We did more proselyting this week than what I've done in a long time. There just weren't that many citas that we had scheduled during the week. It was cool though because it gave us plenty of time to walk around the streets here searching out these escogidos. Due to that, we've been blessed with a few people that we've been able to find through the Lord's tender mercies. Most of them are in the category of potentials still, but we have a few new dudes with a fecha bautismal. There was one dude that kinda stood out to me this week named Gabriel. When we found him we were on a street where we had planned to contact, but there was a super loud party going on a few blocks up. I was about to suggest we try another street instead, but that was when Elder Cordova contacted him. It seemed like a solid contact from my point of view. We were looking for his house yesterday and were a little lost, but he came out and found us, which is always a bit of a miracle when that happens. We went in and started talking to him and discovered that he was super cool and was looking to help his family out more since he was a single parent. We were teaching and he was being super receptive, so we were both pretty excited. I got to explaining about baptism and he said he had already been baptized with the Jehovah's Witnesses and considered it mockery before God to be baptized a second time. We tried explaining it to him. I also tried looking around in Acts because I remembered a time Paul baptized some dudes a second time because the first was incorrect, but I couldn't find it. I think we got him to understand the authority thing, but he still thought you shouldn't get baptized a second time because it says so in the bible. I knew that if I could show him Paul's example, he'd accept it. So I said a silent prayer and pulled out my pocket bible to search for it one last time. Miraculously, I was able to find it and he accepted a fecha for September 21. I know that if we work our hardest and pray and do everything we need to, Jesus will do the rest. I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have to be here and to be able to see the blessings of the Lord so abundantly in my life. Have a great week!
-Elder White
Monday
Today we met as a district at 7 AM in 3 Maria's for our long awaited and hugely anticipated trip to Lomas Del Lucome or more commonly referred to by us as "Huertos Pichu". It costed 10 more soles to get there and eight soles more to enter per companionship than we were expecting, but YOLO. The place is hidden deep inside the Chacra, beyond Manchay but still in Elder Rushforth's area. There is a line where trees magically appear and weird green things called plants grow all over the place. It's greener than Utah; it's basically how I imagined Peru when I got here. We thought we'd knock the hike out in 2 hours easy, but did it in 4 hours 15 minutes. Our guide was kinda talking a lot at first. The 5K hike was super pretty. The weather was super misty, so everything was soaked. Getting to the summit was kind of hard because the mud was super slippery. Getting down though was like walking on oily banana peals on the already super slippery mud. At first it was funny, but then I biffed it hard thrice as well as many others and I just started to try to make it down alive. The guide was older, but somehow she never fell. Hermana Lester neither even though she had hiking sandals and was holding her comp's hand the whole way down. I got cut up and also got muddy all over even on my glutes. It was a really fun hike. Elder Rushforth put me in charge of the districts goals for charity. Responsible beans. (See previous post for pictures and videos of the hike.)
Tuesday
Tuesday the 13th it is the Latino equivalent of Friday the 13th. This morning we went and did service for Jorge Garcia. He took us down to Tres Marias where he and his mom had a party shop. I guess that they were closing it down because we helped them take everything out of the store. Elder Pedrozo and Elder Vasques both went on a field trip together to the dental office, so Elder Peterson came with us to the service. While we were waiting for the moving truck to arrive, Jorge's mom paid for us to play football and air hockey. That was a highlight of the day. We were carrying the stuff up the stairs to his house on the hill. I was carrying a heavy box backwards. I thought there was only one step down, but there were really two there. So I slipped and fell and scraped my knee decently well. I've wiped out four times too many in the last two days. I need a break for a bit. Pro tip: add some milk to your (precooked) bowl of aji-no-men (Peruvian Ramen noodles) to enhance your daily "I'm-broke-so-I-resorted-to-eating-Ramen-every-day" experience. We spent the entire day contacting. I mean, I love talking to people in the streets about Jesus and all, but I feel like ever since this transfer started I've been doing that nonstop. Remember Jacke? We really have no idea what happened to her. Her fecha was for this Saturday. Man, she was one of the most chosen people I've met. Next thing you know a water truck blows up on her, she gets an internship as a cashier, and a few days later stops answering our calls and is never home. Elder Cordova even called using the other Elders' phone a while back. She answered, but then hung up when she realized it was him. We don't like talking about her a lot because it pains us to do so. We had correlation tonight. There's a phrase in Ecuador for crossing the road: "Si tienes plata, que me atropelles. (If you have money, run me over.)" Needless to say Elder Cordova is even more reckless than I am when it comes to crossing the street. He'll walk into heavy traffic and people will slam on their brakes and stuff. Then he'll turned to me and say, "Look at the power I have of crossing the road! The cars stop for me. They respect me." He's basically the grandma from Mulan.
