesday we had a service project planned, but it fell through 30 minutes before we had to leave...so we went to our bishops house and found our district leader who decided we were going to district service at a house in his area. While we were walking there we ran into the a convert in my old area that we have been trying to get in contact with for a week! It really was a miracle that we found her and i realized then why we went to do service as a district.

Another crazy finding story. We have been teaching a hermana since January and she knows the gospel is true but still doesn't want to be baptized. Her daughter with 2 kids lives with her and we have been trying to find her husband for weeks! But he is never there. We taught her one day and I felt so strongly as we ended that we needed to find her husband. Well yesterday we were walking and found the 2 of them in their motokar talking on the phone! So we stopped and talked with him and made an appointment to visit them for this week! The Lord answers prayers!

Yesterday there wasnt electricity for the first part of the day...the part of church. So we didnt have electricity, it was pouring rain, some of our members were stranded in Lima from a temple trip that couldnt get back because a disaster that happened on the highway, and it was carnival so the whole city was partying like indians :) And faithfully our 6 investigators who are progressing all came to church!!! I really couldnt believe it because when it rains here people think they cant leave their houses. But really these people are becoming converted to the gospel because they realize that its when you go to church that you really show God that you want to repent!

I had a work visit with my sister leader this week and it really helped me see the things i need to improve on for my area. It also helped me see how much i have progressed! A few months ago it was still really hard for me to teach a lesson, and now it feels like second nature. Spanish almost feels like my first language and i am really learning to love focusing in the investigators because then you can see them progress!! 

I was reading the other day in  D&C 104:11-12 and its says here that we are responsible for what we are given. Never forget to cultivate the portion of the garden you have been given and not hope to water anothers. 

And keep smiling brightly family!
Love 

Hermana Rachel Briggs

Week 28 - Love this Work & Learning to Nail up Walls!

February 22, 2016

Familia, 
My pensionista really is the greatest and sometimes I think she worries about us as much as she does she does her kids :) 

Sorry, no pics this week...I forgot my cord!

But, really, this week was amazing! Not perfect, but no one is perfect, but we all are improving, or that's the goal.

First about D. D is a new investigator as of less than 2 weeks ago and has a number of things he is trying to work through personally, but it is absolutely incredible to see his progress! His parents are members and he lives with them because he had paralysis on one side of his body years ago. He didn't have the desire to be baptized with his family but has seen the difference that it has made in their lives and now has the desire to join them! And we have him with a date to be baptized March 12th!!! I really am so excited because already I can see the difference in his life!

Also, I absolutely love the spirit in this work! Yesterday we were trying to visit a less active family that has been progressing, but recently has started to falter and we needed to visit them. The problem was that they live far away in our area and it was raining cats and dogs so we couldn't find a motokar to take us there. We remembered a motokarista that lived close to us and felt like we should go knock on his door and ask him if he could take us. He said he could and within 2 minutes we were on our way there! Then we felt like we should invite him in on the lesson. So we did and really we feel like he felt the spirit. When he took us back to where we live as it was late, he wouldn't let us pay him either! Really, God works miracles when he needs his work to be done. I know of that truth. 

We also were able to help some other less actives in our ward fortify their wall in their house with wood... so hermana Mucha and I learned how to clavar (nail)! And we nailed up a wall! The son of this family is now preparing to serve a mission and has started his papers!!! I'm so excited for him to be able to partake of this wonderful and fortifying mission experience!!!

I love you all so incredibly much!!! I want to leave you with Alma 5:46 this week. If you really want help or need the strength of the Lord, I invite you to fast and pray and God will guide you in your path. I know it!

Love you so much! Keep smiling brightly!!!!!

Your Hermana Briggs

Week 27 - Falling Through Chairs & Walking Through Rivers!

February 15, 2016

This email arrived a week late, as the email "systems" in Peru weren't working!

Familia!!!

This week has been another crazy amazing week in Peru!! So many good little times and also to see the hand of the Lord so abundantly in our lives. I could go on about so many stories! 

Before a service project!

Well at the beginning of the week we had revision de cuartos and interviews with President Gomez, so we cleaned our apartment all nice and they came and visited us in our little apartment! I absolutely love President and i am reminded of dad every time because they are from Mexico. There is a distinct difference between the latino countries that after living here im figuring out. But they are the greatest!!! Hna Gomez told us our chairs weren't usable and sent the zone leaders to buy new ones :) I didn't think twice about it until she said it because in the houses we visit, honestly sometimes we are just happy to have a chair. 

Funny story because there are always funny thing happening here and it has to do with chairs. We were in a lesson and were sitting down in our chairs when the pillow that was hiding the hole in the seat fell through in my companions seat! I told her i would switch her and we quickly switched before the hermano came back, but then i fell through the hole too and my companion and the member that was with us kept laughing during the lesson because i really couldnt move :) Great moments 

But we went to visit a menos activo family this week that wasnt progressing but we felt like we should visit them and its crazy how much they are progressing now! And they gave us a reference of their family members and really are starting to change. I really love working with less actives and sometimes think i could just work with them my entire mission. 

Cool thing happened to the other day when we were looking for an old investigator and ended up finding a less active instead! Shes only 15 years old but has such a love for the gospel and to do what is right and her dream is to be a missionary but its hard as shes the only member in her family. But God knows there is a way for her. 

