Week 33: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! (and happy bday mom! love ya!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Man, can you guys believe that it’s already January of two thousand freaking fifteen???!!! I’m dying bc the time is just flying by. I remember in May when I left thinking that 2015 is going to take FOREVER to get here and look at where we are now, IN JANUARY!

Anyways, this week was super slow with the work. We actually had a really good number on the lessons we taught, but felt like there wasn’t really any progress. We worked normal hours Christmas Eve and Christmas day in case you all were wondering. It was a little weird, and for me, those days definitely didn’t feel like Christmas to me. So that’s why I’m not really missing home all that much right now. But I am missing the snow!!

It’s started to get hot again here. Yeah, I asked around and everyone says that the cold weather is done. Yeah, it lasted for like a week. And the cold weather here only felt like cool fall days with the wind blowing. To me, it felt amazing during the day, but at night not going to lie, it was super hard to sleep bc there’s no such thing as keeping warm if you sleep in a hammock, haha. But yeah, it’s going to start to get hot again here. bleh.

Christmas day was AMAZING! Really only bc I got to talk to you all. It was soooo good to see all of your beautiful faces again and hear your voices. Thanks for letting Dylan and Jordan come over and be in the Skype call too. It was amazing to talk and catch up with them, esp. Jordan. It was soo good to see him to know that he is doing okay. 

Well, that’s about it for this week. We are still working strong with “He is the Gift” and will be sharing it with everyone well into next week. And next we are going to start working with the “My Family” pamphlets that we have. If you guys don’t have a My Family booklet, ask the mishies what they are and they can give you some. Everyone should have their own individual pamphlet, completely filled out.

There has been a renewed emphasis in family history work and really, every time I get to teach or hear about family history, this amazing strong spirit is present. Literally, one of the major things that I look forward to when I get home is to really start on my family history. Like dig deep, and I want to do it together with you mom. So I hope you’re working hard in gathering names and learning lots from Sis. Burdett cause I want you to teach me everything you’ve learned when I get back. 

Well, that’s it for this week. 

I love you all sooo much!! And I can’t wait to talk to you all again on Mother’s Day. 

Love, 

Hermana Plátano... hehe (that one was for you daddy)

Christmas package!!!

Christmas package again haha.

My beautiful presents!

So its kind of hard to see but those little specks that are in the sky are giant grasshoppers. We were walking one day and I look up and they were literally EVERYWHERE! You cant really tell in the pic, but they were flying around above us in groups that made them look like dark clouds. It was super gross and weird and I totally thought a plague had made its way to Izamal. And everyone else that was outside were just acting normal like it was an every day occurrence to have GIANT GRASSHOPPERS take over the sky. It was super creepy.

Week 32: MERRY CHRISTMAS ... (ya filthy animal) hehe

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the cold back home. Please enjoy it for me cause I miss the snow like crazy!! it doesn’t even feel like Christmas here... it’s a lot colder than the summer time, but to me, feels like a cool summer day back home.

Anyways, this week was suuupppperrrr busy filled with different activities with the ward and helping them prepare everything for the Christmas activity we had on Friday. The activity was really good but our ward has a huge problem with starting things on time. Like it’s really, really bad. It was supposed to start at 7 but they didn’t even say the opening prayer until 9:20 which was when we left to go back to the house. And they continued until like midnight I’m pretty sure. It was a real bummer bc I really wanted to go to a ward Christmas party, but didn’t get to this year. But next year when I’m back home, I’m definitely going to our home wards party!

Yesterday we had the Christmas party with the WHOLE mission. All of the missionaries were there so I got to see a lot of my friends from the MTC and different missionaries that are no longer in my zone that I got to know. It was really great and what we did was each zone sang a musical number and for our zone, I was chosen to direct the choir. Man, let me tell you. I have no idea how Janna Bullough does it.  Man, does she make it seem easy. HA!, no. Janna has a gift I’m telling you, to be able to direct a choir. Even though I was absolutely terrible at doing it, I totally felt like Janna Bullough and I totally felt super cool doing it. Haha

Afterwards, we had our lunch (which is the big meal here) and it was soooooo goooooddddd!!! The most Americanized lunch I’ve had since coming here. It was first a Cesar Salad and next we had turkey with mashed potatoes and veggies and gravy! It was amazing! And then for desert was like a chocolate cake/brownie with cookies and cream ice cream on top. Ah, it was to die for! And then afterwards, the ppl that didn’t have to travel far to go back to their areas, left to go sing and contact ppl in different parks in the city. We had to go early, which was a bummer, but before we did so, President Garcia gave a blessing to every single one of us that was waaayyy powerful. I felt the spirit sooo strongly. He said something that I would like to share with you that is really special to me. In his blessing, he promised that if we focused and desired to become more like Christ (we are focusing on doing this as a mission) and that if we strived every single day to do so, that my posterity would be blessed as faithful servants of Christ and will be able to withstand the power of Satan. And that they will be the generation blessed with the desire to be like Christ and will work to prepare for the coming of our savior. Boy is that not like the coolest blessing ever??!!

