So yeah, after just about 9 months in the mission Im finally going to have a companion for more than 6 weeks!! Im actually really happy about it. First of all because we had the best pday ever yesterday. Except for the fact we couldnt email of course. But anyway, since we didnt get changed and other people did and were traveling and waiting for their companions we had the day free!!! We didnt have our district meeting yesterday, we had it today instead. So yesterday we had a real pday!! We cleaned our room, organized our things, slept, wrote letters, walked to and from the center and in and out of every shop there, got treated to ice cream by a lady wo speaks chinese, spanish and english and struck up a conversation with us, developed photos, took pictures, and basically loved every minute of our freedom. So yeah, Im still with Hna. Arroyo and Im happy. I think we will have a good 6 more weeks together.
Our district leader has 2 investigators that are getting baptized and married this week except he got transferred to puno along with his companion so now my companion and I have to help with the wedding!! Shes going to be a witness and everything! Im sure Ill have stories next week.
I love you and miss you all!! Be safe and I hope that hot dog feed for 7-8-9 comes to fruition. And in the words of Bon Jovi (this song is playing in this internet right now and I think its a sign) Oh, oh were halfway there, oh oh livin on a prayer...pretty fitting I think. Love you!!!!
Love,
Christa
Oh, so we had a funny run in with 2 Jehova´s Witnesses this week. We were knocking doors and boy were they excited to see us!! They were like 2 80 year old little ladies who came out with their bibles in hand and were trying to get their glasses on and remember where to find scriptures. I couldnt even be roused into being contentious by the apostasy they were sharing because they were just too funny/pathetic. They asked me what our beliefs are about life after death and I explained to them a little about our beliefs about the spirit world and resurrection and 3 kingdoms of glory, at which point, one of them thoughtfully replied, ¨But we can´t live on the sun!!! It´s just too hot!!! Maybe on the moon, but then only astronauts would go to that kingdom. Explain that!¨ So we took their watchtower magazine, wished them a good day and laughed for like an hour about the conversation we´d had. Good times. Actually though, it was a really good experience. Ive never talked with Jehova´s Witnesses before and it made me SO grateful to be a member of this Church, that teaches that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers even if we dont really even know how to pray, and that there´s not a set number of people that will go to heaven, that He´s given us all the chance to return. Wow, thank you JEhova´s Witnesses.
27 July 2009
Hey guys!!!
Howd the week go? hope you all survived, had a great time, ate good, took lots of pictures and are now finally getting some sleep!! things are good here. im writing later than usual because we had a baptism today!! It was quite possibly the most hectic day of my mission. His name is willian. hes 13 years old and has been ready to get baptized for 3 weeks, but has been waiting for his mom to come who works in chile. Well she finally got here, but fell and had to go to the hospital today!! So the baptism that was going to be at 12 got changed to 3, then we couldnt find the member that was going to baptize him or the member that was going to speak or the keys to the chapel that had vanished!! i was sprinting a good portion of the day pulling my companion behind me!! To make matters worse we had bought 40 empanadas and were scared the baptim wasnt going to work out. luckily ive just come from the baptism and he got baptized and his mom came and it all worked out better than it would have anyway. So thats been my day.
this week one of our investigators had a picantada to raise money so she can get married and baptized so we helped her. Picante is a poular dish in peru and especially in Tacna. it is basically a stew of red hot chili peppers, not the band, tripe and potatoes served with a rustic bread they make here. we peeled potatoes for hours!! She Angela, was cooking it all in a huge pot outside over a little fire. well they only had like 3 little pieces of wood and needed more so they started pulling wood off the log cabin they live in to burn!!! my companion and I were horrified so we ran to a farm tha has a bunch of branches and dead trees and started hauling wood from there. of course at the end of the day they served us heaping bowls of picante to thankus. i tried to talk them out of it, bt when people have burnt their house to give you this food you cant say no!! So remember how i think toothpaste is spicy??? OH. MY. GOSH. This is THE hottest thing Ive ever eaten!!! I couldnt feel my lips for 3 full hours. Even my companion was sweating trying to eat it!! but somehow we finished off our bowls. thats quite possibly the biggest miracle of my mission to date. my companion told me shes never been more proud. She said I just kept shoveling spoonful after spoonful into my mouth and she cant believe I did it. Neither can I. Neither can I. but yeah, hopefully Angela will be able to get married and baptized soon.
Tomorrow is Perus 4th of July so happy 4th of July in peru to all of you! wednesday we have a stake activity with native dances and food that we are going to take investigators to so it should be fun. ill be sure to take lots of pictures.
Love,
Christa
3 August 2009
Hey Hey Hey Family,
We had that stake activity on Wednesday and it was really good. Peru knows how to have an activity. Every ward presented a typical dance from Peru and they all had traditional dress and every ward had built a booth, display of a different department in peru and had food and drinks and pictures and animals and clothes and music and all kinds of crazy stuff from that area. We ended up having like 14 investigators there. Funny how we´ve never had more than 7 in the chapel for church on sunday, but for an activity where they have food and candy and clowns and music and dancing, the whole world is able to show up! It was really fun though. They judged the booths to see which ward did the best job and part of the criteria was how much cheering the ward could do when the judges came by. Lets just say the mission hasnt made me any less competitive. No less than 3 people told me their ear drums had been damaged by my screaming. It was like Darrens graduation all over again-when Britt and Em and I screamed and everyone stopped and stared. They told me we had to cheer to win so I cheered!! How was I supposed to know I was going to hurt peoples ear drums?! Anyway, we won!! And yesterday in church a member bore his testimony and in it mentioned how good it was to see the missionaries involved in the activity screaming their lungs out. How embarassing. But we won so I dont regret it.
So picante is haunting me! We ate it AGAIN yesterday in our pension and we have to help a sister in our ward clean out peppers to make it for the primary kids on saturday!! The good news is I think my stomach has finally adjusted to peru because now nothing, not even picante with hot peppers and cow stomach, affects me.
Today we are going to the beach. Again. The members in the ward of the elders have a combie and they are going to take us there to eat lunch. Hopefully itll be fun. Im sure itll at least be good for stories.
10 August 2009
Hey Fam!!
Whats going on?! Things are pretty good here in Tacna. Transfers are next week and sadly I think my time with Hermana Arroyo is coming to an end, but Im pretty sure Ill still be in Tacna next monday. Anyway, we had zone conference this week and it was good. IT was nice to see the Davis´. Sister Davis is actually in oregon right now. She left sunday and will be there for 2 weeks because 2 of her daughters are getting married. In my interview with president davis he said the stake president had said some very nice things about me so basically i feel like I owe that man my life!! He, Pres. Herrera, and his wife are the nicest people ever. They are planning a trip to go to general conference in Oct. 2010 and I told them I would be there to drive them, feed them, show them around, so yeah, hopefully Ill be able to make it up to him for the lies hes been telling to president davis.
Oh, yeah, so we ended up going to the beach last monday. It was actually pretty fun. The bech we went to this time had a bunch of rocks so my companion and I spent our time playing around on those. We started out attempting to catch these crabs we spotted, but after 20 unsuccessful minutes we switched to catching starfish. You know, something a little more stationary. We ended up finding like 20 and my companion brought one home as a pet!! She tried to talk me into it otoo, but thanks to some unknown childhood trauma, I had visions of waking up in the middle of the night with my pet starfish stuck to my face smothering me. What was I allowed to watch when I was little??!1But anyway, it was fun. Anyway, my time is up, but I will write more next week!! Love, Christa
