Stirring up trouble 10-13-14

#bestweekofthemission!

...#sofar

AH I wish I could tell you all of the downright unbelievable things that have happened in these past six days! Maybe I'll try to sum it all up quickly.

Monday we found out that Hermana Kim was leaving, so we had a little farewell Family Home Evening for her with some of the members in the nighttime. I was pretty darn sad because I love her SO much but I knew that she would go on to do bigger and better things. :)

And I was right! Tuesday was transfers and Hermana Kim was called to train a gringa! Yay! And my good pal Elder Larsen, as I predicted some good time ago, was called to be the new Assistant. And I was called to stay here in San Diego and tear it up with my new companion Hermana Paredes! She is from Cochabamba, Bolivia, has 3 transfers in the field and is the daughter of Hermana Aliaga, one of the sister trainers. Let me just tell ya...

She is powerful.

I feel like she is retraining me and it's the BEST! Hahaha I probably seem like such an underachiever in my letters. I am at least near average, thank you very much.

Anyway, so we got home and got to finding and teaching. We have found new investigators every day and our total for this week was 16. It seemed like families were just appearing out of nowhere! We left the established goal of 10 daily contacts in the dust and I realized that when we pray with faith and act according to the guidance we receive, the Lord truly does put many people in our path who He has prepared to receive the gospel. He puts them there because He knows that we will listen when He tells us to talk to them. And then we do and He puts more right around the corner! So sometimes it took us like 10 minutes just to walk a 100-yard stretch to get to an appointment.

Then we had a stake conference (STILL haven't seen General Conference but it's a-comin' this weekend for us!) and it was so incredibly inspiring! We have some seriously amazing members and leaders in our stake. My companion and I both received a lot of personal revelation and revelation for our area and it helped us to work even harder.

I have not felt such exhaustion in a very, very long time. My feet have probably never ached so ardently, and I have likely never felt such strange random pains before. From time to time I realize that I am dying of hunger because we're working so hard I literally forget to eat! But 

I 

AM
SO 

HAPPY!

I told Hermana Paredes our first day together that she is going to kill me. She laughed and said "Okay, great! I'm so excited!" I was referring to ending my mission...but I think she had a little something else in mind.

She's already become such a close friend as well. How blessed I have been! They say your missionary companions prepare you for your spouse...I think my husband might be schizophrenic. I have had quite a variety of companions. But all in all, I'm going to be one lucky girl.

#stillnottrunkypromise

Well...I'm going to leave it at that because I need to go save the world! I love you all so much! Read the words of Nephi!

Hermana Hewitt

Few are chosen 10-6-14

Yesterday was a day without the sacrament! Ah qué dolor! I still love my darling Perú. I just fail to understand why the entire country has to break the Sabbath. And what's more is that we weren't allowed to watch General Conference. Furthermore, our stake decided to have Stake Conference next week and so we still won't see it! Anyway. I'm not going to talk about it. Just pray that little hermana Hewitt doesn't lose her marbles. :)

During my entire mission I have not had the opportunity to share a district with an elder or sister who was in the last transfer of his or her mission. A zone, yes, but a district, no. Until this transfer! Elder Payne finished his mission training and in such a short time we got to learn so much from his incredible example. He is a teacher and a humble, righteous person and seeing him leave has made me contemplate the changes that a well-served, consecrated mission has on a young person.

Elder Gillies' first baptism and Elder Payne's last. IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL.

My mom and I have always been real connected. It's kinda weird. (Love you Mom.) I read today an email that she had written earlier, reminding me to read D&C 121:34-46 and lo and behold, that was the focus of one of my personal studies last week! My companion and I discussed the difference between being "called" and being "chosen," and we talked about how to BE one of the chosen. I would strongly advise you to read those verses. 

And then, as I said my prayers last night after a somewhat difficult day (LOTS of contacting and very little teaching), I felt the clear impression to open up my Book of Mormon to Alma. I read Alma 41 and was surprised that I had never noticed so many important principles there. This morning I read Alma 41 again, and again, and again...and again. Each time I read through the chapter I wrote down impressions that came to my mind and principles taught. There were many, but I just want to share one that is directly related to the passage in Doctrine and Covenants 121.

As children of God who chose to follow His plan and come to the earth to live, we made a righteous decision. When we chose to be baptized, we made a righteous decision. When we choose to enter the temple, to serve a mission, to be married and sealed together as families, we make righteous decisions. We have desires to work with God, and thus we are called (D&C 4). But those who are CHOSEN are those who CHOOSE to make righteous decisions every single day - in every situation, in every relationship, in every thought. We were created to act and not be acted upon, which I think I have mentioned previously.

