Hola ( use your pirates of the carribean Jack voice)

Hello EVERYONE!!! In <peru it is HOLA!!! ( picture pirates of the caribean jack saying it)

so pretty much it has been GREAT! The first day was wild and crazy and it{s still wild and crazy! The culture down here is so funny! they have a scheldule kinda like the MTC in provo, but it randomly changes. WE discover the  rules only after we already broke them! :0 OOPs. and they change important meetings and such one hour before just as you get into the shower. it has been an interesting week for sure. They don}t really have rules but they are very strict about those rules that you don{t know. <pero esta bien. ( i say esta bien every three seconds here :) but my companera says comparatively i have really good spanish for the most part. So that{s good.

The food.....IS SO GOOD!!!! Oh my wow! it is said Peru is up there with culinary mastery countries like France! Their desserts are so crazy good!! We had no joke jello cake with multiple colors of jello and donuts and a cake that looked like cheesecake but was actually bread cake with honey! ian would love it here! meat for every meal! rice and meat for lunch and sometimes for breakfast. they have great thing called cafe con leche which tastes I think something like cofee( i have never had coffee) and it is my FAVORITE!! The meals are really good going in, but it totallly goes through me like a straw! (small children and those with nervous disorders and weak stomachs stop reading here) it is not fun, but the food is so good i must keep eating! i just ask for smaller portions now and peptomismal is my new best friend. I am gaining appreciation for gluten free diets and when you get gluten contaminated though! :) woot! THey ( the americans who have been here for three weeks say it gets better). 

Sorry the keyboard in spanish is really throwing me off.

today is PDAY!! and we got to go to the temple. They basically let you out of the compound (no joke really high walls and you can{t see past a huge blocking thing outside your window. we were starting to wonder if there really was life out there! its pathetic when we run to the wall to hear dogs bark on the other side.) Basicallly they put you on the sidewalk outside and say find your way to the temple. so we catch a bus. crazy full of people LOVED IT! they call mormons this is your stop in english. the temple in spanish is FABULOUS so pretty and really petite. very small. pequenito. Then we got to go SHOPPING! cookies ehre are so good. anything processed like american food at this point is great! Then we caught a cab back to the CCM.

My companeras are great! we spent a little time not understanding one another and thought they hated us for a while but they thought we hated them so it has been kinda rough but my companeras sister taught english on her mission to bolivia so with Hermana Vargas (she is only about four feet tall! saje would fit in well here! es un chiste!) her english is very good she knows lots of words. so between her and me we can usually understand one another it is fun learning new words all the time.

DERICK!! Hermana AVA MORENO is one of my miestras!! She was asking if  you are married and why not and why don{t you have a girlfriend!! :) She loves you ! my teachers are all really cool! two for language and one hermano Lazo for grammer ( he is intense!)

All the time for today but the best way for me to get letters is pouch mail and dear elder! They reccomend not sending packages to the Peru ccm is not eeasy and costs alot. but dear elders get here in a week! woot and i can send regular letters from here with us stamps. i gave away majority of my stamps to my hermana.

You know you are in Peru when:

Hello familia!! Esta es me primero dia en el CCM de Peru!! YOU KNOW YOU are in peru when 1. your shower goes hot and cold and hot and cold and 2.when you get out of the shower it still feels the same (no me gusta humidity) 3. you find yourself looking at a beautiful picture and realize it is a window (no joke). 4. your companera thinks i'm a crazy person who sleeps in, ( we were allowed to sleep in till 9:00 becuase our flight got in at 11:15 your time, then we got to the CCM a las 2 am! Went to bed by myself in a room of 6 beds and woke up and my companera was sitting on the bed under me and waiting! The sisters across the hall told me to get up and go to breakfast!!  At seven when I was really supposed  to get up around 9 and begin orientation at 10. It"s so crazy all the BAD things that happen or the crazy things that happen I am still So happy to be here!  So happy it hurts! My companeras left me in line for security at the airport then could only get a hold of dad for twenty minutes and then had to run to the plane then didn't hardly get any sleep and I Am JUST SO HAPPY!!  God's tender mericies are all around us! Such things as finding the Elders I was supposed to travel with in the nick of time! So I wasn't alone in the airport. Meeting my companion who speaks a little English and is so tiny and amazing! To be able to understand the little spanish I know and use it to communicate. Knowing that my family tried so hard and practiced all the confrence calls to talk to me because they love me so much! Meeting a sister in the airport who worked at the CCM and was just leaving for paraguay to another mission and she directed us where to go! We got in the same time as some elders from mexico and got to listen to their spanish and tried to understand and guess what music they liked!  The van ride to the CCM was mind blowing and wonderful! We had so much fun! 

So basically I love peru and may never want to stay forever!

