Bucket List: Milk a Cow

I can’t believe it!! I have finally fulfilled my dream of milking a cow!

 It’s been on my bucket list for who knows how long and I did it right here in a beautiful Peruvian field. We wanted to make homemade cheese, because Miguel knows how and we’ve been wanting to do it. So after work, we ventured into the Peruvian outback to find some cows we could buy some milk from. Or rather some cow owners I suppose.

Me and the said cow

It was quite the adventure. Nobody wanted to sell us milk, it was crazy! I didn’t understand why they were so hesitant. We needed 18 liters, but we got 10 here, 5 there etc. And then working out a fair price was crazy too! They usually sell it for .80 a liter, but they were insistent on selling  it to us for 1.50 a liter because we were white. The nerve! Ricardo was able to use the power of “-ita” to knock the price down to 1.30 a liter, but still! 

 

So we sat and watched as a lady milked the cow for the milk we needed to make cheese and then we asked her if we could try milking it. It was sooo fun! It was not what I was expecting at all and it was kind of scary at first. I was super bad at it at first, but I got the hang of it and did … ok. The lady went to town though. She was a pro. Either way, I now can say I have milked a cow, in Peru none the less. Success!

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

Valentine's Day in Peru

Valentine’s Day in Peru is probably up there in my top three all times Valentine’s days…possibly top 2 (Ok, so I can’t remember any SUPER great Valentine’s days, but I like to think that I’ve had good experiences with this lovely holiday).

Here’s how it happened:

The morning started beautifully. I got mucho amounts of laundry done and hung out, I did Ab Ripper X and I took a cold shower. So Far so Good!

Also, we got two sets of flowers :) Perfect!

Almost no kids showed up today.. maybe like 40 total, which is a lot less than usual. We made them each Valentine’s with really yummy suckers. Brit took the boys to go play futbol and a lot of the girls ended up going with them. Abby and I were left with just one little girl.

I was pretty tired, so I came upstairs, did some blogging and sacked out for a good 20 or so minutes. When I woke up, it was time to go to into Cajamarca. We had with us Alecksi and Ricardo and were going to meet up with Robert, Jorge and Daniel at the movie  theater in the Mall.

We watched a movie called Los Illusianauts. It was Peruvian made and only in Spanish (no subtitles). Even though I didn’t catch all of the dialogue, I know for a fact that it is a movie I will never have the desire to see again. Pretty much it was a cartoon about a boy with deadly flatulence and his friends. Super gross.

Our Movie theater snacks: We go into the Peruvian store and come out with all things American...lame

After the movies we walked over to Capilla Aueropuerto and met some of Ricardo’s family. We waited there until it was time to walk over to the Capilla Pueblo Libre for our first Peruvain YSA dance.

While waiting for the dance we delivered our Valentines to our friends (we gave them homemade chocolate chip cookies!) We also told them all about American Dancing customs….like how you dance in a big circle to the fast songs as opposed to with one partner and you know…just the other basic American customs: Dancing while combing our hair with forks, dancing on our knees at REALLY elegant dances,(girls wear knee length dresses to these dances, and boys cut off their tux pants at the knees) and the really cool kids dance without shoes. We are so bad.

And the dance began! With an opening prayer, spiritual thought and a hymn.

Latin music, Reggatone, Brasilian Music, Columbian Music and a bit of unedited “I Want to Be a Billionaire..” American music.

It was SO much fun! We pretty much got paired up with one partner for most of the night and they taught us the ways of latin dancing..Salsa, Merengue etc.  I asked my partmer where he learned and he said that pretty much everyone is born just knowing, “It’s in my latin blood”. And that’s when I got jealous because this girl has not an ounce of latin blood and even less rhythm so dancing does not come easily for me!

But our friends were more than willing to teach us and help us learn. The last hour of the dance is called “Hora Loca” and it started with confetti being thrown in our faces, balloons and streamers being thrown and an hour of upbeat music where you aren’t allowed to sit down!

