6 weeks in the field

Hola My Beloved Family!!

Welp, I have made it 6 weeks in the field! It´s crazy... it feels like just yesterday I got here and at the same time, it feels like I´ve been out here for a while... ! But this week has been fast and good!! 

Monday: We went to Lima Central as a Zone! It was so cool! So many beautiful buildings and lots of tourists! Haha. We ate lunch in this cool restaurant and then went to a Museum about the Catholic church in Perú around the same time as the Restoration... It was a little scary because it was about torturing those who didn´t have the same beliefs, but a cool experiecne! We also went to this little China-Townish area that kind of reminded me of San Francisco-- But Peruvian style! Haha

Tueday: Lots of work! But for lunch, we ate at this awesome family´s home.  They served us soup to start and as I was stirring it around, I saw this little grey lump... I looked at Elder Page and said... "is that a heart?!" and it was!!! Hahaha. He convinced me to eat it!! Why not?! Haha.. It was my first time eating a heart, and wow... kinda funky! It just tasted like really really dark chicken meat.! So now I guess you could say I have 2 hearts! Bahaha.... Ha... 

Wendesday: We had our zone meeting and WE WON THE CLEANEST ROOMS IN THE WHOLE MISSION!! Woot woot! So... we got coffee cake from Hermana Erickson (The mission president´s wife) Wow... It was so good! I´m definitely going to need the recipie when I get home! Hehe. 

Thursday: We had a work visit with the Sister Training Leaders (Hermana Capacitadores) and I stayed in my area with Hermana Ebert! It was crazy! I got us through the day without getting lost and we also... GOT A BAPTISM DATE for our investigator Estrella!! She is 17 and has an almost 2 year old son named Kenneth.. She has such a strong desire to change and to be baptized! It was so cool! 

Friday: I really felt like my Spanish is getting better! I lead a lesson with Hermana Ebert, and things went well! I feel like I am communicating better, and it´s starting to be fun! :) 

Saturday: We got to watch General Conference!! It was in Spanish, but I felt like I could understand about 75% of it! I LOVED LOVED LOVED the talk by Elder Holland about Mothers-- Mom!! You´re the best and I loved how he said there are 2 people holding me up and helping me-- The Lord, and My Mom! It´s so true!!! Conference is so great! Becuase it´s translated, we don´t get to hear their voices, which was a little weird! But all the same, the messages were great and I loved it! I wished they were longer!! 

Sunday: We watched Conference again! It was so good! I loved hearing President Monson! I know his health is not the best right now, but I could feel his love and strength. He is truly a prophet of God. 

For lunch, we ate with the Familia Sanchez! They´re awesome! They cooked us these thing called Juana´s (I think), which is rice and chicken and a hard boiled egg wrapped in these giant leaves! So cool and really good! apparently it´s a specialty in the Jungle here in Peru! 

Transfers are this week, which is a little stressful! I think my companion is going to get transfered, but I know that the Lord has a plan and it will all work out! We find out after Internet who´s leaving and who´s staying! I´ll let you know! :) 

Welp family, those were the highlights of the week! The rest was full of lessons!! The work is good here in Canto Rey and this week seemed to go by fast... It´s already October!! What the heck!? I love you lots and I hope your week is fantastic! 

I love you guys so much! I´m so grateful for your hard work and sacrifice so I can be here and I hope my work is blessing you! I love you so much and hope this week is a good one for you! 

Love Love love lvoe love love love love 

Your Favorite Sister Missionary!!

on the metro

lima livin'

the zone in the City

I <3 Peru

Fun activity

That face though

Pictures!

Baptism!

lovin lima

Climbing Hills everyday!

But the view is great

rooster fights

Winner winner chicken dinner

September where did you go?

Hola Family!!!

This week has been a long one!! But, it`s like that sometimes! I`m almost half way done with my 12 week training, and they say that`s the slowest part...! 

Monday was AWESOME!! After we wrote our families, we went to Hermano Coco`s house and they cooked us lunch and we watched the Minions movie! It reminded me of my last day home when we went and saw that together! They cooked us steaks as big as the plate with rice and some vegetable thing. It was delicious! We also ate this fried banana chips! They were really good! If only I could eat fresh bananas--- bahaha. After lunch, we went up to the roof and watched ROOSTER FIGHTS!!! AHHHH!! Hahaha. What an experience! Hermano Coco has a whole set up and there`s this practice rooster that`s a dead, stuffed thing.  Bahaha.  Basically, you choose 2 roosters, put this little leg brace things on, hold then in front of each other and let them fight a little, and then drop them and let them fight! It was not as crazy and intense as I imagined, but it was crazy fun and we loved it!! We did like, 3 fights and it was an experience to remember!! 

