December 9, 2013

Hola Familia!

So, I´m in Yungay today...we spent the morning helping Elder Garcia and Elder Castillon move to a different apartment...so I´m at a different internet cafe that DOESNT have an English keyboard. So, sorry for my terrible punctuation. 

I am SO glad things went well for Sheri and cute baby Spencer! I absolutely LOVVVEEE the name! I can´t wait to see pictures of the little guy, and I love seeing the pictures of Belle! Thanks for sharing. I´m so glad that they have a sweet new little baby. I´m sure the kids are having a blast at our house too! 

I LOVE all the Christmas prep going on, it´s definitely universal! Hermana Flor is letting us use some of her Christmas lights in our window and I´m so excited. You know this has always been my favorite time of year, and I just love being able to blast my one Christmas album and sing my carols. We have an activity coming up this month in Huaraz with the Stake, we´re caroling in the Plaza de Almas and it´s going to be SO magical. I´m stoked. Sorry it´s SO freezing at home! We´ve been dealing with major rain storms all week...like rios en la calle kind of rain. It´s been an adventure. I´m seriously so grateful for my Northface jacket from Delaware and my winter coat, Hermana Cueva and I have kept warm and dry with those two. 

I´m so grateful to EVERYONE for their thoughtful emails and advice. It seriously boosts my moral SOOO much. So thank you for that! I feel the support and I love it. And YES Christmas at 12 ...or 1 my time, not really sure yet but just stay by the laptop or dads phone during that time, I´m going to either skype you at Hermana Flor´s house...or maybe our ward mission leaders... he has all the fancy technology! 

I didn´t get to watch the Christmas broadcast...the bishop decided not to have it at the capilla...so we didn´t get to see it. You´ll have to email  me the printed versions of their talks, because I was really hoping to watch it!  LOVE YOU MAMA. And thanks for the package, I´m so excited to get it THIS WEEK! 

Anyway, it´s been...another week in Caraz haha. I´ve been dealing with some sort of stomach bug this week, so that´s been fun...but I´ve kept trudging along and working hard despite it. People have been so kind to me this week and I can´t even describe my gratitude to them. 

We´re having a rough time finding new investigators. Everyone we contact is from a different city, or if we are lucky enough to teach them...they don´t show up for their second lessons. It´s really frustrating to be honest, and our numbers are AWFUL. We have one girl, Miriam, who´s an absolute doll that wants to be baptized on the 21st, but she needs to go to church first and work some things out with her ``esposo``. Here people are husband and wife...without being married...and she´s working on separating from him...anyway it´s a challenge but she´s great and I have hope.

This week the Elders in Yungay had a family baptism! Our whole district got to attend. With all the rain the river was really strong, and cold, and dirty...totally different than last time. It was a member father, and his wife and two daughters were being baptized. Andrea, an eight year old, was first. Poor thing was clinging to her father in such a way that they had to repeat the ordinance three times. She was bawling. I don´t have much of the language down...but I DID have my winter coat with me. I pried it from Hermana Cueva, gave her my sweater and went up to Adrian. I wrapped her in the coat and hugged her and helped her to get warm. She was crying to me and I didn´t understand everything but I said what I could and just held her close...twenty minutes later after the others had been baptized, she changed and kept my coat on...she was beaming and we´re best friends at church now. After the service, we went to a luncheon in Yungay. I was so worried, I have been sicker than sick this week  with my stomach and I literally could not eat. Hermana Flor came up to me after the prayer and whispered to only eat what I could because I´ve been sick. I was still worried about offending the family. Elder Arnett overheard and asked me what was going on...I straight up told him I´d been sick. Well I started eating my massive bowl of beans and rice and mystery meat and had hardly made a dent in it. About ten minutes into the meal, Elder Arnett whisper-yelled ¨Hermana Carr¨and held out his empty plate to me. He told me to switch him haha. I didn´t want to, I felt so bad... but he insisted and before I knew it, I was sitting with an empty bowl and he was chowing down my food. I´m pretty sure the poor guy is going to die thanks to me. It´s so bad, but I´m SO grateful because I know I wouldn´t have survived the night. And all of the Castillo family thinks I ate all my food and THEY can´t figure out why I´m not dying haha. I can´t even tell you how grateful I was for that act of service.

Sunday was good. We ended up having to teach RS last minute which was an adventure, and really cool. The first contact I had ever made by myself, CAME TO CHURCH. She´s in the Elder´s area, but I had born testimony to her earlier and given her reference to the elders, and now she and her family are getting baptized. I can´t tell you how happy it makes me.

Well this is ridiculously long, sorry, I guess I wanted to write today! haha. Happy Birthday to Jakey. Much love to my family. Congrats to Julian and Sheri! I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND KNOW THIS CHURCH IS TRUE! This is the work of the Lord!

Love always,

My district @ the baptism

The Elders in my ward