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.
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