December 28, 2015

Weeeellll Hola and Merry belated Christmas! I was a little disappointed with our call because I had so been looking forward to talking to you all, but I was happy to chat for the little time we had and hear what is going on with you all. It sounds like it was a good Christmas there. It was a good Christmas here too and I will just give you a little recap because it was a big week:

Wednesday - We had a zone conference all day basically, but they called us the night before and told us it would be in the mission home! We were so excited. We never get to go there! We went to the ritzy protected houses part of Iquitos to the mission home, which is a literal mansion. We had training from President and Hermana Gomez and the assistants, ate a lovely lunch of chicken filled with ham and cheese, and then played games. We played Jeopardy and then, because it is their last Christmas as President, President and Hermana Gomez tried to make it as Mexican as possible. We broke a piñata and did posadas and then they gave us mazapan and paletas payasos candies from Mexico. It was really fun and nice just to enjoy the Christmas spirit with our little makeshift family. We were there basically the whole day. 

-the zone now! It has changed so much. 

And my zone leader is from Santa Margarita Stake. His name is Elder Smith

Thursday - La Buena Noche! The day was pretty much standard and normal. Then, that evening at 7:00 we went to a plaza in Iquitos with our zone and Zona Iquitos to sing Christmas hymns. It was awesome. There were almost 50 missionaries and we just started singing on the steps of the central statue. We sang for a little bit and then the wind picked up and we knew it was going to rain, but we kept singing. It did rain, a lot. All of our hymnals were soaked but we kept singing. Then we walked from that plaza to the central plaza in Iquitos, Plaza de Almas. We sang as we walked and it rained. In Plaza de Almas it was packed with people because they had all the trees decorated with lights and everyone was taking a stroll with their families. We set up shop and just sang. People took pictures of us and watched and we had other missionaries going around contacting people as we sang. It was an awesome experience. I really felt peace as I sang those words that a Savior had been born. After that we went home. We went to bed as normal and then were rudely awakened at midnight by the sounds of all the fireworks below and the cheesy Christmas music being blasted and people calling us on our cellphone to wish us a merry christmas. It was fun to see but I was so tired when I woke up. The party never ended for some people. We passed some men still drinking in the bar on the corner as we went to breakfast and they could not tell us if it was morning or night. Feliz navidad! 

Friday - Actual Christmas was pday so that was fun. Basically we spent the whole day trying to figure out Skype and such. We did go for a walk on the boulevard by the river and eat some ice cream so that was fun. We also ate a bunch of panetón! I ate (and I´m actually not joking) an entire panetón by myself. I love it! It is so yummy! That night we went out and worked and it was just a calm night. We shared the Christmas video a lot and it just brought peace to see it on the day of Christmas.

-getting photobombed by a stray dog on Christmas day by the river

Saturday - We had a baptism! Hermano Leoncio was baptized. He is the first person that I have found, taught, and baptized so that was cool! He is a crackup, so crazy! One day in church he brought his dog with him to all three hours. After being baptized, he wanted to take a bath and swim for a little bit in the water. He also pretended to fall when they opened the font for everyone to see. But he was baptised and confirmed! It was awesome for me because I have seen how much he really has changed and how converted he really is even though he is crazy. He walks with his crutch every Sunday to the chapel alone, and gets there early. I respect him a lot. 

-Leoncio! He looks angry, but he is really actually happy

Oh, and I am in the same area, Clavero in Punchana, and my companion is Hermana Laura from La Paz, Bolivia. She has already taught me so much. She is a worker and she has overcome some really big challenges in her life. Today is her birthday too! So we are going to do something fun.

-Hermana Laura! In the mission home after the piñata

No package yet, the mission isn´t receiving any materials either and the offices are out of a lot of things because Serpost is apparently still on strike in Lima. Looks like everything is trapped there and will be there for a while. 

Love you all! Hope you have a great week and a happy new year! 

Hermana Fitz

December 14, 2015

Well, well, well, it´s that time of the week again. We had quite the week this week and it flew by. Can I believe that next week is Christmas and that I will get to talk to you all? Nope. Any package? Nope, but I am hopefull that it will be here tomorrow. There is one courier and they have been on strike for about a month so that´s why it´s probably taking so long. They say they usually get here in two to three weeks. I´m on the lookout though!

