A Mission is the MTC of Life

So this week has been a good week! Lots of preparing people for baptism which is the BEST as a missionary. Nobody has entered the waters this weekend but these next few weeks SI O SI :) I have heared from a lot of friends that are now serving missions this week and I LOVE hearing about their awesome experiences. I have heard from Ashlyn, Afton, Jordan Berrey, Austin, Logan Barlow and it just sounds like they are all doing so awesome. The mission is the MTC of life and I can see it in each one of my friends. It is awesome to see :) 

So this week we found a family. The husband is a less active and he hasn't been to church in 11 years. The wife is not a member and they have 2 young daughters. We were walking in the street and they were kind of looking at us funny. We passed them waiting to see if they would talk to us and when they didn't, we turned to talk to them. Ebert, the husband, says, ¨The Spirit told me I needed to talk to you. I think it is time.¨ He told us that he had rejected missionaries for 11 years but he had recently felt the need to go back to church. He has been teaching his wife the gospel and his daughters and they had just BARELY moved into our ward. So we set an appointment and when we went we taught about the family and how they could be together forever and be sealed in the temple. They got SO happy when we told them that :) Ebert said that he had always wanted to serve a mission as well and regretted not going. We told them that they could serve together as an older couple. When we told them, Ebert starting to cry and was so grateful :) We left with his wife begging us to be baptized!!  They need to get married, first, before she can get baptized, so we will be helping them with that. I was on a work visit with a sister(When we met this family) that has only been in the mission for ONE week, and she said ¨Wow, does that happen every day on the mission??¨ haha :) Miracles like that are the best :) I love this family! And guess what their last name is? Quiroz :) 

I am starting to study how to make my weaknesses into strengths. I don't have a whole lot to say yet, but I will in these coming weeks as I study it more. I know this is going to help me a LOT as a missionary and as a person. So I am excited to study this part of Ether and the Atonement of Christ :)

Bueno, quiero dar mi testimonio de este Evangelio. Sé que es el Evangelio verdadero de Jesucristo. Sé con TODO mi corazón que él vive y nos ama. Amo ser misionera. Amo la misión. Amo Perú. Sé que José Smith fue un profeta de Dios y que por medio de él, tenemos el sacerdocio verdadero de Jesucristo nuevamente acá en la tierra. Estoy agradecida por este Evangelio y la Iglesia. Sé que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta de Dios y si escuchemos sus palabras, vamos a poder tener más paz en nuestras vidas. Estoy tan animada por la conferencia general para escucharle. Sé que el Libro de Mormón es verdadero. Amo este libro también. He aprendido bastante de este libro y es poderoso. Gracias por todo su apoyo y amor. Sigan adelante en el Evangelio de Jesucristo y sepan que Dios les ama. 

Con BASTANTE amor,

Hermana Agle

Seguimos Juntas!

So I will start with transfers because everyone seems to be excited about that :) Hermana Lopez and I are together AGAIN in our area as Sister Training Leaders! Wow, this will be transfer number 4!! And next transfer Hermana Lopez goes home so I think we might be together until June! I guess we will see what happens :) I am really grateful to be here in Los Olivos again. I love it here! And I will pass my year mark here :) I think that means I will only have 3 areas in my mission. El Olivar, Los Olivos, and I have a secret hope that I will get to go to Huaraz :) If the Lord wants to send me there, lets just say I will be very VERY thankful :) Not that I am praying about it or anything :) (Hermana Winters and Hermana Bills are both up there so that is SUPER cool) Hermana Lopez and I have broken the record of the companionship that has been together the longest! We will be together 6 months! A third of my mission! Crazy, huh? But I am ok with it, she is so great :) So I am grateful I can continue to work with the Sisters in the mission!

This week we had stake conference and it was AWESOME. President Archibald came and spoke so that was the best! He talked about Doctrine and Covenants 88:73. Remember how I told you all that on June 23rd 2013 there was going to be a HUGE announcement. Well, turns out there was. It just was a hidden announcement. President Monson read this scripture which says that the Lord will hasten his work in his time. President Monson officially stated that THIS IS THE TIME. The Lord is hastening his work right now. This time period is one that will never be forgotten as a church. Everything is focused on missionary work. Ward councils, messages from the first presidency, everything. The work is being hastened. There are more than 80,000 missionaries serving around the world! While President was speaking that just hit me SO hard. That we, right now, are a part of the Lord hastening his work. And if we love him, we will support him and do everything we can to serve him in his purpose. In stake conference they invited every single person to think of a family that needed to be rescued. A family that was a lost lamb that needed someone to carry them back to the gospel. Do YOU have a family in mind?? :) Well, I am inviting you all to be the one's to carry that family back to church. Just like the Lord carried the lost lamb, we need to do the same. Not just inviting them to come back to church, but carrying them...always being for them, being a friend, someone to talk to, someone to go to church with. If we all do this, we will be a part of hastening this work. If we sustain President Monson as a prophet of God, we will work on rescuing those families that are far from the church, because he is the one inviting us to do so. I am so grateful to be part of this work here in Peru and to continue the work when I get home! :)

