Okay, so this week me and Hermana Mejia..... BOUGHT A CHRISTMAS TREE.
It is small, but it is cute. And... I don´t know what I´m going to do
with it after Christmas, exactly. BUT, you only live once. There were
smaller that I could´ve bought, but... Ya know.... I like Christmas.
It´s about hip-height, with blue, green, yellow, and red lights, and
blue and red ornaments. It also has Santa and candy cane ornaments. IT
IS SO CUTE. We also bought little Christmas tablecloths for our tiny
desks, and we´re going to buy a little bit of garland for the front
patio thing... And we´re leaving it until two days before cambios or
so (which are January 14th) because... We like Christmas.

Every night we say our prayers and stuff 10 minutes early and have our
"ten minutes of Christmas" where we just turn off the lights and look
at our Christmas tree. And then after that, we turn it off (so
reluctantly) and go to bed.

We like Christmas.

This week on Tuesday we had a lesson with a less-active member that
we´ve been trying to get in contact with since I got here, but never
was home. Her name is Leonice. She´s a little bit older than me, and
she´s in college studying English. She´s really busy and hard to find.
But last week she called us out of the blue like "Hey, can we have a
lesson?"

Uhm, yes.

So we had our lesson with her on Tuesday, like a week later, and we
talked about the Holy Ghost. She was a little distant at first, but we
felt the spirit really strongly in our lesson.... We asked her if she
had an experience with the Holy Ghost. And she told us that she felt
the Spirit when she called us. That she didn´t want to, but felt that
she needed to. And then she said "I need to meet with you guys
(ustedes). I need to listen to you. I miss the chuch, I miss the
activities. Relationships in the church are different than outside.
There´s more trust."

And it was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. And when we left,
Hermana Mejia was like "She was not the same in there as she was
before. Before she showed no interest in what we were saying. She´d
listen, but she didn´t care. She was so different back there."

SO POWERFUL.

Anyway... I think that´s it from me this week. Just getting excited
for Christmas! I hope everything's good at home in the cold and snow,
because everything is pretty great here in the heat and rain. ;)

It´s raining a lot.
Christmas is way different. Turns out it´s a lot like New Years. You
wait until midnight and then you open presents and dance and party for
like four hours. It´s crazy. But yeah! There´s decorations and we´re
singing Christmas songs and it´s a ton of fun.

It´s very hot. And humid. It just gets hotter and more humid every day
until it rains, then it´s better for a couple of days, and then it
starts getting hotter a little bit more every day again. But I kind of
like it. I´m getting a nice tan. You shoulds see my feet, cutest tan
lines ever

Guess who finished her first transfer! Hermana Hall, that´s who!

Monday we went to Central Santa Cruz to send Christmas packages to our
family! And... It was crazy. Allow me to explain. The addresses here
aren´t very exact, and that´s why if you want to send me a letter, you
have to send it to the mission home. And the only place I can send
letters from is Central Santa Cruz... So chances are, it´s going to be
mostly emails from me my whole mission...

But Central Santa Cruz is beautiful! Well... all of Santa Cruz is
beautiful, of course. But Central Santa Cruz has this huge plaza with
a big cathedral and they have Christmas lights up and just... so
pretty.

THEN CAMBIOS (transfers) HAPPENED.

Cambios work like this: Every night at 9 o´clock we have planning for
a half-hour. During this time we aren´t allowed to call other
missionaries, because they´re also planning. After that half-hour we
often receive calls from our sister leaders, our district leaders call
us in order for us to report our numbers, etc...

The week of cambios on Tuesday night we get a call from our district
leader to tell us where we´re going and then on Wednesday in the
morning, if you changed your area, you leave!

Anyway, most stressful planning ever as we´re waiting for 9:30 and
staring at the phone, praying we both stay and can have Christmas
together....

BUT we stayed together! Hermana Mejia is going to finish training me
and we´re going to have Christmas together! After we found out we were
staying together we pretty much just hugged and yelled "NAVIDAD!" like
20 times.

We´re not excited or anything.

Also, funny story... On Saturday we were eating with our pensionista
(Hermana Yulie) and she told me "I gave you a little piece of meat,
you´ll have to let me know if you like it."
Me: "Ooh, what is it?
Hermana Yulie: "Meat."

Later....

Yulie: "Do you like the meat?"
Me: "Yeah, it´s really good!"
Yulie´s Mother-in-law: "It´s tongue."
Yulie: "It´s ´meat.´"

Cool.

The rest of the week wasn´t anything crazy. Getting excited for
Navidad, working with Visiting Teachers and Relief Society, telling
people about the Plan of Salvation in Spanish... Ya know. Living in
Bolivia and whatnot.

I love you all and I hope your week is fantastic!

Mom! :)

About decorations/transfers.... "Cambios" (transfers) are on
Wednesday. My training is for two transfers... But it really isn´t
unheard of for you to get transferred and to have another missionary
finish training you. I´m afraid to say anything is likely or unlikely,
but I´m really hoping to stay.

