Buenas!

Great news! Cara received the postcards we made her on Halloween and the package I sent for her birthday. For now she lives about 15 minutes from the mission home and getting mail through the pouch is easy for her get. I also have her address. I can send it to you if you message me. If you send her a package let me know and I will share what I have learned so far:)

 

Happy late Thanksgiving!!!! Here, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but they go all out for Christmas. But, I have the best pensionnista ever and she made us and the elders the all decked out thanksgiving dinner the other night, turkey, pie, all the works. It was the best :) Peru is hot! Everyday you just get used to being sticky and sweaty. Right now, it is the coolest time of the year because it is rainy season. Good for now, but I'm kind of dreading the dry season. At least I get to wear skirts :) The families we are teaching are so great, we are teaching a family who is so cute, they always want to ask me questions about the United States. Everyone thinks its so odd that Utah has so many Mormons because here there are people who don't even know who Mormons are. We are trying to find a way for the husband to get baptized but in order to do that we nee! to find a way for them to get married. They are named Israel and Candy, Candy's dad can speak English, he always comes out in lessons and we speak English for like ten minutes, it's awesome, mi Gusta :) In Iquitos it is super difficult for people to get married. Like, extremely difficult. So it is normal here that when we are baptizing a family, we are having a wedding beforehand. Well, this family has two sweet kids, Rodrigo and Carlita, Rodrigo literally looks like a Latino Harry Potter :) Carlita is just plain sweet. The only problem is they aren't really doing their part in the lessons....so.... yeah.

People here have this odd accent, it's called chirapa, which translates to jungle people. They talk really fast and kind of sing with it. It's pretty cool, my companion has that accent all the time, she's developed it over the year that she has been here. We are teaching a family who has that accent. Ladislao and Silvia. We are trying to get them married and baptized as well.

I've started to teach a little bit. I think the most frustrating part is when they see that I'm a gringa and when I start to talk they just look at me like I'm dumb and look at my companion to translate, and then she says the same thing. Ha, I guess I get to practice :)

The members in our ward get super offended that I don't know fluent Spanish and can't understand everything they are saying. There has been some experiences that haven't been the best. They just expect the gift of tongues to be over night and I can speak fluent and understand everything. They just don't know how it is to learn a language. Oh well :)

There's lots to do everyday and it is always really hot in our area, a lot of walking. I think what always makes my day though is when we go past little kids and they look at me and get really excited and whisper then I hear them say 'hello' 'how are you' ha ha they think it is so funny that they can speak a little bit of English, people do it all the time here when they see me. :)

Funny story, during a lesson the other day, the house was a little deeper in the jungle so there were a lot more bugs, entonces...during the lesson I feel something in my hair, yeah it was a huge beetle...luckily we were watching a movie, I looked at my companion and she started laughing at my face, I peeled it out of my hair and threw it on the ground, then another one flew on my shirt and another on my skirt. Geez! :) Experiences, experiences. :)

Well, I sure hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I miss American food but the rice is good :)

Hermana Larsen