Kodak Moments

P- day hikes

peruvian food 

Kira's companion!

Look at kira's planner!... (: oh and that cute little face 

November is Nice

Hola Familia!!!!! 

Holy cow... the weeks just seem to be flying by faster and faster!! 

Not too many things happened this week, but it was good and I`m happy and well!! 

Monday: we went to Pîzza Raul for lunch with the zone! so yummy!! That night, we had a noche de hogar (FHE) with the Familia Cardinas. Hno. Miguel and Royer brought food to share and we watched a bible movie on our tiny portable dvd player! So fun! Haha. 

Tuesday: we worked really hard and did some divisions in the evening. I went with Hermana Ida and we encountered this man who didn`t believe in Religion, let alone God.  HAha. I talked to him for about a half an hour and tried to answer all his crazy questions to the best of my abilities... haha. In the end, I just told him that I respected his decision to not believe in god and that the doors to our church were always open for him.. Haha. It was quite the experience.

Wednesday: In the morning, we did service for our Recent Convert Maria.. She is in lots of trouble, finacially.... we went and helped her with her laundry. She had 3 large large piles of laundry--- and no soap... We went and bought some soap and then spent 2 hours washing rinsing and hanging her clothes by hand and we didn't even finish half! Lots of hard work, but we know it really helped her out. It really makes me appreciate washing and drying machines! 

Thursday: We had a work visit with the Hermanas Capaciatadores (Sister Training Leaders) I went with Hermana Ebert to her area! We taught a bunch of families, and I could feel my progress since the first time we had a work visit.  We taught this Menos Activo family in this hill. They had 3 boys and it reminded me of me and my sisters :) So sweet! Haha 

Friday: we woke up REALLY early to go climb that hill with that family (remember that hill from last time?? So large... hahahaha) This time it was a lot easier! Haha. Well... That family needed a lot of hjelp... They`ve been married and baptized for like, a week... and they were in a huge fight... We talked to them for a really really long time to help resolve their problems.  I told them that I know marriage is not easy... Well... I don`t know exactly because I`m not married.. hehe. But something cool I`ve noticed about marriage or seen is that it takes 2 people who are very different, and has them work together to solve their problems, even though it`s tough. I told them how we as companions have compànionship inventory every week to talk about things that may be difficult in our companionship and encouraged them to do a marriage inventory! Haha. They liked that idea!! 

That afternoon for lunch, we went to a members home and had fried yucca for a starter.... So good!! Haha 

That evening, we had a work visit in our area (back with my companion) with uor zone leader and district leader! Crazy... 

We ended the night with pizza to celebrating my companion completing 18 months! Crazy!! Haha 

Saturday: We taught a reference named Thalia. Wow. She is so prepared!! She really has a desire to learn more about the gospel and wants to be baptized! So cool! haha. We also had a girl from comas come and visit (she`s friends with hermana Sosa) and that was fun! She`s nice and putting her papers in for her mission! 

That night, we visited Andrea (our recent convert) and her little brother Benjamin took my   planner- He then fell asleep with it clutched to his chest! It was so cute!! Future Missionary!! Haha 

Sunday; My companion went with Hermana Jeni to comas to go say goodbye to her area over there and I had divisions all day! I started at 6;30 with Rosamia Tomanguillo, the recently returned missionary! We talked and studied together and then went to Stake Conference! The stake conference was so good! Lots of good, powerful talks! President and hermana Erickson (Mission pres.) were there and gave talks too! 

After the conference, we went to lunch at the familia Sanchez`s house (arroz con pollo with papa a la huancaina... so good!!) and I started my division with Angela (the daughter) We walked all over and I taught 6 lessons!! woot woot!! hahaha 

We finished the night doing a Noche de Hogar with the familia sanchez and had hot chocolate and arroz con leche! Delicious!! 

Welp family, today we`re going out to work because tomorrow we have this thing called MUDIAL! Its the mission-wide soccer tournament! Haha. It should be awesome and it`ll be fun to see the peeps from the CCM! 

I hope all is well with you! I miss you like crazy cakes but I`m loving my time here! And guess what... I complete 4 months this week! Crazy crazy crazy!! 

Also... it`s my last week with my companion, hermana sosa... ;( I`m sad because she`s leaving but happy she gets to go home! It`ll vbe interesting to see who my next victim... I mean companion will be ;)) Hehehe. 

I will probably be on a little earlier than usual next week since my companion has a bunch of things to do with the President before she leaves!! 

I hope all is well with you!! I love you guys and miss you!! Have a great week! Hug maizy and a cat for me!! 

