week #13

Heyyyooo!

Things are going great over here in Peru!

Highlight:

MY highlight this week was that the new church in our area is opening! The building has been under construction for a while and it is finally almost ready to go ! This week we were able to walk through. It was so beautiful! Everything is brand new, and better yet, everything is CLEAN! A lot of the churches here don't stay clean but for now it is just so awesome! It has two buildings. One building contains the classrooms, offices and kitchen. The other building houses the stage and the chapel. Outside is the best, a volleyball court, soccer field, and basketball court! Its sweeet! And this is perfect because now the church is really close to all of our investigators so it will be much easier for them to attend. 

Downfall:

This week we had a work visit with our new district leader.The new  leader is a bit intimidating, he is really strict. The investigator that we arranged to visit is normally very receptive, and accepts our commitments. BUT of course on the one day she decides to be really difficult we bring the boss! Our whole goal for the lesson was to invite her to come to church on Sunday. She has been to church before and she attended conference so it should not have been that big of a deal. BUT she refused to come this week. We did everything that we were taught to persuade her to say yes, scriptures, promise blessings, testify. And she still refused. It was pretty discouraging. I don't even know how to describe it in words, but just know that it was frustrating. Our new district leader was not impressed. But we will impress him next time.

Fun experience!

This week we had a BLITZ. A blitz is when all the missionaries get together in one area that is struggling. For three hours we contacted people for the missionaries of that area to teach.We also switched companions so I worked with Hermana Ramirez. She has put in 6 months in the mission but unfortunately was awful at contacting! When you contact it is important to get to know the person a little bit and gain their confidence before you invite them to church. Hermana Ramirez really struggled with this,  but the upside is it gave me a chance to practice so that was sweet. One funny experience that happened when we were out was a dog we met. We knocked on the door of a house and a dog came to the window. I told Hermana Ramirez to pretend it was a real contact and ask it questions, it was hilarious when the dog would bark back at the perfect time. And then when we asked if it had a family and other dogs came to the window. It was hilarious. We were both dying.

Companion:

So I love my companion she is truly awesome. We get along well and she is really chill, perfect for me! However, she is a little bit shy. Its hard to have a shy companion when I can't really speak the language yet. During lessons and in ward counsel she doesn't like to take charge and she doesn't like to talk in front of groups of people. I'm trying to help her with that.  At one of the baptisms she was asked to give a little thought and she said no. That is what missionaries are suppose to be prepared for always, giving thoughts at the last minute and talking in front of people. Also in lessons this is difficult because she doesn't want to be direct. That is probably the reason we were paired together, I don't have a problem being direct or speaking in front of people, but I CANT because of the language problem. So as far as success in this area I am  just going to have to be patient. I am not going to be able to do things the way that I want. I just have to be patient, work with my companions strengths and learn to speak Spanish, FAST.  To help with learning Spanish, I'm totally giving up English. The only time I'm going to use English is to write emails. I gave up English scriptures, English prayers, and English with my companion. The only way I'm going to learn Spanish is if I can just forget about English (: Once I can speak, Cadenas and I will be unstoppable.

LOVE YALL!

see you next summer!

Hermana Huish

Week #12

Cadenas and I

My new zone in Magnolias

 

 

This ice cream was amazing!!!

Its funny how happy a little American tasting ice cream can make you!

 

 

Hola Familia!

There is always just too much to share! I cant believe that it is already p'day again! Time flies by sooo fast! Where did the week even go? So much has happened but I''ll share a couple of my favorite parts of the week.

Highlight of the week:

The highlight of the week was making prayer rocks! We baptised Lydia last week and now we are teaching her daughter Stephanie. Stephanie is 11 year's old and is your typical sassy teenager. When we come to teach the lessons she normally  just gets bored and wants to liten to music so Cadenas and I were trying to think of fun ways to catch her attention. I remembered making prayer rocks in primary! A prayer rock is simple, you take a smallish to medium rock paint it, and write the word PRAYER )ORACION= on it. Then you put it on your pillow so when you go to sleep at night your head will hit the rock so you remember to pray. Then when your done you put the rock on the floor so that when you wake up the next morning you step on the rock and remember to pray! Stephanie and her friends were pretty excited about this idea.  We immediatley went searching for cool looking rocks outside. I found one in the shape of a heart. Then we painted them all sorts of colors and wrote the word Oracion on it. It was a good activity and I think it really captured stephanies attention! If nothing else, she is going to remember to pray now. If you have any more fun ideas for teaching young kids let me know because we are constantly trying to think of ideas!

