8/11/2014 Email

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2014 1:57 PM
To: Melissa Wheatley;

Subject: The last transfer has begun!

 Family and Friends!! (:

 Well this week was the fastest, craziest week of my mission. We were pretty much in Arequipa the whole week so we didn’t have much time here in Chivay but we made it work (:

Monday we had Noche De Hogar with our cute favorite old couple from the ward, They´re the best. We taught about prayer and played games, hot potato being the favorite haha, Those are probably some of my favorite memories, these members just love each other so much and we all have so much fun together. And I’ve got a ton of great videos to show you all when I get back! Side note the sweet Hermana Cecilia tried to make us tea… and then coffee and then stopped and said “wait we don’t drink those do we?” haha bless her heart.

Tuesday we had an awesome district meeting! We made a ton of plans to help the branch in these last couple weeks that were here, then we went out and visited a bunch of members and talked to the Relief Society president about all of our goals and plans and all three of us were really excited. I think it’s hard on all of us when we haven’t seen a huge change in the branch over the past few months, but I think we all felt that everything will happen in the Lords time and that our job is to keep fighting and working and leave the rest in His hands. That all of the little steps forward that we´ve made will one day turn into leaps.  

Wednesday we went to Arequipa and we got to have dinner and just talk and play some games with our mission president and his wife, They´re the best. They do so much for all of us and still have time to just sit and talk and make us feel like their kids. Then all the missionaries who were going home that week came and we all talked and played games for a while.

Thursday we had a 7 hour training, (i went so that I don’t have to go when moms here (: ) and it was all about goals and careers and studying and families and basically the trunkiest training ever. But at the same time it was really spiritual and I learned a ton! That night we had a BBQ and had the yummiest steak and chicken ever. Then I got to go to the big last testimony meeting that they have for everyone that was leaving. I felt very lucky to be able to sit in and listen to all of their amazing testimonies and feel the power of the spirit. It amazes me how strong all of their words were and to hear how much each of them loved their mission and were sad to go. I have no doubt that they’ll all go on to do amazing things.  

Friday we all went to the airport to see all the ones that were leaving off. It was so surreal to be there and to realize how fast that day comes. Time goes by too fast.

Sunday was Elder Hulets last Sunday here in chivay.. sad day. We had a little goodbye party and made pizza with all the members. They all love him so much and it’s going to be hard for them to not have him as the branch president. On the other hand I think Elder Boyd is going to do great!

So today we get a new elder up here, he’s Latin… and that’s about all we know. It will be good for all of us to start speaking more Spanish again. Haha This is my last transfer here in the mission… blows my mind! And this week will be my last full week here in chivay… Next week me and Hermana stone will be traveling and doing sister conferences with Hermana Zobrist and President and then the next week we have a mission conference with Elder Anderson! Which were all super excited about and that day Hermana Stone heads home… which I’m not excited about… haha Then I have my last two weeks of my mission somewhere else, which I know nothing about yet, but where ever it is, is where God needs me! Listening to all of the people leaving made me realize how grateful I am to still have more time left here. I feel like there is still a lot for me to do and a lot more for me to learn. . I’m excited for the time that I get to still be here in Peru! If I can go home with half of the testimony of those missionaries then I would be set. It is crazy how much us young people learn during this time. I know that my mission has taught me more about the importance of the Gospel and has brought me closer to my Savior than any other time in my life. The Church is true. And missionary work is the most important thing we can do during our time here in this life. I believe that even when we don’t have a missionary tag, that helping others come closer and learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ will teach us more than any other thing we could be doing. It will help us to learn more about Him as and to feel closer to him as we bring others unto His Gospel.  Please, please, please… do not underestimate your role in Hastening the Work. Every Member has the responsibility to share what we know and to help those around us! I promise you that doing so will bring you more joy than you can imagine.  Love you all!!

Hermana Weller

8/4/2014 Pictures

Teaching a cute little boy how to breakdance in the

Plaza...nailed it! 

Travis I think I found  your next back up break dancer! 

Alpaca Steak on a stick...BEST THING EVER! 

"Pollera" Skirts that Hna Julia gave us to take home

with us!! Shes the best! 

My favoite alpace lady "Maria" and her

alpaca.."Claita" (: 

I'm scared and she's laughing...classic 

Cute corner ladies! 

Peeling peanuts has never been messier. 

Grass!!!! 

All of the  youth from the activity!!

