I am going to the Jungle!!!

Well we have changes and I know your excited to hear so here it is............ I’m going........ to..... IQUITOS! I’m way excited! I’m freaking going to the Amazon River, Wow,!!!!!

My companion is Elder Zuniga. I already know him because he was here two changes ago. He is way cool and is white as I am but he is from Costa Rica, he speaks a little bit of English but not a lot, he is also District Leader so I will get to know all the areas in Iquitos. I am way excited. It is so hot there, everyone tells me that you will die because of the heat. Man I am so excited I can’t stand it!

I leave Wednesday morning and I have to put my stuff in the offices on Tuesday. I can only take one suitcase that weighs 40 pounds there. Today I am going to take out money from the bank just in case I need it while traveling.

Well I didn’t give the blessing one of the counselors did, because the Bishop announced it wrong so we just went with it. Our baptism was cool because the girl Lorene wants to serve a mission, she bore her testimony in sacrament meeting before she got confirmed, it was awesome. Javier was cool too, it was good to finally get the teaching done and get him in the water.

I have not gotten my third package yet an since I am leaving I don’t think I will ever get it. My health is good. I am drinking water. I don’t have fleas that much. Yesterday I ate cow lungs, it was gross. I will try to get you some pictures. Well, I love you guys, next e-mail will be about the Amazon Rainforest! Man I am way excited!

Short and Sweet

Well, I don’t have a lot of time but this week was awesome, we had two baptisms on Saturday, it was awesome. My zone leader is telling me that I have to go right now so I can’t talk right now. I hate this 30 minutes thing!! Next week I will write you guys more detail because next week you will know my changes. Thank you, thanks for the support, I love you guys! Sorry

Golden Investigators

This week was great. We had 153 contacts and found a family to teach, so we will start teaching them. We are going to baptize Javier (he is 12) this Saturday. We are also working with Lorene, she is awesome. She is also getting baptized Saturday. We went to her office and she had bought paintings of Joseph Smith and Moroni which where expensive. I walked in her office and she was like look what I bought, I was like oh my gosh, she was like it was expensive but look its Joseph Smith the Prophet and Moroni with the plates, I was like ya wow, it’s good to have a investigator of gold like that.

Things are going good with my companion, he is away good teacher and we get along, we don’t have any problems, he is a pretty humble kid, his family is members, they converted when he was two so he has always been a member.

My Spanish continues to improve. I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting for like 8 minutes. I got up and talked the whole time without stopping to think of a word, it was pretty sweet. Elder Cheesman still he helps me with my Spanish, I can talk all day and understand like 95 percent but I’m still not fluent but it’s coming fast.

I haven’t stopped sweating in the past 2 weeks. It’s pretty hot and I’m not even in the jungle.

Email time limit causes short Posts

The Lima Peru North Mission has been put on a email limit of 30 minutes every week due to some missionaries not following the rules. Therefore, his emails have been short and these posts will be short. We hope that his mission president will see the need we have for a longer email time. Last week we did not post due to a very short and personal email from Elder Ridge.

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)