Life in Lima: April 18, 2015

Hey mom,

So this is going to be totally jumbled and out of order but whatever. Today we have p-day. We rode a bus to the temple this morning at 6:40. Went through a session in the Lima temple, it was a tiny room, and we had to listen to headphones and when we went through to the other room they had cards so we could read everything in Spanish, really cool. After the temple we went to the temple store across the street. I got a Spanish hymnbook and a small Preach My Gospel in Spanish. Then we walked to Tottos, it's like a target kind of. I got a Star Wars notebook, hand sanitizer, tictacs, and some chocolate cracker things, haven't tried them yet. Then we walked back by the temple and waited for a bus that would go past the bank for us to get on. You just yell at the bus and ask if it goes past the bank, get on, and hang on for dear life. They are always packed--people in seats and then they are hand rails by the ceiling, so you are literally stuffed in there like sardines, and its super hot. You get to know people really well, standing in the walkway, butts to butts, armpits in peoples faces, its great. It costs 1/2 a sole to ride, so when you get off, you pay. People will just jump onto the bus when it drives by. Oh, we also went to a member owned LDS store. They have really cool scriptures cases, I am waiting to buy one until later. It's nice since my mission is here I can buy stuff later.

The first day we were here we went to get soles, I exchanged $20 and got 62 Soles. Some places will take American cash but it has to be in perfect condition. They will also take cards, but its better to get cash out, you have to be careful of the ATMs here though.

Oh, my companions are Hermana Osai and Hermana Adams, we have a really good time together, laugh a lot.

My second night, I got up in the middle of the night and had massive diarrhea and threw up twice. There is seriously nothing that is too private here. You will love this. Diarrhea is fire dragon and constipation is ice dragon. We talk about poop all the time, Adams hasn't gone poop basically since we got here. So you go to Hermana Gonzalez (presidente´s wife) and she will give you powder to drink, then pills, and then a fruit that will clean you out.

Meals are pretty much the same all the time. Breakfast there is toast, eggs, a slice of meat, fruit yogurt, fruit. Lunch and dinner there is always rice and some kind of meat, bread, fruit, vegetables. They give you massive amounts of food, so if you want less you say "un poco", a little. There are two little freezers with ice cream that you can get The ice cream is literally the best.

On the 24th we had to go to migracion, where we had to sit and wait forever and then go up to the counter and show our passport and some other papers, then we got our picture taken down the street in a little booth. A couple of days later we went to interpol where we had to wait some more, have some lady check our teeth and then we filled out some more papers and got fingerprinted twice. So now we are legal to live here but in January we have to renew it.

During physical activity we can play soccer, volleyball, pingpong, basketball, baseball, frisbee. It's really fun playing volleyball with the latinos because they laugh all the time.

So we have a pretend investigator, our evening maestra. We have to prepare lessons and do it all in Spanish. It's crazy, it is getting better but still hard to form a complete thought that makes sense.

Oh my gosh, the other night we were walking back from dinner to our class, and Adams and Osai and I were trying to do this group high five thing and we were laughing so hard that Adams literally peed her pants. We had to go upstairs so she could change her garments. You aren't supposed to go upstairs to your rooms during the day unless there is an emergency. I think that qualified.

Another thing that's different here is the toilets. Here in the CCM you can flush toilet paper, but everything else has to go in the garbage. Out in the city, you can´t flush the paper either. And you should always carry something because a lot of the times there isn´t even paper.

So the other day when we drove to interpol, we had to go further out. There is a lot of traffic and when its stopped, people will walk through the traffic and sell stuff, like drinks, ice cream, phone chargers, everything. Our driver bought a drink the last time. Also when you are walking around you can´t look at drivers or wave to anyone, because a lot of drivers are taxis and will try to take you somewhere.

Last night we had a devotional with Elder Costa and his wife. I had to give the opening prayer, it was short but everyone said I did really good. It had to be in spanish. Everything we do with the whole CCM is in spanish, so we have headsets and someone translates for us.

Sundays we are all together for sacrament. Every week you get a topic and have to write a 5 minute talk in Spanish, then when they are announcing the meeting they will call up 4 misioneros to speak. Crazy. Then we have Sunday school with one of the branch presidency teaching, relief society starts out with the north americans and latinas and then we separate for the lesson part. We also have other classes throughout the day, like leading music, temple class, I don´t know what else.

It is so hot, I´m always sweaty, its getting into their winter right now, which is still crazy hot, so it will be hotter later in the year, I might die.

Oh, when we were walking today between the temple and the stores, you have to cross streets, which is literally like playing frogger. You run when there is a break in traffic, because they won't stop.

I attached some pics--the temple, me and my companions. You can only take pics on p-day and only outside. Also you have to be careful of taking pictures on the street, you don't want to look like a tourist.

Umm, I'm sure there is more, but its really hard to think, I will send a few more emails with pics.

Love you

Hna. Murray