Hermana Lawrence in Peru

Monday, July 4, 2016

2 MONTHS!! June 20 - Week 3 in Ica, Peru

June 20, 2016 letter Father’s Day 2016

I have tons of pictures to share this week! We went to a zoo that was really ghetto but really cool! My companion and I have been hard at work with the people down here in Ica. We have been working with a family by the name of Familia Uchuya and they are to be sealed this 25 of June and my companion and I get to be in the temple for it! We have also been working a lot with an Hermana by the name of Luzmery who is a rescue, and she just started on her Mission Papers!

Ica is amazing and the people that we are working with are just so kind! My companion and I also gave talks in church this week and that was really scary I will not lie. But I think it went well!

To all of those on this list that are father´s, FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE!

But yes, everything is amazing down here in Ica, and we are dying of heat in the winter time. Every day it is hotter and hotter and we are in the middle of winter!

But we have 2 investigators with a baptismal date and 4 others who are on their way to baptism as well, who are slowly but surely working to be converted to the gospel and have firm testimonies. We are so blessed to be here and I love the people so much!

Hermana Shylo Lawrence

At the ghetto zoo - Bruce Willis lookin' good!

Real turtles

Up close and personal

Yikes!!

Shylo learned to make delicious empanadas!!

June 13 - Week 2 in Ica, Peru

June 13, 2016 Week 2 in Ica

OH MY GOODNESS MOM AND DAD HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND HOPE YOU KNOW I WAS THINKING OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything that you have done for me I hope that your day was really good because you are the best and you deserve it!

The pictures of my zone are from last P-day we had a zone pday and we played sports and games and it was fun! The fireworks happen everyday and they are from the Catholics celebrating the Saints! So crazy?! The little llama thing is the only llama that I have seen in Peru, disappointing. The food is alfredo that I made for Hermana Zuchel and I and she ate 3 bowls of it haha she didn´t know what to do with herself because it was so good she said haha I love her so much!

Hermana Shylo Lawrence

Tell the family I love them! Love you all to the moon and beyond!

Hermana Shylo Lawrence

Daddy! I love you so very much and I hope that guard has been at least okay! I hope that you all are enjoying your Summer Vacation and are having so much fun! I love you so much and hope that you know that you are always in my prayers! This week was really good! I got to meet an apostle of the Lord! Elder Rasband came to the CCM and the LIma Sur mission traveled to go see him! He shook my hand!!! It was so amazing and his talk was so inspiring! He talked about the reason we are out here and that we have the authority to be here. That we have the authority to preach and baptize. So awesome and so spiritual. It was a good week and yes the homesickness is wearing off with my phrase: WORK HARDER. I love you very much daddy and I hope that you have had the best week(: I love you more than words!!! Love, your little tortilla chip,

Hermana Lawrence

Last picture from the CCM

Shylo sending us some love from Ica!

Shylo made her companion Pasta Alfredo and she had never tasted anything so delicious before that she ate 3 whole bowls of it!! :)

LOVE Hermana Zuchel and Shylo!

Shylo's only disappointing find of a lama so far in Peru ...

Fireworks from the Day of the Catholics - Shylo said they had them all week long

June 6 - Week 1 in Ica, Peru

June 6, 2016 Week 1 in Ica

Momma! I hope all went well with the dance recital and I hope you told all of the dance girls that I love them and know that they did a good job! I hope that Meisha, Maya, and Oaklee know how much their older sister loves them and how proud I am of them and who they are becoming. This has been a very hard week for me and I just wanted to say that I am very grateful for all of the support that I get from you and from the rest of the family. I hope that everyone is doing well. I have an interesting weekly letter this week I hope you will read it! I love you very much mom! Tell Caiden, Meisha, Maya, and Oaklee that I love them very very much and have missed them a lot this week! And I have missed you too momma! Love, Hermana Lawrence

