FIRST BAPTISM...OMAR

Hola Familia!

So this week, we had Omar's baptism! Oh my goodness, it was so amazing! The spirit was SO strong and Omar was so happy!! There were activities all day at the church this Saturday and he went to every single one of them, as the newest member of the ward. After his confirmation, I asked him how he felt and he said "powerful" :) He is so great! One of the ways I know he has a strong testimony is that in our last lesson with him, he said, "This is just so important, I want to share it with the world!" I told him that that is exactly why I was in Peru, far away from my family, teaching the gospel. Because I know it's true and I want everyone in the world to know too! He is so great :)

Hilda is getting baptized this Saturday! In our first lesson with her, she said that she didn't believe that finding pure happiness in this life was possible. Yesterday she told us that she had found pure happiness and it was the Book of Mormon. I couldn't be more excited for her baptism this Saturday :)

We are also teaching a family that we found last week. Turns out, the mother is abusive to the son and the father told us that he had been praying with his son for something to happen to help soften the heart of the mother. The next day, we showed up to the door, and we've been teaching them ever since. The father says that the mother has really changed since that first lesson. The Lord knows what he is doing! This family needed help and he is giving it to them through this gospel! The son LOVED church yesterday and I can already see that their family is so much more united and happy. Miracles happen! The Lord really watches over everyone and he listens to our prayers!

Este Evangelio es verdadero. Yo sé con todo mi corazón que este Evangelio es verdadero. No puedo negarlo. Sé que Jesucristo es nuestra Salvador y por medio de él, solo por medio de él podemos volver a vivir con Dios y nuestras familias otra vez. Realmente, estoy disfrutando mi misión muchísimo. Quiero ayudar todas las personas aquí y es posible por medio de este Evangelio. Sé que Dios está escuchando nuestras oraciones y Él siempre va a contestarlas. El Libro de Mormón es felicidad puro y realmente es la palabra de Dios. Los profetas están llamados por Dios y reciben revelación. Gracias por todo el apoyo! Les amo a ustedes!!

Muchísimo amor,

Hermana Agle

1st Baptism

My District

On the roof of the Stake Presidents house

I put my backpack down for one second!

Hermana Brown got to come to the baptism!

Omar

Patriarch baptized Omar

Estefani, A member that comes out with us

I LOVE Hermana Brown

INVESTIGATORS

Hey Mom!

Oh man, so much has happened in the work this week! We have seen a LOT of miracles!! I LOVE missionary work! Ok, I'm going to tell you a little bit about each investigator :)

Omar-- HE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!! Oh my goodness I am so excited!! One thing that is really cool is that my first Sunday here in Peru, Omar showed up to church with his brother who is investigating the church and the next day we had our first ever lesson with him, and now he is getting baptized! When we first started teaching him, he said he never really had a relationship with God but that he wanted to change that. So we started teaching him, and the second visit with him, he had already read up to 2 Nephi 2!! I think my face almost fell off I was smiling so much! He loved the Book of Mormon and he said he knew that it was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Omar knows his Bible really really well, and whenever he comes across a verse in the Bible that he has a question on, he always tries to find the answer in the Book of Mormon. Most people find a controversial verse in the Bible and automatically tell us that we are wrong. But Omar has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, he is always looking for answers there and in the Doctrine and Convenants. For example, we taught Omar that God has a body of flesh and bone. Later on he read in the Bible, John 4:24 and asked us about it. He said he knew that God had a body of flesh and bone because he knew the Book of Mormon was true, but why would the Bible say otherwise? We then taught him about the Doctrine and Covenants and the footnotes in the Bible and he loved it! He is very interested in Doctrine and Covenants now :) Oh man, he is going to be a great member of the church :) Such a strong testimony and so willing to live the commandments :)

Andru-- Andru is 17 and we found him while teaching his mom! We taught him the Book of Mormon and he said that he always had questions about religion in his life and that he was hoping to find the answers in the Book of Mormon. So he is reading, and he came to church yesterday, and loved our Gospel Principles class! It was on baptism! We have another lesson with him tomorrow and I am so excited to see what he thinks! He is so great! So willing to learn and he really wants to strengthen his relationship with God. Such a good guy!

