hay...

oh family. this week has been the good the bad and the ugly. hah. not really ugly. or bad. i just wanted to say that little phrase.  oh, by the way--i saw 2 things this week that made me think of home. hahaha. one--i saw a guy wearing a shirt from the florida-alabama national championships. hahaha i dont know howwwwww he came into possession with that. hahah annnd just now i saw a guy wearing a tennessee titans football jersey. hahaha it reminded me of family reunions with moms family. and yes--those jersies appear just at white-trashy on peruvians. hahaha oh man.

so, i am now in a little sector thats is called Carmen de la Legua. it is muchhhhhhhhhhhh different than magdalena. magdalena was pretty rich and clean and nice. and la legua definitely isnt either one of those things. haha. but i think i am really going to love it here. the people are wayyyy accepting the the gospel here. the only challenge is sorting out the people who realllly want to change of life, or who just want a change of scene. and there is a TON of work to do in the ward. we have to strengthen the relationship between the members and us a lot. so we definitely have our hands full.

also,the newbies. in the mission when you are training someone, they are your "kids"... and i have twins. AHH. trio. BUT, thankfully they have one change in the mission, so they arent completely fresh out of the mtc. phew! i feel like they are training me more than i am training them. it is way different to change because they look at me for all the solutions and for help during the lessons and ahhhhhh! at times i feel cray cray. but really--i am learning sooo much. and my spanish i feel has improved a TON this week because ive been forced to talk way more. so i feel as though i will receive a MONTÓN of blessings and things that i need to learn from this expereince. my companions names are Hna. Quispe (from bolivia) and hna.Camacho(from chicalyo, peru). They are both really great and have a tonnn of energy. of course there are things that i am having to adjust to, and sometimes i want to tell hna. camacho to stop chewing with her mouth open and smacking her lips. buttttttttt. todo va a estar bien, right? right. hah. eeeek!

so, yesterday we had a lesson with this guy that has a date to be baptized and he is crazy. hahahaha i wanted to laugh the whole time. he is CONVINCED that he is "chosen one" or something from God. He repeated over and over again how many spiritual gifts God had given him in his life and how especially he can receive revelation, and he doesnt even have to pray. and how he feel that he is holy and basically a saint. so we had to explain to him that Christ was the only person who was perfect on the Earth and even heeee had to be baptized. and he kept asking "but why me? why do iiiii always receive revelations, and im not even praying to God?" hahahha i think he thinks he is a profet or a god or something? haha i wish you guys could have been there. so i told him that if he doesnt start praying, god is going to take this gift that he has away, and that he is probably receving these "revelations" becauseGod wants to hear from him, but if he doesnt start praying, chau revelations. hahahaha and he was a bit scared. so that was good. he needed to deflate his head a bit. oh gosh. so we'll see what happenes with him.

i am getting to know the area better, so hopefully next week i will have some more stories about the people here. i love an miss you guys a WHOLE lot. thanks for all your emails. i love hearing from all of you soooo much!

love,

me

p.s. i am trying to load some pictures right now, but the internet just started going super slow, and so i dont think im going to have time to respond to emails this week. but i read each of one and thanks SOOO much for them. i love you all SOOO much. here is a pic of the baptism of miriam. and im going to attach a few more.

here is a pic of a little boy that is really great and cute. his name is sebastian and he is from my old sector. he really likes to play virtual bowling. hahaha i will send some more pics later. no more time! love, me

oh how i´ve missed you all...

AHHH--familyyyyyyyyyyyy. 

im so happy  to write you. This week has been.... CRAZY. so much to say. where to begin...

ok--so this next week (as in tomorrow) we have changes again. crazy how fast this change went. and the little crazies told me i will not only have a change, but also--they want me to train??? yes. i will be trainng a new missionary. what are these people thinking? So im kind of scared for that. if you guys could pray for me, that would be really great because i scared hunny, k?? really. scared. but it will be a good opportunity to learn to rely on the Lord, because frankly my dear, that is something that im not very good at. but for sure i will learn. eeek!

also, this week with my companion... i wont go into details, but she got a little idea in her head that i was lying? or something? and she basically went crazy on me. Let's just say Wednesday and Thursday were probably the worst days in my whole life. And so i had to cry for help to our wonderful zone leaders who helped calm her down and help her realize that the things she thought WERENT true. haha you guysssssssssss. seriously. During this time i was thinking, i will NEVER live with a girl again. and I just wanted to runaway to casa and be with the people that trust me. hahhaahhaa but then now things are normal. Well, they're normal for her, and im pretending that they are normal for me, but still i feel a little scared to get close to her anymore because she said some realllllllly terrible things. heh. so for this reason, im VERY grateful to have a change. 

