August 19, 2013

¡Hola! 

This week has been extremely busy!! And pretty interesting, like every week is. I got my first plate of food that I couldn't finish this week. Neither me or Hermana Sales could. It was some type of meat in a really weird sauce. We both ate as much as we could and then Hna. Choque had to ask the lady if she had her Bible and while she went to get it she hurry and ate the rest of our plates. I felt bad but there was no way I was going to finish it, it was pretty funny though. I also tried cat this week, not to bad, and they gave us whole fish a lot this week that they just fry or boil, kind of interesting.

Another funny thing this week is we taught Hna. Choque to say "Wicked Sweet" and "Oh great" whenever something bad happens. Her accent is hilarious!!

It seems like everyday I feel like I can't get any more humbled but then I do. This week we ate with a member named Sariah. She is really awesome and comes with us to teach lessons pretty often. We went in her bathroom to wash our hands first and I literally started tearing up. Her bathroom consists of a very broken toilet, a mirror thats about 5 inches wide and 5 in tall on the wall and a little cement square with a little pipe coming out of the wall for their shower and sink. The rest of it has a dirt floor. It's really so heartbreaking to me that these people live like this everyday! We also have an investigator who is homeless. Literally he lives in the street. But he is so interested in the gospel and really understands what we teach him. It's crazy to me what this life is like for some people and how much God still means to them. I haven't met a single person here who said they don't believe in God.

We also have 4 baptisms this week! One is Brenda, her aunt is a member and her mom died 3 months ago from cancer. She's an awesome girl though and always so happy. I love visiting her and her family because she loves the gospel so much. Her dad isn't a member and told her he thinks she should learn more before she gets baptized but in front of all of us she said "Dad I know the church is true, and I know I need to be baptized", so her dad gave her permission to be baptized this week. It was a big testimony builder for me to see how strong her testimony is after only 3 or 4 weeks of lessons. We also have Ronald, Karen, and their daughter Fabiola. They are such a cute family and Karen especially loves learning about the Book of Mormon. She is always asking questions and she always asks us what new things we are learning. She also loves church and is so involved in the classes. 

Hope everything is going well at home. It's starting to heat up here, and trust me when the sun is out here, it's HOT! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Benson

August 12, 2013

Buenos dias!

Last week for Pday we got to go into Central Lima. It was crazy how different it was. There were quite a few tourist and it was so much cleaner than the rest of Lima.The plaza is really pretty and we also got to visit the Catacombs in the big Catholic Cathedral. It was really interesting but kind of creepy because you were underground and the path was really skinny and only like 5 ft 5 in tall in some places. I kind of felt like I was on Indiana Jones, but it was really fun. 

So sometimes the food here is pretty sketchy but I've fallen in love with the Panaderias here! They have the best bread, churros, and cookies! My favorite is called an alfajor. I also love chichamorada which is a drink made from purple corn and they also flavor candies with it. 

My spanish is coming along, somedays are better than others. I'm kind of nervous now because we have a some more North Americans coming in soon and the President told me I might have to train someone as soon as I finish my 12 week training. So we've definitely been trying even harder to understand spanish and learn the area. 

This week I started something new in my journal which is kind of interesting. I realized that everyday I wake up in Peru, with a cement floor, and often a cold shower, and walk out onto a dirt covered steet with 10 stray dogs and think "why the heck am I here?" But I realized that everyday I seem to go to bed with a really good answer. So I started a page in my journal where I just right one sentence about my reason for being here that day, so at the end of my mission I will have a list of 500 reasons why I went on my mission. And it's crazy that I've already been here for 2 months!

We had a cool teaching experience the other day. We were teaching a less active member named Nelly. We've taught her before and she just likes to talk and talk and talk. This time she was talking about nutrition and we could not seem to get the lesson back on track. We had been there for quite some time and I was thinking that maybe we were wasting our time when her sister knocked on the door. She came in and we started talking with her. She had heard about the church but never the Book of Mormon. I explained the Book of Mormon to her and she was extremely interested in it and the fact that we believe Christ came to the Americas. She was asking all sorts of questions and we talked about where it was written, when it was written, Joseph Smith, how it supports the Bible and so on for quite some time. Then we started reading in 3 Nephi 11 and she started crying. She doesn't live in our area but I know the missionaries have gone to her house again and she is taking the discussions. It's really crazy to me how prepared some people are for the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. Especially here is South America the people get SO excited about the fact that Christ appeared and taught the people here in America.

I hope everything's going well at home. I'm jealous that it's warm cause it's actually kind of cold here! Love and miss you guys!

Love,

Hermana Benson

August 5,2013

Buenos dias!