Anyways, that was my week I had all summarized. I’m going to close for now cause I’m running out of time and want to send pics. 

Love you allll soo much and I can’t wait to see all of your beautiful faces on Thursday!!!

Hermana Perryman

(Hannah wasn’t able to send pictures this week)

Week 31: FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Yeah, I can’t believe it either. That next week is Christmas already?? I’m dying that the time is just flying by. But that’s what happens when you’re having fun :)

Well, this email is going to be super short and filled with a bunch of boring information, sorry, but my time has been cut today because we’ve been stuck in Merida all day and have no time to write so that we have time to get back to Izamal. It’s such a pain sometimes living so far away, but hey, I’m not complaining, because I love it there :)

Well this week was filled with finding new investigators through ‘He is the Gift’. We contacted like every person that lives in Izamal, haha not really, but it sure felt like it. I’m loving being a missionary during this time, especially now that we have ‘He is the Gift’ to share with everyone. It really is a project that has been inspired to find those who are prepared to accept the restored gospel.

One really quick funny story that happened this week when we were trying to find someone’s house. So we decided to ask this older lady if she knew where this person, Cecilio lived. She said yes and we started to talk to her about ‘He is the Gift’. What happens almost all of the time with the older people is they start to talk about their lives. That’s what she started to do, was tell us her life story. It was really interesting, but what was really funny is somehow she started to talk about how the women in our generation are basically really lazy because we use washing machines instead of washing our clothes by hand. Maybe it was you had to have been there kind of moment, but we were trying so hard not to laugh!

So details about next week are:
Next Monday I will be in the mission party all day. So next Monday is NOT my pday.
Next TUESDAY IS my pday. So I will write you next Tuesday about this time in the day.
Next THURSDAY, Christmas day, is when I get to call you guys. I have 40 mins to Skype. On Christmas, we won’t be doing anything because here in Mexico, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th. So we eat dinner with the members that day and my comp calls home on the 24th. So all day, I’ll be free, I’m pretty sure.

Well, that’s about it. I’ll talk to you all next Tuesday, and on Thursday I get to see your beautiful faces!!!

Oh, sorry, no pics this week. But next week for sure!

Hermana Perryman

Week 30: AND THE VERDICT IS....

IM STAYING HERE IN IZAMAL FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

And I’m staying with Hna. Gutierrez. Yeah, we were super stoked last night when we got the call. Literally I am soooo happy to be here for Christmas!!!! I get to spend it with like the coolest ward ever. They really have become my family here away from home.

This week was a little slow, but we had some pretty cool moments. So on Tuesday we had a mtg with our zone to talk about the He is the Gift project that the church is doing right now with the video and how we plan on converting and taking over the whole world with the love of Christ. Yeah, it’s pretty awesome, not going to lie. And really, really powerful. This project has definitely been inspired and I am more grateful than ever to be a missionary during this time. What a blessing it is to share with others our knowledge of Christ and his miracles and life.

Well, then on Friday, we had another mtg, but with another zone and with the Assistants and with President. And we talked more about how we can share He is the Gift with everyone we talk to. And then the last hr and a half of the mtg, we spontaneously decided to put into practice what we talked about. So all of the missionaries (there was like 50 of us) went to this huge park/plaza and half of the missionaries started to sing Christmas hymns and the other half (I was part of this group) went around to the ppl who were in the park and talked to them and shared He is the Gift. It was a lot of fun, and I had a really cool experience with it.

So me and Hna. Siafinua (she is the Polynesian that was in my district in the MTC) decided to be companions for this activity and we decided to pick a random guy that was sitting alone in the park reading a magazine. So we sit down next to him and say "Hi! Good afternoon! How has your day been?" And he responds with "eh. so-so". So we ask him why just so-so. And from then on, he just poured out all of his problems that had been happening in his life. Which were a lot and really sad too. then he started to cry bc he said that he came to this park to sit down and try to think of what he can do to change his life around bc he feels stuck and he feels lost and is looking for a way.... Yeah. It was pretty amazing. Honestly I was sitting there listening, crying with him, and thinking "is this even real?" So after he was done talking, we shared with him who we were and what we have to offer him. We shared a couple of verses in the Book of Mormon, gave him one, and invited him to baptism, which he accepted. And he said that he will go to church on Sunday (this is in Merida so he isn’t in my area). It really was such an amazing experience for me and a testimony builder that if we make the decision to talk with everyone about the gospel, that Heavenly Father will put into our path the ppl who have been prepare and who are ready to accept the gospel and make changes in their lives.

So yeah. That’s about all that happened this week. 

We don’t have a mtg today which means we aren’t going to go to Merida this week, which means no mail till next week. So hopefully I get some mail then.