Love love love,

Hermana Kira Andrus!! 

Sunny Happy Halloween!

Hola Familia!!! 

This week went by SO fast.... !!! 

Monday: The Birthday of my friend here in the Mission Elder Porras!!! He`s awesome and from St. George, Utah. We celebrated with pizza and we watched Megamind. Funny stuff. 

Tuesday: We had our zone meeting with practicas.  We teach each other and do feedback.  we were teaching Leccion 2- The Plan of Salvation, and I accidently said Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Gethsemane.... HAha--- Besides that, the practices went well and I can feel my spanish improving! 

Wedenesday: I GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!! Woot woot! Family History had a trip planned for the recent converts in our ward, and I got to go with Hermana Evans!! It was stressful to get there (The people in Peru run on their own time... hhaaha) But when we got there it was nice! We didn`t have time to do a session or any ordinaces, but we got to watch the recent converts do baptisms.  They were so happy and I could really feel peace. a Little pause in the world to reflect and think about my time here and my purpose as a missionary. We took the train there and back and WOW... it was packed! So fun! I got squished in the doors, but the train didn`t leave without me!! Haha. That night, we went for Tacos and these giant Fronzen Pinapple drinks with Hermano Miguel and Royer. He`s a guy in our ward who`s preparing for his mission!! 

Thursday: Just lots of work, as usual. :) Hehe 

Friday: We visited our investigator Nora. She is AWESOME!! She always has a ton of questions, but it`s good! She wants to learn! She isn`t married, and so this week we`ve been working with our Zone Leaders with her--- talking about marriage and baptism! Her husband, Alexander is awesome! so sweet! Elder Garcia had them talk about how they felt about each other and he told us there were no words to explain how he felt about her and their son Aaròn. He told us his sons smile gave him the motive and energy for every day! So sweet! 

Saturday: HALLOWEEN!!! Haha- It really didn'`t feel like Halloween to me... Haha. Maybe becuase it wasn`'t very cold and the kids on trick-or-treat really late at night and in the shops.. not houses! Haha. It was sweet to see how excited everyone was! We went to lunch with Hermano Miguel and Royer and we ate the Sees chocolates Mom sent in the package!! So yummy and a sweet Halloween treat! 

Sunday: Was a short day! We had church in the morning and then went to Norky`s with Hermana Jeni-- She lives in Comas, but LOVES helping the sister missionaries and considers us her daughter. She comes and helps us with divisions sometimes and yesterday she brought her family since it was my comps last sunday in our ward (The next two, she`ll be visiting other wards) and her husbands birthday! Norky`s is this delicious restaurant that serves chicken and papas fritas and chaufa (fried rice) and tres leches... Ahhh.. so good! Hahaha. The rest of the day was short-- we had a stake meeting and then just taught!

Family, seriously the time this week flew by! I can`t believe how fast it seems! On a happy note, we got our scale in our room working and I found out I lost over 20 pounds!! woot woot! All that walking has payed off! Now I just have to keep it off, which will be difficult with all the delicious food here--- Seriously... we ate hamburgers one night that were SO good (hamburger, ham, papas fritas, and a fried egg... don`t worry--- I took pictures ;) ) 

I miss you guys like crazy cakes still, but I know the time until Christmas is going to fly!! I love you! Keep an eye out for my letters... I still haven`t gotten to sending them out.. whoopsies... but this week I will for sure! 

 

I love you guys so much! hope things are all well at home! 

XXOOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOXXO

November here we come!

Hola My Lovely Family!!!! 

This week seemed to fly by--- lots of work and some hard times, but overall, I`m well and happy! I can`t believe it`s already almost November!! eek! Time is just ticking on!! 

Here`s the happenings of my week!! 

Moday: For P-day, we had a joint p-day with the Magnolias zone! We went to their stake center and watched The Lorax (MY FAVORITE!!! funny in spanish too) and also part of INSIDE OUT!! Ahhh.. it made me think of home and watching it with you guys ;) Love you. We also at delicious chaufa (chinese food is pretty big down here-- called chifa. Chaufa is basically fried rice, but with different types of meats! Yum!) 

That night when we were up in a hill, all the lights were shining! So beautiful!  I attached a picture! 

Tuesday: we had a zone meeting... and I GOT MY PACKAGE!!! A week earlier than expected!! What a sweet suprise! Thank you SO SO much. I could really feel the love and I loved all the letters! I love and miss you guys! 

That night, I ate this delicious food called Salchimixto....! Salchipapas is a popular dish here that is basically french fries and chopped up hot dog with different sauces like ketchup, mayo, and this stuff called Coppa (weird... I know, but hey, they love it!) and salchimixto is french fries with steak and chicken pieces! So good! I`m attaching a picture of it too! So yummy!! 

Wednesday: I reached 100 days on my mission!! woot woot! HAha.... Also... I got a letter from Madi-Kay!! Thank you Madi!! I loved it! I`m sending one your way sometime this week! Not sure how long it`ll take to get there, but know it`s coming! Haha. 

We also met a newly returned Sister Missionary who is in our ward!! Her name is Rosamia! She just finished her mission in Trujilio Perù on Monday and she`s awesome! She knows all the lessons (of course) and it`s nice because she knows lots of the members too! She`s so sweet and we`ll be using her help lots these next few weeks as my compi travels to go visit her old areas (at the end of your misson, you get 2 days to visit old areas! Nice for the sisters because they usually only have 3 or 4 areas their whole mission) It`s weird thinking that we only have this week and 2 more weeks together and then I`ll be getting a new companion, but we`re trying to enjoy this time! Lots of trunkyness, but we`re still working hard! 

Thursday: Just lots of work, as usual :) 

Friday: LINNAE´s BIRTHDAY!!!! Woot woot woot!! Linnie Lou, I hope the big 16 was good! I thought of you lots a sent my love your way! 

That night was crazy...!! We had a milllion things to do! Our zone was having a noche blanca Saturday and we were working with our investigators with basptismal dates... One of them is Katrina! She is 9 years old, her siblings (Delia- 15 and Ceasar- 12) were baptized in February, and she would`ve been baptized too--- but she was afraid of the water....! We worked a lot with our zone leader Elder Garcia and we set up a practice baptism to help her out with the fear. So, Friday night was her practice! It took her a long long time to even get in the water, and when she did, she didn`t want to do the practice.  Elder Garcia tried everything. We encouraged her and other missionaries came and cheered for her. Her mom was rooting for her, and she just wouldn`t budge... Finally, one of the awesome Hermano`s in our ward (Hermana Coco... the one with all the roosters for the fights) and her mom said I would go in a show her how to do it... Ahh... Sooo... I went in with all my clothes on to demostrate a baptism... Wow.. .was the water freezing!! Hahaha. I did the practice and she STILL wouldn`t budge... We decided that she just wasn`t ready and she has her agency. When she`s ready, we`ll be here to help her! (Maybe not us specifically, but the missionaries! Haha). 

Well..... I was soaking wet... and had no clothes... and it was our wards Missionary Night (2ce a month we have a big noche misional where we teach a little lesson to members of the ward and investigators, play a game, and sing some hymns). we had no time to run home, so I was gave my portion of the lesson in wet clothes! Afterwards, we went and ate pizza so I was in my wet clothes until about 10pm.. Haha.  It was quite the day! Haha 

Saturday: Hmmm... a little bit rough.... Estrella, our other baptism, called and told us she didn`t want to be baptized without the support of her dad.... and he is so hard-hearted, he wouldn`t sign the permission... so both of our baptisms fell... That was rough. And sad. However, we`re not losing hope!

Also... The Elder`s had a baptism in the afternoon! Their investigator is 70 years old and was a little sick, so they did the baptism in the afternoon instead of the night. We went over to the church and helped them to clean the font and the building. It was the most humble baptism I have ever attend.  Only 2 other people attended-- His nieces-- but he was SO humble and so ready to be baptized.  It was sweet. Unfortunately, the representative from the bishopric was an hour late and we had to eat lunch so we (the hermanas) msised the baptism itself, but we were there before and after.. hehe.. He seemed so happy! It was very sweet. 

That night, we went and taught one of our recent converts-- Albina! She has a couple of granddaughters and I gave them each one of the "Soy un hija de Dios" pencils from my package!! They loved it!! The picture I`m sending is of Jackie, the youngest with her pencil! She loved posing for the camera! Haha 

Sunday: We had a really special Stake Conference and broadcast from Salt Lake City! The broadcast was for all of Perù and Bolivia! WE started the conference with a message from the stake president and then watched the broadcast! All but 1 speaker spoke in Spanish! Including Neil A. Anderson, the apostle presiding! It was cool! I liked it a lot because they spoke slowly and clearly and I could really understand it! Haha. 

That night, we did a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with Albina`s family! We taught a simple lesson, played a goofy game, and ate cake and some hot chocolate milk! Yum!! 

Welp, Family... That`s my week! I`m sending a letter out this week, and I`m not sure when you`ll get it! 