Downfall:

The downfall this week was on Sunday. We got a reference from Nilton, a member, to teach a girl names Beatrice. We were super pumped about the lesson and had high expectations. So after lunch on Sunday we went with Nilton to go visit his friend. We had no idea where she lived. Of course this was the one day when I decided to where those cute little red heels. We ended up having to walk for about an hour to get to her house!!!!! The worst part was when we got there she wasn't even home. It was the biggest disappointment of the entire week. So then we had to walk home and by the time we got back my feet were raw, ouch!

Funny Experiences:

We ate these extremely hot peppers that are only found in the jungle in Peru. They are really, small, yellow and innocent looking but boy are they spicy. One of the members gave us a whole bag of these little peppers, and at lunch we all tried one. I can't even describe to you how hot this little thing was. My mouth literally had flames shooting out, my tongue was even a  bit numb! It was crazy! So the funny part is that not only did I eat one but I ended up taking down 13!!!! Me and Elder Barrientes had a competition to see who could eat more. Every time some one would pop one in their mouth the family we were eating with would cheer, and the mom would sprint to go get us water or milk or something to cool us down. It was crazy both our faces were red, both of us were sweating, and both of our mouths were just straight up numb. Pride had the best of both of us because we both wanted to win. At seven we were dying and agreed to a tie but the family and Hermana Cadenas and Elder Gomez pressured us to keep going. So at this point neither one of us wanted the other to eat one because that meant the other person had to. But some how the group pressured us into eating 6 more for a total at 13. At that point neither of us could take it any more so we made an oath to tie at 13. I know it doesn't sound that much fun to suffer through all that pain, but it actually was pretty fun and I think Elder Barrientes  and I will be legends in Magnolia's now.

Spiritual Experience:

The most spiritual experience this week was general conference! I have only had a month in the mission and I still don't understand tons of Spanish yet. Normally its takes about 4 months to be able to understand everything. So when general conference came I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to understand anything the prophet and apostles were saying. I have never prayer harder for the gift of tongues to be able to understand the words of our leaders. I didn't understand a word they said but somehow I understood everything that I needed to hear from each talk. It was amazing!

 

Hermana Zarates Birthday!

So Hermana Cadenas and I live with the two other Hermana's in our zone. The sister leaders Hermana Goulding and Hermana Zarate. Saturday was Hermana Zarates 20th birthday! So we decided to make it really special for her! Friday night we made a big sign that said FELIZ CUMPLE! and then we blew up 20 balloons. After she went to bed we snuck into her room and hung up the sign and put the balloons all over the floor! In the morning our mamasita brought her a chocolate cake! It reminded me so much of our family tradition back home for birthdays! Decorate the birthday person's room in the night, and eat cake in the morning for breakfast! I think she felt really special. I'm so happy that we were able to do that for her. We also had a small zone party with a cake as well!. Then that night we had our own little special pizza party. Hermana Goulding bought Hawaiian Pizza and we all just hung out that night and ate pizza and stuff, and got to know each other better. It was sweet!

Teaching:

Hermana Lorenza is the Bomb.com! She was a menos activo and we found her when I first came into the area. We have helped her completely changed her life! She was totally inactive before and now she is active in everything! It is truly amazing. We teach her the lessons and give her commitments. She goes above and beyond on all of her commitments. For example, she reads the Book of Mormon like a mad women, and has good questions for us. And on top of that she came to every session of general conference, and even went back to the temple! I'm so thrilled that we were able to help her get her life straightened out and back to church. Now we are working with her daughter and her husband to try and help them as well!

I love you all!

See you next summer!

Hermana Huish

Week #11

The Oatmeal mask for my sunburn

I love my Companion Hermana Cadenas

Hola Familia!

Hola Amigos!

