Elder Uceda

Week Thirty-three!

This week we had a very special and very spiritual Multizona with the President of Northwest South America, Elder Uceda. He spoke a lot about the blessings of being obedient as a missionary and it was really inspiring and was a lot like how you feel after Jeffrey R Holland talks, like how you need to repent for only being the Better of the Good Better Best, and not being the best. 

It feels like he spoke so long ago so I don’t really remember what stands out to me, that and I have a little bit of a head cold so my mind is a little scattered. 

We met some white kids

But its September now which means that the August festivals of Santiago have ended and that the September ones begin. That means there will be a lot of people dressed like white people this month. So that is cool.

Omar 1 isn’t getting baptized this week we are waiting for a bit more time. They have upped the requirements for someone that needs to be baptized and we are so blessed to be serving in this time. Before people were baptizing just to baptize but that lead to a lot of less actives in the area. Now we have the privilege to baptize those who are truly ready to live the gospel and also we now have the challenge of rescuing those who have gone less active and this is such a blessing because there are so many members who live around here who are less active or inactive and helping them is the greatest blessing we have. It feels so good helping to remind people why they were baptized.

And now I get my bragging moment. This week 3 people have noticed the amount of weight I have lost since I have been in Mantaro. I haven’t had a recent count but the last time I checked I had lost 15 lbs. and that was 3 weeks ago, but this week I feel really good about it. Mostly because people are starting to notice. Especially one of our less actives named Martha, almost cried, and she’s like Hermana you’re skinnier every time I see you, you need to get fat again and that was funny.

I feel great this week, except the whole cold thing, but yeah.

Love you Hermana peters

WE DONT GET GERERAL CONFERENCE UNTIL THE WEEK AFTER.  IT HAS BEEN POSTPONED IN THE COUNTRY OF PERU FOR ELECTIONS.  Actually, we don’t know what will happen.  Because in Peru you have to vote by law and so I don’t think that we will be able to leave our room either.  But some members are like we will pull it up online for you guys to watch in our house while we go vote but I’m thinking that president will do something in the office or in his house for us.  But really we have no idea, we might just have to wait.

Laguna de Paca

A new week in Mantaro

Week Thirty-two!

This week has been pretty good.  We are working with a lot of new people this week and they are all really good.  But I have been thinking about my time here in Mantaro and really there are a few people that stand out.

First is Omar 1:

Because there are two and I think I have said a thing here or there about him.  He is an attorney his wife is a less active return missionary and they’re about 30 but he also studies a lot about science and philosophy and he has some belief in a God like being, but also has a lot of questions.  It is so fun to teach him because I get to share the way I think of things.  Like I’m not just sharing my testimony I get to share my process in gaining a testimony.  Like he was talking about the Big Bang theory and because of the Big Bang Theory he thinks that God is more of an energy and Hna Salinas is like wut!  I’m just like, okay, let’s think about it because in the church we believe in this energy it’s the priesthood but something or someone needs to control it because you can’t just have baking soda and vinegar sitting on a table and expect them to mix and when we have someone controlling it, That is God and when He is ready (snap) bang.  It is so much fun and he accepted to get baptized this October

The other is Omar 2:

Yep.  He is a 19 year old kid and he says that he is a hipster and it is so funny but he is just so ready to listen to the gospel and is so open to new Ideas, he’s pretty cool.

And last but not least is Maricio:

He is a little old man.  One day this week we contacted him and he was like yeah I love learning about religions, come by and we can talk, and were like, yeah okay.  We went in planning on talking about the restoration, but he was doing all the teaching.  Like he was talking about how it’s hard that we are away from home but that it is a great learning experience and he told me that I have a strong personality I don’t show it but from the inside it’s a strong one and just gave us a lot of grandpa advice and let us tie it into the gospel and it was so cool and he is a great guy.

That’s really all I have today.

Love you

hermana peters

Hermana Salinas

Roy heard we were coming over...so he made bread

Compañeras de Nazca

Week Thirty-one!

