Hermana Moody… keeping the church holy 12-16-13

I know you're all running around like chickens with your heads cut off waiting to find out about transfers. So I guess I'll just alleviate your concerns and tell you.........

I STILL HAVE NO IDEA.

I slept very little last night, and during those few hours that I was able to rest I had dreams about being transferred to Las Palmeras and having to share a house with seven other Hermanas.

All you need to know is, I like my privacy and I really don't want to go to Las Palmeras.

And so we wait. Pretty sure I am going to find out in about twenty minutes.

Our zone went to the beach again last week and made sand castles! That was a great relief from the cares of the world. The whole time our district built our sand castle, Elder Guevara was dramatically quoting The Testaments (a Church-produced film about the ancient peoples of America being visited by Christ) in Spanish. It was like an LDS soap opera up in there.

Also, we got jumped by two giant dogs in Ines's house. Well, Lucky, Balto's horse twin, was dancing with me and then the other one just flew up onto Hermana Moody's stunned face and left her slumped down on the couch laughing so hard there were tears streaming down her face. I love those dogs.

Yet again we returned to the beach on Saturday, this time to clean! Wow, there are some really dirty beaches in Ancon. It is super sad. BUT here came the Mormons, fixin' em up real good. I saw my buddy Elder Larsen from the CCM and Elder Muñoz and I had rock-carrying competitions. Can I just reiterate to you all how easily entertained missionaries are?

Our base of investigators has basically caved and so we have done some good old-fashioned door-knocking this week. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! You never know what you are going to get. For example, we met "J". I tapped on the glass of the door with a pen and, opening a small window, there appeared a rather large and quite shirtless gentleman. I instantly looked to Hermana Moody to save me from talking to this fellow, but she just smiled at me with closed lips. Taking courage, I turned back to our new friend and began to talk with him. Turns out he has a wife and two kids and doesn't work on Sundays! Furthermore, he wanted to meet with us with his wife and made sure to schedule an appointment with us on a day when they will both be available. YES! 

There really are small miracles waiting for us everywhere. All we have to do is pray to find them and then go out a-lookin'. Heavenly Father has prepared people to put into our paths -  and not just the paths of the missionaries! You members have the responsibility to share the truth with those who are ready to hear it. Pray always for the opportunity to experience the great blessings of missionary work. You will not regret it.

After our (very, very successful) English class the other night, Hermana Moody and I were putting away the chairs in the overflow of the chapel. On the back pew sat a man and a woman, talking and giggling and obviously rather interested in one another. Just gonna tell you right now...it's pretty awkward to sit and flirt IN THE CHAPEL, IN FRONT OF THE SISTER MISSIONARIES. And my companion would have NONE of that. She started to stack the chairs more violently, making as much noise as possible. After a minute or two they started to look back at her perturbedly. She continued to stack with all her heart, might, mind, and strength. When FINALLY they up and left, she stopped, smiled at me in utter satisfaction, and said, "Hermana Moody, keeping the church holy."

(cue crowds cheering and incessant wookie noises) WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT

That's my mother. :)

Also, one of the elders in our ward, Elder Gallardo, found a renewed fire to work on his English on Sunday and asked us to speak only in English to him. He asked us to respond to him as if we didn't speak any Spanish, and so if he makes a mistake he has to try and explain it again in English. My companion and I were standing by the bishop's office and he and Elder Muñoz had gone to find out where we would be meeting with our ward mission leader. I was talking to a sister in the ward when suddenly, over a sea of members doing their weekly despedidas, he shouted,

"HERMANA HEWITT! IT'S IN THE CHICKEN!"

And promptly followed his companion into the church's kitchen.

Wow. I love being a missionary.

Love you all! Be safe and make good choices!

Hermana Hewitt

Oh yes. And "M", our convert, was trying to write down the information of our district leader. Definitely wrote down "Elder Scroglians."

BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!

Sometimes we almost kill our sister trainers…again 12-9-13

SURPRISE! We had two unexpected work visits this week. The Hermana Líderes called us on Tuesday to tell us they'd be coming to do divisions with us in our area, and then Hermana Archibald (President's wife) called us on Friday to ask if she could come to our appointments with us for the afternoon. Usually that's terrifying. This time, it was...also terrifying. But that's okay. They both ended up being super relaxed and (dare I say it?) fun!

Hermana Brown, from Arizona, and I went and visited a couple people. She has only 7 months on the mission and is already a sister leader! That's crazy! But she teaches with such love and understanding that I can see why. I learned a lot about the importance of remembering that each person is our brother or our sister. 