Oh, Friday, I got a small package mom that you sent me of Nutter Butters. Thank you sooo much!!! They were exactly what I needed at the time. Love you soo much!!

Well, pics are coming soon!

Love you all and I’ll write you next week!

Hermana Perryman

Your wonderful package mom! Thanks!

This is Hna. Mimi who is getting ready to leave for her mission in Costa Rica. She's the cutest thing ever and goes with us on visits all the time.

This was a little banana that a member gave us. It was seriously the smallest banana I've ever seen!

Yum! Nutter Butters!

We went to the pyramid today! Excuse my lazy eye...

We took a break and admired Izamal from above.

This is info on the pyramid that is the largest in Izamal. From left to right the languages are Spanish, Maya, and English. You can zoom in and read about the pyramid.

And one last one from this morning...

Week 29: ITS DECEMBER!!!

OMG GUYS. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT IT’S ALREADY DECEMBER????!!!!!!

I’m looking around for the time, but I can’t seem to find where it has gone.

Seriously, time is flying by sooo fast!!!

Ahhh. Anyways, transfers are next week, so you’ll know next Monday if I got transferred out if Izamal or not. I’m hoping to let you all know that I’m still here bc I’d love to spend Christmas here bc the families here in the ward are really amazing and do amazing things for the missionaries. And on top of all that they’ve become like my family away from home. But honestly, who knows what will happen next week.

This week was pretty good. Number wise, no. but... LUCY WAS FINALLY BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!! The baptism of Lucy was wonderful. A little crazy but wonderful. We were supposed to have it 4 on Saturday, but then she called that morning to tell us that she couldn’t at 4 but could at 2. So we had to change everything to have it at 2 and only a couple of members knew about it. So 2 o’clock came around and she still hadn’t showed up. Long story short, she didn’t show up till 3 and we had the service (the bishop baptized her) and then she had to leave right away for Merida. It was really quick, which was kinda disappointing bc I wanted something really special for her, but hey, at least she’s baptized. She was sooo beautiful and I was sooo happy to see her finally accept. I’ve seen her go through a lot of changes these past couple of months and she has been so much happier.

Oh, and Thanksgiving was. Interesting. Yeah, Thanksgiving here was... well like every other day. Honestly I forgot that it was Thanksgiving until after it passed. It was Saturday and a member was asking me about the holidays that we celebrate in the states and I was talking about Thanksgiving and it was then that I realized that Thanksgiving was Thursday. And I for our lunch/dinner the member that was supposed to feed us wasn’t home so we ended up making our own food with what we had in the house which was tortillas and cheese. So for Thanksgiving dinner I ate 2 cheese quesadillas... yeah...

Other than that, nothing much happened except I’m dying from the cold here in the nights. It’s so hard to sleep in a hammock when there is cold. I sleep with my jacket and hood, socks, and my blanket and I still die of cold in the night. And I get like next to no sleep bc of it. And in the morning we have to shower with cold water bc we don’t have any hot water. We can heat some up on the little burner we have, but that takes forever and there’s no such thing as extra time in a missionary’s schedule. So I may or may not die of hypothermia before summer comes...

And yeah, that’s about it. We are focusing on finding new people to teach here bc our teaching pool has become filled with investigators that just don’t want to progress so we are looking the chosen ones.

Well, that’s ‘bout it folks.

Love you tons and still haven’t gotten mail, but Friday we have a Zone Conference so maybe I’ll get something then.

Until next week!

Hermana Perryman

I totally saw Hermana Smith again at a Conference we had on Tuesday. it was sooo good to see her and catch up. I've missed her a lot

This is Hermana Pitcher. I met on FB before I left on the mission? She was at the Conference too. She's soo amazing and we have hopes of being companions one day.

Lucy's baptism!!! Ahh, She was soo beautiful...

We took some cool pics on the train rail.

Week 28: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!

​Yeah, the internet here is suuuuppppeeeerrrrr slllllooooooowwwww. It’s killing me. And on top of that I’m using Internet Explorer *shudders* Yeah, so sad that they haven’t updated to Google Chrome. It’s killing me. Haha, pero, no importa.

So this week’s email is going to be super short. One, bc I have like no time and two, nothing really happened this week.

So we finally are going to have another baptism this week!!! #2 of this transfer!! This baptism is going to be of Lucy. Words cannot describe how happy I am for Saturday. Literally, I’ve waited 6 months for this day. I’ve been able to see Lucy grow and change in so many ways. I can’t wait to send you pics next week.

We had intercambios this week. Which I think in English is... ahhh. I don’t know, honestly. I just sat here for like 2 mins trying to think of the English word. All it means is that we had transfers, BUT ONLY FOR ONE DAY with our sister training leaders. For the first time, I got to work in a different area, IN THE CITY (in Merida). It was a lot of fun bc it was all super fast paced (not like here in our little town of Izamal where NOTHING ever happens) and bc I got to work with Hna. Ormeño. She’s super cool and from Peru and is going to be going to school out in Utah at BYU in 2016. So I plan on mtg up with her when we both get out there.