P-DAY (our day off)

Its always such a relief when p-day comes, but it isn't necessarily a day of relaxation. We always have lots of things planned. Last week was really fun, after emailing families we went to the church to play volley ball. Missionaries are not suppose to get competitive but, I am not going to lie we had 3 intense games of volley ball, it was so great! The only problem was that the sun was so strong that I got an awful sun burn. My face was as red as an apple! (It hurt real bad.) After the games we went to one of the elder's mamasita's homes for hamburgers, and she said that it helps if you apply an oatmeal mask, and then rub tomatoes on the burn. hahah so that night  Hermana Cadenas and I  rubbed oatmeal and tomato all over my face. I  don't think it really helped, but it was worth a shot. After  lunch Cadenas and I went to one of the little markets in our area. They have markets everywhere!!! . We picked up loads of fruit, we are both obsssssesed with fruit. The fruit here is so amazingly  good. Then we bought sweet matching pants that kind of remind me of gouchos!  Its funny what we will wear as missionaries. Oh also I found some adorable cat earrings! There are soo many cats here I'm going crazy! Like cats are everywhere, and i just want to take them all home with me, I am in heaven! My favorite cat is the one at my mamasitas house because she  just had a litter of kittens. I'm almost cried they were so cute.MY obsession with cats has not changed.

ALMUERZOS

Every day for lunch we eat at a members house with four other elders.(We probably have too much fun but you know me, fun just follows me around.) On a Normal day we show up but it takes them a while to serve us so we come up with fun games to play, or play soccer. Lunch is a nice break. Basically everyday we can expect rice potatoes and chicken. Other things they feed us might be steak fruit, salad, jello, flan, arroz con leche. Arroz con leche is a desert that reminds me a lot of grandmas rice pudding its is soo good. Well they always give us WAYY too much food! I can never finish my plate. The members are so generous and good to the missionaries. They literally give us mountains of rice. (and they expect us to eat all of it!) Luckily we eat with the elders. Elder Rusola is a black hole! He eats everything! He is a big guy from Columbia, so its really nice because I  just sit next to him and whatever I cant finish I slyly put onto his plate and he eats it for me! Its the best.

PRACTICAS!

Every Friday we have practicas with our whole zone. This week practicas was like torture. We went over how to give commitments to people. There is a lot more to it then you would think! Teach with the scriptures, ask Direct questions, promise blessings, testify, and verify question. One by one we were each quizzed in front of the entire zone on the spot. Think of an intense oral exam in your Spanish class in front of the whole school. Commitments are things  like following the law of chastity, law of tithing, or getting married. I was sooo nervous to go up there in front of all of these other missionaries who have so much experience. They also know Spanish. I have only been in the field for a month and  still  hardly speak the language. When I was finally called up, I got lucky, the zone leader likes me so he gave me an easy one. Reading the scriptures, I nailed it. I had a scripture ready to go I knew exactly what to do. It was sweet, obviously not perfect, but I got though it.  

HERMANA EULALIA

One of our investigators is a boy named Angel, he is 10 years old. He goes to church with his neighbors every Sunday and LOVES it. He reads his scriptures and has taken all the lessons.  Baptism is the final step. We had a lesson this week with him and asked him to say the closing prayer. It was short, sweet and to the point. All he said was Dear Heavenly Father please help me be able to be baptized, In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. That was it. He wants it so bad. However, because he is a child we have to have permission form his mom, Eulalia. This women is impossible to get a hold of. We met with her once last week, and then all of the sudden she disappeared! We knock on her door 3 to 5 times everyday and she is never home. Other people answer and say that she has just left, or wont be coming back. We are so frustrated and don't know if she is actually gone or if she is just avoiding from us.  I think the reason she is tentative about Angel being baptized is that she hasn't had any of the lessons herself, and doesn't know a lot about our church. ALL I WANT TO DO IS TEACH HER and shes never home. If she would just listen and learn I don't  think she would have any issues with Angel being baptized. but we can never find her. Hopefully we can make some progress with her this next week.  

LORENA THE ATHIEST

Lorena is the little sister of one of the menos activos she is probably the toughest investigator we have. She is 19, and has tons of tons of questions for us. Some of her questions are just flat out strange though. When we were taught about the fall of Adam, she was convinced that before Eve their was another women on the Earth with Adam, and had questions about that.  I've never heard of another woman before! She had deep questions about the old testament prophets and existence before this life? She has so many questions and just rapid fires them at us!  My feeling is that she needs to have faith that there is a God and find a way to feel the spirit. We gave her some homework. We asked her to read Alma 32 about faith and how it is compared to a seed. It was perfect for her. The next time we visited we explained that faith is believing in things that we cant see. A little demonstration helped illustrate the concept. We turned off all the lights and asked her if she had faith that we were still there. Lorena is definitely beginning to understand. She is one of my favorite investigators because she is a challenge. Most of the time people just accept what we say. But she is always question and desiring to know more. 

