This week was a good one. I had a really spiritually uplifting week.

We had interviews with president during the beginning of the week. During that interview he told me that right now in the mission we have 27 sisters and between now and December we will triple that number so I need to be ready to train now. After he finished talking to me about training he paused a moment and said I haven't received any revelation on this so it might not be this transfer or next I don't know but I feel like I need to talk to you about Cerro de Pasco. Let me pause a second and tell you everything I know about Cerro. It is the highest city in the world (so automatically everything I ever learned in all my units about high altitude in my degree come to mind and how I promised myself I would never climb a high mountain) the people are cold, they have an accent that is difficult to understand, its an area that has been really struggling with missionary work and its freezing cold with occasional snow. Its not like United States where you go into a house and it is warm it is always the same cold. President repeated all of those things to me and told me that if I am to be called there he wanted me to know that it is because I have the highest respect from the Lord and from him. He said its about as hard as missionary work gets physically and spiritually and he has to send tough missionaries there. He told me I will be stretched beyond what I think I can handle but the Lord will help me.

This was from the other pday.  My companion and I.

Our puppies

Needless to say I didn't sleep very well that night. My nightmares about training in Cerro de Pasco kept me up most of the night. But it also forced me to turn to the Lord and talk to him a lot. I learned a lot about what I need to be doing to prepare myself and am feeling good now. I know that God will help me with what I can't do.

My district. Love all of them.

Sorry this is a little blurry

 One note here for Marissa the monkey. We were given bananas for dessert which is really common here to get fruit for dessert. It looked normal on the outside but when I opened it up it was orange. I was blown away. I didn't know there was such thing as orange bananas. The other hermanas thought it was super funny that I was so fascinated by this.  They said there are also red bananas in the jungle areas.  I thought of Marissa.

We taught a lot this week and we had a big activity this week with three wards that was a big success. Without the help of members I might add. It was crazy to try to get it all ready on our own. We had kind of a carnival type thing where people could spend fake money on things of the world or things of the church. At the end of the activity we turned off all the lights and led people to the chapel where we taught about the plan of salvation and divided them into three kingdoms according to what they had done. We had lots of investigators there but it was frustrating because nothing was ready when we wanted to start.

Lima Temple from when I was there

In Lima

We also had a baptism nightmare this week. The members didn't come and unlock the doors or start filling up the font so Sunday morning I took off my shoes and climbed over the railing of the font and tried my best to get it to work.Then there was no water. Our church building never has water. We ended up getting a hose from a house across the street and filling it with buckets of hose water. The water was absolutely freezing. I felt bad because he had to be baptized twice too. But his testimony and the tears of joy that he had between him and his father who isn't a member was worth it. It was really awesome. 

Diego before his baptism.  He is my favorite. Crazy kid.

My companion was sick this week. She had a terrible flu. One morning she was super sick so we decided to not take the twenty minute walk to breakfast and went to a tienda (store) and bought some breakfast so she could sleep. Cereal and their watery yogurt is the best combination. I don't think I will ever want cereal and milk again. I let her sleep through all the studies and I had several hours of study by myself that morning. During that time I read Joseph Smith history for the first time in Spanish. I felt the spirit so strongly and prayed again to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that he was. I know that through him the Lord restored his church and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ again on the earth. 

Hope you all have a great week.

Con amor,

Hermana Rhoten