Week 8: Always Busy

Dear Family and Friends,

You guys are the best! I have received so many emails from you guys and please keep sending them! I promise I am writing back, but I can only send one email a week (aka to home) and so you have to wait for me to snail mail back. The good thing is that the mail strike is OVER!!! So I sent a bunch of letters off last week and I should finish writing back to the rest soon. So be looking for a letter in the next week or 2. There are only a few people I haven't written back yet and unfortunately, I won't get to them today. It's 10am right now and at 12:30, we need to have eaten lunch, gone to the lavenderia (to give our laundry to be washed) and then finish email and be at the church to go to the chacra (it's a farm, with monkeys and fishing, and completele jungle). We are going as a zone! So all 16 of us and then the family who owns the chacra.

So the weather this week is locaso. AKA CRAZY!!! It was SUPER hot at the beginning of the week and then as the Peruvians here would say, it is now FREEZING! But, that pretty much means it's cloudy and it's cool outside. I definitely would not say cold. Haha. I still am in short sleeves. It's supposed to be cold today and tomorrow as well!!!! :)

Fun story! I LOVE banana bread and I attempted to make it this week. So we go to the store and they don't have sour cream. I don't even know if it exists here and what it is called if it does exist. BUT, not important, so we make the batter and then realize we don't have baking soda. Well, here they don't use baking soda to make things rise, I think they just use yeast, but I don't know. So then we go to put it in the oven of the family we live with and the oven isn't working. Well.... our last option was the microwave. So hey, why not try? So we did... um, it wasn't awful, but it was weird. It was like a pancake sort of, but more dense.

So, Saturday, I completed a month here in the field!!!!! My companion bought me pollo a la brass! It was delicious. So we had a fiesta in our room eating our food and talking and laughing, and then to planning and sleep! Or.... so I thought. At 10:30, bedtime, our district leader called us and said that the President of the Branch just informed him that we are speaking in church the next day. UH..... WHAT????? I have to speak in Spanish for 10 minutes without preparing anything? And we were already getting up a little early to pass by a family to go to church with them and help them in the morning be ready to go to church. Yeah, so I was up kind of late figuring out what to say. I am so grateful for the help I received from my Heavenly Father. It was not the best prepared talk, but it went really well. Minus the fact that I went to share a scripture and so I open my scriptures up to the complete wrong scripture and read almost the entire thing and was thinking uh...... where is the part where it talks about tribulation? And then I look at the reference at the top and it wasn't the right scripture. Haha so super funny, but the rest went well and I was able to speak in Spanish! Which I knew I could, but in front of everyone at sacrament and it's not a conversation, it's me talking the entire 10 minutes.

Last, we are visiting LOTS of people and almost all need to get married, but I want to share about one family in particular. Delsy and Richard and their little baby Amy Luana. Delsy really wants the happiness the gospel brings, but she is only willing to do what her husband is willing to do. So basically he is the backbone and we are working with him lots. He always says that he has a super hard heart and that it's hard for him to change, but he really wants to change. Whenever he prays, he prays to have his heart changed. I am grateful for some of my weaknesses that have become strengths here. I can say things that are really sharp sometimes and a little too direct. But here, he has needed it. We always are super bold, but say things with love and at the end he always says thanks for saying what you said because I am beginning to understand why I need to change and how I can actually do it. He is slowly progressing! They came to church Sunday and were so excited to be there. They were super attentive and asked really good questions. I just love being with this family. I can feel the love our Heavenly Father has for them and he is helping them along the way. We are working with them to put a date to get married. They have been together like 7 years and have a baby and he wants to wait until he has bought his own house to get married. I had to be direct with him and say ''Look, you made the decision to have a baby with Delsy. If you were ready to make that decision, you are way past being ready to be married and your little girl that you love, she deserves to have her parents together and married.'' He was silent for a while after that but then said, yeah you're right. He's still not quite ready to commit, but he'll get there. I know it. We talked with him about taking one step at a time and so that is what we are doing with him! I am super excited to tell you how everything goes with them! We have an appointment with them tonight and I'll let you know!

Well, that's all the time I have for today.

Love you all!

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

Ps. Email me if you can. carly.lang@myldsmail.net and don't forget to send me your address because I can't respond to your emails.

Also, if any of you have time, I'd love to hear your testimonies about the gospel or if you're not Mormon, just about your belief in God and how you know He exists. Love you all!

Pss. This is my address.

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

Perú Cusco Mission

Jerón Ricardo Palma

Manzana A Lote 2 4to Piso

Urb. Santa Mónica, Cusco

PERU

Week 7: I'm Grateful for...