Next thing on the list--Miriam. Yes yes yes she was baptized! And it was sooooo beautiful and great. She was super happy and after she came out of the water she gave me the biggest hug, and i didnt even care that she was soaking wet. And she had the biggest prettiest smile on her face. 

but i noticed that the whole time her mom was acting kind of strangely and look uncomfortable. I gave her a hug at the end and asked her what she thought of it all, and she said it was nice, but was definitely reserved. I was kind of worried about this, but the baptism ended way late, and i had to get back to my room real quick. 

anyway. so then  sunday morning came, and we were calling them to remind them about the confirmation of miriam. and someone answered the first time, but when they heard that it was us, they hung up. what the?? so we called and called and called, thinking that maybe it was a connection problem. and then we were like, welp--we have to just go to their house then. 

and then the bad news happened. 

Miriam opened the door and said that she couldnt go to church with us for this and that---just a bunch of excuses, right? and then she was like, "ok, so what the real problem is, is that im Catholic. I know the church is true, but im catholic."

WHAT THE?????? i felt like i was going to throw up in this moment. seriously. it was TERRIBLE. and so we continued to ask her more quesitons about everything to try to figure out what was going on. and what we discovered was that basically her parents(her mom especially) had talked to her after her baptism and said that Miriam is still a little girl and cant make these decisions right now, and that if she wants to be a member of the church, she has to wait until she's an adult(even though Santa, the mom, signed and gave her permision to be baptized). and now poor Miriam is SUPER confused. 

I wont be around to see what happens, but my comp and her comp are going to have a good talking to with her mom. can you guys believe that??? It's so crazy. i dont know if i explained the situation very well, but man. it was a horrible moment. 

but it strengthened my testimony that when we are closer to the truth, the stronger the opposistion is. in Revelations 12:17 it talks about how satan is working the hardest against those who are trying to keep the commandments. and man--it is definitely true. 

Anway--if you guys could pray for her, that would be realllllly great. 

also, this week we did a lot of contacting and knocking on doors and it was really cool. we got a lot of no's, but the people who are ready, accepted, right? So contacting made the week better. haha

Well family. I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH. and miss you sooooooo much!! i hope you guys are all enjoying your summer well, and getting nice and tan! 

love, 

me

P.S. happy birthday to dad this week!!

tu me das energia

bueno--the subject line is from a regatone song that i have listened to in the buses and what not. and it isnt spiritual at all, but I LOVE IT. you guys should look it up on youtube and listen to it. it is reallllly great. or maybe it isnt that great. hahhhaah but im in peru and my likings are changing heh...

okay. so this week has been good. it has been interesting. i feel like i have learned a LOT of things--about myself, and about the work and everything.

we had our interviews with the new president and his wife and they are sooooo cool and great. i really love that they are our mission parents. they are cute and great.

so this week i learned HOW important it is to alwayyysss have the spirit with you. always. but especially in the lessons. and i learned how much that God loves his children. this week i feel as though maybe i have been disanimated about the work, and not super motivated and a bit apathetic. in my personal study i havent had the spirit super strong, and i was just feeling kind of down a lot. but then this week we had a lesson with Gary, and we were going to teach him about the Restauracion, and i was feeling super stressed because in this lesson we HAVE to have the spirit super strong with us, and if we dont, it will be terrible. so i was praying that i could shake this feeling of disanimation and apathy. and my comp was feeling similarly i think, too.  so we entered into the lesson and 2 members of the church accompanied us in the lesson and we taught in their house, so the spirit was there. and the members were sharing their testimonies and the lesson ended up going super super well. but at the end of the lesson, i felt super terrible, and i realized that even if we are super dummie heads sometimes, God will nooootttt let our dumb head get in the way of the salvation of his kids. he'll find other ways of communicating the truth to them. and thankfully we had those 2 great members. i'm doing better now, and i had to repent about the way i was feeling, but that's the life, right? if we feel this disanimation in our lives, we know that it is from Satan. And it's interesting to see the tools that Satan uses to get us, as his missionaries, down.

