Saturday, November 26, 2011

First Week! Nov 21st

Family :D

Hey! How´s it going?? Those pictures you sent were awesome, of the family, the snow, and the pinball machine. The snow looks so cool in our backyard with the trees and all, it made me miss winter time. You have passes to go skiing at brighton right?? That´ll be fun! The pinball machines in the basement look cool, and MM looks really fun. I am really enjoying myself here in Cajamarca, it´s really pretty. It feels a lot like home with the mountains surrounding the city. You guys would love it here.

So the first week has been pretty cool, I am tired all the time haha. The area of Cajamarca that me and my comp have is literal on the mountain, so when were tracting it´s pretty tiring the hills we walk are super steep haha. But I am getting used to it. The people here have been nice so far, and it´s very laid back here. The situation with the cars driving around on the streets is a little sketchy but you just have to be careful and it´s not a big deal. I feel so lucky to be in the area i´m in, President Risso told me that most missionaries don´t get the chance to serve here so I am really excited about it. We have appointments and were teaching all the time were crazy busy all the time. My companion is really cool, and he knows a lot. So I am learning a lot from him. He helps me with my Spanish and what not so it´s been really helpful. I am still very confused with Spanish, I am learning little by little and I am forced to speak it every day. It´s weird this whole week I don´t think I have spoken a word of English. So I think this will help me to learn Spanish very quick. I am okay when it comes to talking about The Gospel but my vocabulary for things not pertaining to that is very limited. I think it will just come with time. Our apartment is very nice it´s sweet, we don´t talk much with the family we live with in fact I think I have only met them for like 5 minutes. Our pension where we eat food is awesome, the family is super nice. They sell pan from their house, it´s really good bread.

We have a lady with a baptism for this Saturday that were pretty excited about, her names Gladis. She´s really nice and excited about the Church. It´s tough we had two other people with baptism dates, but it´s tough because they have to attend church two times before they can be baptized and a lot of the people have a hard time with that. The people here are very receptive of the Gospel though from what I can tell. We teach a lot of different people and it´s tough to remember all the people haha, we have been trying to have a member with us in our lessons it helps a lot. Pretty much everyone here is Catolica. It´s funny that you brought up those Mototaxi cars mom, we ride those when we have to go somewhere out of our area. But it´s actually really safe, and when we have to go to our apartment we take a taxi cause the mototaxis can´t get up the hills. I am trying to enjoy myself right now and not get down on myself it´s hard when you feel like you can´t communicate as well and it affects your ability to teach. But I was told my Spanish is pretty good for 9 weeks of experience with it so that made me feel good haha. With the Zone today we played soccer and volleyball at the church, it was fun. Everyone in my zone is super cool.

So as far as mail and packages go I am actually not really sure I can figure it out and tell you this next monday. I can recieve pouch mail but I can´t send it out. We don´t have an address here in Cajamarca. Don´t worry at all about sending anything for the people here or for my companion, it i´ll make things more dificult for me. But if you want to send a package to me I would send it in the next week or so, or it won´t get to me on time. I think you should be able to look it up somehow. If not I will be able to send you guys the address next week. The mission pays for two of my letters a week. It costs 7 solace for a letter here through serpost. I have two minutes, but I am going to send some pictures next week. Love you guys!! Sorry I couldn´t talk longer.

-Christopher

I'm in the field!! Nov 16th

Family :D hey!!! So guess where my first area is at?! Its in Cajamarca! It´s so awesome, it´s up in the highlands of Peru in the middle of the mountains. It´s super pretty and really awesome weather, a lot cooler than down in Chiclayo. Anyways i´ll try and tell you as much as I can.

