Week 54- Life is not normal anymore

Dear Friends and Family,

 

So I don't feel like a normal missionary anymore. Just a sum of my schedule for the week. I travel tonight. I leave at like 10pm and get to Juliaca at like 3:30am. Then I get to sit in the pension of the Elders because we can't get into the apartment of the Sister missionaries in the morning. Then Tuesday I am in Juliaca. Wednesday till Friday night, I am in Puno. Then Saturday at like 5am. I get back to Cusco and have 2 days to work in my area and then next week we travel again I think.... super fun right?

 

So this week we found an awesome family. First off, THEY ARE MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!! And then they have 4 children. We taught all of them last week. It is a family that a member showed us.

 

Other exciting news is that Yaneth, Maribel, Melissa, and a few other people I found out have been baptized since I left this area before. It was such a joy to see them on Sunday and I always felt Heavenly Father's love for them, but this time, I felt His love for me! It was such a blessing really. I also saw Maria Isabel. She isn't baptized, but she is getting married in November.

 

Well, I am out of time. I have lots to get done today before we travel tonight.

 

Oh real quick. So my pentionista is super blunt but has so much love. Last Monday, we went to go eat lunch in our normal clothes and she looks at me and goes, you're not fat! I was like um.... thanks? She's like well in pants you look really good, but in a skirt, you like a little fat. Hahaha if it were anyone else, I might be a little offended, but she truly loves us so much and always tries to give us the best and keep us healthy so we can work and she does a pretty good job at it too!

 

Well, I love you all, we had interviews this week and training and we talked a lot about when we are disobedient, we are causing Christ to bleed for us. One of the commandments is to not shed innocent blood and we talked about how our disobedience is part of not shedding the innocent blood of Christ through our sins. 

 

Love you all and have a fabulous week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hermana Carly Jo Lang!!

Week 53- Back Again

Dear Friends and Family,

Hermana Praga and I

So my thoughts are ALL over the place, so I don't know how to share everything.

Well, I am back in Cusco and my old ward. It has been so fun to be able to see everyone. I felt like a super star and super loved. Everyone was like OMG it is the best news to know that you are back. It made me feel good that even though 5 months have gone by and I wasn't there that long that they still remember. Apparently my Spanish has improved too! I don't notice the difference but everyone says so! :) I won't complain.

So my new companion is Hermana Praga. She is from Lima and super LOVING. She loves to call the sister missionaries 'baby' haha It just makes me laugh. But her and I were like best friends from the start. We go through every day all day long just LOVING life. We have been called to be Sister Leaders. I am a bit nervous because it will be a lot more work than before and we have to travel far a lot but I think what is our strength as a companionship is that we are both SUPER happy people. Most of you back home are aware that I am a cheerful person and she is the exact same. So we are going to use that to our advantage to help the other sisters to feel our love and to feel the same joy and excitement about the work.

This week, well we were able to meet with Luisa's son. She was a lady I visited here 5 months ago and her son is now back from his mission! The only reason before that kept her from being baptized is that she wanted her son to baptize her... well that problem is now solved! So I am excited to tell you about her in the future.

Other exciting news. Yaneth has gotten married and baptized. Melanie too. And now my brain isn't working. But as I was talking with the other 2 sister missionaries in the ward (btw there are 6 missionaries in this ward, my companion and I, 2 other sisters, and the zone leaders) but she was telling me of all the baptisms they had and a lot of them were my investigators! I have never been happier!

Well, today I was thinking about the importance of good friends. We always talk about working with the members of the church. As missionaries, we help people to change for the better. And well, in my own life and I am sure you can all relate, your friends have a great impact on your actions. If ALL of your friends are drinking, it is almost 100% sure that you are too... If most of your friends are doing good things, then you are too. Well, if you want to help someone change from drinking, the first thing is their friends and then the habit will change almost automatically or a lot easier. Obviously if they have an addiction, it is a little bit harder, but you can eliminate a lot of temptation just by having good friends. So my companion and I have been thinking a lot about how to help our investigators really have good friends in the church so that their lifestyle automatically becomes that of someone who lives the gospel and when we live the gospel, through our actions, our faith grows and also our testimony.

Well, I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Thank you for the support.

Love
Hermana Lang

 

Week 52- Chau Puno

My zone with Pres and his wife

Dear Friends and Family,

 

My time goes by so fast so I am short on time today and I hope I can email everything that I would like to. 

 

First off is that my birthday was one of the best. Tuesday morning though we got a call saying that my companion's visa had come and that she was going to leave that night. CRAZY. I wasn't ready to be left without a companion. So the morning was spent packing. Then we went to a Zone Conference with President and Sister Harbertson. They are awesome. I really do love them and am super blessed to have them as my mission president. There we ate cake and they made me bite the cake and then shoved it in my face. It is tradition here. Then with my companion, we ran back to our area and said bye to a few people. We then had a b-day party in the house of a member with more cake. Then to the terminal to drop her off. I was now without a companion, so they sent me to stay with an Hermana in the other zone... HERMANA LOZANO (my companion from Puerto Maldonado) Her and I stayed up all night jumping on our beds and talking. It was a great way to end the birthday.

My birthday fiesta

Well, so the most exciting story I have for you this week is that we decided to visit a less active who is rather weird. I mean SUPER weird. I always leave feeling... I don't know how to explain it. Well we visited him Saturday and he said to pass for him Sunday in the morning. So, we called and he said he was going to come with his parents too!!! AND THEY CAME! They aren't members but she said you know recently, we have been thinking about joining the church of our son! Hopefully the new sisters in this area can work with them. 

