Week 2 in Huaycan

Sorry I missed my email the last couple of weeks, my mission got real crazy real fast. Anyways, I'm serving in the Huaycan 2 area right now. Its unreal here. It's literally nothing at all like anything in the US. It's in the mountains a bit and houses are going all up and down them. The only real way to describe this place is that it looks like Afghanistan, except there's no terrorism and everyone speaks Spanish. Also, dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. They attack you sometimes too so that gets kinda exciting. But I'm alive and mostly well I guess. I've just been a little sick the last few days. Still working hard though. My companion is Elder Yañez. His a Chilean and is pretty cool. He speaks fluent English because he made a goal when he was 16 to only watch YouTube videos in English. I'm already having a lot of lessons. My emails won't be quite as long from now on because the way they have us do them out in the field is a little bit different, so instead my mom has a pretty detailed blog that you guys can go check out to see what I'm up to everyday. Here's the link:  eldermckaywhite.blogspot.com. It also has my other emails from past weeks included in it. I was reading in 2 Nephi 27 recently, which correlates with Isaiah 29. That's a really cool chapter that all you guys should go check out. Definitely a testimony booster. Well that's all for now. I hope that things are going well for you all back in the states. Have a good week!

Keep killing it!

Elder White

Monday
I've been kinda scared of the dogs that attack you the last couple of days.  But tonight I was kinda just like, "One step closer and I'll drop kick you and all your buddies in the face all the way back to the States."  Then a dog charged us and I used the other Elders as human shields.  Today was P-day.  To start the day off, we went down to the internet cafe.  I decided to have my mom make a blog instead of doing my email for at least a little while.  Then we took a bus down to the stake center area.  We all got Chinese food as a zone.  Not the best food, but we are in the middle of Peru after all.  Then we all went to visit the Lopez family.  They live in Peru's equivalent of Alpine, but it's still quite a few steps down though.  They have a super nice home.  Then we all went to the park.  We played kickball, that one game where you hit the ball in the air so many times then throw it at people, capture the flag and soccer.  They're supposed to be noncompetitive, but I'll do what I must to win.  That was the only place in my mission with mosquitoes, and they were a nuisance.  I got tons of bites.  And after they bite you, they leave little specks of blood on you.  When we got back, we went to go talk to Jimmy, but he wasn't there, so we talked to his parents instead.  Then we came down and did an FHE at a house close to ours.  Those people were crazy.  We had a meatloaf for dinner, so that was nice.  Once of my favorite dishes here so far is called arepuerto- airport in English.  The steaks here are amazing.  You just cook a thin slice of meat in some oil on the stove.  Sometimes they do the same with chicken.

Tuesday
We were supposed to have a district meeting this morning, but it got canceled.  So instead we went out contacting for a bit before lunch.  The food is always chicken, rice or potatoes, or all 3.  I've been in the country less than a month and I'm already tired of it.  Especially rice.  We went contacting for a while after lunch too. Then we went to the Carlos'.  We taught William, who has a drinking problem too, but is already baptized.  After the the lesson they brought us each a huge plate of "the big 3" as I'll call it from now on.  I wasn't ready to eat, but I had to.  We went and grabbed Christopher and took him up to visit Cesar as an accompaniment.  Cesar wasn't there so we talked to his mom, who isn't a member.  The lesson was ok, but I'm not sure she'll progress.  After that, we took Christopher with us to visit Jimmy.  I think that that lesson went really well.  I shared my testimony on Alma 26 and the Book of Mormon at the end and the spirit was strong.  But yeah, that was our day.  The Triple M church is kinda big around here.  Their missionaries are kinda hard to miss too.  They have this giant wooden backpack thing with a speaker at the top.  They can often be found yelling at the entire city, yet at no one in particular, to repent.

