Week 14: La Gripe* (*The Flu) and Rolled Ankles
It was a pretty good week in Oxapampa!! Pensamientos espirituales for este semana* (*spiritual thoughts for this week): “Be not afraid, only believe” by Uchtdorf, “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of.” – Hamlet, DyC 58:27.
Last P-day, we couldn't find a combi to predicted Catarata La Suiza- so we went to Los Pinos, a fantastic adventure hike to lots of pine trees! It was a chévere hike, and we played cards and got eaten alive by bugs- normal normal. ☺ It was my 3 month mark and Alva´s 11 month mark, so lunch was a celebration of tacos and lemon pie in honor! Despues* (*After) p-day fun, we went and visited Celeste y Arletti and started Reading La Fortaleza de la Juventud* (*The Strength of Youth) with them, discussing albedrio y responsabilidad* (*discussing moral agency and responsibility)! En siguiente* (*Next), we went to a noche de hogar* (*Family Home Evening) we had planned at Hedvit y Rita's house! We shared el video Cordero de Dios* (*Lamb of God video) with them and talked about la Expiacion de Jesucristo* (*Atonement of Jesus Christ) with lots of the family members, ate galletas* (*cookies) and pancito* (*muffins) and hot chocolate, and played Las Papas se Quema and otros juegos* (*other games). This pday era tan chévere- celebración* (*celebration), hiking, good lessons, and… millones de bug bites. ☺
Martes! Despues de estudios chéveres* (*Tuesday! After great studying), we visited a menos active* (*a less active) we have, Maria, and did servicio peeling ajo* (*garlic) for her and her mother and sharing a summary of La Restauracion* (*The Restoration). It was lots of fun and super tranquilo servicio, entonces, era bacán* (*Spiritual service, extra cool). After lunch, we went and visited Ayde, a menos activo que tenemos* (*a less active that we are working with), and we shared 2 Nefi 4 con ella. We went to see if multiple other people were in casa to no avail before visiting Celeste and Arletti and Reading the Fortaleza de la Juventud con ellas* (*Strength of Youth with them)! Arletti, our investigadora* (*investigator), is beginning to have a real deseo* (*desire), and we´re quite happy to see that. ☺ Despues* (*Then), all of us Oxapampinos left for La merced en preparación* (*in preparation) for Wednesday´s multizona* (*multi-zone meeting). I did divisions* (*splits) with Hermana Burga, and we visited a fantastic pareja de menos activos* (*less active couple) and taught them the Diez Mandamientos* (*Ten Commandments). It was probably hilarious to see us proselyting together- she comes up to about my waist in height! ☺ We stayed the night with Hnas Burga y Delgado en La Merced.
Miercoles was the conferencia de multizona* (*Wednesday was the multi-zone conference)! ☺ We all met in la capilla* (*the chapel) in La Merced- zonas La Merced (us), Tarma, y Satipo! Our zone now is Hnas Cushcagua, Gaspar, Spitale, Cruz, Burga, Delgado, Alva y yo, y Elderes Giles, Ayala, Bell, Rasmussen, Butterfield, Egan, Riser, and Hernandez! At the multizona, we had capacitaciones* (*training) in physical and mental health, listening to the espíritu* (*Spirit), companionship study, and a talk called How to Become a Preach My Gospel Missionary! We ate Hermana Henderson´s famous American-style brownies and played games before taking zone pictures with her and Presidente! Era tan chévere.* (*It was so cool.) ☺ Then we all went and got pollo a la broaster* (*roasted chicken) and traveled back to Oxapampa! First we visited with Grace, a menos activo que tenemos, and we taught her about albedrio* (*will) before going to Carmen, and we found Carmen talking to a guy we didn't know in a store, and we ended up teaching him La Restauracion* (*The Restoration)! His name is Jose and he has lots of fantastic questions. I'm kicking myself because about 2 weeks ago I had a feeling to go into that store and didn't follow it, but I'm really glad we found him! Despues, we went up to Mara, a recién rescatado, and taught her from La Fortaleza de la Juventud. I woke up with la gripe* (*the flu) this morning, so to all of our lessons, we brought a roll of toilet paper and probably looked insane taking it out lots to blow our noses- sin embargo, que será, será* (*however, what will be will be)!
En la mañana en Jueves* (*In the morning on Thursday), we went and taught Jose, our new investigator of ayer* (*yesterday)! We taught him about prayer and the intro del Libro de Mormon. Era chévere! ☺ The hermana lideres* (*sister leaders) de San Ramon (Gaspar y Cushcagua) got here just before lunch to do divisiones here in Oxa! I was with Hna Gaspar and we had some of the coolest lessons! We went to Jocelyn and taught her El Cristo Viviente* (*The Living Christ) with her and her husband, recently regresado de su trabajo en Cusco* (*returned from his work in Cusco)! Then we went and taught Rosa, a menos activo we have, with the intención* (*intention) of just seeing how she was, but after getting in the lesson, I felt we needed to share Alma 36 with her- we did, and she was super abierta* (*open) with us! We shared about the power the Atonement has to lift us up and move us forward. It was a fantastic lesson. ☺ Despues, we went and visited Geraldine and her family and read FLJ* (*For The Strength of Youth) with them! We ended up not being able to find anyone in casa después, so we wandered a bit and found Jacinta, an antigua investigadora* (*old investigator), and got to know her and shared 2 Ne 2 :11 before going to noche de deporte* (*sports night) and playing volleyball! ☺ Now, about the rolled ankle- the sidewalks in Peru, when they exist, have lots of maintenance holes (huecos) in them, and I was looking for a moto and fell right in with one leg, scratching it up and Rolling my ankle. Apparently the accident-prone tendency hasn't gone away yet, jaja* (*haha). ☺
En Viernes* (*On Friday), we did estudios y practicas con las hermana lideres (*studies and practices with the sister leaders) in the morning before weekly planning. Alva was feeling absolutely wiped out, so we got permission from the hermana lideres for her to rest for an hour- so after lunch, I had an hour to catch up on my journal and relax a bit. ☺ Our first few citas fell through, so we contacted for most of the early afternoon and ended up teaching Rosa y Calendario, some viejitos* (*older people) we found at the base of the cerro* (*hill)! We taught them about prayer before walking all over our área. We finally found Hedvit and her son Ryan and taught them from DyC 90 about how all things will work together for our good, and we talked with them for a while. They're absolutely fantastic. ☺ Then we went to Noche Misional* (*Night mission) and taught about Uchtdorf's talk “Be not afraid, only believe.” It´s a fantastic talk about Daniel and standing strong in our beliefs. It's quite motivatonal. ☺
Sabado* (*Saturday)! After fantastic estudios* (*studies), we went and visited Maria, a menos activo, who we're pretty sure got la gripe from us… oops. We taught her about the oración* (*prayer) and how it could help to know truth before going to Santo Domingo and visiting Angelica, a woman we contacted a while ago, and getting to know her and challenging her to pray about her current church and ours to know of truth. ☺ Despues de almuerzo* (*After lunch), we couldn't visit our investigador Jose because no matter what we did, we couldn't find a member to come with us. We passed by his store to tell him we wouldn't be able to visit him and it was closed. ☹ Then we went and taught Jimena, a converso reciente* (*recent convert), and taught her about albedrio* (*will) before going to Ayde, a brilliant menos activo, and talking about sueños* (*dreams) due to the fact she's had a few she wants to know the meaning of, sharing the stories of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzer and Nefi and the Tree of Life interpretación. Era chévere. ☺ Despues, we visited Lydia, a menos activo, and taught her Alma 47 and talked with her before having clase de ingles* (*English class) with one person in attendance, but it was still quite fun. Good Saturday. ☺
En Domingo* (*On Sunday), Angelica, our investigadora, came to church again! ☺ Two semanas en siguiente* (*two weeks in a row), and we couldn't be happier to see her there. After reuniones y almuerzo* (*lunch and church meetings), we went to Shakira, a menos activo, and taught her about saliendo con jóvenes del sexo opuesto de FLJ* (*dating the opposite sex as explained in For The Strength of Youth). Despues, we went to Geraldine and taught her about servicio de FLJ before going and talking to Verenisse about the Expiacion* (*The Atonement). She's absolutely fantastic. ☺ En siguiente* (*Next), we went down to Santo Domingo and taught Brigitt, a converso reciente, hablando a cerca de lenguaje en FLJ* (*A Recent convert, talking about clean language from For The Strength of Youth). Despues, we went and taught Celeste y Arletti about La Expiacion through a video. Then we went to the Familia Martinez and taught them about Lot's wife and no mirando atrás* (*not looking back), and they gave us apples! :) It was a long day with lots of walking around, rain, and fallen-through citas, but, nevertheless, a good day. ☺
Hoy* (*Today), we left Oxa at 8:00 am to La Merced for a Pday de zona, and we've been told we are going to a waterfall! Entonces, claro que va a ser chévere* (*It is clearly going to be fabulous). ☺
I love you all and hope that each and every one of you has a fantastic week! ☺
Con amor y mis oraciones para siempre* (*With love and prayers forever),
Hermana Schmid
(*Italic translations by Karissa’s mom using google translate)
