CONFERENCE WEEK

I hope you are all preparing for general conference! Womens conference was amazing so Im sure that the rest will be wonderful too :)

This week we had the first Zone P-day activity that Ive ever had in my whole mission and it was super fun. We had a family home evening as a zone and each companionship had to plan a game. All of the games were super great and it help us to be more united as a zone. My companion and I organized scripture charades and got to act out a bunch of scripture stories. It was funny. Im glad that my theatre skills came in handy. :)

There has been crazy weather here this week! So much rain! Were all super safe, but were pretty wet. I like it more than being hot all of the time. 

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Gloria still hasnt accepted a baptim date but shes getting close, and were teaching a kid named bruno who looks like bruno mars and sings! He keeps trying to sing to me in english so were trying to find him an hymnbook so that he can learn the hymns!

This week I realized something super cool that Im sure a lot of you have already realize, but I feel like I should shar it anyways. I was looking at my CTR ring and I realized that CTR means so much more than choose the right, while I was looking at it I realized that CTR also teaches us to remember our baptismal covenants, C-Commandments, keep them all. T- Take upon ourselves the name of christ. R- Remember Him always. I will never look at my CTR ring the same way again. I am so grateful that I am here on my mission and that I have the chance to teach people the importance of being baptised and help them make and keep this sacred covenant. I know that the church is true and I know that baptism is necessary for us to be able to recieve eternal life. :)

I hope you all have a great week and remember CTR :) 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Hermana Toponce 

Punchana-New Area

Hello my wonderful family and friends! I sure love all of you. Thank you for all that you do :)

This week I have a new companion. I am with Sister Quispe. She is awesome! She is from Peru and she has one transfer more than I do in the mission so well be learning together :) OUr area is a lot smaller than any of my other ones have been but Im excited about it because well be able to teach everyone! We have on investigator who is progressing named Gloria and she learns really fast and loves the book of mormon. I cant wait to see how the gospel helps her :) 

I gave my first talk of the mission. I got to speak on service and it went really well. The members are super welcoming and said that my spanish is super good! I am so happy that I finally got to speak in church. 

We had a zone service project. A block of houses caught on fire and we went to clean up and start the foundation for new houses. It was so fun to be able to help and get to know more people here in Iquitos. EVen though they had something terrible happen they were still smiling and working with us. 

I love the chance that I have to serve a mission. Service is so important beacuse its how we show God that we love him! I dont have much time to write today, but I wanted to let you all know that I am doing super good and that I am healthy and happy :)

I pray for all of your health and happiness as well :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce

Clavero, Iquitos 2.0

Im writing from the same area, with the same companion because we didnt have transfers! Im really happy tht Im in the same ward because the members are super great and they love to help the missionaries! They are always giving us references of people we can teach and our ward mission leader is a recently returned misssionary and he likes to teach with us. The work is so much more successful when the members are invovled! Help your missionaries! They love it :) 

Yesterday we were a little disapointed because all of our appointments werent home. We were knocking on doors a ton and people didnt want to listen to us. I just kept wondering, "Where are we supposed to go?" When I finally asked my companion what we should do next we got a phonecall from a sister in our ward. She was crying and told us that she needed us to visit her right away. We of course went straight to her house. She was so sad. She is a single mom who has recently seperated from her husband and she has to do everything to provide for her six year old son. She had all of her sadness pile up and she didnt know what to do. I  am SO GLAD that she felt like she could call us for help. We gave a lesson about Grace. I have been thinking and studying this word a lot this week. Grace is Divine help and strenght. We cant do all of these things by ourselves and we have grace to help us keep going. This sister was so grateful that we could come help lift her burden. I love this chance that I have to be a represetative of Jesus Christ. There are so many people who need his love and its such a blessing to be able to bring this love into peoples lives. I know that things happen for a reason and that we eeded to be at her house last night :) 

My pensionista made me no bake cookies to celebrate my seven months here in the mission and it made me super happy! It was just the taste of home that I needed, and the same day I got sweet letters from the girlscamp girls! Thank you! It made my day :) 

Here there is a game that the little kids like to play that is "touch the white girl" When they see me coming they get in a line and yell "Toca la Gringa" and the first one to touvh me wins. haha! I love all of the kids here. They are so funny. Im going to miss this game ;)

I hope you have a great week! Enjoy all of the litte things :) These precious moments are all gifts from our Heavenly Father.
Love, 

Hermana Toponce

Transfer Acomplished!

I have completed yet another transfer here in the beautiful Peru Iquitos mission. I am so beyond gratefu for everything that I have learned this transfer and I am So excited to see what adventures this next transfer will bring. Today we find out if we´ll be staying here or if well get moved to a new area. I cant wait to see whats going to happen! 

This week we had a few activities in the ward to help us get references and they were super fun, but we didnt recieve a single reference! I was dissapointed, but at least a family of Investigators came and they loved the activity. Its an activity that I want to organize in all of my wards here because Its stinking awesome! The activity is called viaje a hawaii and it started by giving everyone who came a certain amount of play money, and they were then told to use the play money to participate in the activieties that were set up around the church. There were cgams, a market, classes, a movie, a dance party, and they could use their money to do any of these things and us member in charge of the activity had to tept the to use their money, haha. After a ittle over an hour of fun and games, we announced that the fight to hawaii was about to eave and that they needed to board the plane. When everyone was in the plane, the chapel, we had the flight attendant welcome everyone to the flight and after a minute he got up an announced that there was turbulance and made noises like the plane was crashing. He then announced "Welcome to the final judgement" and according to the amout of money they had, the members were assigned to their kingdom of glory. The best part is that our investigators made it the the Celestia Kingdom! Woohoo!

The next day we had a lesson with Maritza and Luis, the investigators who came to the activity, and we shared the Plan of Salvation with them. They told us how happy they were to have made it to the celestial kingdom for the activity and their desire to make it there for real. We told them how its pssible and theyve accepted to be baptized!! I sure love them and their sweet family and I know without a doubt that they will make it to the real thing!

Its amazing to see the gospel changing lives. I remember when we first met Maritza when she was playing Bingo and when we asked, " Esta Hermana Maritza?" She told us that Maritza is in Lima. The third time we tried to find her, her neighbor finallyrold us that its been her all along! We finally set a tie to visit her and her family and met her husband and he was completely drunk! In my head I thught, "Were never going to be able to help this family" I WAS WRONG! They are now praying together, and they are starting to be more happy and united. The gospel has changed them and I cant wait to see how much more theyll be able to achieve before and after their baptism! Gods plan is so perfect. 

Life is filled with hard moments and sometimes we feel like we are too far from the path to ever get to God again. This is not true! We can always make it back. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and can help us overcome what ever challenge this life throws at us. I know without a doubt that He lives and that his gospel blesses lives. I want to invite you all to watch the mormon message, "YOU NEVER KNOW" because it makes me happy and helped me to understand Gods plan a little better. 

Have a fantastic week! I love you all. You are in my prayers :) 

Hermana Toponce