I miss you guys! But luckily mi compañera y I found a really funny district! We love ALL OF THEM. Haha, the hermanas are super sweet and they really like us. and the elders are SO funny. They were talking about INKA KOLA today, and I just couldn{t (her apostrophe button doesn't work so every bracket is really an apostrophe) handle it. One of them just cracks jokes like it{s his second language and he keeps a stone face. It{s amazing.
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| Jessica and the other sisters arriving at the airport in Peru |
Earthquake, so there was a minor earthquake yesterday. It was kind of scary after I realized what was going on, but like, nothing toppled over, and we{re all fine. It was just a little jarring for Hermana Benyo and I because we were on the third floor and all. nbd.
CCM, um...the fruit is SO good. And I only recognize the apples, bananas and oranges...then there are like 2 or 3 random fruits, they{re yummy. and the JUICE! wow. They literally take an orange, squeeze out the juice, mix a ton of sugar and some more sugar water and make some good juice. It{s delish. the fruit that really wigs me out is the grenadin....which is french for pomegranite. And it is similar in that it has tons of fruity, juicy seeds in the middle....but you open it like cracking an egg, once you get through the outer shell, the seeds look like a tiny sliny monkey brain. and you slurp the seeds out. Without chewing them! Cuz they{re bitter I guess. and yea. it{s super delicious.
Temple, Today we got to take the bus to the Lima Temple! Haha, it{s such a fast paced city here. Like it{s not in some regards, it{s your typical relaxed, yoga in the grass, stroll through the park, sit in your chair and drink some coca cola kind of South American life....but the streets are another story. They use every bit of space they have on their roads. and the busses? fire codes...what are those. They pack as many people as a can packs sardines into it. It{s quite an adventure. each ride costs .50 soles. I think that{s what the elders told us at least....so the conversion here is like $1 to 2.7 soles. so I became almost 3 times as rich when I came here. woowoo! So the temple was awesome! I got a headset to listen in English, but by the end I said, the heck with it!...in my mind...and took them off, and I understood only like some of the words that were being said. The church is the same everywhere. It{s pretty cool.
Classes, everything you think you know about Spanish. forget it. Your spanish class...actually any spanish class you every take in highschool is strongly influenced by Mexicans, or just straight up Spain. Um, they totally forgot about a whole other continent! Que en el mundo?!? (What in the world?!?) In Peru it{s not polite, cortes, to say, hola! to people. that{s way to personal. You have to greet people with, buenas dias! or tardes- noches, depending on the time. Also, never use Tu. or you won{t sound like you respect people. Its a demeaning or like super informal way of saying {you}. Classes here are intense. None of the teachers will speak english to you, except they do and I love my teachers. They say some key words in English to help us translate or understand. They{re also so beautiful. Peruvians are gorgeous. oh yea! i{m the tallest hermana in my room of 6 hermanas. haha, sweet right?
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| Jessica and her companion |
Compañera. Hermana Benyo is mi gemelas (twin). holy cow! We have the coolest companionship. She kind of looks like Katie Gray-warren and like Bailey High from BYU. She{s honestly my favorita persona aqui! (favorite person here!) She{s has the most amazing voice, and whenever I start humming a hymn, especially one from the BYU VOCAL POINT cd, she starts hum harmonizing with me!!!! QUE?!? (What?!?) She{s so awesome. We are so similar!!!! Haha, and she{s knows SO much espanol. I really am getting a free ride when we talk to latinos. she interprets for me, and i slowly pick up on what everything means.
First discussion with an investigadores (our teacher pretendning to be an investigator, Lilliana) Holy nachos. It wasn{t a real investigator, but I felt the spirit so strongly as I roughly bore my testimony in espanol. like, seriously. 1 Nefi 11: 17 ( And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things). I don{t know anything in spanish. I{m just so humbled, after knowing EVERYTHING about the english language...but I DO know and I do know HOW to say that God loves his children. Dios ama a sus hijos. And I just kinda said that a few times in different ways, and everytime I told that to our { investigator } I just was so full of the spirit. Hermana Benyo and I have a lot to learn still, but it went pretty well. I can{t wait to know spanish and go out and teach the people in my mission.
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| The Missionary Training Center (CCM) |
Fun fact of the day. its 75 degrees here. I live in paradise aaaand I bought a sweet llama keychain.
Latinas, que asco (how gross). oh hombre oh hombre oh hombre! (oh man oh man oh man!) Hermana Benyo and I LOVE our latinas. There are four in our room, Hmas Amador from Honduruas, Castro from Peru, Garcia from Mexico and Rivera from Chile. They are so funny and they are so loving. they want to help us understand their culture and their language. The other night, they....well I think they were telling me that they were leaving this next Tuesday...which is muy triste (very sad), because they dont stay here all 6 weeks like Hermana Benyo and I. so anyway. the only like, bad, phrase? in spanish I learned was que asco! so I said that.......they looked at me so confused. and then they told me that que asco actually means...disgusting...so then we all got to laugh at the silly gringa. oh yea. gringa isn{t just a white person. it{s just a person with light colored eyes. didnt know that. didya.
um....what else.......oh yea. yesterday during our physical activity I played some el futbol (soccer). I{m not even that talented, but I felt just, tanto (so) legit as I ran around that field with the other latino elders and hermanas jugando? (playing) some el futbol(soccer) in Lima Peru. haha, i love it here.
Mi objectivo as a misionara de JEsuCristo es
invitar a los personas a venir a Cristo
al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio restaurado
mediante la fe en JEsucristo y Su Expiacion, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo
la recepcion del don del Espiritu Santos y el perdurar hasta la fin.
(My goal as a missionary of Jesus Christ is
invite others to come unto Christ
to help them receive the restored gospel
through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism
the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit and endure to end.)
that{s mostly correct, because I had to memorize it for yesterday, it{s maybe a bit rough. so....there are some gospel spanish words for you!
There{s also, gozo=joy, esperanza=hope, paz=peace, bendiciones=blessings, Sacerdocio=priesthood. pienso que?
I love you! and I miss you guys, but not too much. haha, I love being a missionary.
make good choices.
mucho amo (Much love)
con permiso, (sincerely)
Hermana Talbert
