Hola familia! This week was crazy. Really crazy.

at the fish hatchery

We are getting ready for transfers this week. We find out Tuesday night if we have them. Hermana Soliz and I have been here for the same amount of time about four months so we are guessing one of us will go. She is feeling like it is her so I might stay here for another transfer and be with another companion. But really no one knows. We have been getting the house ready for lots of people and we had another missionary stay with us last night. We also had dinner with the president and his wife last night! We had chicken alfredo and strawberry shortcake. We usually aren't allowed to eat strawberries as a mission rule but Hermana Henderson knows how to clean them well enough so that we can eat them. It was wonderful to have a meal without potatoes and rice. I'm sure when I get home from my mission it will be a long time before I will want to eat anything with potatoes and rice. 

preparing for cambios....more beds still to come

more preparing for cambios, putting beds together

Last week for pday we went to another city about 30 minutes away and ended up visiting a fish hatchery in the rain. I learned that the word for trout in Spanish is trucha. All I really wanted to do there was go fishing but we did try to catch some with our hands. 

at the fish hatchery last week

I finally tried the South American soccer capris. they are super comfortable. I might have to buy some before I finish my mission. They are super popular here (these are Hermana Procells).

We have been teaching a woman who has been participating as a Jehovah's Witness. She has told us that she has been so happy with each visit that we have had with her. She felt like the Book of Mormon is true and felt the spirit really strongly at church. But we hit a trial this week when she told us that she has also been meeting with Jehovah's Witness missionaries and that they asked her to be baptized on the exact same day as us. It was crazy. Now she isn't sure what to do. We pleaded with her that she would just pray and ask God if the church was true. I know that if she prays will real intent she will receive an answer. She has a lot of faith.

I had divisions with Hermana Gale this week! It was really fun. If being a white girl in Huancayo isn't fun enough try being two white girls in Huancayo. We are realizing that our Spanish is better than we think it is and we had some really great lessons together. We got stopped and asked questions by a lot of people and it made contacting really easy.

sheep being herded in the street

Before I explain to you the next story of our crazy activity I need to explain something. The church here is a church of converts. A questions that is normal to ask for the members is when were you baptized. They all have a date and names of missionaries who baptized them. As such there are a few things that they are still learning how to do and how the church is to be run. With that being said I hope you find this as humorous as we did. So this week we had a ward activity that was to be a karaoke night. There were only about 10 people there when the activity was to start, almost all of them were young men and women and about half were investigators. The bishop had invited the patriarch to share a message before we started. He was all dressed up and ready to share a message about families for 15 minutes. He ended up talking for 55 minutes about how the man isn't without the woman and the woman without the man, procreation and all sorts of things. I felt bad for the young men and women that were there because they were so bored and felt so awkward. Anyways he finally finished. Then the bishops wife got up and said I hope we all came to learn and apply what we learned today because if we know things and don't apply them, greater will be your condemnation. 

part of the festivities

costumes of the dances

people in my ward after they danced

If that wasn't enough we started the karaoke and the Elders closest to our area came in and said they had a problem. We were like okay whats the problem. They said we found out that our  our investigator who is supposed to be baptized this week is a heavy drug dealer and he is here with his drunk friend. Awesome. That's just great. They said that he says he cant leave because there are people who want to kill him. I don't really know how the elders took care of that one but we left because it was almost time to be home. We walked home laughing in the pouring rain just soaked and my companion said what more can happen.... For future reference don't ever say that. Its like a magic word or something. We got home, turned on the lights and the power went out. It was a crazy day.

our little home

I learned a lot from the scriptures this week. Especially from King Benjamin and his example to his people as well as the things that he taught them. I learned what it really is like to be a servant of the Lord. I hope that each of you know that I love my Heavenly Father. I love him so much. I hope that I can continue to serve him with all my heart might mind and strength.

Have a great week everyone! I hope to hear about Rissa's call soon!

Hermana Rhoten