This Week from Huancayo Peru

                           
Week Twenty!

Well this week was interesting but good.  They kicked all the Costa Rican missionaries out of Peru which includes our district leader Elder Tellez.  We got some white kid now so that will be interesting.  It’s a big change from Elder Tellez but I’m sure he will lighten up a bit once our zone leaders get a hold of him (they are a little bit crazy) but it is good.

This week we baptized Sherly, she is the little sister of another convert named Henry, he was baptized like right before Hermana Witt and I moved in and we got permission for him to baptize her and it was the cutest thing ever.

Henry baptizing Sherly

Henry and Haydee

And this week our stake had a concourse of dances and it was also so cute the same Henry danced with Haydee our recent convert from a few weeks ago, and just seeing everyone dance was so cute.  It was like all of our favorite people were dancing together and it was so awesome.   

Each ward had a different South American country and our ward was Chile I don’t know if people in Chile dress the same as in Portland but that is how they dressed for the dance it was funny.

The picture of them walking out is like all of our favorites in one photo.

Concourse of Dances

That was really all the highlights of the week.

I have not gotten my package yet. 

Hermana Witt went to Lima because she was illegal and needed a visa.

Snow doesn’t exist here, it’s hotter than life.  I’m tanner than I have ever been in my whole life it’s like a bajillion degrees during the day and then from like 6pm to 9am it’s like a little bit cold like in the 50s.  If this is winter I think I may die in the summer.  I miss the rainy season.

I don’t talk about zone conferences because they are the most boring thing ever.  This last one we met at the church after P Day and listened to a 1.5 hr PowerPoint about true happiness then watched everyone get packages that had them then we went home, it was so fun...............................................

Our Zone is Zona Huancayo, which is our district Chilca, like a district of the city of Huancayo, which is us and the elders in our ward, the sisters and elders in Peñaloza, and then a little pueblo called Pampas which is like an hour away.  Then another two districts called Huancavalica (1&2) which is a city that’s about 5 hours away on the most dangerous road in all of our mission (Which I survived whuttup) and there is a district there of 4 elders and another of a pair of sisters and like four more elders and we see them like once a month for zone conference.  In your area really no matter where you are you’re kind of in a box of your district and you never get to know anyone else and since I have been in Chilca my whole mission with the same companion I know nobody, yay!  But the kids I know are cool so it’s okay.

3 Cambios Strong

Week Nineteen!

Well cambios were this week and a lot of exciting things happened, just kidding, I’m still with Hermana Witt.  WHICH IS AWESOME!  We are like the first companionship to stay together for 3 cambios straight ever in the whole mission so that’s awesome.

We didn’t get very much work done but it was good.  We realized why President doesn’t keep people together for so long we are way comfortable with each other and sometimes goof off, but we are both really happy because Jaime and Cledi promised to get married and baptized this cambio.  So we will both be here for both and it is so great.

It was kind of funny everyone in the ward was like no I don’t think anyone is leaving and were like it’s going to happen like they would never keep us together and then they did.  So it was like look everyone we are here and we got Hermano Pio to smile because of it (pictures attached) he’s smiling here because we baptized his grand nephew but still he really doesn’t like most missionaries except us because we are the best.

But yeah, we had a baptism it was Pios grand nephew and it was good except the Elder's forgot we had a baptism and they only had the Jesus suit or an adult sized suit so we asked Edwardo which he wanted and he was like the Jesus suit obviously and we were like okay go for it.

That was really all that happened this week, but I have 2 things for ward members.  One, if a missionary shows up on your door and asks to use your bathroom let them it means that they needed to go like 3 hours ago and you’re the first chance they get and two if they show up on your door unannounced and ask to teach your family a lesson let them that means they have gone through every last appointment or person they could think of and your plan triple Z and they really just want to work hard, so let them in.

That’s all

Love you

Hermana peters

PS

I got Will’s post card, is that the letter you were talking about?