Funny story: so Sunday we decided to pass by some houses of some less actives to get them to come to church. long story short, one of them decided to talk FOREVER and made us super late for church (cause we have to walk to church and we were still like a 20 min walk from the building and church started in 5 mins) so we called a taxi to come pick us up and we were waiting on a corner of a street in front of a house. And what makes this story funny is this house is literally open. It doesn’t have a roof, a door, windows, nada. Just blocks that make up the structure of a house. And there is ivy and trees and weeds growing all inside of the house. So while we were waiting, an old man on his bike slowing passes by us and tells us, "Ya know, no body lives there. There isn’t any one home." and then he just kept on going. It was like 30 seconds of silence and I just died laughing. It was just soooo funny to me. bc it was soo obvious that nobody lives there but he thought he would just let us know that there wasn’t anyone home. Haha so yeah, that’s my funny story. Sorry if it really wasn’t funny, but it was to me :)

Well, that’s all folks.

Sorry, but no pics, AGAIN this week. I don’t have time to wait for the pics to load to send them. Next week, we will be going to a better cyber with faster internet, hopefully haha.

That’s it for this week. I love you all so much!!!

Hermana Perryman

P.S.: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!! EAT ALL THE FOOD YOU CAN FOR ME haha :)

Week 27: ...Sorry, I cant really think of a cool title for this week...

This week was pretty normal. I hit my six month mark. It’s really weird to think that I’ve been out for half a year now. Ugh, I can’t even think about leaving the mission at this point. Honestly I don’t know how I’m going to do it. But hey, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. 

We had very few lessons this week, but they were all really powerful with a lot of our investigators. So even though our numbers were a bit down, I wasn’t too discouraged bc the lessons were potent. (I don’t really know a translation for that word, sorry)

Manuel... oh Manuel. He’s doing great. He went to a priesthood activity Saturday night and said that he loved it. It was really good for him to go and meet more of the guy members bc right now in his life he’s in the process of getting rid of his friends bc he says that they are all bad influences. So that was really good. But... he didn’t go to church yesterday, even though he said that he was. grrr... we didn’t have the time to visit him yesterday so we are going tonight to see what happened.

Lucy’s date for her baptism has been pushed back. :( She didn’t go to church yesterday either for personal reasons. She’s having trouble with her husband right now. They are married, but are living separate. Satan is working pretty hard on her, I can feel it. But we are working harder and have more power than Satan so yeah. Haha

We had 2 investigators show up to church yesterday that we honestly weren’t expecting to show up. it was really awesome, but they didn’t stay for the classes. the problem right now is that ppl here have gotten used to only having like 40 mins of church on Sundays and aren’t used to having the full 3 hrs of service so a lot of the members are leaving church early to do things at home. Really annoying, but we are working on getting the members to stay for the classes.

And yeah, that was my week. Nothing too exciting or crazy happened.

Dad, thanks soo much for the pics. I’m missing the snow so much right now!! I now know that where ever I live after the mission has to be a place where there is snow. I just miss it too much. Plus, I really just want to feel cold for once and not sweaty. Haha

Mom, good luck this week!! I’ll be praying for you that everything goes well. And I’m glad to hear that dad is taking work of to take care of you. I can’t wait to see the video of you waking up from your surgery. Haha that will be interesting... Haha

Well, that’s about it. No pics this week, the internet is slow! Love you all!

Hermana Perryman

Week 26: I ONLY HAVE A YEAR LEFT HERE!!!!

YUP, that’s right. I have exactly one year left. It’s really sad to think about, not going to lie. I can’t believe that 6 months have come and gone. I remember thinking in the beginning of my mission that if I can just survive until November (and in my mind at this point in time November was FOREVER away) then everything would be just fine. And here it is, and I can’t believe that time is going by this fast.

But anyways, things here in Izamal are going great.

We had our first ever baptism here!!!! Finally!! it was of a little girl who is 10 yrs old. The family is completely less active, but Romi, the convert, and her sister and cousin go to church by themselves every week and asked us one Sunday if they can get baptized. It was really sweet and heart breaking at the same time bc their family doesn’t go to church. But yeah, she’s super sweet and I love her to death. I’ll send pics of the baptism soon.

We saw Manuel this week, FINALLY!! We decided to pass by his house again (after almost a month) and he’s completely sober and has been for 2 weeks. He said that he has been reading his BOM every single day for strength and had been praying that we would come by again. He said that he was sorry and that he wants to come back to church and get baptized. So we had a really good lesson with him and my prayers have been answered. Really my heart and soul have been so preoccupied about him for a long time.

Lucy was supposed to get baptized this Saturday, but can’t bc she didn’t go to church this week bc of some family problems. But we had a good lesson with her too and she’s really excited for her baptism which has now been moved to the 29th of this month. But we are thinking that maybe it can be moved up to the sat b4 depending on how things go.

