In the jungle...the Camel sleeps tonighttttt‏

yes!! you heard me right. this girl is in da jungle!! QUILLABAMBA BABY! 

I know what your thinking....QUE en el MUNDO!!!!

yes Scott I'm in your old turf and I've already met peeps who know you

Leaving the CCM was really hard just because of the fact that I have grown SO close with my district like they really have become my family and best friends, So the morning we were leaving I got about 3 hours of sleep and it was like 5 in the morning and it was like saying bye to the fam all over again, bawl fest. then I go to the airport and talk to mom and dad and again. bawl fest. get on the plane took medicine it was fine I slept, then got to cusco met the prez and wife and they are SO awesome and we took some pics and went back to the mission home and ate and had orientation and interviews and it literally felt like there were 5 pound weights on my eyelids it was Horrible.

 So I wasn't feeling too good at presidents house and I was having some chills and was exhausted and my stomach was no bueno so honestly I felt miserable and that night I was laughing cause I felt Turrible probs because I was emotionally physically (hauling my luggage down and up 3 flights of stairs...ya) drained and was sitting on the bed at the hotel place we were at before we would get our new comps the next day. but in the morning I felt much better and we had breakfast at that one guys house that mom knows.

I got my comp hermana Ignacio shes been a trainer 2 times before and she super short and cute and is way awesome she calls me baby sometimes haha I love it, shes mi mama and I got assigned Quillabamaba! 

So the next day we took a 6 hour bus ride with some elders which was...crazy. through the jungle and it was raining and I felt like I was about to die half the time, but I made it and wasn't sick so that's good. I feel like I'm in the jungle book, living in the man village. I will say its been hard. rough stuff. adjusting is always hard especially when you don't understand people and they look at you like a sad lost puppy which is the worst and you feel dumb in lessons cause you're not saying anything and have a good pensionista so im happy.

Hey scott! Hermana Roxana is my pensionista and her daughter Brisa showed me her cuaderno where you wrote! they were talking about how you had freckles and where called cholo and you didnt seem gringo and you got mad at one elder one time because you didnt like him and something about juice... I don't know I don't speak Spanish but ya! and Brandon says he misses you. I'm serving in the Quillabama rama (branch) its chevere. the other day was SO FREAKING HOT. I don't have the right clothes for this weather. 

My apartment is cool, mucho germs. where I first got there I wiped down my desk and my drawers with wet wipes. my companion probably thinks I'm coocoo. I had my first breakdown the other day haha but it was expected, I saw it coming, so many changes, mas dificil, but change never was easy, I just want to fast forward 6 months were i can speak and know how to teach and know what the heck is going on! I just want to feel like a REAL missionary, like I KNOW what I'm doing. but I guess it comes with time. 

Oh hey Evan proselyting a couple of weeks ago in Lima we went with a sister and she said she was from Chile Santiago and I told her you served there and I talked about what you said about the food there and stuff and then after a while she stops and is like wait...I know your brother, he served in my ward! and we had a bonding laughing moment like whaaa she Hermana Belen Huerta Barrio Alberto Gonzala estaca conchulu or something and she said you focused on like the members helping out or something...I don't know I don't speak Spanish haha. small world. and Scott the teacher ta the CCM! his last name is Bejar and he said he knows you really well and you were a good missionary his house is in Lima central. such a small world. he was my pretend investigator it was so random. ohhh how small the Mormon world is. 

church was fun, I had to give my testimony. lots of wet kisses from little old ladies half my height

well I love you all SSOOOOOOO much and I miss you more then I can say and if I do say I will probably start crying, im such a baby.

pray for me. 

lots of hugs XXXXOOOXOXO

Hermana Rasmussen

I am not chi chi

Cusco Mission  here I come!!