That night we went and visited the Tomanguillo Family! The mom and 2 daughters are members and her daughter is almost finished with a mission in Trujilo! We taught the dad and the son with the mom and the 1 daughter and it was so cool! He seemed genuinely interested and wanted meditated a lot! 

Tuesday; I GOT MY PACKAGE!!! Mom, seriously, you are the BEST! I don`t know how you fit so many things and so much love in such a little package, but you were successful and I loved EVERYTHING about it! I wear the "I`m ready now!" bracelet everyday to remind me that I`m here at this time and place for a purpose. I loved the letter from Angela and the shirts and the sweets and literally everything... You`re the best. 

We had our zone meeting that morning and I was asked to give the closing prayer-- in Spanish, of course! After I finished saaying the prayer, one of the Elders said "someone`s been practicing the language" but I didn`t hear him, so I said, "what did he say?" and everyone got a kick out of that... Bahaha. I love my zone! It`s crazy that changes are happening next week---!!! 

Thursday during personal study, I heard a band outside, so I ran out. Apparently this week is the anniversary week for all the schools here, so there`s been lots of parades! The schools are so cool here! Everyone wears a uniform, and they do dances for excercise outside.  IT`s so cute and reminds me of Marble Valley a bit. I love that I can have that little memory of home :) 

For lunch, this lady cooked us pasta! with carrot shavings!! Haha. It reminded me of when Uncle Ward told me about how they have pasta, but with carrots! Haha. It was pretty good, though! 

Friday night we had a large Noche Misional/Noche de Hogar (FHE) for our ward! It was good! Us missionaries gave little talks from this article about looking to Christ in times of difficulties. Our ward mission leader-- Hermano Francois is the BEST! He`s so dedicated and really helpful! He drives a moto-taxi for a living and is so humble.  He`s only been a member since January! 

Saturday morning, we went to go visit one of our investigators who lives up a hill. She was doing her laundry so I offered our assistance.  The peruvian people are SUCH hard workers.  We helped for only an hour and my hands hurt so bad and I was so tired! I really commend them for their hard work! It made me think of Uncle Ward and his story about the white sheets-- how he saw them drying in the wind and realized how much effort it takes to keep them white here and how good the people are here. I had one of those moments and I found how much I do love the people.  

That night, we brought a girl named Angela along with us for lessons! she`s awesome and she wants to serve a mission! (She`s 17) 

Yesterday, Sunday was our Ward Conference! The people here are so amazing and try to make everything so nice! There was a small, simple choir and all the ladies wore matching neck scarves.  It was sweet for me to see their effort. 

Sunday`s are a little tough for me because I miss home so much, but as we go out and work, it`s easier. 

My dear family... I love you guys so much. I miss you so much. But know I`m happy here and can already tell the time is going to go by fast.  I hope this week has lots of success´ for you. I love you dearly and send my love from Perù! 

Love love love 

xxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoooxoxoxoxoxx

Hermana Andrus

love from lima

Hola My Lovely Family!!!

Time is the weirdest thing here.... I`ve said it before and I`ll probably say it a million times before I come home... But it`s TRUE!! hehe. 

This week seemed to fly by! My days are no longer complete if I haven`t hiked the hill in our area at least once! The exercise is great.... he... 

Monday: We watched Disney movies for P-day!! It was fun and our zone leaders cooked us hamburgers.  The majority watched Wreck-It-Ralph, but I watched The Book of Life. It was SOOO good... Seriously, I thought it was going to be horrible, but it was cute and sweet! Then we watched.... MULAN!! It was so weird to see it in spanish! Hahaha- But it reminded me so much of how much we would watch it and how mom collected all the Mulan McDonalds toys for us... Mom, you`re so cool! I could watch that movie probably every day and never get tired of it! Haha. 

Something funny about P-Day last week.  Elder Page came over to our house in the morning and told us we had to bring a towel, a hanger, and a piece of fruit for an activity we would be doing for P-Day. So, being a little skeptical webrought the stuff thinkig it would be a super fun game! Well... P-DaY cuhgged along and finally it was about time to leave, so I said to our ZL ¨What was up with the hangers and fruit?!¨and he just laughed and laughed and gave Elder Page a high five... .Bahahaha. Boys are boys even in the mission.-.. bahaha. it was funny and we had a good laugh about it. 

Tuesday: We had practices with our zone early in the morning, which went well!! I feel like we learned a lot. which will benefit our lessons!! (fingers crossed) 

For lunch, one of the sisters made one of my FAVORITE dishes.. It`s called Escaveche (Not cheveche... we`re not allowed to eat that here... hehe. too many missionaries got sick) It`s basically chicken with sauce, onion, and peppers served with sweet potatoes and--- you guessed it, RICE! It`s delicious!! 

