Week 38 May 2, 2016

What a week! We worked nonstop and had great success!

Every single day is go, go, go. At the end of the day we walk into our rooms like complete zombies.
The other night, I went to brush my teeth. I almost had my toothbrush in my mouth when I looked down and realized I was about to clean my teeth with hydrocortizone itch cream. That might have been a trip to the clinic!

We all know that sister missionaries aren't the cutest... Well Hermana Rasmussen likes to call it the "mission uglies." Every day when we walk out the door my companion always says, "Well at least people aren't joining the church because we are cute." AMEN!

We read a letter to Hermana Sandison from her sister this week that said, "I sure wouldn't mind being in Peru. It'd be nice to see a different landscape for once, I get a little sick of the dry, (Piura) brown, (Piura) hazy, (Piura) crap that Idaho sees towards the end of the summer. I picture everything green and pretty where you're at." Thank you Brendon for giving us a good laugh!

This dog originally wanted to take my arm off, but then we became friends (:

#1 on the list of Ingram Sandison adventures: We want pepper spray!
At 7pm Hna Sandison and I were walking on the corner right by our house we heard a woman scream from across the street. Two men, with black masks, pulled up on a motorcycle. The one on the back hopped off and chased her. She fell and he beat her up a little, stole her bag, and then drove off. We ran across the street to her, helped her up, and tried to calm her down. She was crying hysterically saying, "I thought they were going to kill me!" She only had a few scrapes and bruises. Turns out her name is Maria and she is a member! She was baptized by an American elder when she was 12 but hasn't gone to church in years. We invited her to come back to church!

Our investigators Karen and Claudia!!

#2 Our investigators Karen and Claudia are amazing! They are both college students and so eager to learn each time we meet with them. Karen came with us to a baptism of an excommunicated member this week and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong as this man bore testimony of the atonement and thanked his family for being so patient with him. He came back! I hope Karen had as awesome of an experience as I did! Though everything is still super new to her. The next day she even came to church! I feel like the two of them are really prepared to hear the good news of the gospel.

#3 Geraldine and Yaco didn't make it to church! It was such a bummer after they each had promised us to be there!! I swear the mission is going to leave me with some serious trust issues..... Also during relief society Hermana Sandison was asked, "What are you sacrificing to be here?" (in the mission) Of course her first thought was "my body".... but then she quickly started naming, "My family... my friends.... school..." Moral of the story: what's the moral of the story anyway? I just thought it was funny (:

#4 Yesterday our taxi sank into Piura's finest sinking sand.... ALL of Piura is built on top of sand, like the sand on the beach. Yard work here consists of watering your sand so that it doesn't turn into a major sand storm. In the beginning of my mission I was always so confused! "Why is everyone watering the sand???"

Above all else this week I just feel so immensly grateful! I feel super blessed to be where I am right now. I feel like it is such a privilege to be able to teach all of the investigators we have right now and how close I feel with them. I'm especially blessed to be with Hermana Sandison who shows me every day I love my mission! Our neighbor said, "You girls wake up laughing and then go to bed laughing dont you?"
Its true!

So so so so excited to see my fam in just 6 days!!!
Love everyone so much

Hermana Ingram

The Hermanas with the office Elders

Las Hermanas! Hna Sepulveda (Mapleton) Hna Sandison (Twin Falls, ID) Hna Signs (Colorado)

Waterfall above Moropon

Just a little hammock break while waiting for an investigator

Hermana Sandison es mi mejor amiga!

Week 36...Out of order April 25, 2016

Dayanna's baptism!

My last week in Miguel Grau... I love that place so much and all of the people there! It was a good last week, we were able to teach a lot of lessons but best of all baptize little Dayanna! That same night there was a big earthquake up in Ecuador that reached all the way to Piura. When we walked to our room everyone was in the streets super freaked out! Leaving Miguel Grau made me realize that if you don't love the people, you don't love your mission! It was a sweet moment saying goodbye to everyone and realizing how many people I have made relationships with.
Saturday night Elder Beidleman called us with transfers. When he said my new companion would be Hermana Sandison I almost started crying I was so happy. I couldn't pin point an exact reason why but Hermana Sandison is my very best friend!

