January 9, 2017

Wow! What a week!

We are getting to used to being in a trio and I am getting used to training and being here in Pucallpa - it´s pretty similar to home actually! Everyone told me it was the hottest of all the cities but I think it is the coolest one I have been in because the sun is really intense but there is always nice air running through. There is one catch though - ALL the streets here are red dirt. They call Pucallpa la tierra colorada. It´s all beautiful and fun - until it starts raining. Then, EVERYTHING turns to the stickiest, thickest red mud schlop you have ever seen. Everyone hates the rain here because they can´t even get out of their houses. For reals. See photo dos for evidence. I had my boots in Iquitos for a week before the sister leaders could get them to me and wow, I was dying. The mud is real. Houses here are almost always wooden and the people are a lot more humble than in Tarapoto, or Iquitos even, but they are ten thousand times friendlier! They all say hi to us going down the street which was different! Very friendly people! The children especially love to chase us down the street and ask for cards yelling ¨hermanitas! hermanitas! tarjeta! tarjeta!¨ 

- view from my house - we live on the third story. very nice and airy

 The ward is really small - we have about 50 people attending weekly. But that has made it easy to get to know everyone and we are working with less actives. There are a ton of less actives. 

- made chocolate chip cookies with the chocolate chips you sent mom! Turned out perfect! Thank you! They were great for our FHE!

Pucallpa also has a mall! It´s the first mall I have been in in more than a year! So crazy! How do people even construct things that big! I forgot what a supermarket is like and how convenient it is! Man! Crazy stuff. Plaza vea is incredible. We eat lunch there every Monday. 

We had an amazing experience this week. There is a family that the missionaries have been visiting for three years! We had never gone but we coordinated with the sister to go by and meet them. We got there and found out the brother had been attending but, because his wife didn´t want to get married or baptized, stopped. We were able to talk to her and she told us, listen, I had a lot of doubts and ´buts´ before but I have had a change of heart and I just want to get baptized. We were shocked and so was her husband. They are going to get baptized and married this 4 de February!  The Lord blesses our obedience and can definitely change even the most difficult person.

So that was our week, finding blessings, getting stuck in the mud, getting shut out of houses but let into others, and feeling the Spirit guiding us every step of the way.

Love you allll! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick