Golden Contacts and "Should not have asked"

Well, so we had the changes, Elder Roldan left and Elder Maldonado came here. He is awesome, he is from right here in Lima, an area call Los Olivos. (Los Olivos is in the Lima province and appears to be in the Central Mission) We work hard and we get along so this change will be fun, he is a good teacher. We had a sweet lesson with this lady named Estel. Her daughter is a member but she isn’t and I have been talking with her since I got here but we went there for her to meet Elder Maldonado and we talked to her about the importance of baptism and she broke down crying saying she has been putting it off and that she needs to get baptized. She told us to baptize her in two weeks we are going to baptize her. It was awesome the spirit was way strong. We also had a member bring her friend to church and she was like hey I want to get baptized in this church. She said I already prayed about the church so we were like great! We said of course we will teach you and baptize you. She is pretty excited.

I finally got sick, first time I have been sick since I have been here. I had a fever and pounding headache, I couldn’t even walk but it already passed so I feel better. Last week I was at lunch with a family and this lady gave us this meat and I was eating it and I was thinking huh this kind of taste like steak but not really, so I was half way through eating it and I decided to do thing that you are not suppose do,Ii asked her what it was, and it was cow liver. haha I barley finished it, the image got in my head haha, it was gross.

Transfers, Baptisms and New Years Eve

Well changes are here and I’m going......... no where!
HaHa I’m not going anywhere, it’s cool, when I first found out I was a little disappointed cause I
want to go see another part of the city or the jungle but it’s all good I won’t mind being in this area and this change is 5 weeks. Elder Roldan is leaving me though which is sad, my new companion is Elder Maldanado he is from here in Lima, he is actually the companion of Elder Taylor right now, and Taylor told me he is amazing, he works really hard but he makes things fun and is a really cool guy so I’m pretty excited to get him. The next change ends 11 of February so I know I will go somewhere then. Elder Cheesman is with me still which is awesome, we both are staying and getting new companions, we have been there together since September. Wow time goes by fast.

Our baptism was awesome, I baptized the 10 year old Jeanpier and Elder Roldan baptized the 8 year old Jericho. Ivan is going to get the priesthood so I’m pretty excited for him, he showed up at church yesterday with tie and white shirt and a briefcase, it was awesome, he is going to be a Bishop one day.

Our news year was pretty cool, we stayed up until 1 in the morning, here it’s a little different, they do fireworks here but there is no regulation on what type so there were big old pipe bombs going off shaking the windows. I have footage of the fireworks going off like 20 feet above me in the air and it’s raining ashes, it’s dangerous, they light off so many fireworks that we couldn’t see the sun the next day, the also burn these life size dolls. (Customs associated with the New Year are intended to bring good luck- a popular tradition is to dress up a doll - (or effigy) with old clothes and then burn it, which signifies getting rid of the old, and making a new start.) It was so hot that night form all the fires, our room was filled with smoke.

We went to the temple, that was way cool, my Spanish was a lot better than the first time I went. Elder Cheesman and I were outside the Temple and this lady walked up to us and we said, hi how are you in Spanish and she goes, hi elders how are you in English and it took us by surprise, we were like oh, how’s it going. She was from Dallas Texas visiting temples, with a guide, it’s so weird to hear people talk to you in English in the street, it takes you by surprise haha. Our Latin companions don’t know a lick of English so I literally talk in Spanish all day every day.

The Phone call at Christmas

We had our Christmas call with Elder Ridge. It was so good to hear his voice, although we have had more opportunities than most missionary parents. Since Elder Ridge traveled to Arizona for a month and then to Peru, we have had a couple extra time to speak with him.

He is loving it in Peru!! He has not been without his challenges, most of which are in this blog. He is really doing well with his Spanish and sounds great. He bore his testimony in Spanish to the whole family on speakerphone. Although we could not understand it word for word, we could get the just of what he was saying and we could feel the power and spirit of his testimony. We realized how much he has grown.

He says he is not home sick at all, although he misses a few of the comforts of home. (Carpet, taller shower heads that don’t shock you, fresh water)

We got to hear stories of conversion and cultural differences. All in all it was a great call and we look forward to his emails every week and we are counting the days until Mothers day when we will talk again.

Food for the Body and the Soul

Here are the pictures from the early Christmas. We are so happy that Elder Ridge and Elder Roldan are working hard and having a great time together.