 Dear Friends and Family,

So greetings from the Rama Huerto (that is where I am by the way). So there are so many things I am thankful for this week.
1. I am grateful for the support I have from all of you! Lo maximo! You guys are the best!!
2. I am grateful the Lord hears and answers my prayers. When I heard that I was going to be in Peru and that the people were very humble here, I prayed that I could learn to be more humble. Well, my companion (Hermana Olivera) is probably THE most humble person I could have been placed with! So I am grateful for that.
3. I am grateful that things happen for a reason. Last Monday night, we had an activity with a few families planned and at the very last minute, we couldn't go because the family who was taking us wasn't home and we didn't know the address of where it was. I was super bummed. But as we were walking home, we found a couple that both of their families are members and they have a lot of interest in the church. They are super friendly and always joyful to teach. Then we also found a family who used to be active in the church but now aren't. I have no clue what happened, but I know something happened. You can tell they just aren't happy now. It is so sad. But we are working with them because the mom really does have desires to come back, she just has a hard time opening up with her husband there. 
4. I am grateful for pizza!!!! We had pizza Tuesday night with the Family Condori (who we live with) They are awesome and the thing about the pizza was that it tasted normal. Usually American food just doesn't taste the same. So that made me happy.
5. I am grateful for Salamanders that eat mosquitos. I HATE mosquito bites and to think that the Salamanders are helping me sleep better at night is wonderful!!!
6. I am grateful for a fabulous friend who let me steal his sunglasses before the mission and said that I would probably need them more than him in Peru. SOOOO true. With my migraines, the mission president's wife told me to wear sunglasses to help and it has been helping some! :)
7. I am grateful for Mami Julia (the mom we live with) she made us banana shakes one morning and it reminded me of something I would make. It was delicious! Normally breakfast isn't super yummy, but good enough to last me for the day! But that morning, it was THE best :)
8. I am grateful for Aquarius Jugo de Pera. It was something I Loved in Argentina and I found it here the other day! So.... of course I bought some. So yummy. Although I haven't found any Pritty. Haha
9. I am grateful for callouses on my feet. The other day we were walking and all of the sudden something was stabbing my foot. When we stopped, I pulled my foot out of my shoe and I had glass stuck all in my callous. I am still not sure how glass ended up inside my shoe, but my foot would have been WAY worse without the callous to protect it.
10. I am grateful my companion is from Mexico. She made yummy horchata this week 
11. I am grateful for Hno Benites. He is teaching us how to make hammocks! Pretty cool.
12. I am grateful that I have the blessing to see the happiness of others everyday. This week Fransisco was baptized. When he was being interviewed, our district leader was asking who he wanted to baptize him. He said 
he wanted the hermanas (us) to baptize him. Our district leader had to explain that we couldn't do it and he goes well fine, if they can't baptize me then it really doesn't matter. You can do it! So he was baptized on Saturday and he was SOOOO happy and then we saw him at church and normally he can't stay all 3 hours because his mom (82 years old) is sick and needs his help, but he was so excited that he stayed longer than usual. ''I don't want miracles, I just want to follow the Savior'' is what Fransisco said. I need to be more like him. I need to do things out of the pure love for my Savior and Heavenly Father. 
13. I am grateful for my height and ability to laugh at myself. This week, I literally clothe-lined myself. I went to leave Fransisco's house and as I was walking and turning around, I almost knocked myself to the ground with the clotheline. His mom who is super old just laughed because she was the only other one who saw it. She then began to explain to Fransisco in Qetchua what happened. It was pretty funny. So I have to crouch down a lot to walk under things.
14 I am grateful for my ability to work. When I am working my hardest, I am happier. Each day, I find some way to work a little harder and this brings so many blessings into my life.
15. I am grateful for my testimony of the Atonement, for those things that have strengthened my relationship with my Savior. I can truly testify of this everyday to the people here because I know the power of the Atonement personally in my life.

Well, as I was studying this week, I came across something I had stuck in my scriptures. So from the wise words of Dove chocolates '''Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.'' I encourage you all to bring sunshine to the lives of others in some way or another this week and watch how it affects your lives as well.

Philipians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.

May the Lord bless you all this week!

Love, Hermana Carly Jo Lang

 
PS. Email me carly.lang@myldsmail.net and send your address when you write so I can snail mail you back. Hopefully the mail strike is over now so I can send stuff.

Week 6: Im Loving the People and the Animals!

Dear Family and Friends!

