We all bought these awesome pants in the market place!

The sistas!

This is the famous "sisterhood of the traveling skirt", after having it for the last two weeks I am now mailing it to my friend Kiersten who is on a mission in South Carolina.

Me and my comps.

The "Golden District"

Mi Familia,

 

I want to start off with wishing Fletcher a happy birthday! I'm so sad that I'm missing it but let him know that I am still thinking of him! I got him a sweet present so Ill send it as soon as I can!

 

Okay so my district is known as the Golden district! We are all the teachers favorites, and everybody looks up to us even though we are the beginner group in the MTC. We truly were all meant to be together. Everyone is so amazingly positive, and uplifting. WE are all focused on the work, learning Spanish but we also have a TON of fun together. I love them and they have really become my family out here. We are able to talk with each other about anything that we are struggling with. Its really nice to have such a great district especially because some of the other districts are just okkkay. But 107 is the BEST! It is truly a blessing that I am here with all of them.

 

My new companion Sister Mahoss is wonderful. She is so sweet and friendly. The first night was really tough for her and she was really homesick, She had a vertigo attack. (Mom I know you can sympathize) We tried to comfort her, but whatever we said wasn't helping finally, Sister Fuentes our Latino roommate, who hardly speaks English said " you are a missionary, you are strong"  and that's all it took to help sister Mahoss start to feel better. There is so much love at this CCM It blows my mind.

 

I get along great with my other companions. The best thing to do with companions is to always look for the positive things about them. If you dwell on the negative things you'll never like or get along with your companion. And Both of mine are pretty amazing sisters. So it is workin out to be just fine! 

 

We went proselyting for the first time on Saturday! I was so amazingly nervous we can't understand and all I can say in Spanish is a prayer and a testimony. Normally when going out to proselyte they give you  companions who are Latinos so at least one person knows the language, however, I was with another gringo sister.... Neither one of us knows Spanish. But it ended up being a great experience! There was no need to worry. We had a lesson with a family who had  two 11 year girls and they loved us so much!  The second one was a contact from the street and they invited us into their home with their entire family and friends. We gave a lesson on prayer and how it is important to communicate with God. Nicole the daughter was so nice and even said the closing prayer. She started crying, and said that she really felt the spirit. We gave her name and address to the actual missionaries to come back and visit her again. Proselyting was a huge reality check. Being locked up in the CCM you can forget why you are serving a mission and actually going out into the field is such a great reminder and great experience! OHHHH and We went to LIMA NORTE! so every one that I meet I have a high chance of seeing again.

 

The Lima north mission is extremely poor. Going out into the field i was completely humbled. Hardly any of the buildings had roofs, there was trash every where in the street. They have the "hill" and the further you go up the hill the more poverty there was. I cant not describe in word how grateful I am for what I have. I'm so grateful for a family that loves each other, to have clean running water, to have a garbage man to pick up all the trash! And I'm mostly thankful that we don't have to run away from rabid dogs that roam in the street! SCARY!

 

Even though proselyting was hard and we couldn't say much, some how we found a way to communicate. Also I liked a quote from an elder in my district "Jesus could just be standing in a room, and we could feel his spirit. He doesn't even have to say anything" I love that because while out on a mission we are representing Christ, and even though we cant speak the language quite yet people can tell that we have the spirit and they want to know about it.

 

As a Missionary something that we have all really struggled with is the thought that we  have to be perfect. We have such high expectations. We are representatives of Christ. At first that was really getting me down because I thought that I was inadequate, But what I have come to realize is that it is the trials that we have been through the things that we have struggled with and are still struggling with that makes it possible for us to relate and gain a personal relationship with our investigators. I have been setting weekly goals to become more Christ like. Last week was faith, and this week is diligence. Please pray that I will be able to be diligent in my work.

