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!