 My pensionista is awesome, Mom.
The other day we were talking to her about her siblings and she said
she hadn´t seen them in a while... and then she said "Eh. It doesn´t
matter. My family is my sons and the missionaries." She´s so cute.
She´s not really a touchy-feely person, and she really calls it like
she sees it... but this week she told me and Hermana Mejia that she
didn´t want us to get transferred. It was really cute. She´s been a
pensionista for the missionaries for like 18 years or so. I love her.

Please, send decorations! I can´t find anything that I want to
decorate with! Please send tinsel for the apartment! And white hot
chocolate mix! I will die, I´ll be so happy, Mom.

Hey, I bought Christmas Piano Guys this week!  Me and Hermana Mejia
both LOVE Christmas. We´re constantly
singing Christmas songs, we have what we´re going to do on Christmas
planned already, how we´re going to start decorating.... If I get
transferred and I can´t spend Christmas with my cute trainer, that
will be so hard. I struck gold with her, I really did.

This week on Wednesday me and Hermana Mejia had two conferences with
President Willard. The first was for new missionaries and their
trainers for three hours, then us and one other companionship got to
eat with President and his wife (chicken cordon bleu, what up), then
another conference for the Hermanas here in Santa Cruz. We talked a
lot about gratitude and how we need to cultivate an attitude of
gratitude. Being positive can kind of be something you have to force
until it´s a habit, but it´s a habit that will bless you SO much.

We have real running water! Hot water! It really isn´t so bad here. Just
laundry by hand is all. Today it´s rainy, which means we´re going to
have to find time during the week to do it.

My apartment has a tiny bathroom with a toilet, a tiny sink, a
curtain, and a shower faucet thingy. It´s very small, it has our room
which has our beds, or suitcases, and our dressers. There´s a patio
and then another room with our study and our kitchen. Don´t take your
microwave for granted! We live above our landlord lady, who I´m pretty
sure is rich by Bolivia standards. She runs a restaurant at night
outside. She´s so stinking nice.

We serve in just one ward. In fact, us and a pair of elders serve in
our ward. Nope. No baptisms. There are a lot of less-active members
here in our ward and so we´re working with them a lot. We´re working
hard with our area. Hopefully this month we´ll have a baptism though!

My days are as follows:
6:30 - Get up, exercise
7:00 - Shower, get ready, breakfast
8:00 - Personal study
9:00 - Comp. Study
10:00 - 12 Weeks, which is a training program with my companion
11:00 - Language study
1:00 - Lunch
2:00 - 9:00 - Teaching, proselyting.....

I don´t know how to explain how my days are exactly. I wish I could
explain better. Maybe it´ll be easier when we can Skype! I can already
feel that an hour isn´t going to be enough.

Hermana Hall, Hermana Mejia and their pensionista

 

Kaitee didn't get a chance to write a blog post so I am sharing parts of her letter to us instead. 

 Ah! I love reading your email every week! It makes me so happy to hear how everyone is doing.

 I´m developing a love for latin music, Mom. Tell Dustin that sometimes I´m walking in the street or in the grocery store thing they have here and a song will come on that Dustin showed me when he got back from his mission... We are for sure going to have some latin pop jams when I come home. He doesn´t have a choice.

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :) I will be chilling in Bolivia thinking about turkeys and football... While I eat rice and boney chicken. Don´t take boneless chicken breasts for granted, Mom.

This week one of  my favorite families had their baby! It´s a cute little baby boy. It was really sad, the dad was in Tarija for business, but he was going to be back in time for the birth... Something happened, and he wound up coming back either a few hours later, or the next day (I couldn´t tell. I am a white girl). Poor guy was so ticked about it. He was like "You can just see the difference between these men and men in the church. Family is just so much more important to men in the church." It was cool to hear about his experience. But he left all of his bags in Tarija, the only things he brought back were two coin purses that say "Tarija, Bolivia" ... For the sister missionaries. These people are so good, Mom. So good.

 And on Thursday we celebrated 50 years that the church has been in Bolivia! There was this huge festival thing with folk dancing native to here and everything... It started out with the missionaries singing some hymns... And then when we walked off the stage, we grabbed our
 bags and walked out the door. We had a curfew to make. The life of a missionary, Mom. I will see folk dancing one day. In the future.

 CHRISTMAS IS COMING. I´ll be missing white hot chocolate, snow, and christmas songs... in English. Good thing we watched White Christmas before I left. ;) It´s funny, I´m like "It´s snowy where I´m from during Christmas..." and the people are always shocked. It makes me
 laugh.

 Can you believe I´m going on 3 months as a missionary? That´s 1/6 done! What?? How? Where did the time go? I´m going to be home before I know it.

 I love your thoughts of the week. They´re always exactly what I need! Thank you so much for always being so sweet to me. And tell Dad thank you too! And then smack my brothers on the back of their heads for not writing their little sister.

