Week : It Has Truly Been a Dream!!! (Oct. 5, 2015)

Bueno, this is it... :S *barf*

What a crazy last week it has been.  So surreal, so scary.  I just can't believe it's all come to an end, yet everything is just beginning.  This week everything has come to me as a sign that it is time for me to go (even though I don't want to).  I ran out of shampoo.  I ran out of toothpaste (haha I've been mooching off of the hermanas for a solid 5 days).  I ran out of body soap, hand sanitizer, and my hair brush broke.  :P Solid.

Thinking back on the last 18 months feels like a dream.  It truly has been a dream, and sometimes a nightmare, but I wouldn't trade anything in the world for an experience like this.  In fact, I would give anything to stay and love even more the people here in the DR.  My heart belongs to them and forever will.  Not going to lie, I had a few brake downs this last week.  I was surpised that I didn't get trunky ha! It was quite the opposite.  Make one more contact, teach one more lesson, smile at one more person.  It really made the difference.

Today I had the wonderful priviledge to visit my area in the Captial, La Yuca.  I felt such a wonderful joy as I sat with some of my favorite people on the planet, one of them being Jose Manuel.  He is doing awesome.  I can't express how happy I was to talk with him about the gospel and see the progress he has made in the short 3 months I have been away from La Yuca.  He is so special to me.

Bueno, nos vemos el miércoles!!!! Les quiero mucho y les agradezco por su constante apoyo estos 18 meses.  Les amo de verdad.

Con mucho amor, Hermana Perry

Week : Absolutely Love the Santo Domingo Temple (Sept. 16, 2015)

KLK mi gente!!

Crazy week.. :P  I¨m writing today because we went to the temple this morning!! So fun. I absolutely love the Santo Domingo Temple. So much.  It definitely has a special place in my heart.  It was an awesome temple trip, especially now that I fully understand the session in spanish ha!! What an experience.

We have 2 investigators that are progressing really well, I´m not sure if I´ve talked about them.  Rosiris and Dioverina Minyetti.  They are sisters age 13 and 12 and just awesome.  They had been receiving missionaries in San Cristobal while living with their aunt who is a member.  They are sooo smart and have such a strong desire to be baptized.  When we teach them I feel like they are the ones teaching us.  They know it all and have such strong spirits.  We are also starting to work hard with the branch.  It is really struggling, but we are planning training meetings to help bring each of their individual forces together.  I´m excited to see this little branch grow and work together.

On the other end of the spectrum we had 3 people in the same day tell us that they didn´t want to change their religions.  One of them was more receptive to the idea of asking God if it was what she was supposed to do. Another said that even if God told her to change religions she wouldn´t because she had been in the Evangelico church for so long.  That last lady was by far the saddest. She had prayed and received an answer.  She knew it was true and still said she would not change her religion.  It is so heartbreaking to see people reject this beautiful gospel.  Not just that, but reject God´s will for them.  I just hope and pray that their hearts are softened one day and see how the Restoration really can changed their lives and bring them salvation.

This week has been a crazy week between the temple trip, no pday monday, and the stresses of the limited time I have left.  As I´ve thought more about it the only thing that I can compare the mission to is the East Australian Current (From Finding Nemo for those of you who didn´t get my reference).  At the start of your mission you get thrown it so quickly you don´t even really know what happened.  You go along so fast that soon it seems normal that pace your journey takes.  Then suddenly they tell you that it´s time to leave and it makes you feel a little sick and your mind screams ¨Do you have your travel buddy?¨ and cling tighter to your companion because the thought of not having a companion scares you.  I haven´t gotten to the next part of this movie yet so we´ll just leave it at that.  

I love my mission.  I love the people.  I love this country. I love this language.  I love the gospel.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ.  I love being a missionary and seeing the Lord´s hand work miracles everyday in this amazing place.

And I love you all ;)

Love, Hermana Perry

Also, my next pday will actually be this saturday... I´m heading to san cristbal for the baptism of Aimee!!! My and Hna Mejia found her and worked our butts off with her.  this means I won´t write the following monday. crazy!! sorry

Mommy!!!!!!

Two things:

1) I need you to make sure you vacuum the carpet before I get home because the first thing I´m going to do when I walk in the door is throw myself to the ground and rub my face in the carpet.  I don´t remember what carpet is....

