Loved to death by emails

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! I have never felt so overwhelmed with so many emails! People actually love me! :D But now I have no time to write...

SO weird things I've seen this week: A llama on a leash coming out of a moto. I really want to ride a moto one of these days. I haven't yet... Two people walking down the street in a cardboard box. (The top and bottom were open...) And a creepy mannequin with teeth. Sometimes I just wish I had my camera on me...

I did intercambios this week, and it was SO needed. I'm honestly having a hard time with my comp, but my sister leader is SO amazing. Her name is Hermana Larson, and she is just the missionary I want to be. She's on her last transfer right now. :) She's really funny too. She asks the most random questions. Like if my thighs are the same size as hers and then has me measure. (Almost is the answer). I told her how I really appreciate how I can see the light of the gospel in her countenance and how loving she is, and how I want to be a missionary like her one day, and she told me that I just fulfilled prophecy. She had a sister leader she totally admired at some point in her mission, and told her sister leader the same thing, and said someday someone would tell her that. And so I did, so she told me someday somebody would tell me the same thing. :) So sweet. And funny.

I got a letter from the ward this week. Random people, most of who I should know but don't... But it was super nice! I really appreciate it. I love hand written letters because then I can read them all week long. 

Culture fun fact: When you knock on a door, people will answer from a random window. So imagine answering from our upstairs window or the living room window to talk to someone who rang the doorbell. Weird, but it actually makes sense. Less work for the person in the house!

A ward member bought me a King Kong this week. it's like a delicious cookie thing filled with what's called manjar blanco (internet it, I don't know how to describe it). But it's SO good!

We found a menos activo this week who hasn't been in like 15 years or more, and doesn't really know anything about the church! But she's baptized! Crazy! She even went to Jehovah's Witness church for four years... But she's cool and listens very receptively. :)

I just want to talk more about Hermana Larson, and how she is always in pain for certain medical reasons. And how she's always so happy despite this. Or when she contacts and people just say no very rudely, she just keeps smiling and trying to the last second. Man, she's just cool! I told her I wish I could be sweet like that when contacting, but she misheard me and thought I said I wanted to be like the people who said no. Yes, I totally want to become totally rude and cold to the world. That's JUST what I meant. Ah, it was nice to be with someone who gets sarcasm. :)

Be of good cheer! Christ overcame the world!

Hermana Brogan

Mission President and wife when chocolate is involved!

So I was trying to come up with things to write about the culture, and it's such a city, there really isn't too much difference. Just the language. But what I did come up with:

People don't all avoid eye contact. People actually say hi to each other. But not everyone...

Little shops are the thing here. You buy everything at a little store on the road instead of a supermarket. It's cute. But it always makes me want food. One of my favorite things is Lucuma. It's a fruit made into a popsicle. And it kinda tastes like bread dough. And I think it's sooo delicious!

Everyone is Catholic. Like ever. Or Jehovah's witness, or MMM, which I'm still trying to figure out what it is...

The driving is insane. And traffic cops stand at intersections trying to make the traffic go FASTER sometimes. Yeah, that's new.

I'm so gringa here. Everyone just stares at us.

AND, there's this cart of grapes that these guys push around in the street. And they always say something along the lines of "Uvas. Que Ricas. Que deliciosos. Uvas. Uvas." It's pretty funny.

So little kids are the best. Sometimes we knock doors, and kids answer. We had this little girl who was so excited to see us, and she ran to get her mom saying They speak English they speak english!!!

Then this other day, a boy about 7 or 8, Ricardo, answered the door and said his parents weren't home and then proceeded to shower us with questions for like 15minutes, from why are you so tall? (to my comp), to why do you speak funny? to Is that a Bible? Can I see it? It was just funny. It brightened my day a ton!

We're also helping with the music for the primary program because nobody here sings or leads music (almost). So that's funny. Kids have such angelic voices. I love it!

