Week 2: June 27, 2013
Hola Familia!!!
Did you not get my email last Thursday?! I am so sorry!! For some reason it
didn't send. I will copy and paste that email into this one so you can at least
see what I wrote.
I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU ABOUT but not enough time so I will just type as
fast as I can and hope it makes sense!
The CCM is wonderful!! It is very beautiful here. Presidente Cardon's wife
calls it ´´Peru's own Garden of Eden´´The weather is suprisingly kind of cold.
Its in the 60's but because of the humidity it feels colder. The humidity is
super weird. It doesn't rain here, but the humidity is so thick? that sometimes
it feels like your walking through suspended rain drops. Also all of my papers
feel soggy all of the time, and there is a very damp feeling to everything. On
the plus side, my hands have never felt softer!
My district is super awesome!!! I love them a lot. There is my companion
Hermana Hulse (who is from Montana originally from Oregon she also went to
BYUI!!) Then there is Hna. Imbler, Hna. Whatcott, Hna. Haws, Hna. Shroader, Hna.
Santos, Hna. Goulding, Hna. Sales, Elder Harwood, and Elder Johnston. All of the
sisters are going to Lima Norte, and all the Elders are going to Cochabamba
Bolivia. My district is hilarious. We are constantly laughing and having fun
together. But don´t worry, we also study and work hard too :)
There are so many sisters here! We have the biggest group of sisters that
the CCM has ever seen! We have around 70 Hermanas, and 30 to 40 Elders. Probably
three fourths of us are Norteamericanos and a fourth are Latinos. The Latinos
are sooo funny! I absolutely love talking to them. They also kick our trash at
futbol so we`ve learned to not even try playing against them :) But! We are at
about the same level when it comes to around the world ping pong, which is super
fun to play, especially with the Latino Elders. :)
The language is coming along really well! It's kind of cool actually, ever
since I´ve been here I've been able to remember all the spanish classes I've
taken and specific things I've learned, that I'd forgotten about before. It´s
crazy how fast I've able to pick up on Spanish gospel words too. I haven´t had
an trouble understanding what every one is saying, the trouble comes when I try
and talk back to them :) But actually I'm surprised at how well I've been able
to communicate! Today while we were at the temple I talked to two girls from
Arequipa and our conversation was completely in Spanish with out any trouble.
I'm also saying my prayers completely in Spanish (except for when I forget and
accidentally say them in English) and I can bear my testimony in Spanish as
well! The don de lenguas is real!! (gift of tongues)
Speaking of the temple...We got to go to the Lima Temple today!!!!!!!!!! It
was such an incredible experience! The temple is very very small, it doesn´t
have an upstairs or downstairs and the endowment room can only hold 25 people,
but it is SO beautiful! It was a little bit surreal pulling up in front of the
temple and seeing it for the first time, because I had had the picture of it as
the background on my computer ever since I got my call, and then all of a
sudden, there it was in front of me!! :) It was such a crazy feeling. We then
got to walk around Lima for a little while and go shopping and then flag down a
bus to get us back to the CCM. It was so cool to finally be IN peru! Being
inside the walls of the CCM all the time is so different from being out in the
''real'' world. Today made me so excited to actually be out in the field and
living in Peru.
Oh!! I can´t forget to tell you about the food. The food is super
delicious, it`s basically like eating at La Carreta every day. I have eaten rice
twice a day, every day since I`ve been here. They also give us a big chunk of
meat with every meal and I`ve had to start asking for no meat, cause my body
isn´t handling the food super well. :)
I`m glad that you guys watched the missionary broadcast on Sunday! Wasn´t
it incredible? EVERY member a missionary!! We all cheered when they showed the
stake from Peru :) Another cool moment on Sunday was when all of us new
norteamericanos were able to watch the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration
movie together. There was literally not a dry eye in the room, especially when
the final words, ``shall we not go on in so great a cause?'' came across the
screen. It was a really spiritual moment, and it was cool to share it with a
bunch of missionaries :)
I really really love it here! I had a bit of a rough time the first few
days, but it gets better and better every single day. Every one always says,
``just make it to Sunday`` but for me, I needed to make it to Tuesday I guess :)
On Tuesday I was able to have a really spiritual experience that has helped me
SO much, it was something I needed, and Heavenly Father knew that. Ever since
that experience I have been doing so much better, and improving every day!
I wish I had more time, and I am going to try sending pictures (it might
not work, not very many people have been able to send pictures yet) so I guess
thats all I have time for, but I'll leave you with a funny ''language mess up''
that happened in our district this week. One Hna. was trying to say, ''tengo
hambre'' (I am hungry) but accidentally said, ''tengo hOmbre'' (I have a man) We
all thought it was pretty funny :)
Thank you for all the emails that I received! I wish I had time to respond
to them all! I`m glad girls camp was good! What time is Abby`s baptism next
week? Also, Abby good job with swimming! That´s way cool you were able to stay
afloat for so long! Also, Kylee, do you remember a Hannah Christensen from
Timpanogos? She is your age and is one of my roommates here, she is going to
Ecuador. Her companion is going to Bolivia and my other roommates are my
companion and Hna Imbler and Hna Whatcott.
Ah! I have to go!
I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hermana Shelton
