Tut Tut, Looks Like Rain

The rainy season in Cusco is definitely starting! It rained pretty much every day this week. And when it rains, it RAINS. We had some fun running through street rivers. Kinda fun I guess :)

On that note, I have a fun little story about that family that I told you about last week. We had a ward Christmas party on Friday, so we invited them to come. They were SO excited! We got there about ten minutes late to pick them up because we had to run home to switch into rain boots and grab some jackets. Regardless of the pouring rain, the two little kids were outside waiting for us (and we got a nice mouthful from the five year old about why we were late... she´s the one in the umbrella picture with Hna Hill). It´s SO HARD to get people to come to things when it´s raining or cold.  But they were excited and ready to go. It was a super fun night with them! I stand by what I said last week. I love them so much already!!! 

They are definitely our highlight right now.Them and Carol (the lady in the picture by the tree with the blue door behind us). We found her a couple of weeks ago, and she is literally one of the most incredible people I know. She has a super hard life. She´s been inactive in the church for a couple of years, but she´s so prepared to come back. Every time we go by and visit her we´re probably learning more from her than she is from us. She ALWAYS has new references for us and is always trying to do things for us. I love her so much. Just a very good, strong person.

Maybe this took me too long, but I'm starting to love Cusco. I always liked Cusco, but I´m getting to the point where thinking about leaving makes me sad. The same as it was in Puerto. I´m so happy that I have at least one more "for sure" change here while we finish Hna Hill´s training. After that, I don´t want to think about.

I´ll save the rest for Thursday!!! Doesn´t feel like Christmas at all!! It´s hot. There are very little signs of Christmas around here (like trees and presents, etc.). But I´m stoked for Thursday!

Can´t wait to see you! Love you all. 

Have a great Christmas week! FELIZ NAVIDAD!

xoxo,

Amie

Tut tut, looks like rain

My favorite little girl, Misleny

This is Carol.  She's a less active member that we recently started working with.  She is an INCREDIBLE woman!

Erick and Carol

Christmas panatone . . . ps I hate panatone . . .

Sometimes we're stuck inside all day so we have dance parties.

Good Week

Here we go again. The weeks are starting to get better and better. Hna Hill is doing SO GOOD! I´m so proud of her. She´s started taking the lead on contacting people and really talking during our lessons. She´s super hard on herself and her Spanish, but I think she's doing awesome! I´m so happy I got her as my hija. I´m convinced she´s the best one of this group that just came in. I´m so excited for the next 10 weeks (at least) with her! It´s gonna be good . . . even though she makes fun of me because I like to dance and sing around the room when she´s trying to wake up and I can´t speak English anymore... esta bien :)

The biggest news for this week, we found two new families that we´re teaching!!!! One of them is a reference from a less active member- her daughter and her family. Super cute. The husband is a little reluctant but once we become friends I have good hopes for them.

The other family is already INCREDIBLE. We contacted them in the street on Saturday and taught our first lesson with them yesterday. He kept telling us stories about investigating other churches but just feeling like SOMETHING was missing. Since we talked to them in the street he´s just felt so good and ready to listen. Their names are Jorge and Gloria. They have four kids TOGETHER, they are already married, they´re super cute and just completely ready to hear the gospel in every way. We left the lesson last night and Hna Hill and I both just wanted to cry we were so happy! Needless to say, we´re pretty stoked about them.

There are lots of hard and disappointing things about being on a mission. It´s incredible how just one person or one experience can make it the most incredible thing in the world though. After however many weeks of people and goals falling through, just one family has made Cusco the best 14 weeks that I´ve had yet. I love it so much. The gospel is true, and the Lord really is preparing people for us to teach.

Also, Emery´s birthday pictures are SO cute! I miss that little bug. Sounds like everything´s going well there at home. Give everyone a hug for me. Tell Sam hello and welcome home. Can´t believe it´s already been two years . . . More motivation to work harder now!

