Week 33: "I opened up some really early Christmas packages!"

Lunes, 17 de Noviembre del 2014
     After studies we headed to Monsefu to look around at all the handmade crafts of Peru.  To get there, we had to take one car to a town called Santa Rosa and then another car from there to Monsefu. Well Hna Corona sat in the front seat and those that sit in the front HAVE to use the seat belt.  So Hna Corona put her seat belt on, and when she tried to unbuckle it, it wouldn't unlock.  The driver tried and then I tried, but we couldn't get it unlocked.  So the driver had a plan for Hna Corona to just climb out of the seat belt.  We were all giggling at this experience, until the man drove away and I couldn't find my wallet.  We chased the driver down, which must have been a sight- 2 young ladies in skirts chasing down a car.  Anyhow, we caught up to him, but he didn't have my wallet.  He told me to look on the road because I may have dropped it.  So we ran back, and thankfully it was there! Luckily, the position that it landed on the road, looked like garbage so no one had picked it up.  Once we made it to Monsefu, we looked at a million little tiendas and saw so many neat crafts.  I bought stuff for my family for Christmas.
     After shopping we went back to Pimentel for lunch.  Then we went home to rest and I put the Christmas package together for my family.  Then we headed to internet and emailed home.  Lucky me, my mommy was on so I got to chat with her!
     After emailing, we headed home and relaxed for a bit and then headed out to teach.  First we went to visit Sonia and Evelin, but Evelin wasn't there, but Sonia had invited a friend over.  We TRIED to teach them, but the entire time was full of distractions.  There was a parrot that was talking....Sonia's sister was making treats, so she was running in and out of the kitchen moving things around....and then Sonia's friend left right in the middle of the lesson.  Her sister brought us treats, so we ate the treats and then went to visit Luis and Janeth.  When we got there, they told us that they had to leave and take Jhordy to the doctor because he is really sick.  So we rescheduled with them and started contacting.  During this time, Martin found us and gave us sublime chocolate.  We talked to him for a bit and then continued knocking on doors.  There was this one house that had a teenage son who answered.  We talked to him and asked if his mom was home.  She came to the door, and we asked her if we could come back sometime to teach them.  She agreed, so we are going to go back another time and teach the whole family.
     We went to dinner after that and then went home and planned and got ready for bed.  P-Day always flies by!  I never feel like I have enough time to relax.  haha

Martes, 18 de Noviembre del 2014
     We had a district meeting .  We talked about the Attributes of Christ (Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel).  Hna Cruz shared a quote that says, "We should be a missionary like Jesus Christ, not just do the work. "  Then Elder Coons walked up to the board where she had written her quote and he erased "a missionary" and said that we should be like Christ in ALL we do, whether we are here in the mission or at home or in school, working or laying on the couch.  And we, especially missionaries should return from our missions changed.  We still need to be us, but we need to live on a higher standard for the rest of our lives because we took upon us the responsibility to be representatives of Christ.  That is a big job...not just anyone can represent Christ.  So when you are representing or have represented Christ, you need to live a better life.  As baptized members of the church, we all took upon ourselves the name of Christ, so all baptized members have the same responsibility.  We agreed to act like Christ.  I challenge all of you for a FHE activity, to write or make a list of the Attributes of Christ and how he acted when he was on the earth, and view how Christlike you are.  In Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel, it has an activity that you can fill out and rate your life compared to the life of Christ. This activity is really eye opening.  Do it. :)
     After the meeting, we headed home and ate lunch.  After lunch, I opened up some really EARLY Christmas packages!  I also got some letters from fun people!
     Hna Corona told me that I have a really good accent for my Spanish, but she is going to help me become even more Latina, so that people here will think that I am a legit Latina.  I am so pumped! She is going to help me drop the little American accent that I have, so people will think that I am from here!
     We taught a few people, but nothing real exciting today.  The lessons went well, but everything felt just a little off.  Both Hna Corona and I were both feeling a bit under the weather.
     We went to dinner and then we went home and planned- which turned into talking until almost midnight.  We were giggling and sharing CCM experiences and talking about all our friends.  It was super fun!

Miercoles, 19 de Noviembre del 2014
     We contacted a chunk of Alto Peru this morning.  Alto Peru is a part of Pimentel.  It is a poor area and most of the people who live there are fishermen.  In Alto Peru the dogs are CRAZY.  We almost got eaten multiple times.  Hna Corona was super paranoid.  She would not even walk 3-5 feet by any of the dogs, and if the dogs would move or make a sound, she would spaz out.  It was pretty funny.
     We went to lunch after contacting some houses.  After lunch, we had language study.  I learned "I don't give a crap" -"no importa un pepino"- literal translation is "not important, one cucumber"  haha
I also learned "It is really tasty!" -"ser para chuparse los dedos!" Hna Corona taught me those and  I taught her, "Bless her heart."  During study, we were remembering the English songs that we like, and we both have the same taste in music.  Love it!
     After that we went teaching and our first cita was with a young woman named Pina (19 years). She wasn't home, but she had left a note saying that she was sorry that she wasn't there, but that she had exams all day long.  She left a couple of different dates and times that we could come back to visit.
     We then ran into Martin and he gave us cookies and sorreno (best chocolate ever!)  Today was my first time ever trying it!  Then we headed to the Super to meet Stephany Cachay so she could help us teach.  We taught Martin about the Ten Commandments.  During the whole lesson, he just kept saying how we were his earth angels.  :)
     After his lesson, we headed out teaching and contacting.  Stephany is the muerte!  She kept running up to houses and would ring their door bell 6 times, and if someone wouldn't come within 10 seconds, she would run to the next house and ring their doorbell 6 times!  At one house, there were two stories of stairs to climb to get to the door.  Stephany agreed to go up.  When she finally reached the top, the next thing we saw was Steph trying to run down.  When we looked behind her, we saw a dog chasing her down the stairs.  Being the wonderful missionaries that we are, we started laughing and laughing, and we were laughing so hard that we couldn't do anything to help.  When Stephany got to the last two stairs, she tripped and fell into us.  We all fell into the wall behind us and just laughed forever!
     At the next house, the doorbell was really high up on the house, probably because they don't want people to ring it.  But Stephany was determined, so she climbed up the door frame, in a skirt, and rang the bell 6 times.  Turns out that no one was home.  I love working with the members.  They crack me up!
     For our last lesson of the night, we visited a man named Pedro.  He never let us talk.  We had to cut him off because we had to take Stephany to the combi because it was getting late.  We asked Pedro to offer the closing prayer.  He agreed, but offered a silent prayer.  So we sat there with one eye open, so that we would know when to say Amen.  Well, when he ended his prayer, he never said anything, and me being my corky self, said "Amen" and it came out a lot louder than I was expecting. Pedro looked at me like I was crazy, but then he thanked us for our visit.  He invited us to come visit him again and then kicked us out of his house. :)
     As we walked Steph to the combi, we walked around for a bit and contacted.  One of the older women that we talked to owns the casa capilla (house chapel) that we use every Sunday.  Small world.  :)
     We went to dinner and Chela had some Mexican music playing.  I love it!  The singer is Jose something...it is legit old Mexican music.  Listen to it, and get used to it because when I return, you will be hearing it all the time! :)