Okay, gonna try to keep it short this week because I want to email
more people...

On Tuesday, Hermana Mejia and I got to go to this thing where a couple
other sister missionaries taught us how to use Ancestry.com and stuff
to help our investigators do family history. And I logged into my
little thing, because it´s just connected with your church account,
and we have like 9 generations back on both sides of the family... And
I didn´t know. And it was so cool to see pictures and everything that
was on this site! Geneology is cool!

And then, on Thursday, I had a really cool experience where we were in
a lesson with a less-active member. Her husband is an RM and wants to
go back to church but she REALLY doesn´t want to. And so we were
teaching her and Hermana Mejia extended the commitment to go to
church. And she talked a lot, but she was speaking really quietly and
I couldn´t understand anything she said. And I just got a prompting to
share D&C 6:20-21 where it talks about being rejected for His sake and
sharing an experience where God answered my prayers with this
scripture. And I was like "Okay, I don´t know what´s going on, but I´m
just going to go for it." Anyway, so with no background context or
anything, I share this experience. And Hermana Mejia is just quiet for
a second afterwards and asks her how the story made her feel... and
then she kept talking quietly and I didn´t understand.
Turns out, she was talking about how in the church when she was
active, there was some drama with the relief society and stuff... And
my story was perfectly relevant and everything.
It was so cool to see that the Spirit knows the truth of all things,
and when I don´t know what´s going on, he really will guide me to know
what to say.

Anyway... The church is true, the book is blue... Bolivia is crazy,
but pretty dang cool, honestly. Just... Way cool.

I love you all! Have a great week!!

My spanish is coming slowly, but surely. People tell me it´s good....
Apparently I say "um" a lot... Like... a lot, a lot. It´s wicked
frustrating sometimes, but I really am blessed... I can communicate
what I need to.

Hermana Mejia and I get along really well. We joke around that she´s
the latina version of me, and I´m the gringa version of her... We´re
similar in many ways. I think sometimes she forgets that I´m new, but
I´m learning so much from her. She´s such a good trainer, she really
is.

Keepin´ it short today because I want to email a lot of people this
week. I suck at emailing. My poor family. I love you, I promise.

Wednesday we had a huge conference of like 3 or 4 zones that took 6
hours. Halfway through, President Willard called up an Elder and said
"Elder Green (I don´t remember what Elder it was) is going to give my
talk now. Using the spirit." And then he sat down. And the Elder had
to give a talk. In Spanish.

Later he did the same thing with his wife, Sister Willard and guess
who they called up. That´s right, Hermana Hall. With two weeks in the
field.

BEING A MISSIONARY IS AN ADVENTURE.

Anyway, so I gave my talk and it went okay. I love President and
Sister Willard. They are seriously so legit.

Then, on Thursday, we visited the Villaruel and Martinez family. They
live together, and are both less-active. Carmen Villaruel and Laura
Martinez are sisters. Carmen is a single mom of 3 girls, Yedali, who
is 16, Debani, who is 13, and Sayuri, who is 10. The oldest two are
pretty rebellious, particularly Debani. Laura is 8 months pregnant and
I don´t know how she does it. It´s bloody hot here. And she still is
always doing everything for herself... She still washes her own
laundry, her house is always pefectly clean... She´s a rockstar. And
she has a 3 year old, and her husband as well.

Anyway. This family is like my favorite group of people in the world.
And one day we came over and only Carmen´s 3 girls were home... So we
worked on Personal Progress with them and just started talking. Disney
princesses came up and.... I asked about Anastasia. Because I really
love Anastasia. And Sayuri, bless her heart, found a copy of it and
was like "This?" and my inner 10-year-old came out and I got way too
excited.

Fast forward. We´re talking with Laura and teaching her and
whatever.... And Debani and Yedali come in. And Yedali comes in, says
hi to my comp., says hi to me, and puts a piece of paper in my lap. I
get home, I open it, and there´s a drawing of Olaf that Sayuri traced,
a little drawing of Anastasia and Demitri that she drew and colored,
and a huge poster sized drawing of Anastasia that Yedali sketched.

Yedali is like WICKED talented. And I love her. With all of my
corazon. Seriously, their drawings made me so happy. The Villaruel
girls for realsies have my heart.

And then I had to give a talk on Sunday. Aaaand long story made very
short... My Spanish could use some help.

And that is what is new with Hermana Hall.

And I love you guys.

A lot.

Okay.

Bye.

Happy Halloween!!

Okay, so Halloween isn´t a thing here. I mean, it is.... But not
really. I´d tell you how exactly it´s different, but to be honest, I
am not sure. It´s smaller here, candy isn´t really a thing... I saw
four trick-or-treaters in a little group... and my pensionista gave me
some candy that said Halloween on it. That´s Halloween here, haha.

