I Love Peru!! October 24, 2012

I am so glad to hear from all of you every week!! It really makes my week when I log in and see emails from the people I love and miss oh so much. Also...thank you for the letters as well! They are SO great!!! :)

Most of the super exciting stuff here happened last week when the CCM was in transition mode so there is not too much new information. However, I shall tell you a bit about my day to day life. First of all...Two weeks from yesterday and I am headed into my mission field! The real deal! Im so excited!!! It´s crazy that i have already been a missionary for almost 2 whole months! It´s already flying by. craaaaazy! We are now considered ádvanced missionary´s´!! But I love every single minute. My companion and I are still great! She makes my life. We have a lot in common and get along really really well. My district has grown on me a lot and I love all of them so much as well :)

Ok...so last wednesday, we got a whole bunch of new missionary´s! Including new Hermana´s! We are rooming with two latinas who are just wonderful. One is from here in Peru, and one is from Argentina. Hermanas Cervera (argentina) and Ramirez (Peru) Let me just say really quickly that although I would love to visit, I am glad at this moment that I get to serve in Peru because argentinians speak about 50 times faster than peruvians! Its so hard to follow but SO good for practice! :) I love it.

Along with the Hermanas came new elders who really bring a whole new feel to the CCM. They are great. I seriously love this culture and how incredibly friendly the people are! I cant wait to get out and meet some more wonderful people! We also had a change up of teachers and let me just say that they are some of the most inclredibly spiritually wonderful, intelligent people I have ever met. I am truly so blessed. This place is incredible! Also...fun fact....because this place is so small (about 110 missionaries or so...) we have lunch with the president and his wife at least 3 times a week! Which is cool. I love them :)

This upcoming weekend we have the opportunity to go proselyting again! This time we are going  to a different city called Campoy! Im super excited again to go out and share this gospel with the wonderful people of Peru! Hopefully this time, I will be able to talk and understand a bit more haha :)

My testimony of this incredible Gospel i growing every single day! I love it so much! Heavenly Father really does care for every single person on this earth. He knows us by name and wants to hear from us. Prayer is just SO important every single day to maintain that special relationship with our Heavenly father. I know that He really does answer our prayers. We had the chance to watch a devotional by Elder Jeffrey R Holland given a couple years ago to the missionarys about how to teach and the process of conversion. It was really so powerful, hearing this from an apostle of the Lord. It is imperative that we, as children of Heavenly Father get that personal relationship with Him and become fully converted in faith and in life to Him and His son Jesus Christ. He just loves us so much and because of that love and because of that plan, we are able to live for eternity with Him and with our families, for eternity! What an incredible blessing!!!

This Gospel is SO true. Heavenly Father knows us. We are SO blessed! :D

I love you all very much and I am so grateful for you in my life!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Ali :)

Three more weeks in the CCM!!

Hooooooooola!!!!!!!

 

Ok...So I have had a WONDERFUL but very filled week and I only have a wee bit of time to write about it. So forgive me if I leave out details! :) First off, the spanish learning continues! verrrrrry slowly. You think you have something, and then you go into a practice lesson and dont understand a thing! haha its pretty entertaining. But it definitely is coming! All of the Latino´s left this week for their missions (they only have 3 weeks because they don't learn a new language) and that includes the amazing Hermana´s! :( They were such incredibly wonderful loving people who are going to do amazing things with their lives and missions! BUT we get new ones tomorrow! Its an exciting day!  I was also called to be coordinating sister over the hermanas of the ccm which means I get to handle any questions and problems they have. We will see how that goes seeing as I can't communicate too well :)

 

OK! Proselyting in Chosica was an AMAZING experience. Seriously indescribable. I dont know what to say almost. The living conditions of these wonderful people is beyond what I had ever imagined. Go on google images, type in lima, and the picture you see of the colorful houses on the hill is where we were. You cant see it from the picture, but it is so sad. These people squish so many family members into one house and struggle to eat, but they are such caring, humble people. Truly amazing and so ready to here the gospel! That was just a taste of what I will get when I hit the field and I am so excited to teach these wonderful people!

 

Fun story of the week. We ate at arestaurant while we were out and half of the CCM here got horribly sick from eating the lettuce. Class rooms were half empty on Monday because people were just too sick to even get out of bed. Those evil little parasite worm buggers always gota be sneakin on the veggies! It kind of just hit me today, but luckily it´s p day so I can lay in bed the rest of the day and sleep it off without missing class! Holler!!!

