Pucallpa is Awesome

Pucallpa is awesome!!! It’s just like Iquitos but its not city, its more jungle and my are is huge!! I have two wards, Viste Alegre and Centenario. I’m on the edge of the city so and the end of my area its just jungle. There is a lagoon on the outskirts of my area, im going to go and take pictures one day. We live in the center of Viste Alegre and to get to the end where the jungle is it takes, 45 minutes by moto. The chapel isn’t even in my area, we have to travel 15 minutes in moto to get there.

My companion is Elder Nieto. He is from Chimbote Peru. He has 6 months in the mission, he is a nice guy and humble but we don’t get along. He is a little anti social and he doesn’t want to work. The first night he told me he wasn’t going to work on weekends because he likes sitting in member’s houses. I told him that wasn’t going to happen. I think I will be using my patients this change.

The area is cool and the members are awesome. On Sunday we have to do interchanges with members so we can go to both wards. Right now we have a couple people progressing for baptism. We will see how it goes with them. I’m still getting to know the area and I still feel lost.

Our room is really nice, it has tile floor and walls. When I got here it was a mess, I had to clean it, here in the jungle its a rule that we have to have two fans in our room, we only have one and it was my companions so I had to go buy one so I could sleep at night. It’s hot here but the rainy season is starting so it rains a lot, I think in the 4 days I have been here it has rained 3 days. We don’t have a pensionista now but we found one. The bishop’s wife is going to do it, she is nice. When November starts she is going to do it, I hope she cooks good, they haven’t giving me anything gross to eat yet... yet, im sure something is waiting for me.

The weirdest thing that did happen to me is we live in kind of like a duplex, one side is us and one side are members, but we have a front yard with a gate, in the front yard there two dogs and a monkey, a little baby monkey that’s in a cage and when the dogs are put away we can play with it but when they are out the monkey has to be in the cage. So the other day we come to the room and the member comes out and says oh elders the monkey got out of the cage and the dogs were out. The dogs starting playing rough with the monkey and the monkey died. The members said “elder ridge can you dig a grave for him”, I was like ya that’s fine. So on Saturday I had to dig a grave and bury a monkey. Not that many people can say that they have done that. I took pictures of it so I will have to send you some.

They really accept us here, every door we knock on they say come in, we are always teaching but the people that progress is different. A lot of people are not married here, they just live together. If there was a mass marriage we can baptized a lot of families. I’m trying to work really hard to get a family baptized.

Back to the Jungle!! Pucallpa

Well the changes are here and I’m going back to the jungle!!! I’m going to Pucallpa!! It’s by Brazil(it is a large city on the east of Peru, close to the Brazil western boarder) and it’s going to be hot. My new companion is Elder Neito. Someone told me that he is from Peru but I have never heard of him, we will see how things go. Elder Chambi stays here but he is going up to senior companion. The cool thing is that I have to leave tomorrow in a bus to get to Lima and then im going to stay the night in my old house. I will be able to visit my converts, and then Wednesday im going to fly in the morning to Pucallpa!!! They say its kind of like Iquitos but not as much city, I’m so excited I can’t stand it, I’m going back to the Amazon jungle.

This week was so awesome, we baptized Santa, I baptized here and Sunday Elder Chambi confirmed her. Also Juan Carlos received the priesthood last week and this week we were teaching him how to bless the sacrament, so Sunday I had the blessing to sit next to my convert and bless the sacrament together, it was so awesome, not many people can say that, I taught him good, he did it his first try, I had to do it twice because I messed up, he was laughing and said I did it better than you my first time, we were laughing, Sunday was such a good day. Also Rendy came to church in a suit, he is so excited to be baptized I’m kind of sad I won’t be able to be there. Elder Chambi and I ended the change good with three baptisms which is good for Barranca, we baptized the most in the zone, it was such a fun change.

I’m pretty sure I will be in Pucallpa for Christmas, get ready for horrible reception again, thanks for everything, I love you guys, next week I will be in the jungle!!!

