-Elder White
Monday
Well, my family decided to go out and get another dog last night. They enjoyed babysitting Oakley so much that they went and got a puppy just like him. So that's a new development. After almost 8 years, my dad is finally leaving the deacons quorum. He's not getting any rest though because he's going straight to the high council. He's cool like that. I was starting to think I might have had my kids have him as their leader when they were in deacons, if I lived in the same ward that is I guess. I had to use the bathroom as our time in internet came to a close, but there isn't a bathroom in that one. I didn't want to make him cut his time short talking to his family, so I held it in. Using internet always makes me need to pee for some reason despite my best efforts to make it not that way. We at last were going to leave, but then we realized that we were locked in. We were the only two in there and I guess she had to step out a minute. We kinda figured she was in the house still, so we called for her to come and knocked on the door that lead into the rest of her house. She showed up a little more than 5 minutes later with groceries. Good thing too because I had to go to the bathroom super bad. We went back to the house and started to get stuff ready for cambios (transfers). I spent 2 hours cutting the cheese, rolling it in wanton and then frying them in order to make my Peruvian take on a Venezuelan classic: tequeños. I made enough for all of us to have 9 each.
Tuesday
Well, we had Elder Lainez to drop off this morning. Jose Manuel, one of his converts, came by to pick us up to take us to the stake center in La Molina. I found out some more about Lima Tambo. Elder Carrasco from my CCM district will be a zone leader there. Elder Broadhead will be secretary of operations there. Elder Hyde is in Tambo. Elder King is going to train Elder Yañez who are both off to Tambo. Turns out that la zona Santa Patricia is also off to Tambo. My best friend is in that zone. She's called the Temple of Lima. So that's kinda unfortunate. Turns out too that Elder Cabascango went home over the weekend, not really sure why. The bus that I was waiting for that had Elder Cordova on it didn't come until 12:30 so that gave me plenty of time to chat it up with the other missionaries. Elder Cabral is in Alameda still for a 4th transfer. There's a missionary named Elder Porter. He came up to me and was like, "Hey, you're in my stake back home!" I was like, "I think we go further back than just that. Who was your 6th grade teacher?" "Powers." "Your name's Kaden. I was in your class." We both didn't like our teacher. That was cool to catch up. He didn't really remember me, but I have knack for remembering the small things like that. Never mind the fact that I didn't recognize the bishop's wife when we passed by the church tonight, that's not important. haha. The dudes training had a break, so I went to talk to Elder King for a bit. I'm sad that I have so many friends leaving. While I was waiting, I got a phone call from an unknown number from a member I didn't know named Franchesco, who's going on a mission to Columbia in October. He was like, "Hey, my friend wants you to come visit him. Can you pass by at 3:00?" I didn't know when the bus was going to arrive, so I was kinda iffy about that. He called me a few minutes later with more info. I asked if he'd come with us and if he had already confirmed the appointment by chance. He told me his friend had requested that we pass by at that time. I was like, "Well shoot. We'll be there si o si." We went and his friend, Luis, was waiting for us. He told us that his other friend, Wily, was gonna be there, but he didn't wind up coming until the end of the cita. They're both my age, but have been off drinking and doing drugs and stuff. But now they're preparing to get baptized the 20th of July. We found another PF named Laurdes that accepted fecha for the same day. She's 58 and cool, but I'll tell you more about her later.
Wednesday
Elder Cardon is from Elder Cabrali's group, so he's kinda new still. He's from Ecuador and is a cool guy. His older siblings have all served or are serving missions. For some reason I don't understand his Spanish super well, which is kinda odd since I haven't had that problem since my training. I think it'll just take a few more days to get used to his accent. We had consejo de distrito this morning. Literally half of the zone is new. We were presenting ourselves to everyone and it turns out that Hermana Lester and I have the same birthday, same year: August 10 of '99. What can I say? It's a great day to be born. The only other person I've ever met with my same birthday was a kid in my 6th grade class named Jordan Chapman (Elder Porter told me that he's in Argentina right now). Conserjo was pretty bomb this morning. We had a blind taste test with 7 Peruvian candies with a few American ones mixed in. I am proud to announce that I was the only one to get 7/7. I know what I'm about son. As a reward I got a can of Pringles and Chocoman bar. The idea was that we have to pay close attention to our feelings when working with people. Elder Arteaga was Elder Cordova's first trainer. He was telling me that a gringo had gotten a package and was tossing out candy and in the mix threw a bottle of play dough and was like, "Que extraño este dulce (How strange is this candy)," but ate it all because he figured it was just a weird American thing. The next day he saw Elder Nye playing with play dough and was like, "Por que estas jugande can ese dulce? (Why are you playing with that candy?)" They were like"¿?" and explained play dough wasn't to eat. Then Elder Arteaga said, "Ah, entonces eso es porque me delia el estromago ayer. (Then that is why I had a stomach ache yesterday.)" They got a good laugh out of that. We went to visit Anabel today. She had fallen asleep when we tried to visit her yesterday. The cita went really well, but Illary was all over the place and even sorta broke my bottle. So afterwards I went to the sol store (like a dollar store) where I bought a light up American batarang fidget spinner and bought her a cool toy car for next time. Jeorge has his court hearing on Tuesday, so we stopped by to get him spiritually prepped. He can't afford a lawyer and Peru doesn't have American laws, so that worries me a bit. We went to go visit Elena and her family tonight. I don't remember if I explained before, but basically Angela went to the doctor and they found a lump in her breast. I'm pretty sure that means it's cancer. They were gonna do an apollada domingo (fundraiser Sunday) to raise money, so we taught the Sabbath Day real good and they'll do it Saturday now. Elena told Elder Lainez about the problem, but I don't think they know I know the details.
