Happy Teeth and Happy Feet

Music to our ears! Me, Sol, and Hermana Larsen having a little jam session.

So first off, Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! I actually completely forgot until my folks reminded me, because yeah, no Martin Luther King day here in Peru. Strangely, my Mom said that the dentist had scheduled me for an appointment today with my brothers and sister. I told her to tell him I'm sorry but I can't make it. My teeth are doing great by the way. No pain or cavities or anything! Just keep brushing... I have really great motivation to brush my teeth, because there are lots of people here who don't have any teeth, or their teeth are black and rotting. So ya, just keep brushing! Can I just say that I am super grateful for the braces and the dentist! Thank you!

So I finally got the rest of my Christmas packages from the Serpost! Woo woo! My new shoes fit great, and much less pain being a missionary now! As part of the packages, my folks sent me a few CDs that were a collection of podcasts and talks by Church leaders, such as Jeffrey R. Holland, John Bytheway, Elaine Dalton, etc. There were also a couple of funny clips, such as one where the Church leaders all talk about ways to eat a peanut butter cup. I had a pretty good laugh, but my companion, Hermana Morales didn't really get it. Then I realized that since she is from Mexico, whenever her family watches or listens to General Conference, they are always listening to a translator. She doesn't know what the voices of the prophets and apostles sound like! Kind of blows my mind. I never thought of that before. So, now I am teaching her who is who as far as how they sound.

Tastes like chicken, I think.... Hermana Larsen loves it.

Another thing I learned recently is that sometimes, it's necessary to take control of a situation, which is what I had to with our ward mission leader. We hadn't had correlation in about two months, and so I had to plan the meeting, call everyone, and get things going. Since then, he has gotten better and is more prepared. We are now getting more things done with the ward.

It is also hard when people ask you to do things at the last minute and you are already super busy. I get so stressed out! For me, the worst is when there's a baptism and 2 minutes before the program starts, you get asked to give a talk. Ugh! The mission leader in Laderas is the worst and always asks people to do stuff at the last minute because he doesn't plan ahead. On Friday, Laderas had a baptism, but the interview with the District Leader didn't pass, and no else could do the interview, so President Archibald came up to do it! When we arrived, we were so surprised that he was there. He stayed for the baptism. After the program started, the Ward Mission Leader got up and said that they would like to invite President Archibald to give a talk about Repentance! He hadn't said anything to him before! Well, President Archibald was gracious and gave a good talk. I don't know if I could have been so gracious! Our Mission President is such a great leader.

Me, Sol, and Hermana Morales smiling away our post-Christmas blues.
Helps when you finally get all your Christmas packages, too!

I was hoping to go to the temple here in Lima soon, but I found out I will have to wait. Apparently, we typically go as a whole mission only once per year (it is located in another mission, and there are like 250 missionaries, so it's not like we can just drop in). The last time our Mission went was in May last year, so I just missed it (I was in the Provo MTC at the time). I love the temple and know it is so important. I am trying to help some less active members and recent converts have the opportunity to go with the ward in February. Here in Peru, the temple is super duper small, and so each ward only has one opportunity per year to go as a ward. Otherwise, you have to schedule by yourself in advance and wait for hours and hope to get in. Makes me grateful to have so many temples available in Utah where you can basically walk in and participate in a session. It is amazing how much we take for granted sometimes.