It´s me! I bet you are so excited to hear from me huh? Haha well just kidding but I am soooo excited to write to you guys! This week has been long but not as long as everyone says. I´ve been doing fine :) I haven´t had any crying or breakdowns yet so i think that's an accomplishment. Getting to the CCM wasn't bad. The flight to Georgia was great. I sat next to a member and she told me her whole life. Then the flight to Peru was crazy. All I could hear was spanish and i was getting so frustrated! Then I calmed down because I remembered that is going to be my life for the next 18 months. I stared at the same screen for 7 hours. I sat next to a lady that was watching Cinderella the new one and The Longest Ride. I haven't seen either of those and it was so hard to look away! Then a lady in front of me was watching The Help. I didn't know where to look! haha. We got to Peru at 1 am and our bags didn't come until 2. I definitely had the heaviest bag and the absolute most clothes... oops. They told us to tell them we were tourists here for 90 days and we were going to the CCM for training. I had to get my passport stamped and the lady said how long? I said 90 days. Then she said how many weeks? Uhh at 3 in the morning i couldn't think so i said 6 weeks then shes like well that doesn't add up. Then handed me my passport and yelled next. Then we went through a huge bag x ray thing and the guy comes up to me and says what are you here for? I said training. What king of trianing? Spanish language. Then he goes hmmm. And walks away. They didn't say anything to anyone else and there were 25-30 of us that showed up! I guess the struggle is totally real when you are blonde. I woke up the next morning at 7:30 but couldn't sleep because i was legit in Peru.
My companion is Hermana Holden. She is from St. George, Utah and totally worked at Frostop. We get along so well and i am so grateful!! Oh man what a blessing. She;s amazing. She really wants to learn so badly and be an amazing missionary. I know she will be. She is also going to Huancayo which is cool. We have already taught three lessons. The last one i was totally teaching by the spirit. IT was the most amazing feeling ever. I can see how crucial it is to have the spirit while you are teaching. And yes it was all in espanol. I have learned so much spanish. I can pray, bear my testimony and ask simple questions. I have learned probably 200 words and 20 phrases. I have also memorized Joseph smith's first vision, the mission objective, james 1:5 and the baptism question. The gift of tongues is real people. Even if i left right now i feel like i know enough to get my way around. also i think a lot in spanish. In my journal i write half english and half spanish because it just comes out in spanish.
My district only has 8 people in it and we are the only hermanas. There are six elders and four of them are going to Huancayo. We totally get along. We are all on the same level of spanish so its nice. We know how to have fun but also really get stuff done. We exercise everyday which I LOVE!! It is so nice to get up and go sweat.
The food!! It is so true. Breakfast we can have either one scrambled egg or a muffin, their watery yogurt which is way good and some fruit. papaya is nasty by the way. Then lunch and dinner is the same. Rice and potatoes and chicken haha. It has already begun. We totally had mini pizzas the other day and it was so nice!! We also have some random dessert like pudding or jello and then lots of cold vegetables. They cook the vegetables and then put them in the fridge... I don't get it either. its cold cooked vegetables. They have amazing bread! People grab like five rolls each per meal. I limit myself or im going to be nasty when i come back home. There is this fruit that is really good. It looks like an orange but you peel it and it looks like fish eggs inside. IT's super slimmy and weird but tastes amazing. I think its called grenadia. So either you get the nuncas or the siempres. Every hermana and elder has gotten the nuncas. That means you can't poop. And it's kind of scary! Because what comes in definitely doesn't equal what comes out.
I had a connection with a lot of people i came with. One sister is a little sister to a tutor i had in my chemistry class at USU. One i know two of her cousins. And Another i had two classes with. Its fun to find how we all know each other because we are all from Utah pretty much.
My maestros are amazing!! they are coth 22 and male. They speak in spanish the whole class and amazingly i can understand them. Its really cool. Also singing in spanish is way cooler than english. The hymns just seem prettier. I never want to go back. I have already had to get all of my paperwork done at imigraciones and interpol. That was fun to go outside the walls. Today is P day and the temple is closed for cleaning so we went shopping. The buses here are crazy!!!! They don't follow a route. You just get on and tell them where you want to go. Also everyone is so smashed so you just cram. We got on and an elder yelled this is the closest ill ever be to a hermana! haha it was way funny.
