Five months!!! Peru es Lo Maximo.

Hello Everyone!

I have officially completed five months in the mission and I couldn't be happier. I am so happy that I decided to serve a mission. I have learned so much in these short five months. I've learned more about the gospel, a new language, a new culture, and I've learned to cherish all of the little moments we are given. They seriously are so important! 

This week again has been crazy, but I think everything will be calmer until transfers on the 24th. haha! Hermana Kachkachian had a successful surgery in Lima and is now back in Pucallpa, and she is able to start working again today! It has been a long process for her to recover, but we are both so happy that she is healthy and ready to teach again! She is seriously such an inspiration to me. Even with having to have surgery in a different country, she smiled her whole way through it. Attitude is everything! 

For sservice this week we helped one of our less active member clean her pool and it was so funny. We were washing a giant plastic pool in their outdoor shower. It definitely took a while, but it was super clean when we finished. She was also really happy to have her pool ready for summer!

We also helped a lady in our ward named Dioselina make some yummy peruvian cookies and it looked a lot easier than it is to make them. We didn't end up being very much help, but it was really fun!

There was a trip to the temple in our ward recently and a lot of members have been saving for a whole year to be able to go to the temple in Lima. It was so fun to hear about everyone's experiences when they got back. It made me think about how blessed I was to have the temple so close to my home. It really is so important to have the temple as our goal and go as often as possible! 

My favorite experience this week was that last Sunday I shared my testimony about the book of Mormon in the ward. I wasn't planning on sharing it, but I felt so strongly that I should. This week my ward mission leader Hermano Angel told me that his daughter said, Dad I've decided to read the book of mormon! When he asked her why, she said that my testimony made her excited to read the book of mormon! I was so happy that he shared his experience with me. I t made me realize how important a simple testimony of the restored gospel can be. I hope you all have a fantastic week, and don't forget to share what you know! You can change lives :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce :)

*I noticed lots of bug bites on Nat's legs in this picture. I asked and she said she forgot bug spray ONE day and she was eaten like crazy! She said she will not forget again. She also said Hermana Briggs left her some benadryl cream and that saved her! I'm glad her usual bug spray is keeping the bugs away!

It's crying!

Hello!

This week I had an oops with spanish! It was raining super hard out of nowhere on wednesday and the word for rain and the word for cry in spanish are super similar so when it started to rain I turned to my companion and said, "YAY, ITS CRYING." She thought it was so funny. Now I will never forget the difference between these two words. Haha.

Hermana Kachkachian had to go to Lima to have an operation because there arent very many excellent doctors here in Pucallpa. I havent heard anything about how shes doing so I assume that everything went well! I cant believe that shes had to visit the doctor so much this transfer! Im just happy that shes getting the mdical attention she needs in Lima. Because Hermana Kachkachian is in Lima, Ive been working with Hermana Lazarte! Shes super sweet. Her companion had to go to iquitos this week so we were made companionsthis week. Its been a lot of change, but its been great working with Hermana Lazarte. She is from Bolivia, and she is super sweet. Im not sure how long Hermana Kachkachian will be in Lima, so I think that Hermana Lazarte will be my companion until the end of this transfer. 

This week all of the missionaries in Pucallpa had to get flu shots. I was so neervous to get a flu shot here, but everything went wel. It was super funny because there was one nurse and a long line of missionaries waiting to get shots. 

I had my first Inderview with my mission President and it was so great! Hes such a hard working, loving mission president. We also had a multizone conference this week and we talked a lot about faith. Faith is so important in everything we do because faith is what leads us to action in our lives. I love seeing faith lead people to do so many amazing things! We talked about Noah, Moses, Joseph Smith, Abraham, and a few modern day stories of faith. I loved it so much! Having faith helps me everyday to accept all of these new changes that are happening in the mission and learn from them :) 

"Behold, my sould delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard. " -2 Nephi 4:16

Keep reading, Praying, and pondering and have a fantastic fourth of July! :) 

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce

  Her companion is having such a hard time with her teeth! It's so sad.

 The new companion while her's is goes to get surgery.

A visit from Natalie's first companion (the other American :)) Her family came to see Peru.

San Juan!

