Best for Last!

Hello family!

This is kind of a weird feeling, sending my last email before I come home . . . To be completely honest, it still hasn`t REALLY hit me that I`ll see y'all next week. Maybe that`s good? Hope so.

Anyway, the weeks here still just keep getting better and better. It`s making it REALLY hard to accept that I leave in a week. We have a TON of new people we`re working with. On average over these past 3-4 weeks we`ve had about 5 solid new people. Maybe for other missions that seems like nothing, but honestly, a good week here is usually 3 or 4. So to have so many every week for a month straight, that`s really saying something. Hna Mendez and I are pretty much working our butts off. 

The elders from our neighboring ward sent us a reference for a less active member who`s been going to their ward for about a month. We went and found him, his name`s Henry by the way, and started teaching him and his parents, Oscar and Nancy. INCREDIBLE family. We had our appointment with them Friday night and they all came to church with us yesterday for the full three hours. They have both expressed the desire to be baptized. They`ve given us other references to teach. Great family and happy missionaries. 

It almost doesn`t seem fair to me how great the work is going right now. Los Incas is the strongest it`s ever been. They tell you to give it your all, work hard and truly love the people, then you just have to leave. And they don`t pay $800 for you to go back and visit. Until yesterday, almost nobody in our ward knew that I was leaving. I started to tell people because yesterday was the last day I was going to go to our ward because next Sunday I`ll be traveling. Saying it out loud and seeing peoples` reactions just for one day confirms that this next week is going to be harder than any other. Los Incas is a HARD sector, but I`ve really come to learn to love it. Hopefully I get to travel tomorrow (oh, FYI, I`m in Cusco right now again...) so that I don`t lose more time than absolutely necessary. I can promise you tho, even if it`s the hardest, it`s going to be the best!!

Love you all. Maybe I`ll get to email next week, but I doubt it. If not, I`ll see you next Wednesday!

Hast luego!

Hna Condie

It smelled so good I guess she couldn't even take her eyes of it :)

Yay! Cooking with friends!

Homecoming!

Amie Comes Home

August 12!

If you're nearby

Stop by our house on Friday August 14th

@7:00

9592 N Deerfield Lane

Cedar Hills Ut 84062

Sacrament Meeting Talk

Sunday August 30th

@1:00

Cedar Hills 7th Ward

9793 Chesterfield Drive

Becca will also be speaking - she leaves September 2nd

Come visit at our house after church too :)

No Words

Hello again!

This was definitely a week to remember. I had to do some stuff for the office so I don´t have NEARLY as much time as I´d like to tell you all of it. So, I´m just going to talk about the biggest point and then I´ll fill you in on the rest in a couple weeks.

I had an interview with a general authority.

Elder Juan A. Uceda of the seventy has been going around our mission talking to all the missionaries and members in conferences and firesides and whatnot. He started about a month ago with us in Cusco for consilio and ended yesterday with another consilio (just with the zone leaders and sister leaders). He picked four people, in the whole mission, to have a one-on-one interview with after all was said and done. I don´t know why or how, but I was one of the lucky four. BEST expierence of my life. 

I don´t really want to go into too much detail (I´ll save that for when I am with y'all), but I will say, it was an answer to a prayer. Well, lots of prayers. I don´t know if or when I´ll get an opportunity like that again, but I hope I do someday. You can just tell that our leaders are truly called of God. I felt like I was on the opposite end of an Ammon or Alma story - like he read my mind and told me EXACTLY what I needed to hear when I needed to hear it. 

I´m sorry, I know I´m cutting this REALLY short, but I don´t have time to say more. We were on a bus all day coming back from Cusco and we have our district meeting in half an hour, otherwise I would have had time to extend my internet time a little bit (with permission of couse). But I love you all. The work here is great. Better than ever here in Los Incas. Divisons are done, so Hna Mendez and I have two solid weeks to work! Happy and healthy. Still working hard and loving every moment.

Until next week!

Hna Condie

7/20 Oh Hey!

Hello after another super week here in Puno! I swear, every week just gets better and better.

We started this week at the beach of Charcas. Not exactly sure where that is to be honest, somewhere between Puno and Juli. I don´t know if y'all remember from about a year or so ago (when I was still in Puerto), but President decided to have another zone conference outside of the chapel instead of being cooped up all day. It was pretty great. Sorry I don´t have more pictures tho. It got really cold so we finished the conference all squished in the bus and didn´t get to go back out to take pictures. In my opinion, the only thing worse than being in the cold is being in a bus. But it´s all good. It was still a really incredible conference. As always, President and Sister Harbertson gave General Conference worthy messages (still convinces he´ll be the prophet someday). He talked a lot about the priesthood and the diferent roles that we as sisters and elders play in making everything that we need to make happen as a team rather than one and the other. She focused on the Atonement and the different ways we need to learn how to apply it everyday in our lives and missions. Entonces, great talks, beautiful beaches, no complaints!

Apart from the conference, it was just another normal sister leader week. We did divisions with three sets of sisters. I got to be in our sector only one of those days, aaaaand, nothing happened. Unless you count doors being slammed in faces and complete rejection as something exciting . . . But hey, it happens. I got to spend the day with a new sister here in Puno so it was fun to get to know her. 

The other two days I was in Inca Pachacutec and Huascar. Doesn´t really mean much to y'all probably, but they are the two steepest sectors in probably the whole mission. And I had a cold. So that was fun. I pretty sure I came closer to dying those two days than I have at any other point in my mission. But I´m better now and it´s something to smile about. Thank goodness for patient missionaries who can put up with me walking slow and sitting down every half hour. 

Finished the week with a bang! The stake has been planning a dance festival (that sounds weird in English . . . Festival de Danzas) for about two months. I´ve never seen an activity so, well, big since I was in the States. There were about 200 investigators there watching and about 100 more dancing with the YM/YW and YSA. Now we just need to sort out all of the tickets and give them to the right missionaries. 

New investigators. Musical numbers in church. Sunshine and not freezing to death at night. No more cold. Italian food (Peruvian style, but still). Lots of things to be happy about in Puno right now!

Pretty much describes my life.   Trying to enjoy P-day, but being pulled away thanks to the cell phone . . .

Yay! Feeling like we're kids and spending all day last week at the giant slide!

Some of the boys from our ward before they danced.

Festival de Danzas

Paoala and Karen.  These two girls are basically like my little sisters.

More Dancing

Nelly took us out for pizza :)

All the sisters at our zone conference this week.

7/13 I'M EXTENDING!

Yayyyy!! Just kidding, But I would have loved to see how you would have reacted. Nope, not extending. But that would be cool. Still just working hard and going strong. Every day passes by faster than the last, but that´s alright. 

This week was another crazy one. Go figure. That seems to be a nice pattern. We were here in Puno working like normal on Tuesday. We found ourselves a little lost because our appointments fell through and were left with no solid plans. We decided to go visit an active member that we´ve never visited before. His name is Aquilino. We chatted for a little bit and asked if there was anything we could do for him and his family before we left. He paused and told us to hang on a second and he´d be right back. He came back with two of the people that live in the same apartment building and told us that he wanted us to teach them. Both SOLID investigators. We were/are pretty excited. Every time we talk to him now he has new people for us to visit. Yesterday he brought another friend to church and the elders are working with him. Basically, Aquilino is our new best friend.

Wednesday through Saturday we were in Cusco and Sicuani. Normal stuff. Consilio and more visits. Always fun and always something new to learn, but a little more stressfull than usual this time because we weren´t working in our sector all week. But it´s all good. Do what ya gotta do. 

Sunday was a good day. All our appointments fell through. Again. But we met some cool new people. THREE families in our ward brought their friends out of the blue! And all three of them (their friends) are excited about learning about the gospel. We have a family home evening with one of them tonight and appintments during the week with the other two.

So, things are kind of slow in our sector right now, but things are looking good. We should have some really great new investigators in these next couple days.

Also, couldn´t finish the email without a little shoutout to Clay and Alisha! The pictures are beautiful and it looks/sounds like it was a good day for everybody. Couldn´t be happier for them! Excited to meet her :) 

Love you all. I feel like I´m getting lazy with writing emails lately, so sorry if they´re boring. I´ll try to be more creative next week. 

Con amor,

Hna Condie

This is Zaturnina.  She sells candy on the side of the road.  We always stop by and buy Argentina alfajores often enough that now we're pretty much best friend.  she doesn't live in our sector, but the sisters where she lives have started teaching her :)

I'll be honest . . . one of the only reasons I send the console pictures is just because it's the only day of the month that i get to wear cute clothes . . .

Also, it's the only day I get to see two of my favorite people in the mission. Hna Hunter is in Abancay and Hna Guajardo is in Cusco.

Went to Sicuani. Saw Hna Hill :) for probably the last time here in Peru :(

7/6 Just Pictures

Chicuito

I thought this was suppose to be a funny picture . . .

street art

6/29 ¡Me Quedo! (I'm staying!)

Hello!! I´m happy to announce that I am oficially staying in Puno until the end of my mission!! I shouldn´t have been thinking about it all week, but I was a little worried that I was going to leave. Hna Mendez and I are both pretty stoked that we´re staying together :) It´s not uncommon for President to change people for their last transfer. Luckily though, no more worrying about it. Sigamos trabajando! 

This was a pretty calm week compared to some of the others we had this past transfer. No problems with any of the sisters or anythig. Sent one home yesterday, but that´s because she finished her mission, not because of anything that happened. In a way, still sad though. Weird to think that it will eventually come to an end. We did go to Sicuani to (finally) finish our visits. Fun little trip. Sicuani is super little but really beautiful. Just so happened that the stake president had a meeting with all the sister missionaries, so I got to bumb into Hna Hill for a little bit. 

Hmmm, not much to report for this week. We are kind of running low on investigators right now . . .Nelly and Nelida are both doing great! Nelly might move into the same building as Nelida this week. It´d be really good for both of them. No sé. Puno´s treating us well. It is a VERY hard sector, for a lot of reasons, but I´ve learned to love it. Again, just happy to still be here and have more chances to help and serve.

I´m getting cut short because this computer is flipping out, but know that I love you all. Hope all is going well for the wedding (in TWO weeks... holy moly). I promise to send an email for Clay next week.

xoxo,

Hna Condie