March 21, 2016

Wow! What a week it has been. Week 2  down here in Tarapoto and it has been a dream. Everything is awesome here. And it has been raining basically everyday so it has been nice and cool. Here when it rains our whole area turns into a mud pool so the boots have come in handy. In my other area not so much because it was all sidewalk, but here they work well. 

The people here are a little more educated and well off than the people in Iquitos so I have been learning how to adjust my teaching because I can go a little faster and teach a little more because they understand more. So it´s nice to be challenged in that way. But, they are not as receptive. In Iquitos, if you contact someone 9/10 times they will at least invite you in and listen. Here, they actually say no when you ask them if they want to hear more! It was kind of shocking for me but I am learning to just be bold with inviting people even though they are pretty rude to us here. At least the members are awesome!

- trying, unsuccessfully, to cover naked native lady in pretty mural 

 We are getting more familiar with the area and we are pretty settled in now, but we still have moments of not knowing where in the world we are. On Wednesday we looked for a house that we had service at for almost three hours!! And that morning it was super hot. We called everyone we knew for help, used our map, asked people in the street. Nothing. Never found it. We were dead after that. But, we went back the next day to try again and found it within ten minutes. I guess we were just not meant to find it Wednesday. 

- the street I live on (for now!)

- Tarapoto at night *swoon*

 We are also looking for a new house because we aren´t living in our area and it is a twenty minute walk to our pensionista everyday, three times a day. There are no houses in our area though!! The sisters before us and the sisters before them were looking too but never found anything. We are hoping to find something soon though. Everytime we see a sign For Rent we stop in and look. Sometimes I feel like I´m on House Hunters International taking in the options in Tarapoto , Perú. Diagnostic: Dismal. We found the high priced house number 1 with more than what we need, we found the low priced house number 2 with not enough, we are just waiting for the in budget house number 3 with a few sacrifices that they always end up picking. The search continues.

- Dead after looking for the house for three hours in the sun. 

Also have a knarly sunburn from this day

 Today we are going to watch a movie with the zone and just hang out a little bit. It should be a good day! The zone is awesome here because there are 16 missionaries, including the zone leaders, and half of them are sisters so we have a good time. There are four more elders but they are in a city about two hours away and only come in for one p-day during the change. Girl power!  

Also....my birthday package came!!  They hand out the packages Mondays after internet so it got here last Monday but I wasn´t able to tell you. It was awesome! Thank you so much!!  We have the clings on the window, the lights are up. I love playing with the bead board and  my favorite thing is the hourglass. We use it everyday. My comp likes the Pez and we are going to make the cookies today! My pensionista is excited too! Thank you!! And the shirts are such a blessing. Nice to have some more options!

The garments probably did get here already. The thing is that now that I´m in the jungle and away from the mission office I have to wait until the leaders go to Iquitos for the leader council and pick up all the packages and stuff. They go at the beginning of every month so it should be just a couple more weeks. Thank you!!

Much love to all!

Hermana Fitzpatrick