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.