In the evening we were on our way back to the house to meet with Hermana Moody and Hermana Mendoza. There were a ton of people along the highway, so I thought we may as well take a shortcut through Huamantanga. I don't know if I've ever told you anything about it, but Huamantanga is this massive, massive market that takes up several blocks and is easy to get lost in during the day...at nighttime, I learned, there is no hope. We contacted a girl selling ice cream and then wound our way into the depths, taking one too many wrong turns. To make a long story short, we ended up against the very high wall which we had anticipated to be our exit, backing slowly away from two

very large

and very 

very

very

angry

dogs.

Who were barking.

This is the end…at least I was serving a mission.

Just as the bigger dog came within lunging distance, a man poked his head curiously around the corner. "Señor, por favor, ¡AYÚDENOS!" Hermana Brown cried. He calmly called Rocky, his massive beast of a pet, telling him to leave us alone. Finally the dog backed off enough for us to walk forward and out of the alleyway. We talked to this fella for a few minutes - he wanted to talk about the United States and the merits of puppies and bunkbeds and all this nonsense, but we very tactfully let him know we were ready to go home. So he gave us directions back out, and by the time we got onto the highway sidewalk, there was a much smaller crowd. 

Hey, silver lining.

ANNNNNNNYYYYWAYYYYYYYY

Made it home safe and sound. Dusted off our faldas and the next morning Hermana Brown told me my Spanish is great and she thinks I am prooooobably going to be training next transfer.

WORLD SHATTERED

There are 9 Latina sisters coming in. And exactly ZERO gringas. So if I do train, I am going to be training a native Spanish speaker. That's that. We find out next Tuesday, I s'pose! Pray for the missionaries of Peru Lima Oeste, because our cambios are literally a week before Christmas. There might be some tears. But, the Lord has it all under control. I trust Him.

Hermana Archibald also told me with great surprise in her voice after our first lesson with her company that my Spanish is excellent. If she didn't sound so completely shocked I would have been ever so slightly more complimented, but HEY I guess that's always good to speak another language. Oh gracious, now you're just witnessing the musings of a young lady unfit for society or anything of the like. 

#Patiencepatiencepatiencepatiencepatienceisavirtue

Oh yeah. We also chased some chickens around a house and ate beautiful Peruvian trash caviar and got interviewed by some students who are trying to learn English and Hermana Moody cat called a bunch of couples (HAY BAY BAY!) in the big Municipal park in the center of Puente and we played billiards last p-day with our district and Hermana Moody got sick and I got better and GOT OUR WATER HEATER INSTALLED IN OUR NEW HOUSE and got some Christmas packages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#Thanksmommyforthe14pairsofsoftsoftsocksandreese'speanutbuttercupswhichliterallymademyworldgoroundandtheadorablephotographsandyesIdowantyoutoincludethisentiresentencedirectedspecificallyatyouinmyblogbecauseIwanteverybodytoknowthatyouaretheworld'sgreatestmotherandyoudeserveamugthatsaysIgavemymissionarydaughter14pairsofsocksforChristmasandherhappinesslevelisnowsevenhundredpercentincreased.

(If she was that excited about the socks and Reese's what's she going to do when she receives her REAL Christmas package next week… and the notes telling her that family is sending her additional packages every month as our "12 months of Christmas" project??  So fun to have such an enthusiastic and grateful daughter!)

And one night Hermana Moody flopped down on my bed (bottom bunk) in her proselyting clothes after planning so I climbed up onto her bed and we sat there and talked with the light on and then I had a dream that I woke up in the morning in my own bed and got ready for the day like normal and then suddenly I woke up on the top bunk at 12:41 a.m. and almost had a panic attack but just put on jammies and got in bed.  And also this week I found out our little 15-year-old buddy "Mi" has been telling everybody he loves me.

If you are a returned missionary, you will agree. If you are a future missionary, be prepared. If a joven decides to tell everybody they are in love with you, it means only one thing.

endless.

torment.

At least when the other missionaries in your ward are anything like Hermana Moody, Elder Muñoz, Elder Salazar, and Elder Johnson. Elder Gallardo is pretty nice. The others...it's a rough time.

#Butwhatcanyado

ALSO we watched the Christmas Devotional in Spanish and it was beautiful! Oh my goodness. I was such a mess for Elder Nelson's talk. So stunning. I am so grateful that I could understand it!  Wow. The gift of tongues is SO COOL.