First of all, I haven't had time to read your emails yet, so expect responses when I can read them and I'll have to use snail mail (that is when the mail isn't on strike). However, you can still send me stuff. I just can't send things out, but we still receive things here.

So anyone that knows Hermana Hoffman, she is my grandma in the mission. She trained my trainer! So super cool. 

Fun story for the week. We were teaching a family (daughter, parents, and a grandma). The grandma is SUPER religious and belongs to the church, Amor de Dios... I have no idea what they believe, but she was an interesting lady. She could not get past the fact that we were wearing makeup and had earings because in Isa 3 it talks about not being worldly and such. Well, we talked with her about that for a while and were able to teach a lesson. At the end, we asked the mother to pray. She started to pray (super timidly) and then the grandma started to pray at the same time outloud. Now so that you can fully understand this. Picture a loud Italian woman pleading for something. And by pleading, I mean hand actions and crying and loud begging voice. This is what was happening in the prayer. It was so sad because the mother stopped praying and she had a REALLY sincere prayer and then the grandma went on for a few minutes. I'm not gonna lie. I have a lot of faith in prayer and the most important is that it's from your heart (which the grandma certainly prayed with ALL her heart) but I really just wanted to laugh. But I maintained composure. 

The next fun story is there was a picture I saw somewhere before the mission that had a textbook open and everything on the page was highlighted and the caption said "highlighting: you're doing it wrong'' haha well I almost fell victim to this. I was reading the talk ''Believe, obey and endure'' by pres monson to the young women and I wanted to highlight everything to share with our girls who are recent converts and are struggling.

So, most of you know that I am not really a super touchy person. UH... problem here with Peru is the kids want to attach themselves to you. I had 2 girls on either side of me at church both grabbing my hand and linking their arms with mine and not sitting on top of me, but the next closest thing. I think my personal bubble may disappear in the next 18 months.

Well, there are lots of jungle stories here. There are tons about Anacondas in the river which are kind of fun. My personal favorite myth or story is about the person with an animal leg that is a shapeshifter and looks like someone you know and then leads you into the jungle until you are completely lost.

This mission is perfect for me. Not only are there people here specifically that I need and need me, but some of you know how much I LOVE to paint my nails. Well my mission president I guess always looks at the nails of the hermanas and loves it when they take care of their hands and look nice. So, there are no rules as to how I can paint my nails :) so I have fun with that! And when I have time, I paint them.

I haven't seen any llamas yet, but I have seen a LOT of butterflies (which are my favorite). And remind me of how much I am loved.

So, the fabulous people here! Familia Reyes. It is the parents (who are married!!!!!!) and their daughter Belen and son Aaron. They are the best, but are just a little slow. They believe in the Virgin and praying to Saints, but their daughter is gold! She is ready to accept everything. So we are still working with them and helping them to progress as a family.

We were teaching a man named Julio about the first vision. We had an 11 year old girl that really wanted to tract with us that day, so she was with us too! So cool for her. We taught a lesson and then we get to the part where we get to testify that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His son Jesus Christ which is THE BEST part!!! And we finish and he grabs our folleto (pamphlet in English?) and turns to the next page and goes. I know this is all true! I had a dream and in it, I saw this picture (the picture of Christ coming to the Americas) and in my dream, Christ was telling me to follow him. It is sooooo cool to find the people that are truly prepared by the Lord.

Fransisco is getting baptized this Saturday! He is solid as well. When he comes to church, he's kind of shy, but he always has a member with him and you can see him smiling! He's usually reserved, so to see him smile is amazing! It's a blessing that the Lord allows me to be a part of His miracles and bringing the best gift ever to people!

Well, to conclude, I am so grateful for how the Lord has prepared me. There are some people I cannot understand, but that has nothing to do with what they are saying, but more they mumble or don't speak loudly. They could be speaking English and I wouldn't know. But I am blessed to understand and not to speak perfectly, but that I can always say what I need to say. I also still have no blisters which is a blessing as well. I am just grateful to be here right now in the mission. The Lord always knows what is best. Pro 3:5 Trust in Him and you will be blessed! 

I love you guys and hope all is well.

Love, Hermana Carly Jo Lang

PS. Email me carly.lang@myldsmail.net

I am short on time but one picture is of me on a bridge that cracks more each time you walk on it. One with a monkey and another of the butterfuly. Love you lots!

Week 5: P-Day #2

Dear Friends and Family!!!