Wednesday
Well, I woke up at 6:40 this morning like normal now and there wasn't any water in the house. I didn't let that deter me though; I've got a streak of exercising running and I ain't about to let something as childish as not being able to take a shower hold me back. This Elder has a newly re-found desire for six pack abs... that no one's going to know he has since he can't show them off to anyone. Don't worry--I don't smell too overly awful (I hope). Besides, Elder Cordova puts on enough axe in the morning for the two of us. We walked outside and saw that the previously dirt road was now a mud road; a pipe had burst in the night and a crew was there fixing it. We had consejo de distrito this morning. There was torta (cake). And it was pretty good torta if you know what I mean. It's kind of fun having a birthday buddy. It's kind a crazy stretch because I feel like there's been a bazillion birthdays recently. For example, just in the zone it was Elder Woolf on the 28th, Elder Clark on the 30th, Hermana Lester and I on the 10th, and Elder Cordova on the 19th. I'm grateful that we had cake today.
I feel like Hermana Ana knows when we eat cake before lunch because when we do, she always makes us papa a la huancaina with aroz con pollo afterwards. Today was another great day for contacting. The Quispitupa's had invited us to dinner, so we hiked up to their house. It was 5 'til 7 and we were three minutes from their house. In situations like this, I generally don't stop to contact. But as we were walking along, I saw a lady washing clothes outside a house that we tried to pass by to visit a contact for on July 13. I almost didn't go over to talk to them, but then I was like, "Why not?" Well, I'm not sure if that one dude we were initially looking for actually lives there, but the lady I talked to was pretty cool. Now we have a cita set up for tomorrow with Nely and her family. We would have been 10 minutes late to the cita with Quistpitupa, but it turns out that Nora and José Gabriel had left to algun lugar (somewhere) that was super lejos (far) to do some paperwork for Nora's new moto and they didn't tell us. But it's also kind of my fault since I forgot to call and confirm it, even though I've talk to Wilber and Fioloa about it every time I've seen them in the street. But that really might be part of the Nely miracle because I never would have gone all the way up there if I had known they weren't home.
Thursday
This morning... I did exercises! Look at me! I'm highly key really proud about that, but only on the inside. But this morning the zone got together and we watched President's weekly video. After that, we all headed out to do a service thing. It was for some Catholic antiguo investigators that also have a sibling that's a member in Surco. Basically they're adding on to their house and needed help. So basically we went up to their recently built third floor and spend two hours-ish there. We sanded for a while and then started putting primer on the walls. As for me, I was in charge of sanding the ceiling nearly the entire time. I had a fancy sandpaper on a broomstick rig to help me out. But I'm still glad that I skipped the arm exercises this morning. The family was super nice. They fed all of us Pacha manca afterwards. That was probably the best pach manca I've ever had too. I had to shower after of course. It was unbelievable the amount of sand I had in my hair. We went to go visit Nely and her son Travi this afternoon. It was a more quiet cita because the two of them aren't super big talkers. Nely wants Travi (who is 13) to be on a better path. Nely's a widow, but more a single mom I'd say. She separated from her husband (probably because he was drunk and always threatened the family with knives and wanted to burn the house down) before he passed away in an automobile accident. They both accepted fecha for the 14th of September. I'm not very good at getting quiet people to talk a lot, but I guess I'll get some more practice now. We wanted to do noche de hagar with Claudia and her family to be able to meet their friends, but it didn't work out. We passed by to chat a bit. She's not a bad person, but for whatever reason has lingering resentment for Nora. I got a package from my family today. American beans. I was like, "Yes! J-Dawg sauce!" and Elder Clark was like, "What's J-Dawgs?" Oh boy. Pobrecita (poor dear).
Friday
Well, we were going to do interviews with President Amato today, but then we got a last-second text from him this morning saying it would have to be postponed until the next week. That kinda through a loop and things, but whatever. I finished reading the Book of Mormon again the other week, so I started reading it again, but this time in Spanish. Frijoles cheveres. We went to take out money today. Good thing too because I didn't have two 10 centimo coins to rub together. Elder Clark and Elder Pedrozo we're running behind a bit because they were coming from an emergency meeting with the other leaders in the mission. So we were all there talking for a while. Some of the other missionaries had some interesting lives before the mission. For example, Hermana Lester always makes jokes about coming home from parties or something after curfew. The conversation carried into lunch a bit and one of the other Elders mentioned that again. All I could say was, "Well, I don't think I really had a curfew. I never really went out, so yeah..." I lived a very tranquilo and sheltered life before the mission. Today was another great day for contacting. The contacts were popping today too. I feel like I was more productive today than I've been in a long time. It was kind of crazy really. We found a 17-year-old pregnant girl outside her house. So I contacted her and we were talking and she explained that she lives alone basically because her mom only came home on Mondays. We kept talking and after a minute we asked, "You doing anything right now?" "Nope." "The gospel can bless you a lot. Do you want us to show you how?" "That would be cool." She suggested that we go to her aunt's house around the corner. We were like"Ok," but explained we'd still have to teach outside since there wasn't a man home. So we went over there and she went into the house for a second. I could only imagine how that conversation went: "Hey tia Maria, how are you? I just met a gringo and an Ecuadorian 10 minutes ago while doing some chores out front of my house and now they're gonna teach me about Jesus. Can I borrow a chair?" Well, we taught her. But in the end, she didn't seem 100% sure about coming to church and stuff so we didn't extend the baptismal invitation. We did set up a return visit though so we'll see what happens there. I would credit success today to being willing and going the extra mile to open my mouth to anyone that would listen.
