Monday October 31, 2011: Elder Bowles

Dear Mom and Dad:

Guess what,  I got a transfer call two days ago!!   Where do you think I am going?  Am I staying in Cerritos or am I going someplace new.  I am Leaving Cerritos!!!!!  I have been there for 6 months and that is a long time and I have been in the zone for 8 months.  Hey dad I think you are familiar with the place where I am going.  Not in Cerritos.  I am going into the Heart of Compton!!!!  I guess I am needed in Compton.  It is really bad there.  Right now just send mail to the mission office because people will steal mail in compton.  And My companion said that in compton there are no white guys there.  It's just Blacks, Mexican and Tongan.  If you are white and walking through compton you are crazy!  Well my new companion is white and I am white.  So both of us are really crazy to do this!  I can't wait to go to Compton and I can't wait to baptize someone there.  It's going to be so much fun.  I leave Tuesday to go to Compton.  Don't worry I will be safe.  My new companion is Elder Tabbit  and I will find out more about him next week. 

Well this Week we did a ton of service for the members.  Don't worry we won't be out tonight during trick or treating because on Halloween night it can be crazy and a little dangerous so they want us inside our apartments and not go out.    We are helping someone tonight and that will be really cool.  Elder Wade’s companion is going to be Elder Ulu  And Elder Wade is going to do just fine in Cerritos.  Do you mom and dad have any suggestions on how to stop smoking in a short amount of time?  We are trying to help our investigator Phil stop smoking.  He has been smoking for 20 years straight and it is really hard for him to stop.  If you have any ideas on how to stop smoking please let me know so I can tell Elder Wade. 

Hey Dad is it possible that you can send me what's called Line of Authority.  I need to have my line of Authority so I can show it to nonmembers where my Authority came from and I can show them it came from Jesus Christ.  If possible can you send me that?  I need a new preach my Gospel.  Mine is slowly falling apart.  Thanks

I love this gospel and I am so excited to go into the Heart of Compton and share the gospel to everyone. 

Thanks Mom and Dad I love you.  Sorry I did not write much I am just excited to go to Compton and I will write more next week on what Compton is really like.  Okay. 

 I love you  and Thanks.  Love Elder Bowles.  Happy Halloween   

January 31, 2011--Pictures from Peru

A trip to the waterfall on P-Day

Enith got baptized and the branch was very supportive

The missionaries put on an activity and played concentration and had a cake walk.  About 50 people attended.

Monday October 31, 2011: Hermana Bowles--Happy Halloween

Happy Halloweeen Familia!

Enjoy your trick-or-treating and costumes.  Was trick-or-treating Saturday night or tonight?  Don´t really know because it´s not celebrated here. 

Enith´s baptism was Saturday and it´s so exciting that now there´s now another family in the branch.  SHe had to be baptized twice because her leg came up the first time, but at least the water was warm right? :)  People of the selva are so different than Lima.  There were actually members in attendance at her baptism!  The room was full and hopefully she felt their support.  After the baptism we had the noche misional "noche de dulces."  (Halloween is kind of taboo here so we had to disguise the name)  The activity was such a success and over fifty people came!  The capilla had just as many, if not more people, who come on Sunday.  Hopefully we can keep that kind of animo in the branch and work with them as a team.  We played concentration complete with orange and negro papeles with gospel pictures and words. We also had a cakewalk.  Both games were a hit because nobody had ever played them before.  I had to laugh during the cake walk because it was hard to keep people walking.  Borrowed music from one of the other Hermanas and when it blasted on it was the mormon tabernacle choir singing "the Spirit of God."  haha....only at a church activity do you play cake walk with the mormon tabernacle choir.

We have two other families that we´re teaching, the only problem is they´re not married.  Marriages are so complicated here with all of the papers, and even moreso because one of the women is from Bolivia.  The good news, though, is that both of couples want to get married.  It´s a whole family that lives together with the parents, and their two sons who are members (las mujeres de sus hijos no son miembros).  They come to activities and came to church this week!   yay yay yay yay.  It´s so exciting to see.  The longer I´m here, the more I realize how important families are.  You can literally see the transformation between families before and after baptism and it´s amazing how much the Lord blesses people!

Still working with lots of less-actives.  I feel like getting people to come to church is like pulling teeth.  I´ve gained such a testimony that this is a gospel of action.The small and simple things are so important and never change.  The majority of our conversations with less-actives are about the book of mormon and prayer.  Two little things that if people put effort in will feel the truthfulness of the gospel.

Visited some waterfalls last week for P-Day with the Tarapoto zone and it was so beautiful!  The jungle opened into a beautiful field to play soccer for awhile before going down to the cataratas.  there were 8 hermanas together!! hahahaha.

ATe an ant and had my first fuane.....rice and chicken cooked in a giant leaf.

This is the Lord´s work

Love always,
Hermana Bowles

Pictures from Peru--October 24, 2011

Hermana Bowles and Hermana Nunez in the jungle area outside Moyobamba

The sister missionaries in Moyobamba getting a little R & R on P-Day

The first 2 hermanas work in the other branch in Moyobamba.  One is from Peru and the other is from Chile.Having a fun P-Day together!

Monday October 24, 2011: Hermana Bowles--Another beautiful week in Moyobamba

!Hola Familia!

 

Another beautiful week in Moyobamba!  Passed the four month mark this week and Hna. Nuñez and I "celebrated" by going on "divisiones" (splits?  wow I can´t think of the word) for the first time.  I went with Hna. Blanca and she went with Hna. Lovera.  We´re so lucky to have lots of women in the ward who will accompany us.  The Elders have a hard time with the priesthood and when they ask Hna. Blanca she tells them she´s busy with us. hahahaha.  Anyway, we split up after lunch on Saturday.  After the first visit when I flubbered all over my Spanish, Hna. Blanca started every introduction after with "Ella es un misionera de la rama Belen.  Ella es de Estados Unidos y pobrecita no puede hablar.  Necesitamos ayudarle."  In other words--this is one of the missionaries from our branch and poor thing, she´s from the United States and can´t talk.  Feel free to correct her.  Hey...if correcting my Spanish gets people to church than so be it!  We needed to do divisiones mainly to meet more people.  We have citas with all of the less-actives we know so far and needed to meet more people.  We´ve made progress on the rama directorio, too.  A lot of families are separated by address. 

 

Sunday, the chapel was practically full for the second week in a row!  Half of it was less-actives that we visit :)  Working with less-actives is different because it´s reactivation.  I still have a lot to learn with learning how to fellowship people.  There are a bazillion reasons that people stopped attending

 

Rama Belen is practicing for their primary program and I am the pianist.  Sunday we practiced all the third hour with them and it was really fun to hear so many familiar songs in Spanish.  Sometimes I get really confused because the words tweak the rythm just a tiny bit different in Spanish and the primary kids and I get lost together.  The program is November 13th. 

 

Enith is so excited for her baptism this Saturday.  Had a service project at her house this week to fix her roof.  She called her son after, though,and he came and did it.  The Elders Quorum put up the walls.  Basically---"un techito" turned into an entire house.  She is so so so excited.

 

Scripture of the week  2 cor 56-7

 

Love you all lots.

H.  Bowles

Dearest padres:

 

Pictures at last!  Last P-day the hermanas went to a place down by the river Mayo with a couple from the Rama Moyobamba.  I think it´s called Tahuisco?  Nuncamente.  These pictures make me seem like I´m really living in the jungle....haha.  Moyo is actually a "jackson hole" kind of town surrounded by jungle.  You have to go outside the city limits and concrete streets to see what´s in the pictures.  Iquitos is really in the jungle (an island in the amazon) but Hermana Nuñez was one of the last hermanas there and now there are only elders, so the chances of my being transferred there are really slim.....anyway....i´m just enjoying Moyo. 

 

Thank you thank you thank you for the recipes.  Coooking with the relief society is every Thursday night, but they always cancel it unless WE the hermanas are teaching.  All the women are really excited to learn new foods and it´s a way to have more unity in the branch.

 

Okay our house.  Hermana Nuñez and I live across from a small park and kindercolegio on the second floor of a mustard colored house.  The house is quite pituco.  If I moved to moyo i would live here.  It has three rooms, bathroom, kitchen, and balcony out back with a sink for laundry!  Cleaning it and putting up pictures made quite the difference.  Opèning an area, we are the first ones to live here.  We love our "dulce hogar."

 

As far as water goes, we pay 4 soles a week for a new "tub" of purified water.  We have unpurified in the sinks and shower, but purified in this tub that we use to drink out of and brush our teeth.  I haven´t had to use my filter that we bought because there´s a pure water service.  One of the best things about our house in Moyo is that it has water at whatever hour of the day!  In lima, we only had water from about 6 in the morning until 3ish in the afternoon.  Here we can do whatever whenever with the water because it´s always on!

 

Thanks for your great ideas.  We´re having a "noche de dulces" (Halloween is a bad word here) this Saturday complete with a cake walk and concentration and musical chairs.  Should be pretty fun.  I´m kind of stressed out about Saturday, though, because we have the baptism and activity back to back.  Oh well...the time issue will work out because this is Peru!

 

You should be happy to know that I´m the proud new owner of a "Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS".  Bought it in black and am in heaven.  It was even on sale!!!  HAha...we had to use Hna. Nuñez´s DNI number to buy it because my passport and Peruvian ID are in Lima.  Good thing Columbian and Peruvian documents are practically the same.

 

Love you lots,

Kristin

 

Monday October 24, 2011: Elder Bowles

Dear Mom and Dad,

A crazy week!!  First the Implant. It was good, she adjusted the mapping and it only took 
an hour.  Elder Dunway from Orem High School and his companion took me.  We went outside 
of our mission and headed down to Downtown LA.  It was so cool.  It was so weird--- I am 
getting my Implant mapped on my mission.  I met the audiologist and she asked how I came 
to California.   We started to talk about the church a little and talked about how I came 
here so it was cool.  I think she was very impressed with my hearing so she just made 
little adjustments.  I think they made a difference.  Cache the audiologist in Utah is 
the Best!!!!  He really knows what is best for the person.  I can feel some difference.  
so it's all good but it was so cool. 
This whole week me and Elder Wade are visiting a lot of Less Actives and found out why 
they are less active.  There are some dumb reasons why they are less active!!!  I will 
give you some examples.   One, a member in the past offended them and they won't return 
back to church and the other is that she has a hard time returning back to church because 
she has a hard time accepting that blacks did not have the Priesthood back then.  There 
is another reasons why they are not active in the church.  The reason is that they have 
not read the Book Of Mormon.  When people don't read the book of Mormon they will go less 
active.  The Book of Mormon provides spiritual strength and power.  The Book of Mormon 
answers questions of the soul.  I invite them to continue reading the Book of Mormon. 

We can apply the book of Mormon in our lives and we can feel the blessings that we recieve from reading the Book Of Mormon.  It can cure the heart and soul and that is how much power of the Book of Mormon.  If someone does not read it they will become less active in the church and they will fail to recieve the blessings from it.  Continue reading they Book Of Mormon.    That's what I learned this week.  Teaching appointments were slow but me and Elder Wade continue working hard so we can get a baptism together.

I  

love you thank you. Love Elder Bowles

October 17, 2011: Hermana Bowles

¡Hola Padres!

Our zone had interviews with President Blunck Wednesday in Tarapoto (2 hours away).  He said the plan is to leave me in Moyobamaba for awhile and to not plan on transferring any time soon.  We have a massive project with reactivation and missionary work and the members have to get accustomed to the missionaries.  I told him that´s fine with me :)  My district leader has been here almost nine months and Hermana Linares has been here almost five, so I think it`s safe to say that I might be here until at least March?......vamos a ver.

Recipe requests:
-waffles
-no bake cookies
-magic cookie bars
-pizza

This whole cooking thing has me laughing because we all know what a disaster I am in the kitchen.  I forget ingredients, burn dishes, lack complete cooking common sense.  The Rama of Belen should be scared to have me teach anything because the measurements are in kilos in grams and the oven is in celsius.  Hermana Nuñez taught coconut cookies this last week (her mom is a chef) and they were really yummy....but this was the recipe she wrote on the board........exactly:

-eggs
-flour
-sugar
-butter
-coconut
-vanilla
-mix and place in the oven at "bien caliente" for about 15 minutes. 

What exactly is bien caliente?!?!?!  I asked her quantities and temperature and she said "well it depends for how many?"  "What about a group of 10"  "I don´t know, mix until there´s enough!"  Oh boy...........she mixed it all with her hands.  The whole cooking thing is so funny here.  The kitchen and I weren´t exactly friends before the mission and definitely aren´t in Peru where I couldn´t even figure out how to turn on the oven (it was propane and needed to be lit).

Love always,
Kristin

Hola Familia!

Wow.....Moyobamba is absolutely amazingly beautiful.  It was so so hot this week and didn´t rain at all.  At night I just lay on top of one sheet on top of my mattress underneath my mosquitoe net with my arms and legs completely apart.  If skin touches skin I start sweating so I just lay there and breathe in hot stuffy air until I eventually fall asleep.  My mosquitoe net reminds me of those mesh over the bed things that little girls have to feel like a princess....

