Week 6 :In the Mission Field!!!

Ah mi madre it has been a crazy week!! But big news... I´M IN THE FIELD!!! :D I left the CCM last tuesday. It was horribly sad to say goodbye to CCM District but Soooo excited to finally be in the field. My new companion is Hermana Francis and I love her!!! She is such a sweet heart, loves to sing, hard working, patient, and such a wonderful mom to me :) I am her first child (first one she has trained). She is from Logan.

 

My new area is Azua. I forgot where it is on the map oops, but it is wonderful. It has a good mix of campo (small town, not busy, very poor), and city. It is the hottest area in the mission, but luckily is have been cloudy so it hasn't been so bad. It did rain crazy, crazy hard the other day though!! My house is sooo lovely. It is a palace compared to what I thought it would be. It's quite big too. Its right in the middle of the city and campo areas so it's perfect. On every corner there are colmados which are little stores that sell snacks and groceries. But they are seriously on every corner. I love it!!

 

So in the first day I forgot bug spray so I got some monstrous bug bites all over my legs. They look nasty but they're getting better,they itch like crazy though!!!

 

So besides our house being amazing, we don't have a whole lot of water so we have to take bucket showers... They are such a chore. Ha I've never been so upset to have to take a shower before! They will definitely take some getting used to. Basically we have a bucket in the shower with a pitcher and you have to pour water over yourself with scrubbing your hair and that water is freezing so you cry a little each time you pour that water. haha I don't like them. :P

 

This has been the looooongest week of my life. It feels like I’ve been here for a month already. But at the same time when we finish for the day it feels like we just got up. Sooo weird.

 

So this is our day in a nutshell:

6:30 get up, pray, devotional with other hermanas (we have 4 total in my house: me, mi compañera, Hermana Bush, and Hermana Flores) eat, get ready.

8:00 Personal Study

9 comp study

10 greenie training

11 language study

12-2 cook/eat lunch

2 leave to teach

8 return and plan

10:30 bed

 

We have some awesome investigators. One is named Karubi. She is getting baptized in like a month!! She's so cute. We are teaching another family who lived in Florida for a while and they speak english!!! So awesome. We have also taught a lot of less active members and those are cool too. My favorite is when a member comes to a lesson with you which actually happens quite often. While we were going to find a referral the other day we found this lady to teach, Argentina. She goes to another church and believes that all churches that talk of Christ are true. We showed her the scripture one God, one Faith, on baptism and explained how "One faith" means one church and she understood and it was soo cool! We taught her the first lesson and I got to tell her about Joseph Smith and quote the first vision and the spirit was sooo strong!! It was so cool. Sooooo cool.

 

I have never been so tired in my life. I wake up tired and struggle to say awake the whole day! There was one day this week were ALL of our appointments fell though and I was tired beyond belief and my comp said something that helped me get though the day, and many others. "It won't be a bad day if we keep going." And she was so right.

 

My spanish is dying. By the end of the day I struggle though lessons. I'm pretty sure I’m getting worse :P

 

On saturday we got to go back to the Capital (it's about 2 1/2 hours from Azua. We took a bus and went for a greenie training with the new President (President Nuckols) who got here on friday. We were the only sisters who came the night before so we got the stay at the mission home which is something that apparently never happens so it was pretty sweet. Their house is HUGE!! Our room along what huge. I felt like we were in a hotel. Crazy. We got to sit and talk to President and his wife for a while and get to know them. They are so nice. The next day we went to church with them and everyone thought we were their daughters haha. Also, sunday was mothers day here, so Happy Mothers Day again mom!! After church everyone who is new to the mission came for dinner and a meeting. We learned how to manage our stress and what we should be doing to train. On the way home we road a guagua. It is a small bus that they pack full of people. Crazy crazy.

 

It's a huge adjustment but I'm sooooo excited to finally be in the field!! I love it sooooo much!!! I know this is where I'm supposed to be!! I love this gospel.

 

Love you all so much!!!!

 

Love, Hermana Perry

 

Our appartment, very nice, but very little water, and no hot water. Asking Mom to send solar shower.

