La Legua Peru, May 27, 2013 (11)

   Hola mi familia! This last week here in La Legua has been a good one. On Tuesday last week we went to the temple in Lima and that was a really cool experience. The temple is small but beautiful! It was cool to go through the temple in Spanish. It made me realize that the Spirit can break language barriers, and it made me realize that if I´m doing the things I´m supposed to and working hard, then the Spirit will take the words I´m trying to say in Spanish and carry them into the hearts of the people I´m teaching. The Spirit speaks every language!

   A girl named Melany who is fourteen was baptized on Wednesday! She is awesome! It took three tries for her baptism to be valid. The first time her toe came out of the water and then the elder baptizing her said her middle name wrong. But after that Melany bore her testimony and said she felt the Spirit so strong and she felt clean, and that´s all that matters. She´s the cutest girl! She loves Justin Bieber, so that makes her even cooler. We are still teaching her mom, she says she´s not ready to be baptized yet. I think that Melany will be a great example and help to her.

   Sunday morning we saw Abdul, a little ten year old boy who was baptized my first day here, riding in a taxi to get to church. When I was ten there´s no way I would have hopped in a taxi and gone by myself to church! Abdul is a rockstar. He has such a strong testimony. We are also teaching a nine year old girl named Joselyn who wants to be baptized, but her mom won´t let her. We are praying that the Lord will soften her mom´s heart and let her be baptized.

   I think that I am adjusting to life in Peru pretty well! I had a couple days this last week where I found myself missing things about America, but I reminded myself why I´m here and snapped out of it. I really do love it here! The other day for lunch we were eating at a menos activo´s home and her home decor of choice was, you guessed it, mannequins. She had all these mannequins in her living room and all around the table, so while I was eating my lunch there were two mannequins staring at me across the table. Haha pretty funny. I am not a huge fan of guys whistling at me and saying rude things, but what can you do. The other gringa here and I just laugh at them after we walk by.

    I ate papa rellena this last week which I loved!! It´s basically just a baked potato with meat and eggs inside with mayonaise on top. Basically every other meal is arroz con pollo. We haven´t crashed in a mototaxi yet, but I´m sure we will soon :)

    Love you guys!! Thank you so much for writing me! Mom, can you get the Jarman´s email? I want to write them back but don´t have their email! Handwritten letters would take to long to get to the States. And I don´t have anyone´s email really so you have to email me at jadena(at)myldsmail.net. This keyboard doesn´t have an at sign ha. I know that the Lord is in this work and he´s preparing people everywhere to accept and join the church. Peace and blessings everyone, peace and blessings :)

Lima Peru Temple

Jaden's apartment

La Legua Peru, May 20, 2013 (10)

     HEY!! So I guess you heard I´m in Peru? Well it´s true. I found out on Tuesday that my visa came, so Thursday I hopped on a plane and somehow made it here to Lima! My first few days here have been filled with new food, people, experiences... new everything! But I am really loving it here. I stayed at the mission home for two nights and just soaked it in, it was really nice in the misson home. That first night I stared out my window cause we were up super high and I just looked out at the city and couldn´t believe that I was actually here! That picture that was sent to you with the two hermanas was just my first day here and that was just for the day. I was in an area called Luince and it was basically like New York City but Peru style. Vans drive around full of people and a guy yells out the window where the bus is going, and if you want to ride the van you have to yell at it or wave your hand like crazy and then jump on. That first day with the hermanas I tried Inca Cola and it´s way good! It does indeed taste like bubblegum just like everyone says. Everyday for every meal except for one I´ve eaten chicken, rice and potatoes. The food is good! There´s all these fruits that I´ve never heard of and I love them.

     Ok, so for the past few days I´ve been in Callao! I think we´re in a suburb actually called La Legua. Before coming here I heard that Callao was like the ghetto, but I don´t really have anything else to compare it to, so I don´t know ha. I am in a trio with Hna Rodriguez from Mexico and Hna Seclen from Trujillo. They´re both native Spanish speakers and only speak Spanish, so it´s been kinda hard but also awesome cause I can tell it´s already helping me with my Spanish. They´re both so cute and have been really helpful with everything. They know a few English words and always say oh my gosh and oh my goodness and careful, they´re pretty funny ha. The people here are so super nice! The members have all been very welcoming. It is kind of frustrating to have everyone stare at me on the street because of my white skin and blonde hair. I stick out just a little bit. When people see me they like to yell out any English word they know, which is usually just hello or something, but sometimes they´re not good words ha. On Sunday we went to visit the young men, and when I walked in they started asking me in English if I liked rock music like Guns and Roses. I didn´t want to disappoint them so I just said yes. There is another gringa hermana here named Hna. Obrigawitch. She is from California and was majoring in English too, so we decided we want to try and teach an English class here. We met one family last night who started singing Bruno Mars to me and asking me if I knew all his songs! I told them about the English class idea and they were so excited about it! They have a little girl about 6 years old, and she knew every word to his songs. I think that she´s convinced that I´m going to help her meet Bruno Mars or something ha. But their family is awesome!

     Here in Callao we get around either by walking or riding in mototaxis. Have you seen pictures of those? When I ride in mototaxis I feel like I am inside Mario Kart, but somehow we don´t run into anything. When I first got here I felt like Chevy Chase about to jump into the pool saying this is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!! Already though some things are starting to be normal. I´ve never been kissed by so many random people in my life!  My first night here I met a crazy old man who is a recent convert, and he kept trying to kiss me and he kept taking picutres of me on his phone. Haha I love this place! It´s so funny and crazy, but I love it already.

     I know you´re all dying to see pictures, but I don´t have a cord yet to send any to you, but next week I will send a bunch! I love you all so much! Keep writing! 

