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!