Area: Juliaca Comp.: Elder Ayo
Personas!
Sorry about that email last week, that was kind of a mess. And along with that, I don't remember exactly what I said, so if I repeat things then that's why, so sorry in advance!
-Juliaca! My home for the next 10 weeks! It's an interesting place. First off, it's called the 'city of the winds', so Hey Dad! We're practically in the same mission! Give or take a hemisphere and a language and years and years. It's an interesting place though! It's close enough to Lago Titicaca to be freezing cold, but not close enough for us to see it. All of the vehicles here are either taxi's, mototaxi's, combi's, those bike/cart things Nacho Libre rides, or giant dump trucks, which is interesting. A mototaxi is essentially a motorcycle on three wheels with a thin plastic cab wrapped around it. They're from India, and they're tiny and fascinating and EVERYWHERE. Combi's are basically those big 12 seater Astrovans, but they take out all the seats on one side (so instead of rows of three seats it's rows of 2 seats and room for people to stand). They're crazy because no one cares about personal space here, and they PACK those things. I counted one time because I couldn't believe how full it was, and we had 27 people on one of them. So Juliaca has some interesting city planners (or whoever chooses what roads are made of), because they decided to make the streets here out of a 50/50 mixture of dirt and trash. Which that, combined with the rain every day and the massive dump trucks means that the streets here are excrutiatingly bumpy. Really though, they've made it look like it should be a Call of Duty map. In fact, Google street view it--the part I live in is right near the Parroquia Pueblo de Dios iglesia. Also significant about Juliaca is that it drinks more per day (on average) than the rest of Peru drinks per day. It's kind of hilarious to see the borrachos around here though, it makes for some good stories. So also I´m convinced that the Cusco mission is like Texas in that it's a different country from Peru in all but name. Anywhere else you go in Peru, almost everyone you meet will be Catholic, but in Juliaca they're extremely traditionalist to the point where they wear the same type of clothes that the ancient Inca's wore, and THEY'RE PAGAN. I found a mission in South America that isn't high-baptizing, and it's mine! Yay me! Even like the people in our tiny, tiny ward still do pagan traditions. Crazy.
-There's more KFC's here than in the US, along with Pizza Hut. There's also a fair amount of McDonald's here.
-Don't get me wrong, I love my mission, but by far the worst thing here is the food. It doesn't even taste that bad, but it's the same 3 times a day and each meal is more than I can eat for a day. I've started pulling every trick in the book--'fasting' excessively, shoving food in a napkin in my pocket, feeding it to the dog--really, it's hard.
-We're not allowed to tell people how long we've been out, other than 'a little less than a year' or 'a little over a year', which makes it much harder to apologize for my Spanish.
-Spanish! It's hard. Whatever language they taught me in the CCM I'm fluent in, but Spanish I can't understand a word of.
-Origin of the word 'Gringo'! Supposedly--don't take my word on this. So apparently during the Mexican-American war, the Americans wore green and the Mexicans weren't very good at English so they kept yelling "Green! Go!" as an attempt to convince the US to give up or something. I don't know if that's true, but that's what my pension told me and I think it's hilarious.
-I ate cow stomach! It was hard. They didn't even tell me it was cow stomach, and with every bite I threw up in my mouth and had to catch it. Horrible.
-So I don't know how many people are supposed to be in Ward Council, but yesterday we had 18. Including a child, one member's spouse, and a non-member who's never talked to the missionaries and just decided to go to church for the first time yesterday.
Anyways, this place is ridiculous, but it's an adventure! Really though, it's awesome!
Sincerely,
Elder Steele
Monday, September 22, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Chapter 9 Verse 15--Campo edition! 9.15.14
Area: Juliaca Comp.: Elder Ayo
I'm a field missionary now! Crazy!
First off, my new email time is 45 minutes, so I don't know how many emails I'll be able to write....
