December 26, 2016

- interesting nativity scene here 

 -getting a paneton from Rocio. Ate the whole thing in one night! Que horror!

December 19, 2016

Wellllll 

Back from the long awaited hiatus I am here for the update of a lifetime. Christmas time came like a thief in the night and we are all wondering how did we get here? Answer: plane from Los Angeles to Atlanta to Lima to Iquitos and 15 months later and here we are. It´s been a special Christmas season because the focus on service this year has left me thinking more about the Savior´s example that He left for us. I have felt my love for the Savior grow infinitely during this time and I know He lives! He was our perfect example. Missionary service has been the biggest blessing in my life and has helped me grow to know the Savior more and love Him more deeply. 

-getting into the Christmas spirit

 -our mission leader loves us! 

 Highlights from this week:

-the rain! Wow what a beautiful blessing it has been. And with the new umbrella I am unstoppable. My companion forgot her umbrella one day and we were in the house of a less active and the sky went black. No joke, black. One minute it is hot and sunny and bright and the next there are uncontrollable winds blowing and the sky is negro. But, luckily the less active had a poncho that everyone wears on their motos and was able to throw that on. It was so funny! Just her little head was peaking out and the less active told her she looked like a pregnant gnome with her bag. Good times. But it was waterproof so that´s the good news. 

-we have the Christmas conference with the mission this Wednesday and every zone has to prepare a song to sing. Our zone had nothing! So my comp and I wrote a little mix of a couple hymns. We thought we were going to practice it on Wednesday during lunch so we ate so fast. We told the motokarrista to fly and we got to the chapel super quick, only to realize that the practice was for Thursday. Ahhhh... 

-No one could give us pension in the mornings so we are now making our own breakfast. Let´s just say it´s a lot of cereal and yogurt.- It´s a great mix. 

-We changed pension to an eternal investigator who loves us...too much. She has a restaurant. She is feeding us such delicious food but I can´t stop eating!! I have even taken to the Peruvian habit of eating a pile of white rice every day!! No!! I swore I never would! But it´s so good! Killing me with the amount of love she cooks into every meal. Oh, Gloria

-Finished the Book of Mormon again this week! I could feel once again the truthfulness of that book and I love it. I was able to understand even more this time around and I am ready to start again! 

I am SO excited to talk to you! We will see each other soon! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick

December 5, 2016

Well! What a week! 

The Christmas spirit has been full brew here and I am really feeling it. Last year I tried not to think about it and that made it end up being sadder. But this year we are full blown Christmas all the time. It has been a great week. Even the weather is in our favor most of the time. It`s starting to rain a little more. I really enjoyed the Christmas devotional and the spirit that it brought. It was an excellent Sabbath day because in the afternoon we were also able to help a recent convert and a less active do family history and you could just feel the spirit throughout the whole room. It was a great day.

- I got the package!!!!!!!

Spanish is coming along and I am feeling more comfortable.

Not much to say I`m out. I`ll talk to you soon. Love you all!!

Hermana Fitz

November 28, 2016

So, this week was odd. We had some REALLY hot days and were suffering for a couple days there. But then on Thursday it was cold! I am not kidding! It was a cold and wintry day. It reminded me of winter time in California and it made me think of Thanksgiving back home. I hope you ate a lot of Turkey for me. I ate bbq chicken and yucca. A jungle classic!

- We printed out quotes and hung them on old mosquito net holders we had to make our house more home-y. This is from when we made peanut butter cookies! Delish! Miss Robby a lot :( but at least I see her every Monday)

- Making causa rellena - it`s potato with chili and then filled with tuna and onion and mayo. Sounds gross tastes delicious! 

We are trying to work more with members this week. We had ward conference here this week. Usually it is just like any other Sunday, right? Wrong. In Peru conferences are a big deal. They are announced a month ahead of time. As we walked in they gave us complimentary pens! With the ward name on it! Luxury service. Flower arrangements were brought in and there was even a flutist to play the prelude! We don`t even have a pianist on normal Sundays! Just a spectacular Sabbath. 

My companion is from Bolivia. She is from the same place as Hermana Laura and she is 27. She was a convert when she was little and all her family except her mom are members. She also lived in Brazil for a little bit so she speaks Portuguese too. 

We aren`t really allowed to go to the offices that much, only with permission but I always annoy them to see if there are packages. It`s called faith! The offices are a weird world though because they just are always in there typing and working away. It`s like a little business not a mission. There are three elders in there and the assistants. 

Having the mission home close doesn´t really mean anything because we still aren`t allowed to go. But, I am hoping for Christmas they will do a devotional there like last year. It`s nice to go to the mission home because it is a huge mansion and it really feels like we are more of a family when we aren`t in a chapel. 

We had a newbie from Pucallpa stay with us this week while she did some immigration papers. It was so weird to be an old sister! It reminded me of being in the beginning of my mission and even though I still have time left it is odd that it is slowly coming to an end. 

