Peru 3/14/12

MOM!!!! guess what!!!!!!!!!!

 

nope.

nope.

try again.

NOPE.

okay ill tell you....

 

ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY!!!! I have been looking forward to this day for a whole year!!! and now it has finally come! :) i love you so so much. and im so happy that you are my very own mother. i love you.

 

Also.. today is stephanie halens birthday! please tell her i said happy birthday.

 

and that means that bris birthday was either yesterday or tomorrow. pretty sure it was yesterday. please tell her happy birthday from me.

 

also.. i think nickki gabel is getting married this month!!! so happy for her!! please tell daddy long legs that i am so happy for her and congratz!

 

cool quotes and jokes for the week:

 

What is the definition of a farmer? someone who is outstanding in their field :)

 

A mission is the tithing of your life so far.

 

obedience brings blessings but exact obedience brings miracles.

 

 

 

And by the way.. i can snap my fingers like chet now and all the latinos here. ya.. be proud. i sure am :))

 

random facts... mascara here costs about 37 soles. which is about 17 dollars!! crazy huh! cuz everything else here is cheap.

 

mom.. please add khalil to this list of emails.

 

so this week has been really chill. in one week i will be in bolivia!! and jules will have her mission call hopefully tomorrow. how cool is that???

 

Last saturday we went back the rimac stake and talked to less active members. but last saturday was a bad day for missionaries because it was like the superbowl.. but for peru and for soccer. so there were a lot of guys walking around being dorks. so we had to be careful. anyways.. we taught two lessons and i talked a lot. which was nice. and then we were done and walking back to the church and i saw this girl and thought we should talk to her. so we did. we told her about the church and she was catholic. no surprise there. and i showed her the book of mormon and bore my testimony of it. and then asked her to read moroni 10:4 which i have memorized :) anyways.. as she read it i have never felt the spirit stronger in my life. it was amazing. and she felt it too because she started crying. and asked us if she could come to our church. so we gave her the time and directions and stuff. it was amazing!!!!!!!!!!! so so amazing. and then the next day i saw camilla mora. and she was so great just to talk to. i love her so much. we are supposed to be our very first converts.. and let me tell you.. after sharing the book of mormon and my testimony with lola i have never been more converted the gospel of jesus christ.

 

 anyways.. i love you all. please tell jolene and rochelle and chantal that i need pictures of my nephews and neices. and that of course i love them too. i love everyone so so much. i am having a wonderful time here. i havent gotten mail in two weeks which is rough.. but hey.. its fine. i love you!!!!!!!

 

and mom.. i love you so much. and in my book.. you are still 27 like you told me all those years :)

 

Tamazine

 

Peru 3/7/12

hola mom! its me!

 

did you get the pictures i sent last week? i dont know if they sent..

 

mom.. please add dennis.tolman"byui.edu to these letters.

 

please ask people to not write in spanish when they send my emails or letters. most of the time i think they use google translate, and i have no idea what they are saying because google translate is not always the best translator. i have even looked the words up in the dictionary here and asked the teachers for help translating and no one has any idea what is being said. sorry!

 

i got everyones dearelders on saturday. thank you so much for all of those! they seriously are the best. jolene i hope you feel better.. and give baby chaun a picture of me so he can look at it every night so he can be ready to build sand castles all day with me when i get back!  jeremy and priscilla.. thanks for the visual image of knowing that no one here washes their hands and then i eat the food here. its no wonder why everyone gets sick here! mom.. i love you so much. thanks for writing me everyday. i really enjoy hearing about how everyone is doing. hey did you know that remax, the real estate thing, is here in peru?? they are actually really big here cuz the real estate is going up here and us sucks right now for real estate. i thought that was interesting

 

please start sending letters to bolivia. i leave here in less than two weeks so the letters need to go to bolivia. thanks!

 

well.. my week has been pretty much the same. i am the coordinating sister here, so i just look after all 9 of the american girls here and then report it back to the president. my spanish is coming along really well, and im honestly not stressed about anything. i know that "if i do my best, the lord will make up for the rest"... hahaha... hopefully... :)