Oh yeah, Mom-- I got your letter from September 1st this week too! so it takes a little bit over a month for a letter to get here... maybe longer? But I loved it! I even laughed out loud at a couple of the things ("It`s boring here") Haha. Love you lots 

I love you guys lots and hope things are well! I hope work is good and life is fun! 

Sending my love from Perù to you! 

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Climbing Hills

Wowee Family!! I can´t belive another week has gone by!! It feels like forever since we talked and yet, it´s P-day again!! Ahhh! 

I hope everything is well back home! I miss you and think of you often, but I´m loving it here! 

Monday; we went to Plaza Norte for P-day! It´s this giant mall in our mission with stores and cinnabon and CHILI´s!! It made me think of all the times Maya would go for chips and salsa (and sometimes regret it later.. hehe). It was funny to see it in Spanish and almost everything came with rice, but it was a good memory of home and good times. It did make me a bit trunkie though... haha. 

Afterwards, we went to this little shop that has these massage beds! It was kinda cool, kinda painful, kinda relaxing, and gave us all headaches! haha but it was only 5 soles! 

Tueday: we had a multi-zone conference.  Every other change here, we have multi.zone conferences/trainings and the other ones are interviews with the president. It was fun and we ate hotdogs afterwards!! Haha. We had a short work visit with the Hermanas Capacitadores (sister training leaders) but  there was an emergency with one of the other sisters, so it was cut short :( we´re going to have one later in this change.

Wednesday we celebrated my 3 month cumplemes! It was fun! We ate burritos and marveled out how crazy time is here in the mission... Ahaha--

Thursday and Friday were just full of good work! We found a menos activo while looking for another person and he is so sweet! His name is Benjamin. He used to be active, but he got a divorce and felt really ashamed. When we asked him how he felt his relationship with god was, he cried. He attended church and seems to be doing well!

 We also have an investigator named Katrina! She is 9 years old. her mom is a less active and her brother and sister got baptized in February, but she has a fear of the water... so she didn´t get baptized!! Haha. We are working with our awesome Zone Leader- Elder Garcia to help her overcome the fear by practicing this week! 

Our other investigator, Estrella is getting ready to be baptized as well! Her parents don´t support her, which is really hard... But we´re working with her to get her permiso signed! 

Saturday: we had my first ever divisions!! It was a little scary since I would be on my own with a member, but it turned out great! I taught 3 lessons by myself and had LOTS of contacts! We did divisions with Hermana Jeni! She lives in Comas (the other side of the mission) and she is really good friends with Hermana Sosa (my comp) She helps the missionaries a lot and she calls us her daughters! She is so sweet and helped out a lot! We love her! Her husband came and met us for dinner at this restaurant called Norky´s that´s really famous here. It´s roasted chicken and wow... it was so good! 

Yesterday (sunday) was great! One of our investigators, nora, came to church! She is so interested in the gospel and takes notes during our lessons and during church! It was great! We also completed our goals this week (no tocush for us) and finished the night with Caldo de Gallina! A delicious soup with chicken, noodles, green onion, and a hard-boiled egg! The food here is delicious! I´´ve actually lost a lot of weight here (probably becuase I don´t just sit on the couch watching Roswell all day... funny how that works, huh? ;)) but my companion says she´s gained a LOT! Hahaha. It´ll be fun to see how it turns out for me in the mission :) 

This morning, we woke up REALLY early and went to go hike this Cerro (hill) in one of the Elders´ area. It was sooooo difficult, but so cool! We were in a cloud!! It was so cool! and so high up with lots of humidity, there were some beautiful flowers and cool catus´! Climbing the hill, I just kept thinking-- holy cow! I live in Perú!! It´s so cool and I love it here :) 

A few times this week, we´ve gotten up early and played futbol with the Elders! It´s been really fun and good excercise! 

Also.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK LINNAE!!!!! I seriously cannot believe that you are (almost 16!!!) I love you lots! Did you get my letter? I hear a birthday party is in the works... Love you lots and don´t worry... I´´ll be celebrating your birthday here in Perú!! I love you my linnie-lou!! You have to tell me about all the dates!! 

Well, my dear family! That´s my week! Lots of work, but lots of joy! I sing almost every day now and whenever I sing George Ezra I think of you Linnie... ("It´the bae! The ultimate bae!!!) HEhehe. .Love you guys so much and miss you tons! I can´t believe how fast the time is flying! And I hear it only get´s faster! I love you guys so much and hope this week is a great one for you! 

-love-

Hermana Andrus