-mati my perm is enjoying the humidity a little too much..... ;)

-mom I am so sorry I couldn-t talk to you! I almost cried! The calling cards they gave us were pretty much worthless. One call and half the minutes were gone and I didn't have as much time as I thought and had to run catch the plane and  I  am so sorry! I should have left a longer message on your phone. 

I am here safe and sound. Excited to go to work and loving life! 

Love you so much talk to you  soon  

Love Hermana Atkinson!

Don't get to comfortable

As soon as you think you are comfortable, the rug can get Yanked right out from under you.  Our travel plans have changed and may change again.  Mi companera's visa got delayed or not 100% confirmed and thus I am going with the sisters going to Bolivia on Tues. March 20.  I fly with 2 Elders and not mis companion.  Hard day for me.   We still fly from SLC to Georgia  then  Georgia to Peru landing there at 10:55 pm.  It just worries me to leave Mi companera all alone and go by myself   She has come to terms that God needs her here, I am having a scary time leaving her and everyone and changing again. We are all terrified that we will still get a letter that says "your visa has not made it today." O!!!

PERU!!! SEND ME!

WOW this week has flown! I can´t believe two weeks at the MTC already! We have been so busy! I have gotten tons of mail!! The elders are all so jealous! a BEAUTIFUL CARD FROM Grandma Terry Ann! I love butterflies how do you know! ANd a package of popcorn )who would have thought i´´d miss it so much! Lots of candy that we shared with the elders and told them that the tooth fairy came and gave them candy.....they didn´´t believe us! I got a package and a letter with stickers from CHINA! My companera was so upset that she hadn´´t gotten a package yet, that she told our district leader ELder D that if she didn´´t get her package then he wouldn´´t give anyone else their mail. She got her package that day so no worries!

Our investigator that we had just taught our fifth lesson to her name is GABRIELLA and she left for San Francisco for a new job, but then our investigator that we have been teaching in HARD CORE broken spanish for a week became our teacher! Talk about rough day when you loose and investigator )all the sisters cried= then get her back as a teacher! She is So amazing! She has so much energy and lifts us up every day and loves the work.

They have this amazing thing in the sisters residenes called the GIVE AWAY BOX we visit it every day and find shampoo, and ugly clothes and envelopes and CRAYONS!! until one day tragedy struck my companera found a sweater dress......and she made us all wear it as in the sister hood of the traveling sweater dresss! it basically looks lika a christmas card threw up on it!

Before i forget I have my travel information!! I leave the MTC on March 21st! I fly from Salt Lake to ATLANTA GEORGIA!! then a five hour flight from Georgia to PERU!!! AH, I am so excited we ran into a teacher here who served in Peru and we spent two hours asking him quiestions about it! It sounds SO NICE!! Terf soccer field!! No way!I am terrible at soccer! I am so ready to be in PERU!! SEND ME! the other sisters in our district are going a day before us.

At lunch we try to place bananas. Like a book of mormon, but you try to get someone to eat your banana saying it will give them strengh and bless their stomachs! Oye only at the MTC! its so cool because you have missionaries all the time come up and ask if they can bear their testimonies to you or share the first lesson in their language!! Outstanding!! We have misionaries in our zone getting ready to leave but they are waiting for their visas and they are DYING!! They have been here for nine weeks! The food is good, but not that good. I miss potatoes and sour cream really bad! All the veggies here are really gross! and usually realllly procesed and yuck! I miss garden potatoes and PEAS AND CORN!! ahhhhhhhh.

Thank you family for all the support and it is amazing to know that I can be with you forever!  Glad Rob and Korby´s sealing went so well! I wish I could have been there and best of luck to TORRIE AND DEVON! and Garrett! LOVE YOU GUYS!!

It is just the greatest feeling in the world to teach an amazing lesson and comitt peolpe to prepare to be baptized! and bring them unto CHRIST! we taught a lesson yesterday to TWO new investigadores and they were so amazing my companion and I can achieve miracles when we work together to have the spirit guide our lessons and bear testimony of CHRIST!!

Have an amazing week! love you all!

Hermana Atkinson!

ps: Family I will have next Pday to write then I´ll be headed to Peru at 5:00 on wednesday morning! Love you and thank your for your letters! They always lift me up and the package did wonders for my day! It was the hardest day of my mission and it really was great to have support from home!!Love you forever!

