This last week has been one of the best weeks of my life. My entire life! Baltimore is so exciting, there are always things to see and people to talk to. I love the life of the city. I love running for the buses and taking the metro. I love all the crazy adventures we have, and we've had a TON. I love Spanish and my new Spanish district. I love my companion Hermana Whitehead!!! She makes me laugh so much!! I've not laughed so much in many months.
It's not all easy peasy all of a sudden. Nope, things are still very hard sometimes. Spanish has been especially humbling because I get nervous when people talk directly to me because I don't always understand and then I kind of stare blankly until Hna Whitehead confirms what they said and then I can answer. The branch here is so great but they kind of don't really warm up to the missionaries quickly, especially ones that don't speak Spanish, so lots of times they completely ignore me. Youch. Haha it's all good. I try to contribute in some way in every contact or lesson even if I mess up. The sad thing is it's almost distracting because usually after I'm done with whatever I'm saying they just comment on my Spanish 
Haha it's ok though. They all tell me I have a really good accent and vocabulary and grammar for only having three weeks in Spanish so that's nice of them.
Ok ok adventures this week...Well, I got introduced to Baltimore the first day. I have never felt in danger, neither has Hermana Whitehead and she has been here for 2 months. It doesn't FEEL dangerous. You definitely have to watch your step though.
Man, Baltimore cracks me up. It is just so funny. You see it all here. Hitchhiking is a pretty big thing, but it's illegal so they stand by the side of the road and point at the ground to signal. Kinda sketchy. We are mostly ignored, but a lot of people comment that they have never seen the "girls" in the city, just the Elders. It's kind of cool being the only Sisters allowed in the city. Lots of catcalls (we have pepper spray). I've learned what beer and marajuana smell like. Was offered the latter haha. Rats are everywhere at night. The rat in the picture was on the sidewalk when it was really hot and he was looking really hot so I poured some water on him and said a prayer for him. You all know I love rats 
It's just a wild place.
Monday night after I got here, a member had us over to teach us how to make some Peruvian food. It's like chicken, onion, eggs and raisins stuffed in mashed potatoes and pan-fried. It was so good!
Tuesday I met my district, they are solid. That night we taught Gerson and Yamileth about the Book of Mormon. They have a lot of concerns because of what they read online (bleeeeeh) so we cleared that up. They are awesome because they want to know the truth. If you have that real intent there is no way you can't find the truth!
We had lessons with a lot of less active members and they are super cool. I just try to figure out what they are saying.
Friday was a huge adventure. We were at dinner at a restaurant and a woman complimented Hna Whitehead's dress (English) and we ended up sitting with her and talking for a long time about religion and we are hopefully meeting with her soon! Then that night, we had a hysterical adventure because we forgot we parked our car at a different bus stop than normal and missed that stop (this was already at 9 at night) and the next bus wouldn't get us there until ELEVEN P.M. so the zone leaders had to find a ride for us, super embarassing. But on the bright side, it was someone we were teaching so that was good. We didn't get home until 11 still, I haven't been up that late for seven months!
Saturday and Sunday were super fun because we got to translate at Stake Conference. I translated a prayer and it was so scary but actually went really well!
Sunday, super cool experience. We were walking down a street just off inner harbor and a Hispanic man in his twenties runs over to us and come to find out, he is a returned missionary who just moved here from South America and he hasn't been able to find the church. While he was talking to us though, another man (English) starts trying to flirt with us and so I'm speaking Spanglish to our Member friend while Hna Whitehead is trying to tell him yes, we have boyfriends (white lie, oops), when ANOTHER guy comes over and starts shouting all sorts of hallalujeahs, praise the Lord and all those things and then he grabs ALL of our hands and starts saying a prayer. The Hispanic man was so confused. We were all pretty confused actually. While he's saying his prayer, our bus came down the road so we said amen and gave the Member our number and the church address and ran to catch the bus. We looked at each other and were like, what in the world just happened! Hahaha things are crazy here!
Hermana Whitehead and I know there are people here for us to find. One of my favorite moments of the week was sitting at the back of the bus looking at all the extremely different people on the bus and knowing so completely that they are my brothers and sisters and I love them. I love them all so much!
I love you all so much. I hope all this craziness made sense! Have such a great week, I'm praying for you.
Love, Hermana Peck
(Oh, to explain the title. That was the joke for translating. If we got lost, Plan B is testify of Christ. If that doesn't work, Plan C is to...testify of Christ haha. The Elders were really good at it though. So is Hna. Whitehead.)
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