BAPTISM!

We had another baptism this week! Lydia was baptized she was so ready for it. The gospel has really helped her in her life! Next we are going to start teaching her daughter Stephanie. Stephanie is 11 but probably could be 17! If you have any good talks for young women send them to me in Spanish for her. She has had most of the lessons.

There is so much more I wish I could say but my time is up! Just know that I'm doing really well!

LOVE YOU ALL

Hermana Huish

Week #10

pday fun on the swings

Zone lunch

The cute guinea pigs at my Mamasitas house, I can't believe they eat these little puff balls.

Hola!

Hooray! I have this new keyboard called an Alpha smart. I use it like a weekly journal. I can type entries into it each day, save them and then email all the entries from the week during my hour of online time. So the format of my blog posts is going to change a little bit. They will be in dated journal type entries instead of one long letter. 

3.19.14

I have finally found my family!! Everywhere you go you need to make friends and have your own little family. When you are in high school and at home its your actual family and friends, at college its your roommates and all your new friends. Well on a mission its different because all you have is a companion who you may or may not get along with.  Lucky for me I have finally found a surrogate family here in Peru. Our Mamasita moved next door to us, so now we are literally in the same house just different rooms. Our Mamasita lives with her daughter Blanca who has three of her own daughters, ages 9 12 and 18.  I have really come to love them. We have breakfast and dinner every single day with them, and we join them for family home evening. Its has also been a special treat because their friend Reyna is one of our investigators.  We teach her lessons in their house, and watch gospel movies together and eat popcorn. They are so kind and love us so much, they truly are my family here in Peru. The other day for family home evening, it was our mamasita´s friend's birthday. All her adorable friends came over to celebrate. Me and Hermana O shared a message, and then just enjoyed a really good dinner. It was so much fun I was just imagining our relief society back home getting together for lunch to celebrate someones birthday, and its just the same here in Peru, tons of ladies getting together. The youngest daughter Mariciello LOVES me. She brings me brownies and paints me pictures. Their oldest daughter who is 18 sometimes comes with us to teach investigators. She says that she wants to serve a mission but she has a boyfriend now, and it seems like its getting pretty serious! She  always tells us about how they are doing. I really feel like I belong here now. 

3.20.14 

!EMERGENCIA!

So about 2 hours after I wrote the entry from above we received a call from our Zone leaders. They said Hermana Huish pack your bags, you have an hour to get to the district office we are having emergency transfers. YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME! I was warned before I came out that as soon as you start to get comfortable and love where you are everything is changed, that is soooo true. At first I was confused and didn't believe it, once I started packing my bags I was so sad. Why is this happening I thought?  I finally felt like I belonged and  I was just starting to adjust!  I had no choice, so I packed in a half hour and got to the district offices. Now I know why they tell you to only bring two suitcases If I had any more bags I don't think we could have fit in the taxi! I found out at the offices that we were having transfers because we were receiving missionaries from Venezuela. There is a war in Venezuela right now so all the missionaries who are not native are being sent out of the country. 

3.21.14

My New Life!

I have a new companion, and a new area, basically new everything. My companion is Mexican but she is from Anaheim California! She speaks English and Spanish. This is a blessing and a curse because now I can communicate with my companion but it will take me longer to learn Spanish because I am not forced to speak it. Fortunately, Hermana Cadenas has promised to help me with Spanish.  She was baptized when she was 17 and is now serving a mission, which is awesome! Yesterday we had tons of lessons to teach so I was able to see her in action and get a pulse on how she works. She has so much love for the people, and really focuses on the individual and what they need to hear. I love it! That's how all missionaries should be. I'm really excited to have the opportunity to work with her. She is supper chill which is also a good fit for me and even though I miss my old family back in Retablo hopefully I'll be able to adjust soon to my new area and find a family here.

