I Think I Have a Secret Admirer...

Hello everyone!

I spent my first Christmas in Peru! Here they celebrate a little bit differently than the Americans haha. Oh and when it hits midnight they celebrate with fireworks. And oh boy it sounds like a full on war. Haha we did not get to go to bed until like 2AM! It was crazy.

Oh also! We are teaching this guy named Jose Enrique and he is the best but a little bit odd. The first time we met with him he complimented my eyelashes and I was like wow he is very kind. But yeah then we met him the second time and this time he brought me a teddy bear because I was "linda" or cute haha. And again I really did not think much of it. But yeah the third appointment he brought me some cookies. And by the fourth appointment he brought his guitar for the purpose of singing me a song! haha ohh poor guy. Also he has accepted a baptismal date so maybe after his baptism I can tell him I can't date. But yeah we will see where this goes! lol 

Also again please do not forget to read the book of Mormon. This book really has the power to transform your testimony and grow your faith. But first you need to put in the action and the faith! God can not give you an answer if you are not looking for one. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

hna Pulver

(Sorry for the pictures, next week I can send some)

Merry Christmas!

Helllooo Everyone!

Missionary life haha is not easy, And each week presents its own challenges, but also each week I have the privilege of learning a new lesson!

Miracle: So the other day while we were proselytizing we met this very Very Tiny cute little old lady. She literally ran up to us and she gave us the biggest hug. My first impression was like woah this Hermana is def. a member. So we asked her and to both of our surprise she told us she wasn't, but she just wanted to read about the prophet Moroni. So without really asking she took the B.O.M from our hands and started flipping through the pages to find the book of Moroni. But long story short we set up an appointment and it looked like things were going go pretty great!

But, the next day we could not for the life of us find the short tiny lady. But instead we found this venezuelan family that lived in the same neighborhood. They seemed fairly interested in the message we set up an appointment, but did not really think much about it. BUT WOAH THEIR APPOINTMENT WAS AMAZING. We taught them lesson 1 and when we finished we asked them if they believed that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. When she started to reply she started tearing up and told us she thought that we were an answer to her prayers. Because when she had first come to Peru, she had a hard time finding her purpose because of how hard finding a job was. And she had been praying to God to find her purpose. And she told us that our message was an answer to her prayers. WOAHHH so amazing.

 So on Thursday we were meeting with our pensionista for lunch and honestly I felt like crap that day so I wasn't able to eat anything. ( Pensionista or in other words a cook for the missionaries) Anyways yea she told me she had cream she used to rub on the stomachs of her kids when they felt sick.. So she brought the cream out and placed them on the table. And like wow thank you so much! Yeah, so I was walking out the door and she stopped me and told me to sit on the couch.And of course not understanding that much Spanish I did as she said. So when I sat down she told me to lay down and then told me to lift up my shirt. I lifted it up an inch okay that s it. BUT NO SHE LIFTED UP ALL OF MY SHIRT AND STARTED RUBBING MY STOMACH FOR A SOLID 10 MINUTES WITH THE cream AND I HAD NEVER FELT MORE UNCOMFORTABLE IN MY LIFE: but it's okay haha it was an act of love.

Well I hope you all have an AMAZING CHRISTMAS.

Love you all!!

Hna Pulver

Visited The Lima Temple, Bird Poop!

Hey everyone!

Each week has been getting better here in Peru. The language is still hard, but I am slowly to be okay with my personal best. But yeah! The Lord does not expect perfection out of us, but he delights in our progress and our efforts to become better. 

Also, this week I got to visit the Lima Temple. It was sooo beautiful, very different than any temple in Utah, but very beautiful. We came with a family ( fairly new to the church ) and it was such an amazing experience. I personally didn't know the family that well, but it was so cool to see how one book and how the power of God can change someone's life. Please if you have not already, READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. If you read this book, you will understand it and you will come to know of its divinity by yourself! Just read and pray and I promise you you can receive an answer.

