HAPPY DAY OF BIRTH!

(Kelly here) ... Keni didn't write a blog post this week, but she did send me this message because it's my birthday today:




Or in Spanish: ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS! 

You completed another year! Wow that came out Spanish. Grammar is hard in English. Just so you know, Jake helped me realize that I was writing to like everyone except for you every week. Yikes. I´m a sucky hija. 

No blog entry this week. Running out of time, and also nothing happened this week. I was sick in my bed. (DON´T WORRY. I´m okay! Normal stuff.) 

Something funny about spanish that I´m certain you´ll enjoy: 

Llama in Spanish is llama. You only pronounce it differently. it sounds like Yama. It also means a couple other things. My personal favorite, and one that never ceases to make me giggle like a 12 year old....

llama de fuego means flame.... but the first time I read that in the scriptures I was so confused. Because if you don´t know that llama also means flame, you think llama de fuego means 

FIRE LLAMA. 

I hope that made sense, because I´m basically always giggling when it says that in the scriptures. And it says it a fair amount. I love Spanish. It´s a crack up.

Anyway. I hope you have the best birthday EVER and know that I´m sending you all my love and hugs! 

A birthday reminder: In about a week I´m half way done with my mission. I´m sure that´ll make you squeal like a little girl. 

LOVE YOU SO SO SO MUCH! Te amo y te extraño muchísimo!

4th of July in Sicuani!

This week was a little crazy. First, I packed everything to move literally 5 minutes away. #IHatePacking

Second, I sweat for the first time in my whole mission. It was hot. Not going to lie, I didn´t miss the whole sweating thing.

Third, It was INDEPENDENCE DAY! Which pretty much just meant that we worked while wearing red, white, and blue. We went to Chumo (a part of our sector that has 90% cows and sheep and 10% people. I love Chumo.), there was snow in the mountains, we took a lot of pics, and then later that day we went to a funeral of  member that neither of us knew. Odd 4th of July, but it was really great too. It was nice to be a support for the family of that member who died, and there was SNOW in the mountains! 

4th of July in Sicuani. There was snow in the mountains :) 

Fourth, I love my comp. She´s so great. We were in the same district in Cusco, so it´s fun to reminisce... (someone... How do you spell that? I used to know.) She´s from Columbia, so there went the Argentina pattern, but I´m  just happy I still have a latina companion :) Latinas are the best.

My Colombiana compañera celebrating the 4th of July with me. She´s a sweetheart. 

Fifth, me and our district leader spent about 5 minutes trying to remember what a power converter was called. And actually, I´m still not sure that power converter is the right word.

Sixth, I studied the crap out of April´s conference issue. And I found a quote that I LOVE.

"I am here because I desire with all my heart to follow my Master, Jesus Christ. I yearn to do all that He asks of me in this great cause. I hunger to be edified by the Holy Spirit and hear the voice of God as He speaks through His ordained servants. I am here to become a better -woman- , to be lifted by the inspiring examples of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and to learn how to more effectively minister to those in need. In short, I am here because I love my Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why -I am- willing to make sacrifices and not just declarations to follow the Savior."  - Dieter F. Uchtdorf (On Being Genuine - April 2015 General Conference)

It´s so true. This is why I´m here. I´m here to invite others to come unto Christ. And sometimes, I´m not going to see the fruits of my work here. Who knows if I ever will. Occassionally that bums me out a little bit. But if I leave it all in the mission field. If I work so hard, and continue to improve and get to the point where I´m so used up that I´m the woman God wants me to be, it doesn´t really matter if I see the fruits. Because I´ll know that I did my best and that God is pleased with me. And that´s what really matters. I yearn and strive to be who our Heavenly Father wants me to be. So I´ll do whatever He asks of me. I´m willing to make the sacrifices. They might not be easy, but hey. I´ll have the Lord on my side. 

It really can´t get much better than this.

I love you all so much!

Happy 4th, happy birthday to my little brother Justin, and have a great week!

Hna Hill

Saying goodbye last week to Annel and Alejandra. Two of my favorite people ever :)

And the niños, who refused to believe I was leaving.

My pensionista Carmen, her family, me and my comp, and the elders. 

I found a tiny little frog. And I picked it up. And then tried to kiss it.