I had a kind of fun/terrifying experience this weekend. We were all sitting there listening to stake conference and Hermana Archibald(mission president's wife) gets up and the first thing she says is, ¨Hermana Agle, can you come up and translate for me??¨ Apparently, I went completely red as I walked up to the pulpit to translate her talk. But, I did it and it turned out good :) I was really nervous to be talking in front of the stake as a translator but the Spirit definitely helped me (both to calm down and be able to use my gift of tongues). It was a really cool experience! So Mom, I kind of was able to speak in Stake conference as well! ;)

Alright well that is all for this week! Thank you all for your support and keep working hard in your mssionary work. I know that this is the work of Salvation. I know that God loves all of His children and he wants ALL of them to return to live with Him. I am grateful that I can help Him with this purpose :) Love you all! Have a  great week!

Hermana Agle

A Room Full of the Spirit

Well, this week has been great as usual :) The mission is filled with challenges and hardships but it's pretty hard to get down on things like that because you're a missionary! It is hard to be depressed as a missionary! Logan Barlow said that in his email last week and it is SO true!! Being a missionary is just the best :) I hope all of you Young Men and Young Women in the ward are planning on serving a mission! It is really the best :) 

So this week was awesome! Carla was baptized (See photo above)! She is 14 years old and she LOVES the church!! This whole family are members of the church, but they've gone inactive. Carla and her sister were never baptized so we've been visiting this family to reactivate them and baptized Carla and Katty (her sister). Carla showed SO much interest right off the bat. She loved the Book of Mormon so much and she LOVES seminary. Seminary starts at 6:00am here and she gets to seminary at 5:30am every morning (I know because we live on the second floor and every morning at 5:00am I am woken up by Carla's voice :) But that's ok because I LOVE that she is going to seminary!). She is definitely an example to all of the other students and she wasn't even a member! She loves the gospel and was so happy to be baptized Saturday:) Her baptism was awesome :) Hopefully we can help the whole family have the enthusiasm that Carla has about the gospel :)

This week we taught a family and had a family night with them. They loved it so much that they invited us back for their grandfathers birthday party so that we could share a message with the family. So we got to the birthday party and told them that we were going to share the message and go because we had another appointment. We decided to share the Plan of Salvation (it was his 91st birthday :))...and as we finished we got ready to head out. BUT Peruvians are very very VERY obssessed with their food. They would NOT let us leave without eating first. The people here are so caring. They give you everything they have even if it means they wont have anything the rest of the day. (We even had to stop teaching a family because we found out she was feeding us the food that she would have been eating herself if we didn't come.) The people are VERY generous...they really recognize us as representatives of Christ, and the are willing to do anything for us. So,anyway....back to my story. Well, this family would NOT let us leave without eating first. So they go grab a plate of food for us, and come back with an entire trout that was just fried and corn and a potato. My companion was thrilled because she had never tried trout before and was so excited to try it. I, on the other hand, was doing everything possible to not make a ¨disgusted¨ face in front of the family! haha. Oh man, the fun things that one has to endure on the mission. It wasn't too disgusting...I just felt uncomfortable as it was looking at me the whole time I was eating it. 

This week we also had our Mission Leadership Council and it was the best!! We get to learn so much from President Archibald and talk about what we can do as leaders in the mission to help the missionaries do this work in the most efficient and correct way possible. It is just a room full of the Spirit and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. I am glad I can help this mission in any way possible. Today we have transfers and I will find out what happens a little bit later, but I am so grateful for this time I have had to serve as Sister Training Leader. I have learned so much from the other Hermana's...and so much about myself. It is such a joy to be able to serve others. I have gained such a strong testimony that when we are in the service of others we are in the service of God! I have loved to be able to help and serve the mission Peru Lima Oeste :) I got to see Hermana Brown as well so that was awesome. :) 

This week was a WEIRD week weather-wise. IT RAINED IN LIMA! The first time in YEARS and the first time since I have been here. That is something I have been missing a lot is the rain. AND IT RAINED! It was so awesome :) That made me pretty happy this week :)

Also, Hermana Juana and her daughters are raising chickens to eat next Christmas :) So we get to play with them sometimes...it's great!! :)