Hermana Shylo Lawrence

Mi familia!! Hello from Ica Perú! Yes transfers were yesterday and life is so good! Today is P-day and I have a little bit to write! So yesterday I woke up at 4:30 am to get ready to head off to Lima to my mission home! I ate some delicious french toast para desayuno! Y entonces we had another small breakfast from the mission home while we were having all of our in field trainings. We went through a lot of health classes and then went through a couple classes with Presidente y Hermana McGinn and they are so amazing! I love them so much! ALSO I got to meet my new compañera! Her name is Hermana Zuchel y ella es de Chile Concepción. She is absolutely amazing and a guardian angle down here to me. She is so loving, kind, and so patient with my español! She is everything that I have been praying for and more. So yesterday after we left the Mission Home in Lima Hermana Zuchel and I got on a bus for a very short 5 hour bus ride. And I slept the entire time I was so tired because I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before. But I AM FINALLY OUT IN THE MISSION FIELD. And it is so weird! But so amazing! So yeah today is P-day and we had a zone conference and a district meeting but other than that we have been working on reports for family history and have been meeting lots of elders and our stake president. So it has been really good! Go look up pictures of Ica, it is so strange. I am surrounded by tons and tons of sand dunes It is HOT AND SO MUCH DIRT EVERYWHERE. Oh and yes there is only one temperature of water and it is cold. Nice cold showers (they suck) and I get to wash my hands in cold as well. But it´s alright I am finally in the mission field. We get to teach a lesson tonight to a part member family and then we get to do a familiy home evening with a recent convert family también. So it has been really eventful. But one thing that is really cool, I go back to Lima in about a week because Elder Raspband is coming and the Lima Sur and Lima Oeste missions get to go back to the CCM to hear him. But I just watned to let you know that I am sae and that I love you and that I will talk to you in a week when I have more to say(: I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BEYOND. Love, Hermana Shylo Lawrence

Shylo's 1st Companion! Hermana Zuchel from Concepcion, Chile

Friday, May 27, 2016

May 25 - Week 6 - Last week in the CCM!!

May 25, 2016 – Last week from the CCM

This week has been pretty much the same! We hit a routine this week and basically we just go to class and learn lots and lots and lots about Spanish and the Doctrine of Christ. This week has been a week of change in personal habits and a change in the way of teaching our investigadores. This week I have studied the Book of Mormón more and more deeply than ever before. I have felt my love for this gospel deepen as I read about the people in Alma forget about God so fast. This week I have also studied in the Book of Mormón to receive answers to my personal questions. My question this week was how can I better teach by the Spirit? And as I have completely lost myself in the Book of Mormón, answers to my life just keep coming.

This week I learned that it´s not about the lesson plan, it´s about what the individual needs in their life. Sometimes what we want to teach and have planned is different than what the individual needs to hear and needs in their life. The most important thing we can do as missionaries, is listen. That´s all. Listen to the individual, and most importantly, listen to the Holy Ghost.

Other than changing the way I read my scriptures and I teach, I can´t think of anything interesting that has happened this week! Winter finally started, and it´s so nice still. I get to go to the temple today for the last time in the CCM! And I am no longer sick!

One really sad and exciting thing!!! This is the LAST P-DAY FROM THE CCM. I can´t believe that time has flown by so fast! But this Tuesday I head out into the field, my first area, first compañera! It´s so crazy but I am so excited! I have already started to feel the distance from the CCM and I could not be more excited. I just get to hit the field running! I love being a misionera! Much love from Peru! Hermana Lawrence

Hermana Shylo Lawrence

My really bad sunburn and my delicious chokosoda galletas.

My cute companion and I

Can you tell what she's already missing??

AMERICAN FOOD

Thursday, May 12, 2016

May 11 - Shylo was able to go to the Temple!

Week 3 - Wed., May 11, 2016

Esta semana went so fast! We got to call home for 30 minutes this week for Mother´s Day! It was so much fun being able to talk to my familia and tell them about the CCM and what it´s like to be a missionary so far! Sorry for no email last week it was so crazy busy but I got to send some pictures!

But this week was so awesome, we got to attend the temple and get to go again today! We have our ‘investigadores’ that we teach in the casitas aquí en el CCM! They are doing so well and are working towards baptism!

One really amazing and Spiritual experience this week was when we were teaching our investigador Matias, and we wanted our invitation to be baptism. So we went in and taught about repentance which evolved into baptism which evolved into el plan de salvación, but the Spirit was so strong. We just testified and el Espíritu Santo did the rest of the work. We walked out and just said a prayer to Dios saying thank you so much for letting us feel that and thank you so much for teaching through us what the Spirit wanted. It was so amazing and my testimony definitely grew from that experience.

This week has been full of emotions here! We hit our three week mark which meant that the group of missionaries before us got to head out into the campo misional. Our norteamericano friends all headed out into Perú and Bolivia, and all of our latino Elderes and Hermanas left for the campo misional as well! Such a bitter-sweet goodbye. But the new groups of misioneros have arrived and I am so excited that they are here because yesterday the CCM was so sad and empty. But there are Hermanas that are here that are going to my same mission so I am very excited that I got to meet them, they are from Ecuador!

So yes, this week has just been packed full of classes, classes, and food. The spirit is so strong here in the CCM and I thank my Padre Celestial that I get to be here serving Him. This gospel is true, and God loves us all.