Hello everyone! This week was a crazy week of celebration here in Pucallpa. This week was the Jungle holiday of San Juan. Its a holiday that people celebrate to honor the death of john the baptist and for all of saturday everyone was making a type of food called juanes. Its basically a ball of chicken rice and egg wrapped up into a leaf to look like a head. Every single house had a firepit outside, with a pot filled with Juanes and all of Pucallpa was filled with smoke. It made me think of when our hill caught on fire and there was smoke everywhere in Herriman. It was all because everyone was making Juanes! It was really sad/funny because last week everyone was buying chickens because they were getting ready for San Juan so there were chickens everywhere outside, and the day after San Juan there wasnt a chicken in sight. Its slightly unfortunate for the chickens but at least Juanes are delicious so all is well. We have an awesome new family of investigators!! We are teaching Peter and Lana. They have one daughter and they are so awesome. They accepted a baptismal date and were just waiting for them to get married so they can get baptised! Lana is from russia and she is such a cool lady. Im so excited to be teaching them. My companion is recovering from an operation that she had to fix a bone in her mouth and its been really hard for her. Please send your prayers so that she can feel better soon. This week my first companion Hermana Prince came to visit peru with her family and it made me so happy! I loved seeing them. It was weird speaking to them in english. I never speak english anymore! Its awesome. I love peru so much. I learn so much every week about the culture and about people. I am so grateful for all of you and your love and your examples!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce 

Also sorry for no pictures! This computer doesnt want to load them this week!

**here is a picture of a Juanes I (mom) found on the internet--It represents the head of John the Baptist in a bag.  

I'm writing from. . . .Pucallpa!!

My companion and I made it through transfers!!! I am so happy that I get to be with Hermana Kachkachian again and that I am still in Pucallpa. I seriously love it here so much. I am so excited for this transfer and for all of the experiences were going to have. Speaking of experiences... this week has been full of them. I have been so sick this week. Dont worry it´s only a cold, but having a cold on the mission is so much worse than having a cold at home. I feel a lot better today so Im super grateful for that :) My companion this week had to have an emergency root canal. This was also an interesting experience. She also felt pretty sick this week. But she is also feeling a lot better! I felt so bad for her but she is tough :) I also got bit by a dog this week... again dont worry it didnt do any damage, it just scared me a little bit. haha. I cant believe that its only the first week of transfers and weve already had these experiences! I also got to give a training in our district this week about the importance of Charity. I was so happy to give this training because charity is my favorite attribute of Christ. I know that if we are always showing our love for others we will always feel happy. I am so grateful to be here and I am so grateful for the loving people that I get the chance to meet everyday. This week I am especially grateful for the members of our ward who are so caring and help us to feel our best so we can keep teaching the gospel. I know without a doubt that this church is true and I am glad that I am blessed to be  member and that I can help others recieve the happiness that this gospel brings. This week with Fathers Day, Ive been thinking a lot about how wonderful it is that we have a loving Heavenly Father who is always here to help us when we need help and to celebrate with us when we reach our goals. I seriously love yo uall so much and I hope you had a great Fathers Day. Have a fantastic week!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce

**The dog bite didn't break skin. Nat says she is just nervous about the dogs now and never used to be. She says there are more dogs than people in Peru.

**in an instant message Natalie said she will not likely get any American companions again unless she begs to be with an MTC companion at the end of her mission. There are only 3 American sisters and they all came together! She said there are 120 missionarys total. 20 sisters. Very few american elders (like 20). She said she is glad that having spanish speaking companions will just help her language skills!!

Four Months In The Jungle!!!

I seriously cant even believe that I have been on my mission for four months. Time seriously flies! I have finished three transfers and were just waiting to hear whats going to happen this next transfer. I really hope that Ill still be here in Pucallpa, but Im excited to work in whatever area Im assigned to. I have really loved working here. This week was a little bit uneventful. We worked a ton. We contacted new families that were are going to start teaching this week and Im so excited about it. Its going to be so great :) We had a little bit of a sad experience. Luisa, our sweet investigator who was supposed to be baptized this week, moved to a village in the jungle to take care of her mother. We are really happy that shell be able to be with her family, but it was a little disapointing that our only baptism from this transfer fell through. I feel like everytime we help someone get to the point where they can be baptized, they move. I know that everything works out how its supposed to and that they will join the church when the time is right. Im just so happy that I had the chance to get to know Luisa and her adorable little family. I cant wait to teach more families this week! Hopefuly they wont move away haha! I love the chance to meet knew people everyday and teach them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Its hard work, but its worth every second because I know that what were doing is important and is changing peoples lives. This week I also had the chance to do service with my companion at the home of a member named toti who has every time of jungle tree in her back yard and it was great! I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week.  Con Amor,  Hermana Toponce

Count Your Many Blessings

Hello my sweet family,

I hope everything has been gong well for all of you! I absolutely love reading all of your emails and hearing what is going on outside of Pucallpa. Thank you for your motivation every week! 