2) Please bring my winter coat to the airport.  I don´t think that needs explaining haha!! and possibly some blankets ;P

LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Week : Flying a Kite is Rocket Science (Sept.7, 2015)

Hola!!

Not much time sorry.

This week was really good. Our water problem at home is improving.  One of our best progressing investigators right now is Carla. She was a reference from a less active joven Yoelis. They are good friends and Carla had asked Yoelis about her Personal Progess book when she saw it.  When we went to visit her she expressed to us that really she just felt lost and with little faith. It has been awesome to see her progress in the 2 weeks we´ve been teaching her.  She has already come to church twice and is really excited to read the Book of Mormon! :)  I love her dearly :)

I found out from President today that Amiee (one my favorite investgators from San Cristobal) is going to be baptized!! He is letting me go to the baptism.  She is sooo special to me.  She has had a rough life and I know the gospel has changed her for good.

So for a zone activity today we went to the beach. It was really fun. I found out that flying a kit is really like rocket science. Me and this Elder in my District tried for like an hour to get this thing in the air.  We both had different ideas on how to make it work so we never really made any progress :P  Also, Hna Randall had this great idea for me to get on her shoulders so she could show me this cool dance move.  She I stood on the rock wall, got on her shoulders, and as she stood up I feel forward faceplanting hard in the sand haha!!  It was like a movie. Also, she decided to not wear sunscreen despite our counsil and left the beach literally red as a lobster.

Sorry this is so flustered!! :P

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : Still Alive and in One Piece!! (Aug. 31,2015)

Hola :)

First off, I´m still alive and in one piece!! :)  This week was kind of crazy with the Hurricane and all.  We were waiting for it for like 4 days before it actually hit.  Man is it scary knowing that something so powerful and destructive is coming and not knowing when.  Kind of like a sinner who was told the Lord was coming some time in the week.  Haha we thought about getting a megaphone and yelling from our windows ¨Arrepientanse todos!!¨ like we´ve seen other religions doing haha.  But all was well.  It hit on friday. We worked in the morning with some crazy rain.  In the afternoon it was worse but we still went out, just told to stay close to home.  We were on our way to a less active´s house when it stopped raining for a brief moment just as we got to great lookout point over the river in the valley.  There was fog between the distant mountains upon which our area of less active work only sits.  Everything was so green.  White birds were flying in the distance and the scene was literally breathtaking.  We just stood there in awe for a good while.  I´ve never seen something so beautiful and in that very moment I realized the depth of the song ¨Oh creaciones del Señor¨.  And of course I was dumb and didn´t bring my camera :P  Ugh it was soooo beautiful I can´t even begin to explain...  After standing there for a while, a lady who we often help wash dishes and cut veggies in her restaurant saw us and called us to come to her house.  When we got there she told us really how bad the storm was.  Not too soon later is was raining like CRAZY with monsterous lightning and thunder and it turned from something so beautiful to something quite scary.  After getting a Red Alert warning text from goverment number and hearing about all the destruction in other countries on the news, we decided to book it home.  We were all safe and cozy and without power the rest of the night.  Luckily it cleared up nicely.  There was not much damage that I have seen here in Ocoa, but we are pretty high up in the mountains and in fairly in the middle of the island so I would imagine that the coast took a harder hit.  The only inconvenience is that the river we have to cross to get to one of our areas was really high so we had to cross it bare foot up to our knees.  But I feel pretty cool saying ¨Yeah, I preached the gospel in a hurricane.¨ :)  What an experience.

So we´ve got a newbie in the house :)  At you´ll never guess... It´s Hermana Randall from G and G Perry´s ward!!  She is so cute and crazy!! I feel bad for the poor girl.  She´s had culture shock real bad.  Haha I had to laugh the other day when we were out of water she asked her trainer in sheer panic how we were going to flush the toliet.  Now you all might think she was crazy when she told her cute daughter to just leave it until the water came the following day, but thus goes life as a sister missionary in the DR :)  Gotta love it!!! :D haha

Everyone has said that their body begins to fall apart towards the end of their mission and I just always laughed at them.  But it´s not very funny and more ha :P  I´m falling apart.  Something new hurts everyday.  I´m an old woman :(  Haha and it doesn´t help that Hna Dibble is cracking old jokes ever two seconds.  I just hope I stay in one piece.

