The Load

Familia:

What a week! Actually, better said, what a transfer! That´s right, six weeks have come and gone yet again. My sources tell me that I am going to stay here, and it sounds like a good plan to me, although I would be happy to get transferred out of Iquitos. My biggest fear would be getting a transfer inside of Iquitos. I guess I will know in a couple hours!

I wish that we wrote at the END of P-Day because that´s almost always when the good stuff happens.  Last week, we went out into the deep, uninhabited part of the Jungle and it was SO great. I love living here.  We took a bus out of the city and went hiking and exploring over by our Patriarch´s fish farm. I wish I would have had a camera! You wouldn’t believe all that I saw. Crazy spiders, little red poison dart frogs, and those really huge hairy ants that you see in National Geographic. AMAZING. I feel like an official Jungle Woman now. 

We cooked chicken over a fire and ate it using leaves for plates and eating rice with our hands. Also, I hit a big Jungle Milestone: I can officially drink coconut milk without a straw! I knocked down, cut open, and drank my coconut right out of the shell just like a true native. I´ll admit, it was pretty impressive! Add that to my list of fleas and Parasites and eating turtle and crocodile and I think I just need Dengue to be an official Jungle Woman…but I´d rather avoid that one.

I was grateful for such a good P-Day because, honestly, the rest of the week was rough.  One Hermana got sent home on emergency because she was starting to go blind, and it left her poor, new companion really scarred and stressed. Some of my best converts fell into problems with the Word of Wisdom and it really hurt to see it, but I know we´re going to help them climb back up—coffee is a LOT easier to deal with than Alcohol! Another sister has been facing problems with depression. A lot of people that were progressing just randomly stopped going to church and don´t want to get Baptized. I saw how I had kind of neglected to visit the sisters in one of my zones, and not a single one of them were able to Baptize last month and they feel really bad and I can’t help but feel a little responsible. 

The worst part has been a sister that is struggling with some really scary stuff, something along the lines of Schizophrenia and I can´t even describe the sleepless nights, the fear, the Psychologist visits. I was really starting to feel a heavy load with all these things, even though they may seem small. It reminded me of the times that I would watch Mom or Dad face problems with work, kids, school, money, family, Anxiety, health, and everything and I could just see the weight on their shoulders. That´s how I was feeling!

With all of these happening, my companion and I lost a lot of work time and I was stressed out. Friday night, as I looked at how few lessons we´d have and how few people we´d been able to find, I remembered what I learned last week about being constant and decided that we still needed to meet the goals that we set. Saturday, we found some awesome members that worked with us all day long so that we could do divisions. We worked as hard as humanly possible, but at the end of the day we were able to see some serious results and see how many people we were able to help by deciding to remain constant even with the time we lost. It was amazing! We were able to see the rewards of our hard work when we saw how many people came to church.

 The best part was when the Bishop announced the Baptism that we are going to have on Sunday, a man named Orlando, Orlando stood up and smiled and was waving at everyone, almost TOO excited for his Baptism. About three months ago, I knocked on Orlando´s door and he slammed it in my face and said he didn´t want anything to do with us. What a change!

I guess my last little thought is about the Temple. A few weeks ago, a family in the ward did a Fundraiser to try and go to the Temple in Lima to be sealed as a family and pick up their son from his mission. They worked so hard and had everything ready to go.  They were supposed to leave on Sunday, and I was confused when I saw the husband on Tuesday. I asked him when he was going to the Temple and he just looked up and said, with a brave smile “Someday, Hermana Simonson. We´ll get there some day.” My heart almost broke. 

They weren´t able to get the funds together even after doing EVERYTHING they could. If I could just beg the world (especially my family) to do two things they would be share the Gospel, and go to the Temple. I took the Temple so for granted before the mission. I had always heard stories before about people that have to sacrifice so much to go to the Temple and how we need to take more advantage of the Temples close to us. Hearing is one thing. Seeing it and living? So heartbreaking, so guilt-tripping, but oh, so inspiring!