I have heard that some missionaries have to cook their own breakfast and dinner but we don’t have to in this area, our pension is awesome, she is from Columbia and her food is good and clean. Maybe in other areas I will have to do my own thing with food. Speaking of food, I think it was Friday, ya we were at a members house eating lunch, it was soup which is always sketchy here, you never know what’s going to be in there, so ya I’m eating and I look down and there it was, the whole entire foot of the chicken, three toes and everything, now the first time i just found a little piece of the toe and kind of pushed it to the side, ya I couldn’t eat around this thing it was huge. Elder Roldan was like eat it you little girl, so I was like fine whatever and put part of it in my mouth cause its huge and ate everything, I picked all the little bones out of my mouth, the nails too, it actually wasn’t that bad, I would eat it again. I’m pretty sure I can eat anything now, but its funny, nothing startles you more than pulling up a huge chicken foot in your soup.


The other day we were contacting in a park and we found a guy from Spain, that was pretty cool because he speaks Spanish, but he uses the European form, it threw me off at first cause they don’t use it here but ya I could understand him. I like hearing different people talking, their accents and stuff.

Well our investigator Lady fell through, we went to her house and she was hiding from us so she is done. it made me mad, I don’t understand it when people progress, progress, progress and then they decide they are done and hide from us. Ivan will be baptized this month, he is amazing, he reads and attends and has so many questions, he is way good. We also found three families to teach but they aren’t married so that will take some time but we are teaching them and working with them. We found a guy of gold yesterday. He wants to go to church and learn more. We taught him and it was way good, he will progress. The woman Rosa decided that she still wants to live with her boyfriend so we are still trying to work with her. Things are getting better, we are not getting rejected as much so that’s good, man who ever said a mission was easy is an idiot, this has been the hardest thing I have had to do, being patient with the language, with our investigators, getting rejected, but it’s part of the mission, I love being here and enjoy serving the Lord. It’s amazing, I love seeing the people progress and seeing them change their lives.

Turtles, Christmas comes early and It's a Small World

Elder Ridge sent a second email with this picture attached with only this explanation. “this is me with the turtles that live in our house, they are huge” More to come on this I am sure once Diane writes her email this week.

So I got the packages and I loved them! I got them on Friday and we opened them on Saturday. Everything was amazing, the ties, the candy, everything, thank you so much. Elder Roldan told me that was the most he has ever gotten for Christmas in his life so thank you so much for doing that for him. He was so excited he started jumping off the walls. Saying “wow look, look what I got, thank you so much these ties are awesome”. So ya he says thank you much, It was the best Christmas he has ever had.

We found a family to teach, they are way good, they travel to the United States a lot but still don’t know English. We did get rejected this week too but we did have some success finding a few more people to teach. The thing that stinks is our investigators didn’t come to church so we have to push their baptism back another week which stinks We will get them baptized don’t worry.

Last p-day we were in plaza vea buying stuff, which by the way they have American soda and candy but it is way expensive, it’s like a Walmart. They have everything I could need, its way nice. So ya we were in there and we saw two other missionaries and we were like wait a second they are not from our mission. So we went up and started talking to him, it was a Gringo and a Latin and I was talking to the Gringo and they were from the Central Mission which is just the other side of the street, but anyways I was talking to the gringo and he is from American fork, and I was like no way and I said I’m from Highland, and he said I have family in Highland, do you know the Ormsby’s. I was like ya they live two houses down from me there are in my ward. He said that they are my cousins, his name is Elder Tholl. They were there buying food with their pensionista. He has two weeks in the field. He is suppose to be in Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission and got put in Lima Central, so there are still problems there. Tell the Ormsby’s that I saw their cousin down here in South America, he is doing ok.

Great Companions and a Great Area

Elder Roldan is way sweet (great) and we get along way well, and he helps me out with my Spanish and teaching. (Picture of Elder Rolday and Elder Ridge on P-day)
Yesterday I gave a talk in church about missionary work, I got up and
talked for 10 minutes without anything written. The Bishop asked me and Elder Roldan Saturday at 10:30, and yes the whole thing was in Spanish, I had to pause and think two times to think of the word but I got it, it just took me a second to remember it. It makes me laugh at myself, for my farewell I could barely get 7 minutes in and now I can get 10 on the spot and in Spanish, wow I was lazy before haha.

The ward is pretty good, there are only 40 active members and a lot less active. Our Ward Mission Leader is way sweet, he is so funny, and likes working with us. The members are way good.

