Wow what a week! It´s been crazy busy. We teach our "investigators" all the time, and we never write down the sentences we´re going to say anymore, and because of that, every lesson we´re 100% relying on the Spirit, and it´s so great. And heaven knows I can´t figure out Spanish without the Holy Ghost :) haha.
So! News. I got some wicked cool pants and a Peruvian soccer jersey as well as a USA jersey :) Oh, and Hermana Russell and I are the Sister Leaders for our last two weeks at the CCM! We´re both pretty excited about it :) I love the amount of opportunities I have to serve when I´m in a leadership position. Tonight we´re going to start the interviews with all of the Hermanas, and I´m so excited to get to know each of them a little bit better!
Remember how last week I said someone cool was coming and I was in the choir and hoped I´d be able to sing because I´ve had a frog voice and a cough for nearly two weeks? The cool person who came is Elder Evans, he's in the first quorum (originally misspelled, but Mum fixed it... it's a HARD word even for English-speakers, c'mon!) (i. hate. english.) of the seventy and besides a couple of apostles he´s basically in charge of the missionary department. Him and his wife spoke in church on Sunday, and then again in our devotional after lunch. It was AMAZING! I didn´t bring my notes with me today, but next week I will for sure because his talk on tenacity during church was just about the most amazing thing ever.
On Saturday we had an earthquake in Lima! It was so crazy! We were just sitting there having a grammar class and the ground kinda starts shaking a little bit and then Hna Villanueva was like "oh... my... gosh.....It´s an earthquake get outside!!" We almost started to book it and then she said "slowly, slowly" at us in Spanish a few times. We walked to the earthquake safe circle thing outside and waited for a few minutes to make sure there was no aftershock and then we were able to go back inside. I´ve never felt an earthquake before so that was so cool! It wasn´t bad at all, so don´t panic :) We couldn´t even feel it after we went outside and you could barely see the buildings moving.
The next day we had class we asked Hermano Davalos what he was doing when it happened and he said he was just cooking, and he didn´t even go outside but his wife ran outside as soon as she felt something. He said she´s pretty panicky about things like that and he had turned around to be like "honey, can you hand me the... wait, where are you??" It was another one of those stories I have to tell you in person, because the accent and Spanglish just makes it hilarious, when writing it down sounds out right boring. But trust me, these people are the funniest souls alive.
So practically every day we play grammar games outside with Hna. Villanueva and generally it´s hilarious because we all know how well I can throw a ball, let alone throwing a volleyball at a specific target, and she´ll grab one of the baseball bats and fake-threaten us with it if we say something incorrectly. Her English isn´t fantastic, so generally she´ll just say Punishment! and it´s so so funny.
Wow. Reading this again makes me realize how quickly my English skillzz are leaving me. Who would have guessed from this email that I wanted to be an English major for most of my life?? Craziness, I´m telling you.
Today when we were at the distribution center at the temple I got a Quechuan Book of Mormon!! So. Flipping. Cool. And when I was in line to buy it, a cute little lady leaned around my shoulder, read what version of the Book of Mormon was in my arm and asked me if I was going to the Cusco mission!! We chatted for maybe 10 or so minutes in hard-core Spanglish (thank heavens she spoke a little bit of English and my Spanish is improving so much!) and she said she lives in Puno, but her and her daughter are here visiting and they wanted to come to the temple. Puno is in the Cusco mission boundaries and she said she had missionaries living with her several years ago and she was just absolutely THRILLED to see my whole group of Cusco missionaries :) She hugged me about a dozen times and kept saying how much she hoped I´d be sent to Puno at some point. I loved her. So much. You could see the love she had for all of us in her eyes and she was just the sweetest thing. She read my name tag about a million times so she could remember me if I ever get to Puno. I´m hoping to get sent there at some point too so I can meet her and her sweet daughter again! Straight up the coolest thing that´s happened to me this week. I love Peruvians.
I just want you all to know how much I love and believe in this gospel. Without the gift of tongues, the help of the Lord, and so many loving people here, I wouldn´t be able to succeed as much as I am. Spanish is coming. It feels like it´s coming slowly, but it´s definitely coming. And considering how I´ve never even studied Spanish outside of the CCM it´s a miracle that I´m as good as I am now. Every time we leave the CCM I´m so completely aware of how far I still have to go considering 75% of the time I have no idea what anyone´s saying, but I know it just takes time, practice, and patience. I know this gospel is true and every day I´m more aware of exactly how perfect Peru is for me. I know it´s where I´m supposed to be! Mission calls are inspired, my friends. They are absolutely 100% from God. For those of you serving, or who are about to leave, remember how you felt when you opened your call :) I know that for me, it was the most overwhelming thing because in that one moment I realized exactly how important this work is, how much I love these sweet Peruvians already, and how much God loves them too. That´s why we´re here! To invite others to come unto Christ :) 2 more weeks in the CCM. Oh, how time flies.
I love you all! Be safe, have fun, don´t get eaten and remember who you are!
Hermana Hill
Oh. Dude. I totally left the baby-face part out. One of the teachers here calls me that. EVERY. TIME. I see him. His English isn´t good enough to explain why he calls me that, but I´ve put together a few of his explanations in Spanish and it has something to do with my cheeks (there´s a shocker) and a missionary that used to be here. It's pretty much the greatest :)
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