Lima, Peru Temple

Lima, Peru Temple

Monday, November 24, 2014

November 24, 2014 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone!

This week was a little weird. On Tuesday we had a Seventy come down (Elder Evans) and talk with all the missionaries from my mission (except the missionaries in Puno because he  also went down there). Anyway, that lasted all day and he focused on teaching us about getting new investigators. It was really good but I was just super tired by the end of it. Also in my room we had elders from Puerto stay there which was funny because for them Cusco was freezing but it’s normally hot for me.

Anyway, other than that on Saturday night the young single adults had an activity for our stake where each ward did a traditional dance which was pretty cool to see. But you’re right, people here don’t even know what Thanksgiving even is. However, we explained it to my pension and she is going to make us a Thanksgiving meal. Also today for our p-day all the American elders are going to have a turkey bowl football game.

But yea this past week we didn’t have a baptism. We will have one this Saturday though. Oh so I want to tell you about this crazy investigator we had to drop. So there is a little drugstore by us where we buy all our toiletries and one day we contacted the lady that works there. She told us that would be fine because she likes to learn new things. Anyway so in our second lesson we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so she can know it’s true. She then told us that she already knows it’s true. That was a little weird so we asked her if she was willing to change the things in her life to follow the true gospel of Christ (baptism). She then told us that she couldn’t change the things she was born with (because she is Catholic). So we told her that she didn’t really know it’s true because if she did she would want to change her life. She then told us again that she knew what we were saying is true but she couldn’t change her "roots" as she called it. So we thought maybe when we teach lesson 2 she will understand it better. So we came back a week later and taught her the plan of salvation and at the end we asked her what kingdom she would want to go to and she told us the Terrestrial because getting to the highest was too hard. Anyway, needless to say, we talked for about an hour trying to explain everything to her but she still didn’t get it. So we told her if she wasn’t willing to try it out, there was no point in teaching her. But yea it was just weird. I didn’t think I would find people who believed the message but then not want to change their lives.

Well other than that we just went to some Inca ruins this morning (finally) called Saqsaywoman (sounds a lot like sexy woman), but it was pretty sweet there. We took some pictures with llamas.

But yea that’s about it for this week; we are about to head out to eat some McDonalds and then play some football. Well, I love you all very much and I hope you all continue to do well back home!

Elder Halverson




Monday, November 17, 2014

November 17, 2014

Hello everyone!

This week was really good for us. Me and my comp had a goal to have the most lessons out of our district this week and we ended up having 23 lessons, which I think is the most I’ve had in my mission for a week. Also it was super cool because both me and my comp got sick this week so if it wasn’t for that we could have had even more.

But yea on Saturday we had another baptism (a 21 year old girl named Neri). Neri is the sister of a girl who was baptized the 2nd week I got to Cusco who is a convert of my comp. It was funny though because when my comp was teaching Neri's sister (Vicky), Neri didn’t want anything to do with the missionaries or with our church. But little by little she started taking lessons from the missionaries (especially after her sisters baptism). But now we have 2 more baptisms planned. One is for the last Saturday in November for a kid who has been assisting the church for a long time after being invited by one of his friends. And the other for the first Saturday of December for an entire family. However, with all our baptisms we are running out of investigators fast and so we need to find some more.

Other than that, weather here is still the same. Sunny and hot or rainy and cold. Other than that, just working hard and all. Well glad to hear your all doing well and I love you all very much!


Elder Halverson  

Monday, November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014 - First baptism and apartment flood

Well this Saturday we had our baptism. The lady has two kids but one isn’t old enough to be baptized, so I baptized the mom and my comp baptized the son. It was a really cool experience doing my first baptism, also in Spanish. So about that, the whole day I was practicing the baptismal phrase and I had it down perfect. However, when we were in the water and I went to say it, I couldn’t remember the phrase because I was so nervous so my comp had to whisper the beginning to me from the side. XD Anyway, it was pretty cool. Other than that, the weather here has been normal Cusco weather, which means it’s always off and on rain. And we have just been preparing our other investigators for baptism.

Also on Saturday, I accidentally flooded our house. So what happened is our house isn’t very big and we have 3 rooms -- a kitchen, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The bedroom is super small and there isn’t enough space for our beds so we sleep in the kitchen. Anyway, so there is a sink in there that we just never use. So on Saturday morning we didn’t have water but the sink was dripping a bit and it was bothering me because it was like 4 in the morning and it woke me up. Anyway, I was trying to turn it off but accidentally turned it on not knowing because there wasn’t much water coming out. Anyway, being tired and frustrated, I just slapped tape on it to stop the dripping. Well, half way through the day the water turned back on while we were proselyting and the sink was on full blast and the tape acted like a finger on a hose and was spraying water everywhere so when we got back to the house there was like an inch of water on the floor, my clothes were soaked, my shoes were soaked, and my bed was soaked because I sleep next to the sink. Anyway, so for the past few days I’ve just had everything hanging up to dry, luckily it didn’t get our desks so all my books are fine. However, I had a very uncomfortable sleep Saturday night because only a sliver of my bed was dry so I had to sleep very skinnily.

Another story I got from this week is the power company was protesting and so they turned all the power off in Cusco for about 30 minutes so it was an interesting site seeing Cusco pitch black.

Anyway, that’s all I got for this week. Hope you are all doing well. And I love you all!

Elder Halverson









(I love that Chase wore his suspenders to perform the baptism!  That's so Chase!)



Monday, November 3, 2014

November 3, 2014 - Happy Halloween

Hello Everyone!

This week was pretty cool. Sadly for Halloween we can’t really do anything but I didn’t want to just pass it by so the night before Halloween me and my comp carved pumpkins. It was funny because it was the first time he had ever carved pumpkins in his life so I had to teach him how to do it. He loved doing it. I have some pretty funny videos of us carving the pumpkins but I don’t know how I can show you guys that. Anyway he now says that he is going to carve pumpkins every year now. Halloween is weird here. People don’t really do much for the holiday. There are a few places where people trick or treat but nobody even carves pumpkins.  More than anything, they celebrate the day of the dead which is the 2 of November (yesterday). Basically everyone goes to the graveyard to give offerings to their dead ancestors or relatives. Then they all party and get drunk. So yesterday we didn’t really have any luck in visiting people. 

Other than that, though, this week has been good. We are just visiting all the people who have dates right now making sure they are all ready for their baptisms. Also, the baptisms we have are going to start this Saturday with a single mother and her son. And then every Saturday after that in November and the first Saturday in December we have other baptisms. Oh, and my comp’s name is Elder Muñoz and he is from Ecuador. He’s really fun and we get along really well. He also is obsessed with music and knows all the hymns by memory on the piano. He also plays the saxophone, guitar, clarinet, and flute. He knows a little of English right now but we are working hard with him to learn as much as he can in this change because we have 3 Americans in our sector and he is the only Latino. Also, yes I can now remember the names of almost all of the people we teach. I can also speak Spanish fluently now and mainly mess up if i try talking too fast. More than anything, I’m just learning new words. But I still have 14 months to improve on what I lack in Spanish.

Other than that everything is going good here. Anyway, glad to hear from you and that all’s well. 

Love,

Elder Halverson
Chase and Elder Muñoz with their Halloween pumpkins and Halloween ties!