Love you all! Have a great week before Christmas!
xoxo,
Amie

Rosa and her family, her son, Gustavo - aka - my BFF

Being a Mom is Hard

Oh man, what a week. First and formost, I met my HIJA! Her name is Hna Hill. She´s super cute! The first week is always rough on new missionaries, but I can see a lot of potential in her. Training is a lot harder than I ever expected it to be, especially with someone who doesn´t already speak Spanish . . . but I´m hoping I can help her through her training and avoid the expiriences that I had to go through with my "mom"  so that she can feel happy and helpful. I remember feeling completely useless my first couple months, so I really want to help her avoid that. She really is great so I´m not too worried about anything at this point. I´ve probably learned more from teaching her this week than she´s learned from me. Funny how that works.

Believe it or not, this was a really slow week. We only got to work for two days because of trainings that we had to go to, the mission Christmas party, and . . . me being sick in bed. Don´t worry. I´m fine now. Our pensionista is the best and waited on me hand and foot. Soup and everything. That also means that we missed the Christmas devotional tho :( I´m hoping I can get permision to watch it later this week.

Also, I got my Christmas package!!! I may or may not have accidently opened the stocking . . . not my fault, there were pastacios (I think that´s how you spell it*) falling out all over the place. But the other things are still wrapped and I PROMISE I´m not going to open them until Christmas. Or at least I´ll try my hardest . . .

Love you all! Enjoy the cold in Idaho. I´m really missing it right now. 

xoxo,

Amie

P.S. 17 days until Christmas!!!

* the Christmas stocking had pistachios in it . . . helps to have spell check in English :)

My hija!!

First day contacting in the plaza.

Christmas party - We wrap presents really well . . .

IT'S A GIRL!

Merry Christmas to me!!!!! I´m getting an hija (daughter) this transfer! Aka, I´m training! Hna Camacho and Hna Sanchez are leaving (a little sad, but oh well) and I meet my newbie on Wednesday. Gringa?  Latina? I have no idea. But I´m STOKED!! I´ve wanted to train for a while now. I´m sure I´ll have lots more to tell you next week when I know who she is :)

Oh man. I´m happy.

Not just for training. This was an AWESOME week. We had our splits with the sister leaders on Tuesday. Always fun. I love working with Hna Chipunavi! I got to leave and work with her in her sector because they´re super close. I thought my ward was run down and impoverished, but I had my eyes opened again this week. We were literally walking on dirt roads, thru factories and brick mines and things like that all day. It still amazes me how happy the people with the gospel are even though they have close to nothing. It´s a lot easier to recognize here than in the states. Nobody has all the fancy things that we have back home. The ones that don´t have the gospel seem stressed and sad a lot of the time. But the people with the gospel, I don´t know, they´re just happier. Their lives are still very hard, but they have that peace that the others are lacking. Cool to see first hand.

In other news, we have a new family that we´re working with! Erick and Carol and their little boy Pablo. I should probably be used to it by now, but it still amazes me how the Lord prepares people for us to teach. No conversion is easy (for them or the missionaries), but with them, and others like them, you can just tell that they´re ready to change their lives. More about them coming soon.

Ahh, I have so many great stories from this week! Less active members finally coming back, or at least starting to after two months of visiting them. Funny stories with companions and the other hermanas in the apartment. Everything this week was just good!

Also, I got two of the packages!!!! The music and the brownie mix (ps, yall are the best). I may or may not have danced a little bit in the mission office when the elders gave them to me. Thanks :)

Say hello to everybody for me! Sounds like Thanksgiving was great and everyone´s happy. So that makes me happy :)

Love you all!

Hna Chipunavi

Service with Zoraida

I love these girls! But they're crazy!!

It was her birthday!! I didn't know, so I wasn't prepared.  The bread and noodles were my make-shift cake with candles :)

This is a family that I found and was working with for about a month.  They don't live in my sector so the other hermanas started teaching them.  They just got baptized!!

Moving Trucks and Bucket Showers

What a week. No hot water. No gas to cook food. No elders to help move a family. But one of the best weeks we´ve had in a while!