sorry if that was boring. heh.

okay, sooo what else, what else. it is a little colder here these days. there hasnt been any sun for the past couple of days, and i hope that we will have some soon. i love the sun.

also, im attaching some photos of the last pday(because i feel that the photos i sent you last week werent that great) and also of my favorite place in my whole sector. it is a little park, and me and my compy go there to plan sometimes. it is soo great. i love it lots. i will miss it when i have to leave this sector.

we are planning to have the baptism of Miriam this week. she is soooooooooooo great. everytime she prays she always says,"and i ask with alllll my heart..." and it is the most sincere prayer i have ever heard. and she prays for my family, o sea, YOU GUYS. !

okay, well, i love you all a whole lot. sorry if this email is boring. i will try to make my letter for next week better.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE,

me

happy 4th belated

hollllla!!!!

hi all. i hope your fourth of july was real great and patriotic. mine wasn´t. we had our zone and district meeting type of thing on wednesday morning and i kept wishing everyone a happy 4th of july. i think the latinos were getting a bit annoyed. but i dont care. and i wore red white and blue clothes. wooo! but then in the night at least my compy is cool and we had smores, using a candle. because it is something american. yay!! but i missed the celebration that we normally would have. saddest. but the mission is great and i have had some verrrrrrrrry grand ol experiences this week! here they comeeeeee(like one of the scary imaginations that the chubby red-headed kid has from the big green).

okay, so this week at church, the investigator assistance was SOOOO high. in Magdalena it is NEVER this high. we had 11 investigators!!!! bueno--we are only currently teaching 5 of them. but STILL. we were so so so so happy. and the gospel principles class was packed! it was sooooooo great. and we had the wonderful family of Santa Elena, Mirium, and Soyla. and Gary!!! those are the ones i was MOST happy about. eeeeeek!! and they all stayed for all 3 hours, too. this is quiiiiite rare as well.

Santa Elena wants the best for her family, and she knows that the church is true. we left with her to buy some food from the market one night this past week, and we ran into one of her friends, and she was like, oh! i should introduce you guys to him. so she did, and we we were talking to him about the book of mormon, and we gave him one. and then she was like, ´´leave the introduction for him to read so that he knows more about the book´´ and she said it all whispery-like. oh man. it was the cutest and greatest. so all of them are progressing reallllllly great. the dad still doesnt have very much time to listen to us, but late in the future he will. we´re praying for him to have more time.

we´ve seen gary almost everyday this week. he is sooooooooooo great and is like our little brother. we love him a whole whole lot.

and, for the greatest news of my whole life----remember Hugo?he was the first person i got the privlidge of teaching and helping him to be baptized.  wellllllll hna. carazas and i would always joke-ish with him about how he was going to make a great missionary one day. and he was sooooooo against it. (you guys--if only you could see the background he is coming from. they basically live in a shack with cockroaches and rats.) and the place where he lives, like the ´´neighborhood´´ is super worldly and people are drinking and smoking and doing all sorts of nasty little things all the time. so the fact that he was baptized was a miracle.

anyway, he recently received the priesthood. for some reaosn. i dont know why it took him so long to receive the priesthood after being baptized, but for some reason, it did. anyway. now he has it, and it has made allllllll the difference. you guys--my testimony of the priesthood has grown soooooo much this week. and about the church and everything. anyway. so he came up to me at church and was like, ´´soo, um. hna. fleming. so, like, what would i need to do to prepare for a mission?...´´ and he was trying not to smile when he asked me, to make it seem like it was no big deal that he was asking me, but he couldnt help it!! and he wanted to know how he could answer the quesitons of his friends about the gospel, and what he needs to study and everything.and that he wants to accompanion us in lessons.  you guys---i was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy. i almost cried right there in front of him from sheer happiness, but thankfully controlled myself until he left. it confirmed to me that baptism is just the door to the greatest life in the whole world and to soo much change for the best. oh my gosh. it makes me want to work as hard as i can now so that i dont rob anyone of having the same blessings of hugo. you guys. he is THE GREATEST. i love him soooo much.