 

Totorani

Anyways, I am out of time. Next week I will have more to share about my new area and everything. Love you all and thank you so much for your support.

 

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang



 

 

Week 51- I HATE COMPUTERS AND IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!!!

 Dear Friends and Family,

I have now typed this 3 times and then the computer freezes and loses my email or something happens. So I am a bit frustrated.

for my Argentine friends

First thing is that I have now been out a year. Time goes by SOOOOOOOO fast. I feel like just yesterday I was in Utah enjoying my last few days with mainly family and then a few friends and then July 5th came. I was super nervous and it was raining and I hate rain. Well now a little over a year later, I am here in Peru. I am no longer scared and I am loving life and so grateful that the Lord has sent me here because it has truly changed me!!!

This week, my companion and I put goals in the things we felt like we most needed to work on. It wasn't easy to accomplish them always, but I can truly testify that when you do your best, you are blessed. So Thursday was a good day, super busy, but we felt like we were being MORE obedient than before. Normally we say hi to everyone and some people respond and some people ignore us. Well this girl beat us to the punch and said hi first. We said hi and kept on walking because we had a destination to reach. Well I felt something and ignored it. We walked a few more steps and there it was again. So not knowing what to say and looking like a creeper, we followed this girl into a store. We then started to talk to her. The only thing I could think of was have you ever talked to missionaries before? She said no. And then we asked super directly if she had a few minutes to share with her. She said yeah. Give me 2 minutes. So then we went to her house and there was a whole bunch of commotion so we went outside in the sun!! There we got to know her and asked about her relationship with God. She told us that she wanted to get closer to God and that she had never been baptized and wanted to be baptized but didn't know where. WHAT? Her name is Keiko. So we talked with her a few minutes and invited her to church. She came and loved it!!! Tomorrow (MY BIRTHDAY...btw) we have an appointment with her!

Well, I am out of time because of computer problems, but I love you all and hope you have a fabulous week. Oh, I have a question that you can all answer for me! How do you help someone who has absolutely no hope?

Love Always,

Hermana Lang



charcas

charcas



Week 50- Don't get your O's and A's mixed up... and it's cold outside, right?

Dear Friends and Family,

So a few things this week. First of all, the girl assistants came to visit us. It was awesome! We had NO clue they were going to come and it was super fun to be with them. We worked our butts off and I am surprised we had enough to do because we had only planned for 1 companionship, not 2. But we found a lot of people that we hadn't been able to contact. One of which was a less active family... well kind of. The mom is the only member and now doesn't live there. But we talked with her son Marcos. We talked to him for about 5 minutes to get to know him because he was short on time to get to classes. We then asked him what he thought about baptism. He said that he had gone to church a few years ago but that he really wanted to be baptized! So we challenged him to prepare to be baptized the 20th of July! What a miracle. The only trouble now is finding out when he has time that we can visit him. He was only home that day because it was a day off from school.

Paty and Milagros at their baptism

Next is that Paty and Milagros got baptized on Saturday. It turned out really beautiful. They met the missionaries last October and have been begging for permission from their Dad ever since. Well, he finally said yes and has even said things like I think I may want to come to church too! He thanked us a lot for helping his daughters.

Well, here you go. O's and A's. So we met a young mom the other day and she says that she has gemelOs (twins) and an older daughter. Well, I didn't listen well enough and looked at the 2 year old twins and definitely thought they were girls, so the WHOLE time, I was saying how nice it was to have hijAs and then all of my adjectives ended in A... because obviously I thought they were all girls... OOPS. When we left, my companion had to fill me in that they were boys. I felt SOOOOOOoo awful but luckily I am a white girl and can blame it on the fact that I don't speak Spanish well and it was an accident? We'll go with that excuse even though I definitely have learned that part of the grammar, I just honestly thought they were girls.

A little social lesson about Peru. A lot of the people here don't have the same social skills. The other day, I realized that a lot of the people, if they want to start a conversation, they talk about the weather... and then continue talking about the weather for 30 minutes. I am not sure how, but it is quite a talent. Well, I pointed it out to my companion and now every time that someone starts a conversation with ''it's cold outside, right?'' we just look at each other and smile, trying hard not to laugh.

So story of the week. Maribel. She is 21 years old and got baptized 2 years ago. Her mom was the one who introduced her to the missionaries, but something happened and her mom now hates the church and we have no idea why. Well Saturday night, we are sleeping in our room and something knocks on the door below. We look down and there is Maribel at 11pm. So we opened the door and let her in. She was crying. She had left her house because her mom made her throw her scriptures in the trash and wanted her to burn them. So she came to our house asking if she could stay with us. Well, she had been my mini missionary before for a week so of course we didn't mind. Well, when she told us, I had no clue what to say. I was just in shock. She then tells us that she was so grateful for the church because it's true that it didn't really matter what had happened. She was more upset about her scriptures than the situation. Well, we went to church Sunday and then she was going to talk to her mom in the afternoon. I still have no idea how that went, but she is an amazing example to me of someone who is truly converted. I hope that I never have to pass trials like Maribel but that I can have the same conviction as she does that this really is the true church that I know it to be!

Well, I hope you all have a fabulous 4th of July. Enjoy the fireworks for me. They're my favorite!!! And send me love for my birthday next Tuesday!!!!!!!!

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang



 Hermana Parraga (one of the assistents... This is her 3rd
transfer and she is SUCH an awesome missionary) and I