I just want to share one scripture that I read this week.  1 Nefi 3:15.  God lives.  And because He lives I will do His will.  I love the faith that Nefi has.

Love you all :)

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : Momma Perry emails President Nuckols (Aug. 28, 2015)

All of the family were wondering if Hermana Perry was ok, I hadn't heard anything, so I dicided to email the mission President...

Hello President Nuckols,

I am Hermana Perry's mother. I am wondering if there is any threat to the missionaries over there with the hurricane Erica.

Please get back to me as soon as possible. 

Thanks,

Marsha Perry

Of course we know who you are!

We got some rain and some wind but it is now past and everyone is fine.  I happened to talk to the District Leader in Ocoa and everyone is in great shape.

We are stunned to think this is the last transfer with Hermana Perry.  It will be a teary farewell.

Con amor,

Pres and Hermana Nuckols

Week : "Because God is BIG" (Aug. 24,2015)

¿KLK?

Bueno, this week was normal.  We´ve been getting some rain which is awesome!!  We have been having major water problems here.  The whole country is in a drout.  In our house we never had running water.  Every other day (sometimes every 4 days) water comes in the morning from the tap for like 2 hours and we have to fill up two giant trash cans we have in the house.   Everyone says that it usually rains a lot here in Ocoa but it hasn´t hardly rainned here.  The river is almost run dry.  It´s rough, but it´s life!  Got to love it haha!

Last week we met this awesome lady.  Her name is Iris.  I was on an intercambio with a member and they happened to know each other, so we shared with her. When we sat down, she said she has been wanting to learn more about the Mormones.  We have taught her only 3 times and I already know she will be baptized.  She is so receptive and loves to learn and ask questions about what we are teaching.  And she doesn´t drink coffee!! That is a miracle because this whole coutry drinks coffee from the moment they are born.  She has two cute kids and I just can´t wait to see them become an eternal family :)  Please keep Iris and her family in your prayers.

This friday we had intercambios with the Hermana Leader.  I got to go to Bani, an area about an hour south of Ocoa.  It is nothing like Ocoa.  It has a ton of businesses, is sooo dry, no mountains and really hot.  I got to go out with Hna Apelu!! We lived together in the captial :)  It was a great intercambio.  I usually don´t like intercambios, but this one was good.  I learned a lot, especially about contacting.  It was the most simple way of sharing the gospel.  Just walk up to someone, introduce yourself and say who you represent.  Something I learned from Hna Apelu is that we need to share about the restorations even in contacts.  We would introduce ourselves. say the name of the church, then the people would usually say which church they belong to (usually to get us to stop talking to them), then she would teach about the restoration in just a simple way, asking questions and having the people figure out for themselves that the gospel needed to be restored.  One of the contacts was really funny.  We were talking to 2 guys and a little boy.  One of the guys and the boy where from Boston so they spoke english.  Hna Apelu started by asking them ¨How many Gods are there?¨ Everyone always responds ¨uno¨.  Then she asked, ¨So if there is one God, why are there so any different churches?¨ (this was all in spanish).  We begin to chat about what the two men thought, then suddenly the little boy speaks up and says (in english), ¨Did you ask a questions about why there are so many churches?¨ ¨yeah.¨  And then he said,¨Because God is big ¨ with the widest eyes.  Haha!!  Best response I´ve ever gotten. :)

I had a very bitter sweet moment yesterday when I realized that I just started my very last transfer as a full time missionary :(  Transfers are upon us once again.  Me and my comp will stay together meaning she is the one who will ¨launch¨ me home, as Presidente says.  I can´t believe how fast time has gone.  It´s been a crazy awesome adventure and I´m not ready for it to be over yet. ;(

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : Zone Conference, Quote from, Elder L. Tom Perry ( Aug. 17, 2015)

Hola hola!!

