Week 15 in Huaycan

How's things going for you guys? Nothing too exciting is happening in my area right now. We're struggling to get people to church and struggling to find people to teach too. It's mildly frustrating since we're working super hard and feel we're doing everything right. Just gotta keep working though I guess. The only mildly interesting thing that happened this week was when we had to have a room intervention because one of the elders literally uses a quarter of the roll every time he goes to the bathroom. In two weeks we've used 15 rolls. To put that in perspective, before 15 rolls lasted us more that an entire transfer (6 weeks). Toilet paper is expensive guys. Don't take it for granted. But yeah, we're basically just waiting for the miracles to happen in our area. Have a good week everyone!

-Elder White 

Monday

Elder Gonzalez woke everyone up at 5:30 laughing and didn't stop for 10 minutes.  Long story short, in his dream he tried to toss a giant pear to me.  We were both in a big tree and I was lower.  The pear slipped through my hands and hit the other Elder Yanez, who was on the ground, in the face.  So he woke up laughing.  After internet, we ate at a Chifa in Chaclacayo as a zone, con exepcion de Las Lomas.  When we were done eating, Elder Droubay and I went off together.  I impulsively bought an alpaca fur back pack.  Then we went to the super market and bought a couple of snacks for the movie the zone was going to watch: Cars 3.  That was kind of fun.  The zone leaders got a birthday cake for Hermanas Evans and Houghtan, as well as Elder Vilca, who's one of the zone leaders.  It was a short night of work.  We weren't able to have any citas, but we did find the Venezuelans.  The bad news is that they have to all work on Sundays now.  Their manager said it's because of the Christmas season.  They work in a ferrateria.  That's doesn't even make any sense.  That made me kinda mad.  I almost punched a dog after that.  Speaking of dogs, they chase motos all the time.  It's kinda funny to watch.  I honestly don't know why I don't see dead dogs at all.

Tuesday

The guys in the 3 week program in the CCM came to our zone to proselyte today.  I took Elder Valdivieso and Elder Aguirre (who will serve in Lima East) with me.  

 

We didn't have time to come all the way back to my area, so we contacted in Moron.  It was kinda fun.  I hope they got something out of it.  Then we had a meeting with Vanesa about seminary in the ward.  We contacted pretty much all day.  The bottom of my right foot in raw.  It's pretty close to being a blister.  It hurts a bit to walk. But yolo I guess.  The dogs here are actually crazy. I don't think they understand the concept of gender.  All the dogs try making puppies with whomever.  Not a whole lot really happened today.  We had a noche de hogar with the Carlos' and Cristina came, so that was awesome.  We had to wait a while for William to come so that we could actually go inside though.  We did a brief lesson about prayer.  It went well enough.  This month has flown by.  I swear my brothers just barely started school, but their 1st term is already over.  The mission gives you a lot of time to reflect on yourself.  While I've been here, I've remembered things that I hadn't thought of since they happened.  Like my friends throwing a stink bomb by the stairs in 1st grade.  Or other random days of playing soccer every day during lunch.  I remember one day in 1st grade, I was in my group of friends practicing spelling.  My two friends were talking while doing it, Ethan and Levi.  Once of the words was "but".  Levi said, "I dare you to put an extra 't' on the end."  Ethan did it and we were all like wow.  My my how the times have changed.

 
Wednesday

There's a homeless lady that wanders around here.  They only thing she wears is a shredded potato sack.  I tried to offer her some food, but she didn't accept it.  We were talking to Maria after and she told us that she doesn't accept food or clothing from anyone.  Only matches.  Weird stuff.  One thing the mission has taught me is how fast 4 men use toilet paper.  Fact: you should almost never need more than 5-6 squares.  Elder Caro used an inhuman amount though.  We're talking like 1/4 the roll every time.  No joke.  I just checked the package and each roll is 160 sheets.  I don't know if I could use that much if I tried.  There was an emergency meeting in the La Molina today that all the leaders had to attend.  I got to spend the morning with Elder Hyde again.  We contacted a lot.  On days like this, you get pretty hesitant to do anything after 3:30 because you never know when your comp will get back.  Elder Gonzalez got back.  The citas we had planned fell.  We went to la capilla for a cita with Yania, but that didn't work out, again.  Long story short, we had to do a mini intercambios again to make the night work out.  I took Elder Lainez with me to go try and teach Mario, who wasn't home.  I didn't like Elder Lainez a whole lot last transfer but I don't mind him now.  He's a pretty solid missionary.  We walked back down to the church for correlations after that.  I forgot to mention this, but I got bit by a dog the other day.  I had just finished a contact and was walking away.  The lady's dog decided to start chasing and barking at me.  I was just kinda like, "Yeah, whatever." and kept walking.  But then it bit my leg!  It didn't hurt too bad because it was  pretty small, but still.  I couldn't really do a whole lot because the owner was sitting their watching, so I just kept walking.

Thursday

We had a district meeting this morning.  It was pretty boring.  These things have been lasting too long recently too.  It's eating into our time for appointments.  

 

 Us bored in a consejo de distrito.

We had a quick lunch and then we went to go and do a baptismal interview for Huaycan 1.  That kinda took a while.  After that we contacted a bit.  We contacted a dude who has a dog the size of a grizzly bear.  When we were walking by the same spot the other day, I took note (pun intended) of the size of its teeth.  They're huge.  Right after that, I watched it almost kill another dog.  But the dog was nice to us.  His name is Shadow.  The dude was pretty cool too.  We gave the reference to Lomas 1.  Elder Vasquez and Elder Aguilar claim that their ward is racist against them and only likes white missionaries.  They said the ward would always call them Elder Morris and the others.  So whenever I call them, I always say, "?Como esta Elder Condie y los demas?"(How is Elder Condie and the others?)  It's pretty funny.  As missionaries, we planned a ward movie night.  We had a pretty good turn out.  Investigators, older investigators, recent converts, members.  It was a lot of fun.  Today was the 100th day in Huaycan.  Actually, I guess it was yesterday technically.

Friday

We had a cita this morning with a contact named Maria Ester.  Huaycan 1 came with us because I didn't want to look for a varon (male) to come with us.  The cita was going well, but then Jimmy stumbled upon us while he was pretty drunk.  I was going to let him sit next to me, but he was being a distraction so I took him away a bit and talked to him so the others could teach.  He wouldn't stop staring at her.  I would ask him a question, he'd look at me and give a short answer, then go right back to staring at her.  He was like, "She's going to be my girlfriend."  I told him he had to quit drinking first.  He was like, "Ok, ok."  I told him if he wanted to see her again he could see her at church on Sunday.  He was like, "I'll be there.  We're going to get married."  It was so cringy.  The worst part was that she heard him say that last part, but she took it lightly and teased him about it after.  We did intercambios with Lomas 2 today.  Elder Castro came here with me.  He's a pretty cool guy.  We basically just contacted all day.  We did go to visit the Penas tonight though.  The lesson went well and they gave me what I'm pretty sure was my first arroz con leche (rice pudding).  I almost got bit by dogs like 3 or 4 times today. One bit my book, another got aggressive enough that I actually hit it in the face with my book, and the others had me waving my book like a mad man.  They all left Elder Castro alone though.  I'm not even kidding when I say that the dogs here are racist.  I don't know how or why, but they are.  They always bark or try to attack me, but not my companion.