Saturday
Last night I had my biweekly Jiffy Lube dream. This morning, we did weekly planning. It was pretty boring actually. We ran into Andrea and Geraldine (the Callupe's next door neighbors) again yesterday and Elder Cordova took a cita down for today. Only Andrea was there though. That's no problem though, so we started to talk to and filter her looking for a spiritual need. It was cool because she seemed a lot more genuine than the last time I talk her when Elder Lainez was here. Everything was going well and tell I mentioned going to church tomorrow. Then she was like, "Well, my parents said that we can't go." Freaking Satan up to his mischief again. So we spent a hot minute explaining the Sabbath Day and how it will help her. We asked her to ask her parents again and explain to them why she wanted to go. Andrea's aunt, Andrea, came in while we were teaching. It was even odder because she greeted Elder Cordova with a kiss. I've learned to stiff arm every handshake with a woman so that doesn't happen. From there, we went up the hill away to have a cita with Nelly and Travi. We got there and I saw Nelly washing the clothes in her hut so I was like, "Hey Nelly what's up? We're here!" De frente nos dijo (she told us in front), "Otro dia joven. Estay ocupadita. (Another day. I'm busy.)" I replied, "But we just finished hiking all the way up here to talk to you. We have a cita with you guys." "Yeah, but I'm busy right now. Come back later." I was too frustrated so I talked to her little nietas. Elder Cordova worked some magic (basically just telling her she can't disrespect our time like that) and seven minutes later we were talking with both her and Travi. We didn't wind up teaching though because neither of them read the folleto. Travi said he'd come tomorrow though. Klesy and Mariela invited us, the 4 of us, to eat dinner with them. That's always tasty beans.
Sunday
So, stake conference was this morning. That's in La Molina, which is like 30-40 minutes away. Travi told us he was going to go, so we left to go get him. He's 13, by the way. We were running about 5 minutes behind, so I led us on an extreme speed walk up the mountain. We got there and he was still asleep. He got up and was like, "I can't go; I don't have shoes." We were just like, "¿' He explained that his shoes were wet. He didn't really show a whole lot more of an urgency or desire to find other shoes. So in the end, we left empty handed, which 10/10 times stinks. We got there and the stake center was llenaso (full). All us missionaries were early and formed a giant line of handshakes going into the capilla. I almost felt bad for those poor souls that were continually overwhelmed by the amount of hands to shake. The stake choir was actually super good. I was very impressed by how well they sang. About 30 minutes in, we got a call from Carmen. She told me, "We're here, but the church is all locked up." After a bit of investigation, we discovered that they had gone to Musa. All I could think was, "This was why we wanted to come pick you guys up." Sadith came with Wendy about 25 minutes later, but Carmen went home. Cool beans. The La Molina ward is kinda crazy really. President Falabela (the area president) lives there, as well as a bunch of gringos. Some of them have some pretty crazy jobs. For example, there's one that goes into the jungle and hunts down the Narcs for the Peruvian government. After that we went and almuerzoed (had lunch) with La familia Quilca. We were talking to Luis Angel and asked if he had a novia (girlfriend). He replied, "No. I'm gay. I like dudes, and reached for Elder Cordova's leg. Elder Cordova just about jumped out of his seat. That was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! In the evening we went and had a cita with a 40 or so year old dude named Gabriel. He was a very cool dude. Things took a surprising turn of events because he's a single dad, not a single mom. He was super escogido. Then I got to explaining baptism and he revealed that he had been baptized in the Jehovah Witnesses and that getting baptized twice was wrong. I knew that somewhere in Acts it talked about that, but couldn't find it. He still wasn't sure after more explaining, so I said a silent prayer and was able to find it and he accepted a date for September 21st! We spiritually pile drived him! His sons are potentials. He started reading the folleto at the end and I thought, "We'd better hurry and leave before he finishes it." hahaha
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