July 30, 2013
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| Typical Chicken & Rice Meal |
This past week here at the MTC was super cool. One of the
exciting things was that this past Sunday was Peru's Independence Day and
so on Monday we celebrated with a Peruvian buffet which was sooooo good!
They had these donuts that were soaked in caramel cinnamon stuff which was
so good. But other than that the food here is just ok. Not super good and
not super bad. The one thing that I absolutely love is that every other
day they have soft serve ice cream. It makes the day so much better.
Classes are getting pretty repetitive but it's good. Spanish is coming.
Not fast. But slowly it is coming. I can even understand a few words people say
now. haha but really it is hard to understand. I can understand what my
teachers say because they speak super slowly and repeat everything 5
times.
Saturday was a real humbling-exciting-sad-joyful experience. On
Saturday they let us go out proselyting. I know that sounds crazy but
they really send Americans out proselyting after they have only had 10
days of instruction in Spanish. They assign you a Latino companion from
the MTC and then load you onto these busses and ship you out somewhere in Lima
to go and teach people. The bus I went on had only Elders and no sisters.
I think there was probably a good reason for that. We drove for like 40
minutes until we got to this dirt road and then drove another 40 minutes
until we pulled up to this little town. They dropped off half of the
people and then kept driving to another town where we stopped. It was
honestly the poorest area I have ever seen in my life. Once I got there
they took us to the chapel and gave us a little instruction that I did not
understand because it was in Spanish and then shipped us out to the areas
that we were supposed to go proselyting to.
My assigned companion and was from Trujillo, Peru. One of the ward missionaries also came with us. Once I got out onto the dirt, I realized that Peru has two languages. 1- Spanish and, 2-No entiendo. Turns out I'm completely fluent in the second one. It's like I've been doing it my whole life! But for real though, it is so hard to understand people when they talk at 2 million miles an hour! Teaching went pretty well. My companion taught this lady a lesson about the restoration which was pretty good. This area we were in was honestly like this dirt mountain with these little shacks all over the mountain. We were like at the top of this mountain teaching this family and we got out at 4:45 pm, but we were supposed to be back at the chapel at 4:40 pm. So we start running out to the one main road in the city and hop on this little bus thing that holds 12 people to get a ride about a mile and a half down the mountain and to the chapel. We pay 1 sol which is like 30 cents and climb into this bus that is crammed with people. We take the last seats available and as it would turn out I got to sit right across from this super duper drunk guy. He starts rambling on in Spanish and asking me these questions but his speech is so slurred that not even my companion who is from Peru can understand him. He asked me where I was from (which is the one thing I understood) so I said I was from the Estados Unidos. He started yelling and screaming and patting my cheek and feeling my hair and grabbing my nametag on my left pocket and I just wanted to yell STOP TOUCHING ME YOU FAT GOOB HEAD! But, since I was a missionary I just tried to kindly ask him to stop. I was super happy once I saw the church down the road and right when I think I'm going to be able to stop and get off, the driver stops and gets gas! Let's just say that I was super glad when I was finally able to get off. It was such a great first experience tracting here in Peru. I love it here!!!
My assigned companion and was from Trujillo, Peru. One of the ward missionaries also came with us. Once I got out onto the dirt, I realized that Peru has two languages. 1- Spanish and, 2-No entiendo. Turns out I'm completely fluent in the second one. It's like I've been doing it my whole life! But for real though, it is so hard to understand people when they talk at 2 million miles an hour! Teaching went pretty well. My companion taught this lady a lesson about the restoration which was pretty good. This area we were in was honestly like this dirt mountain with these little shacks all over the mountain. We were like at the top of this mountain teaching this family and we got out at 4:45 pm, but we were supposed to be back at the chapel at 4:40 pm. So we start running out to the one main road in the city and hop on this little bus thing that holds 12 people to get a ride about a mile and a half down the mountain and to the chapel. We pay 1 sol which is like 30 cents and climb into this bus that is crammed with people. We take the last seats available and as it would turn out I got to sit right across from this super duper drunk guy. He starts rambling on in Spanish and asking me these questions but his speech is so slurred that not even my companion who is from Peru can understand him. He asked me where I was from (which is the one thing I understood) so I said I was from the Estados Unidos. He started yelling and screaming and patting my cheek and feeling my hair and grabbing my nametag on my left pocket and I just wanted to yell STOP TOUCHING ME YOU FAT GOOB HEAD! But, since I was a missionary I just tried to kindly ask him to stop. I was super happy once I saw the church down the road and right when I think I'm going to be able to stop and get off, the driver stops and gets gas! Let's just say that I was super glad when I was finally able to get off. It was such a great first experience tracting here in Peru. I love it here!!!
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| Elder Roman & Elder Baker |
So another thing from this week—last night was probably the hardest night of my mission. I had to say goodbye to Elder Roman. He is one of the Latinos in our room. He was honestly the coolest kid ever and I was so sad to see him go. He's going to be such a great missionary. He knows a little bit of English from watching TV. Crazy right? But it's ok. I'm so excited for Austin to come. That will make up for it. Last night 110 missionaries left the MTC and so there are only 50 of us here today. Tomorrow about 60 Norteamericanos and 40 Latinos should be coming. It's kind of nice not being super crowded.
I was able to go to Tottus today. I bought a ton of soda and candy and cookies and stuff. I get so sick of rice and chicken. And yeah, they did give us a water bottle with a filter in it to help us not get sick. And they gave us a replacement filter which should be good.
Well anyways. I don't know how much time I have left and hope this will even send. I know the church is true and love you All!
Love,
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