Emily 2.2.11

¡Hola! I still don´t know how to enter so here goes another crazy mass email :) How are you all? Elise thank you so so much for sending me a picture. Nellie Marie is beautiful. I am SO glad to hear she is doing good. I take it your both home now? Man I am just so happy for you! I can´t wait to get your letter, that will be exciting! Things here are awesome! I am loving it. Its still crazy to think I´m in Peru. Hmm... what do you want to know?  I never am sure of what to write. I didn´t figure out who my companion was until Thursday night, but we got it all figured out and her name is Hna Madrid! Super cute sister from Bolivia Santa Cruz! Crazy right? She is going to the Coochabamba mission. I try to ask her about Santa Cruz but I don´t understand much except that its super hot. Awesome. But I really do love her. She is SO SO patient with my Spanish and she helps me so much. She is here to work, and I am so glad. Its kinda interesting cause we have Latino companions that we study, eat, and teach with, but we´re in different districts. So I also sort of have a north american companion, hna Cochran that is in my district. We have different districts because us north americans are learning Spanish, and the Latinos are learning the gospel and how to teach. My teachers are great. They´re both Peruvians, and they are wonderful. They only speak Spanish to us so that makes for interesting learning experiences. I think they can speak English but i´m not sure. But I go to class all day and its all in Spanish and I understand it! So that is super exciting! Hooray! Oh! On Thursday I got to go to the Temple with my companion and be her escort! It was awesome. The temple here is really small. They only have room for about 20 people to a session, but it was great. Hna Madrid said that when she saw me in the temple she felt like she had known me before. How neat it is to think that maybe we couldve been in the pre earth life and decided that we would both serve missions together. SO crazy! Man I love the gospel! I defintiely stand out here. I´m one of two blonds in the CCM and I swear everyone knows my name. Its so weird because anytime they walk by they just say ´hna Olsen´´ and I´m like what, or como esta or something, and they don´t say anymore. I´m not really sure what that means. haha I also wore my bright green shirt the other day and I swear I got called on to do EVERYTHING! Teach, answer questions, pray, all of the above. I tried to wear more neutral colors the next day because it was a little overwhelming :). WE ride the bus from the CCM to the templo and shopping and it is an adventure. SO fun! They just pack us in, all the elders always make sure we have seats, and then we jump off when we get to our stop. I just wonder what people think when they see 20 or missionaries wandering around teh city. On saturday we are going to go out contacting for 2 hours I think, like real people with our latino companions. Its gonna be interesting. I hope i can understand what they´re saying. Sundays are awesome here, but of course, all in Spanish. I understand more every day, butI still have a long way to go. This morning we got to go shopping, normally we go to the Templo on Pdays but the templo is closed for some reason for the next couple weeks, so we just shopped. They have TOttus which is a store very similar to wal mart. I was surprised by what they had. It was good though. Before I forget, people should only write letters to me here until February 23 ish, 4 weeks after i got here, then they should just send them to Bolivia. I wanted to upload some pictures for you, but I borrowed a card reader and its not working. Hna Maxwell couldn{t get it to work either. But those who hav4e the cords for the camers, they can do it. SO.... if you want.... you could send my camera cord to me. I think its in the top of my closet.... somewhere. I mean Isaacs closet :) But send it to BOlivia. The weather really is wonderful. We study outside everyday. and I play soccer each day. I LOVE it so mudh! But.. its kind of annoying because they don{t let me play. I decided that the 2nd greatest day in the MTC will be when I score a goal, and the first great day will  be when I do it and they didn{t just let me do it. The elders are afraid to play with me cause they think they might hurt me or something so they stay at least 3 feet away. Gotta love being a girl...:) The other day at lunch hna madrid asked what dad does for a living. The dreaded question to answer in English - let alone in my extremely limited Spanish. But... I did it! That was a huge success. Basically she knows hes an engineer and he helps other companies with machines. Not bad eh? another huge success, I told them a funny story in Spanish, and they laughed! She even quoted it again later. Musta been good! haha it is so exciting when I realize that I am communicating with people in Spanish. SO EXCITING! They have ice cream here on Sundays and Wednesdays. Today the ice cream man talked to me and I had a whole conversation without hte help of anyone else. He asked me if I bought sweets this morning and i said of course! Lots of chocolate. Haha Oh I was sick this morning, just dehydrated, but after I threw up a few times I felt a million times better! I{m still pretty weak tho. Maybe no soccer for me today. bummer. I get to play the piano... pretty much awesome. I think only me and the other blonde hna can play, so lots of opportunities to play. I enjoy it hto. Tonight I{m accompanying a district for a musical number. Hna Maxwell, my old comp, and Elder Felton are in teh same district and Im playing for them. It should be good. Im getting more comfortable here, im talking more, and I am learning so much. My companion is a little homesick I think. Its hard not to be able to communicate very much, but she misses her little sister like crazy. We talk a lot tho, like more than i ever thought I would be able too. I am so grateful. Hna Kendall used my adaptor for her straightner today and it started tog et really hot and smell like it was burning, so she unplugged it. No se if it will work... hopefully tho! I think I might buy a straightner and hair dryer down here so i can actually do my hair. Hna Martinez from guatemala has a straightner that i used twice and my hair actually stays straight when i use it. So it is possible to look cute here, i just need the right equipment. The other day Hna Madrid was quoting Shrek, and it made me laugh so much. It makes me so happy to realize that we´re really not that different. I´m slowly understanding her personality more nad it makes me so happy. She really is an angel, with a very sweet spirit. and shes beautiful. Well... how is everything? How is the fam? What Peter? Is here still learning more spanish?? Dane, is your leg better? Have you gone snowboarding more yet? Tell me everything! I miss you all! I can´t wait to hear from you! Natalie how are you feeling? Is blueberry doing ok? K well I only have less the minute so I guess I´ll go. I know the chruch is true. Heavenly Father has been here helping me all along the way. I am so grateful for his help. Thank you for you prayers. Chow! Hna Olsen