Week #5 - Peru CCM week two

Hi family!!!

So i get mail on fridays and i got the two dearelders from mom and dad. thanks so much!!! I really hope you got my pictures from provo. please please please let me know if you did. also, any idea whats going on with the sleeping bag? i do have a little time to check an email on wednesdays, otherwise i only get mail on fridays and it looks like it takes a while to get them. so an email with info might be the easiest fastest way to get me info... though i dont get them any day but wednesday. anyways...

Hello how is everyone??? i love you all so much!!!

have i told you about how much i love that there is so much ACTING that happens in the CCM or MTC? its wonderful! People are constantly pretending to be investigators and missionaries and well the way we learn is by practicing and its just conformation to me that God loves acting :)

The flags are for each country represented in the CCM

Anyways there have been two more earthquakes since ive been here! Actually we call them temblos because they aren't huge. both of them happened in the early morning. Even though most of the girls here live in Peru and this is a normal occurrence for them, they run into our room at 4:45 am and turn on the lights and ask us if we felt the temblo. I always get up and say yes, then i turn off the light and they go back to their rooms. haha. I love all the hermanas here so much.  We have good times. :)

Saturday was the best day of this week. Why? Because we got to go out and preach the word!!! Oh man best day ever. So we took a bus to a part of Central Peru. We went to a church, where we met up with a ward member. Then me, hermana odar, and this sister from the ward went to find inactive members. Most people did this, some people went tracting. Tracting? is that the word? anyways Peru is so cool! There are dogs everywhere, but i imagined them to be all mangy. They are all beautiful! and all so different! mostly they just lay around. The houses are all different colors and different shapes. Every house has a gate around their yard probably because of all the dogs. There are soccer games going on everywhere and its awesome!!! Anyways pretty much everyone we went to find wasn't home. we did talk to a few though. well actually i stand there and smile, the other two talked. i am understanding much more spanish, but they all talk super fast and quiet here. Anyways, i was being patient with myself (which is something i work on a lot- its really hard not being able to communicate when i want to so bad). After we went to all the houses on our list, we had about 30 minutes left. So i said i really wanted to just find someone, even though i dont speak spanish. Mostly i communicated all day by praying for my companion to say stuff. Anyways i know that my role isn't to speak verbally right now. So i prayed that id be given the role of finding someone for us to teach. i have a role to play even if it isn't to speak spanish yet- i refuse to be dead weight. Anyways as we were walking back to the church, there was this lady sitting in front of her house. i went up to her, and said HOLA!!! and then i forgot all spanish. Luckily my companion was right behind me. Anyways to make a long story short, we gave her a book of mormon, and set up an appointment for her to meet with the actual missionaries in the area. I said like three words later... mostly i just tried to talk to her little three year old :) it made the whole day worth it though. My job isnt to speak yet, but im finding the lord can use me in other ways and its incredible and wonderful and amazing!!! We were all so sad to have to return to the ccm. ha. oh also i saw my first cockroach out on the street. oh man oh man....

Sunday--sunday school was on cleanliness. this isn't really a probably a problem for the N americans, but washing hands is hard for a lot of latinos to remember. they dont really get germs i dont think. but its all good it gets better every day. i wouldnt mind that much, except the women give hugs and kisses constantly haha.

On monday, a teachers ipad was stolen. This ipad had a lot of important info for the ccm in it. There has never been a problem with things being stolen in the ccm, but earlier someone stole 100 soles as well. anyways its hard having such a difference in money, but this isn{t usually a problem. Someone really needs help at the ccm right now and we still havent figured out who it is, despite much searching for the last three days.its too bad.

Tuesday i played soccer with peruvians! i was flattened to put it nicely. The only thing i had going for me was the fact that im much bigger than most of them. haha. The elders in my district say that they feel like the hulk when they play soccer- the peruvians will run into them and fall over, and they wont feel it haha. Otherwise we get slaughtered.

Anyways i am loving this place more and more each day. And by this place i mean peru. Because i am starting to be tired of the ccm haha. I am ready to go out and teach!! Teach the gospel. If necessary, use words. The language of the spirit is all i need. ha. no i really am getting much better at espanol. The things i have to do on my mission are often really scary and hard the first time. Like the first couple of times i taught at the Provo MTC were terrifying and really hard. Now, i look forward to those meetings and am sad when they are cancelled!! I was nervous the first time to go out in peru on our own in a group. Now, I cant wait for the rollercoaster buses, the running across streets (cars have the right of way here) and the people, the spanish, i now understand the money haha, and its just amazing being here. Im super sad Hma Odar will be leaving me next week. I seriously love her so much and shes been so amazing.

Ok well I love you all so very much!!! Sorry i didn't sign off last time, my computer kicked me off haha. anyways much much much love, Elisa :)