This is way cool. The first day we all, everyone that arrived in my group, had an investigator and we tried to teach her. We were just shoving information down her throat. It was no bueno. Then she told us her daughter committed suicide and how shes struggling with that. Everyone just kept saying things and we were going nowhere. Then Elder Schmidt raises his hand and starts crying. He says sister i know how you feel. Three weeks ago my brother committed suicide. Then he bore his testimony. It made the "invesitgator" cry. It was a really powerful moment and he has been struggling a lot. But he is such an amazing guy to me. He is in my district and cries all the time but he strengthens me because if he can do it while going through what he is then i can do it. Then on sunday for testimony meeting a guy bore his testimony about how a guy in the lunch room looked around and bowed his head and started bawling. Then he ralized he was holding a picture of christ. I knew it was Elder Schmidt it had to be. I saw later on Elder Schmidt holding a picture of Christ. He's amazing.
Sorry everything is so jumbled! this is how my thoughts are.
Will someone see if my fitbit and ipod can handle 220 V? The converter would work but the plug loooks the exact same as the ones in america. IT is two long lines not circles. Thanks.
There are 6 hermanas in my room. Mom remember when we were in the sister missionary mall and a sister said she was going to the peru mtc too? She's my roommate!! haha how fun. Her name is hermana eckman from shelley idaho i kid you not. Shes really cool.
We only almost missed our flight because we landed 30 min late and our layover was only 1 hour. That's why but luckily it was only 8 gates down! thats a blessing.
Mom how was your lesson on sunday and how was getting grant's patriachal blessing?
Im glad clint already made a countdown haha. I love you bro!! Youre the best.
I barely missed my degree! dang thats too bad. OH well you better frame it or something haha.
Grant, just keep praying and going to the temple and the lord will know when the right time to go is. have faith and he will answer your prayers.
Amber your story is way funny! i laughed out loud in this really quiet room besides all the keyboards. I love that i can totally hear your voice as i am reading it. Good job on passing it the first time. IT took me three tries to pass. so good job. and i don't know about paying attention that close because i only have an hour on here so i have to read it super fast... I love how you said i am in most of dad's conversations. at least he cares about me! haha
Mim's commercial is way funny. The lady after her is smiling way too much!!!! haha good job mim.
I can't believe scott took my room already!!! that little booger...
The hummidity is so bad. MY hair is a straight up afro and i am peeling so bad! I look like a cow and i am disgusting. You would think i wouldn't need lotion but i totally need it more than at back home.
Thats so nice how many people were asking about you and wondering if you were okay mom. People are so nice. I love when people care or at least act like they care.
Its crazy how much you learn every day. It really is. You just learn and learn and learn and think your brain has no more room for new imformation but some how it does..
I am so sad!! I don't want to log off this computer. This next week might be a ittle longer just necause now i know what its like to email you guys. It is so not even real that i am here in peru. That i am a missionary and that i am a representative of christ. I love all of the people here in the CCM. Everyone is in the same boat so everyone is so helpful. We all know how each other feels. So really i am not alone!! I am just so thankful that hermana holden and i get along and that we have already taught. it was so scary the first time but then i realized that if we do our part then the Lord seriously does his. He helps you remember and helps you realize what your investigator needs.
attached is what i stared at for 7 hours.
me and hermana holden
Most of the girls that flew in with me and then my roommates are the two brownhaired ones.
Then the front of the CCM. then the hall and the grounds of CCM.
Well my testimony of Joseph smith grew tremendously this week. I realized that i am a lot like him. I lack wisdom and all i can do is pray and ask god for help. Also he opened his mouth! Thats all missionaries have to do. This church is so true! i love the lord and i love my savior. Yo se que la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias es verdadera.
I love you all and miss you very much! Only 78 weeks to go haha.
Also thanks for the prayers, they mean a lot. :)
XOXO Hermana Rasmussen