So yeah, all in all it was a pretty good week. And it went by soo fast! I can’t believe that we are already in week 3 of this transfer... Bleh. I don’t ever want my time to end here...

But anyways,

On other news... I FINALLY GOT YOUR HALLOWEEN PACKAGE!!! Thank you thank you thank you!! I loved everything in it. I’m wearing the necklace and earrings that you sent in the package from Aunt Linda. Thank you soooo much Aunt Linda!!! I love them soo much!!! They are super cute and I can’t thank you guys enough for all of the letters. You all are soo funny in them.
But yeah, other than that everything is going great!!

Oh, one last thing. So President told us about 2 weeks ago that we needed to start memorizing all of the scripture mastery verses (in Spanish of course) every day. one every day. And I’ve been kind of lacking of that, not going to lie. But in the last Zone Meeting we had on Saturday they told us that if we memorize every single verse by DEC. 1st that we get to go to a session in the temple on DEC 3rd. I AM SOO PUMPED FOR THE TEMPLE!!! Talk about a motivation for a missionary. Literally I have been dying to go to the temple and I finally have the chance to do so!! So pray that I can have help in memorizing all the verses. I already have 3 down, just 22 more to go!

Well pics are coming soon. Love you all and I’ll write next week!!

Hermana Perryman

My awesome package!! Thank you so much!

My awesome package!! Thank you so much!

Pizza!!!

Horchata!! My favorite!! it's soo good.

Week 25: El espíritu santo fue sentido y oraciones fueron contestado. (The Holy Spirit was felt and prayers were answered.)

This week was pretty good. Really nothing much to talk about that’s super exciting.

But on Friday, we had a Ward Halloween activity and lots of the kids dressed up and surprisingly a lot of the adults too. It was soo much fun to see everyone singing and dancing. I took soo much pictures (for like the first time ever on my mission cause I always forget to take them) but I’ll send some later of the activity.

Oh, so here’s a stressful story for ya. So we left the church building and I walked a couple of steps and I felt like something had fallen from my bag and landed in the street and I looked behind me 2x to check to see if I had lost something and I didn’t see anything so I didn’t think anything of it. And as we were walking there was a member with her kids and a van and they live next door to us so they offered us a ride home. And so we get into the house and I look in my bag for my camera to look at the pictures I had taken for the night... AND I CAN’T FIND MY CAMERA. At this point, I’m kinda freaking out. And the first thing I think is that it’s in the street in front of the church. And all I could think of is some moto or car just running it over or someone finding it and taking it. So we sent a text to the bishop to see if anyone had found anything and he said no, but he will look for it. And the only other place that it could be is in the car of the members, but I felt like for sure that it had fallen out of my bag and into the street. And I was so stressed that night bc I have soo many pics on my camera from the MTC and well, just every camera worthy moment here. But I prayed and asked HF if he could help me out with it bc he knows just how important it was to me that I find my camera somehow. So the next day in the afternoon we crossed by the members house to see if they had found a camera in their car and they did! They said that they figured it was one of ours and was going to give it to us on Sunday if they didn’t see us sooner. So yeah, you can imagine just how thankful I was (and still am) that I still have my camera. And just in case you guys have forgotten, I’ll remind you, Heavenly Father knows of our desires and wants and he listens to your prayers and pleas. And he will answer you, in one form or another. We just have to listen for the answer. One thing I learned is that as humans, we are really, really good at asking and pleading for things, but the one thing that we need to work on is listening. Are you listening to what Heavenly Father is trying to communicate to you in these moments?

One last thing and I’ll close. Yesterday was Día de los Muertos and we had a lesson with Lucy (our other progressing investigator) about the temple and the ordinances we do in them. And the first thing we talked about was doing baptisms for the dead (you should have seen her face when we first talked about it. She was like, Ha what? What do you guys do? But as we explained it more and included her family history, she felt the Spirit and knew that what we do is a good thing, and not super weird). Fue bien chistoso because it was the day of the dead and we ended up teaching her about ordinances we do for the dead.

And yeah, that was my week.

Sorry, no packages yet. You can thank my Zone Leaders for that. They haven’t gone to the offices for 2 weeks so I’m sure that it’s just sitting in there. But we have a Zone Mtg this Friday and they promised that they would bring all the mail then.

Oh, they days here are definitely getting colder. And the nights are super cold. We don’t even sleep with the fan on anymore bc even with a blanket and a jacket, it’s still cold. Well, back home, I know that this weather isn’t cold. Actually it feels like a perfect summer day with a little wind, to be honest, but when you get used to living in 110 degree weather with no wind AND humidity, its cold and what makes it even worse is you have to shower in freezing cold water every morning. It’s the worst feeling ever. Seriously I will never take for granted hot water ever again.

Okay, now I’m done! Pics are coming soon!

Love you all!

Hermana Perryman

We had Chinese food this past week. A member bought it for us this past Thursday for lunch. IT WAS SOO GOOD!! A little different from the states, but still, soo good.