This week was kind of slow :P  The highlight of the week was that we had Zone Conference :)  We talked a lot about faith and repentance.  One thing Presidente really stressed was obedience.  A while ago he shared this quote with me, and then again in the conference (from Elder L. Tom Perry):  “Obedience is a choice. It is a choice between our own limited knowledge and power and God’s unlimited wisdom and omniscience”.  When he shared it with me the first time it really hit me.  Obedience is key.  He also shared another:  ¨Some people are not obedient because they don´t see.   Others see because they are obedent.¨  He also talked a lot about how the process of conversion is like climbing a mountain.  Up hill.  If we are constantly climbing and progressing, we are doing something wrong.  Once we get to the peak (baptism) we can other mountains which we desire to climb (the Temple, and Eternal life).  We as missionaries are the mountain guides, encouraging our investigators to keep climbing.  It was a wonderful conference :)

This week we´ve started to work with the members, capacitating them in their callings.  There is a down side and an up side to this.  The down side is that we are finding a lot of things that need to change.   This little branch needs a lot of help.  The up side is that it is a wonderful chance to see the Lord work miracles in the lives of these members. I´m pumped to work with them :)  It might be a slow process, but we have already begun to see changes :)

Good deed of the week:  So Domincians do NOT like to receive help so it is very hard to serve people here.  The other day we were in our far area (El Pinar) and we see this old man in a wheel chair helplessly trying to wheel himself onto the street but he his back tire was stuck in the gutter.  We ran over and helped the poor guy out.  He thanked us and then began to wheel himself up the hill, in the same direction as us, so we decided to push him up the hill.  He had the biggest smile on his face and we wheeled him up the long hill, shading him with my comp´s umbrella :)  It was such a simple act, but it made me feel so good.  The poor guy goes out selling brooms for a living and lives quite far from where we found him.  He said that he takes the long winding route everyday.  Wow.  I was quite impressed. :)

Les amo a todos.

Love, Hermana Perry

Hermana Perry and hna Gonzalez (my comp)

Bani, San Cristobal   My zone

Presidente and Hermana Nuckols :)

The house (Hna Gonzalez-my comp, me, Hna Dibble, Hna Suazo)

we built a tent :) 

Week : "21 lessons, High Record" (Aug. 3, 2015)

Hola todos!!

This week was good.  We had a very productive week with a whopping 21 lessons with a member (My new high record!) and we had 19 less actives at church!!! CRAZY!!  There are a lot of less actives just about to be reactivated :)  We are really starting to see the work pick up.

On thursday we had interview with Presidente and Hermana Nuckols.  They went really well :)  I got a lot of great tips on how to work more with the members and what not.  I love Presidente and Hermana so much!! I feel like they are my own parents here cheering me a long ;)

We had a small miracle this week.  We went to find one of our investigators the other day and instead found her family sitting out side.  They didn´t seem to have much interest in us, just told us that the girl we were looking for, Geanny, was not home.  So before leaving we decided to just introduce ourselves and one of the guys, Geanny´s dad, Geovanny, speaks up and says, ¨I used to be Mormon...¨and tells us a couple of the callings that he had.  Kind of surprised we stayed to talk with them a little longer and not too much later Geanny showed up.  We ended up sharing the restoration with all of them and it was a wonderful lesson.  Their friends even got excited about the message.  Geovanny started telling us everything he remembered and told us that he felt really good hearing the message of Jose Smith again.  I have a really good feeling about this family :)

And just for your entertainment, some crazy Domincan names:

Yirbelis

Norvelin

Norveidis

Ataila

Adelaida

Oshela

Kenafry

Eumaris

Yeiluis

Esmeudy

Leifyn

:)

Love you all :)

Love, Hermana Perry

1) questions for your new area...which areas that you have already been in, is it the most like?

It is most like San Cristobal.  It has a lot more mountains that San Cristobal and is a lot more spaced out.  We have 4 main areas that are all pretty far from each other.  It´s very green.  One of the 4 areas is more like a town, basically no trees, very flat.  Another is up in the mountains with steep dirt roads and metal shacks for houses.  The other is like its own little neighborhood out in the middle of now where.  That part reminds me most of Azua. The last is like a ghost town.  Tons of houses, but no music, hardly any people.

2)How much difference is there in temperature?

In the day it´s about the same.  Up in our area called El Pinar (the super far away one) it is super hot and I always get burnt :P  At night, however, it does get cold if we leave our windows open.  Often walking home from the two next farthest areas it gets pretty cool, like my arms are cool to touch, but I don´t get cold.

