Peru to You

2 February 2010

2010-02-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

Happy FEBRUARY!! I can officially say that after this change I've got one change left in the mission! But yeah, we had changes. Im with Sister Rodriguez. This is her third change in the mission. She is from a tiny village in Guatemala. She's really nice, but cant read or write and barely talks.

Our investigators are kind of struggling. Weve been teaching 3 sisters and their brother. Carol, Karem, Edith and Luis. They are great and accepted thier baptismal date this week BUT told me their dad made a deal with them. They can pick the church they want to be baptized in but they have to get baptized in Arequipa so all their aunts, uncles, cousins, etc can be there and have a fiesta and they have to wait until October until they go to Arequipa on vacation! I guess I should just be happy theyre going to work towards getting baptized at all, but it broke my heart. Frank is still attending, but STILL doesnt have permission from his dad, etc. So yeah, pray for our investigators.

Oh, so theres a less active lady in our ward and part of her house burned down this week!! We went to visit her and ended up hauling out 37 bags of burnt trash and charcoal and dirt and then it started pouring and we had to start hauling out buckets of water because her only good room was going to flood! Ironic isnt it? Too bad it didnt rain like that the day before WHILE her house was on fire!

Oh, so heres something funny. This week I was walking along, kicking a rock (a favorite pastime of mine these days) when the rock went flying! Obviously it hit a taxi that was parked a ways off and the alarm started going off! The owner was sitting in his taxi and I could see that he was yelling so I went over to apologize hoping he wasnt going to strangle me. When I got a little closer I realized he was yelling, GOAL. From half field!! Its good!! I was so relieved when I realized he wasnt swearing at me. Good thing he was a soccer fan.

Hope youre all great! Love you guys!! Love, Christa

PSS look up la celebracion de la virgen de la candelaria online. Its happening this week and everyone in puno is either drunk or dancing in the streets to celebrate.

25 January 2010

2010-01-25T18:01:00.000-08:00

Hey hey hey fam! EM!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BDAY!!! Your lambo yo is sitting here in puno, what are you doing in Gardnerville missing out on it?!! Anyway, I hope you have THE best birthday ever! I hope it includes lots of tv, no homework, no chores, and you shoving your face in a cake. No, I take that back. Youre going to have to wait until festivus so we can do that together. Ive got a little something I bought for you, but i wont be able to send it until next Monday, so itll be a good birthday slash presidents day gift. Anyway, write me next week and tell me EVERY DETAIL of how you spent turning 17.

Anyway, not too much is going on here. It is freezing though! Em should seriously come spend her bday here because she would love it. Disgusting, foul weather. Perfect for the birthday girl. Hopefully the sun will find us down here before too long. Oh, so dad wanted to know a little more about my companion. Shes 21, she was born and raised in Juliaca, a town 45 minutes away, shes the only member in her family, and she is a pharmacy tech. And thats the life history of Sheyla in 1 sentence. Shes been a really good companion actually. She doesnt complain and does what I want to do, so shes been a great companion actually! Changes are a week from today though so we will see who comes…pray for me!

Weve had a pretty good week. We did a ton of service this week. We washed the biggest mountain of clothes I have EVER seen! We also peeled the biggest mountain of potatoes Ive ever seen! There was no joke, a potatoe the size of my head! Actually, it was more like the size of britts head! Just kidding Brito… I didnt have my camera though and Ive been sad the whole week I didnt get a Picture of it. Seriously though Im learning to do a loto f things here. Nothing I will ever need to know how to do in the US, but Im learning.

Hey, so guess what we ate this week? TACOS! Best. Day. Ever. Obviously there are no tortillas in peru, because that would just be too easy, so my pensionista made homemade tortillas that actually turned out really good. So yeah, we had our tortillas with meat, guacamole, tomatoes, and onions. I also taught my pensionista how to make egg salad. She was dumbfounded. She couldnt relieve it was so easy and so delicious. Mmmm egg salad. She also made french toast for us this morning that i taught her how to make. Its taken me 15 months to figure out if I teach my pensionista to make things I like my life is a lot easier! Oh well. Good news, none of my pensionistas pets have died this week. Although I forgot to tell you guys last week, she was telling us all about how she had to pull the first puppy out of her dog that died as she was serving us dinner! And this had all happened like 10 minutes before. The whole week I was worried she passed us some dog disease, but nothing.

So last week for pday we finally went to the lake! We also went to this giant slide that I am in love with. None of the other sisters wanted to go with me, but I threw myself down it like 12 times. I almost took out a drunk guy that was climbing up the slide too. Crazy drunks.

Hey, so there were some changes in our stake last week. Theres now a Branch in the floating islands. Before they always had to come to puno to go to church, but now theyre going to have their own Branch. Pretty cool.

Anyway, i love you and i miss you all and I hope you are all doing great. Stay safe! Talk to you next week. Love, Christa

18 January 2010

2010-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!! Happy middle of January family!! Dad, I don’t know what happened last week, but I ended up getting your email right before getting off so I was able to read it. Thanks for sending it again though. How was your bday?? How many sacraments did you get the privilege of attending? Anyway, how are you guys? Anyway, Not too much has happened this week. Like Ive always said, I think that’s good news when youre in peru. Oh, what am I talking about, something DID happen this week. EM STOP READING. The dog of our pensionista died while giving birth!! What?? Who even knew it was possible for dogs to have complications while giving birth? Apparently the little dog of our pensionista mated with a big dog and while trying to give birth died because the puppies were so big and were coming out feet first instead of head first! After yanking on the puppies to get them out they even called a vet at 11pm to come help, but there was nothing he could do so they put her to sleep. Sorry if that was a little explicit, but I got all the details from the 5 year old daughter of our pensionista so if I have to hear it you guys have to hear it! But don’t worry, they found a mangy dog in the street yesterday and theres now a replacement Chispa. That was the old dogs name. So yeah, that was the drama this week. While experiencing this drama though the pensionista told us about the time she gave mouth to mouth to a puppy that was dying and the time one of her pet pigeons ate poison and she fed it milk then held it by its feet and hit its back to make it puke. Oh Peru.

What else…oh, I had to give 2 talks yesterday. TWO. The good news about being assigned to 2 wards is theres more work to do. The bad news is theres more work to do! Luckily I just used the same talk, but still, 2 talks is never fun.

So it´s been raining pretty much every day here. Theres sun for a few minutes then it clouds over and rains! Im getting used to it, but I miss the sun! Luckily theres almost always a little sun sometime during the day.

What else, oh we ate a sweet potato sandwhich this week! Delicious. It was sweet potato with the cheese they have here in the middle fried. I don’t know if that even sounds good to you guys, but here, it was heaven. And I WILL be making it when I get back! We also ate nata this week. Our pensionista had milk straight from the cow and she boiled it then let it sit and scraped the top layer off and used it as butter on bread she gave us. Surprisingly tasty. I think the cow got into an onion patch or something because it had a slight onion taste to it, but still good.

Anyway, I hope you guys are doing great. I love you and miss you!! Talk to you soon!! Love, Christa

11 January 2010

2010-01-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

Hey family!! Happy 2nd week of January. Whats going on? Im doing alright. Still here in Huascar and La Torre with my temp. Shes good. I cant remember if I told you guys she got baptized in August, but she did so Im trying to make this a good experience.

The good news of the week is that Ana got baptized! She got baptized on Thursday and confirmed on Sunday. My head just about exploded on Thursday though. The Sunday before I had talked with the bishopric and supposedly 2 of the 3 of them were going to be there and 1 of them, who is in charge of all the chapels here in puno and in juliaca, was going to fill the font. I asked him if we could do anything to help him and he ASSURED me that it would all be taken care of. Well Ana was set to get baptized at 430 on Thursday. I left my interview with president davis and ran to the chapel to set up chairs and leave the cookies wed bought, etc. Well imagine my surprise when we got to the chapel and it was locked! So I called the bishop and he wasn’t home and wasn’t going to come to the baptism! But his wife said shed send his son with the keys to the chapel. I still had hope that the member that was going to fill the font had filled it then had to leave or something. So we got into the chapel and I RAN to the font and there it was, empty. I wanted to cry. So I went to fill it and made the realization that there was no water in the chapel! So then I started to panic. I started to call everyone I knew to find a solution somehow. After a few calls I talked to a member of the stake presidency who told me he was in the stake center and that luckily at that very moment there was a baptism of a member of a bishop in the stake center and that hed tell them not to drain the font. So we gathered everyone up, left a note in the chapel and headed to the stake center. Ana was able to get baptized and her mom even came so it ended up being a pretty good day.

Yeah, so last night the elders called me and told me my packages had FINALLY come! I was so happy. IT was seriously like Christmas had come on January 10th. I got the packages from you guys, which are amazing!! I am already dividing stuff up (and eating a lot of it too-nothing tastes as good as Christmas), a package from Diana, cards from the inghams (hows bro ingham by the way) neil stewart-I LOVE that man, the kunsts, the stouts, the hines, etc. So yeah, I am going to make up a holiday we celebrate in the us the week of January 11-17 so we can pass all this stuff out. The people will love it. Speaking of the 17th, happy birthday dad!! Hope you have the best birthday ever.

Anyway, I have to go, but I love you and miss you all. Hope you are all doing great. Talk to you soon! Love you! Love, Christa

4 January 2010

2010-01-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Hey fam a lam a ding dong. Happy 2010!!!!!!!! I hope you guys are having the best 4th of January every. By the by tell uncle rick happy birthday. Anyway, Im doing alright. Last night I went back to the sisters house after my long day and they had a little cake for me and so we ate cake and celebrated. It was a long, good day. Today my temp got here from Juliaca. She seems really nice. Her name is sheyla. I'm happy to have someone with me in my area instead of making the other sisters be stuck with me. She got baptized like 5 months ago so shes a pretty new member, but she seems really nice.

Anyway, this week we have zone conference and our interviews and if everything goes according to plan, the baptism of Ana on Thursday that we got the permission for yesterday. So yeah, pray everything goes according to plan please.

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys about something crazy that happened last week. I had a temp for a day last week, to go to church with me. She spent the night on Saturday and we were sleeping, happily, when we woke up to SCREAMING at 1230 am. Right outside our door! I jumped out of my bed, turned the light on and was terrified! There was a woman screaming bloody murder, help me, help me, please help me! I was frozen with terror, but my temp went to open the door to see what was happening. I of course had visions of somebody forcing themselves into our room to like stab us or something because thats what I imagined what was happening so I told her not to open the door, but she did and it turns out a drunk had fallen down a flight of stairs outside our door and wasnt responding! His wife thought he was dead and was FREAKING OUT! Luckily some other people came out of their houses to help and they took him to the hospital. He was breathing again so Im sure he ended up okay. I couldnt fall back asleep for like an hour though becuase the woman was hysterical and her screaming had scared me so bad! Oh wow, I think I should ask for a discount in our rent for having had to witness that. Well see.

Anyway, I hope you all are great. I love you and miss you and am praying for you. Be safe! And Ill talk to you next week! Love you!! Love, Christa

1 January 2010

2010-01-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!

So I dont have very much time to write. With christmas and new years the pdays have been all messed up. We didnt have a pday monday but they are giving us time to email today to tell you we will be back to normal pdays on monday. Im confused too... BUT as long as I have at least a few minutes to email Im happy. not too much has happened in the last week. Im still without a companion. Obviously. I had a temp for a day and she was really great but wanted to spend the new year in arequipa and so she was only with me one day. I think i made her walk too much and she made it all up about going to arequipa though...so yeah, Ive still been living with the sisters in their area. I still love hna arroyo. The elders supposedly found me somebody from Juliaca starting monday thats going to be able to be with me the last 4 weeks of the change so thats fantastic news. ANyway, Ill tell you more about new years and the week that passed on monday, but I hope you guys are having the BEST new years ever! And spending it watching the tournament of roses parade in honor of me. Wait, is that for Christmas or new years? Anyway, however youre spending it I hope its great. I love you and miss you! Talk to you soon! Love, Christa

22 December 2009

2010-01-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry I couldnt write yesterday. As you know Sunday were changes and there were changes. Im still here in puno, but my companion got changed. We had plans for Christmas, for our investigators, our wards, etc. The elders called at midnight on Sunday to tell us that at 5 am she had to be in the Terminal to go to arequipa. I was really, really sad. She was too. So yeah, she left and want to hear the worst news ever? I dont have a companion this change!! What happens is if there arent enough missionaries in the misión instead of closing an area or assigning trios, president davis leaves a missionary without a missionary companion and with a random 16+ young women or young adults. I havent been able to find anyone who wants to be a missionary for 6 weeks so now I have been with the hermanas in another ward for 2 days. Itd be great because hna arroyo is in the other ward.

I had a christmas miracle this week! Frank didnt get baptized, but Ruth, the 32 year old did! We met with her on Thursday and she told us she wanted to get baptized on Saturday! And she did! Best. News. Ever. So thank you for your prayers. It was a good way for Hna Jiménez to leave puno.

In other news it looks like I wont be getting my packages in time for Christmas. An office edler called me on Saturday to tell me I had a bunch of packages in the office waiting, but thanks to bogus peruvian postal laws that to get the packages out the elder World have to pay 100 soles. Pretty much 30 dollars. So Saturday, while trying to get the baptism together, we ran to the bank and waited in THE longest line of my life! I was able to send the elder the money in arequipa though and I called him to tell him and he said hed be getting the packages out of Serpost and shipping them the day alter Christmas. People will be grateful for anything though, before or after christmas, so dont feel bad. I took some of the Money out that you sent and if Im able to be in my area, Ive been stuck with the hnas, Ill be hiding good tidings of great joy, in the houses of some of the pathetic people Ive picked out. I think we will be allowed to call the night of the 25th here so thatd probable be like 4 pm or so your time.

What else…I saw a car accident this week!! I didnt even realice I was screaming until my companion was like, what is wrong with you? Whats happening?! ANd I realizad shed been looking at the ground and hadnt seen the accident. A little kid got out of the motorizad scooter he was in with a mouth full of blood and screaming! I almost passed out. Good thing britts in the medical profesión adn Im not. We also saw a fight. My companion wanted to go stop these two guys from fighting and I finally talked her into just yelling at them instead of going up to them. So dont worry mom.

Well, I have to go, but I will be talking to you guys soon!!!!!!!!! Finally!!!!! Love you!!!

14 December 2009

2010-01-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey HEy!! Happy pday to all. We had a pretty good week. We had our misión Christmas devotional. President and Sister Davis came and spoke. President Davis said hed like to see white christmas. And since it´s obviously not going to snow in peru he said itd have to happen in the bautismal font. Wed like that too. We have 3 good investigators who have fulfilled all the requirements to get baptized but dont have permission from their dads. From their moms yes, but their dads no. For some reason all our investigators in puno are underage. No, I take that back. We are teaching a 32 year old with 2 kids who lives with her dad and is scared to get baptized because of how he will react. We want to talk with him but she wont let us. One of the 3 is a 14 year old named Frank. His dad said if he passed a test he had to take on Tuesday that he could get baptized. Well, he failed. BUT, it turns out he could take a different test on Saturday to make up for it. So we spent like 4 hours on Thursday going over EVERY question of a practice test with him and explaining it to him. I was in 8th grade all over again and it was actually kind of fun. So yeah, we found out yesterday that he passed and will be able to keep attending the school hes attending and we have an appointment to talk with his dad tomorrow to see if he can get baptized Saturday so pray for Frank! Oh yeah, but back to the devotional. President and Sister Davis talked then we had a dinner of…..you guessed it, chicken and potatoes. Then we did skits and they gave us bibles and a homemade sugar cookie for our gifts. That sugar cookie was so good! So good! But yeah, it was a good devotional.

