Full big party, Trevor!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR!!!!!! Hope it's a great day full of partying. Or as one of the elders would say: Full big party!!! Alright, so... this week. Was a little everywhere. My companion and I are great friends now. Didn't take us too long. Didn't get a heater ever... But we've warmed up the rooms pretty decently just living in them, so I'm fine sin chaqueta. Well, sometimes.

So watching cars last pday was... weird. But hey, only one movie a month, so we get to have fun pdays now. I love movies, but... I'm in Peru.

So funny thing- this is the one area without pension. I mean, we could convince someone in the ward, but what we do is eat out at restaurants or buy tons of fruit. (I just saw someone selling kiwi today! Sweet!) The restaurants aren't any less healthy that pensioning. It's the exact same 8 plates we eat here in Peru. But really, I get to CHOOSE my food!! And it's super cheap, so I get to buy snacks with food money. Yeah!

Oh yeah, so last pday Elder Price decided we all needed code names... so on Saturday we all have code names now. Mine is caballita del diablo. (Don't worry, that just means dragonfly). My comp is Trunchador (Spanish version of the principal in Matilda), Elder Price is Captain Jack Sparrow and Elder Cogollo is Gandhi. Yeah... We're cool.

I love my area now. I don't really have any super sweet investigators yet. Except Leidi. She is an antiguo, but we found her just contacting. We taught her the first lesson and she got it down really well- including the apostasy. That seems to be the hard part for people. We also have a recently rescued we're working with named Norma. We're working with her on getting a temple recommend. She's super shy, but she loves when we come over. We also have this recent convert, Josefina, who's super old and hard of hearing that we're working with. She's super sweet! I hope she'll be able to get to go to the temple in a year. We're planning a temple trip with the branch for the 25th, so that means we'll get to go (I think). But President Marler wants us to be going to the temple at least once every two transfers, so I am SO excited for when I get to go see it!

The sister leaders came down Tuesday for intercambios. I got to go with Hermana South who was in the CCM with me. It was super cool seeing her. She's an amazing missionary! We knocked on this super creepy looking house, and this lady answered the door who seriously kinda looked like a witch with crazy hair with a little braid in it, crooked teeth, clothes an all. It was just too cliche looking. It was a pretty unproductive contact- she didn't want anything. But it was entertaining.

I had the WORST dream that I had to say bye to Hermana Flor again. I woke up super sad and homesick for Jaen, but it's getting better. I did super well the first half week, but it hit me this last one. But I'll fall in love with Otuzco too I'm sure.

On Saturday we cleaned the kitchen in the casa-capilla which looked like it hadn't been touched for a couple years. Well- it's all white and sparkly now thanks to us! And then we ate cake from the zone meeting earlier in the week. The other district took half with them back to their little town. And then we ate our half. Elder Cogollo blessed it and prayed for me seeing as it's "my" birthday cake. So that was kinda funny 19 days before my birthday. Hey- I'm going to be done being a teenager this month! AHH! Not cool. Must be dumb teenager while I have time! JK :)

Church was good and stuff. We're really getting to know the members. It helps not having a pensionista because then I really have to put in effort to get to know the ward.

And... today we hiked to the white cross on the top of some mountain which barely has a trail. It was kinda hard- but so fun! And no boulders involved. :)
We took a ton of fotos, but there's nowhere to send them on these computers that I can find... Sorry! Uh, more for when I get home? But it was super fun. We brought lunch to eat up at the top too. So it was good. And man are we in high altitude here! But I think after that hike, the air in the town doesn't seem as thin anymore. I'd do that hike again. :)

And, that's about it! Just trying to get the area going. Oh, another adventista tried to convert me yesterday. Man, talk about trying to persuade with your knowledge and words. I just bore a simple testimony which he talked over, and then we fought to get out of that house. (He's a missionary for his church. Their style of teaching isn't very... good.) I started analyzing it like in English class. He used pathos telling us we're smart because we're northamericans (Uh... thanks? There're smart people here too. And that's we're pretty.) He used ethos stating the name of his church and used a lot of logos with scriptures. Yeah... we missed a cita thanks to that. But it's cool since it's the branch president's daughter- so we'll go visit her later this week. It turned out she was busy anyways.

Love you all!
Hermana Brogan

** new mission address on the right effective 7/13/2015

Peru Trujillo Norte..so it begins

First off, I’m the worst sister. I meant to write this last week  but
Happy Birthday Becky! I was thinking about how I forgot to write you
happy birthday last week this entire week! But I remembered your
birthday. :)

So this week has been insane! Full of changes! So first off, we had to
travel down to Chiclayo on pday. Hermana Kennedy stayed in the
Chiclayo mission, so I had to say bye to her the next morning. But…
por FIN I saw Hermana Hebdon after nine months! And I said hi to her
from everyone at work, and we got to do divisions the next morning, so
we just got to catch up on life, and it was so fun! It was such a
tender mercy. I had hoped to see her in the mission.