Hilda-- Hilda is getting baptized August 3rd! The missionaries have been teaching her for a long time and she has finally decided to be baptized!! That will be so amazing :)

Mauro--Mauro has a lot of BRILLIANT questions...really deep questions that are really hard to answer. Like, "If we are supposed to follow the example of Jesus Christ, then why do we get married and have families, because Christ didn't?" Hermana Muñoz and Mauro get into really deep conversataions like that, and I never understand because they talk really fast in Spanish. But, Mauro has received an answer that this gospel is true, he just hasn't realized it yet :) I love our lessons with Mauro, they make my personal studies the next day really really interesting :) 

Delia-- Delia was a reference from the Patriarch and he comes with us to teach her! She is so cute, she feeds us every time we visit her :) She doesn't know much about religion and everytime we teach her something her face lights up and she says, "This is something new for me!" She is great :) We love teaching her, and she is learning so much! I love sharing this knowledge with her because she lives alone, all of her family has passed away, and one day she wants to do the work for her family members in the temple :)

There are more, but not enough time to write about them!! Basically, we are seeing miracles every single day and the work is moving along. We work a lot with the members, and that helps us a TON! Never be afraid to help the missionaries! Go out with them, give them references, and love them! They really need the members help!

There was an earthquake in Peru this week! Our building (5 stories) was swaying back and forth! So scary but so cool!! 

I hope everyone is continuing to develop their Christ-like attributes! Love you all and thanks for the support!!

Hermana Agle

ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN LIMA...

Hey Mom!

I am so glad you guys are having fun in Utah! To be honest, I am kind of  jealous! I miss everyone in Utah so much!! But things are great here in Peru. You're right, Ave and I are in totally opposite places right now!! We are teaching a 12 year old girl who is being baptized the 20th of July and she lives with her Mom and baby cousin in a one room cement house. It is about half the size of my room in Boston. So so sad! I got Becky's letters that she sent to the MTC. She sent the DEARELDERS directly here on accident, haha, but that is OK because it was nice to have letters waiting here for me when I got here :) Tell her I love her and miss her and thanks for the letter!! 

Being here is so humbling! For example, last Monday my zone went to play soccer together and when we got there, school was getting out and all of the little kids ran over to the field. When they found out I was from the United States they FREAKED out. I signed all of their shirts, backpacks, and a little 5 year old boy kept petting my skin and saying "I love the color of your skin". One of the little girls asked me if I thought she was ugly :( (I said yes at first because I didn't understand her Spanish...but then corrected myself haha). Oh man, it was so sad! The people here just idolize America and are so fascinated with it. It is really humbling. I now realize how blessed I am to have everything that I have, but I am so glad to be here teaching the gospel because I have seen it bring so much happiness into people's homes. The knowledge of this gospel brings hope to these people and I am so lucky to be the person giving them the good news of the restored gospel on the earth! I love being a missionary here :)

This week we had some pretty NASTY experiences with food. We ate at a members house and lets just say it was NASTYYYY. She has rabbits hopping all around her house that she just picks up and cooks when she feels like rabbit...so all my food had rabbit hair all over it.  She gave me a chicken leg, which I was like "thank goodness, just chicken"... at first, but as I started eating it, I realized the testicle was still attached. Oh man, I really died. Like I got light-headed haha!! And here, there is this plate called "papas con huancaina" and after our main meal she gave us a WHOLE plate of it. My companion is amazing and while she left the room my companion scarfed down all my food because she knew I couldn't eat it. She is great. Also, half way through the meal, a cat jumped from the ceiling onto the table. Haha!! Oh man, this lunch was CRAZY!

Everyone here thinks I am blonde! What the heck! I am blancita and rubia. (white and blonde). I was so confused at first but my companion explained to me that everyone here thinks North Americans are blonde. So weird! 