Alright well that's all for this week :) I am loving the mission! All of the spiritual experiences mixed with the fun, crazy experiences, is turning into something that I am never ever ever going to forget :) I am grateful for the opportunity the Lord has given me to be able to serve Him. Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Agle

Miracles at Work

Ok, the miracles here are getting out of control :) But I am totally fine with that :) Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE being a missionary? It really has changed my life for the better :) My testimony has grown, I have grown to LOVE the Book of Mormon and I am developing lots and lots of living skills. The mission is the best :) I am SO excited to hear about all of the Sisters going on missions from our ward!! Elizabeth Whatcott, Jordan Berrey, Alex Johnson!! And Hunter!! He is not old enough to serve a mission(and not a sister either...haha)! But that really just makes me so happy and excited for them!! 

This week, Susy was baptized(See photo above)!! Her story is pretty amazing. The first time we ever had contact with her, she was NOT nice. We were looking for a reference and she told us to go away and not come back...so we didn't. But a couple Sunday's later, these two woman showed up at church and we got their address and set up an appointment with them. We went to the appointment and it was Susy's house!! Turns out her sisters had gone to church to learn more and Susy ended up listening to us as well, and she was the first to get baptized :) :) It's funny how the Lord works isn't it? She is so cute, and she keeps saying ¨I am SO sorry for that first day!!¨ haha...we already have forgiven her :) She LOVES the gospel. She bore her testimony at her baptism and just kept saying how the gospel had just changed her life and she had this happiness in her life that she had never felt before. And she knew it was the gospel :) We are working with the rest of the family as well. They were praying as a family to know which church was true before we arrived. God is powerful right?? Well, right when we starting going to visit them, so did 3 other churches. So now we teach them Monday's and the other nights of the week are reserved for the other churches ---___---. Satan is working as well. BUT I know that WE WILL BE TRIUMPHANT :) God is so much more powerful than Satan. SO I know they will be baptized as well. Its a family of about 10 :) So keep your eyes out for a baptism of 10 in these next couple of weeks :) Also, we have Monday's so we always do a Family Night with them. That is something that I have learned on my mission, that Family night's are POWERFUL and IMPORTANT. I hope everyone is doing them every week with their families :) If you are not, repent and start please :)

Another miracle family...read below!

(This is from an excerpt written by Cami to her mission president...)

This week I learned the importance of being a missionary 24/7. I loved that letter you sent out a few weeks ago that talked about 4 things we need to do as missionaries to improve. One of them is to think, act and be a missionary ALL the time. SO I have been trying to put that into practice more. So every single time we are in a taxi, we are teaching the taxi driver. About 3 months ago we were teaching a man named Carlos, who was our taxi driver. We wrote down his address and left him with a pamphlet with our names and number. Well, about 2 weeks later he called us and said, ¨Hey, your friends still haven't arrived at my house, when are they going to come??¨ So we called the offices right then to pass the reference straight to Elder Schenk. Well, this week we got a call from Carlos. He said that the missionaries arrived at his house, he and his wife got married, and they all got baptized the next Saturday as a family!! As he cried, thanking us for teaching him that day in his taxi I just felt so glad that I had opened my mouth that day :) He actually came to our ward on Sunday to thank us in person with his family and expressed to us how the gospel has changed his life so much. He has friends (a family!) that live in our area that want to hear the gospel as well, so we have an appointment with them this Tuesday and Carlos is going to introduce us :) Wow, President, thank you so much for that letter!! I am so glad I was able to be part of this families experience just by teaching Carlos 5 minutes in the taxi. I realized how important it is to ALWAYS remember who we are and to be missionaries ALWAYS. Not just while we are proselyting. That was a really amazing experience!

This week I got the WE LOVE YOU sign that the young woman made! It made me very happy :) I loved hearing from the Littleton ward! It is hanging right over my bed :) Emily's note was my favorite :) Made me very very happy. She is the best, I miss her a lot! And Joshie boy. His note made me laugh: ¨I hope you have a good mission¨ Haha ...Joshua. I loved it!!

Well, Hermano Espinoza had an accident this week and he lost all of his memory. We went over to visit him and he did not recognize us at all. He doesnt recognize his wife either. That was really heart breaking. BUT, he got a blessing and little by little, he is remembering. We went over yesterday and he said to me, ¨You are my friend right??¨. The cool thing is that he remembers all of the hymns! So we sang with him and sang and sang :) But it was really hard to see. He was doing so great. So if you could all keep Hermano Espinoza in your prayers, I would appreciate it. 

This week I ate Tocosh. It is a potato that they put in the ground for a year and a half to ferment, and then tey eat it. It as a LOT of nutrients and it is really good for you. It was also horrific haha. I hope to never eat it again!! 

Ok, I love you all!! Thank you for all your love and support. I am so grateful for this gospel. I know the church is true. I have no doubt in my mind. God works miracles and He is aware of each and every one of us. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. Keep living the gospel!! It will bring so much happiness into your lives!! Love you all!

Con mucho cariño,

Hermana Agle 

The Fruits of our Labors

This is Ali :) He is 10 and comes to church by himself every single week :) We are trying to teach his family so we can baptize him! He is JUST like Josh :) He reminds me a lot of him and makes me miss him!! I showed him a picture of Josh and he says he looks like a cool kid :)

This week was SO freaking awesome!! Hermana Juana was baptized FINALLY. After attending church for 4 months, she finally decided to be baptized and support her daughters :) It was SO great to see her enter the waters of baptism :) And William baptized her (the super short guy in the picture :)) William was completely inactive when we got here and so we started working with him to ¨rescue¨ him. We finally helped him become active again and now he is waiting to receive his mission call :) So we thought a great way to get him in the mission spirit would be to ask him to baptize Juana Alejandro and Alexander :) William and Juana basically live in our pensionista's house (where we live as well) so we are like one great big family.

I LOVE these three A LOT :)  It was one happy day!!

And Hermana Juana really really likes the fact that I am American!! She said that we needed to take a picture of the two of us to send to my family so they could all know who she is :) So, family...here she is :) Hermana Juana :) 

This is Alejandro!  Alejandro had a really great experience the night before his baptism :) He was kneeling down praying before bed, and thanking God for the experience his son has had in the church...praying and thanking God for the happiness his son now has in his life. While he was praying, a voice came to him that said ¨And you my son?¨ 

In that moment, Alejandro knew that God was HIS father and he was so happy to be baptized in God's church the next day :) AHHHH this family is so so special to us! The gospel is SO true!!  

I LOVE being a missionary, and I love the people in PERU! It is such a privilege to be here sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Con BASTANTE Amor,

Hermana Agle :)

MIRACLES

Wow. This week has been GREAT. So many miracles happening here in Los Olivos! I have really grown to love this work because I know the Lord is working right alongside me :) I am just here to be his mouthpiece :) Well, I'll start with the most exciting news...

Remember Fiorella, Kiara and Aracely that were baptized on November 23, 2013?? Well, at the time, their mom decided that she did not want to be baptized. We worked and worked and worked with her for a long time. Her name is Juana. She comes to church every single week but she would not accept a baptismal date, so we had to drop her, in December, as an investigator. Well, this week, Hermana Lopez and I were talking about what we can do to help Fiorella, Kiara and Aracely (our converts and her children) progress in the gospel. We decided that the ONLY thing that would really help would be for their mom to be baptized so they could receive the blessings of the gospel as a family. But we had already done everything we could to help her, so we decided to set up an appointment for her, with the Bishop. Our Bishop is so great! (side story: His name is Rey Leon which means Lion King :) so thats kind of fun :)) Our Bishop is really good with families and helping families with their responsibilities with their kids. So...this Sunday Juana had her interview with the Bishop, and during Relief Society after her interview she walked in, sat down next to Hermana Ana (our pensionista) and said ¨Me voy a bautizar¨. I didnt hear it, I just saw her lips move so I was freaking out. I told Hermana Lopez and we were dying for Relief Society to end so we could go talk to her!! haha. We went up to her right after RS, and she told us that she had decided to be baptized, that she knew the church was true and she wanted to support her daughters in the Gospel. :O WE WERE SO EXCITED. Seriously a miracle!! Man, the Lord has been working hard on her and she finally softened her heart and she will be baptized February 22nd :) We are SO excited!!

We have 3 more investigators getting baptized as well this Saturday and one more set for March 1st. Susy is 17 years old and received her answer that the church is true in about one week :) She is more than stoked to be baptized this weekend :)

Also, Alejandro and his son Alexander are getting baptized this Saturday. This is another miracle that we have seen. They have been coming to church for the past 2 weeks and yesterday we had a lesson with Alejandro after church. Alejandro told us that he has felt so special these past two weeks. That everytime he goes to church with his son, he just feels so good and peaceful. His life has been going so smoothly and he just feels that it is right. That it is from God. He says that he ¨has found something so significant in his life that he didn't even know he was searching for¨. That really made me so happy to hear, and a little teary to be honest :) This is what the gospel does for people! Makes them so happy and their life SO full! In Elders Quorum Sunday, they talked about the family. And how sometimes, when things are not going well in a marriage, couples just take the easy route and they split up. They just give up on each other and on their kids and separate. Alejandro separated with his wife 3 years ago and it really affected him and his kids. As Alejandro was listening to this class in Elders Quorum, it made him think about his family, and what had happened. He left church really thinking about this Elders Quorum lesson. When we got to his house he told us that if he had heard that class three years earlier, he would not have split up with his wife. Sometimes things get hard, but with the Gospel in our lives, there is ALWAYS a way out. The family is ordained of God. And Alejandro is fully aware of that now. He was pretty sad that he hadn't heard the gospel earlier to fix things with his wife three years ago, but he is grateful that he has it now to continue to grow with his son. We love this family so much and I am SO excited to send photos of their baptism this week!! 

