Mary's 8th Letter from Peru

Hey Family!

Thanks for your emails! I love love love reading them. I
have some stories for you this week. I dreamed last night in spanish!
Very cool, but I only remember that that I was challenging people to
be baptized haha.

This week, we had some interesting lessons. We had a lesson with a
couple that are having some serious issues with their marriage. After
a discussion about being humble, repentance and starting over, we
asked the brother to offer the prayer. He said a beautiful prayer, and
after he finished we sat in silence for about 5 seconds when his wife
then begins to pray. I'm thinking, okay, awesome. very cool. after she
finishes, my companion begins to pray aloud... and I start
thinking... huh? Did I miss something? Am I supposed to go next,
or...? After she finishes, we are waiting in silence for about 3
seconds and the brother begins to pray again! I think to myself, okay
this is getting our of control. and I need to repent, I couldn't help
but start laughing! The problem was that I didn't want them to realize
that I was laughing, so to cover it up I was coughing, but it just
ended up sounding like I was a crazy person feeling the spirit very,
very strongly. After that lesson, my companion and I laughed all the
way to our next appointment.

We have another investigator, his name is Jose. At first, we weren't
sure if he would progress. He looked at the floor, wouldn't answer our
questions, no response. Para nada. But in the last week, he has
really opened up. He is taking notes in church, praying aloud in the
lessons, and participating, smiling, it's insane the difference the
gospel can make in a person!

One more story. There is a 12 year old boy also named Jose and he has
a madrina, which means his parents gave him to another family to live
with and work for. He is an employee for this family and works about
10 hours a day, since he was 7 years old. Sometimes, he doesn't have
food, its a tough life. We have been teaching when we can. When we
asked him what he would like us to pray for, and he just asked that we
give thanks for all his many blessings. What humility, I learned
something from him that I will never forget.

Well family, my time is almost up, but thanks for the video of boston
and the pictures! I love them!!! My zone was looking at the pictures
too, he is soo adorable. i would also like to say if you ever feel
like sending a jar of peanut butter my way, that would be cool. I
love helping people find the gospel, and watching the changes that always follow!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Swartz

Mary's 7th letter from Peru

Hey family!

I am still with Hermana San Francisco for this next change. Things
are great with her. We work hard to be obedient everyday and in
everything we do. We are definitely not perfect, but we try to work
hard and have faith that the lord will make up the rest.

This week we are going to have a general authority come to speak to
our mission, I have to give the opening prayer and I have been asked
to participate in a special musical number - con migo quedate Senor -
abide with me tis even tide. I have no clue who else is involved, or
how many others will be singing with me, but its really exciting!

I love reading the scriptures, I love this work. Its the hardest
thing i have ever done, and i have never been more tired, but I love
it.

Momma and daddy - I recieved a letter from you guys last week and this
week too! Thank you thank you, I love getting your letters. Yeah I
bet that is weird having the house so quiet when for so many years it
was always full. No worries, Destin and I will be home in no time. I
definitely miss your rolls mom, and your roast and mashed potatoes
dad. Since I have been here, I have had ceviche, leche de tigre (so
strange) liver, cow foot, chicken foot soup, cow lung, mate de coca -
(cocaine) and more. I have not had guinee pig yet, but I am sure its
coming. people rave about it here! I feel super weird about eating it
though haha.

To be completely honest, I have been exposed to things in the last
month and a half that have broken my heart. Its hard to see the trials
that people are facing. people open up to us so easily and break down
into tears and then tell us they dont know why they are telling us
those things. The gospel has something to offer everyone, especially
those with difficult trials, but sometimes people straight up reject
it. I want to just shake them and tell them that this is what they
are looking for, this is what they need to make their life better. but
we cant make anyone believe. one has to choose and decide for
themselves.

Rachel, hope i get your letter soon! _Chris, youre the best brother in
law ever, hope everything is going well for you. Amber, please  send
pictures of the baby when you have him! is there a name decided yet?
David love you tons and tons, hope school is going well, and destin if
you read this, I love you tons, keep working hard and serving the
people in russia. Mom and daddy, thanks for being awesome parents and
not participating in child labor. I love you both soooo much.

Mary's 6th Letter from Peru

Hey momma and daddy and family!