My new attribute for the month of July is Obedience!! The scriptures for obedience in Preach My Gospel are amazing!! I am so excited to work on developing this attribute this month! I hope everyone is doing this with me!! It has really made a positive impact on my missionary work. Everyone remember that members are the best missionaries! Seriously, we can't do this work without the members!! Everyone deserves to hear this gospel, so share it! Don't be afraid! You'll be so happy once you have done it :) I love you all!! Thanks for all of the support!

I know this church is so true! I am so grateful to be here in Peru sharing the gospel because it has brought me so much happiness and I want everyone here to experience this happiness as well! I love being a missionary. It is hard, but SO worth it. I am learning so much! Love you all!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Agle

P.S.  Tell Grandma DeeAnn that I love and miss her, too!! So much! Our new mission president just arrived here, I am so excited to meet him! Also, the 100th stake was just created in Peru this week and Elder Christofferson came to speak! Only the Peruvian missionaries got to go, though, because it was far away. BUT SO COOL! The work is progressing :) Tell everyone I love them!

FIRST LETTER FROM PERU.....I LOVE it here!!!

Hey Family! I'M IN PERU!!!!!!!!!!

OK, the keyboard is super weird so forgive any typing mistakes!

Peru is incredible!! So different, but so amazing! It's so cool to be in a different country but still be doing the same work I was doing in the United States! My companion is Hermana Muñoz, she is 24, and she has been on her mission for 17 months! She leaves this next transfer so I will be left in this area all alone with a companion that doesn't know the area! I.am real stressed about that!!haha.  I LOVE her so much, she is SO great! We have a lot of fun together! She was really grateful that I understand/speak Spanish. She wants to learn English so that one day she can go to BYU.  We decided we would talk in English in the house and Spanish everywhere else of course :) I really like that rule!  She is really interested in BYU and she is from Santiago, Chile! We get along great, and we laugh a LOT. We have fun :) I am not in the same zone as my MTC Hermanas, but in the zone right next to them! I saw Hermana Brown my first day here in the office!! We both cried we were so happy! I loved seeing and talking with her! I can't wait to see the other two! I'm in the zone El Olivar which boarders the Lima, Central Mission, so I'm right in the heart of the city!! It is so fun!! Scary though! The driving is crazy. Like NYC driving on steroids. It's just a free-for-all here! No one obeys lights/stop signs, nothing! We have to be really careful haha!!

There are dogs here. EVERYWHERE. And its so sad because most of them are just savaging for food, or injured, and it makes me sad. But for real, they are everywhere. It's weird, I've never been around stray dogs before so my first day I walked up to one (it was SO cute) and my companion said that I should never touch the dogs haha...I'm learning! Also, the men here are...forward. Very forward. They shout things at you, try to speak to you in English, shout "Mi Amor", come whisper in your ears...yeah creepy huh?!! But my companion knows all the safe routes and we go home early on weekends so we're safe :) It is just very different. I told my companion that you could call the police for that in the US and she thought that was pretty funny :)

The food...My pensionista (the woman who prepares all of our meals for us) only feeds us lunch (we are the only Hermana's who aren't fed every meal). And I am SO GRATEFUL for that. She is the sweetest, cutest lady and she is just the "cool" lady in the ward. She reminds me of Sister Gold!! Some of her food is so good! She knows that I like french fries so she makes me fries, and they have fry sauce here! Who would have thought, right?? My first day here, we ate turtle for lunch. And then liver. And the chickens here come feet and head and all so she cooks the WHOLE chicken. Oh man. Interesting food. It's a good thing Austin isn't coming to Peru on his mission, because the meat is also ALL fat and very very salty haha!! The first couple of days I just didn't eat anything besides bread and my lunches because I was so grossed out. But, I'm getting used to it I guess? Also, dinner isn't until 10pm! Crazy, huh? So I have to fill up on my lunches...which is a struggle for me sometimes. I am so grateful for Hermanita Juanita (my pensionista)...she has made the transition bearable, and is so cute and so so nice :)

The missionary work here is very different than in the US. There are a LOT of baptisms here. And a LOT of less actives haha! We mostly do Recent convert/Less active visits and average about 4 baptisms per month! That's the mission goal per companionship!! So it's sooo different than in the US! But I love it here, and I love the people and my zone and companion and the Peruvian culture! It's just so crazy that I am here!!

