{(Peru Chiclayo Mission)}: Week 36: "You have transfers Hermana Dodson."

Lunes, 8 de Diciembre del 2014 [HAPPY 8 MONTHS IN THE MISSION!]
Well, we didn't sleep a wink, because the Hermanas we stayed with in Chiclayo, have a Christmas tree in their room, and they like to sleep with the lights on...so we had lights flashing in our faces all night long. So we woke up tired AND starving. We hurried and changed into our clothes from yesterday and started walking to the paradero to Pimentel. As we were walking, we passed a bakery and of course, we had to buy food because we were so hungry. And since we are "health nuts", we bought chocolate dipped donuts with whipped cream inside! :) We ate our "healthy" pre- breakfast, and then headed to Pimentel. Once we got home, we grabbed our clothes from the member who cleans them for us, and then went to our real breakfast. After we ate, we went back home to shower and get ready for the day. We went back into Chiclayo so we could practice a skit for our Christmas Party on Wednesday...the skit is so awesome. It's a twist on Nephi's story about going to get the plates. We practiced forever, but it was fun. Then we were able to finally go do our P-Day stuff. We bought a music cube so we can listen to Christmas music and then we bought our gifts for our secret friends. Once we finished shopping, we headed back to Pimentel for lunch. After lunch, we were finally able to write home. I got some really beautiful letters from great people, especially my family. I love reading cards from people!
After P-Day ended, we went out teaching. We went and taught Marta. We were really direct with her and she said that she wants us to continue to visit her and help her progress and prepare for baptism. :) After that, we went to dinner and ate and then went home and planned and got ready for bed.

Martes, 9 de Diciembre del 2014
This morning we had a Reunion de districto. We did practices of inviting people to baptism. It was really nerve racking practicing in front of other missionaries, but I did it. Elder Coons told me that I did a good job. :)

After that, we went to buy more Nativity sets. The man selling them to me was super pumped to be selling me so many. This man is a great guy and anytime I buy souvenirs, I buy them from him because he is so funny and really nice.
Once we got back to Pimentel, we went to lunch, (arroz y pollo) and then taught Elena. We invited her to baptism with the invites we practiced this morning, and she said yes...but she wants to go to church first! haha She also wants her daughter to be working towards baptism, too. We taught her daughter later in the night and I have so much hope for both of them.
Our last cita we had fell through, so we were trying to set appointments with other people, when we saw a woman on the other side of the street. We could have sworn that we knew her already. Well, Hna Corona called out to her and said, "Hna! When can we visit you?" The woman's response was, "Come here." So we crossed the street and she let us into her home. Turns out, we didn't know her. We sat down at a table with her, but she kept getting up and leaving to help her 3 year old twins. Once we had her sitting and staying, we introduced ourselves and explained our purpose. That is when we found out that she was taught by some Elders 4 years ago, but they quit visiting her because her husband was worried that she would fall in love with them, so she is excited that we are women, so we can visit her with no problems. It started to get late, so we were finishing up our lesson, when all of a sudden, her friend entered and then we ended up staying there for another 40 minutes. We set up another appointment with them and left.
We ate dinner and went home to plan for tomorrow and the Christmas Party. We also listened to Christmas music!! I love Christmas time!

Miercoles, 10 de Diciembre del 2014
This morning we were contacting and one woman opened her door and told us "No!" without even giving us a chance to speak. I stopped her from shutting the door in our faces, and that is when she told me that they are already being visited by the missionaries from the Testigos de Jehova and that they really like that religion. I invited her to watch the video of "El es la Dadiva" (He is the gift). She took the pass along card and shut the door.
We contacted a few more houses and then headed to the party at the Stake Center in Chiclayo. Once we got there, everyone was walking out the door because we were walking to a restaurant called Rocky's for lunch. We sat with Hna Kennedy, Hna Waite and Hna Lofgren (all Hnas from the CCM!). When the food came, it was half a chicken, a huge plate of french fries, and a huge plate of rice...and then we had a tiny little shot glass of water. haha
After lunch, we shared Christmas traditions from different countries. Each country at the party would then sing a song. Then we watched one another's skits and they were so hilarious! Then we watched a DVD of pictures of missionaries from the mission. Then President Williams got up and said, "We have gifts for all of you. First of all, we asked President Monson to send each of you a Christmas card, which he did...and second, my wife bought each of you a little boat and put a little bow on each and every one...and third, each of you get a copy of the DVD of pictures that you just watched." I wasn't in any of the pictures. :(
After that, we ate banana splits and took pictures as a district and a zone.

Hna Dodson, Hna Corona y Elder Chavez

Then we went home to eat dinner. After dinner, we headed home to plan and got ready for bed. We were so tired.

Jueves, 11 de Diciembre del 2014
This morning we knocked doors and found new people to teach. After knocking doors forever, we went to eat lunch. Last week, Elba had invited us to eat lunch with her today, so we went to her house. Turns out, they were having a huge birthday party for her Grampa who had passed away. We ate cabrito (goat) and rice with beans. It was really good.
After we ate, we headed to our cuarto to study language. Then we tried to go out to find a cuarto for the Elders that are coming to Pimentel, but our front door would not shut, so we tried for over 30 minutes to shut it. We were laughing so hard. Finally, we got it shut and headed to Fonavi to find the Elder's cuarto, a pension and someone to do their laundry. We found them a pension and lavandaria really quickly, but the cuarto not so much.
Our search for cuartos was very interesting. At the first apartment building, the woman was telling us about the different cuartos we could have and telling us all about the many women that live there...which the Elders can't live around women. After looking at a few other cuartos, she said that there was one more that we could have but we would have to share the bathroom with 2 single men. Hna Corona responded, "Perfect! That will be great!" At that point, the woman was very appalled with us, so we quickly explained that we were searching for a cuarto for two Elders. Once she heard that, she started giggling, which made us giggle. It was a hilarious situation.
We had two options of cuartos for the Elders, so we called our leaders of the zone to have them come check them out, so we can pay for one of them. The elders said that they could come tomorrow in the tarde (afternoon).
Then we went to visit Gloria. We took a lot of fun pictures with her.

