Bebe hace frio a fuera

The time is starting to pass so much faster. We went to Cusco this week and I LOVED IT! Two of the elders had their cameras stolen, and another elder had his backpack stolen out of the chapel with his personal journal from the mission and his tracting shoes, and honestly, i´d rather have my camera stolen. that´s heartbreaking. But he got transferred to Puerto (the jungle where it´s WARM), so that´s a nice tradeoff. I saw HERMANA ROUTSON from my District in the MTC. Oh my lanta I´ve never been so happy to see a person in my life. It felt like a little piece of home.

We have been seeing a lot of progress in Sicuani, Edwin and Yovanna still need to get married (like everyone else here haha). We´re teaching them about eternal marriage and they really want to be sealed in the temple, so August is a possiblity. Keep your fingers crossed. Miriam Barrientos (the niece of the other Miriam Barrientos) wants to be baptized this sunday because it is the 1 year anniversary of the baptism of her parents, but her parents won´t give her permission. BOOOOO. We´re going to talk to them this tuesday. Esmeralda is 11 years old and she´s getting baptized this saturday is everything goes according to plan. Her parents gave her permission, but they´re always traveling, so we haven´t gotten their signature yet. 

We have an investigator that was going to be baptized in March, but she left to Juliaca for some reason, and She couldn´t find missionaries there, so guess who started teaching her.... Jehovah´s Witnesses. She just got back and told us she´s going to be baptized in their church. We were trying to teach her, but she kept saying that everything they taught was exactly the same, and she felt that their church was right because they didn´t care if she got baptized now, or in 10 years. WHAT! We´re trying to save your soul. If you wait 10 years, you might die, THEN WHAT!? ugh... I´m sorry. I just calmly shared a scripture with her, and told her we´re going to end with a prayer and come back sunday after church. Her parents are members as well as her sister, and she was starting to confuse them. Her sister said she never got an answer to her prayer, so I shared D and C 6:22-23 (READ IT). That shut her up. Perfect. 

I had an experience this week that really opened my eyes. I´m at the point where I actually understand almost everything people say, so I can actually understand their challenges. A lady (also named miriam) we´re teaching had her husband die about a month ago, and her daughter died about a year ago. She lives off of bread and water, and holy... I wish I could explain how I felt in that moment. I thought about all the times I complained about how freaking good I had it, and how ridiculous I was. I whined about the most insignificant things. I FEEL SO BAD. When I walked out of that lesson, I just cried and cried. Our lives in the States are SO easy. I wish everyone could see what I see every day. The challenges that people have... it´s unreal. 

I had the lovely opportunity to teach the primary class this week cuz all the adults were gone with their children (they have parades almost every week and the church is ALWAYS empty when this happens on sundays.) Holy. I don´t want children.. haha joke. I want 6. Butttt, My patience was tested. When we got out of class, we walked into the nursery to find ALL of the children throwing legos into the hallway because guess what.. their teacher just left. No one was watching them. IN THE NURSERY. I might have yelled a little bit. And i made them clean it up. I feel bad, but man... these kids are NUTS. I think it stems from emotional neglect.

Well, I´m out of time. I´m safe, THANK YOU for sending letters. I love you all. I´m printing them all off and I´ll send you letters in August when I actually have money haha. 

Love, Hermana Allred