Week 5 in Huaycan

This week has been really awesome. So many milagros. We'll start with the small ones. So we put up an appointment with this guy that was an old investigator. He told us that he'd feed us and stuff when we went to visit him the next day. As we were walking to his house, I realized that we were fasting and that I didn't know what to do. Should I break my fast early or deny the food or what? We didn't know. So we got there and it turns out he was busy so he told us to come the next day. We got bailed out of that one. Then after my interview with the mission president on our way home, we were in a conbi and got stopped by the police for some reason. He came in and told every foreigner that he needed their ID. Except I haven't been here long enough to receive mine yet. I was sitting right in front of the door so I know he had to have seen me, I made eye contact once I think. But it was only for a second because he never gave me more than a glance and took everyone's ID except for mine. I don't know if he just decided not to ask for it or if he didn't process me in his head as a foreigner. I don't know what would have happened if I had been caught without it, but I'm glad the Lord was there protecting me. Then when I was on intercambios with Elder Ianni, we went to go visit this one Venezuelan family. The dad has been having missionary discussions for 20 years and still wasn't baptized. I was kinda like ok, we probably won't get it either. But then I remembered president Amatos words about always having faith so I decided right then and there that I would baptize him. I taught and bore my testimony like I never have before and we got him committed to this Saturday! He's been having the discussions since before I was born and something about Elder Ianni and I finally got through to him. The spirit was so strong it was awesome! I also went on splits with Elder Morris. I had a good time teaching with him and stuff and learned a lot from him as well. I feel so blessed by God with my mission so far. I know that I can do anything he wants me to. I hope I have many more weeks like this to come. I was also wondering if I could maybe get a name plaque that says Elder Blanco. It's a direct translation and not a lot of the natives can say White for some reason. Have a good week!

-Elder White

 
Monday

Well, when we got up this morning we had no running water.  Bit of a problem there.  We haven't had it all day.  Everyone else in the city that usually has it, has it.  It's just our building and no one knows why.  I've heard stories from other missionaries about having to randomly go without water for 4 days.  Hopefully it doesn't last that long though.  We're living in the really 3rd world life now: no water and limited electricity.  I was complaining about taking cold showers in the dark and now I can't even do that.  We got ready faster today due to that.  Then we went to the internet cafe as per usual.  I bought myself a pocket Bible while I was out and about so that I don't have to carry my quad set everywhere.  There was a funeral procession thing in the street blocking traffic.  There were dudes with trumpets and other instruments playing a song.  The dudes carrying the casket were grooving respectably hard considering the weight they were carrying and how long it was.  I got a haircut.  For lunch we met as a district and were going to get pizza, but all the pizza places were closed.  So we got Chinese food again.  We all went and played soccer at the church for a while after.  I was impressed with how well I played.  We went to Las Lomas room to shower.  It felt real nice to be able to shower with room temperature water.  After that we just spent the night at a family home evening at the home of Hermana Becler.  It was a nice lesson.  They gave us a bit of popcorn after, so that was awesome.  I miss that stuff.  Maria made this dish for dinner alled arroz tapada that was pretty good.

Tuesday

The water was back on when we got up this morning.  That made me happy.  We had a district meeting this morning.  When I got there, I found I had a package from my family and 2 letters from Grandma Haacke waiting for me.  The meeting was pretty normal otherwise.  We all had a mini choir practice thing after because we're singing at the fireside type thing on Sunday.  When we got back to Huaycan we went straight to Maria's for lunch.  The traffic here is weird.  There aren't any traffic laws--ones that the police enforce at least.  The only thing I've seen the people obey is that red means stop.  They're good about that.  There isn't a speed limit anywhere, just a crap ton of speed bumps.  I was finally able to open my package when I got back to the room.  It had a lot of cereal and other food, all of which is really good.  There were also some candles and stuff I'll save for the next Elder, as well as some stuff to kill flies.  Also, pepper spray?  I don't know how that got to me without being confiscated, but cool.  It seems a bit extreme, but I'll take it.  (Note from McKay's mom here:  the pepper spray is supposed to help ward off the dogs that seem to like attacking the missionaries.  Somehow he missed the note.)  Elder Yanez and I went up with Becker to try and talk to his nonmember brother, but he wasn't home so we went to go visit an inactive.  I had never realized how big Huaycan is until I climbed the part of the mountain.  After that we went to piano class.  I taught Roberto English while his daughter was doing piano.  We weren't able to meet with Christopher again, so I'm starting to worry about him.  We went to go visit an inactive that's about 14 years old named Carlos.  After that we went looking for Daniel Jr.  We taught him lesson one and it went pretty well.  We're returning Friday I think.

