My Memorable Missionary Moments

I had the amazing opportunity to go on splits with the missionaries here in Banos. I got a small 2.5 hour glimpse into the life of a missionary and I loved every second of it.  In that short two and a half hours I was able to experience a lot, including the ups and the downs.

 We started by walking to a home in Banos because they had an appointment set up with the family. We knocked and knocked and knocked. I couldn’t figure out why we didn’t just leave! Clearly there was no one home and the sisters were wasting their time by knocking. After about 12 minutes of knocking, calling out to the family and waiting, a little boy who lived there came home. We asked if his mom was home and sure enough….she had been their the whole time. She told the boy that she didn’t want to talk to us and we could come back another time.

So we left. Swing and a miss.

Next the sisters needed to buy toilet paper, so we stopped at a little tienda. It just so happens that I know and love the owner of the tienda, Rosanna. We bought bread from her and keep coming back because she is so nice. So when we walked in, the sisters introduced themselves and went to introduce me, but before they could, I was over hugging and kissing Rosanna hello. They were pretty shocked that I knew this woman, but we had a nice chat with her and are coming back next week to discuss the church more in depth.

Next we were off to the home of another investigator, but while we were walking, we stopped and chatted with a woman who was sitting outside with her two kids. I’m not sure how it happened, but before I knew it, we were walking into her house and sharing a message about Jesus Christ. It was so cool! We had them read certain verses in the Bible and then some in the Book Of Mormon. It was a mom, her two kids (Natalie and Jhonny- ages…10 and 12?) and the grandma…. Who didn’t have any teeth. The house was really nice and I was so impressed with how well the kids were paying attention.

Sidenote: The toothless grandma directly all of her comments at me. Pretty much, she spent the whole time talking to me under her breath and didn’t seem to realize that I hadn’t a clue what she was saying. I have a really time hard understanding adults who speak really fast…let alone ones who don’t have any teeth! It was crazy!

I didn’t say much the whole time we were there, but I observed like crazy. One amazing thing that I saw happened when the kids were reading out  of the Book of Mormon. Their deep brown eyes were literally shining. It was so amazing! I looked into the eyes of the crazy grandma and the mom…still dark. There was such a difference alone in the eyes of the children.

A bit later we were getting ready to leave and we asked the mom when we could come again.  The mom was hesitant and gave us a date two weeks from now. In my head I was like, “Alright! She’s letting us come back in two weeks..” But the sister missionary was like, “No way, that’s too far away, how about tomorrow?”

Haha it blew my mind, clearly I haven’t learned the mentality of a missionary yet, but I’m picking up on it fast.

The little boy suggested sooner days but the mom had an excuse for all of them. Finally we found a time next Wednesday to come back and the little boy said he wanted to come to church with us this Sunday! Cool huH! We said we’d pick him up at 8:30 am and his mom said that was too early, but the boy said, no it’s ok I can do it!

Awesome little boy! Awesome experience! I had so much fun and could totally picture myself doing that kind of thing all day everyday… well at least for 18 months J

A Bible, A Bible, We Have Got a Bible and We Need No More Bible

Church. In Peru. Always an adventure... even more so today than most Sundays.

In Sunday school we studied 1 Nephi 19-21 and were talking about how Nephi was commanded to make the two sets of plates to keep the record on and what not. Miguel is our awesome teacher who knows his stuff and does a great job teaching the lessons.

I was following along with the lesson pretty well until… the arguments broke out. (when Peruvians, and most other people I suppose, get riled up, they speak much quicker making it hard to follow). The high councilman (our 24ish year old single friend) and our Relief Society President started going at it! I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about, but other members were piping in their two cents as well. By this point, Miguel had kind of given up. He seemed to be in shock and a bit disgusted with his class.