 

Today, earlier, we had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Central Lima and touring this ancient monastery that was built in the 1500´s! Also...underground was the catacombs where they had the bones of about 25,000 people. It was crazy, but way cool and really impossible to describe. We werent allowed to take any pictures inside, but I got a couple outside. Unfortunately, I still cant send pictures...but hopefully soon!

 

Anyways...that about sums up the activities of my week! It was great! I still love it SO much!!!

 

Thank you all for your prayers, for you letters, dear elders and genuine love! Especially for the card from the Season of Hope choir! I was deeply touched, It made my day! :)

 

It is time for me to go try to sleep off these little parasites! But keep the letter coming and I will try my best to respond! :)

 

Siempre, MUCHO amor!!!

 

Hermana Ali :)

 

Week Two in Peru!

 

Hoooooooooooooooola!

 

I know it hasnt been long since my last email...but that silly internet decided to not work on my last P-day so here is another one :)

 

So first of all...I still absolutely LOVE it here!! So Much. I almost never want to leave the CCM, but I mean...there are people to teach, places to go and adventures just waiting for me! So let me first just talk about how wonderful General Conference was this past weekend!!! What a fantastic opportunity to hear from the Prophet and all of the apostles! I hope you each took the time to watch it because Saturday and Sunday were just incredible spiritual food! :) My favorite talk was by Elder Dallin H Oaks of the quorum of the twelve apostles. He spoke of the need for families of the Lord, being raised up in righteousness and about the need that children have to be brought up in a good environment where they can learn safely and well. My revelation in this talk was very strong and to the point. When I return home, I need to continue studying Social Work and help as many children as possible find good homes. It feels so right and I know that this career is what the Lord wants me to do. Also...the new age for missionaries to serve missions for elders is 18 years old and 19 for sisters!!!! Ah!!!!! Crazy!!! But SO exciting! The work is progressing! :)

 

So this week, our district of 9 received 3 new elders! They are a wonderful asset to the district and I am excited for them to join us! :) I have a funny and awkward story of the week. So spanish is coming, sloooooooooooooooowly but surely and my companion and I seem to misinterpret things a lot especially when the natives are talking to us. They were taking a picture of all of the departing missionaries and my companion Hermana Pugmire and myself somehow thought we were supposed to be in the picture. However, when everyone was all set up for the picture, I looked up and saw no one from our district. So I asked, a bit concerned and apparently, this picture was only for advanced missionaries leaving for the mission field. We ran away quickly and were about 20 minutes late to class while everyone was laughing at our silly Norte Americano ways. hahahahaha it was super embarassing but sooooo funny! There have been so many times where we just talk to the latinos and nod and say ´si!´ because we have no idea what they are saying. But that´s ok...it will come! :)

 

So speaking of the missionaries departing into their mission fields this week, our other Hermana´s are also leaving :( I am going to miss them SO much but I am sure that the incoming ones will be just as wonderful. It´s crazy how close we were able to get to these missionary´s in the short 2 and a half weeks that we have been here. I just love them and all the people here so much, it´s ridiculous.

 

The food is as good as ever still! We still havnt had Cuy, roasted guinea pig. I think that will be when we get out to our mission fields. I am excited! But every meal is an adventure. We always have rice, chicken, potatoes and then a random thing on a plate that we never know what it is...and a unique dessert of some sort. Every meal brings a new adventure. I just love it! :) I still have avoided any worms or parasites too! So that`s good! Hahahah The weather here in Lima is getting to be beautiful. Its rather chilly most of the time because it just got out of winter and we are in spring at the moment heading into Summer. When the Sun comes out and the sky is clear, it is just beautifuL! I love it.

 

So today we had the chance to go out into town for P day and attend the temple and go to the store a little bit. I testify that the temple is literally a house of the Lord. It is so important to go because the work that is performed inside is real. I know it. The spirit of the temple is so strong and we can feel so close to Heavenly Father, even on the grounds. It really is a special place that is so important.

 

This upcoming Saturday, we are going on an adventure! We have the opportunity to go out knocking on doors and sharing our message about the gospel of Jesus Christ, with real people! In Spanish!!!! Luckily, we are being paired with a native companion because we would just be incredibly lost with two norte americanas. I am so excited! We are taking a bus about 3 hours away to a city called Chosica! We get to eat lunch out in the field and knock doors for about 5 hours! Im excited and scared because I dont know spanish! But it will be so much fun!!! I cant wait. Also, next Tuesday, when the advanced missionaries head out into the field, we get to go on a tour of Lima! That will be wonderful as well!!!

