Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Jamie's Letter August 15, 2011

Hello my familia. Como estan?
Les extraño mucho. You know what's weird? I'm so used to thinking in Spanish now, but to write Spanish still is weird for me. I can talk, think, listen, all in Spanish, but I still struggle a little to write in Spanish. I think it's because when I write, I have to think about the grammar more. To talk in Spanish, I just need to the jist of what they are saying.

Anywho, little sidenote about Spanish there. Wow. I LOVE being a missionary! This week has been really good. Friday we had a "reactivation" in Tuman. Eld Cahuaza and his comp, Eld Infante came along with Hna Amelia, and Eld Fabri and Eld Sandoval from our district. They went on splits with the bishopric, and Hna Amelia came with us. We went and visited one of the young women that we are teaching named Delsa. She wants to be baptized, but her mom won't let her because then she won't be able to drink and party and stuff. Imagine that. Anywho, her mom was there, and Hna Amelia was basically amazing with her (Amelia is an RM-served here in Peru Lima Norte mision-so she knows the ropes of missionary work). She talked to this woman that was cold, and by the end, she got her to agree to think about letting her daughters be baptized. Which is a lot more than we ever got from her.

Saturday, we went looking for a referral that the elders gave us from when they were tracting Friday. We didn't find the address we were looking for, but we found a family! There's a mom (her husband also lives with them, but we haven't met him yet) and 5 or 6 kids. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. But 4 or 5 of them have 8 years or more. They had listened to the missionaries before, but a long time ago. We taught them about prophets, and left them a Book of Mormon with Moroni 10 to read, and invited them to church. The kids said that they wanted to go, so we arranged to pick them up at 8:30. When we got there at 8:30, the oldest, Elizabeth (13 years) sat down next to me, showed me the book of mormon, and then said "we prayed first, like you told us to, and then we read all of the chapter, and then we prayed afterwards." I just about cried. I could hardly speak. I feel like with most of our investigators it's pulling teeth to get them to read the book of Mormon. The mom couldn't come to church with us, but Elizabeth, her 4 younger siblings and her cousin all went. During Sunday School, she and her cousin were with us in the Gospel Principles class. She said "I'm baptized in the Catholic church, and I've had my first communion, but can I still come to this church?" Um...YES!! :) She wanted to know where to sign up...I explained a little bit about baptism, but that we were going to explain more about it later on, how it was more than just a way to sign up to go to church, but a promise. She was really receptive though. Afterwards, she went to YW, and we went to RS. We talked with the YW Pres afterwards though, and she said that Elizabeth was participating in the lesson, from the little bit of what she had read in the book of mormon. Holy cow. This young woman is pretty much amazing. As we went to drop them off at their house, she asked me more about baptism. When we got to their house, all of the kids started talking to their mom about how cool church was, and what they had all learned. Elizabeth told her mom that she was going to be baptized a second time. That kind of caught her mom off guard, but I told her that we were going to explain better what all baptism meant when we came back. The mom said that she would like to go to church too, but the mornings are kind of hard. But I think if her kids are animated enough, she'll want to go. Now we just need to find her husband (and hope that they are married...cross your fingers!) Oh, something else amazing. Elizabeth will be 14 on October 28. Wonderful?? I think so. It just makes me love this girl even more!

Today, P-Day, was also really cool. Oh! I got your package!!! Thank you so much! My eyes are so much happier to have the contact solution from the US and not from here. You'll need to send me one more bottle, and I'll be good for the rest of my mission (one bottle lasts me 3 1/2 months). Other things to send me-mini BoM, yeah, would be cool. More gel pen refills of the black pens we like, scrapbook tape with a refill or two. Treats...whatever you want really. Today for lunch, we ate pizza :) We went to Tottus, (the superstore of Peru) and bought Pizza like Papa Murphys. I added more pineapple to it to have a wonderfully hawaiian pizza. Afterwards, I made some cheesecake brownies, using the Lehi Roller MIlls brownie mix that you sent and a cream cheese topping recipe. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks really good. Afterwards we played some twister (elders and sisters separately, of course), and ninja (the game that we play at the cabin) and volleyball. I love it. I have an awesome district. We have changes next Monday. And our district will probably change some. :( It makes me sad, but I just have to keep remembering that when things change, I have the opportunity to make new friends and have more amazing experiences.

Well, my family, that's about all for now. I love you somuch, and am so grateful to be a missionary here. Thanks for all of your support. I love you bunches!
Hna Williams

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