July 31, 2013

Dear Brother and Sister Jacobson,

We are pleased to inform you that your daughter, Hermana Jacobson, has arrived safely here in the mission. The enclosed picture was taken at the mission home the day she arrived.

Please accept our appreciation for raising such a fine daughter with good qualities and talents that will bless the people of Peru. My wife and I feel she will be a dedicated and hard working missionary. We are committed to her health and well-being, and consider it an honor and privilege to serve with her here in Peru.

As president of the mission, I am happy to answer your questions. To send regular mail and packages please use the following address:

o   Hermana Jacobson, Megan

o   Peru Arequipa, Mission

o   Casilla 1884

o   Arequipa, Perú

We hope that you will write to your daughter as often as possible, only the positive things of the family so she does not lose sight of the purpose of her mission. She should write home once a week and we hope you will reply to her letters.

We appreciate your dedication in preparing your daughter for her mission. We pray that you will continue to enjoy the Lord´s choicest blessings.

Sincerely,

Richard Zobrist

President,

Peru Arequipa Mission

Hi family! I am finally away in Arequipa!! It is very different here that is for sure. To respond to you emails, mom yes it’s very different here. And Mark Zobrist is my MP Brother. It was about an hour and a half flight here and it was really an interesting day. Thanks for sending snail mail. It is nice to get any form of mail, but snail mail is nice because you can read it over and over again, and it is hard to focus and respond to everything here during email time especially since we also need to write our president. Well when I arrived here i was relived it is more mountainy...well it looks like mountains which are nice they are actually all volcanoes. Thanks for all of the individual emails please keep doing it it is nice to hear form all of you each but for me it is easier to write you all back in one email.  I am not completely sure of the mail system here yet but my impression is that we have to pay seven soles for each letter we send and don’t use stamps just to let you know that is kind of a lot for a letter each week, so my goal is to still write every week but they probably won’t send them each week, I will send them together. I hope everything is well, I want you to know I am safe, and even though this is really crazy and hard I am happy. I have been very blessed. My water bottle is my life because I can’t drink from any other place, but the food is good and I am doing well. If I have time I will try to send you pictures. Okay so here is a summary of my life ahora...My companion is from Los Angelo’s Chile, the very southern part of Chile. She is probably like 4’8” she is super short and is very kind and patient...which is good because I struggle with Spanish a lot. She is 21 and has been here for almost 5 months. I really like her and am grateful for her. she does speak a little English not much at all because she’s never been outside of Chile or Peru but enough to where if I need help she can help me. My area is called Graphics it is immediately in the city, the mission house is in our area. Its a good area to start. There are some areas in our mission that are 6 hours away...oh and here in Peru there are two indigenous languages called Quecha and Aymara...yeah I am scared to find people that speak it...it sounds like ancient Inca language literally...we have a few book of Mormons in quecha its loco....googl it like really it’s crazy and nothing like Espanola. So I have been thinking of how to describe where I live and I can’t think of a good way...just imagine living in a 3 world country and you are probably thinking correctly..ha-ha although where I live is a lot nicer than some of the houses ‘I’ve been in. Wow some of the most humble of homes its incredible I love it. There was a family we taught and there whole entire house was smaller than mom and dad’s room. It’s insane and they are literally shacks. Also Arequipa is way different than lima I like it a lot more...although I hadn’t been called grenga until I got here, sometimes I forget  I am white because I am used to seeing only cafe people but I get reminded often when we are contacting and about 20 people slow down and look and me weird or yell grenga grenga which is basically white person its interesting but it is fun. I bore my testimony in sacrament thought!! My ward is nice. Wow one day you will have to visit here it’s crazy and very poor. My Spanish is getting better than what it used to be. I can actually understand and read a lot but I can’t speak very much at all but poco y poco. I love you all so much I hope you are doing well. My p days are always on Mondays. Every day is an adventure here that is for sure. But I am safe happy and healthy. I love you and pray for you more than you know. Please send pictures .oh and if you can hand sanitizer I’m going through them quickly because  the water here will make me sick so I use it every time I need to wash my hands. I love you so much. Have a fabulous week!!