Saturday

We did a service project this morning with Las Lomas.  We're literally out here moving mountains.  We took out a ton of dirt in between a house and the stairs to try and make that part flat.  There were a ton of huge rocks too.  

 

My pinky got smashed pretty good, so now it's all black.  It's ok though because Maria made tequekos for lunch.  We switched back from intercambios before lunch though.  My body is a mess right now. My pinky hurts pretty bad still, my back aches, and I have like 4-5 canker sores in my mouth right now.  I forgot my planner when we went out today, so we didn't quite know what we were doing.  But we had a mini lesson with a contact that we made.  I don't know if anything will come out of that though.  Then we had Alejandra come with us to visit a reference.  That lady has a lot of problems right now.  After the lesson, you could see that Alejandra was a bit shaken up by it.  It's a sad world I guess.  Almost everyone is going through some serious crap in their lives.  Then we went to go visit Cristopher.  I was worried that he was going cold, and he probably was a little actually.  It wasn't as bad as I thought though, so that's good.  We stopped by Mario's just to see how he was doing.  He loves to read.  He's read all the folletos (brochures) and everything in the LDM up to like Nephi 5.  But shoot, I don't know how much we can do for him if he has to work Sundays now.  We don't know why we're not having success still, so we decided we need to start making sacrifices.  We haven't fasted yet this transfer, so we're back to doing that on Saturdays.  In addition to that, we're going to wake up a half hour early everyday so that we have more time to study.

Sunday

I think that there was some kind of Catholic holiday.  I swear there's one like every month.  But this one seemed bigger.  There were a bunch of fireworks throughout the day and then a pretty respectable show at night to top them off.  We tried going out to recoger (pick up) Maria Ester, but she wasn't home.  No one was at church today.  Again.  Before my mission and in the CCM, everyone always told me how great Sundays were.  But I dread them.  Instead of contacts or investigators coming to church, the only thing that comes is the disappointment of my unfruitful labors.  Then at night I have to hear about the success the other areas in our district are having when Elder Gonzalez makes his calls for indicators.  I just don't understand.  What more do I need to sacrifice?  Things were going so well back home for me.  Between my full ride scholarship and the money I had saved up, I could have made it through college debt free maybe, probably.  But now I'm in Huaycan.  Why won't God help me?  I'm feeling frustrated to say the least.  At least we went to eat lunch with the Camacho's.  They had some pretty good food.  Then we went looking for and actually found Mariela.  It was cool that we found her, but I don't know how much that we'll be able to help them.  She's pretty receptive, but her husband isn't.  That could be a problem because they're not married and he also has a drinking problem.  From there we ran back to the Camacho's to go with them to do a noche de hogar with Vanesa's sister.  Her sister talks a lot, so it's kinda hard to teach her.  Well, they thought I was Mexican and Elder Gonzalez was a gringo.  He does look pretty gringo and I do have a pretty good tan right now.  It's actually kind of a problem because my arms and head look pretty good but the rest of me is super pasty.

The garbage truck song.  It sings: Vecino, Vecina, cuida tu salud.  Poniendo la basura en el recolector. (Neighbor, Neighbor watch your health. Putting the trash in the dumpster.) It's catchy.

Poor Cristopher must have been tired.  He was falling asleep in a lesson a while back.

A photo shoot with a goat because there's no llamas:

Mid-Week Pictures

I received two emails from McKay's pensonita this last week.  She cooks all their lunches and dinners.  The first email was to send his love and to let us know that McKay is working hard and growing as a missionary.  The second one had two pictures:

 Maria with the elders she cooks for.

Elder Gonzales, Elder Caro, Elder White and Elder Lainez

Week 14 in Huaycan

President Nelson and Gary E Stevenson came to Lima this week! It was honestly super awesome. Pdte Nelson talked about 3 Nephi and gave a bunch of super cool insights there. Gary E Stevenson talked a lot about obedience and Preach my gospel.  My favorite talk was actually given by sister Nelson though. She talked a lot about opposition. It was an amazing talk. She talked about all the opposition they had in preparing for the youth fireside back in june. They suffered everything from computer crashes, almost dieing in a couple of car accidents, getting laringitus and being too week to move. The last two were the day of and until the day before too. Satan wouldn't have given them so much trouble if that talk wouldn't have mattered. So go back and watch it again when you get a minute. That's all for this week though. Take care y'all!

-Elder White

 

Monday

This is a really weird age I'm at.  Some people are in college.  Others doing drugs.  Some have kids too.  Special people are in the Olympics and stuff or super smart scientists already.  Some of them are dead from gang violence and what not.  I've met a few that have their own business.  But then there's me: A devoted missionary who is almost as valiant with collecting soles and just bought a kilo of animal crackers.  What a difference. After internet today, we went to a chifa and I got choufa con una tortilla, which I guess is just a fancy word for omelet here.  That was a lot of food.  It was zone p-day, but the zone leaders had a meeting in La Molina, so the district leaders were in charge instead.  We played a football, soccer and basketball hybrid game.  It was kind of weird, but it was fun.  We played soccer after that, which wasn't nearly as fun.  So I took Elder Droubay and we went to buy drinks.  We came back and ran a couple of errands, then showered.  We tried visiting Yurubi with Vanesa, but when we got there, they told us that she left to go out 2 days ago and no one's heard from her since then.  That's mildly concerning.  Afterwards we went all the way up to visit Michael and Wendy.  We had something planned, but then Wendy told us about her brother.  Basically about 2 years ago, her brother, Maximo, saw a policeman beating a kid, so he broke it up.  The policeman got mad though and told him he'd better watch his back.  Long story short, Maximo later got arrested on the beach for illegal possession of a firearm.  Except he didn't have one.  There's nothing anyone can do about it.  He's served 2 years and has to serve 6 more.  He's 24 and his son is 6.  It's just so sad.  What are you supposed to tell them after that?  I felt prompted to share the story of how Alma and Amulek met Zeezrom and talk about forgiveness.  I think it helped.  I almost teared up when doing so.

