Week 33- Puno is Awesome!!!

Hna Giron and I

Dear Family and Friends,

 

So I am in Puno. Today, it hailed and we were late to our reunion. It’s definitely a little bit chilly here, but not winter yet, so the cold hasn’t hit yet thankfully. Plus, you don’t get much worse than Rexburg, so I am still not complaining!! I am with Hermana Giron. She has 9 weeks left in the mission and a really good missionary. I feel like I had transfers 1, for safety, and 2, I feel like I am needed here. Rumors are that she has transfers in 2 weeks which means I need to learn the area fast. It is smaller than my last area, but still decently big. I am in Salcedo. It’s pretty. The sun BURNS, but it’s not hot here. Once the sun goes down at about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, that is when it gets chilly. The work is a lot slower, but we have been working SUPER hard. I have never felt SOOOO exhausted in a week, but we were able to see a few miracles.

 

First one is that today Hermana Espinoza (my last companion) called me!! Yaneth (who I have mentioned in previous emails) is going to get married the 23rd of this month. The sad and selfish thought I have is that I won’t be there, but I am more excited for her than my little bit of sadness. Haha She then is going to get baptized because she has had that as her ultimate goal because she knew the church was true. The last time I saw her, she said, if my partner doesn’t want to get married, then I am going to separate from him. She says that things are getting better! I am super excited. The other thing is we found a super awesome family the other day. We had a lesson with the Bishop and this family (which is another miracle because the Bishop didn’t go out with the missionaries before) But the family said that they are willing the continue listening and they have a lot of love in their family! We also found a LOT of members that now aren’t attending church. Well, we gained their confidence and have been helping us find people and accompany us in our lessons! It’s interesting to see them strengthen others and they are in the age to go on missions too!!! We have LOTS and LOTS of work to do! The area is super rough, but we have a lot of plans and have put the goal to be 110% obedient and do absolutely all that we can here.

 

Well, my second day here, another dog bit me! This time, it barely broke the skin, but the dogs are a little more vicious here. A funny story. We went to go eat with Hermana Nora who cooks for us. She has 2 kids. An 11 year old and the other I think is 5 years old. I stuck out my tongue at the little girl because we were joking around and she told me "don't do that." I then asked why and she told me ‘’Don’t stick out your tongue because the princesses of God don’t stick out their tongues.’’ Haha well that gave me a good laugh and I'll have to work on that one. Another funny story is we went to visit a family who had references for us. I was talking with Carmen who is special and she was looking at a picture of the family. She was telling me that my eyes were from mom and my chin from Dad and she did this with everyone in the family. Well then we got to Danny (best for last) and she points to the left eye and goes, this eye is from your dad and the other eye is from your mom. That made me laugh a lot!!

 

Well, I am super happy here. It is definitely different but the members that are active are super friendly and we are working hard. I hope and wish the best for all of you. Email me and let me know how you are doing back home. I love and miss you all but wouldn’t want to be anywhere else or doing anything else right now.

 

Love Always,

Hermana Lang

PS. No pictures this week because i left my cord in my last area, but it should hopefully come by next week. I do have pictures I want to send!!! Also... only 3 sisters have gone home since I have been here and no one new has come in 7 months!!!! I am still THE youngest missionary.

Week 32- Transfers are right now!

Huasao... yes, I had a LOT of style this day...
Primary colors!!

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Well, I’ll let you all decide if this was the most exciting week or the most boring.

 

Monday we went to our reunion in the morning and then I emailed you all. In the afternoon, we went to go play soccer for a little bit. Then we got bored and left to go downtown. There we walked around some of the shops and then we decided to eat McDonalds… my first time since leaving the airport in Atlanta in July. There, we ran into some of the elders from the other zone in Cusco. Well, then we had a ‘’noche de hogar’’ which is a family night and we visited a family whose daughter is inactive and lives here. The rest of her family lives in Bolivia. It was fun.

 

Tuesday, we worked a normal day. We had the day full of appointments. Only one of them wasn’t home. Unfortunately, it was the one appointment that was super far.

 

Wednesday, you’d think was a normal day…. Well the first half at least. We visited Vianca who got baptized in October, we visited the family from Monday again. In the middle of the appointment, the zone leaders called us like 5 times. We were kind of annoyed. Then when we got out of the  appointment, we called them. They said, ‘’HERMANAS!!! Where are you right now, you NEED to be in your apartment RIGHT now.’’ Without question, we went to our apartment. We weren’t allowed to leave until they called us again. So they called us later that night and said that I had an emergency transfer to Tio which is close by and that I would be there until Friday morning at least. My companion would be Hermana Lindsey (another girl from Utah). And that her companion was coming here. Well… I packed a bag and we left. They finally told us what the deal was. Can anyone confirm this with the news there??? They told me there had been terrorist threats to the US that something like the twin towers was going to happen again. Well…….. the leader of this terrorist group came here to Cusco to  talk to the President here and so all gringos were on lockdown. The rest of the missionaries could go out from 12pm to 7pm and then were in for the night. They couldn’t contact in the streets or knock doors either.

 

Thursday, I woke up. Did p90x. Read almost all of Alma. Read some stuff from the Liahona. SUPER exciting day.

 

Friday, almost the exact same. Stuck inside all day. We couldn’t even leave to eat around the corner, the hermana had to bring us our food. Then in the night, we bought pizza because dinner never came and we were starving.

 

Carnavlaes- they decorate the trees with stuff that
you'd use to soak people and then they dance
around the tree and chop it down... kind of weird.

Saturday, I was able to return to my area, but under the conditions of 12pm to 7pm and no contacting or knocking doors. Yesterday we talked to Yaneth about the law of chastity. She said she didn’t know what she should do. She was going to talk to her husband about getting married or separating. She says that she knows that if she keeps the commandments that God will help her in the direction she should go.

 

Sunday, super long day. We couldn’t find anyone we wanted to see. Luckily some members had given us references, but none of them were home Sunday and so hopefully during the week. And now for… exciting news? I’m not sure if I’m excited yet or not, but I have transfers. I have only had 2 transfers here and this next transfer is 3 weeks. I’m going to…….. drum roll please…… PUNO! Where it’s SUPER cold and they eat Chuño. Chuño is made from potatoes and what I’ve heard is they smash it with their feet and then make balls with it and put it back into the earth to freeze and then they eat it and cook it… I’ve had chuño in soup and it’s NOT yummy. So I am going to higher altitude and I will probably lose weight there.

 

The beginning of being covered with foam.
Luckily it goes away quickly. Better than water

Anyways, I think that sums up my week pretty much. I wish I had a super funny story, but more of just complete mission craziness. One thing though… this wasn’t out of stupidity, but I was SUPER thirsty Friday night and we couldn’t leave to buy water, so I boiled water. There weren’t any cups and I didn’t want to wait for the water to cool, so I poured the boiling water into my plastic water bottle. Well the plastic melted a little and the bottle shrunk, but I was able to drink my water happily!!!

 

Another interesting thing, I learned that here, you can baptize your car. And Carnavales… I think it’s now over, but we got soaked yesterday.

 

I think that about covers it all. I hope you all had a lovely week and that you enjoyed Valentines Day. I was on lockdown thinking of you all!!!

 

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Lang

 




 

Week 31- Happy Valentine's Day

I found yellow flowers. reminded me of a picture
I took on my 21st bday in Idaho

Dear Friends and Family,

 



So this week was crazy. We worked super hard to find new people to teach and to help those who we have already found. But to start off with a few things from Peru… They have this type of music that’s called Guayno (you’ll have to check the spelling) but it’s awful! To me, it sounds like old drunk women singing. Also, I learned that if you are anemic, which thankfully I’m not, that you should drink the blood of a bull, one glass every day for a month. HOW GROSS!!!!!!! There is also a drink called Maltin Power. It’s soda made from wheat… it made me want to gag. ALSO, Carnavales continues. It’s a fiesta that I think celebrates the harvest from rain? And so during summer, they

celebrate it for like 2 weeks and people throw water balloons and such. I thankfully escaped being soaked, but my companion not so much.

 

Well, we went to visit a lady in the church who said she had a few things to tell us. Her name is Martha and she’s SUPER nice and friendly, but cookey. Well……. We went to her house and she fed us super delicious pastries and hot chocolate, BUT you know what? She’s a mystic. She has a room with a curtain and a little table and decorated all crazy. The only thing that she didn’t have was the crystal ball in the center of the table.

 

Well, we finally contacted the mom of 4 girls that have been coming. She lives on top of a HUGE HUGE HUGE hill. I was out of breath when we arrived. Then when we were there, there were all sorts of commotion because the uncle who lives next door was drunk and in a violent mood. He ended up leaving and who knows where he ended up, but the mom thanked us for all of our help and she gave permission to her girls to get baptized and she even said that she wanted to listen now!

