First Week In PERU

Wow this week has honestly felt like a year. Our flight to Peru was a red eye flight which unfortunately meant that we would get little to no sleep. Haha. I probably slept a total of 3 hours on the flight to Peru, and to be honest. I do not really remember a whole lot from that day. But after I met my mission president me and my companion ended up proselyting for the entire day. I really thought that I was going to die. I was seeing purple circles everywhere because of the lack of sleep.

When we arrived in Peru, it was very foggy. Like to the point where you couldnt see the sun - I later found out this was normal. This news was a little hard to hear, but haha It is going to be ok. Okay Peru! Peru is crazy guys. The traffic here is loco. Everyone walks in the middle of the street and it is completely normal! Honking is the music of Peru. You will not walk outside for one second without hearing someone honk haha. Also there are dogs everywhere. MANY MANY DOGS. And who knows where they come from, I am still trying to figure out that part. 

Our apartment is very very small. The kitchen is about the size of a small bathroom, and there is no oven to cook. We have ants in the sink, so that is fun haha. And we do have a shower, but there is no hot water. So that is new for me as well. Haha I am still adjusting to all of this.

Also another fun culture shock I experienced was the way you greet people. Everyone kisses each others cheeks. Even when you do not know the person, you are supposed to kiss them. I am still getting used to this haha, because in Utah I dont think I ever kissed someones cheek as a way of greeting them. Sometimes I kind of cheat the system and just make the kissing sound. Same thing right?

My companion is the best. I love her. She does not speak much English, so communicating can be very tough. And usually I carry around a white board to draw what I want to say. I also carry a dictionary as well. Haha the dictionary has become my LIFELINE because we do not have any sort of technology. So I am back to learning from only books. A fun moment with her. So on Wednesday I think? Our Zone leaders called me and asked how I liked my companion. Innocently, I was going on about how kind, patient, loving, and jokeful she is but haha I told them my companion was "chismoso". I thought this word meant jokeful but psych it actually meant gossipy. Rip. haha when she heard me say that on the phone she freaked out but haha we def. had a good laugh about that. 

This week we also taught a nice woman named Jenny. CRAZY STORY. >So a couple years ago she had a surgery that went terribly wrong. Like she died. And so the doctors pronounced her as dead and moved her body to the morgue right? Well 3 hours after this happened she woke up. And yes, she woke up in the morgue. She then told us that she thought she saw the face of Jesus in her dream. Wild stuff I know. Anyways, we ended up teaching her two lessons this week and both went very well. In the second lesson, she agreed to a bautismal date so we will see where this goes!!

This journey is not easy. And I am learning to rely on the Lord more and more each day. Do not be afraid to seek for his help, or to ask for patience. Learning a language is so tough, but with the Lord I know I can do it.

I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Semana Seis - TRAVEL PLANS TO PERÚ

Hola mis amigos!

This week went by so quickly, but haha I'm kinda glad it did! As much as I love the MTC, I am ready to leave. We all received our travel plans on Monday and it was so exciting. It gave me the hope that I was actually going to see the outside of Provo haha. But yes! I'm leaving on Monday afternoon and I should get to Perú early Tuesday morning!! Ahh I can't wait.

Tuesday was quite the day though. We had the privilege from hearing from THE 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf. And his message was very simple, but very powerful. Success is measured by "doing well" in the things you can control namely your thoughts, feelings, and actions. One way we can be successful in doing this is by having our thoughts centered on Jesus Christ. When we sacrifice our time or efforts for Him, he will magnify our efforts. Don't give up on hard things, try your best and the Lord will help you with the rest :) I promise. 

This week we also had a couple of English TRC meetings. At first I thought it was kind of odd to have us be teaching in Spanish for a couple weeks then just randomly switch to English, but I think it's to evaluate our teaching skills? I'm not sure. But we taught this guy Evan! And he was the perfect investigator honestly. He's from Arizona and just recently moved up to Provo because of his scholarship up at BYU. He told us he was interested in learning more about this, because the culture up here is kind of "whack". Haha and I don't blame him, we are in Provo after all. 

His perspective of Provo though killed me haha. He said the first thing his roommates asked him when he moved in was "where did you serve" and "are you a member?" which he replied "no" to and all of them were shocked. Another thing he pointed out was the odd dating scheme up here in Provo. He said back at home if you liked someone you would just date that one person, but here everyone dates everyone! Haha it's a thing. Evan also pointed out that he noticed his roommates didn't drink coffee or alcohol which he really respected. 