Now the good part! At least in my opinion. My companion's name is Elder Ayo. He's Ecuadorian and SUPER awesome! He's been out for 18 months already, and he's obviously a Latino. But he's great. We're stationed in Juliaca, which is near Puno and Lake Titicaca. We're in the coldest part of the mission, which kind of sucks. Also Cusco is 11,000 feet, which is about the height of Mount Timpanogos, and Juliaca's at 12,000 feet. So breathing's really fun! But I'm adjusting. The only real side effect is that I sound like Darth Vader 24/7, which is actually really cool. We get 3 meals a day from our pensionista, which I actually really hate. Like, her food's good and all, but I feel bad because the only payment she gets is reimbursement for the food cost. Also she gives us so much! I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I decided to be healthy when I entered the CCM, and I lost like 15 pounds, which is great except now my stomach is the size of a baseball and they're feeding me basketball sized portions. On my first full day here (Friday), for lunch she gave us this plate of rice and quinoa, and I was trying to eat it all but I was having a very hard time, so I told the other gringo (oh yeah we live with a companionship of another Latino and another Gringo) that I couldn't make it and he told me I had to so I said a prayer that I could just possibly do this and I had the strangest tender mercy of my life happen--I was about halfway through my plate and my stomach was about to burst and I threw up. Which I count as a tender mercy for 3 reasons-1. I didn't have to finish, 2. My stomach was empty, and 3. it gave me the opportunity to tell our pensionista that I couldn't possibly eat that much ever again. So that's good! So we spent the first two days of the field in Cusco getting trained and stuff, and the AP's told us that there are 5 (unofficial) things that need to happen before you're a real missionary, which are: Chuno (look it up), double-headed dragon, crap your pants, get bitten by a dog, and Plano Alto (which is where Juliaca is). I've so far done 2.5 of them, so that's good! So me and my comp are opening a new area, so we didn't have an area book or investigators or anything so we've been contacting and it's awesome! We have 1 investigator family and we're teaching a couple more Wednesday! The only thing is that activity in our mission is like 25%, so Presidente wants that to rise more than he wants membership to rise, so before someone can be baptized they have to come to all 3 hours of church 3 times, they have to pay fast offerings, and one other thing... Sorry, this email is really scattered (a million things have happened and also altitude). Anyways, our apartment is interesting. There's mission standards for the worst apartment you can have and ours breaks it--we don't have beds, dressers, lights, hot water, or desks, and my companion's super mad and now the ZL's are finding a new apartment for us I guess. It's fun though! For showers we heat water in our neighbor's stove then pour it over ourselves with a pitcher! Fun stuff! Anyways, there's a million other things and I can't remember one.
Adios!
Elder Steele
I'm a field missionary now! Crazy!
First off, my new email time is 45 minutes, so I don't know how many emails I'll be able to write....
Now the good part! At least in my opinion. My companion's name is Elder Ayo. He's Ecuadorian and SUPER awesome! He's been out for 18 months already, and he's obviously a Latino. But he's great. We're stationed in Juliaca, which is near Puno and Lake Titicaca. We're in the coldest part of the mission, which kind of sucks. Also Cusco is 11,000 feet, which is about the height of Mount Timpanogos, and Juliaca's at 12,000 feet. So breathing's really fun! But I'm adjusting. The only real side effect is that I sound like Darth Vader 24/7, which is actually really cool. We get 3 meals a day from our pensionista, which I actually really hate. Like, her food's good and all, but I feel bad because the only payment she gets is reimbursement for the food cost. Also she gives us so much! I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I decided to be healthy when I entered the CCM, and I lost like 15 pounds, which is great except now my stomach is the size of a baseball and they're feeding me basketball sized portions. On my first full day here (Friday), for lunch she gave us this plate of rice and quinoa, and I was trying to eat it all but I was having a very hard time, so I told the other gringo (oh yeah we live with a companionship of another Latino and another Gringo) that I couldn't make it and he told me I had to so I said a prayer that I could just possibly do this and I had the strangest tender mercy of my life happen--I was about halfway through my plate and my stomach was about to burst and I threw up. Which I count as a tender mercy for 3 reasons-1. I didn't have to finish, 2. My stomach was empty, and 3. it gave me the opportunity to tell our pensionista that I couldn't possibly eat that much ever again. So that's good! So we spent the first two days of the field in Cusco getting trained and stuff, and the AP's told us that there are 5 (unofficial) things that need to happen before you're a real missionary, which are: Chuno (look it up), double-headed dragon, crap your pants, get bitten by a dog, and Plano Alto (which is where Juliaca is). I've so far done 2.5 of them, so that's good! So me and my comp are opening a new area, so we didn't have an area book or investigators or anything so we've been contacting and it's awesome! We have 1 investigator family and we're teaching a couple more Wednesday! The only thing is that activity in our mission is like 25%, so Presidente wants that to rise more than he wants membership to rise, so before someone can be baptized they have to come to all 3 hours of church 3 times, they have to pay fast offerings, and one other thing... Sorry, this email is really scattered (a million things have happened and also altitude). Anyways, our apartment is interesting. There's mission standards for the worst apartment you can have and ours breaks it--we don't have beds, dressers, lights, hot water, or desks, and my companion's super mad and now the ZL's are finding a new apartment for us I guess. It's fun though! For showers we heat water in our neighbor's stove then pour it over ourselves with a pitcher! Fun stuff! Anyways, there's a million other things and I can't remember one.
Adios!
Elder Steele
President and Sister Harbertson
All the missionaries from the CCM that went to Cusco together.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Carta para mi familia, capitulo 9, versiculo 3 (ugly tie edition) 9.3.14
Area: CCM Comp: Elder Luster
Familia! Y otros!
-Spiritual thought-D&C 122:5-8
-Two elders in my district went to other districts, so with the extra room we reorganized our chairs into a Jedi Counsel shape. The general consensus is that I'm Yoda. (Everyone has their Star Wars character)
-Picture day was this week, so I finally had a good opportunity to wear the tie that Kami and Erik gave me. Thank you guys for that! It's amazing! Mi maestro described it as 'having measles'
-I told everyone what their wives would look/be like, and I somehow perfectly described the girlfriends of two missionaries and the close friends of a couple others (that they are now writing), so that was incredible.
