Food for the Body and the Soul

Here are the pictures from the early Christmas. We are so happy that Elder Ridge and Elder Roldan are working hard and having a great time together.

I have heard that some missionaries have to cook their own breakfast and dinner but we don’t have to in this area, our pension is awesome, she is from Columbia and her food is good and clean. Maybe in other areas I will have to do my own thing with food. Speaking of food, I think it was Friday, ya we were at a members house eating lunch, it was soup which is always sketchy here, you never know what’s going to be in there, so ya I’m eating and I look down and there it was, the whole entire foot of the chicken, three toes and everything, now the first time i just found a little piece of the toe and kind of pushed it to the side, ya I couldn’t eat around this thing it was huge. Elder Roldan was like eat it you little girl, so I was like fine whatever and put part of it in my mouth cause its huge and ate everything, I picked all the little bones out of my mouth, the nails too, it actually wasn’t that bad, I would eat it again. I’m pretty sure I can eat anything now, but its funny, nothing startles you more than pulling up a huge chicken foot in your soup.


The other day we were contacting in a park and we found a guy from Spain, that was pretty cool because he speaks Spanish, but he uses the European form, it threw me off at first cause they don’t use it here but ya I could understand him. I like hearing different people talking, their accents and stuff.

Well our investigator Lady fell through, we went to her house and she was hiding from us so she is done. it made me mad, I don’t understand it when people progress, progress, progress and then they decide they are done and hide from us. Ivan will be baptized this month, he is amazing, he reads and attends and has so many questions, he is way good. We also found three families to teach but they aren’t married so that will take some time but we are teaching them and working with them. We found a guy of gold yesterday. He wants to go to church and learn more. We taught him and it was way good, he will progress. The woman Rosa decided that she still wants to live with her boyfriend so we are still trying to work with her. Things are getting better, we are not getting rejected as much so that’s good, man who ever said a mission was easy is an idiot, this has been the hardest thing I have had to do, being patient with the language, with our investigators, getting rejected, but it’s part of the mission, I love being here and enjoy serving the Lord. It’s amazing, I love seeing the people progress and seeing them change their lives.

Turtles, Christmas comes early and It's a Small World

Elder Ridge sent a second email with this picture attached with only this explanation. “this is me with the turtles that live in our house, they are huge” More to come on this I am sure once Diane writes her email this week.

So I got the packages and I loved them! I got them on Friday and we opened them on Saturday. Everything was amazing, the ties, the candy, everything, thank you so much. Elder Roldan told me that was the most he has ever gotten for Christmas in his life so thank you so much for doing that for him. He was so excited he started jumping off the walls. Saying “wow look, look what I got, thank you so much these ties are awesome”. So ya he says thank you much, It was the best Christmas he has ever had.

We found a family to teach, they are way good, they travel to the United States a lot but still don’t know English. We did get rejected this week too but we did have some success finding a few more people to teach. The thing that stinks is our investigators didn’t come to church so we have to push their baptism back another week which stinks We will get them baptized don’t worry.

Last p-day we were in plaza vea buying stuff, which by the way they have American soda and candy but it is way expensive, it’s like a Walmart. They have everything I could need, its way nice. So ya we were in there and we saw two other missionaries and we were like wait a second they are not from our mission. So we went up and started talking to him, it was a Gringo and a Latin and I was talking to the Gringo and they were from the Central Mission which is just the other side of the street, but anyways I was talking to the gringo and he is from American fork, and I was like no way and I said I’m from Highland, and he said I have family in Highland, do you know the Ormsby’s. I was like ya they live two houses down from me there are in my ward. He said that they are my cousins, his name is Elder Tholl. They were there buying food with their pensionista. He has two weeks in the field. He is suppose to be in Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission and got put in Lima Central, so there are still problems there. Tell the Ormsby’s that I saw their cousin down here in South America, he is doing ok.

Great Companions and a Great Area

Elder Roldan is way sweet (great) and we get along way well, and he helps me out with my Spanish and teaching. (Picture of Elder Rolday and Elder Ridge on P-day)
Yesterday I gave a talk in church about missionary work, I got up and
talked for 10 minutes without anything written. The Bishop asked me and Elder Roldan Saturday at 10:30, and yes the whole thing was in Spanish, I had to pause and think two times to think of the word but I got it, it just took me a second to remember it. It makes me laugh at myself, for my farewell I could barely get 7 minutes in and now I can get 10 on the spot and in Spanish, wow I was lazy before haha.

The ward is pretty good, there are only 40 active members and a lot less active. Our Ward Mission Leader is way sweet, he is so funny, and likes working with us. The members are way good.

Things are a little bit slow right now. We had 140 contacts this past week, we talked to 140 people in the street and knocking doors and two said ya come in, only two, it was a rough week but things will get better. (Picture of Elder Ridge with his area he serves in behind him)

My Spanish is coming way fast, I can talk all day to Elder Roldan all day, I’m not fluent by any means but there are a lot of words that have clicked that I don’t have to think about what to say or translate but when I’m talking all day. I still have to think a lot of what I’m going to say, like stop and think what’s that word
in my mind, but once I write a word down that I don’t know and use two or three times in one day, I got it down. It’s coming way fast but I do lack a lot still.
I still have a ton to learn.

Elder Cheesman is awesome, at night we talk and hangout, he is way cool. Sometimes when we are talking we will say a word in Spanish and sit there and think, what’s that word in English? It’s funny. Elder Taylor left and went to another zone, but we had so many good times together, they made my first 6 weeks fun. It is cool that Elder Cheesman still lives with me, so things are going way good. I’m loving life right now, I’m way happy to be here. I still want to go to the jungle but I can wait. (The three amigos - LtoR Elder Cheesman, Elder Taylor and Elder Ridge)