Week 57 : Use PAM!!! & Jose Got Baptized!!! (May 18,2015)

Hola Todos!!

This week was really slow.  It was only wednesday and I was looking forward to P-day :P  It doesn´t help that once again I have a cold.  Everyone is conviced it might be allergies.  So Benedril it is this week :P

On Thursday we had Zone Conference with Elder Martinez of the Caribbean area and it was awesome.  His wife shared a story that I loved.  She said that one morning she was making waffles for her 3 kids.  She warmed up the waffle maker, mixed the batter, sprayed it with Pam, and put it to cook.  When it was done, she opened it and it stuck to both sides pulling apart.  A little disappointed, she scaped it off and repeated the process, but once again, it stuck to both sides.  Once again she scaped it off, sprayed it with Pam, poured the batter, and let it cook.  But once again it stuck to both sides.  She felt a little defeated and began to analized what she might be doing wrong.  She took a better look at the can of Pam and came to realized that it was not Pam, but rather Bug spray.  Haha we all got a good laugh out of her little experience.  She then compared it to missionary work and how if things aren´t working out the way we want them to, we shouldn´t keep doing the same thing.  Find the error and fix it.  Stop using bug spray on your waffles. ;)

JOSE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! :D  He was baptized on saturday and it was a wonderful day :)  The Elders Quorm President baptized him.  He has such a sweet spirit and I couldn´t be more happy that he is now a member.  He is going to be the best member ever.  No joke.  It was pouring rain before and during the whole service, but it was still awesome.  I was going to send pics, but we printed out pictures today and I left my memory card at the photo place :P Next week.

Love you all to pieces.

Love, Hermana Perry


Random sidenote:  Something cool, I saw a dude on the street wearing a Lone Peak Knights sports jersey!! Small world..

After a long P-day, I got to go and play my uku at the Mission Home

Chinda (Passion Fruit)

Week 56 : Cross your fingers I don't get Transfered!!! (May 11, 2015)

KLK?  Not much new this week.  Everything tanquilo.  Jose is getting so pumped for his baptism (most likely this saturday).  Every time we ask him anything he is like, ¨Hnas, estoy firme,¨ basically ¨i´m ready to go.¨ He is awesome.  I can´t wait for his baptism :)

Heidy and Melvin are doing good.  We haven´t been able to see them that much lately because Heidy just got a new job in a Salon.  We saw them last night and they told us that they had been fighting :(  But all is well now.  It was over something dumb.  When I told Heidy that I might only have 3 more weeks in this area she began to cry.  It broke my heart :(  I´m not ready to leave this area.  Everyone cross your fingers that I stay.

Sorry this is short, not much to say ;P

Love you bye.

Love, Hermana Perry

This is Heidy, Melvin, and their son Cristopher.  haha that is a typical Cristopher face!! :)  I love them so much!

Right before we skyped for Mother's Day

At investigators house with their new puppies, (While we were in Mexico on a family vacation, Craig told all of the kids if they were every in another country, to never touch animals, he said you never know what kind of diseases they could be carrying. I guess the cuteness of the puppies washed those memories away from Ashlyn's mind.)

Week 55 : Wedding Bells (May 4, 2015)

This week was pretty awesome.  It was hard, but we saw a lot of miracles.  There are a few investigatores that we have been working with for a while without any progress and they finally made progress this week :D  One is Edgar.  He so funny.  Typical Dominican accent (R´s are L´s and vise versa).  So he says his name Edgal.  He works in a barber shop and has a bunch of tattoos and ear piercings.  His buddy was actually a reference, but we ended up teaching him instead.  We´ve been teaching him for a while now and thought about dropping him quite a few times, but we taught him about the Book or Mormon and the new time we went back he told us that we knew that Jose Smith was a profet!!! :)  The battle is now getting him to church.

Jose also has a new baptismal fecha!! It is for the 16th of May.  He is so ready.  I couldn´t be more excited!