Bad news. my camera has been stolen. not sure how to be honest, i had
it yesterday in my back pack and last night i went to pull it out and
it was not there. so sad, I mananged to print a few off before, but
for the most part my pics are gone. I should be able to get a bunch
of good pictures from people when I get home though... also i am
considering buying a new one eventually, I think I have enough money
in my account should i decide to... right momma?
Esta es la semana de los cambios - transfers. I am not going anywhere
because I am in training, so that is good. I love Ttio, there are a
lot of good people here. my spanish is improving little by little. I
can definitely hold a conversation no problem, as long as the accent
is not too difficult. Hey, destin mentioned that you sent him some
stories about tithing, or different things that you have a testimony
of, and some experiences you have had with them? that would be sooo
wonderful if you could maybe do a dear elder with that, i think that
is free and is a lot faster! I just got your first email this past
week.

We are helping a couple get married this week! so great, and he is set
up to be baptized the 25th. They are amazing. The kids are soooo
great. there are two, clayder and cluber. Clayder is 4 and reminds me
of david. he is alll over the place and is just like a tornado to the
tenth power. my comp loses her patience with him, but I jut adore
him. but holy cow he is tiring!!! cluber is 1 and a half and is just
adorable. we have had to help this family a lot between teaching,
helping them find a house, helping them get married, but we just love
them so much. they are wonderful.

Jose alvarez is awesome, but we havent been able to reach him because
his wife hates us! I dont know what is going to happen with him, but
hopefully the lord will soften her heart so that he can be baptized.
We definitely moved this week into a better apartment, but holy cow is
it tiny! we have to pray on our beds because there is no room. There
are cockroaches, but there is hot water!!! THis week has been the
first week showering with hot water since I got here, and I have
never been more grateful. The family that we share the floor with and
the bathroom with are members. They are amazing - Rocio, Patricia,
miguel, and luanna, or lulu. lulu is 2, miguel is 9, patti is 17.
Rocio packed up her kids, and left her husband who is a drunk, and
left Lima to come here. she literally had nothing, not a place to
live, no job, no food to feed her children, but the lord told her to
come and she has been majorly blessed because of it. She was a less
active but is returning and miguel is going to be baptized the 25th,
his birthday!!! The more time I have on the mission the more I
realize how much i have blessed to have such a wonderful family. I
also have such wonderful friends! for those of you who read the blog,
and write me, if i dont write back its because i dont have plata -
money to write! super expensive, but i hope you all know i treasure
your letters and many times, your letters have answered my prayers.

I love you all soooo much!!! I have been so blessed to
be able to serve, and i know this gospel is true.

Mary's 5th Letter from Peru

of it. i am in a box that is my area haha. we still have freezing
water and so we are going to look for another house. plus, this house
has tons of strange cucifixes and the ashes of a relative. thats the culture and really, i respect it, i do. but it kind of
creeps us out and we would like some hot water. The heater for the
water is in the shower head, but we have replaced it and it keeps
frying! so, a new apt. it is.
Jorge was confirmed last night! yay!! The zone leaders got special
permission to have him confirmed last night but did not have a way to
reach us, so they prayed that they would find us so we could bring
to great a member in the chapel, and that was when the zone leaders
told us they had literally just finished the prayer, and here we were!
there. and the other day he has never felt such a friendship with someone like
this, he told me he feels like he has known me for years. He feels
like a grandpa to me, he is very obedient and patient with his family.
Also, is not my favorite thing, and yet i find myself praying for it
everyday. humbled and opened my scriptures to alma 26 12 by chance.
Thank you to everyone who has sent me letters through dear elder, or
regular.
Hermana Swartz
peru cusco mission
jeron ricardo palma
Manzana A lote 2
urb. santa monica
cusco peru

Mary's 4th letter from Peru w/pictures!

hey family! ward. wont have timeto read them. jorge, and he has been an investigator for 4 years. we were fasting
and praying that when the day came to be baptized he would have his
answer. at the end of a lesson teh day before his baptism, after the
prayer he looked upand said that it was all true and that he felt
someone touch his shoulder and it felt like he had light and warmth
take over his wholebody! awesome. the problem was that he didntsho9w
uyp sunday tobe confirmed and is m.i.a... so, we are working on that.
ALso, there is jose, who is 85 years old and is the most christlike
persone head injurie and wants nothingto do with us. but he will meet with us
at the church and he is so wonderful, after the first lesson he said
that everything made sense, that he has prayed about it and knows its
true. so cool!!!

Also there was a terrible flood here, and the rain just kept coming. I
was talking to my pencionista´s son, and he said that a lot of people
would die that night in the lower parts of cusco. after we left, it
was aweful watching the rivers of water all head down hill, knowing
they would be the cause of so many deaths. Very sad feeling. But over
all, life is wonderful here. Fasting and prayer bring miracles and i
learn so much everyday. Thank you Rachel for your email! with your race!!! so cool. Andgood for chris for joining!!! woot.

