Tuesday
(The picture he took of this day's entry was a little blurry so some of this may not make sense)
We had to get up a wee bit earlier than usual to go to la compania de 2 servicios en La Molina. They were using the chapel for that same thing my dad and I did in El Salvador a few years ago. So we did it at the CCM next door. I didn't see any of my friends there though. We took a combi (basically a mini van bus) most the way there. According to ley 27050, there's 2 or 3 reserved seats for old guys, cripples, pregnant women or women with infants. They need to add all white guys that need to fold themselves in half to fit while standing to that list. The training went well I fell like. It was good to see all those Elders again. I feel pretty loved by President Amato. I felt like he gave me a lot of his attention for some reason. Like, more than everyone else. Sister Amato made us all cookies too. Good stuff. It was all in all one of those meetings where you walk away feeling like you're gonna baptize everybody. I liked it. The meeting got out a lot later than we thought, but that's ok. None of our appointments worked out, so we just ended up contacting the whole night. We found this one guy named Raul that seemed pretty promising. I'm still sick though, however. I have to blow my nose every 15 minutes. The barber lady gave me a roll of toilet paper, which has been a blessing to have with me. If my body put in half the energy and resources it uses for making my snot and instead used it for making me feel better or something like that, I'd be the most fit man in the world and look like Chris Hemsworth. My companion taught his piano class tonight, so I just read my trusty Libro de Mormon for an hour and a half.
Wednesday
I really need to stop using bad English around the natives. They're trying to learn English. When I'm bored with them I might say something like, "I is the most tallest aqui." Then they start picking up on it and it's a mess. Elder Yanez had to go to a leadership training in La Molina so we took a bus and dropped him off with Elder Stoliker. So then I was on splits with Elder Cabascango and Elder Monzon. They had an 8 AM appointment though, and it took everything I had to not nod off. It was with that one family they baptized a week and a half ago though, so that was cool. Such a great family. We did it. We finally did it. There are no more (alive) flies in the apartment. Elder Monzon went ham with the fly killer spray Elder Yanez bought last night. I sniped the rest with the electric tennis racquet. I've killed I don't even know how many in my short time here. There are some spots that looks like we have peppered tiles now. It's pretty gross. I'm a gonna sweep right now. UPDATE: I keep finding more. I don't know if they're finding their way into our our apartment or just want to die. At the height of the fly menace, I was worried I'd swallow one in my sleep. I think I actually did swallow one because I got the weirdest taste in my mouth all the sudden while I was killing them. Kinda sweet and tangy. Anyways, I went to one lesson with the other Elders again. We were there for an hour and half. Then we went to go pick up Elder Yanez and Stoliker. We headed to Elder Stoliker's house, which is a lot bigger than ours. We split up and went back to our areas. We didn't really do any contacting because we were at lessons all night. We stopped by William's, but he wasn't there. They gave us some great apple pie though. We couldn't find Fernando and Carmen's house (the old people from Sunday), so I said a prayer and we found it 20 seconds later. It was actually their niece's house, but we still found it even though they don't live there. We also went to visit Jose and Jannet. It looks like we'll give them another shot.
Thursday
I would call this place a concrete jungle, but literally everything is made out of bricks. Instead we'll call it brick city. This must be there they store Shaq's free throw stats. I'm not really scared of dogs anymore. Instead I pick up a rock and pull a "Kobe" fade away. I've killed a dozen flies today, so that's pretty depressing. We had a district meeting his morning. We watched Johnny Manziel highlights during a part about compromisos. Still not sure how that ties in. All the Elders in my room are saying they're starting to feel sick. I'm feeling better, but I've got a cough now. Still not 100%. Elder Monzon actually took some pills and stayed behind to nap for a while. Elder Yanez and I took our laundry to the member's house. We spent the most part of our day contacting, but didn't really have any success in doing so. We really need new investigators though. I think there was some kind of Women's pride day today. A whole bunch of them blocked a street and were marching on it. Then later that night we saw a bunch of them dancing at one of the canchas. Sandra was with them. Right after we saw her there, we had a lesson with her and William. It went well enough I think. After that we went walking to the very end of the street to talk to Michael and Wendy. They seem to be doing fine. I'm at the point where I'm starting to name street dogs. There's this big one that is by Maria's that always barks at us. I named him Pavo because he has a bunch of skin/fat on his neck that swings around when he barks. He was always in a broken window before, but today he was on the street and he tried to attack us. I honestly felt very betrayed.