okay. well, my time is just about up. i attached some pictures of the pday last week and the pday this week. last week was at the beach with my compy in our sector. and then this week we went to Matukana. it was an all uphill hike and i realized howwwwww out of shape i am. eeeek! but it was sooooo beautiful and wonderful and great. the pics dont do it justice. and i have a pic of me and mirium and soyla. they are soooo cute and great!

well, thanks for everything family. thatnks for all my emails. sorry i dont have time to respond to all this week, but know that i love you all and miss you SOOOO much.

love,

jilly pants

JULIOOOOOOOOO

(my subject line is supposed to be said like dad would say the football player of alabama)

you guys!!! i cant believe it is july!!! it is starting to "cool down" here--which means it is about 60 ish degrees, but everyone is wearing their down coats and fleece jackets. little crazies. and they tell me that i will get sick alllll the time if i dont have a scarf on or a coat on. little crazies. i am NOT putting a coat on in this fine weather. a cardigan, yes. also, i am aware that my attitude is a bit on the prideful side, but dont care. 

but yeah--it is weird that it is cooler here and it is july! and everyone wrote me saying how hot it is there. also, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! you guys MUST celebrate it the best. FOR ME! i have never loved america so much as i love it now that i am in peru. the people are cool. but i would never want to live here. heh... enough said. so celebrate it like never before!!!!! and eat american food!!!!! lots and lots!!

so, this week, our beloved president tyler and his wife said their farewells to all of us. i was thinking, pssh--yeah, it is sad to have them leave, but i only have 6 months on the mission, so no big deal, right? WRONG. we got to give them all hugs good bye(pres. tyler, too) and i bawled my little eyes out!! i was soooo sad. but i think it was more because i was thinking of all of you and how i wanted to give you all hugs and i was thinking about the last time i saw each of you and went through a little patch of home sickness. eeeeek!! i was very sad that day. but not to fret young ones, all is well. i am doing well, trust. 

and then last night, we had a fireside with our new president and his wife--Pres. and Hna. Borg--and they are both super sweet and great and funny. and as my friend Elder Leask said, "They're a couple of cotton-heads." hahahhaha it's true. they both have verrrry white hair. but they are both super excited to be here, and i can really identify with both of them because they both are working on improving their spanish. sister borg doesnt know anything hardly. and president retruned from his mission like 42 years ago or something.but the spirit with the two was super strong. the next year of my mission will be cool to have with them :)

also, this week, i dyed my hair. very very dark. because, well, the men on the streets and their nasty little comments and looks got to be too much for me and i decided that the more peruana i like, the better. obviously, when i talk and they hear my accent they'll know i am not a fair-skinned peruana. but most of the comments and attention comes from simply walking! so im hoping this will reduce it some. so far, i feel that it has. 

so this week we were feeling really down about our numbers because we had been working really hard but the numbers werent matching up(but one of our mottos as companions is that its not about the numbers. because sometimes with that attitude, it becomes just work and not sincere work.) but we decided to knock on some doors, and no one was answering and we were super down. and then we came to this door, and knocked, and someone yelled, "who is it?" (this happens a lot here) and we were like, hiiiii. (usually that works, b/c if we say that we are missionaries, usually they definitely wont answer the door) but then they were like, "but whooo is it?" and so we said the missionaires. hahaha and they were like, "oh." but that was all they said. so we stood there and waited. and waited. and waited. and we were like, ahhh no. no pasa nada. and we were about to leave, and then we heard a bit of noise from behind the door, and we had hope. yay!! and so we waited. and FINALLy the door opened, and it was a cute little 19 year old boy. and he ended up being super interested in learning more about the church and he has friends who are mormons and he is just SOOO great. and he introduced us to some of his other friends who arent members and we taught them, too and it was all sooooooooooooooooooooo great. you guys, it is suchhhhhh a blessing to know him and to have this opportunity to teach him and his friends. seriously. i kept think how hannah would probs be in love with him. hahahhaa his name is Gary (not little boy) and he is just soooooooo great! so, thanks for all your prayers that make it possible for us to find people like him. oh, and he and 2 of his friends said that they would be baptized if they find out that all of this is true. eeek! so we will keep teaching them and committ them to a date. 

we are also teaching Miriam and her family. Miriam is progressing the fastest and will for sure be baptized in like 2 weeks. but her family is a little slower, but they are soooo great. pray for them that they can attend church as a family, and that they can be found at home together as a family so that we can teach them all together. 

everything else is going real real great. i forgot my camera today to send photos, but i have the photo from the meeting we had with pres and sis. tyler, and i will forward you guys the email from that that i received. (i'm in the foto in the middle)

anyway, you guys are all soooooooooooooooooo great and i love and miss you all sooooo so so so so much! thanks for all of your great examples and emails and everything. 

