Sorry I'm boring
SPECIAL NOTE TO THOSE WHO EMAIL KATE - If you want her to see your email on her P-day, please make sure it is sent to her Sunday (or Monday before 10 am EST/8 am MST). Thanks
MONDAY: P-days are over rated. They’re just as exhausting, if not more, than any other day. I won’t go through all the trouble to explain how bad people are at planning and how frustrating that is. Basically we spent six hours going to eat Norky’s chicken which is on every corner of Lima. But we did find this cornelio, actually he found us. He came up and asked if we were Mormons and like 5 missionaries all swarmed him. We talked for a while and he said that we just looked so happy and he felt like something was missing from his life. He was this shy 18 year old kid (I can say that now because I’m 20) all in black, shaggy hair, monster wrist bands, very, very shy. It was cool. Moral of the story: 1. Don’t judge people, you never know who is ready for the gospel. 2. People notice how you act. We’re lucky to have a knowledge of the good news. Now go share your light.
TUESDAY: It was a strange day. We had a lot of random things we needed to do that kinda messed up our day. We didn’t get a lot done which is frustrating. This must be what it’s like serving in our ward, one baptism every 20 years. And also summer thinks it's coming apparently. Not too thrilled about that, but we’ll see. There’ve been quite a few false alarms so far.
WEDNESDAY: A great day. In the morning we had a zone meeting, which was basically about 40 new mission rules. Pres is cracking down. After lunch we found an investigator that’s been a little duro [hard] lately. But we shared the Restoration with him as simply as we could. And so I asked him, “J. if you knew Jesus Christ’s church existed on the earth today, what would you be willing to do?” He thought about it for a while … “Well, I think I would be baptized.” Ding! Ding! Ding! I didn’t even say anything about baptism, but if you’d like to be baptized, I’m sure we could arrange something.
The problem is the darn JWs have been visiting him as well. (The thing here is that people have a hard time turning away the word of God which is both a blessing and a curse because it means they are willing to listen to us and everybody else.) Back to the story, so the JWs want him to get baptized as well. So he’s kinda in this Joseph Smith sort of situation. So we told him just to pray and ask. (We’re not here to convince him.) And I’m pretty sure what answer he’s gonna get.
Then we went knocking doors, which is apparently not a thing missionaries do anymore. Who knew? But anyway. Tocando puertos. “Hola. Buenos dias! Estamos buscando a Milagros.”…”Oh, ella no vice aqui?”…”Esta bien, somos misioneras…” Not sure what we are going to do when we find Milagros, but hey, it works for now.
So we’re knocking this one door and nobody was answering, so I was peering in the window. (Now I want you to understand that we’re doing this at night.) It all seemed pretty dark, but then this old woman whips back the curtain and her face is inches from mine. I have never been so startled in my life. I fell backwards off the steps and almost had a heart attack. The woman wasn’t too pleased with my reaction and long story short, did not invite us back…I’m still recovering.
But then a few doors down we met this sweetest woman who seemed very interested. We have an apt with her next week. And her name is … B.! We will be baptizing her. To end off a great day we head over left over Papa Juans and rice pudding ice cream :)
THURSDAY: Not much exciting happened. I almost died from lunch. But I’m good now. We had a really sweet lesson with N., a menos activa. (Sweet as in tender not bad.)
FRIDAY: We had a training meeting about health and keeping the Sabbath day holy. It was nice to see some of my Hermana’s. I had some funny things to share from this day and now I can’t remember. Oh well. It will most likely come to me tomorrow.
SATURDAY: Not much happened here either…the usual.
SUNDAY: Went to church. Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Fun fact: church is very stressful on the mish. Then we went to a member’s house for lunch which consisted of an entire forest of broccoli, a whole cow, a potato farm and a corn field. (Corn is weird here.) It was excessive. It took me about an hour to finish before we could roll out the door. Some other notable events of the day : Catholic parades galore. You know you’re in Peru when you can’t get to your investigator's door because there’s a giant saint blocking it. Plus about 100 people in gowns chanting and playing trombones. Darn Catholics. A couple of lessons. Nothing too extraordinary.
All in all it's been a week. The work’s a little tough here, probably something to do with the pride cycle. We’re just trying to keep a positive attitude and not inflate too much.
Might as well live it up while I can before I get sent to the hood :) (Don’t ask me what living it up looks like as a missionary.)
The trio life is good.
I’m very grateful. We get along really well. We have a lot of fun. They are about the work. What more could I ask for?
Hermana Fallas was a DJ in her former life [before her mission]. She’s also studying to be a reconstructive surgeon or something like that. She’s a smarty. Also she’s from Costa Rica, which I know I’ve mentioned, but I find that really cool. She doesn’t know it yet, but I will be visiting her one day. Things I’ve learned about Costa Rica: it is not an island and it's not at all related to Puerto Rico (that’s unfortunate, I know), but you could drive across the whole country in 8 hours. And there’s some world geography for you.
Hermana Bird is the triple threat - she sings, dances and plays the piano. She’s spent all of her mission either training or being trained (until now). She’s from the small town of Richfield (something like that), Utah. Something interesting about Utah? There are a lot of Mormons there.
Life’s good. I think half of the purpose of a mission is to make you appreciate all you have in life. And I’m blessed to have everything - wonderful friends and family and the gospel. I feel so blessed to have every day to testify of my Savior. I know He lives. This gospel is true. This gospel is happiness.
These four and a half months have been hard, but I have learned and seen incredible things. It has changed me.
I love you all so much.
Be happy and enjoy life.
Love,
Hermana Anderson
P.S. This week I’m ponderizing Alma 26: 22 [Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance, even as it has been given unto us to bring these our brethren to repentance.] as inspired by a good friend :)
