In Our Lovely Deseret

What a lovely, lovely week I have had. I had such a spirit filled week full of learning and I am so grateful that we have  a living prophet to guide us in these latter days. My life was changed this conference and I know without a doubt that the changes made were inspired by God. I cant wait to see all of the great things that are coming up in the church! My favorite part was how often the speakers talked about staying on the covenant path. It is such a beautiful eternal truth and I am so grateful that I have this time ot be here to help people start their journey on the gospel path through baptism. 

Speaking of baptism Karina and her son Gabriel are gettin gbaptised this saturday and they are super excited! They came to conference on saturday and sunday and they loved it os much! She has really changed a lot. 

We had a beautiful oportunity to have a baptism in our zone for 16 people! I literally felt heaven smiling down on the stakecenter this friday and these great people enterend into the waters of baptism. One of them was Lita, a sweet sister we found while ocntacting. We taught her the first lesson and knew that she would be baptised! The sad part is that when we walked out of her house we realized that it was barely out of our area and had to pass her reference to the elders!!! NO! but The best part is that she ended up getting baptised and we got to be there :) 

This week I will be finding out who my new companion is and if I get to stay in this area. I am excited to see what will be happening. I love this area, and my mission! Its the best thing I have ever decided to do and I am so grateful for the restored gospel! I know it is true. Keep stong on the gospel path and have a fantastic week! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Toponce

Teach Me to Walk in the Light

We are serving in an area that is pretty poor and there are a few parts that dont have light at night. We went to visit Ludith and her family and their neighborhood was completely dark and we werent sure if we should visit them because its a little dangerous, but then we saw a little flicker of light and felt that it was an answer to our prayers. We walked towards the flicker and it just so happened to be coming from Ludiths house. The lit a candle and we taught them in their home with the light of a candle as our only source of light and it was one of the most beautiful lessons I have ever taught we taught about how the gospel blesses families and the things they can do to have and eternal family. They all felt the spirit and they are going to prepare to get married to be an eternal family! It was amazing! 

We had another candle lit lesson with Karina. She has such a desire to be baptised and we asked her to pray about the book of mormon and she got her answer! She knows it is true! She is getting so close to baptism. We just have to set another date! I think we should teach with candles more often. 

RAUL GOT BAPTISED! It was such an amazing baptism. The spirit was so strong. His whole family came to support him and and when he shared his conversion story and his testimony there wanst a dry eye in the room. He is such a great person and he has changed so much! I am so glad to have been able to teach him. He even made a facebook so he can stay in touch with us when we finish our missions! haha!

This week has been great! I love the gospel so much and I love the light it brings into our lives. I have seen so much light this week thanks to this Restored Gospel! I hope you all take the time to watch conference this week because I just know it is going ot be spectacular! Also happy almost easter! I know that Christ lives. I know that His gospel has been restored. 

Con amor, 

Hermana Toponce

Who's on the Lord's Side?

What a good week. Wills got baptised and it was such a beautiful baptism. Everyone was so happy! His whole family came to support him and wills was literally so happy that he dove into the baptisimal font! (Like literally he wanted to go in head first instead of meing pushed back... it was pretty funny) his testimony after his baptism was so sweet. He expressed his gratitude for us and then for his savior jesus christ. It was such a short but sincere testimony. It made me cry! I am SO HAPPY for him and this decision that he made. 

Raul came to the baptism too and he is telling everyone that he is getting baptised next saturday! Literally everyone! He is so excited. This week he told us that we are his angels because we braught the gospel into his home. Im so happy for him. I literally cant wait for Saturday!

It has been raining so much her that when I walk my boots get covered in mud and it makes it hard to walk because it weighs a ton! Im getting a lot stronger here in the jungle. haha! Everyone is always suprised that we show up to teach them even when its pouring outside. 

The rain is making the rivers grom and everyone is telling mermaid stories. Literally everyone here believes in mermaids so they must exist! I have heard to many people talking about them. Maybe Ill have my own mermaid story to tel next week ;) 

My zone is about to break a record for the most baptisms in a month and were super excited!! 35!! I am praying that all of the baptism will come together how they should. Its amazing to see how faith and obedience can bring miracles. 

In our gospel principles class this week we tlaked about Jesus Christ and our teacher made and example that made me think a lot he said, If I had 100 dollars and offered it to all of you everyone would run for it, but when I say I have the way to eternal life, everyone will stay in their seats. Why is that? It got me thinking a lot about how I feel in the mission. It is so easy to recieve eternal life, sometimes I dont know why people dont run up to us asking to be baptised! Jesus Christ made it possible to have eternal life and all we have to do is follow Him. Just follow! I know that He lives. I know that His gospel has been rstored and I know that it is the way to eternal life. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Toponce

Let the Holy Spirit Guide

I have 13 months in the mission! Time is flying by and I want it to go a little slower. There is so much left to do still before I finish my mission. I think being with a companion that is about to end is making me realize how fast it all goes. I just want to give it my all before August!! 

This week has been a really spiritual one for me. I felt like a lot of my decisions were guided by the spirit and it was the best feeling ever. I love when I have weeks like this. The spirit helped us to find a sweet lady named Ludith this week and we helped her to make lunch and met her family and they want to keep learning! I was so happy. We found them when we were walking down a new street and my comp said, which house! I felt so strongly to knock on their door and she did too and I think we have found a golden family! 

We also were guided to stop teaching an investigator named Nilda. She is a great person and she likes to listen to us, but she doesnt keep her commintments and we were losing time... we went into the lesson not knowing if we should keep teaching her at this time and the spirit told both of us that we were only there to plant the seed and later other missionaries will find her. It made us both sad, but also really happy that we will now be able to find those that are ready. 