Oh, so I sent a photo cd this week. I hope it makes it there for Christmas! I feel bad though, I didnt think the elders were going to give us time to mail anything so I didnt even write a card or anything! So yeah, dont get too excited because its a big envelope but it just has a CD and nothing else. Sorry. Oh, but fantastic news, I got your package with CDs and cowtails and your card!! Thank you!! It made my week.

What else…changes are next Monday. Id really like to stay with my companion another change, but well see what happens. OH, and about the Christmas call. Ill be able to call for like 5 minutes on the 24th to give you the details about everything. Im still not sure what time we will be able to callo n the 24th or the 25th.

Anyway, I have to go, but I hope you guys are doing great and staying safe! Cant wait to talk to you!!! Love you!! Love,Chris

7 December 2009

2010-01-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

Happy December!! One more fast sunday DOWN!! Ive never had a problem with fast sundays in the mission until I got to puno. I thought I was going to pass out yesterday! I wasnt even hungry, but walking around here without eating takes a little bit of a toll. Luckily I survived and now we are only 4 fast sundays away from the biggest reunion of all time!

Weve had a pretty good week. Its gone by pretty fast actually. We are still contacting and teaching and doing service. Oh my gosh, guess what? So remember how I told you guys we have to do these street contacts every week? Well I saw a guy with a papa johns hat on and used it as an in to contact him! Obviously that hat was shipped here from a thrift store in the US and the kid had NO idea what papa johns is or what I was talking about, but I was freaking out when I saw it!! Papa johns is definitely on my list of things I want to eat my first week home. Just FYI.

Oh, so speaking of food, this morning for breakfast I ate chuno! Youll have to look it up online. Supposedly its some sort of potato that people stomp on with their feet in a river? thats how it was explained to me at least. really made me excited for breakfast.Anyway, I didnt love it and puno is famous for it. Im officially in puno because ive eaten it. But yeah, you guys arent missing a thing.

What else, oh, we went and watched the christmas devotional last night. I didnt think not being home for Christmas was going to hit me as hard this year. I thought I was becoming kind of numb to the holidays because it doesnt feel like Christmas here. The good news and the bad news is I was wrong. I started sobbing when I saw temple square last night! Ridiculous. It was a good devotional though, I liked it a lot. Oh holy night might officially be my new favorite christmas song. Along with I want a hippopotamos for christmas obviously.

Last week we didnt do much, but today for pday we are going to a place called Sillustani? Maybe you can find some pictures of it online? Supposedly itll be cool. Ill let you know next week. Anyway, I love you all and miss you all and hope you are all safe and happy and healthy. Talk to you soon! Seriously! Love, Christa

30 November 2009

2010-01-24T21:07:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!!! Happy Almost December!! Whats going on?? Im doing pretty good. We had a pretty good week. How was your Thanksgiving? We actually had a good Thanksgiving. We had a lunch with the district and the elders made chicken. Obviously. They also made mashed potatoes and rolls and even jello! It was almost a true Thanksgiving. Almost. I miss pumpkin pie!!! I did make apple crisp though. Its pretty much the only dessert from home there are all the ingredients here to do. We cooked it in this brick oven a lady in their area had. I took pictures, its classic. But yeah, tell me how your Thanksgiving went. I hope it was fantastic.

Oh, so we bought our boots this week! And its true, theyre nothing more than rubber rain boots, but I am so happy Ive been wearing them even when were in the room!! A few days a weeks it is sunny here and a few days a week its rainy. Friday was a rain day and we were late for an appointment and we were running and my companion fell SO HARD!!! I was dying. After I made sure she was okay of course. She pretty much did a slip and slide down a muddy hill. She didn’t get hurt though so that’s good news.

So theres this new goal in the mission that we have to talk to 20 people a day. So that’s 140 per companionship per week. So yeah, weve been doing our best to talk to everyone in the streets, buses, stores, etc. Before we always talked to people when we could, but if we were walking to an appointment or late somewhere we wouldn’t always take the time to do it. Now it’s a rule in the mission and I really like it actually. We have met some crazies this week! A man who wanted me to give him private English classes and said hed pay me and that nobody had to know…a lady who told us the terrorists had bugged her house and that they were always watching her and that we needed to come to save her from her sister in law who makes her take showers…etc. So yeah, Im not sure how much more success well have thanks to all these contacts every week, but it definitely makes everyday more interesting!

Anyway, I love you guys and miss you. Just a couple more weeks until we talk! Be safe and Ill talk to you soon! Love, Christa

23 November 2009

2010-01-24T21:05:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!!!
Happy Thanksgiving! Well Almost anyway. How are you guys? What is going on?? Glad to hear you are all still alive and well after your trip to CA. Are you guys still headed to Vegas this week?? If so be SAFE!! And have fun. And eat for me. A LOT! Supposedly we were going to have some kind of district activity to do a little Thanksgiving, but Im not sure if it´ll happen. I dont think we have permission, but Ill let you know next week.

Anyway, Im still doing pretty good here in Puno.Turns out I got here during rainy season!! Em would be in heaven. So just about every day that Ive been here its rained at some point. It even hailed 2 days last week. And if youll recall my area is all hills, it is seriously San Francisco and I have fallen no less than 12 times. Obviously. BUT the elders are going to buy us boots!! Im pretty sure theyre the rubber ones you wear to like work in the garden, but Im pretty excited about it. Way more excited than I should be actually, but itll be fun to not have to worry about my shoes while walking around.

OH. Guess what! Best. News. Ever. I forgot to tell you that Hna. Arroyo is in my district!! My old companion, remember her? There are 4 sisters in puno and she got changed here when I got changed here so we are together again!Shes in an area called mirador, but we´re in the same district. My head about exploded when I saw her in the terminal when our buses got to puno. So yeah, I will get to see her at least every monday. I also got to spend all wednesday and thursday with her and her companion because my companion went to lima and they couldnt find me a temporary to be with. Ive always heard that it´s really hard to be with 2 other missionaries and that trios aren´t ideal but I loved every single second of it. Maybe it´s just because I get along with her and her companion or maybe it´s because the most absurd things happened to us in the 24 hours we were together, but it was awesome.

We also had zone conference and our interviews this week and it was good. President congratulated me for still being alive. Apparently the last north american that was in puno about 3 months ago had to be taken out of her area in an ambulance because she got so sick! But seriously, Im doing really well healthwise. I think peru has made me immune to everything possible so Im doing good.Wait, I did puke last night, but I think it was from some yogurt a lady gave us so not to worry.

Anyway, I hope you guys are good. Just about 1 month until we´ll be talking. Anyway, we have an activity this week we are planning and we are going to do service for an 85 year old lady that we almost had to carry to her house after church yesterday because she cant walk so Im sure Ill have LOTS of stories next week. Be safe and have a good, good, week. Love you! Love, Christa

16 November 2009

2010-01-24T21:02:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Fam,
So after a week in puno Im still surviving. I actually really like puno. Its no tacna, but I like it. My companion and I had to speak in church yesterday, lead the music, give the relief society lesson and help in a workshop for visiting teachers!! It was a busy day, but I like our wards.

So I found out this week that even though Im within spitting distance of the lake I'll never get to go to the floating islands. Theres one set of elders assigned to the floating islands, our district leader and his companion. Nobody else is allowed to go out there. Except the zone leaders. So pretty much the sisters are the only ones that will never get to see the floating islands. What a rip off. Oh well, I like my area too. I also like our pension. It’s a little rustic, but good. I walked into the kitchen the other day and 3 pigeons came flying at me. Apparently theyre the pets of the family…

My companion is great. I really like her a lot. Shes the only bolivian in the mission. Shes from cochabamba. Today is her birthday actually. I had our pensionista buy balloons for me and decorated the room while she was sleeping. Luckily shes a sound sleeper.

Oh, about Christmas. Im not sure if you’ve already sent things, but I was thinking maybe a little money and a few simple things like pens, candy, cheap ctr rings, pictures of jesus, drink mixes, etc. I think itd be more trouble than its worth to send clothes or shoes or things people can buy here. As for me, I don’t want anything, just maybe some more makeup. Oh, and nylons. Im never wearing nylons EVER again after the mission by the by. Oh, Im going to take some money out of my account today so if you see that Ive taken it out don’t worry, its me. It’s a little bit more than usual that Im going to take out, but don’t worry. It’s a long story, but its going towards a really, really, really good cause and Ill tell you more about it at Christmas. Oh and by the way, about the Christmas packages the elders warned us about 100 times that we cant receive packages that are worth more than 100 dollars so send cheap stuff!!

Anyway, I have to go, but I love you and miss you all. My companion has to go to Lima this week for some paperwork and I have to look for somebody to be with me for 2 days while shes gone! Talk to you soon! Be careful! Love,Christa

PS, Em, you will be SO proud, I met a dog that I like this week! His name is moofy, and I don’t know what has happened to me, but I love this dog. I think I need help. Talk to you soon!!

10 November 2009

2010-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

Welp, Im in puno. PUNO. I was so sad to leave Tacna, but like I said last week I didnt think my luck would hold out for a fifth change in Tacna. I did love it though. But yeah, I left at 730 am yesterday and got to puno at 8pm last night. Longest. bus ride. ever. Longer than the trip I took in the greyhound from Provo to LV to visit britt when I had to sit far away from the driver that someone told me looked a lot like someone shed seen on americas most wanted. ANYWAY, here I am in Puno. I thought Id be a lot sicker from the altitude, but luckily so far Ive just had a headache since I got here. I woke up this morning and went outside and our area is all hills and from the top of the hills the lake is right there!!!! Crazy. From what Ive seen though I definitely feel like Im finally in Peru. Houses of mud with roofs of hay, a man chasing his llamas, ladies with their skirts and bowler hats digging in the dirt, after a year, I think Im finally getting the full peruvian experience. I just got a quick glimpse of britts email and I cant believe you guys want to do that for Christmas!!! I personally think its crazy. Who doesnt what gifts for Christmas?? You all at least have to exchange one gift with each other. BUT I was also thinking maybe for something I got changed here, the area with the most poverty in the mission, for Christmas. But Im not exactly sure what would be good to send for gifts or if money would be better. Im going to think this week and look for what people dont have and need.

Anyway, yeah, Im in 2 wards. One called Huascar and the other...I still dont know. Our pension is like 10 minutes from our room so thatll be different and I hear our area is pretty physically demanding and the work is progressing SLOWLY here, but hopefully things will get better in these few changes here. I know youre all praying for that and thank you.

Oh, so we had an activity in para chico the friday before changes. One day in the park we were contacting and we talked with 4 teenagers from Ecuador that had arrived in Tacna and were going to stay for like a month. Turns out 2 of them are members less actives so we invited them all to church and they came. It also turns out theyre dancers!! They were headed to Chile to tour, but one of them couldnt cross the border or something, suspicious I know, BUT, we decided we had to take advantage of their talent and we planned an activity in the ward. Its was like a ward family home evening. We watched a short movie, played games, they danced salsa and typical dances from Ecuador and we of course had empanadas and chicha. It was really, really fun. We were kind of worried because we planned it last minute and we had heard that ward members dont like going all the way to the chapel at night time, but 50 people showed up!!! So yeah, it was a good way to leave Para Chico. It was hard though, i didnt want to go. A few people came to the terminal at 7 yesterday to say goodbye and I was a sobbing mess. But, Im excited to be in puno too. My companion is Hna. Jimenez from Bolivia. My first companion boliviana. She is great.

Anyway, I hope all is well with you guys. love you and miss you all. Love,
Christa

PS, Mom and Darren,for the record there are 3 northamerican sisters in my mission. Counting me. There are more elders, but there is usually only 1 northamerican elder in every zone. Well, thats how its been in my zones at least.

2 November 2009

2010-01-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey HEy,
What is going on? Things are pretty good here in Tacna. Not too much to report this week actually. OH, but I DID get your package and big envelope this week and THANK YOU!!! The brownies and desserts have been a hit already and my companion and I have gorged ourselves on cereal bars, gardettos, peanut butter crackers, etc. I also love the pillow case from Jen. Tell her thanks. And thanks for the pictures. Its been fun to FINALLy show people who you guys are!

So how was Halloween? So it turns out hardly anyone celebrates halloween here so I didnt feel like I was missing out on too much. I only saw 3 witches and 1 little ghost trying to collect candy so it looks like peru still has a ways to go for Halloween to be popular. I kept talking about halloween and people kept telling me that only that people that worship satan believe in halloween here? Woops! Someday peru will come to appreciate halloween like we do. It might take a few thousand chili dogs, homemade rootbeer, and truckloads of candy to convince them, but I think itll be worth the effort.

OHHHH, but want to know what we did do on halloween? We got wrangled, WRANGLED, into helping a little old lady construct her alter to the virgen mary because there was going to be a parade and she had to construct an alter with flowers and balloons and the virgen, etc. I saw wrangled because we could not get out of there. There we were, walking down the street, late for an appointment, and this little old lady grabbed us, GRABBED us, and asked us if we could do her 1 tiny, little favor, if I could help her hang a balloon from her window outside because Im tall. Can you believe Im tall here by the way? So I hang one balloon and then she just kept giving us stuff to do and every time we told her we HAD to go and that people were waiting for us she said we couldnt abandon her and that God wouldnt be happy with us and that she needed us more than the people we had appointments with!!! She kept promising us it would only be 2 more minutes, 2 more minutes, well 2 hours later my companion and I, 2 mormon missionaries, had completely assembled this altar for the virgen mary!!! I like to think God will understand. The worst part is though the counselor to our bishop drove by and saw us doing it!!!!! Luckily he just laughed. He got out of his car to tell the lady we really had to go, but she wrangled him into helping too!!! So yeah, thats how I spent my halloween.

Changes are next monday. I would really like to stay in Tacna, but I think 5 changes here would be pushing it. Well see.

Anyway, I have to go, but I hope youre all doing great. I love you and miss you. Thanks for all your prayers and emails and packages and support.

26 October 2009

2010-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

Hey hey hey!

Welp, I cant believe we have survived this week. I know a wedding and 2 baptisms is a typical Saturday afternoon back at the Keele household, but it just about killed me here in the mission. But yes, Angela got married. It would take like 6 weeks of email time to tell you all about it so I guess itll have to wait, but suffice it to say it was pathetic and perfect all at the same time. We even managed to get a wedding cake to surprise her with. I took lots of pictures. She was able to get baptized on Saturday. Oh. My. Gosh. She changed and was sitting in her baptismal clothes waiting for the baptism to start and I was organizing a few things and somebody came to tell me she was crying! I of course thought shed changed her mind and went to talk with her to ask her if she still wanted to go through with it. She started laughing, while crying, and told me of course she did, but she just couldnt stop crying!! She said she was just so happy and overcome and couldnt believe how blessed she is and how much her life has changed. When I heard that I of course started bawling too. So we sat there, bawling, until the bishops counselor came over and started crying too!! Finally we got it together and she got baptized and they gave her the chance to bear her testimony and in that moment my mission was all worth it. Not that it wasnt before, but its a day I'll never forget. Nicolle, a 9 year old whose family weve been teaching got baptized on Thursday too. As Em would say, it was a crazy awesome week. Emphasis on the crazy though.

