when we get together as a zone we talk charapa!

hey family! thanks dad for that email. it really does help me spiritually. every week i am enjoying my mission more and more and more and more! its so amazing to be on a mission. seriously its the best because i know that there is nothing better that i can be doing. it will be crazy when its all over. my knowledge of the scriptures is growing more and more and i love  that. all i can think about is how i can help my future investigators with that knowledge and my future children. i want to be like you. i remember when we would read scriptures as a family and you would explain each verse with detail because you had studied them before. i want to do that with my children. and i feel like it will be weird getting back to canada one day and having more resources! i feel like i've been here long enough that i'm super used to it and i'll feel so foreign when i get back to canada! hahah it'll be weird walking into a grocery store and finding absolutely everything i need. it will be weird speaking english! i make so many grammar mistakes  when i speak and write english cause i'm always talking in spanish and writing in spanish. not sure if you can tell but i can! hahah or when i write something in english i double check it cause it looks wrong but i can't remember if its right or wrong so i get a second opinion from another american hahahahaha LIFE...... eh dad? hahahah LIFE! 

        so last saturday we had a baptism. my first! it was awesome. Marcela was super happy. her mom cried and was super happy for her daughter. marcela went all out for her baptism. lol bought a white dress, got her hair done, bought nails, so much food too. hahah and that's not normal here. its normal in canada but here its not cause it costs a lot to do that. the baptism was a little unorganized and i was getting super frustrated trying to figure it out while it was all happening. the man who was supposed to baptize her ditched for another meeting so the bishop had to scramble for clothes to baptize her and the lady who was supposed to speak didn't show up cause she was apparently sick. i don't get it!!!! its so normal to do that here and apparently its normal for baptisms to be a gong show! i was trying to stay calm the whole time so that the spirit could stay. hahah but oh well what can you do. and of course it started 45 minutes later than the normal time. but here they say that peru never progresses because everyone's always late! LOL. crazy peeps.

this is marcela. the one that got baptized this saturday!! she told me that she was writing vicky on facebook haha

 

 

 

         so when we were serving drinks afterwards i was scooping the juice with the cups and noticed a ton of ants! hahah i was like OH NO!! so every time i was scooping the drinks i tried dodging the ants. didn't work too well but no one seemed to care! jungle life.....hahaha i definitely love it here despite all the things i never thought i would get used to in my life! this jungle mission really is one of a kind. but i would still rather have this type of life than a city life! i really don't like the city. 

             so i forgot my sheet that has all the points of things that i wanted to write about but oh well. so my companion flew to lima to do stuff for her visa cause she's still illegal here hahah then they flew her to chili to get her out of the country for a bit so she can be legal for another amount of time. i was so jealous! how cool would it have been to be there! especially cause that's where you served! i was a little jealous of her. well while she was gone the sister leader came and stayed with me. her name is hermana gutierrez. she's awesome! she finishes the next cambio and is from argentina. she taught me a lot! she's seriously great. knows a lot. and told me that at the beginning of her mission she knew hardly nothing and it was always frustrating to teach. she was super patient with me and we did lesson practices so that i can learn a few things from her. i really enjoyed my stay with her. 

      well dad how's the weather there? you gotta tell me when you get the first snowfall! its been crazy hot here. i almost die everyday. i'm used to it now and now i can't believe that when i get home there will be snow and coldness! me and lana are NOT going to be used to it! hahaha well dad how's my car! last night i was thinking about how much i miss driving stick! lol well i love you all so much toodles!!

 

so we did a little fundraiser for the wedding of carlos and españa this wednesday and the elders wrote this on the sign! hahahah que chistoso! here they talk so charapa! (slang) for example they'll say... el posho es muy rico si di?? like the "di" its not even a word but they say it after they say si.. or sometimes in place of "si?" they say "di?" hahaha its horrible! so when we get together as a zone we talk charapa! hahaha like when they say jueves they say "feves" or fe=fue or fue=fe or enfermo=enfuermo.. the accent is not pretty!! hahahahaha i can't wait to show you guys when we talk on the phone!

the mission really is life changing hey?

hi dad and family. hows it going? i miss you all very much. this week i'm not going to lie i was a little unfocused. it sucks. i have no idea why. so last night i poured my heart out to god asking for help. i guess its normal to get unfocused once in a while but i don't like it. its incredibly hard to teach with the spirit and its hard to enjoy the mission. so i fasted and have been trying hard to get my focus back and its back. its hard when you are constantly hearing the problems of other people and doing things to satisfy there needs all the time. you literally have no time to think for yourself, at times its overwhelming. but the mission is worth it. its amazing to be able to help others. i was reading in doctrine and covenants section 11. its funny cause i just opened my scriptures and started reading. it was an answer to my prayers. it reminded me why i'm here. as i read i pretended that god was there saying it to me. it helped me remember my purpose and that i have been called to the work. i remembered the promises i will receive when i ask in faith. i asked him in faith to help me get my focus back and i know he definitely helped me with that. with all the new changes in the mission for the way we teach its overwhelming. but thanks to my heavenly father i am super excited for this coming week and  to go out and teach more people. 

                     we have been finding lots of new investigators. its great! we've got about 5 baptisms coming up. one this coming weekend so we are happy that we have a few new families to teach! we have been pushing ourselves to contact more people and had faith that if we really tried to find people we would and that's exactly whats happening. now we are trying to help them come to church, pray, and read their book of mormon. the mission really is life changing hey? definitely nothing i expected. i knew it would be hard but its hard every single day! haha but if it wasn't hard what would i learn? i really am honored to be serving in iquitos though because its such a unique mission. its very different from other missions but i guess every mission has its own thing that makes it unique.

     so we were teaching a new investigator and he is pretty awesome. he is a concerned dad who had psoriasis pretty bad and is suffering other things to. we felt the spirit strongly with him. the president of the mission has really been encouraging the mission to teach the book of mormon the first lesson we teach the investigators. so we were explaining the restoration and blah blah and then we started teaching the book of mormon with the spirit very strong. the whole entire lesson had been super silent but then this group of adults outside started laughing really loud. one woman in particular. and they were speaking vulgar and really were distracting us. i was thinking to myself, i am going to ask them to laugh somewhere else because why do they have to laugh in front of THIS house... but then i thought to myself ok stop letting your latina attitude take place... what would jesus do. so i cancelled my bad thoughts because i knew very well that it was Satan that wanted me to not have the spirit with me and to not teach this man about the book of mormon. so we simply ignored them and kept teaching and it was wonderful and he started crying cause he was so happy we visited him and he's got a lot of problems and has been seeking help. the doctors say that he needs to let go of a lot of stress that he has to help get rid of his psoriasis. and he says that our visit helped him for the first time not feel stress. so ya we were happy about that!

     this saturday we have a baptism! i'm stoked. her name is marcela. she is 13 and is the one i talked about in the last email. she has been going to church for two years and no one knew she wasn't baptized!!!! so she loves us a lot. she always calls us for help and just to tell us how excited she is for her baptism! haha i try and take good care of her cause i only think of how i would want someone to treat vicky if she was the only convert in her family. 

       i just had a funny memory. i remember a long time ago when we were at church in beazer (cardston) and we were in primary singing book of mormon stories and the part that said "FREE!!!" tennyson yelled it out loud and put one arm up and stood up and was all embarrassed!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAAAA tell that guy to EMAIL ME!!!!!!!!!!

     i cant believe that its another pday dad! seriously time FLIES! i get sad when i come out of a good lesson and feel like time is going by too fast. sometimes i feel like even 2 years isn't long enough to convert the people that need conversion. which is everybody! when i get home i'm going to keep being a missionary in other ways like always giving the missionaries references. and always going out with them (cause i know i'll miss teaching and i'll miss the mission life a lot!) haha and i'll always feed the missionaries and be nice to them! lol well i gotta run. love ya so much.

       thank you for all you do for me. i love you. thank you for your support. i really hope that one day i can repay you. when i get home i'm going to go to school for a speech pathologist or get into law or medicine. i don't care if its harder than being a missionary i know i can do it even if it is a million years of schooling. xoxoxox

do you think its wise to send more gringas to the jungle?