The most crazy this week is that I gave a talk in sacrament meeting thi sweek. I am in a ward with about 220 active members and the sister who was supposed to speak didnt show up and somehow the Bishop felt that he should ask me to speak. He asked me right before they said the sacrament prayer so I didnt have time to prepare but I felt that the spirit would guide me and give me the words that I need. I gave my ten minute talk and I didnt feel like I was speaking, but I knew the words were right. I spoke about the Book of Mormon and when sacrament meeting finished a lot of people told me that it was a great talk. I was so glad to have the chance to share my testimony with everyone and that the spirit guided my words, and the bishop to ask me to speak. Such a sweet experience!

I know that the spirit guides us and that if we listen to it we will have success and we will do the Lords will. 

I love oyu all! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. they help a ton!

Con amor, 

Hermana Toponce

(Lo siento... no fotos...)

Go Forward With Faith

This last pday while we were shopping at a market, we found a hidden river town and it was stinking beautiful! We just had to take pictures. These floating houses are my favorite because in the dry seasons of the year they are super tall and you  have to climp up makeshift ladders to get to them and then when the river grows the people make bridges and use boats to get to their front door. So awesome! I love my mission.

MY companion went to Iquitos this week and I worked with Sister GOmez and Sister Melchor and while I was in their area I was sitting on the floor studying and behind me there was the biggest tarantula I have ever seen!!!! Hermana Gomez looked at me and screamed, and it turns out there was a giant spider that wanted to eat me. We ran to the little shop next door to buy some spider spray to kill it and it just made the spider angry!! Luckily Hermaa Melchor had a broom and saved us... Scariest mission moment by far!

 Then the next day while we were eating lunch there were some ladies yelling at eachother outside, and then one lady hit the other with a wrench and the one who got hit started punching the other and shoved her through the door right in front of me! I thought I was going to get punched and I said a prayer in my heart that there would be peace and literally right after saying amen everything calmed down. It was amazing! The other sisters are convinced that everytime Im around something crazy happens. Luckily we are all safe :)

Our investigators are doing great! Wills has a date for the 17th of March that is set in stone! His family is super excited and its on his cousins birthday and his cousin is going to baptise him. Raul is so close to accepting a date... he just wants to see a baptism first! But I have a lot of faith that he will ba baptised on the 17th too. Karina is ignoring us... she was supposed to ba baptised this week but we dont know what happened... and we have another sweet girl named Kassandra who will be baptised onb the 23rd! 

I have loved this week. It went by sooo fast, but I have loved seeing Gods hand in every moment. I know that if we have faith and work hard God willmprotect us and will guide us. 

I love all of you and I hope you have an amazing week!!! Go forward with faith! :)

Hermana Toponce

Because I Have Been Given Much

So transfers game and went and I get to stay in Yarinacocha Pucallpa with Hermana Lazarte! I am so happy that I didnt get transfered becasue we have a lot of great people we are teaching who are getting close to baptism. I love this area. I know without a doubt that God has prepared this area for me and my companion. 

This week we had so conference and it was amazing! Most of the trainings were on the book of mormon and the spirit was so strong! There are a ton of new Elders and there was a lot of excitement about missioary work which I thought was great. Hermana Quispe got transferred to Pucallpa so I get to see her again!! It made me so happy to hear that shell be finishing her mission here!! 

Hermana Li shared her conversion story with me in our interview )we dont have interviews with our president just his wife) and she talked about how the Sister missionaries changed her life and how grateful she is that the sisters choose to serve missions. In our mission we only have 16 sisters and 6 will be finishing their missions this transfer... we will only have 10! Sister Li told me that this mission is really hard. She is so proud of us for being able to serve in the jungle and be so happy and have success. I was so grateful for this interview with her. Every mission is hard. Thats why its called a mission! But I am so glad that Heavenly Father gave me this mission. Its the best for me! I read a quote by Thomas S. Monson this week that I loved, ¨May we ever choose the hardest right, instead of the easier wrong.¨ 

It is not easy to live the gospel... its not easy to share it but it is right! 

I am so grateful for this work and for my mission! I hope you can all choose the harder right this week and trust in God. He will direct your paths!

Love, 

Hermana Toponce

I Feel My Savior's Love

I just want to wish you all a happy late velentines day!! THis week I was thinking about how much love the Savior has for all of us and how much love God has for us. There are so many ways I can feel and recognize their love for me here in the mission. This week especially!

One of the ways that I could feel their love was in the baptism that we had for Hermano Junior! He was so happy! All of his family came and when he shared his testimony he said that he is so excited to use this year to prepare for his mission. The most special was that his best friend got to baptise him! It was such a beautiful Saturday that I will never forget. I cant stop smiling!!

I am looking forward to the other baptism that we have coming up to for a boy named Wills. He is 14 and he loved the message of the restoration because he is 14 too and has the same question! He is loving the book of mormon and super excited to be baptised. 

Karina was going to get baptised this week on the 24, but she said she wants more time to prepare. Well see when she wants to be baptised but shes getting there! Raul and Madelen are working things out so they can accept a date too! We are praying that they accept!! They are such a great family.

I can also feel Gods love for me when we are guided to find people. We were guided this week to find two new amazing families and I am so excited to start teaching them. We felt the need to go a different way than normal, we knocked on a door and found one of the families and they gave us the reference of the other! It was a miracle. 

I love peru. I love the bugs, the dirt, the sun, motokars. I love having a pensionista. I love speaking another language. I love teaching the gospel! 

I know that Jesus Christ is our savior. I know that he loves us So much and that he is the way to eternal life. I know that Charity, the pure love of Christ, never faileth. I hope you have a great week and can recognize the many ways that God is showing His love for you.

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Toponce