 

ummm... like i said my week has been really chill.. nothing else to report. OH!!! wait a second!! we got new latinos here. every three weeks new people come in. and the latinos this time are super sexist. like girls cant play soccer. but i showed them what is what is soccer and now they all ask me to be on their team. :) and they want us to ask to leave the room if there are guys there. hahahah ya.. sorry but i dont do that. i just get up and leave... when it is appropriate of course.. but my latino companion is always like can we please leave? and im like hahahaha no. im not asking permission from a 19 year old boy to leave the room. sorry.. i know i should work on it.. i will try to get better at being submissive. its just not something i think is a good attribute. to have. anways.. i love you all! a lot. dont miss me and dont have too much fun without me!! also.. mom.. i know you have almost no say in this.. but can you try to talk to sonya.. i think she is in charge next year.. and try to make the family reunion in august or late july so i can come next year? i would really like to. and also.. can we just have a little reunion with all our siblings? i think that would be so much fun. how is heidi doing? rochelle said she burnt her hand really bad. poor heidi. and give avi a kiss for me! i sure do miss her. okay i love you!! dont miss me too much! and thanks for selling my car! i just wanted it gone. so thanks for that!

 

Tamazine

Peru 2/29/12

hi mom! remember me?

 

:)

 

este un chiste... its a joke :)

 

today was so amazing!! we went on a tour or lima and it was so amazing. we got to see the beach. it was cool cuz there was a park and instead of toys there was work out equipment. way awesome. one of the pictures is of me and hma brown on the work out stuff by the beach. then we went to the capitol and walked around and went shopping and i got a cool messi soccer jersey for like 12 dollars. tell me what you guys want and i will try to buy it for you.. i just have no idea what to get anyone! i saw a really cool rock thing but i really didnt want to be hauling it around my whole mission. sorry mom. :)  then we went to pizza hut. the fast food is wayyyy better here. and then we went to the temple and now here i am! the temple was amazing. i just love going there. the church is so true. no doubt.

 

i have learned how to braid my hair!!

 

new people come here only every 3 weeks.. so now all the north americans are gone and we are the advanced spanish people. its fun. we have about 125 people here now. instead of just 80. but still only like 23 girls.

 

watch the devo talk by elder bednar called recognizing the spirit. it is so good!

 

mom.. can you talk to wells fargo and tell them i will be using my debit card in lima and then bolivia? or else they will discontinue it if i use it here.

 

on saturday we went around lima and made contacts with people. it was a lot of fun. we went to a good part of town.. aka no dogs :) we met this guy who did not believe in god.. who read the bible every day and who wanted us to teach him :) so cool! we were helping this one ward who 4 weeks ago had 20 member and who last week had 85. the church is growing so fast!

 

tell tara cordner thank you for all the puns. i use them daily :)

 

tell mark and holly thanks for the dear elder. and that the salsa here is amazing.. but not as good as hollys. that is a fact.

 

random fact.. peru is known for their soup and rice. i have had beans here only once. they are not as common.

 

jules.. please add jacquelyn boza on facebook. and barbie jean cooper and andrea umphenour. and enrique vera guiterrez. they are some of the most amazing people ever.

 

mom.. how is reuben doing? i miss him a lot. how is little bug and kamilla? tell them not to miss me!

 

about the pictures. hm cooper is the one with the white shirt. hma umph is the other american picture. then the two  llaattiinnooss are my favorite people here.

umm that is about all. i love you guys mucho and i miss you! how is everything going back in the states?

 

oh by the way....

 

I LIVE IN PERU!!!

 

hahahah so much fun. anyways i love you mucho. dont miss me :)

 

tamazine

Peru 2/22/12

wow. where to start.

the food is amazing. we can always talk about food for a long time. :)

but on saturday we went prosyleting. btw my spelling is horrible these days. so saturday we went to estaca rimac or estaca ramac which is just a stake in peru. i went with hma blacutt and two other big latino women. about 30 of us went to the stake center and then we split up. it was the first time that hermanas were allowed in the area, and so thats why the other two women came with us. when we walked.. it went hma blacutt one other lady, behind them was me, and then behind me was the last lady. i was always in the middle. we saw about 200 wild dogs in about 4 hours. and the place stunk so bad. it was such extreme poverty it was insane. we could not take our scriptures, definitely no earrings or watches. i wore my rings though. the walls of the houses were cardboard boxes and newspapers. no doors or windows. the ground was dirt. and since we were on the mountainside, the back wall was always the dirt. at one point i was scared out of my mind because about 20 wild dogs has circled us and were growling with their hair up on the back and trying to bite us. about 5 natives had to shoo all the dogs away. if you get bit by them you have to get the rabie shot and i reallllllly did not want that. we taught this person in his house.. it was so sad. the only decoration on his wall was a clock, the glass broken and the hands missing. there was a dirty bucket of putrid water that he offered to us for a drink. ha. fat chance. we taught him and i got bit by a million ants. and his house was about 8 feet by 6 feet. like honsetly nothing. the only furniture was a broken chair. he had the cutest kids though. three little girls who were adorable so so cute. anyways.. everyone was soo poor and didnt have anything. yet somehow they gave me a beautiful bracelet and a cute hand bag. i have no idea how i ended up with it.. i kept on trying to say no but they would not take no for an answer. it was sooo sad to see all the people living with nothing. literally nothing. no wonder why they get sick all the time.