Also fun moment  So on Thursday I was crossing the street and all of the sudden I feel this cold liquid on my arm. And at first I'm like oh yeah its just rain, BUT NO IT WAS FREAKIN BIRD POOP. So of course I looked up only to find no birds there!! Ahhhh like really who has that luck. Haha but no my companion had the BEST time during those twenty minutes I was washing it off. haha yeah so that was pretty great.

Okay Love you All!!

Here are some pictures ( email me if you can't open them up, I am still trying to figure out everything here).

Tough Couple Weeks

So these past couple weeks have definitely been tough. And there have been times haha actually multiple times where I have asked myself if I even have a purpose here in Peru. The language can be tough at times, and the people here in Peru have their own little code for different things haha so I am trying to learn that as well. During the lessons I can understand the general idea of what is going on, but I can't give my 100 percent because I don't have all of the grammar and vocabulary just yet. 

But through all this I have tried my best to focus on patience and gratitude. The people here are amazing and so loving. For the month of December we have Nohe de Lugar (FHE) every night with a different family and they always treat the missionaries with all that they can offer. It is just woahh. And gratitude. The lord blesses us with So SO much. Before you think of what you want, think of what you already have. 

Hmm also here in Peru there really is not a season for hot chocolate. It is the beginning of Summer here and the people ABSOLUTELY love hot chocolate. So almost every cita when I am already sweating they kindly offer me an entire mug of steaming hot cocoa. And of course I can't refuse because haha yeah you just don't refuse the food that people give you unless you want to be given a lecture in spanish. But Man I was sweating so much. And I am going to be doing this for the next couple months. So wish me luck lol. 

Anyways. One last thing. Please remember to read, ponder and STUDY the Book of Mormon. I know this book has the power to change your life if you allow it to do so. The Lord simply asks us to "Learn of him and listen to his words, walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in him."This is so true. Please remember Christ in this season of Christmas. Learn of him and I promise you, there will be peace. :))

ALSOOO if you have not already please watch the Christ Child it is an amazing video and it is only 17 minutes long.

First Week In PERU

Wow this week has honestly felt like a year. Our flight to Peru was a red eye flight which unfortunately meant that we would get little to no sleep. Haha. I probably slept a total of 3 hours on the flight to Peru, and to be honest. I do not really remember a whole lot from that day. But after I met my mission president me and my companion ended up proselyting for the entire day. I really thought that I was going to die. I was seeing purple circles everywhere because of the lack of sleep.

When we arrived in Peru, it was very foggy. Like to the point where you couldnt see the sun - I later found out this was normal. This news was a little hard to hear, but haha It is going to be ok. Okay Peru! Peru is crazy guys. The traffic here is loco. Everyone walks in the middle of the street and it is completely normal! Honking is the music of Peru. You will not walk outside for one second without hearing someone honk haha. Also there are dogs everywhere. MANY MANY DOGS. And who knows where they come from, I am still trying to figure out that part. 

Our apartment is very very small. The kitchen is about the size of a small bathroom, and there is no oven to cook. We have ants in the sink, so that is fun haha. And we do have a shower, but there is no hot water. So that is new for me as well. Haha I am still adjusting to all of this.

Also another fun culture shock I experienced was the way you greet people. Everyone kisses each others cheeks. Even when you do not know the person, you are supposed to kiss them. I am still getting used to this haha, because in Utah I dont think I ever kissed someones cheek as a way of greeting them. Sometimes I kind of cheat the system and just make the kissing sound. Same thing right?

My companion is the best. I love her. She does not speak much English, so communicating can be very tough. And usually I carry around a white board to draw what I want to say. I also carry a dictionary as well. Haha the dictionary has become my LIFELINE because we do not have any sort of technology. So I am back to learning from only books. A fun moment with her. So on Wednesday I think? Our Zone leaders called me and asked how I liked my companion. Innocently, I was going on about how kind, patient, loving, and jokeful she is but haha I told them my companion was "chismoso". I thought this word meant jokeful but psych it actually meant gossipy. Rip. haha when she heard me say that on the phone she freaked out but haha we def. had a good laugh about that. 