Turns out that they were arguing over the importance of the Book Of Mormon!! Our Relief Society President straight up said that she has the bible and that’s all she reads because it’s all she needs. She says the Book of Mormon is a nice book, but she doesn’t read it. And guess what? A lot of the members were right there with her! Our high councilman beautifully explained what was taught by Tad R. Callister last General Conference with the dots on the chalk board. He explained that with just the bible there are endless amounts of interpretations, but when paired side by side with the Book Of Mormon, there is only one possible straight line of truth. I also heard the 8^th article of faith thrown out there and a couple of good scriptures that supported our cause.

But Ooof. Talk about crazy!

Afterwards in Relief Society, the RS President (Hermana Sephora) got up and said somethings that I didn’t quite understand. But then an AMAZING young sister in our ward (26ish years old, R.M. and Single… seriously boys, why have you not snatched this woman up??) got up and bore sweet witness of the Book Of Mormon. She is one of the fastest speakers in the ward, but her words spoke right to my heart and I knew that what she was saying was true.

So it seems that our ward is struggling a bit. Not to mention that we don’t really have a Bishop, because over a year ago he was called to be the Stake President and nobody has accepted the calling to be the bishop since then… and this man had a baby two days ago….

We've Got Work to Do!

So pray for our little Banos ward…there Is work to be done!

On a brighter note, the sister missionaries have asked us to come teach investigators with them! How cool is that? They just want one of us at a time, so on Thurxday I will be a mini- missionary and I’m rather excited to see how that all works out here!

I also have a new friend (27 year old, single, non-member Esthel) who we met on a bus ride home. I have a really good feeling about her and if I ever see her again (which I intend on making happen) I will invite her to church and ask her if she’d like to take the discussions in my home. That’s my plan, how cool would that be?!?

Ahhh…. In other news, I love Peru and I love life!

-Elia

A Little Taste Of Home,

I can pass up pie, cut back on cake and even  back out of brownies….but when it comes to a homemade cookie…. Move over, I’m done for. I crave cookies like none other, and when I’m eating them I feel as if I shall never be sad again. OH how I love them.

Well guess what. Peru does not have cookies. Not the cookies you’re thinking of at least. They call crackers cookies. CRACKERS! Tell me I’m not the only one who sees a vast difference between a crunchy, salty, stale-like piece of bread and an ooey-gooey, melt in your mouth cookie?

We decided that for Valentine’s day we wanted to make all of our friends good ol’ American chocolate chip cookies. After searching high and low for a recipe that wouldn’t end disastrous at  our 9000+ ft altitude, we got to work on satisfying my sweet tooth.

We did however have to improvise as brown sugar is nonexistent in Peru  (the sugar is brown here…but not because it’s “brown sugar”) and we could not find baking soda to save our lives!  Chocolate Chips…also a problem easily fixed by chopping up a chocolate bar.

But lo and behold, twas a success worth documenting! We made some tonight to try out our recipe, and tomorrow will be full of baking as well so that we can share our treats with all our new friends who have been OH so good to us. Stay tuned for pictures

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And since we’re on the topic of things that a girl should never go three months without…. Today we were walking home from church when a sister in our ward (Hermana Rubi) stopped us and asked us if we’d like a piece of her homemade Tres Leches cake. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you have never lived if you have never had a taste of homemade, tres leches cake…Peruvian style. I could have died right then, completely satisfied with life. SO, SO good!!!! And to make sure that I never have to go my whole life with out that little necessity, Hermana Rubi has promised to teach us to make it!

So come find me in Utah when I get back be prepared to have your mind blown.

Our Fabulous Fast Sunday

Today was our first Fast Sunday in Peru. It was awesome! Saturday afternoon we had a nice lunch of egg sandwiches and we broke our fast today with a nice pot of Almost Pasta Faju.

I woke up surprisingly early (6:50am) Sunday morning and I decided that since I had the time, I was going to try and look nice. So for the first time since I’ve been here, I broke out the curling iron and the blush and got to work. I listened to a John Bytheway talk (The Best Three Hours of the Week) while I got ready and church hymns were playing in the other room. The sun was shining and we even had time to walk (30 min) down the hill into Banos for church. 

I can't figure out how to turn the picture...sorry!

