October 26, 2015

Hello once again from the jungles of Perú! It was the craziest week I've had so far this week. We just did so many things. The time goes so fast, it seems like it was P Day just yesterday. 

We spent P Day in the city again. Sometimes I forget how awesome it is here until we are on the bus and I feel the breeze and I see the people and all the hustle and bustle that is Iquitos. It is really a sight to be seen. I also ate three ice creams that day so that didn't hurt either - they´re everywhere for one sol which is basically 30 cents. Who can resist that?

On Wednesdays in the morning we do service and this week we did service as a zone. We went to the area of the zone leaders and helped some of the members there. It was so fun! We built a boat! The Brother builds boats and sells them and we helped him make one. It was a giant canoe looking thing. I hammered in metal pieces on top of the tar so I´m basically your average Amazon woman now. I actually learned many things that day. The family lives in one of the houses on stilts so I got to climb up there and see how life is - very scenic, lovely view of the river. Then, the Hermana, who sells watermelon and yuca, had the other Hermanas and I help her weed her plants. Who knew they weeded with machetes? I did not. It was awesome. We should really implement that technique at home, much more effective than a shovel.

-The area we had our service project in

-weeding with machetes!

 I will say this about that day - it was the most infernal heat I have ever experienced. It was roughly a bajillon degrees and I was sweating from every pore. I had to wear my boots and I didn´t know it was possible for my ankles to sweat like that. I took my boots off after and my socks were soaking wet and my feet were wrinkled from the water. Just awful. I also didn´t know I sweat from my upper lip, but that is a thing here. People´s faces are always wet but I have never really sweated there, but wowzers I did on Wednesday. I just cannot express enough how sweaty I was, how sweaty we all were. I also had a cold this week, super bizarre to sniffle and cough when it´s 100 outside, and I couldn´t tell if what was dripping down my face was sweat or boogies. It was incredible. We went home and reshowered because hello, nobody needed to be subjected to that.

I also learned on Wednesday how to make a cake at my pension. We just started throwing things in a huge bowl and I was thinking where is the whisk or mixer? Turns out I was the mixer, more specifically my hand. They just kept telling me to wait until it was all one feeling. I mixed it all up, and this was directly after service without washing my hand with more than sanitizer (sorry Mom) but I will sadly admit I have done grosser things here. Such is life in the jungle. I ate that cake with no reservations and it was delicious. Also, for vanilla cake we added a whole bottle of coca cola. I was doubtful, but it really made it taste good! Yum, cake.

 -Mixing up that cake with my pensionista Mariela :)

-Eating said cake with yummy banana smoothie

Then, this week I went to Lima! On Wednesday we left and Thursday we came back. It was so nice! We stayed in this seriously luxurious hotel (with warm showers!) and were waited on hand and foot. It was a dream. We went to Immigrations in the morning and collected our residency cards, so I am now an official Peruvian! Then we went to the temple! It was such an unexpected treat to do a session. I love the temple so much and there is just no other place where we can feel as close to Heavenly Father as we can there. I felt rejuvinated. We also got to go to the temple store which was a huge blessing becuase I had been needing a hymnal (the chapels here don´t have any, and I don´t know any of the words) and I also got a book for the simplified version of the hymns so I can play better in sacrament. I also got to see my friend from the CCM who is in Pucallpa, where Elder Sheppard is. So, turns out Pucallpa is way more developed and modern than Iquitos, they have the Peruvian equivalent of Walmart and Target, and a mall, and good internet. There is a lot more money in Pucallpa I guess. Lux life. Hna. Vasquez said that Elder Sheppard is doing well and that he is always excited to serve and that he doesn´t speak very well yet but he really tries and the people like him. Oh and we had pizza! It was so yummy! Papa John´s, my favorite! It was the best thing I have eaten in weeks I wanted to cry I was so happy. 

I am learning to trust more. Everything depends on trust and faith in the Lord. We don´t progress without it because we don´t truly want to progress without it. It´s hard sometimes. A lot of times we ask people to give up work to attend church every week. It´s hard to think that things will just work out if we do our part, but they will. I see it all the time with the things we do. Sometimes we meet people in the strangest way but it´s all part of the Lord´s plan and His timing. We just have to trust, and work. 

I love you all. Hope you are all well

Hna. Fitzpatrick

October 19, 2015

Hola hola coca cola! 