Sooo a week from now I will be in CUSCO.....que en el  mundo!!!!!!!

time has gone so slow and fast at the same time. I feel like a million emotions about leaving. I'll miss my district and some of the other Hermanas, and I'll miss clean bathrooms and vegetables. So this is the last email for a couple of weeks because next week Tuesday we are gone gone gone. pray for me on this flight. I think it leaves at like at 3 in the morning so...this will be fun.

Can't believe I am a missionary!

Lets see well this week...

They got new shower curtains in the bathrooms! now they don't look like moldy bread... woot woot.

haha funny story. so usually in our night time classes we go outside and practice or play a game or practice teaching with another district, So this time we were practicing with another district and I ran to My friends in the other district cause the Elders in the other district are scary to teach cause one of them speaks too good and makes me feel dumb....anyways it was my turn to be the investigator so when they asked me name I said "me llamo ChiChi." and Hermana Kaeding (So cute, one of my best buds here, part Mexican) She bursts out laughing and says "don't say that!" im way confused and she like " that's slang for poop" at least in mexico. Sooooo no more ChiChi.

I love my District!

A couple days ago before bed the people come and tell us "So you guys need to grab every single book and things you have in your classroom and take it up to your rooms by 930 because they are going to  fumigate all the classrooms" ..we´re all like...there's a bug problem? que en el mundo.(What in the world) and not to mention our bedrooms are in the same building... sketchy. So we grab all our stuff, take it upstairs and all the rooms that had no one in them have signs on them saying don't enter; Fumigation.... This is all getting more sketchy by the second, then Hermana Gonzalez comes upstairs and tells us the stay in our rooms all night and to open our windows....So we are sitting in our rooms 10:30 and she comes in and tells up we need to leave the building for 30 minutes and to leave our doors open.... ok.. cool. lets just let the cancerous chemicals go through my bedding and then out the window... So we all have a pajama party outside and do nothing. finally go in and it smells...like deet. yummy ol deet. and the next morning we go into our classroom and it smells even more like deet. So I spent the morning thinking "there goes a couple years of my life" ha ha If I don't come home as a teenage mutant ninja turtle I'm going to be reeeeally disappointed.

MY DREAM: If they stuck me in a room with my scriptures, preach my gospel, and a computer with all the talks on it for 24 hours... this might sound crazy but that sounds like HEAVEN right now.

 Awkward.. but they are awesome, one on the right is going

to Cusco as well

Some pointers for girls entering the CCM (Lima MTC)

 1.a light cloth robe is super when going from your room to the shower and vice verse.

2. blanket you love from home, its seriously a life saver.

3. print off talks that you love!!! just do it your wont be sorry.

4.remember that this is not high school, remember why you are here. its not to be the most popular or be buddy buddy with elders(too many forget this). its to prepare yourself to become the best, obedient(sometimes hard but worth the blessings), missionary so you can serve the people the best way you can, and to bring yourself closer to Heavenly Father! nothing else matters!!

5. mini hymnbook in Spanish. so nifty!

We went to this place called Tottus and it literally has EVERYTHING every american brand, i was so happy. it felt like america.

 Our last trip to the temple as District

What Scott went to COSTA RICA!!?  you people are crazy. I don't know anything. you could have adopted the monkey maids mom has always wanted and I wouldn't even know!

one way heavenly father has blessed me is every time im struggling with something our teachers always come and talk to me and my compañeras or just me and tell me their experiences as missionaries and EVERY TIME they explain what they were feeling and went through and its exactly how I'm feeling at that very moment! its amazing. #tender mercy. I love our teachers they remind me of Scott and Daniel. it makes me homesick sometimes cause their personalities are exactly the same! but its awesome.

 Love Ya'll

 I'll see you flip flop l8ter....in CUSCOOOOOOOOOO topia.

BIIIIIIIIG hug 

Hermana Rasmussen

Faith is POWER

• 3/11/2014

                                             A great view of the temple

WADDDUP!!

So I forgot the sticky note with all the things I was going to mention in this email soooo..... I'll do my best.

