2 Month Mark!!!!

                                                                                        8/01/2016

Hola familia!!!!!

Ok so first off this week has been better. Also I’m typing on a keyboard where the spacebar is broken and it is kinda throwing off my groove haha. Anyways so I totally forgot about my journal that everybody wrote in and so I went through that and it helped a lot!!! Apparently physically holding something in someone’s handwriting can do wonders! So if anybody ever feels like sending me a handwritten letter sometime I would not complain! Now here is a small sad part. I was reading through my journal and I have notes from all my friends and a couple from Mom. I don’t have any from Dad, Michael, Ashly, Matthew, or Clarisa in their handwriting. I literally sobbed my eyes out when I discovered this! Please please please send me a letter in your guys handwriting!!!! You have no idea how much that will help me! Mom your notes have been read several times this week and will be read many more times! Please send more haha!! Also whenever you send a package again (no I haven’t gotten the first one) please just put a whole bunch of notes in there with whatever you’re sending. (And skittles) but I want it in all y'alls handwriting no typed up stuff! I get that every week. Also please include pictures in your letters I want to see how you are doing! I promise it won’t make me homesick. Pictures really make me happy!!! Mom can you please send me the lyrics for the song Rise that Clarisa sang with her choir???? Also I really liked when you sent a song with each of your emails. I write them down and read them quite often. I read the confidence in sunshine every day. Also in one of your letters you send can you please include pictures of me with Clarisa and Matthew I only have like 2 with them. Oh and the animals!

Oh so today is my 2 month mark in the mission!!! Exactly!!!! Kinda cool! Anyways this week has been kinda exciting we aught Marcia and I can’t exactly remember if I’ve written you about her yet but she is this sweet old lady and this last week in the lesson with her we asked her to read the book of Mormon and she said no!!! Because she is scared to change religions and it makes me so sad because I know that the spirit is testifying to her that this is true and I just want her to see this!!! Ugh!!!!

Ok so one night for dinner this week you’ll never guess what I had.............. CAKE. I had cake for dinner, and then again for breakfast the next morning. I’ll be honest I miss American meals but hey it’s the culture here so I’ll get used to it.

Last Saturday I did a service project for one of the menos activos in my ward I’m serving in and we literally sand papered cement for 2 hours. It was really weird. Also everyone read Mormon 8 it’s a really good chapter.

Anyways I got thinking about this whole mission and thing and I was wondering if it’s really what I’m supposed to be doing and I had this thought come to my mind. “When things get hard that is when you are going to miss your family the most, that is when you’re going to feel like you can’t do it. But that is the exact moment when you need to turn to your Savior and beg for help. Because through him you can do anything"

and now I can’t say whether that was me that thought it or if it was divine inspiration, but it has helped me to reflect what I have learned since being in the mission. First I’ve learned I really took my family for granted. They are the best people in the world and my best friends. I wish I had been a better daughter or sister before the mission. But I plan to make that right when I get home. Second I have so much support I didn’t expect! I really love it and I didn’t know my email home was being read by so many people and affecting you so much I truly am grateful!!!! Third I have learned I’m the biggest cry baby ever. But it’s totally ok. I find myself crying at the dumbest moments but those moments are when I learn the most. Fourth I thought I knew what depending on the Savior meant but man was I wrong. I really cannot do this without him. If any of you are doubting whether or not your brother Jesus Christ is your true Savior that can help you with anything, I testify that he is our Savior and that he will help you, all you need is to have faith and ask him for help! I have cried myself to sleep every night because this mission is hard but every night and every day I beg with all my soul and all my faith for my Savior to help me through the next day. He always helps me. Anyways! I want everyone to know I have a testimony of this Gospel!!! I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and that he sent his son Jesus Christ to atone for all of us! And that through him we can make it day by day. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and I am so grateful he had the courage to go into that grove of trees and ask for help. Because he did I have the greatest knowledge in the world. These next 16 months are going to be hard. I know it. But I am so ready to take on the battle. I know Christ will help me through all of it and that when I get off that plane in 16 months I will be able to say I couldn’t have done it without him. All things are possible through him! I’m keeping the faith and pressing forward. I’ll probably cry myself to sleep a lot more but this is only a short time of my life so I’m going to give my all! I can take a few teary nights!

Ok so really quick an address for my apartment is Av. Antenor Orrego 122 Lareedo. You can’t actually see the door to my apartment from the street you go through a gate and up a flight of stairs that gate is between two Boticas. And my favorite food so far is lomo saltado and chaufa! I love you all so much!!! And miss you all like crazy!!!
 
Love Hna. McNamara

*Side notes and pictures from Kim

I had to look up a few of her words. LOL  I thought I would share the translations I found.

menos activos – Less Actives

lomo saltado  - This is like a stir-fry.   I found a simple recipe (not sure how authentic). 

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/40083/peruvian-lomo-saltado/

chaufa -  This is like a fried rice.  Here is another simple recipe (not sure how authentic). 

https://cookpad.com/us/recipes/338217-fried-rice-peruvian-style-chaufa

Maybe some of our Peruvian friends can offer more authentic recipes???  IF so, feel free to share in the comments below, or email them to me at simplykimie@gmail.com, and I will make sure they get on here.

Also, Mike and I looked up her address on Google Maps.  We think we have the right street.  (Our Spanish is not so good.)  We will verify with her next week, but at the very least this offers a fun view of Peru.  We even found a hospital at the end of the street!  Pretty cool!!   

If you want to explore further, you can go to Google Maps and enter her address above.  I had to change Av. to Avenue – I assume that is what Av means?  When I left it at Av. it didn’t look right.  We "walked" the streets around her address,  it was fun to see Peru and get an idea of where she lives.  We found some pretty interesting things!  Again - this is speculation.  She isn't able to send pictures, so I will have to send this to her next week and see if we are correct.  Still, its a fun look at Peru.

 

          Each Botica has a window and door, then there is an extra door/gate in the middle.
We are thinking that is the gate she refers to.
The cement looking portion looks like their apartment/room.

Street View

Hospital at the end of the street.

Mike thought their motorcycles were pretty nifty!

Wider view of the intersection at the end of her street.