I love being a missionary. We are so guided by the Holy Ghost to the people, the places, and the words that the Lord needs us to have.

I love you all and pray for you every night.

Sending my blessings home,

Hermana Hewitt

OH YEAH

I'm just going to write some of Hermana Moody's best quotes this week:

"I really like my right eyebrow, Hermana Hewitt. My left eyebrow, on the other hand, deserves to be shot off my face."

"My throat has seen the fire of the coming of the Lord. I feel like I just made out with a dragon. Or at least that's how I imagine it would be."

"I'm going to get a companion that I have to slap in the face daily."

(after we had seen some dogs fighting and I had said, "It really is a dog-eat-dog world.") "Yeah, I had always thought that was just something cute to say. Doggie-dog world."

And my personal favorite...

(trying to get me to eat my last few bites of food) "Here comes the plane! OPEN THE PLANE HOLE!"

I'll be optimistic 12-2-13

Well, Hermana Moody and I have been going through a rough spot in our companionship. I always try to get her to be happy, and she always tries to get me to stop being a child. SOOO basically, the subject of this carta is what happens when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object. 

#Justkiddingshereallyisn'tabusiveandI'monlyachildonTuesdays

So we finally moved into our white castle! There's a giant window with bars over it to keep us from dying or escaping and every night the moon casts a pattern over our beautiful tile floor which makes me feel like I'm part of a Batman movie. 

I LOVE IT

Our first night in this new neighborhood, Hermana Moody decided to contact the little old lady who wears giant Rasta beanies and always yells, "HELLO BABY!" at us when we pass by on our way to appointments. BAD CHOICE. She told us the same story about her family who lives in the selva about six different times. But hey, now we have a cool friend that knows about four words in English (Good Morning is a popular phrase as well). 

Oh yeah, and there was a 5.8 earthquake on Monday as well. It shook our house. And then stopped. And then shook our house again. And only knocked over a few things. But definitely TERRIFIED every Peruvian in the street. Tremors are quite regular here, but they still leap to the Second Coming the moment their feet feel a little shaky. Ah well.

Speaking of Latino drama, the youngling "A" (from a family who we visit and adore; he and his sisters don't have permission from their father in Spain to get baptized but are still a part of the ward and everybody loves them) came home on the arms of two of his school friends the other day. His ankle was the size of a cantaloupe and purple as an angry Russian. He lay on the couch and wailed for a good half hour while his aunt basically ran around screaming and cooking lunch and shaking like that earthquake. We calmed them both down and got the story out of him. Apparently a chubby kid fell on his leg while they were playing soccer and somethin' went kersnap. So now "A" has a cast and crutches, and his aunt and mother have successfully avoided perpetual trauma (again).

Welp, we haven't gotten to move our water heater yet, and the temperature has been WAY down this week, and everybody is passing around an ugly cold, so it overtook me yet again. I like the cold outside (trust me, it is a hundred times better than blazing heat and humidity) but I don't really appreciate it getting inside my throat and nose. I hope this Thanksgiving you all gave thanks for indoor plumbing and heat. Wear a scarf and eat a Christmas orange!

On that note, we are doing a 25 Days of Christmas thing with "A" and his family. Each day we are doing something different to come closer to Jesus Christ. Yesterday, we had 1 ayuno (fast) for whatever we needed. Today we have 2 sincere prayers, and the list goes on. This week we are doing different actions, next week we are developing Christlike attributes together, the third week we are going to focus on different scriptures, and the last couple days we haven't quite mapped out yet. But I am really excited! And Hermana Moody's ma sent us 25 Hershey's kisses each to eat each day. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO THE GRINGAS

Speaking of awkward gringa moments...

My skirt flew over my head as I was hanging up a sign in front of the church for a conference held by an organization which helps abused women and spreads the word about the proper way to show respect to the female gender. They are great people. I don't think they appreciated my mishap too much...thankfully nobody was passing on the street so only the director of the organization saw. She held my skirt down for me as I finished putting up the sign....

A man proposed to us for his son. We were contacting their family, and he asked us if we were single. Uhmmmmm yes. Well, he's single too! (pointing to his 30-something-year-old son "J", who stood in the doorway and raised his eyebrows at us.) Welp. Thanks.

We left a lesson in a sketchier area at night, and found that we were surrounded by Testigos de Jehovah. They were on a blitz, a big group of them knocking on every door in the neighborhood. We cheerfully greeted them and I contained myself from making too many jokes involving my newly-invented phrase, "Night of the Living Christians."