Jueves, 20 de Noviembre del 2014
     This morning we were knocking doors and with our luck, and by accident, we knocked on the door of a church....an athiest woman who whole heartedly believes in magic...why does our luck always find us knocking on doors that we aren't suppose to knock on?  Awkward.
     After lunch, we headed to Fonavi.  We went to see if Gloria could come teaching with us, but she couldn't.  While we were there, she asked Hna Corona if I talk in my sleep and joking around, Hna Corona said that I do and that I was teaching about Joseph Smith.  And me, being the witty missionary that I am, "corrected" Hna Corona and said that I only teach about the Word of Wisdom in my sleep, because that is the only lesson that we need to teach Gloria for her to not be a menos activo.  Before our visit with her, I was trying to think of a creative way I could bring up this subject to teach Gloria, and there it was....:)
     After that, we headed to Clarita Leyton.  We visited her for awhile.  She told me that Marco hates being so busy and missing the lessons and our visits.  Clarita said that she and Marco would love to spend a P-Day with us sometime.  I am really excited for this.  I don't know when, because Marco is super busy at the University, so we will just have to see....I really love the familia Leyton.  When I come back to Peru after my mission, they will be the first  people I visit.
     Then we went to visit Ivan and Gaby.  Ivan hurt his back at work, so he is going to be at home on bed rest for 5 days.  It is sad that he is in so much pain.  We taught about obedience, praying often and scripture study.  The coolest part was that I could share experiences about doing it as a family and really testify that it brings unity into the family.  Ivan and Gaby are really excited to start this habit and grow closer as a family.
     We went and taught Alinder, the husband of Norma.  He is still searching for unimportant details that aren't going to give him a testimony.  I don't know what to do with him because the family wants him to get baptized, but there is no way we are going to baptize him without him having a testimony. At the end of every lesson, we tell him that if he truly wants to know anything, he just has to ask God, and every time he agrees with us and wants more details about everything. All we can do is to continue to pray, that he will pray, and find out for himself.
     At dinner, Chela and her son Alonzo were asking questions about the Restoration pamphlet.  So we explained some about it and then they agreed to read it again and then they can ask us more questions.  We feel that she thinks that it is correct and true, but is scared of change.  I really hope that we can help her.
     After dinner and baring our testimonies, we went home and planned.  We called Gloria to ask her if she could go teaching with us tomorrow.  She has to work and then she has a birthday party to go to.  She said, "Sorry beautiful" (in English) and then to say goodnight she said, "Dream with angels and Captain Moroni." (in English, too)  Gloria is such a hoot.  I love Pimentel!

Viernes, 21 de Noviembre del 2014
     Today was not at all eventful or successful.  We had our weekly planning which takes up half the day.  And by the time we went out teaching, everyone that we had a cita with, fell through.  So we were trying to contact, and almost every contact rejected us.  It was great, because an old man opened his window and as I was giving the shpill of who we are, he started to close the window shaking his head.  We attempted to give him a picture of Jesus, but he just shook his finger at us and closed the curtain...and left us there by his window holding a pass along card.  At another house, the woman basically told us that the Bible says that all churches but the Catholic church are wrong and are here on earth to confuse us.  We tried to explain our point, and she told us that she didn't have time.  She took the picture of Jesus from us and then closed her door.
     We ended up running into Channy and Bruno and they invited us to visit them next week to teach them.  The entire time we were talking, they kept saying that they really miss us.
     We went to Karla's house, and we were there forever, because she loves to talk.  After visiting with her, we went to dinner.  Martin and Carlitos were waiting outside our pension with cookies for us.  La muerte.  haha
     After dinner, we planned and got ready for bed.  I also worked on the Christmas package for home and wrote letters in Spanish. :)

Sabado, 22 de Noviembre del 2014
     This morning as we were contacting, we knocked on a door of a woman who is Christian, and in her church they basically do the same things as we do, but they just don't have the right authority. We told her who we are and she said, "Oh, Mormons...you don't believe in the Bible because you have your own Bible."  At that moment, I pulled out my Bible and showed her that we believe in the same Bible as she does.  She let us in and we talked for a bit about all sorts of things.  The best part is, that she was asking us for answers to her questions, that the people in her church didn't know.  We told her that we will look into them and bring answers the next time we visit.  We set up a cita, but she told us that if there was any family member at her house that didn't want to hear our message, that we couldn't stop and visit.  We agreed that that would be ok.  First time that we have ever had someone be embarrassed to know us.
     After that we headed to Fonavi.  We taught Ivan.  At the end of the lesson, we asked him how he felt about baptism, and if he would be ready to be baptized next Saturday.  His answer was a huge surprise.  He said no.  He then added, "I want to be baptized, but I don't know when."  We tried to figure out why...hopefully the next time we visit him, we can find out what his doubts are.
     Then we went and met up with Daniel.  He told us that last Sunday when we left consejo (council meeting) early, the leaders started talking about how we aren't bringing success and that they think we aren't working.  Thankfully Daniel stuck up for us.  He said , "I can tell when people are working, and I KNOW that these Hermanas are working hard, but lack the help of the members.  That is why there isn't success."  I am so grateful that he said that to them.
     Oh, during lunch, we were at the house of the familia Vigo. (Norma, Alinder, Carlos (Presidente) and Marietta)  Well, they weren't home but the maid, Yarelis, was there, and she served us.  She is a return missionary and has worked for this family for a long time.  Long story short...she was very truthful with us about how this Rama (branch) is full of gossip and judgement, and until that gets fixed, this Rama cannot progress. The saddest part is that she will not go to church here because she knows the people too well and does not want to put herself in a situation of gossip and judgement.
     We can only pray that this Rama can progress because right now they are not progressing.  They do not have the true love and no one wants to work harder or strive to serve higher in their callings. No one wants to take responsibility...so they are blaming the missionaries.  Que feo.  (It's sad)
     We taught Elba today, and she is great!  I really hope that she can progress, but personally I am afraid of her becoming a part of this Rama, because I worry what could happen to her in the future. Guess we will wait and see.