3.22.14

So its only been a couple days but It seems like it is so much easier to adjust the second time around. I'm really loving our zone. I'm finally moved in. I GOT the EASTER package and I loved it. When I put on the socks it felt like heaven on my feet. Man did I miss wearing socks. I loved  the inspirational quotes. They are hanging all around our room. I also really loved the picture of our family with all the hidden messages. (Thanks Dad) Our new mamasita is awesome. She makes us eggs and fruit which is perfect! She also has two huge cages of guinea pigs): I hope I'm not here for the day when she feeds us  guinea pigs! They are so cute how could I eat them?

3.24. Every Sunday we have to turn in numbers for our goals. I was so proud of our work this week, we reached so many of our goals! We taught all the lessons and had 100 contacts! We were on fire this week. Now we just have to get baptismal dates set for all of our people. But if we are working this hard I have faith that they will come. My goal about opening my mouth is coming along really nicely! I feel more comfortable teaching lessons with Hermana Cadenas, she actually allows me to participate. Its SOO MUCH BETTER than before. We are a DREAM TEAM. We just ping pong back and forth we have tons of scriptures to share, its great and I love it! Believe it or not, but I'm at a point where I could probably get through a whole lesson in Spanish! For the most part I understand what people are talking about in the lessons because that's what I study all day. However its still really difficult to understand people when they talk about things not related to the gospel. Its really the gift of tongues because I understand when the spirit is in our lessons and I can say what needs to be said! Its awesome!

Little fun fact about how my mission is changing me already. I am now a MORNING PERSON! I don't think my family will believe me. But I wake up at 5:55 everyday, 5 minutes before my alarm, and can't wait for the day to get started. This is so unlike me. Normally I am mean and groggy in the morning, but now I'm up right away! Don't worry, I'm still the same old me but just new and improved! 

Week #9

Hola Everyone!!
My companion and I didn't really have a p-day (day off) this week, but we did go to lunch with our zone at Mega Plaza which is a giant mall that feels like America! It was awesome! We ate at Chilis in the AC and then I got a giant Oreo sundae that was beyond amazing. Its funny how missionaries appreciate little things like ice cream from Chilis. When your eating rice and beans 24/7 food from a restaurant like Chilis is a luxury. Then me and my comp left early to attend all of our citas (meetings with investigators). As much as I kind of wanted to stay at Mega Plaza I knew that it was the right thing to go to our citas. I would have to say it was worth it to go. Paulo accepted to be baptized on the 15th! On a daily basis we have about 5ish lessons.  Today we actually had 8. My favorite part of the day though was spending the evening with our mamasitas family. We watched Only a Stonecutter and she made us kettle corn. The popcorn in Peru for some reason is ten times better than in the states! Its not greasy and buttery but it still has a butter taste. It's soo good. We then went home only to find out that we were locked out of our room! Ohh shoot! The land lady wasn't home, so we had to break into our own house! It was hilarious. Our back window lines up with our mamasitas kitchen window, so I crawled out through our mamsitas window scaled the roof below us and climbed in through our bedroom window. They all thought I was crazy, but hey it worked! Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not afraid of a little challenge.

 

