El niño 👦💧

 Good week. Transfers are this week so it's the last week with Elder Ostergaard. Big bummer. But we've done a ton of good. Having a native comp (assuming I do) will be good for my spanish. 

We went on exchanges with the ZL's. Good time. Elder Montoya and I were in Lambayeque and it's a ton different there. Everyone is white and rich. Really weird. One of the familys we taught had the biggest freaking dog I have ever seen. I kid you not he was the size of a deer. He stood up on two feet and his head was above mine. I have never been more scared. They don't feed him they just let him out and he eats cats. Luckily he was nice but I had all dogs even the nice ones (accept daisy). 

It rained here. The start of El Niño. I really enjoyed the cooler weather and lack of dust for about 1 hour until the roads that were previously dirt turned into 6 inches of mud. Luckily we have some boots, but still kinda annoying. 

Thanksgiving is an incredibly underated holiday. I remember thinking last year how different it would look this year. Turns out it's just the same accept instead of mashed potatoes it's rice. Instead of stuffing it's beans. Instead of turkey it's chicken heart. And instead of pumpkin pie some more rice. 

The work here had been slow for a couple weeks. I was pretty down I won't lie. Elder ostergaard and I prayed a lot and really trusted in the Lord this week. We felt like we were working hard, but It just felt like a normal week. During our weekly review yesterday we realized we had taught over 55 lessons and had 14 new people at church. One thing I have learned as a missionary is that when we feel down and out, if we trust in the Lord He will always bless us. 

Super cool moment the other day. There was a big youth activity with our branch and 2 others. The first person I baptized here (hermana flor) stood up to bear her testimony. She was crying (it isn't common to cry during testimony here) and saying how much her testimony had grown and how she has come to know the church is true. You have no idea how happy this made me. The sad reality is that a lot of people get baptized because the elders are cool white guys from the U.S not because they have a testimony of their own. To see that she had truly been converted and gained a testimony of her own made me so happy. We baptized her and her sister 8 weeks ago, and they haven't missed one single sacrament meeting or activity since. They are truly converted. Baptisms are super cool, but the church doesn't need baptisms, we need converts. 

"What is bold today will not be bold tomorow." -Ricardi letter

Love you guys

Didn't take many pics this week sorry 

1. Big dog 

2. Elder ponces fit

3. Me and elder ponce doing service (be thankful for what you have)

4. The river (there's got to be some fish in there)

Cock fights 😅

 There was a lot that happened this week but most of it doesn't apply to the legacy of Lebron James or Dez Bryant so I won't include it all.

Elder Kershaw (terrorizing the streets of Chile) said something of great wisdom last week. He said "In a couple years we will miss being poor and hot in the hood. So we should try and enjoy it before its too late. Yippe!!!" What a man. And what a true statement. I found myself awake at 2 am this past thursday. 85 degrees in the apartment. Had pulled a cockroach off my face for the third time that night. I sat up, kinda in the dumps. On the verge of tears I started laughing. I kinda realized that nights like that, or coming home from a long day covered in dust head to toe and not having water to shower are the things that absolutely suck in the moment, but that I will laugh about in 20, 30, 50 years from now. I find great joy in the mission. I am very happy here. I'll be the first to admit that it is though. However, it is in reality a very simple life. I will greatly miss the simplicity of waking up every day and teaching incredible people the gospel. 

It's always fun to have lunch with the whole district. You pick your seat at the table, and out come 6 bowls of soup. You can be the lucky one and get the chicken breast in your soup. Or you can get blessed with some testicals, heart, or intenstines. The only one I have a really hard time eating is the feet. I'm personally not a fan of fighting against some toenails to pull off a little piece of meat (skin).

It's always sad when we eat gallo (rooster) for dinner for a few reasons. One, rooster is way worse than chicken. Two, that usually means one of the pensionistas brothers cocks lost their fight that day 😞🐓🕊 Rip lil homie. Sometimes if a few loose we get a lot of food. Lol.

