Weeellll another week to report on from the jungle. This was
a big one. We have had a lot of goings ons and things are going generally
well.
On the health front, I´m 100% again but my companion is
still bad. I feel really bad but I can´t really do anything. We are on a strict
diet of no oil and no rice or fat or milk or anything fun basically. We are
hoping that takes care of things. She is a real trooper though and we keep
working even though I know it´s hard for her.
This week Pres. Gomez came for his last conference with us.
It was sad and he gave a great conference that really helped me and my
companion to put some things in perspective. I will miss him a lot. He has
always been so kind and happy and smiley. We will see how Presidente Li will
be. On Tuesday we had our last conference with them and then on Friday in the
evening we had a goodbye meeting with all the members. The mission recently
made a ¨Mission Anthem¨ and so we all learned it and sang it during the
meeting. It is actually really catchy so my companion and I have been singing it
all week. It´s called ¨De la selva su misión¨. We had piano and guitar and
everything. It was rocking.
This week we were finally able to rescue Fred and Karen. I
think I sent a picture with them a couple weeks back. They are less actives who weren´t attending before we got here and we have worked SO hard these
three changes to rescue them. To be rescued someone needs to attend three Sundays the full three hours, have an interview with the branch president, and,
if they hold the priesthood, bless or pass the sacrament. Fred and Karen have had
everything, Fred just had to bless the sacrament and we have been working with
that for weeks. This week it finally happened! He came early to church, had an
interview, and then was blessing the sacrament. I felt such a swell of pride
and felt like a proud little momma seeing him bless the sacrament all nervous
and what not. It was a really gratifying moment to see their progress from
attending only one hour and coming in jeans to coming early with his white
shirt and tie. Cool moments.
We also had a chance to reflect this week on what we want to
achieve in this area. There are only two weeks left in the change and it´s our
third change together here so it´s very probable that at least one of us will
have changes. We were able to look at what has gone on and we realized that we
have to start from zero and we need to be 100% obedient to be able to see
miracles in our area. It was something that we both felt and it has been so
great to just work together and really just get going. I know that even if we
don´t achieve all that we hope that we will have given everything we could
have in this area.
This week was also El Día de San Juan!!!! It´s a huge
holiday that they only celebrate in the jungle of Perú! It´s always the 24 of
June. It really starts the day before because everyone makes juanes, the
traditional food of the holiday. A juane is a leaf filled with rice, egg,
chicken, and olives basically. But, it´s much more. It´s a whole process that takes
forever and it has special herbs and what not. Also, they don´t just use any
old chicken. Nah, para juanes it has to be a farm chicken. So, Thursday was
prep day and it was basically just a massacre of chickens. It was craziness.
There were chickens that we had seen for months being raised that finally met
their end this week. Sorry chickens. We helped our pensionista make some juanes
so that was fun. Then, Friday, when all the juanes are ready, everyone leaves
and goes for a paseo which entails going to swim in a river, visit a pueblo,
mostly river stuff, and take your juane with you. The day of San Juan everyone
eats juanes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It´s a big deal. Lots of juanes.
I ate one and I didn´t even finish it because they are huge but Chicky, the
little four year old daughter of my pensionista, ate like five. They are pretty
yummy. But, no one was in their house on Friday! We walked and walked and
walked in the heat and it was a little trying but we ate juanes and had a good
time afterwards.
- holding a chicken, laughing. this chicken was then killed
to become my juane
-making juanes, mixing the rice and stew together
- putting everything in the leaves to cook
- the finished product Yum!
Well, that´s about it for this week. Tomorrow President Li
takes over so we will see how that goes. I´m nervous!
Love you all!
Hermana Fitzpatrick