While we dance, people come around offering you small treats on silver platters and if you sit down, you are lazy. Towards the end of the dance, the DJ started playing a slew of popular American music. We of course were rocking out to these songs and singing them at the top of our lungs. The DJ thought it was super hilarious to blast the music and then turn the volume off so that it was just us singing. He did that multiple times. While we were dancing to this English stuff I looked around and found that we were the ONLY ones on the dance floor. Everyone else was sitting and just watching us…laughing of course J But we’re used to that and continued with our interpretive/crazy dancing.

Oh it was sooo fun! We took lots of videos, but alas, they would take forever to upload here, so if you’re curious, find me when I get home and I will show you Stake Dances, Peruvian style.

Also, there is a really formal YSA dance next week…it’s a big deal, and translated into English it’s called Prom!!! And it just so happens that I got asked to it during this dance! At first I didn’t really realize what was going on, but it looks like I’ve got myself a date to the fancy dance!

We came home that night exhausted but happy. It’s how we’ve been ending most of our days recently. I think it means that they day was a grand success!

Hope yours was too!

-Elia

Noche De Hogar

Oh my goodness,  FHE in Peru is the greatest. I thought I would miss having my Rexburg FHE groups and the friends and fun that come with that , but I’m pretty sure my Peru FHE’s have topped a great deal of my college FHE’s.

So we went to a family in the ward’s home. Dirt floors, tin roof, make-shift walls and couch. We had an opening song and prayer and then we all went around and shared our favorite scripture and why. Ever since our little “We don’t need the Book of Mormon” fiasco that happened on Sunday, I’d been studying specifically about the Book of Mormon and shared a verse about that and bore my testimony. I decided that talking about the church in Spanish is a lot easier than trying to talk about anything else in Spanish, so I totally don’t mind doing stuff like this.

After we all shared our thoughts, we had a closing song and then I said the closing prayer. The man of the house called on me to pray, and then it was time for activity.

We played the funnest game of hot potato I have ever been a part of! Ohhhhh goodness. We sat in a circle passing around a little kids toy ball while one person stood with their eyes clothes chanting “Papas secema, papas secama”  and then when they wanted to stop, they say, “papa secemO” and whoever is holding the ball at that point is the loser. If you lose three times, you get a punishment. Alecksi’s punishment was that he had to go outside and yell at the top of his lungs that his pig died. The older man of the house lost too, so his punishment was “Poor Kitty” so he had to get down on his hands and knees and try to make someone laugh by meowing and pawing at their leg. Ohhh it was hilarious to see this old Peruvain man do this.

We also played, Habla Chanco Habla. That’s where one person is blindfolded in the middle and they spin and whoever they landed on had to honk like a pig and the person in the middle has to guess who it is. Holy cow, it is the most hilarious thing in the world to listen to a 60ish year old Peruvian woman who is missing major teeth, snort like a pig.

Oh good times.

Here’s what else is great, even though FHE didn’t get over til like 9:30, it’s Peruvian custom to feed the guests. So after our games, out came the food! We had yummy popcorn and really good buttered bread along with some AMAZING tea that just warmed our souls. It was called herba lousia I believe and we loooved it dearly.

Noche de Hogar with Peruvian families in their homes, totally one of the things I’ll miss most about Peru.

Dear Future Husband,

Hello darling. I must tell you that if we're poor and can't afford a washer and dryer when we're first married, don't worry about it one bit! Esta bien!  I've improved loads (pun not intended) when it comes to my clothes-washing-by-hand capabilities. However, there are a few setbacks that I must make you aware of before we seal the deal.

1. You have to be ok with the idea of "permastench". Some clothes (ok, most of my clothes) have taken on an odor that I just can't seem to rid them of no matter how hard I try! I scrub and I soak and I suds them all up, then rinse and wring and wait for them to dry, but I'm afraid it is to no avail.

Once they are dry, I scoop them up, take a whiff and cry at how awfully they still smell. So when people don't want to sit by you on the bus ride home, don't take offense, just remember that you have a wife at home who loves you dearly despite that awful permastench, and she is indeed trying her best.

2. We must live in a place that does NOT rain every single day. I mean, if we happen to invest in a dryer, bring on Seattle. However, if not, I must insist that we find ourselves a nice dry desert so that our clothes might have some hope of drying all the way through before you have to put them on again. Also, the humidity and wetness is not helping our "Try to smell decent" cause one bit.

