Week 46

June 27, 2016

So this week was.... SAN JUAN!!!!

The jungle has it's own holiday on the 24 of June called San Juan, where they celebrate San Juan el Bautista, or John the Baptist.

Basically what happens ... on the 23rd they all spend the whole day making juanes. I'll send you a picture of juanes, but it's just chicken, rice, an egg, and an olive wrapped up in a giant leaf. Usually it's in a ball shape so it looks like John the Baptist´s head.  It's a little harder to make them that way, so the juanes we were given are just like square tamales. Everyone LOVES juanes here, but honestly, they're not that good! hahaha. Anyways, then the 24th they pack up all their juanes, buy their soda, and go spend the day at the river or lake or somewhere outside of Tarapoto! 

Branch council .. someone brought juanes and papas rellenas

Juanes!

Elena and Edelia were making juanes when we showed up to visit them!

So basically when we went to go work on Friday... no one was home!! We walked around for about three hours with NO appointments.  It was rough, but at least that night we were able to go to a meeting with President Gomez to say our goodbyes!

This Tuesday, President Gomez ends his mission! It's a sad week.. but on that same day our new president, President Li comes.  He looks pretty awesome! He and his wife are converts that were found by sister missionaries, so apparently they have a lot of love for us sisters! I don't know when we´ll get to meet him though... I'll let you know when I do!

Also, the good (but also kinda bad thing) about San Juan is that everyone hands out juanes! We were given seven juanes! We took a picture... but in the picture there are only four because our pensionista made us each eat one at lunch (the ones that she made) and then we accidentally lost the other one.  It was funny cause they all gave us juanes but sad because we couldn't eat any of them.. we took the picture and then threw them out!  (Just a little note ... the missionaries have strict rules about what we can eat!)  We would have given them back out but they had gone bad by the time we took the picture!

Our Juanes!

So Felipe and Sara are still awesome.  They didn't come to church yesterday though, mainly because it rained and they were a little lazy. :(  We had a really nice lesson with them yesterday where we really felt the spirit and they promised to come to church next Sunday!

Raul´s birthday is today and he said he´s going to ask his parents for his baptismal permission today.  He said he's going to say it's the only thing he wants for his birthday! We´re praying that it works and he can get baptized soon! That's really the only thing he wants!  So sweet!

So yeah, that was my week... happy San Juan!!!

Love you all!! Hope you are enjoying your summer! 

Hermana Gurney