So yeah, now we are working with Jessica and Jesus to get baptized. They came to Angelas baptism and are excited to get baptized. When Angela got married on Wednesday I talked with the alcalde, I dont have any idea what that means in english, and he told us he could help us with JEssica and JEsus because JEssicas birth certificate is in the jungle somewhere. So hes going to let us start the papers and help us request her birth certificate. They are supposed to be getting married Nov. 6 and baptized Nov. 7 and changes are Nov. 8!!!! Im not so sure Ill still be around if they end up having to get married and baptized after that, but I know itll happen and thats the important thing right? I dont think I ever told you guys how about a month ago Jesus almost moved to Chile where he was going to live for 6 MONTHS to work??!! Jessica and JEsus knit sweaters for a living out of their house-theyre really nice sweaters though, I think they make sweaters that gap imports! Seriously! But for a while there wasnt any work and he decided he had to move to chile where theres a lot of work and since he was going to be illegal he wasnt going to be able to come back for 6 months!!! I FREAKED OUT!! We prayed, fasted,talked with every employer and priesthood leader in Tacna, and the day he had his suitcase packed and was going to leave at 5 pm, we stayed at his house for 3 HOURS talking to him about his family and how wed help him find work and how it would be better to stay together and get married and baptized. Well, after 3 hours he told us he was sick of listening to us and that hed stay!!!! So he stayed and now they have more work than they can handle!! They found like 15 new clients and are working like crazy! They told us they want to get married and baptized so they can start paying their tithing?? What?? So yeah, I feel like even if Im not here to see it that they are going to get married and baptized and be just fine. The bishop told me last week he thinks they are more active than he is becuse they are at EVERY activity the ward has. So yeah, Im going to help them make a book of their sweaters to show to clients. Looks like my PR education might just come in handy in peru afterall.

I love you guys and miss you. Hope youre all doing great. I ran out of time to write more!! Talk to you soon!

19 October 2009

2010-01-24T20:47:00.000-08:00

HOOOOOOOLA. How are you guys??!!!! Things are pretty good here. So it turns out Angela didn’t get baptized this week. BUT, its okay. Her boyfriend wasn’t able to get a paper he needed to be able to get married because he went to this clinic to get a test done and the clinic was closed because Peru was playing in a soccer match. Obviously. So yeah, he had to get the test done today instead of Friday and shes now going to get baptized Saturday and married Wednesday. We have another baptism on Wednesday though, a little girl named Nicolle, so it should be a busy week. I like busy weeks though. Way better than slow weeks in the mission. Yesterday in Relief Society I was sitting by Angela and she was talking about the quorum of the 70 and the restoration during the lesson and I had a flashback to the day we knocked on her door-june 8. Its pretty amazing to the see the difference in someone in such a short amount of time thanks to the gospel.

What else, OH. I. ATE. CEVICHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Best day ever!!! I can officially say Im living in peru. It was so good!! We will have to look for a good ceviche place when I get back.

Oh, so Jessica and Jesus had their pollada on Saturday. We were chopping and frying and delivering chicken all day. Seriously, WHAT is this mission preparing me for?? BUT, they made enough money to get married so we are going to be starting the paperwork with them this week. Jesus told us he wants to be baptized in a font of whiskey so he can take one last gulp as hes being baptized. Supposedly he gave up alcohol like 3 years ago so I think he was kidding….but yeah, they are a really good couple and after 4 months of working with them it looks like they’ll finally able to get baptized too.

So remember how I complained like 2 or 3 times because the water got shut off in my last area? Well it looks like that was just preparing me for Spring and Summer in Tacna because starting at 4 pm everyday there is NO water!!! Until 7 am!!! We have to fill buckets with water that we keep in the shower to use from 4-7. Ridonculous as Em and Britt would say. But yeah, what can you do. Yeah, so theres no usable water, but twice in this last week weve opened the door to our room to find it FLOODED with sewer water!!!! Not flooded, flooded, but all of our things on the floor got wet. Supposedly the owner of the house took care of it. Lets hope so. The worst part is I didn’t know where all the water had come from until I started cleaning it up and realized it reaked!!! Oh well. What can you do.

Anyway, I hope you are doing great. I miss you and love you all!! Hows baby tuck? How are all of you?? What are the Halloween plans? Maybe dont tell me. Mmmmm chili dogs....Anyway, more next week. The internet is slow again!! TAlk to you soon!!!

12 October 2009

2010-01-24T20:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey familia!!! Somebody in peru had to tell me that today is Columbus day by the by. Turns out Ive never known and or recognized Columbus Day. Woops!! But anyway, happy columbus day!!!

Whats going on???? Things are good here in Tacna. Im glad to hear little tuck got here alright!!! But yeah, it was pretty convenient that Tucker, or Tmoney as Im sure Em will be calling him, CAME on the week I hit a year!! Oct 8th was good. My companion gave me a card and a family in our ward treated us to dinner then the elders told me we had to do practices at the house of a family and we showed up and they threw eggs and flour on me and shoved my FACE in a cake. Thats how they say congratulations here in peru. I'll send pictures. I was in the shower for like an hour to get clean. It was a good day though.

This week at church was good. We had 7 investigators there and Angela had her baby blessed. Adorable. The plans are still for her to get married Friday and baptized Saturday. I'll let you know next week how it turns out. The only problem is on Saturday we are also going to be helping with the pollada for Jessica and Jesús to be able to get married and baptized. Its a typical keele day.

Anyway, I hope youre all doing great. After a year in the misión I still miss you all and love you all. I also still miss and love TV. In case you were wondering. Guess a year hasnt changad me TOO much. Love you!!! Talk to you soon!!

5 October 2009

2010-01-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hey fam a lam,

Schwat is up?!! How has your week been?? ANYWAY, how was conference for you guys?? I only got to see the last hour of the last session in english, but I liked the whole thing. Obviously.

So we spent Tuesday of this week trying to get a bunch of paperwork taken care of so Angela can get married and baptized next week. God Bless America is all I have to say about that. At one point we were paying a man in an alley with his typewriter to give us a document we needed. But the funny thing is is that here in peru that´s totally legit!!! The man in the alley in the typewriter was recommended to us by town hall!! It was an insane day trying to get everything taken care of. Peru has a TON of requirements for people to get married and everyone told us something different about each requirement, but we finally got it all done and I have learned a LOT about how to get someone married in peru. Thanks to men in back alleys. So yeah,looks like, hopefully Angela will be getting married on the 16th and baptized on the 17th. Hopefully!!

Hey, I made an apple crisp this week!! We have a family thats investigating and they invited us to lunch and had made chicken. Duh. And potatoes. More obvious. And we made an apple crisp for dessert. They loved it!!!! And so did I!!! It tasted like home. So good.

Anyway, I have to go. We are going to play soccer today. IT´s finally getting a little warmer so it should be fun. I love you all and miss you. Hope youre doing great. Talk to you soon!!!

28 September 2009

2010-01-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

Welp, my prayers, and yours, thank you thank you thank you, were answered!! I'll, or I guess I should say we'll, Hermana. Cavero didnt get changed either, be hanging out in Tacna for at least 6 more weeks!!! They called at almost 11 last night to tell us and we were so happy!!!!

This week we had an experience that screamed Keele Family a.k.a. Emily crawling through the woodbox to get into the house. So Angela has been in the house of her mom recovering from giving birth for a few weeks, but she really misses her log,dirt house and having us be able to visit. So she told her mom she was going to take some baby things to her wood house and have a discussion with us then go back. Well we had some more things from the RS ladies so we took a stroller and a bunch of things to her house too. We found her sitting outside on a rock. Turns out she had forgotten the key to her house in her moms house and only had 20 soles and would have had to walk to the center to make change to be able to go back to her moms house. So yeah, we got there and I, being a Keele, told her it was NOT a problem. That we´d disassemble part of the brick wall surrounding her log cabin to make a staircase to get into her property to be able to open the door to let her into the property so she could get into the house inside. So, in skirts, we start pulling bricks off the wall and building our staircase. Well we finally got it to a good level and I climbed up the brick wall and jumped from the top of the wall into her property. Then I went to open the door to let them in, but the door was locked with 2 keys and I could only get one of the locks open from the inside without the key!! So I told them NOT a problem, I would hoist them over the wall so they could get in and we could look for a key she thought she had inside the log cabin. So then I tried to get into the log cabin to get a chair out to help them over and I had to unwind wire and pull out paper they had shoved in there so nobody would break in, etc. Finally I got in and helped them jump the wall with the help of a chair. So we found the keys but NONE of them worked!!! So then we tried to use a butter knife to get the lock off the door so we could carry all of her baby stuff inside. Well that didn´t work. So we ended up hoisting all the baby stuff over the wall and then I finally, FINALLY, said, ¨¨how about my companion and I go back to your mom´s house to get the keys and leave you here with all the baby stuff.¨We all realized we were crazy for not having thought of that. I think I thought it would be a lot easier to get the door open than it was. So we left her inside and rebuilt her brick wall so nobody else would climb in then went to her moms house and got the keys and yeah, that´s how we spent the afternoon Tuesday. Well, I had actually forgotten it´d happened until a guy from our ward asked us why he saw my companion alone outside a random house that the police were driving by!! Good thing that´s something normal in peru and the police didn´t take too much interest. Angela had another picantada Saturday to be able to make more money so she can get married and baptized this month. Turns out someone gave her 100 fake soles!!! I think she was still able to make a bit of a profit though. Hopefully. I know she´ll be able to get married though.

I was reading the Sept Ensign this month and I really liked a quote I found. It says, the church was organized to make life sweet today, to give contentment to the heart today, to bring salvation today...some of us look forward to a time in the future but today is a part of eternity. I liked that.

Anyway, I love you and miss you all!! Hope you´re great and that little Tucky comes soon!! Enjoy conference!! Love you!!!

21 September 2009

2010-01-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

Welp supposedly the 23rd of September is offically spring here!!! But you could have fooled me. It´s been more rainy and overcast and chilly than ever!!! Hopefully pretty soon though it´ll warm up. Other than the weather, things here are pretty good. We had our stake conference yesterday. It was a satelite broadcast like I think you guys told me you had? C. Scott Grow, Elder Holland, President uchtdorf and Sylvia Allred spoke to peru. It was good. I thought it would be in english, but C. Scott Grow spoke in spanish?! Then Elder Holland started in spanish and switched to english with an interpreter, he joked about how painful it would be if he spoke in spanish the whole time. President Uchtdorf obviously spoke english, but he said he wished he could speak german instead. It was a crack up. Anyway, it was good. Elder Grow talked about 5 missionaries he met that are from peru and serving in Mexico. He said he´d do a shout out for them in the conference so he read their names and where they´re from. It was good though. They talked a lot about missonary work and raising missionaries in our families.

We had the multizona this week and it was good. It´s always good to see president and sister davis.

Last week for pday we went to the scariest zoo possible. It shouldnt even really be allowed to be called a zoo. It´s more a crazy old man with all the wild animals he´s captured and thrown in his backyard. I made a startling realization while there-I am TERRIFIED of ostriches!!! There was a giant, LOOSE, ostrich, running around!! I was frozen stiff trying to avoid eye contact with the thing for like 20 minutes. All I kept thinking was, ¨I need a tostada to calm my nerves!!¨That´s for you Em. Really though, I was terrified!!! There were also random bunnies running around, turtles, monkeys, birds, owls, fish, etc. Dont worry, I got lots of pictures. I also got interviewed for peruvian public access!!! There was a camera crew there documenting the insanity and they asked to interview me!! So look for me on Channel 26. Im sure peru public access will somehow find it´s way to Gardnerville public access when they´ve run out of hours of that ¨Reel em in¨fly fishing show to run.

Hey, did my photo cd work?! I dont want to erase them until I know so let me know.

Anyway, I love you guys and miss you!! Changes are next week. Pray we dont have any!! Be safe!! Thanks for your emails!! Love you!!

14 September 2009

2010-01-24T20:32:00.000-08:00

Welp, once again, thanks to the high quality internet here in peru, looks like Im going to have to cut this email short!!!! But anyway, we are alive and well here. I skimmed your email mom and Im so glad you guys got the package!!!!!!

Lets see, the news here in Tacna. Our investigator, Angela, who needs to get married to get baptized, and was also pregnant, had her baby this week!! She named her Christa!! Just kidding. That would be awesome, but she had a boy and named him Jesus. I guess thats almost as good. She did have her baby on my 11 month mark though so I think thats significant. She is so great. Shes probably the favorite investigator Ive ever had. The Relief Society ladies put together a big basket for her and her baby and we are going to deliver it tomorrow. I REALLY want to be here long enough to see her get married and baptized which will be in October so pray we dont have changes on Sept 27!!

Also, as we were leaving the hospital from visiting Angela. Peruvian hospitals STILL terrify me by the way. We ran into a lady in our ward who is like 70 years old. She was walking around by herself outside of the emergency entrance. I asked her what she was doing and she said an iron rod had fallen on her head??!! So we accompanied her inside and helped her fill our her papers and talk with the doctors. Turns out one of her doctors is a less active lady and the doctor listened to the missionaries and read the Book of Mormon when he was 17? I was kind of stressed out about missing appointments and spending 2 hours in the hospital with her, but I couldn’t leave her outside by herself either and I guess it just goes to show heavenly father knows what hes doing. We were able to talk to a few people about the church while helping her.

What else…I saw a cock fight this week!!! An honest to goodness cock fight. I thought people were gathered around in this park by our house just chatting or having a picnic or something and it turns out they were watching a cock fight. Oh peru.

Anyway, I hope youre all doing great. I still love you and Im still praying for you all. Everyday. Multiple times a day. Hope its having some kind of affect!!! Love you!!! Be safe!!! Talk to you soon!!!

7 September 2009

2010-01-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Hey HEy Hey!!!

And hows my family today? Im doing pretty good here in Tacna. Not too much has happened this week actually. It went by really fast...I guess thats a good thing right? Anyway, we are doing good here. And since I dont have too much exciting news from this week Ill share some stories Ive been saving up from weeks passed. hope I havent already shared these. Sorry if I have.

1. One day we were walking along the street and a man in a car pulled over and offered us a ride. We told him no, but he kept insisting!!! He said he always sees us walking and wanted to be a good Samaritan that day. He had a nice car and didn’t look like the kidnapper ( missionarynapper) type AND he had his girlfriend or wife or something in the car with him so after like 5 minutes we finally got in. He said, Youre not headed too far right? Just up the street and around the corner? And he was right, we were on our way to visit a new member that lived up the street and around the corner. I was thinking, maybe hes an angel or something. How does he know where we´re going? So we got in and got to talking with him and the lady and we started to talk to them about the church. They said they weren’t members, but had friends that were members. Supposedly super active members. We were a little confused because we didn’t recognize their names, but we didn’t think much of it. So as we´re talking the car comes to a stop and I realize he´s waiting for us to get out. I thought it was kind of weird he never asked us what house we wanted to be dropped off at, and was just going to drop us off in the middle of the street instead of at the ladys house, but I didn t want to complain so we thanked him and got out. Well as the car pulled away my companion and I realized he had dropped us off at the Jehovas Witness chapel!!!!! I didn’t want him to feel bad for confusing us with the JWs so we pretended to walk into the chapel!!!! So, in case youre wondering, Im STILL getting myself into awkward situations. Thought youd enjoy.

