The past month has been awesome and busy!! I have continued to teach in the school and have quickly fallen in love with every single one of the Deaf Kids here! I am taking pictures of them all and will introduce ya'll to them little by little. They are all so individual and all have their specific issues, but God is loving and awesome and is already working in their lives. :-)

I am also teaching English to the 3 sixth grade classes and it is a blast! But for you 6th grade teachers out there, ya'll know how that grade just seems to be extra charged with energy and the need to be mischievous. And an amazing phenomenon occurs every single class where every single student simultaneously needs to use the bathroom with the utmost urgency! It gives me great practice thinking up creative ways to keep them focused.... lol :-)

Viviana, Ayelen, Mayli, & Jeck Billy - the 4th grade Deaf students before performing the dance of the Anaconda during the School Anniversary Celebrations.

My language skills have continued to improve tremendously as I interact every day in Spanish. I also translate the 1/2 hour devotions for the kids daily and for Carlos, the Deaf teacher, all the time. Fridays are especially interesting because the first 2.5 hours of every Friday the morning is set aside for a meeting of the Special Ed team and I have to interpret it for Carlos. My improved language skills were put to the test as I interpreted all this past week for a team that was here from Arizona. It was great practice and challenging as I maneuvered around the words I didn't understand. But the team was amazingly gracious and kind and we were able to make it work. :-)

Wed, May 18, I was given a very cute, very young kitten! Due to the mouse/rat problems that are a common thing here, everyone has cats, so one of the ladies here knew someone who had kittens and asked them to bring one. After searching online though, I figured out she must have only been about 2.5 weeks old! So I bought a bottle, made my own kitten formula(thanks to the internet) and she has been doing great since! I named her Nala. :-)

Then, this past Tuesday, June 7, a kitten appeared in front of the school. At first I thought it was Nala, but quickly realized this was a new, male kitten. This new kitten spent the whole day in Refugio, was very friendly, mostly clean, and had obviously come from a family. But no one came to claim him. We all figure that he is most likely Nala's brother and whoever had brought Nala couldn't find a home for this kitten, so dropped him off figuring someone would take care of him. Most of the individuals on the Arizona team insisted Nala needed a Simba...then in the evening, all the kids that live here begged me to let him sleep in my house so the dogs wouldn't kill him overnight....HOW COULD I RESIST THEM?!?! So I washed him in flea shampoo and he has since been Nala's companion. They really are quite the pair. They eat together, play together, sleep together, etc. I still don't know if I'm actually going to keep him long term, but he has now been officially named Simba and is living in my house....he is rather cute...

Simba and Nala sharing a bed...

Last Week I finally got the Information for the timeline and documents I need to get my Residence Visa! Thanks to my friend Carmen in Lima and my Mommy, the first document needed to start the process(a "Letter of Presentation") was filled out correctly and translated! I am now waiting for my mission agency in the U.S. to make it official with their letterhead, sign it, and get it apostilled. Then I have to get it down here somehow to then be able to start the process of getting my residence Visa! Its so exciting that the process can officially start!

Please pray that my mission agency gets their part done quickly and that the New Mexico government doesn't take to long to apostille the document!

Love You all!!!

#peru #deafministry #spanish #provision #Peru #missions