Week #7 - First Week in Trujillo

Hola Todos!!!

I can´t believe I´m actually here!! I met my trainer last week on Tuesday at the mission office in Trujillo which was around an hour plane ride from Lima where the MTC is. My companion is Hermana Inmunda and she´s from Ecuador and doesn´t know any English, pero está bien!! I love her so much. She´s super teeny and short, but also pretty fiesty and she means business, and I know I´m going to learn a lot from her. It´s been a little difficult with the language barrier this first week trying to know how everything works with the schedule and who we´re meeting and what we´re supposed to teach. The first couple days I felt bad because obviously I didn´t know anyone we were about to go see and I couldn´t say or do much during the lessons. But when I bore my testimony in Spanish or had the opportunities to recite the first vision in spanish by memory, I felt the Spirit working through me and it truly is the best feeling ever. I love the people here so much already. 

Our area is called Granados, and it´s a medium sized town. Lots and lots of polvo (dust) and tons and tons of malnourished, ill-looking dogs. Gotta be careful. Hermana Inmunda has been my protector this past week because she knows what´s up. Heard a couple gun shots this week and I´ve seen blood in the streets, BUT I know God is protecting us. Just have to make sure we are being exactly obedient and are in our apartment by 9. I love the niños and niñas here. In the streets going from appointment to appointment, I usually get a lot of stares. Hermana Inmunda and I are the only Hermanas in our zone, and I feel very white and very tall haha. The kids usually point at me and yell ¨gringa, gringa!¨ I think it´s so funny and love it. We have a cute little apartment with a bunk bed, one bathroon and another room for our luggage and clothes. We live on the third floor. The water here is unsafe to drink, so we have a filter system along with filtered water bottles which has been super nice. We can´t eat lechuga (lettuce) fresas (strawberries) or choncho (pig) and also ceviche which is a raw fish dish. One of the member families on Saturday tried to feed us chocho AND lechuga hahah... they all have the missionary food guidelines given to them, but they forgot so had to cook us pollo and rice. 

We had intercambios or exchages on Friday, and I switched companionships with Hermana Cortes who´s been in the mission for 14 months. So my new comp was Hermana Farar from Arizona who only has one month left!! That was such a nice breather from Spanish for a day. We were able to speak some English which was nice. I spent the whole day with her and spent the following night at her apartment. She was impressed with my Spanish and comforted me a ton. I helped her teach in a few of her citas and they went super well. She complimented me a ton and she truly was such a blessing to learn from. Hna. Inmunda and I also went shopping today with three other companionships! I was able to see my American girls from the CCM and reunite with them for a few hours, which was so nice. I got a new backpack along with the other new Hermanas since I guess it´s more safe and less strenuous on your back. We were told not to bring backpacks before the mission but oh well! The shops were super cool and there was sooo much stuff and tons of people.

I absolutely love the Granados Ward!! There are around 98 people in the ward, so it´s very small, but not too small for Perú! The people are sooo loving and welcoming and have made me feel like I´m a part of the family. The kids are the best. I´ve loved visiting families here because the kids immediatley hug you. The niñas tell me I have lindo cabello¨, or pretty hair, and I love them so much. I bore my testimony on Sunday, my last testimony of 2017 in Spanish, and I was able to introduce myself. usually the people think I´m from Washington D.C., so I´ve had to correct them and that´s always been a disappointment to them when they learn I´m not from the capital of the USA haha. The members are truly so loving though and are so willing to help. I´m so excited to serve them and also will be playing a ton of piano which they are SOOO excited for. They rarely have a pianist so hardly know the melody of the himnos. Normally we sing a hymn at the beginning of every lesson to help invite the spirit in our citas. It´s not uncommon here for the people to be uncertain what the melody sounds like at church because they´re rarely accompanied by a pianist. It´s been so humbling. You never know who can be positively influenced and uplifted by your talents. Never take them for granted and NEVER hide them!

I´m so excited to get to know our area a little more and our investigators. Just from the few visits we have had, I already love them so much and want to help them build their testimonies. We have a lot of jovenes we are teaching, which I´m so excited about and have two investigators named Talia and Irving who have baptismal dates!! Hermana Inmunda and I also had a service opportunity this week with an hermana from the ward and decorated her house for Christmas! I can´t believe how close it is!! We have a pensionista who cooks our meals during the week and we eat at members houses for lunch on Saturday and Sunday. Lots of rice and pollo, but the food is super good!

So exciting!! I love you all, and hope you take time to find service opportunites this week, and also pray for missionary opportunites! They bring you joy unlike anything else. 

Hermana Doney