January 1, 2015
Well, the mission is nuts... so many times this
week I have thought to myself ¨this is the mission¨ with a question mark that I
don’t know how to make, haha... but its been great.
There is a travelling circus on ice from Russia,
Ukraine, Argentina, everywhere and we taught them! We’ve become pretty good
friends with them, they are like a group of 8 girls, because we had Christmas Eve
together and they are staying in the hotel we pension in!
Anyhow, we’ve only taught
them twice because they are pretty busy with shows... on ice in Peru.. yeah I
don’t get it, haha... but it was CRAZY awesome to see how prepared they were
for the gospel. One of them has two kids and says he asks questions that she
just doesn’t have the answer to, like why we are here and stuff. We taught them
the importance of the church and it made me want to share with you all that the
church really does have all the answers, and also through prayer we can find
all the answers!
On Saturday we ate with
some members at a big birthday party for her mom, and we started eating the
meal... looked normal. Took the first bite and it tasted alright, and it was
lamb so I expected it to be different... looked closer at the salad part and it
had pieces of skin with hair on it, and later we found out the sauce was the
blood of the lamb. So I moved from the salad and tried to eat the lamb meat,
whoo.... don’t know what part it was, but It felt like I was chewing nasty
gum... at the moment I realized what it is like to HAVE to eat something, and
physically not be able to, haha... I started to pray, real hard, and managed to
eat a little more of the salad, and half of one of the pieces of meat, but all
my rice and potatoes.... I felt bad but I ate more than one of the elders so I
felt all right.... so nasty. Probably wont be the last time with an experience
like that, but definitely harder than I imagined it would be!
On Monday we had
intercambios with the Hermana leaders and I got to experience what its like to
have a Latina companion... holy heck it was hard! I realized how grateful I was
to be with a gringa and how much I need to work on my Spanish, but slowly by
slowly its getting there, haha. Slowly.
New Years was CRAZY here.
The all burn ¨dolls¨¨ more like scarecrows to signify getting rid of the old
you. Kind of creepy though, haha. We mostly contacted and helped the ward get
ready for a party, even the members LOVE to party, and had to be in early. At
midnight on new years and Christmas it sounded like we were being bombed. SO
many fireworks. We went up to the roof to watch them and it was amazing. I love
Jaen!
We are slowly building up
more investigators, but one thing I have seen this week, is that there really
are no ends, only everlasting beginnings. We started to teach a couple who are
older, sick, and its been an amazing experience to see the thirst they have for
the gospel, and the hope it brings. They have their whole lives behind them,
but through the atonement they can change and have so much more. Its never too
late!
Know as the New Year comes,
it is only another beginning to leave behind the old and become more like our
Savior Jesus Christ, because that really is why we are here.
Love you all and wish you a
happy new year!!
Hermana Clegg
New years eve! People here are really ssuperstitiousand EVERYONE has yellow decorations, clothes, flowers, etc. for luck! So we put on some too on the roof!
Bubbles on the roof!
A is typical shot of Jaen... mountain, jungle, city, hard to describe and this picture doesn't give justice for how pretty it is. So blessed!