For a long time, I thought that my call to this Mission had to do with my love for adventure and outdoors and craziness, but I finally understand better. It is for my incredible love that I feel for the Temple.  This mission has a huge purpose: A Temple in Iquitos. Our backpacks and wallets have pictures of a Temple in the Jungle and it motivates me a ton.  I so badly want these people to have this amazing blessing that we have.

The Temple is a huge motivator for me, but there is also another thing that really keeps me going. I´ve reached a milestone in the mission, a new nametag! Mine was so dead from repellent and son and dirt and it was almost unreadable. When I got the new one, I thought about what I wanted to put on the inside to motivate me. 

The last one was great, the inside had an American flag, a sticker that a little girl in Tarapoto gave me, a sticker from the MTC, and I had carved Elder Simonson´s initials the day he entered the MTC. Now, as I looked at the new nametag I thought about what most motivated me, the answer came fast. Now, the inside of my nametag has a picture of 5 (slightly angry) kinds laying in leaves in Layton, Utah. My brothers. If anything motivates me, it´s the promise that I felt in my heart when I watched Finding Faith in Christ and heard the Savior´s voice whisper kindly “Thy brother shall raise again.”  

 You should know that on those days that I don’t feel like getting up on time or start to feel tired or that I don’t care, I just think of how much I want to bless my family and how I know that they will be blessed according to my obedience. I know that the Savior´s promises are real. Now, every day that I get ready and I put that sacred nametag on, I see the faces of four of the most important people in the world to me, and I wear them over my heart all day long, knowing that I can make as big of a difference in their lives as I can in the people here.

 Love you all so much! Love this work. Love my Savior, and I love His church.

Hermana Simonson

Purpose

February 3, 2014

Well, my body has a new latest addition: Parasites. So, that's been a lot of fun!

This week really taught be a lesson about the importanc of being constant and consistent always. My companion got sick and went to the Hospital and couldn't work for three days, but I really just wanted to remain consistent with our lessons and everything, so Idecided to go out and work with a member every day and, in the end, we did better this week than last week!

It really helped me to realize that there are no excuses and that we can always find a way to keep the work rolling forward. In the end, we found out that while I was out working alone and my companion was resting because she was sick with Parasites, I had Parasites the whole time as well.

At first I wanted to get a little mad about it, but I just decided to turn it around and be grateful that Heavenly Father helped make me strong enough to be constant and not put a pause on His work.

This weekend was one of the absolute best weekends of my mission. We were able to Baptism a complete family: Father, Mother, and Child. It was incredibly beautiful. This family´s Baptism has been one of the craziest journeys of my mission. 

One thing that I've learned on the mission has been the importance of being bold and honest. I had a really bad habit of just avoiding EVERYTHING before my mission. I didn't like conflict and I would just hide everything and never said how I felt.  The mission has taught me to really stand up for what I believe, but sometimes I think I get a little carried away with that!

 Anyway, when we first got to this area, someone gave us the reference of the Familia Pinedo, and we got there and they let us in, but didn't want to do anything. We went back for the second appointment and they weren't there. So, I decided I had no interest in visiting them again and left it at that.

 About a month ago, we were out of Plan A, B, C, and D, and we were close by their house, so my companion suggested that we visit them again. I figured why not and they let us in and the wife (okay, I guess girlfriend would be the right term) started talking about how she wanted to get married but her husband didn't care and how he is never going to change and all this stuff.

We decided to start talking about the Law of Chastity and invited them to be married and Baptized and the husband just made a big joke out of everything.  I saw how badly the wife really wanted to get married and Baptized and I was just filled with so much love for her.

That love, my testimony of the commandments, and the fact I had already had a tough day weren't the best combination and when he said that he wanted to wait another year I asked him if he was sure he wanted to keep living in serious sin for another year and said something about the Final Judgment. That shut him up. The jokes stopped and he realized we were serious. They accepted the invitation to pray about wedding and Baptism, and little by little, miracles occurred.

They accepted Baptism and went to Church the next Sunday. The following week, the didn't show up to Church and we went to go get them and found the husband, Oldair, alone in the house saying that she left and that they're not going to get married or Baptized. He told us she left to her Mom's house and that she wasn't going to go to Church.

So, we went to her Mom's house and, long story short, a member went inside and got her out of bed, I said a few words with the same boldness and the family ended up at church and that night signed their wedding papers.

Sitting in the Baptism, I almost couldn't believe the changes that this family had made. We had all been through so much together. My companion started to cry and we both felt the Spirit so strong. Sitting there made me reflect so much on my purpose here. The family is SO important and watching a whole family make this decision together was so special.

I really started to have a better understanding of my purpose here. I reflected on the last year or so of my life and how it all played out so that I could be there in that moment.

I didn't understand why, in the middle of my run on an October Saturday morning, I felt extremely prompted to get back to my apartment right away. I didn't understand why, right when I opened the door, I heard the Prophet's voice talking about Missionary Work.

 I didn't understand why the age was changed to 19, and I REALLY didn't understand why I felt incredibly obligated by the Spirit to go right away. I didn't understand why I was called to the Lima North Mission, or why that call was changed to the Iquitos Mission.

 I didn't understand why my Visa didn't come for so long. I didn't understand why I was sent to Tarapoto, and later I didn't understand why I was put on a plane and shipped out of Tarapoto.

There is so much I don't understand, but I do understand that I am EXACTLY where I need to be right now. That Baptism strengthened my testimony of that so much. It wasn't easy to go through the whole process of getting here. It wasn't easy leaving everything behind. It is not easy to have responsibilities that I didn't want or ask for.

It isn't easy living in the Jungle and having to deal with everything from Fleas to cold water to Parasites, but this weekend made me realize, again, that it is so incredibly worth it. It is hard, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Love you tons!

Have a great week!

Hermana Simonson

Book of Mormon Stories

January 27, 2014
 I am so incredibly frustrated with my Internet right now I can’t even think of what to write. So, that’s fun! Gotta love Jungle Interent, I’ve been waiting an hour for the page to load and it still hasn’t loaded, and my times almost up so I’m just writing in Word to copy and paste later but I still don’t know what you all said to me so I don’t know what to write… Okay, I just bet I’ll give some random thoughts then.


This week was a pretty big eye opener for me. Training my companion, who is new the church, has been a good experience. I had lots of things that I didn’t think would be a problem for me on the mission. I mean, I never thought I would have to explain to my companion that she can’t drink hot tea or that her clothes have to cover her Garments and things like that. And, I’ll be honest, I’m not always as patient as I should be, but I usually do a pretty good job of not showing my frustration. Anyway, I think that she sensed a little bit of my frustration after one of the lessons because she never says anything when we start talking about the Book of Mormon and she gets really really tense and the investigators look at her like she’s crazy.

Anyway, as we started walking home she asked me if she could tell me something and I told her of course and she said “I’ve never actually read the Book of Mormon.” I was super surprised because usually it’s a requirement to fill out your papers, and then you normally read it again in the MTC. She told me about how her Bishop never asked her about it and she tried to read it in the MTC but she got bored or confused and started over again or stopped trying.

 Anyway, she just started telling me about the things that she understood about it (most of them came from the movie the Testaments) and she said from what she understood the Book starts in 1 Nephi when Christ dies in Jerusalem and Jacob is when He appears in America. I explained her how it starts in the Old Testament times and explained how there is Jacob son of Lehi and Jacob son of Ammaron and which one is in the movie and all that stuff. It was cool to really go so deep into the Book of Mormon (since we NEVER go into that much detail with investigators) and strengthen my Testimony more and more of such a life changing book.