not gunna lie dad i'm shocked and a little sad that you didn't send me some type of gospel doctrine! hahh that's okay though at least you emailed me! that's so crazy that there is frost on the ground in the morning! WOW!! the word frost.. i cant even picture it. its always so hot here. even when it rains i never put on a sweater cause its so humid and hot still. i can't believe that i left right before summer started and now summer there is over. i know i'll be excited to see snow and BC trees next year. its crazy how fast time flies by. the sister training leader is going home today. well shes flying to lima and then at like 1 am flying to georgia then utah. her name is hna price. i'm a little sad because i remember when i first got here i was supper stressed and wanted to go home and i was so uncomfortable but she made me feel better. she was one of the first sisters here in the jungle. she was telling me how she had an interview with one of the area of the 70s and he was like "so do you think its wise to send more gringas to the jungle?" and hna price was like YES PLEASE! haha so its kinda cool because we really are making history here in the jungle as sister missionaries, being some of the first gringas here. lol but ya so today we are going to the airport to say goodbye to hna price and hna simonson! hna simonson was awesome to. her and i became friends and it was super easy to talk to her and get along. so we definitely wanna say goodbye. its crazy to hear the stories of other missionaries. every single one of them has their own story. they were telling me how time goes by so fast so don't waste it. i agree with that.so the other night at about 5:15 am this super loud voice started talking in a microphone outside. i was soooo mad cause i'm such a light sleeper and already wake up for the slightest thing and i thought they would stop talking but then hna flor (lady that we live with) was like get up girls!! cover all your stuff and go outside now!! and we were like WOAH whats going on! hahh thought we were under attack,,... but then we were told that here was an outbreak of dengue and cholera so they were going in everyone's house in the city to spray this air that smells super strong that kills bugs... so far they have done it twice.... but i guess its necessary so oh well!!

    speaking of hna flor she made me a skirt! its so pretty. i'll send a pic of it. she really loves us alot. its super nice to have her take such good care of us. i'm glad shes our pensionista. 

 

 

    so i'll update you on carlos and espana. we went to pick them up for there interview with the mission president and we get there and espana was all sad and were were like ohhhh no..... and she said her and carlos were fighting and that they weren't gunna go to the interview.. i had to walk away for a few minutes cause i couldn't hold back the tears. so i put myself back together and i was like.. "espana. tell me, who is it that is laughing at you right now because you're not going to the interview?" she responded, satan. and i was like "exactly. right now he thinks he can win. but you are on the lord's side. show him your faith and willingness to come unto christ. i know you are strong and can do this." so she started crying again and we called the elders to come talk to carlos while we talked to espana. so 45 minutes later they were both cheered up and so we called the president and he told us to come fast! we were so happy!!!! it was crazy. we were so relieved and i was thinking to myself... wow... the things a mission can bring you... but they were so glad that they went to their interview. they said they felt sooo good afterwards. and they are so excited to get married and baptized. so we went there on wednesday.. oh and by the way espanas family lives right next door like their house is even connected and carlos and espana live in a bedroom that leads outside and that's it. anyway so we get there and go inside espanas room/house and she was almost in tears and apparently seconds before we got there her brother was beating his girlfriend...i didn't even notice but the girlfriend was standing outside covered in blood . she was standing a little ways away from the door just standing there... so we looked outside and the brother was watching her... she knew that if she left he would probably kill her.my heart sank. espana handed her a towel to wipe her blood. i wanted to protect her and help her somehow. my comp was telling me to stay calm cause apparently it looked like i was mad. i was mad though. and sad. how could someone do that. but we left right away because of mission rules. it wasn't safe there. we told espana to offer a prayer to help calm down her brother. the next day espana told us he had just gotten out of jail for doing the worst of the worst... made us so sad because he was so nice to us and we even had an appointment with him a while ago cause he said he wanted to change his life. it was crazy. all this week we have been listening to people's problems. i get so sick to my stomach about the things i hear that afterwards i cry. one girl that reminds me a lot of vicky that is getting baptized told us about her life.. i couldn't help but think of vicky and how grateful i am to know that right now she has parents who protect her and make her feel good about herself and teach her the truths of the gospel.

