Week 40 Letter

Monday, March 20, 2017

Hey it’s crazy in Peru right now but in fine, and will be fine. We are pretty isolated here in Cajamarca. Lots of rain, but the streets and houses are more prepared for rain. But, internet is super sketchy today because cell towers and internet towers have all been destroyed...so this is like the 5th time vie started writing this family letter. I will send pics next week. The real crisis here in Cajamarca is that no one can enter or leave, because ya no hay calle ya afuera. So we are having a little shortage of chicken...haha. I shouldn’t joke about that but it’s true. So we have been eating tons of fish and cuy. Cuy is a really big hamster that I can’t remember how to say it in ingles. But it’s tasty. 

Hermana pacheco (my "daughter") had to go home to fix her infections from her operations for her appendix. So that was so hard. Hopefully se will come back, but her family situation is real rough, and it was really hard for her to get here in the first place, and now her parents (nonmembers/Antis) are mad and upset with the mission. But I have faith that she will come back really soon. We got word that she is recovering really well. So we will see. It was just hard taking her to the airport and saying goodbye when it feels like her first day was so recent. But, she’s in the hands of the lord. Just pray that I don’t have to have surgery here....hahahaha.  

THINK OF ME EVERYTIME YOU sleep...haha

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Ya mom. We are the least affected. We are so fine. Internet is soooooo bad and we don’t have cell service so I don’t know how much email time I will have. But it is a for real crisis. We have heard crazy stuff about Trujillo which is really sad because my old areas are now in ruins. So keep Peru in your prayers. 

I'm fine really. It just has rained a lot. But Cajamarca is prepared for the rain. The big crisis here is that we can’t leave or enter, so that also means there is a shortage of chicken....haha. But I don’t know what will happen because its transfers this week which we obviously can’t be transferred, but we have new missionaries that are supposed to be getting here today...

Also pray for hermana pacheco. She had to go home with her stomach and appendix problems and infections. We were with her all week until we shipped her home. SO SAD: I remember her very first day on the mission, and then saying goodbye was so hard. But she should be coming back. We heard that her health is great. Just her family situation is real tough so it will be really hard to get her back out in the field due to her parents who are nonmembers. But just pray. 

I’m fine. Don’t worry. I will always be fine here in Cajamarca. But just pray for all of Peru. IT’S CRAZY. Like 2 missionaries in our mission got lost but are now fine. One was the only person of 8 to survive a mudslide crash in his car. Crazy. 

I LOVE YOU! 

He was traveling solo. It’s crazy. Pres tried to call us today but we don’t have service. And I think it was about the new missionaries that are supposed to be coming. I think that they will all fly directly here and we and the zone leaders will have to help them out and oh my heck it will be crazy. No sleep all this week like last week. haha.  We can’t leave so...yeah. Like all the roads to get anywhere outside of Cajamarca are destroyed.

Week 39 Letter

Monday, March 13, 2017

THIS WEEK FLEW! Crazy! SO crazy. But it was really great. Lots of rain...but other than that it was a great week. haha. We started teaching a couple new people that have some really great potential, so that was a huge miracle for us and our area. 

This week was the birthday of my pensionista. So that was great. She is awesome. A super great example to me. I also learned how to salsa. So that’s great; Because I can't dance. haha. 

Hermana Pacheco is doing better. She has an infection, so a couple days this week we had to take her to the clinic to clean out her belly button......I cannot be a stomach doctor...at all. I can clean teeth all day long, watch brain surgeries, or leg or arm surgeries...but I cannot do anything with the stomach....nothing. So we will see how my future goes...you can always adopt kids right? haha. Jokes. Anyways, today is the birthday of hermana pacheco so we are going to eat cake with them today. I hope all goes well...we are trying to help them and their companionship...why are girls so difficult to work with? hahahaha. 

Anyways...I hope y'all have a super great week! I LOVE YOU! 

THINK OF ME EVERY TIME YOU eat sour cream...I still miss that so much. haha.

So we made s’mores with some of the hermanas after zone conference. OH! fried bananas with cheese are THE BEST. So good. My comp got sick after...but not me. So we are going back for round 2. hahaha. And these pics are of my pensionista Eulogia. She is so great. 

Week 38 Letter

Monday, March 6, 2017

OK. So this week, a lot happened but I don’t remember what...we taught lessons...that was a HUGE MIRACLE. Wow. It was still rough to find people, but we had lessons this week. hahaha. President came up for interviews and zone conference. That was great. We had to teach part of it, and then after we had a little reunion with just the Hermanas in our zone. I knew that we had a rough time with carnivals, and an ALL day training and conference, so we taught a small principle and I bought stuff to make s'mores. Well, kind of s'mores. The closest thing we get. It was a hit. Sometimes we just need some love. haha. Oh! So Hermana Pacheco, my trainee is here in Cajamarca, so it’s been great to see her a bunch...and this week we saw her A BUNCH...she had appendicitis...and got her appendices taken out. Appendix...apendex...the thing Shawn got out in season 6 of psych. haha. Ya. So we spent a lot of time with her in the hospital and stuff like that. Did y'all know that the appendix is super little? And it kind of looks like shrimp. haha. Fue bacan. 

Also, my pensionista Eulogia is so great. She has saved us so many times this week. She has seriously made my day like every day. haha. I’ve really lucked out with pensionistas that love me...not necessarily pensionistas that cook healthy things....but at least they love me. And what can I say, I love being loved. ;) I can't send pics today because the computer is dumb. But I will send some next week. So....I love you all! 

THINK OF ME every time you hold a baby. There are so many babies in my ward here...and they are soooooo adorable and I just want to hold one so bad! haha. Love you all! 

Week 37 Letter

Monday, February 28, 2017

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!!!!!!! Between a really exhausting exchange with some Hermanas, lots of rejections and carnivals I think I may have lost it a little...and in not even joking....ok maybe a little. haha. Well, last pday our district (the nest ever) went to Llacanora to hike up so see a couple falls. Sooooo fun and so pretty. I love that Cajamarca has green. haha. Ok what else...we had exchanges. I think that being an Hermana Lider (leader) has helped me to have more patience and charity...that’s all that I will say about that. After we did for reals have to eat a big huge ice cream...it was very necesario. What else...oh yeah. Carnivales....so all week no one was home, or when they were home they were drunk. all....ALLLLLL of our appointments crashed. All. Even with members. We knocked and contacted like crazy and nothing. Oh it was so bad. I was so mad. And with the water balloons coming from all directions and drunken people trying to dance with me or walk with me and the stupid carnival song playing from all directions and balloons of paint knocking our window out and getting all over our room and oh. Oh. Oh. Having completely zero lessons this weekend. And pday, the ONLY day we can buy ice cream from the Peru’s version of burger Kind (bembos) all of my ice cream falls on the wet pavement. And then after a protected pday with the zone having ALL of our Monday night plans tank...Plan As, plan Bs, Plan Cs and everything tanked. We went to our pensionistas house to make popcorn for a FHE which also tanked just seconds before....my comp started singing love at home. I lost it. My insanity was a little sketchy this week....but I AM SO GRATEFUL for my pensionista Eulogia, who made us picarones and we had FHE with her family and it was so great. Oh so heavenly. So wonderful. A nice little reality check. This week was soooo CRAZY. But I honestly loved it. It is one week I will NEVER forget. I can’t even begin to write everything that happened. Y'all just have to wait until I get home. haha. que loco! Wow. Pero estoy super bien.  Yo amo la mision con todo mi corazon. TODO. ay ay ay. vaya a la mision. jaja. ok, LES AMO TANTO! 

THINK OF ME EVERYTIME YOU offer service and someone accepts it. No one wanted to listen to our message about salvation, y tampoco they didn’t want us to clean their houses that were covered in paint. People crack me up. haha. 

Also, I have 9 months on the mission. ¿que en el mundo? Not cool Robert Frost!!!!! Time just flies by and I’m not really okay with that...haha. 

Week 36 Letter

Monday, February 20, 2017

Okay so let’s just say that I am grateful that halls cough drops are candy here so they are easy to find and cheap. I have had the cold all week. My head knows that it isn’t that cold here, and that back home it’s more freezing. But I still am so cold. haha. 

This week we had a baptism! Jakelyne Salazr. She is awesome. Her sister is a convert recent for 2 years. And finally Jaky wanted to listen to the missionaries. It has been so great to meet with her almost every night these last 2 weeks to help her prepare for her baptism. She is so great. And the service was really simple but powerful. It is better that way. It was awesome. So great. 

Cajamarca is for sure different. Sometimes I feel like I am in a movie. It's so classic. Walking down the cobblestone streets at the end of the noche, the lovers in the alley, the old mane with the thick white mustache closing shop, the heartbroken man upstairs singing his sad tale, the beagle outside howling at nothing, my cold empty apartment, and a light rain drizzling on the tops of our breaking roof. Life is so good. So good. 

Okay, so this week I finished the Book of Mormon and started reading it again. And wow, I understand it so much better now which is weird because it is in Spanish...but I have loved this week’s studies. But I love in Nephi 8, Lehi’s vision. I love verse 35 "And Laman and Lemuel partook not of the fruit..." Wow. Sad. But powerful. They knew the truth, they knew there dad was a prophet, they knew the commandments and blessings possible and they knew that they could have vida eternal. But they partook not. Are we as members of Christ's church and as choice children of God partaking of the fruit? What are we doing to partake of the fruit? What are not doing that is preventing us from partaking of the fruit desirable of all? I had a great self-reflection in my life as a missionary but more as a disciple of Christ. Just a thought. 

I love you all so much! Have a great life and an even better eternity! ;) 

THINK OF ME EVERY TIME you eat corn. The corn here is white and the kernels are large. It is tasty, but sometimes I just want a can of yellow corn...with butter and salt. Yum. haha. 

Week 35 Letter

Monday, February 13, 2017

CAJAMARCA!!!!!!! I am literally dying from weather that is so cold! So cold! I literally sleep with 5 blankets and 2 pairs of socks and use a big coat and. I have a cold. No joke. I’m about to go buy a bunch of leggings or tights or something. It also rains a lot here. So that’s great. And its Carnival season so I got hit by 3 water balloons yesterday. Ali probably would have chased that person down and killed them...but Hermana Lee laughed and kept walking singing "he is a child of God." hahaha. But yeah, cold. And Shiloh told me that it is 64 degrees right now. And today is much colder than yesterday... wow. I know I am such a baby. 

okay so I live in the upstairs apartment of a...well I can’t remember how to say it...but the person makes a lot of alcohol from grapes....vino but I don’t know in English...haha. Cajamarca is for sure different from my other areas. But we walk a lot and we’ve had some great lessons! We taught one of our investigators who didn’t feel ready for her baptism this week. She couldn’t explain why. She has a strong testimony and shares the gospel with her freinds. Jaqui has 18 years and lives with her sister who is a member. So we taught a lot about the spirit this last week. And then last night we did the baptism questions (I don’t know why we didn’t do this before) and it was so powerful. She shared her testimony with each answer. And then when we did the last question, if she was ready and willing to do a covenant with God, she answered so casually and naturally "ya of course" and then when she realized what she said, she just cried and was so happy. She hugged us and said over and over "in getting baptized!" She is so prepared. The spirit was SOOOO STRONG in the lesson. Strong, but super intense. It was crazy. So she will get baptized this week. 

It is always so sad to leave an area, but I love starting otra vez in un new area. It is so great. It feels like I am starting the mission over again but as an even better missionary. It is so great. 

THINK OF ME every time you drink hot chocolate.

Pics me and my comp Hermana Chacon who has 25 years and faults 2 transfers