Leaving Miguel Grau was bitter (leaving the people) sweet (going to Hna Sandison)

The wall of Miguel Graus sister missionaries...I had 4 different companions in the same area!

Saying goodbye to Hermana Bertha and her family

The YSL's threw me a surprise farewell (:

Hermana Aida is the funniest, most selfless, patient, kind Peruvian I know.

Me: "Oh wow...that soup looks, ummm delicious?" Aida: "That's the soup for the dogs" *huge sigh of relief*

When little Ian got baptized, I got to speak at his baptism!

Hermana Marilyn is full of little one liners in English and she makes me laugh so hard! (Hna Aida's daughter)

After a hard day's work! (notice lipstick on my cheek from a woman kissing me 15 min before in a lesson)

Just a few quick alterations with...the stapler... (before the baptism)

After church meetings

Hermano Raul, our mission leader!

In the city! (talented Hermana Aida made me that dress)

I love Hermana Bobbio!

Week 37 This week changed my life!!! April 25, 2016

This week changed my life!!!

I'm sitting here in the  Internet cafe hyperventilating a little about how much I want to tell everyone every little detail of my miraculous week! Hna Sandison is really helping me calm down and take it one day at a time. One of the negatives about emailing home is that not all of the millions of words in the world would be sufficient enough to explain my feelings. But we just keep on keeping on! So I will do my very best, with the very little time that I have. 

My Soul Sister!

First off it cannot be said too much how much I love my companion. She is my very best friend! Right when we got together on transfer day we were so excited! We both knew how much we were going to grow both individually and spiritually together.
Hna Sandison "We are going to learn so much from each other!"
Me: "Everything EXCEPT patience, no mas paciencia para mi." 

What a relief.
#1 on the list of Ingram Sandison adventures: Saving Negra
In Angamos we are living the high life... Well not really but we like to think of it that way. Each street in our area has a 24 hr street security guard. Our's is named Jorge. Jorge is a very lonely man and his family consists of Negra the dog. We noticed that Negra was not looking so good, in fact, everywhere she went she left a trail of blood. It was tearing apart my heart strings each time I saw her suffering. So one day Hermana Armanda (member) came to work with us. We told her about Negra and immediately she was concerned. So we lead her to Hermano Jorge and the first thing Armanda said to him was, "We are here to help your dog go to the spirit world" I could not keep myself from laughing. Hermano Jorge looked at her completely mortified and just wagged his finger back and forth. I imagine his thoughts were something like "these crazy Mormon ladies." Long story short he let us take Negra to the vet. We saved Negra!! (she had a massive infected hole in her neck that made Hna Sandison dry heave) It cost us about a couple of toes and fingers to get her all better. But while at the vet, we met Ana!

Casually taking dogs off the street to the vet

#2 on the list of Ingram Sandison adventures: relearning English
While at the vet a blond haired, blue eyed lady came in with her beautiful baby. We only had to ask her her name before she said "Do you want to come visit me?" *Please read in a strong German accent* Turns out, Ana lives in the big ultra private gated compound that missionaries are not allowed inside. BONUS! So we grabbed Hermana Rasmussen (the mission home is in our area) with her perfect English and spunky personality and went to teach this family. Immediately when we walked into her house it was a dream. I was mesmerized, after seeing so many dirt floors and extreme poverty, it was a total shock. Parade of Home status. So we got to know this family. Constantine is a farmer. What he does is buy sweet potatoes from Peru and then ships them to Germany. Germany is crazy for sweet potatoes right now, they are only sold in ultra fancy restaurants because of their rarity. Ana is the sweetest and friendliest German I know! (also the only German i know..he..he..) Sadly... they are super anti Peru. I mean I guess you can't blame them coming from such a beautiful country to a little bit of an eye sore. Also they have had really bad experiences with dishonest money greedy businessmen. But hey.. they haven't met Hermana Aida (: She would change their minds about Peruvians in no time. Also they cant stand the Catholic Church. I'm not generalizing, but at least here, the catholic church is a little corrupt. It was so awesome! We taught them about Joseph Smith and HOLY COW I CAN'T TEACH MISSIONARY LESSONS IN ENGLISH. You see, I learned how to be a missionary in Spanish... not English... But they are going to pray and find out if its true. More than anything right now they need friends. So pres and hna Rasmussen will be stepping up to that plate. It's a lonely white person world in Peru.