Today are changes! My second cambio in the mish completed! This cambio flew by and I can´t believe I already have three months on the mission. Pretty soon I´ll have 6, and then 9, and then I will be dead. Time flies! All the sister training leaders from all 6 zones went home this change so we will have all new ones which is pretty crazy. We have a little bit of a drought of sisters right now so my comp, who has been here for 14 months, has the most time of all the sisters. We are thinking she is going to be a sister training leader, but we won´t know until tonight. And you won´t know until next week haha! I´m pretty sure I´ll stay here in Clavero. Who knows, we could be here together. 

This week was super super hot and we too are awaiting El Niño. The river has grown a little bit but it has a long ways to go. The only day it rained this week was Sunday which was awful because no one attends if it rains. It confuses me, because they all live here in the rain all the time, but if it rains they will not go to church. 

-this is a regional dish we have sometimes. It is fried bananas, the hard potato tasting ones, mashed together into a ball. I like eating it with hot dogs. Also, excuse my face, it had just rained

-uvilla! our favorite fruit. We eat it every Thursday during weekly planning

This week on Wednesday we got a call from the offices that a sister from Tarapoto who was going home was going to stay with us her final days. The last couple days as a missionary are filled with immigrations, training, interviews, and goodbyes. She accompanied us for a lot of our lessons, but a lot of the time we were taking her to all the places she had to go, mostly in the centro, which is about a ten minute moto from our house. It was fun to see her go home and go everywhere with her, but it wasn´t really how we were anticipating spending the last week of this change. Oh well, the Lord had other plans for us this week. 

-our little mamita Hna. Vega. Super sweet. And she is from Riverside! 

Last P Day we went to Quistococha again, as a zone. It was super fun and we played missionary tag on the beach of the Amazon river. Who else can say they have done that in their life? 

-more new friends!

-welcome to my everyday

-the Amazon beach, pretty crazy and beautiful

 I´m learning about paitience and the Spirit. If we have true desires to feel it´s influence in our lives, and we are patient, it will come. We are also sharing the ¨A Savior is Born¨ video a lot and it is awesome! It you haven´t seen it, look it up, and if you have seen it, share with a friend! Also the other one, the why we need a savior is really great. I love having the Christmas spirit about because it is so powerful to testify of Christ when everyone is thinking about Him. 

-getting into the Christmas spirit at a less active´s house

I love you all! I will actually talk to you soon! 

Hermana Fitz

December 7, 2015

No package yet, but don´t worry, I will advise you when it comes. I am anxiously awaiting it!

Congrats to Kathy!! That is so exciting!!

This week we had some nice and rainy days. It rains all night and the sound just lulls me to sleep. It´s really nice. I love when it rains because it is nice and cool. Sometimes it rains in the morning really hard but by the afternoon it is blazing hot again. And the rain doesn´t stop the sweat, but such is the life.

This week we had to get the baptism record for Cynthia in the system.

The mission is super strict on it, and if we don´t do it right we don´t get internet for the week. Pretty drastic, but they are important. So we did her record and then we made a bunch of mistakes.

And then we did it again and made mistakes. We did it wrong four times. And every time we did it wrong we had to get the bishop and Hna. Cnythia to sign it again. The last time we went to her house to get her to sign them, but she had already left for work. So we had to take a bus an hour out (with permission) and get her signature and then bus it back for another hour. It was quite the little adventure. And this week we had run out of money, so when it came time to pay I looked in my bag but I couldn´t find any money. We were panicked because I had the last of the money and we needed 4 soles for the whole trip. Then we said a little prayer and then my comp looked through my bag and pulled out a 5 sol coin from my camera bag. It was such a relief! We got the records all signed and good and we got internet!!

We did get to go to the devotional! It was awesome! We set a goal as a zone to more fully santicfy the sabbath day that we wouldn´t take motos on Sundays. We walked to the Stake Center to watch it and then when we got out, we started walking home. It is about a twenty minute walk to our house and we looked at our watches and it was 9:21. We panicked and just started running. We ran the whole way home and got home at 9:25. It was another miracle!!

I love you all! I am feeling the Christmas Spirit and I am excited for the holidays. Next Monday are transfers so I will keep you all posted on what happens. I think I will stay but my comp has been here a long time so she might be on the outs. Who knows!

Much love!

Hermana Fitzpatrick