Domingo, 23 de Noviembre del 2014
     We had consejo de la Rama (ward council) and once again, it was our fault that no one wants to be baptized, and its our fault that there aren't many people who we are teaching, who are progressing. When this topic came up, Daniel was right there backing us up once again.  To me, it is sad that the Rama thinks the missionary work is only on the shoulders of the missionaries.  The Rama wants their own chapel, but they are going to be stuck in a house chapel if they continue to work like this.  The lideres (leaders) keep telling everyone that they need to help the missionaries and give them references...but then the lideres don't ever do anything to help us...so no one feels the power behind their words.
     Anyways, in Relief Society, we sang Christmas songs.  Here, it is okay, because they don't have any holidays in November, so they start early on Christmas.  Everyone and their dog have their "trees" up...well they build mountains in the corner of their house and put a nativity set on it...
     After church, we ate with Giannina and Mariana.  They really want me to marry a Latino....they don't care from where, just that he needs to be Latino.  haha
     Then we started knocking doors and there was some little boys on a a balcony playing with a half chewed on pencil tied to a long green cord.  They were hanging it down into the road, and then they accidentally dropped it.  We, being the heroes that we are, tried to help them get it back.  We tried throwing it up to them, but every time, it would hit the wall and fall back down.  We tried several times and the little boys thought it was the funniest thing.  They were laughing so hard at us.  Gotta love being the laughing stock of Pimentel.  Well, with luck and a prayer in heart, we finally got it up to them.  And as we were walking away, I tripped and almost died...okay, not almost died, but I almost ate dirt, and the dirt is not very clean, so that would have killed me.  :)  Hna Corona started laughing and then stopped and looked at me as seriously as possible and said, "You can't die.  You're my only hope right now."  Then we both started laughing so hard that we both almost died because we couldn't breath! :)
     After contacting the Provivienda, we headed to the road called Jose Quinones and started contacting.  Well, one contact opened her door and there were two other ladies sipping coffee with her.  She invited us in, but she did not invite us to sit down, so we stood by the door while they asked us questions.  When we told them that I am from the United States and that Hna Corona is from Mexico, they started talking about my Spanish, and that it sounds great.  Then they said that they were Catholics and thanked us for our visit and then kicked us out.
     After that house, there were many who rejected us.  Then Martin found us.  He said, "Hna Dodson, I brought you your favorite thing!" and pulled out apples.  I was so excited, because we were just talking about how if he continues to give us cookies, we are just going to continue to eat them, so we were excited that it was something healthy to eat.  We celebrated too soon, because in the next second, he handed us cookies and said, "You two are going to leave Peru fat."  haha  We told him thank you and then went back to contacting.  We met a cool family.  They were very willing to let us in and listen to our message.  They had questions and so we answered a few and promised to return.
     We ate dinner, planned and reported to our district leader.

Hna Corona with our lunch, sopa de carne (meat soup)
 at Leonardo's Restaraunt

Week 32: "Welcome to the life of a missionary. You work so hard everyday that you fall asleep during prayers!"

Lunes, 10 de Noviembre del 2014
     After studies and doing part of internet time, we went shopping.  We walked every aisle in the super and the marcado.  Then we went to lunch.  Leonardo was there today, but he was more serious and quiet than usual.  I think that he just needs to get used to Hna Corona.  After lunch, we dropped off our purchases at our cuarto, grabbed our blankets and headed to the beach.  We rested and ate chifles (spicy!) and drank orange flavored water.  I read the Book of Mormon in English, while Hna Corona wrote in her journal.

orange flavored water, chifles and my English Book of Mormon

     While we were at the beach, Martin showed up with cookies and soda.  We all talked for a bit and then we left to go email our families!
     After emailing, we went home and cleaned up and were making recuerdos and reading our recuerdos from other people, when I found a "Build-a-Buzz Lightyear" kit in the back of my notebook.  So of course, this being an obligation, I built the Buzz.  It turned out super adorable!

     We went out teaching after that, but all of our appointments fell through, so we just started contacting.  One family let us in, but the Dad kept saying, "We are strong Catholics" every time we tried to teach anything.  We kept teaching anyways because his wife, his daughter and his grandsons had interest in our message.  At the end, we tried to set up an appointment, but the dad and one of the daughters refused to set a time, so we told them that we would just stop by again another day.
     We started contacting on another street and every door we knocked on, no one would answer.  The best one was, when Hna Corona chose the door, and when she knocked on the door, she commented that the door was really hard.  Well, I looked up to see that it was a store or something and there we were, two LDS missionaries knocking on the door of a dance pub.  We both started laughing so hard! We laughed forever.
     After that, and having no success on that road, we started for another road, when Martin found us and gave us cupcakes.  :)  Then we started contacting again.  As we were at the house of a contact, a huge group of members from Fonavi were walking by.  Well, they kidnapped us and took us to the house of the family Arroyo, because it is the birthday of Venessa (the sister of Pres. Arroyo).  We were all sitting there, and we needed to leave, but they wouldn't let us go without taking a plate full of food.  And they told us that we had to return tomorrow for cake!  In the end, we got 2 dinners and really full stomachs!
     It was a fun P-Day.  Oh yeah, we went to the muelle (wharf) and the woman guarding it, let us in for free because we know her sister and niece really well.  A bonus of talking to everyone.  Most people know who we are!  Gotta love the life of a missionary.  Besides the fact that when P-Day comes around, we never know what to do.

Martes, 11 de Noviembre del 2014
     We had a district meeting and we showed up 5 minutes late and right before we entered the room, Elder Chavez called, and when we entered the room, he started teasing us by clapping and congratulating us for showing up.  haha  Well, the meeting was great!  The best part was when we were talking about how it's important to know the ages of our investigators, so that we know what church groups they can be a part of, Elder Chavez chimed in and said, "Yeah, but there is the group AS (which stands for Adultos Solteros and is pronounced ass), so all the English speakers busted up laughing and explained to those who didn't understand why we were laughing.  It was pretty funny.
     After that, we went to lunch and then home to study language.  My comp taught me some new stuff and I helped her learn some English.  She wanted to learn some "fun things" so I taught her how to say "Dang it" , "I want to sleep" and "he cooked them."  I love her accent when she speaks English.
     After language study, we went out contacting and teaching.  We were out knocking when we knocked on an open door.  Well, the woman looked around the corner at us and told us to come in. We walked in and it turned out to be a spa.  We both started giggling and explained that we were missionaries and that we didn't mean to knock on her door...but that we would love to visit them in their houses.  They denied us, but said that maybe one day they will come visit us at the church.
     After knocking on some more doors, we decided to try a different road, so we started knocking on Balta.  After being rejected a few times, we went to the cuarto to grab my coat because it was getting a little chilly (70*).  Then we went back to work.  As we were walking down the road trying to decide what house to go to, we saw a woman sitting alone at a table in her house.  Her door was wide open, so we stopped by.  She quickly let us in.  We got to know her for a few minutes and then we bore testimony that we know that the church is true and could help her.  She started crying and explained that she has been having a hard time, and prayed to God to help her find a church to attend.  She told us that we were her answer to her prayer.  We set up a cita to visit her this week.  I really hope that we can find her again, because she is definitely ready to hear our message.
     We knocked on her neighbor's door and she gladly accepted us, but she was about to leave.  She asked us to return in the morning at 10am.  It is such a beautiful thing to feel the spirit radiate from people who are ready to know our truth.
     We headed to a house of a contact named Luz.  We shared a message about the family.  After that, we headed to go teach one of our other contacts, but they weren't home, so we started knocking doors again.  As we were passing a house with people outside, I turned to Hna Corona and said, "Let's contact them."  We started talking to them and they had tons of interest and questions.  We answered their questions and left them with a folleto (pamphlet) and told them to read it and have some more questions ready for us on our next visit.  In the beginning of teaching, there were 3 people, and by the end, there were 9!
     After that, we had a lesson with Luis y Janeth.  We were very direct with them about marriage. We told them to pray about marriage with specific dates in mind, because Luis wants to wait 5 years and Janeth wants to get married tomorrow.  I told them to think of five different dates, one for each year, and then ask God which date would be best.  And then listen for the answer.  They agreed to do it.  We are going to return and see what is going to happen with them.

