Primer cambio en el campo: termine!!‏ (google translator:  First change in the field, finished!)

  

Hola! First, my Spanish has exploded!!! Seriously! I can't type in English anymore! It’s really cool!!!! I'm just gonna start... 

Monday, we found out that both me and hna Aguilera are staying in Chinchaysuyo so we're here until after Christmas!!! YAY!!! :)

Now here's the funny thing about last pday... hna Aguilera broke our phone and so... WE WERE FREE FOR THE WHOLE DAY.... NO ONE could call us or anything... it's a very awkward feeling knowing that your district and zone leader can’t contact you...of course we weren't chambonas (lazy, or not doing what were supposed to do) but yeah. We went to Starbucks and got non-coffee frapuccinos and ate lunch with a member. papas rellenas. Best things ever! (as pictured here) 

 paps rellenas

We then said goodbye to Elder Cruz. (he's the one on the left) He was transferred to San Felipe. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We taught Maria and Manual about the plan of salvation and they want to get married! 

mi primer distrito, e' cruz, e' melgar, y mi compañera y yo :)

Mayra is getting baptized on the 28th!!! My first baptism!! AHHH! SO EXCITED!!! bien vacan! (really cool!) On Wednesday, we had a black out... Half of our area was in complete darkness, and it was super dangerous so we just went to our apartment and waited for the lights to come on. but they didn't so we went out and taught Josue and his family, in complete darkness, I had my trusty flashlight so that was cool! ;) On Thursday we had a noche de cine (movie night) with the ward! We watched “Meet the Mormons”. Now... here’s the funny thing about peruanos.... They have Mormon time AND perunano time... so when you say it's starting at 6:30 it’s not going to start and 6:30 or 6:45... Oh no! 7:30 or 8 if we're lucky! But somehow we ended before 9 and I was able to make it through without screaming in English :)

Anyway, Saturday we had a visita de trabajo (exchange) with our district leader and zone leader... That was interesting. I was super nervous! We taught Leonor (she's a recent convert) she told us to wait outside because she had to feed her cats and put them to bed. Our zone leader said that in his 17 months of being a missionary he has never been told to wait because of cats... When we were teaching, Leonor’s cats were being a little crazy and so she would come up behind them with a stick and smack them on the head. She’s also 80 years old and hilarious! I love her! 

Sunday was pretty normal, we worked super hard to complete our goals, which we did. That makes me super happy! Cool thing, so we do noche de hogares (family home evenings) with the members and we did one with a young family the other day. We were talking about prophets and usually, when I speak I stumble a ton... but this time, I spoke fluently... My comp said that it's the best I’ve ever spoken! AHH!! My next goal is to have a whole day of no English. It's been a crazy awesome week! Well, that's it for now! Love ya'll! 

--- Hermana Hicken

comp y yo

 

papas huancayina

my comp's new pet :) 

 This is what Perù is like. I wrote it all down and took a pic of it.

(Editor mom's note: This letter was sent 11/16/15)

Futbol for life!‏

Hey y'all! 

Well this week has been crazy! After emailing, we went right back to work. We proselyted and taught because on Tuesday we had a mundialito with the whole mission! 

So Tuesday was our PDAY. On Tuesday, from 8 am to 2 pm we played futbol. Each zone was a team and we each got our own jerseys. Tahua (my zone) got 3rd place... I think, I'm not really sure. :) But it was a ton of fun! I met the whole mission... which isn't a ton, as you can see from the picture it's only like 250 or so. Anyway, the sun was out and we all got super sunburnt, I mean, really sunburnt. I look like I have a disease right now because I’m peeling, but oh well, it was a ton of fun! :) 

Team Tahua (my zone)

Hna Pugmire and me. We were in allstate choir together

 After futbol we came back and got ready for proselyting. We had dinner with Percy and Lilli (picture). We had papa johns! So yummy! 

Percy and Lilli

  

Satanas y Jesucristo. guess which is which :)

Best chicken and arroz and papas fritas ever! with... guess... BEETS!!!

And finally a Peruvian who is taller than me!! ;)

Wednesday we had a special conference with presidente about the promises of the Book of Mormon and how its super important to be direct with your investigators. 

Mayra with me and my comp

The rest of the week was pretty normal so I’ll just tell stories... :) Mayra is getting baptized on the 28th of this month. We found Josue! After two weeks of looking, we found him and we talked with him. He's been SUPER busy and hasn't been able to talk to us but we got another appointment with him and hopefully he'll be there. Two cool experiences... 1. One day we were teaching one of our other investigators and she was saying the closing prayer and in my head I asked Heavenly Father to bless her, and I heard back, you need to pray for her. I realized at that moment that I wasn't praying for her specifically!! SO, I’ve started praying for her. Second... I was reading in the bible and was thinking, if I were living in the time of Jesus would I believe in Him? And the thought came to my head... You are believing without seeing. Just two cool experiences that I had.

