This week was pretty awesome, and it was ended by cambios (transfers). Elder Lainez will be leaving and Elder Cordova will be coming here with me. I have enjoyed my time with Elder Lainez. We have been able to work hard and have success together. I'm excited to be receiving Elder Cordova. I have high expectations for this next transfer. We had the chance to pick up a new investigator this week that's really cool named Anabel. She's super excited about church and loved her experience there yesterday despite her 18 month old running around everywhere. Life's pretty cool here in Manchay. I don't really have a whole lot to say this week. I'll see ya'll next week! Take care!
-Elder White
Monday
Today was P-day. I didn't have a whole lot to do during internet today because my family was coming back from Lake Powell. It's kinda unfortunate having them go on vacation without me. I don't get vacations. Instead I work every day of the week, usually somewhere around 63 hours or so in the street I'd say. That's a long time. It's ok though. I'm happy. It's kinda crazy because missionaries are probably some of the hardest working people in the world, but they're also some of the happiest people in the world. #Yeet. We had some pretty bomb fried chicken (polo broaster) for lunch today. It was only mildly questionable since I found some mysterious organs inside it. We got together as a zone for p-day. We played soccer for a bit. #lastpick. But I was the Isaiah Thomas of the match; this last pick got 3 goals in that time and even more assists. When the Hermanas arrived we played 3 way sports. I'm pretty good at that. My team won. We watched The Lion King afterwards. When that was over, Elder Lainez and I went back to the room to clean. The zone leaders came an hour after us. I was pretty frustrated about that since I've been cleaning up after them all transfer. I was planning on burning them hard. Not in a prideful nor malicious way, but enough to give them shame if they ever didn't wash their dish again. But instead, it left as a "Hey we've been cleaning for the last hour, and you guys haven't been a huge help with cleaning this transfer. Can you be better please?" I feel like that's usually how that sort of thing works out for me: you plan on going big, but then it's small. We went out and contacted the night away. I felt pretty productive, so let's see if any of the citas we set up work out. I was pondering on how to help a person overcome temptation/addiction and I remembered that one time I went on a shark dive with my dad in Honduras. All my life I've watched shows and had heard about sharks, so I knew they had the potential to be dangerous. Before getting in the water, they told us, "Whatever you do, don't touch the sharks." I was like, "Well duh." We got down on the ocean floor though and there were like 20 sharks all around us. They appeared to be so magnificent and peaceful. They were swimming super close to us too, I wouldn't have even needed to fully extend my arm to do so. I found myself extremely tempted, despite all my life experience. Then the guide opened a bucket of fish and those previously peaceful sharks turned ravenous. I collected a tooth I saw fall from one of them to help me remember. If the sharks are that temptation, I should have never gotten in the water if I really wanted to guarantee I wouldn't touch them.
Tuesday
We had our last consejo (council) of the transfer today. Elder Lainez and I were in charge of the training. We totally winged it and I don't think it turned out too horribly. Lunch was pretty good today--we had beef, potatoes and rice. The thing that made it though was that the green sauce tasted kinda like the mild sauce of Cafe Rio. I miss that stuff. Remember that time yesterday that I said we had some good citas lined up for today? Yeah, well, we didn't really wind up with any citas today. That kinda stunk. But hey, we had a lot of time to schedule some cool citas for tomorrow! I called Isabel today to see if we could pass by and also to see why she didn't make it to church on Sunday. Geez, Satan launched a full-on frontal assault against her. Here's what she told me: the owner called her Saturday and told her that she was booting her out and had to leave Sunday, and she didn't tell her why. Isabel lives in a big apartment building on the 3rd floor where everyone rents tiny, cheap rooms. Isabel had never broken any rules nor had received any warnings. She tried to meet with the Dueña (owner) day Saturday, but the Dueña didn't get home until Sunday. The first time she was able to talk to the owner was during church hours. The Dueña explained that it was because Isabel had been receiving strange visitors recently. Her daughter-in-law is staying with them because her 5 year old grandson is sick. Her son passes by maybe every 3rd day because of how much he's working. Her neighbors complained about that, but mostly about us. The neighbors lied a lot about everyone by the sound of it. Isabel explained that we pass by for 20 minutes to share the gospel then leave directly. Then dueña didn't really care that much, but did gave her until the end of June. Isabel said she'd still come to church on Sunday though. She's lost almost everything, well, a lot at least. She's had some serious difficulties in life. She just needs to get baptized already. The bishop invited us over to eat Dominoes with his family so that was awesome at least.
