4/16/12

April 16, 2012

Aloha Familia

This past week has been a whirlwind.  I can´t believe it has been only 7 days since I last wrote to you. Wow.  Last Tuesday we had the opportunity to work with President Turk. He came to Casa Grande to listen to our district meeting and to look over the work of our zone and then he asked if he could come work with us. So it was pretty great, we had a really good lesson with Katita and with Elizabeth (more about them later). But it was an awesome experience to work with President, He has such a strong spirit about him.

So the next part of the week, was that we went to the Nuerologist. The doctor said that I have Daily Chronic Migraines. They said its hereditary. Grandpa John is the only one who I can think of who has really bad head aches – does anyone else?  I got lots of drugs and I had three days of shots that we had to have given to me.  Now they are going to start me on a prevention program so in the future i will only have them about once a month.  So all that nothing has really changed since I went to the doctor so I don’t really know.

But back to the best parts of the week

JAVIER WAS BAPTIZED!! So we got a call Wednesday morning from  Maria, the wife of Javier. She said she had good news and bad news for us. I told my companion right there that Javier wanted to change jobs, and that they were moving back to Chiclayo and that he wanted to be baptized before he left. Well when we went to their house before we left for Trujillo Wednesday. So it was exactly as I predicted. They are changing jobs so Javier can spend more time with his family and they are moving to Chiclayo in May, so he was baptized this past Friday!!! YEA!!! It was amazing! His testimony was awesome. He said that the only thing he faulted all along was asking in his prayers. He said that he had always prayed and expressed thanks but never really asked. And as soon as he did, he received his answer.

The other best part was Katita. She had her baptism date set for this week, but because of some health (girl stuff) she wanted to wait until next week. Which was fine. But when we went to get her permission slip signed, her mom changed completely. So I don´t know what really changed, but we ended up baptizing Katita this past week. Katita originally had permission and knows that these things are right.  As we were leaving her house Saturday, I heard my companion telling her mom, do you mind if we stop by for Katita we want her to see what a baptism is, so she can feel the spirit and see the church. After we left the church I told my companion, that the only baptism we have planned is Katitas. She said I know, and so that’s what we did. We followed the spirit. But it was really funny. haha.

So Sorry this email is all over the place, this past week I have seen so many miracles happen in our area that it has been amazing. Just amazing! The Lord really blesses his missionaries. Thanks for all of you prayers!!

Love you All

Hna Sandstrom

Happy Birthday Lindsay!!

April 9, 2012
Happy Easter Familiacito ' Sorry Its a day late

This week has been crazy! Seriously, but we survived. So first off last p day was great, we played futbol, and made completos and watched princess and the frog in spanish. ;) So if you buy enough completos for an entire district its only 35 soles. Haha love it.(kid history if you're wondering)

So during the week we were crazy preparing for the baptism of Daniel. And it was quite the drama fest. His girlfriend is a recent convert and she is a drama queen; -threatening to run away or commit suicide, and he is very concerned for her. Her life is hard with her family and she has some medical problems, and doesn´t want to go to the doctor with her mom. It's sad. So we were up until midnight saturday night, talking with her friends, the zone leaders, the bishop, and the district leader trying to find Daniel, because as I know to darn well, a baptism isn´t complete without the confirmation. But as we went to bed dead tired saturday praying and pleading for a miracle. Well when we woke up sunday morning we were surprisingly calm. Well we went to get mary carmen, a recent convert, she is always helping us out and is great. She has been helping us tons with daniel and alison. So as we got daniel; which was a miracle, we didn´t know if the bishop was going to let us confirm him.

But as we got to church the bishop was calm with all of it and DANIEL WAS CONFIRMED!!! The first Easter Miracle. The second Easter miracle is that we had 6 people at church. Yea 6!! This is awesome becuase we spent all of our time with Daniel that we didn´t ahve time to go for anybody else. Well We are definitely blessed!!

Another Easter Miracle is that i got a phone call after lunch from Hermana Turk. She said that sunday morning she had received an email from my mom telling me that many family and friends would be fasting and praying that day for me and my headaches. Which was awesome. I am so so grateful for all of you and your prayers. I have faith that we will find the problem and that we will find a solution. And although I had a nasty headache all through church Sunday, I was still able to see the hand of the Lord in my life. I have so many blessings. Thank you, all of you, for your prayers. I am seeing miracles because of them.

So the headache update: We went to Trujillo Friday to talk with president Turk and I got a blessing from him which was awesome. I´m so grateful for him. We have decided to go completely off of caffine and exceddrine and try ibprophen for a week or so. Oh and sun glasses. I feel so weird with them on, not so stylish. Oh well. we are going to be trying some stuff to see what is the problem. Thanks so much for you love and prayers.

