Sister Pugmire #38

Dear family,

 the wedding looked so beautiful!! and Mariana was gorgeous of course. All the of the missionaries here think the wedding turned out beautiful to. It will be so fun for me when I get to see all the pictures when I get home. 

This weekend Romeo got baptized! But it turns out his name is actually Ivan. Saturday we had an interview for Johnathan but he didn´t show at the chapel. we had been calling him all day and went by his house but nothing. So we were feeling really bummed. Bishop asked me to stay and practice with the choir so we had splits so that Han Rivas could go get a family we invited to watch a bautizism that the elders in our ward had. She called me in the middle of practice and told me to get a hold of our district elder (Elder Kerivan) because she was headed to the chapel with Romeo for a baptismal interview. I got a hold of E Kerivan and H Rivas came to the Capilla hauling a family of 5 and Ivan. He had his interview and when they came during the baptism and when they came out E. Kerivan said that they going to Evan´s house to get his family because he was getting baptized!

We got the ward to wait for another baptism, got permission to stay out late and Evan got baptized! 

But his family didn´t come. He was really sad about it, and so were we. They said they were too tired. 

Before Evan entered the waters we asked him why he told us his name was Romeo and he said ¨Porque las chicas le dicen así¨. Evan, you dog you. 

After the bautism we discovered that his mom had come! that was super special. 

He came to church yesterday in a suit and tie, was confirmed and recieved his interview to recieve the preistood. and his mom came too. 

Jesica and Cesar, Johnathan and Laura, and Quitina and Flor. We were busy!

Johnathan had his bap interview church and his bap date is this Saturday. Keep him in your prayers!

We went to pick up this family that went to the baptism for church but when we go there they were talking to a Testigo de Jehova!! they said they couldn´t come to church and then the testigo came up and said that were studying the bible and then heading to church.  We told them sorry but we were headed for the true church and invited the family to pray and choose which church to attend. we had to pick up Evan but would return to hear what they chose. In the end they chose neither. We were so sad. this is a very special humble family that´s had a lot of problems I don´t have time to explain. 

I love you all so very much and keep you in my prayers

Hermana Pugmire

Sister Pugmire #37

Dear Family,

This is such an important week. Happy Birthday to Evelynne and happy wedding day to Mariana and Ricky. I hope Mariana gets over being sick in time for the big day. 

This last week was really great. Saturday we went with our investigar Romeo to a baptism. Afterwards he told ¨hermanas during the baptism I couldn´t move my feet, I felt like I was stuck to my chair and I felt cold (because the room really was cold) but inside I felt so warm. What does this mean?¨ We explained that he was feeling the Holy Ghost. Yesterday night we had a lesson with him and his whole family. He during the lesson he explained to his parents that after the baptism he prayed to know if he should be baptized. He felt good and went to bed. Then he woke up in the middle of the night with a ¨thirst of the Word¨ so read the Book of Mormon. His dayd said they were happy he was trying to follow Christ and that he had his parents support. His parents are really great too and I feel like down the road they´ll get baptized. 

Romeo has a smoking problem but he wants to quit and is very willing to do everything to get over it. 

He didn´t come to church yesterday because his brother had a school problem that they went to. But he will next week. and he wants to come to choir practice this week.

Yesterday Hermana Quintina and her grandaughter Flor, and so did Johnathan again and so did Cesar and Jesica.

Earlier in the week we had a lesson with them and a couple of members. That night they said they wouldn´t be able to come to church. The next day we went over to invite them to an activity. They weren´t able to come but they told us that they had decided to come to church. We asked them why they changed their mind. Cesar said that after we left the night before they just had a feeling that they needed to come to church. And they did!

It was a really great sacrament meeting.

Our pincinsta´s gran daughter tells me every time that we sit down to eat that I´m gettting fat and that they´re fatting me up to through me in the oven for Christmas dinner (an idea she got from my companion). Hopefully I get transferred before Christmas. 

This was a really great week and I know that this next one will be to. I´ll be very much thinking about the family this Friday. My prayers are always with you. 

Hermana Pugmire

Ps Thanks for the news letter Grandma Lorriane. Congratulations to all the Wells family for these great changes that are taking place.

Sister Pugmire #36

dear family, 

happy memorial day! It´s so fun to have traditions and know what will be going on at home today. 