Started with our conference with Elder Evans. He talked about a lot of really cool things, but the focus was a lot about finding new people. Working with members, contacting on the street, and the real "how to" for all of hit. We put it to the test this week, and I gotta say, those general authorities know what they´re talking about. 

Usually contacting and following through goes something like this:

// Meet on the street and talk for about 2 minutes about who we are and ask if we can come by and teach them and their family sometime.

// They say yest, we get their info, make a cita and call it good.

// Call ahead and stop by the day of the cita. 90% of the time they´re not there and we can never find them again...

This week changed tho. The first process is about the same, just a little bit more directed to every single person personally. Can´t say that the success rate is up to 100%, but it´s definitely better! We are teaching 2 new families and 2 other people from contacting alone this week. And they seem pretty solid. I´m excited to see what happens with them!

All in all, it was a great week. This week taught the most lessons since I´ve been here. I LOVE working with Hna Sanchez. She´s an amazing teacher and we have a lot of fun together! I have to stop talking every now and then because I give her athsma attacks from laughing so hard... Don´t know if I´d say that´s a good thing or a bad thing. But the point is that I love every moment with her. I´m a little nervous that they´ll take one of us out next week. Fingers crossed for no :)

Really there´s nothing huge to report. Just that I´m happy and working :)

Love you all! 

xoxo,

Amie

P.S. I finished the Book of Mormon this week!!!! Lo maximo.

CCM or MTC reunion

Hna Condie & Hna Sanchez 

(*she didn't title the pictures this week so I'm guessing)

old fashioned floor waxing?

(I remember from my mission)

Meet Victor

My focus for this week´s letter is a man named Victor. He´s a member in our ward. He got baptized about 2 years ago, and he is incredible!! 

He can barely walk, but he never makes that an excuse to not go to church. 

He can´t see out of one eye, but he still loves to read the scriptures and never misses a day. 

He loves to joke and laugh and he makes everybody around him happy even though his life is one of the hardest I´ve seen. 

He´s really lonely and rejected by a lot of people, but he´s so happy because he knows that the gospel is true and he´s so grateful to have it in his life now. We got to visit him a couple times this week, and every time I´m just in awe about how much I can learn from him. 

We read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him during one of our visits because he said he was having trouble understanding it. So we read, and every single verse he stopped us and expained what he understood and asked us to help him understand more. The funny part is that he probably taught us more about this chapter than we did for him. 

And he´s a funny guy! Every time he talks I can´t help but just smile. I asked him if we could take this picture together so that I could show all my friends and family who is was. His immediate response was, "please, you just want everyone in the United States to know how handsome your friend Victor is!" After laughing and telling him to smile big and with teeth for the picture, he told me that that would be impossible because he lost all of his teeth several years ago. Laughing the whole time. I love him so much. Whenever I need a good pick me up I try to go stop by his house. 

Another random little side note, when I wouldn´t tell him what my first name was he just shrugged it off and told me that from now on I would be known as Margarot. So, every time I see him now he calls me Margarot, not Hermana Condie. It´s cool.

So that´s Victor. My new BFF.

This was a great week! 

Hna Sanchez got the green light to work again so we´ve been out all day every day and working hard! Somehow, NOBODY was home for basically the entire week. So we didn´t get a whole lot of teaching in. But it still felt SO good to be out and working with a real companion again! It makes me kind of sad that in two weeks we might change. Hoping that I can have at least one full change with Hna Sanchez. She´s a pretty incredible missionary. One of the strongest people I know. Phyisically, emotionaly, spiritually. All of the above. It´s been great :)

Also, tomorrow we have a huge conference with almost all the missionaries in the whole mission with Elder Evans from the 70! I´m pretty stoked!!!

Love you all. Have another great week in Blackfoot! Sounds like you´re all loving it :)

xoxo,

Amie

P.S. How´s everybody doing on the Book of Mormon challenge?? Been a while since I´ve asked.

This is Victor

TBT to my favorite Peruvian child in the whole world!

