Monday, January 27, 2014

That one time I tracted near Machu Picchu

Well, once again, it was a travel week. This time to Valle Sagrado Zone. there are 4 hermanas there in 2 different sectors (45 minutes apart). It was nuts and full of trying to solve problems, but I felt good.
Hermana Hansen and I are such good friends and we got to talk all day. It´s nice to have someone listen to me and not expect anything. Ever since I came to Cusco, it has felt like we have no one to turn to (other than God obviously) when we are having a hard time. that´s OUR job. we are the listeners and problem solvers. I felt like that a little in the MTC when I had this calling, but not as amplified. Don´t worry, I´m fine, I just miss having someone in charge of me telling me what to do haha. 

We had Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday to work in our sector, and man... it´s really hard to get people to progress in 3 days each week. We are leaving at 7:30 tomorrow morning for Andahuaylas (on duh why lass) and we´ll be there until late friday night. It´s an 8 hour bus ride. remember how I get car sick on the way to walmart? well, prayers and pills will play a big part in this trip. sleeping too. 

My letters are so boring now. I have so much to say, and so much happens, but I just forget it all. I should start writing things down. 

OH! Val, Hna. Garrett, Chelsea Garrett, and Nessa, I got the letters and candy! I dunno if you sent a USB with music, but there wasn´t one when I got it. I ate all the candy already... Good thing it´s impossible for me to get fat. 

Today we have to pick up 2 hermanas who have to get set apart by our mission president before heading out to their missions. They are going to sleep in our apartment tonight, and we´ll ship them out tomorrow morning before we leave. 

This is my life now. I like it, but I miss working in my sector all day every day. It´s very different, and rewarding in different ways. I´m happy. 


Love, Hermana Allred

1-- My companion, and Hermana Olivarez (I went on splits with her this week in Ollantaytambo. Her sector is the closest one to Machu Picchu. There aren´t any missionaries in the town of Machu Picchu)

2-- Ollantaytambo (oh yawn tie tom bow). Can you see the ruins? This town is adorable and full of die hard catholics and tourists. Hands down the hardest sector in the mission. There are 8 active members there and NO chapel. they have to take a 45 minute bus ride to Urubamba to go to church. 

3-- This would be Hno. Thompson. He makes shoes. (he reminds me of the book you are special) He´s senile and thinks the world is out to get him. We are patient with him. And we love him. 

4-- I was walking home from buying groceries for the next day, and who did I run into? Maribel Corimaya from SICUANI!!! She is a less active we had been working with for a long time, and I didn´t get the chance to say goodbye to her when I got transferred. I ran up to her and hugged her so tight. Might have cried a little too. I was sooo happy to see her. God really does give us tender mercies when we need them most. 






1-- Door. 
2-- Hermana Hansen and I. We got to be companions for a day in Urubamba. (she is the one I found on the sister missionary facebook page and we went to the temple a couple times together before we left) No one was home, so we had LOTS of time to catch up and just have fun. I really loved being her companion. it helps that her iPod was FULL of good music. We are so similar, it´s scary. 
3-- Urubamba Hermanas
4-- Pensionista in Ollantaytambo. CHOCLO and some kind of weird meat. I just didn´t ask what it was cuz I was scared it would be llama. 






1-- Made myself a journal out of a notebook, because THEY DO NOT SELL JOURNALS HERE. We searched forever. It´s almost impossible to find lined paper too. Everything is grid paper. 

2-- Brian Regan. That awkward seat in the back that faces the other cars. Don´t make eye contact ahhaa. Panais... 

3-- Hermanas in Ollantaytambo´s door. I WANT THIS APARTMENT! it is adorable. 

4-- Their apartment. I love the cobblestone. 






1-- Gemelas Rubias. 
2-- A lil tunnel in Ollantaytambo
3-- another cat lady companion... WHEN WILL IT END!? Maybe God is trying to teach me something... my husband is going to be a cat person. 
4-- Valle Sagrado (Urubamba)





Monday, January 20, 2014

Choclo con Queso

This week was a travel week. We left Cusco Tuesday after studies, got to Quillabamba that night, worked Wednesday and Thursday with the Hermanas there, then came back Friday and kept working in our sector… I{m exhausted, but happy. I didn't even throw up once! 

Quillabamba is about 6 hours away, and BOILING hot. I did not bring clothes for hot weather on my mission, so I was suffering. But, my skin was silky smooth when I left J One perk of being in the jungle for a few days. It was fun to get to know more missionaries and help them where I could. I still feel really inadequate. I learn so much from them when I’m supposed to be teaching/helping them haha.

This morning we went to Sacqui Huaman (no idea how to spell that… flipping Quechua) and Cristo Blanco. SO COOL. It was super early, and I don’t really function well in the morning, so everyone thought I was depressed. Nope. It just takes too much energy to talk before 10 AM. I am NOT a morning person. 

