Soooo....The man cancelled church

P- DAY

                  Me and a cow

so Ollanta is like... the Peruvian version of Disney land..and we`re trying to teach the workers the gospel...while they are working... its kind like that haha so its a  bit tough but not totally impossible. There's about 15 members in total here I think? Lets just say we got our work cut out for us. president said it was the hardest area in the mission...can I hear a woot woot!

                        P-DAY

we had a multizone conference, and of course it was awesome, every time president talks its likes words of gold are just pouring out of his mouth and the spirit is so strong! He's so awesome. oh and guess who I ran into....Hermana Rasmussen!!!

yep it was all kind of surreal,after hearing and knowing of her existence for so long I was starting to think she didn't exist but lo and behold she exists! 

                 Hermana Rasmussen and                      Hermana Rasmussen  

my new comp is...Hermana Hoskins! from Springfield Utah and she sings opera like suuper amazinggg,so its really fun to sing together. Ya its way different having a gringa comp but I think its helped me step up my Spanish, and through the grace of a loving Father in Heaven I have a lot more confidence in my Spanish and understanding my Incan peeps

Our ward- first sunday playing piano.. so I'm playing and the page starts to turn and I cant see the notes so I start  turning my head really awkward to read the music then Hermana Essig came up and held the page for me then she tried to turn up the volume(electric piano) and accidentally pressed to organ button haha and then I drop the hymn book on the piano...Hola me llamo hermana Rasmussen haha...there was no need to introduce myself. 

my comp killed a chicken this week while I held it down... it was all a rather crazy  experience. I was just screaming and freaking out the whole time but Hermana Hoskins was the calm one. A Hermana in our ward she had surgery recently in her stomach and cant do a bunch of stuff and we were visiting her and she was about to kill the chicken and I felt bad and was like hey do you need help?? ... yep we killed it. probably not in the most humane way cause we,re two gringas who don't uuuuusually kill animals, but don't worrry its dead haha we ate it for lunch a couple day after...ha ha ha oh mission life is great.

             
               The Evidence 

The Lord is is merciful and amazing, The other day we did an invasion of a sector in our zone, it's when all the missionaries in a zone invade one sector and we go with members and do visits and contact and all sorts of stuff, so after traveling to Urubamba then to Calca to do the invasion we were traveling back to make it for women's conference then of course the tire blows out of our combie... after flagging down a car to take us to the church we make it just in time for 2 talks one being that of Uchtdorff lo maximo, when  Hermnana Hoskins and I needed to leave early because traveling to Ollanta from Urubamaba we have to catch a combie and so we leave and are SO dead from traveling all day and it's really late to find a car to take us to Ollanta and were wating in the street outside of the gas station and we pray....and of course BAM 3 seconds later here comes a combie, and boom we got a ride. the lord loves us and is so aware of us  even when it's not a obvious. 

So sad story theres no church this week in Peru...in ALL PERUU! because of elections which not going to lie(which would be an abomination) have been a bit annoying here with people in trucks raiding the streets honking horns and waving flags and yelling...its like do you really think the more you yell in my face im going to want to vote for you?? i don't understand it. so ya The Man Canceled church! so its just going to be just like any other day. 

I love this gospel and I love the scriptures!! I think everyday during personal study that I can't wait for the day when I will be able to just sit in my room (on the carpet...I miss carpet SO MUCH) and read the scriptures and liahonas for hours and hours on end....I'm so weird but its da best. 

love you all soooooo much it makes my heart feel like the grinch's heart when its grows 3 sizes.

muahhhh 

Hermana Rasmussen 

Me being sad because it was SO COLD and I looked like a 5 year old

Is this water sanitary? It looks questionable to me!!

HOLA. wow. SO much change in the last week. change of house comp food climate clothes EVERYTHING. 

So lasts days in quilla...

I wasn't able to leave the day of changes because of the strike which was actually nice because it left time to be able to say bye to people and pack. Lots of bitter sweet goodbyes, my time in quilla was a dream. better said, it was the best of times it was the worst of times. but I learned so much and am so grateful for those experiences and people because I'm changing for the better because of them even though I would never choose to go through some over again, I know it was what Heavenly Father had planned for me.

So because of the strike I had to be ready at any moment just in case there was a pass in the road, so i never got my classic quillabama polleria goodbye dinner but I got chicken for lunch just for me my pensionista bought cake cause the joke was how much I loved cake cause I would always mention it if she asked what we wanted for dinner. so i finally got my cake! but I left at like 4 from Quillabama, saying bye was sweet, especially to Poli, she cried but I know the ward and the hermanas are going to take care of her. 

            Poli and her family

Of course it was sweltering hot when I left Quillabamba, I usually never sweat but that day I was sweating, and the mosquitos where attacking my legs again, 13 new bites I would say it was quite terrible but I think it was a sign it was my time to leave haha, I cried saying bye to my pensionista and her daughter Brissa and my comp, they have been my family for the last 6 months and I saw them everyday but like what peewee herman says..gotta move on. 

 One more cookie with sister Luque

                 

   

    Last lunch with my pensionista

    Bye Quilla... going in a torito

so we left quilla at like 4 and I arrived in urubamaba at like 9 and I had to sleep with the sisters in urubamaba before I ould meet my comp in ollantaytambo and who was there to meet me? hermana Essig!!!! I basically jumped into her arms and screamed i was so happy to see her.

               Hermana Essig

So I slept with her and her comp that night and in the morning I met my comp hermana howskins and we arrived at ollantaytambo which is like 40 minutes from urubamba. but can I just 

say ITS UNREAL

                My new comp

Ollantaytabmo is like a unreal happy little tourist village enveloped in history. its beautiful and SO cute walking the streets I keep saying how cute it is. We live above the store of my pensionista and the view from my window is also unreal, I mean I can see all the ruines! ruines from my window...who could have guessed. I remember when we went as a family and Scott said that the missionaries lived in ollaytaytambo and the foundation of their house was like the real Incan rock...little did I know that that would be ME! I walk the streets and I'm like "do I really live here?" 

                   I live upstairs

You know you left Quillabmaba and live in Ollantaytambo when...

You are using clothes for the cold you have never used your whole mission and boots you have never used 

you look like Rudolf and your nose is red all the time. 

you sleep with a scarf, a thermal shirt and a sweatshirt, thermal tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of socks 4 blankets 2 of which are about 1 inch thick

You wake up and do exercises to get warm, you do squats and do ninja kicks before after and in between studies just to get your blood moving and jump around and do exercises throughout the day to raise your internal temperature 

You look up at the mountain and there are gorgeous ruins everywhere 

church is 30 minutes away 

Hippies and gringo old couples in full columbia hiking gear is NOT uncommon.

the bathroom in downstairs from your room and outside sooo when you wake up in the middle of the night having to go the bathroom (almost always..TMI?) its like a death sentence. especially because it entails walking past your super creaky wooden floor, down the stairs, through the store, through the kitchen, and opening the door to outside that you 'can't ever get open and the dog barking... ya its an adventure. 

Although this is NOT my climate and I am the BIGGEST baby you will ever meet when it comes to the cold,  I am very happy to be here and serve the people, this area is a little hard cause its all touristy so nobody really lives here in ollanta but we are going to be working hard and put in all in the hands of the lord.

love you all

big warm brother bear hug

Hermana Rasmussen

not ooash ascar!! (Madagascar)

AHHHH CHANGES!!!!!.........

I'm going to URUBAMBA babby!!!!!!

Zona Valle Sagrado, distrito Urubamba, sector Ollantaytambo and my new companion will be hermana Hoskins! (gringa with one less change then me)(scary)

ahhh don't cry for me quillabmabaaaaa!

 I knew my time was ticking here in the jungle, but I'm not going too far away.

Did I mention that Quillabama is in a strike and we really haven't been able to work much cause these people have turned a little loco crazy. They put abandoned cars in the middle of the street and throw rocks at the torritos. It's funny during studies if we hear noise outside all of us run like locas to the windows to see whats up. Nobody is working really and there's not vegetables to buy aaaaand....a few people have died. BUT don't worry mom I'm perfectly safe where I am. The problem is they are blocking all transportation so I might just stay here for a while before I can actually leave to my new area. 

Did I ever mention we teach seminary too? we switch off with the other sisters every other day. 

what I have learned...I don't want to be a seminary teacher.

ha ha and I have grown in respect for my seminary teachers old. Raquel I don't know  how you kept your cool..or did you? ha ha well its all cool when they are actually engaged in the scriptures but more often then not like this last time the conversation ended in  zombies and the walking dead. 

highlight of the week POLI got BAPTIZED. whoot whoot! It was so awesome

You know you're at a Peruvian baptism when...

1. You tell everyone the baptism is at 5:30 so everyone will get there at 6, but it ends up starting at 7.30(Peruvian standard time)

2. The person getting baptized is late because she can't leave her store cause there's crazy protesters outside. 

3. While singing the special musical number you look down and there's a fat little dog waddling around your feet.

4.The hermano baptizing her doesn't fit into his jumper , so he put on the pant part(which was tight jajaja) and rolled up the top part around his waist and put on a white shirt. 

Before the baptism she kept saying how she was never going to forget this day because it's like the first day of her new life I couldn't stop smiling just thinking about how awesome is power of conversion and the light that the gospel brings into the lives of these people. My favorite part was when she bore her testimony and said how happy she was that before she didn't have her mom or dad or a lot of family but now she has a big loving family in the church. 

Lots of all

Hermana Rasmussen

Sister Tango and I working on backpacks

I'm roasting like a toasted cheezer!!!

                              Sister Tamariz (sister leader)

Did I ever mention that somehow I became the teacher for music time in the primary? its kinda funny, I just have to teach them the knew primary song for the year. Sometimes they listen and sound like they are actually learning the song and I feel super proud, then I'm like ok one more time!! and they don't know the words and just scream the chorus ha ha ya...I'm not ready to have kids is what I've learned from all this. 

                      
  
            Poli and her family


Poli had her interview and shes getting baptized Friday!!! she was super nervous for the interview, and kind of was too when we were going through the questions with her and she said repentance was listening to the word of god but we got it all cleared up ha ha. so Friday is going to be lo maximo! with my three favorite things #baptism #holyghost #CAKE 

so changes are next week... I've been here for 6 months...my expiration date is coming and the milk is getting sour. I really don't want to leave but my hernana leader hermana Tamariz said she received revelation that I'm going to sicuani. I got the same feeling that I'm going too. #NOOOO any climate colder then quilla is too cold for me. here my nickname is flaca and make fun of me when its windy and say that I'm going to blow away. I'm also cho latinga. half latina half gringa. half chola i say that and they laugh.

I'm not going to lie, this life is hard, satan is real, and we are at war! but we got the POWER! we got the scriptures, we got examples of people like Mormon and nephi, when everyone around then were falling they just put their trust in the lord and never wavered. I pray that I can find that strength and we all can find that strength in the Lord and be profitable servants in this gran work.

love you all way too much. enjoy every day cause its a gift! and someone go eat some Cafe rio pork salad for me. 

fin....noggin....dood. 

Hermana Rasmussen