Week 17: Mango Season!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

So first off, I can’t type super well, I’m exhausted. I was sick again yesterday and today, I just have no energy, but how lucky that today is P-day and I can recover. I think my companion and I both ended up with the flu.

Anyways, so fun story, being sick really helped with my goal of losing weight. I jokingly put that as my goal after I broke a chair the other day (the chair was already half broken though, so it really didn’t have to do with me, just bad luck and timing.)

Also, it’s MANGO SEASON!!! Almost everywhere we go, they give us mangos. We’ll just say that I always leave happy!!!

So funny story. Last P-day, we were going to meet at 3pm at the church with our zone. Well we were trying to open the gate and we heard some people whistling. Normally we just ignore the whistles. Well, we entered the church and then the whistling got louder with more people. We finally looked and it happened to be all of the elders. They were waiting across the street. We then explained to them that we have accustomed ourselves to not respond to whistles.

My companion right now is awesome. Super different than my last companion. Her and I have more in common. She doesn’t have the same work ethic as I do, but with motivation, she can work super hard.

So for those of you from Argentina, I was thinking about one HUGE difference that is here. We have a SUPER yellow carbonated drink. The difference is that in Cordoba, it was called Pritty. Here, it’s called Inca Cola and it’s not as tasty.

So a few things I don’t like. Street signs don’t exist. Half of the houses don’t have numbers and that makes directions SUPER hard to find.

Also, in this mission, there are only 3 stakes which are in Cusco. The rest are all districts. I feel like there is a lot more work when you are in a Branch inside of a District.

Well, exciting news about people. We were walking and this girl (Stephanie) calls us over. So we figured she was probably lost. We over to her and she goes. Can you visit me? I was listening to the Sister missionaries in Arequipa 3 years ago and I have seen Elders here, but I just have a lot more trust with girls! She’s super awesome. She is working on changing her work schedule so she can attend church again. Her only reason for not being baptized before was her parents, but she doesn’t live with her parents now!

Then we also were walking to lunch one afternoon and this guy says Hola Hermanas. And then proceeds to enter his house. We didn’t have the chance to see who it was and I knew we weren’t at an active member’s house, so we knocked on the door. He explained that he had talked to missionaries from another church the other day, but then they never came back and he’s looking for a church right now. He has 2 brothers that are pretty cool, not quite as excited but still attending activities. They came to a baptism Saturday and didn’t come to church because they were all sick with what I had.

Well, the most exciting part…… JOSE LUIS GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!! It was super stressful. We taught him the Word of Wisdom, no problem. The next day, Law of Chastity and he goes I can’t live this. We were praying and trying to figure out what he needed. Thursday, we couldn’t find him ALL day. Friday, we taught him with a member and at the end he tells us that he’s not going to get baptized tomorrow. We left kind of frustrated and nervous. That night was his interview. We left him homework to do before his interview. Well, we returned and everything changed. He told us that he just felt complete peace! The Lord does answer our prayers!!! Well, he passed his interview. Our district leader said the interview was incredible. One of the things that you would only see in a Preach My Gospel video but that doesn’t actually happen in real life. Saturday, he was baptized!!! He was so happy. He just thanked us so much for our patience and perseverence. Sunday, when he received the Holy Ghost, he was just beaming!

Anyways, that’s it for now. My prayers go out to all of you and I hope you can see God’s hand in your life every day.

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

PS. Email me J carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Week 16: Locaso

Dear Friends and Family,

There is LOTS to tell you all, but I simply never have time. To start off, my new companion is from Equitos, Peru. She is awesome. Hermana Lozano! Well, we also had Hermana Martinez with us just for 5 days because there was a recital that she was directing. But what is kind of stressful is I have to direct the area. I know the people and the streets and everything and my companion only has one more transfer than I do, so we are both SUPER new! YIKES! But I'm super excited. We are working hard.

So some funny stories. I was calling our leader Wednesday night to tell him what we had accomplished so far in the week. Well in the middle of the call, we had a jar of what is called chapo (it's a platano drink that I don't like) anyways, we didn't drink any of it for breakfast and in the middle of the phone call, I screamed. The jar exploded all over me and the ceiling and the wall. Well our leader was kind of confused and asked what happened. I was so in shock and completely covered head to toe in chapo. I just told him I'd tell him the next day and said Chau.

Another funny story. Sometimes, we don't have running water. SUPER FUN. Right? Anyways, I took a shower one night after a really hot day. I wash my hair and then I put conditioner in it and then I turned off the water so that I could sit down and shave my legs. Well, I finished shaving and I went to turn the water back on.... NO WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So what do you do? I have soap all over me and conditioner in my hair. I had to take my water bottle of good clean drinking water to finish showering.

So exciting news! We had a baptism this weekend. Sheri and Joseph. Joseph is awesome! He was just super excited for everything. Then with Sheri, she is extremely afraid of water. Her Dad was going to baptize her. So he baptizes her and she was ok after all of her fear, until they said that it wasn't done correctly and she had to do it again. The poor girl was terrified. BUT, she got up after her baptism and told everyone that eventhough she was scared of the water that she is now happy.