2. We were knocking doors the other day and a man came out with a scythe. A SCYTHE!!!! Like for harvesting wheat. He was polishing it as I started to do our door approach, but I was so shocked, scared, that I didn’t get very far. He finally saw the fear in my eyes and said he is a worker at the house and was cutting weeds and didn’t have time to talk. We walked away laughing and so relieved.

3. About a month ago we found a really great investigator. She invited us in and gave us oranges and was interested and listened. She travels a lot so we haven’t been able to meet with her much, but when we do she always accepts what we teach and asks really good questions. So we went last week to teach her and we extended a baptismal invite and she told me she´d already been baptized (like pretty much everyone does) so I explained to her that she needed to be baptized like Jesus Christ and she said she had (which everyone does ) so I started to explain to her more….after 20 MINUTES it came out that she is a member!!! She got baptized like 10 years ago and doesn’t go to church now, but still has her FHEs, and pays tithing!!! I felt so dumb!!!! How had she not told us she was a member after talking with her so much-??!?!!! More importantly, how had she sat through our lessons and asked questions like an investigator?!! I have never been so confused as when we made the realization that our golden investigator is a baptized member of the church. So yeah, we´re going to keep visiting her hoping she´ll come back to church, but looks like we wont be planning her baptism anytime soon.

4. We started talking with a man the other day and he told us he believed in God, but not in a specific religion. We asked him why and he said it´s because he´s been abducted by aliens, seen the future, and visits daily with ghosts and no religion he´s investigated believe in those things. The practices we did in the MTC did NOT prepare me for that.

Anyway, I better wrap this novel up, but I love you and I miss you all!!!

31 August 2009

2010-01-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Happy ALMOST September!!!!

How are you guys? Im doing pretty good. We had a baptism Saturday so Im actually doing really good. Im pretty happy about that. Nury finally got baptized! It turned out really nice. We have a lot of good ward members who are always willing to help us so that’s been a big blessing. OH, also, my wildest Peruvian dream also came true this week!! I was serenaded by mariachi!!! I felt like I was right back in Sparks in Birtha Mirandas. We left our house after lunch yesterday and there was a mariachi band in the street right outside our door getting ready to perform for a neighbour. The lead singer has taught English for 30 years and accosted me and started talking and forced me (it didn’t take much forcing though) to put on a sombrero and take pictures with them! Then they played us a song and then we went on our merry way. Best surprise ever!! Things are alright with my companion. Shes a good teacher, but is pretty serious. For example, yesterday, while my dreams were coming true, she said in a stern voice, ¨Hna. Keele, but it´s the Sabbath, we cant let them play a song for us, we cant listen to their music on the Sabbath.¨ So as they were putting on their accordions and had placed the sombrero on my head she started to walk away!! Luckily they cranked out a quick number and I was able to give them back their sombrero politely before shed gotten too far. BUT we have an appointment to visit them and teach them this week so I feel justified in living out my fantasy yesterday. OH, I finally bought a CD player this week!! Theres a young couple in my ward who are so good to us. They are both dentists and don’t have any kids so they treat us very well!! So the husband reminds me a lot of Darren and last week they went with us to help me pick out a CD player. He, nestor, was asking a million questions about how many woofers, memory, mp3, dvd, etc. I didn’t understand any of it, but I do know that he helped me buy my adorable little CD player and after 10 months of silence we finally have music!! The only problem is I lent all the church CDs I had to ward members that went on vacations so we´re still in silence…but not for long! Oh, I heard the funniest story this week. One of our investigators, Jessica, is from the jungle in the north of peru but lives here now. She was telling me about the pet monkeys she used to have. Em, you NEED to move to the Peruvian jungle from the sounds of it. Anyway, she said one of her monkeys used to smoke! Hed light his cigarette and smoke it!! She also said another one would get mad if the family wouldn’t let him have his way and hed sneak into the kitchen and pee into the pots and pans with food that were cooking!! Im terrified of monkeys, but they sound pretty funny. Then my companion piped in and told us about the time she tried to share her ice cream with a turtle and he bit her and she still has a scar. Peru is interesting. But good.

24 August 2009

2010-01-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Hey guys!!! Happy pday!!! And happy birthday mom!! What are you guys going to do to celebrate?! Wear your seatbelts in the convertable is all I ask!!! And eat cake for me!!! Hope you guys are doing great!!! Im doing pretty good here. Well, surviving. I guess that´s pretty good.

My companion,Hna Cavero, got here at 1130 on Wednesday night from the mission home. She´s from Trujillo, Peru. She lives 2 blocks from where the new temple is being built!! I really like her. Shes a good missionary. 15 missionaries came into the mission this change so I figured tons of people must be training and president davis basically had a lack of options. Turns out 14 elders came and 1 sister!!!! I heard once that the missionaries that get assigned to train are the ones that need to be trained again and thats pretty much the only solution I can find for this change, but whatever. Shes nice, but has a sad life. Her mom was shot and killed in front of her 5 years ago!!! I swear, feature full length movies could be made about the lives of every one of my companions thus far and could win academy awards.

Oh, good news Andre called me this week!!! His aunt called me to tell me they closed Pachacutec and there arent missionaries there anymore. I was sad, but happy because now his aunt, Mirriam, can have her room back that shed been renting to us. Get this, Andre sang me Sweet Dreams Are Made of These in English!!! Hes been practicing and sang it perfectly!! I was cracking up!!!

Oh, sad news. Hna Sonya, the lady thatd had cancer, but was making a remarkable recovery, passed away this week. It was sad. We went to her funeral and they wanted ME to speak on the plan of salvation!! Luckily the high priests group leader showed up and got me off the hook. Im sad for her family, but happy I got to know her. She was a really neat lady.

Good news, our investigator Angela really wants to get baptized and we talked to the bishop this week and the church is going to help her pay for half the cost of getting married so she can get baptized! Hopefully in September thatll all be happening.

Oh, finally, the Herrera family will be coming to Utah in June 2010 now. Im trying to talk them into Gardnerville. They definitely want to visit Vegas though so at least theyll get some of Nevada.

Anyway, I hope youre all doing great. I miss you all and love you!!! Guess what, only 5 changes left in my mission!! 8 months sounds long, but 5 changes isnt too bad right?! Love you!!!!!!!!!

17 August 2009

2010-01-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

Welp. The elders called at midnight, literally, last night and I am no longer with Hermana Arroyo. I found out last night that this change I will be training. WHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought the elder was joking with me. After 5 full minutes of me asking him who my real companion was going to be and telling him to stop joking he got annoyed and hung up. So yeah, I am going to train. And the poor new missionary that is going to be my companion is going to die!!! I cant train!! Talk about the blind leading the blind!!!!!! But, I have high hopes that she will be amazing and like all my other companions, take charge and be the real senior companion-trainer. So yeah, she gets here on Wednesday and since 5 am when I took Hermana Arroyo to the bus station Ive had to be with the elders. Theyre looking for a temporary companion for me until Wednesday. So what Im trying to say in the worlds longest paragraph Ive just written is pray. Harder. I dont know anything about her yet, but Im guessing by next week Ill have a LOT to report!!

Oh, I also finally used my ATM card last week and it worked! Dad knows me well. I bought my companion a coat because she didnt have one. Hope thats okay. But yeah, it is working and thank you for sending it!!

So this week we were walking to an appointment at night. Well we were walking along, not paying much attention and I realized I was right by a window of a house. So I glance over as Im walking by and have never done a bigger retake in my life. A CASKET with a BODY was in the living room of this house!!!!!!!!! Apparently its tradition here when somebody dies. For a full day the casket is in the house and they have the viewing there. Wow. Glad nobody ever warned me about that one. Good thing Ive got 23 years of funeral experience. My companion on the other hand refused to walk in that neighborhood for the rest of the week. Oh peru.

We had a lesson this week with a lady named Nelly here that does PR! IT was really fun to talk with her. Shes busy planning the anniversary of Tacna until September so we are going to go back to visit her then, but it was cool to talk to her about what pr people in peru do. Besides promote llamas of course. Since thats all I knew about peru before I came.

Oh, sometime could you guys send me a printout of the blog again? I havent seen it since January or so so if you could print off a little afteer that itd be fun to read. Next week Im finally going to send your package for you guys. Sorry it wont make it for your bday mom, but know Ill be thinking of you and looking for something good to eat in your honor!!

Anyway, I have to go, but I love you all and miss you all and hope youre doing great. Keep praying. Please. Love you!!! Be safe!!

July 7 - August 10, 2009

2009-08-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

7 July 2009
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

13 July 2009

Anyway, we had a good week. We´ve started to volunteer in a bakery one morning a week!!! We went Wednesday and peeled a mountain of apples and helped make empanadas and treats, that, get this, we ended up eating that night at the house of a member who had called and ordered them!! Small world. It was really fun, but volunteering in a bakery can´t be good for my health. Oh well. It feels like Im working in apple hill and Im a fan.

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,

Happy August!!! How are you guys?! Im doing pretty good. Not too much to report here this week. The week has actually gone by really fast.

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

9 MONTHS DOWN, 9 MONTHS TO GO!

2009-07-02T18:07:00.001-07:00

So...I'm a major slacker. Here's a larger than life update of Christa's emails from the past two months!!

27 April 2009
Hey guys, hows it going? Not too much to report here. Mom, it looks like I finally got your letters. I just spent 20 minutes writing you guys an email and the computer just erased mine!!! So sorry this is going to be pretty short this week.Im doing pretty good. Not too much to report here. We have some good investigators, but a few of them come to find out need to get married so we will see what happens. Welcome to peru where nobody is married!!This week 2 little girls randomly showed up on our doorstep because they were late for school and needed help with their english homework. I should have sat them down and walked them through it, but they were late so I basically did their homework for them and sent them on their way. And I didnt even feel bad about it. I felt pretty good about it actually. If theyre smart enough to figure out where we live to come get help, Im happy to do their homework for them!! Oh, so everyone wears uniforms to school here. It is so cute. The 4 year old, Andre, who we live with always has his suspenders and tie and sweater on. I love that kid. The other day as we were leaving he asked us if we were going to talk to people about God. We said yes and he yelled after us down the street, well why dont you try doing that here sometime!! You havent talked about God not even one day to me!! Hes 4, but he sure managed to tell us!Well I hope you guys are doing great!! More next week, I promise. Im going to write all my emails in word from now on so they cant get erased!! Love you all!! Hope youre doing great!!Love,Christa

4 May 2009
Hey guys!! So lets hope the internet actually works this week for a change!! Anyway, things are okay here. It has been kind of a tough week. We have gotten rejected more this week than ever and it has been a little rough. Nobody wants to listen!! I blame it on the Virgencita de Chapi that all of Peru is celebrating this week. I don’t know what the real problem was but it wasn’t a good week. On top of that the elders call every night to find out our numbers for the day and if theyre not great, well, we get burned as they like to say down here. I went to bed crying 3 nights this week!! But today and yesterday were good days. The little girl Mabel we baptized got confirmed yesterday and then she bore her testimony. It was so good. The bishop also blessed her that she would serve a mission too! So yeah, it kind of put things in perspective. Ive also found a quote this week by president Hinckley that’s helped me a lot. It says, ¨It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers.¨I love that President Hinckley.
So get this, last pday I almost got robbed!! My companion and I were walking down the street and I hear her go, ¨hey!¨And I thought she saw another missionary or something, but it turns out there was a guy who had opened my backpack and had his hand in it!! He looked pretty terrified that she caught him and ran away scared. Good thing my companion pays attention to things like that!
So the other night my companion was in the shower and I was on my bed reading. I heard these weird scratching noises coming from under my bed. I wanted to look but was too scared. I thought Sweet D, Ems rat, had escaped from Gville and was going to attack my face if I looked under the bed!! (if it isn’t apparent by now, I think I might just have inherited some neuroticism from this family) So instead I spent 20 minutes using my camera to try to take a picture of whatever it was so I could know without putting my face under the bed. After 20 unsuccessful minutes and pictures of only my luggage and the dust that’s accumulated under my bed a giant cockroach finally came strolling out!! Better than a rat, but still disgusting. Love, Christa

11 May 2009
Hey Hey HEy!!
Welp, not too much has happened in the last 12 hours. It was sooooo good to talk to you guys!!I also never finished telling you guys about mothers day here. On Friday all the schools invite the moms and the kids either dance or sing or act or their moms. Andre, who i will be bringing hoe with me, knocked on our door Friday morning and came in in his pig costume asking if we wanted to take pictures of him. of course I did. He performed the 3 little pigs and later told me it went ¨super well¨because he had been practicing for days. I love you guys and thanks for everything and i will talk to you soon!! Love, Christa

18 May 2009
Fam a lam!!!Shwat is up?! Not too much is going on here. Just same old same old. It´s been a tough transfer in terms of investigators who are progressing, but that gives me hope that we will have some really good ones lined up for the next 6 weeks. Speaking of which, transfers are on the 25th and I do NOT want to go! If you don’t get an email from me at the usual time next week that means Im on my way to who knows where! So lets all hope you get a normal email from me and that pachacutec is my home for 6 more weeks. So one of our converts, a single mom named cris, who has 2 little girls, came to my English class on Saturday after just being robbed. She had 500 soles in her purse and somebody stole it. She was going to pay rent and buy food with that money! She had to cut the lock off her door because her purse had her keys in it and she only had 6 soles in her pocket. It was so sad. We usually take her some of our food when we help her clean her house every week and this week I want to giver her everything I own!! I wont, but Im sure there are a few things she could use more than me. The bishop gave her a blessing on Sunday and she seems to be better, but still so sad.
The good news of the week is we learned how to make empanadas in enrichment this week! That’s one good thing about being a sister missionary, we are expected to attend enrichment. Im not sure Darren got to do that much on his mission. Anyway, I hope you all are doing great. I love you and am praying for you! Talk to you soon!!
Love,Christa

26 May 2009
Welp. Im in Tacna. We got the call at 10 pm Sunday night and at 10 am Monday I was on the 6 hour bus ride to Tacna. So I thought I had bus experience when I had the privilege of riding the Greyhound to visit Britt in Vegas once, but I was wrong!People got on at every stop yesterday selling watches, necklaces, corn, avocados, pork, etc. Also, we had to look out the windows everytime we pulled over to make sure people werent robbing our things from under the bus!! Anyway, I am now with Hna. Arroyo who is from Cuzco and has been on her mission for 3 months. The elders told me Id been demoted to junior companion and I told them that sounded about right, but unfortunately they were kidding and Im still a senior companion. My companion seems really great. Shes only been a member a year and a half! Crazy.
So I was sad to leave pachacutec. I cried. My companion cried. The lady that does our laundry cried. The extremely catholic mom of our pensionista even cried! But I did get some pretty good parting gifts. Among them a miniature wooden house, shinguards, a cinderella diary, a list of recipes, and pictures of Andre in traditional peruvian dress when he had to perform a dance one time! It was hard to leave, but if I stayed longer I know it would have been harder so I guess it is good.
But yes, I am in Tacna. It is pretty close to Chile. I dont know what I ever complained about in Arequipa because we had flushing toilets ther!! Here there is a pitcher in the bathroom that we fill with water to throw in the toilet bowl - that doesnt even have a seat!! Also, compared to here the water in the shower in Arequipa was scalding!! Also, we have a tin roof and after waking up to scratching noises Im pretty sure theres a coop of chickens up there. Per usual. But dont worry too much. I always take a while to adjust but end up loving my areas. See my early emails from Pachacutec for proof. Im sure Tacna will be great. Just pray for me a little harder the next couple of weeks.
Good news mom, my package came this week so I was able to leave cinnabears and jelly bellies with people and they were SO happy to have that candy.
Anyway, thanks for your emails. Im going to go read them now. They keep me going! But I love you all and miss you and hope you are safe and healthy and happy and still watching tv and eating out for me. Love you!!
Love,Christa

