Thanksgiving and NOT Being Homesick!

Its that time of week again!!! The one we all count down to every day... don't know if that's a good thing haha... Okay first off does that mean ALI WILL BE LEARNING SPANISH?!? I found out from Tommy and Daniel! Costa rica!? No stinkin way. you are so lucky. That will be sweet!!! Someone call Allison for me and tell her how much I love her for me!!! I cant wait till I hear Mckenna's call too! and Colette's! Boy-- missions and missionaries are the BEST. Also, I feel blessed to know so many hermanas who want to serve just like the guys. Its awesome. Power to the woman! :)

So! Thanksgiving was a very nice day!!! regular day like always, only we had an hour lunch where they set up a "buffet" that was like 5 types of potatoes, some turkey, rolls and rice! and then pumpkin pie. Those food ladies worked so hard for us and it was so sweet :))) Also, I made my district play Ultimate for physical activity in honor of our family tradition :) I miss that. I will admit I was a little homesick, because if you know me, you know i LOVE my family. But I was okay :) My companera y distrito es like my family here.:) For the night we watched the MTC live devotional! 2 super cool things-- Elder Nelson talked (he was just here!!) and he referenced Peru a bit, anndddd i was wearing my blue and red stripped dress (Alli owns it and Syd has the same one in a diff colors) and I was telling my comp how cool it would be if I saw Sydney! Well guess what!? I SAW HER! and we were wearing the SAME dress!!!!! she was in the MTC choir! it showed her a few times! I was so happy haha. Also my companera believes I am psychic because I often times am. its very nice.

Grandma Sybil!!! THANK you for your poem in my red journal!! I love it. I read it often. its so sweet. I love you!

I ONLY HAVE 2 WEEKS LEFT! Which is crazy, I feel like i have been here many months, yet it feels like when the last group of Latinas came it was only a week ago, and they've already left!! (every 2 weeks!) I do not feel like I know enough about the gospel or the language to leave yet... So I am going to have to put a LOT of faith and trust in God. I am very nervous about that!

I LOVEEEE alma 26:37, D &C 33: 7-9, Alma 29: 9. an D&C 25:12!! if not, thats fine, everyone just go read those and smile :) theyre great!!! 

We had a full fast on fast Sunday, only we start after lunch Saturday so it was a full 24hr. fast, and then we went contacting and tracting again. That was interesting because I never even felt hungry until relief society when my stomach wouldn't be quiet. but everyone was a little worried we would be hungry out proselyting for 5ish hours, but it was fino! this time we knocked on the doors of 18 less active families and only ONE let us in. It was a teenage boy and a little boy, so I shared a scripture with them on Gods love and bore my testimony solo en espanol. It's very frightening, but thrilling to do so! We passed some houses that were literally just bricks--not put together with cement or anything, like 5 feet high and some thin boards on top. its so humbling. And there are dogs everywhere! also this week I went to the area where last time when we went there were tons of gunshots! No excitement or guns this time though. ;) Since we weren't having any luck, mi y my compenera decided to street contact! I passed out 10 of my folletas (my goal was 6!) and we got several people willing to come to church and take lessons from the missionaries! it was awesome!!!! 

There was one lady who we had seen at the beginning but who just walked past, and at the end of our time, I asked if we could go back that way and for some reason (3 hours later) she was still there! so we talked to her, and she belonged to another church, and didnt want to give us her name or anything, But I kept asking her questions, and handed her my last folleta and she was SO happy!!! she said it was muy hermosa and she loves gifts. I asked her name again and she said Magdelyn! so I told her my name and how similar it was, and at the end we set up a time to visit, and a promise she will come to church, and she told me that I spoke Spanish bien and that i was muy intelligente :) She was great!!! And also! I talked to 4 little kids on the road for awhile about Hannah Montana, haha, they were so cute. I MISS KIDS: and babies. and EVAN. so so so much.

I am reading the New Testament now and I have never read it through before! Its awesome!!! it is ALL about Jesus and his ministry and life. If you haven't, then read it, okay?! also, our 2 "investigators" (our teachers who act so we can practice) had so much progress this week. We committed one to baptism!!!! its so exciting even though it isn't real, haha. I memorized the first vision in Espanol!!! its so scary saying it though, I know what I want to say in English, the trouble is translating it, conjugating the verbs, and forming sentences that even make a LITTLE sense! its basically just spanglish haha. In class we do 2 hours solo espanol each day... and its HARD. that's usually when I am the most quiet.... haha. but i love it here. I love the Book of Mormon. My comp and I had the lessson (40 min) on sunday and it went really well! i learned so much in preparing for it! also, I thought I would be nervous to bear my testimony Sunday, so I decided i wouldn't unless I felt the spirit... well, he's tricky because I ended up being the second one up there. I wasn't scared though and I think I made a bit of sense!

OH! i just keep remembering things haha. Last night a lot of Latinas who are transferring out were saying goodbye to us and taking pictures and what not, and they begged me to sing. They literally chanted "cante cante cante" over and over... so they told me to sing "billionaire" by Bruno Mars. At first it was just 2 Latinas recording it, then they made me do it 2 more times... so I am on like 10 cameras singing that song.. hahaha. THEN they made me (but I also begged some other hermanas to help me) sing some T-Swift, and some church songs! it was funny. and embarassing. :P

Today was Temple day-  and its so great! Such a sweet spirit that resides in the temple here in Peru. I love it!!! 

Well, thats about it for this week!! I bought a few soccer jerseys today!! yay! Well, I cant think of anything else... and Mommy, correct my ingles por favor!

Everyone should write me a letter ! yay yay yay! I'm happy just thinking about it! I love you guys. This Church is true. If you but desire to know that for yourself, pray. Sincerely. Ask God. He might just let you know. :) I love being a missionary and wearing JESUS CHRIST'S name below mine every single day. Its humbling. Happy late thanksgiving everybody. Stay righteous.

Hermana Whitlock