Thursday
Here's something interesting that happened tonight: I had to teach my comp how to make Anj-no-men (Top Ramen). I never thought I'd have to teach another dude my age how to make those. I got a call yesterday to tell me to go to the office, so we went there this morning. We may or may not have gotten off at the wrong stop 3 miles away from where we needed to be. I was only just a little lost though. But I could see the temple, so in a way I was only half lost half the time. I had to sign a paper when I got there to renew my extranjero (foreign) status for another year in Peru. Last night at 11:45, we were up talking and all of the sudden there was an earthquake. It was barely strong enough to feel--you could really just hear it. We went to go have a cita with Luis and Wily today. They did their homework. I was impressed. They seem to have legit interest. They haven't left with their friends to drink or anything since Saturday. We were talking about plans to take them to church and they told us that they can't go into portada 2 to get there. We were like, "Ok, we can go around, buy why?" Let me explain to you what I've learned from them, other Elders and a contact Elder Cordova made. La U and La Alianza are the two major soccer teams here and they're hard core rivals. Portada 3 (where they live) are all Alianza fans, while everyone else pretty much likes La U since we're in their territory. As it turns out, it's pretty much la ley en (the law in) Portada 3 to like Alianza. If you say you don't like them or that you like La U, there's a very serious chance of being beaten. It goes both ways too. These aren't fans, they're straight up gangs. They break bones, heads, stab people, etc. If they see an opposing "fan" trespass, they'll stop whatever they're doing even subir/bajar a combi to get a good beating in. Luis and Wily want out, and I'm gonna help them. #YOLO #Thuglife. We had a little citas with Lourdes tonight. I was a little disappointed she didn't read the folleto all the way through, but the cita went well enough. She has, after all, received the missionaries for 5 years. She couldn't get baptized before because she was conviviendo (cohabiting). But now, her husband lives at his pig farm. He comes every day at 5 AM to eat breakfast and then leaves. She's determined to keep the law of chastity and even told her husband that if ever wants to come back, they need to get married first. Then we went to go visit a super cool contact named Lucia. It was easily the coldest day of the year and she was waiting for us out in a t-shirt. She lives in Huertul though I guess and her husband wasn't home, so we just passed the reference.
Friday
Rejection is part of being a missionary. It takes on a variety of forms: funny, sad, frustrating, confusing, etc. The other day I was contacting in the park. We were about to leave but then I saw an ambulante selling nuts and stuff and decided to contact him. He asked what church we were from, so I told him. Then he asked him we worshiped the Virgin Mary and I was like, "Nope." Then he emphatically told me, "Then you're lost! How can you believe in Jesus and not his mother? How can he be holy?" The dude was telling me I was lost like he was Obi-Wan and I was Anakin. We had a weekly planning session this morning. Our schedule got mixed up a bit today, but it wound up working out. We went to go visit Juana today. She had told us before that she didn't really feel super rushed to get married, so we taught marriage in the temple and exaltation and family real good because Elder Lainez and I both thought she didn't really understand that all that well. In the end, we made her cray a little. She had a pareja (like a husband) before that she never told me about that ended super badly. So she's looking for someone she said, but not super actively and she's being careful. Juana is super cool. Then we had a cita with Annabel. That cita was kinda delayed because she had to go stay with her mom a while since she's sick. We taught some mandamientos (commandments) though and she was super down to obedecer (obey). The lady at the panaderia (bakery) is super cool. We passed by yesterday and I asked if she had any collection coins. She told me she'd trade me a tumi. So we went by and she traded us both 2 tumis. That was pretty hype. We went to go visit Fabio, but we had to share somethings super short because we didn't have a lot of time. Everything seems to be Gucci with them. It was Freddy Junior's birthday today and Elena invited us to stop by. We got there though and they were like, "Sorry guys, there's not cake." Freddy Sr. still hadn't gotten home from work. We sat down and talked with them. Freddy apparently has a history of beating his family. Not all the time, but enough to be a problem. We had been talking to Elena about getting married to him the other night and trying to brainstorm how to get it to happen. Now there's talk and threats of divorce. It's hard for me to see a family I love in a position like this, especially with Angela's condition. I just hope God shows us a way to help them.