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡And a really big congratualtions to Mariana and Ricky!!!!!! You have been in my thought and prayers so much and I am very happy to hear about you tying the knot. its amazing to me how much the family is growing during my mission and in such a positive way. We´re so lucky to have Ricky in the family. Thanks Mariana!! and Ricky you´re pretty darn lucky to be with Mariana.

this last Sunday was really wonderful for us. We had 4 of our investigators con to church. Jenifer (part member family) came and was a different person. normally she runs around the church causing havoac but this time this time she was one of the best kids in her class. 

Johnathan and his sister Laura came. We found them this week while looking for their brother Pedro who came to church for about a month about a year ago. The ward was really good about befriending Johnathan. On thing I´ve noticed is that here the priestood understands a lot better how to help the missionary work (except when it comes to Julia our pincionista, she´s the maximo). 

After church bishop asked us to come to choir priactice (ward confrence is next week). I told him I didn´t think we were allowed to unless we got a reference while there, or there was an investigator present. Bishp told us if we wanted the ward to help us we had to help them. So we went to choir practice and I ended up with a solo to boot. 

after that we had to hurry back home. Our mission had a goal of contacting 100 per week (it was a 150 but pres wants us to have better contacts). we were short about 15 people so we talked to everyone we came across. One person was Romeo. Romeo told us that we had contacted him earlier that week and that he gone to church that day. We hadn´t seen him because he left right after sacrement. I now have a testimony of why Predicad Mi Evangelio dice que tenemos a contactor todos!!! we would never have found him if you hadn´t been talking to everyone. 

I don´t know if you remember me saying that the family we live with thought thier grandpa died 5 years ago only to find him livinng and well. yesterday he came to visit the family, and I can confirm that he is indeed alive. 

I think I forgot to say that last sunday for family dinner we ate the family goat. He was more of a pet (especially por Soledad who left for the mission tuesday. Hermana Julia - her mom- was pretty teary that day and I´m still afraid to say Soledad´s name). But Gego (the goat) fell off the roof and died. so we ate him. rest in peace Gego.

love, 

Hermana Pugmire

Sister Pugmire #35

Wow how exciting for the Lee family!!! thanks for the pictures of Rex , I love showing them off to the other missioneries here.

and Happy Birthday to Dave and Kamea. You´re in my thought and the family is in my prayers.

This last week have been so busy. I feel like I haven´t had time to do anything. We get home plan and bearly have time to get to bed at 10:30. It feels really good to be really busy. 

This week we talked to Maria and Daunar, we asked Maria if she knew the Book of Mormom was true yet and she told us she got her testimony too. Duaran told us that he knows the church is true too. We asked them what they they needed to do next and they said get married so they could get baptized. It was a really great lesson.

But they didn´t come to church yesterday. Its so hard to love these people and have them know its all true but choose not to progress. 

Wednesday our zone leader came to talk to Tintina. I feel like she is his investigar and not ours. She agreed to be baptized this week. I was pretty shocked. When its just my companion and I we can´t get in the door. but with him or our pincionista she´s all love and smiles. She didn´t come to church yesterday so we stopped by her house to see how she´s doing. She wasn´t in the house when we knocked she was coming home. She yelled at us pretty good in the street and told us to stop pressuring her and molesting her. Honest we couldn´t be more loving. 

this morning she came to see our pincionesta and apololiged (more or less) to us. She´s a very odd person, and it makes her endearing. and we have to laugh about our encounters with her.

Yesterday Bishop pulled me out of Relief Society to help a sister who was trying to get a hold of family living in the states. She hadn´t talked to them in 10 years and when she called the number they gave her a women answers in english. they asked me to talk to the women, all I can see is its a good thing they don´t understand english. This women had a get off my back atitiude. 

This sister is very stressed and I told her I would give the information about her family to my family to see if they could find a number: the names she gave me are Lidia Biuda de Torres and Walberto Torres Duezada. They live in Miami. She´s going through some really hard times, but the ward is helping her so I´m not too worried if we can´t get the info. 

Oh, and I went to the Zoo last week!  I wish I could show you photos but I don´t have anything to connect my memory card to the computer. Its tiny and I can put my hand in the lion cage, but it was a lot of fun. 

I love you and prary for you!

Sister Pugmire #34

Dear Familia,

Congratulations to Mary and Jared!!! Its so exciting to know your in the hospital right now!!!! Don´t forget to send me pictures as soon as you can. 

its so crazy to think I was just talking to you and seeing your faces yesterday! I loved seeing everyone and getting to see the new faces as well.I thought it would be really hard to get back into the mission mentality but since we had a lot to do it was easier then I thought. After we left Liz´s house we went to an appointment with a less active member who wasn´t home. so we went to an appointment with an investigator but they weren´t home either so we went searching for new people. 

