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!

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.

Mama said there`d be days like this

Well this week was different.  We hiked up a mountain last week to try and get to a lagoon, but we didn`t actually make it to the lagoon, that makes the second time on my mission that we hiked up a mountain without getting to our destination.  Then when we got back, we were contacting a man with his little girl (and Peru is really weird and has random holes in the sidewalk) and she fell right in one.  She`s ok, but we made a joke that she was so desperate to contact that she fell in the hole so he would take pity on us and let us visit....it worked, he took us to his house and we made an appointment.   However, I would not recommend this to all.

   Some bad news, our family of 4 didn`t pass their interview and the dad doesn`t want to get baptized, so their date fell through and he leaves to work for 10 days on Friday, but be not worried, we will not give up.  We also had two days with only about 2 lessons, we walked around a lot.

   On Saturday, for a way to find people, we shined shoes by the plaza in our area, it was a great time, and we got a lot of referrals from all over Huaraz, and I also got my shoes shined :)

   Small news, I ate seaweed on Sunday...gross.  And I hit my 6 month mark!  I can`t believe how fast time has gone, it`s insane, but I`ve realized that I only have a year left to realize all the things I have left to do.

   And lastly, I rode 8 hours through the night last night to come to Lima, where it`s humid and hot, to finish immigrations, but now I`m officially legal  YAY!   So all in all, this week has been different for sure.  Everyone have a great week!  Love you all!

Food worth sharing

Well this week, a few fun things happened.  

  Firstly, Hermana Archibald (our mission president´s wife) went out with us because they all came up for training the next day. Talk about pressure, but it all went well, and she told us we did well.

   Next day, training with president and interviews.  I´ve now learned the secret to baptizing.  Good times.

   We also celebrated the birthday of an elder from Guatemala, so my companion being from Mexico made homemade tortillas, and we made guacamole and we had some authentic Mexican tacos, it was incredibly delicious.  And just to help you understand how good it was, I´ll tell you that I haven´t taken a picture of any food since coming here, but I took a picture of these tacos.

   Then we got a really strong hail storm.

   Then I had to give a talk on faith that I prepared in about 10 minutes, and also got a lesson on faith from one of our investigators that recently discovered she has a disease that´s pretty serious.  So we talked to them about fasting, but assured her that she didn´t need to because she was going to be taking pills.  But she told us that she could wait to start taking them, so we told her she really didn´t have to, but without hesitation she said, "no, I want to"  That hit me, that she has so much faith, she is willing to do hard things because she knows Heavenly Father is with her.

And a Happy New Year

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years.  My new companion and I went up on the roof at midnight to watch the fireworks that were being set off EVERYWHERE.  We were surrounded by loud bands and lots of colors, it was something.  Unless you´ve lived it, you can´t imagine.  They don´t have anything like this in the states.

  My companion is Hermana Morales from Mexico.  She´s 20 and has 1 year and 1 month in the mission. (The same time as Hna. Flores)  Hna. Flores went to Barranca to be a Sister Training Leader, and Hna, Morales went from being a Sister Training Leader to being my companion.  So all of my companions up until now have been STLs.....I´m hoping that´s not a sign.

  As far as lessons, we had a good week.  We found a lot of convivientes, welcome to south america, but I did have another "This is Peru" moment.  We taught a couple of convivientes on the bank of a river next to an invasion (where the poorer people live in huts and shacks)  It was a good time.  We also helped a lady wash clothes in bitter cold water which resulted in a guy coming to church because he saw us.  So I´d like to testify of service, it works, try it.

Well that´s all folks, everyone have a great week!