Things are a little bit slow right now. We had 140 contacts this past week, we talked to 140 people in the street and knocking doors and two said ya come in, only two, it was a rough week but things will get better. (Picture of Elder Ridge with his area he serves in behind him)

My Spanish is coming way fast, I can talk all day to Elder Roldan all day, I’m not fluent by any means but there are a lot of words that have clicked that I don’t have to think about what to say or translate but when I’m talking all day. I still have to think a lot of what I’m going to say, like stop and think what’s that word
in my mind, but once I write a word down that I don’t know and use two or three times in one day, I got it down. It’s coming way fast but I do lack a lot still.
I still have a ton to learn.

Elder Cheesman is awesome, at night we talk and hangout, he is way cool. Sometimes when we are talking we will say a word in Spanish and sit there and think, what’s that word in English? It’s funny. Elder Taylor left and went to another zone, but we had so many good times together, they made my first 6 weeks fun. It is cool that Elder Cheesman still lives with me, so things are going way good. I’m loving life right now, I’m way happy to be here. I still want to go to the jungle but I can wait. (The three amigos - LtoR Elder Cheesman, Elder Taylor and Elder Ridge)

A New, New Companion - Thanksgiving Peru style and Christmas comes early

Well a lot happened this week. First of all we did the changes on
Wednesday and I said good bye to Elder Lima. I got my new companion Elder Luna. We went to our room to unpack his things and he was looking at the member list and
he said, wait hold on, this is my sister. Yes, his sister lives in our area.
He is from the south part of Lima and she moved here during his mission. We called the zone leaders and he had to have a emergency transfer. The transfer didn’t happen until Friday so Wednesday and Thursday we couldn’t do too much cause they live and work way close to our house.

Friday we went to the offices at 11 in the morning to switch companions, so now my new companion is Elder Roldan. He is amazing!! Elder Roldan is from Guatemala so he talks
a little bit different and that is good cause I like to hear different accents. His story is a sad one. He is the only member in his family and was baptized one year before his mission and has a year in the mission so he is a really new convert. His family doesn’t write him and the only person that does is his brother in law and he hasn’t received a letter from him in 4 months. All of his family are evangelic and his parents are the pastors of their church. He is way funny and we get a long way good. He knows the Bible like the back of his hand. He also knows the Book of Mormon really well. He is a way hard worker but we have a lot of fun, while we are working. I’m way happy for this change. It is way fun contacting people with Elder Roldan because they start bashing us and all he does is quote scripture and asks one question and they go uuuuhhhh. They don’t know what to say. It’s way funny!! We were talking with this guy in the park and he said I don’t believe in God and started laughing and we asked him, where did you come from? He said my parents. We then asked him, where do your parents come from? He said from their parents. Elder Roldan asked where did it all start and the guy was like uuuuhhhhhh. I still don’t believe in God!! It was funny, some people sometimes.

We will have 3 sure baptisms in the next three weeks. First is a Lady, she is 22 and she is progressing and everything and she lives with members that give her support so its way good. The other is Ivan, he is like 35 and is awesome. One day he just showed up at sacrament and he said, “I love your church!!! I have been to so many and yours is the best one, I feel so calm and peaceful here”. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and he was asking questions about the
Book of Mormon. He is reading it and everything. He was like so Moroni is the
son of Mormon and Lehi is the father of Nephi right? We were like yes exactly, he
knows a lot. Then we have Daniel who is 12 and he has been to church 8 times but at another ward but lives in our boundaries so we didn’t know who he was so we are going to start to teach him and he was like when can I get baptized? Then we have Rosa, she doesn’t have a date yet because she has to work things out with her divorce but she has a son on a mission and she attends every week and goes to classes and has been doing that since I got here but she will get baptized this change if she works everything out, she has no doubt or anything. We have found a lot more people the weekend so we are going to get some more
baptisms.

Ya down here there is no such thing as Thanksgiving, most people don’t even know what it is but I thought it was last Thursday so we had a party in our room with me and Elder Cheesman, we drank Inca cola and ate crackers, it was a bumpin party haha. We took some pictures.

The other day we had a dog fight out in front of our house while we were getting ready to leave for breakfast so we got to watch the whole thing, the dogs down here fight like lions its crazy, I have never seen anything like it before, but ya there were two dogs and one ripped the other one up, and was way sad and I watched the whole thing, people ran over and pushed the bigger one off the little one and the little one couldnt even walk away it
was sad.

I decided to buy myself a Christmas present this year and that is a guitar, I bought it this past weekend, and it is way sweet, it is all black with a cool design around the hole and it sounds amazing, and it was 50 dollars American, yes you can by stuff down here that cheap, it is probably a 300 to 400 hundred dollar acoustical there and it came with a case so i can put it on my back when I get transferred. Elder Taylor had one so we always played it at night or on p-day and I got pretty good so he left and took it so I bought one to have my whole mission,
Elder Roldan can play the flute too and he has one so he plays some sweet songs and he can also play some hymns, its way cool.

