I Almost Broke My Pinky Toe ...

... by tripping while getting off my bed during our weekly planning session.

Yeah, I`m that smooth.

We went to the doc the other day, and took some x rays of my foot. Not broken, just ugly and it hurts a bit. But I still can work, which is what`s important :) I`d go crazy if I was stuck inside. I just want to preach the gospel! Haha. They let me take the xrays home too, until I go back into the doctor morning. The doc just wants to make sure the pain doesn`t stay or something. I`m not entirely sure. 

(Don`t worry parents, I`m okay!) (Kelly here: YEAH RIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!)

Bigger news than me being clumsy: Changes are today! I`m getting a new companion. Her name is Hna Gonzalez and Hna Condie is going to Puno to be a Sister Leader. But luckily, I`m not changing areas again! I get to stay in Alamos. I love Alamos so much. I`m going to miss my mission mom like crazy, but I`m also excited to be done with my training and to learn more from a new companion.

Hope you all have the best of weeks :)

Con Mucho Amor,

Hna Hill

Me feeding llamas last Pday! So. Cool. And a little bit freaky. Those things spit. A lot. And they have a pretty good aim.

Me and Danessda - our pension`s daughter. She`s my age and probably one of the coolest people I know. I`m so glad I get to see her for at least one more change!


(Kelly here)

The following couple of pictures were shamelessly lifted from the One and Only, Adorable Amie Condie, Mom of my Keni Girl (gosh I'm gonna miss seeing those two cuties together!!) (but I will stalk her on her blog, I'm sure!)...

The llama licked her face ... lol

P Day Ladies

Hermana Condie's Pictures from February 16th

(Kelly here)

Stolen goods from Amie Condie's blog. I can't wait to meet that cute girl one of these days. She's been a terrific trainer for Keni and they seem to get along so well. Amie has been on her mission for one year and only has six months left. What a great gal!! Here's a sweet quote from her blog this week:

"Hna Hill is doing great! She`s ready to finish her training next week. I`m so proud of her."

20 Familias

Last week we had our zone meeting/pday and one of the things we talked about was contacting families. One of the goals we have as a mission is to contact 12 families in the street each week. We haven`t been fantastic at that, and especially not in our new sector. We contact every family we see, but we just don`t see that many in Alamos. This week though, our zone leaders challenged us to contact 20 families (per companionship) this week. With a lot of faith, hard work, and diligence, we did it! One day we contacted 15 families. This week has been pretty incredible. Usually we`ll get like 4 or 5 families, and this week we got 20! We tried to contact at least five more than that, but they rejected us. Oh well, they`ll come around eventually :)

And for the activity last pday we played water games/threw water balloons/buckets of water/foam at each other for a couple of hours, because February is Carnaval :) It was so much fun! We were freezing at the end of it - the only day for a week and a half that was rainy and cold when it had been crazy sunny every other day - but it was way better than being humiliated while playing volleyball. This is why Elder Nicholls is my favorite zone leader. He plans really amazing hikes and water fights for zone pdays instead of sports :) secret: He`s the only zone leader I`ve had. Well, him and his two latino companions. They`re cool too. 

Valentine`s Day as a missionary is even more lame than not having a date at home. We didn`t have a single cita, all day long. No one was home, not even the members. On the bright side, we contacted a lot of families, ate Burger King for dinner, bought ice cream... twice... and took some pictures with the most beautiful stray dog in Peru. (That white one with two different colored eyes. I think I included that picture.) Honestly, it didn`t feel any different than any other day as a missionary, except that because it was Valentine`s Day, NO ONE was home. That was the only part that was a bummer :)

Oh - I found something that`s way better than a boyfriend. Tres leches :) Or, cuatro leches if you know the pension of the Elders. Basically, it`s true love in a cake. 

Remember the important things in life - faith, diligence, the scriptures, family, Christ, la Iglesia, etc. Are more important than anything else. Make them a priority! It`ll bless your life more than you realize :)

Con MUCHO Amor this (belated) Valentine`s Day,

Hermana Hill

oh.. by the way. Ven y besame means come and kiss me. Ha. Don`t do that, I`m a missionary. It`s just funny cause Valentine`s Day happened this week. (My humor is getting progressively stupider, just in case you were wondering...)

Hermana Condie's Pictures

(Kelly here)

Since Keni Girl didn't send any pictures this week, Kristin (Amie's mom) guided me to these. :) Love her!!

Cusco

Carnival

After the cuy ear (heh heh)

PDay friends

"Come and Kiss Me"

I Nibbled On a Cuy Ear

In case you don`t know, cuy is guinea pig. 

This week has been very interesting.