Miercoles, 12 de Noviembre del 2014
     We went out teaching this morning and we taught a woman named Gladys (the neighbor from yesterday).  The entire time that we were teaching her about the great apostasy and Joseph Smith, she kept saying that she was grateful that we have the Catholic church, because everyone knows that when Jesus comes again, he will only take the Catholics with him. She also said that she was grateful that we were in her house teaching her more.  We tried over and over again to let her know that our church is not the Catholic church, but she just refused to hear it.  We set up another cita and left her a pamphlet to read about our church.  We will know if she actually reads it, depending on what she says to us the next time we visit, because if she reads it, she will find out that we are Mormons.  haha
I am actualy really excited to see what happens with her next time.
     After that, we headed to visit Oscar.  He is really cool and really Catholic.  He has potential though.
     After lunch, we were walking around in an area in Pimentel called Barrio Chino.  This area is poor and the people are so humble.  As we were walking past a house with a bunch of children in the yard, a young man (22 yrs old) came up to us and asked us if our church was on Manco Capac.  We told him that it was and asked him if he had visited before.  He explained that he hadn't, but that a tall white girl had invited him to go to church and that she would teach him music...I never remembered Hna Kingsford telling him that before, but then we figured out that he was talking about the Jenna, the American.  That was cool to see that she had been doing missionary work.  She had given them a pass along card, so they had directions to our church.
     After that, we went and taught Rosa and her husband ended up being there, too.  We taught Lesson 2 again, because Juan (the husband) and the daughter-in-law, Yessenia, hadn't heard it.  Well, they were all really into it, and at the end of the lesson, we found out that Juan has Sundays off, so we set up a cita for Sunday.
     Then we went and taught Keith, the "spouse" of Karla, the recent convert.  I really hope that he progresses, because I want their family to be sealed in the temple.  During the lesson, we got a call from Pres. Vigo asking if we were going to the Noche Misional.  We told him that we were and headed over to the church.  We didn't stay very long, because we had another cita, but when we got to the cita, they were busy, so we rescheduled and went back to the activity.
     The members were complaining that there wasn't very many people at the activity.  They asked us if we had invited the members in Pimentel to come.  When we told them that that wasn't our responsibility, they asked us where all the investigators were.  We told them that they couldn't come. Then the members said that they needed more people at the activities.  We told them that they needed to help us invite people.  They told us that there are families in Las Dunas that need visits.  Las Dunas is more than 20 minutes from our area...so we told the members that our area is huge and that we already don't have enough time to cover our areas of Pimentel and Fonavi...so if you know people that need visits, set up citas with them and let us know when we can visit, or you can go and visit them, too.  We then explained that the missionaries are here to support them, but this isn't our Rama. Missionaries get changed often, so you need to be visiting them, too.  We need to help each other. Then Hno Monja said, "That is right.  These poor missionaries try to find people to help them, but no one helps them....because everyone says that they are too busy."  We told the members that if they want growth, they are going to have to help us out.

Jueves, 13 de Noviembre del 2014
     This morning, all of our citas fell through, so we started contacting all the houses we could.  We were at a house and we had knocked twice, and no one answered, but we could hear someone inside, so I started knocking again....but my mind got distracted by the story Hna Corona was telling me, that I didn't realize that the whole time I was listening, I was still knocking.  Then we heard someone yell in an irritated voice, "Quien?" (Who!?) Well, if you say missionaries, they don't answer because most of the time, they think that we are missionaries from Testigos de Jehovah...so then they just yell that they are busy....so I politely responded, "Buenas" and with that, there was no answer and no response. Hna Corona thought that was hilarious that this woman screamed to us and that I answered her by saying, "Buenas." (Good!)
     Well, at the next house, there was light music playing so I told Hna Corona that someone was probably home there.  We knocked and a man answered.  Before we could introduce ourselves, he said to come in and walked away.  Knowing of our rule of not entering a house when a woman isn't present, we just stayed outside by the door.  We taught him for 5 minutes as we stood there by the door.  Then we gave him a pass along card and set up a cita with him.  He is really cool.  I'm excited to teach him again.  He seems to be a very dedicated person.
     After lunch, we headed to Fonavi.  Our first visit was with Alindor, the husband of Norma.  We were very direct with him and told him that he needed to do his part in his conversion.  He accepted our challenges, so now we pray that he will do his part so that he can know the truth of our teachings.
     Then we went and visited with the familia Leyton.  The only people there were Papa Leyton y Clara.  As we were talking, we decided that Clara needed to make us arroz con leche...she said that she would.  So after we gave our message, we went to another cita, and then we returned and ate arroz con leche.  It was really yummy!  Thank you Clara!
     We tried our last citas in Fonavi, but no one was home, so we headed back to Pimentel.  We tried to stop and visit Augusto and Cynthia but they were "busy" so we are going to try and stop by another time.
     After that, we decided to return to a contact's house from Sunday, because the couple (Sonia y Santiago) wanted us to meet their daughter.  So we stopped by and she happened to be there, so we went in and were getting to know her.  When her mom, Sonia, came in, we started teaching about prophets.  Evelin, the daughter, is super Catholic, super religious and super spiritual.  At the end of our message, we scheduled another cita for Monday and told them that they need to read the pamphlet, and that will explain some more.  They seem super interested.  I am excited to be teaching them.  Hna Corona and I both feel something special about them.
     After that, we headed to dinner.  Chela was asking questions about the LDS church.  She asked about the Book of Mormon and so I pulled out my Book of Mormon and Bible and let her look at them.  She read some pages from the Book of Mormon.  We gave her and her son, Alonzo, a pamphlet to read also.  When we left, we looked inside the window and we could see that Alonzo was already reading the pamphlet. :)  I really hope at some point that we can help them understand and know that the church is true.  I am super excited about all that has been happening with them.
     All night, we were planning what we could say to Chela and her family about the church.  We decided that we would have a Family Home Evening with them.  We don't know when, but we will make it happen. :)