It looks like it got to Huancayo after 8 days and to me after 11.

Because it showed up on Friday, and the office elder doesn’t get mail till Thursday, and then our zone leaders don’t get the mail till Monday, then I don’t get it till district meeting on Tuesday.

Baptism of Hermano Pio's Grand Nephew

Waddup

Week Eighteen!

Well Hermana Witt is back! Yay! This Week she came back on Tuesday and I was supposed to pick her up at 4 but a guy that thought humans that had faith they would be immortal beings in the earth would be.  Yeah and he bible bashed me for like 30 minutes and I just sat and waited for him to be done but he never was and I was like sorry we have an appointment and he was like sorry child I don’t understand your accent and so his son was like shut up dad we need to go, they don’t care. so that happened and then I finally got Hermana Witt and everything was good and yeah I kinda took a break from talking and thinking because she was back.

She got me a cover for my scriptures that are super cool and not much happened this week cambios are on Wednesday and we know that one of us is going so we are visiting lots of ward members and I have pictures of them, so yeah.

I remembered something that happened.

So there is this park called parque abel Martinez, right, and we teach 2 people that live right next to it so we walk through it like every night.  One day we were walking and we see these white people playing with the kids and were like oh crap pishtaco status and we were kinda worried about pishtacos.  So we were talking with our investigator about it and she was like, oh yeah, people come from other countries and teach games to the kids and dances and things like that and we were just like, why Huancayo.

We put ourselves in the mindset of these people their sitting here in this park probably thinking that these people are so poor and I’m just like are you serious these people have a Metro (like Freddy’s) and we get hot water sometimes.  Like why Huancayo?  This city is loaded we can take you to Pilchaca if you want and I don’t know because I feel so blessed to be in such a big functioning city and these people though that we were like dirt poor and it was really weird to think about.

The other weird thing to think about hit me when I was eating cow heart the other day.  I keep saying all I eat is rice and chicken, which is partly true, but I have eaten some weird things, like guinea pig, BBQ cow heart, cow stomach, and chicken feet soup.   But I don’t know it just doesn't seem weird it’s just like normal.  I don’t know it’s weird.

Baltazar Family

Brent

Brent y Sting

Hrno Pio

Power Outage

Filomenas Door

WUT (political party)

“Though Israel be not yet gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.”

Week Seventeen!

This week was a growing week.  Which is happy code for this week was really, really, really ridiculously hard.  On Tuesday we found out Hermana Witt was going to Lima until Saturday.  We had two options close Chilca for a few days or have a member be my companion for a while.

Obviously I chose the latter, I’m not leaving my investigators.  So with two weeks left in my training, I became a trainer.  But that wasn't the hard part, leading the lesson wasn't hard, the speaking Spanish every second wasn't hard.  It was the changing companions every 12 hours that was hard.

And by Saturday I was so done.  I was so ready to have Hna Witt back, and that was when I got the phone call.  Hna. Witt isn't coming back till Tuesday as in tomorrow Tuesday, I still don’t have a companion.  Today I am staying with the Hermanas of Peñaloza and I think this has been the hardest because I’m not in my area with people I’m comfortable with and I’m not with my companion, who is quite a bit more obedient than some other missionaries, and that is the hardest part.  Being ignored in lessons, getting yelled at for my informe numbers and doing the right thing all by myself when everyone around me is supposed to be doing it too.

But there were some highlights to the week.  We saved the cat and broke a window in the process, oops.  There was a stake relief society activity, where a bunch of Peruvians acted out the Oregon Trail, well not the Oregon Trail but the one for the Mormons.  I don’t remember what it was called but they were doing the story in Daughters of my Kingdom and there was a part about Taiwan and the United States and I got to be the United States it was great.