So we left on Tuesday at 7:30 and left for the airport, our flight left Lima at 11:20 and we arrived in Chiclayo aroud 1:00. One sweet thing was I was able to teach a lady on the plane the first lesson and give her a book of mormon it was awesome. We were greeted by President Risso and his wife, they´re are super nice and helpful. From there we went to Norky´s (its like KFC) we ate lunch here and then drove to the mission home. We went through a welcome meeting introduced ourselves to some of the missionaries in the area. We were then assigned our companions and where are first areas would be. I had heard that the mountain highland mission in Cajamarca was really cool and pretty so I was super stoked when they called my name and said I would be serving there. My companion Elder Pacori is awesome and really nice and easy going he´s 26 which is pretty interesting haha, but he knows a lot and he will be very helpful. We left the mission home at 10:30 and took a double decker bus through the night up the mountains into Cajamarca, we arrived at 5 in the morning so I´m fairly tired haha. Our apartment is really nice, a lot nicer than I expected. I feel really blessed for the area i´ll be in and the companion I have. We are living with some members in the ward. The room is about the size of my room at our house and it´s just me and Elder Pacori. I feel really safe where I am at. I talked to my companion about Cajamarca and I asked him if I needed to worry about anyone trying to rob us and he said it´s super relaxed here and tranquil (I think thats how you spell it). You should look up some pictures of the city, I was going to send some pictures but I don´t really have any time. I should be able to email you guys on Monday (P-Day). Umm so que mas?? I hear the members are really cool, and we are teaching some lessons to today to some less active members and some investigators. Were planning on commiting one of the investigators to baptism so we´ll see what happens. We went this morning to a members how where we eat all our meals and they were so nice and we ate some pan, eggs, and hot chocolate. They´re very nice people. I still can´t believe im in the field now and that i´m in the city i´m in, it´s so pretty and peaceful. I feel really safe here. There´s mountains surrounding the city, so it feels just like Salt Lake City :D it´s so awesome. I can´t wait to get in on some real lessons, my spanish isn´t near where it needs to be but I am very excited for this opportunity I have, it´s like nothing else. We are teaching a class tonight at 8 for people struggling with addictions, alcohol is a big problem for a lot of the people here so they hold a addiction recovery class thing at the church. I´m stoked about that!

So what´s going on with you guys right now? Have you been getting a lot of snow lately?? Or going sledding?? I really enjoyed recieving the letters you guys sent me, I got some just before I left the CCM in Peru. Have you been playing the pinball machines and all that?? Fill me in on everything :D I feel bad I dont have a ton of time but on monday i will have a hour for email.

As far as my mailing address goes i´m not sure what it is, but when we have our district meeting I should be able to find that out. Also so I have pouch mail, I can recieve letters through pouch. But I can´t send through pouch which is a bummer. The church pays for two cartas a month I believe, but its 7 solace to send a letter out through SerPost so its pretty expensive! But anyways let me know how you guys are doing´!! I´ll talk to you on Monday :D Love youuuuu!!!!

-Christopher

Hey!! Nov 9th

Como le va?!! Its snowing in Utah?? Oh man thats awesome, that makes me miss the cold weather in utah. I loved those pictures you guys sent the basketball game looked fun, those costumes were awesome too michael myers and the yeti thats sweet, and lagoon with terror ride frightmares is awesome, where´d you guys get the picture with the snake??, and the picture with lindsey and her husband is cool looks like shes really happy thats awesome. So i didn´t take too much time to read your emails i skimmed over them because i wanted to shoot josh a letter and i dont get enough time on here and i wanted to look at those pictures you guys sent me.

So nothing really new going on here, still studying and trying to get all prepped to head out to Chiclayo. I've been reviewing a lot of Spanish grammar and trying to learn all the rules of the language. I was told by my teacher he said that you will eventually will just talk spanish naturally and you won't have to think about all the grammatical rules that go along with Spanish so that was nice to hear. My latin companion Elder Chambergo helps me out a lot with words and whatever it is, he's super funny. I may have told you this he's a convert to the church he's 23 and he's been a member for a 1 and half. A lot of the latin elders here are 21 or older they're all super nice and cool. I've been reading from the new testament lately during some of my personal time and that's been really cool for me. What else happened this week?? Umm I got ice cream which was awesome hahah, we never get sweets like i've told you and so anytime we get any type of candy or anything its delicious.

So today we drove down to downtown lima and went to immagrations to get our id for Peru. It was about an hour drive and now i'm official here in peru haha. It was cool though we were waiting in line for to get our id cards and we started talking to this guy, he was reading out of his bible. And we talked for a quick 10 minutes about the church, and he got super excited about what we had to say it was really cool! The spirit from this guy was so strong, he was very receptive of our message and we invited him to read the BOM, ponder the message it contains in his heart, pray to know its true, and he will recieve an answer through the Holy Ghost we shared Gal 5:22 to explain what the spirit is. it was so awesome too see him light up and get so excited about the LDM and what we quickly talked to him about I got his address and tel number.