Love you all
Hna Sandstrom

My zone (yep I'm the the only gringo)

ps Watch Finding Faith in Christ!! It's a great video for Easter time!!

pps pray for Jean Franko, and Katita, and edwardo this week, they are the chosen ones we are working with this week. Katitas baptisms is saturday :

April 2, 2012

April 2, 2012

Hola Family!!!

I hope everything finds you well. I was praying for you all at the Bull sale this weekend. I hope my heifer did great, oh along with everybody else’s :)

Hermanas Herrera y Sands 

I am loving Casa Grande.  It’s so beautiful and small I love it. The sunsets are absolutely gorgeous every night. And the ward is awesome. We have great activities every week. Everybody is always looking out for one another and wanting to help. That reminds me a lot of home. So here in Casa Grande there are only about 50 cars, the rest are motor taxis. They are motorcycles with a little buggy thing on the back. Its fun. All the teenage boys work after school driving them around. And I am loving Hermana Herrera, she is from Nicaragua and she is amazing!! 

So here is the rundown of my investigators at the moment. 

our great YW (all recent converts) & Daniel

Daniel. He is stellar. His girlfriend is a recent convert and he has been curious about the church since she was baptized.  Every time we meet he has questions. It’s so great! He has prayed about it and has gained a testimony of his commandments, and the Book of Mormon.  He is doing this for himself!! It’s awesome. He came to all the sessions of conference! -even priesthood session. And then he came Sunday in a suit. It was awesome.!!! His baptism is Saturday.

Oh by the way I didn´t get to watch conference in English. So I only got about half of it. But it was still wonderful!!! I loved loved loved hearing the choir, and seeing Gwen.  I didn´t think it would have had that big of an impact on me but seeing her was something familiar. :) Conference was amazing couldn´t you feel the spirit and power of the prophet!!! Ah … I love it!! 

So the Next investigator is Katita. She is awesome. She has been taught by various Hermanas, but is really progressing right now. She wants to be baptized but needs permission from her mom. Her mom is a little tough. Katita’s older sister was pretty young when she had her first baby and her mom is really nervous that Katita will be the same. (Which she won´t). She is so awesome, she reads her Book of Mormon every day and her prayers are so special.

Also we have Javier. His wife and daughter are recent converts and his wife is now the Young Womens president. She is a rock. He is basically a member with out the baptism. He attends all his meetings and holds family home evening. He has selected June 14th for his baptism (his birthday) but we are trying to move it up to April 14th. So pray for him please. We want him to go through the temple on his birthday to do baptisms. So it could be tricky. He´s stubborn.

my district with the zone leaders

Anyways this is what’s going on in Casa Grande. So I don´t know if I told you but I´m the only North American in my zone and in Casa Grande and those areas surrounding us. It’s quite fun.

I have been glasses-less for about 5 days now and its fabulous, but the migraines continue. So I talked with Hermana Turk last night and we are going to start trying to figure out what is causing it. And if not we are headed to a neurologist. Hmmm. 

Today we are going to make completos. I´ll let you know how it goes. (You can have 3 completos for ..... :) (kid history)

Please pass on my love to all my extended family and friends!!

Quote for the week.... “If you are endowed with the Spirit of God, no matter how simple your thoughts may be, they will be edyifying to those who hear you” Eliza R. Snow -Daughters in my kingdom page 49

eating clam things - weird but good :)

Love you all so much!!

Hna Sands. (a new abbreviation, my name is difficult here)

(Oh I found out that there isn´t a way for me to send letters, I still love you all I just can´t write you back individually while I’m here.)

March 27, 2012

 Hey!!

HOLA FROM CASA GRANDA PERU!!!!

I am now an hour and a half away from Trujillo with my new companion Hermana Herrera. She is the best!! This is her last change, and she is a wonderful missionary. She is so sweet, but has this spunk to her that is awesome!! I love Her so much.

Casa Grande is beautiful!! It’s this small little pueblo in the middle of the sugar cane fields; its surrounded. I love it. The factory is right in the middle of town and the majority of the men in the city work in the factory. I love this town. My area is one of the best areas in the mission and we are going to continue in the paths of those before us. I am replacing Hermana Sheridan who is in my same group.

Leaving Monserrat was so so hard, especially leaving some of the members, most Hermana Fidencia. She is always willing to help us. I love her.

So mom I have been thinking lots about your talk you have to give on Helaman 5:12 and how important and strong a foundation is and what is our foundation. Every day we are teaching about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is based on five important pillars:  Prophets, Apostles, Revelation, Priesthood, and the scriptures. These 5 things have helped me so much to have a strong foundation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have a living prophet on the earth today, who loves us and is here to help us, same with the Apostles. They are called of God!! Also my strong foundation has come from having the priesthood in my home while growing up. I watched my dad use his authority to bless my mom, my siblings and myself. The priesthood is key to having a strong foundation in Jesus Christ. It is not the Church of Christ without the authority. Also Revelation. It is amazing that we can receive revelation directly from God. Through the prophet and apostles we can receive direction from God. Also we as missionaries are entitled to receive revelation for our area and for our investigators. This happened yesterday as we were studying for an difficult investigator and we both received revelation for the same person, about the same principle during our personal study. It was cool!!! The last pillar is that we have the scriptures. We have the Book of Mormon!! It is another testament of Jesus Christ. We can feast from its pages every day and learn, and change our lives. We can read and pray about its message and gain a testimony of our very own!!

