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