- My comp is in the middle and a sister that stayed with us this week. Hermana Pac from Guatemala

That`s all for this week! Looking forward to the Christmas devotional this week! I will be watching! 

Love you all! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick

November 21, 2016

This week has been...interesting. So, question of the week, did the Robby Fitz duo make it through changes

The answer is.....

No. 

Super sad to say goodbye but Robby left me here in 28. I am here with Hermana Poma! She is from Bolivia, La Paz and has a little bit more time than me in the mission. In fact, this is her second to last change in the mission. So, we have been getting to know each other more this week and getting to know the area a little bit because I really don´t know it that well yet. Oops. Oh well. 

That´s pretty much all I have to report for this week. More updates coming soon. 

Love you all! Hope you have a great Thanksgiving! I am thankful for each and every one of you and the gospel of Jesus Christ! It is what makes us happy! I am learning that more and more each and every day! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick 

Oh also Robby went to another area in Iquitos to train so I still see her on Mondays. And I would not have given her up for less than training. She is a great missionary and will do really well. Just missing her a lot. 

November 14, 2016

Hello! 

Well it is the last Monday of the change! It is really sad because who will know what will remain of the Fitz/Robby duo after today. We will see. I am pretty confident we will stay together but we will just find out tonight.

 I am doing well. Gaining weight as usual but bread is just really great when it`s made daily and you can get ten for a sol! We are enjoying a super hot climate and we are actually in a drought! Can you believe it? It should be raining a lot harder than it has been but we are only getting rain like once a week. The river is low and the lanchas that bring the food in just get stuck on the banks! All the food is really expensive right now and not great. Pray for rain! 

We had a great conference with Elder Maynes from the presidency of the seventy. He stopped by and only had time to meet with the missionaries in Iquitos mismo. It was so great! I was so happy! It was a great training on talking with everyone and he told great stories about setting goals. I loved that because you sometimes set goals and don`t reach them but he said there is no need to repent of that. You should always set high goals and not reach them instead of low goals that you can reach. 

We had a great experience with a less active who had been a little nervous to give us references and we invited him this week to pray for someone that he could invite to a Family Home Evening. He was a little hesitant but he did it and the night of the FHE he invited his neighbor and they rejected him! He was a little dissappointed but then asked another neighbor who was his childhood friend to come and he accepted! Little did anyone know that his friend was going through a really hard time and needed the gospel light in his life. He accepted our visits, went to church, and accepted a baptismal date for this month! His friend is over the moon and everything happened because of a simple invitation to an FHE. By small and simple things!

Love you all! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick

October 31, 2016

Wellll the internet is SUPER slow today. Forgot about that in Iquitos. But, I will have some good internet downtime to be able to write.

It has been a BIG week. 

First, we had some challenges. My companion got parasites this week. Just the usual toll, but it is awful. Just a rough process from start to finish. I felt so bad for her but she handled it like a champ. She even stayed at a member´s house for a little bit while I went out and worked with a member but it was just rough for her. We were both anxious to get back to work. Being sick is the worst in the mission because there are no benefits - there are no movies, no one waiting on you, no breaks and a whole bunch of goals and expectations piling up! I felt really bad for Hna Robinson because she just wanted to work so bad. But, after a couple days and some parasite pills she was back in action. 

This week we also had a huge surprise...we got a bishop! The old bishop`s wife has cancer and he left about 7 months ago to be with her in Lima and hasn`t come back since so the ward has been running with just the counselors for a while. But, this week the first presidency finally authorized his release and we got a bishop! And he is AWESOME. He is already the best bishop I have had in the mish. He recently moved into the ward two months ago and was in Lima for the last 5 years or so. He is so efficient it`s crazy! The whole energy of the ward changed in two hours! It is a whole new 28 de Julio! I am so grateful because we had kind of felt that we were doing everything alone and holding the ward together but he is taking charge in a real way. Love that guy. And his wife is fabulous. And they have a car so they are playing with some serious dough. He is the best and he loves us too and offered to pick us up anytime anyplace. He is the best. Big time happiness and relief. 

Also this week we had a visit from a general authority. I was not that excited to be honest for this guy to come, Elder Godoy. We have had 70 visit us before and sometimes they just think they are apostles. But, I prepared myself and went with an open mind. It was the best! My favorite general authority hands down and best conference of my mission. It was so enlightening and inspiring. He was so personable and made us laugh and feel the Spirit. He reminded me so much of Dad. I had a wonderful time. His wife was the best too. He is the area president and is not actually a Spanish speaker. He is from Brazil! But he spoke English and Spanish. It was so nice to see someone else also make mistakes in Spanish besides me! It was so fun. He just was so inspiring and really made me more excited to work. My companion and I have just been talking about his visit ever since then. 

That`s pretty much it for this week. Not too much to report. No photos sorry :( I forgot.

Love you all! 

Hermana Fitzpatrick