-Contrary to my long-held belief that women's restrooms are for gossip and makeup re-application, una hermana accidentaly flooded the 2nd floor women's bathroom, which subsequently leaked into a 1st floor classroom. Luckily it wasn't my classroom though, but it's disgusting and they don't care about fixing it because Peru.
-Elder Black and I are really good friends. He asked me to say that, but at the same time it's true, so there you go. I spend a LOT of time with Elder Black and Pearce, and they're amazing.
-My teacher wants to learn English (along with every other Peruano I've met), so when we're not doing a class he speaks to us in his best Spanglish and he was telling us that "if we don't try to speak Spanish, then we're going to have to ride our [Biblical word for donkey] home" and we don't really get it and we couldn't stop laughing enough to ask him what he meant by that, but he keeps saying it and we love it.
-Justin! And anyone else who reads these (I still have no idea who even gets these) and speaks Spanish! As a missionary, I have to use Usted todo el tiempo, pero en Cusco ellos usan vosotros tambien y I DON'T KNOW VOSOTROS. Apparently Cusco is basically a different country than Peru. It's the Texas of Peru.
-There's this guy here that has been writing riddles for me, and they're so much fun. Also Log (does Log read these?) have you played Device 6? I think you'd like that potentially. I don't know why I thought of that, but there you go.
Anyways, good week! By far the fastest week at the CCM! And one of the least eventful... But good! I've started speaking Spanish much more per day! Have una buena semana! Nos vemos!
Sinceramente,
Elder Steele
Familia! Y otros!
-Spiritual thought-D&C 122:5-8
-Two elders in my district went to other districts, so with the extra room we reorganized our chairs into a Jedi Counsel shape. The general consensus is that I'm Yoda. (Everyone has their Star Wars character)
-Picture day was this week, so I finally had a good opportunity to wear the tie that Kami and Erik gave me. Thank you guys for that! It's amazing! Mi maestro described it as 'having measles'
-I told everyone what their wives would look/be like, and I somehow perfectly described the girlfriends of two missionaries and the close friends of a couple others (that they are now writing), so that was incredible.
-Contrary to my long-held belief that women's restrooms are for gossip and makeup re-application, una hermana accidentaly flooded the 2nd floor women's bathroom, which subsequently leaked into a 1st floor classroom. Luckily it wasn't my classroom though, but it's disgusting and they don't care about fixing it because Peru.
-Elder Black and I are really good friends. He asked me to say that, but at the same time it's true, so there you go. I spend a LOT of time with Elder Black and Pearce, and they're amazing.
-My teacher wants to learn English (along with every other Peruano I've met), so when we're not doing a class he speaks to us in his best Spanglish and he was telling us that "if we don't try to speak Spanish, then we're going to have to ride our [Biblical word for donkey] home" and we don't really get it and we couldn't stop laughing enough to ask him what he meant by that, but he keeps saying it and we love it.
-Justin! And anyone else who reads these (I still have no idea who even gets these) and speaks Spanish! As a missionary, I have to use Usted todo el tiempo, pero en Cusco ellos usan vosotros tambien y I DON'T KNOW VOSOTROS. Apparently Cusco is basically a different country than Peru. It's the Texas of Peru.
-There's this guy here that has been writing riddles for me, and they're so much fun. Also Log (does Log read these?) have you played Device 6? I think you'd like that potentially. I don't know why I thought of that, but there you go.
Anyways, good week! By far the fastest week at the CCM! And one of the least eventful... But good! I've started speaking Spanish much more per day! Have una buena semana! Nos vemos!
Sinceramente,
Elder Steele
Monday, September 1, 2014
Libro de Jackson, Capitulo 8, Versiculo 27 (Felíz Cumpleaños a Truman edición) 8.27.14
Area: CCM Comp: Elder Luster
¡Hola Familia! Happy Birthday Truman!!! I can't believe it's been a full year since you didn't get your license and refused to go on your first date! Time flies!
So this letter is probably going to be a little shorter both because this wasn't a very exciting week and also because I want to spend more time on personal emails.
Proselyting was this week! Always a blast! Mi compañero fue Elder Delgado, who's a Latino from Ecuador. We also went with a missionary who was in the area and had been out for 17 months, which means that he super carried the lessons. He was from Argentina and looked surprisingly like a taller, manlier version of David Archuleta. But we went to a poorer area (still not even close to how poor the people are on the mountain). It was super humbling! We taught a lesson to a family who lived in a literal concrete block a little bit smaller than our garage and in much worse shape--the walls were crumbling in parts! They made us some makeshift chairs out of planks of wood and they stood during the lesson. This whole place is humbling though! My morning maestro's dream in life (not like his goal, his dream) is to work for Microsoft and afford to take his 2 year old daughter to Disneyland. I just wish I could take all the Peruanos to Disneyland (and, you know, the temple).