Another big news.  Heidy and Melvin are going to get married :)   We set a baptism fecha with Heidy for the 23rd of May and then said, ¨Ahh, but that means you have to get married.¨ Melvin in the past hasn´t wanteed to get married.  We asked him, ¨Melvin, do you want to marry Heidy?¨ He got the cheesiest smile on his face and just wiggled his eyebrows haha!!! They are soooo cute!! Then we said, ¨Well that means you have to propose...¨ He got so embarrassed so the point where he made Hna Jones and I put our faces behind a pillow as he got down on one knee and said, ¨Mi amor, ¿quieres casarte con migo?¨ :D  It was soooo cute!!! They were both grinning from ear to ear when we left.  I´m so flippen excited for their wedding.  I seriously love this family soooo much!! :D

Something really funny happened this week.  Hna Jones and I were making our way back home one night when we got stopped my this guy who speaks fluent english.  He looked really rough, like a bum on the street with missing teeth and scragly clothes.  I´m not sure if he was drunk, or if he was just crazy.  We´ve seen him before. Last time he basically bowed down to us and said, ¨God bless yourself.  God bless your wholeself.¨ haha he´s weird.  But this time he said he had a question for us.  When we turned around he said, ¨You guys are really pretty.  Really pretty.  Do you have husbands?¨ The first thing out of my mouth was, ¨Yes, we do.¨ And my companion echoed, ¨Yeah... we do...¨ Then he said, ¨Wow, how long have you been married?¨ Me: ¨ahh, about a year..¨ My comp: ¨yeah... a year...¨ The dude: ¨Ohh, ok.  Where are you husbands?¨ Me: ¨Ah, they´re not here.¨ My comp:  ¨yeah, not here...¨ The dude: ¨Oh well he should be watching you because someone could eat you... EAT YOU!!¨ Bahaha!!  He was like 1 1/2 feet away from my face as he said that last part.  We just both died laughing and walked away.  Ooohh it was soo funny.  The DR has some pretty crazy people! haha but I love it :] 

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week 54 : Melvin wants to speak in Church (April 27, 2015)

Hola todods!

This week was really good.  Terribly fast though :P

Something cool that happened this week was that we went to visit one of our investigators (Belkis) with the intention of dropping her.  When we first met her she didn´t seem to have much interest, but we thought we´d go back just one more time.  When we got there she got sooo excited.  We sat down and she began to tell us how she somehow came across a Liahona from 2008 and began to read it.  She loved all of the talks that she had read.  We hadn´t even taught her much the time before, just answered her questions about the Book of Mormon.  She was able to tell us a lot about Jose Smith just from what she had read.  We asked her to pray to know if Jose Smith was a Profet and if Thomas S. Monson was a Profet and she told us that she already believes (don`t get too excited, a lot of people say that any religious leader has been called of God and has His authority).  But she is Pentcostal which is crazy because they are some of the hardest people to teach because they aren`t really open to challenge their beliefs. I`m so excited to teach her!  And we think she is a good potencial girlfriend for Jose (he wants us to find him an eternal companion haha!).

We are still working hard with Heidy and Melvin.  They are making some good progress, slower than I would like, but still improving.  They have told us they would come to church with us countless weeks in a row and still never come.  Yesterday we went to get them at their house, but they both gave excuses why they couldn´t come, despite that we had been their the night before and they told us they were ready to come with us.  We found out later in the day that both of them had been drinking (that is their biggest desafío right now).  It turns out that Heidy had a horrible hangover and was so sick that she went to the farmacy for some pills.  She felt so bad for having drank and not come to church.  We gave them a boche with the Bishop and I could tell it really stung, which is good.  They need to learn.  Right around 10 at night last night we got a call from the Elders in our district.  All they said is, ¨someone wants to talk to you.¨ They did a little 3 way call thing and suddenly Heidy was on the other end of the line.  They called us to apologize one more time.  They both felt so bad about what had happened.  She said that Melvin was even crying.  Then Melvin came on the phone and I could not understand him to save my life haha!! He has a very strong Dominican accent (fast, sloppy, slurred, L´s are R´s and R´s are L´s)  After trying to guess what he was saying for like 3 solid minutes, Heidy got on the phone and translated haha.  It turns out Melvin was asking when he can give a talk in church haha!  They really have made leaps and bounds from where they were.  I know they will make it.  I just hope to see Heidy be baptized before I leave La Yuca.  Fingers crossed!! 

Hna Jones and I put a new goal this week: talk only spanish in the streets.  Sometimes it is hard, but most of the time we end up laughing our heads off.  Like the other day I was trying to explain what a bruja is (a witch).  It was quite the game of charades ;)  but we are enjoying it and learning a lot.

I also learned a very valuable lesson the other day.  Never tell anyone you like something of theirs.  They will give it to you.  No matter how hard to you refuse.  I complimented one of our investigators on her pants and I swear she just about took them off and gave them to me.  When I turned her down she said, ¨It´s ok, I have another pair.¨  So, I now have a pretty rockin pair of pants from the sweetest lady who I´m pretty sure is trying to marry me off to one of her sons :P

Love you all!