The biggest thing that´s happened this week is that our apartment is
freaking overrun with these nasty bugs called "grillos" They`re HUGE
and they jump like nobody´s business. We´re getting really good at
killing them though. It´s an adventure. Oh, Bolivia.

I also saw American Football on TV for like five seconds. It was a
Broncos Patriots game and the score was 17-13 Patriots, I think. I
didn´t think American Football is a thing here, but it was on, so
maybe it´s a bigger thing than I thought.

.... I guess this week was pretty boring. But after this, me and
Hermana Mejia are making empanadas! Empanadas are the best thing that
has ever happened to me, probably. They`re just like a tortilla bready
thingy with cheese in the middle but... I don´t know. I think they put
crack in it.

Uhhhh.... Yeah. That`s all. Just learning how to be a missionary,
trying to pick up on the Spanish, figuring Santa Cruz out. I love it
here. I really do. It`s such a beautiful city.

And I love being a missionary! Every time I´m in a lesson, attempting
to testify in Spanish, I´m like... Dang. This church is so true... It
really is.

Bolivia

. I have SO much I want to tell you about, but the internet is
PAINFULLY slow and the keys on this keyboard stick like nobody`s
business. So don`t expect too long of a blog email this week.

This week I left the CCM and got on a plane to Santa Cruz... It`s been
a crazy week, that`s for dang sure.

Leaving the CCM was really sad. Saying goodbye to everyone that I`ve
gotten way close to over the past six weeks was really hard... But I
know they`re all killing it in Peru.

My first night here I got to sleep in the mission home, which is
absolutely stunning. It`s up really high in this apartment building
and it has a view of the South part of the city, which is the part our
mission is! After President Willard interviewed us all and him and his
wife bought us all food, he showed us all our areas, super vaguely
from the mission home. He told me I was going to stay in the city and
pointed out which area I`m going to. There were 8 of us that came in
together, me and Hermana Cabaña from the Peru CCM, 5 from Columbia,
and one kid who randomly came in from Provo. Sounds like he had an
even weirder time than I did.

My companion`s name is Hermana Mejia. She`s from Guatamala, she`s 22,
the oldest of four kids. She has 3 younger brothers. She doesn`t speak
English, but she has the clearest accent I have ever heard in Spanish,
which is wonderful because everyone else is nearly impossible to
understand. We get along great and we can pretty much communicate
whatever we have to. She`s the most patient person in the world and
she jokes around that she`s a gringa... Sometimes I forget that she`s
latina because... I don`t know.... I can actually communicate with
her, haha. I am thanking my lucky stars that she is my companion
because I am learning so much from her.

My area is Cañada, which is also the name of the ward we are serving
in. There are two sets of missionaries working there. Me and my comp.,
and a set of elders. When I came in... there straight up wasn`t a
bishop. And I can`t tell, but it seemed to me like there hadn`t been
one for a while. The funny thing is that there were counselors to the
bishop, but I don`t know who they`re supposed to be counseling
because.... I don`t know. There was no bishop.

But then, yesterday, me and Hermana Mejia were walking to the church
and the phone rings... and it`s President Willard. He`s all "Where`s
your church?" Hermana Mejia tells him... He`s like "Okay, we`re on our
way there." So we`re freaking out, hauling butt to the church... Long
story short, we have a bishop now, thank goodness. It was funny
because in relief society for the opening prayer, the lady was like
"Thank you, Heavenly Father, that we can have a bishop..." and it was
not passive aggressive. At all. But anywhere else, it would`ve been
and that made me laugh.

Santa Cruz is hot. Bloody hot and humid. I constantly feel like I am
in a sauna. I have never sweated so much in my entire life. Also,
there is dirt everywere. I know South America is dirty, but Santa Cruz
is dirty in a different way. Hermana Mejia even says so. "Ugh, dirt.
As is Santa Cruz." It reminds me so much of the race track it`s not
even funny. It`s dirty in the same way.

And I have never drank so much coke. Everywhere you go, people want to
give you Coca-Cola. I am grateful. I stinkin` love soda.

This week the funniest thing happened. There`s a gym near our house
called "the Rock Gym," and it has a picture of Dwayne Johnson on it.
So I was like "Oh. People here know who Dwayne Johnson is! That`s
funny."

Fast forward. I was teaching Hermana Mejia English words in the street
the other day. I`m like "Tierra. Dirt." "Arbol. Tree." and then I`d
make her repeat it. Anyway, I point at a rock and say "Piedra. Rock."
She repeats it. I`m like "Sì. Rock. Como Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson."
She looks at me like I`m an idiot and is like "¿Què?"

I lost it. I laughed so stinkin` hard at my Dwayne Johnson joke I made
with myself, and I was dying. Poor Hermana Mejia had no idea what I
was laughing at. Now I keep making references to my own dumb joke. But
don`t worry. I explained it to Hermana Mejia.

The food here is surprisingly good. Empanadas are to die for. I love
them. Every day at one, we have a pensionista that feeds us, we just
go to her house. Her food is to die for. One of the first things they
told me is to write home and ask for recipes for apple pie and banana
bread. They`re always learning how to cook new things. But they have
to be so patient with me because I know approximately no food words. I
ONLY KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT THE GOSPEL. I DON`T KNOW HOW TO SAY
ANYTHING ELSE.

But my Spanish is coming along. I love it here, I love being a
missionary. I`m getting better at teaching and understanding
everything that`s going on... And when I get back, I`m determined to
be Latina. I love you guys! I miss you like crazy!

And mom, I have to tell you... President Willard was really impressed
with me. He said some way nice things! He kept saying that I`m going
to "leave my footprints all over this mission," and he said that he
really felt like God wants me here and that God is pleased to have me
here. He also told me that I "walked in like I was ready to train
somebody, not be trained."

HUMILITY, HERMANA HALL. HUMILITY.

He also said my Spanish is the best he`s seen a Hermana come in with
in a year and a half of being mission president. Apparently I have a
way good accent! Even the latinos tell me so, but it`s really funny
because then they think I can understand. There`s a reason that when I
was set apart, I was blessed that I`d be able to express myself and
not necessarily blessed that I`d be able to understand others... Ever.
I can speak way better than I can understand, which is backwards. I`m
just really good at manipulating the words that I know. Also, Bolivan
accents are impossible to understand. They just don`t say consonants
half of the time. It`s a grand adventure.

VIVA BOLIVIA!

MOM. HI. Guess who gets a phone call AND an email today?? YOU. Yay for probably breaking rules.

I am currently in the mission office with a giant packet of papers with my name on it. I haven´t looked through it yet, but I am getting so excited. It has my first agenda, all the scripture masteries, some quotes from Elder Holland (#whatup #mishswag), and some other stuff. I never thought I would be so excited about new study materials, but holy cow. It´s like Christmas. 

The flight went well. I got to sit next to Hermana Cabaña. It was only 3 hours long, and it was the quickest three hours of my life. When we came out of customs, President and Hermana Willard were wating for us! They are so sweet, some of the nicest people I have met, as far as I can tell... I mean, I´ve known them for a whopping 2 hours now... But still. They are like... blown away by my Spanish, which is crazy. They say I have a good accent! We went to this restaurant and the lady who worked there asked where I was from... I told her I was from the US and she turned to President and said "And she speaks Spanish!" So... I´m a pretty happy camper to say the least.

Right when I got off of the plane when President Willard spoke to me, he told me that my trainer is one of the best missionaries that he has ever had. So, needless to say, that was a load off of my shoulders as well. I´m a happy camper. 

Santa Cruz is BEAUTIFUL. It feels like I´m in a sauna... Which is nice now, but is probably not gonna be quite so nice when I´m proselyting.... Oh well. Today I get to be in air-conditioned spaces all day, which is pretty legit. So I´m happy with the sauna.

Anyway. I love you. I love you a lot. I am fine, I am in Bolivia.

-Hermana Hall

 

Well it´s that time of the week again. It´s my last P-Day in the MTC which really bums me out. We went to the temple for the last time in what´ll be 17 months, so that´s a huge bummer. It´s weird to think that a week from now I´ll be in Bolivia. Honestly, I´m pretty sad. It´s hard to leave everyone, get really close to a whole new group of people just to leave them too. It´s been a tough week here, but it´s looking up.

 

It didn´t help that I finally got sick. There´s been a nasty cold circulating around the MTC since pretty much week one, so I´m just lucky it didn´t get to me before. But no, my poor companion has been so worried about me. I´ve never been the most graceful sick person. I feel a TON better today though and I think in the next couple of days it´ll be gone.

 

Also, can´t believe this, but I HIT ONE MONTH! Que en el mundo?? Dang, if it´s already going this fast, I´m going to be home before I know it.

 

This week has been relatively low-key. As far as funny things that´ve happened, I´m already famous for my red lipstick thing here... One of the girls in my room requested that I wear it one morning, just out of the blue like "Hermana Hall, are you going to wear lipstick today? It feels like a lipstick day." So I did. What can I say, I don´t disappoint.

 

We also came up with a superhero for every member of our district and most of them were these crazy intense ones like duplication of powers or mind reading or making copies of yourself... And then they got to me and they were like "Hermana Hall just turns into this giant black guy and shoots people holding the gun sideways." Basically, me having a man-watch has changed how the district sees me, I guess....

 

Oh! The girl I´m going to Bolivia with (also known as the only other person in the whole CCM besides myself that´s going anywhere but Peru) knows Vicki! Vicki was a missionary in her ward. Holy cow, that was such a cool surprise.

 

Anyway. Things are good. Next time you hear from me I´ll be in another country... Again. Dang, life is crazy. Hopefully I can email from the Mission Home, but if not, you´ll probably hear from me next Monday. I love you guys! Wish me luck!