And another, quite similar e-mail

Hola!!! THe MTC is awesome!!! Our district is So cool! Tenemos Sies Elders y Cinco Hermana's! WE are the only sisters in our zone but it is great we have each other!! And in the same district! My companion is SO MUCH, no joke twin, love her so much, duplicate of Britnee Coons! She is a spiritual GIANT!! We have only been together as sisters for five or six days, but it feels like we have known each other for eternity!! My companion and I are both going to the Peru Lima central mission, but the other three Hermana's have been called to Bolivia!! They are Sister Tracey from Washington, (she has been to the GOONIES house), Sister Severson from Arkansas (walmart land) and Sister White  who is no joke like NATASHA CHANDLER!! Very outgoing and funny and makes up songs all the time and says stuff like Tasha all the TIME!!! AH! So perfect! Sister White is from Colorado. My companion sister Capunyay (I couldn't remember her name for the first two or three days) It is fun to say once you get it down; over and over and over in teh cafetieria line and i finally remembered it! Said CAp-UN-YAI.

Our Elders are pretty cool other than a few "elder get off the table!" and " ELDER IT IS PERSONAL Study QUIET TIME". they are amazing! WE got to hear their testimonies on thursday last week and THEY have the MOST fabulous testimonies of why they are here!! So we wrote them alll notes and thanked them for their testemonies with cany!! EVERYONE SAY AWWWW!! Love service! Our district leader has just been phenonmenal!! (mana mana? do do do do do ma na ma NA?) He is simply a born leader! SOme elders it is hard to think they are only 19! but they have their moments.........of twelve year old revelry for sure!

Our zone leaders also blow my socks off!

Dear family thank you for the package the sweets were just what i needed! I shared them and everyone love the cookies!! Thank you family for all your support and I have this wonderful picture in my head of my farewell with everyone there supporting me while i am here. (Thank you Brock for your inspiring letter and scriptures i was having a really hard day and it was just what i needed to hear! And all my other family lettters just lifted me up and got me going again. Aunt Terina Yours was MY first two letters of the MTC!! THANK YOU FOR the dear elders! its always nice to have mail (even more mail than most the elders!! and the FIRst package in our district! BOO YAA!)

It has been an insaine roller coaster of good days and bad days but in the end I want you all to know i AM meant to serve in Peru and I can't wait to be there! I am so blessed with such great family to support me always!

Lots of love Hermana Atkinson~!! Love you mom!!

One Roller Coster Missionary

HOLA!! THE MTC IS SO BUSY!! Our first night we were already knocking on (acting investigadores) doors and hablar espanol! Mis compaeras eres muy bonita!!! Our district is 50 A and we have Six Elders and Five sisters!! So COOL we have the only sisters in our zone and THERE ARE FIVE OF US!!! Can anyone say swimming in a sea full of SUITS?? cuz i do every day!! Me and my companion were instant friends because she reminds me SO MUCH, Exactly like, TOTAL TWIN of Brittnee Coons!! Looks the same and talks the same and is a spiritual AMAZINGNESS!! Our other three sisters all went to BYU idaho and are going to Bolivia. Sister Severson is from Arkansas, Sister Tracey is from Washington and Sister White is from Colorado. My companion Hermana Capunyay (I couldn't remember her name for the first two Days!!! AHHH sorry sister). Said, CAP-UN-AI. Which is really fun to repeat over and over in the lunch line once you can remember her name. Sister Capunyay is from Midway Utah and SHE LOVES SWISS DAYS!! We were meant to be companions!! (Right next to Kamas for those of you who don't know.)  It was fabulous together for only five days now and it feels like we have known each other for eternity. We didn't even realize we didn't know each others first names till saturday. Then our district tried to guess each others names........hilarity ensues!! I got called Sarah, or Molly Mormon and other horrendus names all except Bertha halleluja!

 

First Letter From the MTC!!

The MTC for 2 days and it feels like a lifetime! I feel like I have been here for a week already! So much to do an know itis quite overwhelming, but my companero's eves muy bonita y feliz, ( insta translate: compainions are very beautiful and happy!) We have 5 sisters in our zone and 6 brothers, AMAZING!!! 3 of the sisters are called to Bolivia and same as us go to the Peru MTC in three weeks if thier visas come through. Mis Hermana Capangay ( no she doesn't speak spanish though her dad is from Costa Rica) she has two siblings and she is the youngest, she reminds me of Brittany Coons... ALOT. Hair, apperance, awesome everything! Today we got our first letters! THANK YOU AUNT TERINA! I was in an  overwhelmed state of distration and her letter picked me up and sent me soildering on! Congratz to TASH and Baby Michael Jackson (scratch that), Michael II, leap year baby. Hope all is well at home. Tell Brock to "B Nice" and Conner to love my cat and Mati to poke Nate and don't stay out late. Mom and Dad brnch Pres says thank you for preparing missionaries with purpose and zeal and testmonies!! Our district is awesome!! The elders are all so prepared. I hope my brothers can be just like them!! Have purpose and have testimonies of gold!! Amazing simply Amazing! Love, Officially. Totally, Amazingly, FINALLY, Hermana Atkinson. Love you with all my heart and I pray you will see miracles and blessings daily!!