Mangoes from Heaven

hey, everyone!!! this week was so spiritual and also so funny - i don't even know where to begin. but, let's try. :)

so, we were proselyting, and a guy stopped us and said "how are you?!" then he handed me a mango and said it was sent from god because i'm a gringa. or something along those lines. hermana arteaga said he was "borrrrracho" (drunk). then he continued, "sooo pretty, you're both so pretty," and i was like oh boy, well, "we want to invite you to church." :) and i gave him a pass-along card. who knows, maybe he'll come to sacrament meeting one day and give me another mango.

hermanas at a restaurant called "rustica"

also this week, we arrived at our lunch pensionista's (andra's) house, and she set in front of us a chunk of fish sitting in brown liquid. i kind of poked at it with my fork and didn't know what to do with it (i definitely didn't want to put it in my mouth). but, it was lunch, so i tried a mouthful and immediately found myself crunching millions of tiny bones. no way to spit those out, so i chewed real fast (and prayed) and chugged lemonade. andra is always very interested in whether or not we like her cooking and every day pulls up a chair to the table and sits and watches us. sometimes she talks, but mostly she just observes - so, i had little choice but to keep eating mouthfuls of fish bones. :)

we were in no way out of the woods when the fish was finally gone; andra then asked if we'd ever tried "huevos de pescado" or if we wanted to. her eyes were lit up like a kid's on christmas, so i said "¿por qué no?" (why not?) she literally ran and brought us a plate of billions of tiny fish eggs and, of course, we had to try them. at one point we stopped eating, and she ordered, "EAT YOUR EGGS." haha, that was a meal i'll never forget. and now, i have a great fish story for posterity.

celebrating an elder's birthday

...there are no knives in the mission offices :)

last but not least this week, we had the worldwide missionary broadcast, which was really cool to watch!! got some great notes. also, transfers are TONIGHT, so we may be getting a call; i'll let you know next week if i'm leaving this area!

"for the beauty of the amazon"

everything is so great in iquitos, and we're finding tons of people to teach. last sunday, four investigators came to church! :) all is well in this lovely part of the vineyard/jungle.

love you all!!!

hermana wood

More from this week's message to Hermana Wood's mom:
hey, momma! thank you so much for thinking of me and sending me that talk on the purifying path of obedience! i definitely felt your prayers this week - life is good. :) also, i wanted to thank you for always sending me packages - they literally mean the world! greatest fam ever. and no, the valentine's one hasn't come, yet, but i'm really excited. :)

also, our pensionista situation got a lot better, so i didn't buy a blender. andra (our lunch pensionista) and daisy (our dinner pensionista) always make us juice now!! and i did replace my fan, but the one the mission office gave me is super weak and going to die soon. imma wait for it to die, then take that one and the old one that broke to the offices and set them down and fold my arms and stare at all of them. love you so much, mommy!!!