Viernes, 14 de Noviembre del 2014
     Well, we had our planning for the week today.  During the meeting, we needed to decide on a date for Alindor to set as a goal for his baptism.  He is being pressured by his family, so we don't want to add more pressure on him, so we decided to pray about two different dates...and we both feel that the 6th of Deciembre is the day we are going to offer to him tomorrow.  We hope that he will accept it and prepare for that day.
      After planning, we went out teaching.  Our first cita fell through, so we were knocking doors. One of the first doors that we knocked on let us in.  We just thought that they were interested in hearing our message...but turns out they were die hard Christians and were asking us a lot of basic questions to test our knowledge and beliefs.  We were very straight forward in all our answers.  They told us that they really enjoyed our time and told us to come back if we wanted to share some more. We plan on teaching them about the Apostasy and the Restoration the next time.  Hopefully their hearts will listen to us.  They told us that they have a lot of respect for us.  We were laughing a lot at the end, so I think we left a good impression with them.  The dad also commented that he likes the way we teach and that we teach with power. :)
     After that, we headed to our next cita, which fell through too, so we knocked on more doors....and this time....lucky, lucky us...we knocked on a door that actually answered.  Well this woman started fighting with us about tons of things in the Bible.  We just stayed silent until she gave us a chance to speak.  Then we shared what we believe....and then she told us to wait a second at the door as she ran to get her Bible.  It was at that moment, that we realized what situation we were into.  We were talking to a Testigo de Jehova.  They are the hardest to teach, because they all have the entire Bible memorized.  As we waited at the door, Hna Corona said, "Dang it.  Testigos."  Haha  Well, she returned and told us to enter her house.  We knew that this was going to take a while, and we had a citas at two houses down the road in 7 minutes.  The woman then spent all this time trying to prove to us that the Catholic church was wrong.  We stopped her from talking for a second to let her know that we completely agree with her and then she was confused.  She asked us what church we were from, so we told her The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints...and right after that, she completley dropped her fight and was super friendly.  We chatted for a minute and she wanted me to offer a prayer, so I did and then we left.  That experience was the best lesson I have ever had with a Testigo. Probably because she didn't realize that we were Mormons.  haha
     After that, we taught Marta (mama) and Bryan (12 yr old son).  We were teaching them about the apostasy, when Bryan excused himself and we could hear him digging around in the freezer.  We assumed that he was taking an experiment out of the freezer.  Nope.  He returned with a bowl of ice cream.  What?!  He couldn't just wait until our lesson was over in 5 minutes?  Apparently not.  haha It was actually really funny.  We left that lesson giggling at the fact that he got up right in the middle of our lesson to get ice cream.  The best part was, that he offered to get us some, too.  We politely denied and then he said, "You can have some.  There is still some left."  We busted up, because the way he said it sounded like there was only a couple bites left.  haha
     Then we went and taught Elba.  She loves our lessons and our teaching style.  I really hope she can progress.
     Then we contacted one more house before dinner.  Well, they shut the door on us because they were "already Catholics".  Today, we talked with many from different churches.  It was an interesting experience.
     At dinner, Hna Corona was blessing the food and I fell asleep or something because the next thing I know, everyone in the house was giggling.  So I opened my eyes and Hna Corona said "Amen!" as she was giggling.  I said, "Welcome to the life of a missionary.  You work so hard everyday that you fall asleep during prayers!"  Right after that, the power went out.  It was only out for a minute or two, but it was a little hard to eat.  It came back on and then we headed home.  We planned and searched in the scriptures for a scripture that would prove that Jesus is Jehovah...so we can share it with our Testigo friends.

Sabado, 15 de Noviembre del 2014 [FELIZ CUMPLEANOS SISTER MCKENZIE LOFTIS Y MARTIN!]
     This morning was crazy!  We had scheduled for a member to help us this morning, and we had it all planned out, with all our citas in the morning to be with men that we needed another woman to be present, (for example, Martin), but the member bailed on us.  Today was the third time that we rescheduled with Martin because of this problem.  So we couldn't do it again, which was especially sad, since today is his birthday.  We searched all morning for a member who could come and help us out.  We even called the member who we were supposed to eat lunch with, to see if she could just come on a visit with us for 30 minutes, but she said no.  Then we asked her if she was still planning on feeding us lunch, and she had totally forgotten and wasn't home and wouldn't be home until later that night.  So then we started calling around to figure out our lunch plans.  So now, we were trying to figure out three things:  Who could help us teach Martin?...Where are we going to eat for lunch? and "What are we going to get Martin for his birthday?"  By 11 am, we had all three answered.  We taught Martin in the house of Karla, because she has a baby and couldn't leave her house.  We got a call from Hna Monja, telling us that we would just have to buy our lunch.  And for Martin, we made him a card, blew up some balloons, put a candle in a loaf of bread (because he doesn't like sweets) and we bought him cinnamon scented incense.
     We bought our lunch and then studied language.  Then we headed to Fonavi.  We picked up Estefany Cachay and went out teaching.  We contacted the entire time.  During one of our contacts, I rang the doorbell of a house that we had just barely contacted, so we ran away down the road!  Oops!
We taught a lot of lessons, and when we left Fonavi, on the combi ride back, Richard, a combi helper that we contacted a long time ago...well, when I payed him for our ride, he handed back my money and said, "I'll cover it."  haha
     Once we made it back to Pimentel, we contacted and contacted by knocking on doors.  Well as we were knocking, there was a bunch of people inside one home. (from what we could see through the cracked open door) So we turned and asked some girls that were sitting outside if there was a meeting going on inside, and they said, "No, that's the hospital."  Why do we ALWAYS knock the doors of stinkin' businesses that have huge signs above them, telling us not to knock, but we do anyway. Obviously we are just dedicated missionaries! :)

Domingo, 16 de Noviembre del 2014
     Well in church today, we were sustaining a bunch of people and when the leader said, "And if any of you object, raise the right hand"- well, not realizing it wasn't to sustain, Marietta raised her right hand and the entire ward started giggling and then she realized what it was that she did. :)  haha
     During Sacrament, the young men passing the sacrament accidentally dumped almost all of the water on me because he bonked a chair and so my legs and lap got soaked!
     After church, we went to lunch.  After lunch, we went out teaching and all of our citas fell through, so we knocked doors all day long.  Well, we knocked a door of a veterinary...haha...you'd think we would learn! :)
     Well, it started getting really cold here, so we headed to our cuarto to grab coats.  Then we decided we needed to do a contact over the phone.  Well, we typed in a random number and a man answered, "Yes?"  I looked at Hna Corona in shock and then continued to contact him over the phone.  I asked him if he had ever heard of the church, and he said that he hadn't, but that he would like to learn more.  So I asked him where he lived and he said LIMA!  Well, I told him that there are a lot of churches in Lima, and then I gave him the church website to find out more and to find the nearest church building to him.  He said thank you and take care and then the phone call was over. Hna Corona and I just stared at one another, and then we started dancing around the room, saying, "We contacted someone in Lima!"  haha
     After that, we left and there was a surfer man staring at us, so we decided to contact him.  He said that he is going to come to church.  Once we walked away, Hna Corona turned to me and said, "If he comes to church...it's not because he wants to hear the word of God...he wants to see you....and wants to marry you and become mission presidents here in Peru." haha
     We ran into Martin 3 times today, and each time he had cookies for us and the last time he gave us bracelets.  Gotta love Martin!
     Well, we got 103 contacts! It was hard work, but we did it!

     Stories from Saturday that I forgot to write.  After knocking on the hospital door, we knocked on a door three houses down the road, and a man stuck his head out the window and we told him we had a picture of Jesus Christ for him.  He came down and we talked for a bit and then invited him to church.  He said he would try, but he was a surf teacher, so he was going to be teaching surfing in the morning.  Well, we left and contacted his neighbor.  Then we heard, "Hey, amigas de Jesucristo!" We looked up and saw Luis, the surf teacher hanging out his window.  He yelled, "I have cupcakes for you!"  So we walked over and he dropped the package down to us.  Then we went on our way and made a few more contacts.  As we were heading back, Luis was hanging out his window again, with a mug and a cupcake.  He then said, "Hey ladies, do you want milk to go with your cupcakes, because that is my favorite way to eat them?"  We said no thank you, but maybe next time.  He promised to do that and we headed to our pension.  Martin (birthday boy) showed up with two mini jello cakes, one for each of us.  He walked us to our pension and we ate dinner.  Then we went home and ate our cake and cupcakes, and planned and talked about our day! :)

   

Week 31: "I was sitting on the couch in shock and gagging because a kid just stuck their chewed up cracker fingers in my mouth!"

Lunes, 3 de Noviembre del 2014
     After our studies today, we went shopping and bought the ingredients to make cinnamon rolls. After we finally found everything, the Elders and Hermanas in our district met us at our cuarto to head to our new pension to make cinnamon rolls.  Elder Coons and I made the rolls and we were making a mess and just laughing a ton.

Hna Dodson with Elder Coons

Hna Cruz

     After we made the rolls, we left them to rise and went to lunch at Leonardo's.  Leonardo was there and he came up to me and said, "Wow Hna, you have a lot of friends!"  I told him, "Of course, because I am cool!"  He just laughed and said, "I have more!"  hahahaha
     After lunch, we finished the cinnamon rolls, which were amazing.  Then we played Charades.  It was really funny.  We acted out movies.  Hna Cruz, Elder Coons and I were one team, and Hna Kingsford, Elder Alvarado, and Hna Cachiwere were the other team.  My team kicked trash!!  :)
     After that, they all left to go to Monsefu and Hna Kingsford and I headed to internet.  It was really late, but I got to chat with my mommy! :)
     After internet, we went to the beach (malecon) for Hna Kingsford to buy some souvenirs of Pimentel.  I bought some really pretty necklaces made of white shells and turquoise beads.  They are really pretty and really inexpensive.  Then we bought some peach drinks and took some beach pictures.

     Then we dropped off our things at our cuarto and got ready to go out teaching.  First we headed to the really cool familia Fernandez, from last Monday.  Well....the lesson started out great, but in the end, they started to "fight" us on everything.  They fought us about the differences between the Catholics and the Mormons.  They said that they know that worshiping the Saints and Mother Mary are against the 2nd Commandment, but it's part of their culture....then they asked us not to come back. They did thank us for helping them become a closer family by challenging them to read scriptures and praying together.  We left that appointment completely heart broken because they understood our message and they understand that their religion is not completely correct, but they still decided to continue in their old path.

     After that we headed to Janeth and Luis, but Luis wasn't home, so we just taught Janeth.  She said that her and Luis have only missed one day of not praying together.  They are so strong in the habit. I am so happy for them.  We also challenged Janeth to place a marriage date for her and Luis.  She agreed to talk to Luis about it.  They are a great couple with the cutest kid.

     After their lesson, we went and ate dinner.  Alonzo, Chela and her oldest daughter, Cris joined us. I love this family.  They are great and really fun.  Very Catholic, but very awesome!  

     After dinner, we ran over to Elba for Hna Kingsford to say goodbye.  Jhordy was there and he attacked me with hugs and kisses again.  Then we told him that Hna Kingsford was leaving and wouldn't be visiting anymore.  He almost started crying and then he turned to me and said, "And you? Are you going to visit me?"  When I said, "Yes." he screamed and then hugged me.  After saying goodbye to Elba, we went to say goodbye to Lucy and family.  They were all really sad, but were happy to hear that I was staying.  Then we went home and packed up Hna Kingsford's things. :(

Martes, 4 de Noviembre del 2014

     Today was transfers (cambios).  We got to the stake center and found our letters and packages from home.  Thanks for the Halloween package mom....

and the card with quotes....but from now on, write the quotes in Spanish because my new companion is from Mexico!  Her name is Hna Corona! She is 20 years old and super funny.  We get along great and we teach well together.  After we received the news that we were companions, we took some pictures with Hna Kennedy, Hna Corona's last companion.

Hna Dodson, Hna Kennedy, Hna Corona

One last picture with Hna Kingsford

     Then we headed to Pimentel.  Once we got there, we took her bags to our cuarto and then went to lunch.  After lunch, we went back to our cuarto so Hna Corona could unpack her stuff.

Hna Dodson  and Hna Corona

     Then we headed out teaching.  We picked up Lucy to come teach with us.  Our fist cita was with Martin.  Martin wasn't home yet, because he went out to buy treats, so we just waited with Carlitos. As soon as Martin came, we introduced him to Hna Corona and then taught him about the Plan of Salvation.  

     After that, we went contacting on the Malecon and as we were making good progress with this one man, a man from the States came up to us and was trying to speak Spanish...then he tried to kiss me. I pulled back and he apologized saying that he thought it was proper to greet with a kiss on the cheek. I explained that we are missionaries and that we aren't allowed to be kissed.  Then he told me that he was from "Cali....fornia." And then I said, "Well, I'm from Utahhhhh..."  Then he said, "Ohh, you must be one of those...." and then I finished his sentence by saying, "Mormons?"  Then he laughed, and that ended our conversation.

     After that, we started contacting houses.  We knocked on a door and a man answered it...and then just stared at us.  Then all of a sudden, we heard a woman's voice say "Come in."  We entered and taught a little lesson to them and they invited us to come back when their family would be there.

     Once we left their house, we ran into Jenna and she said that she goes home on Monday!!  I can't believe it.  It's going to be strange being the only person at church from the States.  haha

     Then we headed to visit Elba.  We taught her about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  Hna Corona nailed it.  She is awesome.  I am super excited to see our progress as a companionship.  Elba promised to come to church with us!!! :)

     After our lesson, we contacted a couple houses.  At one house,  the woman who answered the door was just there visiting her brother.  We asked her if we could get her information and visit her at her house, but she denied us.  So we knocked on the next door and the woman who answered let us in with no problem.  She told us the next time that we pass by to stop because she wants us to teach her children, too.  :)

     After that, we headed to dinner. (salad, broccoli, carrots, beets, green beans and hard boiled eggs) During dinner, Chela asked us a few questions about the church, so we answered them and she thinks that what we are doing is beautiful.  I really hope at some point that we can really touch her heart, and that we will be able to teach her...she would be an amazing member!!  

     After dinner, we planned.  It's really strange being the only one knowing the area, but she is a great support and is helping me grow a ton!  I am really grateful to have her.  I have a really good feeling about her!!

Miercoles, 5 de Noviembre del 2014

     This morning, Hna Corona was super tired because we have roosters next door and she hasn't had time to adjust to their noise.  So when they started up at 5:00am, she was woken up by them.  Poor thing...but she thinks it is funny that we have roosters for neighbors.  She is so adorable.

     After breakfast and studies, we headed out to go teaching and we found Aaron and Daniella, but they were getting ready to leave, because Daniella is leaving on vacation this week.  They were taking her things to Aaron's mom's house.

     So we started contacting the houses around them and guess who we found in their house? Augusto!!  He was home and so we set up a cita with him!  And later, after leaving, we saw him again with Cynthia and she was walking!  What a miracle!  Now that we have a cita scheduled, I will ask her how it all happened.  I am so excited for her.

     We went to lunch.  We ate soup, salad, fried fish and aji.  It was all so yummy!  After lunch, we went out teaching to this area to find two houses, but the houses were gone.  The houses don't even exist anymore!  The best part was, that there were holes where the houses were supposed to be.  We started giggling pretty hard and then Hna Corona said, "Hna, this must not be our area.  We don't have luck here."  Haha  We ended up contacting another group of houses in the area.  We ended up finding the hermana of Alex, the almost deaf man that speaks sign language.  She is 19 years old with a 2 year old kid.  She is really sweet.  I hope something good can come from this family.

