The Book of Mormon is AMAZING!! May 22, 2013

Hola Familia!!!

I feel like it has been a while!!! How are you?? Thank you SO much for your emails and support. It is the best to open my email every week and see emails from all the people I love. :) 

This week was AWESOME!! First things first, I did not receive a transfer! I am happy. My companion and I are staying in the same area in Ayacucho! :D We did get a calling that is new though. We are now leading trainers in the mission! Haha we dont know what it means...but I will inform you when I do.

 We had a baptism this past Saturday! It was of a little 8 year old girl who is super adorable. It was a beautiful baptism. The spirit was way strong. ALSO last monday we went to Quinua again! So there are some pictures attached of that as well. 

This week my testimony of the Book of Mormon was definitely strengthened. It has SUCH a huge power because it is true and literally was written by Prophets who talked directly with our Father in Heaven. We have an investigator whose name is Marlon. He is 22 years old and he has such a hunger to hear the truth, to really know the will of God. He wants to know what he needs to do in order to complete all that Heavenly Father would have him do. We have been teaching him a lot and of course, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true. He said that he readthe chapter that we left him (Alma 34) six times because he loved it so much and wanted to soak in every meaning that it had. Afterwards, he prayed to know if it was true. I cant describe exactly what he felt, but he shared with us that as  he prayed, he felt the strongest tranquility that he has ever felt in his life and his mind was completely clear. When he opened his eyes, the first thing that he saw was the book of mormon and felt an undescribable feeling that just completely overpowered him in his heart. He almost started crying as he told us how he had felt. The spirit was SO strong! It was beautiful. Definitely an experience that I am not going to forget.

I love when investigators have experiences like this and share them with us. It really builds my testimony to know that those who really have a strong desire to know, and ask in faith, will receive an answer that everything that we teach is true. Heavenly Father knows us individually and knows exactly how we recognize answers. He manifests the truth to us through the Holy Ghost in ways that we can recognize. I love it! I want to invite you all to find a Book of Mormon, read it, ponder about it, and pray to know if it is true. I know that if you ask in faith, God will give you an answer. :)

I love you all! I hope your week is amazing!

Con mucho amor siempre!!!

 

Hermana Elisheva Ali

 

 

Emata sutiki! May 13, 2013

Imaynallakashkanki!!! (How are you...in Quechua)

The subject line means ¨what is your name?¨ Haha This third language I am trying to learn is ridiculously hard. But anyways...Hellooooooooooo familia!! Happy Mothers day to all the wonderful mothers/grandmothers! In Peru, Mothers day is a HUGE holiday! Its way cool. The whole week, all the streets were filled with flowers and chocolate and baloons. It was adorable. I appreciate ALL that mothers do...Grandmas, and mom, you are the best. Never forget your divine nature and how important you are to our Heavenly Father. :)

This week, nothing of too much consequence happened... yesterday, we were walking in the street and we found a dead rat. So that was...interesting. Haha :) We are working really hard, teaching a whole lot of lessons and just trying our best to be exactly obedient. I know that when we obey they Lord, he gives us blessings and will help us with anything that we need. Now is the time to just be patient and let the Lord work in his own timing. I absolutely love this work. I literally am SO happy every single day! Even the bad days! I love it. I love teaching the Gospel, I love seeing people change and accept CHrist in their lives.

Next week are transfers again! Crazy! Hopefully I wont be transferred out of Ayacucho and from my companion...BUT if it happens I know its for the best and it is what the Lord needs. :) But I wont be emailing until next wednesday, not Monday. So if you dont get an email next monday...thats why. :)

I hope you have a wonderful week! I send my love!

Con mucho amor siempre,

Hermana Elisheva Ali

9 months!! May 6, 2013

 

Buenos Dias mi familia!!! :)

 

Ok. So wow I cannot BELIEVE I am literally halfway through my mission! Yesterday was my birthday...my ninth month in the mission. It is going WAY too fast! I love every minute and I am just in awe at how fast the time is passing. Crazyyyy!!! But anyways...I hope you have all had an AMAZING week. :) I sure did. And I learned SO much this week in regards to faith and ACTION. IT was fantastic. All week. First off, last monday, we had the chance to go to Huanta! About and hour away from Ayacucho. It is SO beautiful there! There is a big white statue of Christ and so we went and visited. :) We went with the entire zone. It was a grand old time. Attached are a couple of pictures...also of two weeks back when we went to Rashuilca! :)

 

 The whole week, we had a lot of blessings with  finding wonderful new people to teach who have desires to learn more of the Gospel, and ACT on what they learn. Each mission has a mission president, and this week, we had interviews with him and a training conference! We had the chance to study a few different talks by Elder David A Bednar, one of the twelve apostles. Each of the talks were on the subject of faith. How we can strengthen our faith, how we can gain faith, but most importantly, what we can do with this faith. We talked a whole lot about the verb ¨To act¨

 

Something that President Douglas said, quoting Elder Bednar was... ¨The Lord will do nothing for us that we can do for ourselves.¨ I love this quote! It doesnt mean that Heavenly Father doesnt love us, it doesnt mean that he doesnt want to help us, it means that if we act for oursleves, through faith, he will help us and give us everything that we need to be able to accomplish it. We can pray for help, but if we dont do anything afterwards, if we dont ACT, nothing will happen. It is in James 2:16-17. Faith without works is dead. I love it! We have the responsibility...and the blessing to be able to excercise our agency and act on the impressions and answers that we receive from our Father in Heaven.

 

Good stuff this week. The spirit is real. God communicates with us through Him, and if we act on what we receive, and what we know, we will receive even more blessings than what we already have. :)

 

Have the best week ever!

Con mucho amor siempre!!

Hermana Elisheva Ali :)

Hoooooooooola!! April 29, 2013

Hola !!!

 

Ok...so this week, not a whole lot happened. Haha basically a lot of teaching,  a lot of contacting, a lot of teaching, and a lot of learning. Something that I have learned this week is dilligence! It is absolutely, 100% necessary that whatever we pass through, whatever circumstance, whatever trial, whatever weakness that we have, it is imperative that we push through. Good attitude, a smile, and faith can get us through anything! I have not only seen this in my life here on the mission, but also in the lives of our investigators, those who we teach.

 

This past Saturday, we had a beautiful night of baptisms! We had a ¨Noche Blanca¨. It was super special. There were seven baptisms of missionaries in our zone, so we all gathered together to have a super big baptismal service. It was SO special. The Spirit was SO strong!  Something else that I learned this week, is that whenever we do something right, there is constantly opposition. Satan knows our weaknesses and he tries his best to defer us from doing/choosing the right. However, if we persevere and we are strong, and confident in our decision, his influence does not even make a difference.

 

I love this Gospel, I love the joy that it can bring to all the lives of those who accept it. This work is true. Heavenly Father loves us and he answers prayers. :)

 

I love you all and I hope that your week is wonderful!! :)

 

Con mucho amor siempre,

Hermana Elisheva Ali :)