 We went and visited some members this week that are preparing to go through the temple. Can I just say that the members here are amazing? Our ward is super tiny, but somehow we have seven missionaries out in the field, most of them are new converts with absolutely nothing.

Anyway, this family has two missionaries out in the field, one son and one daughter. The daughter has been sick and I listened as her mom just cried and cried and talked about how incredibly worried she is for her but she doesn’t ever let her daughter know she’s worried because she knows that she’s where she needs to be. It touched my heart a lot. I realized how amazing Missionary Parents are. I think that the only thing harder than leaving everything behind to teach the Gospel in a foreign land is watching your kid going out and doing it. It made me think a lot about the amazing parents that I have that support me completely in being here even though I am sure they sometimes feel just like that sister that we visited.

 We had some great lessons this week. We have a family that I just love SO much that is going to get Married and Baptized this week and I am so excited! I just love giving these people all that I have.

 I love you so much!

 Have a great week. Hermana Simonson

Peruvian Parents

January 20, 2014

Am I the only missionary in the world that misses her own baptisms? Because it happened AGAIN this week!  It’s all part of the craziness that is the Mission Field!

I know I talk a lot about the things that happen to me with the sisters, but it really has become one of the main focuses I have. Anyway, I’ve had one Sister that has been pretty sick for awhile and Saturday morning I got to the Church early to get my baptism ready, and she was there sitting in her baptism and was completely red and shaky and I touched her forehead and couldn’t believe how hot she was.

Long story short, they ended up asking me to take her to the hospital since I have all the insurance information and have kind of become the designated translator.

I left my poor companion in the baptism and she was scared to try and direct it, but
everything turned out okay.

Anyway, we get to the hospital and they gave her an IV and did chest X-Rays and blood tests and a bunch of things because of her fever. Then, they came in and saw how her clothes were covered in sweat and asked me if I had brought her a change of clothes…okay? No, I didn’t even think of that. So, the doctor looks at me and says “give her your clothes then, she’s going to get worse if she’s wet.”  So they made us change clothes and I just laughed and told her “I hope you realize that I love you so much that I am putting on your wet, sweaty clothes!” It was pretty funny.

Sometimes it’s easy to get bummed when your big plans for the day get changed and you randomly end up in the hospital with sweaty clothes, but I just always try to remember that we promise to use ALL of our talents for the building up of the kingdom of God…even the dumb talents like knowing Spanish Medical Terms and Church Insurance Information!

Other than that, things have been normal:  people, lessons, ups, downs, ants in my rice, broken arm jokes, and so on and so forth. I was laughing last night as I reflected on my week and thought about how “parented” I feel at times.

The whole room experience wasn’t the end of that story! I got out of the shower Tuesday morning to randomly find Hermana Gómez (the Mission Wife) sitting on my bed waiting for me. She came to check up on a few things and give us another chance to pass the room inspections. J I love it. A woman with a whole mission to take care of and she still finds time to come see if Hermana
Simonson made her bed in the morning.

You’d think it would bug me, but I actually love it, I feel more at home. It’s been pretty funny because they have a 19-year-old daughter that I made really good friends with back in the Tarapoto days when I was the only Sister her age in the mission. Now that she’s back from school and living with her parents here in Iquitos, she’s been coming with us to do splits with me or help us teach and things like that, so it’s not weird for me to come back to my house and find Hermana Gomez waiting outside of my door and things like that.

The other night, she started messing with my posture and told me I’d look skinnier if I stood up straight and that I need to put up my chest more and then made a joke about me not having a chest and I just about died of laughter because it was SO something that my mom always said and did.

Also, I don’t know if I have ever mentioned Lulú in my letters, but she’s basically my
Peruvian Mom. If I show up at her house, I can’t leave without her making me shine my shoes, eat fruits, and let her give me a massage if I look stressed.  She’s SO great!

Anyway, their family went to Lima to take out their Endowments a few weeks ago, and they just barely got back and she got right back into taking care of me.