Okay so my spiritual awakening this week was that I need to learn how to open my mouth. In my last blog I complained a lot about the language barrier and its true its been really tough.  I feel like I can't be myself, and communication is so important to get to know people and build relationships.  I've never been one who is afraid to talk, but it can be intimidating to speak in a different language. We have been visiting a Mother named G. She has two children and a husband. She is really interested in repenting and getting married. (A lot of the people here live with their husbands, but never get married because it costs too much money.) Well anyways we were teaching a lesson on repentance, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and baptism. Before the lesson started I said a quiet little prayer  that I would be directed by the spirit to know what to say. Even though I honestly couldn't really follow the conversation,  I actually received specific promptings of what I should say. Unfortunately, I ignored all the prompting because I was too nervous to open my mouth and  didn't want to completely change the topic if I was wrong.  A few seconds after I received these promptings my companion would say exactly what I was prompted to say. Then I would think to myself DARN I wish I would just had the courage to open my mouth. At the end of the lesson I thought ohh the plan of salvation pamphlet will be perfect for the next lesson, but again before I could open my mouth my companion whipped out the restoration pamphlet. BUT G started asking questions about what happens to us after death, so now we will have to explain that in a different lesson because I didn't follow the promptings I received. Its hard to explain what these promoptings felt like, but the best way I can write it in words is that  I could hear the words being whispered in my ear! Later in my personal study I read 2 Nephi 32-33. It was basically a scolding for not saying what I felt I should say. ("Do you not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tounge of angels_ And now, how could ye speak with the the toungue of angels save it be by the Holy Ghost") Obviously speaking is a challenge and a weakness for me right now because I literally don't know the words to say but i take courage from the words in Nephi 33:4, "And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. AND the WORDS which I have written in WEAKNESS will be made STRONG unto them for it persuadeth them to do good, it maketh known unto them of the fathers and it speaketh of Jesus and persuadeth them to believe in him, and endure to the end, which is eternal life."  Nephi a problem similar to mine. His writing is weak like my Spanish, but it doesn't matter because the words testify of Christ. The rest of the week I continued to learn about opening my mouth and following the promptings of the holy spirit. We had a conference with Elder Waddle a member of the 70, and he said that the whole purpose of the conference was to know how to listen and follow the spirit. Then again later this week I was assigned to read chapter 9 in Preach my Gospel for my training and there were two entire sections on the importance of opening your mouth, and tons of scriptures to back it up. So now after all of these things, personal study, conference, and preach my gospel I think its pretty clear that I need to learn how to open my mouth and not be afraid that I don't know the language. This week im going to work on OPENING MY MOUTH. 

This week I was also able to see how the lord prepares the people you teach. Our investigator, G, has been having troubles with her husband. She has two kids one doesn't belong to her husband and the other one is special needs. G has given up everything for her children, but her husband hasn't done the same. Her husband was unwilling to pay for her first child's schooling, and would refuse to play with the kids. G has been looking for a way that she could help her family and fix the problems with her spouse. The Jehovahs witnesses came to her door, but never came back, she looked up psychological studies and everything. Then finally we show up! We taught her that families can be together forever, and how to pray. We told her that she can ask God for help with anything. In the next visit she explained to us that she prayed sincerely about the problems with her family and God answered her. Out of nowhere her husband was willing to pay for the education of the first child, and out of nowhere after work one day he actually played with the kids. It was a miracle! I cant wait to continue to teach G about the miracles of the Gospel. I know that it will bring her a lot of happiness.

I also had my first baptism this week! It was sweet it showed me how worth it this work can be!

 

Its true that companions can be tough. At first I  thought that Hermana Olaechea would be perfect. She was the head sister leader and speaks pretty decent English! What more could I ask for right? Well we have had problems. In the first two weeks she expected me to know everything and to do everything perfectly, and I had  absolutely no idea what was even going on! We got into some fights that were pretty bad. Then we finally decided that we should probably have an intervention. We  met with the zone leaders and received a blessing  to help us work through our problems. Now I think things are going to get better. I've been working really hard on humility and distracting myself. When we are walking between lessons its hard because we don't talk to each other and my thoughts drift to home. I really do think the blessing along with fervent prayer have helped though because I am getting less homesick now, and things are starting to make sense. 

This has truly been the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Everything that is familiar has been stripped away. I feel like I've lost my family, my ability to communicate and love others, my warm house, and  I feel like I've even lost myself to some degree. But despite all of these things I know that I will always have my Heavenly Father. Even though a mission is difficult, it is only really hard for a small amount of time. Soon enough I'll pick up the language, and soon enough I'll be able to make friends that will feel like family. Until then perseverance is the key. 

 

Here are some of my favorite quotes for my mission so far:

"I didn't say it would be easy, I said it would be worth it."

I love this quote because this is not easy AT ALL! I'm really struggling over here, but I know that in the end it will be worth it. I know that I will be a better person and I know that I will bless the lives of so many people

Another quote that I like is 

"God will never give us something that we cant handle." 

I've thought about the chance to come home. I've thought that oh maybe this mission isn't actually for me, its too hard. But God will never give us something that we cant handle. I know that I can do this. 

Thank you for all your prayers, emails and support! It means so much to know that you are thinking of me. I love you all!

 

Hermana Huish

Week 8

Peace like a river!

Me and my comp

P-day fun

Last day at the CCM

Hola Amigos!

LANGUAGE BARRIER PROBS!