Also i understand now why Noah built an ark...it rained so hard on Thursday that all the streets turned into raging river and it just so happened to be the time we had to go and eat lunch....so we trudged through the rivers to go eat and were completely drenched by the time we got there! the boots did nothing! Oh how much i love Peru!!! It really is absolutely beautiful here though!!! Especially our area! Really in the Jungle :)

Sorry not anything super crazy or exciting but i wanted to leave you with Alma 26:12. I really am realizing that i cant do anything without the help of God and ya its possible to do some thing without his help, but then its like only having one hand...and life is much easier with 2. I love you all so incredibly much!!! Keep smiling for all the world to see!

Love,

Hermana Briggs

Week 26- I've been here 6 months!

February 8, 2016

Familia!!!

Able and me while we were still friends :) He is so adorable!

Oh, your crazy weeks!! I love to hear about all of it! I hit my 6 month mark this week and it's the craziest thing to think that 1/3 of my mission is gone!!

Well, this week was full of surprises like always!

Sounds like dad and I caught the same bug from other sides of the planet, cause I got sick this week too. Much less fun to be sick when you already are sweating all the time, but God was merciful and brought rain while I was sick. And our pensionista and her husband took us around in their motokar that night so I didn't have to walk around. My pensionista did everything she possibly could to make sure I got better and I'm almost all better so whatever she did it worked :) But it really made me reflect on my dedication as a missionary to try to do all you can all the time to share the gospel because its so much harder when your sick. 

Funny thing that happened because I got sick was that during a lesson when  Hermana Mucha was inviting our investigator to be baptized, I sneezed the funniest sneeze possible, and my companion couldn't help but from laughing :) She didn't accept but she accepted to pray about it and is one of our investigators that I feel already knows its true. She goes to church and reads and prays, but is just scared to take the step to baptism. It has to be her decision, though. 

Some of our convert kids playing!

Another thing I decided to do this week was to try not to be afraid to open my mouth and talk to people. And it proved helpful because we found a number of people to teach. Faith and fear can never abide in the same place, and if our trust really is in God, He will help us aun cuando tenemos debilidades (even if we have weaknesses). 

Our family R and M are progressing so much! They didn't come to church last week and when we went to visit them they hadn't been reading or praying consistently. We helped them realize that they weren't doing these things because they didn't go to church and receive the strength they needed for the rest of the week. Since that day they have been so much more committed to reading and they came to church! The only thing is that M has to do divorcement papers from his other marriage to get married to his wife now....so they are progressing and would be baptized this week if they could! So cool to help them progress!

We had to drop an investigator this week which is always hard because you can feel they are rejecting the truth even after they have tasted it. We left a little discouraged but then ran into our converts all playing together and we remembered the joy the gospel brings for those who are willing to continue firm. and this pic is of them! 

 2 Nephi 32:8-9 Oran siempre y no desmayar y (pray always and faint not and) God will always always bless you with His spirit. 

Keep smiling Brightly!!!  I love you all and pray for you always! 

Love, 

Hna Briggs

And, yes, Jane it is true that the tooth fairy is 116 yrs old and she gets her fairy dust from grinding up the teeth. That's why she can fly!

Keep playin' that guitar Gable! I really want to play it, but never was patient enough to learn.

Miriam, keep your smiling face on :) Its so catchable... sorry I don't speak English anymore.

Mason...swim team is awesome!!!!! You are going to be made of pure muscle by the end!

Anna, don't ever stop speaking Chinese...practice it all you can!

Week 25 - Hope, Rain, Messy Feet

February 1, 2016

Familia!

There was a river in the street again after it rained !

Thanks for the update this week mom! Sometimes it is just what I need to keep going. 

We had changes last week, but I am still in my same area and still with Hermana Mucha! We are hoping to help this area as much as we can and are excited to help some families that really are progressing...the hard part is that Satan also knows they are progressing and does everything in his power to try to mess it up! We had a really hard time finding people in their houses this week or the lights went out in the area where our investigators were at night, so we couldn't visit them 2 nights in a row! But there is this thing called hope that I was studying this morning, and really hope is doing what you can and then relying on the Lord to help you. And it is trusting in Him with enthusiasm and a brightness in our attitude! Satan wants so bad to try to tear us down especially when things don't go exactly the way we want, but if we do that, we let him win. I am learning this week to still have this brightness even when things don't go exactly the way we want, because its going to be in the way God wants it if we are doing our part.

Able and Sis. Mucha

As for this week...well, first off, I figured out how to step in poop again and this time I got it all over our bishops car!!! Oh, boy, I need to watch where I step more closely....and while we're on that subject, our recent convert has a monkey. This monkey, Abel, and I are friends. But he got a little too carried away with our friendship and while we were praying to end the lesson he was on my shoulder picking at a mole I have on my neck and when I swatted him away he peed on me!!! No longer the same friendship! 

We are teaching 2 young men right now who are less actives, but who are now preparing to serve missions!!!! I was so excited to see their desires change and to start doing the things they know they should be doing. It still is going to be a progression, but for all of you who are preparing to serve missions, I would advise you to read D&C 31. This chapter is especially for missionaries and for all those who are leaders in the church. The Lord wants to bless you and He will as we do our part. 

And we made chaufa (Peruvian/Chinese fried rice dish)
 with a recent convert and had a good time with them :)

Also, I wanted to tell you my pensionista and her family reminds me so much of our family. Her husband for fun puts frogs in bags and throws them in the street to scare people when the bag starts to move :) Hermana Berita went out one day wearing 2 different sandals :)  Their 2nd to oldest daughter reminds me exactly of Miriam and their oldest daughter is on a mission. Then they have 2 crazy sons! I am so grateful for the little things like this in life to help me every day!

Well, I love you all so incredibly much!! Keep smiling brightly for the whole world to see!

Love, 

Hermana Briggs