General Conference

This week has been more or less of the same. Peru is amazing, but I´m in this weird little pocket that mostly feels like America.... I´m going to get some pretty crazy culture shock when I go to Bolivia....

 

First things first, General Conference was phenomenal. It was such a cool experience to sit in this army of missionaries in Peru and hear from a prophet. You should´ve seen our reactions when D. Todd Christopherson started his talk by saying "Buenos Dias"... For a second we all thought he was going to speak in Spanish!! Our reactions were pretty funny when they announced Jeffrey R. Holland´s talk too.

 

My favorite talk was by a guy whose name I don´t remember... His first name was Jorg and he came out and talked about increasing your spiritual confidence and he gave a list of things we can do.... I loved it. He was great. I also loved Elder Bednar´s talk.

 

The other big news I have this week is that me and my comp. are sister leaders here in the CCM for the last two weeks! The funny thing about all that is the running joke was "If Hermana Wight and Hermana Hall are sister leaders that would be so funny...." and we all were thinking of dumb, ditzy things we would wind up doing.... Next thing I know the branch presidency wants to meet with us. Anyway, the past couple of days have been a little bit crazy getting things ready for the new girls, giving latinas tours and whatnot.... Luckily we only have to worry about the Norte Americanos now....

 

BUT I know who I´m traveling to Bolivia with now! She´s this Argentine girl who took 6 years of English and she´s in my mission! So I´m pretty much the luckiest person alive....

 

OH. In our district we´re trying to be better about not saying just last names or nicknames or whatever, so we made a deal that whenever you say a nickname or forget to say "Elder" or "Hermana," you have to do five push-ups... Aaaaand I definitely did 160 push-ups on Monday. I am a sore child.

 

It really hasn´t been too crazy of a week. I´d kill for a pack of Hostess Powdered Doughnuts and I just about died hearing Maroon 5 in the grocery store today.... I miss American music.

 

BUT I love Peru. I love the CCM. I love my companion, I love my roommates, the people in my district are the best friends I can ask for.... And, hey, my Spanish is coming along! I made friends with one of the cafeteria workers (in my head his name is Helado Guy) and he always tells me "Español, Hermana, solo español," when I go through the food line. He told me today that my Spanish has gotten better! Also, a latina told me that my spanish is good and so is my pronunciation! Apparently my accent really isn´t too bad! If I could high-five all of my Spanish teachers, I totally would. Thank you Mr. Fletcher for making me watch like 100 videos of people speaking spanish with different accents....

 

Okay, well I love you guys! I miss you all of the time. I know I´m terrible about emailing, but email me anyway. I love hearing from you, it just takes me forever to write anything on these weird keyboards. So yeah. LOVE YOU. WRITE ME THINGS.

Hey everyone,

 

Okay, so compared to the last two, this week was relatively boring, thank goodness. So this email may be a little scattered or whatever.

 

Probably the most exciting thing that happened all week was that we got new ZLs.... The first time they came in to talk to us they chewed us out for like 20 minutes and then checked our planners randomly. Good thing everyone assumes the Hermanas are organized, because otherwise I would be in trouble. Anyway, an Elder in our district nicknamed them Stalin and Mousselini. And the other day when they came in to check on us or whatever, this same elder started singing a song that sounded like it could be the Russian national anthem... My district is so full of goofballs, it isn´t even funny. I love them so much. Our branch president told our old district leader (the district leaders switch halfway through in the MTC) that we were the closest district he had seen in a long time. Theyre my little home away from home. You´ll get pictures of them... In three weeks.

 

Fun fact: In the Spanish version of the chastity pamphlet one of the guys is totally touching a girl´s butt. It looks like they´re just staring lovingly into each other´s eyes, but nah. Leave it to the Elders to notice these things. I shouldn´t think it´s funny enough to write home about but I do. Sorry mom. You can delete this paragraph if you want.

 

Okay, so Fast Sunday was this week and we were all dying of hunger, right....? But we walk into the cafeteria and there´s a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. And American pastries and all sorts of fun things. Never been so happy in my life.

 

The people here are so cute... We can be having a prayer to close a meeting as an entire branch (two zones!) and they´ll be like "please help us as we go forth to serve in Peru..." and then there will be this pause.... "and Bolivia." I´m the only one going to Bolivia. It´s good to be unique.

 

The girls in my room decided that I sound like Zooey Deschanel when I sing... So I have that going for me.

 

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK. IT´S LIKE MTC CHRISTMAS. While you´re watching G. Conf, if they mention missionarywork, just picture little Hermana Hall chillin´with a HUGE ARMY OF MISSIONARIES IN PERU. Such a cool opportunity to watch it with them.

 

Okay... I really think that´s it for me. I love you guys! EMAIL ME PICTURES OF YOURSELVES. AND MY FAMILY. I WANT TO SHOW MY DISTRICT ALL OF THE CUTE PEOPLE IN MY LIFE.