 
Wednesday

Those one dudes came with the 2 zone leaders this morning to finish installing those mosquito net thingies in the other study room.  I still don't know why since the only bugs we get are flies.  Otherwise we did morning studies like normal.  I gave myself a crash course in shoe shining because we had interviews with President Amato.  The time for the interviews kept getting pushed back an hour because the president was doing interviews in another part of the mission too.  So we were pretty tentative to plan anything.  We tried visiting Katy, an inactive, but she wasn't home.  So then we went to go visit William and Sandra.  The lesson went well.  Sandra took us down to visit her friend after.  We'll go back tomorrow to teacher her. Then we finally had the interviews.  We took a bus to Nana to the chapel there.  The interviews went well; nothing overly exciting there.  When we got in a combi to go from Entrada de Huaycan a La Qince, we got stopped by the police.  They came in and went through and took everyone's ID.  Only problem is I don't have an ID yet.  But when I first got on, a lady offered me a seat in the corner across from the door.  I just stayed quiet.  He had to have seen me as he got in, but he never looked at me again.  I don't know what would have happened if I, a foreigner, was caught, but we can assume it wouldn't have been pleasant.  I don't know if God made me invisible to that guy or what, but I do know he's protecting me.  From there I taught my English class.  Miguel came!  But he was the only one.  I love that guy; he's so awesome.  He worked from 6 AM-7PM and went straight to us.  He even offered to pay our passage for us afterwards.  We tried going to go visit Miriam, but only her parents were home.  So we talked to them.  They were pretty chill.

Thursday

Today was another day of 6:30 AM soccer.  However, today we decided to do intercambios (exchanges) today, so Elder Morris came with me back to our house.  When he saw it, he said, "This is the trashiest one I've seen."  I don't think it's too bad, I guess things can only get better from here on out.  It was really nice to be able to hangout with an American for a day.  He's a really cool dude.  We started the day off with a marathon of watching the district for my 12 weeks.  It was kinda weird explaining to everyone what intercambios are all day.  Today was kinda rough in the way that all but one of our citas fell through.  We even got Alex and Sandra to accompany us to see Sandra's friend and another potential after that fell through.  Neither were home.  We ran into Christopher and he said that he was going to be working nonstop basically 'til Saturday.  Long story short, basically we contacted all day.  After a while Alex told me that I was originally supposed to meet with Alejandro.  Somewhere along the line there was a mix up.  So Alex left at 6 and along came Alejandro.  I felt really bad about that.  Elder Morris had me lead the way all day.  So, the day was kinda rough I think.  Daniel wasn't home and neither was Raquel Carlos.  Then Alejandro jumped and tripped on one of those chain rope things.  He got 4 or 5 gnarly looking cuts from the chain on his leg through his jeans, so he went home after that.  Our last appointment was Miriam, and she was actually there!  She tried to greet us with that Purivian woman hug kiss thing.  It was my first time so I just kinda went stiff and leaned back.  It was kinda awkward, but whatever.  The lesson went really well though.  Elder Morris engaged me a lot more than Elder Yanez does.  She said she'd get married September 9!  But she has to talk to her husband still.  The spirit was super strong during the lesson.

Friday

We all met at the Quince to switch our companeros back.  I really enjoyed being with Elder Morris.  I learned a lot from him in that short time.  You really do develop a love out here for the people you're serving and who you're serving with.  I had to formally apologize to Pavo today.  Turns out he never attacked me; it was his evil twin.  I named his twin Pablo because it sounds like Pavo, but rhymes with Diablo.  Today went a lot like it did yesterday, except none of our planned citas worked out.  Days like this are pretty frustrating.  But there's not a lot you can do other than just contact and try and find people to teach.  We ran into an old investigator named Joan and scheduled an appointment with him for tomorrow.  We had just a mini lesson; he seems cool.  Towards the end of the night, Elder Monzon and Elder Cascango came to our area for us to all meet with the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric to discuss about the ward.  We were at the bottom of a seemingly never ending staircase and I said, "Yeah, he lives at the top of the mountain."  Joke's on me because we actually went to almost the very top.  We couldn't find his house, so we were asking around and they were like, "He lives on the other side of the mountain.  You have to go down these stairs, go up the street, then climb and you'll be there."  So that's what we did.  Except we were able to take a meto 1/3 the way back up so that was nice.  He and his family are super nice people.  They live up in a shack pretty far from the church, so it's cool that they go every week.  They gave us crackers and Pulp de Durazno.  I feel bad eating at houses like that because I don't know how much money they have for themselves.

Saturday

We got up at 5 AM this morning to take a bus to Chaclacayo so that we could play soccer as a zone.  Why we sacrifice so much sleep for this is unknown to me.  I was goalie almost the entire time too.  Still fun though.  We took one combi today that was so crowded that I was literally hanging out the door. Bienvendos a Peru.  We tried to visit the Jamampa family today, but had similar results.  There was music playing again, and this time there were people walking in and out, always locking the door behind them.  It's extremely frustrating.  We were going to just stop by the Carlos' to remind them of the activity tomorrow night, but we wound up staying an hour.  Funny how that works.  We went to visit Joan after.  Yesterday he told us he was going to make us a nice meal when we went.  Except we forgot to tell him we were fasting today.  Elder Yanez said we'd just have to deny the food, but I wasn't sure what to do.  He was busy and told us to come back Monday!  God blesses us in mysterious ways.  Then I got really excited because we went to Zona X.  It's the sketchiest part of our zone and Elder Yanez hadn't been before.  So I got my trusty pepper spray on standby and went to try to visit an inactive member at 7:30 tonight.  Turns our she moved though.  Then we went and checked up on a member named Michael.  After that, we finally got to visit Christopher.  I was kinda nervous to see how he's been doing since it's been a while, but I was excited to see he's as strong as ever and ready for his baptism in a week.  Then we got Brawlio (the 2nd counselor) and went to visit Miriam.  Her husband, Juan, was finally there, which was good.  He's chill.  We taught chastity and it was my first time doing so.  They family received the lesson well though.