We have a family of 5 that is progressing well. A mom and 4 kids. 2 of them could have the priesthood so that would be huge for the branch. The kids are all there, but the mom says she wants God to "touch her heart." We've been really trying to get her to recognize the spirit and realize that she probably won't see an angel, but that God will touch her heart little by little. They're a great little family, and I really hope they work out. 

Dope verses👍👍

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success. 

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some. 

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many

Love you guys, have a splendid week and spectacular thanksgiving 

Fotos 

1. Lizard in the scriptures 😨

2. Elder Ponce and I looking at a meme (he's standing zesty (drippy poncho)) 

3. Some crazy old lady that gives me free bananas

4. Me+Elder Ostergaard+flowers 🤩😙💅

5. Sunset+me+peru flag 😍😍

Elder schwendiwoman thanks for the shoutout last week. I would like to shout out Elder Dak Prescot Peery and Elder Jamesmat (p.s dibs bion)

😁🐍🐈

 It was a good week. Any week with a baptism is. It is awesome to see kids make this covenant. We are told to focus on youth and inactive familes, which makes sense. All 4 baptisms we've had were kids of inactive families who we helped reactivate. All 3 families are very active now. This is obviously incredible. I really want to see some adults and families open their hearts to our message though. They will come. 

Sometimes the main water line for our street (a pvc pipe) breaks so we don't have water. They usually fix it (tape it) pretty quick though lol. This country never ceases to amaze me. 

We had an extreme rarity this week. We went a whole 24 hours without being fed rice or drinking maracuya. It makes me extremely sad to think that some of you have never had Maracuya. This is one thing that will never be the same after the mission. 

We watched a group of dogs curb stomp a cat in the middle of the road. I don't know why but it was sad (I laughed). Photos attached

The main story would go crazy in Perú. There's always something crazy happening.

They paved the 5 mile stretch of the freeway that was dirt road. We so up! 😹Perú out the mud.

I love how relatable the Book of Mormon is to these people. There is such a rich Incan/Native culture here like in the Book of Mormon. Ancient Incan writings even talked about "a god" visiting them and the dates line up almost exactly with when Christ visited the Nephites. This is obviously not church doctrine, so we just tell people that Christ did in fact visit the Americas after his resurrection, and explain what we know as doctrine. But anyone who reads the book will almost always ask us about this conection. We kinda just give them a solid maybe. True or not, this connection works well for the people so we don't argue it. They almost have me convinced haha. 

On the note of BOM tie ins to peruvian culture, I will finish with a scripture because I need to be better about making my emails somewhat spiritual. I love this scripture because rather the Peruvian people really are descendants of the Nephites, Lamanites, or neither, this verse is a fire missionary verse. 

"And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, they bretheren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls."

Love you guys

Pictures

1. Scary surprise under the door! I hate snakes.

2. AC in Perú (it was 86 in our apartment this night 😖)

3. Busy on the flip phone 🤣🤣

4. RIP lil homie 💔 🕊 

5. Happy birthday Jesus

6. Funny pic a member took at the baptism 😹

White out ⚪️⚪️⚪️

 Halloween was a downer here. Nobody really celebrates it. The only good thing that came of it was soft serve icecream that turned the bathroom into my bedroom for the night 😵 being in bed at 9:30 on Haloween thinking about whats going on back home is a humbling experience. There's still nowhere I'd rather be than here. 

The animal market is always a good time to walk by. Any birds (chickens, turkeys etc.) Are just sitting in mesh bags. Bigger animals (goats, pigs etc) are tied up by their feet so they can't walk and just lay on the curb screaming. You come in to town, pay a few Soles, they cut the ropes off the feet of your pig, he stops screaming, then you walk him back to your house. What a place.

I had an exchange with Elder Ponce from Ecuador. Turns out he knows all the people that we did service for there. Small world.

This baptism meant a lot to me. It was a lot more than the baptism of Alex. It included reactivating his family, getting the permision of his dad, etc. His Dad didn't aprove for a while. But after seeing his whole family reactivate, he agreed. The spirit was strong, his family is now very active, and he is definately converted.  

Igauna

Pretty bird (dead)

Pretty sunset 

Another Scorpion 

Some bappy photos