Still In Puerto!!

Okie dokie! Welp, I`m still in Puerto! Hna Ruiz is a sister leader in Abancay and I`m here with Hna Nelson. She`s a hoot and a half. It`s gonna be a great transfer!! 

Now, before I forget, sorry I made you freak out about being sick . . . Feeling great now! Feliz como un lumbrice (happy like a worm, it`s a phase here). I`ll keep you updated if anything drastic happens.

Oh, and I got the letters!!!! Thank you for the lovin`. Heads up for real responses in a month or so... :)

Now for the exciting stuff. I`ll start with the "I live in crazy Peru" then end on a more uplifting note again. 

So, we were in a lesson the other day with this lady. Her name`s Y,  and she`s a little bit crazy. But it`s all good. Teaching her is always exciting. After this lesson she offered us a drink. I forget the name, but it`s made from purple corn. Usually it`s really good!!! She handed it to us and it smelled a little sketchy . . . we asked if it had alcohol. She was very adamant that it didn`t. So,we drank it because it`s rude not to after you accept here. Aaaand, lets just say I have my doubts it was 100% alcohol free. Nothing crazy happened, but we felt really weird for the rest of the night.

So that`s cool.

Now. For the cool missionary story. We went to an appointment but she wasn`t there. BUT, her neice was. We chatted for just a little bit. It started with "my aunt`s not here, I`m Catholic, that`s nice but leave." Nothing super unusual. But we asked if we could say a prayer together before we left. After the prayer we all opened our eyes and she had tears running down her face and now she`s meeting with the elders (she doesn`t live in our sector :/). It`s just so cool to me how many people there are out there who are READY for the gospel. They`re hearts, they`re minds, everything. Sometimes they don`t know they`re ready, but they are. All it takes is a little prayer and the power of the Holy Ghost to completely change someone`s heart and perspective. Missionary work it hard, but it`s worth it. There are a lot of disappointments, but there are so many sweet moments like this that make up for it. And when we focus on those and the importance of sharing the gospel, the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST, miracles happen. 

                                                 Pizza for Hermana Ruiz last day

                               

                                         Splits with the other sisters are always great!

                                            Hermana Nelson meets Pepe :)

                                                       Jungle woman!

                                            Lemons the size of my head!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

Welp. Training is officially over!!!! I´m staying in Puerto... My letter from the president says that I´m staying with Hna Ruiz, but hers says that she´s leaving. Soooo, not exactly sure what´s going on with that. Sorry I can´t tell you right now what´s happening. Whatever happens, I´m looking forward to it!

I got the package!!!! Thank you times a million! The peanut butter and jerky, genius. All of it made me smile. Yáll are the best :)

Okie dokie. This week. Was crazy. I have a mountain of photos that I want to send but can´t becasue of time. I´ll start with the story behind the foot pictures. So I´ve had this thing on my foot for about two weeks. Did´nt really think anything of it, just an irritated bug bite or blister or something from my shoes. But someone saw it the other day and FREAKED out. Then got everybody else in the vicinity to check it out then they all started freaking out. They were all yelling at me inSpanish so I started freaking out. Basically, from what I understand, there was some sort of insect living inside me and using my body as a host for its babies. So that´s cool. They call it "pique." I don´t have a computer to look it up, but if yall want to, there ya go. But anyway, Hna Ruiz had Hna Julia (our landlord) look at it, and she said she´s fixed things like this a lot. So we performed a little surgery in her living room. And by surgery I mean she stuck a needle in my ankle and just started ripping my skin off. It was not a fun experience... But, it´s gone now. I think?? Now I just have a huge hole in my foot. It´s fine. I live in Peru. This is my life.

Before

After

So I was posing for a picture at the same time that Hna Julia poured a lidfull of alcohol into my open wound! Hna Ruiz just happened to get the reaction...

So that´s my Peru story for the week. On a more missionary note, we had a baptism this Saturday! Sadly, his mom wasn´t baptized with him. But we´re working with her still. But the baptism was good :) The next day he was confirmed and received the priesthood.  

We have a new investigator as of this week too. She´s an older lady with 5 kids, one of them has depression. SUPER humble. Going through a lot of hard things right now. But she´s so ready for the gospel. It´s cool to see how the Lord prepares people and out of nowhere really helps us find them. We were just walking past her store one day and waved hello and decided to stop to chat. I´ll definitely keep you posted on her. Her name´s Flor.

Everything else is pretty normal. I really wish I could tell you more about this next change. But, it´ll just make next week just that more exciting!

This is Papa Gabriel. He lives down the street from us. I wanted to take a picture with him for Father´s Day. He wasn´t smiling for the picture so I told him I wanted a big smile, with teeth!! He kind of groaned at me and said, alright, let me go get them... I laughed SO hard!! 