We washed our laundry in our little sink. Socks get really dirty in Perú.

I quite accidentally offended the girl who we just got a fecha bautismal with. We were all full of the Spirit and excitement when "M" and her sister "G" accepted to be baptized on the 14th of December, and then their younger sister told "M" jokingly that she could wear her bikini! I laughed and said, "Nah, we don't want to see any of that!" Everybody else laughed...except "M". She walked out of the room and then came back really quiet. Buuuuuut she did come to church the next day and doesn't seem to hate me too bad. Meta for this week: THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK, HERMANA HEWITT

Also. We took a taxi to Lima to pick up a package for Hna Moody early this morning, then took a bus all the way back up here to our district leader's area for internet. On the bus for about 15 minutes there were two men who played this INCREDIBLE Incan music. Like, with this old drum and a thing kind of like a guitar and one of those wood flute things. And I was just so, so, so happy. We bought their music, and I'm pretty sure the flutist and I are in love now.

#JustkiddingI'mnotabadmissionaryeventhoughHnaMoodywilltellyouIamIjustreallylikedthemusic

Happy Holidays to all! Take time to thank your Heavenly Father for the Atonement and life of Jesus Christ.

Lots of love,

Hermana Hewitt

OH YES

My companion told me I win quote of the week. Because I definitely forgot what a cleft palate is.

"I feel like one of those children on those sad commercials. Like, the ones with cleft chins."

Just Cause: The Merits of Vowel Pronunciation 11-23-13

Well, I am just going to come out and say it...

SURPRISEWEBAPTIZEDANOTHERINVESTIGATOR!

"M". He is so awesome. We have been teaching him since we got here to Puente Piedra, and he has gone through this super long process of repentance and changes in his life. He absolutely loves the gospel and the Church. He told us Monday night, HEY I think it's time for me to get baptized! So we had our marvelous district leader, Elder Scroggins, interview him and sure enough, he was ready and worthy. So Saturday night we went to the most beautiful baptismal service I have ever attended. He really has changed so much to be a member, and he is so incredibly deserving of the blessings that come with baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. Thank you for all your prayers - I know they make a huge difference.

Other things that have happened this week:

Showered in an orange bucket. We didn't have the ability to get rid of water through the regular system for a few days,soooooooo we just filled up an orange bucket and then tossed it over the edge of the roof. #doingitliketheperuviansdo

Had a resplendant zone conference. Our leaders are bosses. And we are now in a leadership position in the zone, as women with different perspectives. woooohooo

Ate some fish ovaries. Well, Hermana Moody ate it and I just picked mine apart. Ew. 

Got real sick after that. Both of us. Our pensionist tried to convince us we've been eating too much yogurt...her sister told us we probably got WORMS from the fish she gave us, or some other thing in the mountain of food she stuffs down our throats on a daily basis. Apparently that's real common. But I have had a tummyache and a headache for a little while. Maybe the worms will eat the food that still hasn't digested from last week. Thanks wormies.

We spent eight hours throwing stuff off the roof of a six-story building! It was so glorious and triumphant! That's basically what we call a service activity here in the graceful and conservative land of el Perú. 

We went to a birthday party for one of our investigators. She got her face smashed in a cake. What's up?

OH NO I HAVE NO MORE TIME

Quote of the week: Hermana Moody!

"I wonder what Alma the Younger would do if he saw two jovenes making out in the street. I know what Elijah would do. He would send the she-bear after them. That's why I want to be Elijah when I grow up."

I love her.

And I love you all!

Hermana Hewitt

My name is husband's Johansson. 11-18-13 PICTURES!

Our little pal "Mi" needed help with his English homework, unscrambling the words to make a correct sentence. As I checked his answers, I wondered if he really knows a man named husband's Johansson.

Well, we went to the playa in Santa Rosa last P-day and I took un monton de fotos. I'll send some of those today as well. It is absolutely stunning there! Some of our zone played frisbee, others went sand jumping, and others of us sat in a little cove and told stories about our lives. Elder Johnson went to BYU-I-Do and was proposed to three times before he came on the mission. I am never touching that campus.

I really appreciated Hermana Moody this week. Even though she teased me incessantly with her foolish imaginations about my life, she also helped me a lot in my moments of sadness or frustration. I have no doubt that Heavenly Father put us together here with a great plan. I learn so much from Hermana Moody and it's going to be really hard when we eventually have to change! But I know we all move along. 

We met another nice drunk man on the street the other night. It was pretty busy and we were right outside a little tienda so we weren't worried. He tried to speak to us in English but said nothing even remotely coherent in any modern language. This went on for a few minutes and he pleasantly told us some story and asked us incomprehensible questions. Then finally, as we extended the mano to say peace out, he pointed straight at me and said,

"I...

"I...

"I love you."

AND THEN I KNEW MY LIFE WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME

Hermana Moody risked her life (again) to climb in the window of the bishop's office at his medical practice across the street from the church so we could get the keys like he told us to. 

And then I tried the door.

And

it was unlocked.

GOODNESS GRACIOUS SOMEBODY IS LISTENING TO DUBSTEP 

Do you gringos still listen to dubstep? Just curious. It makes me want to dance. BUT I'll hold back just this once.

We had a great conversation about important things this week. So Hermana Moody has apparently watched one episode of Spongebob in her whole life. I asked her which episode it was, and she began to describe it to me so I could figure out which one she was referring to.

"I almost said I had seen the one which starts out singing about living in a barnacle under the sea... Wait. I think I saw the one where Squidward had a bad day. OH! It definitely involved a plankton."

...wait...WAS THERE A SPONGE WITH PANTS ON?!

Here on Sunday afternoons, the LDS women make this particular plate called Arroz a la Cubana. Basically rice, fried egg sunny side up, and platanos fritos (fried bananas). IT IS AMAZING. It's like a good casserole. Gotta love those Mormons.

ANYWAY

Quote of the Week:

"We have to keep working with those names of menos activos that the ward gave us, even though some of them are complete......fairy.....love....." - Hna Moody, trying to exercise her pure love of Christ even when people are giving us nothing to work with. (Please pray that the members will do their part in the missionary work!)

I love you all!

De Perú con todo mi amor,

Hermana Hewitt

Baptism! 11-11-13

SohohohoGUESSWHATWEHADABAPTISM

 "Y" was baptized and it was beautiful! Hermana Moody put me up to speaking in front of a lot of native Spanish speakers and I experienced quite clearly the gift of tongues and the guidance of the Holy Ghost. That. Was. Amazing. I wish I had more time to go into detail, but let's just suffice it to say that through faith all things really are possible.

The bishop's wife, "M", is a classic Peruvian bishop's wife. Very sociable, very emotional, and very enthusiastic about singing operatically.  We sang her favorite song as part of the baptismal service. 

Hermana Moody and I are working with a great base of investigators and really happy here in Puente Piedra. We brought a family of young women and their mother to church yesterday and the ward was SO welcoming and sweet! So pray for they might be baptized. Because they are fantastic people.

OH yes! And we have been living in the same dreary rat hole for the past 14 weeks and FINALLY we are going to move into a much better space! President Archie got back from his training in Cuzco and looked at this new cuarto for us to rent. We saw him, Hermana Archie, and the Zone Leaders as we were leaving our pensionista's house and he told us that they are going to have a kitchen area and curtains put in there as well. As women, well, we are unabashedly and stereotypically thrilled to have some cooking space. 

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

There's a young man in our ward, "Mi", who is our perrito (puppy; aka he loves us) and likes to tell us jokes. He animatedly told me a few days ago that he had a dream that I was sitting on a bus with three young children who were all my own. The oldest was named HALLS ( as in, the cough drops. They have those here.) I don't understand why these things happen.

I also was asked on the spot to direct all the Young Men and Young Women in a musical number in church yesterday. It was Llamados a Servir (Called to Serve) and they sang it very loudly and joyfully, sooooooooooooooo although I have this thing against the unprofessionalism of leading anyone over 12 years of age in a musical number in sacrament meeting, I got over it. I love those kids so much.

Alright, well, I am running out of time and unfortunately this letter was really poorly written. SO I'll just send you all some pictures (beginning with some which I failed to send last week) and hope to hear from you all! If you get a second, write down your testimony and send it my way.

De Peru con amor,

Hermana Hewitt

OH

Quote of the Week

"So, I bought this piece of chocolate from this guy with one leg on the bus, and LOOK! IT HAS INSTRUCTIONS IN HEBREW!" - Elder Avery

He really never fails us.

Oooookay I just realized that I have no time. Pictures from the baptism next week PROMISE (Unfortunately… or fortunately… I was out of town and didn't have the chance to post Lexi's email from last week until now… and she sent the pics this week so… there you go! :-)

Also, if you happen to have a red velvet pumpkin left over from Halloween

SEND IT TO ME

It's a force field...

HEYLOOK I'm still in Puente Piedra! 

