Dear Family,
Wow! Where to start? I'm really loving it already! The Wednesday
that I came in, there were a record breaking 940 new missionaries
entering. So many things are packed into such a short amount of time! We
just study and eat and study and then eat and then study and then eat
and then study and then sleep and start again the next day. We sit all
day in the same classroom, so it's so nice when we switch things up and
go on temple walks or go to devotional.
This week was the first ever devotional at the Marriott
Center with all the missionaries from both campuses. There were so many
people that we had police ushering us across the street because we were
a traffic hazard. It was really neat to have that many people there, we
truly are an army.
My district is great! The Elders are very funny so
sometimes it's easy to get distracted but we mostly keep each other on
track. My companion, Hermana Howard is wonderful! She's 21 and from King
City California. We laugh a lot to relieve stress and we work really
well together. We already feel like we've known each other forever!
There are only 4 Eldéres and 6 Hermanas. The boys are all going to Chile
and then me and 3 other hermanas are going to Salta.
I see a lot of friends around here. Especially Hermana
Heather Higgs. We're on the same eating/study/gym session so we've had
plenty of time to talk to each other. I did see Amber Ellefsen like you
mentioned. As part of our class we were supposed to go outside and find 5
contacts to introduce ourselves to and then bear and apply our
testimony in Spanish. So I saw her, gave her a hug and then my companion
and I shared our testimony. We traded off speaking Spanish and
translating for each other, so that's what she's basing her comments
about us sounding like we'd already been here for the whole six weeks.
Her trio then did the same in Japanese. It was really neat because we
could still feel the Spirit even though we couldn't understand their
words.
My high school Spanish has been flooding back to me.
Being here made me realize how much I learned from Señora Hofer. I mean
of course there's a lot for me to learn but we've already taught four
lessons in Spanish and it didn't feel impossible at all. Our
investigator's name was Erasmo. The lessons got progressively better and
we were able to share time better. My companion hasn't had as many
years of Spanish as me and it's been longer since she last took those
classes. Also, she is majoring in early childhood special education and
has taken classes on speech therapy so sometimes that messes her up
because she has been so trained on how to pronounce things correctly in
English and so it makes it difficult for her to pronounce the Spanish
alphabet right. I sound less like a gringa than I did a week ago, so
that's good! For the most part I can find adequate words to get my
thoughts across. I'm just slow and simple in my speech. My teacher here
is Hermana Williams and I really like her. I feel very blessed with how
the Spanish is coming. I remember being so frustrated in school because
I couldn't understand the teacher well and couldn't answer questions
well either, but I'm not too frustrated here because I feel like I
understand the majority. I mean of course she talks slow and all that
but still.
We will have the opportunity to sing in the choir for
the worldwide training broadcast so you might see my pretty face if you
watch it. And it will be AMAZING! I'm really excited!
I've had a really smooth transition here. The only thing is that I
already feel like I'm sick of wearing the clothes I have, so that's
going to bit a bit rough. But I'm too busy to think about home much.
Although there are two Hermanas in my district that were supposed to go
to the Peru MTC but couldn't because of visa issues--lots of people here
are in that boat--so that reminds me about Amanda, a lot. There are
other hermanas in my zone that are going to Peru too. They just started
their 6th week but have been assigned by the travel office to spend a
7th week here and then they'll be temporarily assigned to a United
States mission, so that may happen to me too.
I know missionaries have always said they love mail but never understood how much until now! If you want you can use dearelder.com
to send letters. It's just as easy as email but they print it off and
put it in the mailbox so I get to read it the day it's sent instead of
having to wait a whole week to have access to my email.
Hope all is going well at home!
Much Love,
Hermana Perason
P.S. I hope this letter is better and more detailed than the ones Ryan sent when he was on his mission!
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