Wednesday
I think I'm scared of dogs now.  I don't know why though.  Right now I think I'll just say I'm extra cautious.  We had a district meeting this morning.  Elder Yanez decided to recreate that one lesson where one guy does pushups so everyone else can get a cookie to represent Christ's atonement.  I was the guy doing pushups.  I knew how it was going to work, so I told him up front I'd do it on my knees.  At a rate of 5 pushups per cookie, I did about 100.  My arms are very sore to say the least.  We each had interviews with the zone leaders.  Elder Ianni was like, "Yeah, the other zone leader and I see great leadership qualities in you.  Sometimes guys are called to be ZLs or district leaders right after their 12 weeks.  You might be one of them."  I hope not.  I still don't know the language, let alone what's going on half the time.  My patriarchal blessing talks about leadership a lot.  I've never seen myself as a leader.  We take buses to and fro a lot.  This country really wasn't built for tall people.  My legs are always squished on them, and if I have to stand I crouch over, so it hurts my neck and back.  Not to mention all the door frames and stuff I've hit my head on.  We taught Necida today, but it's looking like we'll have to drop her.  We spent a large part of the day just walking to appointments.  We had a lot of hopeful baptism commitments, but none of them worked out.  Elder Yanez and I went to go visit the Carlos' again.  We wound up dedicating their home, which was neat.  Sometimes the women here will just start breast feeding while we're teaching them.  Like you can't wait 10 minutes?  They act normal, but it gets real awkward real quick.

Thursday
The day started out kinda slow.  We were just studying a lot this morning.  We had bistek for lunch, so that was a blessing in and of itself.  After lunch, we came back to use the bathroom and finish getting ready for the day.  Then all the sudden my stomach got real upset real quick.  I sat on the toilet for quite a while.  I had to call the health secretary to get permission to take a tablet.  He was like, "So it hit you like a 360 no scope?"  That was funny.  I haven't heard anyone say that in two years.  He also said, "Dank."  I love hearing out of date slang.  We went to go visit Jimmy today.  I think he's doing pretty good.  We also went and talked with Christopher a bit.  Then we went up the mountain to visit Cesar and Jason.  It's kinda hard to teach them because they're both like 13.  Plus their dogs were attacking each other and trying to eat my shoelaces.  Then we went to the top of the other mountain to visit Jose and Jannet.  They're going cold though, so that's not good.  Maria made lomo saltado tonight.  It's my favorite Peruvian dish.   I was on the verge of tears because of how good it was.  Today was Elder Monson's birthday, so Maria got him a cake: 3 leches.  It was pretty good.  On the way home every night, we walk by this one house with 2 big white dogs on the roof that always bark at us.  Elders Yanez and Monson always talk about how ruthless they are.  We were about 25 yards away and I said, "It's kinda weird we didn't get attacked by dogs today."  Not 5 seconds later, the lady from the house opened the door.  The dogs were right there, saw us and started running towards us.  I was thinking, "Great.  I can fend them off and stand up to my fear."  But before I knew what happened, the other Elders were sprinting in the opposite direction, so I did too.  Elder Monson was carrying the rest of the cake, which got all over him.  Elder Yanez told me once were at a safe distance that these dogs will bite you.  Nothing can fend them off.  You just have to run away.  We took a moto taxi the rest of the way home.

Friday
I had a dream last night that Cason was my companion  That was a really scary dream.  Anyways, today is my mom's birthday.  I miss her and thought about her a lot today.  I think I came up with the best way to describe this place: Afghanistan.  Just no terrorism and they speak Spanish instead.  Especially with all the fog, it kinda looks like a camp set up in a dystopian era.  We spent literally almost the entire day contacting.  At one point we found a new small park.  I was checking it out when I noticed a strange smell.  Then, all of the sudden, there was an explosion behind me.  It rattled my insides as if I had been standing right next to a huge aerial firework.  When I looked behind me, it was just some kids playing in a fire.  I have no idea what they put in the fire, but I was kinda surprised they were still on their feet.  That park is now called Boom Park.  We were going to go teach Zenaida tonight, so we brought a member named Alejandro along.  She wasn't home, so we decided to visit Carla instead.  She took a while to answer the door, and when she did I could see she had a bunch of people over.  We decided to teach her anyways.  I was thinking the lesson wouldn't go so great since she had like 3 or 4 people over.  We were teaching 2 Nephi 11 and two of the new guys, a couple, got really engaged.  The lesson turned to focus more on them.  I knew about half way through we needed to ask them to get baptized.  I just didn't know how to do it.  My companion had the same idea though so he did it and they said yes.  The only downside is that they're not in our area, so another duo gets to teach them.

