Short Email

Sorry, I spent more time than I realized writing President. Sooo, don´t have much time. But, this was a great week! The first half of the week we spent in Cusco/on buses to and from Cusco for consilio. As always, listening to Pte. Harbertson was definitely the highlight of everything that happened this week! Won´t go into details about what we talked about, but let's just say that I´m very grateful to be in this mission. It´s definitely not the easiest mission in the world, but the work is moving forward like crazy! Leaders and members are really getting on board, and the things that are happening are exciting!

The second half of the week in Puno was pretty normal. Vicki officially has a baptism date for the 28th! She´s more than ready, but has to go out of town again for some things so we have to wait a week.  Pretty excited about that! People are progressing well. Every now and then we have setbacks, but as missionaries we just have to accept it and get back up. We also have to keep a good attitude and the "ganas" to keep going. Honestly, thinking about it, there are SO many little things that, when put together, make being a missionary really hard. But at the same time, if we´re looking, there are so many miracles every day too. The trick is just focusing on the miracles and not the setbacks. Yes, acknowledge the setbacks and the things that we need to improve, but focus on the good and always be grateful. 

That was a little tangent, but just what´s going through my mind. Really, it was just a good week across the board. Hna Valverde turned 22 yesterday! Had a great little party with smashing eggs and throwing flour and tres leches cake. No complaints. But she made it very clear that I need to be prepared for what´s going to happen to me next week because of it . . . :) 

Love you all. Sorry I have to cut it a little short again today. Keep me updated on babies and marriages and jobs and missions and all that other mundane stuff that y'all are deciding to do while I´m gone ;)

Chao!

Amie

Condie Birthday Letter tradition continues!

Happy Birthday Hna Valverde!! Peru has this tradition that they smash eggs and throw flour on you on your birthday. First time I´ve done it all out :)

Consilio - (leadership meeting)

Going Strong

Hello!

Well, it was another fantastic week in Puno! I´m already in love with Puno. Everybody talks about it as a terrible place where the people are closed off and mean and it´s cold and miserable. Pero, es así. The ward and stake leaders get how to do missionary work and are more than willing to help. There are TONS of families out and willing to chat with us for a little bit. A good amount of them are willing to meet with us again later too. We have literally had an appointment every hour, every day since the second I got here. I´m pretty much exhausted all. the. time. But I love it so much. It´s easier to focus and be happy when we´re working as much as we do. On top of that, beautiful weather (pday pictures will show, it was a great day at the beach this morning/afternoon- playing soccer and hiking and all!) No complaints. At least none worth wasting my time worrying about.

Oh! We also had our conference and interviews with President Harbertson. Still convinced that he will be a prophet someday. If anything was out of line, which it wasn´t, that always gives me the little extra push that I need to keep going and work a little harder.

Hmmm, people we are working with. There are a lot. 

We have one investigator that kind of sticks out among the rest. Her name is Vicki. She had a baptism date for last weekend, but she went out of town and a whole bunch of other things, and the date fell through. We´ve been trying to find her since I got here with little success. We finally found her and got to talk to her on Saturday. It was kind of a miracle, just kind of ran into each other in the street. She told us that she didn´t want to talk to us anymore or come to church because she was embarassed about not being baptized on the day that everybody was expecting. She didn´t want anyone to judge her. We talked to her for a little bit trying to just commit to coming to church on Sunday. She was hesitant but finaly agreed. Sunday comes and she´s not there. About 30 seconds before we start the sacrament she walks in and sits down. I´m pretty sure the whole congregation could see the smiles on Hna Valverde´s and my face. We had a lesson with her afterwards, just talking about where her head and her heart were. Long story short, it was a great lesson. There were some tears, but ended with her committing to baptism again. This time for sure.  She´s pretty incredible.

Ahh, so many people but not enough time! One more. We are working with a less active lady named Luzmila. Hna Valverde and her old companion had never talked to her before. We just passed by her store one day and Hna Valverde said, hey, I think there´s a member who lives here. We stopped by, and surely enough, we found Luzmila. My heart kind of broke when I listened to her story. When we first talked to her and asked if we could stop by again to talk she was very closed off and a little rude. I judged her pretty hard, I´ll be honest. But the Lord humbled me. Within 30 seconds of our lesson she was all in. It´s only been a couple days, but she is already starting to turn her life around. It´ll be a process, but she´s willing and reayd. I´m SUPER excited to start working with her more and more.

So there´s two. I´ll start telling you more and more as I have the time to do so. 

Consilio this week!! We leave tomorrow morning. All day with President and the APs and everybody on Wednesday and come home Thursday. I´m pretty stoked. This is probably the thing I´m most excited for now that I´m a sister leader. I get to listen to President in a more serious setting once a month!

Gotta go. I have a lot more to say, but it´ll have to wait until next week. But I love you all! 

Chao!

Amie

Conference

Just hanging out in the sector

¡P-day Beach-day Woo!

¡Bienvenida a PUNO!

I LOVE Puno! For the first time in a while I came into a sector that is really doing work!! We have so many strong investigators. Families, singles, teenagers. The whole range. Lots of good less active members that are coming back. A lot of them would already be "rescued," but they need to get married. I`m expecting to be sending lots of baptism and marriage pictures this transfer! 

I`m with Hna Valverde. She is pretty incredible. She`s teaching me a lot of real diligence and hard work. I thought I worked hard before, but now we are literally working every second of every day until 9:29 at night. The last minutes we take to run home so we`re not late. I`m pretty exhausted. But the good kind of exhausted. It`s nice to have so many people to work with. 

I love Puno. It`s beautiful. Lake Titicaca is in our ward boundaries, no big deal. This week was pretty normal, the sister leader duties don`t really start until next week. We only visit six companionships, but we`re not doing that until the end of the change. Really the only difference so far is that I have a cell phone. Took me a while to figure out how to use it. It`s probably the dumbest of all "dumb" phones out there, but hey, está bien. Nice to have one.

There`s the general rundown. I`ll write in more detail about the people we`re working with next week. I`ve only had three full days so far, and I still kind of mix everyone up. Which is kind of good I guess. Means there`s a lot! 

Love you all! 

Hasta luego,

Amie

Just saying 'bye' to some of my Cusco friends :)

Sorry I don't have more pictures for this week . . .

I promise some good Puno pictures for next week.