Tuesday

I finished my day last night with a huge headache and was starting to feel sick too.  I felt a lot better today though, so that was good.  We contacted hard this morning.  We found someone that seemed pretty cool named Elizabeth that we'll visit later.  I was looking at the schedule this morning and I was just like dang, this is going to be a long day.  But it actually flew by really fast.  We contacted almost all day.  We ran into some cool people.  There was this one Christian lady that was basically like, "I believe very strongly that I've found Jesus, but I love that you guys are out here sharing his word."  She paid us a lot of high complements, so that was awesome.  Then we found a testigo de Jehova while knocking a door or two that we have an appointment with.  We ran into the familia Ricse while we were out and about.  I'll definitely try and set something up with them to visit and help them out.  We also had a noche de hogar with the Carlos'.  The USA vs. Peru soccer game was on when we arrived.  The game wound up in a 1-1 draw I guess.  Why in the world do they allow games to end in a tie?  The noche de hogar went well.  I tried passing by Cristina's and calling beforehand too, but heard nothing.  She came at 8:30 even though I told her it was at 7:00.  We were wrapping up by then, but her faith and desire to go even though it was late really showed me how much she wants to have the gospel in her life.  We would have been gone by then, but she showed up hoping for a chance to hear it for just a few minutes.  Wow.  We went to go and visit Mario after.  He actually read the folleto and knew it really well.  I was really impressed.  The spirit was super strong.  It always is whenever we talk about Joseph Smith.  We had meat loaf for dinner with fries and rice.  Maria bought fry sauce too so it was a 5 star dinner.

Wednesday

I actually love having grilled cheese for breakfast.  We had conseju de distito this morning.  We finally got a microwave!  I also got a package from my mom, which was a surprise, as well as like 5 letters from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke.  Turns out that inside the package was a bunch of Peruvian candy.  I don't know how they did that, but I'm cool with it.  It's for Halloween I guess.  Trick and treat.  We tried visiting some contacts/references, but non of them worked out.  We felt impressed to visit Davis, so we did that.  He's an interesting kid.  He doesn't always talk a lot.  Sometimes he has seemed disinterested.  But he broke down a bit when he was talking to us.  Elder Gonzalez handled it well though.  He truly wants to be baptized.  From there we hustled down so that we could do a baptismal interview.  While Elder Gonzalez did that, I took Elder Aguilar and made a copy of the key so that we could get into la capilla.  We had correlations after the interview.  As I was going through the day, I was reminded of a story I heard once.  I don't remember where I heard it, but I'll try and recount it as accurately as I remember it.  I'm pretty sure I was a kid when I heard it.  A policeman was on patrol and got a call that a baby/toddler was choking on a button.  He happened to be right there so he flipped on his sirens and went full speed.  When he was on his way though, he had to stop because the road was under construction in such a way he couldn't get through.  He got out of the car and slammed the door in frustration.  A construction worker went over to see what was up, so the policeman explained the situation.  Without a second thought, the worker hopped in the bulldozer and plowed through all his progress to make a path for the officer.  The officer made it just in time to give the kid CPR/the Heimlich maneuver.  The holes in the button were  just enough to sustain the kid until he got there.  The mom, who had been frantically waiting in the front yard, was eternally grateful.  A couple of more seconds and he might have died.  The next day, the officer was in the station.  The construction worker came in to thank him.  It was his son whom he had saved.  I love this story.  There are also a lot of spiritual takeaways.

Thursday

We had a pancake party for breakfast at Las Lomas, so that was fun.  We made a really cool contact this morning.  Turns out it was Mariela from August 7!  I got so excited.  I still think about that contact a lot.  Turns out she went to church, but left early because she felt out of place.  We're definitely going to visit her.  We were contacting a lot today.  While we were in the R, we had a guy try to anti us.  It was evident that he didn't know much about the church because he was like, "Why don't you love and accept Jesus?  Why don't you baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost?"  *Facepalm*  He brought the ugliest felling with him.  Anyways, we found an inactive woman while contacting.  We went with her back to her house and taught her family a bit.  Hopefully we can reactivated them and baptize their kids.  We went with Yolanda to visit a reference, but she wasn't home.  She told us that her friend is 28 and her son is 18.  Only in Peru.  We went to Moron to team teach with the Hermanas.  That was an interesting experience.  The girl is 14 and her baptism is this week, but her testimony was starting to falter because she went to go talk to some pastors and stuff.  They wanted some extra help, so that's why we went.  We were talking to her and we were like, "Did you pray?"  She said yes so we asked her how she felt.  She said, "Well, I felt really confused at first.  But then at the end of my prayer I got an answer.  I'm supposed to be baptized on the 21st."  So many milagros today.  When the sisters asked who she wanted to baptize her, so pointed at us.  That was pretty cool.  We'll see if it works out though.

Friday

This week has flown by.  This whole transfer so far actually.  We did intercambios today after weekly planning.  Elder Caro came with me to my area.  I feel like very Latino has his own accent.  His is kind of like Jason Gray from Studio C when he does a serious Spanish impression.  He and I have polar opposite personalities.  It's kinda hard for me sometimes.  He complained throughout the day (granted we did walk a lot) and I did more than 90% of the talking.  We walked all over the place.  The R, X and V.  We took a moto to deliver a letter to an inactive guy that got baptized a year or more ago.  He wasn't even home.  The moto driver thought I had a false coin, except I didn't have anymore.  We got it worked out eventually.  All of our citas fell through or canceled on us.  It was kinda weird to being the X, kinda deep too.  I was really uneasy.  Not because it was dangerous, but because it wasn't.  It's like going to visit the world's scariest haunted house, but when you get inside it's actually a Chuck E Cheese's.  It was weird.  Everyone always tells me that's the danger zone, but when I got there, there were still little kids in the streets.  The contact we tried to visit there wasn't even home either.  We tried visiting Cezar, but he wasn't home.  We ran into him on the way down though.  People will light random fires in the streets.  Usually they burn garbage for some reason.  It's pretty normal to run into one here and there.  I'm pretty sure PGSD (Post Gringo Stress Disorder) is a real thing for dogs.  After I scare them, they usually don't bark anymore.  But regardless of that, they always keep their distance.  Elder Caro is the only member in his family and he's still out here, so props to him for that.

 

Saturday

Today was a good day.  It went by really fast.  At 10 we met as a zone and went to the chapel in Limatambo (in another mission).  We arrived early, so we tried to contact a bit.  The area is kinda wealthier though so it didn't work too well.  We had ham sandwiches with white bread and cheese for lunch.  I don't like all 3 of those, but I've gotten used to eating things I don't like in the mission.  I made sure to use the bathroom a couple of time beforehand.  Then we sat down to wait for President Nelson and Elder Stevenson to arrive.  Almost 1,000 missionaries were there from the 5 Lima missions.  It got pretty hot in there.  I really loved the talks that were given.  Gary E Stevenson focused on obedience and invitations.  He pronounced upon us a blessing at the end so that was cool.  President Nelson taught to us out of 3 Nephi.  He gave a lot of really cool insights.  My favorite talk was actually given by his wife Wendy though.  She talked about opposition as missionaries because we're changing the balance of good and evil in the world.  But we've got all the investigators' ancestors cheering us on.  Then she shared all the opposition they had in preparing their worldwide fireside for the youth.  Satan is real.  That's something I've learned just recently.  Then we spent 2 hours in traffic before arriving back in Nana to watch the general devotional.  President Nelson talked about keeping the 10 commandments and the importance of marriage.  His wife talked about him receiving revelation.  She also said that he has put more emphasis on 1 word since being prophet and she said it was especially evident in the missionary meeting.  Except I don't know what the word is.  The spirit was super strong all day.  It was awesome!  I know Russell M Nelson is the prophet of God and Gary E Stevenson is His apostle as well.