1 June 2009
We had a baptism Friday. I like Tacna. I had nothing to do with it of course, but that didn´t stop me from enjoying the fruits of someone elses labor. The mom of a lady in our ward lives in Lima. 3 weeks ago she had a dream she was dressed in white and got baptized. So she took the 20 hour bus ride to come visit her daughter in Tacna to talk about it. While she was here my companion and her companion taught her the lessons. She went back to Lima, but came back this week and on Thursday night told us she wanted to get baptized Friday! It was a little crazy to get pulled together, but it all worked out. We had lessons with her husband everynight they were in town and Im hoping he has the same dream and comes back to get baptized too!! I pray for my investigators to have dreams. They NEVER go against their dreams. I love it. So after 9 years of her daughter being a member Hna. Paulina got baptized this week.
I really do think I like tacna. We have parts of downtown in our area which remind me a little of San Fran. there are also parts that remind me a LOT of death valley too. It has a little bit of everything. Supposedly it is one of the hottest places in the mission, but since it is winter we havent seen too much of the sun. Even though it is a little chilly it is still WAY better than puno or arequipa this time of year Im sure so thank you for your prayers. Oh!! I got your package with gloves and nylons and makeup!! Thank you!!
I think our pensionista is good. After having missionaries live here for 10 years she finally got baptized last year. Get this though, her husband is a full blown buddhist!! There is always incense burning and he chants in Chinese!! he is really nice though. But it always takes a little bit of getting used to when we have to change pensionistas. For instance, Isabel is convinced I dont eat enough so she piles my plate HIGH with rice and potatoes and then sits by me until I finish it all!! My heart hurts from eating so much!! Im thinking of telling her I have diabetes and require a special diet...We´ll see. Also, we ate fried fish the other day and I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out what part of the fish I was eating and then I picked up a little round thing on my plate and realized I was holding a fried fish eye!!! It was then confirmed to me that we were eating fish heads. The good news is a family offered us calamari this week!! I was in heaven. Speaking of which we are going to the beach for pday today!! Itll be my first time to see the ocean here! I will gather seashells for you all. Love, Christa

8 June 2009
Buenas tardes fam a lam! Schwat is up? Welp another week here in tacna. I dont know what map youre looking at but suposedly Im in a place called TACNA. Who knows though right??
So our zone had a meeting with our stake presidency last week and they are awesome. They asked about each ward and bishop and mission leader and how they ca n help us. Theyre also taking us out for pizza this week! They told us that theyve heard that the mission arequipa is going to change its boundaries and include Cuzco and a place called Puerto Maldonado because it is easier to travel to those places from arequipa than from lima? Im guessing the change will take years and supposedly they werent even suposed to say anything so we will see what happens. Still kind of interestiang though.
So I do like Tacna. As my companion says , ¨tacna is a box of surprises!¨ S he says that because, among other things, there is a higher p opulation of arabians in tacna than peruvians!!

Mom, in answer to your questions we do have beds and a pensionista. She is nice, but it has been another adjustment. I never thought it would be so hard to not pick what i want to eat. Dad was wondering what we have for breakfast and EVERY morning we have bread and a drink that looks and tastes suspiciously like gravy....And to think I complained about meat and tomatoes for breakfast!!
Dad, in answer to your questions zone conference is coming up in about 2 weeks. You asked if they were fun. I wouldnt exactly say fun, I mean there are definitely no milk chugging contests like in NV LVW , but we do always learn a lot so thats something good.
OH!! Guess who I got a call from this morning ?!! None othe than the one, the only , Andre!! He said his heart hurt and he wanted to sing me a song to make it feel better !! I do miss that kid. I also talked to hna soplopuco. She sounds good. I m iss her too.
So...bad news... I think I have fleas. W hen I woke up with little bites all over, and my companion too, she diagnosed us with fleas. I hope shes wrong, but what can you do? We bought a spray for ourselves and our beds and are cleaning and washing everything!!!
Speaking of waking up with afleas, I found a scripture i really like this week in D and C. Its in 6 verses 13 and 14. I definitely wouldnt have ended up here on my own!! But if its where I ended up it s where i need to be right' I also like verse 34. Its a good little section.
Anyway, sorry this message has so many errors , I think somebody spilled a soda on this keyboard or something. But I hope you are all doing great. I miss you and love you and pray for you all the time. Talk to yo soon!! Love,Christa

15 June 2009
Hey fam!!How are you guys?? Im doing pretty good. Aside from the fact that I ate lung this week of course! LUNG. Cow lung. It was a lot like eating a sponge. But actually, it really wasnt that bad. Im worried ive given you guys the wrong impression with the food situation here. Theres LOTS of food. Ample food!! Good food! It´s just the fact that I cant open the fridge or cupboard and pick what and how much and when thats been a challenge. But yeah, dont think Im not eating. Im eating. Boy am I eating!!So things are pretty good here in Tacna. Our goal as a companionship this transfer, aside from baptisms of course, is to get to know the ward members so they can help us. I think we´ve made some progress in that department because every night last week we were invited to an FHE, dinner, birthday, or other event. We shared the spiritual thought and they shared with us. Among other things I was given a bracelet, earrings, a pair of pajama pants, shoes, a half kilo of olives, etc. The members here are really great and it´s going to help us a lot to know them.Dad, to answer your questions, we have about 120 members in our ward I think. In my other ward only about 60 were attending! We also have a normal chapel with flushing toilets, but no hymnals. Not too many indigenous indians but just about everyone speaks quechua or amayra. We havent had too many lessons with members, but we´re working on that with our plan to get to know people. They really are nice though.So how was Carson Valley days? Please tell me you were all front and center living it up for me. Want to know something ironic? You know how much I love parades in the US? Here parades are the bane of my existance!! They have parades all the time and nobody can ever go to church because theyre always marching in parades!!! The good news is there was no parade yesterday and we had 7 investigators at church.Anyway, whens Trek?? I cant wait to hear all about it.D and M, happy anniversary and wish stratt a very feliz cumpleanos from his aunt. And Dad happy fathers day!! I think you should make a trip to Tacna to celebrate. Ill take you out to the punjabi restaurant! Anyway, we have our multizona this week so Im sure Ill have more to tell you next week.Love you all. Hope youre doing great. Good luck with trek if its this week. Whens Cumorah?! Thanks for your emails and prayers and support! Love you guys.Love, Christa

22 June 2009
Warnaing-this keyboard isJACKED anda ainserts a´s all over the place anddoesnt do spaces. Sorry!!! Happy 2nd day of summer!!!Its definitely not summer here, but Im not freezing to death either so thats good news. It feels a lot like a giants night game here in Tacna. Humid and definitely chilly, but not snow worthy weather. Thankfully. Anyway, not too much is going on here I'm more interested in hearing how you all survived trek!!! Im hoping youve recovered enough to write me about ait and that em is sending me a copy of the book shes written about this painful period in her life. Things are alright here.We had zone conference this week and it was fuan to see president and sister davis. We talked about diligence and teaching and thianking about and loving and workaing with investigators. Pres Davis got rid of the standards of excellence and is letting us make our own goals every week. The standard of excellence is still the goal of the mission every moanth though soI guess things havent changed too, too much.
So Hna Soplopuco called me this week!! Iwas so happy to hear from her, UNTIL Ifound out whyshe was calliang-to tell me a guy we had tracted into in Arequipa was traveliang to Tacna to lookfor me!!We taught hima few alessoans, but he always said he couldnt focus because I made ahim nervous and there werent girls like me ian Peru. aObvioausly, we quit ateachiang him.I thinka his moam wanted gringo grandbabies or something because everytime we ran into her in town shed tell uswe had to go back and visit her son. Shed alwaysmake comaments about my hair and eyes too!! Anyway,I forgot about him, but Hna. S. ran into him and he told her he has business in Tacna for 2 weeks and is going to go chapel to chapel looking forme becauseI never told him goodbye!! So yeah, hopefully I wont have any news for you about my good friend Angel next week. Ironic that thats his name right? Hes not dangerous oranything. Im naot worried at all. Welp, theres not really toomuch toreport here. We have some good investigators.Willian, Renato, Angela, Maria, Nury...but some ofthem need toget married and some need permission from their parents so well see. OH, but Felix, the guy that we taught when he was in Tacna, the hausband of the lady that got bqaptized right when I got here, called us from Lima to tell us hes getting baptized!! I wont get to see it, but its still pretty exciting.
Anyway, how are you all?? What are the plans for the4th? When do you leave for NY?? I love you and miss you!! Stay safe! And sane, if possible.
aalove,a Christa
Sorryagain about this keyboard.Idont have time to fix itall. Love you!! Hope you can decipher this!!!

29 June 2009
What????? And to think I thought news would get to me slower in the mission! I found out about MJ the day of! Crazy. And Farrah Fawcett too?? What is going on??
Anyway, unlike the celebrities in the US, I am doing pretty good. We had a baptism on Saturday!! A 12 year old named Renato got baptized. On Fri we taught him and he prayed that a counselor in our bishopric would get home from his business trip in Lima in time to baptize him on Saturday. The wife of the counselor told us she couldnt get ahold of him and that meant he wouldnt be getting home until Sunday. Renato was sad and obviously so was I. Imagine our surprise when we were walking to the baptism with Renato on Saturday and saw Hno. Rivas walking into his house with his luggage!! You should have seen the look on Renato´s face. And on mine! So yeah, Hno. Rivas baptized Renato. We went to renato´s house on Sunday to pick him up to go to church and he wasnt there! We were so scared he wasnt going to be able to get confirmed. We waited for a few minutes and he finally came walking up. He had been at the house of a friend borrowing a dress shirt and tie to wear to church!! Precious.
Oh, did I tell you about how the bishop announced a lady in our ward had died and she really hadn´t? Yeah, well we went to visit her this week. She has cancer and is on bed rest and is the sweetest lady. And young. Shes only 50! We offered to sing her a hymn and she chose Nearer My God to Thee. I just about lost it. The bishop planned her funeral in ward council yesterday!I found the whole thing a little morbid, especially because she looks strong to me and could be around for a lot longer! So we have a ward activity today. It´s a family sports, games, fun day. My district is going to go, but get this, we dont have permission to go in pday clothes so we are attending our ward sports activity in church dress!!! Ill let you know how it goes next week...
What are you doing for the 4th??? Enjoy it for me PULEASE!!!!
Love you and miss you all!! Be safe!! TAlk to you soon!!
Love,Christa

2009-04-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

Email from April 20, 2009

Well after a weeks as senior companion I only have a little bit of the urge to throw myself under a bus still. Lucky for me, my companion is great. She has 2 months in the mission, but is amazing and has made this change a LOT better than it could have been.

Not too much is going on here actually. Oh, so my companion and I are in the ward choir. We got roped into it because ward conference is coming up and they need as many people as possible to perform a special musical number. One word. Painful!! As you all know I cant carry a tune in a bucket, but compared to the people Im singing with I should have a recording contract or something! I want to tape it so you guys can witness it. It will be a musical number to remember! I thought about faking sick so I wouldnt have to go and be embarassed when we perform, but then I remembered Im in peru so who cares!

We went with the Relief Society president and bishop to do some service for a lady that just had a baby this week. I can now officially wash clothes by hand! A 6 year old walked me through the process and kept scolding me because I wasnt soaping the clothes right, but I eventually got the hang of it. Its a surprisingly long process that includes 6 different buckets!! Im scared for the life this mission is preparing me for.Since I can now wash clothes by hand does that mean Ill be living in poverty somewhere withouth a washing machine??!! Sure hope not.

We went to get our hair cut and met a lady in the salon this week. She sat down next to us and asked about the Book of Mormon on my lap. She also told us shed seen us in the airport when we went to see off our companions in March. Weve had 2 lessons with her and another one tonight and she seems really great. Well see what happens.

So I had 17 people in my english class this week!! I still have no idea what Im doing, but its fun. Some investigators were even there. So yeah, send me ideas!

How are you guys?? Whats the latest in Gville? Vegas? Iowa? I hope youre all doing great. Im surviving. The thought one day at a time is a big comfort and motivator for me. I love you and am praying for you all the time!! Talk to you next week!!

Love,
Christa

2009-04-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

Email from April 13, 2009

Anyway, happy belated Easter!! So bad news. Theres no easter bunny in Peru!! And even worse, no cadburry candy!! BUT luckily i got your packages this week-thank you,thank you,thank you-I loved the notes in my pants mom, and a tigers milk and cliff bar were more than enough to make me happy on easter morning. I dont know where all the people were who were celebrating easter in a major way but I sure didnt see them! It was kind of like Christmas. If I hadnt known the date, I wouldnt have suspected a thing. Although nobody had work or school from Thursday to Sunday, nobody ate meat and we all ate fish stew so I guess thats something.

We had 2 baptisms on Sunday. Brenda, the ten year old daughter of a less active family and Mabel, probably the most impressive 11 year old Ive ever met. We met her through another investigator and she has begged her parents for 2 months to let her be baptized and they finally relented. I wish you could meet her and her little sister Maite. They are my favorites. Im pretty sure Mabel could speak in General Conference and do just fine. There are some people who just already know everything and our teacher her was just like telling her she was right about all the things shes always though. The first prayer she gave my companion and I just sat there shocked. It sounded like dad praying!! Anyway, it was a really good day.

Listen to this. My old companion, Hna Cabrejos is married!! She left March 2 and by March 28 she was married!! Her boyfriend was serving in this mission too-dont worry, they knew each other from their home ward in Lima. Apparently she dumped him 4 months into her mission and she always told me nothing would ever happen between them, but he got home 2 weeks before her and Im not quite sure what he orchestrated in those 2 weeks, but I do now theyre now married!! Crazyª!!

So I hit 6 months!! I celebrated with a card my companion made me and drinking milk and coke a man in the ward brought us. We also had salchipapa for dinner-french fries with hot dog slices, ketchup, mustard and mayo. It was a good day. And a great week UNTIL last night. Apparently I misunderstood President Davis in my last interview because my companion got transferred and I became senior companion!!! Wha????????? I want to throw myself in front of a bus, but what can you do? My companion is Hermana Soplopuco from Chiclayo. She has 2 months in the mission. Poor thing getting stuck with me. Seriously, not to doubt President DAvis, but Whaaaa????

Anyway, I love you all and miss you!! Hope mom and em had a great trip seeing britt. Talk to you soon!! Love you!!!

2009-04-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hey fam!! How are you guys?? Burt, I hope you had the best Bday ever!! Send me details! Im glad you guys got my pictures! I think there were like 160. I have anxiety about erasing any until Im sure you have them. There were a couple videos too. Did you get those?

We DID get to watch conference and in English to boot!! We watched at a stake center and I watched in an English room with President and Sister Davis and like 8 northamerican elders. It was the best thing ever! I love conference. I miss watching in my pjs and being able to nap in between sessions, but just being able to watch in english was sufficient.

