Time flies!

Hola Familia!

I hope everyone is safe and sound and that you had a great vacation!

I hope you are all loving the sun and the summer because I haven´t

felt my toes in 5 days…. Hahah jk but during my studies I can never

feel my toes.

Soo I loved the pictures from the last week!  Keep them coming.  I

love pictures of you guys!  I can´t believe how grown up the twins are

and that they are practically freshman.   Que Miedo!!

Mom asked me last week if we had heating.  Uh no.  no heating. I think

that is what makes it so cold here is because you can never get away

from it.  But the good thing is that the sun is very strong and during

the day we are warm.   At night we heat up water and pour it into

bottles and sleep with bottles by are feet and hands.  I also sleep

with a beany and always think of you dad.  And we have a lot of

blankets. The sun doesn´t enter our room so its pretty cold in the

morning.  I can´t wait for studies to be over so that we can leave and

walk around and warm up.

I only have one Ungoogable fact about Peru which is that they are

obsessed with calendars here. They always have one in every room and

in our house we have calendars from 2008 and so on.   Every Peruvian

knows what day it is but none of them know what time it is.   J

Last week we went to Juliaca.  Its about 45 minutes from Puno.  It’s a

really crowded city but it has a Plaza Vea which is like a mall,

complete with Pizza Hut.  We went with the Hermanas and it was super

fun but I am glad I am not serving there….its not very pretty. But

Hermana Quezada is hilarious and I loved the ride there just talking

to her.  She has lots of hilarious stories and tells them in a

hilarious way.

This week we found a new room!!!  It is so pretty and its in the

perfect location.  On the outside it looks like it belongs on

mainstreet in Disneyland!  So cute!  Anyway its perfect because the

sun comes and warms up the room in the mornings and there is always

water so we don´t have to wake up at 6!  I think we will move at the

end of the month if it is approved. I really don´t want to move again

because it’s a pain but it will be the nicest thing ever!

A funny thing that happned this week… hna Quezada has a hymn book in

English so we sing one verse in English and another verse in Spanish

when we have companionship study.  Well  we were singing in English

and I couldn´t pronounce half the words… especially Jesus.  Hermana

Quezda just looked at me and said…”you`re the only one that can teach

me English and you can`t pronounce half these words”  hahah You could

say that Spanish has completely taken over.  Its way more fun to speak

Spanish J  Even when I am with the gringas we just all speak Spanish.

Its way easier.  Another funny/awkward thing that happened this week,

Our house right now has like four red stairs to get to the door.

Sometimes there will be couples there kissing or hugging or whatever

and sometimes we have to interrupt them and they have to move so that

we can get to our house.  Its hilariously awkward. Anyways one night

this week we returned to our house and there was a couple on the

steps.  They were just talking and this is a really good thing.  When

we got closer to the house it looked like the guy was our investigator

Miguel,  I was praying that it wouldn´t be because ohh so awkward and

no one that isn´t a member shouldn´t know where we live… but as we got

closer we realized that it was Miguel!!  He was with a girl and they

were just talking, thankfully.  We stopped and talked to them and then

we were like, welp we are going to enter our house now and we

awkwardly stepped around them.  Hahah .  We laughed so hard once we

were in the house.  But later we had a lesson with Miguel and he

accepted the book of Mormon and was so excited to read it and also

accepted the baptismal challenge!  We are going to give him a date for

baptism this Friday.   He´s a great investigator but the only problem

is that he only has time Fridays and Sundays.  The progression is slow

but if he will read every day he will be prepared.

ANways this week has been great.  My companion right now is at Maccu

Picchu so I am in a trio once again…but her birthday is tomorrow and

we are going to decorate the room and our mission leader is going to

buy her a cake!

This week I read the first message in PMG.  I really loved these two

quotes and I know that they are true.

“there is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings

greater satisfaction”

“More happiness awaits you that you have ever experienced as you labor

among His children”

I love being a missionary and even in the freezing cold I am so happy!!!

Love Hermana Russell

Moon in Puno

Popcorn in Puno!