8/4/2014 Email

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 11:57 AM
To: Melissa Wheatley;

Subject: Start Fast, Finish Strong!

 Woooowwww the mission is the best, thats all im going to say (: This week was incredible! We were both so tired from all of the work we did we didnt make it to 10:30 before we fell asleep most nights. Theres nothing better than that.  These past weeks we have really been trying to find the Lords will for the people and branch here in Chivay and this week we got our answer. Our mission president called us and told us first off that both Hermana Stone and I would be staying here in this area until Hermana Stone goes home the 29th and then he has something else planned for me for the remaining two weeks.. i dont think ive ever been so happy!!! 1 i get to do this amazing work with my best friend and 2 we get to do it in chivay! Then he told us that he had been thinking a lot about our area and the branch here and wants us to focus everything we have on helping the members here, helping the inactives come back and also helping the active members learn more and become more self reliant. Its really different up here because we are the branch leaders... our main focus is running the meetings and activities and basically doing everything all the ward leaders would normally do, but its so awesome because we get to work with and be a lot closer to the members which normally we dont get that chance. The members here are so amazing and if they dont know something or dont know how to do things its our responsibility to teach them and help them to understand. So thats our new and primary focus, to teach the members and leave them the strongest we can when we go. 

This week was super busy! Tuesday we had such a cool district meeting! we mainly talked about how we need to work our hardest expecially Hermana Stone and I because we go home this next transfer and we need to finish our missions the strongest we have. "start fast, finish strong" as coach boyd would say. We also read a super good quote, i hope that it hits all my friends that are still out on missions as hard as it hit me...

 

"You only get once chance to serve a mission; it is your responsibility, your duty, to use it to the fullest; to give every last ounce of energy until you collapse in exhaustion at the end of it. All the hardships, all the tears, all the hard work will be looked back upon as the best thing you´ve ever done, not because you enjoyed it, not because you baptized everyone, but because you gave everything you had, even when you didn´t think you could, and especially when you didn´t want to. Live your mission to the fullest, work harder than you´ve ever worked before. Let people know this is the most important thing in the world to you... If you do not run until you have nothing left to give, and then keep going anyway; cry and pray and work and sweat and plead until you are so drainded that all you can do is turn to the Lord; If you don´t do this, then these people will not come to this joy because of you-their falure to come to Christ will be partially upon your head. Come out of your mission proud of what you´ve done, and this experience will bless the rest of your life." -Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Doesnt that just rock your world??? It makes me realize how much i need to change and how much i still need to do.. but i love it. 

We also met with Brenda this week... i havent said much about her the past couple weeks because she was sort of distant.. we didnt know what was going on but she hardly ever was with us or wanted to listen or talk to us... we were pretty discouraged but went to visit her and it was such a cool experience (Side note, dont give up on anyone!) We sat down and read the book of mormon with her and afterwards she opened up to us. She said she didnt know what was going on with her but that when we read with her she felt the spirit again and it was like "everything made sense again". in her prayer she prayed for forgiveness for the way she had acted and how she had treated us.. it was so cool to be reminded that these people that arent baptized and havent yet recieved the spirit need to be spiritually nourished more than we think, the spirit helps us to see things more clearly and to understand our purpose better. Having the spirit in our lives is probably the most important thing!! 

Friday and Saturday we had the opportunity to have a group of youth come up from arequipa and got to help us with visits! It was a little stressfull because we had to plan everything... food, activities.. everything.. just part of the joy of being the branch leadership here (: definately prepares us for further callings and such though so i cant complain! Its just funny because normally missionaries would have nothing to do with such an activity but in turn we´re in charge of it.. haha On friday we all split up, one missionary with 2 youth and went out and contacted, visited members, and knocked doors. My favorite part was listening to the testimonies of the 2 young girls i went with. They were so powerfull and sincere and i could truly feel the spirit  through their words! We got a lot of amazing new investigators and were excited to work with them as well this week! Saturday we got to go play soccer with them and then they went off to the hot springs and we stayed and cleaned the church... another joy of being the responsible ones (: 

Sunday we had such a funny but spiritual meeting! We had a super old guy that was visiting pass the sacrament(because there wasnt anyone else to do it) and he could barely walk... it was such a spiritual couple minutes, i loved it. Then his cute old wife shared her testimony and then made him get up there after her... it was the best testimony ever... we couldnt understant half of the stuff he said.. he shared his testimony of the book of moroni... and then read the same scripture 3 times.. best thing ever.. meanwhile there was a lady on the phone outside screaming, cell phones going off and a kid upstairs messing with the tv which was playing frozen in english.... ohhh man i couldnt love this place more. Despite all of that it was still such a cool meeting, i love listening to the strong testimonies here and picturing what they will be like in 10 or 20 years and everything that they will have accomplished. We taught gospel principles about the scriptures and importance of scripture study and then in Relief society Hermana Mariella talked about Elder Bednars talk "Bear up their burdens" which was so good! you´ll all have to go read that!!