LOVE,

HNA. BAGGINS.

ohhh familyyyyyyy!!!

this week has been o so so so great!!!!!!! you guys, and right now i am oh so excited to be writing you guys. hahhaha oh mannn. ok where to start. where to start...

eeeeeeek! for some reason i am soooooooo high energy right now. but this elder sitting next to me is kind of getting on my nerves because he keeps talking to me, and sorry, but this time is SACRED. dont distract me, fool. i have to write my family. and he is singing along to the worldy music, freaking. hahhahaa actually im just jealous because i dont know the words.

okay, soooooo something funny that happened this week is this: my comp and i were planning for the week and she was like, oh, i have to go to the bathroom. so she went and i waited and continued to work on things. bla bla. anyway, so then i heard a knocking on the bathroom door, and hna. callejas said, "hna! can you help me? i cant get out of the bathroom." hahhahah so i went in to try to open the door. but something happened with the doorknob and it would NOT open. i tried breaking it open and everything!(can you imagine? hhahha) but nothing. and before we knew it, she had been trapped in the bathroom for like 2 hours! and we had a lunch appointment to get to. so we called the zone leaders and i explained everything to them, and they were like, "ok. we'll come and break it down." hahahhahaha oh man. oh, and during all of this, i found out that my compy is closerphobic? i dont know. but she is, and she was like freaking out and she stopped communicating with us, and i was quite worried. but when she told me she was closterphobic, i thought that she was joking. hahahha woops. but she wasnt. woops. so the zone leaders came and kicked the bathroom door open. hahahhahaa ohhhhh man. it was reallllllllly funny. and strange. and awkward? hahahha

anyway. oh--and then we were walking back to our apartment one night this weeek, and we saw this lady walking in the direction toward us, and i turned to my comp and said, im pretty sure this lady is a crazy. and we just kept walking, and when we were passing her, i glanced at her to look at her, and when i did, she looked right at me and growled at me!!! hahahhaha and it scared me soooooooo bad. i wet! hahahha just kidding. i didnt. but i did get really scared. eeeeeeek!!!

so, you know how this past week i was worried about my comp and her disobedient ways? welllllllll, i have been praying soooo much that something would change or that i would know how to talk to her about it without sounding like a know it all (which i have heard other hermanas be like that, and i HATE it), and anyway, i just wasnt saying anything. i was tolerating the things(mabes this wasnt the best idea, but i didnt have any other solutions at the time. . .) andddd. i think it ended up being a blessing!!!! because then she was like, " sister fleming, you know, the people of magdalena reallly need these blessings, and i need to change the way im doing things." but it was more detailed obviously and everything, but she made the decision on her ownnnn!! because she has had other comps who have tried to force her to change her ways, i didnt want to be like that, and that is why i was struggling. anyway, so now it is all good.  and we are making sooooooo many improvements in our sector. seriously. and she is the greatest!!! i realllllllly love being her compy, and im not lying to myself like i may have done in the past with other companions. woooo!!! so thanks for your prayers everyone. they're realllllllllllly helping.

also, WE FOUND A FAMILY TO TEACH. !!!!!!!!!! and the mom and her 2 daughters have dates for their baptism this 14 de Julio and the dad is listening step by step. oh man you guys. it is just the GREATEST. i love them soooo much!! the mom has a brother who lives in the states and he is getting to know the church right now, too, and told her, you've GOT to learn about this. it is helping me in my life soooo much. and so this family has been super receptive to everything. and they are an answer to our prayers--right now one of the things we are praying for specifically is that we can find families that will be future leaders in the church and will be super strong. man, i wish you guys could know all of these people. they're so great!!