Friday
I think I've lost some weight. My pants were all form fitting when I bought them. (Which I wasn't aware of. I'd prefer normal pants.) Anyways now they're not tight on me anymore. I'd like a scale though. But the most important thing that happened today was that Maria made hamburgers for dinner! That was a blessing in of itself. I was thinking all morning about what I wouldn't give for a PB&J or a burger. President Amato said there's no coincidences in the mission field. I believe he's right. God helps us in big and small ways. I'm still a little sick, but that's whatever. We did a whole lot of contacting today. Still not a whole lot of success though. We went to go visit Jimmy today. He's kind of at a take it or leave it point. If he goes to church on Sunday, we'll put a date on him. If not, we'll have to leave him. Then we made our way up to talk to Jose and Jannet. It was crazy foggy tonight. You couldn't see much past 3 houses away. We also went to go walk by the Carlos'. There's no such thing as a short visit there. They love talking to missionaries, so it always takes up a lot more time than you'd think. I'm at the point where I'm taunting street dogs that are barking at us. I even yell "square up" in Spanish at them. !Enfrentame!
Saturday
The district got up early and we all went to the church to play basketball. The shower was especially cold this morning. We went down to do a service project with the other companionship somewhere 3 moto soles away. When we got there, a bunch of guys were getting ready to work on constructing a house, so I was kinda excited to help. But we were only there to dedicated it. They had us sit down and wait. I figured it was for the rest of the family to come. We waited for an hour and a half to two hours just waiting. Then they invited us to eat. So we went to another home down the street, ate, and did the dishes afterwards. There were a lot of people showing up and they had a ton of food prepared, so they had us carry that out. When we returned to the house, there was an authentic Peruvian band playing with a bunch of women dancing in a circle. And there were beers going around. Bit of a strange atmosphere to be doing a home dedicatory prayer in. They waited until the workers were done for the day and then took us inside the house. There were sticks (more like small limbs actually) supporting the ceiling of solid brick and wet cement every 3 feet. It was pretty sketch. As we were leaving, a worker scraped some extra concrete off and it got all over my right shoulder. We planned on being there for an hour, but instead it was more than 3. When we got back, we tried visiting the Jamampa family, but only their daughter was home. We went to go visit William and Sandra. Their entire family is struggling to read the Book of Mormon, so that's not good. Jimmy is showing a lack of motivation, so it's looking more and more like we'll have to leave him. We also passed by Carla's and a new reference.
Sunday
Elder Monzon listens to the same cover of Army of Helaman usually 2-3 times every morning. I liked it the first dozen times I heard it. Some of the people drive with their hazard lights always on. That about sums up driving in Peru. I did another full fast today. I feel like they're easy to do if you just pray for the strength to do it. The faith of the members here is astonishing. Betty, who's been attending for 6 years despite not being able to be baptized; Cezer and Alex who live on the other side of the city and near the top of the mountain; and this one other hermano that only has 1 leg. They all come every week. We went to a random member's house for lunch after church. They were nice people. We accidentally took the wrong combi home, so we had a long walk. I'm still a bit under the weather, but that's whatever. What amazes me is the dedication of some of these street dogs to attack us. There's this white one kinda by Maria's that comes after me and Elder Yanez every time. Tonight, it was asleep. But another dog's bark woke it up and bolted immediately straight at us. We tried mostly lessons, but they all fell through. So we wound up contacting basically all day. It's kinda frustrating, but that's the life of a missionary I guess. We didn't find any escogidos. The other companionship went with us to the FHE at the Carlos'. We watched another video and then went and played La Papa se quema again. Also good to note: that family makes a mean apple pie. None of our investigators came to church today.
The view from my kitchen window.
That dog usually attacks us, but he was being chill. That's near the top of the mountain.
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