This week I had a work visit on the beach! I am SO tan!! Haha. It was beautiful! It is called Miramar and I had the chance to go there and work with the Hermanas :) We did service one of the days and we climbed a HUGE hill (the ¨mountains¨ here are just HUGE piles of dirt). Anyways, we climbed this hill and had to level out a 5 meter square so that an old man could build his house up there. So...we had to break these HUGE boulders and throw them down the hill!  It was HARD work and it took about 4 hours to do. But it was a really interesting experience and I had fun :) Being a sister training leader brings lots of fun experiences. I am really grateful for my calling :)

Alright, well I am SUPER pumped this week. Hermana Lopez and I are going to keep working hard and looking for the people that are ready to hear the gospel :) Thank you all for everything and I love you!! 

Con BASTANTE amor,

Hermana Agle :)

The Plague

This week has been a crazy, awesome week!! Let's start with the crazy.

There was a plague of cockroaches in my house on Thursday night. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen!! We got home from proselyting and I walked into the kitchen and there was a cockroach that ran across my foot. That is normal so I just stepped on it and moved on. As I was walking out of the kitchen, I turned the corner and there were two more HUGE ONES. That really grossed me out so I called my companion to come and kill them. She came and killed those two and started looking around for more. She gasps and says ¨Hermana Agle, leave the kitchen right NOW.¨ I ran over and there were like 40 more in the corner of the kitchen!! We ran and grabbed the poison to spray and kill them all. (when I say WE I mean Hermana Lopez...I was on the opposite side of the room). She sprayed the corner and they all started running around the room! Oh my gosh it was awful!! We found the hole they were coming out of and Hermana Lopez sprayed the hole. Well...that was an awful idea because then about 50 more ran out of the hole all around the house!! I was dying. They were everywhere!! You know that part on the Indiana Jones ride were you go into the tunnel and all those bugs are crawling around in the tunnel. THAT is what it was like. The floor, the ceiling, the furniture, and the food...Everything was filled with cockroaches!! It took about 3 hours to kill them all. There is a lot more to the story...haha...but basically we killed the majority. We keep finding a few, but there seems to be less and less everyday. We covered the hole but are starting to regret moving into our new house!! 

This week we had an inactive member rescued! To be rescued, we need to teach them all of the lessons again, they need to come back to church for a couple weeks and have an interview with the bishop. Remeber Hermano Espinoza? The less active man that I shared Mormon 9 with? He was rescued this week! We went to his house to teach him the last lesson and at the end of the lesson he expressed to us how grateful he was for us and how returning to the church has blessed him so much in his life :) His family is strong! They will be such a great help to the church :) I am so glad that the Espinoza family is reactivated and enjoying all of the blessings of the gospel again :)

Hermana Lopez and I are teaching a father and a son and they are going to be baptized on February 22nd :) They are Alejandro and Alexander. Remember my convert Teo?? It is her brother :) He came to church yesterday and told us it was the first time that he has felt peace in his life in a LONG time. So, we challenged him to be baptized with his son and they accepted!! They are so great! Alexander is so hilarious, it is fun to teach him. He is 14 and just the funniest kid :) We are excited for this family!! 

Just one more classic President Archibald quote :) We were in a zone meeting with President and a missionary was talking about how sometimes his fasts don't work and he was asking President about why that is? President responded and said, ¨The fast doesn't work because it is not a sacrifice to fast from rice!¨ Haha...all of the Peruvians did not think that was funny ;) 

Alright, thank you all for your letters and support. This month I am working on humility again! I hope everyone is keeping up studying Christ-like attributes! I am so grateful to be a missionary in this time. I love being a missionary and bringing his gospel into the lives of others :) It is such a blessing. This gospel is true, and the Book of Mormon is true. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet and that God lives. Christ is the Savior and is there to help us always. I love this gospel! Keep sharing with friends and family. We are in a new time period! It is time to share the gospel with everyone!! You just have to open your mouth :) People are secretly interested, trust me :) I love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Agle