Saturday
We got up early this morning to play soccer at the church. Standing in at 193 cm and weighing in at 92ish (maybe) kilograms, the last pick of the past 4 MLS (Missionary League Soccer) drafts, I present to you: Elder White! Yeah, I'm not super sure why I'm always dead last in choosing teams. I mean, it doesn't seem like I'd know how to play soccer, but I'm not half bad really. I led both teams in goals by double the next highest scorer; I had 6. They were all pretty dope too, if I say so myself. I even pulled off a rainbow kick. Maybe someday my draft position will catch up to my level of pride hehe. They apollada for Angela was today. Elder Cordova and I tried to visit Roly, but he was a no show, so we went straight to Elena's to pick up a dish for each of the 4 of us. While we were waiting for ours, Elana's mom brought us each one to eat. That was some dang good chicken. I'll have to get the recipe for that one. I'm typically not the biggest fan of chicken because I don't think it has a lot of natural flavor--it's like a blank pallet. But every once in a while, I get blown away. Elder Cordova and I decided to fast once a week. Elder Lainez was afraid of fasting. He liked food a little too much hahahaha. It's pretty cold most of the time now, so you don't feel quite as much of a need to drink water. We went to go visit Luis and Wily today. They read what we left them, but they're not the smartest people in the world, so they don't have a super high retention. But they are able to recognize the spirit while reading, so that's good, all that matters really. Luis had a lot of questions about the after life so we taught The Plan of Salvation. We had some good time for contacting. We went to go look for a girl we had contacted. We weren't finding her and Elder Cordova stopped to ask a lady for directions and instead found another person that was set on coming to church. We went to go visit the Quispitupa family real quick tonight. We keep hoping. At the end of the night, we were asked by a member named Angelina to bless her home and her baby (who was sick). Her brother, Angelo, served in Elder Cordova's ward. Angelo said he knew the lady that gave us directions. Sometimes God make you set up a cita with someone just so that you can meet someone else.
Sunday
This morning was a roller coaster. We were getting ready to go and I got a call from Anabel's uncle. He was like, "Hey, I know that you guys were going to come pick up my niece and all, but I just got called into work and my nephew has a thing in his colegio so she can't go." So I was like, "So she can't go because your son has an activity at his school?" "Yeah...but she can't go. But next week she'll take my son with her to church." The contact that Elder Cordova made earlier in the week was from the same "fan group". When he told him that Wily and Luis were going to church, he said, "I know them. They wouldn't. It's too dangerous." For that reason I was a little worried when I called Wily and Luis. Wily didn't answer and Luis told me he had to go to a family meeting. I told him back, "Look, we're going to be at Wily's at 9:45 to pick you both up. Call me if anything changes." Lourdes seemed pretty unsure about coming today. She put the excuse about having to help her uncle pack to leave when we passed by last night. So it was looking like we'd only have Fabio there today. While we were in consejo de barrio, we got 2 missed phone calls from Luis. I called him back and he told me that he was going to come to church. I never asked about his family meeting. We went to Wily's house and he answered the door. He works from 7 PM-7 AM as a security guard in Musa. He had only gotten an hour long nap in, but was ready to go and didn't fall asleep later or even acknowledge it if he was tired. Luis came a minute later and we walked down to the main road. I asked them if we were taking a combi or what, and Luis told me, "Estamos con Dios. Vamos a caminar. No va a pasar nada. (We're with God. Nothing is going to happen. Let's walk.)" I sure do admire that faith. That was one of the most exciting walks to church I think I'll ever have. As we were walking along, Luis showed me where all the people he has beef with hang out. Elder Cordova and my heads were on a constant swivel. He kept asking me what would happen if we got jumped and the best I could tell him was that nothing would happen because God was protecting us. We got there safe and sound and put them with Francesco. They loved church. Luis always says he doesn't have words when we ask how he feels about baptism. As sacrament meeting ended, Lourdes said hi to us as she walked out. I guess she snuck in somehow. That lady from yesterday, Gloria, came with her daughters. We had a zone attack in Huertos today. Then we took Wilber to visit Fabio and set up the baptism. The zone leaders had an investigator come from Callao (about 3 hours) for sacrament meeting and then go back after. All in all, this week was super dope.
Photos in the dark:
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