Hola Los Olivos 2!

Before my brother's missionary haircut...

...and after. So proud of you Alex!
I'll include a link to his blog on mine.

I'm so glad that my little (? he is 6'2") brother Alex is going on a mission and I know that the Lord will protect and bless him. I am so excited for him! I'll be thinking about him and praying for him as he leaves on his mission early Wednesday morning.

So, the news...

I got transfered! I'm now in Los Olivos 2...really close to Pro and Prolima where I served before -- ha ha! I'm pretty sure I'll be staying here until I finish my mission. So, I've gotten to know Lima really well. I hope to someday get to know the provinces and the other parts of Peru.

Also...I'm in a trio! We're the only trio in the mission. My companions are Hermana McIntosh from Panama and Hermana Cardozo from Argentina. They were actually in a trio together in the CCM (MTC) with Hermana Morales, so we feel like we were meant to be together. We're pretty happy and we're working hard. Now that we're three, it'll be really easy to do divisions and get double the work in...we want to be mentioned in El Llamado de Fuego (the mission newsletter)!

The bad part was that Hermana McIntosh and her previous companion were about to move to another apartment, but it was already really small, and now that we're three it was impossible to live there ... so we had a day and a half to look for a new apartment within our small budget and strict mission guidelines ... so, ya we didn't find anything. Fortunately, there is a member family that was getting ready to rent a really big apartment, and told us we can live there for one month as we continue to look for a new place to live. The apartment should rent for $900, but she's letting us live for the $400! The apartment is super nice! I feel almost like I'm in a house in the USA! So we moved there last Friday.

Then, on Saturday we had our conference with Bishop Davies and President Uceda of the Seventy. It was super good! And the musical number went super great! I got my shoulder rest on Tuesday from Sister Archibald during cambios, and then we had a rehearsal on Friday where I was able to get the violin again so I could practice. Thank you so much to my parents and Bishop Hardy's family for sending it to me. Oh, and tell the CTR-7 class and Sister Watts and the Relief Society back in my home ward (Sycamores 4th) thank you so much for the cards! I loved reading them! And don't worry, I shared the chocolates with my companions! Yum!

With the huge new group of missionaries, there was a new missionary who arrived in our mission. His name is Elder Drysdale and he actually plays the violin professionally, so he received special permission to bring one of his violins with him into the mission field. So, on Friday we rearranged the musical number a little bit so we could both play our violins together with the choir singing. It turned out super beautiful! It was an amazing experience that I will never forget!

This new area and new ward in Los Olivos 2 are really great! I'm super excited to be here and work. The ward seems really great, and our chapel is just beautiful! I feel like I'm in the USA because this chapel has air conditioning and lots of paintings on the walls. There's also a General Authority from the Seventy in our ward...crazy, right? Here in Los Olivos 2, we're working with a family to help them be baptized in September They're struggling a little right now, so we're working hard with them. Hermana Pinto told me that W. is good to go for her baptism on Saturday, and now her boyfriend also wants to be baptized! Yay!

I'm really sorry, but I forgot to bring my camera today...so more pics next week!