Then, the other day my District Leader told me I need to eat more fruits because I have a lot of zits (result of the pills I have) and I just about died.

Well mom, somehow your influence makes it all the way to Perú! I love it.  J

I just love the experiences that I have here. The people win my heart a little bit more each day.  I can call a member and they are there right away. Their faith is amazing. I wish you could feel of their Spirit.

Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Simonson

January Photos

Elder Jake Powell's twin Baptized Rosa on the 21st.
She was the sweet grandma that I drug to church in the rain....

This is Alejandrina. She was Baptized while I was in the hospital with Malaria.
 My oldest convert: 89 years old!

Our zone's Soccer Jerseys for this month...this foto was taken just minutes after the famous broken arm.

 Christmas Morning "Futbol" with the zone.

Helenci's Baptism! What a beautiful family.

Jhuly's Baptism! The one that almost fell through at the last minute made it into the water
and is doing great right now.

This picture was found by Hermana Price's mom and sent to us on Facebook :)

Una Semana Mas

Here is Meg's latest letter.  She is struggling with anxiety and has been for a couple of months now.  I know she would love and appreciate any prayers you are willing to say on her behalf to help give her strength to keep serving during this time. Thanks so much for so many of your kinds words about her letters and how much you enjoy reading them.  She is an amazing missionary and we are so very proud of her! 

January 13, 2014

¡Hola Familia!

It’s been one fast and crazy week! Sometimes I feel like the craziest things in life only happen to me. This week was a big one: Interviews with President Gomez and Room Inspections with Hermana Gomez. It´s always the same, we get the room super spotless the night before, we put on our best clothes and get to the Church at least 20 minutes early and all that fun stuff. Well, let’s just say it didn’t happen like that this time around!

The night before, our District Leader informed us that the Assistants would kill him if they saw that we didn’t have our Mosquito Nets up when Hermana Gómez came and that it didn’t matter if we didn’t have the structure to get them up, we could just tape them to the ceiling with string. So, that’s how we spent the next morning. I tried hanging them up by stacked our beds up on ton of each other and jumping up and down several times to get each corner where it needs to go.  While I was getting all this done (it took about an hour) my companion was happily getting ready and getting pretty and organizing her stuff and shining her shoes. I wasn’t too worried about getting those things done because I knew that we still had three hours until interviews and two hours until Room Inspections.

When I finally got ready to get in the shower, my phone rings so I leave the bathroom to answer it and I hear my Zone Leader yelling in my ear (have I mentioned that I miss my old ZL’s?) saying that President was waiting for me and that our Interviews started five minutes ago. I just about died.

Without showering or anything, I threw some clothes on and started putting on Make Up that I couldn’t find and then trying to find my Area Book and I ended up throwing things from place to place trying to get ready in a hurry. Again, I didn’t worry about it because maybe my Interview was earlier than I thought, but I still had several hours before Room Inspections and I could get things back in order quickly.

We get to the Church and see one Zone Leader and one Assistant waiting for us very impatiently. Luckily, President was as happy as ever and told us not to worry about the confusion. When that was all over, we rushed to our house to get things in order but, with our luck, found Hermana Gomez with the other Assistant and the other Zone Leader already there waiting for us.

As we entered the house, our mosquito nets had half fallen and the tape string and scissors were sitting there on my bed, showing that we obviously have been without Mosquito nets for six weeks, which is a sin here in the mission!

To make it worse, they all saw my makeup thrown all over my desk, a bra on the floor, etc. etc. We thought we’d be in trouble, but Hermana Gomez just laughed as we explained what happened that morning and then gave me a tiny, but well deserved, talking to about how the example of all the Hermanas should be more organized. So  true.

 As she looked over the room and saw how tiny it was, she called the Elders over to where we were and said. “Listen. You didn’t know this, but Hermana Simonson suffers from Anxiety and sometimes can’t sleep at night. The best thing she can do for Panic Attacks is breathe, but how is she going to breathe if she lives in a tiny room without windows?” I turned super red, realizing that the big secret was out. The good thing is, we all ended up laughing in the end! It was stinking hilarious, but maybe you had to be there. 