This week we also taught a nice woman named Jenny. CRAZY STORY. >So a couple years ago she had a surgery that went terribly wrong. Like she died. And so the doctors pronounced her as dead and moved her body to the morgue right? Well 3 hours after this happened she woke up. And yes, she woke up in the morgue. She then told us that she thought she saw the face of Jesus in her dream. Wild stuff I know. Anyways, we ended up teaching her two lessons this week and both went very well. In the second lesson, she agreed to a bautismal date so we will see where this goes!!

This journey is not easy. And I am learning to rely on the Lord more and more each day. Do not be afraid to seek for his help, or to ask for patience. Learning a language is so tough, but with the Lord I know I can do it.

I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Semana Seis - TRAVEL PLANS TO PERÚ

Hola mis amigos!

This week went by so quickly, but haha I'm kinda glad it did! As much as I love the MTC, I am ready to leave. We all received our travel plans on Monday and it was so exciting. It gave me the hope that I was actually going to see the outside of Provo haha. But yes! I'm leaving on Monday afternoon and I should get to Perú early Tuesday morning!! Ahh I can't wait.

Tuesday was quite the day though. We had the privilege from hearing from THE 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf. And his message was very simple, but very powerful. Success is measured by "doing well" in the things you can control namely your thoughts, feelings, and actions. One way we can be successful in doing this is by having our thoughts centered on Jesus Christ. When we sacrifice our time or efforts for Him, he will magnify our efforts. Don't give up on hard things, try your best and the Lord will help you with the rest :) I promise. 

This week we also had a couple of English TRC meetings. At first I thought it was kind of odd to have us be teaching in Spanish for a couple weeks then just randomly switch to English, but I think it's to evaluate our teaching skills? I'm not sure. But we taught this guy Evan! And he was the perfect investigator honestly. He's from Arizona and just recently moved up to Provo because of his scholarship up at BYU. He told us he was interested in learning more about this, because the culture up here is kind of "whack". Haha and I don't blame him, we are in Provo after all. 

His perspective of Provo though killed me haha. He said the first thing his roommates asked him when he moved in was "where did you serve" and "are you a member?" which he replied "no" to and all of them were shocked. Another thing he pointed out was the odd dating scheme up here in Provo. He said back at home if you liked someone you would just date that one person, but here everyone dates everyone! Haha it's a thing. Evan also pointed out that he noticed his roommates didn't drink coffee or alcohol which he really respected. 

Our lessons with him this past week, just went amazing. We taught about how the Book of Mormon came to be and the spirit was so strong. You could really tell that he wasn't just a volunteer for one of these meetings, but he was actually looking for the truth. Unfortunately, we only had two lessons with him but if I had the chance I would stay at the MTC to teach this dude. Haha which is saying a lot. The feeling I get when I teach the gospel is just amazing. It's like a healthy adrenaline rush, where you feel beyond happy and the time just flies. It is also amazing to me the love you feel towards the people you are teaching. For a small moment, I get to feel a tiny portion of the Savior's love towards these people. I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything. 

My time in the MTC was long, but short. I have learned so much here in just a matter of six weeks. Before I entered the MTC I was only able to say simple phrases in Spanish like "Gracias", but now I can understand more than 50% of a spanish conversation and testify of the Savior. I have learned more spanish here than I have in my three years. Wild. And I know it wouldn't be possible without the gift of tongues and my amazing teachers. The teachers we have had in the MTC have been beyond exceptional. I have seen each one of them take time out of their day just to check up on how we are doing. And you can truly see how much they genuinely care for each one of us. I'll definitely miss them. 

I am grateful everyday for this amazing opportunity I have to share the gospel. And boy!! I can not wait to finally meet the people of Peru and start this amazing adventure :))

Favorite quote of the week:

"Be bold in all that you do"

Next time I email you all, I'll be in Peru!

I hope you have a WONDERFUL SEMANA!

Love,

Hermana Pulver

Semana Cinco - No Pain, No Gain

Semana Cinco started out with a wonderful, but freezing day of snow. It was Hermana Amedee's first time seeing snow and she absolutely loved it! She told us that God had answered her prayers haha. And I told her that God answers too well because Holy Hannah it's cold in Provo. It was in the low 20's this week and let's just say the weather really made me appreciate Perú a lot more.