So we had a baptism Friday. Her name is Maria and shes 10. Maria is the daughter of a lady who was less actie for a long time, but has started coming back. Marias dad wants to be baptized too, but is waiting to get some papers from Bolivia so he can marry her mom. Shes a sweet little girl. Friday was her birthday so we had cake at the baptism too! I do love cake.

Well we went on that hike last pday and it was really fun. BUT we never made it to the waterfalls! After hiking for about an hour we came upon a guard of some sort with an ammunition belt. Not sure what the exact reason was we couldnt go any futher, but the ammo belt was enough to convince me to turn right around. Oh, that reminds me I got a letter from my good friend Hna Walther who is serving in Piura Peru. Good news and bad news. The good news is my mission sounds safer. The bad news is shes got way better stories!

Mom, you asked what the little kids I live with would like. Im sure any little toy or candy would do. Oh, and they do love dinosaurs. Also, a member of my bishopric has requested jelly bellys or cinnabears so maybe throw some of those in next package? Along with, and this is a long shot, but it you happen to have any church DVDS laying around that have a spanish track? Just wondering. But seriously! You can wait until July to send another package. There is NO rush. And send me a quick email the pday before you send it so I can add anything last minute. Oh, good news though, the office elder is picking up my packages again so thats great news!

Dad, if you havent sent your account of your milk chugging experience to the other kids and or read it over the pulpit, please do so now!! IT was Hilarious and Im glad you survived!!

Anyway, transfers are monday so I'll let you know next week what happened. Hopefully nothing!! Love you guys and hope youre doing great.

Love you!!
Love,
Christa

2009-03-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

Happy Dia de Preperacion!!! How are you guys?? Im doing pretty good, just life as usual here in Peru.

So I taught English this week and it ended up being really fun actually. The problem is Ill be teaching every Saturday from now on and Im pretty sure I taught everything i know in the first class! send me ideas...

What else. Oh, I solved a mystery in my area too. Twice a day there is this really strong smell in all of Pachacutec. Ive always wondered what it was. This week my curiosity got the best of me and i did some asking. Turns out its Rico Pollo (Delicious Chicken) A factory in my area that burns the feather nd instensines and parts of the chickens they dont use or sell twice a day!! I shouldnt have asked. Before the smell didnt make me nauseous! ITs also pretty interesting that the only plae in PEru I havent seen dogs running rampant is in the vicinity of Rico Pollo...Im not suggesting anything, im just making an observation...

Oh, but speaking of missing dogs, guess who is out of my life?! The dog we live with! Thank you for your prayers on my behalf. We hadnt been followed or attacked for a few days so we asked the family about her and all we were told is ¨Kiara es de vacaciones¨ which means shes on vacation. Turns out tht mens the family got so sick of her antics they put her in a box, on a train, and shipped her to some ¨cousins¨somewhere in Pêru! For kiaras sake i hope thats true nd that she didnt get shipped to Rico Pollo.

Oh, heres something random. Theres a returned missionary in our ward who served in Lima North 2 or 3 years ago. HEs a nice guy, but he always shows up on our doorstep with stuff he wants to show us. So he brought over a huge stack of pictures the other day. When we finally went through them 1 of his companions looked so familiar to me. Do you guys remember Elder Young who served in our ward a few summers back? I think he came over for dinner a few times? I was looking at pictures of his twin brother!! Small world.

Dad, Ill fill you in on Easter more next week. Ive heard things about treks to the mountains, burning herbs in the streets, eating 7 plates of food, not eating meat, watching movies about Jesus and his life on TV, but Ill let you know more as I actually see all this stuff.

Could someone write on my blog that I cant read my email. Ive gotten a couple letters from friends saying theyve sent me emails and never heard from me. Thats because I wont be able to read that email for a year and a half. So apologize for me and promise them a response in a year and a half. I am trying to do better about writing letters though so hopefully they wont hate me for not responding to their emails.

Anyway, we are hiking to a waterfall today so ill let you know about that next week. Hope youre all great, love you and praying for you! We have a baptism scheduled for this Friday so pray that works out!! Talk to you soon!! love you!!

Love,
Christa

2009-03-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Hey!!!
How are you guys?My week has been pretty good. We had a baptism yesterday so I guess I should say my week has been VERY good! A single mom named Cris. Funny because the night we went to visit Cris and were going to tell her we werent going to be able to visit as often because she wasnt progressing, she told us she wanted to be baptized! Crazy how things work out. Anyway, shes great and Sunday was a happy day.

We had interviews and our multizona this week. President Davis told me since Ive had so many changes already in my mission that hes going to let me stay with Hermana Silva for 2 changes so I can finally have a companion for more than a month! Its kind of nice to know that. So Ill be here in Pachacutec with Hermana Silva until May 25th and then I predict she will go and Ill stay until July. Well see, but Id be happy with that. I really like Pachacutec and Arequipa. Then who knows, maybe Ill be off to Puno or Tacna or Ilo.

The multizona was good. President Davis talked a lot about diligence and how we can be better teachers and the importance of contacting even if we dont like contacting. WE had a mini MTC where we rotated rooms and practiced teaching a lot. And we got copies of our mission calls so now I have mine in spanish too!!

Dad told me you guys have a rat now. All I can say is ewwwww. AND watch out for men with buckets.

Ive been healthy this week. Last week I got really sick for 1 day. I dont think Im a fan of papaya. Ill have to save the details for when Im home and can act everything out that happened, but trust me, itll be a Keele Family Classic!

Anyway, Im doing good. I hope you guys are too!! I love you and am praying for each of you everyday. I sent a little package for Britts birthday with a few more postcards so hopefully you guys will get that this week. Love you!! Talk to you soon!!!

Love,
Christa

2009-03-22T11:19:00.001-07:00

17 March 2009

Fam a lam a ding dong!
Whats going on? So I got my valentines package this week! I love it!!! Nothing says Happy Valentines Day like a can of potted meat!! Seriously though, the package is amazing, I love everything you sent!!! Thank you!! And thank Jen for the cute notebooks and card too.

Nothing too big is going on here this week. We were able to go listen to Julie B. Beck on Friday and that was good. She spoke with Marcus B. Nash. Hes the area authority down here. Ive been able to meet him a few times and he is great.

So a couple things. 1. I lost the dog of the family we live with this week! Just for a few hours. Em, dont hate me, but I hate this dog!! She ATTACKS us everytime we come in, eats my nylons AND my treats and I dont know how she manages to get into our room, but she freaks me out because she always pops out from under my bed-after peeing! PLUS she escapes everytime we leave and we have to chase her down for like 20 minutes!! Well we left the other day and of course she escaped. We were late to pick up an investigator so after some deliberation we decided to let her have her heart´s desire and roam free. I had faith shed make it home. Well she followed us to the appointment and then jumped in the taxi we were going to the fireside in. I had to drag her out!! Well we got home at 930 and when the dog didnt immediately attack us my conscious started to kick in. My comp and I sprinted to our room so as to avoid any questions about whether wed seen the dog. I couldnt sleep because I thought I was going to have to explain to the 9 and 4 year old why they didnt have a dog anymore!! Miraculously, at breakfast, before I even saw her, she was chewing on my shoe under the table! I still hate that dog, but Im glad the furball is back. And my testimony of prayer has been reinforced once again. 2. I rode in THE most crammed combie this week! I though the train in Chicago after a cubs game was bad, but that was nothing!! I dont know which was worse, the man shoved up so hard against me my face was literally plastered to the window of the combie or the bag of whatever he was holding that had feathers and an unpleasant small coming out of it!! Oh peru.

Anyway, I hope youre all doing great. I still miss you and am still praying away for you guys. Love you!! Eat corned beef for me this week!!

Love,
Christa

PS, mom, my ear is better. After two weeks of suggestions of urine and breastmilk I deduced I needed warm water to unplug my ear so I bought a syringe (which are WAY to available here by the way) took the needle off and squirted warm water in my ear, worked like a charm!

Love you guys!!!!

2009-03-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hey!!!!

How are you guys? So its 5 months down! But once again, who´s counting...My week has been pretty good, Ive just been trying to remember how to get places and introducing my companion to people. I was actually really nervous about having to kind of direct the area until my companion gets familiar with things, but I think its been good for me. Its forced me to do a lot of things I havent done before and I admit, I kind of liked not having too much responsibility before, but Ive learned a lot this week so I guess thats good.

I got letters from Mom, Dad, and britt this week. I loved them all!!! THank you, thank you, thank you!!! I also got a really nice letter and card from Aunt Linda.

So Julie B. Beck is coming to talk in our stake center this friday along with the president of the primary. I cant remember her name. Maybe Cheryl lant? So that should be good.

Dad, I met an elder in my mission from Arkansas this week! HE about had a heartattack when he found out I not only know where Mountain Home is, but Ive actually been there! Apparently he used to live in Arizona and his dad retired to somewhere in Arkansas that isnt mountain home, but the elder worked in mountain home for a couple summers. Anyway, thought youd appreciate that!

So you guys have asked about my schedule a couple times. Heres a quick rundown.

630, wakeup, exercise
730, breakfast
8-9 personal study
9-10 companion study
10-11 companion study
11-12, finding, teaching, visiting less actives
12-1 lunch
1-5, finding, teaching, visiting less actives
5-6 dinner
6-930, finding, teaching, visiting less actives
930-1030, planning, getting ready for the next day
1030, bed!!!

Anyway, sorry Im not too exciting this week. I guess thats a good thing. Quiet weeks in Peru are always better than crazy weeks!

Anyway, I love you guys! I pray for you each everyday. Hope youre doing great!! Talk to you soon!!

Love,
Christa

2009-03-04T16:34:00.000-08:00

March 2, 2009

Hey fam!!!
How are you guys??? Transfers were today and I am still in my area, but my new companion is Hermana Silva. She is from Chiclayo, PEru and only has 6 months in the mission! Wha??? What happened to my days with companions who had 16 and 17 months in the mission?? She seems really nice though so thats good.

We had stake conference this week and I saw 2 american families! Dad asked me if Id seen any americans and those were my first. To answer a couple other of mom and dads questions:Nobody really talks to me about national or international events aside from a few questions about OBama Ive gotten, Ive yet to meet too many devout members of other religions-most people seem pretty apathetic, We dont have themes for tranfers, we just use PMG, I dont know anything about zone leader training, We have taught quite a few bolivians but I havent met any CHileans or argentinians. Im not sure how hard it is to travel between countries. I know we have a lot of problems because the bolivians we teach cant get their papers from bolivia in order to get married in order to get baptized-its happened like 4 or 5 times! There are 5 companionships in my district and mom I dont think we have to stay together because of danger. Im not sure why we spend pdays together, but I really doubt its because its dangerous. We see president and sister Davis every 6 weeks at zone conference, but other than that not really unless its by chance. When we see them we eat lunch at the mission home. Anyway, Ill answer more questions next week.

Anyway, I love you guys and miss you guys. Im praying away, hope youre all doing great!! Talk to you next week!!! Love you!!!

2009-03-01T21:53:00.000-08:00

Here are Christa's emails since January. Sorry it's been so long since the last update!! I'll try to stay on top of it.

JANUARY 26, 2009

Well, I was right. It has been an INTERESTING week!! We finally got a room. ON SATURDAY!! Until then we were living on the floor of Hermanas in our area. We would get up, take a cab to our area, work all day trying to figure things out, then take a cab back at 9 pm. The family we stayed with who the hermanas live with is really nice and were great to us. The only problem was we were living on the floor, out of our suitcases (which were full of dirty clothes because laundry gets done on monday and our changes were last monday so we had no clean clothes), sharing a bathroom with a man that rents a room in the same house who walked in on me while I was going to the bathroom, and commuting to our area!! We would eat breakfast with the hermanas then lunch and dinner with some elders in a different area. Obviously I was a little bitter about the whole situation. I went from feeling so cared for by my companion, my pensionista, the area I was finally learning, to feeling like Id been completely abandoned in the middle of Peru!! Of course I opened the scriptures the other morning to D&C 61:36. Talk about knowing exactly how I feel! And obviously thats the day we found a room, a pensionista, and somebody willing to do our laundry. Our room is good-its a room so I cant complain!! The pensionista is the sister of the homeowner so shell be cooking in the same house we live so we dont have to go to another house to eat so thats great news!

Im in the stake Umacollo, but the area we are opening is called Pachacutec. It took me all week to learn that name by the way. I still dont know much about my area. It seems like my old area, but greener! The members we have met have been really nice. I guess thats what happens when missionaries havent been around for 25 years!

Anyway, I have to go, but the moral of this week is I am alive and well with a room and a bed and food so I am happy. Thank you for your prayers and for everything! I love you guys!!!

FEBRUARY 2, 2009

Hey Fam!!

How are you guys?? I got dads email and cant believe britt made it for ems bday!! Thats so awesome!! The DAY before I was thinking how great it would be if Britt could be there for the big 1-6 and she was!!! So way to go Britt, figuring that one out without my assistance.

Oh, I got my packages!!! Well some of them. The ones from right after Christmas. I LOVEEEEE my clothes and tights!!! They are perfect!! Not to mention the oatmeal, granola bars, and drink packets! What a dream. I also got the blog printed, a letter from Mom and Jessie and a card from Aunt Beck. Talk about package pay day!! Anyway, THANK YOU!!! I love everything. But now I dont need anything for awhile so save your money!! Oh, did the CD of pics work I sent you? Let me know so I can erase them off my camera.

Things are going pretty good in my area. We are just trying to get to know people and contact and figure out our boundaries and how we can help the most in the ward. I start teaching english this Friday! Im with Hermana Cabrejos from Lima. She finishes this transfer and will be heading home. I really do like our ward. All the members are so nice. I like our room and pensionista too. And the family doesnt eat with uys here so Ive been able to start sneaking like 4 of my 8 pounds of lunch into Ziplock bags finally!! So the fam we live with has 2 little boys. I woke up to pounding on our door at 5am on Weds. I really am turning into mom because I was startled out of my sleep saying ¨whats wrong, whats going on?¨ Well, it was the 7 year old Gabriel. HE woke up and was bored and wanted to chat! I was so confused because it was 5 am and he was speaking to me in spanish, obviously, about his best friends and dinosaurs and rockets. Once I finally figured out there was no emergency I told him I was going to go back to bed. I felt a little bad for not playing with him, but not bad enough to actually play with him. Who wakes up at 5 am?? Crazy kid.

So I found out 24 northamericans came to the mission this transfer and 21 are coming the next transfer!! Coming by myself with all Latinos wasnt bad, but I am a little jealous because I found out since there were so many north americans president davis trained them in english and they even had their interviews with him in english!! Oh well, Im sure one day Ill get to hear the man speak english. Maybe not until the day I go home, but someday.

Anyway, I love you guys!! I hope youre all doing great! I cant wait to read your emails!