Sunday

While I was out contacting tonight, a girl asked me where I was from.  That's nothing new.  When I told her the US, she was like, "Oh cool.  Do you know English?"  At first I was like you're kidding, right?  But then it occurred to me: My Spanish is is good enough that it's not obvious that it's my second language.  Fist pump.  On a much more somber note, we didn't have anyone come to church.  Not the converts I have not Mariela either, who I was hardcore really hoping out for.  Today was just really frustrating.  I've worked harder in these last two weeks that I probably ever have before.  And both Sundays have been like this.  I could have stayed and slept in my room all week and have the same results on Sunday.  Do you know how frustrating and depressing that is?  In my interview with President Amato a couple of weeks ago, he told me Huaycan is the highest baptizing area in the zone and one of the highest in the mission.  There's been 47 this year.  I've been here for 3 months and have 2 in this area.  I feel like the biggest failure of a missionary.  I know God will help me through it though if I can manage to keep working hard and stay true.  We ate lunch with la familia Davila.  They're one of the more humble families in the ward.  It was probably a big sacrifice they made to do it.  We had a couple of citas throughout the day.  We had a cita with a woman that was being taught by other missionaries.  I'm thoroughly convinced that some religions are organized without the founder reading the Bible first.  We also went and visited the Bravo-Valle family, who are inactive.  I really hope we can reactivate them.  We also went to go and visit Davis.  He's not progressing, so that's concerning.

 Us after President Nelson

 

Friends from the CCM

 

Pictures from the mission Facebook page (top and next two).  Above, Elder White is in the background and behind the shoulder of the sister missionary in red and gold. 😊

 

 

Me up high

 

La Aurora

Week 13 in Huaycan (New Companion)

I heard the song Another One Bites the Dust while I was in a combi (bus) the other day. I laughed a bit because there couldn't be a more fitting song for this place. I'm hanging in there though. My new comp is Elder Gonzalez from Colombia. He's cool. We work hard together, harder than I've ever worked before. I'm looking forward to seeing the results from our labors this transfer. Nothing else too new though. My Spanish is pretty good now I suppose. I had a new gringo missionary in my area a couple days back and it was interesting trying to talk in English after talking in Spanish for a week straight. I had to take my time a bit to translate things back to English in my head when I was talking to him. Peru is playing the US on Tuesday. People are looking forward to that here, but I don't know if you guys back home even care about the match. It's kinda funny I guess how some things are important here and don't matter there or vise versa. We got into a conversation with a borracho (drunk) yesterday, so that was pretty interesting. Have a good week everyone!

-Elder White

 

Monday

Today was my last day with Elder Yanez.  It's sad to see him go, but I guess it's time for a change.  I took another 400 soles to the bank today.  I finally have all 35 of the coins in my collection. Now I'm only 4 short of completing a 2nd collection too.  It only took like 2,000 soles too.  I went and got a much needed haircut today.  Ironically enough, I think that was the longest my hair has ever been.  For lunch, we went to eat with la familia Guitierez.  He ordered us pizza, so that was pretty dope.  After that, we went back and deep cleaned the room. That place was super dirty.  Then we went and (long story short after 2 hours of waiting) did a combined Carlos-Camacho familias noche de hogar.  They had a bunch of snacks after too, so that was cool.  The Carlos' were especially close to Elder Yanez so it was hard for them to see him go.  They made him promise like 12 times that he wouldn't forget them.  People get really attached to their missionaries.  They gave him a pretty cool jacket, so that was nice of them.  We hurried down after for the despedida (farewell) pizza night de Elders Yanez and Cabascango.  Having pizza twice in a day was pretty great.  Allow me to explain the difference between American and Peruvian pizza.  Here, they spread the sauce as thinly as a vegan spreads his butter.  Also, they might have let the vegan choose the cheese too and possibly the pepperoni because those are weird too.

Tuesday

Cambios were this morning.  The bus came at 9 to get everyone.  Hermana Evans and I are the only originals from that first zone.  The other bus didn't come until like 1.  To pass the time, Elder Campos and I talked a lot about El Salvador (where he is from), but mainly we talked about pupusas.  I talked with the other elders too.  Elder Caro is with Elder Lainez now.  He's from Columbia as well.  Neither have seen Shakira.  That was one of the first things I asked them.  First impressions of Elder Gonzalez?  He looks like an American.  But no one in the room can really speak English well enough to have any sort of conversation, so this cabio will be interesting.  I can already tell you that I'm going to work my butt of with Elder Gonzalez.  He seems kind of stiff.  Hopefully he'll loosen up over time.  As for how our day went, all of our citas fell through, so that was mildly frustrating.  Rafael wasn't there either when we went for him.  It's starting to concern me because his baptism is supposed to be this Saturday.  We've got to find him tomorrow.  So basically we just contacted the whole day.  I really hope he'll loosen up soon.  I'm struggling right now with some stress about being able to help everyone now that Elder Yanez is gone.  Now I have to remember who needs what and who that is and where they live, etc.  I'm just a ball of stress on the inside.  So I'm trying to cope with that right now.  I miss the other elders already.

Wednesday

It's kinda funny.  Before the mission whenever a telemarketer called, I would just pretend that I only spoke Spanish.  The other day Elder Aguilar got one.  So I pretended to only know English.  My, my, how the tables have turned.  I'm wiped right now.  We contacted for 2 1/2 hours and then had lunch.  Then we contacted some more.  We had a cita with Cristopher, so that was really cool.  I love being able to talk with him.  He might be my favorite person here.  I love Alegandro and Diego too though.  Paulo and Elias are pretty chill.  After that, we were contacting.  The Carlos' saw us and invited us inside because Elder Draney was there with his parents visiting.  I was pretty hesitant because I didn't want to take away some of their time together, but they insisted.  It was nice to see some Americans.  They took a picture and sent it to my mom.  I hope she likes that stuff.  We contacted a bit and then went back to their house for a noche de hogar.  That went pretty well.  They're a pretty fun family.  It was nice because we got Raquel and William there with us, who usually aren't home.  We tried going to go visit with Rafael after, but he and Jan Carlos weren't home again.  I'm starting to stress very much about that.  We talked to Rafael's wife though.  She's cool, but has to work Sundays so there's not a whole lot that we can do there.  We had correlations after that.  Elder Gonzalez talks pretty fast.  But for some reason I can understand him.  There's some Colombian slang he uses that's kinda weird, but it's whatever.