     After that, we were walking passed two men sitting on a wall, and they called out to us, to ask us what church we were part of.  We started talking to them and they had a lot of questions and doubts, but in the end, they wanted to come to church.

     Then we went and taught Rosa.  We taught her about Joseph Smith and she is super excited about all of it!  She really wants us to teach her husband, too, so hopefully one day, we can find him in the house.

     After that, we contacted and contacted and contacted.  I tried to contact this woman and as I was about to introduce myself, she said, "Me voy." (I'm going) and then she walked away.  I turned to Hna Corona and said, "What just happened?  I was trying to contact her."  Hna Corona almost fell down laughing.  We laugh so much, because we are always running into silly situations like that. :)

     After that, as we were walking around searching for a house of a reference (which doesn't exist either), we ran into a man who had some questions for us.  He asked us if we lived here in Pimentel. I said, "Yes, we do.  We live on the road Balta."  Then he started asking us questions that most people ask us...."Are you married?  What kinds of food can you not eat if you are part of your church?  You guys can't drink or smoke?"  We answered his questions and then said goodbye and continued to contact houses.  

     Then we bought churros filled with manjar blanco!  Then we went and picked up our laundry from Esperanza (the mom of Pres. Arroyo) and then went to dinner. (salad and hard boiled eggs).  

     All day today, everyone kept asking, "La alta?" (The tall one?)  That is how they asked about where Hna Kingsford was.  It was funny.

Jueves, 6 de Noviembre del 2014

     Last night we finished planning early, so we hurried and got ready for bed so that we could sleep. Well, as we were laying in bed, the phone started ringing.  I jumped out of bed to answer it.  It was the Hna lideres.  They were just calling to check up on us, which was really sweet.  After we talked to them, we tried to fall asleep again, when the phone rang.  This time, it was Elder Coons reminding us about the meeting we had tomorrow (today).  After that, I turned to Hna Corona and told her that now all we needed was for Pres. Williams to call us so we could hear from all our leaders in one night. She laughed and then we went to sleep.  No one called us after Elder Coons.  :)

     This morning, we had a district meeting.  We did a couple practices of contacting doors.  Anytime we do practices, we laugh and laugh because Elder Coons is always doing some crazy hard situations for the missionaries to "fix".

     After the meeting, we went to lunch.  I seriously love Chela with all my heart.  She cooks well and she talks with us.  She is great!  After we ate, we still had part of our lunch hour left, so we made recuerdos. 

     Then we headed to Fonavi.  We went to the familia Leyton first.  The only people home were Clara and Hno Leyton.  We taught them about the spirit world, judgement and the kingdoms of glory. Clara was super interested and had many questions.

     Then we went to Gloria and taught about temples and family history.  I really want to go to the temple.  I miss it so much!  Gloria can't wait to go through the temple and take out her endowments. I'm super excited for her.

     After her lesson, we tried to go to several houses, but no one was home.  So we went to Daniel's house to introduce Hna Corona to him.  Turns out that they already knew each other.  She had knocked on the door of his grandparents and he answered the door.  Small world. :)  Well, we were figuring out some visits we need to make, and Luana, the baby girl of Susan, was eating crackers and as she was chewing and sticking her fingers in her mouth, I grabbed her hand and said, "Que rico!" (how yummy!) and then I pretended to eat her hand, thinking that she would be like most children and pull their hand away laughing...nope...she is not like other children.  She stuck her finger in my mouth.  Well Daniel and Hna Corona started busting up laughing as I was sitting on the couch in shock and gagging because a kid just stuck their chewed up cracker fingers in my mouth!

     After that, we headed back to Pimentel because if we stay too long in Fonavi, we wouldn't be able to find a combi to take us home.

     Once back in Pimentel, we knocked on a few doors, but no one was home.  And that is when I remembered a man named Segundo.  We had found him leaving for work in Lima for a month, but he told us return to him in Noviembre....so we stopped to see if he was home.  He was and he let us right in!  We talked for a minute and gave him a short message about how we know this gospel is of Jesucristo and that it blesses families.  We ended with a prayer and then talked for a minute about his Christmas set up the corner of the room.  He built a mountain and on top was a nativity scene.  And above that, he had strung lights as the stars.  It was pretty.  The coolest part, is that he uses the mountain scene as his tree and puts presents on the different ledges on the mountain.  He told us that he would help Hna Corona and I build one for our cuarto...we are going to try and build one with his guidance.  haha  Well, right before we left, he told us that he has a Book of Mormon!!!  And he said that he has read some and really likes it.  Awesome!!

     Then we went to dinner.  We talked with Chela and Alonzo forever about tons of different topics. The best topic was about pets.  Haha  They all thought it was funny when I told my tragic story about my pet fish named Caddy dying when I was three years old.  

     After that, we went home and planned quickly and got ready for bed.

Viernes, 7 de Noviembre del 2014

     We had a zone meeting this morning.  When we showed up, there were 2 packages for me.  One from my family and another from my Grandma and Grandpa Pearson.  There were also cards! Everyone in the zone was totally freaking out at how much I had.  I was super excited!!

     During the entire meeting, like always, Elder Chavez was picking on me.  At the end of the meeting, he had me help translate for the newbies in the mission.  One of the sisters was really looking sad.  I was trying to help her, but in the end, there wasn't anything I could do but support her. Her companion is Latina and she is from Utah.  I told her (the North American) that I would always be there for her and that if she just needs to speak English, to call me.  I could tell that she felt a lot better about all of that.

     After the lengthy meeting, we headed home to Pimentel.  We got home at 2 pm.  We were an hour late to lunch....oops.  After we ate, we went out teaching.  Every single person on our plans were not home, but we found one woman, the wife of Ricardo.  

     After talking with her, we decided to go look for a member to clean our clothes.  Every member in Pimentel said no.  Bleh...Well we were contacting when we got a call from Marta, saying that she couldn't be in her house for her cita at 7 pm but that she wants us to return the next Friday.  She felt really bad.  I am super excited about her.

     After that, we headed out to an area called the proviviendo.  There are a couple of roads being redone and there was a huge tractor, and well it started driving backwards right towards us.  We screamed and started running in the opposite direction with our arms and legs flying through the air. It was quite the sight.  The best part was, that the man driving the huge tractor wasn't even affected by us screaming or running.  Don't worry, we didn't get hurt or die.  All is well. :)

     After that, we headed home to do our weekly planning that we weren't able to do this morning. We did that all the way up to dinner time.  Then we headed to dinner, ate and went home and planned some more.  During planning, the Hna lideres called to let us know that they are going to come do a visit of studies in the morning.  Then we got ready for bed.

     Small details of today:

- we almost died of sleepiness

- as we were knocking doors today, there was a mom with her kids and as they were walking down the road, the little boy started walking a little faster than the family.  So the mom called to him, "Jose" and instead of stopping, he walked even faster so she called out louder, "Jose!"  Well after that, he started running, so she yelled "JOSE!!"  Hna Corona and I just busted up laughing at this situation.  The voice of the mother reminded me of Kid History when the mom is in bed and says the guys name (Kyle) several times in different voices.  It is so funny.  I love Peru!

- during planning, we were laughing a ton and one thing I love about Hna Corona is that she really laughs at my jokes! :)

P.S. Can you ask Grandpa to draw a picture of Hna Corona and I?