So the next day we go to Guadalupe and we stayed with two sisters- one
of which is Hermana Furness from the CCM! It was so good to see her!
On the bus ride down, I sat next to this girl Julia, who has my exact
same birthday, also turning  20 this month, and super cool! (I’m older
by about 8 hours). But I basically learned her whole life story and
then taught her the first lesson by myself. It was super awkward
because I had two elders sitting across the aisle from me and two
sisters behind me. And so they all were kinda watching me. So awkward.
But then when I finished teaching her, one of the elders pulled out an
HJ (CTR) ring to give to her. Random. But I explained it to her, and
she told me that what I do is very beautiful.  It was a cool
experience, and I got to give Hermana Furness a reference of gold!
So we get here and we get lunch in the mission home. Oh, btw, the
mailing address is:

Avenida Larco 849, Piso 3
Urb. La Merced
Trujillo
Perú

So here in this mission, the rules are SO relaxed! We can have
district and zone pdays again. And we can watch Disney movies. And
pixar. Let me repeat that. We can watch normal (ish) movies! We’re
going to watch Cars today.

So then I find out my companion is Hermana McCally who was in my last
zone with me (in Jaen). Yeah, it will be an interesting companionship.
I have a ton of energy compared to her, and we teach really
differently. And she has less time than me. So that’s a first. (Only a
transfer, so we’re equal).

So then not only do we change missions, but I get shipped off super far
away yet again. I’m in this little tiny town (way smaller than Jaen)
called Otuzco. When you think emperor’s new groove, you aren’t too far
off. But something else, we SHARE the area with the elders here. It
isn’t divided. Weird! Just whoever finds them teaches them. And we can
walk the whole city in a day. It’s tiny. And also not a city… awkward.
So our district is just us two (my comp is from Washington), and the
elders- Elder Price (aka Elder Esprite) from Arizona, and Elder
Cogollo who is from Colombia, I think 26, and just finishing his
training. So it’s fun. We live pretty much right next to them, except
our apartment is really pituco (really nice- hot water even!) and they
live in adobe. But Otuzco is freezing cold! (The mission president is
sending us a heater). Okay, well it’s like California winter. But
after being in Jaen, it’s freezing.

The missionaries in this mission are ALL super happy. It’s kinda
weird. Well, mostly the assistant was a little weird. Like, too happy.
But in my district we’re all sane.

So when I left from Jaen, elder Nordhoff told us why we’ve really been
calling our district las galletas. Because Elder Miranda asked him
other ways to say white, and Elder Nordhoff told him ‘cracker’ which
translated is galleta. Too funny.

So our first district meeting was fun. The Elders acted out Alma…
shoot, I think chapter 21. Around there… But it was just really weird.
Later that day, we’re trying to find an old investigator from this
area, Maricela, and it doesn’t have an exact number, so we’re out on
this random dirt road up the hill, looking for a pink house. Well, I
go to knock the door, and after the first knock see Elder Cogollo
sitting there. Out of all the houses in the town- we end up exactly
where the elders are teaching a recent convert. (the aunt of who we
were looking for). It was so funny. So I tried to back out, but then
the elders make us come sit through the rest of the lesson with
Josefina and pass her over to us. Too funny.

Here, there aren’t a lot of white people, so everybody just stares at
us. All the ladies with their sombreros and blakets (children on their
backs in the blankets) stare at us the most. There’s also sheep,
donkeys, llamas, and even a cow that walk around all the streets. Also,
it’s just a branch here- not a ward. It’s so small, I can’t get over
it.  But anyways, we contacted one of these ladies and she couldn’t
understand my English name, so called me Hermana Flora. Well, that’s
cool!

We had to go unlock the doors to the casacapilla (little  cute chapel
we have) for the relief society. Being Peru, nobody showed up, and it
turned out the activity was cleaning the chapel. So we and the elders
clean the whole building, which I have no  clue when it was cleaned
last. I think all the dust we swept up could grow a few trees…
Yesterday, this guy walked by us and said hi. We say Buenos tardes.
And he comments to his wife, See? They speak Castellano!
Okay, so the elders left it up to us to pick the movie we’re watching
today, and I didn’t want to pick, which means they changed it to I
have to pick the movie, since my companion didn’t really care. I
didn’t either, but I think I’m just pick-on-able. So anyways, I had to
choose. (This happened while we were waiting for correlation, but our
ward mission leader never showed up. So opposite from my last leader.)
Then in consejo, they all find out my birthday is this month, so I
tell them to forget about it, so my district leader (Elder Price) goes
and writes it on the chalkboard! Then Elder Cogollo, who’s learning
English, goes and writes “full big party” underneath.

Okay, that’s about my week. Nothing is loading, so I’ll send this at
the church, and sorry I can’t really respond to people.
Oh, and the mission president’s wife has a blog: kurtandkathymarler.blogspot.com