There are relatively few individuals in this world who will choose to follow the Savior every single time they are called to do so. There are relatively few who will choose to have faith in Him, to repent, to be baptized, to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and stay true to those covenants and principles for the rest of their lives. They are those who endure to the end and do it well. They are the chosen.

Elder Payne was one of those missionaries who endured to the end of his mission and did it really, really well. Every missionary who receives the call has the opportunity to decide if they will be one of the chosen. Likewise, every child of God who comes to this earth to be tested has the exact same decision to make.

Will you choose to be one of the chosen?

Your choice. :)

Hermana Hewitt

 Best friends! P.S. I cut myself some bangs. They don't always look that bad.

Working Happy 9-29-14 (pics at the end)

First off, I should probably apologize for not explaining last week that the picture was of me and a recent convert, Carmen. She is the best convert I have ever seen!

We are STILL struggling to get people to come to church. I have honestly never dealt with such difficulty in this key indicator in my whole mission! It's unbelievable! But I have scouted out ideas from smart friends and we have new plans to make it happen. The only sad part is that because of voting, there is no church this week in Perú! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! We can't see General Conference yet! Well maybe. We're still checking on that.

Sometimes I write little "To-Do" notes for myself when I am a mother, based on things I see here in Perú. One I wrote with a star by it the other day: "Do not allow your kids to be YouTube video addicts." Enough said.

So Presidente challenged the whole mission to come up with ten new finding techniques each week. My comp and I had been thinking of a few different ones before, but hadn't really broken out of the routine of street contacting and knocking doors and asking for references. But we decided to follow the voice of our noble leader and spent some extra time thinking of ten techniques. We talked about it in district meeting as well and decided to start doing weekly district activities to find. So this week we sang hymns in the San Diego outdoor market. It was an interesting experience...Elder Payne was teaching us deep doctrine between each hymn and my lungs were on fire, but we made it.

The best part is that we got some references from that activity! We went and were able to find one of them last night. His name is Felix and he was at first a little confused as to why Elder McAllister wasn't at his door (he was the one who contacted him) but he listened to us and I was surprised at how quickly he absorbed our words. Because his family wasn't there we couldn't go in and have a full lesson, but we set up another appointment. We were about to leave and I felt so strongly that I should give him a Book of Mormon, so I pulled one out of my bag and put a bookmark in 2 Nephi 31. We explained to him the purpose of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read and he just held it in his hands and grinned, nodding his head and telling us that he was going to start reading right away. 

President's the best. He knows everything. I will say it again and again.

Hahaha we went to buy bread the other day at the panadería by our house and the lady gave us an extra piece because apparently we're the "regulars." AWE MAN WE ARE WHAAAAAALES

In other news, we contacted a woman and set up a return appointment for Saturday in the morning. When we got to her house we heard "Rolling in the Deep" playing...but it was not Adele singing. It was karaoke! At 11 in the morning! We hesitantly rang the doorbell and the music continued without vocals. Then the volume was turned down. About a minute later, the same woman opened the door in her pajamas. She immediately apologized and said she was unbelievably occupied with homework and paperwork that she needed to finish right away, but that we could maybe come back later.

Look, I know I'm smiling, but that doesn't mean I believe you.

We just left giggling and hoping she gets all her paperwork done in time.

Ah so many funny things happened this week. I'll just send some pictures. But a couple good quotes:

"You have the gap of the river of Moses between you!" - Elder Gillies, telling Elder Payne to move just a tad closer to take the stinking photo. (He hasn't read the Bible in a few years.)

"I just want to hit all the little kids." - Hermana Kim, a little frustrated that we had been walking for a while and there were only the neighborhood niños playing in the street.

"Hermana Hewitt, translate 'Chupacabra.' "

 - "...suck goat?"

"GOAT SUCKER!" - Elder Payne, explaining to us the legend of the vampire-ish monster Chupacabra

"If I squint REALLY hard...and I cover my right eye...and with a LITTLE BIT of alcohol..." - Elder McAllister, describing how I might be able to find a woman who looks somewhat like my mom in the congregation of our ward.

I hope these things aren't offensive. They are extremely humorous to us missionaries. I have felt pain from laughing so hard this week. Things are good and they will be great!

I love you!

Hermana Hewitt

Photos: 

1. Hermana Kim fell asleep saying her prayers after personal study.

2. And I spent the remainder of our lunch hour...TRYING to study…

3. Here's our district/ward missionary force - our last Sunday together before Elder Payne goes home and transfers come around next week!

4. We bought shirts that say Shut The Front Door. And my companion keeps kissing me with a fish.)

Don't ask me!  I have no idea what it means either! :-)