The Avanzados and Latinos also left this week, which was really sad. They were so awesome! But they're going to do amazing out in the field. One of my good friends who left (Elder Carder) gave me a tie. It's yellow and has a hole and it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen and I love it so much.
Spiritual Thought! I feel like I should spiritual thought you guys because, you know, the whole missionary thing. My first one is on the love of God. Regardless of anything in your life, it's important to remember that God will always love you--he will always love you. (See Romans 8:37-39).
Other than that everything's normal here! The weeks are flying by! MY ONE MONTH MARK IS ON FRIDAY! I can't believe that. Crazy. Also can you send me a picture of Mickey Mouse? Mine are off and I can't figure out why.
Nos Vemos!
Elder Steele
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¡Hola Familia! Happy Birthday Truman!!! I can't believe it's been a full year since you didn't get your license and refused to go on your first date! Time flies!
So this letter is probably going to be a little shorter both because this wasn't a very exciting week and also because I want to spend more time on personal emails.
Proselyting was this week! Always a blast! Mi compañero fue Elder Delgado, who's a Latino from Ecuador. We also went with a missionary who was in the area and had been out for 17 months, which means that he super carried the lessons. He was from Argentina and looked surprisingly like a taller, manlier version of David Archuleta. But we went to a poorer area (still not even close to how poor the people are on the mountain). It was super humbling! We taught a lesson to a family who lived in a literal concrete block a little bit smaller than our garage and in much worse shape--the walls were crumbling in parts! They made us some makeshift chairs out of planks of wood and they stood during the lesson. This whole place is humbling though! My morning maestro's dream in life (not like his goal, his dream) is to work for Microsoft and afford to take his 2 year old daughter to Disneyland. I just wish I could take all the Peruanos to Disneyland (and, you know, the temple).
The Avanzados and Latinos also left this week, which was really sad. They were so awesome! But they're going to do amazing out in the field. One of my good friends who left (Elder Carder) gave me a tie. It's yellow and has a hole and it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen and I love it so much.
Spiritual Thought! I feel like I should spiritual thought you guys because, you know, the whole missionary thing. My first one is on the love of God. Regardless of anything in your life, it's important to remember that God will always love you--he will always love you. (See Romans 8:37-39).
Other than that everything's normal here! The weeks are flying by! MY ONE MONTH MARK IS ON FRIDAY! I can't believe that. Crazy. Also can you send me a picture of Mickey Mouse? Mine are off and I can't figure out why.
Nos Vemos!
Elder Steele
Elder Steele and Elder Luster
Elder Steele at the CCM
CCM grounds
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Capitulo Ocho Versiculo Veinte 8.20.14
Area: CCM Comp: Elder Luster
Hola Familia! And anyone else who might actually read these!
Anyways! Crazy week! Super short! Doesn't make sense, but lots of things don't make sense in the CCM. Especially Spanish. Entonces,
-I went to the templo today! It's a TINY temple and it was very strange but at the same time an AMAZING experience! I used a translator at first but after a couple minutes I realized I could understand the Spanish just fine.
-Did you know Texas has a pledge of allegiance?!
-You know that picture when Jesucristo appears to the Nephites? The one with the crumbly buildings? Look in the top left corner. It's Macchu Picchu.
-Mom-There's a "Peru Missionary Moms" FB page, that has a lot of my friends' moms on it and also supposedly some pictures of me. Also if it becomes necessary, I'm in the Peru CCM Distrito 110
-I bought a paperback Quechuan BoM today and it's so cool! The title is "Mormonpa Qelqanmanta Aqllska T'Aqakuna" so look for it in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center! Also apparently about 30% of the Cusco mission has people that exclusively speak Quechuan!
-So one of the first things they tell you (100% serio aquí) is that if you're sick DO NOT TELL MOM so I'm breaking that but yesterday there was only one person who wasn't sick! Like we were all ok enough to attend classes but we had to have VERY frequent bathroom breaks and one guy (who actually lives in my room) was on the toilet with his face in a trash can for 6 ENTIRE HOURS STRAIGHT. I don't think anyone's ever gotten so many blessings directed towards them (except the prophet potentially). Also we pray 1500 times a day here and I love it. Have I mentioned that yet?
-I finished a pen. Like, a new pen, that I started using day one, ran out of ink yesterday. I was actually a little sad about it, so I had a funeral for it. It was a small service (just me), but it was good. Surprisingly Castaway-esque though.
-Elder Powell (the Palmer one) is our new DL, and Elder Black (the Gilbert Cultural Celebration one), who was our last district leader, knighted him. It was really bizarre but we had flickering lights and non-Satanic chanting and it ended up hilarious. I guess you had to be there though.
-I know you're insanely curious (I am speculating 100% there) about what I miss most, so here it is. In order of most to least: Driving, Disney movies, Physics (didn't expect that), the flashlight part of my iPhone (another surprise), Robin Williams, Rowan Atkinson, English, and not being around guys 24/7 which is disgusting.