 

Also, Luisa. We have been visiting her some time now and she has come 2 Sundays in a row!!! She came yesterday and when she saw us, her face lit up and gave us a huge hug.

 

Well, I don’t have more time, but I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful Valentines Day, I send my love to all!

 

me running to make the picture... it was more than a
10 second run and I had to be careful of the mud.

Love Always,

Hermana Carly Lang

me in the picture

 



Week 30- I don't like rain anymore

Dear Family and Friends,

 

So I think I am eternally sick with a cold. This week, I had to go back to the doctor and he says that I need to call today to do a follow up. I’m much better than before, but still sick with a stuffy nose, the sniffles and an itchy throat, but at least I have a voice now! I lost my voice midweek from coughing and my companion couldn’t sleep because of me coughing and I obviously didn’t sleep either. Super fun.

 

Working this week was also hard. I was a little frustrated when I knelt down to pray Saturday night. I prayed for Heavenly Father to help us. We had done all that we could, but didn’t see any results. Well Sunday came and we showed up at church and none of our investigators were there. My heart sank a little… ok a lot! Well a few minutes later, the first blessing came. Alberto entered. Alberto is NOT one of our investigators though. He’s a member who helped us a lot in Puerto Maldonado. It was exciting to see him. He told us that his aunt wants to be baptized and gave us her address! SWEET!!! Then right when the meeting started, Ramiro entered and sat down. He came even though he didn’t feel good from his chemotherapy! He left after the first hour! BUT WOW! When he was in Lima, he ran into a family from here who are members and the member told us that he loves the church and is so much happier now! We have an appointment tomorrow with him! Hopefully exciting news for next week now that he’s back. The next blessing, Felicia and Daniel came! It’s a mom and a son whose husband/dad is a recent convert. They’re preparing to get baptized too!!! Then when the first hour ended, we found out that Luisa and her daughter and son had come too!!! We also found Luis! 6 people came! I finally felt like we could see some success.

 

We found a lot of new people this week. A member was showing us houses he visited with the missionaries about 5 years ago! We found a ginormous family! We haven’t met all of them, but there is the grandma, her 8 children who all but 1 have their families and then I think 11 grandchildren. The last daughter who isn’t married was so excited that when we came back her mom said that her daughter had talked a lot about this being what she wanted to do with her life. Her name is Thalia and she is a doll. We taught her and at the end she said thanks so much for taking the time to really listen to me. She says she doesn’t feel like she really has friends and that instantly she felt loved by us! Awww. That made my day.

New part of my area that we discovered this past week... I still don't know all of my sector. It's HUGE!!!

 

Anyways, we have a lot planned for this week. Fun experience, we were walking to find a certain house and we look to our left and I go, oh great, a nice little stream that we need to cross… well, correction, it was the street…. Completely flooded with water, not a stream.

 

Also, quick update on Yaneth. She agreed to be baptized, but now she says that she needs to talk to her husband about marriage. Although they have a LOT of problems to solve, we have a lot of hope for how this family can end up! We feel that they will progress to be a happy little family! We’re excited to see her tomorrow!!!

 

Well, I love you all and wish the best. One quick thing I learned or more was reminded was that we need to apply what we learn, if we don’t apply, then what we learned is in vain. Also, when we do what the Lord commands, he is bound to complete His promise, but if we fail, He has no promise with us… (D&C 82:10)

 

I wish you a feliz semana!

 

Love,

Hermana Lang

Causa... look it up. One of my favorite dishes

 

 

 

Week 29- The end of January is here... How fast time goes

Dear Friends and Family,

 

So last Monday was really boring, it POURED… so we stayed inside and cleaned and took a nap and I wrote some letters. But it helped relax us for the rest of the week.

 

Cesar, Brigham, my companion and I at the birthday.

So dumb moment of the week… the Lady who cooks lunch for us, Yesi, we couldn’t go, so we told her to save it for dinner. We went by for dinner and it was her Aunt’s birthday, so she gave us our lunch for breakfast the next day and then we ate dinner with all of the family. Well……. Breakfast the next day. It was omelettes and rice in styrofoam. So, I thought, oh, I’ll put it in the oven to warm it up. Well, I clearly was not thinking and haven’t cooked in SOOOOOOOO long that I just put them in the oven with styrofoam and ALL…. Then we began to study. My companion looks at me and goes, how did you put the breakfast in the oven? I panicked when I realized what I had done and ran to the oven. The styrofoam had melted some and shrunk… Uh oh! But, breakfast was safe!