Just a few things I thought I'd let you know.

Con Mucho Amor,
Elia

Just Another One Of The Locals

You know that feeling when you think you’ve had the greatest day ever….and then the next day is just as good if not better? Well, here’s the thing. That has pretty much happened every day here in Peru. It just gets better and better and better. Remember how awesome our Friday was? Well Saturday may have topped it.

Here’s why:

We started our morning off with a run into Cajamarca. We’ve come to love the stretch of land from Banos to Cajamarca and were set with our tunes and our tennis’ to take it on on this sunny, Saturday morning. We didn’t have much planned for the day, so we thought we’d stroll through Cajamarca to see what we could find. We found sweet after treat after sweet. Cajamarca is dusted with dozens of quaint little bakeries and panaderias. Each filled to the brim with fresh bread, empanadas, and sweet treats I couldn’t pronounce or prepare if I tried all day. We decided to do a cake walk of our own and stop at every single panaderia that we passed to buy one treat to split. It was so much fun and we tried all sorts of yummy new treats! None of which were very close to the treats we’d find in American bakeries.

After that, we got a nasty bite from the shopping bug and went up to Santa Appolonia to do some shopping in the little shops filled with cool Peruvian things. At this point we were on a time crunch because Liz and Miguel and Alecksi had invited us over for a homemade Peruvain lunch! (Wahoo!) Well, right as we were walking out of our last little shop, guess who we saw!? Our friend Robert (who we had gone out for Pizza with the previous Wednessday). We couldn’t believe that we actually ran into somebody that we knew in Cajamarca!! Awesome. For sure. After chatting with him for a bit, he invited us to come back into Cajamarca that night so that he and Jorge could treat us to one of their favorite Peruvian meals at a really good restaurant. Of course we were down for that, so we rushed off to the Quinde to do some rapid shopping (we needed ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies, and a chicken ) and then bused home.

The second we got home, Brit hopped in the cold shower while Abby and I gathered our things to take a hot shower in Banos (a Saturday tradition, anddd since we were going out that night, we needed to smell about 100 percent better than we smelled at the moment).

On our way down to Liz’s for lunch, a white guy on a bike passed us and said, “Hey, hows it going? You look lost.” I think that would have offended me if I hadn’t been so shocked that a white man in Puylucana was speaking ENGLISH to us. After chatting with him for a bit, we learned that he and his wife are from New Hampshire and that he works in the mines. His wife needs white friends, so stay updated on our new friends Danielle and Charlie.

Meanwhile, lunch at Liz and Miguel’s was incredible!! We had Lomos Saltaba (sp?) and I just about died and went to heaven. So delicious!  Have I mentioned lately how great Liz and her family are? Because we truly love them. Liz then went through and helped us plan our wild adventure into the Amazon jungle and into Cuzco. Let’s just say that we are a little bit more than SO EXCITED for that little adventure of a lifetime!

Since we were supposed to meet up with Robert and Jorje in Cajamarca at 5, we split up to get work done from here. Abby and I went to go shower while Brit went to buy water. We met up with perfect timing and we were Cajamarca bound in no time.

At this point, (and for the past 4 hours) the rain had not stopped pouring on us. So we were wet and quite the sight to see. But Jorge and Robert easily spotted the wet, gringas with brightly colored umbrellas, so we didn’t even have to wait long for them in the giant park.

We took a Taxi down to San Martin and were pleasantly surprised and treated to a wonderful meal at a comparatively fancy restaurant. We had Papas Fritas, ensalada y Pollo a la brazza (sp?) and we loved every bite of it. 

We had an awesome conversation with our Peruvian friends and it is helping our Spanish improve leaps and bounds. Since we can only communicate with them in Spanish, and awkward silences are not my thing, this forces me to work extra hard on speaking and understanding what they’re saying. By the end of the night I truly felt like we were speaking the same language and that it came so easily. At one point, I completely just asked them a question in English because I had forgotten that they spoke something different from my native tongue. It wasn’t hard or difficult any  more, it was almost (ALMOST) like speaking English to my American friends.