My first week out of the MTC has been so crazy. I thought La Molina was crazy but turns out we were in the richest and cleanest area. I've never been so humbled in my entire life. Now I feel really dumb for ever complaining about anything I have at home. My stake here is called Santa Isabel and the ward is Tungasuca. There are a few nice houses here but most of the houses here have cement floors, walls and no roof. If they do have a roof it's usually either kind of thatched or it's a canopy (like the ones we take to the beach). Some have couches but usually they just have a few patio or lawn chairs. And we're lucky if they have enough for them and us to sit in.

Our house is on the fifth floor so we have a really awesome view. And we have a roof! But we do have a cement floor and cement walls but atleast they're painted. Our bathroom does have tile and we have hot water. The way to control how hot the water is though, is by turning the nozel to change how much water is coming out. So if you want the water really hot then there`s hardly any water coming out. Our pensionista lives on the first floor of our building and her house is one of the nicest ones i've been in. It's almost as nice as a lot of houses in the US. We eat breakfast with her every morning and she does our laundry. We eat lunch with the members which is really awesome to get to know them, and actually they usually make really good food! But sometimes it's a little crazy. I'm learning to swallow just about anything. So far we've had cow stomach, guniea pig, roots, all sorts of vegetables and fruits and lots and lots of rice.

Right now I'm actually in a trio. We don´t have enough trainers in our mission so each trainer has 2 missionaries with them. My companions are Hermana Choque and Hna. Sales. They're really awesome and Hna. Choque is a really great trainer. The only problem is she's a little unorganized and bad at directions but we're working through it.

One crazy thing here is people always say they recognize me. It's happened 3 or 4 times and so now it's a joke with my companions that I was either really friendly in the pre earth life or I'm secretly famous in Peru. One of these experiences was particularly cool though. We were kind of wondering around trying to find a house (which is really hard here) and this lady came out and asked where I was from. I told her the United States and she said Oh I'm sorry you just looked really familiar so I explained that I was a missionary and she invited us in. It turns out her husband is a member but she would never go with him. She came to church though and now she's taking the discussions! Another crazy experience was on our way home from the Bank. This older woman came running over and greeted us. She told us we were angels from heaven and kissed our hands. Then she read us a scripture in Deuteronomy and tried paying us money. Hna. Sales and I didn't really know what was going on but it turns out she was trying to pay us tithing. It's kind of interesting because she is Catholic so I have no idea why she would try to pay us tithing but she's taking the discussions now. Another family that I really love is Ronald, Karen and their four little kids. They have been taking the discussions for a little while and I asked them if they would be baptized this week and they said yes!! So they are going to be baptized on the 24th and I'm really excited.

Also here is the address for my mission now.

Kelsey Benson (don't put Hermana)

Mison Peru Lima Norte

Av. Carlos Izaguirre 124,

Independencia

Lima 28

Peru

or for packages it's

Kelsey Benson

Mision Peru Lima Norte

Av. Carlos Izaguirre 124,

Independencia

Casilla de Correo

Lima, 28

Peru

and with packages don't send money, Beef Jerky or used clothing. 

Hope everything is going well at home!! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Benson

August 1, 2013

Dear Benson Family,
We are thrilled to have Hermana Benson join us in the Peru Lima North Mission. She will e-mail you on her p-day which will be on Mondays.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Erickson

July 25, 2013

Hey Everyone!

Sounds like it's been pretty hot in logan! Most days are like 60 here but it's the winter so I'm a little scared for the summers. This week was kind of a slow week. Lots of classes and things getting ready to leave the CCM because we only have 4 days left here!! I'm SO excited but also really nervous. I'm really happy we don't have to fly to our mission because I don't want to worry about how much my bags weigh but we do have to take about a 6 hour bus ride to our mission home. We leave really early tuesdaymorning so if you don't get an email from me for awhile it's because our P-days switched. Also here's the address to my mission home so send any letters there for the next few weeks.

Hermana Kelsey Benson

Misión Perú Lima Norte

Av. Carlos Izaguirre 124

Centro de Estaca de Tahuantinsuyo

Independencia, Lima 28, Perú

When I'm in the CCM I feel like my spanish is pretty good. But when we go outside I honestly have no idea what they are talking about half the time. They talk so fast and most the people are missing a lot of their teeth and so their words are kind of slurred which makes it so much harder. They are all so friendly though and willing to repeat things multiple times and act things out until we understand. The funniest thing is when we go out and everyone is speaking spanish and then all the sudden someone says something to us in english we usually just stand there and stare at them for a second like we have no idea what they just said because it doesn't register that it was in english. The people also like to show us they know some english so it's funny when they will say something short to us in english and when we reply you can tell they have no idea what we said.