JACKIE ARROYO! (I hope you're reading this) I got your dear elder! You are going to come to the mission in May, and I'll still be one of the Sister Leaders in Cusco, so I get to meet you your first day. Send me your email so we can talk more. I will be writing a post about missionary advice that I{ve been collecting the past 9 months pretty soon, so don't you even worry. You won't make the same mistakes I did. Also, we have a list of all the Hermanas birthdays, and yours is soooon. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

I love you all a million red m&ms. 

Love, Hermana Allred

1-- The roof of the Hnas house in Quillabamba
2-- again
3-- pollo a la braza because they don{t have a pensionista for dinner. not healthy, but I love it. 
4-- Less actives we taught in their radio station. so cool. 






1-- I{ve been wearing my boots most days in Cusco cuz it{s super cold and rainy, but in Quillabamba, I got to rock my clarks and oh. my. TAN LINE up the wazoo. In just 3 days. 
2-- Choclo con Queso. (Corn on the cob with cheese.) They sell it all over the place when we travel. I LOVE IT SO MUCH. The cheese plain tastes like feet, but with corn it{s great. 
3-- I woke up (one of 10 times on our 6 hour trip) and saw this out the window... look closely. What does it look like? THE SECOND COMING! Once my eyes adjusted I realized it was just snow, but man. You really never know when he{s going to come again. You might be on a bus in peru. 
4-- Distrito Santiago. 






1-- 3 sol pizza. Classic Ttio Hnas. dinner.
2-- Our district plus 2 more elders. this picture looks like something off the Hills haha.
3-- Saqsi Huaman or whatever it's called. lots of rocks (all the places we go to in Peru are giant rocks haha)
4-- Cristo Blanco






1-- Some guy trying to sell us an anonymous "herb". Yeah, no. 
2-- same guy telling us how pumas eat lil animals and doing the actions haha. i wish I could send you the video. 
3-- LLAMA. 
4-- View from one of the cathedrals. You can see my house from here! and the plaza.






1-- Hna. Gonzales. One of the Hnas. I went on splits with
2-- Hna. Gomez. Other hna. 
3-- Distrito Santiago :) The best. 




Monday, January 13, 2014

Maizito

Well Cusco is just the greatest. I get Sicuani homesick sometimes, but I called Margarita this morning (our pensionista) and everything seems to be going alright so far with the new hermanas there, so I feel better about leaving. I MISS HER! but life goes on.
did I mention there is a BURGER KING with REAL HAMBURGERS!? It just opened in the mall, and man... good thing it{s not in my sector, cuz I would go there every day. 

1// I finished the book of mormon in Spanish on January 1st. I finished late cuz transfers messed me up. SO HAPPY! I understand spanish... that is a miracle.

2// I got called as the ward pianist 2 minutes before sacrament meeting started. the conversation when a little something like this 
1st counselor "Do you play piano?" 
me "um... kinda. like chopsticks and random songs I picked up by hearing my sister play them a million times" 
1st counselor "great. Here{s the songs we{re singing today. play them."
me "um... yeah. i don{t read music, but okay."

and then I played, and it didn{t sound horrible! Being a missionary helps you develop talents, and it{s great. By the time I get home, I{ll be a pro. haha. joke.

3// I forgot to tell you guys about something that happened in Sicuani in Alejandro{s store. A little raggedy girl walked in with TOMS on. I thought they were knockoffs that they sell here, but I looked closer, and lo and behold, they were TOMS. I asked her where she got them and she told me they gave them out to all the kids in her school. hardly anyone there has real shoes, mostly just sandals made out of tires. TOMS is a real thing! I{ve seen it :) 

4// I{m starting to realize how hard it{s going to be to travel and teach in our sector. The weeks we travel, we only have friday night, saturday, and sunday to teach all our investigators and less actives. That is no time... It{s hard, cuz I just want to work with our people all day every day, but I{m glad I have the opportunity to visit all the hermanas and help them. But it{s hard. I hope I get time to be a normal missionary after this. 

5// My abs came back thanks to p90x :) A girl that went home left it, and those lil babies that I haven{t seen since the MTC CAME BACK! It{s so nice to feel fit again. It helps that our floor isn{t made of creaky wood that gives you splinters when you lay on it. 

6// There{s a guy in our ward named Hno. Thompson (his grandpa is from england). He makes boots. He{s very old and very senile. He is always reading news and telling us the stories about crazy things that are happening in the world. My favorite conversation with him this week was:

"Are all your relatives okay?"
"um... yes brother Thompson. Why?"
"In teh paper I saw that people in the states are dying all over the place. They walk outside and BAM, frozen to death."
"In which state"
"Maine"
"Well, that{s like the furthest state from my house, so I{m pretty sure they{re okay."
"You should Check."

