Life in da Jungle!

Hello peeps lets see...my mind is a little bit fried but i will do my best.

last week we went to the zoo here in Quillabama, it was kinda depressing and super small...those poor animals, I was tempted to take a monkey to send to mom to be the monkey maid shes always wanted haha

the other week we participated in a funeral...it was the strangest thing I have ever done in my life. The custom here is the march with the casket around the city with a big band playing behind and then march up to the cemetery, so in this family it was the grandpa that died,the grandpa of a member in our ward and only his family and the grandpa were members and everyone else is catholic, so at the cemetery(super weird and gave me the heepy jeebies) the casket came and the catholic preacher did his thing then the grandson gave his talk which was awesome and about the gospel and I was like woot woot! but then as they were burying the casket they told all the members that were there (like 8) to sing hymns so we start to sing a hymn then the stupid band started playing and it turned into battle of the bands! and we had to sing really loud but of course we won and it brought the spirit and I really hope the people there felt the spirit. it was just a testimony to me that we have to best news ever! this life is not the end! and because Jesus Christ lives we will too!

gosh...this gospel is so awesome.

This week president and wife came down for a conference and it was also awesome! I love president Harbertson and Hermana Harbertson, they are so amazing and they radiate with the spirit. I was able to talk to Hermana Harbertson and she is so inspired and she said exactly what I needed to hear and brought me so much peace I'm just so grateful for them and know they are servants of the lord.

with this past Easter week I want to bear my testimony about my savior. he is my rock, he is the grand exemplar and everything we are trying to become in this life. His sacrifice was a sacrifice of love, he suffered all because he loves us and he knows us perfectly because he passed through all the we are experiencing, hes my savior he is my lord and he is my friend there's no other name I would want my name to be next to on this plaque than His. There is nothing I want more right now then to give my savior a hug but everyday I can feel my saviors love and I know he is with me and is carrying me through the good days and the bad days just like that story about the footprints in the sand we just need to remember to never lose faith and remember to make him our foundation because if hes our foundation we can never fall and fail. the joy that this sweet sentence gives,

 I know that my redeemer lives!

I LOVE this gospel. I pray that I can become the servant that He knows I can become, I cannot do this by myself, no waaay jose but He is a God of miracles and just like in the prince of egypt song says "There can be miracles when you believe"

from my jungle to yours

hugs and snuggles

-Hermana Rasmussen

IN DA JUNGLE

Hermana Wahlen and I

Well this week flew. by I  literally feel like I was writing 2 days ago. well this week I..

played the piano in sacrament on sunday it went OK until the closing song where the hymn they picked was called to serve and I was pretty dang positive I could play it...  nope. I  can't. haha I butchered it like the pilgrims butchered turkey for the first thanksgiving.

but I just laughed the whole time and the best part was when I kept playing and everyone had just sung the last verse...jajaja good times.

In my time here we've helped two people move first my pensionista (the place where they feed missionaries)

and that was fun, lots of dust... LOTS. who knows how old the dust I inhaled was but I think my lungs aged a couple of years haha

This week we helped a family arrange their house which is like a patio on the roof with a roof. I arranged super old books with super old dust while the grandpa said random English words to me haha it was so random and I swept and picked off the dirt that was attached to the cement floor and there was lots of dirt...LOTS which I also inhaled haha so my lungs are probably middle aged by now but its chill,

then we ate fried fish and a potato and then an hour later more fried fish and a HUGE plate of rice, like baby elephant style and my heart sank and I was just praying that by some miracle I wouldn't have to eat it  so much rice but I ate the fish but I COULD NOT eat the mountain of rice then I explained that I m not accustomed to so much rice and my stomach hurts when I eat a lot of rice and a miracle...they didn't make me eat it! woot woot well and probably because they like me because they spent like 30 minutes teaching me random Spanish words and and Quechua and would just laugh at me haha I was chill with it, if it meant I didn't have to eat mt.Rice they could laugh at me all day long! 

Hermana Wahlen and I getting ready for a race 

Spanish is coming poco a poco.  They say its going to get hotter here...I sincerely hope not. but im not complaining but I am getting some funky shoe tan lines, I'm trying to get a ctr tan line and watch tan line its coming along. 

My legs are being eaten..its great.You can tell a true jungle sister missionary by the bite scars on her legs.

Love you all SOOO much I pray for yalll errday. pray for me.

snugs and hugs

-Hermana Rasmussen

I NEED A LITTLE BIT OF PIXY DUST

Quillabamba Branch

Wow. It feels like I've been here foreeeevuuurrrr. but I've only been here like a week... yieks. it feels like I've been gone from home for years but I was looking at the calender last night and started laughing cause I really haven't been gone that long at ALL. 