   Creeper SideNote: I was singing church hymns while we were walking to church and I was so caught up in what a great morning I was having that I almost didn’t notice the 3 creeper men who were driving super slowly beside us while we were walking. We said hello and I went back to singing my hymns, and the men kept driving right next to us calling to us and saying who knows what. It was rather unnerving and I wasn’t a fan…after a few silent prayers and what seemed like forever, the creepy men drove off and left us alone. But on the other hand.... we looked super cute, can you blame them? Just kidding :)

My mom made this dress for me before I left!

So we get to church and have a lovely meeting. The three of us had talked about whether or not we’d bear our testimonies and in what language we’d do so. We decided to make it a goal to be prepared to bear it by next month’s Testimony meeting. Well guess what. I have sort of a confession that you musn’t judge me for. I don’t believe I’ve ever borne my testimony in Sacrament meeting. Like ever. And if I have, I sure can’t remember it. Sure I’ve given dozens of talks that have all ended with my testimony and when I was Relief Society president I bore my testimony hundreds of times for different occasions. I’ve also done so at Girls Camps, Youth Conferences, small social settings etc. Just never during Fast and Testimony meeting. Weird huh? Last night I was trying to figure out why I hadn’t done so yet. I’m not terribly afraid of speaking in public, so that didn’t really add up.

But I did realize a subconscious fear I had. All those other occasions I had borne my testimony gave me something to base my testimony off of, a starting point for it if you will. So I knew how to start, what to testify of etc. I had always heard that your testimony shouldn’t be a “Thank-imony”, or a story time, or a confession, the list goes on and on. I think that I’ve always been afraid that if I did get up during Fast and Testimony meeting, I’d do one of the aforementioned “No-No’s” and be judged for it. Which isn’t a good excuse at all, but it’s the best I could come up with.

Well then it’s a good thing that my Spanish is still so basic that I couldn’t do any of those if I tried. All I know how to say are the basic, simple truths that I know to be true.

So, when there was an awkward lull (after the whole bishopric and both sets of missionaries had already gone), I hopped up and took my way to the stand. I bore my simple testimony and sat down. Not sure exactly what I had said, or if any of it made any sense, but I felt good. A little ironic that the first time I bore my testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting, and I didn’t even do it in my own language? Yes, definitely. But I think it was exactly what I needed. I was able to bear testimony of the basic, simple truths that I knew with all my heart to be true. Going home and bearing testimony in English sounds like a BREEEZE. I don’t think I’ll ever have a problem with that again.

As soon as I sat down, several others made their way to the stand and there wasn’t a single other awkward lull from that point on!

I had noticed that Miguel (who speaks English and Spanish) was smiling/laughing the whole time while I was up there, so I was anxious to ask him afterwards if what I said made any sense and why he was laughing.

He told me that he understood me perfectly and that I “spoke like a real Peruvian” and that he was smiling/laughing because he was in shock. He said he had no idea I could speak Spanish like that! That was pretty comforting to hear. Although I’m pretty positive that I didn’t speak perfectly.

Also, after church, the bishop asked if we’d like callings in the church. I told him that I’d love one…but I don’t really speak Spanish. He said, not to worry, we’ll put you with the ninos. Haha so stay tuned for updates on that. Also, the Relief Society President wants us to go visiting teaching. Awesome, no? I’m so excited for all of these and other recent developments that I simply don’t have time to write about now.

Ahhh such an awesome day. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Hope yours was too!

-Elia

Also, so I don’t forget I’ll try and remember what I said here. (Is it bad to do that?)

Buenas Dias Hermanos y Hermanos!
Mi espanol no es Bueno… pero quiero compartir con Uds las cosas de mi Corazon y yo se que puedo hacerlo con la ayuda del espiritu.

Creo en Dios, mi Padre Eterno y en su hijo JesuCristo. Yo se que JesuCristo es mi hermano y mi amigo. Yo se que me conoce. El sabe mi nombre y las ganas de mi corazon. Sabe cuando tengo miedo y cuando tengo gozo. 

Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de dios y puedo estar cerca de Dios cuando lo leo.  Yo se  que mi familia puede estar juntos para siempre. Creo en el Espiritu Santo.
En el nombre de JesuCristo..Amen.

And I think that’s about the jist of it! Feel free to help with my grammar and sentence structure, because the people here are too nice to correct me when I say something wrong...so I'm afraid I'll never learn!

#55 Bear My Testimony in Spanish

I was sooo not planning on having this one come up for quite sometime, but alas it did, on my very first Sunday here. Here’s what happened.

We woke up late and had to rush to get ready to catch the bus. Banana for breakfast!

In Relief Society, we didn’t really have a lesson (if we did, than us Gringas totally missed it) It just sounded like they did announcements and Visiting Teaching assignments the entire time and then we had a closing prayer! It was like  15-20 minutes before church was supposed to be out so we were really confused. So all the ladies left the room and went downstairs and then came back up like five minutes later. Apparently the priesthood leaders told them that they had to stay in class for “diez mas minutos” Ten more minutes.

So then, back in the classroom, the ladies took turns standing in front of the class and saying stuff. From what I could gather, they were introducing themselves and then … bearing their testimonies maybe? That’s what I assumed at least, so when it came to be my turn I stood up and said that my name was Elia and that I was from the United States. I said that I knew the church was true and that I knew that the Book of Mormon was the Word of God (In Sunday School we learned about the tree of life and I picked out the phrase “la palabra de Dios” from the verse talking about the Iron Rod in 1 Nefi 8. I’m glad I remembered it from Sunday school so I could throw it in with my testimony! I think I tried saying that I love the Book of Mormon, but it’s kind of a blur. And then I closed in the name of Jesus Christ and sat down. Success!

Home Sweet Home

Saturday January 14, 2012

Today was such good day!

By The Way, this is our humble home :)

We went and explored town a bit. There isn’t much in the actual town that we’re in, but there is a bigger town just a five minute drive from here. We decided to walk instead of drive. We were passed by at least a hundred (not exaggerating) taxis, combis and buses that tried to give us a ride. They couldn’t seem to understand why three rich Americans were walking to town. Especially when it started pouring rain on us. But we kept walking and eventually the sun came out and shone brightly on us. 

In town we looked everywhere for a bakery for fresh bread, but couldn’t find any! We did get more groceries and familiarized ourselves around town. We also saw the Sister Missionaries, but they weren’t really that excited to find out that we were Mormon and excited to come to church tomorrow. Oh well, the church is still true :)

We came back and tried organizing all the supplies we have for the kids. THERE ARE SO MANY! We also cooked a real dinner tonight of stirfry and quinoa and avocado. It was so good! While cooking, I explored the kitchen a bit and had a bit of a shock as I discovered that WE HAVE AN OVEN!

 

It was hiding under a cardboard box with junk on the top of the box. We had no idea and were SO estatic when we saw it. Ohhhh I’ve never been so excited to see an appliance in my life. Seriously… close to tears excited. 

After dinner we decided that since tomorrow is Sunday, we really ought to try and shower and wash our hair. I’m not going to tell you how long it’s been since we’d done that…. But assume the worse :) The weird thing is that we couldn’t really even smell each other or ourselves. So we were doing pretty good. 

One option for cleansing ourselves

Keep in mind that we have absolutely no hot water. Ice cold showers! So to help with this, we decided to get our blood pumping with some P90x. We set up a laptop in the kitchen and went to town on Kempo kickboxing. As we’d “Jab, jab, upper cut, across” we’d chant phrases like “Cuantos. Anos. Tienes!” and “Que. Te. Gusta. Hacer!” to help Brittany learn more phrases and words to use with the kids. I then started teaching Abigail and Brittany the pledge in Spanish as we kickboxed. I’m sure we looked ridiculous, but it did the trick!

We ended up washing our hair in the sink and then running really fast into the shower to shower off

Also, we saw our first mouse today. It scurried past the bathroom as we were getting ready for bed…. :( But over all, such a great day, we're beginning to feel more at home.