Sunday

So this morning we went to the church, dropped off our weekly report, and left to go get Miriam and her family.  We won't stay long we said.  Be ready to go when we get there we said.  we arrived at 10:10ish.  They tried to give us bread and herbi when we arrived, but we had to deny it because we were fasting still.  Its kinda hard to fast in Peru because if you have a visitor that you like come stop by, you break out the Herbi and crackers.  We should do that in the US.  Anyways, they finished cooking their lunch for later and then got ready to go.  We we left their house 11 AM-ish.  But then Miriam decided to give someone a haircut at her salon thing as we were passing by?  Still confused about that one.  She finished at 11:26ish and we were in the chapel at 11:35.  We missed the sacrament, which is kinda important.  Miguel didn't go unfortunately.  But Christopher did!  He's so ready for Saturday.  Juan came after sacrament meeting so we had the whole Mendoza family, except Fernando, who's sick.  After church, we went to go take the sacrament to a Hermana that was sick.  We also have her a blessing for the sick.  Then we hustled over to a member's house for lunch; bistek with that green mush stuff.  Good stuff.  Then the whole zone went to the Stake Center in Nana.  The mission president was there too with his wife.  We had to be there at 4:30.  We put on this training thing for all the leaders in the stake about new member retention.  Then at 7, a bunch of members who've been baptized came for a little presentation and Q&A.  The other missionaries and I were supposed to sing, but we never did which is fine.  It didn't end until almost 9:30.

Monday

Ok, I'm going to start with the important stuff while it's fresh.  I've been on splits/intercombios.  We went to go visit a Venezuelan.  I think the wife's a member, but the husband and two sons aren't.  The husband, Antonio Torrealva, has been having missionary discussions for 20 YEARS.  Still not baptized.  Elder Ianni and I decided to focus on that, just like he has been with Elder Carrera and every other missionary for the last 20 years have been.  I was doubtful at first, but then I remembered the words of President Amato: Always have faith.  So I decided right then and there that I would baptize that man.  We started out casual, just asking him.  He was like, "No, everyone has their time."  He doesn't really have a reason not to be baptized. He has a strong testimony of everything in the gospel and the church.  So then I decided to go all in.  I taught like I have never taught before, speaking Spanish like I never have before.  We pulled out Mosiah 2:41 and 3 Nephi 18:11-12.  The coolest thing is that we did this lesson like 50/50 I would say.  We explained the  doctrine and he was still iffy.  So then I bore my testimony with fervor and tried to explain to him how important baptism is for him.  He was still trying to make excuses.  So then I bore my testimony harder than I ever have before, stronger than I previously thought my testimony was.  Then his wife bore her testimony too.  The spirit was so strong the entire lesson.  Maybe the strongest I've ever felt it.  Elder Ianni talked a little too and then asked him, "Hermano Antonio, will you get baptized THIS Saturday?" He said yes!  20 years later!  I'm still so excited!  Then I shared my testimony one more time and we took off.  We hugged each other outside and were so happy.  I'm still trying to figure out what we did that others in the past didn't.  All I know is that the spirit was guiding me very much so.  Milagro!  Anyways, today's not p-day because we're going to the temple on Wednesday.  We decided to do intercambios with the zone leaders so Elder Carrera is in Huaycan and I'm in Chaclacayo with Elder Ianni.  He's a cool guy.  The first thing we did was go to this part of his area named California.  It looks nothing like California because it's just a Huaycan Jr.  We taught an investigator there, which went ok, then came back to Chaclacayo.  None of our citas were really home, so we wound up just contacting a whole bunch.  This place is a lot nicer than Huaycan.  Greener too.  The people here are actually firm too, which is nice because they'll actually say no.  There was this one rich guy that we were supposed to visit, but he canceled last second.  He has a freaking pet tiger.  Granted it's a cub, but still.  I was really looking forward to that cita.  I guess it's fair though because it would've been ridiculous if I saw a tiger in Peru before a llama.  I wonder what llama milk tastes like.  We walked past this one house that has special forces outside it 24/7.  It's a terrorist's house.  He killed a bunch of people 20 years ago when terrorism was a problem here, but then got released from jail and said he had no regrets.  So basically they just shoot him if he leaves.  Then we had an appointment with a recent convert named Timmy.  It went well I think.  Then we took their laundry to their laundry lady.  After that is when we went to go visit that Venezuelan familia.  When we got there, there was this huge guy walking around without a shirt.  We were like, "Como esta?"  He gave his stomach a jiggle and said, "Gordito" (a little fat).  Funny guy.  We stopped by the bakery on the way home and got some good bread for breakfast.
 

 Huaycan

 

 At the top of the eternal staircase.

The area called California that is supposedly "greener".