Hey!! I didn't get your email last week, but I read it today! I'm glad things are going well, and that Laura had a great birthday! I really love the notes from the family. They made me so happy! And my zone leaders told me today that they have a package for me, and they'll bring it tomorrow to our district meeting. I'm not sure who it is from, but I'll find out tomorrow! We have transfers next week. I'm not looking forward to it. And no, I haven't gotten any letters from Emily DeWeese. How is she doing? I've been thinking about her. Tell her to send me a dear elder if you see her around :) I'm so pumped for General Conference too!! From what I can tell, we are going to watch it at our Stake Center in Chiclayo. I'm not sure if we're going to watch the YW broadcast. I think they might save that for next weekend when everyone is there to watch Conference...I'm not sure how it'll work out. But I do know that I have never looked forward to General Conference so much in my life!!!
Well, so much has happened this week! Let me tell you. No. There is too much. Let me summarize :)
1-I ate guinea pig for the first time yesterday. It tastes like chicken.
2-Hna Kelly (the mom of the family that we've been teaching for a long time) wants to be baptized this Sunday!
3-Hna Lopez had a seizure yesterday.
4-I love love love love being a missionary....
5-I miss black beans!
6-Brownies are amazing!
Okay, I'll tell you more.
This past Tuesday, we went to visit Hna Kelly. She and her husband went out of town for a while, so we didn't see them for about 2 weeks. But they came back, and we have been visiting them two or three times a week. When we go, we normally just read a chapter in the Book of Mormon with them, since they've had all of the lessons, and it's a good opportunity for them to feel the Spirit. When we went on Tuesday, she was alone with her 2 boys. We started helping her help her 3-year-old with his "homework" from school (basically it's preschool). As we were doing this, Kelly asked about the baptisms we had last Sunday. We said they went well. 10 minutes later, she asked about the baptisms again, and told us that she wanted to come, but because she brought Jhon, (her son) she had to go home to feed him. She continuned to put sticker in a book for her son, and as she was doing this, she said nonchalantly "This Sunday or next Sunday, I'm going to be baptized." And kept on working. "WHAT?!?!" I was so sure that I had misheard something, that my Spanish wasn't good, that she was talking about someone else. But no! On Sunday, we had visited them and had read parts of Alma 5 with them, and then we left the chapter for them to read. Kelly was reading the chapter, and then on Monday, she was having a really rough time-her sister is going through some problems right now, and she just feels so bad for her. So Kelly prayed. She said she prayed so hard, and told us the Lord touched her heart, and that she wants to be baptized. She knows that it isn't going to solve everything for her, but she wants to start! Hna Lopez and I were very happy! It was wonderful! We never thought that she would be baptized first-we thought that her husband would be baptized and that she would follow him-but now it's the other way around! Hno Feliberto is ready. The only thing he still struggles with is the Word of Wisdom. He doesn't drink on a regular basis, but a couple times a month, or if someone offers it to him. I think that's what hard, is if someone offers him a drink, he feels bad about saying no. But we're continuing to work with him on this. I know one day he'll be baptized. I don't know if we'll be here to see it, but I know he will be.
Next exciting story:
So since last Tuesday, Hna Lopez hasn't been feeling the best. She has had a bit of nausea, her head hurts occasionaly, but we still work. She's a trooper. Saturday morning though, she threw up a little, and when we told our district leader later that night he got after us for not calling him and telling him sooner, and he told us to call Hna Chipman. So we did. She told her to take Gravol (I'm not sure if it's the same thing here as in the US, but I'd imagine it's similar). So she did. Yesterday, we were at church, everything was going well. Relief Society had just started, but we were in the bathroom. Hna Lopez was about to wash her hands-she had soap in her hand, and we were just kinda joking around. Then she looked at me and said "Hermana Williams, I don't feel good." At first I thought it was just kind of like the rest of the week, but then she began to fall down, and I got scared. I ran to help her fall more gently, and I didn't know what to do. Finally, once I got her situated on the floor (and I'm praying the whole time), I ran to get the Relief Society President, (who was in the middle of conducting RS) and told her to come. She and her daughter came, confused (because I can't speak Spanish and be scared at the same time) but once Hna America (our RS Pres) saw Hna Lopez on the floor, she told her daughter to run and get Pres Richard (our Branch president). He came running in shortly with the elders quorum president, and immediately gave her a blessing. Hna America and I helped Hna Lopez to sit up some. But the time the blessing was over, she was just crying-whereas before she had been shaking. We helped her to stand up slowly, and walked her into the branch pres's office, where I called our zone leaders and Pres Chipman. Pres Chipman told me to take her into Chiclayo to a hospital that could see her. So we did. I definitely like our hospitals better...they want her to see a neurologist, but he wasn't in yesterday, so we went in today, but when we did, he wasn't there and wasn't going to come back for 2 hours. So we're going in to the hospital again tomorrow after our zone meetings to have her have a consultation. She's doing better now. She slept for 2 1/2 hours yesterday, which I think she needed. She's a strong one though. I definitely am so blessed to have her as my companion.
Today, for P-Day, we wanted to do something cool as a zone, and we talked about making lunch in Monsefu (which was actually really exciting, because it costs anywhere from 5-7 soles to go to Chiclayo). And so we did! We decided to make burritos and watch a movie with the members that we live with. They were so good to let us borrow their house. We have 20 missionaries in our zone, and from what I can tell, that's a lot. When we told the members what we wanted to do, they had never heard of burritos before. But they helped us get the things we needed. It was so great to not have rice for lunch. The burritos had black beans on them, and I honestly didn't think I would miss them. But I did!! They don't really use black beans here, and I miss Cafe Rio. It definitely was heavenly. And then Hna Barlow got a brownie mix in her package last week, so we made brownies too, which were amazing!!! I didn't think that I would miss the smell of brownies, but when I smelled the brownies cooking, I remembered that yes, I do miss that! It was so good! I really have a great zone/district. I am so incredibly happy to be here, to be a missionary at this time. I really can't imagine my life any other way right now. I only have 13 1/2 months left! I am pretty much jealous of the elders that get to be here for 2 years. But then again, I still have 13 1/2 months left! I love everything about this place. It is so incredibly different from home, but I love it. We went to visit an inactive family the other day, and they told us that they were really active 2-3 years ago, but then they moved to Lima for 6 months or so, and when they returned, they kind of just stopped going, and no one came to visit them, so they kind of didn't do much. After we shared a message with them though, they said that they felt rejuventated, and that they are going to come back to church this Sunday. That made me so happy!! I love seeing people at church. It just makes me so happy.
Well, this has kind of been a long letter. I hope you enjoyed it though! I love you!
Hna Williams
P.S. The movie we watched was something like "Seach for the treasure" or something...about missionaries who go on a treasure hunt on P-Day or something and find a family...anywho, part of it was filmed in Lehi- at the bakery. That was kind of cool to tell everyone "hey! That's my home!"
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