Man these last 2 weeks have FLOWN. like the time continuum doesn't exist.

One second I'm sleeping and the next minute my alarm goes off and I have to remember where I am.

I have FELT your prayers. It literally feels like something else is bearing me up its the craziest feeling cause I know I could not do this alone and after asking for some of you to pray for me I could literally feel it. so muchisimas gracias.

We went proselyting on Saturday! it was pretty bomb. its usually a nerve wracking/I'm not ready for this/rejuvenating/spiritual experience. I went in really wanting and praying to feel the spirit while teaching cause I feel like its been missing in the lessons that we've been having so I was put with Hermana Peters this time and we take a bus out to the Lima Norte mission and let me tell ya like this is DEEP Lima. nothing I've ever seen before. You know those mountains in Lima with all the houses up the hills and it all looks super sketch? yep. I was there. We get to the church (which was a garage. literally. with a couple pictures of the prophets on the wall) and my companion and I get put with an older member, I could understand 47% of what she said...but I tried, everything I said to her about my life she would say: oh que linda! she reminded me of mom's friend Juana saying mamacita to everything. So here I am walking up these dirt hills and feeling like I had a sign above my head that said "I don't belong here" we walked up these 90 degree stairs into this lady's house and it was literally SO humbling like there was no roof for part of the house and it was super small and there were fleas or some species of fast ants crawling all over the floor so I kept stomping my feet up and down so they couldn't get on me. The member pretty much just took over and the less active just told her all her problems and such and I could understand a couple of things one of them was that her husband drinks and stuff like that and she kinda teared up, and just sitting watching this woman and trying SO hard to understand her I could just feel Heavenly Fathers love for this woman SO MUCH and added onto the culture shock and being scared of getting bugs their living conditions, it was so overwhelming I kept chocking back the tears and after a bit I just said in my horrible accent if I could share a message and I shared a scripture and I just told her that I could feel heavenly father's love for her so much and how much he wanted to bless her and her family and stuff like that and of course the tears started rolling and I'm not sure if she felt the spirit or not but I definitely did so that was just a way cool answer to my prayer.

The best Latina missionaries

Send my love and thanks to grandma for the letter and I love her and am so grateful for her!

Wait a second...mom where are you from?? i feel like I say a different city every time I tell people you are from Peru. Pisco right?  yo no se

Well my Spanish is.... I really have no idea. someday I feel like "woot woot, Spanish is de BEeeeeest" and then other days im like "a stateside mission sounds really great right about now" ha ha no I'm glad I'm here but learning that language...it can gettcha. I feel bad for my teachers, some days our district is seriously like DEAD and we can't learn anything, so they usually take us outside and play a game with a ball or have us run around while conjugating verbs....after a while of running around saying "yo caminé! yo caminé" ( I walked, I walked) we decided that they are just doing it to laugh at us. But it does help with estres (stress) (my favorite word)

Just a little piece of my crazy days 

In the CCM we do a lot of pretend investigator activities, So like I'm the best pretend investigator and my name is EVA. not to toot my own horn or anything. I keep getting called on to be it. I get SO into my characters. Like when I'm Shakira, beyoncé who lives on 123 sesame street and has a friend named Burt who is Mormon and le gusta contar los numeros. yeeeea. I take pride in lightening the mood and estres (stress) that weighs on us here at the CCM and my teacher couldn't stop laughing soooo its all good.

OHHH funny story so while we were teaching our "investigator"(our teacher) we were asking him all the baptismal questions and my companion just read one and I wasn't even sure what it said in English but I just guessed it. The question was, have you broken the law once and so he said: ( in a totally straight face) "well I ran over a dog" and it took a couple of seconds for my mind to translate and register what he said and then I just lost it and burst out laughing! in the middle of this lesson! and my companions are looking at me like "WHAT are you doing!?!" cause they didn't understand what he said so then I tried to pull myself together which of course makes it worse so then I told them what he said and we all started laughing and my teacher started laughing and it was a grand ol time.