 

Im so excited! I will have more to say next week and tell of my adventures! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and His work is moving foward. I love my life and I LOVE being a missionary!! :)

 

Siempre Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Ali

 

I LOVE PERU!!!!!

 

Update from Friday, October 5, 2012

 

Hoooooooolaaaa Familia!!!!

 

I cannot even describe how incredible of an experience it is to be here in Peru! This Missionary training center is wonderful! The MTC in Provo UT had abou 2700 missionaries, this one has 109! It´s super cozy and I love it so much! Ok so first off, I have a funny story. I flew to Peru exactly a week ago, last friday. However, the morning that we left was quite hectic. We woke up at about 2:30 in the morning, went to the travel office, had everything packed in the van ready to go to the airport and we were on our way when suddenly it dawned on me that I didnt actually have my passport or visa in my hand. So...feeling a bit foolish, I decided to voice my concern to the driver and he immediately stopped the van and said, ¨What??¨ Long story short, I trvaelled with 4 missionary´s and not one of us had been given our passports/visas back from the travel office. For about 45 minutes (at 3 in the mornin) the driver was scurrying about calling everyone trying to find out where our passports were. Turns out they were in the travel office the whole time. Hahahaha oh silly travel people. If I hadnt have said anything, we could have flown to Florida and been stuck! It was way funny.

 

BUT! Ok. So I got to the CCM (MTC here in Peru) at about 11;30pm and conked out. The next day, we went straight into classes and typical schedule. I love how everything is the same with this gospel everywhere! I love my new companion! Her name is Hermana Pugmire and she is from Arizona. I had actually met her in the Provo MTC because she was previous companions with my old companion Hermana Dopp! She is going to Arequipa Peru! She is amazing and I just love her bunches. My district is very different from my old district, but once again, all the Elders are 19, serving Heavenly Father, ready and willing to work! They are a good group. I am blessed :)

 

Ok. So, hopefully I have avoided getting a parasite yet... because the water in the CCM is completely filtered, except the garden hose! So...lets all hope and pray that that continues because nobody wants a worm :/ BUT the food here is sooooooooooooo good! I dont know why we dont eat rice and chicken for every meal in the US because it is incredible! They basically have rice, chicken/fish, a mini (very unique) salad and potatoes. Suuuuuuper delicious. Oh. And their desserts are beautiful as well. They have even had a tuna salad once!! :D

 

The people here, I cannot even describe. I love them all so much. There are only 10 hermanas here out of the 109 missionarys in the CCM and me and my companion (being the only white hermanas) stand out very much. But it´s ok! Everyone treats us with so much respect. The customs of South America are so wonderful, so respectful, so polite! It´s very humbling to realize how much they respect each other. I love all of the Hermana´s especially! We dont speak very good spanish and only two of them speak a couple of words of english, but they are so genuine, and so loving and SO happy all the time! I love them all so much! :)

 

Something unique here, is that on Preparation Day, we get to go outside into the city! We got to go to the Lima, Temple and afterwards go to the store! Sounds very exciting I know, but everything was in Spanish! It was great!! The bus ride was the best part. We rode a bus with probably about 50 people squished in a bus meant for 25. Good stuff :)

 

I dont have too much time left, but unfortunately, there is no camera connecter thing here, so for the next month or so, I wont be able to send any pictures :( So when I do, there will be quite a bit :) Also, my new address is as follows, should anyone desire to send me a real letter. (Although I am very ok with email :)

 

Hermana Elisheva Ali

CCM Lima Perú

Ave. Melgarejo #159

Urb. Campo Verde

La Molina-Lima 12

Perú

 

My P Days are on wednesday so unless there is an internet malfunction (like there was this past wednesday) that is when my emails will come :)

I am continuing to learn new doctrines and principles every day about how much God loves us and wants us to be happy and I love it. Also, I am SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE this weekend!!! What an incredible opportunity to listen to a prophet of the Lord speak to us! I don´t have my scriptures with me, but one of my new favorite scriptures is Amos 3:7 in the bible. I love it.

 

I love you all mucho!!!

