Week 10

hey hey hey!!

 

how is everyone?   you would not believe what i have been through in the last five days.  holy cow, where do i start.  well i guess i havent written for two weeks. i will just start at the beginning.  easter wasnt that exciting.  all we did was eat a chocolate egg and watch a bunch of bible videos at the mtc in peru.  our last saturday in peru, my companion and i went tracting in lima.  we had a lot more success than when i was with hermana caicedo.  we taught a few lessons and got some references.  my companion, hermana moscoso is just the coolest in the world.  she knows english and spanish, she has been a member her entire life. and she is just so smart.  i hope we are companions again once i learn spanish.  we would rock!!  well anyways, i guess i need to get to the good stuff.

 

the flight there was so long.  we went to the airport early in the morning and flew for two hours to santa cruz, bolivia.  and then had a nine hour layover... so much fun... not.  but! i can officially say that i have been in the amazon.  because that is where santa cruz is at.  so then we had a 25 minute flight to cochabamba... it took us all day to fly for two and a half hours.  o boy.  we were taken to the temple, and they have a sweet hotel on temple grounds. so we got to stay there.  we didnt get there until like midnight. one of my suitcases got left behind in santa cruz. so we had to wait all day the next day to get it.  ugh. but we got to hang out at the presidents house for eight hours.  my president and his wife are so cool.  they have only been here for nine months. so they will be here for my entire mission.   

 

the climate here is totally perfect.  it is cool in the mornings, but then it is just perfect during the day. 

 

we woke up the next morning to finish up all of the paperwork for our permanent visas.  and then i met my trainer.  her name is hermana fuentes.  she is from argentina, and she has been out for nine months.  we are going to be companions for 3 months.  and the ward we are serving in is called Jaihuayco.  i dont know how to pronounce it either, dont worry.  she is from argentina and she is very proud of her country. that is all that she talks about. ahaha i dunno.  she still cant pronounce my name at all. she is a hard worker.  and we really have a language barrier problem... hopefully we will get over it soon.  this is her first time training so neither of us know what to do.  it is tough, but i cant imagine that first five days of any mission is easy.  o ya and she has no desire to workout in the mornings.... she would rather snooze a little bit.  so i am working out by myself in the apartment.  so ya. chelsea!! you should definitely send me those little workout lists, because i dont even know where to start. when i am trapped in my apartment. she has only been in the area for a month so both of us dont know the area or the members. it has been interesting.   

 

my apartment is really small. it is just me and my companion.  our toilet barely works some of the time. and we have no food in the house.  and if you touch the showerhead or handle on the shower... you get shocked.  i learned that one the hard way.  the electric coil heats up the water as it comes out of the shower head... ugh.  unpleasent.  o ya and sometimes they turn off our water.  hahaa.  that is always a pleasent suprise when you try to flush the toilet.  i am adjusting okay.  i think i need a few more days and it will be awesome.  o ya and guess what!!  i have to hand wash my clothes.... wow.  this is just going to be quite the experience. and then we hang dry them outside of our apartment.   

 

the food is really good. they like chicken, rice, pasta, and really randon natural teas and fake coffees.  bleh.  not my favorite. the almost coffee is the worst.  but everything else is good.  we actually have a cooking lady that makes all of our meals for us.  her name is carmen and she is a member of the ward.  she is so nice.  she cooks lunch and dinner for us, and we are on our own for breakfast.  but my companion doesnt eat breakfast, so i just have to starve until one o clock everyday.  so i dont know what to do.  they really dont have cereal or milk here... as far as i know... of course i dont know much at all. we arent allowed to eat pork, lettuce, strawberries.  we only really have eaten bananas and apples because they are easy to clean.  so i havent been able to try any cool fruit.-  

 

we study for four hours every morning.  1 hr personal. 2 hrs. companion. 1 hr. language.  my companion is supposed to be studying english but she just goes and lays down during my spanish study. then we go eat lunch, and then we tract or go to our appointments.  then we have dinner.  it gets dark at like seven thirty and there arent many streetlights in this part of town. so if we dont have an appointment. we have to go back to the apartment.  it is a little sketchy here. but it is fine during the day.  but there are a lot of barrachos around here.  they are kind of like these random drunk guys that wander the streets.  they usually cant even stand up.  but sometimes they yell at us.. i dont know what they are saying, so whatever.  one of them tried to talk to us and followed us into a store.  the store owners chased him off, and then we got to ride in a police car to try and find him... that was interesting.  that was one of the most interesting things that happened so far.  the people are so nice here.  they are patient and try to help me speak as much as i can.  we got to go to a primary activity on saturday and all of the primary kids in the stake did all of the different dances from the different countries.  they did an elvis song for the united states. it was so cute.  it reminded me of the dance recitals i had when i was a kid.  their costumes were totally cool and traditional.  it was fun to experience the culture a little bit more.  it is funny when they try to make me translate all of the songs into spanish.... haha then they realize that it is my third day in the mission field. and then they tell me that it will get better soon. yaaa..... sure.... ahaa the streets here arent very crowded and there is much organization to the city... i have never j walked so much in my life.... haha.  and most of the time we just walk down the middle of the street.

 

okay the mailing situation. they said that most of the mail gets here just fine.  all of the mail goes to the mission office first. so i am pretty sure that the address i gave you is right.  you can double check in my missionary packet.  they said it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to get a letter.  so ya you should definitely write me a letter. ahaha. i reallly really hope they forward my mail from the peru mtc to here.. but i dunno if that will happen.  well i really hope that everything is going well at home.  i gotta go.. and i love you!!

 

hermana milne

Week 9

Hey,

so i made it to cochabamba. it is so beautiful here. the presidentand his wife are really nice. my companion is really nice. she isfrom argentina. hermana fuentes i love you so much!

hermana milne

Week 8

hey how are you??  thanks for the pictures!! they were amazing.  i know i say this every time but i dont have enough time.  but i just wanna say. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM  (yesterday)  you are the best mom in the world.  now i thought that i would send some pictures right back at you.  i am going to take more pictures today, so ya.  how is everything going??  how did  you like general conference?  i thought it was just so fantastic.  we got to watch it live... IN ENGLISH. o it was so amazing.  but it was hard to transfer back to spanish after two full days of blissful english.  we also got to watch the world report and stuff inbetween the conferences and i thought it was really interesting.  i just have tons of notes on it all and i cant wait to read them again.  

 

so mail is really rare here.  so my district decided to write letters to each other and put them in the mailbox.  it is so hackin fun.  i got a letter from the flash yesterday.  pretty cool right?  and elder murdock got a letter from harry potter.  can you tell that we have been in the mtc for nine weeks?  i dunno.  we are getting a little stir crazy, but it is alot of fun.  i just cant believe that i am leaving for bolivia in less than  a week.  ahhh.  i am so hackin excited.  

 

so i have discovered something delicious.  they have these banana chips things.  they are so amazing it is like salty dry bananas that somehow taste like potato chips.  best thing this wweek.  and we got to listen to the lord of the rings soundtrack this week.  it was totally awesome.  but now i am dying to watch lord of the rings again.  but ya anyways. enjoy the pictures.  there are some from provo and my old district.  and some of my old latina companeras.  and some of peru. and the three musketeers of course.  haha i hope you enjoy.  good luck this week. i love you!!

 

 

PS - here are some more pictures.  enjoy

 

i dont know when i will be able to email next. i leave next tuesday.  i hope that i will be able to email in bolivia, but we shall see.  o ya and these are my addresses i think...

 

letters...

hermana janessa milne

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Casilla de Correo 1375

Cochabamba, Cochabamba

Bolivia

 

packages...

Hermana janessa milne

Bolivia Cochabamba Mission

Edif. Confort Piso 7-C

Av. Villarroel 1132

Cochabamba, Cochabamba

Bolivia

 

love,

hermana milne

 

 

 

Week 7

hola everyone!! 

 

i am going to have to be really fast.  so i recieved two questions this week and i am going to answer them first so i dont forget.}

1.  all that we eat here is rice and meat and soup.  every hackin day.  we get a pile rice with a slab of meat on top.  i usually dont get the soup, because it is too much food.  you have to eat everything or else it is really rude... ugh.  the elders in my district complain all the time. ahahaha all they say is it is arros y carne every day. hahaha.  but it is really good actually.  it takes a couple weeks for our stomachs to get used to the food. but i am  used to it now. 

2.  also the time zone that i am in is the same as the east coast of the united states.  it is weird to think.  but i am right below florida and georgia right now.  i didnt realize that south america is shifted to the right on the maps.  i dont if that makes any sense. 

 

okay so ya anywaysss......

the tour was okay.  we got on a super nice bus and drove to the beach and took a couple pictures.  it was pretty, but i really wanted to see the palace.  but we werent able to go there, because there was a big demonstration there and there was so much traffic.... ugh.  so we just went to a cool black market  ish place to buy cheap soccer jerseys (that is the fad down here, but i didnt get one)  and then went and ate the best american pizza i have ever tasted.   pizza hut is the best!! yummmmm we got to go to the temple and then we played soccer under the lights on the turf field.  so we got new companions. and all the new latinos are super competitive, so they really dont let us play soccer anymore.  they wont pass the ball to us or anything.  it is totally lame now.... ugh whatever. 

 

i would just like to say that matte is gross, but this drink is really popular in bolivia... bleh.  okay i got that out of my system. 

 

my new companion is awesome.  i actually know stuff about her, because she speaks english.  she is a psychology major and she is super cool.  we have a lot of fun. we also have 22 girls on our floor and 3 showers.... needless to say.  it is battle royale in the bathroom like every hackin day.... and then our teachers yell at us for being five minutes late.  sorry! we really try hard to be there, but sometimes it just doesnt happen. 

 

so i had the scariest wakeup call of all time this week.  i dont shower in the morning so i just wake up at six thirty.  i sleep on the top bunk and one of the sisters suitcases is just above my head on a closet.  so i woke up just as my alarm clock started to go off.  and i opened my eyes and my clock fell on my face, because the sister was trying to get her suitcase off of the closet.  so i grab my clock and look up again, and i see a giant suitcase wobbling over the top of my face.  i jump like ten feet.  my companion thought that it was hilarious.  i guess it doesnt seem so scary now, but when i was half asleep and disoriented it was really scary.  but ya, i know that it was a really random story but whatever.  i choke under time constrictions. 

 

funniest moment this week... all of our latina companions were giving us etiquette lessons.  one of the sisters was trying to teach us how to hold our silverware correctly.  and we are all a little confused why, and we just started laughing.  i guess table manners are really important in ecuador.  haha woops.  they tell us we have bad accents too.  haha sorry! 

 

i finished the new testament this week and paul is like my hero now.  how come i didnt know that he was so cool?? o man. also, you should all read james chapter one.  i got so much out of the entire chapter. o man i am out of time.  enjoy general conference.  i feel like it is christmas.  i am just so excited for this weekend. yes!!!!  i love you

 

hermana milne 

Week 6

hola! 

how is everyone doin?   so has anything really exciting happened in the last week?  it has been so crazy here.  so i have officially come to the half way point in my peru mtc experience.  we just got a new batch of missionaries this morning.  there are more north americans and the other 150 latinos will trickle in all day.  it was weird being alone for the past 24 hours.  all of the latinos leave after three weeks and the americans remain... but!! we get to go on a tour of lima today. i am so hackin excited.  we get to see the beach and the palace in lima.  we might even see the changing of the guard. and the most exciting is that we get to go to pizza hut for lunch... yesssssss.  best day ever. i get to eat real food again.  i just cant wait to eat pizza.  so ya anyways.... we get to go to the temple in the afternoon, and then play soccer tonight under the lights on the turf field.  i am just pumped for today.  so ya i am going to be fast.

a ver.... so my latina companion left and it was really sad.  i just met my new companion and she is from ecuador also.  but she totally speaks english.  yesssss.  she is really nice, her name is hermana moscozo.  she is going to cochabamba too!! i hope that everything works out.  none of my other roommates are here yet.  but ya.  so ya i will tell you about my tour next week.  o ya and i took some amazing pictures, but i dont know how to get them on the computer. so ya... sorry.  i am technologically challenged.

we totally had a soccer showdown against the other north american district, because we had gym together.... we killed them.  hahaa it was so much fun.  we are playing them again tonight.  it is goin to be awesome.  i used my earplugs for the first time this week, and it was heaven on earth.  my companion didnt wake me up at 550 and i got to sleep in til 630.  i can honestly say i would never think i would be grateful to sleep in til 630.  pero whatever... its amazing.

  o ya!! and happy st patricks day.  the elders taught the latinos what it was, and so everyone was pinching each other all day long.  it was sooo funny. it was really sad when they left yesterday. it is amazing how close we can get when we have only known each other for three weeks.

  

 so everyone down here brushes their teeth after every meal... and now i am addicted to it too.  we all go into the bathroom and have a teeth cleaning party three times a day.  we think it is torture when we dont have time to brush our teeth now.... weird.  i am becoming a latina... all i have to do is learn a language and then i will fit right in...

so it was saturday again. and this time we went out proselyting in lima.  we just had to go knock on doors for four hours.  it was a good experience.  we were in a wealthier part of town. so we didnt get a ton of success,there were a lot of big gates around the houses.  but we talked to a lot of really nice people.  and i said more than five words this time.  thats good...  it was really sunny, but my companion and i just kept walking up and down the streets.  o ya and i got a coca cola, it was hackin delicious. 

o ya!!!! the most exciting thing happened!! my companions and i were planning a lesson on keeping the sabbath day holy and all of the sudden the ground started shaking.   it was an earthquake!!!!!wowowoowow  it lasted for like 30 seconds.  we were just so amazed and our desks were shaking and it took us awhile to figure out what it was.  it was just a mild earthquake, but it was totally cool.

so funny stuff that missionaries do for fun is match other missionaries with characters.  for example.  there is a kid who looks just like woody from toy story. i seriously just want to slap a cowboy hat on his head and scream. theres a snake in my boot.  and then run away.  he is woodys twin. and there is an elder who looks like captain america and of course we have the three amigos.  and i am rapunzel.  there is also an elder who looks just like clark kent.  so ya i know that it is totally random. but these are the things that keep us entertained.    haha o man. its true. you do get weird when you become a missionary.  or in my case... even weirder.

well i have got to go.  i hope that everything is going well back at home.  i love you guys so much, and im sorry that my emails usually dont make any sense.  have an amazing week.  love you!

Hermana Milne

Week 5

Hey hey hey!

how is it going in utah? is it still snowing? it is a little hotter here. but ya okay i wont talk about the weather anymore. so life in the mtc in peru goes like this.... all that i do everyday is study, read, learn grammar, attempt to teach in spanish, play soccer, shower and get ready frantically (sometimes i have time to do my hair.. sometimes i have like 10 minutes to get ready... we battle for showers) and also i try to communicate with my companion. Hermana caicedo is from ecuador. she was a nanny before she came here, so we call her mom. she keeps track of all of the hermanas in my room. it is a lot of fun. i can say that personal study is the best thing ever. i never really got into it before the mission, but i am telling you. i have recieved so much strength my personal study. in fact... guess what?! i am about to fininsh the book of mormon tomorrow. it took me two weeks to read it all of the way through. yesss. next i am going to start on the new testament and pearl of great price. i am so hackin excited.

you would not believe what i had to do last saturday. i had to go out and visit less active members in the streets of peru. it is soo so different here, there are a lot more locks barbwire, and bars and no one has any yards. weird.... most of the people on our list were not home. but it was hot and we got lost a couple of times. i am so grateful that my companion speaks the language. i have been humbled once again, because i didnt understand most of what the people were saying... o boy. there were stray dogs everywhere!! unbelievable. no animal control here. and we got the talk about rabies. so now i am officially afraid of all of these dogs. probably the biggest culture shock came from my companion. it is so simple, but it made me realize we were from different places. we bought some bottled water and drank it while we were walking... then my companion crumpled up the bottle and just threw it in the street!! i was just so confused by this.. i dont know why. i had to stop myself from yelling, litterer!!! wow it was weird.

we got a visit from a ward here at the mtc.. all of the young women wanted to talk to us, but we couldnt understand them. they just had this pitying look in their eyes. they would try to correct our spanish a lot. all who read this... please pray for the poor north americans at the mtc in peru. we really really need to learn spanish... and fast. but it was a lot of fun.. the young people of the church are so faithful here.

soccer is getting a little crazy. we had four minor injuries in one day. ankle, hamstring, nose, and foot. we need to calm it down a little bit. i dont know if i am getting much better, but o well.

i was reading the story about alma the younger, and it is so great. you should read that story this week. o ya and i just got back from the temple and i want to give all of you a challenge.... i want you to go to the temple once a month for the next 17 months. can you do that? it is so simple and doesnt take much time, but it will make all of the difference in your lives. so ya. that is what i want you to do. i am going to ask you if you went to the temple faithfully when i get home. i am giving you a commitment, just like all of my future investigators.

Thanks for the emails. they are so much fun to read. i get so excited every week to hear from you. i am out of time once again. so ya i learned a new phrase.... are you ready.

the church is true, the book is blue, and Jesus is a mormon

hahaa have a great week.

hermana milne

Week 4

hola!

how is everything going at home? my address is... i will give it to you before i forget.

hermana janessa milne

Centro de Capacitacion Missional

Melgarejo 159 La Molina

Peru

this email is going to be all over the place because i have even less time than when i was in provo.

so ya. hahaha where do i start? we just got back from the temple and it was beautiful... the bus ride was not as beautiful though.... it was so crazy and crowded. but luckily for me i was taller than everyone else on the bus. i was a head taller and my head touched the ceiling... there is no such thing as personal space here. hahaa.

today was a little warmer but it isnt as hot has it gets in utah. the weather is perfect everyday! it is so crazy. okay so ya. the mtc here is almost like the other mtc in provo. we workout and shower and then study study study. we are focusing a lot more on spanish here though... o ya because no one else speaks english. our teachers only know a little broken english, but we communicate well enough. i am pretty sure i only get about sixty percent of what is going on here... owelll. so my companion is latina. her name is hermana caicedo. she is from ecuador, and she talks really fast so i dont know anything else about her... woops. we are companions outside of class. but i am in the north american class, so i have american companions too. the same ones from provo. we are growing really close. it is hard to believe that we have known each other for less than a month.

most disappointing part.... they dont know how to play volleyball at all... no!!!!!!! o well. i knew it was too good to be true. so ya... they have a really nice turf soccer field here. needless to say, i am now slowly learning how to play soccer. why didnt i learn this skill before i came here. i have no skills and the latinos just laugh at us. one of my companions is going to teach me the basic soccer skills this week though. i am gonna be a pro when i get home. we have to play soccer five days a week here. but! we played north americans vs. latinos and we tied.... that has got to count for something.

it has been a blast talking with my companion. i think that i am picking up spanish so much better here. i am always surrounded by it. i am trying to teach lessons with hermana caicedo but i only have like five minutes worth of spanish vocabulary... and then she just takes over. ahahah. my latina room mates are now calling me rapunzel... i wonder why.... haha jk.

the food is okay here. it is different. and they have weird juices... the corn juice is the worst. the orange juice is the best. i honestly dont even know what the other juices are. o ya! and i have already accidently said my first swear word. i was trying to practice joseph smiths first vision and i mixed two words together... all of the latina hermanas froze and then started laughing. they said that the word i said was really bad.... sorryyyyy! i am not even sure exactly what i said. but mental note.... pronounce all the words in the first vision story..

gross moment. we cant chew on our fingernails or else we will get a parasite!!! wow. no way! that kind of scared me to death a little. at least i havent seen any huge bugs yet. and it was gross when i got a cold a couple days ago. it was the worst cold that i have had in quite a long time. thank you for dayquil, it is my salvation. the jet lag plus the cold was not fun. the president told me to clean out my nose. he said i have to breathe in water into me nose and then breath out. ugh is was like when i get water up my nose in the pool. but it helped a little.. unpleasant.

on the first day of the mtc. we had to introduce ourselves and bear our testimony in front of the entire zone in spanish. the latinos chuckled at our accents but it was really intense... i am pretty sure i dont even know exactly what i said... ugh ..... language will come.

the best part of the day..... Fruit time!!! at 845 every night we get to go to the cafeteria and eat fruit... it is the best thing ever! it is what i look forward to every single day. the fruit is really good, and sometimes we get ice cream. it is all that we talk about here.

i love you all!! o ya and i can only send letters if i have american stamps.... i dont have any. so if you send a letter... send stamps too. because i wont be able to mail any letters before then. i am out of time. i love you

Hermana Milne

p.s. funny random english phrases that the latino elders know

im the best in the world

are you talking to me??

pokemon, i choose you

sometimes they will just scream I LOVE!!! to the american elders, they always forget the you at the end. they are so funny to talk to.