Night out!

Feed My Sheep

Yesterday there was a little bit of a mixup. Hna Ostler, Hna Valverde and I went to Raqchi yesterday (more stories to come) and when we got back home we couldn´t find an open internet place. But we got permission to write today :) Better late than never! Also, sorry all of my pictures are from Pday basically. I didn´t really use my camera this week...

So I´ll start there I guess. Raqchi is an old town/ruins by Sicuani. It´s said that a white god came to visit the people there and taught them about how to love and the gospel and things like that. On the bus ride over (about two and a half hours) I was reading in 3 Nephi (just so happens that that´s where I´m at right now). It was really cool to be reading about Christ being in the Americas, teaching the people, and then visiting a place like that. Some might say just another ruin, but I thought it was pretty incredible. And it´s incredibly beautiful! Definitely one of the places we´ll go back to if we ever come down here all together!

Other news for the week, Hna Ostler and Hna Valverde were traveling for their sister leader visits, so I was either with members or in the house all week. Not too bad though. I had to go to the doctor´s office with Hna Sanchez and Hna Camacho a couple times. I was in kind of a bad mood during one of the visits with the doctor. I don´t think he noticed, but the first thing he said to me when we walked in was, "Hna Condie! It´s been a while! What was the miracle you saw today??" It caught me off guard a little bit, but definitely put things back in perspective. Even though I was stuck in the hospital and not working, I realized that we had seen miracles that day. We found a member who´s been inactive for over 10 years. All of our planned appointments were there that day. And many more. Grateful for people who help me put my attitude back in place!

This is more just food for thought, but I read the "What Manner of Men" talk from the April Priesthood session this week. I love it so much!!!! It was directed to the men and the priesthood, but I think you can take it with any aspect of the gospel really. The knowledge and blessings that we have are incredible, and are we living up to the potential that we have?? So many good things in this talk. So you should all read it! It´s definitely a new favorite :)

What Manner of Men? - Donald L. Hallstrom

I love you! Have a fantastic week.

xoxo,

Amie

Feed My Sheep

One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen!

Best I could do from far away with this camera

I wanted the man and his reflection.

No crutches!

Happy Halloween!

I have a confession. I have a sort of weakness for little Peruvian children in Halloween costumes. I don`t know why, but they`re so much cuter!! Halloween was a normal working day, but it was fun to see everybody out trick or treating.

Dia de los Muertos was terrible. We couldn`t talk to hardly anyone because EVERYBODY was out at the cemetery. But it`s fine. Everything`s back to normal now :)

I have a couple funny stories from the week, but I`ll start with the missionary/spiritual story. 

We contacted a family in the street the other day and started talking for a little bit. Not a whole lot, but a good 5-10 minutes. They have a family member in the hospital because he got burned really bad and had to get his arm and leg amputated. Obviously not in a good condition. So we told them that we would stop by the next day to meet him and talk to all of them. So, that`s what we did. And it was incredible. He was in the same room as another old man and a little kid, and all of them were just so happy that we were there. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement, and you could just see all their faces light up. It was one of the most humbling and touching lessons that I`ve had my whole mission. We`re going back later this week to check up on them. And I`m pretty excited!

Another small expirience. We were walking though the street the other day and I was feeling a little bummed because none of our investigators are progessing. I was saying a little prayer in my head and asking Heavenly Father to send us somebody who was prepared and ready to listen to us. Literally in that exact moment a man stopped us and starting talking to us and asked if we could come visit him and his family. They left the next day for a trip, so we haven`t been able to talk to them yet (we have an appointment for this week tho), but I don`t know who`s more excited for us to come, him or us. Prayer is real and God listens and answers.

Alright. So you know how I told you my Spanish was getting better last week?? Well, I was working with a member this week and then went over to their house for dinner. We were talking about our favorite desserts, and I was trying to explain to them what brownies are because they`ve never had them. I had a little Spanglish moment and accidently said that they are like "cacitas" (like cake-itas - little cakes) instead of tortitas. Well, that means little poops. Not little cakes. They all got a pretty good laugh out of that one.

One more. We like to scare each other in our apartment. I was waiting outside the bathroom door for Hna Sanchez and scared her REAL GOOD. Probably one of the best scares I`ve ever done. Good enough for her to slam the door in my face and give me a little black eye. Not too bad, but it hurts really bad. We all started laughing pretty hard. What I didn`t know was that she had asthma. I may or may not have given her an asthma attack between being scared so badly and laughing so hard at me cradling my face... It`s ok. She`s fine now.

I`m glad everything is going so well! Love you all! 

Send pictures!

Love you.

Hna Condie

Pday in the plaza

First day with both of my companions!

 Pday in waterfall!

CUSCO IS BEAUTIFUL!

I taught them how to make a wish in a fountain :)

It's happened.

Once upon a time, I speak Spanish. Let me back up and explain.

So last Monday I found out that I didn´t have a change. I was a little bummed and caught by surprise, but it didn´t take me long to realize that I could sit and mope about it for 6 weeks or make the best of it and figure out what it is that the Lord and Prestident Harbertson want me to learn. And this week was actually a really good one! Our bishop kind of cracked down on the Relief Society and the leaders of our ward and told them to shape up and help me basically. I got to work for almost every single procelyting hour that we have!!

On Friday the daughter of Presidente Harbertson came and stayed with us. I got to work with her all day Saturday and for a couple hours on Sunday before she went home. She is INCREDIBLE and those were two of the best days that I´ve had on my mission. But, she doesn´t speak Spanish. So during the lessons I translated from English to Spanish and vice versa so that she could participate in the lessons. It was really, really cool. And obviously I didn´t just wake up and know Spanish this week, but I´m getting good enough that I don´t only understand, but I can translate! Not in a proud way, just an exciting feeling.

Also on that note, we got a call from our zone leaders last night saying that there was a medical training thing from the States going on and they didn´t have anybody to translate. So Hna Ostler, Hna Camacho and I got to go and help these doctors train some people down here! I realized that I know almost zero medical vocabulary, but it was a cool expiernece. Some of the doctors work in Blackfoot every now and then so maybe Dad will get to meet them. They´re sending you pictures :)

So yes, it was a good week. As far as investigators and people that we are working with, we´re starting to make some good progress with people. Still don´t have any huge news to report, but I´ll keep you updated!

I´m so happy to hear about Idaho and everything working out! I´ve heard good things about Blackfoot so I´m excited for y'all.

Love you all! Have a fantasic week! Sorry I didn´t send pictures. We came straight from the doctor training thing and I don´t have the stuff to upload my pictures.

xoxox

Hna Condie

More Parrots

This week was good. All things considered. Hna Ostler and Hna Valverde were gone all week for their leader visits, so I couldn´t work with them at all obviously. But, I did find a member almost every day. Tuesday and Wednesday I got to work full days with a girl named Carolay. She´s 18 and getting ready for her mission, so it was fun to talk to her and be a missionary with her. She´s incredible and is going to do great things in her mission! She´s already got that bold attitude that missionaries need, so it was a good two days.

Thursday I worked a little bit with the hermanas from the other ward because I couldn´t find anyone. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

Friday I got another member for half the day.

Saturday all of the girls that are going home tomorrow started coming in so I had a real missionary companion for TWO days. I forgot how wonderful it is to have a real companion, Hna Sheets. Even tho I guess she still wasn´t completely "my" companion, it was really, REALLY nice to have her there. Maybe she didn´t think so when we got stuck in a ompletely out of the blue hail storm (after it was blue and sunny 20 minutes before), but it´s fine. That´s Cusco for ya!

So, good week.

