Happy Birthday, Graci!

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