This week was a great week here in Peru we worked really hard and had lots of fun experiences. I just love the mission so much! So my companion and I were sitting in a lesson this week and it was a really spirit filled lesson about the plan of salvation when all of a sudden our investigators chicken jumped onto my companions head! It was so funny. I so wish that I had a picture but I think Ill remember because I was laughing so hard. There are so many people with pet chickens here and they just live inside like a pet dog. Ive gotten so used to random animals inside during our lessons. There are always one or two salamanders in every house sometimes people have pet parrots. Its great! 

My companion Hermana Kachkachian also has a special talent of remembering everyones birthdays! If anyone tells her their birthday she'll remember it. This week she remembered that it was Brigham Youngs birthday on the 25th so we decided to celebrate! We had icecream and cake and everything. It was great. I love finding things to celebrate. :) I so often am focused on all of the little things we need to do  that I forget how blessed I am to be here serving a mission in Peru. The title of my email is "Count your many blessings," because there are so many little blessings that we have in our lives that we take for granted. This week we had a really special opportunity to go to a dedication of a water tank in a poor community here in Pucallpa. The church donated money so that these people could have the basic necessity of water. The ceremony was so sweet and my heart smiled seeing thse people dancing and celebrating this gift of water in their community. I know that God blesses the daily aspects of our lives because he wants us to be happy and succesful. My goal this week to to be more grateful for all of the little things that I have and find success in the little moments along the way. Theres a quote I love that says " Come what may, and love it" (¡Venga lo que venga, disfrutalo!) Every moment in our lives is for our growth and when we love all of our experiences life is so much happier! I love you all so much and I hope you all have a fantastic week :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Toponce

 Nat said it was a "actually chilly this week!"

 This was some of the many people that came to the grand opening of the water tank!!

Just Keep Teaching!

Weve been working so hard to help our investigators progress and its been a lot of hard work. Cynthia and Emmersons (Less Active family) Are coming to church now and it makes me really happy to see their sweet family enjoying the gospel. Now I just hope we can help our investigators too! We had one investigator named Lucia who weve been teaching for a while give us back her book of mormon because she doesnt want to read it. I was so sad that i started crying right there on her porch and pretty much begged her to change her mind but she stayed firm in her decision. One of our other investigators Hilda who asked us to teach her just recently got a job in lima so now we dont get to teach her. These two experiences were really dissapointing this week, but I know that we met them for a reason and I really hope that one day they can be baptised! They are such amazing people. 

We have two investigators that are really close to being able to be baptised!! One is Luisa she accepted a baptisimal date for this saturday but were going to keep working with her for the furst week of June so she can be more prepared. I am so excited for her!! We also have an investigator named Alfonso who is seriously so cool. Weve been teaching him and his mom for the past two weeks and he is so excited to be baptised. He had a dream after praying about to book of mormon and he told us that he knows that its true! He too is going to be baptised the first week of June. Alfonso and his mom are so special to me. I feel like Ive known them forever and Im so grateful to be having the chance to teach them about the gospel :) 

The people here always say that I look like different celebrities from the United states. They say I look like Taylor Swift, Barbie, like Im related to Donal Trump (haha) my favorite one that I get all the time is that I look like Mary or a Catholic Saint. People are always saying that I look like a saint haha! I dont know what they mean but I think that its really funny. Hilda asked me what my full name is and when I said that its Hermana Toponce she laughed and said... Im pretty sure your name is Mary. Im going to write Mary. I thought it was so funny! 

I love these people so much! There are a lot of disapointments in the misson but for every trail there are miriacles. I am so happy for the miracles that Ive seen and for the spirit that I have felt this week. I know that God is always helping me to do the things that are of most importance here. I know without a doubt that God answers prayers. I love you all so much! Thank you for your emails! I hope everytone has a lovely week!

Con amor, 

Hermana Toponce

pictures wouldn't upload this week :(