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

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!!!

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

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

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

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!!!!

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