Sister Samantha Cox: Peru Lima East Mission

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Hola familia y amigos!!!

Wow, if I could use one word to describe this week it would be Very Emotional. Ok that´s two words. Lots of learning and lots of growing experiences. We´ve been really working on improving our teaching as a companionship and we had an amazing lesson on Friday with one of our fake investigators. We taught about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong and we could tell our investigator was feeling it as well. Everything flowed together and we felt so united in our purpose and felt confident in what we were teaching. It was amazing and all of us were on cloud 9 afterward. I can´t wait until I get to have lessons like that with real people out in the field and see their lives change by accepting Christ in their lives. I love being a missionary :)

On Sunday all of us Hermanas in our district got together during study time and told our stories about how we came to be on a mission. It was amazing how different all of ours were, yet we are all here and all ready and willing to serve the Lord. It was a real testimony builder for all of us and really bonded us together. It helped me remember my own conversion story and see how the Lord has led me in my life to where I am now. He´s amazing and every day my trust and love for him increases. I feel like I am coming closer and closer to Him and that makes every hard moment worth it. 

(This was our awesome district selfie on the streets of Peru...we´re pretty cute, I know ;)

Then a few days later one of my comps was having a hard day and then finally just broke down during our studying and said she just wanted to go home and didn´t want to be here anymore. She struggles a lot with homesickness so it´s been hard for her, but she has an amazing heart and we were all able to come together and comfort her and reassure her that she needs to be here and the Lord has called her here for a reason. A mission was never in her plan until about July when she got a very distinct answer that she needed to go on a mission. She had zero desire to go but she is amazing and decided to be obedient to the Lord. I can´t imagine how hard that would be but she´s here now and working so hard. It just took a little reminding and now she´s doing a lot better. It was really a tender moment though to be able to testify to her of God´s love for her and his desire and need for her to be here on a mission. Powerful missionaries I am surrounded with each day.

(I bought some fun Peruvian Pants today! Aren´t they so fun! They are so comfy too!)

Then on Tuesday all of the advanced group left for the field so that night we all got together with the Elders and Sisters and sang the EFY medley and God Be With You Till We Meet Again through the big door that separates the Hermana hall from the Elder hall of rooms. It was so powerful to join our voices as missionaries of God and sing about our desire to go out and serve his children. I´ll miss them a lot, they´ve been great mentors, but I know the field is where we are meant to be so I am very happy and excited for them as well. So then today we got new missionaries! That´s always fun! There is one Elder from Logan, Jacob Hoggan, but I don´t know him. Sound familiar? It´ll be fun to meet them and grow with them here. That also means we are now the advanced group here at the CCM! SO crazy! Two more weeks! It doesn´t feel real and it´s a little terrifying but I´m so excited as well.

The last big news for this week is more on the sad side...ok really sad. One of the Hermanas that came in our group, Hermana Simmons, hurt her knee while playing soccer during our physical activity time. They went to the doctor for an MRI and apparently she tore her ACL and smashed the end of her femur on the side of her knee with the impact. She has to return home tonight to get surgery and then it´ll probably be a 6 to 8 month recovery before she can come back. It´s really devastating for her and all of us. She is so strong though and I know she will come back even stronger from the experience. She has such a strong desire to be here so I know she´ll do everything she can to get back out as soon as possible. It´s so sad though and really makes me grateful that I can be here. I can´t even image coming home right now, I love the people and Peru so much already.

So yes, that´s about everything that made up this emotional rollercoaster of a week her at the CCM. :) These next two weeks will fly by though! We really only have one more week of class and then the last week we get a day where we actually go out in the field and proselyte and then lots of days to pack and do laundry and stuff. We talked to the last group about their experience out in the field and they said it was so cool but so humbling. The people´s homes are very small and usually you just sit on buckets to teach. The people are very friendly and kind but have so many needs. I´m very excited to be able to just be with them and live among them.

Now for some just fun stories and info, the elders caught a huge beetle the other day and kept it as a pet in their classroom. It was probably a good 3 or 4 inches long and had huge legs and a big horn on it´s head. I saw another one a few weeks ago too which is pretty fun. I also saw a cockroach climbing up a tree behind the person I was teaching one night...yuck! It rained yesterday which was so fun! Apparently it never rains here so we all just got really wet playing outside and trying to enjoy it. :) It´s a very warm, humid rain though which is fun and makes my hair go super crazy!

There are a lot of words that sound similar in Spanish like pescado (fish) and pecado (sins) that we mix up a lot that make for some funny stories. Also pegar (to hit) and pagar (to pay). One Elder in our district was trying to explain to the teacher that he wanted pizza and would give him money if he would go buy him some but he mixed up those words so instead of saying he would buy the pizza he just kept saying he´d hit the pizza. Funny stuff.

But I just hope you all know I’m doing great here and I love it so much! I love being a missionary and I can´t wait to have more experiences here. One last story, one day this week we had just finished changing back into our missionary clothes after our physical activity time and once I got back into class I realized I had forgotten my name tag! Class had started so I couldn´t run back and get it and I seriously felt so lost the rest of the night! I finally had to make me a tag out of a sticky note so I felt a little better! I realized that I love having that nametag on my chest so much and the thought of one day not being able to wear it anymore makes me want to just cry! Good thing I’ve got plenty of time ahead of me, but it really hit me how much I love being a missionary and a representative of Christ. It´s an amazing feeling and I wouldn´t trade it for anything!

I love you all so much and hope you all had a great week! Shout out to Steven, I hope you had a great 18th birthday!!! I thought about you all day long and even wore my green shirt just for you! It was pretty sad not to be there but I know I´ll get plenty of time to celebrate with you once we´re both back :) Love you all so much! Gracias por sus oraciones, Yo los siento mucho y yo sé que oracion es real y tiene mucho poder! (Translation: Thank you for all of your prayers, I feel them so much and I know that prayer is real and so powerful.)

Con amor,

Hermana Cox