Mary's 16th letter from Peru

Hey mom! you know me so well. i keep forgetting to bring my license with me, but i will try to remember to bring it. What time should i call for mothers day? Life is good here in the jungle. most of my rashes and insect bites are clearing up as i have been wearing more insect repellent so that is good. I have become accustomed to eating and drinking ants... normal. protein. One elder just showed me pictures of him eating worms. there is a white, fat worm here people love. sick. Nobody tried to shoot me and i havent met anybody from the mafia, like some people on missions.... haha but it was a good week. we had 2 baptisms on saturday, oscar and jhoan. they are the cousins of Jorge who got baptized about 2 weeks ago, and all three of them received the priesthood yesterday!!! I am overjoyed with all three of them. yesterday in Gospel principles, jorge introduced himself and said he was grateful to have found the true church. He always bears his testimony and always wants to pray. This week, his mom told us that she walked into the cuarto (almost nobody has an actual house, just cuartos, or a room with a bathroom.) and she found him reading the book of mormom just crying. he is 16 years old. I love the gospel sooooo much! I have never seen people change so much, so fast than i am seeing right now on the mission. anyway, thats all for this week. I love you guys, like destin said hearing about the family dinner makes me excited to eat mashed potatoes and roast with everybody! I love you all! Hermana Swartz

Mary's 15th Letter from Peru

Hey family! wow Destin had a crazy week haha. people trying to shoot him and cut him and what not. Here, we had an interesting experience too- we were talking to a man on the street and he was offended that we couldnt hug him and give him a kiss. he then wraps his arms around me and is yelling JESUS LOVES YOU! TEAR DOWN YOUR WALLS AND FEEL THE LOVE OF JESUS!!! yeah, so that was interesting. my poor companion was hiding behind me until he got to her too hahaha. wow. yeah. I love teaching people about the gospel of jesus christ and watching the difference it makes in their lives. I am beyond prideful and i could just humble myself, it would be that much easier to teach people with the spirit!!! to answer questions from last week, no i have not recieved any packages. I did recieve the letter from elles momma, i love her so much! the water here swirls counter clockwise in the toilets, and my return date is 26 of june 2013. Love you all! peru rocks on ice! no time - love you all! Hermana swartz

Mary's 14th letter

Hey family! apparently the int connection is terrible out here because it took over an hour to get into my email!! Is Destin training too??? Mom, dont worry. There are no dinosaurs, and i am not going to die from bug bites, although sometimes i feel like i might lol. Its pretty safe where i am at, and i dont know all of the reasons for why they pulled the whole district out, but one sister had a bite from her last area that got infected, and everything swells out here, so they pulled her. and the other sister had been here 6 months, and president never keeps people missionaries in an area more than 6 months. We do not have a shack, we have a room with an awesome view overlooking pueblo viejo, and the jungle. this morning i woke up at about 5:30 because i couldnt sleep it was too hot, and watched the sunrise over the jungle- it was soooo awesome. We had a baptism this week, Jorge was baptized!!!! woot. and we have about 5 lined up for april, but we´ll see how it goes. Conference rocked, as always. I love love love Elder Holland, he always burns people in his talks and I love it sooo much!!! haha. super powerful. all the talks were fantastic really. I love my companion, and i am slowly adjusting to puerto maldonado. it is supposed to get up to 50 celcius here in the next month or so... i am not sure what that is in degrees F, but let me tell you it is soooo hot with a thousand percent humidity. Life is good, the gospel is true, I love it sooo much. I love the scriptures and the more time i spend being a missionary the more I feel like i know christ a little more. love you all!!!! Hermana Swartz