Love, Hermana Perry

I think the humidity is getting to both of them, this was taken while they were both writing home. Those are some of Utah County's Sister Missionary's at their best!!! 

Week 53 : Ronald McDonald (April 20, 2015)

Hola mi gente,

Not much to report this week.  I seriously feel like I just emailed yesterday.  Jose is doing good.  Still no baptismal fecha.  Heidy and Melvin had a rough day the other day.  Melvin told us that they were fighting and it was pretty bad.  Even to the point there they were going to call us for help despite that it was 2 am.  Instead they began to pray and read the Bible.  I have never seen Melvin so excited to share with us.  He told us that he felt the spirit as they prayed together and read together.  Heidy said that he hasn`t had a beer for a long time now, but she is still struggling a little bit.  I have seen the biggest change in them.  I´m going to cry so hard when I leave this area :(

I think the most eventful thing was yesterday when we were at Rafaela´s house mi compañera had to use the bathroom.  Later while we were walking to another cita she said, ¨Oh I forgot to tell you, while I was in the bathroom at Rafaela´s house there was this statue. Of Ronald McDonald.  Riding a dolphin.... BUT, it was a baby Ronald McDonald.¨ Bahaha!!! XD Yup.  I just about peed my pants (or skirt) laughing.  Oh my it seriously made my day.

Love you all to pieces.

Love, Hermana Perry

We love to play Hair Salon

Week 52 : OOOHHHH RATS!!! (April 13, 2015)

Hola Hola!!

This was a good week.  I felt a little slow as far as work, but the time went sooo fast.  Jose, who was supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday no longer has his fecha.  He has to take mandatory classes for his work every Saturday and Sunday for a while.  He wants to get baptized so bad and even skipped class yesterday to come, but we don´t want to baptize him and have him go inactive.  It´s sad, but I know that God has a plan.

We had a lot of success with a family we are working with (remember Heidy??).  The missionaries have been working with them for a long time and finally for General Conference they came to church with their 3 little kids.  When we asked them how they liked conference they said they both loved it.  Melvin (the dad) seriously remembered more from the talks than I did haha.  They both said that they want to come to church more often and are thinking about getting married (Melvin(less active father) is a little unsure :P ).  I´m so excited to work with this family.  They are also working on the Word of Wisdom.  Melvin didn`t come to church yesterday because he had a huge hang over :P  But we talked to him after church and he was like, ¨yeah, I felt like crap.¨ He even said he feels like God is with him when we are there teaching him.  Yup, its the spirit.  I seriously love that family to death.

So y´all remember that cat that had a baby under our sink?  So we kicked it out of our house and its kind of been living on our front balcony.  We had been trying to find someone to give it to when the other day we came home to surprise by our front door... The back half of a giant rat, with the guts spilling out...  :S  So we gave the kitten away to one of the members.  We tried to give the mom away too, but it wouldn´t go. Haha it was a struggle to get it into a box, but it escaped and ran away.  But of course it came back.  On saturday we had another surprise... Yup, another rat, but this time a whole rat.  Any liking that i had for cats is now completely gone.  I keep asking the hermanas if we can parachute it off the balcony (we live on the 3rd floor), but they won´t let me. :P

Love you all.  The church is true.

Love, Hermana Perry

The RAT and #2 cat

Things we wake up to

You know its humid when your sucker melts!

Great day when I get to go to the Presidents home and play my uku

All the Hermana's decorated the apartment and had pizza for my 1 year

View's  from our apartment

Study area

Laundry room

Outside of our apartment

Week 51 : Cuba Mission Opening (April 6, 2015)

Hola mi gente!!

This week was really wonderful :)  I love missionary work.