Our lovely new gentleman friends helped us get a bus (and paid for it) and accompanied us all the way to our front door (even though it’s 30+ minutes away from their homes, what gentleman!) We were talking outside for quite some time and we accidently made them miss the bus to take them back to Cajamarca….actually we made them miss it three times!!! By this point, it was too late and no more buses were coming, so we bid our friends adieu as we watched them walk home on a cold, dark night. We felt kind of bad about that J

We came home, made some popcorn and continued planning and preparing our amazing Amazon adventure, and I got to talk to my Pops and Beebs on the phone, always a pleasure.

SO it was a fabulous, fantastic, awesome day! We have big plans for this week too, with our kids, ourselves and our new friends! P.S. It’s Carnaval this week too, pray that we don’t die!

-Elia

A Day To Remember

I feel like everyday I start each journal entry with the following line:

I LOVE PERU! Today was the best day ever!!!

Because it's true. Everyday is the best day ever. But today, was EXCEPTIONALLY awesome and here's why.

1. We saw the sun. We haven't seen it in days. It's been raining and raining and raining, but we saw it this morning on our run.

2. We went on one of our “hill run”, straight up and enormous hill and then all the way down the long way followed by P 90 Ab Ripper X. 

3. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, tomato, garlic, gouda and avacado we showered and became clean!

4. We had an awesome day with the ninos. We split up into three teams and did relays. I had team Anaranjado and let me tell you, we were bomb. I loooved my team and they did so well at just about everything (except they pretty much stunk at leap frog :).

We decorated our score sheets/banners to promote team spirit

Here's what we played: (I had to make up spanish names for all of them...so they're kind of odd :)

-Piedras y cucharas:  Where you carry a rock on a spoon and run with it.

-Salta como un conejo: Sack race

-Lava Caliente: Where you have to get from start to finish using only two pieces of paper and without touching the ground

-Matematicas Maestria (something like that): See which team could complete the most math flash cards in two minutes. Abby TOTALLY cheated for her team, but it was needed :)

-Rana Rapido: Leap Frog

The kids loved it and totally got into it. And my team came in second place overall! I was so proud :)

After all the points were tallied up, we gave out the trophies. By this time it was only about 2pm, so we still had another hour with the kids, but we were worn out! So we sat and let the girls braid our hair while we read stories. 

Tender Mercy: It didn't rain one single drop during our whole time outside. Seriously this is remarkable and we were so grateful. However, the moment our festivities ended today, the rain came, and it poured and poured and poured! Coincidence? I think not.

5. We went to a bake-sale-ish type fundraiser. We didn't know what was going on really and ended up sitting around for two and a half hours (when in reality, we could have been in and out in 10 minutes) Oh well! We got these yummy fried things called Picadoras? Something like that. They were delicious!

6. While we were sitting and waiting during the aforementioned bake sale, we met three new friends. Jorge, Robert y Charlie. Robert and Charlie were both R.M's studying in Cajamarca. Kayla Starbuck, if you're reading this, tell your brother that I met a boy who served with him! Jorge! 

We found out that they are going to the same YSA convention later this month as us, and we decided that we wanted to make friends with them, and so we did! It was so fun talking to them, and then it was time to go. So they left and then we left maybe 30 seconds later.

This is where the story gets good.

7. While we were walking out, we noticed that it was a little after six, which is about the time places to eat start opening in Banos, so we decided we wanted to treat ourselves to Pizza! Brittany says, "Lets invite our new friends!" who at this point were several hundred feet in front of us. Without much thought, Brittany runs down the road to stop our friends and invite them to pizza. As she was leaving she yelled to us, "Is it, 'Nosotros Pizza Comer?' " Before we could tell her that, no, that is not how you properly invite someone to eat pizza, she was off and running.

Me and Abby started busting up laughing. Then we noticed that we were right in the middle of a bus stop with people all around us. And guess what? They were all cracking up too! There was a tall, white, blonde girl blabbing off some random Spanish words and running down the side walk after three Peruvian guys. EVERYONE was laughing. I was dying. 