Also, Jose Luis!!!! He finally decided that he was definitely going to be baptized. When??? THIS SATURDAY!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!! Anyways, he's super awesome. We told him that we should pray together so that he could see if he felt good with his decision. So we prayed and afterwards, it was just super quiet and he looks at us and goes WOW ok, this Saturday it is. I feel great! It was such a testimony to me of how the spirit can really testify to us of truth and the will of God.

Well, we only worked about half of the week this week, we had transfers Monday, P-day Tuesday, then we were running back and forth between practices for the recital because Hna Martinez needed a companion and then we had interviews with President and then we had training with the Assistents and also training with President and then the Recital. Kind of crazy. With permission of President, we definitely were not sleeping at the normal hour. SUCH a crazy week. But super fun and I'm excited for a normal schedule this week and to continue working!

This week, it hit me (yeah, I only have 3 months) but time really does pass by super fast. I am not sure if I will ever be ready for it to end which gave me a lot of motivation to work a lot harder because I only have SUCH limited time.

Anyways, I love you all and hope you're doing well

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

PS. carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Week 15: Rainy Season Has Begun!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, more so family. Dear friends, are you all still alive? I haven’t heard anything from a lot of you recently.

Anyways, this week, it was super emotional. Transfers are today and all of the hermanas are leaving but me. So 3 new hermanas here in the zone are coming. Kind of crazy. I’m going to miss Hermana Olivera. We are complete opposites with personality and likes, but we really get along and we work well together. This week, I was sick Thursday and was in the room all day with a member and Hermana Olivera went out with another member to visit people. She said it was awful not having me because we depend so much on the other person. Being sick is AWFUL and I’m still recovering, we think it was food poisoning? But all I know is it was NOT fun and I HATED not being able to see our friends.

So, the cute couple I talked to you guys about a while back, Richard y Delsy, well they FINALLY came back from vacation. We have to start from step 1 all over again, but Richard still has a lot of trust in us which is the best.

Also, so Jose Luis… still progressing. He attends EVERYTHING. BUT, he said that he felt super pressured to get baptized, but that he KNOWS without a doubt that the Book of Mormon is true and he has no fear to walk around with the book in hand and talk to people about it. He said he just wants to help other people who have no hope. So we’re working with him to realize that he already knows everything he needs. He really does have a super strong testimony, so we’re listening carefully to the spirit so we can be guided in how to help him because he’s awesome! AND, he hasn’t smoked or drank this week J

We also had an inactive family come to church. We have visited them a couple of times and they NEVER come L BUT, they finally came this week! I was super excited to see them both because there have been several times when I have felt like I was there specifically to help the mom of this family.

This Saturday, Joseph is getting baptized. He is an active member… or so we thought. He’s active, but not a member. His entire family are members and he’s now 11 years old and has never been baptized.

Well, I really don’t have a lot of time. I need to move pictures around from my camera to my flashdrive. But remember that you are always in my prayers and I will have more exciting news next week.

Love,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

PS. carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Week 14: Buenas Noches... It All Began

Dear Friends and Family,

So this last week was pretty awesome. To start off, Conference was CRAZY!!!! 18 for boys and 19 for girls. WHAT???? So freaking cool. And then all of the talks I thought were the best ever. I loved every minute. Then we taught and found a lot of cool people. I wish I had time to tell you about Danny, Edwin, Marta, and all of the rest, but Jose Luis takes the cake and so you are just going to hear about him.

But to start off, last P-day, we got permission as a zone from President to watch Forever Strong. It might be my new favorite movie. We did have to apply the movie to ourselves and the investigators afterwards, but it was awesome! Watch it if you haven’t. It’s not a church movie, it’s about Rugby, but it’s great.

Well, so this past Thursday night, we were walking home after an appointment in the night. We always say goodnight to people as we pass by. We passed by a guy who was talking with his moto driver and we said ‘’Buenas Noches’’ He said ‘’Buenas Noches Hermanas, el fin del mundo se acerca.’’ Which means Goodnight, the end of the world is coming. We continued walking and started to laugh, then we felt like we should go back and talk to him. Well we found out his name was Jose Luis. We talked to him a little about why we are here. He’s a police man and loves to talk to people. He’s currently on a month of vacation and is not working. So we talked to him about how our purpose is to help people be baptized. He explained that he wanted to be baptized, but that it was nearly impossible to know where because there are SOOOOOOOOOOO many churches. Well, needless to say, since it was late, we made an appointment for the next day.

So Friday, we went by and taught him about Joseph Smith. Jose Luis loves to read and has read the Bible simply to read it, not because he has a ton of faith. He said he believes in God but hasn’t ever felt like anything has given him direction in his life. He said he loved the fact that we actually came by and that he really respected us and thought it was incredible we were so willing to just listen to him. We invited him to Conference Saturday morning. He said he would come with us.

