Dear family,

Thanks for your email mom. Not a single letter from North America arrived this week, so we are all anxious to read our emails. It might have something to do with the swine flu. But if they aren't letting in any mail from the US, Peru is going to suffer. I don't know if you heard this, but Hna Clariza told us that today there were two confirmed cases in Lima. In the United States if it spreads fast, it worries me that it is in Peru because everyone lives really close together and there is no hygiene. But, I'm not really worried. Everyone just keeps joking about it. The missionaries here are suffering though because our money for this month hasn't arrived, so nobody has money, and we can't pay our pensionistas. We are going to die of hunger while the rest of the world has the flu.

Other than that, things are the same here. We are having trouble getting our investigators to church. We had 5 with a baptismal date, and they all committed to come to church, but none came, so four of them lost their baptismal date due to lack of asistencia. This week was a holiday, dia del trabajador, or in English, the day when instead of working everyone drinks. I saw more beer this week than any other day in my mission, and there were a lot of drunks laying in the streets Saturday and Sunday. That part I don't mind, but sometimes I think they are dead. The holiday was convenient for us because in the night we were able to do a lot of street contacts, and even though (or maybe because) it was raining, 7 people accepted appointments.

For pday last week we went to Play Land Park, which is just fair rides. We had to go in the afternoon, so there weren't many people, but we did enjoy the carros chocones. Being in Peru, there aren't any sort of safety restrictions. Those bumper cars were the fastest I've ever been in. Harold, Hna Clariza's six year old was with me, and I had to hold him in because every time we crashed he flew forward. A kid did fall out of one of the cars, but they just stopped the cars for a minute and carried him off. We escaped with bruised legs. Hna Garrison and I also went on the ferris wheel where the carts flip upside down. Everyone was surprised that we would dare enter that ride (we were the only ones), but it was super fun. The only scary part was that the ride might break, but it didn't. And we had cotton candy, which was heavenly. Today we are going to go somewhere to have a picnic and play. The elders wanted to play frisbee, but frisbees don't exist in Peru, so we are going to play softball. It's okay though because I was a little scared for my knee.

Thanks for the pictures. I am proud to have two cute nieces. But my companion and I were wondering about Joanna's hair.

Don't worry about my end date, it will be in August. It's just that Pres. Leyva is Peruvian, so these sorts of things don't get done very quickly.

Hna Garrison wants to know the names of the BYU dance girls in case she knows them. She took ballet classes at BYU.

I'm excited to talk to you this weekend. Did you remember? When I started my mission, I though that my second mothers day was so far away, and I would be almost done with my mission when it rolled around. I was right, but I'm excited. Thanks for your love and support,
Sarah