Science suggests that birthdays are healthy. The more you have, the longer you live.
Quick birthday shout-out to Graci!! I can't believe you're ten
years old! You were eight when I left! Holy smokes. I love you with all
my heart and I promise to buy you (and Kenna) Slurpees when I get home.
I
sent a recording with just about everything. We went to Cusco for
leadership training. We go once a month. It's a meeting that lasts about
seven hours but it's usually really cool. President and Sister
Harbertson talk to us about mission stuff and how to improve and where
we need to focus on, etc. We also eat SUPER good food. President's
pensionista is an international chef. We had lasagna for lunch and it
was probably the best thing I've eaten in Peru. The last time we went we
ate stroganoff (however you spell it). We also had cake and ice cream
for dessert which was just wonderful. I talked to Elder Yorgeson and
he's going to send you the pictures on Dropbox one of these days. He
says he can only do like two gigs at a time though so when he sends them
you need to download them so he can send more. J got baptized on Saturday!
As far as things I like about Puno
more than Juliaca... There's a lot of things. I don't love the sector or
the experiences more, just the city haha. I absolutely LOVED Juliaca,
but I would never EVER live there. Probably not Puno either, haha, but if
I had to choose I would choose Puno. Puno is smaller than Juliaca and
there's WAY less people. It's not crowded and full of people like
Juliaca. The people here are also generally nicer, too, because it's not a
big city atmosphere. It's a lot prettier too. There are more hills and
the lake is gorgeous. I have genuinely loved all of my sectors though,
and was sad to leave Andahuaylas and Juliaca, and I'm sure I'll be sad
to leave Puno. I honestly couldn't pick a favorite sector. Each place
has just been full of lessons that I needed to learn, and they have all
helped me to grow in different ways. I feel like I haven't really been
here for Peru, but that Peru has always been here for me. Peru waited
for me for 18 years so that I could learn and grow and become the person
that God wants me to be, and I still have so much farther to go. I love
my mission.
Love you all! I hope that this week is the best week of your lives!
Loves,
Elder Tate