Anyways sorry I dont have a ton of time let me know how things are going?? fill me in on all thats going on!! Send some pictures of you guys playing MM!! I wanna see it! I feel bad my emails keep running so short, I get on email and read the emails you guys send and look at the pictures and then i have like 15 minutes to email back haha. But yeah things are going really good and i'm keeping a good attitude lately and super excited to get out there and do the real thing. i feel like i've lived inside an MTC my whole life hahaha. I'm going to write you guys a letter today and when i get to chiclayo i should get a hour to email you guys about everything. I met my MP last week and his wife they´re really nice so i'm excited about that. Love you soo much sorry i don't have a ton of time. Fill me in on whatevers going on!!

-Christopher

Hola!!! Nov 2nd

Que pasa? hows everything going with you!? Everything is going awesome here, and im enjoying myself a lot. I loved those pictures that you sent theyre awesome :D youll have to send me some pictures of you guys playing the new pinball machine! Is it pretty cool? Im way jealous you guys got it after I left. How was halloween? I was bummed out on halloween because we didnt do anything, not that I expected to do anything haha. But yeah holidays on the mish arent anything real special I dont think hah. Thats awesome to hear about Lindsey getting married, tell her congradulations! has it been snowing a lot? Its real nice weather down here like 75 I think, and really dry so it feels a lot like utah which is nice. Hows Gary Jones doing? Its a bummer I dont get to hear about anything that goes on and I got one letter today haha, and the email time is way too short!! You guys better go skiing a lot this year and take a lot of pictures for me.

So I got my new companion elder chambergo, and hes from lima. hes a way cool elder, I still have my american companion but its split up between both companions. Hes been really helpful with my spanish and different things and we get along really good. Yeah there was an earthquake, it was actually really cool haha! we were sitting in class and all the sudden the ground started shaking for about ten seconds and it was actually pretty cool to experience ha. It was kinda like when we were on the trip with the lavatos and the cabin shook. But it was nothing too terribly crazy. We went on the tour and it was super cool I think I already talked to you guys about that right ? We went to that old church and all that with the bones and got to tour downtown lima. I attactched some pictures so you guys should get them. Were going proselyting on Saturday I think and I am pretty excited about that, that picture of all the multicolored houses on the mountain is similiar to the place we tracted in. It was so awesome, and a cool experience for me. Just being able to go and knock doors and talk to whoever about the message we have for them was so cool and spiritual. I am so excited and nervous to leave in the next couple of weeks its going to be so cool, going out tracting makes me feel more comfortable aabout the whole thing. Ive talked to a couple of people about chiclayo and they said its really hot there in the summers, the food is aweesome, the people are really nice, and that its a lot like a desert i think. Who knows. Umm what else has been going on..my norte americano comp elder spencer is zone leader now which is awesome for him. We have been playing a lot of soccer and doing the same old stuff here, eat sleep and drink the gospel and spanish. it gets a little old sitting in class and studying for most of the day but its good for me to learn to study hard. We watched the Joseph smith movie on sunday which was cool. Oh yeah my mission president of chiclayo and his wife were visiting the CCM here with a bunch of other mission presidents in peru. And I got to meet them and theyre super nice and seem like theyre going to be really cool, they dont speak any english so thats cool hah. Today we went to TOTOUS and got some soda and food and we were walking around and there was christmas music playing and all these christmas decorations it was cool to see some things that remind me of home :D I have a minute and 30 seconds left so im going to try and upload some pictures really quick! Sorry I couldnt write much. I will write some letters and send them out with more details obout what is going on here :D and the letters I sent last week should be coming soon! Love you guys!!! Thanks for everything!!!

-Christopher :D

P.S. I tried my visa today at TOTOUS and it worked perfectly and it expires 8/13 so were good on that :D

Hiii It's Christopher! Oct 26th

HEYY, how's it going? How's October been?? I miss not being able to have fun during Halloween and go do stuff for Halloween. Haha. Everything is going really well here in the CCM.