 

oh a few gross items of business. they dont wash their hands after going to the bathroom. and they throw away their toilet paper. so the bathrooms always smell like rotting intestine fluid. so so gross.

well.. thats about it. i love the people here so much. the climate is amazing. oh.. go to 6millionstories.com. its a cool website.

oh.. you know the movie fun with dick and jane. you know when dick is mistaken for an illegal immigrant and his wife tries to bust him out and all the aliens jump into the little tiny car. ya.. they always do that in cars. seriously. we took a bus today to the temple. it was like 12 feet long and there was easily 25 people on it. its like the ultimate game of sardines. hahah. its a joke :)

well i love everyone. oh ya. Chester.. i love you. a lot. i dont know if i ever told you that but i really do. thanks for being such a great example to me all these years-  and veronica.. i love you my chicka chicka bee. dont miss me. :)

Tamazine

Peru 2/15/12

hey mom!

i do get dearelders here!! just write them before monday and i should get them that friday or the next friday. its true. i got one from jules, the one you sent while i was at the provo mtc. mom. please send me a letter with some us stamps in it. then i can use the pouch mail and it will take a couple weeks for you to get it, but at least you will get hand written letters from me.

first things first. please add don.gabel at my ladsmail to the list. and peter. and sonya. and nick. his is jdmnickgabeatyahoo.com

okay. so much to say. they will be bullet points.

the man from rocket man.. well.. he looks like him. is in my district. he even acts like him. it is fun

there was an earthquake here the other day. it was cool. but small. only like 10 seconds. i guess it happens all the time here.

there is a quote i like. it says god will not let his servants look stupid. so i better be getting the gift of tongues soon :)

we spend a lot of our time outside. it is like a garden of eden. so beautiful. and there is 6 north american girls and 15 other girls and then the rest are elders. but there are only 80 of us here. i joke around with my hermana alot. i have a latino one and then hma morris. we spend a lot of time with our latino one so we spend more time speaking spanish. my brain literall starts hurting from speaking spanish all day. like around 8 my brain stops. its weird but so true.

its always smoggy here. probably why its so humid. but i love it here. the buildings all have ac and there are no flies. just ants in my bed because my hma blacutt brings back food to our room. its against the rules but her mom died and her sister, her dad and her work all day and she is super poor and has never had a real bed or that much food before so i dont say anything. she always takes forever eating meals but i dont say anything because that is probably the most food she has ever had. see.... i can learn patience :)

we play soccer here for gym. but we have a guy who played for byu and then a guy who played for iowa western here so they are both really good and the games get intense.

i am thinking about cutting my hair off because it is so hot and humid. one of the hermanas here did so i think i will too.

i am getting tanner.. its nice to have color again.

the elders here are super funny and chill. i spend most my time laughing with: barbara cooper, andrea umphenour, and richard eklof. we cant sing songs that are romantic, but we sing songs like if i die young and some song by carrie underwood that is like my temporary home. its sad.

there arent any maps or calendars here so i have no idea whats really going on. its hard

today we went to the temple and went to the store. they were playing dont stop believing and bruce springsteen and somewhere we know by keane or keene at the store. it was crazy. i took pictures but they take forever to load so you guys will just have to wait until im in santa cruz to get them.

i love it here. the people are so nice. it is a third world country but i have never been treated better in my life. the guys are so kind and so gentleman. its amazing.

okay. i love you! and i need to read the letters in my inbox. please try to copy your emails and send them as dearelders so i have all day to read them instead of like 5 minutes. i love you guys! dont miss me too much. un poco.. esta bien. ;)

Tamazine

Peru 2/9/2012

So the keyboard is way weird here. so there wont be a lot of capitalization. or question marks. sorry.

first off.. please do not send me any packages to peru. the reason why they didnt give me a mailing address is because it takes about 2-3 months to get a package while im in bolivia and peru. and people almost never get packages sent to bolivia. they say it is better to just deposit the money into my account, and then i will go buy the stuff.

