Working in Cusco

Emailing a little late today,

Everything with my companion has been great! We definitely get along well, ive heard of some pairs of missionaries who dont get along well, that seems like my worst nightmare.

I still havent received my package, but hopefully Ill get it today. Its just such an annoying process because it arrives at the office, and then eventually the zone leaders have to pick it up when they are there and bring it to me at like our district meeting, it really sucks.

As for our studies, they are pretty easy, I usually study Preach my Gospel, read my patriarchal blessing,and study any scriptures we plan on sharing that day.

Here is a picture in our house, near the front door. I have heard I am starting to look different, but Im not too sure.

Me and Elder Ludlow made those cookies using peanut butter his mom sent him and chocolate chips too, everything else our pensinos family had.

This week, lesson wise, was super sucky.

The Zone Leaders set a goal for contacts way too high for our zone, so me and Elder Ludlow had to spend a lot of time contacting 77 people this week to reach the goal.

Its alright though, the Zone Leaders realized it was too high and it wont be like that next week.

We had literally nothing with investigators this week, but we did have 8 lessons with recent converts with is alright.  Also, on Saturday during ward council I was told I would be giving another talk because they forgot to assign people.

Although I accepted then, I was just super angry because of how like..."lazy" you could say, the bishopric is here. They forgot to assign people to talks!

Being here has given me a greater appreciation for how much more organized things are in the states.

But when Sunday came around, I literally had my talk ready about to go up there when they announced it would be a testimony meeting. (I didnt even know you could do that when it wasnt fast sunday)

I still bore my testimony along with all of the other missionaries, but I didnt completely luck out

I have to give another talk in 2 weeks on the Word of Wisdom, how fun! :)

Contacting means.....we introduce ourselves, give them our number, say we are missionaries and why we are here and try to set up an arrangement. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. We have had a lot of people to visit recently, but of course, none of them are ever in their house, hah.

For food, I really dont understand why they call everyone in the united states fat. They literally eat such big portions of food it is unreal.

I always ask for less food from our pension so its usually alright, but occasionally it is really , really hard to finish. For luch today, we had chicken breast with tomatoes and french fries. 

For the drink, it was a hot glass of mate, which is like a nasty herbal tea. Me and elder ludlow secretly dumped most of it down the sink. I dont know why they give us Mate though to be honest, she knows I dont like it :)

They just think Mate is like super super good for your stomach and just cures everything, its super funny hah.

As for soccer, Im still horrible compared to latinos

We played today for Pday, at a turf field we rented out for 2 hours with the zone. There was like 18 missionaries and a couple investigators, we rotated playing with 3 teams. Im definitely not the best player on the field but not the worst.

I didnt get the opportunity to take too many pictures , I need to get better at that, but here are a few we took last night after a family night in a members house.

[We asked him if this week was better than last -- and I told him that one of my first "landmarks" on my mission in terms of time out -- was passing 6 month mark and realizing now that Sister Missionaries wouldn't come out after me AND leave before me.]

Yeah I guess this week was better hah, theres actually a new hermana in our district who is just beginning her training. Her Spanish is so bad right now but it will get better. But yeah, its definitely not comforting to know she will be home 4 and a half months before me still lol.

My companion has literally told me the exact same thing, " I think the first big hurdle for me was passing 6 months -- knowing that now all the new sisters coming out wouldn't go home before me!"

This pic is from last week, just forgot to send it, A member here that knows how to make waffles made waffles for a going away party for the missionaries that already left last week.

My Spanish is getting better I think. The latinos always tell me my Spanish is good, but I feel like they are just being nice a lot of the time.

I can understand close to everything people say to me (assuming its in Spanish, not Quechua), but I cannot talk with that same ability. I often struggle for words and feel like my prayers in Spanish might be a bit repetitious. But yeah, its still improving. Jeff left for the field today, but I havent heard from him yet, super cool though. I cant imagine him speaking that language , hah!

Love you all!