President Blunck had Hermana Nuñez and I start on revamping the  rama directory.  The problem is that there are enough people to make a ward here, but absolutely no organization.  The directory prints off at 30 pages.  Families appear separately because the addresses are written differently or completely wrong.  Basically....we have to visit every household and find out who lives there member-wise and write out tarjetas to fix everything and re input correctly.  We want a barrio here so bad!!!  The only problem is that half the houses don´t have numbers and many people don´t have telephones.  It mkes things a little difficult, but piece by piece we´re getting closer to a ward.  We need lots more priesthood, too.

Families are so important!  Families with the PRIESTHOOD are so important.  We´re working with so many families.  enith said yes to baptism and familia chavez came to churhc on their own!

There are three rules in the jungle:
1. wear repellant
2. eat any and everything on your plate (if you don’t, it offends the poor members and sets back the work.  Sometimes you don´t know what your eating or its so much that your stomach wants to explode....but you just plug and chug)
3. 1 bag of luggage....23 kilos.  (por ejemplo:  my bag weighed 6 kilos to start which left me with 17 kilos of shampoo, clothes, whatever.  The other bag is held in the mission office in lima)

love always,
Hermana Bowles

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the inte

Monday October 10, 2011: Letter to Grandma Dew--Hermana Bowles

Hola abuelita....

The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my all-time favorite books!! The newest movie of it is pretty good, too. The movie skips a lot of parts in the book, but I like the ending better. Wow I love that book!! What´s neat is I feel that way about the scriptures now. In the morning I can´t wait to start reading and I don´t want to stop when the time´s up. AWESOME. We´re reading the BOM all the way through with our menos activos (less actives) and it´s the best way to strengthen them.....new favorite scripture is in Alma (forgot the reference) where it says those who read the scriptures can´t help but believe in Christ

Good news....i got both of your packages last week! Thank you thank you than you. I loved the fruit and especially the peanut butter :) More hand sanitizer is good news, too. Thank you for your thoughtfulness! Since you asked for suggestions on the next package, i wouldn´t mind at all if it was entirely bug spray....the good "off" kind or "deep woods". Anything that´s a really good american brand with 30% to 40% deet. I am determined not to get denue here and am absolutely religious about applying bug spray here.

My Spanish is....coming. It´s a really good sign that now when I try to speak English, I can´t. AWESOME. One of the sister missionaries here from Peru speaks a lot of English and when she wants to practice, it´s so hard for me because i keep reverting to my gringo phrases. I´m actually annoyed with my Spanish because I´m aware of how bad it is grammatically and pronunciation-wise.  I´m most frustrated with my minimal vocabulary...outside of my set verbs I can´t descibe anything.  I can talk with people about baptism, the plan of salvation, faith, family history, and the restoration. the end . Maybe one day I´ll be able to contribute to other conversations and actually make sense.....but I LOVE that I´m in this blackhole.   It was amazing to see the newbie elders enter the field this week and they all ask, "how did you learn to talk?".....hahaha.   I feel so old having one complete change under my belt.

Monday October 10, 2011: Beinvenidos a la selva--Hermana Bowles

Hola Familia!

Transfers came and Hermana Nu and I were sent as a companionship to beautiful Moyobamba! Left Lima on an afternoon flight Tuesday and 40 minutes later arrived in the Tarapoto airport. Stepped off the plane and was blasted with humidity and heat. Took a taxi two hours away to Moyobamba and here we are. President Blunck assigned Hermana Nu and I to the Rama Belen (Belen Branch). There are two companionships in each of the two branches here. The elders focus on regular missionary work, and the hermanas are specifically here to strengthen the branches and reactivate. In the rama Belen, about 80 of the 600 members attend church. PROBLEMA. Entonces, estamos aqui para ayudarles (Therefore we are here to help them). Hermana Nu and I are opening an area. We're the first ones in our apartment and it's quite nice. A little salamander friend decided to be with me in the shower last night. We shower twice a day because we sweat so much and apply so many cremas between the bloqueador y repelante (sun block and insect repellent).

The members who are strong in the ward are wonderful because they are so supportive of la obra misional (missionary work). Hermana Blanca accompanies us and acts as our little tour guide. She even has her own branch missionary tag that she pins on. Without her....we are completely lost.....L. O. S. T. Take Saturday mornng or example. Tried to find a house in Jr. Callao 907. Spent one hour winding our way up to te right street and the other looking for a cuadro that doesn't exist...only to find out at lunch that the man had moved to Trujillo. AAAHH!!!! The best sign is that we've already seen the fruits of our labors. Almost all of the menos activos (less active) we visited during the week came to church on Sunday! Just goes to show that there are so many people ready to come back if only invited.