Can you feel the love tonight?

Ahmm-ee-eh

Apparently this is how you pronounce my name. I wrote out my email for A and some other members of the ward and none of them could say Amie normally. And the spelling really threw them off. Haha I thought it was funny. Also, it was hard for them to believe that my full name is Amie Condie. Here, where they have four or five names, it took me a good five minutes to make them believe me.

Anyway, cooler, more important things! 

I know, I´m lame, but I was sick again this week so I don´t have a lot of crazy stories (spoiler: I´m feeling better now tho, it´s all good). We did have one random, fun experience. Nothing crazy spiritual or anything, but still fun. We were walking around the plaza the other day because we needed money and this American couple walks by and stops us. "Hi sisters, how are you?" I was a little confused at first. Because of the English and the fact they called us sisters and knew who we were and were all friendly and whatnot. Turns out he is the architect for the temple in Trujillo. Don´t know what they were doing clear down yonder in Puerto, but it was fun to see them and talk to them for a little bit. We didn´t have a lot of time because we were running late, but it´s all good. It was a nice little treat.

Other news for this week. My "Joseph Smith" investigator and his mom are getting baptized this Saturday!!! I could go on and on about him and his stories, but I´ll just stick with one for today. We were talking about prophets earlier this week, specifically Thomas S. Monson. At the start of the lesson I asked him if he remembered when we talked about José Smith and other prophets and if he could name some of the other prophets he knew about. I was expecting Joseph Smith, Noah, Moses. Prophets like this. He goes off about George Albert Smith and Wilford Woodruf. I was caught SO off gaurd and asked him where he heard about these men. He whips out the book for Sunday School and says that he´s read almost all of it. We all just had to laugh for a little bit. The kid really knows his stuff and LOVES this gospel. Again, only 13 but he is so strong and his desire to grow in this gospel is inspiring.

As for his mother tho, she called us this morning and said she couldn´t get baptized this week. We don´t know exactly why yet, we are going to meet with her later today. Again, sometimes agency mixed with Satan and his influences are somewhat discouraging. BUT, we´re working on it. Faith and patience, yeah? Hopefully next week I can write and say that we had two baptisms, not just one :) 

What else? Sounds like life at home is good and progressing. Congrats to Taylor and Sarah!!! I definitely want pictures of houses and the new life in Utah if possible :)

Love you all. Overally, life is good. LAST WEEK OF THIS CAMBIO! Who knows what´ll come next. But I´m loving the work and happy to be here!

 ´MERICA! This is one of our investigator´s daughter. She had a page of those stick on earrings. Since I was wearing my red and white stripes I picked the blue circles with stars in honor of our flag. They didn't appreciate it as much as I did... but I hope you do :)

That one time I picked a coconut for breakfast.

After a casual game of volleyball in the street :)

So there´s a little story with this little fellow. It´s completely normal for woman here to just reach in their shirts and pull out money or photos or keys or food or whatever else they might need. We were in the middle of a lesson with an older lady and she randomly let out a little scream. After that she reaches in her shirt and just pulls out this chicken. Sometimes when things like that happen I just have to laugh and remind mylsef that I live in Peru...

Danny & Michael

So I picked up two new amigos this week. I call them Danny (I got chiillllls, they´re multipyin´) and Michael (FEVER in the morning, fever all thru the night). They´re great. Really. The first day I was sick wasn´t too bad. The second day we called the elders and asked for a blessing so that I could be healthy for the baptism the next day. I felt better, but not 100%. We worked thru all of it until yesterday. I was trying SO hard to push thru until pday, but my body just gave out and we had to stay home and sleep all day yesterday after church :/ But I´m feeling betterish. 

Don´t have a lot of great stories from this week because of my cold. BUT, we did have the baptism!!! We talked to her Thursday and she told us that she prayed and felt dumb for even considering pushing it back a week. Thank goodness for the power of prayer and the Holy Ghost, right? It was a beautiful baptism. She was just glowing!

I feel lame for not having more to say, but really this week is kind of a blur to me... But all is well. Two more weeks of training then who knows what!!

Oh yeah! And we all get one more hour for interent now! Not for email tho. For Family Search! So if you have anything that you can send me (pictures, stories, dates and names if you can find them) that would be great :)

I love you all. I love hearing about home. I´m glad everything with the house is working out and things are happening. Thanks for everything you do for me :)

xoxox

"A" before the baptism!

We visited the "Eiffel Tower of Puerto" for pday last week.  Gives Paris a run for its money . . .

This is "R" and her new puppy. He didn't have a name so we started calling him Pinky because he kind of looks like the rat from Pinky and the Brain.  We came back the next day and the kids on the street were calling him Pinky too.  Haha it stuck!