Week 6

No letter from Morgan this week, but we did receive these pictures from her new mission President. She has left the CCM and is now serving in the field. She has a companion who is native to Peru. The area she is serving in is called Comas. Hopefully we will have a letter next Monday.

Week 5

 

Here is a picture of some of the lovely ladies in my district! We all dressed in red and pink! It was so cute. I had a secret valentine, I'm probably not suppose to but he is a Chilean Elder, who sings, ride horses, and is bi langual. ahhhhhh. hahaahha latino cowboy get out of here!

 

Our missionary friends at immigrations.

 

Here is Carlos the amazing savior that helped Sister Smith and I through the entire Immigration process! He just joined the church because he liked the idea of eternal families he leaves for his mission in 2 months! We were so excited for him! He was so nice to us and translated everything.

 

 

 

Mis AMIGOS!

This week was quite the adventure. So something went wrong in customs at the airport I was supposedly suppose to leave the country this Friday! So Hermana Smith, Hubert, and I had to go down to immigrations a couple times. The immigrations building reminded me a lot of the DMV, slow inefficient, and frustrating, except now everything is in Spanish.
Wednesday morning we had to be at immigrations at 7. We left the CCM not really knowing what we needed and we didn't have anyone to talk to because the secretary of the CCM doesn't even start working until 8. So we just showed up at the gate and met the member who was taking us. We drove 45 minutes into the city. This part of the city was beautiful. Large buildings, no trash, and the people looked put together. We finally got there and met up with a couple other missionaries, but the CCM didn't give us any of the correct paper work or our passports. We had nothing. Lets just say the CCM is a little disorganized and we have all had to learn to go with the flow. We had to wait a couple hours outside for our passports to finally get there to just get into the building, then we had to wait another 5 hours inside the building! It was ridiculous! And we didn't even get what we needed done, we signed a couple of papers and that was it the entire 8 hours we were there. HOWEVER, we did start do  some missionary work!
There was a little boy outside who was selling candy, Juan. He was 12 years old and had two younger siblings that he was trying to provide for, by selling candy. We obviously bought some from him, how could we say no! And then we taught him how to say "Do you want to buy candy" in English. We watched him practice it on some wealthy north American people a couple times, and his charm worked on them as well. Knowing English is such a blessing.
Then once we got inside we taught a catholic women about the restoration of the church. She seemed interested and had a friend in the church. Even though we couldn't understand or talk to her very I handed out my FIRST Book of Mormon to her, and asked her to read it! It was sweet how accepting she was. After giving that to her a man from Germany came up to us asking what we were doing, he spoke some English so it was easier to tell him. He didn't believe in religion because he looks at it more like a business. He never liked how the priests, or pastors got paid. We were able to explain to him that our church was centered around service and no one gets paid. He was shocked when we told him that we weren't getting paid to go on mission. He couldn't understand why a couple of 19 year old girls would want to pay to preach about a church.
The next day Sister Smith and I had to go back again. This time it was worse than the first! We were at immigrations for 10 hours!!!!!! I have no idea why they had us leave at 7 in the morning because one no one was there, they just dropt us off in front, and our interview wasn't until 3 in the afternoon. It was ridiculous. But I was so thankful to have sister Smith with me. One word to describe Sister Smith is POSITIVE! The entire time  we kept smiling and kept our positive attitudes which made it at least a little better.
One of the funniest moments of the day... So after waiting for a very long time I turned to Sister Smith and said "Do you think that I can open up to a scripture that applies to what we are doing right now?" she doubted it but we turned and pointed right to Jarom 1:5. It said something like this "And now, Behold, two hundred years had passed away" (We started to die of laughter because it had felt like 200 years had passed away in that hot immigrations building) Then it continued "and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the Sabbath day holy unto the Lord. And they profaned not, neither did they blaspheme. And the Laws of the land were exceedingly strict." Yes the laws of immigration and visas and stuff are very, very exceedingly strict we both started to die of laughter again. Its good to remember that God has a sense of humor.
But finally at the end of it all we made it through immigrations and we are legally aloud to stay in PERU! yay so we wont get kicked out! fewwwf
When we got back to the CCM we decided that because we sat for so long that we deserved a break so we took our own physical activity time and ran for about 45 minutes and did sit-ups push ups just to release all the energy from sitting all day, it was great. I slept well that night.
VALENTINES DAY!
Valentines day was great! Mom I'm so thankful for that package of valentines cards you sent me! we made valentines for my entire district our teacher and some of the workers It was awesome every one loved it! It also inspired other people to write their own cards, two other companionships in our districts gave out chocolate and valentines day cards. We all dressed in red and pink it was so adorbs! Ill send you a picture!
So some other stuff...
There is a Starbucks here!!! yummy It makes me feel at home and it tastes so good to be able to have ice in you drink, they don't have ice at the CCM. I tried using a Starbucks card from the US but it didn't work:( oh well.
There were two earthquakes! At first I just thought some one was making a lot of noise upstairs but they were definitely earthquakes... AHHH. Not bad though everything is just dandy.
This week we had a huge group of north Americans come into the CCM. And two girls were from my BYU ward! Crazy how we didn't even really know each other and now we are running into each other in South America. Its just a crazy thought! Along with the new group we have three new roommates.. Lets just say they are interesting, and that I am beyond blessed to have the companions that I do. My companions are literally so great! I love them with all my heart! and they are NORMAL! We can all be goofy with each other but also very spiritual with each other. WE ARE THE TRIFECTUM.
I cant believe that I have been gone for a month. Next p day that you hear from me I will probably be in the mission home. I'm not quite sure when we get to email, or if we get to but Ill let you know. On a mission is the only time where days feel like years and years feel like days! Its a stragne feeling because I haven't really even entered the mission yet, the CCM is this weird in between stage where you don't feel like an official missionary. I know that the first couple months are going to be extremely challenging. A change in food, rice everyday. There will be no one to speak English to I will be alone with my companion who will probably only speak Spanish. The only person I can speak English to is Heavenly Father. I can already see that well have a very close relationship. haha. I've talked to some other missionaries who say that it takes about 3 months to feel like you have somewhat of  a hold of the language. Which in hindsight is AMAZING, but also those three months are going to be roughhh. I really appreciate all the people back home that are supporting and praying for me. I cant tell you how much it means to me.
I don't know how to do accents on this computer so any one that actually speaks Spanish bear with me.
Yo se que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es verdadera. Yo se que Jesucristo sufrio para todas las personas de la tierra. Estoy agradecido por la Expiacion en mi vida. Yo se que Dios responde mis preguntas y oraciones. Y Dios tiene much amor para todas personas. Yo se que Thomas S. Monson es un profeta de Dios. Yo se que yo fui llamoda a Peru por a proposito especial. No puedo esperar para servi a las personas de Lima, Norte. Yo se que las familias pueden estar eternidad. Y amo mi familia mucho! Yo se que mi familia quiere gue yo este aqui en Peru. Yo LLegorea mas como Cristo. En el nombre de Jesucristo AMEN.