Couldn't send pictures but I'll try to describe Moyobamba: imagine Paradise. It's a mix of the jungle cruise and indiana jones ride at disney land. LIterally....so beautiful. It looks just like the rainforest pictures I saw in books in third grade. It rains at least once a day.....big strong rain. You can hear the storm coming when it�'s in the jungle before it hits the city. The sun is bright and wakes us up at 6 in the morning. Moyobamba is so refreshing and I never want to leave. Time to have a ward here!!

Love always,
Hermana Bowles

Monday October 10, 2011: Elder Bowles

Dear Mom and Dad

Me and Elder Wade did service this week to a Less active person in the ward. The wife just joined the church in January and since she joined her husband has been less active ever since and did not want to talk to missionaries at all. He does not want to do anything with the church at all. We stopped by to talk to his wife and see how she is doing and to my surprise he was in there during the lesson with his wife. It has been 5 months and I've never seen him or he has never sat down with the missionaries. It was a shock to me. Before we left their house we asked is there any service that we can do for you or is there any help that you need around the house. The husband said can you come back on Wednesday and help us lift some heavy boxes and shelves and take them out in the backyard. They can't lift heavy things but we can. They were getting new carpet that week. So me and Elder Wade go over there and lift boxes and took stuff out of the house. We did a lot, we did like half of the house. The next day or two we helped put it back in their house. So it's a huge success because missionaries have never done that before or have never done service for that family. Our Ward missionary leader was Surprised. So me and Elder Wade have accomplished a huge task this week that missionaries before could not do. That 's the big gest thing we did. We did a lot of service for the members. We are trying to earn the ward 's trust back towards the missionaries.

As far as teaching goes this week not good. We taught people but we wanted to teach more people --they just have not been home at all this week. A very bad week. But next week we will work harder and find new investigators to teach. We will accomplish the task to find new investigators. Thank you for supporting me.

Love Elder Bowles-- I love all of you.

Elder Bowles--Tuesday October 4, 2011

Dear diary

Hopefully before I leave today I can send you the pictures. I have 2 memory cards now the full one is at the apartment and the one that I have right now has about 30 pictures.

I went to the temple this morning and it was raining. It was really nice to feel the rain coming down. I have not felt rain for a long time. It was nice. After the session of the temple I walked out side and saw other missionaries. Do you remember when Kristin met an Elder Bowles at the MTC. Well I also met another Elder Bowles At the Temple. It was so weird and I said did you meet a sister bowles at the MTC? He was in the same time as kristin. He did not see her but it was so cool I thought I would never see an Elder Bowles-- Interesting.

I watched all of General conference this week and it was wonderful. My favorite one was Elder Holland in the priesthood session the first thing he said-- Gentleman I want to tell you two things. One, Satan is real and two, we are at war. We must be prepared!! We need more young men to prepare themselves to go one missions. We need missionaries. It was so good I was focusing on that talk the entire time. It was good. Now I also can't wait to read them.

This whole week I have been struggling to speak. Well I can speak but I'm noticing that I am stuttering to everyone members, nonmembers everyone. If I meet someone I will go like this. we we we we are missionaries from the church. I have to repeat one single word like 3 times before I can complete that sentence. It so frustrating. I have been practicing to speak more slowly. I don't know what is going one. I can speak fine with my companion it's just others I can't . I don't know why. I have been praying to heavenly father asking me to speak more smoothly. Maybe it's just a missionary trial.

After conference a recent convert texted us that this family needs help moving. So we go over there to help them move into their new area. When we got back to the apartment at 9:00pm our Zone leader tex ted us and gave us a referral from other missionaries to give to us. That referral was those people we helped move. And it also turns out they are a part member family. The wife and kids are members and are active in going to church and the husband is not a member but he is really nice and supports his wife really well. So a sweet contact for the week. Hopefully we can talk to them soon.  

Thank you mom for getting that implant worked our thank you. My hearing aid is really good it is just like brand new. So everything is really well. Elder Wade is getting used to the area ha ha and our investigator phil is having a hard time with smoking. He is trying to quit but he can't. He has been smoking for 25 years and it is hard for him to quit. We are working with him and we are still giving him encouragement to stop smoking. Little by little. But a good week and General conference is amazing. and the car is still AMAZING!!! When I get back home I have to get used to the old car.

