Tale of Two Cities: Pituclandia, Limatamland

     Hola seres queridos! Welp, I´m sure you´ve been waiting all week to hear of the transfers we´ve had around here. And man oh man have the changes been big! I was transfered to the area Santa Cruz in the zone Limatambo with Hermana Gomez from... Buenos Aires! Everything I had ever heard from other missionaries was that the zone Limatambo is where the ¨pitucos¨ live. ¨Pituco¨ is the word here in Lima for super rich, and my new area Santa Cruz has the nickname among the missionaries ¨pituclandia¨, cause it´s where the wealthy live. I had that image in my mind already, but when I got here I was almost in shock! We are in Lima still, but in a little suburb that´s called Miraflores. Here live the people who come from Europe- for example this Sunday I met people from France, Germany and England, and also a couple from Canada and a couple from Utah! I´ve talked in English with people other than missionaries in these past few days for the first time in my mission. The people we teach here are just a little different. Our investigators are hotel owners, taxi company owners, directors of businesses... I have felt a little overwhelmed these last couple days, just cause everything´s so different here! 

     My new companion Hna. Gomez is awesome! She just turned 28 on Thursday so is more mature, but loves to laugh and joke around with me in the street. For her birthday a member invited us to eat on the rooftop of her apartment building and we had a view of the whole city and of the ocean. We share a ward with the assistants, and I came in with a brand new assistant, Elder Thorsen. He came from probably the humblest zone in the mission, so we were both just in awe at our new sector! At first I felt a lot of pressure being in the same ward with the assistants, but they´re both excellent missionaries and it´s fun learning from them.

     What else has been new this week? Because this area is a lot nicer it´s harder to find new investigators with the same easiness as before. We´ve been doing a lot more ¨open your mouth¨ this week, talking with people in the street and knocking. It´s not the easiest thing in the world for me to walk up to a stranger and start talking about the gospel, but I´ve learned sometimes in life you just have to square your shoulders and do hard things! The best is when we find someone who recently had a hard or interesting experience and they tell us that we´re an answer to their prayers. 

     We have an investigator named Irma who works as the owner of her apartment building. She is very educated and believes in rights for women and things like that. She has a date for the 19 of April and is progressing well. She just needs to pray to receive a testimony of the book of mormon from the spirit, and she will be a strong member of the church!

     On Sunday there was a baptism of a 23 year old girl named Alexandra. Alexandra lives in San Borja, but comes to our ward because her boyfriend comes here. Her boyfriend is from Spain and is 50 years old. The missionaries from San Borja (they´re from a different mission) have been teaching her there in San Borja, but because Alexandra assists here she wanted to be baptized here. We had to get permission from the assistants of the other mission (lima este I think) for her to be baptized, and she almost wasn´t baptized because of a whole bunch of rumors that people in our ward were spreading. President Borg came to her baptism and had to approve everything. In the end, everything turned out ok and Alexandra was baptized. Whew!! It was a crazy day yesterday. There are so many more responsibilites in this area. We are still sister training leaders of 8 companionships, but we share a ward with the assistants so I feel like we are always helping them with their assignments. If they can´t make it to a teaching appointment we go and help them out by teaching their investigators. I think these next few transfers will be a great adventure! I´m excited for what I will be able to learn working with such great leaders in the mission.

     Sorry if this letter has just been information overload! But I feel like Mormon sometimes when I can´t even write the hundredth part of what happens here. Every day is an adventure and is filled with hard things, funny things, wonderful things, sad things, and blessings. I love my new change and feel so grateful for the trust that Heavenly Father has in me. I hope that I can learn from Him what he wants me to learn and to serve his children with my whole heart. I love you all!!!! Have a great week!!!