Gotta find my prince charming somehow, right? Why not a tiny frog in Chumo? #ILoveChumo

#Cha-cha-cha-Changes

I´m leaving Rosaspata. To go to Vilcanota (another ward in Sicuani). I´m kinda hoping that this isn´t a pattern. 

And yet another comp that I only had one change with. I´m going to miss Hna Fernández a lot! Even though we´ll still be in the same zone!

I don´t remember if I´ve mentioned her before or not, but Hna Paez is going to be my new companion! She´s the best. She was in my district in Cusco the whole time I was there, and came to Sicuani with me too. And now she´s my new comp! I´m really looking forward to it :)

I´m not really feeling like writing a lot. I´m going to miss my comp and our investigators and ward, pensionista, etc. Although I´m also looking forward to going to Vilcanota!

Love you all SO MUCH!

Hna Hill

I LOVE to See the Temple

As you know, there´s not a temple in my mission. Which breaks my heart. But yesterday they dedicated the second temple in Peru! Woohoo for Trujillo!

We got to watch the broadcast, but when we were in the Stake Center waiting for it to start, they told us that for some technical reason, Sicuani wasn´t going to get any of the three transmissions. #cuethecryingmissionaries 

Since we can´t go to the temple during our missions, that wasn´t something we wanted to hear. So the Zone Leaders called the Asistentes and Presidente about a million times to ask if we could travel to Cusco to watch at least one of the three transmissions. And we got permission! WOO! So we packed our whole zone on one of the buses, traveled to Cusco for three hours, ate lunch with one of the pensionistas over there, watched the third and final transmission, and then traveled back to Sicuani. #AdventureIsOutThere!

Part of Zona Sicuani, in Cusco!

And the day before we got to watch the celebración cultural. I love Peru. I love it so much.

And I also got to see Hna Wight when I was in Cusco. I love and miss that woman.

Hna Wight and I hugging it out.

Things that amazed me this week:

- The faith and preparation for the temple that we saw in our members, less actives, etc.

- Peru and its culture.

- To see 20 young adults (our zone) doing anything we could to be in an extension of the temple. You can´t imagine the joy when we were actually able to attend.

- How much faith my comp has. I love her, she´s the best.

- The chance I have to share this gospel with Peru! 

- That on FATHER´S DAY we dedicated one new temple. There´s another temple on the earth. What better gift could we give to our Father in Heaven on Father´s Day?

Speaking of Father´s Day, it´s really a pity that all of you don´t have MY dad. I love that man. I remember that the first time I went through the temple, that day a woman asked my dad if she could use his hands in a painting she was doing of Christ. She said he had perfect Christ hands. She was more right than she could have known. My dad is always serving others, and always being the example that us kids need him to be. Happy Father´s Day, Pops :) I love and miss you!

I love the rest of you too :) Have a great week!

Hna Hill

Hna Ugarte: another Argentina that I love. She´s one of the Hna Lideres in Sicuani.

Hna Fernández and our pension´s daughter Leandra, and their neighbor´s little kid Bryan. Those kids are hilarious. #goofingoffinastakeactivity

Comp selfies. 

Alejandra - Basically my favorite person ever.

She´s this super super tiny little old lady that we teach. And I´m pretty sure she knows more about the gospel than I do. The only reason she´s less active is because her knees are really bad and she can´t... subir... the stairs at the church without help. We´re trying to get the ward on board with that.

I forgot my Agenda.

So basically that means I forgot everything I wrote down that I wanted to send home....

Bien hecho, Hna Hill. 

Here´s what I remember:

I still hate that little kid voice that sells fruit. And actually, he sells masamorra con arroz con leche. #nothankyou

I went to Lima! FINALLY. I´m legal! WOOO! Everyone, have a spontaneous dance party. Right now.

It was long, and I just wanted to work in my sector, but I guess being legal is kinda important. 

When we were sitting, for hours and hours, in migraciones we met a man from Buenos Aires, Argentina and his accent was crazy thick. But I could understand him! And the latinas who were with us couldn´t! WOO! I love being able to understand. It was hard for me at the beginning, so I fought to understand, and now I don´t have problems. The gift of tongues is awesome. 

I LOVE being a missionary. Our ward is so incredible. They´re wonderful people. And I love all of the people we´re working with! I could talk about them for hours, so just know that I love them.