My District Leader, Elder Muñoz, just about died of laughter as we told him the story and he said “Do you realize what you just did in the last few weeks? You went from Hermana Simonson, the really happy one that speaks perfect Spanish and is an expert trainer and area opener and is the first 19 year old sister in Perú and became Sister Leader with only 7 months etc. etc. to Hermana Simonson, the one that broke an Elder’s arm, doesn’t care about her Interviews with President, has a messy room, has panic attacks, etc.” It made me laugh.

As far as the Anxiety goes, I know you want the story and the details. I had written you about some stress problems the end of November but kind of left it at that. Well, the first week in December (now that I think of it, it was on Dad’s Birthday) my Alarm went off after a sleepless night. I was a little shaky and I remember just feeling super weak and sad and without desires to work. I had been like that for a while, but this time it was scaring me.

We went to give some papers to Elder Muñoz and I had to swallow my pride and ask for a blessing again, even though the same thing had happened just a week before, but this time it was worse. He let us inside and asked me what was wrong and I explained everything and how I hadn’t gotten better.

He just looked me in the eyes and said, among other things, “You are an excellent missionary.” Something about that phrase just stabbed me in the heart and I started to tear up a bit, I didn’t realize how badly I had needed to hear those words.  He offered his companion to give the blessing so that it could be in English.

They put their hands on my head and then his companion (the one that looks like Jake Powell) stopped in the middle of my name and said “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand anything, will you explain everything in English, you guys were talking really fast.”

 I turned around and started telling him everything, but the thing about talking in English is that it comes more directly from the heart and it feels so much more real. Plus, it didn’t help that, with the tears blurring my eyes, it looked as if I was telling these things to one of my best friends from the good old days.

After the blessing, Elder Muñoz told me that, he knew I wouldn’t like it, but he was going to have to call the zone leaders (this was back in the days of Elder Cruz.) Elder Cruz was there before I knew it, and made me call President, which I was just not up for, it seemed too scary! But, President was really concerned and told me to come to his office that same day to see what we could do. I spent about an hour alone with him and his wife and it was like talking with two concerned parents.

 The next day, Hermana Gomez did a few tests on my heart rate, blood sugar, and things like that. She gave me some vitamins and natural anxiety pills (she doesn’t want to get the Prescription stuff out if we don’t have to, and I’m right there with her). Things have been a lot better and I have been keeping a Journal of the Attacks and I am in good contact with Hermana Gomez and everything is getting better little by little.

The best cure has been my love for this work and the Lord, He carries me through everything. Sometimes, I swear I can just feel him here with me.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you the story so you can have all the details, and all so to show you how incredibly well I am being taken care of here. I really have been blessed by the angels that I was promised when I was set apart!

Other than the crazy room inspections and everything, it was a great week. We set new records this week with our number of lessons and the number of people that came to Church. It was such an amazing miracle!! Of course, for every up, comes a down.

When we left several families in Church to go find one of the Families that we’ve been teaching since we got here and that had a Baptismal date (the same one that we found out she was a member, it turned out it was a fake Record of her baptism and we reset the date…lots of drama!) and the mom just opened the curtains and said “I can’t go to church today, and I’m not going to get Baptized anymore.”

We went back and forth for a little bit and it ended in a lot of Heartbreak because of the love I have for this family, but in the end, we were able to be positive and focus more on the new families gained than the one family lost. In the end, everything is worth it!

Love you!