I'm back! I try to write down what I want to write you throughout the week and I forgot my paper at home so I'm sorry if this is a little rambly this week, but here goes:

It was a rainy week. I love the rain. It cools everything off and we just walk through it and get soaking and it's all good. I love the smell right after it rains and everything is fresh. I love the chill. I actually even feel a little cold sometimes which is incredible. The Iquiteños get really cold when it rains, and all our citas fall through too. They refuse to do anything but sleep when it rains which is a little frustrating, but I would 100% do the same if I had a choice. I always think of Mom when I see them napping. They have these awesome rocking chairs that are like steel with elastic so that they are comfy and fresco. They ALL use those chairs. They are super comfy. 

We went to Quistococha this week with our district for P Day. It is this wildlife park thing about 45 minutes by bus from our zone. It was so fun! The bus is insane. You just hop on and they don't have any doors or windows. Then you sit if there are enough seats, but most likely stand and they BLAST music and you rock up and down the dirt streets until you get where you're going. People hop on to sell stuff and people bring their enormous packages of fruit, eggs, chickens, wood, etc. and just dump it wherever. It is a riot. Quistococha was a really cool, super jungly beach. We saw pink dolphins, monkeys, pumas (¡que pumas!), and a bunch of other animals. It was fun to just hang out and see the touristy stuff. The river was unreal beautiful. I wish I could send pics but I lent my camera to a girl in the ward for the YW/YM dance they had and she erased all of my pictures! We are working on recovering them haha

Food this week: We tried salchipapas! SO yummy. And greasy. French fries with hot dogs and mayo and tomatoes and cabbage. And I had it with Inca Kola so it was true Peruvian food through and through. We also had tacos yesterday. I think they did it to make me feel more at home and it worked! It was almost like home. It was so nice to have tortillas again. 

Yesterday we had a training meeting with four stakes in Iquitos and the Area 70 for the area. I really liked him, his name was Elder Lozano. He was really direct and used D y C to teach us that when it came to the wards we needed to ¨Get our houses in order¨. It was really direct and I felt like I could work harder. It was great. It was also fun to see all the elders and hermanas around.

I am also feeling so much better! Finally! It only took a month but I think I am adjusting to the food and water here.

Crazy things that happened this week:

- another man tried to kiss me, but this time he was really offended when I wouldn't kiss him even though I explained that I couldn't as a missionary and he refused to give me a goodbye handshake. Oh well

- they add ¨ita¨ and ¨ito¨ to everything and sometimes it really confuses me as to what the original word was. This week one lady was talking about these little bugs that had infested her family and her daughter´s ¨vaginitas¨ and I was trying to figure out what she was saying and what that word was and then I got it, and I thought ¨AH! Nope, I do not need to hear any more of this¨

-a family in the ward has a little two year old boy that we call Mormoncito and he was in one of our lessons hanging around without his mom and he was going insane! He was acting like a literal demon. He was hanging from the hammock, throwing water bottles at us, biting us, chewing screws(!), and hitting us with huge wooden sticks. It was a war zone in there. Exhausting. I felt so bad for his mother

-the mom of one of the families we are teaching is traveling and sent back some tortoises to her family. They are enormous and alive and we were like what are you going to do with them? Eat them, they said, we are going to eat them. Ahhh

It is watermelon season so we eat a LOT of that. Everyone offers us watermelon. It's really yummy but it gets messy and they have so many seeds. I never know what to do with them. But, blessings

I'm feeling a lot more comfortable. And guess what, I am the ward pianist now. It is an electric keyboard, the building doesn't have hymnals, and I only know how to play the upper hand, but it is a blessing. The Lord prepares us for different things, and He has a perfect knowledge of what is going to happen, even when we don't know. We found some families this week that are really interested. They have been prepared to at least accept our visits, we are hoping they are prepared to accept. 

I'm glad you got my letter! Hope you liked the corazones. I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Hna. Fitz

PS I'M GOING TO LIMA THIS WEEK. I AM REALLY EXCITED 

-Selfie with Karol because she is leaving this week :

( and also my pensionista Hna. Mariela! She is the best)

October 12, 2015

¡Hola Familia!

First of all, huge news this week - we got a shower!!! It is so beautiful! Our zone leaders installed it for us and now we have even streams of water everyday! We said like five prayers of thanks that day, and I couldn't help but play with it. It is so luxurious, I feel like a princess every time I use it. Water is still cold, but it is like jumping in the deep end everyday and then you're good. #blessings

We also had a baptism this week! Little Paolita was baptized and it was really special. We even did a little musical number for her! I don't know her too well but I was really happy for her.