Wednesday
We got up early this morning and met up as a district at the church to have breakfast together. Yesterday they were asking what we'd all bring and I volunteered to do French Toast. I surprised myself when I said that. Have I ever made that before? Nope. Did I have any idea whatsoever I was doing? Not really. Did anyone die as a direct result of my French Toast? Yes. Just kidding, no one has, not yet at least.... Breakfast was really tasty and really fun. We went out this morning and a few minutes passed and Manchas the dog ran passed us without noticing. But then Elder Lainez called out to him we got him and his henchwoman, as it turns out, following us 'til lunch. Our cell phone was kinda crap today. It couldn't make nor receive calls for 90% of the day. There were some exciting 5 minute bursts through the day where we could get a call or two in. Hopefully it'll behave itself better tomorrow. We got some good contacting in and visited a convert or two. I had to go to the bathroom, so we went to one of our designated spots. On our way there, we ran into a contact I had made that seemed cool, but wasn't home when we had planned to visit her. We taught her a lesson right there at the base of the staircase leading up the mountain. She seemed distracted, but it was probably because her 1 year old was all over the place. So we'll see what happens next time. Yesterday Elder Lainez ran into an antiguo investigator who almost got baptized, but said he didn't because the area got white washed and the new Elders never went to go visit him. So we went to go visit him tonight. He was pretty chill and dispuesto to ser bautizado (willing to be baptized), if you know what I mean. His name is Angelo and he's 19. When we got back to the room later at night Elder Lainez found Angelo's baptismal records. That was awkward. We decided to go visit Andree and Angela. On the way to their house, Elder Lainez talked to a lady who told him that her 27 year old handicapped daughter was on the point of death, so we passed by to give her a blessing. I have never seen someone so skinny in my entire life. It was like a photo of someone that starved during the Holocaust, but even skinnier. That was sad to see. When we got to Angela's, I noticed that their dog was dead. He was 14 years old. We had to break the news to them so that was unfortunate. Freddy was in denial for a while that it was dead and Angela said she had seen it running around a couple of hours before. They were all pretty sad. But we shared a good message with them and then they invited us to stay for dinner.
Thursday
Last night we were talking to Angela and she mentioned to us that she always takes her Book of Mormon to school with her every day. I thought that was super awesome and was like, "I never did that." Elder Lainez added, "Yeah, my school was far away and I always had a ton of books to carry." Angela responded, "Siempre hay espacio para un Libro de Mormon. (There's always room for a Book of Mormon.)" That really stuck with me. She's got an hour trek to go to La Molina, including that huge hill walking a distance and taking a combi. No matter how busy or tired or whatever we are, we always have the time and ability to read the Book of Mormon everyday. If we don't it's because we haven't made doing so a high enough priority in our lives and we need to fix that. We were informed this morning that there will be another mass wedding here July 20. That gets us hyped, so we tell everyone that's not married about it. We had a pretty solid work day for us. We started out by visiting a contact named Anabel. She's 19 with an 18 month old girl with a bad skin condition. She's been humbled to say the least. She was super escogido and accepted a baptismal date readily. That was a cool cita. We had some great time to dedicate to contacting today. We stopped by to visit a recent convert named Daniela. She has a big Peruvian dog that was super hyperactive. Her 8 year old brother was with two of his friends and the dog wouldn't stop aggressively playing with one of them. He kept on jumping up on him so that they were face to face and nipping at his hands. They couldn't escape it. And the dog's name? Beelzebub. I think that's super funny. At night we stopped by both Nataniel's and Fabio's to see how they're doing and to share a brief message with them. There was a huge festival tonight at one of the local schools because it was its anniversary. There was a huge parade with all the students holding strange plastic piñatas with lights on the inside. They had them of stars, animals, hearts, etc. They even had a fake giant cake and Chinese dragons. There was this super nice family that gave me a bag of oranges from their food cart while I was working. I got home and went to share and Elder Clark told me that I shouldn't eat fruit from strangers because apparently there's some people that inject fruit with AIDS before giving it to missionaries. So even though I know it's safe since its from their cart, I'm too paranoid to eat it now.
Friday
We held a weekly planning session this morning, possibly the last of my time with Elder Lainez. This has been the fastest 6 weeks of my life. I feel like I've only been here for like a week. Where did the time go? I've got no idea. But YOLO I guess. I got Elder Tigse to buy some fingerless gloves for me at a shop in his area. They're cool because now I feel like a biker. Just kidding. I probably look like a chump, especially since I forgot to bring a sweater. Fech man, it was the wrong night to forget your sweater. Elder Clark threw up pretty good this morning. It wasn't my AIDS orange, so I don't know what it was. First thing after lunch, we went to go visit Anabel. This lady is escogidasa. She explained how she likes to have the TV on when she's doing stuff and how she always listens to music as she reads. Then she related how she started to read, but felt weird reading the pamphlet with that stuff on so she turned them off. The more she read, the more she liked it and felt the spirit. She believed everything she read and was excited to talk about Joseph Smith. So that cita went super well. She started feeding her baby though right as I went to talk about Joseph Smith. That still gets super uncomfortable, but it's normal in Peru, so you've just gotta keep teaching. Elder Lainez just kept his eyes on me and I practiced my staring contest ability, not moving my eyes in the process. On a slightly different note, I've noticed recently that I'm pretty good at staring contest. I think the humidity might just help me keep my eyes open longer though. We had the ex-bishop, Jhon Ramierez, accompany us to go try and visit Andrea (the friend of a member and has been to church a few times) but that cita didn't really work out and la familia Quispitupa. The first time I talked to him, he was like, "La familia Villafuerte manda saludos. (The Villafuerte family sends their regards.)" I was like, "Whah, how do you know them?" He reminded me that he was there one of the times that I went to eat lunch with the Villafuerte family. When I went to leave that day, he told me that my next area would be Manchay. Welp, he wasn't wrong. We ended the night by visiting Angelo. It was just a straight 30 minutes of me burning him. He didn't read the pamphlet despite us reminding him. We were talking and he asked if we kept registers at the house. "Yup." "Do you have any of me?" "Yup." "Like baptismal registers?" "You mean the one that says you were baptized January 27, 2018 by Elder Lopez?" So I burned him for lying to us. I still don't know why he'd do that. I bought a salchi pollo for dinner only to come back and found out the ward made us dinner. That was a pleasant surprise.