 

Con mucho amor! :)

 

Hermana Elisheva Ali

 

I'm going to Peru!!!!!!! Thursday, 9-27-12 update

 

As you can see from the title of this email...I GOT MY VISA YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D Originally, my scheduled departure date (had I gotten my visa on time) was Tuesday, but since I hadnt received it, I was a tad bummed, but accepted the fact that I would just get to stay in this fantastically wonderful place with my amazing companions and district a little bit longer. However, Heavenly Father had a different plan. It is currently Thursday morning at 11:00 and I report to the travel office tomorrow morning at 3:00AM!!! I literally can't believe it! I am so excited but also kind of sad because it is such a rushed little process and I have so many people to say goodbye to in just one day! But it's ok. I am going to tell you the story of what happened because it was really exciting. :)

So we were sitting in class as usual, speaking spanish and learning wonderful things, when all of a sudden a voice on the intercom said "Hello, is anyone in this room?" We all replied "Yes!" The voice then said, "Could we please have a Sister Ali and an Elder Lundberg report to the travel office immediately" (Elder Lundberg is an elder in my district who is going to my same mission) We literally both screamed and jumped out of our seats. It was so great. We then walked/ran to the travel office where they informed us that our visa's had indeed arrived and we were to depart Friday the 28th at 3:00am! It was very exciting. Then I got to call my mom and tell her :)

Anyway, so that is that! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D We fly tomorrow from Salt Lake to Dallas, to Miami, and finally to Lima on American Airlines!!! It's so crazy, it hasn't really even hit me yet that Im on my mission, but I think it will tomorrow! Everything in my life for the next 17 months is going to be 100% spanish! I better start praying harder than I already am for the gift of tongues! I get to watch General Conference in Spanish, have church devotionals in spanish (I guess unless a general authority comes who speaks english...that would be nice.. :) The food will be rice, beans, and chicken and fish and AH! I don't even know!

So yea, that is the most exciting part of my week so far :D I don't know when my next Preparation Day (day I can email, write letters etc.) will be so it could be a while until I get back on a  computer, or it might be a couple of days...FROM PERU!!!! :)

I am off on a whole new adventure! I don't know why I didn't get my visa two days ago, but I know that the Lord had a purpose for it. He needs me there on Friday, and He has a plan for me and for each one of you! This gospel blesses my life so much and I feel so humbled and so blessed that the Lord has given me the opportunity to do His work. My experience here at the Provo Missionary Training Center has prepared me for my next adventure at the Peru Missionary Training Center and although I will miss the people and experiences I have had here, I can't wait to begin there!

I love you all!! Thank you so much for your letters and emails! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!!! :)

Con amor siempre!

Hermana Ali :)

PS-I was going to send a bunch of pictures but the computer is being dumb sooooo my bad :( There will just be an overload next time I get to a computer with picture capability :)

Three Weeks Already!!

Hola mi familia!!!

 

 

First things first. Thank you to Mrs. Post, Juli and Jo, and Elise for the letters!! You will be getting replies soon. I love letters! Keep em coming and I will respond asap! :)

  

I can't even describe to you how much I LOVE it here at the MTC. I know I say that every week but it's true and amazing! My testimony is growing every single day in different aspects of this incredible Gospel, my friendships with my district and companions are growing and growing, spanish is definitely progressing and this whole experience is already flying by! I cannot believe how fast it is going!! It is so good to get emails and letters from people. I love you all more than you will ever know.

 

I feel like so much has happened in the past week, and I dont even know where to begin! First things first, my visa is not here yet. I was supposed to be leaving on the 25th, but me, along with two other elders in my district going to Peru have not received our visa's yet and so we will be staying here until further notice. Posiibly the whole nine weeks of the MTC and maybe even being sent to another mission in the states while we wait for them to come. I love my district and my language definitely still needs improvement so I am ok with whatever happens. I know that if I stay here, go to Peru sooner, or get sent to another mission for a wee bit, that is where the Lord wants me for that specific time.

 

Ny companions and I (Hermana Dopp and Hermana Eberle) get along SO WELL. I am so blessed to have them! Hermana Dopp was made coordinating sister over the sisters in our entire zone so that tells you how amazing she is. Both of them have so many things that are examples to me and I am learning from them every single day. Hermana Eberle is an insanely bright scriptorian who knows the scriptures backwards and fowards and finds connections with anything and everything. I just hope I can be as good when I get off of my mission! Hahaha. As for me, I am working on my scripture reference knowledge and my patience, especially this last week with the language. I know it will come with time and everyone keeps telling me, "Don't worry Hermana, you will learn it." Being on week three and still being relatively new at this whole spanish thing has been puttin some doubts in my mind, but I know it will come. We pray for the gift of tongues and the ability to teach our investigators clearly every day, and let me tell you a story that happened with one of our investigators this week (yesterday actually)!