Thursday

Elder Gonzalez had leadership training this morning.  So I got up bright and early to drop him off at the entrada.  Our combi went the wrong way, so that was fun.  I took Elder Hyde with me back to Huaycan.  It's only his 3rd day here and his first real day in the field.  That was pretty fun.  He's not fluent in Spanish, so I did all the talking.  I was fine with it though.  It was interesting because when I was talking to him, I had to translate stuff from Spanish back to English in my head.  I think I might know more about him than my actual companion.  It's not that we don't get along, he's just all business.  He lightens up when it's time to eat at least.  I wound up just contacting mostly with Elder Hyde.  Then we had to go pick up our companions.  They told me some really weird name where we should pick them up.  The dude sitting next to us was really nice though and told us where to get off.  We went with Diego to go and check on Bety.  She had a baby girl on Monday, so that's pretty cool I guess.  But what's just as cool, if not cooler, is that they're finally getting their papers together to get married!  6 years of going to church faithfully has paid off for her.  After that we went up to visit Elvis and Diego.  That lesson went well enough I guess.  We left there a little late and tried doing English class, but our key got snapped in half last week.  I am continuing to be a giant ball of stress.  I knew a mission would be hard before I left, but I didn't understand just how hard it actually is.  Elder Vazquez is pretty sick.  He seemed awful when we passed by.

Friday

We started the day off with weekly planning.  Let me just say that Elder Gonzalez is a really good missionary.  We're going all in.  I'm looking forward to seeing the results.  He told me, "Yeah, I wasn't expecting much since you're new and a gringo, but you know your area really well and you're pretty good at Spanish."  I'm a lot better at Spanish than I thought I've learned.  I'd say I'm an 8 1/2 or a 9.  After lunch we had a baptismal interview.  Liliana is pretty cool.  She passed and everything, so they'll have her service tomorrow.  We basically just contacted all day.  Diego was with us for the day, so that was fun.  He's a super cool guy.  We tried visiting a reference, but the address was just an abandoned lot or something.  It's mildly frustrating.  We also tried visiting the Pena's and Rafael, but they all weren't home.  When we passed by Rafael's though, we found his prima (cousin), Jurubi.  We got talking to her and when I extended a baptismal invitation, she started to cry a little and didn't say anything.  The spirit was super strong in that moment.  She accepted the date we put on her so that was cool.  We found a lot of escogidos (chosen) while we were contacting, so that was a milagro.  There wern't any super cool stories about how we found them or anything, just that the people we talked to were pretty cool.  Peru played Chile in a soccer match tonight, which is a big deal here.  It's like the BYU vs Utah Rivalry, but even more significant.  I heard that Peru won 3-0.  Not a lot of people were out since the game was on.  Elder Gonzalez has a weird laugh.  It's like a "hehehe" kinda laugh.

Saturday

Well, we had district counsel this morning.  The zone leaders showed up late though, so that kind of threw the whole day off.  The meeting lasted longer than normal, so that didn't help much.  When we got back, we went straight to Betty's after lunch.  We took Cristopher with us.  He worked late last night so he was nodding off in the lesson.  It was kinda funny actually.  After that we hurried up the mountain for a neche de hogar with Francisco and his family.  We tried to go and get Elvis and Diego to come, but when we tried to pick him up he told us that his grandpa used to be mayor in another part of Lima, but he just got put in jail so Elvis had to take his papers in for him.  So that was interesting.  The noche de hogar went pretty well though.  It was Francisco's birthday on Thursday, so his wife made a pineapple cake that we ate after.  We passed by the Pena's and put a baptismal date on Davis.  So that was cool.  When we were contacting, we ran into this Buddhist dude.  It was pretty interesting talking to him.  I respect it though.  It's a (semi) logical belief/thought system I suppose.  Rafael wasn't home when we passed by to talk to him.  I thought he'd be an easy baptism, but we can never find him anymore so I'm starting to doubt a bit.  We tried meeting with a contact we made the other day at a cancha, but he was a no-show unfortunately.  Today was really stressful, but I got through it I suppose.  Peru is supposed to play against the USA in a soccer match on Tuesday.  It'll be interesting to see how people treat me in this coming time due to that.

Sunday

We went and watched conference at 9 AM today since the ward couldn't really do it last week.  It was cool to watch it again.  Except none of our investigators came, so that was kinda unfortunate.  I feel like no matter what we do during the week or how hard we work to get people to la capilla (church), they still won't go.  I'm beginning to get pretty frustrated with that.  When it was over, we picked up laundry and then went to the camache's for what I thought was a service project, but they didn't have any service stuff for us to do.  So instead I introduced Elder Gonzalez to Jesus and Vanesa.  Then we went and ate lunch with la familia Anjelo.  They're pretty cool.  Then we went and watched the 2nd session of conference at 3.  There was less of a turnout for that one.  We tried to visit Mariela after, but we found her pareja's dad instead, Fernando.  He was pretty cool to talk to.  His son Gonzolo, Mariela's pareja, was going to serve a mission.  But then he had a kid.  You could see how much it hurts him when he talked about it.  He showed us some families that live by him after.  We tried visiting the Pena's, but they weren't home.  So then we went and picked up Jesus and Vanesa and tried to visit Rafael, Jan Carlos or Jurubi, but instead we found Jan Carlos' uncle named Mario.  So we taught him a bit.  Afterwards when we were thanking Jesus and Vanesa for coming with us, a drunk came up to us.  Elder Gonzalez was like, "Hey, what's up?  How long you been drunk?"  They dude responded, "One day.  How about you?"  We all laughed and he was like, "What? You asked me so I get to ask you back."  Later the Boracho asked my companion if he knew everything.  He said nope so we asked him the same and he said nope as well.  So I asked him how many days are in a week and he told me 5.  I got him to introduce himself in English though, so that was interesting.  He also asked my companion "What are you?"  Elder Gonzalez said he's a missionary.  The dude was like, "No you're not.  You're an espiritu (spirit)."

A Peruvian Email

I received a sweet email from a McKay's pensionista, Maria, with a picture of McKay,  his companion and her.

I am so thankful for people who watch out for my boy and know that I am missing him so they provide the service of sending me a quick photo.  I know it won't happen often on his mission, but I am thankful for the times that it does.

Text From Peru

I got a text today from a family who is picking their son up from McKay's mission.  They sent me the above picture.  They were visiting a family in McKay's area and McKay and his new companion stopped in for a minute.  His new companion's name is Elder Johann Gonzalez from Columbia.  Glad to see they are both happy!

Week 12 in Huaycan

The funniest thing happened this week. I like to sneak up on dogs when they turn their back while they're barking at me. When they turn back around and see that I'm right behind them, they freak out a ton and then sprint away yelping. Anyways, there were these two dogs barking at us on the way home from dinner one night, about 10:15. One of them turned their back so I made my move. The one that was watching sprinted away when I made my move. His buddy with the back turned was kinda confused I think. He turned around and saw me right there and freaked out even more than normal. He took off sprinting at full speed. He played it smart and kept his head turned to watch me. Or so he thought. He ran at toda velocidad (full speed) right into a parked car. He hit it so hard that the car alarm started going off and everything. I don't know if I've ever laughed harder. That was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen. Other stuff I've done recently: I threw down a windmill dunk the other day. That was pretty cool. That's what happens when your area is all hills I guess. Conference as cool so make sure you go back and watch that if you haven't already. Have a good week!