-My whistling is increasing leaps and bounds, despite the strict whistling ban.
-People quote Nacho Libre here constantly. I never realized how relevant that movie is to my life.
-For my birthday, could I possibly get a Spanish mini black quad with tabs? They don't carry any of those things in terms of Spanish scriptures here. It's sad. Also wait, do I get birthday presents? I'm realizing more and more that I don't really understand this whole missionary thing.
-Sorry Mom, I spent SO MUCH money today. I bought this awesome bag, and a tie made out of alpaca fur, and lots of scriptures, and food, and it ended up being like s/.200...
-The Spanish is going well! I'm at the point where I'm considered fluent enough that I can join a Latino district for the last two weeks, but I prayed about it and felt really bad about it. But they count me as fluent! No dreams in Spanish yet, but I can basically think and talk in it. And the LdM makes sense in Spanish.
-We got 4 new principios in our room. They're really cool!
-Dad-That secret thing we were talking about in the Jordan River Temple? I learned a LOT more about it! Remind me when we're in the temple in 2 years and I'll tell you!
-So we were teaching an investigator and it was running kind of short (not my fault), so I decided I was going to share a scripture with him. Our investigator's 'thing' is that he is a student and thinks we can help him be a better student, so I looked at my nifty seminary card with all 100 Scripture Masteries on it, which is wonderful to have 99% of the time, and I chose 2 Ne 9:28 because the description was "learning is good with God" but that is NOT what it said. It was funny though!
-They have these cookies called Casinos here which are like drugs to us mishies. They're amazing! Oh I bought some of those today too. Sorry!
-People pee on the streets here. Not Missionaries obviously, but the Peruanos do constantly.
-One guy in my distrito is named Elder Bodily and he's been doing chiropractic services with us and it's amazing. He's the best chiropractor I've ever gone too (between him and the hippie one)
Anyways, I hope you guys had a fantastic week! Do lots of good things! Go to the temple! Be missionaries!
Elder Steele
Hola Familia! And anyone else who might actually read these!
Anyways! Crazy week! Super short! Doesn't make sense, but lots of things don't make sense in the CCM. Especially Spanish. Entonces,
-I went to the templo today! It's a TINY temple and it was very strange but at the same time an AMAZING experience! I used a translator at first but after a couple minutes I realized I could understand the Spanish just fine.
-Did you know Texas has a pledge of allegiance?!
-You know that picture when Jesucristo appears to the Nephites? The one with the crumbly buildings? Look in the top left corner. It's Macchu Picchu.
-Mom-There's a "Peru Missionary Moms" FB page, that has a lot of my friends' moms on it and also supposedly some pictures of me. Also if it becomes necessary, I'm in the Peru CCM Distrito 110
-I bought a paperback Quechuan BoM today and it's so cool! The title is "Mormonpa Qelqanmanta Aqllska T'Aqakuna" so look for it in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center! Also apparently about 30% of the Cusco mission has people that exclusively speak Quechuan!
-So one of the first things they tell you (100% serio aquí) is that if you're sick DO NOT TELL MOM so I'm breaking that but yesterday there was only one person who wasn't sick! Like we were all ok enough to attend classes but we had to have VERY frequent bathroom breaks and one guy (who actually lives in my room) was on the toilet with his face in a trash can for 6 ENTIRE HOURS STRAIGHT. I don't think anyone's ever gotten so many blessings directed towards them (except the prophet potentially). Also we pray 1500 times a day here and I love it. Have I mentioned that yet?
-I finished a pen. Like, a new pen, that I started using day one, ran out of ink yesterday. I was actually a little sad about it, so I had a funeral for it. It was a small service (just me), but it was good. Surprisingly Castaway-esque though.
-Elder Powell (the Palmer one) is our new DL, and Elder Black (the Gilbert Cultural Celebration one), who was our last district leader, knighted him. It was really bizarre but we had flickering lights and non-Satanic chanting and it ended up hilarious. I guess you had to be there though.
-I know you're insanely curious (I am speculating 100% there) about what I miss most, so here it is. In order of most to least: Driving, Disney movies, Physics (didn't expect that), the flashlight part of my iPhone (another surprise), Robin Williams, Rowan Atkinson, English, and not being around guys 24/7 which is disgusting.
-My whistling is increasing leaps and bounds, despite the strict whistling ban.
-People quote Nacho Libre here constantly. I never realized how relevant that movie is to my life.
-For my birthday, could I possibly get a Spanish mini black quad with tabs? They don't carry any of those things in terms of Spanish scriptures here. It's sad. Also wait, do I get birthday presents? I'm realizing more and more that I don't really understand this whole missionary thing.
-Sorry Mom, I spent SO MUCH money today. I bought this awesome bag, and a tie made out of alpaca fur, and lots of scriptures, and food, and it ended up being like s/.200...