WITH HERMANA MOODY!

#yayyyyyyyyyyrejoicewiththechoirsofangelsohwaitjustkiddingthosearetheawkwardgringas

We are unbelievably happy to be spending another transfer together here in paradise. I am now finished with all my training and so I guess that means I am a missionary and what not...

Speaking of which, I just can't wait to tell you something great that happened in District Meeting this week. Elder Scroggins, our beloved district leader, called us the night before and asked me to speak a little bit about the importance of preparation. I had been studying diligence and came up with some cool stuff to say to relate it to preparation. In d.m. I shared what I had learned and the Spirit was really strong! Elder Reyes - one of our zone leaders, who I look up to SO MUCH and is super duper nice but never really pays a whole lot of attention to me because I have been, you know, training and slipping up on my Spanish and just hanging out making mistakes next to Hermana Moody (#ALRIGHTthat'sjustalittlebitdramaticbutstill) - was listening with shocking intent and nodding in response to important points and all that good stuff. Liiiiike, he actually got something out of what I said! And after I had closed my little portion I sat back down and Elder Salazar gave me a fist bump. And THEN. Okay, so Elder Reyes has this expression that we always tease him about. In Spanish, "bacan" (bah-cahn) is slang and means cool or awesome. He likes to use this word for extra special emphasis (i.e. That baptismal service was BACAN.) and always puts his fingers in the OK symbol when he REALLY means it. To receive this expression is something of a sacred privilege. And to my great surprise and joy, Elder Reyes leaned over Elder Salazar and said to me, "Su Español es BACAN!" Hey! I speak Spanish!

#OHMYGOODNESSICANDIEHAPPYNOW

So this week me and Elder Reyes became friends. And then, to the great distress of the entire ward, he got transferred on Saturday. DARN it. But we got a new zone leader, Elder Johnson, who seems pretty cool. And Elders Crozier, Brown, Tunque, Orellana, and Fallas all got transferred out of our zone as well. The rest of us are the same. We now have Elders Spencer, Wilson, Johnson, Billalba, aaaaaaaand....some others who I haven't met yet. We'll see. Anyway. Transfers were harder this time, but the Lord's work goes on.

Hey, by the way, we have a fly in our house who just doesn't seem to want to leave. Hermana Moody suggested we make him our pet to feel less uncomfortable about his presence. I named him Macklemore. We have good times with Macklemore, telling him to keep his filthy paws off our queso and mermelada. He is a polite, strong fella for the most part.

Speaking of music that I caught just before leaving, at a meeting with the zone this week, Elder Salazar started singing "I FEEL SO CLOSE TO YOU RIGHT NOW..."

And I finished the line. IT'S A FORCE FIELD. And then, of course, distanced myself substantially.

You just don't understand how great American music is until you realize that all the Peruvians know it by heart. Why? I don't know.

Also, it seems like a lot of the Latino elders in our zone have girlfriends named Kendra...why? I don't know.

Also, we started a new pension and she gave us two successive lunches from the underworld. Why? I DON'T KNOW.

Let me talk about this for a minute. Peruvians eat a lot of food for lunch. That doesn't describe the meal she presented before us to finish completely on Saturday:

Soup with potatoes and carne. MMMMMM delicious and filling! Thanks Hermana Francisca! See ya tomorrow! WAIT...she gave us forks as well.

Then came the actual meal.

SLAB OF MEAT. POTATO PUREE. MOUNT VESUVIUS OF RICE.

#weepingandwailingandgnashingofexcessivelyfood-coveredteethandohmygoshwearefreakinglateforournextcita

again...

And then, a nice little bowl of delicious mango chunks.

We also met a nice little old lady who has A HUNDRED YEARS of life under her belt! We are going to take a picture with her this week. Also I almost got eaten by Balto's loving horse twin.

Also, N is living the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom even in the very face of incredible temptations. She literally cut off the two most difficult commandments to keep in her life cold turkey and is doing SO well. 

I LOVE CHASTITY. I...I JUST LOVE IT.

Quote of the Week: 

On Halloween, we were talking about all the little kids who would go out and get candy that night and were kinda sad that we didn't get any. Then Hermana Moody came up with an excellent idea!

"We could just go out contacting, knocking doors, and saying, 'TRICK OR SALVATION!!!!!!!!!' "

And that we did.

Well...not.

I LOVE YOU ALL SEND ME LETTERS AND I WILL SEND YOU BLESSINGS

De Perú con amor,

Hermana Hewitt