2 February 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!