So this is me checking. Have you or anyone you love frozen to death recently?

haha. I love old people.

I love you all. I love Cusco (mostly for the food and fun things to do on Pday). I love my mission. I love this gospel. 


Love, Hermana Allred

1-- Burger King. First Burger in 8 months. I ABOUT DIED!
2-- This would be a mall. A real one. I felt so out of place. WHERE ARE THE DIRT ROADS AND MOTOKARS!?
3-- Door in the rich part of our sector
4-- Makin dinner






1-- We get weird when it{s late.
2-- Missioned
3-- Hermana Del Rio painted me a rock. I love it. 
4-- Hna. Sheets, Hna. Del Rio, Hna. Enriquez, y yo. We all 4 are sister training leaders and live in the same apartment, but are rarely home. when we{re together, it{s NUTS.






1-- I realized my rice was burning as I was taking the picture. 
2-- view from my room. It looks cooler in person.
3-- mission calendar. WHAT THE HECK ALMOST 9 MONTHS!
4-- The fattest and weirdest looking turkies (is that right... I hate english) i{ve ever seen






oh yeah. That picture is of an American Thrift Shop. 

errything is 99 cents! haha. joke. that{s a terrible song.


Monday, January 6, 2014

Cuscotopia. Complete with a waterslide.


Well, I will not lie and say this week has been easy. It has hands down been the hardest of my entire mission. But, in turn, I have learned a lot, prayed a lot, and tried to change. I thought I would be leaving Sicuani Wednesday morning, but the president didn{t want us traveling on new year{s cuz everyone was drunk. Soooo we left the afternoon before. This week… man. Let{s break it down… shall we?
Wednesday---- shuttled trainers, their trainees, and all their suitcases from the terminal to the house, to the house, to the terminal. All. Day.

Thursday--- just a couple drop offs at the terminal, then an 8 hour meeting at the mission home with Zone Leaders and the other 4 Sister Training Leaders. Funny story, I stood up to walk to the bathroom cuz I felt dizzy, and FAINTED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MEETING! We don{t have a pensionista, and I was stressed, so I couldn{t really eat anything, so I just passed flat out on the floor in the kitchen. Luckily my companion was with me and caught me. Next thing  iknow, Sister Harbertson (president{s wife) is over me and her pensionista is holding my legs up. Super embarrassing, but that{s my life so whatever haha. They were the only ones that saw it.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday---- Lots of walking, and rejection, and getting told we worship the devil and other things that people say about us. Very… very… trying week. We had a grand total of ZERO lessons with less actives or investigators. We met a lot of members which is cool. They{re nice. But very very very different from Sicuani.

My job as a Sister Training leader (since Dad asked) is to shuttle people around with they have transfers, help the hermanas with companionship problems, go on transfers in some of the zones in the mission, and I{m sure other things that I{m not aware of yet. We{re like zone leaders of only Hermanas. I will be traveling 4 out of 6 weeks every transfer, which means we only have 2 weeks in total to be in our sector to work. IT{s a weird transition, but I{m getting the hang of it.

Also, OUR HOUSE IS AMAZING! We have a kitchen, fridge, MICROWAVE, oven, and 3 showers that have hot water as long as no one else is showering. The view is beautiful and it{s across from the chapel. I LOVE IT. A major upgrade from sicuani. BBUT we don{t have a pensionista yet. So I have to cook again. I forgot all my recipes, and have 0 desire to cook after working all day. I{m getting the hang of it. Who would have thought I went to flipping Culinary School? I stopped telling people so they wouldn{t ask me to cook for them. Yeah sorry… I don{t know how to cook. Haha. Do you want pb&j? I{ll hook you up, don{t even worry. Also, French toast. But not much else. Aint nobody got time for that. 

I still love my mission and I{m not coming home until October. Just a hard transition. 

 love you all. be good. Please write me little emails if you have time. maybe pictures too. 

Love, Hermana Allred

1-- saying goodbye to Yony (the member we thought was an investigator. 

2-- The members of the Corrales family that could come over before I had to leave. 

3-- Cruz family. Adreana (my Goddaughter) gave me a little barbie. cuz I{m a barbie haha.





1-- Esther after I told her the news that we both had to leave in an HOUR to Cusco. She was a little sad...

2-- Violeta making biscochuelos

3-- Fiorella (Violeta{s daughter) 





1-- Elsa, Juan, Sheylark, Christian, Yosep, and Aldahir. This goodbye was HARD. They were progressing so much and now there{s no established missionary there... it{s okay though. God knows what he{s doing.

2-- Elida and Rosa. They just came back to church :) after 6 months of working with them. 

3-- Lilliana. Sad... 





1-- the kitchen. it{s beautiful.

2-- study room

3-- My new companion and I (Hermana Enriquez from Guayaquil, Ecuador)