Also!! On Sunday I definitely had a "woah" moment. As a child, or at least for me I would pray for the welfare of the missionaries every night. But now I am the missionary and people all over the world are praying for our success. Like wow... I know in my last email I already talked about gratitude. But seriously how often do I have this opportunity to wear a nametag on my chest that gives me the power and authority to teach people a simple message that could change their lives forever. 

Part 2 of Sunday was also pretty wild. Hermana Pierce told us she was pretty good at plucking eyebrows and if anyone of us needed a quick trim to hit her up. Well Hermana Amedee was up for this challenge. Sooo at this time I was casually walking around the residence hall when I heard screaming coming from down the hall. I quickly ran to my room only to find Hermana Amedee on the floor clenching hermana Jardines hand and hermana pierce casually pinning down Hermana Amedees hands. OH MY HECK. I thought someone was dying but really it was just a standard beauty procedure haha " no pain no gain right?" ( if you scroll down to the bottom of this email you'll find some great before and after pics )

So haha yeah back to a more spiritual note. We had our last lesson with Yaisza last week, and so now we have a new amiga to teach. She goes by Andee! She's from Ecuador and like Yaisza, she is also studying English at BYU. 

Unfortunately, our first lesson with her didn't really go super great. She was on her phone most of the time and our spanish was very broken because usually the first lesson is just getting to know someone. And I only know church español so haha yeah that can make it kind of difficult. The second and third lesson we had with her were better though! We really tried to teach to her needs instead of going lesson by lesson. 

Halloween in the MTC felt like any other day here haha. We were not allowed to trade nametags, but within the classroom it was "ok". So my costume was being Hermana Cook till the end of class and that was it! 

Okay last thing! Our Weekly devotional was amazing. We had the opportunity to hear from Brother and Sister Basett. They talked about how important it is to really understand the doctrine of Christ and be converted to his gospel. One of the questions I really liked was " where is your anchor?" And haha if you guys have read to the bottom of this email, another question that I would invite you to think about is "how do you build your anchor In Christ?"

Also haha one more last thing. Thank you to all who have reached out to me. It means so much and it truly does make my day :) WELL ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!! hopefully next time I email you I'll have my travel plans for Perú!

HASTA LUEGO

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Pictures:

1.The Bathroom lighting is amazing and I just couldn't resist, haha

2. My AMAZING companeras

3. Before an eyebrow was plucked....

4. After an eyebrow was plucked....

5. MY DISTRICTOOOO

Semana Cuatro - Choose To Be Grateful

Hola ustedes!

This week was definitely full of some highs and some lows. Being a missionary is by no means easy, but it is worth it.

On Sunday, me and mis compañeras got to teach Relief Society! Leading up to Sunday I was super stressed. Because every Sunday we have to prepare a talk and they only announce who is speaking after sacrament meeting. So I was worrying about that and teaching our lesson to a bunch of missionaries. But it actually went super well! We taught about how to join the I.R.A committee which is inviting, recognizing and acting on the spirit. 

Another highlight of the week is from Elder Lidicott. He is from England and he is the funniest and sweetest guy you'll ever meet. During one of our classes, our teacher asked us to practice explaining a gospel lesson to an investigator ( friend of the church) and he was my partner. At the end of our mock lesson I told him he did good and then he asked me If I could even call it a " Jolly good Job" in his England accent haha. And he was dead serious too! 

My favorite part of the week though, was definitely hosting new missionaries. For the first time in three weeks we had a change of schedule. And I just could not hide my smile. WE WERE ALLOWED TO MISS CLASS. Ah haha but also for a good reason. Hosting new missionaries is such an amazing, special experience. I had the opportunity of helping arriving missionaries with their luggage, saying goodbye to their families, and helping them find their room at the MTC. Watching each of them say goodbye to their family was hard, but it also helped me strengthen my testimony. So many young people sacrifice their time to serve the Lord. And they wouldn't be doing it, unless they knew that this church was true. The Lord requires us to push each of our limits, but does so knowing that we will benefit and grow by breaking the boundaries of our comfort zone. And he always puts people in our lives to help us whether we realize it or not. 