In other news, I´ve become known as the "mom" of the apartment because I´m always taking care of Hna Camacho and Hna Sanchez and cleanig everything up with the extra time I have at home. They call me Mama Condie instead of Hermana Condie right now. It´s cool I guess. It kind of scares me how right they are tho. You know how when you´re little and everyone tells you that someday you will start turning into your mom and you never believe them?? Welllll, that´s starting to come true. I´ve caught myself saying things like "leave this looking better than how you´ve found it" and "I don´t resond to whining." Yup, I´m slowing turning into my mother . . . Freaking me out!

Alrighty. Two stories from the week. Both from the same day.

I was out teaching with one of my members on Friday with a less active named Giovani. He got baptized at the beginning of this year, but started reading things on the internet that have him confused and doubting his testimony. He was telling me about how he still thinks the church is good and honorable, but just like every church, it has its mistakes and errors. I looked him straight in the eye and told him how I knew that this church was the exception, that there isn´t a single error, and I knew it without a single doubt. Or something like that. It was one of those moments that I wasn´t really the one talking. But he gave me a crazy look. Not a "you´re crazy" look, but a look that usually would make me feel stupid or small. But I felt so strong. It´s cool how that happens. I know it´s true and nothing they can say or do will ever make me doubt that.

After that lesson we were walking home. Angela was running late so she dropped me off and ran. I walked in the apartment and my companions weren´t there. So, I went down a floor to our pensionista like I usually do when they are still in thereapy, buuuuut she wasn´t there either. Haha, so I was alone for about 2 hours this week. It was so weird! But I got to talk to Hna Harberston for a solid hour and got some really good adive about what´s going on right now.So that was fun.

Also, today is TRANSFERS! The email still hasn´t come in so I STILL DON´T KNOW what´s going to happen to me!!! I´m only kind of dying. It´s fine. When the email comes in I´ll shoot another email telling yall what´s going on.

But for now, I love you all and I hope all is well.

Have a super duper week!

Chao!

This is my life so I had to send the opicture. In the hospital again. BUT, I was happy because I had a Nature Valley bar!

          Hiding from the hail in a random doorway.

Yep! There's parrots in Cusco too . . .

Pooped on Hna Ostler . . . 😉

Weirdest Week . . .

...of my life. We´re just gonna run through the days one by one here.

Monday: Machu Picchu!! Yeah, I know you already know, but worth saying again :)

After we got home it was a normal night until about 10:00. We got a call from the zone leaders saying that Hna Liza had a change to Sicuani. Spent the night packing frantickly so that she could leave in the morning.

Tuesday: Hna Liza left in the morning. I stayed home because Hna Camacho couldn´t walk and we couldn´t find two people to help us out. One to stay with her and one to come with me. We went on splits with the other hermanas in the apartment in the afternoon/night tho, so I got to work a little bit.

Wednesday: Because there were a ton of people at Machu Picchu on Monday and our district leader was sick on Tuesday, we had our district meeting in the morning. Normal. After, one of the members from the elders´ ward invited us to eat KFC for lunch!!! Woooo. So good. We were about to leave when Hna Ostler (the hermana leader that we live with) got a call from some other hermanas saying that one of them was having signs of a heart attack. So Hna Valverde (Hna Ostler´s companion) went with Hna Camacho to the hospital for her therapy while I went out and worked for about an hour with Hna Ostler, then we spent the rest of the day in the hospital with the other hermanas.

Thursday: Best day ever!!!! All the hermana leaders from the mission came to Cusco for their meeting with President on Friday. They didn´t have anything to do so I had a normal companion for the WHOLE day! Felt so good to work like normal without having to worry about picking anybody up or running to the hospital or anything.

Then, our companionship turned into a trio again. Another hermana from Puno fell in a whole and tore something in her leg. So she´s with us. Me and two cojitas (cripples). It´s great.

Friday: A lot likeTuesday. Half day with Hna Ponce (she also lives with us). Normal.

Saturday: LAME.  I was sick in bed all day.

Sunday: Also lame. Because of the elections we could only leave to appointments that were super secure. And if the people weren´t there we had to go straight back home. Also, for safety reasons we couldn´t wear our plaques and we had to go in p-day clothes. It was weird... None of my citas were there tho so I didn´t get to teach anyone...