Jose is doing awesome.  He was supposed to have his interview on saturday to be able to get baptized this coming saturday, but he had a work emergency and didn`t make it.  That will push his baptism back one week, but we think that actually will be best so we can prepare him more.  He still has a little problem with coffee, but is working hard to give it up.  He also needs to advance more in his Book of Mormon reading.  He will get baptized the 18 of April :)

Me and Hna Jones did  some scandalous stuff this week.  Rafaela is working on quitting coffee too, but is not so willing.  The other day we were at her house and she gave us some Habichuelas con Dulce (I will explain later in the email).  After eating it we went to kitchen and washed our cups out.  While we were in there we saw her coffee maker.... So while Hna Jones distracted her, I hid it under one of the shelves.  I almost got caught like 3 times..  Haha but the job is done.  Hopefully this will help her realize that she doens`t need to drink coffee to stay alive.  Bad thing is she might be mad at us because she didn`t come to church this week :P

So this thursday we had interviews with President.  We all thought it was odd because it feels like we just had interviews.  Wednesday night the Elders called to tell us why.  Are you all ready for this??  They are opening the Cuba mission and President wanted to know who of us is willing to extend 6 months after our mission to go help open Cuba!!!!!  My heart seriously leaped when I heard that!!  Just as I had always dreamed of serving a mission at 19, I have dreamed of serving for 2 years!!!  The only words that I could think were, ¨I´m going to Cuba... :O ¨ We all stood there in shock for a minute.  I was bracing myself on the door frame of the bedroom when I realized, ¨Oh my it´s April first.¨   Yup... The Elders got us good...  Apparently President did it to them at their Zone leader meeting.  Probably the best/worst April fools joke ever...

Conference was awesome!! :)  We got to watch all the sessions which was great.  I think my over all favorite part though was sharing that wonderful experience with my investigators :)  I I know they felt the spirit.  They all said they enjoyed it a lot.  I love the gospel.  I love the Profet :)

So this past week was Semana Santa (in english the Passover).  It is just about as big or bigger than Christmas here.  They have the week off of school and work and everyone leaves the capital.  Seriously no one was here.  The streets were empty.  Except that everyone that does stay here puts a pool out on the road to swim haha!! I don`t know what but there were pools everywhere.  I loved it.  They also make this stuff called Habichuelas con Dulce (sweet beans).  It sounds gross, I know, but its actually pretty good.  It is growing on me.  They basically liquefy beans and add sugar, cinnamon, batata (something like a potato.. idk in english), and raisins.  Everyone gave us some.  Seriously everyone.  I´m excited to make it when I get home :)  We (the hna and me) were a little bummed that we didn`t get to go swimming, so we decided to fill up our bath tub, sit in it, and drink hot chocolate.  It was quite fun.  haha probably not as cool as a swimming pool on the street, but the next best ;)

Also, We are getting another Temple on this beautiful island!!! I can´t believe there will be a temple in Haiti.  When Elder Holland was here he made a comment like ¨you are blessed to have a temple in this country and there will soon be another in the Carribbean area.¨ I thought maybe Jamaica.  This island is truly blessed. :)  I love it soooo much!!! 

Love you all.Love, Hermana Perry

Our Semana Santa ¨Picina¨ (pool) drinking Hot chocolate

Week 50 : God Protects Those Who Serve (Mar.31, 2015)

Hola todos!

Not much has changed since I last wrote on Friday.  The area is good and what not.  We talked to Jose the other day about his baptism and he is getting really excited!!! :)  I can`t wait!

These past couple of weeks I have been extremely tired.  Sometimes I wonder how I stay awake during study and lessons.  I´ve never been sooo tired in my life!!  I´m exhausted to the point that my mouth sometimes can form words.  Daily planning at night is seriously just sentence after sentence of incohierent words bounced back and forth between Hna Jones and I.  It`s a wonder I can get out of bed every morning and repeat the same long, exhausting day.  I feel lucky to still be living.

So today we went to the Zoo!  It was a lot of fun!   Not quite as cool as I expected, but still really cool.  I´ve come to the conclusion that there is a big difference between proselyting bodies and p-day bodies.  While proselyting I can seriously walk for hours without getting sore feet or tiring.  We walk around in the sun and don`t burn at all.  But on p-days, everything is completely different.  We were at the Zoo for like 3 hours and my body is beat.  We didn´t walk hardly as long or far as we do on a normal work day.  I also have a lovely t-shirt burn on my neck and my arms are a bit red.   I don´t get it.  That really goes to prove that God protects those who are doing His work of Salvation.

Random sidenote:  So there is this cat that always comes into our house.... yeah, I´m not so thrilled about that.  And what`s even better is that it gave birth under our kitchen sink.  Funny thing is that the kitten looks to be about 3 weeks old and we only discovered it like 4 days ago...  :l  Kid you not we were curious about an odd smell in the house.  :P

That`s all for today.  Hope you all have a lovely week :)

Love, Hermana Perry

My new favorite flower called, Tu y yo, (you and I)

Fun tree at the Zoo