Hna Dodson, Gloria y Hna Corona

We love Santa Claus!

Then Teo, the nephew of Gloria walked in and said, "Okay...so I have a reference that I was saving for the Elders to teach, but since we don't have elders, I guess you two can visit them... but once the elders get here, they can visit them." This comment broke our hearts. Here in Pimentel, the members think that the Hnas don't have success...and believe that the Elders will have success. What I believe is going to happen is that when the Elders get here, all of the members will be so excited, that they will help the elders and then have tons of success.
Today was kind of a downer day because his comment made me feel like hermanas are looked at differently then elders....but in reality, here in the Peru mission, the hermanas eat the same at the elders, walk the same amount of time, speak the same language, shower in cold water and live in the same conditions as the elders. If anything, the hermanas have it a little harder, because the Peruana men are very crude and are always saying rude things to us, whereas the elders don't get that treatment.
After Fonavi, we headed home and ate dinner and talked with Chela.

Hna Dodson, Chela y Alonzo

Hna Dodson y Alonzo

Viernes, 12 de Diciembre del 2014
Today was an unsuccessful day. Besides our weekly planning session, we got a bunch of stuff ready for the Elders that are going to come on Tuesday. During planning, Hna Corona said, "I want to eat my chifles that I bought yesterday." I wanted to do the same thing, so I went to grab my chifles but they were no where to be found. We think that I got robbed...okay, it was just my chifles that were missing, but still...I got robbed. :)
After planning, we went to lunch, took our clothes to get washed and then headed to Fonavi to wait for the zone leaders, Elder Chavez y Elder Rich, so we could show them the cuartos we found for the elders. They showed up and we showed them the cuartos, but Elder Chavez wanted the elders to have a nicer place...so we searched from 3:00-6:00pm. We found a few more cuartos and called Elder Allgaier ( the financial guy) to tell him about them, and he said that he would come into town tomorrow to pay for one.
We headed back to Pimentel and stopped at some houses to visit, but no one was home. As we were walking down the road, we saw Ofelia sitting at her computer, so we decided to visit her. During her lesson, I started to feel really sick, so once we said the prayer, we hurried home to our cuarto. I rested for a little bit and then we headed to dinner. Alonzo played his drum set for us.
Then we went back home, planned and got ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow we have more success, because this week has been completely unsuccessful. :(

Sabado, 13 de Diciembre del 2014
Well, today was not successful. We got a call early this morning from Elder Allgaier saying that he and his companion were in Pimentel to pay for the elder's cuarto. We met up with them by the super (store) and we told him that we needed to catch a combi to get to the cuarto. When they asked us why, we told them that our area is very big, that it goes from the University of Sipan to the ocean. The elders said that they needed to call President Williams to ask him about this. Turns out that we were never meant to leave Pimentel Central, and were told that we are no longer to go into Fonavi. So now we had to find a new cuarto and new pension in Pimentel. Thankfully, we found one, but it took all morning. After the Elders left, we called President Williams to ask about our lunch today and tomorrow, because the members feeding us live in Fonavi. President Williams told us that we could go to Fonavi for lunch today. When we got there, drama broke loose. Daniel got really upset about us not being able to visit Fonavi anymore. A lot of the families that we visited also got upset. We left a lot of houses feeling sad. We found out that the Rama had been saving/stashing references from us, since May 2014 until now, to give to the Elders when they would come. Now no one will be able to teach them.
We went to visit with the familia Leyton. They are such great people. They have confidence and trust in us and feel really bad that we have to leave.
We left Fonavi and Martin found us and gave us cookies. We went to dinner and then headed home, planned and got ready for bed. We listened to Christmas music and thought about all that is going to happen tomorrow.

Domingo, 14 de Diciembre del 2014
We went to church and Clara Leyton came running up to me saying that last night she was crying because she had a dream that I had cambios. (transfers)
After church, we went to lunch with the familia Monja.

Familia Monja

Then we went to our cita with the familia Leyton. We are so close to them. They are my family. We can talk so openly with them and we trust each other so much. They said that at one point in life, people are going to have a companionship of missionaries that touch your heart more than others...and then they said, "You two are OUR missionaries. You are precious to our family." I almost started crying when they said that, because I love their family more than life. I almost lost it when Papa Leyton (Isidro) looked at us and said that we touched his heart and that we would always be in his heart. I love them!!!
They gave us arroz con leche and juice, and then said good bye to us.
Later, we went back to Pimentel and Elder Coons called and asked for our missionary numbers. He told us that he looks up to us and that we are strong missionaries and that God trusts in us. We asked him about transfers and he said that he didn't know yet, but he would call us when he does. During our waiting for Elder Coons to call us back, President Williams called and was asking me about Pimentel and Fonavi, and then told us that we CAN visit Fonavi if there are references there. That is a great deal. After we finished talking about that, I asked if we had transfers and he said, "Ya. You have transfers Hermana Dodson."
I have cambios!!? We called Clara and told her and they all started crying. I am completely surprised....sad...excited....and nervous. After dinner, I started to pack up all my stuff. Chela is really sad that I am going. She doesn't want me to leave.
I am so grateful for the time I have had here in Pimentel. In the end, it has been really hard to work here, but the friends that I have made are amazing! I have a lot of hope and faith that this area can progress.