Hermana Rasmussen came with us to teach the German family! Constantine, Ana and their adorable baby Amelia. Their house is a dream, it totally awakened my love for houses and design.

#3 on the list of Ingram Sandison adventures: Opening our eyes
Our area is made up of 2 different worlds. The richest of the rich, and the poorest of the poor. One day we went to the invasions (land that the gov gives freely to poor people) where the houses are shacks. We taught some awesome lessons over there then crossed through the little bamboo fence to a new development. They were like great and spacious buildings. We went looking  for Yaco....the elders old investigator before we took over their area. When we walked into his living space (A glorified hotel room) I was shocked by just the tiny little row of bamboo that separates these worlds. Yaco is a 28 year old buff guy. His career is setting up events for famous people, singers, models, actors, etc. It was the weirdest lesson I have ever taught. Later while hna sandison and I talked about it we pinpointed two specific things. He is completely socially normal. He is a listener. The majority of Peruvians talk and talk and talk. Yaco asked us each to tell our conversion story and that is so unlike every other lesson I have ever had. He wants to change his life around but he doesn't want to change his career. We will see what happens...

The week was amazing but my highlight was spending time with bro and sis Mitchell... Hna Mitchell's parents. They have spent 5 years travelling with the prophet. We were able to hear story after story of amazing experiences with the prophet and it was truly inspiring. I wish I could share them all! I love how human President Monson is. We asked bro Mitchell if he ever felt like the prophet could see into his soul and all of his imperfections. He said it's just the opposite, he couldn't care less. He loves you for who you are, Just like Christ.

Hanging out with brother and sister Mitchell!! So fun! Makes me think about having my own parents come and pick me up from the mish.

Geraldine our investigator came to church yesterday, She cried and thanked us for being persistent with her. She knows that Heavenly Father sent us to her to help her change her life. What a sweet tender mercy. This week was a miracle for me, we worked so hard and our numbers were incredible. I never felt an ounce of stress, it was like we were whistling and laughing through it all. I love my area, I love my comp, and I love my mission. But most of all I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I love this gospel!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Ingram

Charlottes Webb did not end up saving Wilbur...:(

Guess who got their first hair cut in 8 months? I had to reemphasize that I just wanted a straight line...Peruvians are really into a deep V cut right now...which really just translates to a latin mullet. Yikes!

We named him Fluffy

Week 33 Feliz Semana Santa! March 28, 2016

The District Hermanas at Pinkberry! w/ Hermanas Thomas (Ogden),  Dionicio (Cali), Dorado (Puno)

Feliz Semana Santa! (Happy Easter)
First, Birthday shout out to Harrison! 17! Your last year as a kid so disfrutalo! (enjoy it)

This week we had a holiday, celebrating Christ! Unfortunately, What did everyone do on this Christ centered celebration? Get together and get drunk. Hermana Aida likes to call it Semana Tranca because of all the drinking. The procession close to our room was crazy! My companion wanted to get out of there but of course I had to take pictures. Everyone marches around with statues of Senor Cautivo and they recite prayers. Its pretty interesting!

Acting out Christ being crucified.

Processions! Right in the middle there is a big statue of Señor Cautivo that they're carrying around.

This week we met a lady in our area named Bertha. She just moved her with her family from Chiclayo and has been a member for 2 years. This last year she has been completely inactive and her 9 year old daughter Dayana isn't baptized! So we got them to come to church yesterday and Dayanas baptismal date is April 16th! They have a great family.

Manuel is the greatest! For the first time ever he showed up to church in black slacks a white shirt and a tie! I commented on it and he responded by saying "progress" How true! His goal for receiving the priesthood is April 16th! So awesome to see the difference in him.

A painting of Miguel Grau in the museum. (A war hero) Hermana Thomas and I were wondering why he has his hand on his stomach. We both agreed he was saying, "Please, NO MORE RICE!" (:

My companion and I ate the worst food in my whole mission yesterday.. I still am not sure exactly what it was but I wanted to puke! There was a little boy sitting next to me and I almost tried discretely shoveling my food onto his plate. Poor kid didn't like the food too much either. (:

Coming up on 8 months! Love you all so much!
Hermana Ingram

Chicken delivery arrived just in time and covered in flies too! It reminded me that I'm in a 3rd world country.