Room mates

Hitting the "Hill"

Our favorite Spanish teacher at the CCM

The happiest day was when I found a Starbucks <3 !

!SI BUENO!

The days here at the CCM are flying by! The first two weeks went by incredibly slow because we were still getting use to everything, but now they go so quickly! The older district left last night, its deserted here at the CCM today because the older district left, and all of our Latino friends are gone. When they left they came into our classroom to tell our group how much of an example we set for them, and how great we were. It's true we have a golden district, what can I say. But that also means we will be the advanced group. I don't feel very advanced because I know that I have so much to learn, but I know that the incoming groups will be looking to our example and think that we know everything even if we actually don't. Our district is now the HEFE (boss) we rule the CCM!

 

We had the chance to go proselyting again in Lima Norte. I went to a different area this time and the poverty was so much worse. I can not believe the conditions that people are living in. We went to teach a  member named Mario and his family. They lived at the very top of the "hill". The Hill is at the side of the city, and the further you go up the hill the more devastating the conditions get. We walked all the way to the top to find Mario and his family. Their house consisted of three walls, and a hole dug out of the side of the hill. Mario had a wife and two little boys 5 and 8. We asked them to come to church and taught them the importance of going to church. So this is actually kind of a funny story for how spiritual the moment was. The spirit was there, I could tell, even if I could only pick up on main concepts that people were talking about. The entire family seemed a little distracted as my companion was speaking, but finally she looked to me to say something, I couldn't say a ton but i did bear my testimony in Spanish. A trick to missionary work is that "The eyes are the window to the soul" I looked right into the eyes of Mari'os wife, and even though what i was saying wasn't much and it was in broken Spanish I knew that his wife could understand, and she felt something when I was talking, even if I was really nervous.     So also when we were giving that lesson I had my water bottle sitting on  my lap, it was a pretty junky water bottle because i just got it at the market, so it started to leak. I HAD NO IDEA! but it leaked all over the front of my skirt. So when i stood up to say bye it totally looked like i peed myself! they were all laughing at me and I didn't realize until I started to leave! I was so embarrassed! but it dried really quickly. But oh my gosh EMBARRASSING!

 

After that lesson we walked around the neighborhoods a little bit more, and I cant put in words how disgusting and dirty this city is. Streets are filled with trash, gross dogs, and bugs. It is the most disgusting thing ever. After we got back onto the bus I was thinking to myself HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS! How am I going to be able to lie in this gross city for 18 months. I know that sounds selfish because the people are amazing but the conditions are awful. Later we watched the Joseph Smith movie and I really liked one of the Quotes.

Emma asked Joseph " Do you ever ask if God wants too much from you", and Joseph responded " I don't let myself". I'm going to go forward with my mission with that attitude. I wont let my self question. 'I'm going forward in faith that I will be taken care of, and wont worry but just do my work like a good missionary.

