¡Hola, familia!
I haven´t received any mail yet, because our temple time is in the afternoon and our emailing time is now, in the morning. Entonces, my district leader, will check it every preparation day, but I don´t know when when I´ll get mail because we haven´t really worked all that out. Thanks for your email, Grandma. Yeah, I´m in peru now. :)
Wow. This week has been crazy. I don´t even know where to begin. Hermana Cepeda is the best! She is incredibly diligent and loving and just about every good quality ever. Love her! She´s the coordinating sister for the Latina´s. The other two latina´s in our group are Hna. Calderon, Hna. Hoffman´s companion, and Hna. Balladares, Hna. Robison´s companion. They are super funny. We´ve taught them a few words in English, one of which is ´´Bashfull´´, and the other of which is ´´suspicious,´´ which they say ´´soospishusss....´´ We also have a standing competition as to who has the best companion, so whenever any of us does something nice or intelligent or anything, someone always says, ´´¡MI compañera!´´ It´s fun.
The language. Wow. It´s impossible not to feel humble all the time, because you can´t even speak like a normal person. haha. Usually when we´re talking about physical things, we can demonstrate everything out--I don´t think I´ve ever gesticulated so much in my life--but when it comes to ideas and the gospel, it´s rather on the difficult side of things. In addition to teaching with our north american (district) compañeras in class, we also have companionship study and teach at the ´´TRC´´with our Latina compañeras every day. Sometimes, it can be really frustrating to try to explain what´s in your head, because it´s not like you can revert back to english. That´s what´s so great though--you really have to be able to express yourself in spanish. It´s funny, because sometimes I try to think in Spanish, but i can´t because I don´t have the vocabulary. The other day, I was trying to say something to Hna. Cepeda and I had to stop, talk it out in English, and then translate it into Spanish as well as I could. Haha. Oh, man. It´ll get better, though. It already is. Generally by our last class, which begins before dinner and then goes until planning at 9, Hnas. Robison, Hoffman and I have laughing fits. It´s a pretty good way of dealing with our stress, but I think our maestro, Hno. Meza, thinks we are insane. He and our other teacher, Hno. Soto, are really nice though.
Our district is also really great. Hna. Robison is going to Equador Guayaquil South, Hna. Hoffman is going to Cuzco, and one of the 7 elders (Elder Savage) is going to... I think Lima East? Anyway, everyone else (the other six elders and I) is going to Trujillo! So that´s fun. I just love all of them. They are great. Soooo funny. Sometimes you really feel the age difference, you know? I´m trying to pick a funny story to tell you really quickly....okay, here´s one. We were going over district goals and one of them was to be more punctual (and help the Latins to be, because it really isn´t in their culture, you know?) and one of the elders was talking about how difficult it was to get anywhere on time because his companion takes forever in the morning. Then we were talking about how it´s difficult to get ready as an Hermana because there´s just so much to do, and Elder Cook told us, ´´oh man, if I was a girl, i would be late to everything! If you hermanas are ever late to anything, I don´t think I´d hold it against you.´´ And then elder Guymon said, ´´yeah, if I were a girl, I´d be four hours late every day. i´ve done shows before, and I´ve had to put on makeup and let me tell you, I am not good at eyeliner! It takes me forever!´´
Yes, they´re great.
Studying the gospel and spanish is awesome! you should all go on missions
Adios!
Hna. Jackson!