 

-Hermana Hall

MOM. I LOVE THE CCM. I don´t want to leave here, I love it so much. My district is maybe my favorite group of people I have ever met. We are so close. I thing between them and the guy I met on the airplane, I have my answer to why I´m here. I don´t know the logistics of how I, random Bolivia girl, got here in Peru even though I really should be in Colombia or Mexico, but holy cow am I grateful, and so stinkin´ blessed. Mom, I´m supposed to be here. I really am. Never would´ve called it, but this is exactly where I need to be and I can´t help but feel this has always been the plan.

Also, I don´t have any clue why I didn´t want to come to South America. I love it here. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the awkwardly crowded buses that force be to stand-up spoon with other girls in my district. I love it, Mom. Little kid Kaitee would be so proud of the adventure I´m having.

And what an adventure it´s been! I´ve been here for 3 weeks and I´ve had a man on an airplane tell me I have God with me, I´ve had to deal with a dog bite, I have the best district in the world, and I just love it here.

 

And here they have these cookies called Casinos, they´re kind of like an Oreo, but the cookies are vanilla and more shortbread-y and they have COCONUT ONES and they are to die for. Expect to get at least a little pack of them. They´re delish.

 

 

9-24-2014

Okay, I´m not going to do the same thing I did last week and make you figure out what to blog from what I sent you.... I guess here is the blog email-y thing? I´m not 100% sure how this will go.

 

First things first.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL SISTER KALI. I´m only like 6 days late, but.... I JUST LOVE HER. I'D BUY YOU SOME CRAZY  SOCKS IF I THOUGHT THEY´D ACTUALLY MAKE IT TO THE STATES.

 

Okay, now to the real stuff.... I debated telling my mom about this all week because everyone is like "Don't tell your mom bad things, she´ll worry!" But she raised my brothers and they're crazy, so at this point I don't think I could freak her out too much if I tried. This past Saturday we got to go proselyting (or as all the missionaries here call it proselytizing) and they switched up the companionships so that all of the principios (people who have been here for 2 weeks or less) were with avansados (people who have been here 4-6 weeks) or latinas. I got paired up with a latina who spoke very limited English, and I speak very limited Spanish, so communication was difficult to say the least. But latinas are SO CUTE and affectionate, and we became friends very quickly.... Anyway, we went out into the streets of Peru and honestly, it was pretty crazy to see. There were stray dogs everywhere, the roads were very rarely paved, and the women kiss you on the cheeks when they see you. It was such a cool experience. I got to testify a couple of times and we taught a lesson in someone's home (okay, maybe Hermana Obando taught a lesson and I sat around and tried to understand what everyone was saying). We were only out for an hour or two tops when a dog attacked Hermana Obando. It was the craziest thing ever because we were walking away from the dog arm in arm and the dog just ran up, bit her leg, and ran away.... Later, one of the members we were with was like "I´m so surprised the dog didn´t bite the North American." Honestly, I am too... Anyway, it was bleeding and Hermana Obando and I had to sit in the chapel the rest of the time... then she had to go to the clinic and get a rabies shot... Poor thing. But on the way to the chapel she started tearing up and said "I´m just afraid that this will deter me from serving in Chiclayo the best I can." Holy cow, she´s freaking tough. And she was just upset that we couldn´t get through our list of less actives. Seriously, SUCH a trooper. The next day we had a health class and the Medical Supervisor guy for like 5 countries (including Bolivia) down here was talking about dogs. I was way paranoid and so I asked him how often missionaries get bitten by dogs and he said "We actually had three in Bolivia last week!" Talk about scary.... But Hermana Obando got to leave the CCM on time along with a group of Latinas and a group of NorteAmericanas who had been here fro 6 weeks. We actually got a whole group of new missionaries over the past couple days which means I´m an intermedio (2-4 weeks)

 

Okay... Well... South America is cray. Onto less terrifying topics.

 

So the first counselor in our branch presidency is named Elder Hill and he is the most adorable little old guy I have EVER seen. He actually was the mission president in Bolivia for a while! Not my mission, but still way cool. He told me that he´s convinced that "Bolivians are as pure Lamanite as it can get." Gah. I just love Elder Hill. Anyway, we have a fountain in our courtyard and it´s way cool looking and I love it.... And the other day Elder Hill told me and my companion that it is literally 400 years old. When the church bought the property from the previous owners they requested that they keep the fountain. So they fixed it up, and slapped it right in the middle of the gorgeous courtyard in the MTC. Look up the Peru MTC on lds.org, you can see it! It´s older than my country!

 

Okay, funny story. I bought this way cute watch before I left and then definitely forgot to put it on the morning I left. So I go to buy a new one at the Metro (the giant, 3-story, Peruvian Walmart, basically). I ask the lady in the jewelry department if they have any watches and she just says "Here" and points down at a stack of like two men´s watches. So I bought a men´s watch, made some Elders (that I met that day, btw. Perks of being a sister missionary) take like 8 links out, and now I have this sweet-looking men´s watch. I'm seriously so attatched to it. I´ll send a picture when I leave the CCM (you can´t send pictures here).