1. I have to carry around two sets of scriptures. The bible is heavy enough and with a new language i carry around the Bible and Libro de Mormon and i carry around a Book of Mormon. On top of that i carry a dictionary. All those books add up and  my little bag is HEAVY! haha Also in lessons when i want to find a scripture sometimes i have to look for it in the English BOM then the Spanish BOM and by that time the scripture wouldn't even be relevant any more. However I started reading the BOM in Spanish and my goal is to finish the whole thing soon. It was promised that if you read the BOM in a different langauge all the way through you will be fluent in that language! So im starting and even though I don't know every word, i understand the main concepts. 

2. Names and Directions: When I ask some one for their name it literally comes out like "BLEHH". I dont know why names are so hard to understand and write down. But i literally have to ask 3 or four times to finally get the correct name down. And forget about spelling there is no way. I just make up the spelling for most of the names, i spell it how i would pronounce it so when I talk to my comp in planning i can say it right. And directions aqui aya atrac espalda! I tried explaining where the church was to someone and it took about 15 minutes because its so difficult to explain.

3. TALKS: Now that i have to write talks in Spanish i could write hour long talks in English all day long! Its so much harder to write in Spanish. I was called to speak in church on Sunday and didn't know until Saturday night after planning! OMG i was freaking out. Its was only about 8 minutes or so, ont the importance of the Book of Mormon. It actually turned out pretty well considering the prep time!

4. Jokes: So during lessons or lunch with the members every one will be talking and someone will make a joke and everyone will laugh..... except me because I didn't understand the joke, so I just look like a fool. And then after everyone is done laughing i have to ask my companion to repeat it. It's very humbling to not be able understand people and  I hate missing out on anything funny (: Most of the time i just pretend i understand and laugh along with them.

5. Zoning out: This is probably one of my biggest problems, zoning out. I can understand lessons decently because i know all the gospel slang in Spanish because that is what i was taught in the CCM, but when people start talking about other things I just zone out. Haha one time this week i was doodling in my agenda and my doodle looked like a sin and cos graph so then i started write the unit circle in calculus. Definitely, zoning out is a huge problem because i want to contribute to conversations and understand but its just going to take time. Pray for me to understand the language. My companion is patient and for the most part has me explain pamphlets, and bear my testimony because that is easy.

As far as health in the mission we are very open about everything that goes on with the body. Pretty much you just go back and forth between letting everything go, and not being able to go. I couldn't tell you which is better because they both are pretty awful.

This week i had to go back to immigration and I FINALLY GOT MY VISA! YAAY praise the Lord! Immigrations was actually pretty fun this time i was able to see my old companion and elder sitton and elder jones! It was really fun to hear their experiences. After immigration's we got to go to the mall for lunch!! It was sweet because it was like being back in AMERICA! I found a Starbucks and there was AC, it was magnificent! 

Some other quirks about being on a mission. Songs you didnt like before... now you love them! If I hear a song I know i jsut go crazy even if i dont like it! 

Missionaries are easily entertained and find joy in the oddest things. For example, last week for p-day we traveled an hour into the mountains to go to a river! Everyone was so excited to see a RIVER! it wasnt even that pretty it had some trash and stuff but jsut because it was a RIVER and we havnt seen a river in a while it was AMAZING! 

For anyone that follow my blog please send me emails about yourself! How your doing? Or how you see God play a role in your life! I would love to hear what's going on back home. 

See you next summer,

Hermana Huish

Week #7

Our transportation

my companion Sister Oleachea, me, sister Cunningham and  her companion! 

I'm on the top bunk

The best addition to our cuarto! HOT WATER! before we got this nifty little gadget the water was icey cold and it was just a little drizzle.Like the kind of cold that you cant breathe in!  But with this new shin dig we have water pressure and its hot hot hot! yayayayayyaya 

IM IN THE FIELD!

I think the three words to describe my first week in the field are long, confusing, and sweet.

We left the MTC bright and early on Tuesday morning, President Erickson came to pick us all up. We got to the Missionary Office and had tons of orientation, all in Spanish. So in the MTC I thought that I could somewhat understand Spanish but it was just because all the people there knew to talk very slowly to us. I honestly dont understand anything. After tons of orientation we got our new COMANIONS!

