Huancayo Zone

Canto Grande

Dear Family,

Sorry about the erased letter business and it's always when I take time to write a good letter that it happens.

I don't remember what I wrote last week, but I guess it wasn't that important since I can't remember. But Happy Birthday Mom.

Hna Garrison and I are doing well here in Los Andes. We had two good baptisms this week. One is of a 15 year old girl, Jackie, that we had been teaching since December. Really, we have seen miracles working with her. The other baptism was Rosa, and there were also miracles involved with her baptism. She has known about the church for years, and received the lessons about a year ago. We are going to focus now on her two teenage daughters. We have a lot of baptisms planned for March, and I am praying to stay here in my area, and I think I will. We have a family that is going to get married and baptized, and I am super excited for them. Their goal is to go to the temple to be sealed. Too bad their oldest kid is only 7 years old.

For pday last week we went out to the country to a pretty place, and I'll try to send pictures of it. In the beginning of February it stopped raining so much, but it picked back up again. I am sick of trying to clean all the mud off my shoes, but they say March is even worse. Due to all the rain, there have been huaycos, mudslides in the mountains, and the road to Lima was shut off for a few days.

I'm glad your birthday was good. By the way, I got the package, and I really appreciate the shoe insoles. I also got letters from Janet, Casie, and Jodi. Casie has now superceded my brothers in letters to me. I was a little sick this week, with flu type stuff, plus the everlasting stomach problems. I am praying for Jeff, and I hope he can finish his mission well. I got a Christmas card from him last week.

We had interviews with the president this week, and he told me that he got a letter for my ecclesiastical endorsement.

Thanks for all your love and support, and thanks for always writing me.

Love,
Sarah

Ps They call piano music a pentagram. I don't know why.

Dear Mom,
Thanks for always writing me. And guess what? I got the other package you sent. And I really like the shirt, it fits prefectly, and I like the color.

We had our zone conference this past week, and it was the best zone conference I have been to. Elder Godoy, who is in the area presidency came, and he spoke to us for like 2 and a half hours. But it was really good, other than the fact that they didn't give us breakfast like normal. We learned a lot, and after going to Pizza Hut afterwards (It finally opened here in Huancayo), we went back out to work.

We have been really busy teaching lately. The members have been giving us good references, and we have a lot of baptisms coming up. I hope I don't get transfered in the next transer because some of the people with whom we have been working a lot have baptismal dates the first week of the new transfer. Yesterday we had 11 investigators in sacrament meeting, plus those who always go that we don't count. So, we are happy, and we are working hard to get those people ready to be baptized. Our new ward missionary leader is helping a lot.

Hna Garrison and I went running today, which was fun. We went out in the more country part, and we had to avoid the cow pies and the cows. But I realized how much harder it is to run in the altitude. You get tired, and you just stay tired because you can't breathe in enough oxygen to get normal.
I am in contact with the president about my end date. It sounds like there shouldn't be any problem, but sometimes he gets confused and says one thing and then the next time says the opposite. If it's true, I am going to end August 17 (I think).

Oh, this is exciting. We get to eat with members on Sundays now. But we have to focus on eating with part member families and menos activos. I don't really understand how we are going to accept food Sundays, but reject it all the other days of the week.

That's about all. I hope everyone is doing well.
Love,
Sarah

Dear Family,

I'm glad everything is going well at home. I'm good here in Huancayo. We are working hard, especially with the members. We have a lot of investigators, and yesterday we had 9 in church, plus two more that we couldn't officially count (not married). We had to teach principios del Evangelio, and it was about the second coming. It was a little difficult to teach that without any preparation. We have a lot of people progressing, so we will have good baptisms this month, hopefully. It's good to see the members helping us and getting interested in their references.

I really don't have much to say. My chicken is still growing. Hna Clariza bought two more chickens to be friends with my hen, but Janet the chicken doesn't like her new friends and keeps pecking them. Oh, last week we found and bought some macaroni and cheese, and it was really good. It's not too expensive either, so we can actually afford it. We are teaching Hna Clariza a few American foods, and we are enjoying them, even though they never turn out quite the same as at home.

Here in Peru, carnavales started. It is a festival, and there are weird traditions. Saturday, they did this thing where they put a bunch of presents and balloons in a tree, and they stick the tree in the ground. Everyone gets drunk, and later they cut down the tree and everyone rushes to grab the presents. Also, the ongoing part is a huge water fight. Everywhere we go we have to watch out so that we don't get hit by water balloons or get buckets of water thrown on us. We've already been targets twice. I am thinking about walking around with a water balloon in my backpack to defend myself.

Thanks for your love and support.
Love,
Sarah