Portland To Peru To Rexburg: Hola ¿Qué tal?

Week Two!

HEY!

Hermana Peters and Hermana Fitzpatrick

This week has been A LOT harder. My companion actually ended up going home the same night that I wrote you last. So I spent Wednesday in a trio with Hermana Fitzpatrick and Hermana Johnson and then Thursday I was assigned to labor with Hermana Rush, I WAS NOT THE ONE TO MAKE THE FIRST BIG TIME RUSH JOKE. But She is really sweet, I feel like there has been a big decrease in my Spanish learning since then though, but we started our new companionship with a blessing from our zone leaders because we knew it would be hard. One of our zone leaders was Elder Halverson and he looks JUST LIKE BLAKE. and acts like him too. It freaked me out at first but it was a huge comfort when I needed a blessing and I could just ask him like he was my best friend.

Hermana Peters and Hermana Rush

Hermana's Peters and Rush
with the Latina Hermanas

But it was their last week in the CCM yesterday so I won't see him like ever again. The Latinas in our room left for the field yesterday too, it was so sad I already miss them. Even though there was a language barrier we had so much fun! Hermana Diaz and I would sit with each other and she would read a column of inglés scriptures and I would read a column of español, it was so helpful. Then there was Hermana Garcia who knew no Spanish, and she came from a very poor family, and it was so cute she was obsessed with my mascara she would sit and watch me put it on everyday. So I gave her one of my tubes of mascara and she got so excited. Then there was Hermana Ramirez, how do I even BEGIN to describe her? She is so funny she would always call us crazy in her broken inglés. and one day she leans against my bed and shes like

James Maslow

"what music do you listen too" and I was like well lots of stuff and shes like "Justin Beiber?" and I'm like yeah sometimes, "Taylor Swift" "yeah sometimes. I really like Big Time Rush though" and she screamed at the top of her lungs for like a minute and was like "I LOOOOVVVEEEE JAMES MASLOW ES MUY BONITO" It was so funny.

I committed our investigator to baptism. Jorge Armando is his name, did I mention he was a fake investigator? It was really exciting though. He was really our teacher Hmo. Valasquez. But he told me a few things that lifted my spirits as I struggled. One day he told me that Hma. Rush and I getting though this week was really inspiring to him and that we were angels sent to him from heaven.

We went to Interpol again, how annoying is that? but I got through it, and I´m still in Peru so I guess its all working itself out.

On Saturday we went out proselyting, it was hard, I definitely cried on the way home. They put everyone with Latino companions and we went out to stakes to talked to less actives. The first person to talk to us was like the son of the member and hes like "my dad lives down the street now but hes at work, we love the missionaries tho" and that was about all I got from that conversation. Then the next lady was older and she talked forever and I had no idea what she was saying so I just sat there until my companion told me to read a scripture on faith and bore my testimony in really horrible Spanish then she said something and all I understood was "inglés" so I knew she was talking about me. So I got really frustrated that I couldn't understand, it wasn't until the bus ride home when I was frustrated to tears that the teacher who was supervising us told me what she said. and she basically said that she believes in the church and the BOM and prophets but she didn't understand how a church could send kids who know nothing, to teach about the gospel and especially send kids places where they can't even speak the language, and that just got me even more upset. I felt like it was all my fault that she didn't go to church. Out of that, I was able to see all the love from the Hermanas around me. They were so sweet when I saw I was upset. I was speaking with one Hermana for a long time about life and everything and shes like "read me your mission scripture" and I opened up to Isiah and started to read it and just cried even more, because I am anointed of God and I am here for a purpose and I know this church is true and that lady has her own issues and its not my fault Satan is using the idea of me to make her fall away from the church.

Today I had a Dr. Pepper and am feeling a lot better.