So yeah. Close to 0 work done this week. With Hna Liza gone and Hna Camacho in bed all the time it feels like I´m half opening a sector without a secure companion or the time I need to do anything. 3 weeks with Hna Liza kind of helped me know the sector, but, yeah, we´ll see how this next week goes. 

Also, woke up at 3am again today so that we could go to Pisaq. INCREDIBLE. Pdays in Cusco are the coolest thing ever!

And yes, I heard about Gretchen's baby!!!!! Super stoked!!!! There´s tons of little Peruvian baby clothes and I´m tempted to buy ALL OF THEM! SO excited! 

I wish I had more exciting things to report, but really, nothing happened this week. Trying to be patient and understand what it is I´m suposed to be doing here exactly...

Last morning with Hna Liza

Working with Hna Wahlen

Mis cojitas 

working in pants

Pisaq

** editors note

1. Písac, Pisac, or P'isaq is a Peruvian village in the Sacred Valley on the Urubamba River. The village is well known for its market every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, an event which attracts heavy tourist traffic from nearby Cusco. Wikipedia

KUZCOTOPIA

AKA, Machu Picchu.

Yeah, forgot to tell you last week that I would be writing really late today because I was going to be at Machu Picchu all day! Pretty amazing. I´ve been up since 2am and I´m pretty pooped. But worth it. My dream of visiting since I was 5th in grade has been completed! 

Bullet points this week-

// Just so you know . . . on that note, I´m not receiving any of my mail that I´m expecting righ now :( esta bien.

// Hna Camacho started coming out with us. Can´t go all day still, but she has permission to work a little bit now. So that´s good.

// There was an earthquake this week! Nothing too too crazy. But it was definitely exciting from the top bunk.

// Hna Liza is learning English (one of the goals from the President and his wife for all the latinos). I taught her how to say "you´re the best," so she tells me that I´m the best all the time. I´m fine with it :)

// WEDDING AND BAPTISM!!

They did pretty much all the planning and we helped a little bit with decorations in the morning.  It was SO GOOD!!

My top 3 favorite things about Peruvian weddings:

1: They serve you a full on chicken and potatoe dinner without utinsels and everbody´s eating with fingers and it´s competely normal.

2. The stray dogs from the street walk in and steal food and people are ok with it.

3. Peruvians are very serious people for the most part. More so here than in Puerto.  But when they dance, they DANCE. And I love it!!! I´ve never laughed so hard or had so much fun in my life!! 

As for the baptism, it was beautiful! They all bore their testimonies afterwards and talked about how free and beautiful they felt. The youngest daughter (11 years old) talked about how she was excited to go the the temple now so that she could be with her family forever. I teared up pretty good. I´m so excited for this family!!

// One lesson that I want to talk about. We have a new invetigator named Luis. Really smart and loves to learn, but very science focused and hard to open up to God and just have faith rather than proof. We were trying to teach him a lesson the other day but not really getting anywhere. More fighting to get words in and not really helping him at all. I was getting frustrated and I could tell my companions were too. Finally we just let go and started listening (duh) and it turned into a really great lesson! It´s cool to me how the spirit will guide us if we´re just willing to sit back and listen. To the person we´re teaching and to the spirit. All the plans we had for the lesson were great, but not what he needed. Good lesson for me in really trusting in the spirit and not my own ideas or thoughts. He´ll never lead you in the wrong direction.

Good week overall :) Excited for conference!!!! There´s a law in Peru that we can´t watch original broadcasts or something like that, so we have to wait a week. Another law is that we can´t hold public meetings on election days (this Sunday) so we´re not having church this week :( but we´ll survive.

Love you all! Tell everyone hello for me!

Wedding

Baptism

Sometimes Hna Camacho walks while I ride in the wheelchair . . .

This is Giovani.  We play James Bond games together while we're waiting on people in the church. #bffs

Incredible!

That one day at Machu Picchu

Once upon a time I was this close to a real life Machupicchuian llama