 

His name is Pablo. (He is one of our teachers, and we just practice on him, but the situation is very similar to what will happen in the field :) So, we were teaching Pablo who he was and is as a literal child of a Heavenly Father and teaching him how important it is to gain that personal relatiopnship with Heavenly Father so that he is able to feel the spirit more fully in his life. Teaching investigators in spanish, when you don't know the language is rather difficult and intimidating, but I mentioned that we have been praying for the gift of tongues and clarity with our investigators right? Well, this particular lesson, our prayers were answered. I was able to bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith and of Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ without a hitch! It truly was an answer to a prayer. There is no other explanation.

 

Also...the quote that I tried quoting last week by Sister Juli B Beck was: "Obedience brings blessings. Exact obedience brings miracles." As I was striving to be more obedient, a miracle happened and I PROMISE that is what happened. It was AMAZING!!!!

 

Im almost out of time, but another prayer that was answered for language goals in mine and my companions life came in the form of two new roommates Hermana's Quejera and Ganas! They are both native speakers and although they have both only been here since Wednesday, our language is already improving thanks to them!

 

Heavenly Father knows us. He loves us. He wants what is best for us and He answers prayers! We also had an incredible devotional on Sunday night on the Book of Mormon and the importance of it. I have been studying it through again during personal study and I know without a doubt in my mind that this book is true! I strongly encourage all of you to read it because the words contained in it are answers to prayers/questions, advice for us in our day, counsel from God and examples that we can follow.

 

I will send a couple of pictures later, but for now, I will talk to you all later.

I love you all and keep the letters coming! :)

 

Con Amor,

Hermana Elisheva Ali :)

 

Spanglish?

 

Hooooooooola!!

 

It''s so good to hear from you wonderful family! I have officially been in the Missionary Training Center for a week and a half! Let me just say...the days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days! It feels like just yesterday that I got here, but if my visa gets here in time, I will be leaving in two weeks for Peru! Crazy! I absolutely without a doubt LOVE it here! My companion Hermana Eberle and I got another companion, Hermana Dopp, she is such a wonderful addition to our district and our companionship! I feel so blessed to have such wonderful companions! What can I say, except that I love being a missionary! We have class for about 6 hours every day (spanish and fundamentals of Gospel Doctrine) personal study (scriptures etc.) companionship study, language study, additional study, gym time and something called ""TALL"" which is a language tool to learn vocab/verb conjugation etc. I just found out yesterday that our days are 16 hours long!! We wake up at 6:30am, quiet time at 10:15pm and lights off at 10:30. Everything is scheduled to a T and I love it! The funny thing is, although we have so many hours in the day that we are up and about, it almost seems like there is not enough time to accomplish everything. But, we get it done and everything is great! :)

 

My district is so amazing. These are the people that I have class with, church with, lunch with and they are all wonderful. This computer doesnt have a camera connector thing so I am going to send a seperate email with pictures attached once I get there. But, you will see all of them. I love them all SO much. I am truly blessed. As for spanish...let me just say that I am far from fluent. BUT it is coming along. My companions and I have taken to carrying vocab notecards around, talking as much as we can in spanish (or spanglish...depending on how you look at it...) singing spanish hymns twice a day, praying in spanish and reading a chapter from the scriptures in spanish every day. All of these little things are helping me work toward being fluent and slowly but surely it is coming. I realized the other day as I was journaling, one of the reasons that I was called to a spanish speaking mission. As most of you know, I am a very stubborn person and I like to rely on myself a lot. However, without the help of Heavenly Father, there is no way that I will be able to become fluent and acquire the gift of tongues without increased faith in Him and humility. If I humble myself and pray multiple times daily, I know that He will bless me with the things I need to be able to communicate with those I teach.

 

I am also learning how importance obedience is. Being on time to everything every day and abiding by some of the rules here can be really hard, but I have already seen a difference when I am obedient, I am more blessed and I am able to be more attune to the spirit. It''s hard to explain, but we hear a quote this past week that was something to the affect of...''obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings the blessings of the Spirit and the help of the Lord more abundantly. How true that is, that when we keep the commandments and honor our covenants that our lives seem to be more peaceful and the blessings seem to be more abundant.

 

My testimony is growing every day,, I love my companions, I love my district, I love my teachers and I just LOVE being a missionary SO MUCH!!

 

I will send another email with pictures a bit later, but for now I am out of time.

 

If you have time, write me some letters because I love hearing from you all!

 

 

Te Amo Mucho!!!!

 

Love,

Hermana Ali