Email #2 - July 27, 2010

Everything's A-OK!

These are pictures of me on the plane, the view from my window on the plane which I drove the flight attendent crazy cause I wouldn't keep my blind closed. Then there are pictures of my companion in pink, Hermana Avalose from Peru. This was her first time thru the temple and I got to be her escort as much as I could help in spanish. The others are my roommates Hermana Bringhurst from Alaska, and Hermana Nuñez from Columbia. The picture of food is our Peru Independence Day Fiesta! The food was good but a lot - I couldn't finish it all. There are pictures from the airport when we landed in Peru. The picture of the family is one of my teachers and his family, not the one that had a seizure. This teacher is so awesome he keeps encouraging me to trust in myself with my Spanish and trust in the Lord; he has great faith. The other teacher is really good, too. There is also a picture of the tallest and the shortest people here; it was comical. And the one picture is of Hermana Corrasca and I. She speaks English real well and wants to learn more so she won't let me speak Spanish to her. She is from Peru I think . I think that is it. I need to make a better list of everything I want to say to you guys as the week goes cause in a few hours I'll think of someting else to say. Oh I got to play soccer on that awesome field. It was fun; it was just all the Hermanas. We also got to teach some of the Peruvians volleyball. On Mondays we have a personal trainer and he is a fútbol coach for some of the national teams and member of the church. He works us pretty hard - wow I'm so sore from yesterday. Ok, well, I've extended my use longer than I was supposed to, so I´ll talk to you all again next week.

Beautiful clouds seen from airplane

Email - July 27, 2010

Hola familia,
Life here is good so far. Today was Independence Day in Peru so we had P-Day moved to today and so I get to write to you all. Next week will go back to normal. Let's see, so far on Friday was the first day of normal classes and in the middle of class in the afternoon our teacher suffered a seizure. It was so crazy! I think he has that as a common enough occurance or something because no medical personnel was called and he returned after dinner to continue to teach! It was crazy! This week that same teacher is completely fine. Today was the first time I got to go to the temple in a month and I had to wear headphones and a translater to understand, but I did the other part in Spanish without much help. The food here is crazy but good, But I don't like the drinks becuase there is a bunch of pulp stuff in it. So far I have no problems going to the bathroom, but I have heard of some elders and sisters having problems. Actually the other night the sisters had a Milk of Magnesia party. I didn't participate because I didn't need to. Let's see. So I may have an obstructed eye duct. The bottom right side of my left eyelid has been swollen and red and just bad. So I talked to the mission president's wife and she talked to the doctor who gave me eye drops because we thought it might be a sty, but then nothing happened. So then the doctor looked at my eye and he thought maybe just an infection and precriped me Cipro. Well today he looked at it again and he thinks it's an obstructed eye duct becuse my eye looks like an infection has lessened but there's still somehting going on with my eyelid. The doctor wants me to go to the eye doctor to have it checked. Oh goodie. Anyway pray my eye gets better as well as my Spanish. I love you all!! I wish I had been able to talk to you all on the phone. You guys better write me soon!!! I'm dying to hear from you all.

Email - July 22, 2010

Hola familia!

Volleyball Court

Well we made it down to Peru; we are alive! So far the food has been good, different but very good. We arrived this morning about 2am- yeah so much fun! But actually for me it was really cool on the plane because they bumped four in our party to the business elite section of the plane and my seat was one of the four somehow! It was so awesome! I´ll never be able to fly coach again. It was very nice though; I could lay my whole seat down and sleep if I wanted to. The food on the plane was terrible though. Im so glad to be off the plane after a whole day of it. Let's see, the CCM is so much smaller than the MTC in Provo. My companion is from Ariquipa Peru, so she doesn't speak English, but she is very nice and helps me with Spanish and tries to understand me even when I speak english. We dont spend much time with our companions though since our languages are different. We don't have class together; we eat meals together and have gym together, and I think we have companion study together, that should go well. We get to go to the temple on Tuesday and on Wed there is a big Peru Independence Day celebration, so we get to try all sorts of different Peruvian foods that day. The mission president is from the US and he holds some meetings for us in English so we wont be completely lost. The learning curve to learn Spanish it so steep that it is hard to keep up. But it's worth the effort. Oh, Steph should see the soccer field they have here. First off there are two little basketball courts, a little place to play football, a sand volleyball court, and one very pampered soccer field! I will have to take a picture for you all. Ok well, I love you all and was happy to talk to all I got to talk to yesterday on the phone. I wish I culd have talked longer and to more people. I hope all this made sense. Again, I love you lots and I'll talk to you soon. Dear Elder still works out here too, so done't forget to write me. Love, Hermana Wood