There's this one girl in our ward who's about 20, named Jenny, who speaks a little bit of English. So she's a good friend for me to have. We took her along to a lesson, and I taught a principle or two, and afterwards she was so shocked I spoke so good, because we've met with her a few times, but I'm just shy about my Spanish. So then we had a whole conversation walking down the street. But she speaks SO fast when she speaks Spanish (like how I speak English), so we can't understand each other in our native tongues. So she spoke English and I spoke Spanish, and then it worked just fine. :) I'll get a picture with her one of these days.

I forgot my camera! So pictures next week. :)

Oh, and Jenny also fed us (members feed us on weekends),and it was SOOO good. My comp is trying to lose weight, so our pensionista doesn't feed us rice. Jenny gave us both a mountain of rice! Yum!!!

Oh yeah, so I gave that See's candies* to Hermana Williams when I first got here. (I think I forgot to write about this). And she was SO happy. She was amazed I made it six weeks without eating it all! She kept asking if I wanted any, but I said no,because I'd be back in California before she would be.So then she went and told President Williams, and they bickered about it. President was jealous and asked if she had to share. I said it was sent specifically to her, and it's hers so she can decide. So Hermana Williams told Presidente that she must have left a better first impression with me at the Provo MTC and told my mom so. :P They're cute. I love when older couples still interact that way.

So I was talking with my pensionista this week, and she said a Quechua phrase, and I didn't understand. So then she asked why I don't speak they're language. I told her it all made sense. That in fact, my Spanish is already perfect, but the language they speak is Quechua. I was just confused, and it's really not my fault they had me learn Spanish and not quechua.

And that was the conversation where my personality was finally born in Spanish. :D Hurray! I'm human!

We committed a girl of 13 years to baptism this week, but in the mission we can't baptize them without they're parents if they're younger than 18. So we just need to commit their mom. :) She's almost there.

We tried sugar cane this week! You chew it and then spit it out. It's really weird. Definitely a one time thing. But that was pretty fun!

Okay, that's about all this week. Uh, contacting is hard. Teaching is hard. Spanish is hard. But it's coming. And I've only been here two weeks. :)

Love you all!

Hermana Brogan

* Sister Williams mentions in her mission blog that she missed having chocolate, especially See's candy, in Peru so Haley took some down to her in her suitcase.

Pictures, finally!

My comp is great. She's 22 and SO tall, but yeah. Our personalities are a little different, and we approach missionary work differently, but I just go along with her for now since I don't really speak Spanish. But we find plenty of things to laugh about. Being on my own isn't too fun. I REALLY miss my MTC district a ton. I miss being around all the immature 18 year old boys because it was always hilarious. Now I have to provide my own humor. Dang. I miss my old comps too. We had 12 people come from the CCM in my group, 6 North Americans, five of whom are sisters.

I have no clue how far I am from the mission home. The taxi ride didn't seem too long... Let's see, so our area is just split off from a bigger area. It's just a city. The buildings aren't as nice as in the states, but I like it. There's always people out and about so finding and teaching is easy. I'm blessed to be in a South American mission. Oh, but walking all day is SO draining, especially because my TALL comp walks twice as fast as me and expects me to keep up with her. 

Danny is leaving soon! Hurray! I'm so excited for him!

Okay, stories:

So when I got out of the taxi at our room, elders from our district where there to help us with our luggage. One of them, Elder Wilson, looked at me and asked, Are you white? I responded, what? He said, Yes! Good! It was strange. He's a goof. He and his comp had our area as part of their area before, so they've been helping us a ton this week. 

We have hot water!

Sometimes I agree to things without realizing it. Dang language barrier. Usually it's just saying the prayer.

My comp and I ALWAYS are singing. She loves it as much as me. SO that's fun!

My district leader, Elder Rojas, is Latino, so I was talking to him (barely) in Spanish, and he told me he was going to get me over my fear of speaking Spanish. And so he forced me to share a spiritual thought in my first district meeting. Oh boy!

That's really about it. I'll see if I can send some pics now. And I want some time to email my old district. Talk to you next week!

 my district from the mtc

 My trainer and  first apartment (with HOT WATER)

 Silly Haley

She's in Chiclayo.