 I love Hermana Thomas! I hope we get to be companions one day (: She is hilarious!

The district with Miguel Grau. The Elders: Biedleman (Cali), Dilascio (Argentina), Norman (Morgan, UT), and Cachura (Cusco)

Just a little love from home.

Week 32 March 21, 2016

At Stake Conference and I found my cute trainer! The first thing she said to me "Hermana Ingram you have gotten so fat!" Thanks Hna Apeña I love you too! (gotta love the brutally honest latin culture right?)

Week 2 of this transfer!

Yesterday we had 3 investigators come to church!! Woot woot!
The father of the family is Carlos he is actually a member that hasn't been to church in almost 30 years but we are bringing him back! His wife Miriam is pretty funny... She is super evangelica. We recently had a lesson with the two of them and taught about the restoration and baptism. During the lesson she crossed her arms and defiantly said, "Yo no voy a bautizarme." "I'm not getting baptized." Then she stated, "You believe in Joseph Smith but I believe in God." We very patiently and clearly explained to her why that isn't actually the case and then her husband lost all patience. He still has a testimony of the church so he defended it the whole time. But it was pretty awkward when they sat there arguing and my companion and I looked at each other like "what do we do now?"
Moral of the story they came to stake conference! It was awesome, Elder Nelson Ardila from the Seventy came. Carlos and Miriam have two sons who are progressing so fast! They have been to church twice now and participate in young mens and seminary! So we will see where it goes with them.

I am always so surprised at how unbelievably open everyone is here. Almost every single time we sit down in a lesson everyone tells us exactly what is going on in their lives and the personal problems that they have. Every time I always feel like I don't even know how to respond. But a lot of the time the people tend to blame God a little and it's very sad. This week we met with a less active Hermana named Marisol. We taught her about temples and eternal marriage and she seemed to love the lesson. Then we invited her to set a date for herself to go to the temple. Thats when she started to cry and opened up to us about her husband and the problems they have. It was super sad hearing about everything she has gone through and how unfaithful her husband is. It's always hard when people have marital problems because as missionaries we aren't exactly qualified to give any type of marriage counsel. We helped her the best we could and as we were talking her cell phone rang. It was her husband. He told her he was almost home so she immediately put the phone down and ran to the bathroom to wash her face. She sat there applying makeup to make it look as if she hadn't been crying for the past hour. Something she said really made me sad. She said, "Why is Heavenly Father letting this happen to me?" I think I would respond first with. Heavenly Father can't control our agency! Sometimes others use their agency negatively and it may effect us personally. Secondly, about trials in general, I read this in a talk that I really liked:

"The world would have us believe that trials are unfair and that we are entitled to only blue skies and sunshine... We may forget in the heat of our trials that God is aware of us and that He has a plan for us. He knows us individually and perfectly and customizes our mortal experiences to help us grow into our very best selves-- If we will let Him. He is the ultimate personal trainer!" I like that is says IF WE WILL LET HIM. We definitely cannot be changed to become like Christ by chance. Its a choice. Our will is the only thing Heavenly Father does not have, so it's our choice to try and align our will with his! "Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation and every opposition happens for one purpose only; to give you opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of Jesus. As you do so you are change to become more like Him." So essentially it's our choice! I try to apply the Christlike attribute of patience every time the ward sings the hymns 5 octaves lower and with a melody similar to a rap song (:

Hasta la proxima semana!
Hermana Ingram

Week 31 March 14, 2016

Zone meeting! Lots of Hermanas with a photo bomb from zone leaders. Dionicio (Cali), Sandison (Twin Falls), Brown (South Jordan), Dorado (Puno), Sepulveda (Mapleton), Signs (Coloroado), Thomas (Ogden)

7 months! 

A good but very hard week. We worked super hard and how many inverstigators came to church yesterday? Ninguno... It was super disappointing when so many people told us for sure they were going to come, even going around to pick them up didn't work.