Wednesday: WE did a service project in the morning! We have a member named Hno. Coco! He owns a shirt company that operates above his house!! It`s so cool! People make and use silk screens to decorate the shirts.  The other Hna.s in our zone put tags on them, and then we packaged them! Each had to be in this little clear bag. I probably packaged 150+ shirts! Baghaga. Hna. Lòpez taped the bags and then Hno. Coco organized them into the shipments! We were fast workers and it was kinda fun!! Hno. Miguel was there (he works there) and was telling a bunch of jokes. I didn`t understand them, but it was nice to just be there-- even if I was just in my thoughts.  We were working on the 3rd floor, so I could just look out the window and marvel at Perù! I already love it here.  The weather is perfect right now and we even get some sun!! haha. I have a nice farmers and neck/chest tan... baahahaha. 

After the service, we went to the top floor of Hno. Coco`s house. He has rows and rows and rows and shelves and shelves of ROOSTERS.... That`s right, Cock-Fights!! It`s crazy... he even has a large arena!! We didn`t get to see a fight, but we held a rooster and then they brought out two dead ones... bahaha. It was kinda gross and the Elders waved them in our faces, but it was funny too! Hno. Miguel slapped them too which everyone got a kick out of! Hahaha.

Thursday: For lunch, we ate at this sweet members  home! She made us a soup that had nooodles and reminded me SO much of Top Ramen!!! Hahaha. I loved it and it made me think of when I would eat so much ramen, I would get bloody noses from all the salt! Haha. I'm sure I`ll have plenty of it when I come home and go to college! haha. 

We taught a bunch of lessons (as usual) and I feel like I`m speaking more in lessons!! It`s still a little hard for me to explain my thoughts or feelings, but I know it`s just a matter of time! I also made a little friend--- A dog! Haha. We were teaching a lesson outside and I was sitting on the ground, this dog just walked up to me and so I started to pet it and then he followed us all the way back down the hill! It reminded me of Maizy and how much I love her! Haha. 

Friday: We had our ROOM CHECK!! Every change, Hna. Erickson (the president`s wife) comes and does a room check with the zone leaders! We passed and my prize was peach rings-- yum!! Then, we had interviews with President Erickson! He is such a cool guy! He really knows his scriptures and he gave me lots of encouragement.

That night, I was feeling a little discouraged with my language... 2 people couldn`t understand me in the day and that was a little hard! haha. But... Our investigator (who got baptized saturday-- all in good time) is learning English and so we talked abunch and laughed. It was fun! And then, that night when we were  buying our (amost daily) hamburgers, the hamburger lady`s brother was there who has been speaking English for 30 years!! It was cool and fun and he gave us his business card? Bahahaha... It was just fun! Hno. Lòpez, on our way up to our room, said she was frustrated because she wants to know English so bad. It was such an interesting moment for me.  It gave me the chance to see it through her eyes in regards to learning a new language. It`s hard work, but it`s possible! We`re working more on English this week! :) 

Saturday: We had a NOCHE BLANCA... That is basically when our zone has a lot of baptisms, we all get together and have a huge baptism-- like 8 people! Our investigator Andrea (the one learning English and whose mom signed her permission slip) was baptized along with a semi-investigator Luis! (semi because he`s like, 20 and so we had to have the elders teach him... haha) It was such a beautiful night. The people were so happy and it made me think of my own baptism-- in the hottub below our deck! It was so special and everyone had such a glow-- including us missionaries!! Andrea bore her testimony afterwards and the spirit was so srtong. She`s only 13 , but her faith is ENORMOUS! After she bore her testimony she came over and gave me a HUGE hug. She told me she was sad because her dad isn`t very supportive... He`s catholic and so is his whole family, and it was hard for him to let her join another religion. She told me she didn`t understand why he didn`t understand, but she was SO happy. Such a tender moment. I have only known her for 4 weeks, but I am so grateful for her friendship and trust in me.  The people here are amazing. 

Sunday: I played the piano in church...!! Eek!! The people LOVED it though. They are so faithful and so positive and they love the gospel. I was so grateful for the chance to be able to bring that positive influence of music to them! And they asked me to play again next week... Haha! 

Well, my dear family... that`s been my life this week!! We teach about an average of 35 lessons a week and I`m exhausted by the time I get to bed-- but SO happy.  I`m so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve and for the chance I have to serve here in Perù.  These 18 months will go by so fast (16 actually-- WOW!). I`m grateful for the chance I have to wear a plaque every day that reminds me that I represent myslef, I represent my family, I represent the church, and I represent Jesucristo. Jesus Christ.   

I love you guys SO much and hope this week is a good one for you! Be wise, be safe, have fun, and know I`m loving you every moment from Perú!!! 

Hugs and kisses across the ocean! 

xxxoxoxoxooxoxoxooooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

--

Love, 

Hermana Andrus