Hey! So I get to write. Yay! Halloween came and went without much notice, but two of the sisters in my group wore the EXACT same outfit. And it was awesome. Chiclayo is so warm and wonderful! And I get to be in a normal companionship! I already love my companion. She loves singing, and it´s going to be so fun! She's so happy and kind too. Ummm, I don't really know what to say. Leaving the ccm was pretty tragic. I cried when I had to say goodbye to all the elders last night. (But not until after I was upstairs!) But my transfer journal is now one of my favorite things, and my district is so sweet and so good to me. They make me sound like a saint (which I'm not...) But as for stories, I don't really have any this week from memory. I didn't have time to prepare bullet point of things that happened. But basically Sunday was AMAZING. We had a district testimony, and we each bore our testimonies. My faith has grown so much since being at the mtc, and it's crazy seeing how quickly all my prayers are answered, and feeling the joy of the gospel and the spirit in my life at all times. It's just absolutely amazing. I love being a missionary, and I'm so excited to get to work!

Okay, well I love you all.

I ate pizza today. That was weird. I haven't had american food in a long time. It really isn't that great... I'll stick with my peruvian food.

My mission president remembered me*, and he took us to the beach for a few minutes. We made paper boats and then burned them. Like Hernán Cortés. So yeah! Oh, my new comps name is Hermana Kingsford, and we're opening a new area in Chiclayo, Latina, José Balta. So that's going to be really cool starting my mission out in the field in a brand new, untouched, area.

I love the work! Hopefully I'll have more stories next week or remember some from this past week.

Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Brogan

* Note from Haley's mom:

Haley was able to meet her mission president at the MTC in Provo when the new mission presidents came for training, even before the rest of the mission met him. Pretty cool.

Headed out already?

Okay world (or whoever actually reads this), here's this week in review.

There's one hermana here, Hermana Christiansen who worked security at the MOA at BYU, so we serisouly spent the whole meal in which we first met each other, talking about work. It was strangely super fun! We both miss it a little. She's also one of my favorite people here. So that was a little bit of a blessing for me, meeting her. :)

 

So, there's been another mind game going around called, "Am I a witch?" It's dumb. So many games here. But it's finally died down a bit.

 

So one of our teachers told us we could switch up where we sit (because we used to, but the teachers took over because we talk to much.) Elder Rojoo denied the offer which surprised me. He said, "Aw, but I like sitting next to Hermana Brogan, she always answers all my questions!" It made me happy. I find I'm happiest in classes when I can help the other missionaries in my district with the language. Cause I get really bored... Nice to know I'm capable of making friends. It's weird, because every single person in my district, I never would have talked to or tried to be friends with in a different setting, but we all get along so well and it's so much fun being friends with them!

 

So on Saturday (I think), a bunch of primary kids came to the MTC to visit with the missionaries. They were all out playing on the soccer field, and when we went out there, they just all swarmed to us, running across the field to come meet us! It was so amazing. I have never felt that much love from strangers before! And they were all just little kids! So our job was to talk to them (in spanish obviously) about being a missionary and stuff. So I asked one of the girls if she wanted to serve a mission, and she said yeah, in the US, so I asked where, and she said California. So that made me happy! And it's so cute, because all the little girls would greet me with a kiss on the cheek. I still can't get over how cute they all are! About ten minutes after they left, a group of youth, just about our age, came (they went to the temple after meeting with us). So I talked to a bunch of the sisters, and aside from one of them getting married, they were all preparing to serve missions too. They were all so kind and funny and sweet! One of them asked me how I speak so fast, since Spanish isn't my first language, and the other missionaries don't speak as easily, so I just explained that I took three years in school, and one of my teachers forced us to do immersion in class.

