September 4, 2013
This week has been interesting. There has been a flu going around here at the CCM, people where getting sick left and right. All of the elders joke around and call it the siempres or the nuncas. On Wednesday my companion got sick, and then on Saturday I got sick and had to stay in my room all day. I had a sore throat and my eyes had a lot of pressure against them. Weird right? They let my companions go to class because there where a few other Hermana’s sick in the room across the hall from me. As much as I hated being sick, it was nice to be able to take a nap and read my scriptures more. I am currently in Alma 47! I am getting so close!
In my classes we are mostly just learning Spanish. Sometimes they will teach us some cultural things, but most of it is just the language. I love my teachers they are all return missionaries from Peru. They work so hard and care so much about us.
We have new roommates! Another group of missionaries came to the CCM. Two of the newbies are my friends from BYUI. It has been fun seeing them. One of our new roommates is from Utah, but her family is from Spain so she is fluent in Spanish. The other two are straight out of high school. They are all so cute.
On Dad´s birthday it was Elder Christiansen’s bday (he is one of the elders in my stake) We made a paper chain and put it around our classroom, and then made a huge crown out of paper for him to wear. He sits by the window so right before our language class we opened the window and started throwing balloons at him. It could have easily been his best bday ever... haha. It was fun to celebrate his birthday.
I also got a yellow fever shot this week! Yippie!! The Elder that went with me to get it was more nervous about it than I was.
This week we started teaching 2 "investigators", the last week we only had one. It still is kind of hard being in a trio because we have hard time dividing up the lesson, especially when Hermana Parker still doesn’t know very much Spanish. But we will get it. Practice makes perfect right??
During one of our lessons with Pedro he opened up about his life and told us about how he hasn’t ever really felt peace or love. I felt his words deep in my heart; this is why I am here, to share the joy that I have had throughout my life to others that need it.
I am so glad that I have decided to do the Book of Mormon Challenge here. I feel like the whole Book of Mormon is about missionary work and bringing others to Christ. I love it. Throughout all the chapters in Alma I could not help but think of Kjel and Clayton. They are just like Ammon or Alma, standing up every day for what they know and feel is right.
My Spanish is getting better; I still have a long way to go. I have been better at saying more of what I feel during lessons, but there is still much more learning to do.
My district is really fun. Sometimes it is hard to stay focused because we have so much fun. One day they decided to do Disney character look alikes. They thought I was Mrs. Potts off of Beauty and the Beast... They said I am like the district mother taking care of everyone.. I thought it was funny. At least they like me right? haha
Hermana Jones
Todo lo puedo en christo que me fortalece
September 10, 2013
Another 4 districts left the CCM today so there are a total of 4 here right now. More should come on Thursday. We are now the oldest district here! Yippie!! It is weird. My companion got called to be the music coordinator, and another companionship in my district are the sister leaders for the CCM. It has been fun for sure.
I have been feeling SOOO much better this week. The flu is still here, another group of people got sick yesterday. But hopefully it will all pass soon. Some of the sickness might just be people getting use to the food and stuff.
One of our favorite things to do here is play volleyball!!! Every day for physical activity we play volleyball. I LOVE IT. The other day I got a great kill and everyone was surprised because I am short. =) It was fun.
This week we had the amazing experience of going out into the city and proselyting!!!!! I LOVED IT! We were split up into different companionships. I was with Hermana Cornu a girl from Oregon. Her Spanish was about the same as mine so we had fun. Everyone that we talked to seemed to be catholic. But I was soo surprised that everyone would stop what they were doing and would listen to us, broken Spanish and all. We even got to go inside one of the houses and taught a lesson. I was in one of the nicer parts of the city, in La Viña in La Molina. One of my favorite contacts was a boy that was about 17 years old. We talked to him about his family and about his life. We taught him about the Book of Mormon. He was SO surprised when we gave him one. He thought that he would have to pay for it. At one point of our discussion we both couldn’t understand each other and we started laughing. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Even though we could not communicate very well I could tell that he felt our message.
We are getting better at teaching lessons. I am surprised at the spirit that we feel while we teach, even when it is a fake investigator. I love this gospel and I know that it is true with all my heart. It is not always easy being here, and I know that it is going to get harder, but I know that everything will be okay. I love it here.
There is a temple store across the street from the temple. A member of the church just makes a whole bunch of cool things. I got a cool scripture case for my Spanish Book of Mormon. They don’t have a store at the CCM sadly. I will leave for the mission home in 2 weeks Tuesday morning. Crazy! We don’t know our plans yet, we should find out next week. My Spanish is okay, I am really bad at conjugating verbs but I can get my message across. poco a poco
Love you so much!
Hermana Jones
September 17 - week 5
Buenos dias!!! Te quiero mucho!
This week has been pretty good. It went by super-fast! I will be leaving in 7 days. AHH it does not seem real at all!
I will be riding a bus to Huancayo. It is going to be a 7 hour bus ride. We will be leaving on Tuesday so I will not have time to write next week. But I will email two weeks from today!