8. Well, a minute or two later, Brittany returned! With our new Peruvian friends! They had miraculously been able to decipher her message and off we went to get pizza. The pizza cost us about ten bucks, and it was probably half as good as a $5 Little Caesars Hot and Ready. Peru and pizza? Not the best combination, but it was so much fun! 

And here's what else, we're counting it as a date. Now, don't get too excited, because 1. We Planned it 2. We were Paired off (well not really, but there were three girls and three boys) and 3. We Paid for it. 

So the three P's of a date were there....but we were the boys in the situation. But we justified it because we're south of the equator, things are all sorts of scrambled up down here :)

Over all, it was a way fun day! We loved every minute of it!

Also, Happy Birthday Trav! We have a present for you, but didn't have time to ship it off to you today!
-Elia

I Shall Never Complain Again

The following is a list of things that I never thought twice about having my whole life. And now that I'm doing without, I have vowed to never take them for granted again.

Washer and Dryer- Have you ever tried to dry your clothes outside in a humid place where it rains EVERY SINGLE DAY? It’s pretty difficult, because your clothes never truly get dry, and they never truly smell the same ever again. It’s unfortunate.  Also, washing clothes in the sink was fun for the first… ohhh 12 or so articles of clothing. Try ringing out a pair of jeans. Followed by two jackets, a blanket and 6 BYU-Idaho T-shirts. It’s a work out.

Clean water- 

Making top ramen? Hot Cocoa? Soup? Brushing your teeth? Anything that you “Just add water” to? No big deal in the States. Big deal in Peru. The water isn’t clean and must be boiled before consumption. This was also kind of fun at the beginning, now it’s kind of a nuisance.

Children who speak the same language as you- 

Disciplining children is hard enough as it is. Try disciplining a child in a language you don’t really know. Even if you do find the right words to say, the child is going to say something back and while you’re frantically flipping through your Spanish/English dictionary trying to figure out what they just said, the child has already fled the scene of the crime and is beating up some other kid. Ooof. Help.

How do I get them off of me?!!?

Hot Showers- Last Friday Brittany went on an intense run uphill in the sunshine and finished it off with P90 Ab RipperX. I thought to myself, “ok I am dirty, I am sweaty, my blood is pumping, I’m warm, this is a perfect time to hop in the shower!” So I do, as soon as Tony said that we were done with our 335^th ab exercise, I bolted for the showers thinking that the ICE COLD water wouldn’t phase me as much. False.  I jumped in full force and the breath was literally knocked out of me. It took me a second to realize that the reason I couldn’t breathe was because I had sent my body into shock. Not fun, not fun. Ohhh what I wouldn’t give for the chance to sit in an oversized bathtub filled with scalding water and bubbles for several hours.

 Breathing- Have I ever mentioned that I am living at 9022 ft above sea level? That’s pretty high.. it doubles Rexburg’s altitude.  For the first two weeks, it was kind of hard to breathe…especially when walking up hill or up the stairs. I also got super light headed every single time I stood up.  I still do every once in a while, but it’s not nearly as bad.

Those are just a few that were on my mind today. I definitely have a new found appreciation for MANY things that I have taken for granted for years and years. To think.. just a few months ago, I thought it was such a pain to have to carry all my laundry down the hall to my apartment complexes' laundry room. Or when I complained about it being hard to run in Rexburg because of the altitude. My how things have changed.

-Elia

In the Near Future

February is going to be an exciting month for us! We’ve got quite a bit planned. Mira:

February 8: Gran Picadora- We’re not exactly sure what this is, but we do know that if we bring one sol to the church on Wednesday, we get some of the most amazing homemade Peruvian food ever. I think it’s a fundraiser for the JAS Convention (keep reading for more info on that) coming up, so we just might bring some extra soles and some Tupperware J To support the cause and to satisfy our home cooked food cravings for a  couple days.

February 10: We’re taking the kids on a field trip to Cajamarca (giant city about 30 minutes away). Cajamarca is a really cool city with an awesome history and lots of cool, historical things/buildings to see. So we’ve hired a tour guide, who happens to also be our Bishop AND Stake President (and this guy’s wife is about to have a baby any day now, seriously, if you think you’re busy, THINK AGAIN!)  We’re excited because a lot of the ninos haven’t been able to go to some of these sites and they’re going to learn a lot about where they live. We’re hoping we have time/money to treat them all to ice cream afterwards too!