Saturday
Well, today was a little bit longer of a day. We didn't have any citas planned for today, so that means that we had plenty of time to contact today. There's always a thing or two to see when you're in the streets of Peru all day. We were walking along the street after lunch and all the sudden heard a bunch of shouting inside la Posta, which is like the clinic of Manchay. We were like, "Oh no! What the heck is...Oh yeah." It was at that point that we remembered that Peru was playing against Venezuela in Copa America. That was pretty funny. When Peru is playing, there's very few people in the street. And you always know when something important happens because everyone in the city starts yelling all at the same time. We were in one part contacting and Elder Lainez told me that he had to use the bathroom. I told him to hold it a minute and we kept contacting. It was at that point that we met a dude that had a 1 1/2 month old baby goat. It behaved just like a dog. Not gonna lie, it made me hard-core want a baby goat. I was scratching its head and the little goat started sucking on my fingers. I guess you could say that it's a chupacabra. hahaha Moral of the story? Always hold it in just little longer because you might get to meet an awesome baby goat and miss out on a life changing experience if you don't. I got to be pretty exhausted as the day wore on. We ended the night well though. The 4 of us had a dinner cita with Klesy and Mariela. Elder Lainez and I went to the capilla just a little early so that I could use the bathroom, but we ran into a big young women's activity. They gave us both an amazing slice of cake, so that was awesome. In case you're curious, Peru tied against Venezuela 0-0, which is why I don't like soccer. But the dinner was great! We had some pollo de la brasa and talked. We were about to leave and they were like, "Wait! Gifts!" I figured it was just something for Elder Kimball and maybe Elder Lainez too since they're both leaving, but they gave us each a gift! We each got a Peru soccer jersey, a scarf and a beanie. Elder Kimball got a tie instead of a beanie. Those were some pretty hype gifts. I love getting presents from people that I barely know! I just want to say that I love reading the scriptures. My favorite time of the day is always my personal study time. My testimony of the Book of Mormon is continually growing, and it won't ever stop growing. I know it's true and that it was written by God through his holy prophets.
Sunday
Today t'was judgement day, and boy oh boy were these combios (transfers) interesting. Elder Lainez is leaving to go to El Agustino. I will be receiving Elder Cordova who was Elder Jensen's companion in Jicamurca. (Elder Jensen was here in Manchay 2 before me.) The zone leaders are both staying put. Other notable changes are that the assistants are taking over the area of the offices and will be in our zone now, so that'll be hype. They're white washing an area. There's some interesting stuff brewing. I wonder what happened in other zones. Elder Winder went to Surco, so that basically means he'll be an assistant in Tambo. It's time to get geared up for a great cambio in Manchay 2. I'm sure Elder Cordova will be amazing, but it'd be cool to have a gringo companion someday. All I can say is that with 3 gringos the 4th of July is gonna be lit. Literally. We have to wear suits all the time now, basically every official reunion of the church ever, so that's kinda sad. Ever since Elder Topam came a couple of weeks ago, President announced that the area restricted using backpacks. So life in the fashion sense has been kinda low recently. I'm the only one that really consistently cleans the room. The trash was full, so I waited a day or two to see if someone would take it out. This morning, I was like, "Guys, we gotta take out the trash." So we went over there and upon further inspection discovered about 30 maggots crawling around. I went on a maggot killing spree. That was nasty. I figured out that flies are a winter problem. I'm harnessing my Latino ability and only kill them by throwing my chanclas (flip flops). Gotta practice for when I have kids haha. Isabel didn't come to church. I'm kinda frustrated because it's like she got salty and left before even receiving her food because it was a little pricey. I've got this special dish called "baptism" waiting for her and she doesn't want it. Roly, Katia and Nohjer came though, so that was a weird surprise. Fabio and Anabel came today. Anabel brought her 18 month old, Illary. She was all over the place. We had our entire bench dedicated to trying to keep her calmer. I was worried that Anabel wouldn't enjoy church too much because of that, but she told us that she loved it! Today is Father's Day, so I called the family so that they could congratulate me since I'm a future father, and also to say the same to my dad. I figured Elder Laniez would leave, so we went around and started visiting all his converts one last time.
The pancake burrito that I made.
I miss doing math. So I decided to do some.
Pictures of our zone:
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