Monday
I bought myself some chocolate milk Saturday night and drank it this morning. Val la pena.  (It is worth it.)  Today was supposed to be P-day.  However, we had to go take money out for the month after internet.  The zone leaders told us to be there at 12:30, but they weren't there themselves until like 1:30.  That was a little frustrating because we can't do it without them there.  Once they were there, Elder Yanez and I didn't leave until 3:00.  So most of my P-day was wasted.  When we got back I had a bunch of errands to run.  First I took two of my shirts to the quince to get some tears stitched up.  Then I bought a back pack because not everything fits in my shoulder bad when I have to do intercambios and stuff.  The bank was just right there, so I got change for 200 monedas.  I also bought myself a speaker.  Then most importantly, I bought myself a sandwich maker.  It's like a waffle iron, but for sandwiches.  To top off my spending spree, we went and got pizza.  I need a haircut and was going to get one, but we were short on time so we just had to leave.  We didn't have time to put our stuff back in the room.  But guess what.  It rained today!  It actually was just a little more than a drizzle, but still.  First we went to go visit Raquel Carlos.  She had told us that today was her daughter Naomi's birthday, but for some reason it never occurred to me that she invited us to the party, not an appointment.  We made it short though.  She gave us so much food.  I never thought she'd stop.  I'm just a skinny white boy.  We tried visiting the Penas, but they weren't hone.  The light bulb in the bathroom blew up while I was washing my hands.  I screamed pretty good.

Tuesday
Today I graduated from my 12 week training.  I've been doing a lot of graduating recently: into adulthood, from high school, Jiffy Lube University, and now this.  I guess you can say I'm getting pretty good at it.  I enjoyed the 12 week thing for a couple reasons:  There was actually some pretty good training; they had a lot of good food including yogurt and cake; and I got to see everyone from my CCM group, as well as Elder Monzon, who I've missed.

I received a certificate and got to give a small speech when I did.  I had everyone laughing.  Elder White's got jokes.  When  we got back, we helped Cristopher put the roof on his house.  My main job was cutting through a log with a nail file.  Cristopher decided to accompany us the rest of the night after, so that was a party.  We went up to visit the Penas, but they weren't home, which was frustrating because that's two days in a row now and the climb today was especially exhausting.  Everyday is leg day in Huaycan.  It's paying off though because last P-day I threw down a windmill dunk.  It was on a 10 foot hoop, so don't give me that short hoop stuff.  The ball was a little flat, but still.  Then we went to go do a noche de hogar (FHE) with la familia Cruz.  It went well I guess.  They gave us a bunch of food after so that's always a plus.  Elias from the ward was there too.  On the way home, I launched another ninja stealth attack on a big 'ole perrazo.  I scared it so bad that it fell on its side.  When it tried to run, its legs were struggling to grip the road.  It sprinted away yelping like a puppy.  All 3 of us were almost in tears because it was so funny.

Wednesday
I made myself a grilled cheese for breakfast with my sandwich maker, so that was awesome.  It was the worst grilled cheese I've every had, but it was still good.  We had a district meeting this morning.  It was Elder Ianni's last one.  I really look up to him so it's hard to see him go.  Today was a really good day.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It sprinkled for about an hour tonight.  That made me super happy.  During that time we were outside walking around.  I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I loved just looking up at the sky and watching the little droplets fall.  They were falling as graciously as a snowflakes.  It has now rained twice since I've been here.  I thought it rained in La Molina once, but it was actually just the mist.  I got two letters today: one from the Kano's and one from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke.  It's always nice to get letters.  I also got a package from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke.  Inside were a couple things I need like socks, but more importantly (almost), it was filled with a ton of snacks.  When I realized how many snacks there were, I was just like, "Wow, holy nutcracker Batman."  We were supposed to have a lesson with Yanina today, but surprise, surprise she wasn't there.  We had Diego with us though, so we went to go visit a member named Marcelina.  I've never seen someone so patient for how misbehaved her 4 year old son is.  After, she was like, "You should check on Jesus across the street.  He's a member, but works Sundays.  When we called for him, he came running out with his LDM (Book of Mormon) in hand.  Long story short, he was just reading and reads regularly, he's pretty spiritual, and he's working out the job thing.  Super cool guy.  We also passed by Rafeal's.  Then we went to la capilla (chapel) for President Lorenzo's LDM class and correlations.

Thursday
Day 100 has arrived.  That means I'm about 13% done with my mission.  I don't know if that's a lot or a little.  Sometimes it feels like I just got here and others it feels like a lifetime.  Our fly problem seems to have vanished out of nowhere.  There's only like 20 or so flies in the house now.  We spent a lot of our time today tracking down inactives/PF's.  Sometimes, the reason people haven't been to church in a while is because they're dead.  That's always awkward.  We met Lomas 2 at la capilla and went up to the M for a baptismal interview.  After the interview, they showed us a really long back road that took us back to our area.  When we got back, our area was having random blackouts again.  And it was night time too at this point.  While we were contacting, all the lights went out all of a sudden.  It wasn't the sketchiest part of town, but you definitely don't want to be there when there's no light.  So we just went straight back to la capilla for English class.  Today my student was Jan Carlos, the Venezuelan.  I have to clarify which one because I swear every other person is named that.  The class went well though.  We were talking and things in Venezuela are pretty bad right now.  You only leave your house there if it's an emergency because there's tons of guys walking around with weapons.  Sad stuff.  When were were walking home, 2 dogs came running around the corner barking.  So I did a jab step and got one to stumble.  The other retreated back around the corner, so I charged after him Han Solo style.  When he saw me giving chase, he darted super fast.  That was funny.

Friday
Best ting ever just happened.  It might be the funniest thing I've ever seen.  We were walking back from dinner.  There were two dogs barking at us so I was like, "Time to scare some dogs."  When I did it, one of them was looking and the other had turned his back.  The one that was watching bolted off, so the other one looked behind him to see why his buddy was running.  He panicked when we saw the big gringo locomotive coming at him. He bolted too and thought it'd be a good idea to keep an eye on me while he did.  He thought wrong.  He ran full speed into a parked car.  He hit it so hard that the car alarm went off and everything.  That had me in tears.  The other elders and I were laughing the entire way home.  We spent a lot of our time today trying to track down inactives/PF's again.  We haven't had too much luck with that yet.  The other Elder Yanez was in capacitacion de autosufencia (self sufficiency training) and the Hermanas have a baptism tomorrow, so we went to Maron to do the interview.  We walked a lot there and back to try and save some passage.  Their area is a lot nice than ours, pero se pongo que tiene sentido (but it makes sense).  The dude's name for the interview was Exaltacion (Exaltation), which is a pretty dang cool name.  When we got back to our area, we had a noche de hogar with Alejandro, who's a good friend of ours from the ward.  He's just finishing up his mission papers, so that's cool.  It amazes me seeing all these people down here that are getting ready to serve missions.  It just occurred to me I've never really described Elder Yanez.  I love that guy.  He doesn't talk a lot, so I do most of the talking.  He's a good singer and can play the guitar well.  He's got 18 months in the mission.  He used to be the financial secretary in the office.  He's pretty smart and a really good teacher.  He plans on going to LDS business college and then to BYU.

