Week 5 Letter

Monday, July 18, 2016

I am in Trujillo!!!!!! I love it! But it was so sad leaving the CCM. I really love President Moore and Hermana Moore. My new president is great but I don’t really know him. Before we left the CCM, we went to the temple again. It was so awesome. I don’t know how much I will get to go in Trujillo. 

My companion is Hermana Soto. She has 8 months on the mission and is from Argentina. She doesn’t speak English...but we get a long really well with my very, very, VERY broken Spanish. I seriously can’t speak anything outside of lessons...but I will learn.  I am in an area called Esperanza. Hermana Soto and I are the first sisters to serve in the area...I don’t know why, but don’t worry, even though our area is pretty scary, we don’t live in it. We live a block outside of it... ;) I’m in a pretty big zone and we are the only sisters. It’s funny, little kids call me princess because they have never seen an American girl before. haha. We had to start from scratch so we got right to work. We have a couple investigators that are so awesome; golden, but have to make a lot of changes in their lives. It is hard to get people to church here. Sundays are reserved for fiestas of all kinds.

 I eat a lot of chicken and rice. We have someone that cooks for us, so every meal we go to her house. We are not allowed to eat anything from the streets or in member’s homes. So good news, I probably won’t die. Water is SUPER sketchy so bottled water only. That is a real pain when we run out and I have to ration out my water bottle so I still have some to brush my teeth with. It is really 3rd world here. I won’t say how many gun shots I have heard...haha. No, all is well. 

So here are some pics of my view. Pretty sketchy, but I love it so much. It is amazing how much love I have for the people and area. We have a member who has 17 years and is recently reactivated. She comes out with us a lot; it is so great. I LOVE the gospel and am so glad I get to share it. 

Lots of dogs here. Lots. But we haven’t had any problems with them yet. Lots of dirt. LOTS of dirt. You should see my shoes. But I love it here!!!!!!

Think of me every time you flush toilet paper, eat ice cream, take a hot shower, walk barefoot, and speak English. hahahahahaha.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! – Hermana Lee

 I just need to learn Spanish. I am not allowed to cook anything so we have a cook we pay. We go to her house all meals every day. She just got reactivated and was called to be the RS president on Sunday! This way, they won’t send as many missionaries home due to sickness and brain worms. So no eating any food unless it is from my cook. I can eat things from the store if they are a certain brand, like crackers and candy. They have little markets all over. You stand outside the gated door and tell them what you want.  I eat rice. Lots of rice and bread and chicken and veggies. I eat a lot of beets and broccoli that they soak in lime juice. It’s really good. Lunch is their big meal, so for dinner we just eat bread (which is like they leave it out for a week first) with strawberry jam. We have a Peruvian drink with every meal. They are hard to explain. But all is good.

I’m in a ward! There were about 130 people there on Sunday. I’m in a bigger area.  My comp and I are the first sisters in the area! So we are the only ones in our whole zone. There are 26 elders in our zone and us.

I have an investigator named Jamie. I invited him to baptism and he accepted! But then we found out he doesn’t live in our area, he just attends church with his girlfriend in our ward.....we can still teach him on Sundays though.

Week 4 Letter

Hola!

So honestly, not a lot happened this week. Just a whole lot of Spanish learning. How was the 4^th of July? It was great here. Thank you for your card! I love how Jet signed Lee instead of Jet. He cracks me up. I loved seeing Fiona. She took some pics so she will probably pass those along. Anyways, 4^th of July, all the teachers wore red white and blue. And then the cooks made a flag cake and hamburgers. So good. In my district, we sang the National Anthem just ourselves in our classroom before class and the Spirit was so strong. We were just speechless after. I am so grateful for America, and I miss it but I really love Peru and can’t wait to go to Trujillo…like in 5 days. Crazy. Time flies on the mission.

So, on Sunday, our president and his wife taught us a bunch of classes that were so good. We watched the Testaments and talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. I love that book so much and can’t wait to share it with people who need truth. And then they gave us Oreos…so that’s always a plus. American food is good. Mentos are really big here. And Cough drops. So at the Distribution center, we got mint mentos since we can’t have gum and we eat a lot of onions and peppers. Haha. I love them and the fruit ones a lot….and it might just be because I don’t have gummy bears so it’s the closest thing there is to it. And they are equivalent of 30 cents. There is also this Sublime (subleemey) chocolate that is super good. They have Sublime ice cream bars that have kind of a peanut buttery ice cream in it so it’s not my favorite, but I like the chocolate a lot. But, I don’t buy them a lot because when I am not making money, spending really hurts me inside…haha.