Thursday though was definitely a hard day. I didn't want to go for another round of cafeteria food, but really there isn't much options here. And I really just wanted to wear Jean's and a tshirt and listen to some good old Khalid. I just wanted a break, but my p-day wasn't until Saturday... and my heck it was so hard to focus. We had a lesson that night for TRC and I could not concentrate for the life of me. Eventually we ended up pulling a lesson together but it took up all of our personal and language study times. So haha I really wasn't in the best mind set. But that changed when we had TRC later that night.

We taught Yaisza. She is studying at BYU to learn English and she is SOOO KIND.  Every time after our lesson she would make sure to hug us before we left. But alright back to Thursday night. So that lesson was more focused on getting her to recognize God in her life. So we asked her when she had seen God answer a question to her prayers. And she told us that she had been married for 3 months, but had to file for a divorce because her husband was gay. And her boyfriend now has been her friend through all of this. Her story just made me realize again how gratitude plays a huge part in everyday. Yaisza could have chosen to say she didn't see God's hand at all, but instead  chose to focus on what she did have.

It can be so SO easy to find one negative thing. But if we are not careful, this can easily become your focus for the entire day. Choose to focus on the good in each day and I promise you'll find it :)

Well adios mis amigos!

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Pictures:

1. Relief Society lesson

2. ESPANOL

3. UN GATO

Semana Tres

Wow this week flew by! It is crazy how fast time goes when you are in the MTC. And by the time Saturday hits I honestly have no idea what I did in the week.

But on Tuesday we have devotionals and they have become my favorite thing here. Mostly because it takes the place of a 3 hour class haha. This last Tuesday though we had Elder Quentin L. Cook of the quorum of the twelve come to visit. And the excitement I felt was just amazing. When he entered the room everyone stood up as a sign of respect and it was just SO COOL to have an apostle of the Lord a couple feet away from us. His talk was also amazing. He talked to us about how he assigns missionaries. A little picture shows up on a screen along with a small bio about you then he has a map with the mission's that need missionaries. And the holy ghost directs where each person will serve. He also touched on " feeling an urgency" in missionary work. Finding the urgency to serve is when we completely place our focus on others. And through the process we will lose ourselves in the work. Oh! He also brought a church historian that showed us a draft of Alma 34 ( scripture in the libro de mormon). This page was one of the few surviving drafts of the book of mormon that were left in a Church corner for 40 YEARS. 

This week we also taught our first two lessons in spanish. It was kind of rough at first, because we only know broken spanish but she got the message. We are teaching a girl named Yaisza who is studying English at BYU. She's also from Mexico and she is sooo kind. Whenever we mess up she just smiles at us and tries to correct our Spanish haha. 

I'm also still surviving. The language is coming, but it's kind of tough to fit studying in because we only have an hour to go over Spanish. From this, I just really have learned to trust in the Lord.

24/7 exhaustion is also a thing here. Every minute we are doing something and so there is no time for naps. And so there have definitely been times where sleep deprivation has taken over. On Wednesday night me and Hermana Amedee had to iron some shirts. So the irons here work best when you just use a spray bottle instead of pouring the water inside the actual iron. So that is what we did! We brought the spray bottles. And this is where it kind of went downhill. 

I was trying to find the mist setting but I accidentally found the "aim" setting and I sprayed Hermana Amedee. She got mad and sprayed me back and yeah well eventually I stole her spray bottle and it was just free flying from there that is till she ran away. Haha she even LOCKED ME OUT OF MY ROOM. so I told her that jumanji was coming and she let me back in. I promise it was funnier in real life. Haha just know we are having a good time!

Anyways I hope you all have a great week! If there's anything I can do for you please don't hesitate to shoot me an email!

GREAT QUOTES BY A GREAT AUTHOR:

" The church loves us for which we are, but we can't stay who we are - we need to progress" 

"It takes the elect to gather the elect. You are here now, because you are supposed to be here now. You may have even poed with your heavenly father to be reserved for now."