These women are awesome!

February 14: Valentines Day! We’re not sure how much the people here in Puylucana get into Valentine’s day, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be celebrating it here! I want to get Feliciana and Melchora flowers/chocolates (tacky in the states..yes, but in Peru.. we’re hitting the jackpot with this one). I want to write love notes for all of my ninas and think of something nice to do for my ninos.  Also, we have lots of friends in the ward and we’ve made friends with several of the tienda owners in the stores that we shop at frequently, so we want to make cookies and write notes and deliver those to all of our friends in Banos. Twill be a great day!

February 20: Hoodie Hoo day. It's a national holiday...in America. But I must celebrate it here. It's tradition

February 11-23: We’re pretty much not allowed to leave our house during these several days. Why? Because Peruvians celebrate Carnival (Think Mardi Gras, but crazier) all month long and it simply isn’t safe for three white girls to go out. People travel from all over to celebrate Carnival here in Cajamarca. The price of hotel rooms/transportation etc skyrockets and hundreds of people end up sleeping in the Plaza de Armas (Kind of like a big park in the center of town). Miguel said that some people even die because they spend all day getting wet and then sleep outside and die of hypothermia! Crazy, no? If you’re ever bored, look up Carnaval in Cajamarca. It’s supposed to be pretty intense. So since we’ll be locked inside for several days, we’re more than open for ideas of crazy things to do on our own to celebrate carnival!

Aurora dancing with Keiko

February 23-26: JAS Convention- JAS stands for Jovenes Adultos Solteros (Young Single Adults). This is a giant youth conference type thing for ALL the Young Single adults in Cajamarca as well as in Chiclayo. We’ll spend three straight days in Cajamarca, doing all sorts of fun things! There are two dances scheduled. One called “Baile de Gala” which google directly translates to “PROM!” haha we died when we saw that. Especially since the dressiest shoes we have are our Chacos. Looks like a shopping trip is in order… and maybe some Peruvian dance lessons. 

Something tells me this isn’t going to be like a typical Stake Dance. Either way, we are SO EXCITED for the convention. We’ll get to meet hundreds of Peruvian youth our age!

February 29: LEAP DAY! How does one celebrate leap day? I haven’t a clue. But I’m going to Celebrate and it is going to be fabulous.

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!

Peruvian Family Reunion

Today, a family reunion was held in our home… we really had no idea what was going on, we just knew that Feliciana and Melchora were cooking up a storm with all sorts of fancy food and that our kids were not being allowed to come eat or play with us.

Well at around 1:30 a family of 10 or so Peruanos (Old and Young) came and sat themselves at our finely set table (we brought out the good stuff, nice plates and lacey table cloths!). After figuring out that we were allowed to eat with them, we were treated to the Peruvian meal of a life time! I wish I could tell you the names of all the dishes, but I have no idea… I do know that it had 7 courses, 4 of which contained potatoes, all cooked differently, and one course that was fried guinea pig and another that was pig intestines!

Egg and potato soup. So good!

Rice, Potatoes and Guinea Pig. Also Delicious

Potatoes with pig intestines and onion, chili pepper salsa. My personal favorite.

Dessert!

Giant corn

We ate like queens today as we crashed this Peruvian Reunion. At first I kind of felt bad because we didn’t help out a whole lot with the cooking or the cleaning, and we didn’t even know these people, but we justified it by the fact that we were the entertainment for the afternoon. They had a great time laughing and things that we said, or rather tried to say. They also loved watching us try the guinea pig and took pictures of us while we ate it! We made some awesome friends and loved talking to them! They were visiting from Lima and we just loved them!

Side note, we asked Melchora if we could help her with anything. She promptly told us to go upstairs and not come down until we looked pretty. Apparently she doesn’t dig our make-up free, pony tail look. Oh well!

Once My Pet, Now On My Plate

Have I ever mentioned that Hannah (My little sister) got two sweet little guinea pigs for Christmas? They have names. They have personalities. I loved them before I left them to come to Peru.

