Hermana and the Llamas: I see trees of green. (no red roses too)

I cannot even begin to describe how good this week was. It was HANDS DOWN my favorite week of my mission. So many miracles have happened, and I have had so many eye-opening, humbling experiences.

1// We have christmas eve dinner with a family (their parents couldn´t come) whose mom is a member, and we had a HUGE breakthrough with the dad. I have been teaching them since my second week here, and their progress is slow, but looking back, they have changed so much. Just the fact that the dad isn´t a raging drunk is a miracle in an of itself.

2// I learned so much about myself. So. Much. I learned what I want in life, what is important, what I´ve been taking for granted, and just... so much. I wish I could tell you everything that has happened, but I can´t even think of the words to describe it. I love Peru, and I am grateful for my life in the states. We are so blessed.

3// Violeta and ribaldo. We found them the first time by a miracle, and we found them a second time by a miracle. God prepared them. And they were baptized 2 weeks later. When she finished changing after, I went to the bathroom to see how she was doing. She just started crying and said "I´m new. It doesn´t matter anymore. I have never been so happy in my entire life." I just cried and said "Yes you are. You´re 100% new. Now listen to me. Never go back." So many sweet moments have been shared with her and her family that I will never forget. I love them.

4// I got SUPER sick at 2 AM Sunday morning, and threw up until 7AM. Not sure what I ate, but man... it happened. Most miserable 5 hours of my life.

5// When I finally stopped throwing up, President called us and asked me to be a Sister Training Leader, I was half dead, but I said yes as enthusiastically as I could haha. He didn´t tell me where I was going at that point. I had to wait until transfer calls later that night.

This means I´ll be traveling all around the mission to visit the other Hermanas and to work with them. Good thing I have lots of motion sickness pills.... cuz if not, I would be dying every time we took a bus. Not sure about what else I have to do, but I´ll find out this week.

6// Then, there were the transfer calls. HUGE surprise. I was just expecting "hey you´re going to Puno(super super cold), or Cusco" which did happen. I´m going to Cuzco :) Ward Ttio (yes two T´s) BUTTTTTTT then our district leader said "ALSO, Hermana Nelson, You´re going to Inti Raymi (another zone in Cusco) and you´re opening a sector with Hermana Thompson (um. YES that would be MY Hermana Thompson who just broke her leg but now she´s fine. I LOVE HER). My mission daughter will do great things. But that means there´s no one STAYING in Sicuani. As much as that should scare me, because I worry that people we have worked SO hard with to get to progress even a little bit are going to be forgotten, I feel good. I know that God has a plan, and that my mission president works by revelation. He is a good man, and I am so grateful that he is my mission president.

I love where I am. Like I said to Violeta after her baptism, I am never going back.

Love, Hermana Allred

Oh yeah. I forgot to share one of my new favorite memories of my mission.

We were teaching sweet lil ol Alejandro in his store, and we always sing to him and ask what song he wants to hear, but he never wants to sing with us and never names a song at the end of our BEST lesson we´ve ever had with him, Hna. Nelson randomly flipped to Nearer my God to thee, and I was trying to find which number that song was in spanish, and I look over and she already had it ready. So we sang it. And he started singing with us. In his sweet little off key singing voice, he sang the whole song by memory. At the end, I asked "Alejandro, is that your favorite song?" to which he smiled his nearly toothless smile and said in Quechua "yes. yes it is." And I smiled bigger than I ever have before. I will miss that sweet old man.

1// Feliz Navidad from Peru

2// Spent Christmas Eve eating dinner, panetone, drinking hot chocolate, and making paper snowflakes with these lil nuggets. (they´re the ones I give all the stickers too. MOM AND DAD THEY LOVE YOU FOR THAT haha)

3-- Walking home in the rain on Christmas Eve

1// We went out to a little pueblo a couple hours from Sicuani on Christmas morning to play with the kids and give all the people clothes and hot chocolate. I can honestly say this was my favorite Christmas. every bit of it was focused on other people. and there was a lot of hot chocolate involved, which is always good haha. This is our sweet bishop teaching a kid how to play a game in Quechua. It was his idea to spend Christmas there. He is just the best. I love him and his family.

2// All the people were scared of us cuz they´ve NEVER seen white people. A lot of them cried when we tried to talk to them. How many panais can you see? haha.

3// I. want. to. ADOPT HER. not joking.

4// Dad and fam, this is the little girl I was talking about. She doesn´t have shoes (it´s super cold there) and she ONLY has that rag skirt and sweater on. Nothing else. It´s tied on with a string. I love her and want to snatch her up and take her home. I´m pretty sure she´s one of the orphans there.