Mary's 18th letter form Peru

My beloved family!!! It was sooo great to talk to you all yesterday!!! I definitely felt like I could have talked for 2 hours and it would not have been enough time. Mom, I realized after I hung up, that I forgot to tell you happy mother´s day!!! So happy mother´s day momma, thank you so much for all you have done for me. I gave a talk about how you raised us telling us you would rather have us dead and spiritually alive then live a long life, but reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to have the understanding of who i am and where i come from. Man it sounds like russia is a rough mission, that would be so hard to not have anyone interested. but how awesome that he gets to go to the temple!!! i would give my left hand to go to the temple in lima. We have so many people that are interested, that love christ here. The main thing we run into here is that they all are die hard catholics and worship los santos and the virgin guadalupe and maria, and have parades with the little doll and everybody is just worshiping this little doll... APOSTASY!!! yeah, but thats peru for ya. The people here are good, but getting a peruvian to church on time.. wow. so hard. fulfilling their promises so that they progress... difficult. President is coming into town this week and we have our interviews and a zone conference. so that will be great, President is the best with getting people to complete their promises. Also, im glad you liked the pictures! President chiang was sad not one of you responded to his email though, if you could send him a thank you email, that would be really cool. Also, family. sad news. I am probably going to come home from the mission a bit chunky... we aren't allowed to go running because its a little dangerous, and we have a pencionista that cooks for us all three meals, and they get offended if you dont eat all the food. if you ask for less, they give you more! so, thats the mission. The work is good, life is good, and i would not trade this experience for the world. Its crazy but i really do feel like a different person from the last time i talked to you all in december. anyway, the church is true, and i can not deny the truth of the gospel of jesus christ, and never will. Hermana Swartz

Mary's 17th letter from Peru

My Dear Family and Friends! This week has been a good week. Hermana Caicedo and I changed rooms, and so now we are not next to a night club. So thats been nice to be able to sleep with out reggeton blasting all night. Now the only issue is that we sleep on the third floor, and its sooooo hot!! Holy cow. But such is life. The good part is that we are only in our room in the morning and at night, so its not too bad. We are teaching a lot of people right now, a lot of couples that have to get married before they can get baptized! We do have one investigator with a baptismal date, bania who is going to baptized the 19th of this month! She is sooo funny I love her. There is not too much happening other than that. Just working hard, loving life. The jungle is great… but i cant lie, the heat is a little much for me. But its super pretty, so thats good. Mom and dad, I am going to call at 6:30 or 7 my time, 4:30 or 5 your time and i can not wait to talk to you! I love you guys, i hope everything is going well back in utah! Mom its way cool you are going to spain in june! We have a guy from spain in our rama, he´s cool. He talks funny, but he´s cool. Jajaja. Anyway, gotta run. I love you all! Mom and dad, happy anniversary yesterday! And Happy birthday to boston! I cant believe he is 3! Wow, time is passing quick. Anyway, love you all! Hermana Swartz