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Week Dos

Hello Everyone!

Today is my first official P-day. Because of General Conference last week we only had two hours of free time so I am SO EXCITED to get to spend a whole day doing whatever I want. A typical day in the MTC looks like this: class in the morning, lunch and exercise in between that and class later in the night. We don't get a lot of free time here because there is just so much to do!! Every minute counts here. Haha every morning before class me and my companions plan out the day in our planners and EVERY hour is filled with an assignment.It can get pretty crazy at times, and by the time 9:00 hits I am beyond ready to go to bed. And if you knew me before I left on my mission, I would never even think about going to bed at 9......

The food at the MTC really isn't my favorite, but it's food. They have the same meal schedule for two weeks then they just rotate it again. But five more weeks and I will get to have other food! So that's exciting.

Our Spanish teachers are so much fun, and they have taught us so much already. It is crazy how fast I have progressed in the language in just one week. Before I came to the MTC I could only probably say a couple of phrases in spanish like "how are you" "good" and "How do you say" but now I can bear a short testimony of the gospel, say a prayer, and understand a lot of what is being said in the spanish book of Mormon. The MTC has a program called SYL which stands for Speak your language and it actually helps A TON. Whenever you learn a word in spanish you replace that with the English word.

Also! We had our very first couple of TRC meetings. TRC is when either a member or a non-member of the church volunteers to be taught by the missionaries. For our TRC we had a girl named Katie. She's studying at UVU and also has a RODEO scholarship. I didn't even know that existed. She didn't have much of a religious background, but was interested in learning more because her husband is a member. In our first meeting with her we spent the time to get to know her and bore our testimonies about how Heavenly Father knows each of his children. We also invited her to give prayer a shot. She said she would pray, but I didn't really expect her too because I thought she was just being nice. But no! In our second meeting with her we asked if she followed through with the invitation and she did! Katie told us that she prayed in her bedroom and she also expressed that she didn't really know if she did it right. So the next thing we taught her was how to pray. We didn't have a pen on us, so in the note section of her phone I wrote down the steps of prayer. After that, she asked us why we end our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ and why we start our prayers by addressing Heavenly Father. This was such a good question, that honestly I had never really thought about before. I started out by saying Jesus Christ knows how we feel and the spirit helped me explain the rest. IT was such a cool feeling. I could tell that Katie really was listening and the Spirit was definitely there in the room. I can not wait to have more experiences like this!!

My companions are amazing and I am so grateful to have them. I love it here! It's tough, but I know that all this work is going to be worth it. 

I hope all of you guys are doing well, and I hope you all have a great week!

Gift Of Tongues

Hola ustedes!

It is so surreal to wear a missionary tag. Haha I still don't think that the reality of it has really sunk in. 

The MTC is filled with so many amazing missionaries. And I feel so privileged to be apart of this. I've also ran into  many friends here too! Sister Beck, Elder Koch, Sister Johnson, Sister Lloyd. 

So it's only been a couple days at the MTC, but I feel like it's been weeks. It's been insanely busy. We all wake up at 6:30 am and we don't really have a break until we go to bed at 10:30. This has been a big change! I'm very tired most of the time, but hopefully It will get better. 

I also have two wonderful companions! Sister Nadee is from St. Lucia ( the Caribbean) and she is the only member in her family. She got baptized 4 years ago and her conversion story is amazing. She is such a good example to me! My other companion Sister Pierce is from Idaho. Her flight was delayed so sister Nadee and I didn't meet her until Wednesday evening. But she's also great. She has a smile on her face most of the day haha which is a good thing.

Learning the language actually hasn't been that tough. This week we have been reviewing basic core which is what I learned previously in spanish 2. I have also remembered words that I haven't studied in years which has been such a testimony to me of the gift of tongues ( being able to speak a different language ). I thought that the gift of tongues would come instantly, but it comes gradually with hard work and study!

Being a missionary is not easy, but I am so excited for what is ahead of me. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Pulver 

Going Through The Temple