Month 4 Day 13, "I'm a Father" Edition 4.13.15

Area: Yunguyo    Comp: Elder Hogan

Hello everybody!

-I have my son! His name is Elder Hogan, from Logan, Utah. He's awesome! His Spanish isn't bad, he's super nice, and more than anything he's super ready to learn. I'm already a proud father.

-I spent essentially half the week in Cusco, which was just the greatest. Cusco, as it turns out, is a fantastic city. Of the 6 Elders that are training, 4 of us are from the same group, so we were together the entire time. There were also 4 more from my group just around. It was a party. A lot of the week was spent just sitting in chairs and telling mission stories. Can you believe that? We already have mission stories! I feel so grown up!

-One of the first things we did when we got back was paint these tiny chalk toy cars blue for hours. That's the kind of service we do here--Welcome to the mission Elder Hogan!

-Yesterday, the Plaza de Armas was fuller than I've ever seen it, and every one of those people had a crate of beer. I've never seen so many drunks at one time in my life, and I've been in this part of Peru for like 7 months. Welcome to the mission Elder Hogan!

-As part of the 'picking up your trainee' process, we go contacting in Cusco's Plaza de Armas, which was exclusively filled with European tourists who neither spoke English nor Spanish, so that was a blast.

Anyways, a lot happened this week, but it can all be summed up in 'I went to Cusco this week', so sorry for the shortness of this letter. Everything's great! We're doing great things! The work's progressing! Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

4/6th Session of General Emails-- Birthday-Transfer-Pday-Real Christmas-General Conference-Easter-Master Jedi Edition 4.6.15

Area: Yunguyo     Comp: Elder Hogan

Dearest Everybody,

-First thing's first! TRANSFERS! I'm staying in Yunguyo, but Elder Salas is going to Cusco. That's kind of strange, since I have more time here than he does. Almost never happens. The reason that this is happening is because I'M TRAINING! I'm going to have my own Padawan! Which means I'm a Jedi Master! I don't know who it is yet. I'll meet him this Wednesday, and on Thursday night I'll be back in Yunguyo. I'll let you know in a week!

-Remember the 5 things necessary to become a real missionary? I think I mentioned them a long time ago. Anyways, I finished the fifth last week! As soon as I did, I said, "I'm officially a Jedi Master!" I think that's why I'm training.

-General Conference! I watched it in Spanish, which worked out much better than I thought. I understood it all. I now believe that it's just better to hear the talks in the speaker's own voice, which means that I really enjoyed the 3 talks in Spanish.

-Merry Real Christmas! Maybe we don't celebrate April 6th nearly as much as December 25th, but we should still remember it. It's another day to remember our Savior, who gave everything for us. Try to give him a present of obedience today.

-The Easter tradition here doesn't include Easter Eggs, so after describing them to my pension (who is also the first counselor in the Primary), she loved the idea and decided that we should do them for a Primary activity last Wednesday. They only had brown eggs and red food coloring, but it still turned out much better than expected and the kids love it. Success!

Anyways, I'll be spending a good amount of time this week in Cusco! Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

Chapter 3 Verse 30- "Post-Birthday Pre-Transfer PDay" Edition 3.30.15

Area: Yunguyo    Comp: Elder Salas

Hello everybody!

-There was a meeting for all the Branch Presidents and District
Presidents in the whole mission in Cusco this Saturday, which means us
four missionaries were the leadership of the ward (again). We had to
set up the General Women's Session of Conference, watch it, then
un-set it up. Maybe the session wasn't directed towards us, but I'm
not complaining about watching more conference!

-As a missionary, my focus should be the investigators, which means
there's a new rule that I have to watch conference with them. That
means that I have to watch conference in Spanish, so that'll be fun.

-One lady asked us to do some service for her, which involved removing
everything from a big storage room, mopping the floor with straight
gasoline (I'm still not sure why), then turn that big, gasoline-d
empty room into a gym. That basically means moving things that were
created with the purpose of being heavy.

-We played charades in an activity we had, and I chose the words. I
chose words like "honesty" and "gratitude", which are essentially
impossible to act out, then I gave them 30 seconds to act it out. I
was very happy with that.

-We went to the country to visit one very elderly, widowed member, who
was so happy to see us that she gave us 30 pounds of potatoes. I don't
think I'll ever be able to eat another potato.

-I measured my entire apartment, and it came out to 12 feet by 14
feet. That includes our beds, desks, dresser, a rack for clothes, and
our bathroom. Living the dream!

-2 Ne 26:28-"Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not
partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are
privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden."

Anyways, not a bad week! This is the last week of the transfer, and
Conference is this weekend! Watch it! Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

Episode 3, Jedi Counsel 23-- ¨HAPPY BIRTHDAY FATHER¨ Edition 3.23.15

Area: Yunguyo      Comp: Elder Salas

Dear Everyone,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I haven´t a clue how old you´re turning, but whatever it is, I think this is the specific age in which it is commonly accepted to give up gardening to focus exclusively on watching Star Wars and letting yourself go (ice cream). Anyways, have a wonderful birthday tomorrow! Do good things! Celebrate! I´ll be celebrating here on my end!

-We have a group of very elderly members who come to church every week, and they´re just hilarious. One of them brought a gigantic bag of potatoes to church, carried it around the whole time, then right after church we were all in the Branch President´s office and he came in and tried to sell it to us. The Branch President told him, ¨You can´t sell that on Sunday!¨ to which he responded, ¨Why did I ever get baptized then?¨ I thought that was pretty hilarious.

-Spiritual thought! ¨Search your feelings, Lord Vader, you know it to be true.¨ -Darth Sidious. Despite the setting in which this was said, the principle is true. If you really want to know that the church is true, say a prayer, and search your feelings. You´ll know it to be true.