We have had some awesome opportunities lately, we were able to go proselyting on Saturday and go real door contacting. It was really cool, I didn't take any pictures cause they told us not to bring our cameras. But I don't think I have ever seen poverty like that it was really eye opening for me. The houses have tin roofs and stuff, and in this one part of the neighborhood there was a ditch and people were just dumping all the garbage out of the back of their houses into this ditch. The people we were able to talk to and teach were so nice and humble! It was me and my companion, Elder Spencer and our maestro Hermano Vega. It was way nice to have our teacher there since we don't know the first thing about spanish so whenever we got lost he would repeat what they said slower so we could understand haha. So we were able to knock doors for about 5 hours, and we were only able to teach 2 lessons and get inside 1 house. We started out and I was way intimitated to talk to anyone, but after about 3 doors I felt more comfortable. About the 4th house we got to, this one lady let us teach her and we sat on these bricks outside her house, and taught her how God loves her. She had been hit by a car and the people who hit her just drove off and didn't help her. She was curious why God would let this happen to her. I felt pretty bad for her. She didn't have a lot of time so we got her info and kept going. We talked to some kids playing soccer here, and all the soccer here is awesome. Within these neighborhoods there is just a slab of cement and soccer goals so we were talking to a bunch of kids playing soccer and they were making fun of us and laughing in Spanish and I didn't understand a thing they said hahahahaha they were nice though. But it was cool to get to really get to know the people here. We kept knocking for a while and people kept saying ''otro dia" another day, and so we just kept going. We ended up running into this lady outside of her house and she let us in her house and we taught her and her husband, they were super nice to us. We were able to teach the whole first lesson to them and covered everything. It was a very spiritual experience, and it seemed surreal I was really sitting in their house and we were teaching real people. But it was just like we had practiced in the past and it went really good. Sorry I am keeping these stories short but I dont have a ton of time. We got their info and turned it in to the missionaries in the area so hopefully they end up getting more lessons.

So today we go on a tour of Lima and I am really stoked about it! We get to go to a cathedral and I think we get to go to the beach im not sure. After that we get to come back and play soccer under the lights for like 3 hours, it's gonna be nice to get a day off and kinda play and have free time. We get our latin companions tomorrow so I am really excited about that so I can learn spanish quicker and get some experience. I have two and half weeks left and them it's outta here for me! Finally! I feel like I have been in here forever but not really at the same time. I love the environment here it's very relaxed but strict too. But were continuing to learn a lot daily. The experience on saturday was definitely my favorite so far. It was so cool, just how I imagined real tracking to be. But also almost too good to be true because of how nice the people were. And I have been told the people in Lima aren't as nice as the people in Chiclayo so we'll see! I talked to a Latino elder from chiclayo last week and he said it's really nice in chiclayo and very pretty. The food is really good he said, and i've also heard you eat a ton banana's there!?? So i'll have to get used to that hahah.

I don't have much time and sorry if these email is short I tried to get in as much as I could!! Love you guys, tell me how everything is going with you. Are you guys getting the pictures I email you??????

Christopher :D

Hey it's Christopher! Oct 21st

-Familia

Hey hows it going!!? I loved those pictures that you sent me on here, its a bummer to really only be able to email because letters take so long. I didn´t get any mail this week, and I think thats how it will be most of the time while i´m in Peru. It´s just tough to get stuff mailed. I did send some letters to you guys this week so you should get it pretty soon here. My P-Day is typically on Wednesday´s but it´s on Friday this week because the President of international MTC´s is here at the Lima MTC. I love reading emails from you guys it´s the best! I´m glad you were able to go to Rourke´s farewell, that picture is awesome of Ava and all the girls haha. I am bummed out that I didn´t get to see Rourke come into the MTC in Provo. Hopefully he can use that tie you gave him (: I will for sure remember to keep Gary Jones in my prayers, it´s good that it wasn´t a bad stroke. But it´s a bummer he won´t be able to play golf for 6 months.

So everything has been going awesome here in the CCM, it´s nice weather all the time and it´s a really nice MTC. It´s a little bit different than in Provo, only some of the teachers speak english and if they do it´s very little, the food they serve in the lunchroom is a lot different than in Provo it´s typically chicken and rice ha. We don´t get to have any food with us in our rooms so today when we got to go to the store I bought some ice cream and sprite and it was so nice to get some sugar haha. They feed you super healthy but its nice! Study time has been really good and I´m learning a lot its sweet, and my spanish is getting better everyday. I´m excited because this next week i am going to get a latin companion so that will help a ton with Spanish I think. Oh and also on this coming Wednesday we get to go on this cool tour of Lima and check out this cathedral and a beach and stuff I am stoked. Today for P-Day we took a bus to the Temple this morning and it was such a cool experience, the temple here is so pretty and super nice. Then we went to the store and I got some food and pigged out haha. We walked back from there about a mile and half to the CCM it was awesome to be able to walk through some of Lima the buildings are super sweet looking. I was talking to a couple people at the store and at the temple and it makes me feel like I know no Spanish haha. Hopefully it i´ll come in time. So we walked back from the store and now we have like 2 hours to do whatever to play soccer, take a nap, write letters, and take a nap. I think were gonna go play some soccer here, the field is super sweet. Or play some ping pong. It´s been so nice today to have P-Day because it got prolonged three days. Oh and tomorrow we get to go proselyting in the city so I´m pretty excited about that, I´m not sure where were going to go but it should be pretty sweet. But the MTC here is pretty much the same as provo other than being able to go proselyting and different things its sweet though.