This is Lleymi (jaymey) she lives next door to us and is a return missionary and really, she's wayy cool. If every member was like her about missionary work, then we would just be in the baptism font all day and night.

This is Hna. Ojenia. (oh-hen-e-a) and she's super cute and is a return missionary as well (and her husband is too) and she reminds me so much of Paige and that's why I love her so much bc shes just so cute.

The girl I have my arm around is Romi. She's going to get baptized this Saturday along with her cousin (Gedren) who is the other girl next to her and her little sister (who is not in the pic) but she's super cute and I've come to love them soo much.

David is the Vampire and Erick is the devil even though they are crazy, they are soo cute and I love them so much.

Week 24: I'm staying here in Izamal!!

Okay, this week’s letter is going to be super short. So sorry, but like usual, I’ve run out of time to write and send pics.

So we had transfers last night and how this usually goes is your District Leader says he will call before 10 and tell you the news, but we didn’t get a call until like 11:30 (we decided to watch the testaments in Spanish and ended up falling asleep but it was fun bc it was kind of like a movie night in our hammocks) and  our DL told us that he doesn’t know anything and that he will call us at 6 in the morning with the news. So 6 o’clock roles around and nada. And we didn’t get a call till 8 this morning with the news that we are both staying here in Izamal. Ugh, I’m soo happy! Literally, we have 2 progressing investigators, and more on date for this transfer and I can’t wait to see them get baptized!

So the baptism of Celina fell through. It was pretty sad, but we are going to keep working with her and her family.

We had a really powerful lesson with our investigator. She’s going through a really rough time in her marriage and she told us that she read the pamphlet and the scriptures that are in the back of the pamphlet and said that she knows without a doubt that all of it is true. And before she was a little cautious to get baptized, but she said now she has no doubts, only that she just wants to be prepared. It was really powerful. She was crying and we cried with her.

I’m so thankful for this gospel. Really I am. I’ve come to realize the happiness that it brings.

Well, that’s it. I have pics to send, and they are coming up.

Oh, my toe. Well it went well. The doctor spoke very little English but he was soo funny with his English and was making me laugh all through the time that he was taking out my ingrown toenail. He gave me 2 medications to take for 5 days and I quickly realized that one of them was a pain killer that was making me drowsy and slow. It was terrible. But I quickly stopped taking that medication bc it was really hard for me to concentrate and feel the Spirt in the lessons. And it rained for 3 days straight (last Mon, Tue, and Wed) and that just made it even more difficult to walk bc I couldn’t get my toe wet, but everything was fine and it looks great. Thanks for all of your concerns and love.
Love you all soo much and I’ll talk to you next week.

PS. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! (This Friday...) oh we have a Ward activity called Halloween this Friday bc the ppl here don’t celebrate it, so me being American, we decided to plan an activity for it. haha I’ll send pics of this next week.

Hermana Perryman

After everything was finished. It went just fine.

You can hardly see it, but that's the part of the nail that he took out. And you can see my ugly toe all gross and nasty.

This is a turtle we found.

Week 23: Another transfer down...

Welp, this is the last pday for this transfer. We have cambios this Sunday night. Ugh.... I so don’t want to be transferred. I’m like dreading it bc I’ve already been here in Izamal for 3 transfers and I have a feeling that President is going to change me and send me to a different area. And I soo don’t want that, but we’ll see how it goes.

Well I don’t have a lot of time to write but I’ll tell you some of the highlights of the week:

1. The investigator who was drunk last week, we cannot find. We have passed by the house every single day this week and nada. And every day there are a group of people at the house, so it’s looking like the worse. I’m praying for the opportunity to talk to this person and see what happened.

2. WE HAVE A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!! And I’m super excited bc it will be my first ever in the mission and the first baptism here in Izamal in a year. So yeah, we are all pretty excited about it. Her name is Celina and she is 13 about to be 14. She’s super shy, but really great.

3. We had interviews this week with President and he said that he is giving us 2 more weeks to work in Izamal and if things aren’t looking like they are progressing, he’s going to close the area. So yeah, needless to say we are working our butts off here.

4. Saturday I had a pretty spiritual experience with the Bishop of our ward. Everytime we would try and talk to him, it was like talking to a wall. But nevertheless, we kept on trying with him. Kept on pushing him to have a consejo and to do all these things. And so Saturday night we had a meeting with just him and us to talk about Celina and her baptism and he seemed to be a little bit happier than usual. And so towards the end of the mtg we asked him if there was anything that we could do for him and his family or for the ward and he said yes! I was speechless bc whenever we have asked this in the past, he ALWAYS says no. but his time he said yes and that he would like for us to just listen to what he has to say. So for about 15 minutes he apologized for how he had been treating us. And how thankful he is that we were sent to Izamal. And how without us, the ward would be soo much worse that what it is now. He went on to explain how he’s felt really alone with his responsibilities as a Bishop and how he felt like he had an eternity of things to get done, but could never make any head way. But then he realized what he was lacking was asking support from Heavenly Father. So he went on to explain how he has felt lost these past months with no one to help direct him and how bc we didn’t have consejos, it’s bc he really doesn’t know what to do or what to talk about in these mtgs. and he said that if it weren’t for us and our constant persistence in trying to get things moving in the ward, well, he would be stuck in the same spot he was.