Well thats all this week folks!!! Love you all so much and i hope that you can feel my prayers and that this week will be better than the last! (:

Love,

Hermana Weller 

 

7/28/14 Pics!

7/28/2014 Email

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 11:03 AM
To: Melissa Wheatley;

Subject: Feliz Día de Independencia PERÚ! (:

First off happy 28th of July, independence day of my beautiful country... PERU (: i love this place more than i thought was posible, i remember after i got my call i would always say that i felt like my heart was already in peru... well now its here and i dont think ill ever bring it all the way back home...

Well this week was a little on the crazy, wierd side but thats life for ya (: it seems like we spent more time out of our area than we did in it.. We got to spend p-day down in arequipa with our zone and then headed back that night, heres a random funny story for ya...we were headed to our bus and were running late but i had to pull out money.. a guy from the mission was driving us so he would pull over to the side of the road and i would jump out and go to the atm, but none of them would take my card so we did this about four times down the road to the terminal... on the last one i ran out of the little atm booth and then suddenly was yanked backwards when i turned around i saw that my skirt had caught onto a motorcycle and i watched as it fell over...... haha then i had to try to remove my skirt from the bike, which in the process ripped the side of my skirt to shreds.... (side note this is the skirt that was my grandmas and just that morning she emailed me telling me to make sure i brought it back because it has a matching top she still has...... sorry grandma..love you. ) anyways then we had to pull the bike back up but were still in such a hurry as to not miss our bus that we ran to the car and jumped back in.... missionaries or motorcycle tipping fools? hahaha  then tuesday we got a call and had to head back to A-town that morning.. on the way our bus broke down.. in the middle of nowhere..and all the driver said was to start walking and hope that someone picks us up... welcome to peru my friends... haha so we did and ended up getting on a different bus and making it there just fine. But by the time we got there and figured everything out we had already missed the last bus home to chivay.. so we stayed at the mission home and headed back the next morning... well we tried, but missed our bus and had to take the afternoon one.. what a start to a week right? im just glad i get to have all these great experiences with my best friend Hna Stone! haha nothing can get us down.. shes such a great example of come what may and love it! Then on thursday my poor companion was super sick and could barely get out of bed, she took some medicine and we were able to go out for a bit that night, which included a birthday dinner for one of the zone leaders that came up.. Then friday we had an activity with the branch, "noche de peru" we made arroz choufa and had a cute peru cake and played games, it was kind of a sad night because all the woman were telling us how much they dont want us to go.. breaks my heart because i just love them all so much... Saturday we had a sweet young womans activity, we painted our nails and made them diaries for their personal progress, they are all such cute girls, and were excited to start working on their personal progress. Sunday we hit our 16 month mark... it blows my mind how fast the weeks and months go by here! slow down already! we had a great sacrament meeting, despite the fact that there was only 11 members there (including us missionaries) but its a holiday weekend so im guessing everyone went to arequipa! but we still had such a spiritual time. the talks were all amazing... Hna stone, Elder hulet, and Elder boyd all talked about sharing the gospel and missionary work, reminded me of how important the work were doing is.. love it. We also had a RM come to church with his parents and he talked to us and shared some of his experiences and how everyday on his mission he promised him self that he would say "i´m not ready to go home yet" until he was getting on the plane ride home... i really liked that and have made that my new goal.. so if anyone was wondering.. im not ready to go home yet (:

I had a cool oportunity to talk to a young woman from our ward that was going through some of the same things i did at her age.. i felt impressed to share parts of my past and how i learned from it and how all that strengthened my testimony of the atonement.. sometimes i think we trust ourselves too much and we put ourselves in situations where we know we will be tempted... but in most situations where we make mistakes there is something that leads to that mistake.. if we take out that intermediate, whether it be a certain place or a certain group of friends or a person, it will be a lot harder to make that mistake. Wouldnt we rather be in atmospheres where the people around us build us up and help us be better?? Rather than putting temptations in our face? Thats something that i learned a while back and has helped me a ton, get good friends, put yourself in good situations and odds are you will make better decisions. on the other side of the spectrum i will share something my uncle trav once told me... "If you hang around skunks... your bound to stink" anyways it was really a cool experience to see someone at that point and get to share my testimony with her.. the atonement works, its real and its always there for us whether we acept it or not. The debt has already been paid.. dont wait to take care of things that are weighing heavy on your heart or mind. The feeling of worthinness and a clearness of conscious is just a sincere pray and a couple steps away. It is never too late to turn around and change.