So Saturday morning, we passed by his apartment and he was all ready to come with us! Well, so awesome! He had his Book of Mormon in hand ready  to listen to the words of the prophet. So we go to Conference. After the 1st session, he said he may come to the afternoon session but wasn’t sure. Well then we introduced him to some of the single adults in the district and then for about an hour, he was talking with them and then when he left he said, I’ll see you guys in an hour for the afternoon session! SUPER excited. Well, he came to the afternoon session and even went to the Priesthood session! Sunday, he was at the building a half hour early ready to listen. We found out that inbetween the afternoon session and Priesthood that the elders had a baptism that he attended and was reading in 2 Nephi 31 about baptism because he really felt like that’s what he needed in his life and wanted to know how to prepare for it! FREAKING AWESOME! So… basically, this guy we found Thursday night attended ALL of Conference.

Last night, we went to our appointment with him to see if he had questions about Conference. He said he had more of a confession. He said that in the church at Conference he said that he heard how we shouldn’t drink or smoke because it damages our bodies. He said that being a policeman, he sees a lot of awful things in the world and that he sometimes drinks and smokes to take his mind off of his work. He said though that he has tried to stop before and hasn’t been able to but wanted our help.

At first, my excitement kind of was shot. I was like great… this is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Addictions are TOUGH!!! Well, I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and the Atonement and what it can do for us and how through baptism, we can be clean from all of this and then have the spirit as a constant companion. It got quiet after all of that and he goes, that makes a lot of sense. I’m ready to leave this all behind. We helped him to make a plan of what to do when the temptations come. He’s super solid. When we left. I asked if I could take his cigarette box so that the temptation would be gone. He kind of laughed and said please take it! And then proceeds to hand me his ashtray too. We’ll just say that I got rid of the ashtray and cigarettes pretty quickly because that would not look so good if I were walking around with them. But he asked what he needed to do before he could be baptized and how can he help others to experience this joy also. SUPER awesome. Anyways, he said that he feels like Saturday is the date he should be baptized! So, next Monday, be excited to hear more!

Anyways, that’s about all I have for now. Oh… I did keep the cigarette box though as a reminder that to leave sins behind, we need to do all we can to eliminate the temptation and then replace it. It is the same with anything we have in our lives. Any change we want, do all in your power to eliminate the bad and then replace it with something good!

I love you all, and hope to hear from you soon! Tell me any exciting news, questions you have, or something cool you learned! It could be super short or long! But I miss hearing from some of you!

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

Carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Week 13: Que Tal

Dear Friends and Family

So to start off, I want to share a funny story. We have been teaching a little boy named Jimmy and his little brother Albeido is always with him. Jimmy is 9 and Albeido is 6. Their parents are members, but not super active in attending church. We visit their family often and have been preparing Jimmy for baptism. Well after our lesson the other day, Albeido asks if I want to see his cologn. I said Sure! So then I was explaining to Jimmy something and before I knew it, Albeido had sprayed me like 10 times with his cologne. It was pretty good smelling, but I definitely smelled like a man. Uh oh!

Then another funny story is we were teaching the 10 commandments to them with hand signs. We get to commandment number 7 (don’t commit adultry). And so I say that and Albeido and Jimmy ask what that meant. I just turned to my companion to explain and she kind of laughed and then said, it meant we need to get married when we want to live with our girlfriend. So commandment number 7 is now get married!

Then what was super awesome was Jimmy was baptized this Friday! He got up after and bore his testimony about how he was just really grateful for his grandparents who have taught him everything he knows about the gospel and for the hermanas (us) for coming and teaching him about all of his questions. Seriously this little boy is incredible and has helped his family so much. After his baptism, his mom was crying and saying how she understands now the importance of trying harder so that she can be an example for her children and help raise them with good values. What was really touching was when his grandpa was talking and saying how when he looks at Jimmy, he always sees his future, the fact that one day he can be a missionary and bring this joy to others! It’s really cool to look at people where they are right now and feel God’s love for them and see their potential of what they can become!

Jimmy, Albeido, and I - Who has the longest tongue?

Then this weekend President Cálderon came! He spoke in church and what I love is just the love you feel when he comes. I just love him and am blessed to have him as my mission president.

Then Agapito and Natalia and their daughter Diana. Diana and Natalia came to church this Sunday and LOVED it! Agapito is still really sick with dengue. But he’s progressing slowly. Natalia is just one of those people ready for everything. She was saying how she and Diana were reading the Book of Mormon before bed and talking and then were praying. After their prayer, they talked. She said it’s hard to explain but when she thinks God doesn’t exist, she just feels so unsettled, but when she thinks about him, she just feels love and peace and that after her prayer with Diana, it was the same! SUPER excited for this family to continue to grow!!

Well, that’s about it for now!  I hope everything is going great at home. Love and miss you all!

Love,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

PS. I had a conversation with someone the other day about how I was called specifically with my strengths and that I need to be willing to use those to help others. I know what I think my strengths are, but what are the things you guys have noticed that is a strength that I have?

PSS. Email me and update me on how you guys are doing carly.lang@myldsmail.net