Dear Mom,

I am still here in Los Andes, and I'm still with Hna Garrison. At the end of this cambio, I'll have 6 months here. To keep us sane, we set some cambio goals and we keep working. We don't have any baptisms scheduled for the rest of the month, but we do have some planned for May.

I really don't have that much to say. The whole week we walked a lot, and even when people received us, we had to teach in the street. So we have had tired legs and sore knees this week. But the good thing is that the rain is finally winding down. Now it's just really dusty like the rest of Peru. I think I am allergic to all the dust or some plant, because I have had cold like symptoms for 2 weeks, and my eyes are itchy. But there is nothing I can do about it, so I'll just hope it goes away.

I enjoyed the package a lot. I'm not that skinny though, but I did keep the stitching in the skirt, and if I had access to a sewing machine I would make the shirt a little smaller. But I don't really care that much how well the clothes fit, as long as they stay on. I ate all the candy in two days, and it left me wanting more.

Can you do one thing for me Mom? I was thinking if it isn't too much work, I might do a Spanish minor. Could you look into it and decide if I want to do that or not? But if it's more than like 4 classes, I don't want to do it.

Uh, that's it. Really this week was super boring. I hope you have a good trip.

Love,
Sarah

Hno Nelson's baptisms. He's the one in the funny jumpsuit, and the stake president is the one next to me. The next is the cui on the clothesline. The third is us with the familia Jimenez, Hna Clariza, Hno Alfredo, Heydee, and Harold the night that Hno Alfredo went to Huancavelica to the mine to work. He was out of work for 7 months, and everyone was ecstatic that he finally found a decent job. And the last picture is of us getting our hair done. Jahir's mom is in cosmetology school, and she needed people to practice on. But as you can see in the other pictures, she barely cut any of my hair. Actually, she didn't trim any in the front, so we went again the next morning, and she trimmed the tips on the front part. She did do some sort of treatment, but any effects are long gone.

Janet the chicken
at Nahuimpuqiuo

With Hermana Garrison

Dear Family,

Everything is good here in Los Andes. Easter was a big disappointment though. The only thing they do is drink and watch religious movies all day on Thursday and Friday. They don't do anything for Easter Sunday. In fact, attendance was below average, and we didn't sing any Easter songs. But I did get my package (Thanks Mom!) and as I am typing, I am eating the Easter candy. I haven't looked at what else there is though.

Oh, we did see something exciting though. Hna Clariza said it wasn't for Easter though, it was for a quinceaños. One day we looked outside the kitchen window in the pension, and on the neighbor's clothesline were strung 25 dead cuis, drying to be cooked that night. I didn't have my camera, but my compy did, so you might get to see that photo.

Today is cambios, but the ZLs heven't gotten the email yet. So next week you'll hear.

This week we had a sudden, but long awaited baptism. Hno Nelson finally passed his interview with the stake president and wanted to get baptized right away. So Saturday the stake president himself baptized him. Now only one of that family is a nonmember, and she is dating a member, so soon she'll get baptized. The stake president was so happy that the dad got baptized that after the baptism, he took the family to a room and gave a blessing to each of them. And the daughter on the mission will be ecstatic to hear the news. This guy has been an investigator since August, but he works in a mine in Cerro de Pasco, so he only comes home for a night, a day, and a night before leaving again. Now he is home for vacations, so things got moving a lot faster for his baptism.

I'm going to send this and finish with another email.

Sarah

Dear Family, Congratulations on the birth of Macey. I'm glad everyone is doing well.

Mom, I got two of each of the letters you sent, plus the pictures. Thanks for signing me up for classes. If the labs don't fit in well, they can be in the evening. I usually planned out my schedule like a month in advance because it is such hard to work to try to fit in everything. Hmmm, a two credit class, you could always add another religion class, or whatever simple class that sounds fun. But you didn't put in all the science classes this semester did you? Because I might die if I have to take pdbio, evolutionary bio, and physics with their respective labs all in the same semester. I'll think about another class. You could sign me up for one with Janet.

So, general conference was AWESOME. We got to go to all the sessions, which was a blessing because sometimes they say you can only go if you have investigators. We haven't figured out why, but people here only go Sunday morning. It doesn't even occur to them to go to other sessions. We got to listen in English, which was fun because as NorthAmericans, we also sympathize with each other about the food, Peruvian customs and such things. Question-is the economy really bad? Everyone seemed to talk about being perpared for hard times and getting power from being obedient to covenants. We tried to do an activity in the ward for members to bring nonmembers, and we spent a lot of time getting it ready. We had everything planned out, but only about 15 members came, and 1 brought a nonmember. I was disappointed because it was going to be a good activity.

Oh, this is exciting. We had Burger King last week! And it was exactly how it should be. Plus, they couldn't get us our food on time, so they gave us free ice cream cones. Today we are planning on repeating, and an hermana in the ward offered to cut our hair for free. She is a student (yikes), but I am only going to have her trim mine. By the way, I got the letter from Grandma. Thanks Grandma. And everyone seems to be asking about how Janet is doing. I get a little confused because I don't know why they are asking me how she is doing, but then I realize they are talking about Janet the chicken. She is fine, and she is ready for the pachamanca. But she doesn't have as much meat as the other chickens, but she is a different breed. Janet has turned a little mean lately, and of the 4 new chickens that came the other week, two died, allegedly from pecking. There was no autopsy, so this is only a rumor. That's about it.

I'll be looking for my package, and you guys should look to, because I'm going to send one today.

Love, Sarah

PS-After I sent my letter to the president, I realized that I signed it Sarah, not Hermana Scoresby. Do you think he'll notice?