This week ive been thinking a lot about how these are most likely our last couple weeks in this area(although i havent lost the hope that maybe president will keep me here for my last transfer) and how hard it is for me to say goodbye to the members and people here in chivay... i feel like everyone is family, even our breakfast lady seems like my aunt or something haha And i realized that one thing my mission has definately taught me is how to love... not in a romantic or poetic kind of way but in the way that our Heavenly Father loves each one of us.. Im sure ive only come to know a sliver of this love but that sliver has come to fill my heart with more love for the people here in peru than i could have imagined.. i feel as though i have known them forever.. and that they are my closest family and friends that i have been so lucky to share this amazing, true gospel with and in return they have taught me so much and helped me to learn and grow with them. I will forever be greatful for these months here in the mission and will never stop helping more of our brother and sisters come to know their Savior and his perfect gospel..

I love you all,. thank you for all of your kind words and for your love and prayers, i promise you that we feel them. 

Con mucho amor y respeto,

Hermana Weller (:

p.s i talked to a lady in another language here called Quechua this week... "Ima su tiki??" (: 

Also aparently public disturbance isnt a thing here... someone had a weekend long party right by our house and it litterally sounded like we were blasting the music from inside of our room.... after 3 nights of no sleep this p-day nap thats coming my way is very much needed. 

7/21/14 Pictures

7/21/2014 Email!

From: Camille Weller [mailto:camille.weller@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 11:50 AM
To: Melissa Wheatley;
Subject: Dancing queens!

 Hello Friends and Familiaaaa (:

well this one might be short and sweet! this week was........you guessed it.. amazing (: monday we did a christmas pday...thats what you do in chivay when theres nothing to do on pday..haha then we had an awesome FHE at Asunta and Santos house which is one room, but that just made it more fun! Our district meeting was so awesome on tuesday, we talked about humility and christlike attributes, it was so cool because all of us have such a desire to change and be better as missionaries.i love my district. This week we also did a district fast and i could truly feel the help of my Savior more than ever.. fasting works. Friday we had a cool talent show that turned into the relief society dancing (us included) in the polleras, or traditional dresses... which mind you are REEAALLLYY tight. i think you can see the effects of that in some of the pictures haha and elder hulet sang and played the guitar..so thats our branch talent show for ya (: This week weve also been helping Bobby....brendas dog get better... haha anyone who knows me knows that i have a special place for the peruvian dogs.. i have to help her mom give him medicine and such.. its quite the adventure.(: We started mission prep and two young men are planning on leaving this year which is a huge deal for the branch!! On tuesday we gave the relief society president a temple recommend holder and talked about the temple. she is so excited to work to get there and she even gave a cool lesson sunday about temples and got all the woman excited too! We played a prank on the elders this week and told them we would make them lunch... along with the yummmy arroz choufa we pretended to make them alpaca head soup....a common dish here in chivay...and the looks on their faces were priceless....then we ended up giving the head and legs to a member so they could actually cook and eat it..haha que rico.  We have met so many amazing people this week! starting off with alejandro, who is living in chivay for the next six months..he and his wife are both returned missionaries and are sealed in the temple! hes going to be such a great example to the men here in chivay and they need it. Then we have four great new investigators who are all listening and learning more. ill have to give more details next week (:

Well thats all for today folks (: the work here is moving along great! Sunday is my 16th month mark...where did this month go??? Ohhhh and i just have to say that i feel that i have the best companion in the world. She is such a good example and teaches me so much.I dont think i could be with anyone else 24/7 for 4months and not once get even close to a disagreement. Shes so patient and kind to me even when i get frusterated or down.Even though she may only be with me for a couple more weeks i know we´ll be friends for ever.. wow that sounds cheesy but i mean it (: 

ohh and one more thing, i gave a talk in sunday about being gratefull and used uchtdorfs talk...its attatched, read it.and be a greatful person(:

love you all!!!(:

Hermana Weller