Week 12

Hola Hola!

So today marks the first day of my second transfer in Iquitos... I officially have complete my first transfer! ahhh! As of tomorrow, I will no longer be one of the newest missionaries in the field. 

We don't find out about transfers until tonight at 9:30, but most likely me and Hna Tituaña will stay in Secada because she´s training me and you usually stay with your trainer for 12 weeks, and also because were both new to the area. 

This week was pretty great.. partially because we were in a trio (surprise!).  Basically what happens is that the missionaries who are ending their missions who are not in Iquitos need to come to Iquitos for their last week to do paperwork and stuff.  So Hermana Jensen, (a gringa!) came from Tarapoto to Iquitos for this past week to get ready to leave.  It was pretty awesome.  She only talked Spanish to me though, which was really good because I need to practice my Spanish, but it was nice having her there to translate when I needed help. She´s also a super good missionary, like in all our lessons she just said exactly what the investigators needed to hear, and was always direct and to the point while still being loving.  Basically, we learned a lot about how to teach from her. It was also really great because then when we were in lessons I had a lot more confidence to actually speak Spanish because I knew if I wasn't sure how to say something I could ask her.  I actually surprised myself by speaking coherent Spanish without her help! Like I really saw an improvement in my Spanish skills, and I think its all due to Hermana Jensen haha. Anyways so yeah this week was pretty great. 

Hermana Jensen!

A fun spiritual experience: This one woman we were teaching was never keeping her commitments, like she wasn't reading the Book of Mormon and wasn't praying and wasn't going to church, so we went to go visit her and tell her we needed to stop visiting her because she wasn't progressing.  So we go tell her that we might have to drop her if she doesn't start reading this book. And then I bore my testimony about how some days I don´t really want to be here in Peru.. I would so much rather be in the United States, with my family, speaking a language I know, and just being in peace and comfort. But I´m here in your house teaching you, in a language I don´t speak, because I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that if you read this book, you will feel the same way I do.  You will feel peace, comfort, joy, and the love of God in your life. I didn´t really feel like it made a difference, but we decided to visit her another time and she had started reading the Book of Mormon!! Ahhh!! So apparently my testimony really changed something and that made me so happy! 

Also our golden family is getting married this Saturday!! ahhh!!! Well actually there has been a few problems with their marriage papers, so were hoping they'll get married this Saturday, if not definitely the Saturday after! But I just wanted to share an excerpt of our lesson the other day that just proves how golden they are: "So what is tithing?" "A way to show our love for God and our gratitude for all he gives us. We give a little bit of our money to receive even more blessings!" Like you can´t find investigators much better than that. They are perfect, i get happy just thinking about visiting them.

The Golden Family!

I do have a funny story.. We walked past a parrot the other day and so Hna Tituaña said "hola" and it responded with "hola" and then I said "hola!!" and it whistled back at me.  Like the catcalling type of whistled.  It was hilarious... even the parrots here can tell that I´m a gringa.

Me and a Parrot ... not the same one that whistled at me! haha!

Also the pictures I'm about to send are from Quistococha, which is basically just a zoo in the 

Amazon Rain Forest.  It's pretty cool, and actually pretty touristy.  It was especially cool cause we could get pretty close to the animals, since they didn't have the same protections that normal zoos have.. and it was in the jungle!  

Lake in Quistococha

Actual Piranhas

Just some cool scenery ... you can't really see me haha ... but enjoy the scenery

Swinging on a vine in the Amazon Rain Forest ...life doesn't get much better than that!

Alright I love you all tons, hope you had a happy halloween!!

 

(Here halloween is on November first and it's called dia de los defuntos, all they really did was have a parade at night which we couldn't see cause it started when we were already in bed... but we got to listen to it hahaha)

Anyways have a great week!

Hermana Gurney