     Oh, and Spencer told me that Erik is going to work at Happijac when he comes home next week?? Why didn´t any of you work there when I was there?! Anyway, I love you all! Take care!

Lima Peru, May 13, 2013 (9)

So once upon a time my visa came, I hopped on a plane... and now I'm here in Lima!! I found out on Tuesday that my visa was here and then I left bright and early yesterday morning. I met an Elder Thomas on the plane here from Atlanta, and he knows Brother and Sister Jarman! He is from Kaysville and went to Davis. So last night I slept at the mission home and it's really nice here (in the home). President and Sister Borg are fantastic. I'm going out today with Hermana Kimes from GA and Hermana Suqui from Ecaudor. We're going to the mission office first so I can get some money and stuff. I just wanted to let you know that I made it here safely and I'm excited to start working! Love you guys!

Alan M Borg                                                                                                                                                                                 Presidente

Misión Perú Lima Central 

New Mexico, May 13, 2013 (9)

Hola mi familia! It was SO great talking to you all yesterday. I'm so glad that you're all doing so well. Thanks for being so supportive and great examples to me. Since I told you most of my stories yesterday I thought I'd send a whole bunch of pictures!

The first two pictures are when we slept outside on our porch. We woke up at 2 in the morning to the sound of coyotes howling. It was freezing so we went back inside ha.

The third picture is us with the elders in Coronado Norte eating Nacho Libre corn. It's actually pretty good!

We tracted into a house with this huge Kung Fu Panda statue in front of it. We tried to talk to the lady inside but she was not interested. She did take a picture for us though!

The last picture is from the Mother's Day Fiesta we had on Saturday. All the husbands went to the church and were cooking meat in the kitchen so the entire church was filled with smoke. I don't know how the smoke alarms didn't go off! The guys in our branch are awesome. They planned for this semi-Mariachi (is that how you spell it?) band to come play. It was so fun! We had ceviche, carne asada, and horchata. The food here is so good! For the most part at least. We had this soup with pork skin in it, and I tried barbacoa, which is cow face. It was actually pretty weird, but it's just weird when you think about what you're eating.

I also wanted to tell you that we got a call from a number we didn't know, and we found out that it was Luis trying to call us from his friend's phone. Apparently he's out of jail now! We were actually kind of bummed cause we wanted to teach him in jail haha. We're going over to teach his grandparents tonight and maybe he'll be there. Well I love you all! Hope you're all doing well! I love hearing from you. Les quiero mucho! 

Con amor, Hermana Anderson

New Mexico, May 6, 2013 (8)

     Well hey! This past week has felt more like a month, just because it's all brand new and we do so much during the day. But I love it here!! Even though it's New Mexico it feels like I'm in a different country, obviously cause most of the people we talk to speak Spanish and are from Mexico. I've had a ton of cool and new experiences here already and met a lot of people. It reminds me of that show you like dad called Story Trek, or something like that. We are teaching several people right now who are pretty interesting ha. Well first of all we found this family named the Alguilars and the dad is from Peru! He's lived in the States for like twenty years now though, but his wife is Mexican and only speaks Spanish. I thought it was weird when we first got here that everyone spoke Chinese, and then when I found out it was Spanish I was kinda worried ha. It's getting easier to say what I want to say, but then when people talk to me I just look at them with a blank stare until my companions help me out haha. But anyways, we had a zone meeting on Friday morning and our zone leaders challenged us all to invite at least one person a day to be baptized. The meeting got us all pumped up, and that day we invited 3 different people to be baptized and they said yes. They don't have dates yet, but we're working on it! The Alguilars committed to baptism, they have three little boys named Kevin, Israel, and Joshua. They're an awesome family!

     Another of our investigators is named Luis. We have had some pretty interesting lessons with him. He is 19 and a referral from his parents who are members. In our first lesson with Luis he asked us all to read in Spanish to him, then the second lesson was the middle of the day and he had just rolled out of bed and told us had been drinking the night before. He told us he wants to be baptized and go on a mission, so we were sad and surprised when he told us he had been drinking. We taught him the Word of Wisdom that lesson, and then invited him to follow it. When we went back yesterday to teach him his neighbor told us that the cops had shown up at his house and arrested him! We have no idea why he got arrested, but he's in jail now and we can't reach him. So... that was an interesting experience! 

     We are also teaching this older lady named Lupita. Her husband passed away two years ago and she misses him a lot. She talked to us about him almost the whole time, and she barely has any teeth so she kinda talks funny. She's nice though, we also invited her to be baptized, but she's not sure yet. She says she just likes to hear about other religions, but not join them. We're gonna go visit her still though!

     The other day we tried a finding activity called the Liahona. Basically, you set an alarm for five or ten minutes, then any time you get to an intersection you go whatever direction the second hand on your watch is pointing. We ended up finding this guy named Rick who fought in Iraq. He had a LOT of interesting views about religion and said that he didn't think that any religion was perfect. We talked to him about the Church and gave him un Libro de Mormon, so hopefully he reads it. He was a super funny guy. 

     Well, I am loving it here in New Mexico so far! My companions are great and we work hard and play hard. I love seeing the Spirit work in people, and I love Spanish. I hope everyone at home is doing well!! Please email me, I love to here from you all! Love you!! :)

Con amor, Hermana Anderson    

 P.S. We had a trek activity for mutual this last week cause the kids in our branch are getting ready for Trek. I shared my experiences from Trek and told them how much I loved it. We had a bonfire in the Riveros backyard (Hno. Rivero is the ward mission leader), and by that I mean we got some free firewood, and had a fire right in the middle of their yard, cause it's all dirt. But, it was a really good spiritual experience and I think the kids are all pretty excited. We had sweet corn in a cup and roasted marshmallows for dessert. Ha I love New Mexico :)