Then on Sunday the member didn't know they were feeding us so they took us to a restaurant and on the TV Lost was playing it was Season Two and I was like, Hey, I know this show, I've seen every episode.  Angie, my temp companion was like every episode?  This just started and I was just like I know what happens, hahaha, it was great.

After lost was over Warehouse 13 started and I was like man this is awesome, just kidding, it was only slightly cool for a brief worldly moment.

But this week I decided Isaiah is my favorite prophet of antiguidad, and Nephi is my favorite in the book of Mormon and here are some verses I liked.

"Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain, surely for my judgment is with the Lord and my work with my God"

"But Behold Zion hath said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me- but he will show he hath not"

This is total.

We went to get Jaime’s marrage peper stuff
and we picked up a hitch hiker and his dead cow.
It was great

When the Olympics come to the middle of nowhere Peru,
yeah they’re ready

This fruit is warehead sour

This fish has a head

The Cat that Enters Without Permission

Week Sixteen!

Well this week was pretty good. The first thing that happened was divisions, and it was hard.  For 24 hours I was with the Hrna Leader. Someone I don’t know and we didn’t really have time to get to know each other or each other’s teaching style.  So we would try to have lessons and take it in completely opposite directions from each other and we didn’t know how to teach in each other’s way.  So that was hard.  But I passed and I get to stay on my mission so yeah, go me.

Yeah and then Rosanny finally got baptized.  Finally. lol, but yeah after she was like I do not care about my mom’s opinion on this I know I need to be baptized and she was.  Her mom was like I will not be there because my son has sports and Rosanny was like I don’t care so we picked her up because her mom won’t take her.   So we pick her up to take her to the church, which took extra time because they closed the main road for drag races, (crazy right) and Rosanny’s mom was sitting out watching the drag races.  So yeah she was there but Satan was holding on till the very end.  We had to baptize her 3 times, because she wasn’t making it under all the way.  It was hard and her mom is like no we need to stop she can’t do it again and were like will you be quiet for like 5 seconds while we do this and so she did and the third time was perfect and it was all good.

 

Then there is this cat whom I assume you have heard about before it enters without permission and one time I hit it with a broom and so it is scared of us.  Well this cat.  THIS CAT, fell through a hole on the roof into a locked room that only the land lord (who is currently in Lima) has access to, and at 2am, TWO IN THE MORNING it started meowing at the top of its lungs non stop in the window that was dividing my head from the room.  So at 6 30 when we can "wake up" we opened the window and it ran from us, because I hit it with a broom once, so it didn’t want us to save it, so we went to the neighbor who also has access to the room via window and she wasn’t tall enough to reach it so Hna Witt tried to grab it and still couldn’t reach.

Finally when we hid and she called it, it jumped into her house.

I really don’t want that cat living here and I am really tired.

Love 

Hermana Peters

Happy Birthday Herman Witt

Week Fifteen!

Well this week was a lot better than most. I don’t know why and I don’t know why I have things to say because I literally talked to you yesterday but I do.

Haydee's Baptism

This week we had a baptism for Ide, which is actually spelled Haydee as we found out. Oops.  It was good and she is so cute.  She put on a baptismal gown and was all embarrassed to walk out but when she did her husband like lite up. It was seriously so cute. 

Haydee, Hma. Witt, Hma. Peters

Haydee's Family

We were supposed to baptize her niece Diana too but her aunt took her away on purpose so that she wouldn't be baptized.  Which is really annoying because her aunt had never had anything to do with her life before so why does she care now?  I know why because of Satan.

But good news on the Rosanny front, She is confident that she will be baptized on this Friday because she is 18 and can make her own decisions and she wants to be baptized I feel like because she knows it’s true and because she knows she needs to be baptized she is getting the confidence to talk to her mom.  Which is awesome.

We also have a young man who was baptized by the elders who were there before us and we were talking to his sister and she’s like I want to be a Mormon and were like well did Henry tell you anything about the church and she was like nope nothing and we were like well now we can punch Henry.  Just kidding but it was a little frustrating because she loves the gospel and we are teaching his mom too and his dad lives in Utah so we were just like wut.