Have I also ever mentioned that Peruvians are famous for eating these little rodents?

 Confession: I ate a guinea pig today! Even Bigger Confession: I liked it!

 That’s right. I ate Cuy Frito or Fried Guinea Pig. There wasn’t a whole lot of meat on there and it wasn’t amazing, but it was just fun to experience something crazy. Their little feet and claws were still perfectly in tact and some still had the heads on. I’m not sure if we were supposed to eat the skin or not… so at first I did… and I ate quite a bit of it. Then I realized that none of the natives around me had eaten theirs and then I felt silly. Whoops!

Peruvian Nights

I am about at that point where I have been in Peru long enough to see and do crazy things and not even think twice about them. Things that SHOCKED me the first time I experienced them. So I’m going to try and recount those and post them here before I become desensitized to it all.

So I just put on two pairs of pants (leggings and sweatpants), two pairs of socks (long wool ones and short normal ones), one shirt, one USA sweater, and a knitted headband to keep my ears warm. Where am I going so bundled up? Out to face a Rexburg Winter? No.  Just to bed. Yes, this is what I wear every night to bed for two very important reasons.

    1.We freeze at night. Our house is made of cement walls, floors and ceiling with absolutely NO insulation and no carpet. Also, the window panes are a bit too small for the windows, so there is a constant cold breeze coming through our window cracks.

2.       2.We live with all manner of things that we shouldn’t. Namely: Mold, fleas, spiders, mosquitos, bed bugs, mice and other creatures we have yet to discover. The layers not only keep us warm, but they keep our skin (most of it) safe from unwanted friends crawling into bed and biting us. Alas, we still wake up each morning with at least 3 or 4 new strange bug bites…. But it could be worse.

Also, it still takes me just as long to get ready for bed as it does in the states, but it’s a whole different routine. I shall walk you through it.
 

1.   1.  PJ’s on. This in itself takes some time to find all of the elements of aforementioned nighttime attire.

2.       2. Contacts out (same as in states)

3.       3. Face washed (the next step in the states is to remove my makeup, but this is entirely unnecessary here, simply because we only wear make up on Sundays. So, I wash my face, not to remove my makeup, but to remove dirt and germs that have been caked on throughout the day. This is where I also realize that I’m not as tan as I thought I was…it’s just dirt)

Ready for bed!

4. No acne cream (Our faces have been surprisingly clear here, so acne is not even a bother at all. Perhaps it’s the lack of makeup or perhaps it’s just Peru’s awesomeness)

5.       5. Teeth brushed. This is only different in the fact that we have to brush our teeth with bottled water. Super hard to get used to at first.

6.       6. Hair brushed…frowned at, then put back in a bun. My hair is atrocious. Mainly because we can only afford to wash it twice a week and because it hasn’t come in contact with a straightener, blow dryer or curling iron this whole trip. So it’s healthy! But it’s not very pretty :)

7.       7. Feet soaked in water. Our feet get atrocious and super dirty. This is necessary.

8.        8. Back in the bedroom to shake out the sheets. Sheets and blankets must be shaken out every night before bed to remove any unwanted guests.

9.       9 Roommate Prayer, get into bed and try and make pictures out of the thousands of mold spores that cover our ceiling. (Today, while I was skyping with my family, a large chunk of moldy ceiling dispatched itself from my ceiling and straight onto my pillow! I died laughing.)

10.   10. Shiver until you fall asleep. It hasn’t actually been too bad lately, because Brittany has ditched her bed and crawls into bed with me and Abigail every night. 3 girls in two beds equals a lot warmer than usual.

11.   Wake up at like 2 in the morning to Brittany’s elbow in your face. Say, (while you’re half awake, half asleep)  “Que es esto!?”(What is this) as Brittany replies “Lo siento”(I’m sorry)

12.   I think that last story (#11) was hard to follow, but essentially, we woke up in the middle of the night for half a second and communicated solely in Spanish. How cool is that??

13.   Wake up at 7:30, Pray and head out on our morning run.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love being here? Because I do. So. So. Much.