 

 

Hermana's Bush and Flores

 

 

 

 

No one wears their hair down, It's way to hot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes! this is what happens when you forget to put on bug spray.

 

 

 

Streets of Azua

 

 

People put the motorcycles right in their homes.

 

 

 

Friends from High School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5: Short One - Plus pictures from leaving Utah

 

 

Hola!! :)

This week was quite normal for the most part. On Friday we got to go on splits with the missionaries in the west mission and that was crazy!! My companion only spoke spanish. We went to houses that were smaller than the rooms here at the CCM which is pretty small. But they are sooo happy!!! I already love them soo much! I'll send the whole experience home in a letter so get it from my mom if you want it.

We had an amazing devotional by Elder Holland this week that I want to share a little bit about. He talked about how we have to follow Christ which means even into the Garden of Gethsemany. There will be hard times in a mission, no doubt, but missons were never meant to be easy. Missionary work isnt easy because it wasn't easy for the Savior. He doesn't ask us to follow Him the whole way into the Garden, just at least stand on the very edge and expericence the tiniest fraction of hardship that He did. That is how we grow closer to Him. Holland also said that we invite people to come unto Christ which means we have to be there. Our message isn't "go unto Christ" but "come unto Christ". In order to truly convert souls, we ourselves need to be converted.

The week was pretty normal other than that. I've been kind of sick and that's never fun. I did, however, get to call home!!! :D 15 minutes was not long enough though :P This is our last full week at the CCM :( I'm going to miss this place, but I can't wait to get out there!!!

Sorry it's short this week :P Love you all!!! Next time I write I will be in the field!!!! :D Unreal...

Love, Hermana Perry

 

 

P.S. From Marsha, Mom,

 

We were able to speak to Ashlyn on Sunday May 11, 2014 for Mother's Day. She is soooooo happy.

Since her letter to be posted was a short one, we decided to add pictures that hadn't been posted yet from this journey.

 

Corinne, McKaye, and Ashlyn April 2014

 

 

 

Just after Ashlyn was set apart as a Mission. Dallin, Corinne & Ryan Born, Marsha, Sister Ashlyn Perry, McKaye, Grandma & Grandpa Cloward, Lizzy Jessop, and Gabby Ramos.

 

 

 

 

At the Orem Cementary, Dad would be very proud of his daughter.

 

 

 

 

Dad, he will be with her and watching over her while she is on her mission.

 

 

 

 

Gabby Ramos-Escobar, Sister Ashlyn Perry, & Lizzy Jessop

 

 

 

 

Corinne, McKaye, & Sister Perry

 

 

 

 

McKaye and Ashlyn BESTIES

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma & Grandpa Perry

 

Mom and Sister Perry

 

Very proud Mom

 

 

 

Big, little Brother Dallin & Sister Perry

 

Corinne Born & Sister Perry

 

 

Brother-in-law, Ryan Born & Sister Perry

 

Uncle Rob Norberg and Sister Perry

 

Please show your ID, "Can't you tell that I'm a missionary?"

 

 

Meeting another missionary going to the D.R.

 

Week 4 : I placed my first book of Mormon!!

 

May 8, 2014

 

Ahh crazy week!!! On Friday we went to the university and it was crazy!! They just gave us pamphlets and sent us out!! My comp and I handed out 25 of them about the restoration. A few people seemed interested which is awesome!! One girl came up to us and asked us what we were doing. We talked to her for a while and you'll never guess what happened!!!! I placed my first book of Mormon!! And she was speakin english!! (She goes all the way to the DR and the first person she talks to... speaks english!!---best two years;) ) But she seem really interested!!

This week for FHE we taught my family about prayer. They have such sweet spirits!!! I love them sooo much!! They don't speak a lick of english and it can be hard to understand them with their DR slang, but when they bare their testimonies the spirit is so strong and I have such a love for them. They work at the temple.

So everyone but my district left for the field this week!! We had only 11 of us here for 2 days. It was nice in some ways, but lonely as well. When they left, we got up and sang "God be with you til we meet again" and I cried, of course. They were like my older brothers and sisters. Most of the them are going to Santiago, the rest to Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The hermanas moved rooms because the other one was nicer, so now we have the farthest room in the CCM that looks out to the temple!! I LOVE IT!! The only down side is that our classroom is on the very opposite side of the CCM.... Ahh its a long 45 second walk, and I’ll tell ya, it's whipping me into shape!!

Classes are getting more intense, but I love it!! We are learning so much more, so much faster. I can't wait to get out to the field!! Tomorrow we get to go on splits with the missionaries!!! :D

Yesterday for gym, since there were only 11 of us, we got to go to the park across the street! ha but we were only playing on it for like 3 minutes when the guards got mad and told us to get off :P I somehow managed to get a huge bruise on my knee though...

We got to watch one of the best devotionals ever this week!! It was Bednar's talk Christmas 2011 at the MTC in Provo. Only missionaries in the MTC have access to this talk and I wish that wasn't the case, because it was probably the best talk I've heard. He talked about Christ-like attributes--turning out instead of in. Go look up Matt 4:2-12. It is about the Atonement. Now look at the footnote for 11b. It is the most beautiful example of turning outwards when all you want to do is think of yourself.

New missionaries have been getting here yesterday and today!! Its pretty exciting. We went from 11 to 44 missionaries in less than 24 hours. It was kind of overwhelming, but I'm excited!!! But there is a lot of pressure because we are the examples now! I can't believe I've been here 4 weeks already!! Only 2 left!!! AHHHH :D

DR tongue twister: Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. Good luck

I'm so grateful for my spanish teachers back home! I have just a better grasp on the language than I thought I did and I owe it all to them, so.... THANK YOU!!!

New food this week: Dorito rice... yup. I know you're jealous.

Spanish mess up of the week: Hoy es el mujer dia!! (today is the woman day!!) (meant to say today is the best day hahaha!!!)

Love you all sooo much!!! Time is flying!

Love, Hermana Perry

 

 

 Sunrise

 

 

 

Fun Parks

 

 

Everyone is sooo excited for the race!!!! :D

Love, District Nefi

Ashlyn and several of the Sisters are going to hold their own 5k and run around the D.R. temple saturday morning, May 10, 2014.

 

 

 

You are "MY HERO" Dad

LIVE  PLAY  LOVE  PRAY  Elevate 5k

 

 

Week 3 : Narwhal - Ballena Nerral

May 1, 2014

 

So this week was pretty normal. Classes and all just the same. On friday we were supposed to go to the University to practice talking to people, but there was a strike so we went to the book fair instead. And let me tell you, I wish we had gone to the university. All we did was tell people to go to a booth that the church was putting on "Visite la caseta de autosuficienca a las seis de la tarde".... It was fun for a while, but then it got boring. Me and mi compañera (my companion) started telling these two men to go to it and they turned out to be creeps!! "You are beautiful missionaries." "I wish I had babies with your color of eyes..." but don't worry, I used my skills to beat them up and run away.. Yup. That's how it went ;) On the plus side, I got 17 bug bites :D Ugh ha they are no fun... 13 on one leg :P

My new favorite spanish word--> Ballena nerral (Narwhal) :)

So the other day when we had a break my district was really on one so I ended up quoting about 1/3 or Best Two Years to them... haha Ohhh it was great. I have seen that movies too many times.

Sundays are the best days ever. We get up, have breakfast, personal study were we get to study whatever we want and not for our investigators, then we have sacrament meeting. Each week everyone has to write a talk, then Presidente picks 4-8 people to talk (in there mission language) for 3 minutes. I haven't been picked yet. After that we have doctrine class with our district and this weeks lesson was on humility. It was a wonderful lesson. Then Relief Socitey. Every week for RS we split up into english class and a spanish class. The teacher this week for spanish didn't really speak english, so I got the translate the lesson into spanish. It was a struggle but it was so awesome as well! Totally gift of tongues there!! It was a good test of my progress here. Hahah but I mixed up two words haha. I was trying to say "God can help us with our challenges, but I said God can help us with our fancy dresses hahah!!" Too funny :)

So I don't know what they were thinking when they built the CCM the way the did because we occupy the top floor of the building (4 floors) and the lunch room is on the bottom, so we have to climb 6 flights of stairs every day multiple times. I look forward to the day when I not winded by the time I get to the top ugh haha.

Monday was a roughd day... We decided to have a spanish only day and even swore to it the night before. When I got up in the morning I had forgotten so I asked a question in english and got yelled at (jokingly of course) but we all know how I am in the morning, so I was pretty mad the rest of the day. I had just about had it by the time we went down for lunch when I just happend to glance at the lobby to see Elder Pedersen and Elder Tate sitting there and I lost it!!!!! They got a picture of my face when I saw them and its pretty funny haha!! It was sooooo good to see them!! Those crazy kids and speaking spanish, they were teaching me how to get by out in el campo. The rest of the day was good after that :)

On tuesday Claudio D. Zivic came for a devotional. He is the one that spoke the saterday afternoon session of conference, the one that sounds like Gru!! I got to meet him and shake his hand, so ya know, I'm pretty cool ;)

One of the teachers found out how clumsy I am so he started calling me Hermana Torpe... Which means clumsy...

Yesterday for gym it was raining while we were playing frisbee (which is like the only thing we do during gym so y'all better watch out cuz I'm gonna kick yo butts when I get back) But it was crazy to think,  Hey I'm playing frisbee in the rain, at the CCM, in the DR, as a missionary... :O AWESOME!! I did, however, get pushed in a bush.

So this morning me and a few of my roomies decided to go running in the morning so we would stay awake during the morning hours of the day. It was my idea and I immediately regretted it the moment my alarm went off, but we all pinky promised, so I went anyway. The moment we stepped outside and felt the humid morning air I changed by mind. I was probably the best workout of my life! We get to run around the temple, which is awesome, and on top of that it wasn't burning hot like in the middle of the day. The best part is we got to watch the sunrise. It was the most beautitful sunrise I've ever seen!! No joke it was amazing. The sky was orangish-yellow with palm trees and the temple... Ahhh. I never want to leave this place. I love it here sooo much!!!! I can't wait to get to the field and get to work! :)

The Jamaicans came last week and the are soo awesome!! 1 sister and 2 elders. They are so funny! One of the Elders calls me Perry the platypus, or Katy perry (I get that one a lot actually).

So here are a few things we said wrong since getting here... I put them in sentences for your convenience:

Jóse Cristo sufrio en el jardín de Eden para nuestros pescados y disfrazes.

(Joseph Christ suffered in the Garden of Eden for our fish and fancy dresses.)

[Jesus Christ suffered in the garden of Gethsemany for our sins and challenges]

Dies nos da arrepentimiento para que podemos ser liberados de la culpa de las pedas.

(Ten gave us repentace so we can we free from the gulit of farts.)

[God gave us repentace so we can we free from the gulit of sin.)

¿Donde esta la edad? Esta ayer

(Where is the age? It's yesterday.

[Where is the building? Over there.]

¿Mucho gusto? Mas o Manos

(Nice to meet you? More or Hands

[Do you like it? more or less]

Not to worry, I'm sure we will have many more stuggles in the future.

Sorry for the randomness of the email, and my spelling ;P

I love this gospel and there is nothing I'd rather be doing!! Love you all sooo much!!

Love, Hermana Perry :)

 

 This is what happens when hma gingell gets ahold of my study journal.  This picture  makes my day :] notice the narwhal in the middle of the page bahaha!!

 

Free time -- Almond Checkers

 

                                               Hermana Padgett & Hermana Gingell 

 

Ashlyn was going to lunch when she walked around the corner and got a BIG suprise......

                      

 

!!!!SUPRISE!!!!

Elder Zane Pedersen and Elder Kline Tate, "My Great friends from HighSchool. It was hard not to give them each a big hug." - Ashlyn

                                                           Typical week schedule

Week 2: Re-Learning

April 24, 2014

 

Hello everyone in happy vally utah :) this week went by sooo fast! But it was good. Still working hard everyday. Classes are great. I love re-learning spanish :) and I just love it here in general! So some events of the week: so last thursday I got a really bad head ache, like one of the worse I've ever had :S I couldn't think straight and the world was spinning. I layed down for like 2 hours and felt useless because me and my comp missed teaching our investigator and it was no fun at all. But the lovely elders in my district gave me a blessing and it was awesome. After laying in bed, rehydrating, and getting a blessing, I felt much better and life went on as normal. I'm still alive, don't worry ;) There is never enough time in the day to do anything! we have class allllll the time and we struggle to get stuff done in time. I never have time to write in my journal but i'll get the hang of it one of these days. The other night we had hamburgers for dinner and it was the best thing that ever happened!! It made me feel at home. None of he cooks where there because it was the day before Easter and it is a big thing here. The whole city shuts down and everyone goes to the beach to celebrate. I can't wait until next year to join in the celebration. So i'm dumb and dropped my watch and now the numbers are off centered haha its a struggle to read... On Easter we got to watch a live Devotional by Elder Uchtdorf and it was great. All the devotionals are always great :) On monday 2 missionaries from the west mission came to the CCM and I got to talk to them for a while. They said there without water for a week and had to go to the neighbors to get it ha and they are getting these handy inverters so they can have light when the power goes out (the power honestly goes out at least once a day here) They said that the people yell at them and its kinda scary but once you talk to them they are very nice. On monday night me and my comp got to go "home teaching" to a elderly missionary couple that works at the Temple(The Rodriguez family). I made the mistake of tellnig them that I took nine years of spanish and they just went off like hasdufehj; as;iufe;h ;iaoeu;ieu;rhsf!!!!!!!!! SOOOO fast and sloppy (they drop the s in their words here and talk so dang dang fast!!!) But there are awsome!! They bore their testimonies and the spirit was so strong it was amazing. Hermano Rodriguez told me that he has 22 siblings!!! But don't freak out yet because thats not even the crazy part... His dad ha 45 children!! FOURTY-FIVE!!!!! Ay mi madre!! (a popular saying here--- it means oh my gosh haha) But they are sooo nice and sweet. they gave us some jucie that is made out of guayabas. Its pretty good, But odd at the same time... Ahh but there is no time for anything!! I just want to do everything all at once! I want to teach and learn spanish, and sing, and sleep, and all that jazz!! Take advantage of your free time!! So they do in fact have a distribution center here! And everything is so cheap!!! Garments are 50 cents!!!!!!! Crazy, right?!? On tuesday we got to go to the tienda. It is like a 10 minute walk from the CCM, which is a crazy walk through the heart of Santo Domingo. Everyone drives like a maniac. There are no rules on the road. But to get to the tienda we had to walk though this park that is across the street from the CCM and it is the coolest park I have ever seen!!! It is colorful beyond colorful and I want to play at it soooo bad. I'll try to get a picture of it next week. the tienda is like walmart, just not a fancy. It was stressful becasue none of the missionaries I was with knew spanish enough to get what they needed so I had to translate... Struggle. But other than that it was good. it is nice to know there is a good store if I really need it. On tuesday we watched a devotional by Elder Holland and it was soooo good. He talked about missionary work (I can't imgaine why though... haha) but he said something that hit me hard: "come home with at least one convert. YOU". I love his talks. So I would like you all to know my athletic abilities have not changed... I pulled a muscle playing a vigorous game of fooseball yesterday. I know.. I'm a beast. Sorry about the spelling.. I can't think in english any more... haha. And yes I know this letter is very random, but my brain is always so scattered so yeah :] Love you all sooo soo much!!!!

Love, Hermana Perry :D

 

 

Ashlyn and her companion accidentally matched their first day.

 

The Sisters in her district.

 

The CCM (MTC) food. She says they feed them this much food at every meal.

 

"This is how we wear our name tags"- Ashlyn

 

A few of the sisters in her district at the Santo Domingo Temple

 

A view from her apartment?? We aren't sure where this was taken.

 

Showing off their flexibility

 

 

Ashlyn's watch broke on one of ther first days but she still wears it for style

 

Too exhauste to get out of bed so she faked sick so she could sleep in ;) Just kidding, she was sick with a head ache but feeling much better now!