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.

The Doors

Well, it´s been a blustury week here in Sicuani. Yes I´m still here. It´s raining like crazy every day. We don´t like rain (hahaha family, that cute picture book we always read, I feel like that. but there is no bathtub to unplug.) One of the members was acompañándonos (once again I don´t know the word in english) and it looked like rain, so she asked us when our birthdays are, and since we were both born in the dry season (june and july) she told us to blow on the sky... hahahaha. Apparently the people born in the dry season have power to make the rain go away. It worked that day... but not any other day.

I cooked REAL FOOD this week with a less active family. Chicken, mashed potatoes, and Sauteed veggies in BUTTER. not nasty vinegar. I was dying from happiness. It took forever cuz there was no oven to finish off the chicken, but so worth it. I forgot how much I love normal american BASIC food with no Anise in it. I love peruvian food, but sometimes I just want mashed potatoes and a medium steak. 

Anyone have a waffle recipe?

Alejandro... I love him so much. (70 year old whose wife moved to Arequipa a couple weeks ago and works in a little candy-soda store) He´s like my grandpa while I´m here. We have been re teaching him everything because he hasn´t gone to church in over a year, and when we taught him about the spirit world, he said "wait... are you saying I´ll be able to see my dad again." my eyes welled up with tears and I said "yes. That is exactly what that means." He just started laughing and smiling and was SO HAPPY. He has been a member since 1979, but he just forgot all these things, or maybe just never fully understood it.It is so incredible to see the light just click in the less actives. when they remember what they have been taught their whole lives, they just... It makes all the hard times worth it. Every difficult moment of my mission is WORTH IT when I see the light turn on in the eyes of someone who has been through so much. I love him. 

 He wants an American hat cuz he has about 50 right now, but I didn´t bring any, so I´ll probably just buy one in the plaza and tell him it´s from the states haha.

Speaking of... If anyone ever wanted to know where all the clothes go that don´t sell in the states, they come here. I´ve seen super old school boston hats (only on their heads... i can´t find one in any store), random student council shirts, underarmor from some random football camp in the 90´s, and an infinite number of cheerleader hoodies.... worn by boys. It´s un poco chistoso porque NO SABEN lo que dicen sus ropas. some of them say things like "rebel" or "I´m not listening" or men wearing shirts that say "princess" ha. I guess that´s what it´s like for us when we have shirts in French or something. NO CLUE what it says, but it´s french, so it´s cool. haha. 

Hermano Corrales gave me a hiccup cure. I have been hiccuping more than usual, so he said "put your arms above your head. they go right away." So I did it, and IT WORKED!!!! Try it. 

I just want to say once again how incredible my companion is. She is SO KIND to everyone. She always thinks of others first. The other day, she was correcting me on something and I got super defensive and instead of saying something, I just shut down (like always). She didn´t get mad at me, she just waited until I calmed down and let me talk it out. She never told me that I was being ridiculous, she just let me deal with anger the way I needed to. I love her so much and every day, I want to be more like her. It´s incredible. Her Spanish is way better than she thinks it is. I bet she´ll train soon. She´s awesome. So proud of her. 

Well, I´m out of time, but I love every one of you and hope you´re enjoying this christmas season with your families. 

Love, Hermana Allred.

1-- Door

2-- We did Margarita and Karen´s hair for their promocion party. they looked DANG good if I do say so myself. Karen wanted to be a princess haha

3-- Door (one of my favorites)

4-- People don´t usually hear when we knock on the door, so we have to throw rocks at the window. We haven´t broken any... yet. 

1-- It was raining INSIDE during dinner. Our roof is falling apart. Luckily I have an awesome rain jacket

2-- Hermana Flor FINALLY let me take a picture with her. After running away from me for 10 minutes. 

3-- This is my life. I love it. (postres means desserts)

4-- The giant blue catholic church "pampacucho". I don´t know how I haven´t taken a picture of this til now. It´s on every sign for sicuani tourism. maybe cuz there are so many drunks around it.

1-- hna. Flor running away from me

2-- Brithny and her family, Alex, Mariela, Kevin, and Sidmari

3-- Abish. I want to steal her and take her home, but I think the bishop would miss her haha. 

4-- Panai in the Pharmacy