The good news is we found a new family! _ and _, (mother and daughter). _ has two kids, _ and _. So yes _ is a member, I'm sure you could guess by the names... But _ and _ are not yet baptized! We still haven't had the opportunity to sit down and teach them due to the fact that they have other problems that need attention first. This little family was previously living in _ (on the border of Chile) but moved very quickly and secretly to _ as they were experiencing extortion. What that means is that they have been receiving countless threats such as "if you don't pay this certain amount of money by this date I will kill your 2 kids and your mom"... She showed us the threats on her phone and lets just say I censored it. Terrifying right? So they moved to _. While living there, They left as a family for a day at the beach. Coming home later that night they walked into a completely empty house. Everything had been robbed. It was very sad when both of these women were sobbing as Hna _ said, "My children had nothing but the swimsuits on their bodies." Can you even imagine these trials? So from there we have been helping them in service related ways. Its been such a blessing to have Hna Dorado here just in time. They bonded to her within the first 5 minutes because she is from the southern part of Peru as well. Perfect timing! I know its definitely not a coincidence!

Saying goodbye to Hermana Shumway (Orem) and Hermana Vasquez (Cali). SO SAD! These two are amazing missionaries!!

Hna Bobbio has also been experiencing some hard trials. I got a call from her sobbing as she told me her little grandson Emilio, 3 yrs old, has a brain tumor. She asked us to tell the whole ward so that we could pray for him. (portion removed to maintain privacy) Emilio's dad, Harold, who isn't a member but someone who we are really good friends with, also called me crying. He told me he didn't know what to do and that he was scared. I honestly don't feel adequate to help someone in a situation like that! I told him we were praying for him and that Heavenly Father hears his prayers. I feel so sad for their family.

Hermana Dorado and I! She's from Puno! How cool to think that I've visited her home town.

But on a brighter side we have a lot of investigators that are progressing! We just need to get them to church!! I can't reiterate it enough, the importance of going church! We are literally battling against age old traditions and a culture that tells you to work or go out and drink and watch soccer on Sundays. It is so hard!! But not impossible..

Fun fact: As my comp and I were walking the dusty hot streets we talked about what each city in Peru is known for... Lima, the capitol. Trujillo, the flowers. Arequipa, famous volcanoes. As we got to Piura the both of us paused, looked at eachother, said "chifles" in unison, and then busted up laughing at how sad but true it is. Chifles are fried banana chips... and that's what Piura is known for. Also THE HEAT. Don't take cold for granted!!

Miss everyone sooooo much
Hermana Ingram

PERU: Niños playing with burning garbage

Week 30 (week 6 of transfer 4) March 7, 2014

Manuel's baptism!! With Hermano Raul who is our ward mission leader

Week 6! MANUEL GOT BAPTIZED!

Friday night it rained... and hard too. In the afternoon we left with hna aida to teach a cute little family. Their mom is a little difficult and lacks a lot of faith, but we are working on it! When we left it was pouring rain. The streets had turned into rivers. We had to flag down a moto just to help us cross the street! As we were walking back to Hna Aida's house we passed by the street that also works as a drain. It was FULL!

The street that turned into a river!

My comp and I ran down the side of the "river" to watch cars and motos attempt to cross. Meanwhile Hna Aida sprinted to her house to save everything from getting destroyed. We later went back to help her bail water out of her roof (all of the roofs are flat here and collect rain water like a swimming pool) So we spent about 2 hours sweeping away water onto the ground below.

Botando el agua el techo de Hna Aida!

At 8 o'clock in the church we had our very last lesson planned with hno manuel before his baptism. But with the rain we both knew it wasn't going to happen. Long story short Hno Manuel practically swam to hna aidas house to have his last lesson! It was awesome. We read about the people of ammon and when they became converted to the Lord they buried their weapons of war. I related that to him and his baptism. That from here on out all of his bad habits or bad decisions will be buried deep in the ground and he can truly be converted to the Lord. He bore a strong testimony about how much he has changed. After the lesson the light went out in all of our area! so we practically swam home in the dark with trees falling along the roads. It was an adventure if you ask me.
And the next day Manuel was baptized.. Woo hoo!

Hna Mauricio completed her 4 months as a mini missionary and went home this morning. My new companion is Hermana Dorado from Puno! She is from my same group at the CCM and is awesome.

Miss everyone so much!
Hermana Ingram

Happy and content eating cold ice cream in the cold rain. I sure do miss the cold!

Amazed by the amount of water!

Hermana Aida when the lights went out! She was a little scared :)

Brave cars that ended up getting stuck.