Week 66

Last P-Day we hiked cerro de paz and it was a BLAAAAST!!! I mean just imagine, hiking, sun, and even 3 leches cake that I packed up. Can you even think of a better way to see all of chimbote?? it was amazing. absolutely looved it. my companion and I took our own way up, and by own way I mean literally rock climbing, instead of the trail. Saved a lot of time and I was sore for a solid 2 days after. haha i miss hiking sooo bad!! 

 

So do you all remember when I said that last year, I had the best birthday ever? Well, that was certainly topped on Tuesday!! And I have a bunch of birthday emails in my inbox too!! Pucha it was lots of fun and certainly memorable. My companion put notes and candles on my study desk in the morning to start off the day. When we went to my pensoniesta´s house for lunch, I got the absolute biggest surprise EVER!!! one of my favorite families from my old area of monserrate in trujillo took a 2.5 hr. bus to chimbote just to wish me a happy birthday. Holy cow, I was so surprised!! familia castro, your the greatest!! Anna Claudia walked in from one of the doors when we were about to eat lunch and it was just so wonderful. Her & her parents brought a HUUUGE stuffed dog from Trujillo and my pensioniesta invited them to have lunch with us too. it was so awesome to see them and catch up a bit of how everyone´s doing in monserrate. absolute best and greatest surprise ever. my pens and her mom gave me a blue sweater, its getting chilly here in chimbote! the seminary kids sang to me, and the bada family threw a little party at their house. and the sister training leaders in our zone gifted me new shower sandals, mine had been broken for the past 2ish months. my only true birthday wish was to finally have hot water to shower in and when we came back to our room from lunch, i found a post-it on the bathroom door from the zone leaders that they had installed the temo!! wahooo, showering in hot water for the first time in a month. seriously, thats a gift that keeps giving. it was certainly a really special day!! plus cerro de paz the day before, yeah it was the greatest!!! 

 

We had a wonderful zone training on Thursday, I felt the spirit so strong and thought of so many things that I want to improve and focus more on. it was great!!

 

Our zone had the wonderful opportunity to help out with our stake´s youth conference, we did a mini MTC at the stake center and it was an incredible turn out!! my companion and I taught them how to contact, talk with strangers on the street basically. we taught them how to do it by showing them an example first, then they had a practice too. I love the energy and testimonies of the youth! at the very end, 2 youth that have their mission calls shared their testimonies and 2 missionaries from my zone that are going home really soon.  

 

Once again, i´m so grateful for our ward. such strong, converted members and strong desires to support us. we had tons of members accompanying us to our teaching appointments and one of the members even said that her patriarchal blessing talks about supporting the missionaries and she´s so thankful that she now has that opportunity. very few members have cars, but 2 families that do take the time to pick up a bunch of people that would otherwise have to walk or take public transit. isn´t that so nice?? church combis. 

Hey you know whats a lot funnier than a hurt nose from futbal? A runny nose cause I´m definitely rock-in the common cold nowadays. ironic? Halls are a life-saver. 

Loooooove you all, thanks for all the B-

day shout-outs and love!!!!