November 16, 2015

Hola hola!

Well, this week was another wild one. Sometimes there is just nothing to do but laugh because my experience here has just been so far from real life. Sometimes my comp and I seriously just laugh. Everyone is such a chambon but we just laugh it off. And the things we get involved in. Lives down here sometimes really play out like telenovelas. It´s crazy. 

It was a rainy week down here. It is starting to get bursts of really crazy heavy rain for a half hour every afternoon. This is the beginning of the rainiest time of the year so it is starting to pick up. December it apparently rains everyday pretty much straight through the month. I love the rain though. It is so calming and fresh and the people take pity on us and let us in. It always makes me want a hot chocolate and to cuddle up on our couch though haha. It was so insane, this week we were talking to some members outside of their house and we could feel the wind pick up and the sprinkles start to come down and we knew it was going to rain heavy. And then I looked down the street and I could literally see the storm coming down the street. It was the most unreal experience I have ever had. Normally you see the clouds come or whatever but I could see the wall of water coming down the street. Because when it rains it really is a wall of water. If you take even one step outside you will come out drenched. It´s utter insanity. But, this week we took advantage of it and taught lessons to people we got stranded under overhangs with. No escaping us!

-getting caught in the rain. The scariest part is the lightening. We woke up one night to the loudest lightening I have ever heard. It was actually kind of scary.

 This week I also had a work visit with the sister training leader Hna. Blackmore. It was so fun! I really love her a lot. I went to her area and got to see a little bit more of Iquitos. Her area has more of the houses on stilts. And we are actually entering the flood season so those houses will be flooded soon. I don´t really get it but they live there and their houses flood every year and they build a second floor and live up there until it dries in April and then return. But they live on a river basically for five months of every year and construct wood sidewalks through the streets like really long, janky bridges and take boats to their house. We will see, it should be coming soon.

We worked in the Panadería again this week and it was so fun. This week we helped them with their panetones. It´s basically fruit cake but it is the classic Peruvian Christmas food here. They told me that just like a meal isn´t a meal without rice - including breakfast - Christmas isn´t Christmas without panetón. They drink hot chocolate with it and it is actually really yummy. I had some paneton and hot cocoa for breakfast today actually. I´m into it.

-making alfojores in the panderia (and possibly consuming a few)

-Aguaje!! They LOVE this stuff here. This is the process of peeling the scales off. 

It's like really bitter mango. They go crazy for this stuff.

We had some really funny moments this week and we had a lot of fun. On Sunday we went to pick up an investigator for church and her little 10 year old brother answered the door, in only a speedo. My comp was shocked because she is really shy about seeing people in no clothes, like we do everyday, and we just busted out laughing. He was not even embarrased at all either. He kind of tried to hide himself with his door, but it was glass so it wasn´t doing much. Too good. He is also really fat so that added to the hilarity. We just tried to hold back laughter while he asked what we wanted. What a kid. 

I think it´s so funny the way people address other people here. We were talking to the landlady and someone came to buy bread from her and she said "si abuelita" and it was totally normal but I thought about it and she had just said "yes, little grandma, how can I help you" and it was all good. Or we went with a member and her boyfriend to the family history center and she was directing him where to go by saying "aquí gordito" which is like "here little fatty" and it was just another intimate moment in Perú. Everyone calls everyone gordito and gordita which would be incredibly offensive in the US. I think it´s just funny, especially because the member was pretty heavy and her boyfriend was stick thin. So it goes.

Man, everyone already has their christmas trees up and everything. It makes me so excited for Christmas! My first of two! I love you all and I am thinking about Thanksgiving this week. We are going to do a little dinner with the zone so that will be fun. I am so thankful for everything I have. If I have learned anything from the Peruvian people, it is gratitude. They don´t take anything for granted and they work to use everything they can get. I am so blessed in so many ways temporally, but I am blessed richly with the gospel. It covers everything. I am so grateful for the Atonement. We have been focusing on that as a zone and it has blessed my life. Everything depends on it. I am so grateful to my Savior for His sacrifice and I hope to show my gratitude by serving faithfully, dilligently, and obediently here. 

Love you!

Hermana Fitzpatrick