Tuesday, November 26, 2013

The First Epistle of Jessica the Missionary to the People of North America



 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. 
 
 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?  
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.
 
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

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