Mary's 3rd Letter From Peru

Mom, sorry I couldnt answer your questions. It costs money to print
letters, and its so expensive to mail letters home! i mailed a letter
home that will hopefully answer your questions. I am in Escuchaca
right now with my zone and we are going to go see the ruins. I love
it here. I definitely had a man on a bus try to kiss me today and
another speaking quechua freaking kissed my hand, a wet sloppy kiss.
sick. I love the people, I still am struggling with the language and
dont catch a lot of what is happening.

I had to speak yesterday in church and basically called the ward to
repentance. they are not helping very much, there is a lot of
contention and drama in this ward. Basically I talked about christ
and how everyone needs to stop focusing on them selves and turn
outward, and follow the example of christ. if everyone did this, the
problems in the ward would end. but everyone is whining that they dont
have friends, nobody talks to them, but they themselves dont talk to
anyone! so that was good.
we definitely have had the door slammed in our face, one ivestigator
made eye contact with us and ran inside his home and told the people
working outside to tell us he was not home, sooo, that happened
hahaha. We walk everywhere, or take a taxi if we have to be somewhere
fast. last night a columbian made us arapas, which rock.

I love studying the scriptures sooo much, the more I study them, the
more i learn and the more i see the connection between the bible and
the book of mormon. we had a lession with our pencionista maria, and
explained about Noah and why he had to build a ship vs. Nephi. she
thought the book of mormon was copying the bible! also we had an
investigator ask why joseph smith could see god but moses couldnt. so
that was cool to look into and show him the joseph smith translations.

questions - i cant find the answer to these questions so if you could
look into this and let me know, that would be cool. where did lehi get
the preisthood? where is the scripture that talks about christ saying
he cant forget us because we are engraved on his hands, like a mother
can not forget her own child. Where is the scripture that is on the
picture of you (rachel) when you are on your mission, its a way cool
scripture. and, is there a talk or something that talks about the
garden of eden being in the americas, or independence missouri or
something? let me know!

Mary's 2nd letter From Peru

Hey everybody! These computers are still hard to work with! Destin, I'll ask my mission president if I can email you or not. I would love to be able to email you! Rachel... oh my gosh i miss your children so much its not even funny! anyway, here is what is going on

We have 5 investigators with baptismal dates but two of them are eternal investigators so we are not sure what will happen with that... but I LOVE it. I love it here, even though the water is cold and rach- we definitely have a rat friend that lives above us, our house has tin and tarp for a roof and princess the rat lives in between. we also have two dog friends, both are named bobby . we love them. other dogs, not so much.

investigators - raul is great, super interested in the gospel, israel, miguel, jorge, gladis, abdon. awesome. I love sharing the gospel !!! the language is coming ish. meh. With time.
today we are going as a zone to another section - to see the ruins!!! freaking cool!!! I'll take lots of pics and figure out a way to send them. the gospel is the best, i can already feel myself changing. its freaking the best. family, I would love to get real letters from you as well! mom if you can also find a way to reach mariela mejia, she writes me, but her address is never on the letters. and i dont have her email!!! okay I have to go, but ai love you all!!! sorry, I swear i can type normally with computers that aren't completely weird.

Mary's first letter from Peru

 
 Okay Family and friends!

I will try to answer all of your emails, but I am only allowed to send one mass email to everyone. I am sooo glad I had the opportunity to speak with all of you on thursday!!
It is so crazy here, my companion is Hermana San Francisco, she is from Chile and does not speak english. It is not too cold, it's like fall weather here all the time. The rough part is that we dont have heat, or hot water, the toilet is broken, and we dont have lights. We have a pencionista who does our laundry and our cooking, and she rocks. I love her food! My comp and I get aloing, but I dont speak that well and she doesnt speak English, so its a little tricky. Sometimes I know what's happening, sometimes not. Sorry the keyboards are a little different and I dont have time to fix it!

There are tons of dogs here, and yesterday a dog came out of nowhere and bit me! We weren't sure if he had rabies, so I had to go to Hermana Marias house she is our pencionista, and she studied nursing. She got me all cleaned up. Awesome. Also, yesterday, we saw a drunk man in the street passed out cold. So cool. On New years, there were soooo many fireworks it was unreal! But we had to be inside but we could see some of them, it was more fireworks than I have ever seen! The entire city has HUGE fireworks andf everybody is lighting them off.
My comp has been out 13 months, she does most of the talking. I felt like I was going to pass out all the time the first few days because of the altitudew,but its better now. Except when we climb a hill. We are in a little ward, not branch, and my comp and I live in a room, and that room is in a house with non members. It's weird, it's like, we have to go through their house to get to our room. President Calderone is Peruvian and does not speak English. Apparently I am in a rich area, but I would have never guessed. People are great.
We taught a die hardcatholic lady and I love her. She hates the missionaries, and the last sisters dropped her, but I love her and we have a second appointment. The spirit was so strong, I love it. I want to contact everyone, but I dont know what to say yet but I try to say what I can. We are very high in the mountains.
Okay I have to go, i love you all! Sorry the grammer is nnot the best, I can't figure out this keyboard! I tried to answer all of your questions, but I just dont have time! It's so busy! love you all!