Saturday
Today was conference, so that was awesome.  When we went to the church to watch it though they didn't have internet.  They had to use someone's phone to stream it.  That also meant that we couldn't watch it in English.  I mean, I could understand everything, but it's just hard to pay super close attention for 2 hours in Spanish.  First session was good.  No more 3 hour church I guess.  Maria made tequenos for lunch.  I love tequenos.  I almost cry tears of joy when I eat them.  For the second session, Elder Yanez and I took Elder Morris to Nana with us to watch conference in the clerk's office there with the other Gringos: Elder Droubay, Hermana Evans, and Hermana Houghton.  The second sessions was really good.  I thought the story with Gordon B Hinckley and the Vancouver temple was super cool.  I also loved Uchdorf's talk at the end.  His voice is so iconic.  After that, we came back and went up to Fransisco's.  He told us a lot about the families that we're helping up there by him.  When we were done, we were supposed to meet with the Pena family who live on the other side of the mountain.  Instead of going down, over and up again, we decided to go up and around.  As we were going up, there were some dogs barking aggressively.  I just walked by them and stuck my book out behind me to make space.  But then one of them bit the back of my pants on my right knee and I almost tripped.  I couldn't really do anything about it because I was on loose dirt on a cliff and there were like 5 dogs.  It actually left some holes in my pants.  Good thing he didn't get me.  I know God is protecting me out here.  The lesson with the Pena family went well and they're doing well.  They gave us some soup and herbs after.

Sunday
Today was voting day.  Not for the presidency, but Alcalde de Lima y Ate (mayor of Lima and Ate).  Except the law requires you to vote or you'll receive a pretty inconvenient multa (fee) of 5/160 ($50).  So basically very few people work and the entire country shuts down for a day.  The lines to vote were huge.  The entire city was out and about today.  Transportation cost 4x as much.  Leading up to the elections, the campaigns were insane.  Posters on every post, signs every where, every blank wall painted, blimps, parades, texts, etc.  Edde Cuellar even made a parody of Despacito that got blasted 24/7.  Anyways, that means there was no church today either.  Instead we went to Hermana Maria's for the conference watching parties.  We tried to collect Jan Carlos and Rafael, but failed both times.  I had to watch both sessions in Spanish, so that was a bit hard.  I loved President Ballard's talk though.  The fact that he prepared it well before his wife died is remarkable.  I felt the spirit strongest during hymns.  The spirit hit me like a truck when they sang I Believe in Christ.  We ate with Hermana Trinidad in between for lunch.  Afterwards, all of our citas (appointments) fell.  Contacting wasn't the best because there wasn't a lot of people and the few there were were drunk.  We finally got to talk to the Risce family a bit.  The calls for cambios (transfers) came tonight.  As predicted, I am staying Huaycan 2 another transfer.  My new companion will be Elder Gonzalez from Columbia.  Elder Yanez is going off to some super pituco part of the mission, I can't remember the name.  Elder Morris will train, open an area, be district leader and try to turn a branch into a ward.  I'll miss that guy.  Dupy won in Ate and Muzoz in Lima if you're curious about the elections.

More of what Elder White does when he is bored.

Week 11 in Huaycan

I hope you all are doing great. Remember, always enjoy the luxury of a first world bathroom. I don't know if you guys heard the news or not but, THE PROFETA IS COMING TO LIMA!!! I'm stoked with a capital T. October 20 he'll address all the members here and then the missionaries from all the Lima missions after. I always wondered if Jesus had a sense of humor. He does. Just read Mark 3:17 and then Luke 9:54. But other than random blackouts all week, it wasn't too bad this week in Huaycan

Monday
Well, we were in the middle of emailing our families, but then we had a city wide blackout.  The electricity came back on eventually, but I think the entire city is without water now.  We had to go to Chaclacayo to finish emailing.  Then the whole zone came and we ate lunch with the ZL's pensionista.  From there we went to their chapel to play some games.  In the first one, we literally just stood in a circle and threw eggs at each other, usually softly.  The idea was to catch it and then toss it to someone else.  I had a couple break on me.  After that we played water balloon volleyball with towels.  Elder Yanez and I were just too good.  So good that we ripped his towel in half.  After that we just balled out.  Let me tell ya something Ernie, Elder White has still got it.  I led my team to many victories.  I would like to make myself my self proclaimed MVP.  I was super sweaty, dirty and maybe a bit eggy too, so it stunk not to shower.  Pun intended.  Elder Ianni and a I spent a good chunk of the night trying to track down a converso reciente (recent convert) that's gone inactive.  But Huaycan being Huaycan, we couldn't find her.  Elder Ianni is a really cool guy, just FYI.  We tried Cristopher and Sandra, but they weren't home.  We stopped by Yanina just to set up a cita with her for later.  Turns out that Miguel moved to Arequipa.  I guess that explains a lot.  Elder Morris thought that part of our area was his for a bit, but it turns out it's ours.  I was really concerned for a bit because that's where La familia Pena lives.  Speaking of which, Magaly didn't go to church yesterday so she didn't get confirmed.  But Maria made hamburgers tonight, which is always straight up a blessing.

Tuesday
We had no agua o luz (water or electricity) this morning, so we got up early to go to Chaclacayo to shower there and switch back from the intercambios.  One of the ZL's neighbors gave us a ride to the capilla, so that was nice of him.  We had consejo de distrito this morning.  Hey, guess what.  THE PROPHET IS COMING TO LIMA!!!  Russell M Nelson will be here to talk to the members on October 20.  Then later that night, he'll have a fireside with all 5 Lima missions.  I'm so excited!  I've actually known he'd be coming for a while, but they were saying he'd only visit Lima North before.  On a separate note, the mosquitoes in Chaclacayo are ravenous.  Or maybe I'm just irresistible if you know what I mean.  In the 3 hours I was outside in shorts (and longer socks too), I got 42 bites on my right leg and 35 on my left.  I've been mildly miserable all day due to that.  Turns out that Elmer's glue helps a lot though.  We visited Cristopher today.  Sandra didn't want to come out though, which is kinda concerning.  Cristopher had a semi significant fall while he was at work over the weekend, so I guess that's why he wasn't at church.  Then we went to go visit la familia Pena.  I think we found a way for Mener to get another job, so I'm excited about that.  After that we went to go talk to Jan Carlos and Rafael.  The spirit is always so strong when we got to visit him/them.  Jan Carlos got baptized in Venezuela in March.  I love those 2 guys.  The entire city has been having random blackouts in random patches since yesterday.  The water has been coming and going at random for the whole city, but some parts haven't had water for 2 days.