oh, and Hug-ito. my little hugo who was baptized back in february finalllllyyyyyyy wanted to receive the priesthood, because i think he finally understood the importance of having it, and you guys, he has changed soooooooo much. and now, we're preparing him for the mission! wooo!! and in this part of south america, the boys can leave at the age of 18. cool, huh?

anyway, oh man. this week has just been sooooooooo great. thanks so so so much for your prayers and for all being so great.

i am attaching some photos of my time with my new compy. she can cook really well and loves eating, so these first 2 weeks together have been alllll about food. hahahhaa but now we decided we need to calm down a bit. hahahaha but one day we made hamburgers that were DELCIOUS. and then one day we went and at picarrones, which are peruvian donuts and are THE MOST delcious. and then we were at this park and took this picture with the chastity pamphlet. hahahaha oh man. it is ohhhh so fun with her.

anyway, i love you guys soooooooooooo much! keep being great!

oh--annnnnd this weekend, Pres. tyler and his wife go back home and we get our new president. eeeeeek!! so this should be interesting... i will really miss our president. he is real real great.

anyway, i lov eyou all soooooooo much!!

love,

me

hiiiiiiiiiii

happy pappy's day, pops!!! and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to the papás!! 36 years is something to be quiiiite proud of, parents. way to go! idaho! (toy story)

soooooooooo i have my new compy. dun. dun. dunnnnnnnn.

and i LOVE HER. yayyy!!!! i loved my old compy hna. carazas. but im realizing so many things that i didnt love about her, too. hahahaha oops! but my new comp is from Bolivia, La Paz and her name is Hna. Callejas. she is real real great. we have shared about our lives and such with each other and she is a really beautiful person and she likes to have fun and enjoy the time on the mission. and she is so GREAT with people. you guys--sister missionaries can be pretty weird and socially handicapped at times. but not my new compy!! yayyy!! it is sooooo enjoyable and non stressfull to talk with her with da people in da streetz. and she told me, "hna fleming. im really taking advantage of this time having you as my companion because everyone wants to talk with us because youre gringa." hahhahaha oh man. personally, that is what scares me most about talking to people. like yesterday, we were teaching this man, probs 50-something. and first he complemented me on my eyes. and then he went on to casually mention that he was single. and then he went on to ask if i was single. and then he went on to ask if as missionaries we had to remain single. and then he went on to say that, well, we never know what the future holds for us, right?

ew. and double ew.

but also, hahhahahahaa. freaking hombres aqui. thankfully my compy recognizes that these are little creepy creeps around here that just because your white think that it is normal to confess their love to you???? that is something i will never understand.

so this week we met with fernando isaac again. yes, he's back! eeeeek!!! we committed him to be baptized this saturday, and our lesson with him was wayyyyyy good that we had. like i said, hna callejas has a way with people and she's super sincere. so im hoping we can get this man baptized.

sooooo i got news that my box is in the office of the mission and that i shoullllddd be receiving it this wednesday. and you know what that means??? NO MORE LICE. i hope i hope i hope. but my poor little companion i think has it. uh oh. sorry.

also, my companion was studying food( i forgot what that major is called. but in spanish it is gastronomia. hahhaa when she first told me, i thought it was about outer space. hahhaha) before the mission, and she wants to coook yummy things for me all the time! but also, oh no! im going to get fatty. oh well. what e'er.

what else, what else.

okay, so if you guys could do me a favor. could you pray for me to keep wanting to be obedient? the only downfall with this companion is that she is really relaxed about the rules sometimes. she has a way strong testimony, but there are some rules that for me are very important and for her, arent. anyway, she's had a sucky past of companions that have basically tried to condemn her. and i dont want to be that companion. sooooooooo....HELP. hahhaaha

also, can you pray that i dont die in an earthquake? supposedly lima is due to have a huge earthquake... like the huge one that comes every 100 years. i wasnt going to tell you guys because i didnt want to scare you. heh. but then i figured that hey, they can pray for my safety! yay! but also, this is also why i need to be obedient--b/c without that, bye bye protection.

anyway. this letter was probs really boring for you guys. so, sorry. and i dont have any photos today. i need to by an adapter to send my pics because the other one i used was of hna carazas.

anyway.

i love you and miss you all SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much. thank you alllll for my wonderful letters! love, jilly pants