-The Spanish is going well! I'm at the point where I'm considered fluent enough that I can join a Latino district for the last two weeks, but I prayed about it and felt really bad about it. But they count me as fluent! No dreams in Spanish yet, but I can basically think and talk in it. And the LdM makes sense in Spanish.
-We got 4 new principios in our room. They're really cool!
-Dad-That secret thing we were talking about in the Jordan River Temple? I learned a LOT more about it! Remind me when we're in the temple in 2 years and I'll tell you!
-So we were teaching an investigator and it was running kind of short (not my fault), so I decided I was going to share a scripture with him. Our investigator's 'thing' is that he is a student and thinks we can help him be a better student, so I looked at my nifty seminary card with all 100 Scripture Masteries on it, which is wonderful to have 99% of the time, and I chose 2 Ne 9:28 because the description was "learning is good with God" but that is NOT what it said. It was funny though!
-They have these cookies called Casinos here which are like drugs to us mishies. They're amazing! Oh I bought some of those today too. Sorry!
-People pee on the streets here. Not Missionaries obviously, but the Peruanos do constantly.
-One guy in my distrito is named Elder Bodily and he's been doing chiropractic services with us and it's amazing. He's the best chiropractor I've ever gone too (between him and the hippie one)
Anyways, I hope you guys had a fantastic week! Do lots of good things! Go to the temple! Be missionaries!
Elder Steele
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Semana 2! 8.13.14
Area: CCM Comp.: Elder Luster
¡Familia!
¿Hola? ¿Comó estan?
So first off, I forgot a LOT of things in last week's email, so I'll rattle them off real fast:
-We have 'physical activity' like 5 times a week. Most people play soccer, but I usually run or play foosball.
-We have this gate around the CCM that belongs in Jurassic Park. It's about 15 feet tall and a foot thick.
-There's this fruit here that they call grenadas and they look like alien spider egg sacs, but people love them. Also they have freshly squeezed juices here that are 90% pulp but are SO GOOD
-Palmer special! I have a surprising amount of news for the Palmers! Wait, Justin went to Colombia, right? Otherwise this isn't great news. But our CCM Presidente (Presidente Gonzalez) is a convert from Colombia! And my morning maestro (we have one in the morning and one at night) served his mish in Colombia! Also that guy from their stake? His name is Elder Powell and he's so awesome and I mentioned that the Palmers were my cousins and he said "Ty Palm's your cousin?! He's way cool!" (People say things like "way cool" because it's still the 80's in the CCM). He's in my distrito too!
-I didn't have any hangers for the first week, but I got some! Though I didn't get enough, so now I'm doubling and tripling up clothes on hangers.
-As a bustling CCM of like 120 people, there isn't a choir. Also since there's no choir, there's no need for free time. So that's stressful. Also we're not allowed to listen to music here unless we make it ourselves by singing or on the piano, and luckily my friend Elder Pearce is like a professional pianist or something. By far the best I've ever heard.
-Earthquakes, all the time
-We only get to study like 3 hours a day at the most which sounds like a lot but it really isn't. Read the BoM while you can, kids!
-We get ice cream every other day and it's the greatest I've ever had. Nielsen's doesn't hold a candle to this stuff.
There you go! Basic summary of the CCM, so now I can focus more on stories.
I went proselyting for the first time on Saturday! It was great. My comp was Elder Olsen, who's an American in the Latino district. We were supposed to get a list of menos activos from the bishop to visit, but he never showed, so we just street contacted for 3 hours. It was awesome! They gave us folletos to hand out but we ran out! We ended up having mini-lessons on the street with 15 people. Everyone's super humble and receptive here.
The strangest person I met during proselyting was this woman who was mopping the sidewalk and then she couldn't believe we existed because we were the wrong skin color and height. She was really receptive, but it was hard to understand her because her teeth were nubs and she slurred a lot. Also, she didn't know how to write or what street she lived on so we had to ask her neighbor.
Also on Sundays (which are the best, along with Wednesdays) we watched a talk by Elder Holland from Jan. 2013 in the Provo MTC and it was the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. It's missionary work based, but HUGELY inspiring. Also he threatens to beat us up, so that's cool.
I went to migraciones and interpol this week, so basically I have my visa. The only problem is that they had my birthday down as April 28th and I didn't know enough Spanish to fix it or care enough to care.
Anyways, I hope everything's great at home! I haven't read any emails yet, so if this is totally not the email you wanted, sorry about that!
Oh, also the whole "pictures" thing is really hard because we can only take them outside on P Day and starting yesterday we aren't even allowed to send them home.
Love,
Elder Steele
P.S. I wore black yesterday to mourn the loss of Robin Williams, don't worry.
¡Familia!
¿Hola? ¿Comó estan?
So first off, I forgot a LOT of things in last week's email, so I'll rattle them off real fast:
-We have 'physical activity' like 5 times a week. Most people play soccer, but I usually run or play foosball.
-We have this gate around the CCM that belongs in Jurassic Park. It's about 15 feet tall and a foot thick.