When we were hiking up one of the cerros in our sector, a lady contacted US and invited us to her house. She`s such a sweet lady. She was willing to give us absolutely everything she had (including one of her live guinea pigs that she sells) and she had just barely met us. We turned that stuff down of course, but she also fed us a little lunch of chicken and noodles, when we had just had lunch 15 minutes earlier, and then offered us some cuy! Cause Hna Condie was nice enough to say that she hadn`t tried it before, but she really wanted to. So this lady offered us the only cooked piece she had left, which was the head. We kinda just stared at it for a second and then she took it back and ripped off the ears and gave one to each of us. We did our best to eat it, but it kinda still had a little bit of hair, and it was pure cartelage (i have absolutely no idea how to spell that anymore) so it was difficult. Hna Condie hid hers in  a napkin, and I tried, but besides the fact that it creeped me out, I had no idea how to eat an ear. Then the lady saw I was struggling and took it back and said she`d give it to the dog. I felt so bad, but she didn`t seem offended. We talked to her about prayer a little bit, and she asked me to offer one in English. Since I`ve been praying in Spanish since the first day in the CCM and even the majority of my personal prayers are in Spanish, I can`t really pray in English anymore. That was shocking :) It was so hard. I don`t remember any of the words I`d normally use in an English prayer. Luckily only Hna Condie could understand just how awkward it was :) And she`s the same way, so esta bien.

After we left her house, we contacted a family in the street and it was straight up the weirdest contact we`ve ever made. The guy, who was completely drunk, said he had the devil in his head, that our eyes were beautiful, his wife`s were ugly, and other things like that. When we were shaking their hands goodbye, he kissed our hand and then bent over and his wife told us to pat his head to heal him of the devil that was in his head. We don`t really understand any of what happened in that contact, but that family has a restoration pamphlet and our phone number and the direction to the church! They have the opportunity to learn if they have the desire.

Also, the entire month of Febrero is Carnival. Which means that two different times we`ve been chased down by kids and teenagers with water balloons. We also bought water pistols and that was probably the best two soles I`ve ever spent. And today (the only day that it`s rained and hasn`t been 1000 degrees outside this week) we`re going to have a giant water fight with two different zones. Carnival is fun when it`s just water and not paint or colored dust (which we luckily haven`t run into yet!)

We have a couple of investigators who are SO CLOSE to being baptized. One of them, Boris, attended church with us for the first time yesterday and he LOVES it. He also is a huge fan of the law of chastity! Which, I must say, is a relief that he doesn`t have doubts about that one. He actually has told us, several times, that he wishes the whole world realized that they should follow the law of chastity. He is sooo getting baptized. He just has to work on his faith on accepting the date we set for him :) He just wants to learn everything before baptism. Although after church yesterday, I doubt he`ll still be struggling with the date we gave him :)

Well, the internet is being weird and won`t upload my photos, so next week :) Thanks for everything you guys do, I love you all SO MUCH!

Keep Moving Forward!

#namethatmovie

Con Amor,

Hermana Hill

I don´t know what´s happening with my contacts

Since I don´t have like, ANYTHING, to say this week, I´ve been trying to make a group contact. And apparently the mission has made it so I have NO idea how to do anything with electronics.That´s awesome :) 

(Kelly here. The email came to a few people and approximately 10-15 "Frankie's", whoever that is. I guess she really is having a hard time saving contacts).

Sometimes, weeks don´t have anything special to report home. Sometimes you just work. That was this week :) We have a lot of investigators who we have high expectations for, but nothing in specific to share about them. But just know that they´re all INCREDIBLE.

Oh, we also had a multi-zone conference that was INCREDIBLE as well. I think I took about 15 pages of notes in my study journal. But I didn´t remember to bring it with me to share my favorite parts :) Next week. Also, they gave us these meat pockets (Hna Condie just told me that those are called empanadas. Meat pockets. I´m so good at words.) for a snack and they were the most delicious thing I´ve eaten here, that wasn´t American food from the mall. Man, meat should always be stuffed in bread pockets.

It´s crazy to think that in 3 weeks I could either be training or a sister leader, or in a different sector again, etc. It REALLY doesn´t feel like I have only 3 weeks left of my training. While I get better every day, I don´t know that I'll be ready once it´s over :) haha. That´s why we work HARD! To improve every single day!

Love you BUNCHES AND BUNCHES.

Hna Hill

OH! Happy birthday to Phil on the 8th and miss Stephanie Beales on the 7th :) I love you guys! Also, the pic is of me and Carla, a girl from our old ward and her mom used to be our pension. Their family is moving and I´m basically heartbroken. I love them to death.

OH! Otra vez. If you want to send me letters or packages or something, PLEASE remember to put my first name. There´s another Hna Hill in the mission, and they try to give me her packages all the time. Which is incredibly disappointing when they say Courtney (or something like that) and not Keni, but still. It´s an important thing to remember :) Gracias.