Wednesday
I don't really know what happened today.  It all passed in a blur.  I had a dream last night that I went back to the CCM and all the people there looked up to me as leader.  In my dream I still felt as new as they all were, but I knew that I could lead them.  Anyways, we contacted today.  That's about all that happened.  No one was home when we went to visit them.  We didn't really have much success contacting either.  It's kinda sad looking back on it, but I was happy still in the moment.  Just getting lost in the work I guess.  Sondra Carlos was home though, but William wasn't  So we checked on her then went to la capilla.  The city is still having random blackout spots.  The church was in one of those spots.  I don't know if you've ever tried walking down a pitch black alleyway/small street in a city in a 3rd world country before, but I wouldn't recommend it.  It was really weird.  The stake president came, but was like, "Yeah, nope," and left.  The Cristinia came.  That made me sad because she walked all the way down by herself because she has zero support from Rodolfo, and we couldn't even do the class because of a stupid blackout.  I got talking to her and she's a really cool person.  I mean, I already knew that, but she's fun to talk to.  That entire situation just makes me frustrated and depressed.  I can't do anything really to help her.  I hate being helpless.  It's like another knife in my back since she's 19 too.

Thursday
In Peru there's this awesome fruit called chirimoya.

Basically God was like, "These poor people have to eat chicken, rice and potatoes everyday.  They deserve something special."  So he sent us the chirimoya.  It tastes and smells like Hi-Chews.  It's so big and rich that I can't eat more than 1/4 at a time.  Super juicy too.  Julia and Jose weren't home again when we passed by. It was a cita too.  Then we took Cristopher and visited Sandra Carlos.  The lesson went well enough.  They gave us some cookies when arrived, which is normal.  But then Jhonier, her 6 year old, gave us each a can of milk.  Then another.  And another.  And another.  I only kept 3.  Then he gave us each like 6 packaged rolls.  We were like, "Do you want us to leave some of this?"  But she was like, "Nah.  Take it."  That's just how Peruvians roll.  It was kind of a blessing though because Elder White got a little over zealous with his spending and now has to live on 66 per day, excluding dinner and lunch with Hermana Maria  Afterwards we had a short lesson with Cristopher and then went to la capilla for English class.  We had Jaime and Cristopher for the class tonight.  We were supposed to have a cita with Yamina after, but she was out dancing when we called to make sure.  It's kinda frustrating to set aside time for a cita and have them decide to go dancing instead.  So we just extended English class a bit.  When I offered the closing prayer in English, it was weird because I found myself having to translate things from Spanish back to English for a good part of it.  My English is starting to leave me.  For example, I can't say lesson anymore.  I always pronounce it like "Lection."

Friday
Today we did intercambios with Lomas 1.  Elder Yanez went there with Elder Vasquez and Elder Perez came here with me.  He's a little special if you know what I mean, so I had pretty low expectations for today.  But today wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it'd be.  He was really good today.  We had 3 citas fall through to start, so we contacted for like 3 1/2-4 hours to start the day.  We actually found of couple of guys we'll try and visit later.  We went to visit the Penas.  All is good in the hills.  I had to head the lesson, which is something I don't get to do with Elder Yanez.  I love him though, so no se precupe (no worries).  For that reason I enjoy intercambios.  I gave Davis a blessing since he was sick.  It was the first one I've ever given.  It's an interesting experience.  After that we went to go visit Didy Cruz, who's on the high council.  If I understood him right, he left his car in Huachipa due to traffic and took a combi to get here faster.  He still didn't arrive til 9 though.  I talked to his wife in the mean time.  They are a super cool family.  I shared Ephesians 6:10-18.  It went really well.  Didy is a pretty funny guy.  We were all talking about our favorite Peruvian dish and he was like, "I prefer a big plate with a curved bottom."  We finished the lesson at 9:30 and he asked us what time we had to be home.  I told him 10:30, so he sent his son to the store to get some crackers and Coca-cola.  Short story: today there were some kids playing soccer and their ball was rolling down the hill.  So I kicked it back up.  Except I'm a gringo and can't kick straight, so it landed in someone's fenced off yard.  I went to go and get it, but was immediately met by 2 big ferocious dogs that I think wanted to eat me.  One of them even bit my Book of Mormon.  Short story shorter, after another try or two, trespassing in their neighbor's yard, and some unsuccessful planning, a cranky old lady came out and gave us the ball.  So that was pretty embarrassing.

Saturday
Today I finished translating my patriarchal blessing to Spanish.  I enjoyed doing it because I got to practice Spanish real well.  I also enjoyed it because it made me think about every sentence in depth.  Yesterday I finished my 12 weeks training book, so that's cool I guess.  We switched back from intercambios after lunch.  Elder Yanez and I went to collect our laundry and then went off to work.  The main thing we did today was help Cristopher build his house.  It was mostly just us holding wood for him while he nailed them together.

It was more of a hut than a house really.  It's just a dusty lot in between two houses with some wood standing up right out front.  And he's moving from with his aunt in a brick house to this one by himself.  He's like our best friend here, so it hurts to see him downgrade.  It kind of just really hit me today that I'm living in a 3rd world country and everyone around me is dirt (pun intended) poor.  I mean, I knew that of course before, but seeing Cristopher excited to move into this hut of his just kinda reminded me and humbled me some more too.  We tried to visit some people tonight, but no one was home.  Story time.  There's a road that goes almost directly from our house to Maria's but it's packed (pun intended) with dogs.  When it's late though, we have to take it.  When it's t-minus 4 minutes until hora del pecador (time to be home),  you have to sprint down it.  I enjoy that.  A couple of nights ago was one of those nights.  The dogs' excitement/aggressiveness increases 10 fold when you run.  When there's one hot on your tail (pun intended), you stop dead sprint and do a 180 and it'll freak 'em out real good.  If there's one ahead of you being aggressive, run straight at it.  They'll realize they're actually not strong enough for a gringo and run away.  I don't know why I like it so much, but I do.

Sunday
I'm trying to be like Jesus, but the white Bible won't let me; I'm not allowed to grow my beard out.  I want to have a beard more now than ever before for some reason.  Church was pretty normal.  I day dreamed about waffle irons all morning, probably because I was fasting.  I came up with 13 ways to use one.  I'll probably go out and buy myself a George Foreman Grill tomorrow.  We went to go eat with Yolanda and Richard for lunch.  The rest of the family had to march in a political parade.  We had some pretty good steak, with rice and potatoes.  I made the mistake of getting seconds.  I was super full, but then they brought out the flan so I had to have a slice.  It was so good that I had to have another.  I hated myself for the next hour and a half because I felt like throwing up.  We did a lot of hill climbing today.  A lot of people weren't home though, so that was kinda frustrating.  There's nothing like hiking all the way up and have them be blasting music and not answer their door.  We went up to visit Olga, but wound up teaching two of her sons instead.  Elvis is 18 and Diego is 16 on Tuesday.  They remind me a lot of Jaxon and me.  We put a baptismal date on them for the 27th.  Our 4 investigators right now are them, Olga and Rafael.  We finished the night off with a noche de hogar with the Carlos family.  Nothing too exciting there, other than Jhoniero and Maia were more rambunctious than normal.  I was still so full from lunch that I didn't have a lot for dinner.

What I do when I'm bored in a meeting.