Sorry, but again, my letter got deleted, so here is a short one. I sent a letter in the mail today with a couple things, so look for that.

This week we had the baptism of Emanuel, a kid, and the wedding of the menos activo family. It was interesting to see the different traditions. Later I'll send pictures of the wedding and the baptism because now I don't have time. Next Sunday the father is going to receive his calling in the church, which is going to be counselor to the branch president. It's been great to see the changes the Gospel has made in their lives.

Our other investigators are progressing well. In August, if I don't get transferred, I will finally have baptisms of adults and families.

Here is a quick funny story. I had finished teaching about baptism to Emanuel and his 8 year old nephew, and my companion started talking about confirmation. She said after you are baptized by water, you will be baptized by fire. The boys looked at each other in fear and astonishment, then looked at me. My companion just kept talking, but I started laughing. Their eyes were so wide.

Thanks for your love and support.
Sarah

Sorry family, I wrote a really nice letter, and it got deleted before I sent it, so here's a quick version.

We had zone conference with the new president. It was really good and I could converse fluently with the President. I was sick again during the week, and I got special care because the wife of the president was here. I got to go to a Peruvian doctor and take fecal samples to the clinic for three days. Today they are going to tell me what parasite I have.

I feel good, though, especially because we have a baptism and a wedding this week. We have seen miracles in the work, especially in how the gospel changes people, and how the Lord prepares people to accept the gospel. The family that is going to get married was unreceptive the first time we visited them. Now the father wants to change his life, wants to be a leader in the church, and wants to go to the temple. We are really happy, and we are in charge of the decorations for the wedding.

We contacted a man who listened to the charlas 25 years ago and told us that he feels like now is the time to accept the gospel. He makes guitars and mandolins and a little banjo type instrument native to Peru. I was thinking it would be nice to bring one home...

Thanks for your love and support.
Sarah

Dear family,
I'm glad everything went well in the youth conference. The refreshments are the most important part, so good job Mom. This week I have fully enjoyed living in a third world country. For p'day last week we ended up going to the casa de la perricholi, some sort of opera singer that grew up around here. It was really chinzty, but it was fun to go out of town. We traveled in a bus, which was the size of a minivan, with 26 people inside. Also this week we were without electricity for a few days and without water for a few days. Tell Brother Thompson that I have had the opportunity to walk through sewage water on more than one occasion. It was never very deep though. Our investigators that were progressing have stopped progressing for various reasons, and we are working on helping those that can stil be helped and looking for more. We had an activity in Amarilis that went really well. Every active family was in charge of delivering an invitation to an inactive family, and it worked really well. My companion and I spoke on putting the most important things first. I think I'm getting pretty good at speaking. One of the inactive families we have been working with is going to get married next week. Then, the dad will receive a calling, and we are working on helping them prepare for the temple. It's exciting to see them progress. Tomorrow we have zone conference with the new mission president. I'm excited to meet him and be trained. This week there was a national paro against the governemnt. Nobody went to work, no one opened their tiendas, and there was no traffic. In the morning all the workers from outside of town marched in and got together and marched around town chanting, el pueblo unido jamas será vencido. It was pretty tranquil here, but in other parts, especially in Lima, there are a lot of problems. I enjoyed it because I slept well without the noise from the traffic and everyone was in their house. Because it takes so long to load the pictures I don't have much time to write, and haven't read the other letetrs yet. Thanks for your love and support.
Love,
Sarah

Dear family,

Thanks for your letter. It sounds like everyone had a lot of fun at the reunion. I'm glad everything went well. I would like to go to Alaska sometime...Today I sent some real pictures home, so look for my letter. Today for our p'day we might hike up one of the cerros. If we do, I'll send some pictures of that.

Yesterday church was great. Two of our branches meet at the same time, and we usually just stop in at one to see who came, but yesterday we went to the whole sacrament meetting of that branch, and I taught part of the Relief Society lesson about visiting teaching. Home teaching and visiting teaching is lacking here, and because there are so many inactive members, it is really needed. Sometimes the members just need someone to tell them to go to church, and the missionaries can't visit all the inactives to invite to church again. We are going with the Relief Society two days this week to visit people.

In the little branch that meets later, we had a training meeting about missionary work, and the branch president brought empanadas for everyone. They were so good, especially because we had been fasting. In our barrios we had 5 investigators at church, and finally, a family! The family of the lady whose brother just left for the mission came, and it made me really happy. The problem is that they aren't married, but we talked to them yesterday about that, and I think the husband is willing to get married so his wife can be baptized. The husband is going to need more time to before he is ready to be baptized.

We haven't met the new president yet, but today we all received letters from him. He answered all our weekly letters personally. He wrote to me that he felt my sweet spirit when he read my letter. I hope that's a good thing.

About my cell phone, you can drop the contract if you want. When I get back, I want to look for a cheaper contract. And the phone is pretty old and beat up anyway, so I don't care about that. The only thing is that I think I might want some of the numbers in my phone.

Thanks for your love and support. I know that the church is true, and that I am here doing the Lord`s work and will.

Love,
Sarah