-There's this fruit here that they call grenadas and they look like alien spider egg sacs, but people love them. Also they have freshly squeezed juices here that are 90% pulp but are SO GOOD
-Palmer special! I have a surprising amount of news for the Palmers! Wait, Justin went to Colombia, right? Otherwise this isn't great news. But our CCM Presidente (Presidente Gonzalez) is a convert from Colombia! And my morning maestro (we have one in the morning and one at night) served his mish in Colombia! Also that guy from their stake? His name is Elder Powell and he's so awesome and I mentioned that the Palmers were my cousins and he said "Ty Palm's your cousin?! He's way cool!" (People say things like "way cool" because it's still the 80's in the CCM). He's in my distrito too!
-I didn't have any hangers for the first week, but I got some! Though I didn't get enough, so now I'm doubling and tripling up clothes on hangers.
-As a bustling CCM of like 120 people, there isn't a choir. Also since there's no choir, there's no need for free time. So that's stressful. Also we're not allowed to listen to music here unless we make it ourselves by singing or on the piano, and luckily my friend Elder Pearce is like a professional pianist or something. By far the best I've ever heard.
-Earthquakes, all the time
-We only get to study like 3 hours a day at the most which sounds like a lot but it really isn't. Read the BoM while you can, kids!
-We get ice cream every other day and it's the greatest I've ever had. Nielsen's doesn't hold a candle to this stuff.
There you go! Basic summary of the CCM, so now I can focus more on stories.
I went proselyting for the first time on Saturday! It was great. My comp was Elder Olsen, who's an American in the Latino district. We were supposed to get a list of menos activos from the bishop to visit, but he never showed, so we just street contacted for 3 hours. It was awesome! They gave us folletos to hand out but we ran out! We ended up having mini-lessons on the street with 15 people. Everyone's super humble and receptive here.
The strangest person I met during proselyting was this woman who was mopping the sidewalk and then she couldn't believe we existed because we were the wrong skin color and height. She was really receptive, but it was hard to understand her because her teeth were nubs and she slurred a lot. Also, she didn't know how to write or what street she lived on so we had to ask her neighbor.
Also on Sundays (which are the best, along with Wednesdays) we watched a talk by Elder Holland from Jan. 2013 in the Provo MTC and it was the most inspiring thing I've ever seen. It's missionary work based, but HUGELY inspiring. Also he threatens to beat us up, so that's cool.
I went to migraciones and interpol this week, so basically I have my visa. The only problem is that they had my birthday down as April 28th and I didn't know enough Spanish to fix it or care enough to care.
Anyways, I hope everything's great at home! I haven't read any emails yet, so if this is totally not the email you wanted, sorry about that!
Oh, also the whole "pictures" thing is really hard because we can only take them outside on P Day and starting yesterday we aren't even allowed to send them home.
Love,
Elder Steele
P.S. I wore black yesterday to mourn the loss of Robin Williams, don't worry.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Semana 1! 8.6.14
Area: CCM Comp.: Elder Luster
Hola familia!
I can finally write you guys! Sorry about the email last week, they gave everyone 3 minutes...
First: the essentials:
Bathroom-Good. The water temperature is moody but semi controllable.
Shower-Good. Again, moody, but super private. The only problem is the drains suck and they're sunk into the floor a little and if you don't shower fast the water rises to your ankles which is disgusting.
Food-Ok. They try to serve us American food and end up with this strange pseudo-Peruvian comfort-food type stuff that's just rice and chicken basically. Also there is one cereal dispenser, but it has this kind of unfrosted, unsweetened Frosted Flakes, that look suspiciously like mini tortilla chips. Also there isn't any milk, so you have to use yogurt or just eat it dry.
Room- Good. Sleeps 6, but there's only 4 of us, so that's awesome. It kind of smells, but the other companionship in my room are the funniest people I've ever met. I end every night crying laughing, they're so funny. Also we can set our AC to whatever we want, and we set it to like 19/20 degrees Celsius, which is super nice. We don't know how hot that really is though.
Companion-Jock from Texas. I know I said Utah, but it's really Texas. Long story. He's a great guy and I really like him, but at the same time we're very different people.
Lima-Beautiful! The city has a very strange smell, but not necessarily in a bad way. The weather is perfect, like 60's with not at all bad humidity, the only problem is that we have only seen the sky for two out of the seven days so far, and only for like 15 minutes at a time. VERY cloudy. Also the drivers are crazy. They never leave more than 6" of clearance on EVERY side, all the time. And if you get into an accident and the cops get involved, both people lose their licenses for life, so people are constantly crashing then just driving away. Strange.
That's basically it! The only people who speak English here are the other Norteamericano elderes, so it's interesting to see what Google Translate tells our instructors to say to us. In our welcome presentation, they told us "Don't put fruit in the urinals" and "Don't put paper in the cup" and we still don't totally get that. The Spanish is good! By far the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm doing well! Back in school our Spanish class was set up in like 2-3 week units, and here each unit is called a class and we have two classes a day. But we can retain it like crazy! I can't take credit for that though, 100% el don de lenguas. But now I can understand and hold a simple conversation with Latinos, and we teach our first "investigadore" tonight in Spanish! And we go real proselyting to menos activos this Saturday! I'm excited!
