Week 16 (out of 78): Sullana Soccer Tournament

WELL WE WON THE TOURNAMENT!!!! WOOT WOOT

That was the highlight. Our elders are very serious about soccer. VERY SERIOUS. However we beat every other zone so ha! Our zone may have been stacked though...   

We found a new investigator Candy. She is pregnant and really interested. She is so cute, the only problem is that shes not married. We have more lessons this week with her,.

Tomorrow I have my first intercambios! The sister leaders are splitting up and Hna Valencia is coming here with me tomorrow. 

Last thing was we had a thanksgiving lunch with our district and made tacos! It was good. Everything homemade, however i dont really like tacos so kinda not exciting..... But they were ok.. It was fun to be there with 5 gringos. 

That is sadly all that has happened this week.. Not really a whole lot.. 

I love you All and have a great week

Note from Dad: Sorry for the delay.  Katie failed to mention that the shortness of the letter and the lack of much to say is related to the fact that her companion is recovering from the Dengue.  They did not get out much.  I am not sure how she saved the pictures.  Some people have had a hard time opening them.

Week 15 (out of 78): Sulla

So wow I am officially legal here in peru!!! Thursday I went to Lima and got to have real food again... AKA Burger King and McDonalds. So while there Hermana Mamani from Bolivia, she came with my group, anyway I talked with her a lot and she told me she feels like we are going to be companions and that would be awespome! She is the sweetest person ever. Also while in Lima I was able to help people from England and share the gospel in English. Way easier, because I am not worried about saying it wrong. 

This past week was a little rough, my companion may have denge(no clue how to spell it), and we had stake conference which was good until one man on saturday night and sunday morning spoke for a straight hour both times.... I wanted to be like if the Prophet only needs 15 min you do not need an hour... and there was a lot of things that were repeated, but maybe that’s what the people needed. All I know was it was hot and after 30 min of listening to him I was done. 

Today during our mission soccer tournament we totally won the first two rounds of 3. We are straight killing it. We had a comeback in the second game and at half it was 3-1 we were losing and we won 5-3. We scored all of the goals with only one gringo in, so I mean our latinos are the best haha.... 

fun  joke look up a peruvian hairless dog.... #ifsatanhadadog #bringo

Week 13 (out of 78): Sullana

Ok well we are finally not sick!! woot WOOT!

So this week was absolutely lovely... NOT. But it was not terrible. So Nov1 to the 4th are a holiday here in Peru honoring the dead.. Each day is a different catagory but  it is really just an excuse to party and drink... And Nov 5th is the anniversary of Sullana... So 5 days in a row people were just drinking, and guess what... Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all drinking days anyway. So it was hard to find the people at their homes or to contact people because we aren’t supposed to contact drunk people.... because they won’t remember any of it. 

The good part of the week is we actually got a recent convert to do family history work and send a name to the temple.. So we practically baptized someone this week!!! That made us super excited, because it’s really hard to get people here to look for the dates and places where people were born.

Also we may have a baptism this week with Marilyn which may be fun and interesting.. Everyone has to wear all white... and there’s a huge party after... She wants it to be really special.. We were supposed to have her baptism the 21st but no one told us it was Stake Conference so that doesn’t work anymore. And we cant do the week after because the ward is going tro the Trujillo Temple the 28th.  So, hopefully we can change her date....

She is really the only one progressing.. Its been hard to find Angel lately so thats worrysome to us... and Sonia did not come to church like we thought she would.... so Church was a bummer (minus the little 3yr old that leads the music with me in sacrament meeting)... AND SUPER STRESSFUL. So we have a recent convert Gianella, who is 19, and her mom came to church, which normally would be great right.... but no. Here is the story. Gianella’s mom is super against her joining the church and said she would be kicked out if she joined and would not be allowed to attend church... So Gianella decided she wouldn’t tell her... So her mom came to church and wants to talk with the missioneries, which is us, and doesn’t know her daughter is baptized. Plus she is one of those that questions and asks for proof of it in the bible so that will be fun. Also during church this man came during 3rd hour who really only wants to flirt with us and talk to us... So it is just awkward, luckily he doesn’t actually live in our area so we can reference him to elders. HAHA But both of these situations stressed me out. 

Anyway I think these were the main parts of this week. I love peru and I love being here in the semi heat, its not bad anymore. Anywho I love you all!!

Week 12 Out of 78: Transfer 2 Sullana

OK so this week was tons better!!! It was transfers, and well I am still with my companion so that’s awesome... Haha we werent expecting to be transferred... But we had a rough Wed, I actually slept through personal study because we had too many important lessons, and I was feeling quite sick. But two of those lessons have brought us 3 really good new investigators.. So I guess it was still a little blessing for staying positive. The new investigators are Isumi (17), and Karla and Karla (a mom and daughter). 

So we were super excited about them, also we found Sonia again, who was a reference from another member. Anyway she read the BOM a ton. She told us she always knew that she needed to find out more about our church, which is seriously a blessing because she believes everything we teach. Plus she gives us really good food after we teach her so that’s a huge plus.

It hasnt rained since that one night, and frankly that’s a good thing because hardly any of the members believe it will come, and some houses won’t make it with all of the rain. But others say it is definitely coming, all I know is that we are told to be prepared to stay a whole week inside without being able to leave... So we have food and water, toilet paper, and a lot of random things to keep us entertained for a whole week. 

The Spanish is coming... Slowly but still coming... I can teach and we don’t really practice what exactly I need to say, and she likes to push me a little and stop at different parts in the lesson to make me teach different parts everytime, a few lessons I lead the lesson, so overall I feel good with my Spanish. I am understanding my LDM (Libro de Mormon aka Book of Mormon) but it’s a lot slower... but I understand, so I have actually put away my English scriptures already. It was kinda sad, but ok... It’s good to grow some. 

I love the mission, I love our investigators, and I love my companion. Also everyone tells me that I started in the hottest place and I am here for summer, so everywhere I go after should be cooler!!! That made me super excited. Ha ha.. ANYWAY Have a great week! I love you all

A couple of answers from Katie to Mom’s questions:

M: Are you going to have to change apartments?

K: no we will just need sand bags to stack so water doesn't get in..

M: Being a missionary is such an awesome experience!!! You're in it, doing it, but from the outside I stand in awe.

(This is probably not the response Mom was looking for)

K: its amazing mom... really awesome here... my comp and I will be walking and hear a gunshot... don’t worry it’s never at someone.. Just up in the air when they are drunk and we’re like: Hermana we aren’t in America.... also don’t be worried about the gun shot.. It’s never super close ha ha and generally when we hear it we are close to the elders area so it’s generally from their areas..  

M: You doing good? REALLY?  

K: I am I love it here...