January 10, 2012

Pictures

Christmas PJ's

Christmas Day, Peru Temple

My apartment. Its actually really nice. The nicest in the mission,
so I hear. The bathroom is so small I have to sit sideways on the toilet
because my knees hit the wall.

Me and my Pensioista and a typical meal. Soup, rice, and eggs

Christmas Day at the temple

Me and Hermana Lema with one of our investigators, Zoryda

Me and Hermana Lema with Dian, a member of our ward,
and her friend Cynthia.

This is my tan line on my feet.

January 9, 2012

Dear Family and Friends!!

HOLA! Sorry I don't have much time. I have lots to tell you about this week but it's hard for me to know what to say. When you are on your mission your whole life is revolving around other people's lives and their spiritual journey I guess you could say. So I will try to tell you about the people I have been teaching without forgetting that this is their lives I am talking about.

First of all, we are teaching a wonderful girl named Cynthia!! She is 24 years old. She took the missionary discussions in 2010 but after all the lessons, stopped listening because she was in a rough living situation and didn't feel like she could change. She is friends with an amazing member in our ward named Dian. Dian invited us over for lunch with her and Cynthia. We got to know her and it was lots of fun! After lunch we talked to her about Gods plan for her. My companion made me start the lesson! It was scary but I did it. Then during the lesson I look at Cynthia and asked her what she needed to do, and she responded, I need to get baptized! It was an amazing feeling. She bore her testimoany about Gods plan for her and that she has always known this was right and was ready to make the changes in her life she needs to make. Since then we have been teaching lessons and preparing her! The thing I love about Cynthia is she has faith AND then act on it. She changed her living situation, she reads the Book of Mormon everyday (and she really reads it, when we talk about it she knows details and feelings about the things she reads). She is wonderful. She came to church this Sunday and bore her testimony. She is so excited to get baptized and i am so excited for her. She has been a good example to some of her friends who are less active. She is getting baptized on the 21st!!

Missions are full of ups and downs. You got from a lesson with Cynthia and you feel like you couldn't be happier, and then you go to a lesson and someone who was progressing tells you they don't want to read the Book of Mormon, they don't want to pary, and they don't believe what you are saying. You leave that lesson feeling like someone spiritually sucker punched you in the face. But then you meet a sweet old man on the street and you talk about Gods love for all of us and you feel great again. Haha

The Spanish is coming. Usually I understand the basic concept of what is happening, I just miss the details. My companion is wonderful!! She corrects my Spanish all the time, but I am happy she does. I think I am getting better.

Mornings are usually tough. I look out the window and thing... am I really going to go out there and talk to people? I wonder if thats what shy people feel like in the morning. Do they look out the window and think, "Dear heavens I don't want to talk to anyone today". If so I feel bad for shy people. This is the first time in my life where talking to people in one of my greatest fears. Haha But it's getting better poco a poco. Little by little, that's what I have to remind myself.

Hmmm... what else. We have got to find a way to get the men in our ward to shape up! Man alive. This Sunday we took names of women in our ward who have inactive or nonmember husbands. We are making them our top priority because Fathers make such an impact on the lives of their children and seriously almost ALL of the mothers in this ward come to church by themselves.

Well I am doing good. I hope I can keep this email interesting for you all. I think that I am highly narcissistic and I like the idea of people reading what I have to say ever week. Haha I miss you all! I really do. I wish I didn't. I'm trying to turn into a crazy robot missionary who is so focused on the work that they aren't even phased by the fact that they are miles and miles away from their friends and family. But at this point, I haven't hit robot phase and I miss you all terribly.

I hope if you are reading this because you are bored and are wasting time blog hoping and facebook stalking, that you will think of your Tall White Friend roaming the streets of Peru and write me a letter. (That's right I ain't to proud to beg!) Haha I love you all!

Hermana Sadie Taggart

January 2, 2012

Dear Friends and Family!!

First legit Preparation Day in the field!! WHOOT! I feel like I have so much to tell you all! I hope I can remember it all. First my companion, Hermana Lema. I didn't think it was possible for me to get a shorter companion than Hermana Cartagena, but I guess it is. She is tiny. She can't be more than 4 ft. 9. In the states she could totally get one of those midget handicap stickers on her car. She is really sweet and helps me with my Spanish a lot. She also laughs at me a ton, but that's not new. My personality is super strange to Latinas. Haha She also gets a kick out of my Spanish. I guess I talk like a four year old. Personally I don't know what she is talking about because I have 4 year olds talk to me on the streets and their Spanish is WAY better than mine. Haha I get along with her great and I don't see any problems.