 

So we prepare talks every week, and they just call us up to the pulpit right then and there, so that we all have to prepare. But only four people speak. But I prepared a really good talk on the Book of Mormon, so I was hoping they would call on me (and of course everyone thought I was kinda crazy for that). So the sister leaders caught word and told the Branch presidency before church I wanted to speak. Apparently they just laughed in reaction. But they ended up letting me speak. So that was fun! I love speaking in church. It's definitely one of my favorite things. The two elders after me fought over who had to speak next... (I promise I'm really not that fluent in Spanish). Later, the mission president's wife, Hna Gonzalez, came up and told me (in Spanish) that she couldn't believe how well I did. "¡No puedo creer!" She was so sweet. :)

 

So one day we ended up eating at a table just with our lone companionship, so the elders in our district made fun of us calling us outcasts. One of them, being a five year old, said it was because Hermana Marshall smelled. So she got really insulted, and so right after, they came back to the classroom with rolls as offerings (because she really really really really likes the rolls here- like 24 as her high for how many she's eaten in a day). It was Hilarious! I can't explain to you how much she loves those rolls.

 

Hermana Marshall straightened my hair two days ago and everyone was so shocked. Elder Monson saw me at breakfast, said "woah." then waited a second, said time out, and went and got juice before coming back to react. It was hilarious. Yeah, I really only straighten my hair to get reactions out of people. let's be real. The next day, one of the elders asked me if it just got curly again overnight. That was funny.

So my teacher hna Rivera, thinks Elder Monson looks like winnie the pooh, which he doesn't, and so she came up to him one day and asked, "¿Le gusta hunny?" That was hilarious. She always comments to me about how he loks like pooh bear. Too funny.

 

We went to immigrations again yesterday. I talked to a lady in line from Mexico for a bit, and she was super sweet, and patient with my language. But she's here for a month and a half with the catholic church, and we talked about how crazy the driving here is, and it was cool. I can have real conversations! (kinda). Also, one of the lady's who worked there got mad at me while I was waiting for my ID card to be printed. But while she was in the middle of lecturing me about how I don't understand, and other things I actually didn't undertand what she was saying, the card came, so I just grabbed it and left. Yeah, that was weird.

 

We had the MOST awkward lesson last night. Keep in mind that we really just teach the MTC teachers. But she opened the door, and told us how strange it was we decided to knock on her door, but she eventually let us in. Then she asked why were asking about her family and stuff and how it made her uncomfortable. Then it was just really awkward from there on out. So that was an experience. We taught the law of chastity the lesson after that, and that lesson was LESS awkward! How?

 

Also, my district loves hymn #146- sunshine in my soul (in spanish),and we sing it really loud and obnoxiously always. At least once a day. And the zone leaders are in my district so we sang it for sacrament meeting as well. It's weird, but hey, I have a spanish hymn memorized now!

 

I was so sad, this was my last week going to the temple, but it was an AMAZING session. I did it in english this time (first time since being here), and that was very nice to not worry about the language. I love the Lima temple. It's beautiful! I hope to come back one day. :)

Okay, that's about all this week. (mostly). Sorry again for the typos.

Love you all!

The church is true! I've never been happier than when I'm close to Heavenly Father and Christ!

Con Amor,

Hermana Brogan

 

 

*Note from Haley's mom- Pday was a day later this week, but the CCM at least sent an email letting us know it would be later. Also, Haley heads out next Tuesday to the mission field and she thinks their Pday is on Mondays, so probably won't get an email/post next week.  Enjoy.

The Humility

Okay, so this one will be a little more spiritually centered...

So Sunday here is a wonderful thing. This week on Sunday, we just watched movies. We all watched Meet the Mormons and then later that night, all the intermedios watched Ephraim's rescue. Meet the Mormons was actually so good! I was amazed at how much I was feeling the Spirit when we finished it. I wasn't expecting that. (I undervalue anything technological for no real reason). It was cool just seeing different people's lives. :) Pretty cool stories. Everyone should watch it at some point if you haven't yet. It was very kind of presidente to let us watch it here.

Ephraim's rescue was amazing! I hadn't seen it before, and sometimes I laugh at parts I shouldn't (with all church movies...), but it's amazing the willingness all the pioneers had to give up everything, and the perserverance they had. It's crazy that it's based off of true stories, and I know miracles happen with the faithful. I'm excited to go out and see mircales happen on my mission. I know I will. The entire time I was watching the movie, I just had the Spirit whispering to me that I truly am a pioneer here. I just hope I can have the faith that they did. I never realized how much I've truly come to love our pioneer heritage.