3)What is your new comp like ?

She is very quiet.  She is from Panama.  She is 26 and before the mission she studied to be and worked as a lawyer!  She is super sweet and has a really fun laugh :)  She is different than my other comps but still I´m happy to have her.

4) Do you know who Hermana Jones new comp was going to be?

I do but I don´t know her personally.  She´s an american. 

5) Do you ever see the Hermana's that you left from Salt Lake City with?

yeah, I was in the same zone as Hna Padgett of them last transfer. And I took Hna Smith´s place here in Ocoa.  I saw them and talked with them at the Hermana´s conference a while ago.

6)  What school did the Elder from Orem go too?

Mountainview. He know a lot of the same people I do.

1) in the cave

2) How to get in the cave

Week : ¨¡¡Mormonas!!¨ (July 27, 2015)

Hola :)

This week had its ups and downs, but overall it was good.  Probably the craziest thing I saw was a guy who took a box-spring matterss on his motorcycle ha!  This country is crazy.

We have this investigaor names Daniela who lives in one of our far away areas called San Antonio.  She is awesome and has SOOO much energy.  I don´t think I´ve ever seen someone talk for so long without running out of things to say haha.  She has been receiving the missionaries for a long time now and knows the Restoracion of the Gospel is true, she just doesn´t know she knows it :P  We have been working hard with her these past two weeks.  We had a really awesome lesson with her the other day about the Gopsel of Jesuscristo.  She is so receptive.  She is only 20 years old and has a cute little 2 year old boy.  She is literally golden, the only problem is that she doesn´t come to church :P  She is probably our best progressing investigator right now.  Ocoa is full of less actives.  I thought that would be our biggest challenge, but we are doing good with them.  2 Sundays in a row now we have had 9 less actives in church which is awesome!! There is an area that is pretty far way that we are only allowed to do less active work because there are so many (meaning we can´t find and teach new people).  I excited to work with the less actives to help them remember they have a testimony :)

So we have this area that is crazy far away called El Pinar.  It is about a 20 minute ride up the canyon and walking... bueno.  ¡Es lejos!  It is nothing like any other areas I´ve been in.   There are a ton of houses but hardly any people.  The streets in basically every corner of the DR are blasting music and there are drunks everywhere, but not in El Pinar.  There is no music, basically no noise.  We went up there for the first time last week because a member said there are people up there who are ready for this gospel so we went.  The day started out rough.  I really didn´t think we were going to find anything.  We found one good family, but it still wasn´t what we were hoping for.  On our way back to catch a ride home we decided for no reason at all to take a different route.  As we were walking down the street this little girl saw us from her front porch and yelled, ¨¡¡Mormonas!!¨ Then ran up to us and gave us a big hug.  She told us she was so happy to see us again, but we´ed never met her before.  When we asked her name she got all offended and said, ¨What, you don´t remember?¨ haha! She them proceeded to ask us when we were going to go to her house.  When we told her we didn´t know where she lived she was like, ¨Yeah, don´t you remember?¨ and took us to her very secluded humble home.  We told her we would returm (which previously we had not planned on).  It gave us a little hope for the little town so far way.  This week we went back and had more success with the people.  We went back to the girl´s house and found her mom there who told us that she had visited the church in Ocoa before and really enjoyed it.  As we got to know her we found out she really wants to know why there are so many different religions if there is only 1 God.  We were able to leave her a Restoracion pamphlet.  She is awesome! I feel like I´ve known her for years.  I know God is preparing so many people for this gopsel, especially in places we don´t expect.  SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH EVERYONE!!!

Today we had a good Zone Activity.  Everyone came up here to Ocoa and we went to one of the campos and hiked up to a cave.  To get to it we had to climb this homemade tree branch latter and squeeze in the tiny, muddy opening.  The cave is home to hundres of bats, so what we thought was mud was actually bat poop...  It was really cool though and I actually got to hold a bat, but we all got really nasty dirty :S it was quite an adventure.  Another reason why I love this country so much. :)

Love you all.

