April 28, 2014

Hello Everyone.

This week was kinda funny. I got to meet my "uncle" in the mission when we went to Juliaca for p-day (basically another elder who was trained by the elder who also trained my trainer). Anyway so Tuesday was a normal day but for Wednesday and Thursday I did divisions in Ayaviri with one of my zone leaders who knows no English so that was a really fun experience. I went back on Friday and taught for the first part of the day and then we were hailed in for the majority of the day. We do have, however, some new families that we are teaching and they look really interested in the gospel. 

Saturday I was sick the whole day but Sunday we had 5 investigators at church which was pretty cool. Sadly this is the last week of my training as well as this change. I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen this change but it will exciting to see. Anyway, that's basically it for this week.

Love you guys and hope you have a good week. I’ll tell you what happens next Monday.

Elder Halverson

April 21, 2014 - Travel to Lima for Visa

I traveled all the way to Cusco alone Monday morning, flew out to Lima at 7:00pm, ate McDonalds in the Lima airport, slept in a pretty nice hotel. The next day we sat for like 4 hours for our visas and after went to the mall in Lima central for lunch and ate pizza. After that we flew back to Cusco and I spent the night there with the office workers (who have a really nice apartment). In the morning, I took a bus back to my sector but the bus didn’t stop till we got to Juliaca, which is like an hour drive from my sector so I had to take a bus back to Choquehuanca. It was pretty cool though because in the group I went with to Lima in my mission were all Latinas and 1 Latino and none of them knew English. There was one gringa and she knew less Spanish than I did. So the whole trip I was just talking to them which was pretty fun. I didn’t think I knew that much Spanish until I started talking to them. I still have a lot to learn. But yea I’m officially a Peruvian now. XD It was pretty cool though cuz I also met a guy from the same zone as Elder Meaker in Trujillo but he goes home today from his mission but he was canceling his visa as we were getting ours.

As far as this week goes it was pretty short because we only worked for 3 days. The first day I got back we had an activity where we watched The Testaments with the branch and it was super cool because it was a really spiritual activity and we had some investigators there as well. Also on Thursday I was in the biggest lightning/rainstorm in my life. We were hiding out in a little tienda in the plaza and the lightning was striking in the plaza as well. It was so insanely loud and crazy. You could feel the shockwave of the lightning and I could actually hear the lightning hit the ground before I could hear the thunder. But other than that nothing really happened on Friday or Saturday. 

Sunday Elder Nicholls had just like a one day sickness so we were stuck inside the whole day. We probably won’t move into our pensionista’s house while I’m here though because they need to save up more money before they can start building it again. Plus our transfer is in 2 weeks. Elder Nicholls thinks he'll leave and I’ll stay in Choquehuanca for one more change and then go to Cusco and work in the office, which I think would be fun but we have no idea what’s going to happen. For Easter though everyone eats 12 different plates and then they just get drunk so it was hard to teach people. But yeah we are getting along really well and still working hard. Anyway that’s all for this week. Love you guys.

Elder Halverson 

April 14, 2014

Holy cow, a lot is happening. [In response to telling Chase about all the people going on missions now.] I've only been away for like 4 months right? Seems like it should be longer with everything happening. Everyone is leaving; it’s really weird.

Anyway as far as that family is going, we invited them to church this Sunday. The dad said he couldn't go because he would be working. It was cool cuz I felt the prompting to promise him that if he came to church that his work would be more successful and he would receive help in it. Sadly he didn't come; however, the mother and son came and it was super cool. We met with them after and the mom was asking some really good questions. I don’t think they will be getting baptized this change but I believe they will next change. Elder Nicholls thinks that he will stay one more change to baptize them. I only have a few more weeks of my training so I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I kinda hope I leave Choquehuanca but at the same time I would be a little anxious to because that’s all I know. We kinda think that we will stay a 3 change together in Choquehuanca.

But yea I’m in Cusco right now and traveling to Lima tonight to get my visa. Not too much to report this week; however, we are teaching a crazy lady who thinks she is possessed and she is also a butcher. So yea we won’t teach her without a member present. We also had 26 contacts this week and only 4 news. But yea that’s all that’s been happening here. I can’t think of anything else to write about. Also I’m surprised to hear that you guys still have the cat. I kinda thought you got rid of it like 2 weeks after I left. Anyway it’s cool to hear that you guys are fellowshipping your neighbors. Also I miss the spring trees, and trees in general. I’ll probably end up going to Madre de Dios this change XD then I’ll have all the trees I want in the jungle.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Love you guys,

Elder Halverson

 Picture from his hike a couple of weeks back.  The valley is at 13,500 feet.

 Choquehuanca (the village where Chase is serving) is the one in the back, on the other side of the river.

Not sure where this is exactly. I think it's in the neighboring town.

April 7, 2014

Man this conference was really good. I really like this one line that Elder Uchtdorf said in his talk during the priesthood session where he talked about not falling into our habits and he told a story of him and President Monson were touring and old plane and he instinctively grabbed the throttle and Monson said, "Deiter, don’t even think about it!" It was so funny and we all started cracking up. This conference went too fast but that’s because I think I was paying more attention and taking notes. The Americans all watched in another room in English, though. And we only had the dad from the family we are working with show up for like 10 minutes to see Monson’s talk Sunday morning because he was the van driver for our branch. The Peruvians here don’t really grasp the importance of General Conference. They all showed up for one session and just went home. Also the family we are working with is doing well. They all believe in the Book of Mormon and they are praying about it still. The mom said it would be really beautiful if their whole family could be baptized together but they want to make sure the husband wants to do it too. That’s basically all that’s holding them back though. We found a few new people to teach, one is an old man who speaks mainly Kechawa and so he couldn’t really understand me very much but he accepted our message really well and we are going to give him a Kechawa Book of Mormon.

Also the beginning of this week was Elder Nicholl’s birthday and they have a funny tradition here when it’s your birthday where they smash eggs on your head and smash your face in the cake. We also did divisions this week and I was in charge of my sector for the day and it was pretty fun and I think I did pretty good because we had 3 lessons, 2 with less actives and 1 with an investigator. I also made a few appointments with people. But all’s well here. I hope you guys are doing well and just working hard. 

Love Elder Halverson