Happy Halloween from Peru! A Rescue, Transfers, and Big News.

We painted our nails orange for Halloween.

This year for Halloween, I totally dressed up! I was Hermana Larsen! That's right! I wore yellow and orange and black and pulled my hair up like her and we switched name tags. Our zone had to go to the bank that morning, so Hermana Larsen and I gave them all candy and waited to see how long it took them to notice we had switched. It was pretty fun, and most people didn't notice and kept calling me Hermana Larsen. Those who did notice thought it was pretty funny. Happy Halloween! That same day after the bank, Hermana Larsen got four packages! Three from her family and one from a friend. One of the packages was filled with candy and stuff for halloween. We ate some of it, but mostly we are giving lots away to some of the kids in the families we're teaching. They think it is the coolest thing ever. I actually did eat quite a bit of chocolate on Halloween, thank you very much! Yum!

So some people do celebrate Halloween here in Peru. We did see lots of little kids dressed up and going from tienda to tienda asking for candy in some neighborhoods, but it wasn't a huge deal here like in the States. However, in some parts of town, they don't like to celebrate Halloween because they think it's like worshihping the devil or something, so some tiendas had signs up saying not to come by because they 'love Jesus.' It was an interesting night. Since our zone was going crazy with cambios and we were trying to look for an apartment, Hermana Larsen and I went with the Elders in our ward and the zone leaders to a pizza place for dinner. We were all pretty tired, so it was fine.

Hermana Larsen with our new cell phone.

This week, we had some less active members come back to church. Francisca and her husband and son came to sacrament meeting because they wanted to have their infant daughter blessed. We had been trying to have her come to church for a while, but she and her family wouldn't ever come. Finally, we were inspired to tell her about baby blessings and how it could bless her daughter. She said she wanted that for her daughter. Saturday, we stopped by her house and told her if she wanted her baby blessed, she needed to come to sacrament meeting the next day. Hermana Larsen and I were super excited when right before the meeting was about to start, her and her husband and son walked in. We told the first and second counselors that we needed their help to bless the baby, and they willingly gave a baby blessing to the beautiful little girl. After sacrament, the family stayed for the other meetings. In Relief Society, Francisca got up and bore her testimony about how she knew that she needed to come back to church and that she knows it is true. She is very different now than when we were first visiting her three months ago. We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to teach her and her family and help them come back to the church.

Part of our morning exercise routine!

Well, last Saturday we had cambios (transfers) announced, and now it is official that Hermana Larsen and I will be staying together for another transfer! Yay! Tomorrow, we are officially giving our area to the Elders and we are taking over the Elders' area. In the past week and a half, we have found 3 great families to teach. You're welcome, Elders! Other than that, we are just trying to find a good place to live in the new area, because our garage is a good 20 minute walk from the edge of the Elder's area. It will definitely be a lot of walking.

I think this dog sign in the park is freaking hilarious!

And finally, the big news is...

Our mission finally has cell phones! Woohoo! Now I feel like we will be super efficient and be able to get hold of lots more members and investigators. I am super excited!

A funny thing happened last week. Hermana Larsen and I went looking for shoes in some of the nicer shoe stores in a shopping mall in our zone, and I found out that I am a size 42 or 43. Guess what? They don't sell women's shoes higher than 41 in Peru. Holy cow my feet are huge! When my shoes wear out, I'll definitely have to have my folks send me some from the States.

Since we're leaving our area tomorrow, we took some pics of us having fun in the park during morning exercises.