Saturday
Today is Peru's Independence Day.  They had a giant military parade in Lima, but there wasn't anything too different here in Huaycan.  They had random fireworks going off throughout the day, but I only saw a couple of aerials in the afternoon.  There weren't a lot of people on the streets, and the few that were were drunk.  We tried stopping by the Riscue family, who are recent converts and inactive, just to try saying hello.  I don't think she was in a hurry to talk to us.  We didn't have a lot of success contacting as you might have guessed.  We did find one Escgido though, but he lives in the Lomo ward, so we have to give him to the other Elders.  We stopped by Christopher's again today.  When we went to go visit Jimmy, a cat answered the door.  I kid you not.  On all the doors here, there's a little peephole door thing at about their eye level.  It was left open and a white cat literally jumped and landed on its stomach on that thing when we knocked.  So yeah, that happened.  I don't know how it jumped so high.  There was a baptism tonight, so we decided last second to crash the party.  I just wound up talking to Elder Morris in the hallway during all of it.  About 10 minutes in he was like, "I haven't talked in English this long in 5-6 months."  He's a really cool guy.  The Huaycan Elders (4) and I went to a member's house for dinner.  We had the big 3 for dinner with a pretty good sauce.  Then we hurried over to Maria's house where we had Lomo Saltado.  I felt kinda sick all day and my stomach started hurting halfway through because it is having trouble adapting to my new diet, but I ate it all anyways because YOLO.

Sunday
Yup, I'm still sick.  Sicker even.  When I woke up this morning, my voice sounded as deep as James Earl Hones.  Other than that though, I just have a consistent headache and a stuffy nose.  Church was good this morning.  Christopher came!  Jimmy didn't though, so we're starting to think we might have to leave him since he never comes to church.  During 3rd hour we did a special Elders quorum and Relief Society conjoined class.  Then the Stake President made a special guest short appearance half way through.  We had lunch at a members house after church.  I actually don't know their names.  We spent the entire day contacting.  We found a pair of twins that seem pretty promising.  Then there was this old couple we were talking to and Elder Yanez got a baptismal commitment from them on the spot.  So that was pretty cool.  Then we went and swung by Jimmy's.  I taught more of the lesson than usual and I feel like it went well.  We were supposed to go meet with the bishop at 8, but our Noche de Hogar can la familia Carlos took longer than we expected.  We played a couple of games after with them.  One of them was like hot potato, and whoever lost had to walk in circles around a stick.  I agreed to play, against my better judgement.  I also decided to do extra circles when it was my turn for some reason.  Let's just say I fell hard into the couch.  I've never seen Elio laugh so hard.  The people here have a very interesting vocabulary.  I very rarely hear a "no".  They pretty much always say "si".  Si could mean yes or no, it's just all in the way they say it, which isn't always obvious.  I'd just hate to try and ask a girl on a date here.  But at least they'd say si.

 Elder White and Elder Yanez.  It is winter in Peru and the fog behind them is actually a mist that gets everything wet.

 Elder White's zone.

The city at night with the mist.

Pictures of Elder White and his group while in the Peru MTC:

First Week in the Field

 

 
Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Elder Huffaker and Elder Blakemore left at 2:30AM Tuesday to go to Arequipa.  I'll miss those guys.  Then after breakfast we walked to the church next door where we met President Amato and his wife.  My companion is now Elder Yanez.  He's Chilean and is pretty cool.  We got assigned to the Huaycan 2 area.  After 4:00 we took the 1 hour taxi drive here.  It's a pretty big city.  The houses go up the mountain and are in the valley too, which is what I asked for I guess.  It's super dense though.  And there's dust everywhere.  Also dogs.  Lots and lots of dogs.  There might be more of them than people.  My new apartment freaked me out at first, but it's ok now.  There's just 20 flies for each person.  And there's no water heater so you have to take ice cold showers.  At least I'm with Elder Cabascango though.  The roosters start playing Marco Polo with their cock-a-doodle-dos at about 4-4:30 AM, so that hour or so is unpleasant.  The first night Elder Yanez taught piano lessons at the church.  I had my first lesson after with Christopher on tithing.  Then he just kinda showed me now to contact.  We had a zone meeting today, so we got up early (earlier than 7).  The meeting went well I think.  After the meeting we came back and did all of our appointments and some contacting.  Its cool getting to know the people here.  Maria is our pensionista, which mean she cooks all our lunches and dinners for us.  She's a dang good cook.  One time though she made causa (or papa) rellena.  Basically it's broccoli, beans, carrots, peas and every other vegetable I've ever hated with chicken wrapped in mashed potatoes.  Just don't look at what you're eating.  Other than that, I've loved everything.