Mary's Christmas letter (last MTC letter)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
 
so we had Elder Bednar come today and speak to us about the difference between a testimony and being converted unto Christ,. It was sooo awesome! I have like 4 pages of notes from it. He is so bold,  it was awesome. Anyways, I leave this wednesday for peru and i get to call home I believe when I am at the airport! Atleast thats what I have been told. So if you get a call, answer it! I will probably call home or Dad's cell. Either one. Dad is usually the best at answering his phone :) I cant wait to hear all about your Christmas!  How did maddie and Boston like it this year? Tell me all about it! I guess dont send anymore letters to the MTC,  I wont get them because I'll be gone obviously. Oh!!! the district loved the cookies and milk that you sent, we had a straight up Latino Christmas eve, with a pinata and all.  I LOVE THE CHRISTMAS PRESENTSS THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! the garments are awesome, i actually needed a few more. and the wax, that is money. Thank you so much! This Christmas has been different but definitely a good one. I feel lik eI have learned so much about  how to be more like the savior just from today.  I wanty to share my notes but i dont have neough time. maybe when I come home. II am trying to think of stories that i can tell you, but I am having trouble...  there is just not enough time! It is crazy. Oh last night we watched a christmas carol and it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I have not laughed that hardin a long time. 2000 missionaries who arent allowed to date, make the funniest comments during movies I love it. every kiss was like the biggest deal, all of the elders went crazy over it! hahah also when Tiny tim had his line " God bless us everyone" it skipped and everyone was so sad over it! and then of course at the end of the movie when he says it again, every clapped and went nuts. The things you find funny in the MTC are things that would SOOO not be funny in the real world.  I love it so much. I cant believe I am leaving wednesday! I am sooo not ready, but i guess it is going to happen. I still cant say the things i want to be able to say, but I guess that will have to come when I get out there. I cant wait to NOT have all the time. that will be so much better for me~! I like the food, but I am so glad i dont have to eat here for three months. 3 weeks is plenty long enough of processed food. not that its bad, its just that 3 weeks is long enough.
 
Well I have another few minutes so i am trying to think of things you all would want to know. I realized last night that i am ebeneezer scrooge because all of my companions all got eachother, and me presents, and I being the least thoughtful got no presents for anyone. I felt like scrooge!!! I am working on being a better person in that aspect.  anuyway I am going to go but i love you ALL to death.  Cant wait to see yuo all in a year and half.
 
MERRRY CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD AND RACHEL AND CHRIS AND MADDIE AND BOSTON, AND DAVID AND AMBER AND ANYONE ELSE WHO READS THIS!!!!!

Mary's 3rd letter from the MTC

Hey momma!

my district loved the cookies, they said it was like a party in their
mouths. a few of them had never tasted anything like it and went crazy for
them! The spanish stuff is helping for sure, but it is hard to get the
language down. out of everything that is what is the most frustrating. I
still feel like i am in the wrong class, but hey. this is how it goes. :)

funny story. so sundays here are interesting. everyone has to write a talk,
and then they randomly call someone to speak. Everybody is telling me I am
golden, that there is no way i'll speak because they had all been here for
6 weeks and not been called. All of my roommates all wrote full two pages
worth word for word for their talk, and I had 4 basic points and one
scripture because I had spent most of my time preparing the lesson that I
had to teach that day also in spanish. anyway, who did they call to speak?
of course, the solo sister in the advanced district. i am pretty sure there
is a huge target on my face and everybody loves to pick me to see why I am
the special white blonde hermana who spends all her time with the natives.
I couldnt help but just laugh the rest of the day because Heavenly Father
must have some reason behind making me a target, I just havent figured it
out yet.

I love you all! oh also, I'll try to buy Destin some ear muffs and send
them to you to send to him. also, I would like jill's address, dani's
address, and I would andrew's address. My p-day is on thursday, but this is
my last one because I leave wednesday.

flight plans : we have to be at the travel office at 4 am on wednesday the
28th, the plane leaves at 7 am, and we are flying to Atlanta, and then
straight to Lima, and then we'll probably get on a plane to cusco, but it
doesnt say anything in our travel plans about anything after Lima. so we'll
find out. :) I have to go! love you!