Our lessons with him this past week, just went amazing. We taught about how the Book of Mormon came to be and the spirit was so strong. You could really tell that he wasn't just a volunteer for one of these meetings, but he was actually looking for the truth. Unfortunately, we only had two lessons with him but if I had the chance I would stay at the MTC to teach this dude. Haha which is saying a lot. The feeling I get when I teach the gospel is just amazing. It's like a healthy adrenaline rush, where you feel beyond happy and the time just flies. It is also amazing to me the love you feel towards the people you are teaching. For a small moment, I get to feel a tiny portion of the Savior's love towards these people. I wouldn't trade this opportunity for anything. 

My time in the MTC was long, but short. I have learned so much here in just a matter of six weeks. Before I entered the MTC I was only able to say simple phrases in Spanish like "Gracias", but now I can understand more than 50% of a spanish conversation and testify of the Savior. I have learned more spanish here than I have in my three years. Wild. And I know it wouldn't be possible without the gift of tongues and my amazing teachers. The teachers we have had in the MTC have been beyond exceptional. I have seen each one of them take time out of their day just to check up on how we are doing. And you can truly see how much they genuinely care for each one of us. I'll definitely miss them. 

I am grateful everyday for this amazing opportunity I have to share the gospel. And boy!! I can not wait to finally meet the people of Peru and start this amazing adventure :))

Favorite quote of the week:

"Be bold in all that you do"

Next time I email you all, I'll be in Peru!

I hope you have a WONDERFUL SEMANA!

Love,

Hermana Pulver

Semana Cinco - No Pain, No Gain

Semana Cinco started out with a wonderful, but freezing day of snow. It was Hermana Amedee's first time seeing snow and she absolutely loved it! She told us that God had answered her prayers haha. And I told her that God answers too well because Holy Hannah it's cold in Provo. It was in the low 20's this week and let's just say the weather really made me appreciate Perú a lot more.

Also!! On Sunday I definitely had a "woah" moment. As a child, or at least for me I would pray for the welfare of the missionaries every night. But now I am the missionary and people all over the world are praying for our success. Like wow... I know in my last email I already talked about gratitude. But seriously how often do I have this opportunity to wear a nametag on my chest that gives me the power and authority to teach people a simple message that could change their lives forever. 

Part 2 of Sunday was also pretty wild. Hermana Pierce told us she was pretty good at plucking eyebrows and if anyone of us needed a quick trim to hit her up. Well Hermana Amedee was up for this challenge. Sooo at this time I was casually walking around the residence hall when I heard screaming coming from down the hall. I quickly ran to my room only to find Hermana Amedee on the floor clenching hermana Jardines hand and hermana pierce casually pinning down Hermana Amedees hands. OH MY HECK. I thought someone was dying but really it was just a standard beauty procedure haha " no pain no gain right?" ( if you scroll down to the bottom of this email you'll find some great before and after pics )

So haha yeah back to a more spiritual note. We had our last lesson with Yaisza last week, and so now we have a new amiga to teach. She goes by Andee! She's from Ecuador and like Yaisza, she is also studying English at BYU. 

Unfortunately, our first lesson with her didn't really go super great. She was on her phone most of the time and our spanish was very broken because usually the first lesson is just getting to know someone. And I only know church español so haha yeah that can make it kind of difficult. The second and third lesson we had with her were better though! We really tried to teach to her needs instead of going lesson by lesson. 

Halloween in the MTC felt like any other day here haha. We were not allowed to trade nametags, but within the classroom it was "ok". So my costume was being Hermana Cook till the end of class and that was it! 

Okay last thing! Our Weekly devotional was amazing. We had the opportunity to hear from Brother and Sister Basett. They talked about how important it is to really understand the doctrine of Christ and be converted to his gospel. One of the questions I really liked was " where is your anchor?" And haha if you guys have read to the bottom of this email, another question that I would invite you to think about is "how do you build your anchor In Christ?"

Also haha one more last thing. Thank you to all who have reached out to me. It means so much and it truly does make my day :) WELL ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!! hopefully next time I email you I'll have my travel plans for Perú!

HASTA LUEGO

Love,

Hermana Pulver 

Pictures:

1.The Bathroom lighting is amazing and I just couldn't resist, haha

2. My AMAZING companeras

3. Before an eyebrow was plucked....

4. After an eyebrow was plucked....

5. MY DISTRICTOOOO