So let me know how everything is going, how´s school been for Joel, Evan, and Bryce? Is bryce going to start Drivers ED? Or are you guys gonna wait on that? It´s a bummer that I don´t get any Dear Elders from anyone, I wish I did! That´s one of the bummers of being down here. I am running low on time and want to attach some pictures so that´s all I can write but I love you guys!! I´m sorry I don´t get to write as much as I have wanted to, I´m gonna write you guys a letter tonight and it should take about two weeks to get to you :D Love youuuuu!!!!

-Christopher


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I'm in Peru!! Oct 14th

Hola Familia!

I'm sorry I wasn't able to call you yesterday after I arrived to the Peru airport, I tried to call but my phone card wasn't working on the phones there. But everything is good here at the CCM in Lima! The weather here is a lot like Kauai it reminds me of it so much. It's really moderate, just like that spring weather we read about. We got to the Lima airport last night around 10:30, 11:30 Utah time. We were expecting someone to pick us up from the airport when we arrived, but there wasn't anyone there haha. So we were at the Lima airport after our plane landed for about 2 1/2 hours, it was pretty interesting. Luckily we met some members in our connecting flight in Atlanta that were headed to Peru and they helped us out. The guys that drove us to the CCM were nice, and we packed all of our stuff in a van and me and 2 elders rode while the other 4 hermanas rode in a different car. It was so cool to drive around Lima, and it also made me realize how much we take for granted in America. There's definitely a lot of poverty here. It's such a cool place though! We were able to finally get to the CCM around 2 am.

It was really cool so on the plane from Atlanta to Peru I sat next to this Peruvian lady. She spoke very little english and between my bad spanish and her english we started talking and I asked her where she was from and such. She was born in Lima and was coming from New York. Her name is Alicia. After we had started to get to know each other she asked me why I was headed down to Peru and I explained to her why. I started teaching the first lesson to her, about The Apostasy and Restoration. I told her how El Libro de Mormon is another testiment of Jesus Christ and the people of the Americas. She told me she was Catholic and so was all of her family. Anyways after I covered all the first lesson and explained to her about the restoration I told her how she could read The Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, and that José Smith was a prophet that translated The Book of Mormon {Moroni 10:3-5}. I promised her she would recieve an answer to her prayer. I wrote my testimony down in a spanish Book of Mormon and gave it to her. It was so cool! I was really excited about it, and I think she was interested. She seemed really interested in Christ and how he suffered for our sins, and I showed her 3 Nephi 11, when Christ appears to the Nephites and she read that chapter on the plane. It was so awesome to be able to teach a real person instead of a fake investigator. It was pretty sweet!

So we got into our room around 2 am and went to bed and were woken up at 6:30 it was crummy. But we were able to go back to bed for a little longer. We went to Breakfast 30 minutes later and came back to our room after to unpack. We napped a little bit more and I still feel tired haha. But then we met with the ZL's in our district and they gave a quick orientation and we went to gym after that. Gym was awesome we played soccer with our zone and all the latino Elder's here it was sweet, the soccer field here is legit. The peruvian people our so cool and super nice to everyone. It's definitely more immersion with Spanish in comparison with the Provo MTC, it's spoken everywhere. Oh and there's some ping pong tables here so that's pretty cool so I can practice up for when I come home! I am loving it so far though, I feel a little tired and out of it but it's so sweet.

How's everything going with you guys?? I'm running out of time and I want to attach some pictures really quickly! Love you guys!! Thanks so much, it was the best to be able to talk yesterday! Love you, nos vemos!

-Christopher