Really, this was a huge answer to my prayers. I have been praying and fasting sooo much to try and know how to help him. And now, well, things are looking up here in Izamal with the ward and the next baptism.

5. I had McDonalds for the second time here in the mission... and it was soo good. I’ll send pics of this later.

6. I GAVE MY FIRST REAL TALK IN SACRAMENT MTG ON SUNDAY. It was centered on missionary work and members. It was actually really good, and honestly I don’t know what I said but the members said that they could understand me. So I’ll take that as a testimony that the gift of tongues is real.

And yeah, that was my week. I’ve felt so much happier here these past couple of weeks than before. I really do love it here and I really don’t want to leave this place.

Thank you sooo much Dad for the pics and for the video. I loved them soo much and I hope you guys enjoyed the Piano Guys and you’ll have to tell me about this movie called Meet the Mormons. I’ve never heard of it...

Dad, Sis Armstrong said that you got her good on Sunday when you asked if she wanted to go see the piano guys on her pday... and then you said... oh wait, you can’t! hahaha it had me cracking up laughing bc you do that all the time to us!!

So yeah, pics are coming soon. Love you all so much and as always, I appreciate your love and prayers and support!

Hermana Perryman

A terrible pic of me... but this is Hna. McGommery. She's new here in the mission and she's the cutest thing ever. She's in my zone and we've become pretty close.

Okay. how to explain this one. So every year on the 18th of October, there's this event that the Catholics here do, and since every one here is Catholic, well, the whole town participates. so they have this statue of Christ on the cross that they carry from Sitil Pech (a small little town about 10 mins away from izamal) and the carry it to izamal and place it on "display" in the Catholic church in centro. Ya know, the big yellow one (the great and abominable... *caugh, caugh*) basically it's an event centered around worshiping an idol. and its an excuse to drink. So yeah, Saturday there was a whole bunch of ppl in centro.

All the Sisters in the zone

McDonalds!!!

Really tasty french fries...

My comp, me, Elder Reyes (right) hes my District Leader, his companion E. Deppe, and the other Hnas, Hna Manning, and Hna. McGommery. We all took the bus into Centro.

Hna Manning and I.

Week 22: Weekly update

So this week was really good, then Sunday... nada. It was a pretty sad end to a good week, but I’m praying for the help and support this area needs.

So everything was on track for Celina to get baptized this week, then she didn’t show up on Sunday, she isn’t ready to get baptized. Plus our bishop won’t talk to us so it would be close to impossible to plan a baptism without his help. so yeah.

Then another investigator was supposed to go to church but he never showed up, so we decided to stop by his house to see what happened and lo and behold, he’s in front of his house completely drunk. The situation with him is he lives with his brother, and really is not a good guy and is a really bad influence. It was the SADDEST moment I’ve had to witness on my mission so far. Yeah, this area is poor and these ppl have almost close to nothing. And that’s really sad for me. But to the investigator so drunk that he could barely walk and could barely talk broke my soul. We have been working soo hard this persn and they’ve been doing soo well and progressing and looking forward to his baptism and then so see that in person I actually started to cry. It was soo hard for me to see them like that. These past 2 months of teaching and getting to know this person, I couldn’t help but really love this person. So that was really heart wrenching for me to see. We are seeing the investigator on Tuesday and I’m praying for guidance as to what to say and how to continue to help.
So yeah, this week’s letter is a little short. Sorry. Our pday has been cut short from now on. But this week, I only have one pic to send. Sorry, I’m not the best at taking pics. I’m trying hard on working on taking more pics.

I got your small package Mom!! And your letter with the 3 pics in it!! Thank you soo much. I haven’t gotten the chance to open the package yet, but I did get to open the letter. ugh, I loved it sooo much!! Sam, your Spanish is soo good!! And to answer your question on do the members here celebrate the day of the dead, is yes, they do. In fact the ppl here celebrate that more than Halloween. To them, Halloween is more of the devils day or just an unimportant holiday that doesn’t really need to be celebrated. But the day of the dead is a big day for them. Keep up the hard work in your Spanish!!
Miss you all, como siempre. But hey, it’s been 5 months already here in the mission!! ugh, I cannot believe that I’ve almost hit my 6 month mark.

Here’s a quote that I absolutely love and is part of the reason I decided to serve a mission:

"Many young women are serving missions, and it is not because they're not married or don't have anything better to do- it is because they have a desire to serve and are called to the work. The reason there are so many sisters serving is because in the next generation, our Heavenly Father is going to send an army of His priesthood to the earth, and He is giving them mothers who have been trained and taught the gospel.  And what better training can a woman receive than to serve a mission?" -President Gordon B. Hinckley!

Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Perryman

Yeah, I know. It's only a selfie of me with my packages. I'll try harder this week to take more pics!

Week 21: Conference was amazing!

Well, to start off, this letter is going to be a bit shorter this week.

Some highlights of the week:

1. Our investigator Lucy FINALLY accepted a date!! She’s on date for the 1st of Nov and we finally got through to her after 4 months. She’s an amazing woman who has a lot of faith in God and wants to find the right path in her life. She’s reading the BOM and going to church, but wouldn’t accept a date bc she’s been baptized 2 times in the past and doesn’t want to "jump" into another baptism bc she feels like it isn’t a game. She wants to investigate for herself to see if what we offer really is the truth. so this last Friday we had a lesson with her and we were planning on teaching the Evangelio lesson but decided at the last min to change it to the Atonement. and what we did in the middle of the lesson was sing where can I turn for peace and had her close her eyes and just listen. Well in the middle of the hymn she broke out in tears and afterwards she was able to share with us everything that had been going on in her life recently and how she’s been searching for this peace. And so we invited and she accepted. Seriously, it was the best feeling in the world when she said yes after so much time.

2. Our other investigator Selina, is still progressing (yay!) and went to Conference with us Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Bien podoroso, no? She wants to get baptized with her Dad but the problem with him is he hasn’t come to church yet. He has a date, really wants to get baptized and is almost finished with the Book of Mormon after only 2 weeks, but the issue is he hasn’t come to church. he said that he couldn’t come this past week with us to Merida to see the Conference but this upcoming week he’s going to work extra hard to finish a day early in his work so that he can go to church. So we are hoping and praying for that.

And yeah, that’s about it.

I had a really good week of Spanish and spiritual enlightenment. I’m coming up on my 5 month mark and I can’t even fathom where the time has gone. I remember when I got here and thought if I can just survive my first 6 months, I’ll be fine. Well, I’m already at month 5 and the time here has gone by wayyy to fast. It’s not even fair. Sometimes I’ll be walking down the street at sunset here in Izamal, and my breath will be taken away at how beautiful this town is. I’m so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend 5 months of my life here and I’m praying I get at least one more transfer here. Honestly, I don’t ever want to leave bc I know when I do, I part of my heart and soul will be left behind here.

Like I promised last week, pics are coming!!

Sam, how in the world are you sooo big??!! You’re soo tall!!!

How’s school going for you?

Dad, thank you a billion times over for the videos. I loved them so much!!! To hear your guys´ voices was such a blessing!

Oh, Conference was good, though a little rough to understand. I can’t wait to get the Liahona with all the talks in writing. Sat morning I got to watch in English, Sat afternoon, only in English subtitles. I wasn’t even able to listen to it in Spanish, which sucked bc I wasn’t able to take notes. And Sunday, both sessions, I listened to in Spanish. How did you guys like the talks that were in different languages?? que potiente, verdad?

Anyways, gotta run, but I’m sending pics.

Love you all so much and have an amazing week filled with the love that Heavenly Father and Crist has for you.

Hermana Perryman

This is Izamal at sunset. This pic just doesn't do it justice.

This is in a park here in izamal called el parque de los cannoñes. (literally means park of the cannons)

Hna Gutierrez and I together. Shes so short haha.... Actually I'm just really tall here...

This is a nasty spider that was in the street one night while we were walking. These things are everywhere... *shudder with disgust*

This is of a TARANTULA. don't know how to spell it, but you get what I'm talking about. It was so gross and hairy and just ugh. Gross!

This is a shirt that my old district leader made for our district. It's pretty cool, not going to lie.

This is the back of the shirt. if you cant read it, it says Hn. Perryman, 14, Distrito Helaman

So i finally found Canada Dry here! Best day ever. it tasted a little different, but hey, I'm not complaining.

My companions first time ever trying ginger ale. It was a picture worthy moment

Another insect that we found one morning in our bathroom sink. This thing was gross and moved supernaturally fast. Creepy fast. But we killed it, don't worry. I've become an expert on killing bugs here.

Our new District Leaders bday was yesterday and his family had sent him a cake. Don't ask me how, but they somehow did. So after Conference we had some cake and this is a pic of Elder Deppe, the companion of our District Leader, cutting the cake with a credit card (don't worry, we washed it before hand) bc we didn't have any forks or knives. It was pretty tasty, not going to lie.

Us at Conference in the chapel in Merida!

Oh this is us, and two other sisters in my zone. The one next to me is Hna. McGommery and the other in the dark blue is Hna Manning.

Hna Manning and I

And another one of us. She's been in my zone for a transfer and a half and we've become pretty close. She's really amazing and so cute and adorable and I cant wait to meet up with her in Utah afterwards. Of course, she's from Utah haha