Friday, July 20, 2018

I had to get up at 5 yesterday to be able to go with Elder Iamni to the medical clinic.  He's a zone leader.  It was kinda like splits.  It's about a 3 hour bus ride from here to Mira Flores, near Lima.  The buses have a guy leaning out the side yelling at the people to get in, where they pack you like sardines.  There's always room for another person I guess.  We were at the clinic for like an hour and a half.  Elder Iamni has had stomach problems recently I guess, even having to go to the ER.  I bought a candy bar from a Venezuelan and he gave me a 5000 Boliviano bank note.  My companion is the district leader, so he was at the training thing the entire time we were gone.  The first lesson we had when we got back was at Christopher's .  I invited him to baptism and he said yes, but we're still kinda iffy on the date.  We also visited Jimmy, who's getting baptized a week from tomorrow.  Then at night we went way up the mountain to visit Cesar.  He's 12 years old and his 16 year brother Raul was there too.  I loved the time we spent there.  We eat lunch at 1:30 and dinner at 9:30 so it's kinda weird.  My companion did a baptismal interview at the church today.  After that we went to go to visit Necida.  We had a really good lesson at her shop and stayed there for about an hour and a half.  Her daughter is trying to learn English and I think I might wind up teaching her a bit.  Don't know how that happened.  After that we went to go visit the Carlos family.  They gave us tea, croders and some eggs.  They're members.  Jimmy's family gave me a suit coat too.  And Necida gave us cookies.  They're all very nice here.  We stayed there for almost 1 1/2 hours, then walked almost to the very top to visit Jose.

Saturday, July 21, 2018

I spent more that 30 minutes this morning trying to microwave buckets of water in hopes of taking a warm shower.  Instead I wound up overheating the microwave and taking a lukewarm shower, which is still a step up I guess.  The mountains here have no plant life.  They're just big piles of dirt.  It's kinda depressing.  The kids here play soccer with a plastic bottle instead of a ball.  As a district, we decided that we'd fast every Saturday.  We tracted for a long time today.  We went looking for Christopher, but we didn't now where he lives. We were wandering around and asked a guy if he knew him.  He was like, "Christopher Rodriguez?" And we were like, "Yeah."  Then he stuck his head in his house and said, "Christopher, the Elders are here."  You can't tell me that that's a coincidence.  Elder Yanez and I were talking about this cliff and how you could walk right off without realizing it.  There was a house with a roof missing at the bottom so he was like, "Yeah, you might fall 20 ft into the bathroom." So I replied, "What a way to go."  I love accidentally making puns.  I do it quite often for some reason.  Elder Yanez laughed real good, which was good because he doesn't laugh a whole lot.  I got attacked by dogs twice today, I didn't get bit though.  I got caught in the only part of the city without a rock to throw too.  The Gutierez family got baptized tonight.  It was really special to see how emotional the dad got.  He came from a sketchy background.  The spirit was super strong.  The little girl is super scared of the water though.  So poor Elder Monson spent more than 30 minutes in the font trying to baptize her.  Jimmy was drinking again so we went to go visit him tonight.  His baptismal date will have to be moved back.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Back when I was still freaking out on the first day on the field.  I flipped open my Spanish scriptures and the first thing I saw was Alma 17:10.  (And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.)  That helped a lot.  Don't tell me God isn't watching.  I've killed dozens of flies, but it still feels like there's so many more.  Like at least a hundred.  The toilet has no seat, so when you have to go no. 2 you just gotta poop a squat.  Your level of constipation is your level of workout.  So basically hard constipation=Arnold Schwarzenegger legs.  We went to ward council before church today.  Then during church I just shook hand after hand.  Probably everyone's hand.  I had to get up and introduce myself and bear my testimony.  Whenever I introduce myself to someone, after they're always like, "Elder Blanco!" then laugh.  Every time.  After church we went to Betty's house for lunch.  She's been going to church for 6 years, but her boyfriend refuses to marry her so she can't get baptized.  Her kids are or will be baptized though.  After that we went contacting for a while.  We stopped by Jimmy's house to visit him again.  They were doing a birthday party for his sister, but we got to share a message anyways.  Then we went contacting some more.  We had FHE at the Carlos' family.  We shared a message and then played a game where you roll a dice and if it lands on a 6, you have to hurry and put some clothes on and then cut some chocolate with a fork and knife.  You had to do all that before the next person rolled a 6 and you have to eat the chocolate with the fork and knife.  Not the most sanitary game I've ever played but Yolo I guess.  Literally everyone here drinks tea.  But I guess it's the ok kind since all the members and other missionaries drink it too.  I feel like my Spanish isn't at the level it needs/should be right now, so I'm mildly concerned.