Good Tasting - Guinea Pig

que tal,

Well to answer your questions, I haven’t sent the package yet I will try to send it today, before the changes. There is a member that washes the laundry here, every Monday in the morning we drop it off and Wednesday in the morning we go and get it. We kind of walk but not really, my area is flat, but here in Barranca we are allowed to take motos and in Lima we cant so we ride in the little motos here to get around.

My pension lives close to us and we share the same penionista with the zone leaders because they live down the street and my zone leader is Elder Maldonado, its awesome, he is a fun leader, we always talk about when we were companions, its fun.

My apartment is nice because it has two rooms, one to study and one to sleep, it has an entry room where we do exercises and it has a kitchen, there is nothing it but its our room. Our bathroom has hot water now and its really nice because it is new, just painted, its tiled, tiled floors, and its the third floor so we can go up to the roof and see the ocean, its really nice.

My area is....not safe, not at all, Elder Chambi has been here in Barranca for a long time but he has just been changing areas inside the zone. He has been robbed three times with knifes, his camera got robed and everything so that’s why I only carry like 5 soles on me, and when we went to take pictures at the beach, we had members go with us because by the beach its worse.

Well, this week was mas o menos, first of all we were going to have three baptisms this coming weekend but only one come to church, we are going to baptize Santa, she is 37, her sister is a member, she is really nice and really excited for her baptism, the other two are gong to get baptized but the 24th, but im pretty sure im leaving this area so I wont be here for there baptisms but the important thing is that they are gong to get baptized.

This week I finally ate what I have always been waiting to eat, cui cui, guinea pig, a lady gave us for lunch, and its good!!, there isn’t a lot of meat, but its soft white meat, its good, I took pictures, you can see its little rat feet and claws, it wasn’t bad.

Yesterday I was talking to the missionary that served in Provo, and I asked him what was his favorite fast food in Utah and he said carls jr, im like ooooohhh my gosh I totally forgot about carls jr, it made me a little trunky. Tell Mimi and Pop that I do receive their emails and I love reading them and I enjoy them. I’m really excited to hear about the deer hunt this year, it doesn’t matter if they don’t get anything I still want to see a picture of them in the mountains!!!!!!!!!!, last year you didn’t send me one.

Package from Home

To answer your questions:

For breakfast we eat like eggs and bread little stuff like that, but every night its pizza, its good.

In our new house NO we don’t have hot water and it stink! I have been taking freezing cold showers for a week now but the owner says that a hot water heater will be here soon, but im getting used to it, the weather still hasn’t heated up so the shower is really cold, but I just suck it up and get in. With the girl, we lived in like a indoor apartment complex, with only like 3 apartments, we lived in one, her and her mom lived in another, last change when I wasn’t here in this area Sister Perez came and said Elders you have to move, so when I got there Elder Chambi told me he had to move so ya we moved.

Tuesday my package come for Halloween, it came fast I couldn’t believe it but it was in its box normal, I loved the food, but im getting fatter because of that package so next one for Christmas don’t send a lot of candy, I have to get good looking before I get back, I don’t want to get fat!

I decided to give my companion the new Spanish bible you sent. I figured he would need it more than me, I can buy one here or buy one in the states but its a little more harder for him, so I opened the box and said Elder Chambi my family sent you a present, and I tossed it to him and his face lit up he was so happy, he was like thank you so much and he starts flipping through the pages and Melissa’s (Elder Ridge’s younger sister) pictures falls out and he’s like oh this must be for me too. Tell your sister thanks for sending me her photo and I’m like no that is mine give it to me it was funny we were playing around, he told everyone in the zone that, Elder Ridge’s family sent me a bible and a picture of his sister but he took it away. Everyone’s like Ridge don’t be like that and stuff, it was funny, we were all laughing.

We had interviews with President Perez, it was pretty cool, my interview was awesome. Then we had the conference this week, I had to watch it in Spanish because I’m the only gringo but I understood just fine, I really like Elder Jeffrey Holland’s talk and there was a Seventy that gave a good talk, I cant remember his name, but it was good, he talked I think it was Sunday morning, when he talked about the missionaries in Russia, and how they were answers to prayers generations after, it was good.

Right now we have 4 people with baptismal dates, for 17 of October.