Vivo En Peru: Sister Stevie Carr

February 17, 2014

Hey Family-

Sorry you had such a stressful week without Dad, but Im glad that everyone is safe. Jakey I hope you are feeling better!!! If it makes you feel better, I was SICK...SICK...SICK this week too haha.

Oh man, this was one of the craziest weeks of my mission. One of the worst and one of the best haha. A week of miracles tambien. All in all...well lets just spell it out day by day, yeah?

Monday, Pday. We went to Punto Olympica and as you can see from last weeks pictures, it was ABSOLUTELY amazing. Beautiful. It was so much fun and I had a blast talking to everyone in my zone, we have some new people in the zone since the last transfer and the bus ride was a blast getting to know them. All of the gringos are from Arizona and Utah...except for me and Elder H, he's from Nebraska... I know, who the heck is from Nebraska haha...we had some fun conversations on that one. Well after that the bus left our district in Carhuaz and we ate with the Carhuaz elders, then we headed to Caraz...had internet, and had a lesson at the S home. J wasn't there, but S, M, and J jr. were. S began to tell us that her husband said that they didn't have any money to get the documents together for their wedding. She was near tears. We decided to say a prayer and then I opened up to Nefi 3:7. You all know that scripture. I testified to S that the Lord doesn't want her to wait to repent and get married, that He ALWAYS provides a way for His children to keep the commandments. I told her that the Lord provided a way for Nephi and that He would for her too. We then talked about Nephi and how he obtained the plates...how he had to sacrifice a ton and work hard to get them. We applied this to S and laid out a plan to do everything possible to make things happen. We finished up and she went searching, and so did we.

Tuesday, we get up at 6:30, throw on some clothes and race to the S home. By miracle we scraped some money together and S and J headed to the hospital to get their health certificates, and then S headed to her hometown to get her authenticated birth certificate. We had District Meeting and had made chocolates for the elders for valentines day. they were super excited and it was awesome. Then we went and visited O, our rockstar investigator. O is progressing rapidly and he is so cool. He has a huge testimony of everything and he always says I AM GOING TO GET BAPTIZED ON THE 22nd and that he wants to share everything with his children. We also had Noche de Hermanamiento...by MIRACLE... J decided to come! It was super awesome.

Wednesday, Hermana Flor decided to make a special dish for Hermana Cueva... direct recipe from her mom. A bean mash with mystery meat...yum. Then that night S prepared dinner for us to celebrate that she got her papers. Then they began to tell us a story about how at the hospital they were going to have to pay 110 soles for stupid health tests to get their certificates, yeah they didnt have the money for that of course! But by MIRACLE one of the doctors said that he would fill out the certificates for them for a cheaper price and they didnt need to get the tests. So yes...WE WERE GONNA HAVE A WEDDING!!!

Thursday. Sick. As. A. Dog. Oh my gosh. I had a fever and everything and was stuck in bed all day. I felt bad, but I think Hermana Cueva was happy because she just studied and watched all of the book of mormon cartoons haha. I felt awful. We were able to go out and teach two lessons in the evening and head to our ward mission meeting. Elder G was super cool and gave me a blessing.

Friday, WEDDING DAY. Still not feeling too good, still in bed, D starts banging on the door frantically. Her cousin had just arrived at the house in the middle of the night with a really bad head wound. He is also S's nephew. Ambulance comes, S and her family race over. We arent sure if we are going to have a wedding. But then S calls at 10 asking if we are still coming to her house to help her get ready. So we head over to the house and so does Hermana M and we help her with hair and make up then we all race to the stadium. All of the youth were there selling heart baloons to help them pay for their temple trip to Lima, Maria is going and I am so excited. The wedding was actually really cool for being a civil, free service. I havent ever been to a civil wedding, let alone a mass wedding, but it was great. All of the couples got their special moment to walk down the aisle, received cake, and there were refreshments and meals for the wedding parties. We left before the free beer was served, dont worry haha. That night there was a little reception at the church where we were able to bear testimony on eternal families. S stood up and bore the most POWERFUL testimony. She choked as she said that she learned about the Gospel trhough Hermana Carr and Hermana Cueva... I was crying too...and then she said that she is HERE IN THE GOSPEL, and this is WHERE SHE IS GOING TO STAY. It was a beautiful day and J and S are getting baptized this week along with O... please pray hard for these three, ESPECIALLY J.

Well those are those most important events that happened. We also had a night when it was raining so hard that the power went out. it was fun to give glowsticks to the Castillo family.

I love you guys so much and I hope you had a Happy Valentines Day. Dad I hope you make it up to Mom for being gone this week! I know this Gospel is true and I am so grateful to be here in Caraz, despite the sickness and the hard days. I am learning so much here and my testimony and ability to speak both grow every day. This Gospel is true and this work is SO important. Continue to be awesome member missionaries and spread the gospel with your example and your words. You are all the best and I am SO grateful for my family. I am thinking a lot about the temple this week and eternal families, and each time I bear my testimony on those things I cant help but feel so much gratitude for my parents and the decision that they made to be sealed in the temple. Thank you for giving me the privilege to be born in the covenant. I dont think I can ever truly express how much that means to me.

Love you and hope you have a fantastic week,

Hermana Carr