Well this is a pretty boring letter but I'm sure my next one will be a lot more exciting and I'll be able to tell you about my actual mission. Hope everything is going well! Love you guys!

Love,

Hermana Benson

Here's my whole district. Hermana Brito, Hermana Hawks, Hermana Moe, Me, Our teacher Hermano Flores, Hermana Vargas, Herman Leavitt, Hermana Jacobsen and Hermana Skelton. And then on the bottom starting at the left Elder Gray, Elder Rutter, Elder Perryman, and Elder Coones (I think thats how it goes anyway)

July 18, 2013

¡Hola!

Can you believe I've been out for a month! So crazy! And I only have 12 days left in the MTC. But I officially love Peru! The people are awesome and I have a neat experiences everyday! This week my favorite experience was proselyting! Usually they split companionships up so there is a latino sister in each companionship but we have so many North Americans that we just had to go alone. The spanish was kind of a struggle but it was such a neat experience. The people here are so kind and loving. And they are almost always willing to listen to us for a minute which I'm sure isn't true in other missions. In all me and my companion talked to ten people and eight of them agreed to let the missionaries back. We also were able to give out all 4 copies of the Book of Mormon they gave us and about 12 pamphlets. One thing that was kind of crazy is we went proselyting right under the hill that's on my cover photo on facebook. The first person we talked to was one of my favorites. His name was Ignacio and at first he was very quiet and gave us one word answers but by the end he was laughing and joking with us. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon for probably 30 minutes. And he was actually the one who asked us where he could learn more so I guess you could say it was a very good first experience. We also taught a lady named Beatrize who at first told us she was busy. We asked if we could give her a pamphlet though and she agreed. When I gave it to her I asked if she believed in eternal families and she said no. My heart broke for her but we were both able to bear our testimonies to her and she ended up letting us in to teach her! It was really cool and we were able to make a time for the missionaries to teach her. It was really humbling because the floor in her house looked about like the sidewalk. A sheet seperated her front room from the rest of her house and there was no furniture. The people here are just so humble and loving!

 

Another place I love talking to people is the temple. The ladies who work there are so cute! Most of them are about 5 feet tall and they are so good to us. Whenever we go they have to bring out multiple dresses trying to find one tall enough for us and then after we put one on and come out the usually make us change because they´re to short. They always just say "mas alto, mas alto" whenever they see us. We also have to where the mens slippers because they don't have enough of the womens sizes for us because their feet are so small.

 

We also went to migration this week. I'm officially legal now. Migration was about an hour away which was cool because we got to see more of Peru. We went into the major part of the city and got to see the Palace and the Palace of Justice. Both buildings are so pretty and look like they're straight from Europe. The traffic was even crazier there though then it is in La Molina. And people literally walk down the middle of the streets when the cars are stopped selling drinks and candy. We also passed their soccer stadium which is huge!! The actual migration part was pretty boring though, it was pretty much like a really busy DMV in spanish.

 

Apparently there was an earthquake this week but we were out playing volleyball and didn't even feel it so that was to bad. I also got a pretty good black eye playing volleyball. I dove for a ball and another Hermana went for it as well so my eye hit her knee. We told the President the ball hit me so he didn't think we were getting to competitive though. Haha sshhh it's a secret.

 

I hope things are going well for everyone at home and that you're enjoying the sunshine!

 

Love,

Hermana Benson

July 11, 2013

Hola!

Not much happened this week. It was pretty average filled with class and studying. We get to go to the temple and shopping later today though.We also get to go proselyting out in some of the cities surrounding Lima. I'm really excited but nervous because we still don't know that much spanish.

The spanish is coming but we know a lot more gospel words than anything else. We are really good at praying, bearing testiomonies, and teaching gospel lessons but our everday conversations still leave a little to be desired. I'm starting to feel a little pressure as far as spanish goes because today we are over half way done at the MTC!

We still play soccer a lot but we've also picked up playing sand volleyball. Some of the sisters in our district are really good. They've even taught me how to jump serve. We did have a lesson on diving though and that didn't go as well. They kind of explained it but she didn't think I would full out dive so they might have skipped a few steps. Needless to say I dove way farther and higher than you're supposed to and the sand isn't quite like landing on grass. It was really funny though and gave us something to laugh about.

I still love my district. One of the pictures I'm sending you is of all the people in our district except for two I think. They kind of become your family in the MTC because you're with them all day. We even eat together and play sports together during physical activity. One of the Elders in our district is really into lifting and working out. He's super nice and his name is Elder Gray. So he has starting Elder Gray's gym at the MTC. It's really funny because he just works out our whole district for like 20 minutes everyday and some of the Elders from other districts have joined as well.

I hope everything is going well for everyone at home. I feel like the time is just flying by! Be safe!

Love,

Hermana Benson