FEBRUARY 9, 2009

Happy 4 months to me!!! Not that Im counting or anything...Anyway, how are you guys???Im doing pretty good. I ran into my old companion Hna Monteza today and she told me 3 of our investigators have gotten baptized since I got transferred!!! I was so excited, but also a little sad that I wasnt there to see it, those people were so great. I guess thats how missions go though. Anyway, I learned something a while ago I forgot to share with you guys. Turns out it is NOT summer here in Arequipa. Apparently like everywhere else in peru yes, but arequipa no. I guess the seasons in the mountains are reversed? So if I was serving in Camana or Ilo or Mollendo or Tacna Id be burning, but here and in Puno its not summer. I dont know exactly what season that makes it here other than rainy season! Its actually not that bad. It only rains for a couple hours in the afternoons. I got Jos blanket this week and it came just in time! Since we moved into our new place they only gave us one blanket each so I welcomed my blanket with open arms! I also got a card from Aunt beck and letters from Jenny and Diana and a card from carla and dan. And I hear I have 3 packages waiting for me, but bad news. Apparently the office elder in charge of packages is sick of picking up packages for me so hes making me do it. That wouldnt be a problem except I can only go to the SerPost place where all packages have to go on my pday. Then I have to wait in line for an hour or more he told me AND I can only take out 1 package everytime I go! To add to that I have to wait for Pdays when my whole district can go with me! As Britt and Em would say RIDICULOUS. So like I said last week, save your postage since it looks like Ill never get a package again! Im sure it actually will all work out, but just FYI. Oh, we finally had zoneconference this week and it was really good. Its true I dont see much of the Davis´, but when I do see them, I really, really like them. Ill handwrite you guys some of their training. So I puked for the first time in my mission this week!! But the good news is I think my pensionista learned her lesson about making homemade yogurt! Maybe not though since I was the one puking! Yeah the yogurt looked and smelled and tasted a little funny, but I had eaten liver the week before so I thought yogurt was the least of my worries! Luckily once it was out of my system I felt fine. Thanks for your letters last week! Anyway, I love you guys! I hope youre doing great! Talk to you soon!!! Love, Christa

FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Hey Fam! My Valentines Day turned ou better than expected. Albeit I didnt have moms sugarcookies, we had 2 baptisms!! We have been teaching a great family who actually lived in Miami for 2 years. The mom, Rocio, had he baptism set for he 14th. Her husband wants to get baptized, but needs to quit smoking first and the 2 kids have strong testimonies, but they also have a very catholic grandma who threatens not to talk to them if they get baptized. So Rocio was set for 3 pm on the 14th. Well on the 13th we found out she needed o have an inteview with President Davis who was 6 hours away in Tacna! he interview got scheduled for the 14th at 2pm so we decided to postpone the baptism, obviously, unil Sunday or Monday. Well we went with Rocio to her interview and when she came out at 245 she said, I want to get baptized today. What do I need? Just my family and water right? So we called he bishop and he said that was fine and he would go fill the font. So we frantically ran around telling people it was back on for 430. Well when we got to the chapel at 415 the bishop wasn there and the font was NOT filled! I hought I was going to have a nervous breakdown! Turns out the bishop was ironing the baptismal clothes because they hadnt dried from being washed. Well it was 630 by the time the baptism got started and it ended up being beautiful. And I guess Heavenly Father knows what hes doing because in th 2 hours of waiting the daughter, Rosario, decided she wanted to be baptized with her mom! She had been interviewed by the distict leader already and decided it was okay if her grandma didnt talk to her because she knew it was the right thing to do. Talk about a crazy little turn of events! Going from no baptisms that morning to 2 by 7pm! Then we went to the house of a less active family we have been working with the past few weeks and they gave us valentine balloons before we left. So yeah, it ended up being a good day. I hope you all had a Happy Valentines DAy. WITH sugarcookies!

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

How are you guys??? Whats going on this week?
Em dont read this!! so I know you guys felt a little bad you ate at the JT without me on christmas eve, but I finally kind of got my JT dinner this week. No there wasnt steak with garlic or french fries or ice cream, but there was RABBIT! Sure enough after we were told we had eaten rabbit I looked out back and the fam only had 4 rabbits instead of their usual 6!!! Rough life for ¨pets¨here in PEru!

Dad, to answer some of your questions weve gotten a few referalls, but do lots of tracting and working with less active and part member families to find people to teach. And sorry to get your hopes up, but Im still not fluent in Spanish. I just thought I wouldnt mention it because I didnt want to complain about it for a while. Although I thinks things are a little better than I think they are sometimes. We spent the first week getting to know a lot of people in the ward and that first sunday I had to talk in sacrament. So during my talk I mentioned Id been in Arequipa 7 weeks. Afterwards everyone Id met earlier in the week told me they had no idea and thought Id been out 9 months to a year?! Which means 1 of 3 things. 1. Im in a ward of people that need to do a LOT of repenting because theyre big fat liars. 2. All the other North American missionaries theyve met have been idiots since they sound like me after being out for 9 months to a year or 3. I actually am learning something. I really dont know which to believe at this point. I still dont understand a lot and Im FAR from being able to say everything I want to and I STILL wish I could teach in english, but i think im a little less frustrated so thats good. The buildings here do have fonts, although I hear in puno the baptisms take place in lake titicaca itself! anyway, ill answer more next email, but things are pretty good. Although transfers are next monday so Ill let you know how things are then! Just when I get used to things they change! oh the life of a mission.

Anyway, like my subject says its been raining here a lot!!! I am NOT a fan!! Id have to say the worst part though isnt even the rain, its the solar shower we have! My companion has actually stopped showering all together, lucky for me, because the water hasnt been heated for a while! So along with my bowl of oatmeal request when i hit the doorstep, a hot shower is also on the list. Other than that, Im doing good and I hope you guys are too!!

I read some conference talks again this week and I loved The Way by JElder Corbridge and pray always by Elder Bednar. i dont have time to put my favorite parts, but theyre good if you havent read them in a while.

Anyway, I love you and miss you!!! Hope you are all fantastic. Talk to you soon!!!!

Love,
Christa

PS My ear has been randomly plugged this week and the bishops wife suggested using my own urine to pour in my ear and she swore it would work1!!!! home rememdies in peru SCARE ME! IF you have any better ideas let me know! Love you!

2009-01-25T13:11:00.000-08:00

Today is Em's Birthday!!!! Happy Sweet 16 Emily!!!!!!!!! I came home for the weekend and attended church today at CV2 where I was reprimanded for not updating the blog (you know who you are)!!!!!!! So... I immediately came home to post some of the last two emails we have received from Christa. Keep sending letters and saying prayers for Christa. She appreciates it all:

Email January 12, 2009

Hey Guys!!!

How are you?? Im doing pretty good. Darren and Mel, thanks so much for your package!! I needed everything you guys sent!! It was so perfect! I love the pictures too! I hung some up in my room. Darren-so turns out the people I live with are Herbal Life distributors. They are crazy about the stuff! They have decals everywhere and even wear Herbal Life pins on their lapels to church!! So in one of the pics youre wearing an Herbal Life shirt and I showed them and their heads about exploded from joy! They loved it!! You have some instant friends if you ever come to Peru! And mom I got the other Christmas package on Saturday!! I love my shoes and outfit!! Everything fits perfectly, I wore it all to church on Sunday! And my comp was so excited to get the candies and pens and soap you sent so thank you!!! I also got a card from Dan and Carla and a package from Jason this week. It was a good week in the mail department.

So big news. We are having 2 baptisms on Jan. 17 (happy bday dad!) Dont get too excited though, they werent that hard fought. Actually, thinking about it they kind of were. We had to teach the lessons to 2 rambunxious 9 year old twins, Walter and Melvin. They are the sons of a sister named Rosa Mesa in our ward. Her husband is inactive and weve had her come with us to teach an investigator who lives close to her. The other night when we walked her home she asked us when her sons could be baptized. We were both a little surprised. Rosa and her husband had just never talked about having them baptized before I guess. But the twins are excited and we got through the lessons so we are excited too!!

Anyway, I have to go, but I love you all!! Hope youre all doing well!! I still miss and pray for you each everyday!! Talk to you soon!!

Love,
Christa

PS, dad have a great bday!!

Email January 19, 2009:

Hey HEy Hey!!
How was your guys´week? I hope it was fantastic!So we had our 2 baptisms yesterday!!! Just barely though!! The twins had to attend sacrament meeting in order to get baptized yesterday. After going to their house the night before to remind their mom to be on time and calling TWICE (Peruvians arent known for their promptness) they were missing in action during sacrament! Of course my companion and I had to talk yesterday (why didnt anyone tell me missionaries have to talk once a month?) So as soon as we finished we sprinted the 7 blocks to their house, threw them in a cab and all ran back into sacrament! The baptism turned out really nice. Their dad came and everything. And boy am I glad it happened because at 11 pm last night we got the call that I was getting TRANSFERRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!My comp and I were convinced neither of us was going to get transferred since she has only 1 change left and Ive only been in the field 1 change! We were wrong! Hna. Monteza has 7 and a half months in the area so we thought if anyone was going to get changed itd be her. Once again. We were wrong!! So I packed up my things and now Im in an area called Umacollo. Its still in Arequipa, but more close to the center. AND my new companion and I are opening an area? I ont even know what that means! BUT I do know it means we dont have a room or a pension yet! I think we are spending the rest of the day with our zone leaders looking for a place to live! Mom, you really should run this place! Nobody seems to be concerned but me! I hope thats a good thing. I think they said we could stay with some other hermanas for a while if we cant find anything. So I know you guys already are, but pray for me extra this week! Im kind of scared about all the changes. BUT I guess thats what a mission is all about right? Im sure itll be good.

Oh, speaking of shocks though, I got another one this week. Literally! We have electric showers so we can have hot water-Im sure you can see where this is going. So theres a switch on the wall that turns the electricity to the shower on and off. I always forget to turn it off after I shower and I feel bad because it wastes the pensionistas electricity. So I remembered the other day and was so glad I remembered until I flipped the switch with my left hand that was APPARENTLY still pretty wet and got a shock so hard my right leg shot out! yeah, last time I try to save anyone electricity!!!

Anyway, Im sure Ill have lots to tell you by next Monday. I love you all!!! Im still praying away for you guys. Mom, I got my charger and earrings!! Thank you!! And they told me I have 2 more packages in the office theyll give me once I have somewhere to live!! Dont worry, I have a feeling people will take pity on us and treat us better than ever in this area. Love you guys!!! Talk to you soon!!

Love,
Christa

Feliz Cumpleanos

2009-01-03T10:37:00.000-08:00

Today is Christa's Birthday! She's 23!! We are thinking of her and hope she has a great day today. My birthday wish for her is that she doesn't have to eat as much rice as usual...hope that works our for her:)

2008-12-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Our house was a little quieter this year without Christa, Darren, Mel, Quincy and Stratton. It was just Mom, Dad, Emily and me. We had a nice family conversation on Christmas Day, though, and were all able to talk to each other. It was fun to hear from Christa! She has been in her first area for a few weeks now. It has been hard, but she is doing well. She lives with a woman and the woman's grandmother who cook and do laundry for Christa and her companion. The food has been a major adjustment for her. Breakfast consists of, in her words, "mystery meat and tomatoes." All she wants is a bowl of oatmeal. (My mom is working on a package to send to Christa full of instant oatmeal.) She loves her companion who will be returning home to Northern Peru in March. To those of us who are not fluent in Spanish, she sounds awesome, but she says she still can't understand much and most people can't understand her! She is looking forward to the day when she will be more comfortable speaking. (I'm sure that day will be very soon!) She also told us some good stories about the transportation in Peru. She advised my dad to buy back his old Cadillac, move to Peru, join the locals in their transportation efforts, and he would be a rich man! Christa wanted to thank everyone who has written and sent packages. She does not have enough time to write back, but she wants everyone to know she greatly appreciates it.

Here are some pictures we received from Christa on Christmas Eve. The first set are from the MTC in Lima that include the sisters in her district, the MTC President and his wife the Grobergs, downtown Lima at night, more sisters at the MTC, and a trip to the zoo.

The following pictures are from here first area in Arequipa. These include sunflowers (Christa's favorite), Misti (volcano), her neighborhood, her rooftop, view from the rooftop, nativity inside her apartment, her welcome to the mission sign!

2008-12-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

Yay! Our first email from Arequipa. We hadn't heard from Christa since she left the MTC in Lima and I think we were all going through withdrawals. Thanks to everyone who has been writing. We know she appreciates it so much.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas. We'll update after our phone call on Christmas Day. We can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!

Received December 15, 2008
Por Fin!!!!!
I never thought I was going to be able to talk to you guys or hear from you ever again!!! I felt a little bad begging president groberg to email you guys when our pday got eliminated without warning, but now Im glad I did!!!! I have almost died not being able to send you guys mail or hear from you!!! It has been a rough couple of weeks!! I havent even had time to read any of your emails, but I wanted to send this as soon as I could!!! I hope you are all alive and well. I am definitely alive and in Arequipa!

I was the lone northamerican traveling with 7 latinos. They were really nice to me and made sure I made it on the plane and everything. When we landed in Arequipa President and Sister Davis and the office elders were waiting for us. We went back to the mission home and ate Dominos . Except I couldnt eat OR sleep because the elders thought it would be funny to tell us the Arequipa mission isnt allowed to use email!! I seriously cried and couldnt sleep all night. They also told us it took 2 weeks to get a letter. I was ill. Turns out it was a joke and the next day at breakfast (pancakes with nutella and peanut butter!!!) I found out. I should have been mad, but I was just so relieved I would someday get to email you guys-even if its been an eternity-I wasnt mad.

There were letters from Dad, Bob Gardner, Michelle, Jenny and Jessie and the interns I was with in Chicago and the Inghams waiting for me. Tell them all thank you!! And some of them had been sent on Dec. 4 and I got them the 10!!! So that was great news.

Anyway, Wednesday we had some training at the mission home, had a really nice lunch and I had an interview with President Davis and got my assignment. Im with Hermana Monteza and shes from northern peru. Shes the nicest person ever. I feel so bad for her though because she only has a couple months left and has to spend them basically babysitting me. I dont understand a thing!!! We are in an area in Arequipa called Alto Misti right by the volcano Misti. I love downtown Arequipa!! Its so cute!! My area is about 10 minutes aways and kind of reminds me of Carson City, Virginia City if that tells you anything. Im sure itll be good though. The weather is beautiful right now although it does get chilly at night. Blue skies here everyday, but I hear the rain is going to start soon. Good news dad-my companion makes me wear sunscreen everyday.

Anyway, yeah, Im in the field. All Im going to say is I hate learning curves. Ive never been very patient with them and maybe thats a big part of the reason Im supposed to be on this mission. I remember mom telling me when I came home from my first day of kindergarten and couldnt read how upset I was. I feel that way now. I just want to be able to speak spanish and actually be a missionary and its really hard just feeling dumb all the time. I know things will all come together, but I just wish I was already a couple months down the road.

Im a little sick. Ive had a sore throat and alternating stuffy-running nose. Everyone says its adjusting to the climate.

Anyway, the place we live is avctually really nice. Well, it doesnt have mirrors, but by Peru standards we live in a mansion. Mom, you know how you keeps saying you want to trade places? Well I have the news that will make you buy your ticket down here!! We live with a pensionista, Yenny, who cooks our 3 meals a day for us. Her grandma, mama Jica, reminds me of Aunt Jo. She always comes in and spices up the food. Anyway, they are really nice, I just wish I could understand them!! Also a lady came and picked up our laundry today!! So if I see you on my doorstep mom Ill know why.

Thank you guys for everything!!! Keep praying. I know you are already and I know its what keeps me going. I love you all!!! Talk to you Monday!!! This is my pday from now on!!!

Love,
Christa

PS Em there was a dog in sacrament yesterday. It was the closest we got to having an investigator show up. Thought youd appreciate that.