-We did a service project this week, where a recent convert family had a two story adobe house that they didn´t want anymore. We started at the top and tore it down, brick by brick, with our bare hands. It turns out adobe houses aren´t that strong. Also, there was a strip of concrete along the base of the house, and I was given a very Thor-like mini sledgehammer and I destroyed it all. I don´t know if I´ve had so much fun in a service project.

-The pension´s husband went out of town for 2 weeks, bringing an abrupt halt to the chuño disaster of 2015. All involved are grateful that the massacre has ended.

Anyways, things are going well here! The branch has gotten to be consistently double the size it was when I got here, we have some actual investigators, and I´m not sick! Happy birthday Dad, and may the force be with you!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

Month 3 Day 16 3.16.15

Area: Yunguyo   Comp: Elder Salas

Hello Everybody,

To be perfectly honest I thought nothing about what I'm going to write this week, so we'll see how this goes.

-The Punishment continues, with chuno now almost every other day. I'm getting used to it, but that's like saying that I'm getting used to getting slapped in the face every 5 seconds. It's never going to be a pleasant experience.

-We had a Video Night, where we watched Finding Nemo. We're not allowed to watch that, and miraculously I had the self-control to read my scriptures the entire time, and I remembered enough from all the times I'd seen it before the mission to teach a lesson based on it to the people who'd come. Success!

-We taught Book of Mormon to someone who had a ridiculous amount of doubts. We just told him to read it. When we came back, he'd read more than the assignment that we'd given him and he wants to be baptized. Success!

-We celebrated the birthday of Leonor, a 65ish year old less active. She served us a plate of chuno. She was ecstatic that we'd come though, and just to see her that happy made it worth it.

-Yesterday there was a very big branch lunch activity, where they had a ton of very delicious food. The pension told us that our food was in the house, and that we had to eat there (although she stayed). They'd made us chuno.

Anyways, interesting week! It was surprisingly successful. Also I didn't have to give a talk yesterday! Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

Hour 3, Minute 9- "This Week We Had Interviews" Edition 3.9.15

Area: Yunguyo   Comp: Elder Salas

Hello Everybody,

-Zona Juli had interviews with President this week in Puno! Which means several things, including that I went to Puno and also that I found out that in this last cambio Zona Juli shrunk from 16 missionaries to 10. We had interviews on Saturday morning, which means we had to travel on Friday night and stay the night in Puno. We all met up in the terminal and went to a pizza place that was deliciously fantastically good, so success there. Also in Puno, Elder Salas and I put all our stuff in one suitcase (it was one night), and that suitcase was left in a taxi. I really didn't have much stuff though, and I've already replaced everything I lost. Also the interview was great!

-Presidente Gallegos is back from his month-long vacation, and we mistakenly thought that he would start doing all of the stuff for the branch, and he mistakenly thought we would continue doing it all. Long story short, we realized Saturday night at 8:00 that no one had been asked to give a talk. Elder Salas, Elder Castillo, and I gave talks. It went surprisingly well! With 12 hours of advance notice, we went 20 minutes over in Sacrament meeting.

-The husband of our pension is inactive, so we decided to teach him, disguised as a "Family Home Evening". He caught on, and although he's said nothing, we know he's punishing us since he's given us liver, lung, and chuno twice. It's even hard on Elder Salas.

-"And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off." -2 Nephi 10:20. Just remember that. You are never cast off.

-We were teaching a family, and after talking to them for a good 10 minutes, they made the comment that the church that they attend is in Aymara (a local native language). They then followed that with the comment that they "speak absolutely no Spanish." Elder Salas asked them, "Are you sure?" To which they replied, "Completely sure. We don't speak a single word of Spanish." We then asked them, "How are we communicating right now then?" They didn't have an answer for that.

Anyways, things are good here! The work's progressing, we're finding people that will be very strong members, and I'm not sick! Thanks for everything!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele

Game 3 Quarter 2 -- "Happy March!" Edition 3.2.15

Area: Yunguyo   Comp: Elder Salas

Dear Everybody,

-It's March, which means I've succesfully survived Carnavales without
getting water-ballooned once. According to the other Elders, that's
because Yunguyo is horrible at Carnavales.

-Cambios! I stayed here with Elder Salas, but Elder Cedeño left. He's
now the Zone Leader in Puerto, and his replacement is another
Ecuadorian named Elder Castillo.

-We taught a less active named Elder. He's actually a convert, his
parents named him Elder because the missionaries always bought food in
their store about 20 years ago, and they liked the name. I'm also not
actually sure why he went inactive.

-I ate liver! It wasn't as horribly gross as I thought, but it doesn't
taste good. But the pension told me that, since I ate it, the next
time we have pizza (we've never had pizza) she'd give me double pizza.
I don't want to get my hopes up, but if that actually works out that'd
be amazing.

-Last Monday the District President invited us to eat ceviche de pollo
in his house for lunch, then right after we went to the pension and
she made us tacos, which I ate 6 of. I don't think I've ever been so
full.

-There's this weird influx of people from Argentina here in Yunguyo.
They're kind of awesome, because they're hippies and they make
fantastic pizza.

-There's this old member that comes to church every week, but he's
very old, lives half an hour away, and is almost completely deaf. He
said the closing prayer in Elder's Quorum yesterday, and he said,
"Please give me a calling! I want one so bad, but they won't call be
because I'm deaf!" That was absolutely hilarious, to start, but he's
now the official preparer of the sacrament.

Anyways, it's been an OK week! We've been keeping busy! Have a great week!

Sincerely,
Elder Steele