Week 7 - I Actually Feel Like a Missionary!"

September 28, 2015

My lovely Family!

Wow I cant believe everything that has happened the past week and a half!!!!! I could probably fill up a whole book with everything that has happened but i only have a little bit of time :)

First, leaving the CCM was actually kind of hard but i knew there was nothing more there for me to learn and I had to just come and actually do it! We got to Iquitos and from the first step off the plane I realized I actually had never known what hot was :) Its hot....and then its humid! I don't think I will be dry for the next year and a half!

Pucallpa is halfway between Lima and Iquitos.

We had a nice meal at the mission home and I don't think i realized how nice it actually was until I went to bed that night. That night we received our assignments and I was sent to Pucallpa!! So me and Hermana Vasquez who also got sent there too went and stayed with another companionship that night. It was the smallest room for 4 people and I really didn't know what to do when we got there.

We slept on some foam pads and I sweat so hard that i had a sweat mark underneath the bottom of the pad when I woke up in the morning!

We got to Pucallpa on another plane the next morning and my companion picked us up and we got right to work! We taught 3 or 4 families that night and I seem to remember every lesson we have had in the past 6 days vividly!

Lessons are my absolute favorite!!! They take everything out of me because I have to try to figure out what is going on and its so frustrating when they are sitting there pouring their hearts out and crying and you don't know why! 

Oh my companion is amazing though!!!! She is actually a Gringa so she speaks English which I think has saved me this week! I think this has been the hardest week I have ever lived! Satan attacks me like I am the last living on this earth! And mornings are hard because we sit and study and my brain has a little bit of time to think about other things besides the mission. But every time I pull myself back into my study and try to stop thinking about myself, the Lord is there, and He is ever so merciful. As long as i am busy, i am okay. 

Life is so different here though. I have never seen so many ugly diseased dogs in my life!!! Oh their gross! But they all have homes :) And I got to experience what rain is like in the Jungle!!! The day of women's conference it rained so hard!!!! for a solid 2 hours straight! People use the rain as an excuse to not come to church which is so frustrating but it makes the heat bearable. 

First Area - Pulcallpa, Peru

I have also been able to feel the spirit much more distinctly here. We can be talking with someone and i can tell in an instant whether they are LDS or not. The spirit is amazing in missionary work!!!!!! I have felt so many ups and downs in one week i cant even begin to count them! But the good seems to cover up the bad even though many times the bad happens more often. But there are so many little tender mercies every day!

Like i woke up feeling super sick this morning and didn't want to go to breakfast, but i made it there on 2 feet and was excited to find that she made chicken noodle soup for breakfast! Apparently that is a normal thing here :) But it made me feel better...or how we found 2 new families to start teaching asking for directions, and I love them both so much!!!!! Most couples aren't married here so that is one aspect we have to deal with when teaching them, but the people here are so humble and recognize the Lords hand in everything!!! I am so grateful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and am starting to really understand my purpose of being here, to bring it to the world!!!! 

Women's conference was the best!!!! I just cried for joy for the 1st 10 minutes listening to it! We were wet and dirty, but we got to listen to it in English!!!!!! Man the Lord is merciful!

I love you all so much!!!! Keep being the amazing family you are and touching the lives of all around you! Missionary work is the BEST!

I pray for you and think about you every day!!!!! 

I am glad to hear everyone is doing well :)

Remember "Look unto me in every though,doubt not; fear not" D&C 6:36

Love, 

Hermana Briggs 

Missions are so much harder than people make them out to be. But they also bring so much more joy than I could ever think!