Loving Peru!

Loving Peru!!

First, I'll answer Mom's questions.

1. We eat rice and chicken every single day. Meals with a little variety are the best things ever. Honestly the highlight of the cafeteria is when they pull out the self serve ice cream!  Overall its good. Minus the fact that it makes everybody a little bit sick . . . esta bueno.

2. I have three teachers. Two of them speak very little English, but the girl speaks fluently. She never speaks to us in English tho so it doesn't really matter. I only figured that out because she was trying to make one of the hermanas feel better, and that was difficult in Spanish. But I really like all of them. The language is coming along. It's hard, but Im trying.

3. We went out on Saturday and did real missionary work. They paired all the Noth Americans with a Latino and we just started walking the streets of a super poor neighborhood. It was incredible to see. Houses build out of literally nothing except sticks, fabric and cardboard. Some houses had only one room with a sheet separating the living\bedroom and the kitchen\bathroom. Not all of them were that bad, but it was crazy. It was so frustrating tho. I had so much that I wanted to say but I didnt know how to say any of it. I may or may not have broken down in tears in the middle of someones living room . . . But it was a cool experience. Terrifying. But cool.

4. They actually don't give us Spanish scriptures anymore! Everybody else had to buy some last week on pday. Dodged that bullet.

5. The singing was muy bien! I've actually done two more musical numbers since then. Its been fun!

What else? I already said this, but I'm serioulsy in love with my district. They're all so fun and we all work together so well. The advanced group and the Latinos left this morning, so we're all very excited to get new people in this week! Im excited to not be the babies anymore. But crazy to think that I'm now intermediate. Ahhhhh!!

Love you!! Tell everyone hello for me!

 Out and about in Lima 

 District 106  (Amie's training group)

 MIssionaries going to Cusco

 Lima Temple

The Cusco group again . . . and Amie being her happy self :)

Getting closer to Cusco . . .

Holy moly. Where do I even start?! How about the plane? First flight doesn't matter. But from Atlanta to Peru was pretty great! I met up with one other elder in the airport. He happens to be going to Cusco too, and he is in my disctrict at the MTC. He wasnt supposed to leave until Monday but the lady he talked to about his flight happened to be lds (a church member) so she worked really hard to get him a flight. I was definitely grateful for her because he was the only other missionary with me! I sat next to an Australian man during the flight. He was so cool! Mostly his accent, but in general too I guess. He knew everything about everywhere it seemed like. He loved having deep conversations even tho we had just met. I didnt mind. The more he talked the more I felt like I was sitting next to Hugh Jackman. But I said something about BYU and my mission and he commented about me being Mormon. Long story short, I basically ended up giving him the first lession in PMG (Preach My Gospel is the missionary manual/study guide). He's an athiest so it was super interesting. When I thought we were done talking about it and moved to a different subject he kept bringing it back up. So I gave him the cards that they sent with my itenerary. He gave me his business card so that it was even :)

Going from the airport to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) was pretty crazy. Thank goodness Elder Lundell was with me or I dont think I would have figured it out. But it ended up good. I thought I was going to die in the taxi. Speed limits and traffic lanes? Yeah, forget about it. My driver was going about 110km\h in a 60 zone. But it was difinetly exciting.

I LOVE my district and my companion! Her name is Hermana Child. She is hysterical!! Elder Lundell and I were the last people in our district to get there so everybody was super happy when we got there. Especially her apparently. I'll attach some pictures so you can see her.

We got to go to the temple today for pday. I'm not posititve, but I'm pretty sure that we get to go every week. It was cool tho. They ran out of headsets so I listened to the whole thing in Spanish. There were two ladies doing the last part, one in English and one in Spanish. I had to go to the one in Spanish. Surprisingly it wasn't that bad tho. Afterwards we went out to the markets. I was surprised, the store was basically Walmart. But even nicer. One story had the grocery store, the next had toileties. And ice cream :) Then clothing up top. I was impressed.

Overall everything has been good. Overwhelming, but good. Its hard to believe that Ive only been here for one full day. I've heard that the first week is the slowest but after that its better, once you get the hang of things a little bit more.

I wish that I had more to tell you right now. Im sure there is but this one hour thing is stressing me out so its hard to think of everything. Ive only had one day of events tho, so Im sure next weeks email will be more exciting! We do have a devotional tonight. One of the seventy will be there and my district is singing for it. Apparently practicing the first day was rough. So yesterday when we practiced they all kind of freaked out when I was singing. I thought it was funny.

Anyway, not much else to report other than going to class and studying. Spanish is super stressful, but I really like my teachers. So thats good.

Love you all! Keep me updated. Tell Micah my letter for him is P for Peru! :)

* Amie talks about the temple.  It's a treat to be close to one and attend every week.  Temples are special. They are more sacred buildings than our chapels.  To learn more about temples you can go to  http://www.lds.org/church/temples?lang=eng

Hermana Condie and Hermana Child

Hermana Crosby, Amie, Hermana Child, Hermana Essig

P-Day at the temple

Money and Magnet Snowman  :) 

Even If I'm Not...

Hi friends!

So for those of you reading this, you probably know that I've been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cusco, Peru for the next 18 months. I'm so excited to serve the Lord and live among His people of South America!! I've been waiting and getting ready since late October, and I should have left yesterday afternoon for the MTC in Lima. Key words, should have. Atlanta decided to have some icy weather and cancelled all flights in and out, so I'm still sitting and waiting in Illinois with the fam until Sunday...

On the bright side, I get a little extra time to spend with my family and brush up on some Spanish. And also to create this blog!

I wanted a way for friends, family, and really anybody interested to keep up with what I'm going to be doing in Peru. So I created this lovely little blog! I'm going to have mi madre post my letters and pictures so that y'all can see what I'm doing with my life. I'll miss you all dearly and I hope this helps me stay somewhat connected to you.

That being said, I'm so ready and so excited to get out and get going!! I love this church and this gospel, and I can't wait to share it with these people!

Adios amigos!