It´s get fat week, LET´S GO!

Sooo Halloween is very different here. Lemme just explain a Little bit about Peruvian culture. Halloween isn´t that big of a deal, they dress up or whatever sometimes, and have the TINIEST pumpkins to collect Candy. I was just thinking… what the heck? Where is your pillowcase? Go big or go home. Also, they are very very against it here. The church isn´t allowed to endorse it or celebrate it in any way. BUT the next two days are nuts. The day after Halloween is day of the living. They feed the living SO MUCH FOOD. Mostly bread. Lots and lots of bread… every single person we talked to gave us an absurd amount of bread. I loved it at first cuz, you know, I love bread and stuff, but holy… I CANNOT EAT 30 ROLLS IN ONE DAY! Stop feeding me.  Then the next day is day of the dead. Cuz all the living DIE because they ate too much haha. BROMA! They all go to the cemetary and feed the dead a lot of bread and pray and stuff. My pensionista´s husband died a couple years ago, so she went with her daughter and our other pensionista. Also, everyone drinks alot because they´re depressed. It was a Little scary to be outside that night. But it´s okay. I can run faster than drunks.

Speaking of bread, our Baker investigator invited me to help him make bread! Oh my goodness. I think that was my favorite day of my misión. Not really, but it was so fun. I just spent and hour making BOMB peruvian bread. I really think I want to bake when I get home. It´s so much better to be in a kitchen when no one is yelling at you.  I wish I had gotten a picture there, but I forgot… cuz I was making flipping pervian bread. SO FUN!

I made a goal to finish the book of mormon and the new testament in spanish by the end of the year (which conveniently is also the end of Hna. Nelson´s 2 transfers of training.) It´s gunna happen. And I´ll be so incredibly fluent when I finish.

I have really begun to appreciate my life lately. The more I understand Spanish, the sadder the stories get. I want you all to just take a minute and appreciate the fact that you don´t live in an adobe house with spiders and giant ants crawling around, and you don´t eat rotten potatoes every day because you can´t afford anything else. There are so many women here that get beaten day after day, and they just take it because they don´t think they can do any better. Their husbands leave them with their kids and NO money or home, and they have NO options. They just have to try as hard as they can to make enough money to feed their kids. We had a day this week, where the only people we taught were women with abusive husbands, or ex husbands. I cried after every single lesson. Hard. I want so badly to tell these women to just leave them. But I can´t. I just have to teach them how the góspel can help them. I know exactly what I want to do when I get home. I want to work in Social work. I want to be in a position where I can take kids out of terrible situations. I want to HELP people break free from abuse. There are so many problems in this World and not enough people doing something about it.

I love my misión. I love this góspel. I love the hope that it gives us in this life. I KNOW my purpose in life and I know that If I don´t help other people know their purpose, I´ll have to answer to God when I die.

I love you all so much

p.s. super random gospel question of the week

What happened with Cain during the flood? Did he just swim around, or was he one of the animals on the ark? I really do want an answer to this… I´ve been thinking about it all week. 

1-- Park´s coworkers will appreciate this one. Peruvian Bike Shop

2-- inside the bike shop

3-- MURICA

1-- I´m starting a new segment entitled "Dogs, Drunks, and Doors" This one includes two haha. A Drunk, and a door.

2-- Even though we didn´t celebrate halloween, and the ward canceled the "musica criolla" party, I still had to take a picture of my costume. PANAI ALLRED!

3-- funny story about this haha. We were behind the creepy hospital on our way home from lots of appointments that fell through, and it was POURING rain. We were cold, surrounded by rabid dogs, and did I mention behind the creepy hospital? Well, like always, the lights went out. I usually have my flashlight, but I had just cleaned out my backpack so it wasn´t there. soooo there we were walking down the scariest street in our sector in PITCH BLACKNESS. There were absolutely zero cars on the road and we were a lil scared. Hermana Nelson just started singing "the lord is my light" haha. We stumbled our way home and huddled on my bed until the lights came back on. Funny night.

4.-- Dog and a door