So its HOT. i need clothes for these temps let me tell ya. and they say its going to get hotter. whaaaa. but anything is better then cold so im happy. 

There's not as many dogs here as there are in Lima but I'm convinced that the dogs here are in gangs and they have fights and have territory.  Some dogs  I want to grab and snuggle my blues away with but others I want to kick...in the face... I hate the dogs at night that act like they're going to eat my face, this one house that had a bunch of field in front of their house literally had like 10 dogs in the field barking like crazy at us and it was nighttime and I thought I was going to die. 

last p day all the sisters in our district hiked to some waterfalls, and after some killer ants that infested the ground and getting soaked and feeling like i was in the middle of a Jurassic park movie, it was great. sometimes I just laugh and say to myself I'm. in. the. jungle. sometimes it does not feel real.

Quillabamba Waterfalls

I don't know what it is with Peruvians and fumigation but I got fumigated....again...for the 3rd time. twice at the CCM and this week. my companion wakes me up at like 6 and is like we have to get out they're going to fumigate. UGHGHG so angry. listen people fumigation is NOT SAFE. so I grabbed my pillow and blanket and food and we and the other 2 sisters in our room had to sit outside on the curb for an hour. it was great fun. turns out they fumigated the entire city. I'm going to come back with a couple of extra fingers but its chill. 

Spanish....its frustrating. I want to learn SO BAD. i want to be able to explain myself and actually help these people and not sound like a 5 year old. I feel bad for my companion she hasn't been feeling well and isn't happy looking and looks impatient so i get scared to ask her questions. it feels impossible it really does but somehow by some miracle I will learn. the thing is I know I'm going to learn but the time frame is whats killing me. im losing patience with myself. tell me before I loose patience with you Frances!! I want to just fast forward 6 months to where I love this work and can teach and communicate! pero I know Heavenly father didn't send me here to fail. FAITH. and prayers. and some tears. and a little bit a pixy dust.

I need to go to Quillabamba Cuna Jardin and learn Spanish

General conference was bomb all the gringos 4 elders 3 sisters sat in the back back of the chapel on the stage and had a TV that didn't have a signal but had the sound so we watched it on the big screen but with the TVs sound. it worked out reeeal good. Its really good to have Hermana Wahlen here with me so I can vent and have an ounce of normal in this crazy not normal missionary life I'm living. 

So I'm in love. with the SKY! the other night I went to hang up some clothes I just hand washed (I have no idea what im doing) and the sky was B E A utiful. I laughed and was really happy for like 5 minutes. dat quiallabama night sky. 

Food. its pretty normal other then the fact that sometimes the ratio to oil and food is 1 to 1. but im taking my probiotics and vitamins and silver and essential oils because this diet is no more balanced then a newborn learning to walk. And i got sick at the CCM and it was terrible so now I know the importance of moms natural medicine craze. I'll take anything to not be sick. being sick on top of all the estress im feeling right now would not be mejor. The forest is a pharmacy.

good news. I think my body is sort of adjusting to cold showers...every day. I actually wouldn't call them showers I would call them 2 minute rinses cause I cant actually do a straight cold shower. but im adding about 30 seconds every couple of days so there's progress being made. im not gross or anything.

Cool experience me and my comp were in Pavayoc which is like a neighborhood on the hill and its a little sketchy looking and it has a big ol incline of about 90 degrees. so after hiking up there to the top of the whole thing basically, trying to find a house and person we ran into this lady and her nieces and nephews and my companion talked to her and invited her to general conference and she wasn't receptive at all and my companion looks at me which me I have to say something and so I just bore my testimony and said that I don't speak this language well but I know that our message is true and then you could see the lady's heart soften and she let us make an appointment with her, I don't think shes going to progress but it was a cool experience. 

hey scott,  enserio donde esta?!!) oh the elders said you wrote your name on the desk in whiteout. and Lenny says hi. 

Thanks for the advice EEEvan, im using it, don't forget to eternally progress.Raquel i need updates please you can vent to me errthang I want to HEAR IT ALL. EVERYONE VENT TO ME I LOVE READING it. I miss people venting to me in English so i can actually understand cause now they vent but all i can do is nod and smile and try and catch every 5th word they say.

I love and miss you all so much!!!! I send a HUGE hug cause that's all I want to do right now is hug all of you!!

-snugs and hugs 

Hermana Rasmussen