So I had a day probably on Monday, where I was feeling like I wasn't progressing much with my language or as a person, which is a bit frustrating here, so I prayed for an opportunity to serve. So lo and behold, my teachers decided to make new seating arrangements, and stuck me next to Elder Redd, who I previously didn't like very much, and who struggles with the language (just because he came in with very little Spanish). So that was an answer, and now I actually can have a conversation with him, and I'm actually not bored in class because I get to help others learn! So, Heavenly Father answers prays.

Our Latina roommates left. I'm so sad about that. They were all so hilarious pretending to sprinkle us with Holy Water and trying to be like superman. (They were hilarious!) The one that I couldn't understand, Hermana Colquehuanca (For Mom: Coal-kay-wanka), was SO sweet, and gave me the longest hug and kiss on the cheek, and told me that we'd see each other again, and if not in this life, then in the eternities. She is SO sweet. I cannot even explain. Before she converted she was Catholic and wanted so bad to be a nun. But then the missionaries found her, and she knew this was the true church, so when she found out about missions, she got SO excited to come on one! So here she is a sister missionary. She is just so pure, and so humble! I want to be more like her! I just wish I spoke more Spanish so I could have learned more about her than that!

Another missionary here, Elder Fuentes, wanted to pay for his own mission, and he has worked for years (he's right before the cut off age for elders to come), making only 20 soles a day (less than 10 dollars a DAY), to be able to come on a mission. I am amazed by  the humility of some of the missionaries here, and it just touches me so much. I hope I can get some of that humility from all the missionaries here.

So in one of our lessons the other day, we planned to teach about baptism and the Holy Ghost (it was our last lesson), but one of the Hermanas in my companionship has a hard time wanting to teach the restoration or the creation, and always just wants to stick to the Bible and common ground (which is good to an extent), so we hadn't taught about Joseph Smith yet. But in the middle of the lesson the Spirit prompted me to talk about the restoration, (that looks so weird in English) and at the same time, she couldn't think of anything to say (she takes control of every lesson, so that was weird), and I taught the restoration, and we soft committed him to baptism! We only needed one more lesson, but sadly that was our last one with him. Good thing he's really just our teacher! :P

It was so sad when the advanzados flew out to their missions this week! I had gotten very used to them being around! They were all so loving! (I'm an advanzado now! Weird!) There is so much love here at the MTC. People will seriosuly never let you be sad. It's great! But anyways, the night before their flight, we have a tradition of singing hymns, so we all sang. And we have a locked door in the middle of the hallway that separates the elders from the sisters, so right after we finished they started up, so we just got to listen to a few more hymns. It's weird that we're actually in the same hallway. Pretty scandalous. (jk)

The temple today was awesome! I basically understand everything there in Spansih now! I love that I get to go every week. This was the best spanish session I've been to yet! (I'll use the headset next week for English though since it's my last week going to the temple for a rather long time). But it's so nice to feel the peace in the temple, and be able to receive revelation so easily.

Okay, funny story time! So every night our zone leaders would come in and talk to us for about five minutes. So one night they walk in and I looked at one of them and said, "I would adivse you to leave right now if you didn't bring any candy." He responded "Who do you think you are?" Then I said I was just joking. Then he gave me a piece of candy. It was the best thing. I did not expect him to actually have candy!

We all decided that we were going to have spirit animals one day. (We get really bored here). Hermana Marshall is a pirhanna because she's snappy and has a HUGE mouth. I'm a turtle. (We didn't pick our own. Everyone decided for us). One for the elders is an angry bunny. One is a baby bird. One is a racoon, Etc.

Our teacher, Hermano Janampa, got in a little bit of a disagreement with one of the other teachers the other night. So that was weird. We were supposed to teach, but they spent the entire hour with their supervisor fighting and talking it out. But when they came back, they were smiling. So... I guess that's good? for them at least.