Anyway, we were teaching her and her friend and they had lots of questions and then somehow her friend was like but there are zombies in the United States.  We were trying so hard not to laugh, but really we died.  It was so funny.  We explained to her that it was just a TV show called the walking dead but she was so cute it was so funny.

This Friday was the birthday of Hermana Witt.  And it was a pretty good day, we had a hard time at first, because we lost our baptism, but after we went and saw Jaimes family and they gave us cake and we ate cake and then we went to our pentionista and she gave us cake and we ate cake again and it was good.

I think that was it and it was a good week and today is cool.

Love you 

Hermana Peters

We had a good time on Sunday it was basically like a second p day we had church and then we went to the familia baltzar, with the elders in our ward, and the elders in the other ward, and we ate pachamunca which is made by digging a hole and you put the potatoes in and cover with rocks and then the meat and cover with rocks and then humitas and cover with rocks and then the vegetables and cover with grass and rocks and corn husks and then cover with a tarp and it cooks from the heat of the earth and they filmed everything because there is a TV show called Consuelo in Peru and we are going to be on it tonight at 5, it is the show of their daughter, and they are just a super cool family.  They just threw all the food on tarps and we just ate it with our fingers.  It was cool.

Happy Birthday Chilca!

Week Fourteen!

Well it was another super slow week here in Huancayo and I mean really slow.  The festival Cuazimoto went until Tuesday, Thursday was workers day, and Friday was the anniversary of Chilca.  We really didn't teach many lessons because everyone was at all the festivals or having fun with the families because they didn't work.

 

Remember Rosani?  Yeah she didn't get baptized.  It was the hardest day ever.  She had her interview to see if she was prepared on Friday and we show up and the district leaders are there already and there is the deep sinking feeling in the room with them, Rosani and her mom.  We were just like what is happening?  And it turned out her mom was preventing her from being baptized, and it was so weird because she is 18 years old and she can make her own decisions and so we were just like what in the world, and with the 4 of us the spirit was so strong, and we could see her heart softening at some points and then like 2 seconds later it would just flip and be complete hate from her.  We were like, right now Rosani is making big changes in her life for the better and she needs support and her mom is like yeah I know totally and I want to support her in everything she does because I know that this is really good for her and then we were like Rosani do you want to be baptized, and she was like yes, and we were like okay what day, and she was like the 17th of May and her mom started yelling like no you can’t be baptized.  We were just like what in the world.  So we left them with a prayer and time to think over a date and then on Sunday we taught Rosani about Agency.

But yeah, Ide and Daiana are set for this week. They need 3 assistants to be able to be baptized and they didn't show up at first on Sunday.  So we had a member go and pick them up for us and now they are being baptized on Friday, (The birthday of Hna. Witt) and it is going to be great.

You asked about the people here and family history.  Let me tell you a little something about the church here.  It is brand new right?  Only a few years has it been a full on developed land of the church.  But they don’t want to be brand new.  They want to focus on things like missionary work and family history, and they all focus on that, when really they should be focusing on the basic doctrines of the church. They don’t understand the importance of the Priesthood yet and they want to have everyone doing 300 indexing names a month.  It’s frustrating sometimes because the other day we found a man who has been a member for 5 years and doesn't have the Priesthood because he didn't understand the Atonement, and I’m just like people please, the doctrine of Christ is more important than family history.

You also asked if families lived to close.  Let me tell you a little story.  We went out with a return missionary. Okay not really out. We stood on the corner outside his house and he would stop people and introduce them to us like oh, this is my uncle they live right there, when can these sisters visit you, and we were there for like 15 minutes and got like 10 contacts.  It was crazy.

Anyway, next week will be cooler,

I am sending some photos of Cuazimoto and the Parade for the anniversary of Chilca,

Love you.