      yesterday at church i gave the lesson for the second hour on missionary work. it was awesome cause we felt the spirit so strong and the investigators were crying and espana said that she wants to teach her daughter the gospel so that one day she could go on a mission. i really do love my mission more and more everyday! its so rewarding and exhausting and fun and crazy and sad and happy all at the same time!

      well its been so hot lately! some days the sun is stronger than others! apparently we are in summer now.. i totally agree,. hah there are a lot of fruits that i've been trying out and i love them,! i'll send some pics. well i love you all!!!! i wanted to bring my study journal to share a spiritual thought but i forgot it!!! i've been studying lots mosiah chapter 1-3.. i've studied it in depth. writing all my thoughts and revising each verse carefully. and i can definitely say that its helped me teach better and my testimony on the atonement is stronger than its every been. we are so blessed because jesus christ died for us. because of him es posible para regresar a vivir con dios otro vez. siempre debemos arrepentir de nuestros pecados para que cada dia podemos progresar y ser como cristo. i love this gospel and and eternally grateful for you and mom because you've taught me so much. LOVE YOU ALL

dad! forgot to say that yes i dream in spanish! i dream almost everynight that i'm in a lesson teaching investigators.. almost every night that's what i dream. hahah and you were going to let ten go to school in raymond!!! man that would be sweet i think he would of loved it and all the boys would look up to him and take him in as a friend cause tennyson has the type of spirit where everyone wants to be around him. alot of the boys there don't want to serve missions and i think he could be an example for greater good that will cause some boys to change their minds about a mission. tell that punk to write me!!!!!!!!!!

 

fruit that looks like a zuccini

 suri.. eeeeew

 

the missionaries were in charge of making the ceviche when we couldn't even eat it...!

hey y'all!!! whats up! dad thanks for the email. i think that i am going to warn my investigators about those three specific things that satan will try and do to make it so my investigators are led astray. it has happened... so i think this week has gone by the fastest than any other week in my mission. i'm going to complete three months soon. it seems like yesterday that i almost missed my flight to peru and had only 20 seconds to hug you all.. did i hug brendan?? hahah i was thinking about it and i think i was hugging you all so fast that i forgot to hug him!! LOL!! it used to make me tear up when i thought about it but now i laugh!! so we helped carlos plan a proposal to ask españa to marry him. here in peru people don't really "pop the question"! its more like they talk about marriage and decide then and there if they're going to do it and then they'll tell people what day they're getting married and its not a big deal. its so casual! like what the heck! but españa has always wanted her future husband to propose! sooo we helped him plan it. we had a ward activity on saturday (it was also españas birthday) called "conociendo mi peru" (getting to know peru) and it was so fun! so first people were doing dances. like typical dances. 

and españa did one with the relief society and it was actually awesome cause she taught the relief society how to do the dance. i can picture her as a relief society president one day. and then after the dance she went to change. and when she came back the bishop talked in the microphone and was like " carlos has a few words he would like to say to españa but first we need everyone to be very quiet please" and españa thought he was going to say happy birthday. so the dj put on the song " i don't wanna miss a thing by aerosmith" (i totally suggested that song) and he begun talking and expressing his feelings to her and she clued in and started crying jaajja and then he asked her to spend the rest of ETERNITY with him! it was awesome! so hilarious cause EVERY woman was crying!! lollll. she was so happy and i definitely got everything on film.

 i'm thinking about sending you guys my camera cause there are awesome vids on there that none of these computers will let me send!. but anyway it was awesome. after the dances we ate food. and there were booths with different typical foods from peru. we were in charge of the ceviche. that the almost raw fish with other stuff.. missionaries aren't allowed to eat it. which sucked cause it smelled SO good and EVERYONE was at our booth crowding it trying to get a plate and we had so much ceviche but not enough for everyone. it was gone in such little time. but it was so ironic that the missionaries were in charge of making the ceviche when we couldn't even eat it. españa and another investigator of the elders helped us make it. 