That’s (the title) a joke because I have a new companion and she is from Nazca Peru, so obviously she has an in with the aliens, and I’m sure she is really sick of me talking about aliens.  But she is so good.  I feel like we have the same personality somewhat were just both laid back Pacific kids who are pretty quiet and pretty awesome so we have a good time.

This week we are officially, officially, starting the training of the leaders of the ward.  Our ward mission leader was kind enough to take all the credit because he knew he could because the only witness is now in the states, but yeah, that’s cool, if it all blows up its all his fault so I’m okay with it as long as they are getting trained.

I don’t really know what else to say today but everyone seems like they are happy in our district.  Elder Cook and Elder John are both from Idaho Falls and they knew each other a little before and had mutual friends so they are having a bit too much fun and were good too.  Everything is just starting to fall into place here.

End of the Line, (The going home and the new Beginning)

Week Thirty!

Well this week was probably one of the most difficult of the mission but it was so ridiculously rewarding.  This week Hna Polatis went to Lima with Hna Fernandez from Mexico to do some paper work to enter back in the US and Mexico, so yeah.

I was with Hna Sidan from Argentina who came to Huancayo with me and we had so much fun running around both of our areas trying to work and it was so great and we talked about Lord of the Rings for like 12 hours and then about dragons for another 2.  And it was really interesting because we were talking about the language and how when I got to Huancayo the only thing I knew how to say was (voy a morir) because she taught me on the bus ride here and we laughed and it was fun.  She’s really awesome and I love her.

Today I’m going to be really honest with you, Mantaro is a really hard area, and it makes me glad that I’m not in the states because it would be like this all the time.  The people have a lot of pride and it is really hard to work with them.  Our biggest problem is working with the ward because they say they will do visits and help our converts but really they forget during the week and it has been a big struggle for me because I watched 3 people that Hna Polatis baptized go inactive and 2 of them started drinking again after months of being sober.  It made me really mad.  I was talking to Hna Sidan about it and she was having a lot of problems with it also.  So we calmed down a lot and got rid of all of our own pride and anger and started to plan and we planned a lot of how we can help the ward how we can strengthen and support the members in their callings and how we can help them help our new coverts.  We made a 6 week training plan of 5 minute segments that we can share in counsel and we are going to put them into action this next week and we feel that with lots of prayers and lots of pestering of the members we can really help them see that also they are part of this marvelous work of Salvation.  This week being with Hna Sidan we really just built up each other’s animos (confidence) (I forgot the word in english) to build up the church in these areas.

I really don’t mean that to make Hna Polatis sound bad she is a strong hardworking missionary but this cambio you can really see no matter how diligent and hard working the missionary they are tired at the end Hna Polatis worked hard up until the last minute and was an awesome missionary.

I don’t know how much an effect I can have this plan be because today when I entered into my missionary account it said that my area didn’t exist in the eyes of the church and one of the Hermana Leaders said that they are closing a lot of the Hermana Areas and so we will see what happens with that on Wednesday.  If that happens I plan on giving my 6 week plan to the Elders because I really feel that it can help the ward and area a lot.

Winter is Coming

Week Twenty-Nine!

Well things are going pretty well, but also pretty slow.

I would like to talk a little about what people told me before my mission because some things are true and others are partly true.

I would like to start with Tom Shorten because he told me a lot of things.  First he told me I have to try the Inca cola and street bread.  For the past 6 months that’s like the only things I have been eating, and I’m like why would Tom tell this to me and I didn’t appreciate it until I actually got to eat sliced bread again and it was gross.  So I went back to the street bread.  On the Inca cola comment, it was weird at first but now I’m pretty use to it, it’s pretty okay.  Tom said some other things but I don’t remember so I’m going to move on.  LOL

People told me that Peruvian Spanish is the most clear and you can tell that this is true in pronunciation, but they slur together the words and sometimes forget to finish their sentence or just go off into quetchua and call us supipa wawajs when we don’t understand.  But one thing I really enjoy is in the city of Huancayo they end almost everything with pey, it’s like the Canadian, eh, but in Spanish, so that is fun.

The last one is that people told me the people of Peru are so humble, and this might be true, once you get out of the city, but in the city the people have some pride, and it can be difficult sometimes when they are like welcome to my humble home and I’m sitting there like I don’t even think TVs come this big in the United States.  They are more humble than Americans, but pride still exists everywhere.

