Third Week In Tarapoto

Hey guys! I’m so sorry I didn’t write last week!! Not gonna lie, it was one of the toughest weeks out here yet.  Return missionaries tell you that missions are hard but you have no idea what that even means! Every missionary needs to go through those weeks I guess, but if you are preparing to serve right now, just remember there’s gonna be some really really hard weeks so start doing everything you can right now to make life easier for you out in the field (: but everything’s cool and IM AN ADULT NOW. (: Whhhhhat, how am I even 20 idk.

Monday my group went to a place called Llamas and I was super disappointed cause I thought we were literally going to see some llamas but it’s actually this castle thing haha but its super random because some rich italian guy just came and randomly built the castle like 5 years ago so it’s actually not that cool (; .

This week was awesome because I went on three different splitz!!! My companion is the missionary hermana leader, so whenever other comps are having problems we go on splitz and they decided to do them all this week. On Tuesday I was companions with my home girl out here on the mish! Hna Snyder is the coolest. We are a tonnn alike and we had so much fun as companion’s haha. That’s why we don’t think we will ever get to be real comps); haha,  but we were running my area and my area is huge and I’ve only been here for 3 weeks so I barely know where my house is (; so we got lost.. a lot.. haha but we just did a lot of street contacting and it worked out! The last visit of the day was with my investigator Aurura. She’s super awesome. She is 78 and has an awesome testimony of god, at the end of our lesson we asked her to end our lesson with a prayer and she literally prayed for 15 MINUTES!! I’m not even joking, it was terrible cause me and Snyder were doing everything we possibly could not to lose it by the end of the prayer and it was such a great prayer but seriously we didn’t think it was ever going to end it was nuts!!! haha

The other days I taught with Hmn Poma from Bolivia in her area Shilcayo and Hnm Walker a gringo from Lehi in my area! Both are sweethearts. Idk why they don’t always put gringos together though cause seriously everrrryyyyone will let you into their house for a lesson its awesome (;

Saturday was my biiiiiirthday!! Mom, Im sooooo glad Luzmilla sent you a FB request, shes awesome. She’s super sassy but she’s my Peruvian mom out here on the mish and she just makes fun of me all the time cause she talks soooo fast and half the time I don’t understand her and she just makes fun of me but it’s a good time and I love her and her family (; but yeah the cupcake was pretty good!!   It had fondant on it instead of frosting, oh and she gave me the hug and kiss from you mom so don’t worry lol.  At 8 p.m. we came home and all the people on the ward council were there and it was super cute. That’s what all those pictures are from!! One of the ladies is named Alicia and she is the most darling elderly lady and we teach her all the time.  She’s a converso (convert) and she gave me body wash wrapped in a little bag and paper cause she said for my birthday the most important thing she wants for me is to have good salud (health) (; it was reallyyyy cute!  At the end of the night I stood up to get a picture with my comp and OUT OF NOWHERE a stinking cat literally bit my leg off. Not even joking haha,  so now I just really hate all cats that ever existed, (; but its fine and I’m pretty sure I’m going to live (; anyways, love you guys!!!!

Hermana Jackson

With her companion Hna Vega.

This is Kaitlyn's home - The sister's live upstairs.

View from the their mototaxi.

With Hna Snyder & a ward member who might be one of her Pensionista's

Inside their house.

P-day at the Llama's castle with all the Hna's.

First Area - Tarapoto

Well I made it to the jungle! I’m in an area called Tarapoto. It’s in the mountains!! It’s so beautiful here. Tarapoto is about an hour plane ride from Iquitos. My companion is Hermana Vega! She´s Latina but she’s from California so she can speak English so that’s super helpful. I understand sooooo much Spanish its super cool, except when people start directly asking me stuff then I have no idea what they’re saying (; cause I understand what people are saying by hearing the words I know, so when they talk a lot I understand the topic haha but also I’m suuuper good at pretending to know what they’re talking about when really I have no idea(;

I live in a room with cement floors and stone walls. But there’s a spiral staircase that leads up to it from the outside so that makes me happy haha the only thing that I hate about it is that I alllllways have these little ants all over my desk and this morning I had 9798734 little spiders in my bed it was the worst but I’m all tough now so it’s cool haha.

We have 2 different pencionistas and I love them both so much!! They take really good care of us and the food is really good!! Here they have every fruit you can think of and the fruit trees grow everywhere it’s so cool! My pencionistas names are Rosio and Mariesol. And we live above the home of Luzmilla who does our laundry and also we teach her family all the time.

My first time I went proselyting was in Iquitos. My comp is a sister leader and had a meeting so I went as a trio with other sisters!! It was so cool, the people are so accepting. It was sooo funny though, there was a group of little girls all 6 to 9 and we were talking to them outside and then we went in this lady’s house to teach them and I sat down and we started talking about the power of prayer and then I start hearing giggling and all 10 girls were standing outside the bedroom door and they all started to touch my hair and the lady of the house was just staring at me like, what in the world is going on hahahaha it was so funny.. I had to shoo them out! All of them wanted like 10 hugs when we left though.

Everyone gets around here by the mototaxi cars, they’re sweet I like them alot. Oh we taught this one lady Elva, She’s a reference and we taught her about the plan of salvation and at the end of the lesson we invited her to give the closing prayer but she didn’t know how and she is just the most hilarious lady with the biggest laugh and she was just cracking up cause she didn’t want to give the prayer so Hna Vega stood up and walked over to her and whispered a prayer in her ear, like little kids in primary, it was so cute. 

In another lesson we started out by singing a song but I had no idea what the song even was, so it was terrible but I feel like all the Peruvians, bless their hearts, are tone deaf, but it wasn’t that big of a deal (; but yeah this place is super super cool!

Love you!!

Hermana Jackson

Looking down a trail by their humble little home.  

Letter From Kaitlyn's Mission President - 1st Day In Iquitos

LA IGLESIA DE

JESUCRISTO

DE LOS SANTOS

DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS

  

11/3/2015

Dear Jackson Family:

We are pleased to inform you that we picked up your daughter today at the Iquitos Perú Airport. She is happy and ready to serve. We have spent much of today interviewing and training your daughter, and she was assigned to work with a trainer. We know that the mission experience will be life changing for your daughter. As we often tell the missionaries, “Of all the converts you will have during your mission, you will be the best convert.”

Thank you for helping to prepare your daughter to serve a mission. We are very excited to serve with your daughter. We have included two photographs of her.

Sincerely,

Presidente Alejandro Gómez Moreno        Hermana Graciela García de Gómez

Misión Perú Iquitos                                     Misión Perú Iquitos

 

Misión Perú Iquitos

Jr. Napo #478
Iquitos, Maynas
Loreto
Perú

Hermana Jackson with Presidente & Hermana Gomez

 

 

Hermana Jackson with her district and Presidente & Hermana Gomez. I think the rest of the missionaries are another district that came to Iquitos from the CCM the same day. Some of the sisters were in her first pictures she sent home after arriving.