Entering the Field

Well I've only got ten minutes to talk. I finished my time at the MTC just fine. I got assigned my companion for the field. His name is Elder Yañez. I'm in the Huaycan area right now. Apparently its kinda dangerous. I can see how. I won't describe it because you can just look on google maps. My new apartment is not the best quality, but I'll have to manage. I love hearing about things at the house, but your emails are quite detailed and take a while to read, so I just have to skim them. Maybe just write a tiny bit less so I have more time to write to the rest of you. I'm actually starting to stress a little bit because this area isn't quite what I imagined my mission would be, so it's a bit overwhelming. I miss you and and am sorry I didn't have time to read your emails. One of the upsides to this mission though is we have a lady that cooks lunch and dinner for us everyday, so that's kinda nice. I met my mission president and he's a very nice man. I hope you are all doing well back home. I think I'm kind of in a shock right now. I can't quite think straight. My Spanish is improving, but it's still a struggle. I love you all. Keep reading the Book of Mormon at night. Have a good week!

-Elder White
 

 McKay with President and Sister Armoto.

 With his companion Elder Yanez.
 

 McKay's group fresh from the MTC.

 His group and all their companions.

 This picture was text to me by a friend of mine.  She got quite the surprise when she received a letter and picture from her nephew to find McKay standing right next to him!  Her nephew is Elder Blake and is standing to the left of McKay.  This was taken just before McKay left the MTC.

Week 1

Hey everyone, I'm here in Peru. Things are going pretty great I'd say. I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. Right before I left, I was kind of still having doubts about my mission. Like man, this is expensive and it lasts 2 whole years. But the night after I got ordained, I had a dream. In it, I was sharing a scripture with someone. The scripture was at the end of Alma chapter nine. When I got up, I was curious to see what was there. So I went to go check and in Alma 9 27 and the first part of 28 it says (sorry, you'll have to translate it because I forgot my English version) "Y he aqui, viene para redimir a aquellos que sean bautizados para arrepentimiento, por medio de la fe en su nombre. Por tanto,preparad la via del senor, porque esta cerca la hora en que todos los hombres recibiran el pago de sus obras..." (And behold, he cometh to redeem those who will be baptized unto repentance, through faith on his name. 28 Therefore, prepare ye the way of the Lord, for the time is at hand that all men shall reap a reward of their works, according to that which they have been—)  That hit me like a wall of bricks. I still feel the spirit every time I think of it. So yeah, there's really no doubt in my mind that this is where God wants me to be.

The day I left, I got up at 3:30 am for my 7 am flight. Goodbyes were hard with my family. When I was trying to get breakfast, a man saw me and took me to get breakfast with him. It's awesome that the Lord was already watching out for me. There were 5 other missionaries with me on the flight to Atlanta and like 50 of us on the way to Lima. We had a five hour layover, so we didn't land until like midnight. Then because of customs, a sister that never showed up I guess, and an Elder that lost his passport in Atlanta, I was finally in bed at 3:30 am again. 

Turns out the 3 week program is the native's courses with me and two other gringos. Everything is in Spanish. The only times I hear English is when I happen to see someone in the hall, or when I go to bed at night with the 4 other gringos. I've learned fast. I just hope I haven't missed anything too important. There was one elder at first who I thought was speaking a mix of Japanese and Geonocian (from Star Wars), but we're friends now. Turns out he's just Chilean. My companion is Elder Villanueva. He knows enough English to bail me out when I'm really in trouble. But he's also the slowest eater I've ever met. He's even slower than I am. I'm gonna end up hopefully really good at soccer in a few years though, because they play it every day.

The weather here is really weird sometimes. It doesn't rain, but sometimes there's like a fine mist in the air. It's like always walking through one of those mist fan things. Everything gets wet. 

The natives put ketchup and mayo on literally almost everything. It's kinda disgusting and pretty weird. I've tried a lot of weird food here since I've arrived, but I don't think I'll ever be like that.

I met elder Johns, who's from AF, so it was nice to see a face from home. We know a lot of the same people. He's a pretty cool dude. Elder Dodds is in my room and he's one of the most interesting people I've ever met. He's the kind of guy that shakes everyone's hand, but also sleep yells at us. He's pretty funny and also one of the single most inspired guys I've every met. Just follow the spirit guys. When you find some time, go read Alma 26. That's a great chapter. That's all I really have time to say this week because we only get an hour. 

Follow the spirit y'all

-Elder White