Happy Turkey Day!! November 19, 2012

 

Hola !!!

Finally I got a thing to attach pictures!!! Sorry it took so long. I definitely have a lot more but these I would say sum up my experience so far....more or less haha. The last ones are in the field on my roof! The view that we have and where I live. My companion in the CCM was the only other norte americana hermana and my comp now is hermana sanchez.


Happy Turkey day this week!!! As I listen to the chickens outside my window in the morning, I will think of you all eating your turkey. I am grateful for each and every one of you in my life. :D

Ok! Weekly update here goes:

My spanish is coming along slowly but surely! I can understand probably about 96.7% of what people say so that is definitely helping. The trouble comes when it is my turn to speak. My vocabulary is quite tiny and it is very difficult to describe things when you only know so much hahaha. However, I can definitely tell that it is coming veryyyyyy slowly. Im praying super hard for the gift of tongues so that is definitely helping too! :)
Fun fact I think I have forgotten to mention is the DOGS. Oh my goodness. They are everywhere!!! Soooooooo many. Lying on the street...chasing you...barking nonstop...it is super funny. You have to be super aware and if they start running at you bend down and act like you are picking up a rock to throw at them. It totally works! The other day though...my companion and I were on our way to an appt and we were in an alley with dogs on each end. Hahaha it was funny. We got out of it safely though :)
I got sick from the food so that was fun! Funny thing is though...I ate hot dogs...cooked in my apt haha not even peruvian food! My stomach is super weak. Im all better now though. For now :)

For the first time ever, I get to wash some of my clothes by hand too! It is quite the experience, but definitely a good one! And super cheap too!

Training is coming along. My trainer, companion Hermana Sanchez is good. We are suuuper different and its making me look at things in new perspectives which is really good for me! But she really has such a good heart and cares for these people a lot. We have 5 investigators right now who are interested in learning about the church. We have one in particular who I wanted to talk about who is suuuuuuuper special. I just love him so much! His name is Percy. He is the son of a member who converted 7 years ago who is a cripple. They live in part of ´los cerros´ which is the hills in suuuuper humble circumstances. They are such a loving, devoted family and so humble. Percy is wonderful. He is about 25 or so. In our first lesson with him, we were talking about baptism and how it is important to follow the Savior and the spirit was super strong...so much so that he started crying! It was a super cool experience! The spirit really does touch and soften peoples hearts and it is the way that the Lord is able to communicate with us.

We also this week had a multi zone conference! President Douglas and his wife were there and we got training on how to better teach the Doctrine of Christ. If people truly understand the Doctrine - Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the girft of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End, they will have the desire to change because the spirit will touch their hearts. I know that this is true because I have already seen it in my mission!

Last but not least I have a super cool promise from Pres Hinckley! If someone reads the Book of Mormon out loud, all the way through in a language that they want to learn, having FAITH, they will be able to speak and understand the language. How cool is that!! I challenge you all to do that...(especially in spanish so we can talk when I get home) haha :)

I love you all! I pray for you daily!

Con mucho amor siempre,
Hermana Ali :)

 

 

 

I HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

Hola!!!!!!! Sorry its been a super long time since I emailed...our last preparation day in the CCM was on a wednesday, we came to thye mission the following tuesday and the mission p day isnt until mondays!!! So thats why :) Anyways! AH! Im in the field officially! Its so wierd but SO AWESOME!!!

Ok...so my first day was literally unforgettable. We arrived in the field (about 40 minutes from the CCM haha) and had orientation for about 5 hours...health, safety, rules, etc. The mission president really is amazing and has such strong faith. This is definitely the best mission. :) The focus of the mission is to invite others to really know their Savior Jesus Christ and have the desire to change their lives and repent and come unto Him. Faith and repentance. SO GREAT. Then! We got our first companions!! Oh! Fun fact about our mission, I will never have a norte americana campanion! Way cool. Anyway...Her name is Hermana Sanchez. She is from Mexico and super hard working, super obedient and really wants the best for everyone we come in contact with. She is great :) Anyways...we were assigned to open a brand new area! Chorillos! My first week! Yep..intense. We didnt even really know where we lived so we spent two hours in a taxi looking for our apt. We couldnt find it and ended up waiting at a church building for the zone leaders to show us our apt. We got there and decided to explore. We went up the stairs to look at the view (it overlooks the ocean) and we got locked out! Hahaha soooooooo funny! Anyways yep. That was my first day. Very eventful.