I'm sorry I made you all sad! And also I have some devastating news. The internet here SUCKS, like, worse than anything we ever had at home, so it takes about an hour and a half to upload a picture and I have an hour to email... So there's that. I'm sorry! First week in the field, 100s of pictures! And when I got in the computers were down, except for one which is why we wrote for 3 minutes each the next day. My district is good! There's 6 companionships, which makes us the largest district, and we're all Elders. Of the 150 people here, there's about 10 Hermanas and 20 Latinos, and as Norteamericano Elderes we're not allowed to associate with either of them (like, we can't even acknowledge the Hermanas. Crazy, right?!) We went outside the CCM for like 20 minutes to exchange money, which we're in by far the nicest part of town and it would be the ghettos of Mesa. The CCM is the second nicest building in Peru, excluding the temple of course. No money spent, but soon! They have peanut butter here!
Oh hey! I thought you'd find this interesting! The water here is 'safe' but it tastes really sour and they gave us these REALLY NICE like military grade water bottles with filters built in! Like these filters will remove radiation! They said that you could drink straight out of the Amazon with these and it'd be fine, but they don't recommend it!
Hopefully I can write more next week!
Se amo ustedes!
Elder Acero (Elder Steele)
Hola familia!
I can finally write you guys! Sorry about the email last week, they gave everyone 3 minutes...
First: the essentials:
Bathroom-Good. The water temperature is moody but semi controllable.
Shower-Good. Again, moody, but super private. The only problem is the drains suck and they're sunk into the floor a little and if you don't shower fast the water rises to your ankles which is disgusting.
Food-Ok. They try to serve us American food and end up with this strange pseudo-Peruvian comfort-food type stuff that's just rice and chicken basically. Also there is one cereal dispenser, but it has this kind of unfrosted, unsweetened Frosted Flakes, that look suspiciously like mini tortilla chips. Also there isn't any milk, so you have to use yogurt or just eat it dry.
Room- Good. Sleeps 6, but there's only 4 of us, so that's awesome. It kind of smells, but the other companionship in my room are the funniest people I've ever met. I end every night crying laughing, they're so funny. Also we can set our AC to whatever we want, and we set it to like 19/20 degrees Celsius, which is super nice. We don't know how hot that really is though.
Companion-Jock from Texas. I know I said Utah, but it's really Texas. Long story. He's a great guy and I really like him, but at the same time we're very different people.
Lima-Beautiful! The city has a very strange smell, but not necessarily in a bad way. The weather is perfect, like 60's with not at all bad humidity, the only problem is that we have only seen the sky for two out of the seven days so far, and only for like 15 minutes at a time. VERY cloudy. Also the drivers are crazy. They never leave more than 6" of clearance on EVERY side, all the time. And if you get into an accident and the cops get involved, both people lose their licenses for life, so people are constantly crashing then just driving away. Strange.
That's basically it! The only people who speak English here are the other Norteamericano elderes, so it's interesting to see what Google Translate tells our instructors to say to us. In our welcome presentation, they told us "Don't put fruit in the urinals" and "Don't put paper in the cup" and we still don't totally get that. The Spanish is good! By far the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm doing well! Back in school our Spanish class was set up in like 2-3 week units, and here each unit is called a class and we have two classes a day. But we can retain it like crazy! I can't take credit for that though, 100% el don de lenguas. But now I can understand and hold a simple conversation with Latinos, and we teach our first "investigadore" tonight in Spanish! And we go real proselyting to menos activos this Saturday! I'm excited!
I'm sorry I made you all sad! And also I have some devastating news. The internet here SUCKS, like, worse than anything we ever had at home, so it takes about an hour and a half to upload a picture and I have an hour to email... So there's that. I'm sorry! First week in the field, 100s of pictures! And when I got in the computers were down, except for one which is why we wrote for 3 minutes each the next day. My district is good! There's 6 companionships, which makes us the largest district, and we're all Elders. Of the 150 people here, there's about 10 Hermanas and 20 Latinos, and as Norteamericano Elderes we're not allowed to associate with either of them (like, we can't even acknowledge the Hermanas. Crazy, right?!) We went outside the CCM for like 20 minutes to exchange money, which we're in by far the nicest part of town and it would be the ghettos of Mesa. The CCM is the second nicest building in Peru, excluding the temple of course. No money spent, but soon! They have peanut butter here!
Oh hey! I thought you'd find this interesting! The water here is 'safe' but it tastes really sour and they gave us these REALLY NICE like military grade water bottles with filters built in! Like these filters will remove radiation! They said that you could drink straight out of the Amazon with these and it'd be fine, but they don't recommend it!
Hopefully I can write more next week!
Se amo ustedes!
Elder Acero (Elder Steele)
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