 

All of the Latinos left this morning:( There are only two districts left in the CCM right now and it is really kind of sad. I love the Latinos so much they were so kind and friendly. We decided to put together a musical number for when they left. We sang God be with you until we Meet Again. It was really beautiful. The Latinos aren't very good singers so they absolutely adore us when we sing. So it was beautiful, and everyone in the room was crying and hugging. Those goodbyes are some of the worst because we know that we probably won't see most of those people ever again.

 

Anything done in English seems easy now. Before a half hour talk in English would have been stressful, but now that we are writing talks in Spanish, writing a talk in English seems  way easier!

I had my first dream in Spanish already! I didn't necessarily understand what people were saying but It was in Spanish!

 

Some random thoughts:

We have a new CCM president

I'm tired ... ALL the time

I'm really glad I had my hair done before I came out here I haven't used a hair dryer or straightener once.

I want pictures of Fletcher on his birthday.. with his present

I have war wounds on the back of my heels, but I think I finally broke my shoes in

My companion Sister Bowers( she's from California)

 new friends at the MTC

Room mates

another new comp. Sister Mahoss from SLC

 

Just arriving in Peru after a 13 hour flight. Looking pretty happy at 1am.

 

 

Hello My Sweeties!

The MTC is beautiful here. Even though its small, I actually really like that it isn't too big. There are three buildings; our rooms, the main office and the cafeteria. In my room there are three sets of bunk beds and very little closet space but somehow I made it all fit... somehow.  My companion is Heather Bowers from California, Riverside. She has been really great. She is 20 and very focused on the work, and she is one of the best at speaking Spanish in our district. Although we are different in that shes a perfectionist and I'm laid back, for now we are making it work. We actually just got a new companion today and we are a threesome now! So the new sister is Sister Mahoss, I haven't been able to get to know her very well yet. But she seems like a sweetheart. She played soccer and basket ball throughout high school and is from Salt Lake City.

We have two Latino roommates, and I cant put into words how much I love them. The first day I couldn't understand anything they were saying but I could tell right away that they were friendly and always trying to help us. Now I'm a lot better at Spanish and we can actually learn a lot about each other. One has a boyfriend on a mission and they are getting married when she gets home, shes a small girl from Brazil and she is funny and nice. The other girl is ALWAYS happy! She loves everyone and is filled with the spirit! She has 10 brothers and sisters and is from Columbia. Although she comes from a bad background she has such a good attitude about service. Her dream is to come to the United States one day and marry a gringo. Whenever she comes into the room or sees use she yells "HELLO MY SWEETIES" its adorable 

Classes go from literally 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night. By the time 9 comes around we all are going a little stir crazy being kept in a single room. But we do have an hour for exercising. They have a soccer field and we will go out and play soccer with the Latinos. The MTC is very laid back which I like. No one is telling us what to do or where to be we just have to act for ourselves.

I think one of the best moments so far was a late night party we had in our room. My Colombian roommate was showing us how she danced in Columbia and soon everyone was in our room dancing. We had a little circle going and people would just go in show how they danced in their culture then someone else would go.  We were all just laughing and having a good time. I really have come to love all the Latinos, they want to help us with our Spanish and they are so humble. I was so worried about getting use to so many things like having to share a room with other people and gross showers and hard beds. But the Latinos have to get use to sleeping in their own bed, learn how to use a washer and dryer. It has really humbled me to see how happy they are.

The flight was 4 hours to Atlanta and 7 hours to Peru. I didn't listen to music or watch movies because the elder i was with.. but I did play a lot of Uno. I wish i could have read more but the elder talked alot!!!. But its okay!

Oh and by the way we already started teaching. We have a fake investigator right now but we are tracting this Saturday! I'm so nervous my Spanish isn't nearly where it should be to go tracting! like WHAT?

REMEMBER LOT"S WIFE...

I waited for several minutes for Morgan to look back so I could snap a picture of her in the jetway, but unlike Lot's wife, Morgan never looked back.  Her faith is pointed towards the future. She knows that the Lord has something better in store for her for her than she already had.

 

Elder Foster is just to Morgan's right in this picture, he was her airplane buddy. We met him at the airport and he is going to the Lima, Peru North mission as well.