So I have to say that I have never been this happy in my life. And even though I have a goose egg on my head, blisters on my face, a constant pounding headache, a million mosquito bites, and glasses still on my face, and with wonderful cat calls from the fi-fis (homosexuals). I have NEVER BEEN HAPPIER!! I have been so so blessed in my life; with wonderful parents, and siblings, and a lot of other family. I know my Savior lives and loves me. I know that through the atonement we can be forgiven. I am so happy to be serving a mission at this time in my life, to share the gospel and happiness with those here in the middle of nowhere.

I love you all so much!!!

Love Hermana Sandstrom

March 19, 2012

How are you?   

I have to say that this 

past week has been crazy!

Thanks grandma for lunch, we went with the other Hermanas to a botanical park and had hamburgers.  They were SOOO delicious!! 

THANK YOU!

We also had interviews this past week!!! Yay!! It was the best. I always love hearing from President and Hermana Turk and the assistants. There are probably pictures on Hermana Turk’s blog (Thurs March 15^th post).  But it was great fun. My interview with president Turk was great. I love hearing from him exactly how I can improve and how I can be better as a missionary and as a person. I know that he cares about me and thinks about specifically.  It’s individual and personal. I love it.

One day this week we went to Salaverry to change telephones and on the way there I thought I was on the harry potter bus from movie 3. It was crazy. I could just picture the little Jamaican head laughing at me. The drivers here are super crazy!!

So Oscar gave us a reference this week. His friend wants to be baptized and his mom gave us permission so we are super happy about that. Well we went to get Oscar before the appointment with his friend Pierro. But Oscar couldn´t leave because his mom was gone and his little sister was there with him. He had this great idea to do divisions. Haha he said Hermana Sandstrom you stay here with my sister and ill go with Hermana Mendoza to Pierros house. It was a good idea but sorry Oscar.

We went this week as district to help a member. Her roof fell and we were going to use our height (with 4 north Americans we have the advantage) to put her roof back together. We are going to another Hermana’s house tomorrow to help her too.

Yesterday we had a baptism of a little boy in our ward. His whole family is members, but a lot of them are inactive. His grandma is actually a temple worker in the Provo temple. I think, I know she lives in Provo and works there. It was a great baptismal service. The family of Hermana Turk is here and their nieces and nephews sang the new primary song, I know my Heavenly Father loves me.  I think that is the name of it. Not sure. But they learned it in Spanish. It was so great!! I loved it. The spirit was so strong!!! Reminded me tons of home, all my little cousins.

  

Today we went with the Turks and their family to the famous beaches of Trujillo. We played volleyball and flew kites. It was an awesome day!!  My face is so sunburnt. Oww
(see Turks blog March 20 post 11:39 am rough start...fantastic finish)

SO tomorrow is CHANGES!!!! I´m leaving Monserrat but I don´t know where I´m headed off to yet. I´ll find out tonight.  I´m sad to be leaving but it is a needed change. I have grown to love the members of this ward so much. I love Trujillo.

´Thank you all for everything!! I´m excited for the this change! It will be good.

Love you all lots!!!

Hermana Sandstrom.

3/12/12

Hola Familia!!

Oh how I love you and I love hearing from you.  You must know I think about you everyday and pray for you all the time.

So you know you miss mom's cooking  when your pensionista gives you popcorn or porcork for dinner and its the best meal ever!

So you know you are a true missionary when you are always tired and the 10 minute taxi puts you to sleep.

So you know you are having a great time on your mission when the Noche de Misional turns into a water balloon fight between the missionaries and the ward mission leader.  So funny.

So you know you are a good missionary when you and your companion wake up at 4:30 in the morning to call the other hermanas investigators to wake them up and go to work so that they can go to church.

:)

Last Monday, we spent the majority of the day at a funeral.  I didn't quite know what to expect, we were there for three hours in the morning and I was fine (there was no casket), but when the casket came in I don' know why happened.  All of the memories from Lindsay's viewing and funeral came flooding back.  I don't remember all the details, but the overall events.  I guess I could never fully appreciate the significance of having the gospel as part of our lives during that time.  As I sat in the chapel on Monday, i watched people cry, and mourn because, as for their knowledge, this was the end.  Oh how powerful it was for us as missionaries to stand and testify of the plan of salvation.  Because its real.  'He lives to grab me daily breath.  He lives and I shall conquer death.'  It's because of the atonement, crucifixion and the resurrection that we are able to conquer just like he did.  He is our perfect example.  