Can you believe I will be going into the field in 2 weeks!!!!!!!! say whaaaaaaaa. I'm not sure how I feel about it. ask me in 2 weeks.

LOVE YOU ALL oh so very much. I'll write better next week I promise. keep on keeping on. Faith is POWER. ice cream soothes the soul (especially at the CCM) but so do the scriptures!!!

snugs and hugs

Hermana Rasmussen

Hola a todos!!

3/4/20014

Best food in the world! GRANADIA!!

Yohoo! family!!! (frozen quote)

ahhhh boy this week has been. I don't even know.  Time is wrapped here at the CCM. one day feels like eternidad and the next minute your starting your 3rd week! its nutso.

This week has definitely had its ups and down. definitely hard. but i don't expect any different for the next 18 months of my life.

There is definitely something heavenly father wants me to learn here at the CCM and in my companionship, this is definitely not an easy task but through the lords help and my teachers help and the support of all the elders and hermanas around me, es possible. Every time there moments when I'm just really feeling low and almost to my wits end, heavenly father sends me a pick me up like when  a teacher tells me something awesome about their experience of what I'm going through or people in my district send me notes and i can just feel his love in those little tender mercies.

Sorry, no puedo escribir mi sentimientos bien en Espanol. but it was way cool yesterday a way chill teacher pulled me aside and asked how I was feeling and I like told him how I was feeling ALL in Spanish with like a couple words in English and it was way cool that I could actually do that!

Please pray for me that I can have the strength to be what heavenly father needs me to be right now. i found dads letter yesterday in my luggage and I needed it and was exactly what I needed to hear. heavenly fathers taking care of me. doesn't mean its going to be easy but with him as captain of these stormy seas I know its possible.

I know it looks ....funny!

Well this week I...

1. shared a shower with a lovely beetle (size of a quarter)

2. Got my first bug bite. It looked kinda funky so the doctor took a picture of it ha ha       but its going away so sadly I'm going to turn into spider man.

3.There was a mini earth quake!! so coolio. I was freaking out inside a little but it was      just like a giant phone was vibrating out yonder somewhere.

4.We got new roommates! we have 6 beds in our room and 3 were open so I was        reaaaly hoping latinas would be in our room and we got em! one is from Peru and one  is from Argentina. Argentinians have an accent they say like yo shama instead of  llama. but they are really sweet and the best because they don't stay up forever  and wake up crazy early.

 5. I've been playing the piano for stuff which is kinda neat. and everyone was like  wahhhh when they found out I could sing.

The best view from my bunk 

So like every pday we went to the temple pretty early its awesome but sometimes i just can keep my eyes open! its like there's 5 pound weights on my eyes! then we went to metro and garages and I got some awesome genie pants because its pretty dang hot here which i love because i finally feel normal. Literally everyone is sweating except me! its a beautiful gift. so I'm kinda not looking forward to having to wear my sweaters in Cusco but all will be well. I am Sooooo happy I'm going to Cusco cause Lima would not be my mission of choice...Cusco is like the coolio mission to go to here everyone's like ahhh lucky! or aw that's soo cool! so...I'm excited but either way its going to be hard. I already recruited one of the elders in my district who's going to Cusco too to help me with my 1000 pound luggage so I'm taken care of ha ha.

My Spanish is getting better, I'm just really hard on myself but sometimes I walk away from trying to talk to the latinos and I realized I just had a REAL conversation about my life and theirs and its AWESOME!! I just have  a hard time teaching lessons but I've learned when I let my mind go of worrying so much of what I'm about to say, it just comes sooo much more easily. Si se puede!!

I'm just glad that in the middle of this storm, Heavenly Father is the captain of my ship. Love you all SOOOOOOO much. it hurts.

mucho amore

Hermana Rasmussen

My comps