Dear Family,

I'm here in Huancayo safe. Huancayo is over 3,200 km high, and I got sick from the altitude change. Remember that Christams when we had the barfing disease? It was kind of like that but I haven't passed out. I'm mostly better now.

My compy is Hna Almidon from Nazca, Peru. She is older, like 35. But she works hard. She hasn't actually told me her age, even though I tried to sneak it out of her, but she got baptized 13 years ago when her friend the same age visited her after returning from her mission. That means at least 35.

Huancayo is pretty. There is actually grass and plants that grow on their own, and it is mountainy. My area is poor, and everyday we pass sheep and cows being led around, even though it is in the city. They say it's really cold, but it's not actually that cold. Yesterday we got caught in a cold rain storm, and that was cold. It's a lot better than the hot humid weather in Lima.

We don't have many investigators. The hermana whom I replaced finished her mission, and I think she may have slacked off a little at the end. But we are working, working, working.

For Christmas, all the missionaries outside of Lima are going to come here for a conferencia with the Leyvas. They opened an area in the jungle for hermanas, so they are going to come stay the night with us. Other than that, all the hermanas are in Lima. The conferencia includes a talent show...

I'm glad everything is going well at home. Thanks for your love and support. BTW mom, I shared my lemonade drink mix with the pensionista here, and she loved it, so if you happen to send me another package sometime soon, you could send some of crystal light.

I forgot to tell you that I sent a package to you. I hope it makes it because it was expensive to send, and I don't want your present to get lost because I won't be able to get another one. I sent it with the name and address of the pensionista in Canto Grande. I was going to send some food too, but it cost a lot more. I also sent a little package to Jenae and Liz, and they should have gotten it already, so we'll see.

Love,
Sarah

Dear Family,

Today are cambios, and I'm leaving again to go to Mantaro, which is part of Huancayo. I'm really excited to go to provincia, and I am going to be the senior companion. There are two sets of sisters in Huancayo, and now all the rest are in Lima. Hna Tavara is going to train.

Don't worry, I took good advantage of the things here in Canto Grande, and in 6 weeks I think I gained about 15 pounds. But in Huancayo it is the cold, rainy season, so I'll probably lose again.

This week we have been busy. We don't have enough time to do everything we need to, and we already have this week full with appointments. But I'm not complaining, it's much better to have lots to do than to have nothing to do. Gregorio, our awesome investigator, was really sad because his wife said she didn't want to get married. We were going to teach them together, but the wife left and took all the kids. We are going to surprise visit today to talk to her. We also received a reference from the elders in the neighboring area who had been teaching someone in our area. Someone told them to give us the reference, so we went with them to meet the guy. He already has his asistencias, so hopefully we can do what the elders couldn't and get him to accept the baptismal challenge.

We had an activity of puertas abiertas, which consisted of the organizations setting up a display in a room, and we stood outside the iglesia trying to get people to enter. We got some good references from that too, even though only primary and young women showed up. We also had an activity with all the zone where we each presented an ordinance in the church from blessing a baby to sealing. Not many attended, but it was a good activity.

We already ate all my Christmas package candy. btw, I got the three christmas packages, but not anything from before. I was going to save the snickers bar until christmas, but yesterday after we finished our fast, it was sitting there lonely on my desk, so we ate that too. I am especially happy that you managed to send me some knee highs.

I am in the process of sending christmas cards, but I'm not sure that they are regular letter size, and I only put one stamp on them. If they cost more, everyone will owe the post office in my behalf.

That's about it. I'm excited to go to my new area. I have the feeling that I'll be there a long time. the missionaries from Bolivia who have been here since they got thrown out are going to stay here in Peru, so we are going to have over 20 hermanas in the mission. Thanks for you love and support.

Love, Sarah

Dear Family,

Guess what? I got a whole slew of letters and packages, to the envy of the entire zone. I haven't opened anything yet because we are going to go to Lima and I don't want to lose anything, but they put it all in a nice bag for me. So thanks a bunch. Maybe I'll save something to be opened Christmas day. Or maybe I'll just open it all now and for Christmas wrap it up again.

It sounds like there's not much news from home, but it's okay because I don't have much to say either. This week we had three baptisms. We could have had four, but one fell through. Two were the kids in the familia Alfaro. We really wanted to baptize the whole family, but the parents are having a hard time giving up drinking so we decided we shouldn't wait to baptize the kids because we don't know when the parents will be ready. Oh, but this is funny-the mom was thinking about the baptisims, and she said "I know there aren't godfathers and godmothers like in the Catholic church, but I was thinking their grandpa could be their godfather and you two could be the godmothers." So I now have a godchild-Diego Alfaro. But I'm not sure what a godparent does. I think they buy presents and give money. The other baptism was Roger. All his kids and his wife are members, but he refused until recently. He has cancer, bone cancer I think, and he spends his time in bed repenting. His son (with the help of another guy) baptized him, and I've never seen a family so happy about a baptism. They've waited a long time for him to come around. Did I tell you about Gregorio? He was the street contact that always is waiting for us. He is conviviente, and this week we taught him chastity and word of wisdom. He accepted both and he is going to get married por the mission in December. He hasn't gone to church yet, because his work won't give him permission, but he told us that he was thinking about looking for a new job so he could go. And we haven't even taught Dia de Reposo. I've never taught someone so prepared.

For Thanksgiving what did I do? Nothing. We had our bapitsimal interviews. We were going to get pizza, but I wasn't feeling good. The day before we ate cau-cau, which is chicken intestines. It was gross, and I think that is what made me sick. I only ate a little bit because the pensionista gave me fried chicken in case I didn't like it. So Thanksgiving was just another work day. We are going to eat pie one day, but we haven't passed the place that sells it in a while.

I have a research task for you Mom. What can I do so that my hair stops falling out? It's really thin, and I got it cut this past week, so now I hardly have anything up there. I think it's just from stress. I'm repenting for all the times I complained about having thick hair.

I played for the primary program in one of the wards. I think they just chose whatever songs to sing, so it was easy because they chose I am a child of God, Called to Serve, I love to see the temple, and we thank thee oh God for a prophet. The whole thing lasted 15 minutes ,and the bishop made the primary president ( his wife) fill the extra time with her testimony.

That's about it. This letter is nice and long, and Mom you were worried that I wouldn't write anything home.

Love,
Sarah