Shoot...i dont have much time left...BUT we basically spent the whole week tracting and contacting people. It was very overwhelming seeing as I dont know spanish too well hahaha but thats ok! With time! Luckily my companion speaks spanish. :)
However, we found quite a bit of people, met SO many amazing people, learned about our area, met our new ward, for me personally I am slowly becoming accustomed to the culture and I love it! For example...we live next to a chicken farmer on the fourth story of a building! haha its great! I dont really even need an alarm clock! I will send pictures next week of the view and of where we live! :)

As for the food...it is delightful! I am pretty sure there is absolutely no way to avoid getting sick because when we eat at members houses we cant say no...haha so I will just accept the sickness and pray that it passes quickly :)

We have 4 new investigators, and they are all super interested and super special! I love these people SO much! The christlike attribute that I have been working on this week is patience. Patience and humility are so important in missionary work because of finding people, teaching, learning a different language and relying on the Lord for every tiny little thing.

I cant attach pictures this week! Ah! But I will try really hard next week to find a little connecter thing for my camera because I have quite a few.

I love you all! Im so excited to be here and I will save more time to write next week and give you more specific details. :D

Con mucho amor siempre!!! :)

Hermana Elisheva Ali

PS. Seeing as I am only surrounded by spanish speakers...I am relatively sure that by the time I get home...I will have forgotten english. Haha

Happy Halloween from Peru! October 31, 2012

Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Feliz Dia de Brujas!!! ( as they say here in Peru...happy day of witches!) It´s so good to here from you all! :) I had heard nothing of the crazy storm but I am glad that everyone is safe! That´s crazy that it is worse than Katrina? You all are in my prayers for sure. 

 

 It has been quite a week full of a lot of different activities here in Lima! First off...I have less than a week left here in the CCM!!! I can´t believe it has been nine weeks! Next time you here from me I will be in the field!!! Ah! I dont know what day my new P day will be but I will let you know when I get there :) I am leaving Tuesday afternoon and because I am already in Lima it should only be a drive of an hour or so via bus haha.

 

Ok...So let´s see here...I still LOVE IT here!! So much. I am going to miss this place but I am super excited to get in the field and teach people!!! I have found though that this place really is so inspired! The things we learn here help us when we are out teaching so much and it´s great!! Ok...so one of the Hermanas here, her name is Hna Santacruz, she is from Argentina, she is one of my absolute favorites! She is going to come study at BYUI after the mission! Anyways...the reason I mentioned her is that we have gotten into the fun nightly activity of having her tell us a story every night before bed. Its super funny and helpful because its in spanish! haha yea.. :) Also...another fun fact, for the past 5 weeks here, my companion and I have been the only Norte Americana Hermanas here which has been super fun! But this past week we got two more from Provo. They are both super nice too so thats good :)

 

Ok! So last Saturday, we got to go proselyting again in Campoy!!! Apparently, this city is super dangerous, but being sisters, they put us in a super nice area out of harms way and it was SUCH a wonderful experience! We met so many people and taught about 5 lessons in 4 hours! We gave out probably about 14 pamphlets and 5 Books of Mormon too! We traded companions for the day again and we also had one of the sisters from that area there with us. So that was good because I had two latinas with me! Haha oh spanish... :) Anyway, we started walking up the street and these two little girls probably about 4-5 said... hey! Follow us and come see my family! So obviously...we did! Haha. But anyway, it was a way cool experience! We taught the Family the plan of Salvation and sung ¨Families can be together Forever¨ with them. The spirit was really strong and they invited us back again to hear more. What a beautiful, special family they were! We also taught a girl who was 19 years old who was just SO ready to hear the Gospel, we taught her the Restoration of the Gospel and about Joseph Smith. She just was so cute and so ready to hear about Heavenly Father and how much she was loved as a daughter of God! It was amazing. We talked about baptism and she really has the desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. It was incredible.

 

These people are just SO amazing! I love Peru. Im probably going to live here again at some point :)

 

Oh! Also...another fun fact that I have forgotten to mention is my new favorite fruit! They are called Granadillas. Soooooooooooooooo delicious!!! :)

 

Last but certainly not least, my spiritual tidbit of the week...last Wednesday, we had the opportunity to hear from an Area Seventy-Elder Wadell. He talked about the importance of our call and how we need to honor it because of who we are serving. He talked about how when we signed our acceptance to our mission call, we made a covenant with Heavenly Father that we would serve Him for this year and a half for all of the time, not part and that we need to honor our calling of representing Jesus Christ by standing by this covenant. It was SUCH a strong talk.

 

I have to go now! But I love you all!!! :)

 

Con Mucho Amor, SIEMPRE!

 

Hermana Ali :)