Thank you and I love you mom and dad

Love Elder Bowles

One more picture

Those crazy hermanas--sooooo cool!

Pictures from the mission field--Hermana Bowles 10/3/11

Exploring the "Plaza" on P-Day.  Downtown Lima

They found this bird in their apartment.  Our little "nature lover" just picked it up and put it outside!!

El Templo en Provo!! Monday October 3, 2011

Hola Familia!

Conference was awesome.....and in English!!! Temples announced in both Columbia and Provo....one for both me and Hermana Nu She's really happy that this one is so much closer to her house. Now it will only be a one hour drive versus a four hour drive. The tabernacle temple will be so beautiful. It's so amazing that there's now a city in the world with two temples! I've never felt so peaceful during conference before. The music was especially beautiful, too. So many of the arrangements chosen were discursos in themselves I thought of Dad, his mountain of cds, and his weekly Mormon Tabernacle Choir the entire time. It's funny that one of the talks mentioned the main plaza and Peru because we just visited there for PDay on Monday. awesome.

This week was cool because I had such distinct promptings on what scriptures to share in lessons and how to teach. When Hermana Nu couldn't talk on Tuesday, I was so so worried. How were our lessons going to work if one companion couldn't talk because she was sick and the other was lost in a gringo blackhole. We were teaching the plan of salvation to Carlos and I had the distinct impression to share a certain scripture. I passed it off that it was just me being overly anxious about neither of us being unable to talk. The whole lesson Moses 1.39 flashed across my mind until at the end, Hermana Nu was able to talk more and shared Moses 1.39!!! I got chills all over because things like this had happened the entire week. We were talking about it after and she explained how when one companion doesn't listen and act, the other gets the same prompting. I'm so excited I am finally recognizing the spirit with SPECIFIC promptings. Before it's been oh that was a nice feeling, but now more than ever I know that he tells us specifically how to act. Such a spiritually cool week.

However, if I see one more man peeing on the side of a wall this week, I'm going to scream. Go inside and use a bathroom!! The world is NOT your bathroom.

I really started to love the people we're teaching this week, especially the families. I loved Elder Oaks theme of what think ye of christ because that's the key to the gospel. Elda is still having a lot of health problems and issues with her two sons, but she's so much more receptive in lessons now. Carlos is progressing, too. He really really wants to change.

Wow....Hermana Nu and I just found out that we're going to the selva this change!!! AAAHH!!!!

Love always,

Hermana Bowles

Letter from Kristin; Monday October 3, 2011

Hola:

Wow, I´ll be glad when life gets back to normal after cambios.  It´s been kind of crazy with five girls in our apartment. Here is a summary of this bizarre week.

MONDAY. Went to the center of Lima and I saw the first nonperuvians in a long time.

TUESDAY. Hermana Nuñez had swollen tonsils so bad that she was spitting yellow saliva and literally could not talk....yeah, bad news. Things worked out....if I´m trying to be positive, we´ll say I grew from the experience of having to talk for her.

WEDNESDAY. Woke up puking.....threw up some more.....threw up some more. five, six times throughout the entire day and spent the whole day with diarrhea in the bathroom. We tried to teach a family in the morning and had to come back to the house after because I had to throw up. I stayed with Hermana Wilma for the day and Nuñez went out with a member.

THURSDAY. Woke up still feeling disgusting and was put on Donofan by Hermana Blunck. I love medicine. Stomach calmed down. Had our ward talent show....which bombed. Like usual, no one showed up for an hour and fifteen minutes.  Picked up the hermanas!!!!  They had issues with their flights, but by 10:30 that night, everyone was finally in our house.

FRIDAY. went to the bank. We always have to take off our tags when we go. Pulled out the usual money for the month, so no hints about cambios there.

SATURDAY. Temples in Columbia and Provo! Hermana Nuñez and I are thrilled :)

SUNDAY. Came home from conference to find a bird stuck in our house. Had a cake for Hermano Max’s cumpleanos.

MONDAY. The Hermanas are leaving today. It was weird having all phases of the mission in the same house. I tried to imagine going back home and couldn´t. Weird to think how fast it goes.  As humdrum as some of this letter might sound, the week really wasn´t that bad. I´m excited because I had awesome experiences with the spirit and can see myself growing as a teacher.  Have to admit that I´m jealous of Garrett´s car, or any car in general. He sounds like he´s in heaven.

I´m craving three things right now. The feeling of grass on my feet, carpet, and a toilet seat.

love. love. love.

Kristin