My area. The name of the ward we cover is Antares. The houses in this area are hard for me to explain. My sister asked, "Does it look like downtown Ogden?" To that I say, downtown Ogden is far to ritzy for this part of town. It's weird though cuz one Apt. you enter will be pretty nice, the walls are painted, they have cute couches. It kind of looks like a college dorm layout. Then the house right next to it looks like something between an unfinished basement and a shack. It really just depends. The house of one of our investigators really looked like a barn on the inside. When she let us in she had me sit on a bucket next to a goat and a cage full of guinea pigs (they seriously do eat that here). Overall, my area smells like dog. Haha Probably because there are dogs EVERYWHERE!! Someone needs to get Bob Barker to tell these people to nuder their pets cuz its ridiculous!! But it just adds to the character of Peru.

The people here. Oh the people! I love them. You come in their house and before they even start talking to you they just take off. Sometimes down the street and you are just sitting there thinking what in the world!! They are either getting you something to eat or drink, and if they don't have anything in the house they leave and go buy you something. You want so badly to tell them it isn't necessary, that you are full that they don't need to do that. But it would be highly insulting. They take pride in serving you. I have watched people take out their special glass cups that they only use for special occasions and use them with us. I can't find the words to express how much it means to me.

The men in Peru aren't my favorite... First of all the men on the streets are just gross. Being white gets me a lot of unwanted attention. I don't mind the staring. I get that I am tall and white, and its weird here. Usually I don't understand, it's just my companion who tells me it's bad. But a lot of them know a few choice phrases in English... It's fine though, they just yammer when I pass by then they stop. The men in the church also really need to step up their game here. Our ward has FAR more active women than men.

The ward is wonderful. But we have some work to do. When we got here the Bishop gave me two lists, one of them is the ward directory and the other is the inactive list... they are basically the same thing. Haha So right now I am just praying and studying to know how to help people have a desire to stay active and keep (wow this is the first time I honeslty can't remember the word I want to use in English), basically to keep pushing to the end.

The food! So the food falls under three categories: good, weird but good, and just plain weird. I eat a lot of chicken and rice. It's good. I'm sure I will get sick of it, but it's good. The stuff that is weird but good are things like mashed potoates with a sunny-side egg on top. Haha It reminds me of something Autumn would eat. Then there is the gross stuff like soup with a giant chicken foot swimming around... yuck!

So my companion, she likes to eat chicken cartilage. I'm not sure what the word for that is in food terms, but in medical terms it's the cartilage on the hinges of the bones! She loves it! YUCK, but then my Pensonista brings out grapes for us to eat and she couldn't eat them without dry heaving. Haha How funny is that.

NEW YEARS!! New Years here was crazy!! I want you to imagine that every boy in Davis County from the ages of 8 to 30 was given hundreds of dollars to spend on illegal fireworks. Then they were given 1 hour to set them all off in any manner that they would like. If you can picture than in your mind then you might slightly be able to imagine what I saw when I looked out my window. New Year's night. There were people EVERYWHERE!! Boys lighting highly dangerous fireworks. Fires in the streets! And fireworks EVERYWHERE in the air. It was like someone mixed Lord of the Flies with the 4th of July. And the party doesn't just last New Year's Eve night, it goes all through the night and the next day. That morning on the way to church we just passed group after group of people passed out drunk in the parks. Haha

We have a few investigators. Zoryda has been meeting with the missionaries for 3 months. She is more active than half of our ward, but she won't commit to a date. She avoids the reason why. So me and Hermana Lema are going to try to get down to business and find out what's up.

Another investigator is Isidora. I'm not sure if you are allowed to have favorites, but she's mine. She is the women that's house is more like a barn than a house. Her son is a member and is serving a mission in Mexico. I don't know how interested she is in the church but she likes having us come because we are doing the same thing as her son.

What else... I know this is the longest email ever, everything is just so new I want to tell everyone about everything. I know after I send this I will remember something else I wanted to say. Basically I am doing good. Spanish is coming. I sound like a 4 year old. But I am speaking, that's my goal. Just speak. Even if you sound like an IDIOT, just speak. People will laugh at you, and it ok. Just laugh at yourself, thats what I tell myself. Prayer has become my favorite thing in the world. God is the only person I get to talk to every day who speak English. So we talk a lot. If there is one thing I have learned this week is that there is a special peace of mind that comes from the gospel. Life won't be perfect, but with the gospel in your life you always have that special peace of mind that Heavenly Father is in control. He has a plan and through the atonement of Jesus Christ everything that isn't fair about life can be made fair.

I love you all!! Thanks for your love and support. There are letters being sent to you, I dont' know when they will get there but I love you and I am writing.
Dang I talked to long. Next week I will talk less and send more pictures.

Love you all!
Sadie

January 2, 2012

Pictures

Hermana Morris, Hermana Stevens, and me Love these girls!

Hermana Sanchez and me. She is going to Oeste with me.

So excited to open my awesome Christmas present from my mom

My district did white elephant gifts for Christmas
Me and Hermana Bond eating my favorite Peruvian treats!

Me and Hermana Cartagena (Isn't she the tinnest person
you have ever seen??)

Hermana Gee, Gomez, Cartagena, Meono, and Me

December 24, 2011

Dear Friends and Family!!

Feliz Noche Bueno!! Happy Christmas Eve!! Its Christmas time in Peru! It's wonderful here this time of year. People here love CHEESY Christmas decorations! Everywhere there is just cheesy decorations! I love it! Before I get started I want to say thank you to Bradi for keeping this blog up for me! Bradi I love you! I really appreciate you doing this for me!! Thank you! So this week was THE LONGEST week of my mission, not having a prep day till today was tough. Haha And knowing the whole time how awesome today would be, made it even longer. But today is here and I am happy. The President is trying really hard to make today and tomorrow special for us! So that means alot!

Exciting news from this week, first of all EARTHQUAKE!! No lie!! I woke up at about 1 in the morning on Monday to the sound of my bunk bed shaking. I looked at the ground and it was moving! I was half asleep so I felt really calm and just thought... huh... I think we are having an earthquake. Next thing you know my little Latina Comp is jumping off her bed and screaming. Haha it all lasted about 8 seconds. It was big enough to shake things around but nothing was damaged. Earthquakes are really common in Peru so no one should be worried. All and all it was really fun.

Hermana Cartagena has been by far the most interesting companion I have had so far on my mission. I have a theory about her, I think because she is so small there is only room in her body for one emotion at a time, so she goes from being super happy, to terribly sad, to incredibly frustrated... It's fun... It makes life kind of like a rollercoaster ride. Haha Really though it hasn't been bad. Sometimes I get down about my Spanish because if I don't understand her the first time she throws her hands on her face and doesn't want to repeat it. I feel bad for her, I am sure that must get annoying for her as well.

So in Peru there are TONS of slug bugs! Everywhere! But just so you know, they DO NOT play the slug bug game here. Haha So if you hit your Latina companion when you see one, she is just going to think you are crazy. Haha Also they don't do pinky promises here. So if you ever say promise and then jester out your pinky... people are going to think you are nuts. Haha

Saturday we went tracting again. I had a cool experience. We had been knocking doors for about an hour and no one would listen to us. I wasn't too upset but Hermana Cartagena was having a really tough time. So I just said a prayer in my mind that we would please find someone who was ready to listen to us. Not even for me, just for my poor companion. I said my prayer looked over at this bright yellow house and said, let's try here. I knocked on the door, a women named Roxana opened the door. We talked to her for a little while and then she let us in and we taught her the first lesson. It was a great testimony to me that the Lord only tests us to that which we are able, and will help us. Especially when we are doing our best. I won't get to know what happens with Roxana because she lives in the Central mission, but it meant alot to me just to have the opportunity to teach her. Oh and I actually taught! We taught 4 lessons that day. I was able to understand what was happening... sometimes. Haha But I was able to teach, ask questions, and share my testimony. It was really nice. I could tell I was receiving ALOT of help.

I love you all! Thank you for your love and support. Letters from home mean everything to me. Even when they are from the most random people, they make my day!

I am happy here! I love you all!! Next time I get to email home I will be a REAL missionary instead of one of the fake CCM kinds. Haha Love you all!!

Hermana Taggart