Cambios - Part 1

So the time has come..... again.... for cambios. Which means that I've killed my companion. She heads home to  Bolivia today. I'll be spending today and tomorrow with Hermana Brigman who is also waiting for her companion. We find out tomorrow night who we're going to be with for the next 6 weeks tomorrow night.  Basically these two days where your just waiting are torture.

There are benefits to my area. Everybody who is finishing the mission comes to my chapel for training before they head home. Yesterday as my comp and I were walking out of our chapel we turned out of the doors and there was Hermana Johnson!!!! You know those dramatic "drop everything and run" hugs. That's totally what we did. I love that girl :) 

This week was crazy. The zone leaders asked our district to sing at a baptism and then at a JAS (YSA) activity. My companion had her english test (she got intermediate!!!!) and then her interview with president. We've been running around like crazy. I never want to be with someone their last cambio again. There's so much that you have to do that's not normal missionary work that you can't have as many lessons as you could have had and your poor companion who is not going home just gets dragged along with you.... I'd like to be a normal missionary thank you.

I'll let you know what happens with cambios! I'm super excited :)

I love you all!!!!

Love, Hermana White

Hand Washing Clothes

Let me introduce you to a word. The word is trunky. It's what you call a missionary who gradually starts thinking more and more about home rather than the mission. Typically this occurs in missionaries who are about to finish. I'm killing my companion (aka, she's finishing the mission) She's not been trunky at all it's been fantastic!... and then we got to this week. The elders told her to pack her suitcases so that they could come by and weigh them. She's not trunky but you can tell she's ready to go home. Like, her work is done here. She leaves Sunday and I don't get a new comp until wednesday so I have to find a ward member to stay with or other missionaries.

I'm pretty sure that I threw my pensionista into a shock when I told her that I wanted to learn how to hand wash clothes and that we have machines to wash clothes in the US..... I learned though! I handwashed my own clothes this week and felt super accomplished.

Saturday Renzo was baptized! He's a 9 year old with less active parents but he attends church faithfully every week with his cousins. He's typically a quiet, shy kid but the day of his baptism he was the happiest person ever! It was fantastic!

I love you all so much and I pray for you every day!

Love, Hermana Blanca

5 Months Down

So there's some scripture in the Bible that says something like: take no thought in what you should eat or wear (something like that, I'm paraphrasing here). Well I'm here to tell you that this scripture is absolutely true. The Lord takes care of His missionaries. The other day we were walking up a hill to visit an investigator and I thought to myself, I'm kindof hungry right now, I'd kindof like a snack. The sister was super busy so we planned another time to meet with her and then before we left she said, oh hey, have some popcorn. Yea, I know, it's small but it's the simple things that count. (also, this happened on my five month cumplemes)

Also, free slurpee day was this past weekend... in case you wanted to know. They don't celebrate that here becuase the date is 11/7 instead of 7/11

Saturday the ym and yw in the stake all got together and each ward performed a dance from a different country. We got to go because we brought an inavestigator :) I don't know why but I always tear up in these sort of things. A bunch of youth getting together and just having fun... somehow it just gets me. It was such a fun event.

Sunday we had a stake meeting...and the stake president brought pizza!!! YOu could tell who was American and who wasn't by looking at how many pieces of pizza they got. I think our pensionista is making pizza tonight too.

Also, Peruvian honesty

Example 1: my pension and her husband call eachother gordo/ gorda

Example 2: Are you sick? No. Well you look like it -the pensionista

I love you all so much :)

Love, Hermana White

Never A Normal Week

There will never be a normal week in the mission. Yea, there's a schedule and rules and everything but there is always something that comes up.

Martes: Pday this week was Martes instead of Lunes. Our pensionista and her husband took us to some parks. Peruvian parks are super cool because each one of them is different and they're all  mad from cement but designed super cool. We went out to eat with them (pollo a la leña). Then we played some minute to win it games with our district. One thing we did was a 3 legged race.... we've got a trio in our district so that was interesting.

Miercoles: Divisiones. I stayed in my area and one of the sister leaders came to do divisions with me. It's kindof nervracking when you've been in your area for less than 3 weeks and you're already doing divisions and you have to show someone else around and teach with someone who's not your companion.... but it was fun :) and she said I did a good job so woohoo

Jueves:... normal

Viernes: We witnessed the jerkiness of Satan. We had two people who were going to be baptized on Saturday. Their baptism interviews with the district leader were Friday night. We got to the chapel and the office elders were not there so we couldn't get in. We called them and they said that they'd be back in like an hour... great. We called the ward secretary who said that the bishop had the keys... who said that he'd given them to a joven (a young man). Ok, so keys to the chapel are not an option. On top of this it's pouring rain so we're huddled in a tienda accross the street from the chapel. The elders didn't show up until about half an hour late. Which happened to be before the people who were being interviewed showed up. We were stressing a little but there are always blessings in stressful times. The lady in the tienda gave us chairs to sit in while we waited. A ward member opened up her house to us so we could do the interviews and both passed their interviews!

Sabado: We had interviews with the president, I got chocolate for helping my companion learn english and Jorge (21) and Jefferson (12) we baptized!!!!

Domingo: My first sunday in the area where we had actual meetings. The ward is cool

I love you all so much and pray for you daily.

Love, Hermana White

Happy 4th!

My companion, even though she's from Bolivia, knew that the 4th of July was Independence Day. She stood up while we were planning and saluted and started humming the star spangled banner and told me she wouldn't be surprised if I woke up like that. I love July 4th. I love our country and the traditions we have. Some of the elders had american flag ties so that was cool. I think I'll get a bracelet in our colors or something for next year... because i don't wear ties.

I love you

God Bless America

Love, Hermana White