This last saturday we had an activity in the church for mothers day. Maria and Duarar came to see Kathy (their cousin) perform. It was the first time they both came to the church. It was really exciting to see them there. We were hoping they would come to church the next day but they went to La Joya to see Duarar´s mom. But Maria told me that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. and that they´re getting ready to get married. We have an appointment with them tuesday so we´ll see how that goes. 

My new companion Sister Rivas is really great. I feel like she´s training me! She´s very positive and easy to get along with. Its a little hard for me to understand her because she speaks with a different accent. She´s from Buenas Aires Argentina. But I´m starting to figure it out. 

For the last few weeks we´ve been taking cold showers in an outdoor shower in the winter. Its freeving but not too bad. But my poor companion! She´s still not used to it and its kind of a rough beginning in the mission field. 

I love you all so much and miss you of course. I´m kinda glad I won´t be talking to you again for 7 months because my nose is red enough without all the crying and sniffing.

Your´re in my prayers.

Love Hermana Pugmire

ps Scott, congratulations with your new calling.

Sister Pugmire #33

Good Morning Family!

what an exciting week this is going to be! Aunt Marcee is getting married and Mary is due!  Please don´t forget your kin in Arequipa and send me some pictures of these events. 

and its mothers days. I just found out that we do get premission to skype. we have a member who said i could use their skpye, is it alright if I plan on calling about 4 o clock my time? we get 40 minutes this time. Whoot whoot!! I´ll see if I can borrow someone´s account. 

and we had cambios yesterday. I´m a mother!!! my new companion is Hermana Rivas from Lima. I´ve thought I would get asked to train for about 2 weeks and I´ve known that I would for a week. Hermana Torreavla and I have been in tears all week. We´ve been together for 6 1/2 months! niether one of us felt ready to part and niether one of us feel ready for our new responsibilites. 

At the training meeting yesterday I meet 4 new sisters from the states. One of them looked super familiar. Sister ¿Kahle? had early morning seminary with Mariana. How crazy is that. I got to talk to Sister Robinson as well. She´s from the colonies in Mexico and knows Ashley Lindbloms husband Dallin Brown. Its a really small world for us mormons.

We have a great investigator named Tintina. She´s a sweet older women named Tintina. She´s come to church the past two weeks and went to a baptism last saturday. The problem is she doesn´t want to talk to us missionaries because she´s afraid that we only want to talk about baptism. We´re trying to be more careful with her. 

She´s a little harder to teach because she can´t read and she thinks she needs to be be baptized. She takes care of her 2 grandchildren and doesn´t work. she goes out to beg for food every day. The ward has been helping them and really taking them in. 

We might have a little problem with our pincionista. My new companion doesn´t eat a whole lot. Before Hermana Torrealva would eat the food I didn´t want but we can´t do that any more. I hope Hermana Julia doesn´t get too offended. But I´ve really tried to warn her.

I love you all and pray for you. Its crazy that I´m so far  but I love you more then I ever did before.

con amor, 

Hermana Pugmire

Sister Pugmire #32

Dear Family,

How is everyone? I´m writing a day late because we had a sister missionary confrence yesterday at the mission home with all the sisters in the mission. For those who have had multiple companions it was a really sweet reunion. And it was fun for me to make friends and just be with all those wonderfull sisters.

President Fernandez told us yesterday that beinging now all missions will have sisters to be liders over the other sister misionarys so that we can have division and such. My companion was called to be one of the first so she´s in trainging today and I am working with Hermana Duarte.

PS happy birthday to David! know that I´ll be thinking of you on your big day.

Last we knocked on a door and the women that answered was pretty tough on us at first. Then she opened up and confided in us that her 33 year old son had died. She wasn´t sure if she would be able to see him again in the way she did during this life. We were able to open up to her the blessings of the ressurrection and the plan of salvation. It was very sweet.

We had a couple investigators come to church too. Tintina and her granddaughter Flor. They´re very wonderful people and enjoyed being in church. They´ve had lots of trials but want to follow Christ.

We didn´t get to have our confrence with Elder Bednar, for some reason he wasn´t able to make it but Elder Christensen still came and it was a great confrence. The choir sounded like it needed help but everyone said it was beautiful and the Holy Ghost WAS present and that´s what matters.

We have lots of great investigators. they´re not all progressing as quickly as we would like but they are moving along.

I love you all very much and pray for you. I am very blessed to have a wonderful, wonderful family who is living the gospel of Christ.

Love,

Hermana Pugmire