Non-Presidents' Day in Peru

FAMILIA!!!  Wow, sounds like life is pretty exciting over there.  Dad, thank you for the extremely detailed list of events going on.  I was a little confused because you didn't say you breathed or slept during any of that time, but I assumed you just left that out for brevity.  Thanks.

CCM life just gets more and more awesome.  Not because anything happens around here, just because this place has become more and more like my home.  I did not hear about any of the asteroids flying close to or hitting the earth, but it really is more and more evidence that the Second Coming is coming.  It´s close.  We are in the latter days and we need to do everything we can to prepare, and call people to repentance, and remain clean ourselves!!

Sorry, but this email will not be as long as the last ones because we´re going to the temple soon.  Last week's temple trip/whole Pday was NUTS.  It seriously could have been made into a movie.  In the morning, this whole place was deserted.  The email wouldn't work, but finally did after 50 billion tries.  Went to the temple to do a session, but the brother told us they didn't have room for us, so we left.  Someone came back telling us we could get in, so we went back.  I was the only one in the 1:30 session.  Elder Stanley and Elder Woolner got into the 2:30 session.  Elder Duzett and Elder Cooper didn't get into any session so they did sealings.  I got out and E. Duzett, E. Cooper, and I couldn't find E. Stanley and E. Woolner anywhere, so we figured they just went back to the CCM already.  We got back and couldn't find them anywhere even though we asked the security guard if they had come back and he said, "Claro."  Not claro!  They finally came back and apparently had gotten on the wrong bus and during the bus ride, E. Woolner's 1 sol coin fell down someone´s shirt.  It was just so nuts all around.  But we´re alive, and I got to go to the temple, so it was fine.  I´m going to take pictures by the temple this week so I can send them next week.

The new elders and hermanas came, and they´re really awesome!  It was hard to get to know and like them at first because the last group was so great, but they've become great in my eyes.  There are 4 new North American hermanas and they´re all really sweet.  I don´t have a companion, nor will I before I go.  I get to be a solo sister, but I´m always with someone, so I just don´t have an assigned companion.  On the first day, I met an elder from Viña del Mar, Chile, who knows Mike Mace!  And, one of my teachers-in-training, and one of my favorite teachers here knows Marisa Johnson!!  Such a small world.  I just love it.

My morning teacher Hno. Lazo is so hilarious and he gets more and more hilarious every day.  His great-grandparents apparently were killed by the Red Dragon mafia in China and so his grandpa was adopted by someone in Peru, and apparently he was hired to take pictures of this man who killed his wife who was a member of the church, and apparently...I dunno.  So many things I don´t know if I believe, but he´s awesome nonetheless.  As he was leaving class yesterday, he said, "Peace out."  It was so funny.  My other teacher, Hno. Ibarra (the one who posted the picture on Facebook) is so awesome.  He is the nicest, smartest, most spiritual little Latino ever.  I've learned so much from him.  He's part Asian, too.  Asian Peruvians apparently are popular down here.  And they´re all awesome.

Sorry if my thoughts have been a little discombobulated.  I´m trying to hurry, but the information I feel I´m giving isn't that interesting.  We have 2 investigators who we´re teaching, and it´s been cool to pray for them and receive inspiration for them (even though they´re just my teachers acting as investigators).  It´s just been great, and I've felt the spirit so strongly.  I know this spirit is the one directing my lessons and my Spanish-speaking.  There´s no way I could do any of this without the spirit.  We watched a devotional from David A. Bednar the other day on how you can tell if it´s the spirit or not, and he said, "Quit worrying about it."  If we're doing what we´re supposed to, the spirit will always be directing our thoughts and our actions.  We don´t need a big revelation to know it´s the spirit.

Quick last thing before I go, futbol has has been even better with this group than the last.  Ayer, we played gringos vs. Latinos, and the gringos won!!!  It was so awesome!  And so fun!  Also, there´s an elder here from Australia, and he plays without shoes, which is nuts, but it works, I guess, because he´s really good.  And on Sunday, my mission president´s wife and I played violin/piano prelude together before the devotional which made me miss playing with Ashley so much.  I also gave the closing prayer for the devotional and everyone complimented me on my Spanish.  I was like, "Let´s think of the thing I do most during the day in spanish?  Pray."  It was nice of everyone, though, and I can DEFINITELY see an improvement in my abilities.

Anyway, I better run.  I love you all so so much.  I hope all is well for you and that you enjoy your snow and cold weather and presidents and states and surgeries and check ups and plowing and meteors and all those other great things.  I don´t here about any news down here, but I did know it was president´s day yesterday, so I made sure to remind everyone.

Con mucho mucho amor,


HERMANA AYER!

PS I forgot to tell you that an hermana who was here before bought a cheap recorder from a store down here and so she and I had a RECORDER DUET!!!  My recorder has already come in handy, so thank you!

PPS I´ve met the Latino version of so many people I know back home.  It´s SO weird.  But cool.

PPPS I´ll definitely be praying for dad, Christian, Dan, and Sister Flanders.  I hope you/they are all doing alright.  Faith.