We're also teaching this family, they aren't married but they've been together for 12 years. They're pretty great! Anyway that's it for now. The language is fine, I can finally understand but I still can't speak. Anyway, thank you so much for all the prayers and yeah! Love y’all!    

- Hermana Hicken

A Sunday of miracles!‏

Hola everyone! This week was crazy, but absolutely amazing. So it started out kinda rough, PDAY we didn't do much. I met my "Abuela" in the mission. She is hna Aguilera’s trainer. That was cool. We didn't do much after that.

Tuesday, tambien, no mucho. We did divisiones, that's when I go with a member and my comp goes with another member and we teach separately. It was kinda nice to be in charge for a little while. :)

Wednesday we had visita de trabajo con one of our zone leaders again, he told me that I really need to work on my Spanish but that it's a ton better than it was when I got here... It really is better. 

Thursday... On Thursday things switched 180 degrees. My comp and I had reunion de zona. We went over our metas (our goals) for the month and after we came back and talked and fixed some of the problems that we had. Almost immediately we felt better and we now work better as a companionship.

Friday we taught Mayra about tithing and promised her that if she paid her tithing she would be blessed. She’s a little apprehensive but she's going to try it. We also went to the market about bought a ton of fruit! And it's good fruit! ;) (Jody here: Sarah loves fruit and hasn't been able to find it/afford it on her mission these past few weeks so this is a happy thing for her!)

Saturday, Mayra didn't show up for her interview... We called and called but she wasn't there. We played futbol in the morning and I actually did alright! I almost made a goal but a little Peruvian Elder was a little bit quicker than me and got there first and stopped me ;)

Sunday was the best day... Okay, it started out bad. Mayra and Josue didn't come to church which means we have to push their baptism dates back again... It’s really frustrating when you have a solid investigator and they don't come. But we're staying positive and were going to try to talk to them today. After church and lunch we did divisiones again. I went with Michelle. She's an RM and she's awesome. We started out by teaching a new family. Maria y Manual. They’ve been together for 12 years but they aren't married. When we got there Maria wasn't very happy because Sunday is the only day that she can be with Manual, he works every other day. But I told her (in Spanish) that our message is for the family and can be taught in 15 minutes. She let us in and we started teaching. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. When we got to the first vision I recited it word for word with no mistakes and without looking down. Afterwards, we waited for a few seconds. The spirit was SO STRONG it was seriously almost tangible. I then bore my testimony and invited them to be baptized. They both said that they would like to be baptized. Maria said, that she's been looking for a way to become clean spiritually and she thinks she found it. AHH!!!! Afterwards, Michelle told me that she had never felt the spirit that strong on her mission and that my Spanish is a ton better! 

The Gift of Tongues truly works! I went through all of Sunday speaking Spanish and I actually understood people. I'm not perfect in Spanish, I still need a ton of help forming sentences but It's amazing how quickly you can pick it up when you have the help of the Lord. One of the people we contacted yesterday thought it was amazing that I could learn a language in 2 months. I again testified to him that the Spirit was helping me learn. Well that's all for now. This week has been crazy but awesome! Thanks for all of your support and prayers! 

The church is true! 

- Hermana Hicken

The View

Sunset (over the ocean)

My companion and a dog

(I asked Sarah how long her hair was getting so she sent me this picture.
She's standing in front of the windows in their apartment.
They have to cover the windows with brown paper.)

A very cold week... oh and HALLOWEEN!!!‏

Hola todos personas! How are you? This week was kind of boring (sorry) so, after I wrote last week our zone (18 missionaries) went to Rustica. It's kind of like Olive Garden. I had pasta and this amazing yummy frozen lemonade! It was so good! We didn't do much after that.

Hna Toscano and me. She leaves for home (Ecuador) next week. 

On Tuesday we were teaching this investigator and he was trying to tell us that palm reading isn't bad at all... he tried to read my hands and decided that my parents are either separated (divorced) or very distant. Mom, do you have something to tell me? ;)

 On Wednesday we did service. We cleaned up the yard of a member and WOW was it hard! We were shoveling dirt out and carrying it to another pile of dirt. We worked for hours! And after 3 hours... we were half way done... so we’re gonna go back this week and do more. 

We also had visita de trabajo. That’s when we go on exchanges with the hermana leaders. I went with HNA Williams. It was awesome because I was able to learn a ton from how she teaches and I was able to talk to her. She’s a gringa. 

We also had Halloween. Sadly, the people here do not celebrate Halloween like we do. Yes, the niños do ask for candy, but they don't have parties and decorate like we do. It’s kinda sad :/ oh well.

Josue is not getting baptized… yet. BUT we got a new investigator named Mayra. She’s awesome! She's getting baptized on the 21st of November! 

Well that's all for this week! I love you all and thank you for your prayers! They really mean the world to me! Love you! 

- Hermana Hicken

The only gringas in our zone!

View of Lima