2008-12-08T17:08:00.000-08:00

Here are the last two emails we have received from Christa. One was the week before Thanksgiving, and the other the week after. She will be leaving the Peru MTC in Lima this week and traveling to Arequipa. Hopefully we will hear from her before she leaves! She is so appreciative of all the letters she has been getting. Unfortunately she doesn't have time to write back. Actually I think it is a great thing that she is so busy she doesn't have time to write back!! Keep sending letters. It is such a blessing for her to hear from all of our family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving (received November 26, 2008)
Here in Peru its called Dia de Accion de Gracias. I like the ring of Thanksgiving a little better.
Last Wednesday Pres. and Hermana Groberg took us on a tour of Lima that night. So we were in an MTC van driving into downtown Lima when all of a sudden in the middle of an intersection, there was a huge gang fight!! There were at least 30 teenagers with KNIVES throwing bricks at each other!!! We just drove on by and Pres. Groberg said that was an added bonus for our tour. These are probably the stories Darren wisely chose not to share while on his mission, but he has more self restraint than I do. It was a knife fight for crying out loud!! This place never ceases to amaze me! So downtown Lima was actually really cool. Its the first time Ive thought Lima was pretty. We walked around and saw an old cathedral and went in during mass (thats for you Grandma!) The streets had armed guards everywhere though. Apparently presidents from all over the world (including Bush) were there for a conference. I got some cool pictures I hope to send home SOMEDAY when I have access to a computer that will let me.

I got my new companion. Her name is Hermana Rivera from Chiclaya, Peru. Shes really nice. Shes a little quiet, but I like her a lot. We are the coordinating sisters and we are still trying to figure out exactly what that means.

I met 2 native sisters that will be going to Arequipa with me, but Im still the only northamerican!! One of the other Peru missions only has 2 northamerican sisters!! Im pretty nervous about that. I just wish I could speak spanish! I know it'll come

Anyway, I did have a couple highlights of the week. A sister told me she was scared to play on the opposite team as me in soccer because she didnt want to get hit by the ball when I kicked it! As terrible as it sounds, that really did make my week. We also got to go to the temple this week. Everything is in spanish , obviously, so that was different, but it was really, really good. I needed it. I met a lady in the temple who speaks english and just got back from her mission to Arequipa! She said I was going to freeze!! Apparently Dad was right about it being cold down there. Good thing itll be summer. But she also said i would love it, that its beautiful. She told me to remember that Peruvians are different, but to remember I dont have to live with them forever and I should learn everything I can while Im here. Good advice I think. Ive heard from multiple sources that its also called the mission for the valiant because a lot of people in Arequipa are hard hearted. Why did anyone feel the need to tell me that???!! Oh well.

Happy Week After Thanksgiving (received December 3, 2008)
I actually had a really good Thanksgiving believe it or not! We woke up to tons of tables set up in the courtyard with beautiful tablecloths and flowers! Then they had a Thanksgiving program where we learned about pilgrims! I joked about dressing like a pilgrim for the day then realized I already do. Everyday. If my shoes werent shoes someone actually wore on the mayflower I dont know what they are. Then we had an actual Thanksgiving dinner!! Turkey, sweet potatoes and all! But no pie. Oh well, Ill still take it. Oh, I forgot. The night before a woman came into the cafeteria with cinnamon rolls she made for all the missionaries because she thought the northamericans would be homesick. I cried. Some random french woman bringing cinnamon rolls to us in peru. It was a good thanksgiving.

So yeah, a week from yesterday Im pretty sure Ill be flying to Arequipa! Im sure Ill get to email before I leave. My teacher made some calls and Ill be one of FOUR northamerican sisters in arequipa!!! Who would have thought a few months ago this is wehre Id end up? Mom, I think I feel exactly like you. Where is peru and how did I get here. I guess youre right and this really is where heavenly father wants me because every morning I wake up and honestly cant remember making any conscious decisions that got me here! It feels like I just got picked up and dropped off here!! Im hoping Ill start to get less surprised by the fact that Im here every morning I wake up.

I miss you guys so much!! I think about you, pray for you, and hope youre safe, healthy and happy everyday. I hope you can feel my prayers because I can feel yours!! I love you guys!!

Peru MTC District

2008-11-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

A sister in Christa's district sent us an email today with a quick note and this picture!!!

Hey, this is Hermana Walther, but here´s a pic of our district!
The elders from left to right are Elder Camp,

Hatch, Gonzales, Stout.
The sisters from left to right are Hermana Jones, Walther, Keele, Garner.

I love your daughter so much. She is so dang hilarious and is the coolest missionary in the whole mtc (both in provo and here). she just makes everything about being a missionary at least 17 times better.

Best wishes!
Miriam Walther

2008-11-23T23:48:00.000-08:00

We received an email from Christa on Wednesday this week. Here are a few excerpts. She finally received mail this week. Keep writing! She loves it.

"So I had a pretty interesting experience in the cafeteria the other morning. I grabbed a mandarin to go along with my yogurt and eggs for breakfast. I think you can guess where this is headed. One side of the orange was pretty soft, but it was FRUIT so I took it! I only ate the side of the orange that was firm. I finished my breakfast and was looking down at my plate when I noticed a tiny worm crawling around. So I go, "sick! Where did that come from?" And then my gaze met the rest of my mandarin on my plate. i used my fork to roll it over and saw TONS of tiny worms crawling around!! Thats right. So now I would like to hold out hope and think the worms only infiltrated half my orange, but I think we all know the keele familys luck isnt that good.

Proselyting was ok this week. I had a bit more culture shock. We hiked up the side of the mountain to tract and I felt like I was literally in one of those "save the children" commercials where if you donate .10 a day you can sponsor a child. So sad. But it was a good day too. It turns out that lady that ran up to me in the street last week ended up going back to church so that was exciting.

Anyway, we went to the zoo today for an outing!! It was a pretty trashy zoo, but it was fun getting out. We were supposed to see some ruins, but instead we went to pizza hut. Apparently the Grobergs had a wedding to get back for and didnt have time to take us to do everything. The pizza was much needed though so I guess I cant complain.

Good news! I got real mail this week! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! I got the food package and have been hoarding it. People get suspicious when they smell peanut butter on my breath (thats a hot commodity around here) but I change the subject and they forget about it. So thank you!"

2008-11-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

We received another email from Christa on Tuesday. Any intro I give it won't do it justice. Read and enjoy!! Remember to start sending mail to the new address after the 20th of this month.

"I definitely got that taste of Peru Ive been waiting for when we went proselyting on Saturday!! Mom, you know how you kept saying that Id get down here and say, "I wish you guys could see this?" Well you were exactly right!! At least for most of it anyway. So we took a bus about an hour from the CCM to a place called St. Isabela. The whole ride I just stared out the window-there were shacks built up every hill-just like in the books! And each one was a different color. Im pretty sure our bus killed 12 pedestrians on the way. Like I said, crazy driving. Then I looked over and there was a flatbed truck next to us with a bunch of crates of Coke and Inca Cola on it and there were people just laying on top of the crates as the truck was speeding by us on the freeway!! And to think I was worried about finding my seat belt!! So we got to the area and they gave my companion and I the names and addresses of 14 inactive families and from 9-5 we tried to track them down and invite them to church on Sunday. We had a member of the ward with us too. Before Saturday i thought I knew "un poco de espanol" but it turns out I was WAY OFF!! I had no idea what was going on the entire day!! But I just smiled and nodded and bore my testimony when my companion would turn and look at me, so yeah. The first part of the day was pretty frustrating because I felt useless, but then a random lady in the street ran up to me and saw my nametag and kissed me and held my hands and said a gringo had baptized her and how beautiful it was to see another gringo. After that some people on the street stopped to talk to us and asked what I was doing so far from home. So I told them and my companion ended up getting their address for the missionaries to visit. So the day turned out okay. I guess I started to realize that the Lord is making my weaknesses strong. No, hes not allowing me to speak perfect spanish, or even understand more spanish than Ive learned, but because I dont belong and cant speak, people are curious about why im here and it opens some doors sometimes. The streets were all dirt where we were and the houses actually werent too bad. Some were more pathetic than others. Like the lady with one room, bunkbeds and a camping stove, or the man we talked to in his shoe store made out of plywood and he literally only had like 3 shoes for sale!! So sad. But everyone was right, they are happy people.

I would have to say though that by far the most memorable part of the day had to be when I witnessed a rat getting BEATEN TO DEATH with a bucket!! (Em, stop reading now) So we were walking along and there was a commotion ahead of us and next thing we know there is a giant RAT running toward us down the sidewalk!! (No streets, but they have sidewalks) All of a sudden a man with a bucket comes out of NOWHERE and starts beating this rat!!! The rat was making noises I didnt even know an animal could make!!!So the man just keeps hitting this rat and it just keeps squealing!! I would pay money to have a snapshot of what my face looked like as this was happening. So then the rat stops squealing and everybody just goes about their business! Apparently thats nothing out of the ordinary!! So as we walk away I was honestly laughing out loud because I realized Im being led around PERU by 2 people I dont understand, walking around a weird little barrio, and I just saw a rat get beaten to death!! All I could do was laugh!! Thats when I came to the conclusion Heavenly Father played a trick on me to get me on a mission. The whole time I was feeling really good about a mission I think I was envisioning a call to a visitors center or church history sight or England or Ohio, NOT the event that I just described. Nonetheless, as hard as it is, Im happy to be where I need to be. Rat murders and all."

Address and Updates

2008-11-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

After November 20 please send letters to the following address:
Hermana Keele
Peru Arequipa Mission
Edificio El Pera
Avenida El Ejercito 710, Oficina 7031
Cayma Arequipa
PERU

Sister Keele will be in the Peru MTC until December, but letters take three weeks to get there so...IF LETTERS ARE SENT TO THE PERU MTC AFTER NOVEMBER 20th THEY WILL NOT FORWARD THEM TO HER!!!!!! Please send letters to the above address for the rest of her mission!

Christa's new preparation day is Tuesday. She is able to have 30 minutes to email. I thought I would include some exerpts from her most recent email.

"Im surviving!! Some days are better than others, but Im doing pretty good considering the fact Im in Peru!!! I have a great companion. She's Hermana Barzola from Lima and shes going to Trujillo, Peru on her mission. Shes the nicest person ever. She doesnt speak a word of english and so it makes understanding each other very tough, but she gives me lots of thumbs up so I guess thats a good thing. We have to go out proselyting in a Lima neighborhood on Saturday!!! Wha?????? I am terrified. I know I'll be extra glad I have a native companion that day!

There was an earthquake on Saturday!! It was small, but we were playing volleyball and all of a sudden everything was shaking and every dog in town was barking!!! It really was small mom, don't worry.

The food isnt bad. Its definitely not good, but its not bad. Chicken and rice everyday.
On Halloween they did give us ice cream and candy though so I hope you all only felt a little bit sorry for me.

I havent seen much of Lima yet so I dont have too much to report. They told us to prepare for culture shock when we got proselyting on Saturday so Im sure I'll have more stories then. Its surprisingly cold here! Apparently its still spring. Im hoping it warms up! We have only seen the sun once since weve been here!

An elder from the floating islands on Lake Titicaca played We thank thee oh god for a prophet on his wooden flute at a meeting we had the other night. I thought dad would appreciate that.

What else...We are in class pretty much all day where our teachers dont speak english. Im in a district with other north americans, but we meet up with our latin companions to teach and eat meals, etc. There are about 70 missionaries here right now. 14 sisters-8 of us from north america, and the rest elders from Peru, Bolivia and North America.

Watch TV and eat fast food for me!! Love you guys!!!!!"

I loved the last line! She hasn't changed that much, yet!!

More updates to come after Tuesday.

Keep writing. She LOVES hearing from everyone.

2008-10-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

We were able to talk to Christa a few times yesterday en route to Peru. She sounded good!! It was fun for us all to have a chance to chat for a bit. She arrived early this morning at the MTC in Lima, Peru. She sent us an email letting us know she made it safely. She also informed us of a few other things.
1)Do not send any packages to the MTC
2)Only send mail to the MTC for 3 weeks. If you send it after that she will not get it before she leaves for Arequipa.
3)Her new address is:
Hermana Christa Keele Arequipa Peru Mission
Av. Melgarejo 159
Urb. Campo Verde
La Molina, Lima, Peru

Primero Dia

2008-10-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Here's Hermana Keele on her big day. The camera was misplaced by the family, hence the delay in getting these pictures up. Apparently Em hated the pictures with the rest of the family in them because she only sent me the ones with Christa and mom! We've received a few letters from CK so far. She is doing well! She leaves today for the MTC in Peru. We will post her new address soon. A direct quote from her last letter "Thanks so much for all the mail!!! I am in love with mail!!!" She does not have much time to write, but she loves hearing from everyone.

The following is a quote from President Heber J. Grant concerning missionary work. I read it recently and wanted to share it. "We as a people have one supreme thing to do, and that is to call upon the world to repent of sin, to come to God. And it is our duty above all others to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the restoration again to the earth of the plan of life and salvation...We have in very deed the pearl of great price. We have that which is of more value than all the wealth and the scientific information which the world possesses. We have the plan of life and salvation...The best way in the world to show our love for our neighbor is to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which he has given us an absolute knowledge concerning its divinity."

I'm excited for Christa to share the gospel with others, and I hope we too can be more committed to sharing our knowledge with those around us!

bak

2008-10-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

I just got my second letter from Christa today, and she sounds good! She goes to the Lima, Peru MTC on October 29, she told me that she'll send her address in the next letter, so we'll have that posted soon. Here are some more pictures.

2008-10-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Christa and her companion: Hermana Garner in class

All of Christa's roommates/girls in her district, Hermanas:

Garner, Keele, Walther, Jones

Christa and her friend from BYU in the cafeteria.

Cleaning the men's bathroom at 6:00 a.m. for her service for the week.

egk

My letter

2008-10-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today I got my first personal letter from Christa! I was so excited, but of course I also burst into tears. She sent a few pics of her at the MTC. She's doing pretty good!

FIRST LETTER!

2008-10-11T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today we got our first letter from "Hermana Keele!" It was pretty exciting, except my mom and I could hardly get through it. She's doing pretty good, she really likes her companion who's going to Peru with her, but she still doesn't know anyone going to Arequipa, Peru with her. She's a little homesick but getting better, and more used to everything.

Christa's Address

2008-10-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Sister Christa Keele

MTC Mailbox # 267

PER-ARE 1029

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

One Voice

2008-10-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

The song playing on this blog helped Christa decided to go on a mission. At Christa's farewell Hannah Maxwell sang this song. It was the best part of the whole meeting, Hannah has an amazing voice, and she made it a great day. If we could have Hannah's version on here we totally would! Thanks again guys!

Ugh

2008-10-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Well we dropped Christa off at the MTC on Wednesday October 8 which will now be recorded as the saddest day of my ENTIRE life. (sorry Darren, but I can't really remember yours:) It was a pretty hard day for all of us, and her last words were..."None of you can die in the next 18 months!) and she was "dead" serious! Christa leaves for Arequipa, Peru on October 29, we will have her address posted here, and on her face book account. I know she'd love to keep in touch with all of you, and hear what's going on!

Just by the by this is her little sister Emily, and me and my older sister Brittany, and our brother Darren and our sister in law, Melanie will all be authors on this blog.