My companion is Sister Oleachea. She is from Lima south but has been living in Argentina for the past 8 years. Shes 22 and very nice. She is the head of the sister leaders so I basically got paired with the best trainer in the field. She has trained about 4 other north Americans because shes been in the field for 11 months, and understands a lot of English! Even though she knows some English its really hard for us to communicate. I've been struggling with being myself around her because I cant really talk to her.... but hopefully I figure out a way to get to know her better and show that I love her through other things besides talking. 

After we got our companions we were basically on our own. I had no clue what we were doing but hopped in a taxi with Sister Oleachea and two other elders who helped us find our apartment. Ohh boyyy our apartment!

So when we first got there it was basically a room with some wood, two mattresses on the floor, and a dirty bathroom. I was so confused nothing was put together. But some more elders came to help us get everything sorted out. We put together a bunk bed, desks, and chairs. No AC, no fridge, no warm water, no kitchen and no telephone. We were roughin it. But after a lot of work it actually looks like an apartment that people can live in, actually more like a dorm room. I wish I had picture of the before shot because it was ridiculous. I'll send some pictures after we put everything together and CLEANED.  Now its pretty sweet. A couple days of cold showers wasn't tooo too bad, later the elders came and installed a hot water shin dig so I'm sooo so grateful. We also got a mini fridge which is luxury! But it was hard for us to haul it up the little stair case. Overall I think its sweet to have to live with hardly anything. Anything extra we get like a fridge or hot water is just the best thing in the world! So I've been fine with it!  I'm in South America living in a ghetto apartment, I don't know the language, and I'm still alive, that's kind of awesome (:!

We have a pencinista who cooks for us, Rosa. She is wonderful! She understands that we cant eat a lot, and gives us tons of fruit and yogurt. Sometimes we get weird things like hamburgers for breakfast... whats up with that??  Most of the time we have tostados with avocado or jam, so that's good. Dinner at members house['s has been kind of tough, but I just tell them I cant eat a lot. No puedo comer mucho! They think I'm weird that I don't eat a lot but oh well I just cant. Sometimes my companion will get mad at me for not finishing my plate, so i'll just give it to her and she will eat it, then shes fine. I think I have actually lost weight while being in the field which is rare because most people gain a lot!!! Its funny you can tell who has been on their mission for a long time because they are nice and round.  Oh its also rare that I haven't gotten sick yet! Most people get diarrhea their first week in the field but not mehh, thank goodness, (sorry if that's TMI.) I'm sticking to the bottled water! Most of the time my companion and I don't even eat dinner because we want the time to go proselyting. So we just skip dinner at 5 and go to Rosa's house around 9 to get a little snack before bed. Not to toot my own horn but we are hard workers.

Both of us are new to the area so the first week has been a lot of getting lost which is frustrating. We don't have a cell phone so we have to rely on the map which is wrong most of the time. We spend lost of time walking, and walking, and walking. Saturday night was the worst. We were trying to find a house and we walked all the way to the limit of our area and then walked in circles, for literally hours. Then finally when we asked someone for directions they said we needed to get out of there because apparently some one was just murdered!!! scaryyy!!!!! We ran back home. I was so tired by the end of the day that I literally just fell into bed. 

The people in Lima  are so open to talking about God, I love it.  Our lessons can last for hours, and when we are contacting, people are genuinely willing to listen. They also have really thoughtful questions for us. One of the families we are teaching are the A's.  The parents are inactive but we are trying to get them back to church and baptize three of their kids, Valentine, Fabian and Gabriel. They all love me so much! They call me Barbie which is pretty funny. Whenever we walk past their street they'll come out and give me kisses on my cheek. I taught them the little boom snap clap thing and they thought it was the coolest ever. I like talking to kids because i'ts much easier, 

This fast sunday I bore my testimony in church. I think it was okay. Elder Lee (our district leader who is North American and has been on his mission for 17 months) said that I only made 3 minor mistakes which is good, but I also had everything written down. The ward and the members are awesome! I love them all!

This week was the first time that I got really homesick. While I was  in the CCM my district was my family and I could get help for any one of them, but now its just me and my companion. I couldn't be homesick for long though because we are so busy! 

Well, its time for me to go! We are going to play soccer and go on a picnic with our zone for p day.

I love you guys so much!

I'm doing so great and there is no need to worry.

See you next summer,

Hermana Huish