P.S.S. Hna Corona's birthday is the 5th of January! :)

Sabado, 8 de Noviembre del 2014  [7 Months in the Mission!]

     Man oh man, time is flying by.  It feels like just yesterday that I was in the CCM!  Crazy.  It's been 7 months since I left.  

     Well, the Hna lideres showed up this morning to do studies with us.  We studied for an hour or so and then they left.  After they left, we studied language.  I was helping Hna Corona learn English. Her phrase that we use is, "There's a fly in my soup with chicken pox."  When she says this, it melts my heart because it is so innocent and sweet in her accent. :)

     After idioma (language), we finished up our planning and headed to lunch.  We were assigned to the house of Lucy's to eat.  The food wasn't ready and the cita we had, was really close, so we left and went and taught.  We taught Segundo and his wife Arminda.  They are really attentive and understanding.  They really want to know about our church..

     After we finished teaching them, we headed back to lunch.  It was lasagna!  Thank you Lucy!  It was so yummy!  The entire time we were eating, everyone in the family was in the kitchen talking to us because they haven't seen us in forever and my companion is new.  It was nice to talk to everyone again, because I was starting to miss them.

     After lunch, we headed to Fonavi to have a meeting with Daniel.  During our meeting, we talked about the people we are trying to baptize and the less actives we are trying to reactivate.  After we finished talking, I pulled out the quarters for Daniel's collection.  He almost started crying.  He was so excited!  He said, "Hna Dodson.  Your mom is the best!"  

     After that, we went and taught Mari-Isabel, but her husband wasn't there, but her friend Gianina was home.  We taught them about families.  In the end, we invited them to pray and they refused...most people say, "I don't know how, but can you teach me?"...or something along those lines, but they just said, "No."  So we were about to pray when Gianina got up and basically ran out of the door and the next thing we heard, is throwing up and children screaming, "Mommy,  mommy are you okay?"  Well, Mari-Isabel told us to stay where we were and then she went to check on her. About 8 minutes later, they all came back in.  Hna Corona offered the closing prayer, and at the end of the prayer, after we all said Amen, a huge chicken came running into the house.  Mari-Isabel started chasing it around, trying to scare it outside, but it wasn't working.  We were completely scared and everyone was giggling at us screeching.  It was funny.  After the chicken finally got chased out, we asked if we could come back, and they said yes, and Gianina was super excited to have us visit her in her house.

     After that, we went to the family Monja to use their bathroom.  Then we headed to a lesson with Ana and her son Segundo, and her daughter Rebecca.  We talked about the family and prayer.  The entire time, Segundo was listening and answering all the questions.  He is so stinkin cute.  In the end, we invited them to pray as a family every night and Segundo said, "We will do it!"  and then Ana said it, too.  I am so excited about them, but it's a hard situation, so it will be a long process, but I am excited to be in the start of their progress.  We ended the lesson with a beautiful prayer from Ana. We said goodbye and started running to our last cita with Alindor and Norma.  

     When we got there, no one was home, but Daniel, so we waited in their front patio thing.  They were all at a birthday party down the street.  They didn't end up showing up until 7:45pm, and it was nearly impossible to find a combi after 8pm, so we tried to have a short lesson....but nope.  We didn't leave until 8:30pm.  Luckily Daniel walked us to the station and waited with us and you will never believe it.  There was a combi!!  When we got on, there was a woman who was really interested in our message. :)  Destiny!  God puts prepared people in our path.

     For dinner we had humitas and cake.

Domingo, 9 de Noviembre del 2014

     At church, during Relief Society, Clarita was joking around with me and we were having a fun time when all of a sudden Hna Paula started hugging each person in the room, and when she got to me, she said, "I love my gordita!" and patted my cheeks.  Everyone started laughing and I busted up.

     After church, we headed to Fonavi and visited Ivan and Gaby.  Ivan really wants to be baptized.  I am so excited for him.  Hopefully, we can baptize him soon.  

     After visiting them, we headed to lunch with the familia Cachay.  They are so wild!  We were cracking up the entire time we were there.  And before we left, they gave us chicha de mani (water of peanuts).  It was super yummy!

     After we finished, we went and picked up Gloria and headed to Pimentel.  We took a combi and the three of us had to sit separately.  Hna Corona in the front, me in the middle and Gloria in the far back.  Well, Gloria ended up sitting in a group of young men.  She invited them to church.  I love Gloria. She is always sharing the gospel!

   After not finding anyone in their houses, we decided to contact other houses.  We were taking turns knocking and at every house I knocked on, no one answered.  Gloria yelled, "Why is no one answering their doors?  We have a message that is really important!"  And then I knocked really loudly on the door.  Hna Corona thought it was hilarious.

     As we were knocking doors, we got invited in to a house by a hermana.  As we were talking with her, she was really interested and then Hna Corona was talking for quite sometime, and then in the end, Hna Corona asked the lady a question, but the woman just sat and stared at us.  So Gloria asked the same question and the woman answered.  We found out at the end, that the woman couldn't hear Hna Corona speaking.  haha  During the closing prayer, the woman offered it and she forgot how to end the prayer, so Hna Corona whispers, "en el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen."  Well the woman says, "I can't hear her! Que dijo?" (What did she say?)  Gloria said it a little louder and all was fine.  After we left, we were giggling about the lady being able to hear everyone but Hna Corona! 

     After that, we headed to see Elba.  We taught her a great lesson and at the end asked her to offer the closing prayer.  As she was thanking God for our visit and for being able to meet Gloria, and then Gloria says, "and Hna Corona", and Elba says, "yeah, I already know her."  We all started laughing! Gloria kept saying, "Forgive me, forgive me!"  It was so funny.  We laughed forever after that one!

     After that, Gloria left to go to Fonavi, while Hna Corona and I continued contacting.  Martin found us and gave us cookies. :)

     Well, we knocked on a house and an older woman answered the door and she had the door wide open and we started to tell her about the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, then she slowly started to close the door a bit, and then we told her that some people call us Mormons.  Then she said, "I don't have time." and shut the door.  Unfortunately, that happens all the time.  Bummer.  

     After contacting, we headed to dinner and talked to Chela forever about our traditions with our families.  It was super fun to hear the traditions from Peru, Mexico and the U.S.A.  

     Then we left and planned for our first P-Day together!  Then we got ready for bed, that is after we sat at our desks for most of the night giggling about all that happened today! 

     Story about Said Lachay at lunch.  We showed up and headed upstairs to eat and the table was set and ready, but when we were all sitting down, someone was missing.  It was Said.  Well, Hno Cachay said, "He stayed at the church for some reason.  He better show up soon!"  5 minutes later, we hear the little girls yelling, "Here he comes!  Here he comes!"  When he finally got upstairs, there was only a salad at his place at the table.  His Dad then says, "Son, you're on a diet, because you're fat. Eat your salad." Then Said says, "But I'm hungry."  And then Hno Cachay says, "Then you should have showed up earlier.  Why were you still at the church?"  In the middle of him trying to explain that he was with the President's secretary, his dad cut him off and said in a voice strong and jokingly, "You know you were playing...."  We all started laughing really hard.  I love this family because they are always speaking the truth, but no one ever takes offense to it!  I love it!