the peru mtc or ccm is really small. there is about 80 people here right now. my companion is latino. you are either latino or north american. latinos are here for 3 weeks and everyone else is here for 6. We flew all yesterday and got to peru about midnight, and then took a reallllly long time in customs because we have a german with us who is not the sharpest, or the humblest (hey he is german) tool in the shed. so we got here at the ccm about 3:30 and then our companions wake up at 5 to stretch. so im exhausted. but it so beautiful here. seriously. google pictures of the ccm. and the food is DIVINE. like so good. for lunch i had cilantro rice and chicken and onions that were marinated is some sauce. it was like chipotle but bursting with more flavor. sooo good. We have to read the bom in 19 days. crazy. and we eat everything on our plate because it is super rude to throw away food to someone of the latinos who come from really poor backgrounds. 

we have a soccer field with fake grass, and a BEAUTIFUL courtyard with a fountain and amazing flowers. it is soo nice! oh. well you are on google, check the weather for here. it is like maybe 80, but with humidity it feels like death. hahah jk. but it is really humid. i met a bishop yesterday, he was like 22. and he is from santa cruz bolivia. our mission goes into brazil, and borders argetina and paraguay i believe. but the hermanas stay in the city so we wont be going to brazil. the elders who go to brazil have to get a name tag in portugese. its cool.

camilla mora´s dad is in my bishopric, so i will meet him tonight. jules, can you contact her on facebook and tell her that i am here. gracias. remember.. there wont be any question marks on this. hahah

everything is going grand. oh and my feet are swelling because of the heat. pretty bad. and everyone has sweat on their face- or glistening- at all times. its fun. 

well... thats abot it. after this we get to take a nap until 5:30. which will be amazing. there are about 25 girls here. maybe 30. we take up about 7 rooms. so not that many. our p-days are on wednesdays. but i have no clue what time i will be on the computer. and i dont have any us postages so i can,t put my letters in the pouch mail. so i guess this will be our main way of talking! i do get dearelders and other hand written letters.. it will just take a lot longer to get here. like 2-3 weeks. its like i live in the middle of nowhere... its weird. oh and the people here are so beautiful and so kind! like my spanish is horrible but we play charades and try to figure everything out. 

i love you guys! dont miss me! 

Tamazine

MTC 2/5/2012

Hey Guys!
So i have a bunch to tell you and only 20 minutes. so here it goes!

Elder Russel M Nelson and Elder Holland came and spoke to us on tuesday, it was amazing! you can read their talks on lds.org. I get to call home on wednesday from the atlanta airport before i fly out to peru. So mom. i need your phone number. send it by dearelder. I will call around 3-5.

I have been eating the food here! amazing.. i know! i just eat the salad usually. they have some way good salads. 

Yesterday was our last day to speak english in the mtc. I have gone like 14 hours without speaking english. It is crazy how much i know in spanish, and how much i do not know. We had gym and I played volleyball and I couldn't say anything because i didn't know how to say those words in spanish! but it was still a lot of fun!

Today we get to go to the temple :)

Alexis Hale, Melanies sister, was on a powerpoint for how to look amazing without wearing a lot of make up. I thought that was cool :)

I know that eyan cagle is in the mtc because they called his name over the intercom, but I can't find him anywhere. i have looked. 

Chocolas means to pound it in espanol :)

Thanks priscilla for the amazing present you sent me! Although i did not eat all of the hart cookie, the elders in my district did and they said it was divine. I didn't even tell them it was healthy for them :)

Thanks everyone for all the nice dearelders i have been getting. I get like 4-5 a day. But i dont have enough time to write hand written letters back, so sorry. But i do appreciate hearing from everyone and knowing that they are doing well. Please do not send me emails, because i do not have enough time to read them so they are just piling up. Thanks chet, and bri and reuben and chantel and rochelle and jolene for the nice cards and birthday wishes. Jolene, my companions loved the salt water taffy but i ate the watermelons flavor :)

I have been learning a lot. Right now we are teaching three investigators so it is fun. Yesterday we had class from 8-12, 1-5, and 6-7. It was a long day but I love it because i am learning so much. 

I am convinced that the elders in my district are some of the best men on this Earth. They are amazing.

Listen to this joke Elder Gordon told me :)

An Irish man walks into a bar... what else is new??
An Irish man walks out of a bar.. hey... it could happen!! :)


Okay.. so other news. Mom.. i love you and I love getting all your letters, I just dont have time to always write you back. i am glad you are doing great and thanks for taking care of all my tax information. Its funny because you will write me and tell me that Julie dropped off that blueberry stuff and she will write me and tell me the same thing :) 

I love you guys all bunches and bunches. Tell kamilla to write me. She is the only sibling to not write me yet. That bum. I love you guys!

Tamazine