Also, another day there were about four teachers in our room, and I thought it was really weird. So I asked Janampa why they were there. And he fakes not being able to speak english, but he does. One of the teachers said ¿por qué no? I said I wanted to know why. Then they left. Yeah, they're definitely just friends. Janampa was kinda irritated with me, but couldn't really do anything about it. Woops. I was just curious. They weren't like teaching us or anything. They were just hanging out...

So I had this one day this week where our district was ALL over the place. So it started with the elders teasing me (because almost everyone got the cold I had). So they drew a bell curve on the board which was kinda a "gripe" timeline as they titled it. Then they drew stick figure me. There were two different representations from two elders. So it was funny then, but they kept going at it even as we were teaching. I still didn't really care that much, because it was kinda true that they all got it from me, and they were just joking around, but Hermana Marshall got really irritated with them for being immature. So then she wouldn't even talk to any of them. And they didn't let us get our food first (which is a rule here for the hermanas), so then she told them that we were all upset. (I was fine). So after dinner, Elder Carter was super ashamed and wouldn't even make eye contact with me, and gave me and then all three of us hermanas the most sincere apology like ever. So I forgave him readily... Then LATER that night, Hermana Escobar got a blessing, and the day just ended on a very spiritual note. So that was an adventure.

We were reading some of the rules we have in one of our packets and one of them is how we are to sit with good posture in investigator's houses, and how it's custom to talk about family and work before moving on to the purpose of the visit. So then we all sat up really straight with frozen smiles on our faces kinda talking in really annoying robotic voices, with our hands clasped together. (We=me, H Marshall, E Monson). It drove everyone else nuts. We even had one of the elders from another district come in and join us. It was funny. Yeah, our humor is a lot less refined the longer we're here. There are an extremely high amount of jokes about pedos (farts) here.

Also, every night we do district bonding, so we play games like black magic or color wheel or snaps. Elder Carter started doing one last night called Bang. I hate it. I hate it SO much. I will never figure out the rules to that one! But it's actually really fun!

Okay, I don't know how I actually manage to make it this long every week, because I feel like nothing ever really happens here.

Uh, I love the MTC, I love the people here, and out in Lima! The Spirit is so strong and I know without a doubt that what I will be teaching IS the gospel of Jesus Christ. He really is our Savior, and He really just wants us to return home to live with our families and our Heavenly Father and Him forever.

I love you all!

Hope life in the States is good!

Sorry for terrible typos! (*Haley's mom thinks she got them all, but who knows. She did have TONS)

Hermana Brogan

Halfway through!

It's already been three weeks here, and we only have three more to go! Our district is getting really close, and each day goes faster. But I love it so much! I already get a little sun burned being outside just one hour a day, so I don't know what I'll look like in Chiclayo... Just lot's of sunscreen! So... story time!

The new sisters in our room are some of my favorite people! Since they're Latinas, they always give me a hug and kiss on the cheek. I've never been kissed so much in such little time before! (But only sisters) The culture here is just so friendly and loving. One of them, Hna Cabaña is hilarious. She speaks English, but the other two don't. Last night she licked her nametag and stuck it on her forhead with the other magnet on the back of her head, and said that it works because she doesn't have a brain. One of the other ones, Hna. Ramirez was pretending to sprinkle us with holy water. Then we also kept stopping some of the sisters coming out of the showers in their towels and telling them that we have a message for them about the ley de castidad. It's almost out of hand. We have too much fun. Then the third sister, the really really beautiful one (I'll try to get a picture at some point), asked me to teach her ballet. But she doesn't speak a word of English, so I did my best to teach her plies and tondus. (sp?) So funny. Everyone calls that sister with the really long hard name Sacagawea or Pocahontas because she has such long hair, and she is SOOO pretty. Also, all the Latinos think all the gringa girls are so pretty. Probably just because we're white. I mean it kinda works in reverse like that in the states. We have one sister who is very blond (just her hair), who all the Latino elders always just stare at when she leads music for devos and other such things.