Thanks so much for being great examples to me during this time.  It was hard in different ways for all of us.  It would have been easy for all of us to be done or stop being productive for a while.  but we had this unseen force behind us.  Thank you for pressing forward. 

This past week has been quite the experience. We only have about two investigators and we have been searching for new people like crazy. Seriously it’s been a roller coaster. But the Lord knows what he is doing and why. And he knows who he wants us to become. I have been thinking about the talk from general conference about where the Lord is the gardener and He knows what we can become and this is why sometimes he is cutting us back. Because HE LOVES US!!! Its true, He loves us so very much.

I was having some struggles and during our interviews with our zone leaders on Tuesday I asked for a blessing. And you know what, it was the coolest. I have found so much strength through the blessing. During the blessing I heard some things I wasn´t expecting to hear but throughout the week I know why the Lord wanted me to hear those things. After the blessing Elder Elmer told me to go write those things down because they definitely didn´t come from him. It’s so true. Those things come directly from God, Our Father in Heaven. I invite those of you who are struggling right now in your life to ask for a blessing.  You will receive the guidance that you need and feel the peace and then if you follow the council given you will feel the support and help from God as you go about those things. I know the priesthood is real and it has been restored to us in these latter days.

As for my 2 investigators; Ceni is such a hoot. I love visiting her. She has a restaurant and gives pension, which means basically she regularly feeds people. She always calls us ‘mi amor’, which means my love. I love hearing that. So this is her struggle. She can´t come to church and doesn´t have much time when we can really teach lessons. But I swear one day she is going to be future relief society president. She is such an amazing person. Please pray for her that she will be able to sacrifice one hour Sunday morning to come to church with us.

Our other is Annamelba. Her daughter was baptized with Hermana Oliveros. (who I got to see this past week!!! So fun) I visited annamelba with Hermana oliveros and she wants to be baptized but doesn’t want to commit to a date. She doesn’t feel like she has her absolute answer. But she loves coming to church and wants to be baptized. Its funny. But we are planning her baptism service for the 24th. I know we can help her, she is great!

WE had quite the encounter with an hermana last Sunday. Her dad was our investigator but she doesn´t want him to listen. She was yelling so loud neighbors were coming out of their houses to listen and see what all the commotion was. It was horrible. I just sat there and cried. She yelled at me, you must not understand Spanish because I told you two months ago i don´t want you to visit my dad. The thing is her dad wants to listen and it’s not even her dad. Her mom and her are renting rooms there. He is married to someone in Spain. Its so weird. But it was awful.

So last week we received an invitation to read the Joseph Smith Story multiple times before General Conference in a couple of weeks. I invite you to do the same. I know it will help us receive personal revelation during Conference (Its the most wonderful time of the year). :)

Anyways I love you all so much! Thanks so much for everything

Love Hermana Sandstrom

DC 6:13,14-19 

March 5, 2012 

Hola Familia!!!

Everything is fantastic here in Peru. We have had quite the week. So first off we had a great Mission night. It was great; we had so many people there, less actives and investigators. It was so fun. I´ve got some great new Peruvian games to play!

  

During the last part of the mission night activity, Oscar had his interview. He knew all of the information and Elder Elmer said that he was really smart, but he sensed that something was wrong.  Oscar said that he had been seeing ghosts and having really bad nightmares. So after the interview Elder Elmer wanted to give him a blessing. It was cool. He also brought his arm to the square. He did it all in english because he didn´t quite know how to in spanish.  It was really powerful and the blessing he gave Oscar after was awesome. so much comfort and advice that he was able to feel. 

Isabel's baptism

So the best part of this week was that we had two baptisms. OSCAR AND ISABEL WERE BAPTIZED. It was awesome. Isabel was so excited. She was great. She was calm and confident and then after bore her testimony. It was so sweet. She has grown and made such a change in her life. It was cool.

Sweet Isabel

Oscar's baptism

Oscars baptism was also great (although a little nerve racking when we had issues in the font again).  Maybe one day I’ll have a calm baptism. ha.  Well Oscars whole family was there and his dad, who isn´t a member, really loved the service-- so we are going to work with him now (yea).  Also his family from another part of trujillo were there. There were also lots of members from the ward. It’s so great when the ward gets involved. We really did see the Lord’s hand in our work this week. 

He really does bless His missionaries. It’s so powerful. I am learning so much everyday that is making me a better person. I can´t imagine my life without my mission. I have already learned so much!! He is watching over us all. 

I love you all thanks so much for you prayers. 

Pray for me extra hard this week it’s going to be a tough one. - Thanks

love Hermana Sandstrom