So to start off, this keyboard sucks. I have to press the keys super hard in order to type. But Puerto Maldonado is the best! It is 10 hours in bus from Cusco and we have to travel by bus over night, so that was fun last week/I didn't sleep at all. I usually would say that I HATE cold showers, but it's nice here in the heat, well after about 3 minutes when you get used to the water. The other thing I have decided is that I support shaving... shaving your legs and your armpits. If you are a girl, do it! Sometimes, I'm a little grossed out. The next thing, is I don't want to hear anyone complain about how hairy their arms are. Until you have armhairs that are literally 3 inches long, don't complain. Hahaha My next question is, Can dogs lose their voice? I sure do hope so because the other night, seriously from about 2am until 6:30, I didn't sleep because the dog outside was barking literally that entire time. I don't know how that is possible to bark constantly for that long. PS, we don't have windows, we have screens, so there is nothing to block out the noise. Another fun thing about Puerto is that I have seen like 10 cars. We travel by motokar (little carts pulled by a motorcycle). The other day, I saw one that was completely pimped out. I wish I would have taken a picture. It had underglow and stickers ALL over and it had a stereo inside. Pretty funny. I learned something new also. I learned how to sweep a dirt floor. It never occurred to me before that you would sweep the dirt off of your dirt floor, but they do it! Also, there are like a billion fruits here that I have never had in my entire life. I love araza, but someone told me they sometimes have bugs inside, so I may stop eating them. Carambola is yummy along with mumey and granadia. Granadia... google it! It's like fish eyes inside... SUPER gross looking, but yummy.

Well, now to the real stuff. We work lots! We teach tons and we are always doing something. It's hard to figure out what not to do because everything is important. But sad story for the week. We have been working with a girl named Ruth. She was going to get baptized this Saturday. All we needed was her mom's permission. We went to talk with the mom and she initially said no because her daughter likes to decide things on a whim (kind of made me think of myself when she was talking) and the mom didn't want her getting baptized because it hasn't been long and went on and on for like 15 minutes. I felt the need to bear my testimony that we were here for Ruth. Not to ask the mom permission because we wanted this, but because her daughter wanted this. Well after the mom putting the daughter down for a while and saying all of these things, she asked Ruth if she wanted to be baptized. So of course, the little girl (she's 12) was afraid to tell her mom yes. So she said no. Well, the cool thing about Ruth, is we've talked with her since and we're practicing with her how she can talk to her mom and be strong and she is still attending church things. She still has the desire to be baptized is what she told us. 

Next, we like to work with the members. Hna Elisabeth (she's middle 30s) she came with us to teach Hermalinda and her sobrina (I can't remember what that is... sister in law or something like that haha) But the sobrina's name is Melanie. Neither of them are married, but they both have a kid and are living with their partners. We were talking to them about the importance of marriage and Hermalinda was saying she wasn't sure she wanted to marry her partner. Well, then Hna Elisabeth bore her testimony. It couldn't have been more perfect. She was baptized with her family a year ago. Her husband is awesome! What we found out was that he was always drunk before all of this and she bore her simple testimony that she knows the gospel changes lives. She was saying that it took time, it wasn't like the next day she woke up and her husband never drank again, but that little by little, he changed and they are SUCH a happy family now. It was awesome.

Exciting news!!! We had a baptism Friday! Her name is Damari. I honestly didn't get to teach her much, so I don't have a lot to say, but she was beaming when she arrived at her baptism and was so excited. She said she couldn't wait to be clean! She is darling.

Lastly, Fransisco is a 45 year old man who is going to be baptized August 18th! His mom is like 84 and is an old investigator and so we went to visit her and he was there and he's on fire. He came to church and came to the baptism and is so ready for this! Every time we go by to visit him, He's sitting outside with chairs ready for us to teach him! It's awesome!!!!! 

Thursday, I wasn't in my area. My companion went to Cusco for training and I stayed here with the other 2 sisters, Creek and Swartz. We had a blast. It's nice being with Americans. Love the latins, but it's just different. I learned lots on how to teach better with them and we laughed a lot. It was a nice break.

Also, anyone who served in Cordoba, do you remember Elder Gilbert? I don't really remember him much, just the name. But there was an elder here who is best friends with him. His name is E. Christensen. Small world. 

Also, thanks Gunnar for talking to people you know! So many of them have come up to me and said hi! It is nice to know that I have so much support at home and when I find connections with people, it's a little peace in my heart to remind me how much I'm loved.

I wrote letters to everyone who has written me. However, mail is on strike and I cannot send them yet. But you can always send me emails! I will write back when I can,. but don't forget to write your address so I can send your letter. My address is on FB and there is a link to my blog there too. Here's my email carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Well, I love you all. I hope you are all doing well at home. 

Love,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang