Monday, February 23, 2015

Alcoholics Anonymous



Well based on the title I´m sure you´re all worried that I´ve become an alcoholic on my misión.....and it´s true.  

The other day we were walking around a Little neighborhood and sat down to rest for a few minutes and this guy comes out and starts talking to us (he´s a Little buzzed) and offers us a drink (of soda) but we say not it´s ok, so he yells to his son in the store to bring him a liter of wáter and 3 cups.  So he pours us a drink and we sit on the corner drinking with this guys like regular drunks, it was a good time.
The the next day a lady give us a drink of juice that she says doesn´t have alcohol but it tastes a Little strange, so we are thinkin that the grape juice was a Little fermented.....it was interesting.

Other than that, my news for this week is that.....some asked if I was from brazil!  they asked me where I was from and I told them to guess and they said, well based on your accent, I´d say Brazil.  I was really excited.

And lastly, our pensionista is a psychologist, so we spend a lot of our lunch time talking about deep topics, long story short....well there´s actually no story, it´s just a good time, and I´ll return home with a lot less emotional problems.  Win.

Well that´s basically it, it´s still really hot and humid.  HAve a great week!

Monday, February 16, 2015

It´s hotter than hot



That´s an Aladdin reference for those of you who don´t know.
    So news for this week, I am in Lima, in Trebol, and it´s really hot and humid.  I basically don´t have to do anything and I´m already sweating, it´s a struggle.  But I like my area and my pensionista is the best.  My companion is Hermana Jimenez from Mexico.  She only has two transfers left in the mission.  But she´s great, I almost feel like we´re the same person.  She was a theater major before the mission and she´s seen all the best movies and knows the best music, yeah, we´re friends.  Doesn´t know English, but she can understand it.
  I was sad to say goodbye to Huaraz, but on the bright side I got to buy some cool things before leaving, and my bishop´s family gave me a Kena, which is some cool Peruvian flute, I'm still trying to learn how to make sound come out instead of just air.  I am also back to not having a water heater and having a death shower head.  But that´s about it, not much has happened this week.  Oh, except I got to see Elder Halverson in transfers again, good times, good times.  

 Also got to see Hermana Rios at the transfer meetings. 


Love you all, have a great week!

1. Elder Reese and I celebrating our exit
2. My convert pushed my face in the cake...she loves me
3. First baptism in Trebol, woohoo, I didn´t do anything






 

Monday, February 9, 2015

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes



Turn and face the strain, ch-ch-changes.  Yeah, I´m getting transferred again.  I am super super super sad to leave. It is so pretty here, and good weather, not too hot, not too cold, and rain.  Also, a lot of cool toursit things to buy.  But I´m putting my trust in the Lord, and that has always worked out for me in the past, so this won´t be any different.




A little bit about this week, we had a work visit, which I usually don´t like, but my old companion Hermana Flores is the STL, so we did it with her, which was actually alright, but I didn´t feel uncomfortable or anything, so it was a good time.  Then, my biggest accomplishment in the mission, I learned how to solve a Rubix Cube!!!!  Just kidding, not my biggest, but it´s a pretty big deal.  I also went paintballing for the first time last pday.



Lastly, we had four baptisms on Saturday, that was hectic, but incredible.  One single mother, and part of a family. 
  The story on the family:  We have been teaching them for months and months, and the dad does want anything, but always showed the slighest desire so we thought we could do it, we had talked with our misison president and ward council, and in the end, he refused to get baptized, which was heartwrenching because his wife and daughters were so ready to be baptized, and had such strong testimonies.  So we had an emergency ward council meeting and talked with our president and he said that if we had done all we could and the dad still doésn´t want anything, we should go with the mother and daughters, so on Saturday was there baptism, but there´s a catch that happens here in Huaraz, the water is FREEZING:  So we were in the church all day trying to get the water a little warmer, which we did, but still cold.  So the mother and older daughter get baptized and the younger daughter of 8 goes to get baptized, takes one step in the water and backs out saying, it´s so cold so cold.  So we were on both sides of the font with her mom and sister in the font on both stairways trying to convince her to get baptized, saying all sorts of things and someone says, but all your family did, and she says (and her dad is there watching) "no my dad hasn´t done it"  BURN!  It was pretty funny.  So we ended up filling up pans of cold water, telling her it was hot and putting them in the font.  After about twenty minutes, she got baptized, but wow, it was a struggle.



Well that´s my story for this week for those of you who are still with me.  Hope everyone has a great week, and I´ll let everyone know my fate next week!

Monday, February 2, 2015

Blame it on the A-a-a-a-a-altitude

(Jenna hit her six-month mark on January 16, and they celebrated with big pieces of cake.)
  Well sorry about not sending anything last week, we only had an hour of internet because we went to the olympic point which is the mountain they used for the logo of paramount pictures!  It was shhweeet!  And I got to see the snow.....I´m so happy...name that movie.  Hint: It has to do with Peru.  Hermana Morales actually had never touched snow before, so it was a touching experience for the both of us.









  Then we went to another wedding, not ours this time, but it was the most trunky experience, not for me because I´m never getting married, but all the elders were trunkAZOS.  On the bright side, we got food. And that is a really big deal for missionaries, especially me, because food is my life  Food=Life.  And we couldn´t dance again.....I´m dying.  But an elder that served here brought his mom and cousin to the wedding and because Huaraz is really high up, the travel affected his cousin and she all of a sudden passed out while we were waiting, it was an experience running to the store and putting all sorts of oils on to help her.  Dat altitude doe.  It´s the excuse for everything.  "My back hurts"  "must be the altitude"


   Now for the funny story of the week.  We are teaching a family of 4 and we´ve been teaching them for a while, but the dad has been having troubles accepting it, so we decided to go back and teach the Restoration with emphasis on the apostasy.  So we used a scripture about how there are only two church, the church of God and the church of the devil which is "the whore of all the earth"  And she decided to look up what "whore" was and found the word prostitute.  So she goes and asks her neighbor and then her grandma what church they went to.  So they told her and she asks (completely serious) "So were you a prostitute"  We were dying, but now we need to find a way to explain this to her so she doesn´t go around accusing everyone of being a prostitute.

 Finally I can send pictures!  yay!
Jenna also had to spend a day in Lima at immigration, but finally got her permanent card.  She got to see a few old friends.



They discovered a new drink, Mate, from Argentine.


 She finally got some new boots, so her feet will be dry and warm. 

Jenna and Hna McKnight

A box of free stuff to try and get contacts.  Pretty Ingenious.  
The District shined shoes in the Plaza to get contacts.  It was fun.