Noche de Talentos Gollum Voice

 On Monday we had a lesson with an investigator. He is rocking awesome. I love him to pieces. I am finding more and more family here.  He is 22 and really talented and smart. He has some funny talents. He can beat box with his hands. When I find a good internet area I will send the video. He can also pour liquid sodas 'well hold soda cans without using his fingers. ...it like sticks to his hand and he uses this for work, pours for people like this. Its interesting. I want to know how! Oh the things that are entertaining for missionaries. Hey. It's either that or looking at the television screen to see shakira, shakira. .... =) anyways.,.,.
We taught him lesson 1 and lesson 2 and about the spirit. He was really touched and I felt inspired to ask if he has ever felt the spirit, he shared a really neat experience which I think sparked his understanding of feeling the spirit during the lessons. We invited him to be baptized. He is really excited and I think once we get him to church, he will be set. That's one of our biggest challenges, getting people to church.

We taught  a young man this week. He is 24 and large, he keeps his hair like Juan el bautista and has a large beard. I really do think of John the Baptist when I see him. It's fun to teach them because they know English. It's actually really hard for me to speak English because my mind is in Spanish but they love to speak English. He learned playing video games. He said that he has had doubts in God with all the things going on in his life..his brother with a terminal disease, an alcoholic father... his mom doesn't have doubts. This woman has more faith than a blind man in a knife factory. I just said that. That doesn't even make sense. She is really faithful and I love her prayers. I know she knows God can and wants to help her.  I bore testimony about the power of prayer. I loved it. The lesson was so strong and he prayed. He said he didn't have anything good to thank god for right now, only his mother and he prayed about her. She cried and cried. I cried. I want my children to be that close and in love...so to say with me. I hope we can give their family a change, because they have their share of challenges and I know that the gospel can completely change their lives, their desires and everything in their world.

We had a really awesome activity this week, noche de talentos. put on by the missionaries.  It took almost 3 hours and was freaking awesome! OH MY GOSH. i loved it. We had our two investigators there, the ones with the overly protective parents and I was so happy. They picked them up and looked around the church. I feel that we are getting close to breaking them and gaining their permission. We invited two investigators (18 and 11) to be baptized but they said they can't without their parent's permission. The night was filled with mini plays, skits, songs, dances and everything in between.A video of the 42 things that Mormons say. WHAT PAGE? haha and there was one break where the next act wasn't prepared so I did my gollum voice. Everyone freaked out. Apparently no one can do a gollum impersonation because my companion loves when I do it and shows everyone and they are so freaked out/impressed? What's not to be impressed with (right, dad?) =) The night was great and there were 99 people there! (on Sundays about 70 people attend church) yeaaaahh BOY!
  ... Oh! And i got to teach Sunday school this week. It was fantastic and the more I talk and teach the more people like me. The branch president was like beaming at me and my comp. Life is so good. YAY!

I love you all and think about you lots. I am grateful to be here and serve others so that they can have their eternal families like us. =) My love and prayers.
-Your SISTER, Nokes

Great Trials Greater Blessings

This week went by fast and I think it was one of the hardest for me in my mission. With every good work comes opposition and I've definitely tasted that this week. The good thing is for these things I have more faith. My testimony has been strengthened in prayer, fasting, the scriptures and attributes of Christ. I know that these work in my life.
Monday I received word that my great aunt-whom I worked for and was friends with has been diagnosed with leukemia. She is under a treatment in isolation in the hospital and I prayed hard all week for her.I fasted for  my Aunt. I received many answers to my prayers in the scriptures. I know the Lord is so mindful of me, loves me and is teaching me many things here. I received a lot of comfort for my family in Mosiah 3 and I actually shared this with an investigator. I know things happen for a reason and I am able to teach better with the experiences I have.
I was able to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday and was so happy. I know the people understood me and were really receptive. They laughed and the spirit was there. I know I had so much help. It was great because I think the ward members know me better. Everyone knows my companion but I don't think many know my name, so this was a good opportunity. I hope to stay here to help grow close to this branch and strengthen their testimonies, although, like everything in this life, I know the Lord has a plan for me.
 This week was really hard. We had good goals to have more baptism dates but 2 of our investigators moved. We had goals to find nuevos, but one day we contacted all day and didn't enter one house. I know the Lord is teaching me patience and perseverance. One of our investigators we wanted to invite to baptism went on vacation. the good news is we invited another woman, Leila to be baptized and I believe she will be ready. I felt great and actually initiated the invitation! This woman is very faithful and I love her and want to help change her life. We taught many less active this week and I am very excited for this- little by little we can reconvert them.  I love meeting less actives and helping them resolve doubts and fix issues.

Training- I cant believe I am in week 12. Training is good. I taught a lot more this week and after one lesson, both me and my companion were surprised because we wondered who spoke. I didn't believe it was me. My spanish is good, and I know this is through the spirit. Now its all about learning more and more vocabulary. I think starting with the chilean food =)

The Lost Sheep

The story of the lost sheep. On July 31st, We found a woman and taught her through her fence. Her name was Leila. She cried when we testified and wanted us to come back and teach her. We had an appointment. So we went to plan and realized that we didn't have her address. We write down everything. EVERYTHING  but didn't have this. SO we were worried...because she NEEDED US: We headed out and headed to where we thought it was around. We didn't really know. We said a prayer and knocked on every house that had red brick, that's what I remembered, Brilliant Hermana Nokes. That's just about every other house. hah. We couldn't find her and gave up this night. we missed the  SO here's where we get to Tuesday. We prayed that we could find her again and looked more into the night we found her to get more information. We had about 10 or so streets to look for. We went and it started raining so so hard. I´ve never been colder I don't think. I started singing "The sun will come out tomorrow, ...when I'm stuck in a day, that's gray and freezing. .... Anyways. We couldn't find her house,. We prayed, Knocked, prayed, knocked ,no, no, no, We kept looking and asking and praying. After one prayer, I had the very distinct impression, ¨You know where it is, go¨. But...I couldn't figure out where it was. I remembered very distinct things. But not where the stinking house was. We knocked on a door that I know wasn't the house. They were busy but through the window we said DO YOU KNOW LEILA? She pointed across the street. We were flabbergasted. We cried so hard. We were soaking wet but knew where she lived. She wasn't home so we wanted to leave a note... It was interesting because that morning also I had a little tiny clear bag on my bed and I thought, I need to bring this. I didn't because I thought...no that's so stupid. I don't need that. .. SO anyways. Here we were with this note and its raining so hard. ... What to do. I knew.. Oh, duh. This is why I needed the bag. I had another grocery bag that was huge and ugly and we made a function thing out of this to waterproof the note.

A Week in Review

monday. We met Gina  and Nicolas (everything reminds me of the fam. The brand of bananas here is Gina...you've got to be kidding me,...at least i can never forget you all)  they were amazing we taught the first lesson,. they are new to the neighborhood and want a lot of time to read and pray about the lesson.
we had no money because it was the end of the month. I tried to cook eggs but we had no gas to cook. I tried to pee no toilet paper. I ran out of food. I started a budget for the month of august and can happily report I can eat and pee in peace. and other things. Good news. haha it wasn't too bad. only 3 or 4 days. and the members feed us sooo much =)  I ate at the house of empenadas this day. so good.

Tues divisions with another sister from peru. WE ate peaches and cream at lunch. The peaches here are the best. I think its my fav fruit now. We played futbol at night I was one of the only girls this week. I was team captain and my team was undefeated ...we played the whole time because once you lose you switch out. We had an investigator there (gaston) that all of the girls were drooling over. OH WHAT A GUY, GASTOOON! LOL: He's roughly the size of a barge too. I hit my nose with the ball trying to be good and skinned a little. I know the pain of the phrase,  no skin off my nose now. haha lol

Weds. I sang the prayer at the district and zone reunion. It was so cool .  We got changed standards of excellence and are starting to work more with menos activos and converts. Its called baptisms retention and reactivation. i love it. We met a crying woman who was moved by the spirit to talk to us.

Thursday we taught 2 more investigators and I taught english class. We played a game of prepositions where we would say above, below etc and they had to do the action. They love the game. I love teaching more and more.

Friday divisions with another sister. She sends her love. It was like a sleepover. We ate talked and shared testimony. We went to bed at 12.oops. Our neighbors had a party at 5 am. What the heck. haha I didn't sleep much that night. haha

Saturday. breakfast with hermana novoa.We met with every missionary in the ward and made schedules to work better with the less actives. It was so good. At lunch with everyone we ate chicken and rice and played the game cambia. Its kinda like whose line is it anyway...acting. so fun- i loved it. You have to change the last phrase you said in conversations when the director says. i love it. We went to teach with a member, she had a hard life but a strong testimony. I love her. Our neighbors had another party that started at 3 am. Wow. music and drinking and all. I slept with my fingers in my ears.

Sunday. fasted for investigators at church. No one was there. haha it was so lame. The times we fasted for investigators, no one was there. but we are humble. haha

That was my week. not very short. but yeah. love you. Have a good week
-Kisses and hugs.