Hermana Simonson

Coached

January 6, 2013

What a week! Monday afternoon brought the Transfer Meeting again and I was ready. SO ready. I so badly wanted to open an area again and train again. I love it SO much! The meeting came and there I was, ready to do it all over again. The changes were announced and guess who was called to train and open an area? Not me! Hermana Dickey, my “hija!” I was excited for her, but when I realized that I wouldn't be getting transferred I was a little sad. Train and Open Areas every transfer is all I have done since I left Tarapoto and it was all I wanted to do for my whole mission. I started thinking that because my Anxiety Issues maybe President decided I couldn't keep opening areas or that I hadn't taught my companion enough or something like that. It was a bummer! I felt like it was the middle of the championship game and I had just been benched and looked up thinking “But why? I was doing so good!”

Okay, let’s be honest. Technically I am still training and opening an area. Training lasts two transfers and opening an area lasts as many as three or four at times, but, expecting that I would only be there for one transfer like last time, I accelerated everything and did all of the 12 Week Program in six weeks. I guess now we’ll just use our extra study hour to do more practices.

Anyway, as I let myself feel incapable and a little sorry for myself, I talked to another Sister Leader from another part and she told me that she hadn't been transferred either. Later, it was explained to us that Sister Leaders won’t be doing a whole lot of crazy area openings and things like that anymore because the tone of our mission has changed and our focus was to help the other sisters and we couldn't have a huge weight in our own areas. We were given a new list of responsibilities. Now, I have to spend at least 2 days a week out of my area doing a “work visit” with other sisters to see how I can help them in their areas. I have to keep visiting the Baptism dates that the sisters have, do interviews, obedience checks, etc.

It wasn't being completely taken out of the game. It was more like being a player that moved on to supervise. I wasn't benched…I was coached. My focus is now more of helping others have success and open areas and train and doing less of it myself. At first I was bummed. I remember thinking “Why don’t I just give the dumb leadership binder back to the offices so that they can send me out into the deep jungle with a newby to keep opening areas?”

But, little by little, I started to get a better attitude. We had the Leadership Council again (another month has already passed!) and I realized that, whether I believe it or not, I can make a better difference in the position I am than in the place I want to be. It was cool to see how one little idea that I had ended up becoming a lasting Mission Standard of Excellence. I also saw how not opening an area right now has helped me to actually work in several as I go out to work in different areas. It’s not exactly the preferred role that I would like to have right now, but I am trying to be happy and make the best of it.

This has also helped me to see how God’s promises have been fulfilled in my mission. I have seen how my experiences and trials have been able to bless all of the sweet new sisters that I work with. It would be easy to get frustrated and not answer when the call me with a bazillion questions or because they’re sad or stressed or sick or don’t know what to do. But, wanna know who keeps me in line when I’m tempted to shut down? I just try to think of a scared 19 year old girl in Tarapoto down on her knees crying her eyes out. Her body had broken out in some foreign rash and her leaders were on their way to take her to the Hospital that scared her to death. She didn’t understand a word that was said to her and she was convinced that she never would. She missed her family and friends. She wanted to go home more than anything. She asked the one English Speaker that she knew to give her a blessing and she was promised that all the experiences she was having would be for her good and for the good of many others.

I never, ever thought that I would come out of that place that I found myself in when I first got here. I cannot believe how much I have grown in this time. I didn't understand how my trials (which seemed absolutely unbearable in that time) would help me AND others, but now I see them everyday. The mission really is a “Refiner’s Fire” like I learned so long ago, but it is so worth it. SO worth it. If I have to step back a little bit to share my experiences with others, it is worth it. “Not my will, but thine be done!”

We had a beautiful Baptism on Saturday. We've been teaching Helenci (Rosa’s daughter) for awhile now but it was hard to get her to really accept Baptism. Her husband and kids are all members and seeing her Mom’s Baptism helped encourage her to want to do the same thing. Her husband came up to us after the service and told us “Thank you for completing my family.” It was so sweet. He was inactive for a long time, and now the whole family is strong in the Gospel. It was so sweet. Oh the people here, oh how I just love them. Members, Converts, Investigators, Other Missionaries, Companions, people in the street, everything. I love it!!!!!!!!!

Hermana Simonson