July 21, 2014

Hello family,

I was able to get some fruit, I’m mainly just eating bananas and oranges; however, we also ate a pineapple at lunch. They have a ton of fruit in the markets so it wasn't a problem to find some. Also, they have a lot of fruit I've never even heard of.

This last week was a little crazy because there was a lot going on. First off, it was a little hard to do work because there was a gigantic market that filled all the streets in Pucara. They actually had to make a detour road for cars to go all the way around the city. Also, tomorrow there is going to be a party in the plaza in Pucara. We also had a multi-zone conference with the president in Tinajani. It was pretty fun. Each pair of zone leaders from the 2 zones had to come up with a game. One was we were separated into 2 teams and we had to figure out how to cross a river without touching the water before the other team. It took a lot of rocks. Also, the president and his wife were on my team so that was pretty funny especially because the president’s wife ended up falling into the river.

The second activity was we had to search a valley that had a flag for every companionship hidden. So whichever team found all their flags first won. All we had to help was a little map with a circle in the area that your flag was hidden. All in all it was a really fun activity.

We also got our first rain fall for 4 months and a little bit of snow today. It has been cold though because it’s been really cloudy and windy. I also went to my first Peruvian funeral this week. The guy was a member but he was around 90 years old and couldn’t even leave his bed so it was his time. It was a little weird though because one of the sisters wanted us to sing hymns in front of everyone. Lastly, on Saturday, we did invasions in my district which, if you don’t know what those are, it’s when all the missionaries in your zone come and contact everywhere for references. So everyone figured out how difficult this place really is. Out of everyone, we only had one actual lesson. Everyone else just didn’t want to talk or said come back later. But, it was still a cool experience.

This is now my comp’s last week here. He is in Lima now to get his visa canceled and is coming back on Wednesday only to leave again on Sunday. Anyway, so right now I’m staying with the elders in Pucara. Today for p-day we had it as a zone and so we climbed the mountain again, just this time everything is yellow instead of green. It’s pretty crazy to compare my pictures from the both times I’ve gone up there. Afterwards, we just played soccer with some guys.

Changes are next week so we will see if I get a change and leave with my comp but who knows what will happen. Anyway, that’s about it for me.  Until next week.

I love you all very much!

Elder Halverson