Love, Hermana Perry

P.S. I also got really sunburnt again... :P ha

 Our ward mission leader is a bombero (Fire fighter).  We got to go to the station and have a little fun :)

A typical house up higher in the mountain

Week : Pictures of this Beautiful Country (July 22,2015)

 Hna Jones: ¨When you get to Ocoa you have to hug a pine tree.¨ Para mi hija :]

 On our way to one of our campos called Parra.  Ocoa (the main city) is the city on the left :)

 The District: Elder Dee (From Orem!! Knows a lot of the same people I know), Elder Martinez (From Panama), Hermana Gonzales (my comp! From Panama), Hermana Suazo (From Honduras), me, Hermana Dibble (From Nothern Idaho).

 This is a fruit called Limoncio (or Quenepa--only in Ocoa is it called that). You pop it open with your teeth and pop it into your mouth. Most of it is a seed, you just have to suck off the slimy fruit and spit out the pit.

 Melida :) She is awesome!! She is Melvin´s aunt and is getting ready to be baptized soon.

Magaly, her daughter Romeris (in the cape), and her niece.  She loved the cape!!

Gloria and Leanny. Two less actives we were working with.  They are my MTC teacher´s (hno Nuñez) grandman and sister.

Ha this dude is so funny.  We always see him slouched over in his chair looking like the biggest grup with his big pot belly.  When he´s not sitting, he is walking with much purpose down the street with a stick in his hand, still looking like a grouch haha.  We tried to teach them once, but they didn´t really pay attention.

Maribel (Nuñez´s mom--also less active)

Alexander. He will be baptized soon :)

Jose and his three daughters and niece (on the right)

My absolute favorite Dominican ever!! Jose is awesome :)

Pedro and Dorka.  Pedro is progressing really well.  I´m sad to not see him progress.  Him and his wife own the internet center we went to in La Yuca

Miguelina and Ashley.  Less actives

Haha this guy greets us every day without fail haha.  We tried to teach him, but he just kept telling us he is Catholic.  This is a typical colmado (one of the smaller ones).

Melvin.  My other absolute favorite Dominican.  He is going to be reactivated soon :)

Heidy and the 3 cutest kids in the world! Hedelin (in black), Merali, and Cristopher

Sabiel.  He is probably the most interesting person I have ever met.  He has so pretty crazy beliefs but he is really cool and fun to teach.

Francisco and Lorneza.  We found them not too long ago :) They are amazing!!

Bueno... there is a member that is kind of in love with me so he did a huge painting of my "Dad in heaven with Jesus Christ." He is also the one who did the drawing of me and Hna Jones (I don´t remember if I send the pic or not).  He is also the one who almost killed the chicken while knocking down coconuts from his tree. haha

The Bishopbric: Hno Jimenez (1st counselor), Hno Montero (Bishop), Hno Castaño (2nd)

Guillermo and Yeimy.  He is one of the best members in the ward :)

 Bishop and family

Ward mission leader and his wife. Henry and Mercedes Abreu.

The zone

The district in the captial

Week : I'm Leaving La Yuca :( (July13, 2015)

Hola hola!

It´s been a good week.  It feels like I wrote like 2 days ago :P  This week was good :)

There is this family that we have been working with for a while now and they have really began to progress.  I don´t remember if I´ve mentioned them before.  They are Felicia and Agustin.  About 4 months ago their son was killed in a motor accident.  We found them because one of the members is their cousin and gave them as a reference.  At first they didn´t progress but they are doing awesome now.  Agustin has come to church like 4 times now and loves to read in the BoM and the folletos we leave them.  It has been amazing to watch their lives change.  Especially Agustin.  When we first started teaching them he would be there but his mind somewhere else.  He was suffering a lot because of the loss of his 18 year old son.  He has made a completely change.  He really wants to be baptized (and I´m not even sure is he has a testimony about the church he just really likes it).  He himself has pointed out the change.  This gospel is powerful.  They have a fecha for the 1st of August.  :)

This week we found a lot of awesome people.  There are people being prepared all over the place.

Se fue la luz (the power went off) in the middle of writing, so now we don´t have a whole lot of time :P Sorry this will be short.  I´ll give a better report next week.  The biggest news for this week is transfers... I´m leaving La Yuca :(  I´m so sad to be leaving, but I have 6 months here now.  I´ll be heading to Ocoa.  It´s considered ¨el sur¨ meaning campo.  It´s part of the northern most part of our mission and DK it´s really cool there, temperature wise!!! I´m pumped!! As I´ve been packing I feel like I´m getting ready to go camping from what everyone has told me haha.  The only thing I´m not happy about is that they all say I´m going to go home Blanquita (white).  I´ve worked long and hard on my tan and I´m pretty proud of it! Pero el Señor manda, so to Ocoa it is :)  I will be getting another latin companion woohoo!! I´m really sad to be leaving my daughter though :(  I love her to death.  I have lots of pics to send but no time.  Next week!!

Love you all!

Love, Hermana Perry

Week : Cockroaches & Coconuts (July 6, 2015)

Hola :)

So, I just had a nasty brown cochroach crawl down my leg... while here in the internet center.  :S

This week was a party week!!  One of the Hermanas in my house turned 18 months, then her comp turned 1 year the next day, we had the 4th of July, Hermanas Conference, the Hermanas had a wedding and 2 baptism, and we had an awesome ward activity.  It was awesome.

On Wednesday was the Hermanas Conference.  It is where all of the Hermanas in the whole mission get together for a big conference.  It was sooo much fun!!  Hermana Jones and I got to sing a duet which was quite nerve racking, but still really fun :)  We talked about being strong and of courage and it really was a great conference.

On friday we had our ward mission activity.  We watched Meet the Mormons.  I absolutely loved that movie.  We had a lot of people come and a lot of people in tears at the end.

So this week it was been raining a lot.  The other day we were sitting out side giving a lesson and I felt a few drops of water fall on me.  When I looked up the sky was so blue with just a few clouds from the angle I could see, so I thought it might have just been from someone in the apartment above.  Then all of the sudden our investigator said, its going to rain, lets go inside.  Then out of nowhere is starts pouring rain.  It was ridiculous!! It was still sooo sunny out and the sky, from where we could see it was, was blue.  It was the coolest thing ever!!  We sat on his porch and continued the lesson.  I had my back to it and was sooo tempted to turn around and just watch, but our investigator, Reinoso, was expressing his dislike to the part of the Book or Mormon when Nefi kills Laban ha.  Then later on the week it did the same thing again.  Clear sunny sky and just pouring buckets of rain.  They say here that when it rains and the sun is shining it means that a witch is getting married haha!  Then today we had the biggest storm I´ve seen yet.  Buckets of water falling from the sky and the wind blowing so hard with the loudest thunder I´ve probably ever heard.  It was awesome!!!  I love this country :)

So something funny that happened... One of the members has a coconut tree so he told us to come over to get some.  When we got there he still was working on knocking them down.  Now this tree is giant.  It is taller than the 4 story apartment building that he lives in.  He had this long bamboo stick and was reaching it up there is knock them down.  His brother who lives with him raises chickens so there are tons of chickens in his backyard.  Hna Jones and I were joking that one of the coconuts was going to fall and it one. Not 5 minutes later a giant coconut falls from the tree lading SMACK on one of the cages!!  The cage literally bounced and the poor chicken jumped sooo high! hahaha!!! Oh my I died laughing.  Ok so it doesn´t sound so funny, but it was.

Something awesome:  Heidy, Melvin, and their 3 kids came to church yesterday :D  It was their first time as a family!!!  They really are such a special family. They still have a long ways to go, but I know they will make it.  Heidy even said that she hopes her kids will be missionaries one day :]

Sorry this is so scattered, that cockroach made me a little scatter brained :P

Love, Hermana Perry

 Poor deformed lizard (look at his feet-some of his feet only have 2 toes or 3 toes and they are pointing up... so he's derp ;P ) He couldn´t run away fast enough.

  the same member that gave us the coconuts was trying to speak english.  In spanish FHE is ¨Noche do Hogar¨ which translates directly to ¨Night of home¨ haha.

 Giant mangos for only 15 pesos!!! :D (Corinne, my comp said I look like a Who haha)

  Hna Paul

 Hna Villegas

  Hna Mejia

Mis Hijas!!

4th of July lunch :)

 American Pride :) red, white, and blue (Hna Jones, me, Hna Olsen)