I hope everyone back home is continuing to develop their Christ-like attributes for this month!! It has helped me, a lot, to become a better missionary. I have found that when I apply these attributes in my mission, it makes me a better, more obedient missionary and my love for my investigators grows so much! Also, I love the scripture in 2 Ne. 26:24-33. It's so important that we share the gospel with everyone and invite people to come unto Christ! I'm sure a lot of you watched the mission fireside about member misisonary work. That really is the best way to do missionary work! So keep being the amazing people that you are and share the gospel! Everyone needs this message and your efforts help the missionaries so much :) 

It has been so humbling being in Peru this past week. People here have very very little. It has made me realize how much I have in my life and how blessed I am. I'm so excited to be here and bring the happiness of this gospel to the people :)!! I love you all!! Go out and save some souls!! :)

Hermana Agle

SHE'S GOING TO PERU....TOMORROW!!

Hey guys!

I got my VISA this week!!! I found out on Saturday night, and I fly out this Tuesday! Crazy Crazy! I was SO excited to get my VISA! I cried while talking to President on the phone haha but then I got so sad! I love the people here and my companion! Hermana Ward and I get along REALLY well and we have a lot in common. I feel like I've known her for a really long time and we are so sad to leave eachother :( But on the other hand, I'M GOING TO PERU!! It's very bitter-sweet.

So, I got a tick a couple weeks ago and my companion FREAKED out because they make them a huge deal. But I just pulled it out, put it in the freezer and did everything Mom taught me. Then at the next meeting, the President's wife told us exactly how to deal with tick's and it was just that. Haha everyone was like "how did you know what to do with it?!" I guess I'm an New-Englander at heart!! (Brother Nanto will like that I said that :))

Also, there was a HUGE storm warning here. Like President told us to stay inside and get out our food storage and get flashlights ready. Yeah...it was three minutes of rain. Another characteristic of New-England, they freak out over the littlest things! Haha we thought it was funny :) 

We taught 18 lessons this week (not including members and menos activos) so it was a BUSY week! One of my lessons was in English with a woman that is SUPER interested in the church and probably knows more than I do haha. Teaching in English is scary! I appreciate Spanish so much! I love Spanish!! I had to say my goodbyes to all my investigators this week and that was really sad :( I said goodbye to Manuel and Luz and all the cute kids here and my whole little square mile area that I've been walking the past 3 weeks. Everyone here is so nice and so friendly and I've learned so much from them and I'm sad to leave :( But Peru will be great and I can't wait to get there and teach the people I was called to teach :) I love you all and my next letter will be from PERU!!!

Love,

Hermana Agle

Hermana Ward's birthday celebration

Cami's friend from BYU...soon to be missionary in Honduras!

Food Storage for the BIG storm!

Teaching Tools...in Cami's cute handwriting

Getting the CALL that her VISA has been approved!

Please write...

Loving the Work in Leesburg, VA

Hermana Camille Sarah Agle
Washington DC South Mission Office
5242 Lyngate Ct.
Burke, VA 22015  

Hey everyone!

This week has been great! I am learning more and more everyday and I just am loving it here in Leesburg! I am so excited to go to Peru, but also SO grateful I could come here and have this experience :)

So, I want to tell you about Brenda! Brenda is a 15 year old girl who we had never seen before a couple days ago. We were talking to an old man, Jose Amaye (He had a stroke this week! But he's fine now), and Brenda just walked up to us with this HUGE smile on her face. We turned to her (kind of taken back because people never just come up to us unless they know us), and she just wanted to know EVERYTHING about us! She was so interested in why we walk up and down the street all day every day! So we talked to her and set up an appointment where we agreed to teach her 1/2 the gospel and 1/2 English (we teach everyone English haha). So we went to her house and when we walked in, there were drums and guitars and microphones everywhere. I was kind of naive and was said, "oh wow, does your family play all these instruments??" Hermana Ward kind of gave me a "noooooo" look and then I realized that her house was a worship home for the Penacostal Church hahaha. Her family is SUPER Penacostal, and that was an interesting lesson. She was really just interested in English and being our friends :) 

We really do teach English a lot! We tutor 4 little 5 year olds twice a week in English. We play games with them and just talk to them in English. They are ROWDY. But it's so fun :) And their Grandma always gives us a bunch of food after! The Escobars are so great :) We also teach a 40 year old man 1/2 the gospel and 1/2/ English every Thursday. It's crazy how much people want to learn English from the two little white girls that walk around "little El Salvador" every day!!

Church is great. We meet in a little Spanish group (not even a branch) of about 15 people. It's so small. I spoke the first Sunday! Relief Society has three women, and four missionaries haha :) We love our little Spanish group :) We are trying to teach as many men as possible so we can get enough Priesthood holders in the group to make it a branch. Manuel is still on date for June 29th!! He'll be another member in the little spanish group :) Manuel is funny, though, he still doesn't understand how church works and everything, so during sacrament meeting he'll just start talking during someone's talk. Haha...It makes me nervous! I sweat everytime he comes to church because I am nervous he is going to interupt someone's talk/lesson...but it's great that he's coming :) We are so excited for him :)

We fasted with Luz this week to help her prepare for baptism! We went to her house and had a fiesta to break our fast :) It was so fun and she made us SO much El Salvadorian food! It was delicious! She is really progressing :)

On Sunday it was Hermana Ward's Birthday. We had a HUGE dinner at a member's house and after, the Monicos (a SUPER Penacostal family) invited us over to eat AGAIN. They made Pan con Pollo. It was SO delicious. But I was so full. Then they pulled out the Tres Leches and just looking at it made me want to throw up! I was so full! So I had to decide, "throw up in their house, or eat tres leches?". I didn't eat any tres leches. I had to concentrate real hard on not throwing up. I was sweating, it was hard! People here like to feed you! I love the people to death :)

Well, I love being a missionary! I hope everyone is working on their Christ-like attribute and I love all of you! A great quote I heard this week: "Make the decision NOW to become a consecrated member of this church, and all that encompasses. Because Satan makes sin most appealing to those that are undecided". I love you all!!

Hermana Agle

P.S.  So Mom, there is a member here who comes out with us almost every night because she has her mission call to Honduras. And guess who she is?? One of my friends from BYU! I was so excited when I opened the door to our apartment and she was there!! Haha it is such a small Mormon world. I love doing missionary work with her. And YEAH! Heather Cummings, Tona's cousin, came out and taught with us a couple nights ago! She was darling!!

FINALLY...IN THE MISSION FIELD!!

Cami asked me to say "THANK YOU" to everyone who is emailing her and sending her letters and packages.  She doesn't have a lot of time to respond, but wants everyone to know that she appreciates EVERYTHING, and loves each of you!!!  Thank you!!  You can continue to send her letters and packages to:
Hermana Camille Sarah Agle
Washington DC South Mission Office
5242 Lyngate Ct.
Burke, VA 22015

Familia,

OH man, I've been waiting for the mission field for what seems like an eternity and I'm HERE! AH so crazy! I love it so much! There is so much to write, and so much to say because I have already learned so much here already! I love the people here, the mission, speaking Spanish and teaching the Gospel! It brings me so much happiness!! My trainer is just the cutest thing! She is from Washington State and her name is Hermana Ward. She has been out in the field for 3 months! She just finished training and now she is training me haha, crazy! My area is in Leesburg, VA. We are in the only area in the whole mission that walks/bikes for Sisters. Haha...so we don't have a car! But, my area is only 4 streets. We can walk the whole length of the mission in about 10 minutes! SO it is really small, but just PACKED with Hispanic people! Mostly El Salvadorians. There are a LOT! It's fun because everyone around here knows who we are, and everyone is just so nice! :) I love it!

So, I'll tell you a little about my investigators :)

Luis- Luis was my first lesson I ever taught out here in DC! A street contact lied about his address and it brought us straight to Luis, who let us in and we've been teaching him ever since! Let me tell you how scared I was. SO scared. But once I got in the lesson and started teaching the Gospel I got so comfortable and it just flowed. I can't understand him very well (just words here and there) but he said my Spanish was good! Usually people just smile at you when you talk to them because they are making fun of your Spanish haha.

Jodi- ohhh Jodi. Haha, she lives in a mobil home and she just travels from parking lot to parking lot. It was funny because we had an appointment with her on Friday morning and we were getting ready to go and Hermana Ward just says, "Alright, lets go find Jodi!". We never know where she is going to be! So we searched every parking lot and she wasn't there. We were doing street contacts instead and lo and behold, while we were talking to someone else, there goes Jodi's mobile home drive on past us! Haha so we went over there and taught her a bit. She speaks English. It's weird because I've never taught in English before! But she is great! Quite a character! 

Manuel de la Cruz- Manuel came to church with us Sunday along with Luz! That was cool! The first time we went to teach Manuel, he was waiting outside his apartment with his little backpack on with his BofM and reading glasses, and pamphlets. He turns and sees us, throws his hands up in the air and yells "Hermana's!!" :) He is so cute! He is a really short, 55 year old man from Mexico and he loves the Gospel :) He has his doubts but we set him on date for June 29th to be baptized! There hasn't been a baptism in this area for over 5 months! So hopefully we will see one soon!

There are SO many more people (everyone here lets us in) and we have so many appointments set up, but we get stood up a lot. Those are just a few of our investigators right now. You grow to love them so much! I just want everyone to accept the gospel here!! I also have found out that I love to Bible Bash (surprisingly!)

The transfer meeting on Thursday was nuts. This mission is spliting and half of the people got called to the new mission in Richmond VA! So a bunch of new people are leaving the DC South mission. There were 38 new missionaries who entered the day that I did with about 8 visa waiters. That was the biggest group in history for this mission. The work is hastening!! :)

So, last night, we ate a HUGE dinner with other Hermana's that live close by to break our fast. Afterwards I was SO full and we were out proselyting. There was a BBQ going on and we were walking by and they waved us to come on over (everyone here knows the Hermana's:)) We walked in the house and they gave us a HUGE plate of carne asada. Like piled on there. So we sat down and ate it, the WHOLE plate. Oh my gosh, I thought I was going to explode! I was so full! And Carne Asada is this special steak with rice and tomatoes (I am not a fan of tomatoes), so I was kind of scared to eat it. But, Heavenly Father helped me eat it, the whole plate! I was praying the whole time! And it was SO unbelievably good. The steak was PERFECT (just for Dad :)) But really, though, that steak rivaled with Dad's! I'll have to have him make me Carne Asada when I get home!

I'm doing so well! I am learning so much more than I ever thought I would and I just love the people here, I love preaching the Gospel and I love learning more about Christ every single day. I have a strong testimony that this is the true church. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and I know that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers. I know this gospel is true. With all my heart! And I just want to share that with everyone here is Leesburg and later on in Peru! My companion and I are getting along just fine! Her trainer was native so It's kind of different when neither of us speak amazing Spanish. For sure a learning experience! We can speak about the same amount but she understands MUCH better than I do! So we make a good team :) We are getting by! But most importantly, we are just loving the people and doing everything we possibly can to help them come closer to Christ. I love it so much here and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to come here to the DC South mission and meet all of the amazing people here :) 

I decided to really try to focus more on becoming like Christ during my mission. So, on pg. 127 of Preach My Gospel, there are a list of Christ-like attributes with a bunch of scriptures. Each month, I am picking one attribute, and really focusing on developing that attribute and studying it in the scriptures. The attribute I worked on in May was Patience (ironic huh?) and this month I am focusing on Hope. I want to invite the family and everyone back home to do this with me! So, pick a characteristic, you can do the same one as me if you want, and really focus on that characteristic this month! It has helped me so much and I have learned a lot from it! So you should all do that :) It will be great :)

Alright I love you all! Thanks so much for all of your support and love! This gospel is true!!

Love,

Hermana Agle.