So far I have not got my visa. I will be leaving the CCM sometime this week to talk to people about it. I think everything is good though.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon Wednesday! It feels so nice to accomplish that goal!
Our district has decided to speak 5 hours of only Spanish every day. That has been awesome because I have felt like I have learned SO much just through speaking it. I still have a long ways to go but I feel like I understand quite a bit.
I have loved going to the temple once a week. Today was the last time I will be able to go for 17 months! I will miss feeling the spirit there. Every time I go I can feel that Heavenly Father loves me. He always finds a little way to show me =) It has been a huge help these past 5 weeks.
On September 11th my companions and I dressed in red white and blue. We sang America the beautiful and other patriotic hymns. I loved having a little piece of America!
New missionaries came this week! It feels weird being the ones that have been here the longest! A whole district of Latinos are coming to Huancayo! They are very nice!
Teaching has gone a lot better this week. It has been hard teaching with 3 people. We all have different Spanish levels but this week has been better. H. parker has started talking a lot more, which is a huge accomplishment!
Our district has loved playing volleyball each day. Some days it gets a little intense. But it has been one of the highlights here at the CCM. Both my companions got hurt this week from playing though. gotta love it.
Sunday we had a broadcast from Salt Lake for all of Peru! It was really neat to hear them directing the talks to the people of Peru.
Love,
Hermana Jones
September 30, 2013
Wow where do I even begin!? So much has happened I have no idea where to start.
The last week in the CCM was crazy. We went to immigration one day. It was exactly like waiting at the DMV.
I was asked to give a talk the last Sunday in the CCM. I was the only one that gave a talk in Spanish. Monday we were in a Spanish class all day. It was crazy. We just learned more about working with members. I was really excited to leave the CCM on Tuesday. It ended up being an 8 hour bus ride. The view was amazing. There were lots of mountains and cool things to look at. A few of the people on the bus got sick from the altitude change. I was just fine=)
Anyway the drive to Huancayo was fun. Training Tuesday and Wednesday was all about the mission rules and things to watch out for. For example: we aren’t supposed to eat strawberries and lettuce here. How sad is that!? haha we have pensionistas that cook us food every meal and wash our clothes. It is awesome. My pensionista is a really good cook too. It was weird saying goodbye to my district. Luckily, Hermana Goodfellow came with me to La Merced.
My companion is Hermana Vergaray she is 24 years old and is from Peru. She is super sweet and funny. I am teaching her English and she is teaching me Spanish. It’s funny sometimes. We both don’t understand each other sometimes haha. She is really nice and patient with me and my Spanish. She has been out for 8 months. She is a convert to the church, and knows soo much about the gospel.
I am in La Merced, or San Ramón. It is BEAUTIFUL here! We are surrounded by jungle and mountains. It is super-hot and we don’t have air conditioning.. or a fan... or windows that open. haha so it’s an adventure for sure. I have gotten used to it though. The area reminds me a lot of TN. The only difference is the people, palm trees and crazy drivers. They have these little cars that drive around... and they drive like a crazy person. I am so grateful I don’t have to drive a car here. We just walk everywhere we go. My shoes are awesome. They give me a lot of support, I haven’t had any problems with them.
Sometimes I feel completely lost because of the language, I find myself zoning out because I don’t understand haha. I actually do understand almost everything that is going on. I just don’t say much. But I will =) poco a poco. Our drive to La Merced was really fun it was about 4 hours in a small little bus. Seriously one of the most beautiful drives of my life. The mountains are super tall and green. I loved it. We got stopped by a policeman that asked for my passport. I only had a copy of it so he got kind of mad. haha after waiting for a while they let us go. It was an adventure for sure.
My ward here was once 2 separate wards but recently they combined it into one. There are not many members, but the members that are here are super helpful and are willing to do anything for us. When we got to the area we didn’t have any contacts that where left for us. So we started from scratch finding people. There are a lot of Less actives (menos activos) here. Most of our visits are with them. Everyone greets each other with a kiss on the cheek. At first it was really weird but I have gotten used to it. SO when I come off my mission and kiss you on the cheek it is because I am Peruvian haha. It will probably be a habit I have to get rid of when I am home haha.
We have 2 baptism dates set for a boy named Brandon and his sister Laurent. He is 16 and she is 14. They are super sweet and receptive.
We also go and visit an old lady in the ward. We sing hymns with her and share scriptures with her. She absolutely loves us. I like visiting her. There are 4 missionaries in my ward my companion and I and then a set of Elders. I am the only gringa. In my district there are 2 other North Americans so it’s nice to speak some English every once in a while. My Spanish is coming along. I don’t speak much haha
All the old ladies have these cool bag/shall things. It’s called a kippy (it’s a word in chechua) they carry their babies in them. I want to get one and put Morgan in the back of it haha
I saw a parrot the other day that talks. It was funny. All the little kids were around it. There are little kids always running around in the streets. They are so cute. Probably my favorite part. They will point at me and call me gringa. It’s funny.
I love it here; it is fun getting to know the people and the culture. I know that once i get the language down I will be unstoppable! haha
Te quiero Mucho!
Hermana Jones