Transfer Week

Hola,

I get a new companion this week, his name is Elder Luna and he is transferring in from Iquitos so he is coming out of the jungle. I’m staying in this area at least one more transfer. I hope Elder Luna is way cool and wants to work.

Things are good, but our area is slow right now! We have two people with dates for baptism and a couple new investigators but there could be a lot more. Our investigators didn’t come to church so their date was pushed back. When we are not teaching we are suppose to go out and find people and talk with everyone on the street which I love because it makes my Spanish so much better.

My fleas are better, I still get bit every now and then but I don’t have problems with them anymore. Our room is pretty big my bed is the same size as my bed at home (Double) and we have wood floors, our room is way big.

I did go to immigration this week with Elder Layton and Elder Ellison and that was way fun because there were gringos there from America and we talked to them in English, which was a little weird but it was cool. We went to downtown Lima it was cool. The Temple was way sweet and I took pictures.

My Spanish is a lot better and I can say a lot, I can talk with anybody on the street but drunk people and little kids. They are way hard to understand especially little kids, who use so much slang.

Breakfast of Champions

For breakfast we eat mostly bread and bologna!! We eat it with hot milk which is disgusting. Sometimes we get one fried egg and chocolate milk But it’s nothing like an American breakfast. It’s just food to put in the belly that’s how breakfasts are here but our dinners are pretty good.

I haven’t gained weight but I haven’t lost weight either. I walk so much so I could lose weight but I eat so much that my stomach is a pop belly(Elder Ridge loves water but has to drinks a lot of soda pop because he can't drink the water), so I look like one of those starving kids in Africa, not that bad but I do have a pop belly but my face and arms are skinny.

Elder Taylor and Elder Cheesman are awesome, they help me and we hangout and talk at night when we get back and stuff like that, its pretty sweet, they are way funny guys.

We didn’t watch Batman last week, we watched the Best Two Years and played ping pong and had a barbeque it was fun. Tomorrow we are going to the temple. I am excited!!

The other day we found someone that spoke Qechua so I spoke a little bit to her, only what’s your name and where are you from cause that’s all I know, its way different than Spanish.

I heard all about Obama being President, that’s all I heard all day in the street, everybody in the street was like hey gringo! Obama is your President awesome right? I just said whatever and after a while it just got annoying so this guy said the same thing to me and I said I was from France and he was like, oh...really? and I said yah, he said oh ok and walked off and my comp was laughing.

Quake shakes Peru capital Lima, no damage reported

The big thing that happened this week was we had a descent earthquake. We came back after lunch to start our fast and I was on my bed praying and Elder Lima was on his and all of a sudden I hear this deep, deep noise kind of like a rumble and I looked up and asked Elder Lima what’s happening. He was already off his bed starting to run and said we need to go now lets get out of the house it’s an earthquake. So I got up the windows started rattling and everything was moving and I could feel the ground move but not too much cause I was running. One thing about earthquakes that I didn’t know is how much noise they generate. It’s the deepest rumble I have ever heard and it’s loud but it was pretty sweet. It was my first big one but Elder Lima said that it was actually a small one compared to what can hit Peru. I don’t want to find out what a big one is like. Everything was shaking, it was crazy.

Uncle Dave this one is for you!! We had a police chase outside our house. The cops were trying to catch this teenager. Instead of getting out of their car and chasing him on foot, they stayed in their car and tried to run the teenager over. The car was drilling the curbs and bushes trying to run this kid over. It was fun to watch because the cop wouldn’t get out of the car so the kid got away. Uncle Dave, is this how you do it in the US. Maybe you can add this to your driving course you teach. (Elder Ridge’s Uncle Dave is a police office in California and teaches the rookies how to drive)

The work is good we have a couple of investigators on date for baptism. Yesterday we had two people show up at church and said “I like your church and I want to take the lessons, so that was pretty cool. They are getting baptized on the 23rd.

On P-day we write home from 10-11 usually, sometimes it changes. After that we do an activity as a zone like play soccer or go to the zoo something like that, then go to our lunch appointments at 1 or 2 and after that we can do what we want until 6, usually we just go back to the room and hangout with other missionaries or go buy stuff at the store. Today this is what we are doing. I can’t believe it when I heard it. We are going to watch batman, yes the new batman, in our mission the Mission President lets us watch movies with his approval, I think its weird that he lets us watch movies and I don’t agree with it but I have to be obedient haha.