I am in Peru!

¡Hola! I am in Perú! It's great! Sorry, this is gonna be super long, so get ready(:

After you dropped me off at security, Hermanas Clark, McNamara and I went to our gate and met up with another girl going to Peru and some elders going someplace else. When we got to Atlanta, we met up with like 8 other missionaries flying to Peru, so that was cool. When we got to Peru, we all met up and made our way to customs. There were like 13 of us so we had like a small army of missionaries traipsing through the Lima airport. The drive to the CCM was about 45 minutes, and man, the area around the airport is SKETCHY. It was also about 1 in the morning so that didn't help. But as we got closer to the CCM it got nicer. We also drove past the Lima temple, it's about 10 minutes from here.

When we got here we dragged all our stuff inside (trying to drag along 3 suitcases is a major struggle btw...) and got assigned our rooms. When I got to mine, there were two hermanas already in there and they had made our beds for us so we could just go to sleep. My companion is Hermana Webster from Idaho, going to Cusco, and also in our room are Hermanas Allen and Johnson both going to Cusco too, and Hermanas Jeppson and Bray going to Arequipa and Trujillo Sur. After breakfast we met Presidente and Hermana Moore (the CCM president and his wife) and they gave us our nametags!!! It was the best! They are the nicest people and I love them so much, so Hafen, tell Camri that everyone loves her grandparents. (Hafen took the Moore's granddaughter to Prom this year).

We had to do a bunch of administrative stuff in the morning, then we had a class, then physical activity. The CCM has 3 buildings, A (administration), B (comedor {cafeteria} and computer labs), and C (classrooms and dorms). Then there's a courtyard with a fountain and benches, a grass volleyball area, casitas to teach investigators in (casitas are mini houses so you feel like you're actually teaching in a house), and a turf soccer field. It's great (: We had time to unpack and then we had dinner. They give us SO MUCH food, so I'm almost never hungry. It's mostly good though. After dinner we met our branch Presidency, 3 Americans and an Australian guy. All their wives help teach church classes and they're all really cool. At the beginning of the meeting with them, all the missionaries were there and we sang Called To Serve in Spanish, which was way cool! We had short interviews with a member of the presidency, then had more time to unpack before bed. I have never in my life been so excited to go to bed...It was probably the longest day of my life.

Thursday started with personal study, so Hermana Webster and I went outside. It's misty and overcast in the morning so it's really pretty. After breakfast we had a class, then our first language class with Hermanos Cajo y Gavancho. They are both really cool and we got to start learning Spanish! Throughout the day we had other classes and physical activity and stuff. I can now say I've played soccer in Peru and it's awesome to play with the Latinos!

Right now there's about 25 Americans and around 75 Latinos, and I like that because we all know each other now. That will change in two weeks though when the Latinos and Avanzados (The Americans that have already done half their time) leave in 2 weeks. Then we'll get about 45 Americans. The Latinos and Latinas are super nice and will talk to us and teach us words, so it's fun to sit by them at mealtimes and stuff. Our last class of the day is with Hermano Quintana who is way cool and super helpful. We started preparing to teach our investigator the next night, so we got a lot of help from him and another teacher. 

The next day, Friday, we started the Common Core stuff and TALL. TALL is a language learning software that everyone hates because it's not user friendly at all and just isn't very fun. Physical activity was fun and then after dinner we went to our classroom to get instructions for teaching our first investigator, Alejandro. Hermana Webster and I had prepared a lesson about how we are all children of God, but we ended up talking about living prophets. It was a pretty good lesson, considering it was our first one, and I'm surprised by how much Spanish I can understand and speak, but I know it's the Spirit helping me to remember what I learned from my 6 years of school Spanish. Also, we learned how to pray in Spanish, so that's super cool to be able to do, even if the prayers are really short and simple.

Saturday night we taught Alejandro again (who's just Hermano Quintana), though it didn't go quite as well. But we challenged him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

Sunday was awesome because everything is in English!! Church was awesome and all our other classes too. We got to watch the Legacy movie and had classes with members of the Branch presidency and the Moores. We also watched an old MTC devotional with Elder Scott that was really good. For fast Sunday, we start fasting after lunch on Saturday and end for lunch on Sunday. We all really enjoyed dinner as a result of that. Monday morning we had to get up at 5 to go to Interpol for Visa stuff. We were packed in a van and drove about 35 minutes through Lima. People here are CRAZY. They pass when they want and where they want, and are very liberal with their horns. The stoplights have timers so you can see how much longer the light will be red or green. You would think that Interpol would be in a nice building and be organized and clean, but not so. You do most of the waiting outside and the offices are not very nice. We had a bunch of paperwork, got our pictures taken, got fingerprinted, and our teeth checked. Once we were done, we drove back to the CCM. It was nice to get outside the walls, we were all talking about how we felt like Jasmin in Aladin, like Lima is a 'whole new world' to us jajajaja. The rest of the day was pretty normal, and we taught again. I played soccer with the Latinos and the elders in my district, and it was super fun. The Latinos we played with are super good and I can't do much against them.

Yesterday was pretty normal, with classes and TALL. We also had a service project (cleaning windows) and watched the broadcasted devotional from the Provo MTC, which was cool. P-day is the best, we all love the chance to relax a bit and wear normal clothes.

Here are some random things that are cool about here. The Avanzados are super cool and basically my favorite people. There are the Sister Training Leaders, then 5 other Hermanas, and three elders. My district is Hna. Webster and myself, Hnas Johnson and Allen, and Elders Vergara and Mortensen. We all get along really well and have a lot of fun together. We hear a ton of sirens throughout the day and yesterday we heard gunshots! The doors are always wide open, it's a miracle we don't get a ton of bugs or birds inside. The grounds here are beautiful and are always really clean. The food is mostly good, we just get a ton of it. Something the Avanzados told us about is 'nuncas y siempres'. nunca = never and siempre = always, so they refer to digestion or the lack thereof, if you get what I mean. Neither one is fun but all the Americans have one or the other pretty much all the time jajaja. I have tried a lot of food here like papaya (not great), kiwi (liked the taste, not the texture), and various drinks, meats, and sauces, so I'm branching out a bit (:  I love and miss you all so much, I think about you at nights, which is kinda the only time I have time to, but you're always in my heart! Anyway, I love it here and I love Peru and can't wait to get to Trujillo to start the real work!!

Peru CCM