Also, my comp is in Machu Picchu without me today. And that makes me sad. I was supposed to go with her, but couldn´t because I didn´t get my carnet until two or three days ago. Que triste. But I get to hang out with the Hna Lideres, and they´re awesome.

There´s an upside to everything :)

Love you all so much!

Hna Hill

(Kelly here) The orange she spoke about last week, that was "as big as her head." Well, almost.

Highlights

Wait. Isn`t that a magazine?

- We had exchanges with the Hna Leaders, which kinda meant another day of not working in my own sector.

- I love my pensionista and her family. They`re absolutely adorable. And their 3 year old daughter says my name like Hermana Heeeewwww. She`s a cutie. And Carmen (our pensionista) said that their whole family missed me like crazy when one of the Hna Leaders was with my comp. And her daughter said "hey, where`s Hna Heeeww? I don`t want this one!" I love that family. haha

- We`re starting to change things in our sector. The ward is more willing to work with us, our investigators are progressing, we work really really well as a companionship (we basically laugh all day) and things are just... getting better. I love it :) I love that maybe, we`re making a difference here.

- My comp is AWESOME. She loves Doctor Who. WOOO! 

- There`s a fruit truck that drives around at night (like at 6 or 7. but it`s pitch black outside) that has a little kid`s voice advertising their fruit and it`s... terrifying. His voice is terrifying. It`s honestly like the voice from that Doctor Who episode from Season 1 where they`re in WW2 and that gasmask kid is asking everyone "Are you my mummy?" Wow... that`s super geeky. And I didn`t realize I missed Doctor Who til right now. But seriously, his voice is terrifying. Hna Fernández and I both hate it.

- I went to Cusco on Thursday night. 

- Friday morning we woke up at 3:30 so we could catch our plane... but then the Elders who had our plane tickets and passports accidentally slept in, so we missed our flight. AND then I travelled back to Sicuani. Eventually I`ll make it to Lima. But that`ll be in a week or two. Yay.

- The Elders in our zone are hilarious, and awesome. They`re always making sure that we`re doing okay, it`s pretty funny. 

- We`ve seen the Lord`s hand in our lives a lot this week. As we`ve been proselyting (how do you spell that?) we`ve been led by the Holy Ghost exactly where we needed to go and it`s been incredible. I love following the Spirit and I love being a missionary :)

Have an incredible week! Love you all!

Hna Hill

(Kelly here)

I asked Keni if she caught that guinea pig in last week's picture and then had to make an oven to cook/eat it. I also asked why there wasn't a picture of the orange that was as big as her head. I asked her what Aguas Calientes means and I guess "hot water." Oh - and fish. I asked about the fish. The orange in the only thing she would have eaten in the States, so I had to inquire. Here is her response:

I ate fish TWICE that week. One of them had a tail. Fish isn`t half bad. 

We did not eat the guinea pigs :) Plus, that one was a baby. There`s no "meat" on the babies. I don`t want to eat a guinea pig.

Going to Lima to either do the visa papers otra vez or to pick  up my carnet. I think that`s called visa en Ingles?

Aguas Calientes... Ummm... Aguas Termales? Uh... Hot water that comes from the earth thanks to a volcano? I don`t know what they`re called. (Kelly here. I'm guessing hot springs or geysers).

I forgot the picture. And this week I forgot my USB thingy to read my camera card, so I`ll send it next week. It was a BIG orange. We used it to play games in our English calss. So fun!

I´ve seen a lot of animals this week.

Guinea Pigs. Llamas. Dead fish (that I ate). Cows in the street. Roosters. Dead rats in the street (luckily haven´t seen a live one yet), etc. Cusco didn´t have nearly this many animals, and it´s kind of crazy to see all of them. Sicuani is different, but I love it equally :)

My week:

Ate an orange just about as big as my head. No joke.

Taught the missionaries an English class. My english is not good enough for that.

Built a mini... horno? What´s that in English?... to cook our neighbor´s guinea pigs. Or... we tried to. We´re not very good at that.

Caught and held a guinea pig.

Went to Cusco on Thursday night, because they told me I was going to go to Lima on Friday.

Came back to Sicuani Friday morning because I´m actually going to Lima THIS thursday.

Went to the Aguas Calientes with our pensionista and her family, and then a llama almost kissed me while we were taking a selfie.

We had a bunch of different lessons and they were just beautiful. I love being a missionary!

Hope your week is AMAZING! Love you all!

Hna Hill