-Paolita's baptism! I promise I'm not hunching more I was just really cramped in this photo. 

I hope your back stretches work. You will have to send them to me.

-Everyone taking photos at the baptism lol I think this took longer than the actual program

This week in food: we had some interesting meats this week. There were these little balls of meat and I asked if I could eat everything because usually there are bones and they said yes. So I popped it in my mouth and it had a huge pop! They were unaffected and casually mentioned that it was just a little bit of cartilage. No biggie. Popped and crunched my way through that meal. We also had some meat that I thought were just beef strips but then I wanted to vomit when I chewed it. Turns out it was chicken giblets and the heart. Yummy. But there was a holiday on Thursday so my pensionista had a pollada, a little pop up restaurant thing where they bbq chicken. We got some of the chicken and it was so good!! Holiday was crazy though because everyone was drunk. Such is the life.

Crazy things that happened this week:

- it rained SO HARD yesterday out of the blue. We were walking and then bam! Gushing water. Luckily a lady took pity on us and we went inside and taught her a lesson.

- we see a lot of children peeing in the streets. We saw one kid who was walking in the rain with one side of his shorts pulled up haciendo el pipi as he was walking! I saw the stream shooting out! Insanity

- a man almost kissed me yesterday! We do one kiss on the cheek for the ladies, but just handshakes for the men. He was a little drunk and he had my hand and then was like "Just a little besito" and started moving in! My hand was trapped and I was just trying to dodge and then he went to kiss my hand and my companion just shot her hand in and said "No Hermano". It was a close call to say the least

It was a good week. It was a hard week. I felt a little homesick, but I am getting the hang of things around here. I am even starting to contribute in lessons and do contacts. They still laugh at me and my Spanish, but it is all ok. I am ok with it. I know I will get it eventually. I know the Lord is aware of me. I feel it every time I see my name on the street and think of how conscious of me and the people here He is. I feel it when I get frustrated and hymns pop into my mind with the words I need to hear. I feel it when I am sick and He strengthens me. I feel it when I finish off another fish! I feel it when I see people keep commitments and reap the blessings.

It is a new mission rule that we have to bear our testimonies every Fast Sunday so I did it! I made it through and I actually think I did a pretty good job. I was so nervous

I feel so different here. It's not just the country, it's not just the plaque, it's me. I'm different. I feel good with change here. I'm changing, the people we teach are changing. Sometimes that change comes slowly and sometimes it comes fast, but if we are diligent in following the Lord it always comes.

Here are some little sayings. I don't know if they are Peruvian, but they are what we say here:

-ok - listo

-very - bien, bastante

-cool - chevere, bacan

-what? - ¿como ya?

-pisses me off - ¡Me saca la piedra!

And my personal favorite...

-What the heck! - ¡Que pumas!

I love you all and think of you frequently. Happy birthday to Greg! Ancianito! I hope you have a great b-day and take a break to enjoy it.

Much love,

Hna. Fitzpatrick

ps. send me photos! I want to see what's going on

pps. Michael write me! I better see an email from you next week or I will pray that you grow so tall that none of your suits fit

-P Day at the stadium. Really fun day and we got to meet the missionaries from the four zones in Iquitos. It felt like the factions in Divergent uniting. Nice to finally speak English too!

-Hna. Colquehuanca's first time trying M&Ms. They were a hit. We found them in this random store because they don't have american candies or really anything here. It's weird. 

I want her to try the peanut ones but we'll have to look for them

October 5, 2015

Hola Familia!

Well this week flew by. And this week I hit my first month mark. Who can believe that? I can’t. We taught a lot of lessons this week but my companion is having some health issues so we spent a lot of time at the clinic too. I will tell you that I do not trust the doctors here. She had crazy eyeliner and prescribed like four different pills for some sort of mouth infection. I will be avoiding going there at all costs. Now we have to see a blood specialist because there is something wrong with my companion’s blood. I don’t know. I just accompany.

We had two baptisms planned for this week, but one of the investigators got in a fight with his girlfriend before conference and so didn’t attend. It wouldv’e been his third attendance so now he can’t be baptized this week unfortunately, but we are hoping soon. I don’t really feel like they are my investigators though because I don’t know them, and I barely understand what they say to my companion and what she says to them.

Last P-Day we went into the city center – it’s like a ten minute motomoto ride from our pension. I didn’t realize how not city our area is until I saw the city. It’s bustling in there and it’s bizarre because there are actual stores, but most of all because the river is right there. We saw the Amazon!  It was big and beautiful and the houses are on stilts around it and we saw a monkey running around some little shops. It was awesome! It was weird to go back to our humble little area after that. But I much prefer our area with the kids running around in the streets, and everyone hanging out outside of their houses. Life moves slower here.

One thing I love about Iquitos are the clouds! Everyday they are the most beautiful, literally celestial clouds. Big and puffy and white, unless it’s sunset, when they turn into rainbow, cotten candy puffs. It takes my breath away every night. Or when it is raining and the clouds are big and angry and black. We had a couple days of heavy rain this week. We were in my pension eating and I thought the roof was going to collapse, but my companion and my pensionist told me it was nothing, that we will have a lot heavier rain. I’m scared. I don’t know how it gets heavier than that. But, they just live with it. The field by our house still had people playing football and the kids just splash in the puddles. When it rains, the entire sidewalk becomes a puddle. It is inevitable that you will get wet. I don’t mind it though. I like the rain a lot actually, it freshens the air. Oh, but sad news, my companion lost her rain jacket so I let her borrow mine and I used my sweater and umbrella and now my jacket has a huge hole in the side. I’m not sure what happened but I’m really sad about it. Hopefully we can fix it and it will still be waterproof. The only thing about the rain is no one wants to have lessons when it rains. It confuses me because they complain about the heat when it's hot and they won't let us in or won't go to church when it rains even though they have lived here their entire lives. Who knows.

I’m getting used to the food, and my pensionist is getting used to serving me half of what she normally serves. I don’t know how they eat so much here. The portions are incredible. She would serve us an entire plate of just white rice and then a soup and meat and a salad and a fruit juice. It’s absurd. I'm feeling a lot better. I'm trying not to drink the milk here anymore. I think that might have been what made me sick because it's not real milk here, I don't know what it is exactly. I never let my feet touch the ground here. As soon as the shoes come off, it's flip flops on. Even in the shower. Although, I wouldn't call it a shower. But we are very blessed.

How about conference??? It was awesome. I watched the Saturday sessions in english with some of the other missionaries, but the internet wasn’t working Sunday so I watched it in Spanish. I got most of it, I think. My favorite talk was Elder Holland’s, it made me miss you Mom. So grateful for the patience both you and Dad have shown with me. He always uses the most beautiful words, I really liked it. But, attendence at conference in the morning session was awesome. We met as a stake at the Stake Center and there were no seats left. I was expecting  the same for the Afternoon Session but we got there and there were maybe 100 people. We didn’t even fill all the pews. It was awful. I am learning how important weekly attendence is here. The Lord expects a day of our week and we need to renew our convenants. Exact obedience to that commandment is what brings happiness. It is frustrating when others don't recognize that. I liked the new apostles. We were so excited to find out who they would be. I don't remember who is who but I liked the third one that spoke the best I think. He just was simple but powerful. 

Oh and the drink you guys tried was definitely chicha morada! It's purple corn liqour and they put lemon juice and cinammon in there too. It's super yummy and popular, we have it almost every day. And they make a gelatin out of it. Whoo! It's either inca kola, chicha morada, some fruit I've never heard of, or anis tea. 

As far as Christmas package, I am really happy with whatever. Some little hand sanitizers that smell nice would be fun. We shake so many hands throughout the day, I go through that stuff like crazy. Also, the sisters here said packages usually get here within three weeks of sending so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I didn't know this but they don't want you to put Hermana on there either, just my full name. That's all :)

Today we are going to the Stadium with all four zones in Iquitos so I'm excited for that. I love you all! I hope all is well this week.

Oh and my favorite outfit so far has been my white Zara shirt with the red jersey skirt and my black tevas. Very airy and fresh.

Hna. Fitzpatrick

Pictures(!) hopefully these send, the internet here is honestly the worst:

-I'm Queen of the Amazon. The river in the city. So cool!

-Me and my companion with some of our investigators at the Stake Center for conference. Not sure why they didn't smile, they are normally really smiley but when the camera came out this happened.

-Our street view from our little balcony. And a motomoto! My favorite!

-And an old one of me and my CCM companion at the Lima Temple. Feels like ages ago

-My scripture cases for my Spanish scriptures, I bought them in Lima. 

The two temples in Peru! (soon to be three)

-The river!! So beautiful

-My name! It's seriously on every street!