Winter is coming because the raining season is slowly, slowly creeping in and also Hna Polatis is about to die (in the mission) she literally has a week left.

Lorenzo

That’s mostly it.  But I want to talk about Lorenzo now, he’s a cool kid.  He is 72 years old and was our second baptism in Mantaro.  He’s a cool kid he gave up drinking and his bible bashing and became a member of the church.  His eyes are pretty bad so we go and read the Book of Mormon to him and he is always like whoa and it says this in the bible it’s like the same.  I’m just like you could make foot notes you are so smart.  But he’s cool, and I like him, so we read to him

That’s all really

Love you 

P.S. I got the artsy Portland postcard that looks really cool from dad on Saturday, is there more you made it sound like there is.  Hna Polatis really likes the postcard, she’s an art major, and it’s pretty cool.  I can like name the buildings and bridges and she’s like you’re a weirdy.  LOL.

The dear elder package got to me the day before my birthday and saved my life.  You have no idea how much I missed peanut butter.

Australia

A crazy week and a late email

Week Twenty-Eight!

This week is the muli zona, so we had a multi zone p-day, it was really fun and I got to see Hna Witt, Hna Gonzales and Hna Ugaz.  We played and had fun.

This week felt like the longest but also was the funnest of my life.  Monday was almost normal like yeah p-day but then we went to get in our room at night and we had forgotten the keys inside so then we went to get the landlord and the landlord was on vacation and we were like yeah, awesome.  So then we slept in the Hna House, which is like down the street which was convenient and we slept in the house in our clothes and went to breakfast in our same clothes.  Then we went back to our room and our land lord was there and were like ahhhh yay and he was like you guys are lucky I just came back because I forgot something, and it was cool.

But Tuesday Hna Polatis had a Leader conference so I was with Hna Duarte from Paraguay and that was fun she is so upbeat and we were running back and forth between our areas that day.  So we got to talk a lot and it was really fun.  She was like what are you studying and I was like chemistry and she’s like ewe gross why?  And I was like because I want to do police work.  And she’s like for the FBI?  And I’m like that is my dream.  And she’s like, oh like Abby, and it was really funny.

Then on Wednesday we did divisions with some Hnas and it was cool, like a more normal day.

Then it was my birthday and we went to an investigator in the morning and were like yeah normal lesson and then she’s like it’s your birthday.  Here’s a lunch.  So I ate lunch there.  Then we went to the pensionista and she gave me a cake and more lunch.

Then the rest of the day was like yeah normal working with like the occasional person shaking my hand and saying Happy Birthday and it was good.

But then all these people from Chilca started calling our phone and saying Happy Birthday.  And it was just like ouch, like it hurt to talk to them, and I wasn’t supposed to be talking to them.  It was something that Hna Witt was trying to do to be loving and sweet but it kind of hurt remembering all of them since I was just starting to like my new area.

But it passed quickly.  And finally we were starting to have a normal week.  And it was pretty good.

I forgot to mention.

I gave my first ever talk in church in Spanish yesterday.  I was given an hour to prepare it that is counting the sacrament meeting.  But I feel it went pretty well while I was speaking I would look out and feel like people were looking at me like what is she saying but after people came up and were like I really liked when you said this, even an investigator quoted me when we were talking to her later that night it was cool.

Almost Birthday Email

Week Twenty-Seven!

Well I don’t know what to say about this week.  There wasn't really a lot of highlights.  Since Hna Polatis is a Hna Leader we did our first divisions this week they went pretty well I would say.

The only other highlight is Kitterson lives in my area now.  I don’t know if I have told you about him? But, He was one of our investigators in Chilca, a long time ago and he kind of disappeared.  One day I think it was a Wednesday we were walking and someone was like Elder Peters and so I turned around and it was Kitterson and he was like I live here now and I was just like what.

So that was cool.  I don’t know not a lot happened this week.

Did everyone get this awesome card from Aunt Kim or just me?

And it is prohibited to vote for garbage.