 

So other awful thing that happened is right now is Carnavales… aka a fiesta where people throw water and other sorts of things… I’m not really sure what they celebrate, just that things like that happen. So last night, we are waiting at the bus stop and making a few phone calls and a group of drunk men dressed up in the native Cusco clothing pass by and squirt us from head to toe with foam………… REALLY???? Who does that? But we then ended up going back to our apartment to change. It was awful. Not super excited about being covered in foam.

 

Well, a lot has happened this past week. It was a rather tough week. We planned really hard and we had a ton of appointments set up that we were really excited and we had members planned to come with us for each of the appointments and you know what happened? Almost every single one canceled. It kind of shot my excitement level. But we still had some cool things happen.

 

Yaneth. We found her in our area book and decided we should visit her. We still aren’t really sure how to help her. I know people can change, but I kind of have a little bit of fear to talk to her spouse. We are praying to know just exactly how to help her. But, the cool thing is she recognizes God’s help in everything. We asked her if she could come to church this Sunday and she says, this is the great thing, normally my spouse doesn’t work, but he didn’t have a lot of work this week and so he said that he was going to work on Sunday. Also, my sister is coming in to town and she said she would watch the kids for a few hours so I could have a few hours to myself to do the things that I need to do and relax and so everything has worked out that I can go to church Sunday. She also said that before she was attending AA meetings for rehab but now can’t leave her kids to go to the meetings. She said that just when this happened and she felt like the temptation was too strong, that we knocked on her door and that we give her just enough strength to continue on. She really wants to follow God, and is slowly solving her own problems to change her life. She says that she already feels happier than before and it’s thanks to God and also to us for God having sent us to her.

 

SO yesterday was the last stake conference with President Calderon. We dedicated the stake building and I got to play the piano! It was great and the spirit was so strong. President Calderon spoke and talked about how when they were establishing the first stake in Sao Paulo that President Kimball went and couldn’t find a stake president. He then asked about a certain man and found out that he was inactive. He went to visit the man who when he saw President Kimball, tried to put out his cigarette and such. President Kimball then said to the man, God has called you to be the next stake president. Which then of course the man said, but I’m not an active member and I am not worthy and have done things that aren’t in accordance with the church. President Kimball said, that may be true, but God has still called you. I then thought about how imperfect I am, but yet I am called as a missionary to preach His gospel. This man obviously wasn’t worthy at the time, but he shaped up and became the stake president. Heavenly Father qualifies those whom He calls and He has helped me in all of my imperfections to be worthy, to be the servant that He wants to serve. I challenge all to not think in your imperfections when you are presented an opportunity, but to accept it and work to be qualified to serve.

 

I hope all is well at home and where ever you all may be. I send all my love and you are in my prayers.

 

Con Amor,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

The sign we found... I wanted to know if they would actually punish with this, but I haven't tried it out to really see.
 

 

 

Week 28- Exact Obedience Brings Miracles

Dear Friends and Family,

So first off, we putt he goal as a zone to be as obedient as we could be. There’s a saying that I love that says ‘’Obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles.’’ So we put it to practice this week.

I cannot say that 50 people got baptized this week, but I can say that I saw the Lord helping us in many ways. The first incidence, we went to visit a lady named Francisca. When we went, she wasn’t excited to see us and we were disappointed. She told us that she didn’t want to continue listening because her children had convinced her that it wasn’t in her best interest. Well, I can say that I thought it was a failure… until we noticed a Young man listening to us. When we were about to leave, he stops us and begins to tell us that he was listening to sister missionaries in Lima but had lost contact and had a lot of unanswered questions but wanted to know. We were super excited and we set up another appointment to see him!!! 

Next, we went to contact Marcos who the sister missionaries had visited over a year ago and then he stopped coming to church. Well, last week, we couldn’t find his house. So we agreed to meet at the bus stop this week to find his house. While walking to his house, we found the mother of 4 girls who are set to be baptized in Febuary. We just needed to contact the mom, but hadn’t been able to. She doesn’t even live near the bus stop, but what a miracle that we found her there! 

Zone Leader, Elder Hansen,  Myself and Hermana Espinoza

Well, to continue with Ramiro, he wants to continue learning and is progressing. He has the best questions that make me search and aren’t dumb questions that don’t relate to what we are teaching. He really asks things that helps not only his testimony grow, but ours too. Well, this week we won’t see him much. He is in Lima for chemotherapy. He has opened up a lot recently. We found out that his son in the army died and that he has a grandson that he has never met. Ramiro has a lot of walls that he has put up to block out the things of his life, but recently has opened up and shared a lot with us. He has a hard time changing but has all of the desires to change his life and truly find happiness… something that I don’t think he has really felt in a long time with all of these things guarded up.

Well, I hope that all of you are doing well. Let me know how you are doing, email me  pictures… whatever you have time! I send all my love.

Love,

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

AP at Christmas trying to spell his name ...Fuller

PS. carly.lang@myldsmail.net and if you email me, please send me your address so I can write back. Some of you have emailed within the last month or 2 and I don’t have addresses to write back. Love you all.

Week 27: Slipping and Sliding in Cusco!

Dear Friends and Family,

So first off, I finally wrote a TON of letters last Monday and am mailing them all off today, so in the next week or two, expect mail! Haha

Elder Calderon (our District Leader),
my companion and I. 

The next thing is that my trainer of the mission is Hermana Olivera or my mommy as we say and I was talking with my companion Hermana Espinoza and found out that in the mission, she’s my aunt! So we’re kind of related.

Well funny story, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we don’t pray and then… um I’m not sure what you call it when you do the cross with your hand over your body. But we were meeting with a member who was baptized not too long ago and it made me smile when I saw him do that after praying. I think he’ll pick up on it eventually that we don’t do all of the things that the Catholics do. 

Next I never thought I would literally save someone’s life here in the mission, but I guess we did. We went to go see Luisa, a lady who we found that the missionaries had visited a year prior but we didn’t know what happened. She isn’t a member, but she has a son that is in the mission in Ecuador. Well we went to visit and when she let us in finally, we could tell she was super depressed. She has told us a few of the things that are happening and the little that I know is that her husband has a complete separate other family and it has destroyed her life. She has told us that if she were to describe her life, she lives in Hell. Well, we entered  this day and we asked how things had been since the last time we saw her. She told us awful and that she was really considering on taking her own life until we knocked on the door. I can say that Heavenly Father really loves His children and that He is aware of us and will send the necessary help. I’m no pyschologist, but just our presence changed her entire day and her decision. Hopefully she continues to progress, but I do know that her life has been made at least a little better since we have come. She has begun to pray and says that she feels peace that she hadn’t felt in such a long time.

The next story is Ramiro. He is super close minded, and likes to argue a little, but the last time we visited him, something had changed. He was in the military when he was younger and was in Bry? I don’t know how to spell it, but it’s an area in Peru with a lot of terrorism and problems. He has seen a lot of people died, killed people in combat, and saw his own mom die when he was 15. He also has cancer now. His life is kind of sad. We asked him if he believed in Christ and he said Yes, but that he didn’t believe that there was life after this life. Well, we finally asked him what has Christ done for you? He kind of broke down. We read in 1 Cor 15 about how Christ died to conquer death and that is when he finally opened up his life. Well, Ramiro came to church Sunday!!!!! And continues to want to learn. He says, I have so many doubts right now, but I want you guys to help me with all of them! Super excited to work with him.

Last story, we received a reference from a member yesterday. He brought his cousin with him who is living with his family for the next 2 months. We went to visit his house…. Uh…. Well he lives at the top of this giant step hill. And you know what? It rained a TON yesterday, so yes… it was complete mud. It was like climbing up a slippery slide. Then we get to the house and we climbed over a huge pile of dirt to reach a ladder to climb into what I thought was going to be a cave with plastic covering the opening… well we drop down into the hole and then find a door and inside was a rather nice little home. I was kind of shocked. But there we found out that the mom was struggling and she also adopted a daughter who wants to be baptized. The cousin, Luis, we taught him about the restoration and the book of mormom and asked if he would pray and he goes I’m going to pray tonight and forever! He was so precious. He told us he didn’t have questions because we explain things so well. Then he and his cousin walked with us to the bottom of the hill… well, I don’t have a picture, but I definitely slid part way down the hill in the mud… not on purpose! But we ended the day super happy and laughing.

Well, I hope you all are doing well at home and not slipping and sliding in the mud! Love you all and wish the best.

Love,

Hermana Carly Lang

Ps. Email me! carly.lang@myldsmail.net

Or write

Hermana Carly Jo Lang

Misiòn Cusco Perù

Urb. Jeròn Ricardo Palma

Manzana A Lt. 2 4to Piso

Santa Mònica, Cusco

PERU

My zone at Christmas!