 

Alright, I think that may be it for me this week. I love it here. Peru is great, the CCM is great... I feel like I´ve been here for two months, not two weeks, but that´s okay. It´s not even in a bad way, but I think about the fact that I arrived here two weeks ago at like 2 AM and that doesn´t even make any sense at all... But at the same time, I could stay here forever. Another 4 weeks does NOT feel like enough time.

 

But hey, I love you all! Have a great week!

-Hermana Hall

MOM. MOM MOM MOM.

 

Yeah, I have my name tag! I got my name tag in the afternoon last Wednesday.

 

I did have my carry on searched in security... so for the past couple weeks I've been living without facewash and using tiny toothpaste tubes... Good thing I have 1005 of those. OKAY THE CRAZIEST THING HAPPENED. In SLC I met another missionary going to Santa Cruz. He was initally going to go to the Mexico MTC, but he was switched to the Columbia MTC... It was the craziest thing. Who the heck knows what happened with all that. No one went all the way to Peru with me, but I met up with a TON of missionaries in Atlanta. The others from SLC had a later flight for some reason. I slept super well on all of the flights which is a good thing because I came into the Lima MTC at like 2 AM, so....

 

My last American meal was Panda Express and it was delicious. I did get to exchange some money.

 

My companion´s name is Hermana Wight (sounds like White, spelled like Wright) and she reminds me a ton of Madeleine. She´s a little ballerina farmgirl from Washington. I love her to death.

 

P-Day is Wednesday, as I´m sure you know at this point. I was expecting it to be earlier or I would have written you more last week! My sleep schedule is on track, but 6:00 is earlyyyy. I haven't had any problems falling asleep at 10:30 though...

 

SPANISH IS SO. HARD. I FORGOT HOW HARD SPANISH IS. WHEN WILL I KNOW THIS BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE, MOM? I CAN'T WAIT 6 MONTHS.

 

Okay, so I am going to weigh 250 lbs by the time I leave Peru. The biggest rule here is to eat all of the food on your plate and can we just say that your daughter is a trooper. SO MUCH PLAIN RICE. SEND SOY SAUCE. But... other than the tons and tons of rice, the food is AMAZING. Peruvian food is delicious, I'm going to miss it when I have to eat crappy Bolivian food. The ice cream is the best thing I've ever eaten and passionfruit juice changed my life.

 

It's winter here which means it's a little cool in the mornings, but other than that the weather is beautiful. 70-75 degree weather all of the time. Your daughter is becoming a pro at beach volleyball... my arms look like they have acne, but they're just tiny bruises from volleyball. Lima in the winter is called "Lima the grey" by the natives. Super misty....

 

Picturing you working on your RS lesson warms my little South American heart. If you want to know what my days are like, picture me eating a ton of rice and sitting in classes all day. Me and my companion teach our first lesson in Spanish to our teacher today. I don't feel ready, but we'll see how it goes. I know how to pray and testify, and the latinas say I roll my R's really well, so at least I've got that going for me. WELL I love you and miss you. Tell the family I say hi and that I love them! The MTC is my favorite, the pictures really didn't do it justice. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, for sure.

 

Also I got to go to Lima (the city! Libertad!) today and that was wonderful.

 

Things I forgot

 

1. The necklaces the boys gave me.

2. MY CUTE WATCH. I HAD TO BUY A BOY WATCH IN PERU TODAY.

3. My patriarchal blessing. I need you to send it to me, if possible.

 

SO MUCH LOVE IN MY HEART. HALL LOVE FOREVERRRRR

 

-Hermana Hall

 

 

 

I

Hola from Peru

Hola madre! Okay, it's been a crazy couple of days. The MTC wasn't expecting me. There must have been some sort of miscommunication between travel and the Peru MTC. We arrived at like 2 AM and the guy was handing out lists (mind you no one speaks English. It's absolutely crazy.) and there wasn't one for me. No room key, which meant borrowing an extra pair of sheets (I couldn't unlock my closet to get to mine) and no pillow. I just kind of crashed in a spare bed. But today they got me all sorted out. I still don't have a name tag, which makes me sad, but I have a companion and I have keys! KEYS!! :) I'm the only person in my district going out of Peru. It's a weird situation for sure.

 

Sorry I can't write more, but they just wanted enough to let our parents know we're okay. And I'm way better than okay, I'm a missionary! I am unreasonably happy considering how crazy things have been.

 

I LOVE YOU. Tell everyone I say hi and that I'm happy.

 

-Hermana Hall (!!!!!!!! :D)

9/9/14 She's off!

Kaitee left for the MTC in Lima Peru this morning.  I hope they are ready for her!  I will post updates as soon as we hear anything.                            (mom)