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's zone.
The city at night with the mist.
Pictures of Elder White and his group while in the Peru MTC:
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