So I play the piano for everything now. I knew I would. We started a weekly choir and Hermana Raeside loves that I know how to accompany and watch her. Haha. She is hilarious. I will miss her a lot.

I had a health class. Dr / Elder Burton taught us everything we should be worried about in the field…that is all I will say about that for the sake of mom….Just pray for me. ;)

I love being a missionary and have learned so much here at the CCM. And now it is crunch time. The last week here is not the time to be tired and weary and trunky. There is NEVER time for that. So I am going at it harder than ever. I have been worried about not knowing Spanish like I would like to, but Elder Anderson said to “Have the name of Christ on your lips.” So that is my plan!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Week 3 Letter

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

¡Hola Famlee!

So things have pretty much settled in here at the grand ol’ CCM. I gave Katie the assignment to look that up but it just means MTC in Spanish. Going to the temple is one of my favorite things to do here, and I am so glad that I get to go every week. I don’t know how often I will get to go in Trujillo. BUT! It is in my mission. My Mission President in Trujillo and his wife just got to Peru yesterday. So that is exciting. I will be their first missionary; along with the other 5 going there this transfer. I am way excited. As for the language, the gift of tongues is so real, and I pray every day to receive it. I can understand way more than I can speak but that is just how it goes. I am doing pretty well for knowing how to count to 11 and say aqua before entering the CCM. Haha.

Sunday was so great. I love Sundays here. It started off with my leadership meeting in the morning. That was great. And then I played the piano for sacrament meeting. But then, I got asked to speak in Spanish. We all prepare talks and then they just ask you when they announce it over the pulpit. So I had a really great talk written but I have a serious problem with reading a talk in front of people. I HAVE to look at the audience, which I guess is a good thing but it is way easier to do that in English. My district and the other older district (we all got here at the same time and now there is a new group of younger missionaries) did a musical number that I arranged, Abide with Me tis Eventide. They sang the first 2 versus in Spanish and the last in English. I did as much as I could with the piano part as the 20 minutes of practice allowed me to do. But the leaders said it was the best they had ever heard. They sounded so good singing. The Spirit was so strong. I conducted Relief society in Spanish and played a bunch of hymns for our hymns class. Hermana Raeside always does all the music. She is from Australia, super loud, and I LOVE her. She loves that I will follow her when she leads or does musical numbers. She put together that CES musical number mom and dad heard the other day. For DEVO on Tuesday, I played of course, but then I accompanied some violins and then Hermana Raeside put together the EFY medley for our district to do at the end. It was so powerful! I really loved playing the piano this week. It felt so good. But funny story, in the opening hymn of the devo, my contact ripped….so I played the first musical number with one eye. I was just gonna tough it out for the closing EFY song, but there is no way when something is ripping in your eye so I went and got my glasses. Ya, my eye is still super red. I have run a lot for physical activity with one of my comps and it has been so glorious. I love it. We don’t have physical activity with anyone anymore and the Latinos that we use to play with are all in the field now. And the new Latinos don’t like playing with us. Understandable. Haha. But the runs have been very much appreciated.

Okay, so parable time. Peru has magical cookies called alfajores. It’s like 2 shortbread type cookies covered in powdered sugar and filled with caramel. Once I had one, I wanted to do nothing but share it with EVERYONE I knew. Hey, that sounds like the gospel! Haha. One of my teachers made some for us and will give us the recipe when we leave. She is a pastry chef and I love it. Haha. I went proselyting this week! I went out with my comps and a missionary from the Lima East mission. Holy humbling. The streets are filled with dogs and garbage and people are just so poor! But so nice. I would do the contacts. I would stop people, give them a card, introduce us, talk about the church, invite to church, bear testimony, and hand it over to the missionary to take their information and write out the appointment. So cool! I am so excited! I just forgot about my fear of speaking Spanish and went for it. You really just talk to everyone. I could see all the people in white, and knew that they needed the gospel in their lives. I loved it.

Well, I am out of time, but just know that I love you all. The gospel is so true. The Book of Mormon

is the greatest tool we have. I love using it as my focus in teaching. I love you!

My District