 

After only about 3 hours of proselyting our entire district was sooo tired! When we got back to the CCM we had dinner and a district meeting. When me and my companions walked into our meeting the lights were off and all the sisters were sleeping on the floor! Hahaha. So we all just kept the lights of and had a huge pile of people laying on the floor. Elder Panta one of the coolest Latino elders came in and thought it was hilarious that we were all sleeping, he told us a bedtime story in Spanish, something about boots, and families I didn't catch the rest of it, but it was hilarious.

 

I was pretty discouraged that day just because I couldn't say much and didn't understand anything so I was down. BUT!!!! I finally got all my mail and packages that night!!! Its crazy how God knew that I needed something to cheer me up because technically we aren't allowed to get our mail until p day, but for just this one time they decided to give me mine! Crazy how that works. The little things really make the biggest differences in a Missionaries life. I loved the valentines day package Mom (you are the BEST!!) I am so thankful for all of it! The smallest things really do make a huge difference. For example they started to serve mangos in the cafeteria and its awesome! i love mangos! and apparently Utah has bad mangos so nobody else has eaten them but I showed them all how, so now EVERYONE loves mangos. They are so sweet and delicious. That's is something awesome about the CCM is they have really really good fruit!

 

I love you all, I really do appreciate all the emails and support from everyone! It truly means a lot to me!

From your little missionary,

Hermana Huish

It summer here!

The CCM

Sea Hawks mania has reached Peru! GO HAWKS!!

Hola Familia,

   You can expect a lot more Spanish from me! The first day of classes we learned to pray and bear our testimonies in Spanish, and I have just gotten better from there. None of our teachers speak English so we are forced to learn and to know more. I love singing the hyms in Spanish its so awesome, and the Latinos love when we sing. I have already had my first dream in Spanish!! (please let Stella know!) even though I didn't understand what people were saying they were speaking Spanish! We saw a elder at the store who has been out for ten months and he said that the first two months we will just about understand everything that people are saying, its crazy to think that the language can come so quickly. Speaking will take longer, but i will just be thankful to understand.

   Some funny experiences! We had a de-stressing activity that was suppose to help us calm down and be able to manage the stress. We went out to the field to run some lines in skits and suits. Then when we went back to the classroom the door to the field was locked! we all thought that it was part of the activity, but our teacher was freaking out. It was our late class and already dark. So Pond an elder in my district climbed the 15ft wall to try to flag someone down to let us back in. Finally we were able to get out and we were way more stressed than we were before. But it was funny... and definitely not part of the activity.

   Also we had a bag of sour patch kids, from the US (they dont sell them here). We gave some to one of the Latinos and they freaked out at how sour they were! He had the sour face on and had to go spit them out and drink tons of water! It was so hilarious, he did not like them at all.

   Its amazing how much of a family my district has become. I love everyone and it is truly a blessing and probably one of the reasons i was called to Peru was to be apart of this district! Everyone is amazing. It was Elder Ponds birthday and we all went around saying something we love about him just like a family would. However we all get along so well that sometimes it can be hard to focus and we just want to talk, but we are working on focusing more. On of our teachers always pulls up a picture of this ugly Dove that is sitting on the ground and says that we have to keep the holy spirit with us. We all make fun of the picture because its just and ugly bird. Dove in Spanish is Paloma so we say that we have to KEEP THE PALOMA!

   Our teachers are so AMAZING! i love them so much. Our morning teacher is sister Garreo she is a little Peruvian girl probably 25 served her mission in Columbia and loves us to death. We are her favorite district by far. She says that  she has dreams about teaching us. She has such great advice about Spanish about missions about life. Something that I loved that she said is that a mission is the only time in our life that we will be able to PROMISE people blessings. That's the difference between a set apart missionary and a member missionary. I love that.

  We watched a talk from elder Holland about the expectations of missionaries. WHOOOA was it powerful he said "we have high expectations for missionaries, and we aren't sorry" he was saying the missionaries have to be super humans and that we don't have a reason to compromise Gods work. The talk definitely motivated me to work harder study more and try to be better, but I'm trying to find a balance between having a little bit of fun, along with all the work. The CCM puts a huge magnifine glass on yourself and can make you feel inadequate but I'm just going to keep going, keep "looking up".

   My time that i have been here i have been trying to become closer to Christ and to really get to know who he is and have a deeper understanding of his life and of the atonement. I've been doing a lot of reading out of the new testament and from Jesus the Christ. I absolutely lovvvee the poem that grandma sent me comparing missionary work to the suffering of Christ. Its really powerful and I shared it with my whole district.

   I cant believe that it has already been three weeks it seems like just yesterday that me and mom hiked pu pu point. Looking back on time it seems like it flies by so fast but looking ahead I have sooo much left to do. Its hard to comprehend all thats left to do.

   Yo se que la iglesia de jesucristo es verdadera, y el libro de mormon es la palabra de Dios. Estoy agredecido por me familia y la opertunidad ser servicio en Lima.

Love you all so much!

Hermana Huish

   

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.