Also, Hna Ramirez always sings "never say never!" and then tells us how much she hates Justin Bieber. But in a really funny way. Also, sometimes Hna Cabaña swears and doesn't know it, so it's always fun to tell her, you really shouldn't say that. Though one word she did know... Yeah, she's funny. Hna Ramirez also always tells us we look like barbies, or me that I'm like a music box doll (because of ballet). It makes me happy inside.

 

Two days ago I did an English fast for the gift of tongues. I tried to convince my companions to do it with me for about two weeks, and they kept saying no, so I just did it on my own. It was rough, but now I'm speaking a lot better and my grammar improved a ton that day! Now my district is doing an English fast all day tomorrow. Go figure. I'm fine being the example! ;)

 

One night, Hna Cabaña was joking about coming in with a knife or something, so I decided I needed to plan an escape route. I sleep on the top bunk, so I planned on lifting up one of the ceiling tiles and just crawling over to the hallway and dropping back down. But when I lifted the ceiling tile up, the walls extended up as well! So I would still be trapped! I'm so upset about it! So I need a plan B.

 

The other night we had a lessons with someone we had never met before and had no prior info on, and it was the best lesson we had! I was having a not wonderful day, but after the lesson I was just so happy. It was such a joy to share the good news of the gospel with him. (He was in reality just one of teachers though.) But he gave us advice and said he loved how happy we were coming in. We just need to work on speaking as if we all have one voice. And I loved that phrasing so much. And if we're in tune with the Spirit, it should be that way. (Also, I've given up on correcting typos. I hope you don't mind)***note from Haley's mom-I am trying to catch them before I post.***

So one of the elders in our district, Elder Carter, decided we need to play these games where you don't know the rules and you have to figure it out. We've playing the camping game, black magic, and color wheel. They were so hard to figure out! I need a major hint for color wheel, and Hna Marshall finally told me Black Magic. I figured camping game out pretty easy though. It was really rough though!

Every once in a while I hear great things about Chiclayo! I hear the people are really humble, and it's really hot there, and the food is good (Lots of rice and chicken of course!) Then the rest of my district is going to Arequipa, and they keep getting told how proud the people there are... So yeah, I'll miss them, but I really got the better mission! ;)

 

We got a new teacher this week, so we have two in the morning now, but he gave our companionship some really good advice (because being in a trio is dang hard!), and since then, our trio has become a lot stronger, and I've accepted him as a new teacher. But Hna Rivera and Hno Janampa are still the best.

One day during personal study, we were being really good and really quiet for like the first time, and an Elder came bursting in with a story and was talking really loud. So I just looked at him and told him we were being quiet and studying (because there's two people in my district who hate how much our district talks, and I know they were appreciating this rare time), and this elders face just dropped when I told him that. I felt so bad!

 

One day after lunch or dinner, Hna Furness (Who I was with at immigration), told me how much my smile brightens her day. I was very happy at that, so hna Marshall told me it's just because I'm loveable. I was shocked. Hna Marshall never gives compliments. Never! (In her family, she and her sisters don't compliment each other so they don't get big heads). No, she's just really sarcastic. But it was such a rare moment that it had to go in the email. She is actually super nice though, so no worries!

 

We have this joke going on where we always say, "No tocan las hermanas!" to the elderes because they accidentally hit our foot or something. It a fun game. 

 

I don't know if I told this one last week- but one of the elders was playing around and totally threw a marker across the room which hit my eye. I'm a marker target or something because it's happened a few times since too. (They really aren't aiming at me, I promise!)

 

Last story, also may be a repeat, but I don't think it is! So one day Hermana Marshall and Elder Carter decided to act like I was dead (I seriosuly feel like I wrote this one already, so if I did, jsut ignore it.) and they pretended I was dead for about half an hour. They keep bringing it up every once ina while, and they talk about how great I was, and I how I used to do certain things. And Elder Carter actually got himself to cry at one point. 

 

Um, the gospel is true! I know it is with all my heart. I couldn't be this happy without it! I love being a missionary, and I can't wait to hit the field! The gift of tongues is real, and my Spanish is really coming along.

I love you all!

Hermana Brogan