      so the president wrote a letter to the presidency of the church asking if only certain areas could pension all three meals with a pensionista but it was rejected. so ALL the missionaries in south america have to have a pensionista with all three meals cause too many missionaries are getting sick. ,man i am so lucky that i havn't gotten sick ONCE!!! everyone is so surprised. i'm super glad. and now that we have a rule that if we are sick for more than two weeks we get sent home i am more glad that i havn't gotten sick.sooo its sad cause we told our old pensionista that we prayed and made the decision to pension with hna Flor. cause she lives in our house and its much more efficient for us to eat with her. we save so much more time cause we had to walk a little ways to get to our old pensionistas house. and with hna flor we will be able to start our studies on time. the canayo family was so sad that they cried. but they understood our decision and thanked us for the time they were able to serve us. we felt bad but we had to do what we had to do. with all the meeting we have been having on how time is so important and its the lords time we felt it was the right thing to do.

    but hna flor is awesome. shes like our mom. i think i mentioned in a previous email that she has a daughter on a mission to and she takes EXCELLENT care of us. she is making us a skirt right now! i'm so excited for it.shes always checking up on us and finding ways to serve us and calls me "mi hija" i love that she treats us like that! but don't worry mom, you will always be my number one!!

     so there is this 13 year old girl that we thought was baptized cause she goes to seminary attends church every sunday alone and is super awesome! she loves the church and at school she said that she sang battle hymn of the republic and that everyone laughed at her and made fun of her but she didn't care and i felt so bad but i was like " why didn't you choose a different one!" lol  she laughed about the fact that people made fun of her cause she didn't care. shes awesome. so when we found out she wasn't baptized we were surprised. she is in the area of the elders but they cant visit her cause shes a single girl and her parents don't want to be present in the discussions. so we went to visit her....at night....not realizing that it was super dangerous there..... nothing happened. while we were walking on that street this drunk guy came up to us and at first it was hard to tell he was drunk but then all of a sudden he tried hugging me.. i pushed him away and he kept trying but i wouldn't let him and i was like ya okkkk BYEE. and then he took the picture of jesus that we gave him and ripped it and threw it... and the next day the elders (district leader) was like make sure you go there during the day. and we were like oh what why?? we went there last night. and he was like NIGHT!???? WOAH NOOO!!! its dangerous! and he was like please only go there during the day.... we had no idea.but i didn't feel scared at all or unsafe. but now we know for next time. there area is called pampachika and its right by the playa and that's why its so dangerous cause people from all over the place go there to swim and drink and bad things are always happening there apparently.

    anyways!! so the last zone conference we had they asked me to say the closing prayer. and they always say the prayer in english. even the latinos. and i was so excited cause i havn't prayed in english in AGES! so i begun the prayer and let me tell you.. it was soooo awkward. i couldn't talk!! i was making so many mistakes and caught myself speaking spanglish. i wasn't nervous at all but when you are speaking spanish all day every day its weird to all of a sudden say a prayer in english. ahahah

    so can you please print that talk called unleashing the dormant spirit in spanish?? i really wanna photocopy some and give them out. that talk has helped me so so much on my mission and i want my comp and future comp to have one. 

     dad i love my mission. its hard. but so worth it. my testimony is growing each day and my knowledge of the gospel is increasing more and more and more. i am learning more that i thought i ever could. i love helping people. i love that i'm doing this for the lord. thank you and mom so much for raising me. for doing scripture study and prayer with us. i don't think i have realized how important it really is until now. because doing those things really did bring us together and it taught us to be firm and keep our standards high. it taught us to put the lord first. so thank you for supporting me and lana on our missions. i know i'll be sad when i leave peru. i'll miss the people and the way i live right now. it may not be luxurious but i don't even care. i love it and i love that i'm learning. so thanks for supporting me financially and spiritually. i love you all. and hope you continue praying together and doing scripture study and i promise the lord will bless you all. I LOVE YOU MI FAMILIA TAN LINDA TAN BELLA TAN AMOROSO!! xoxoxo