Hello family!
Okay, well I’m going to try and keep
this email a little shorter because I’ve been using a lot of time getting a few
things figured out for college.
Anyway, as for this week, everything
has been going pretty good. However, we are finally starting to get rain so it’s
been mostly cloudy this week. Because our water heater is a solar heater, our
showers have been a little colder than normal. As for your initial questions,
my companion is from Trujillo in Peru, he doesn’t even have a year yet but we
work really well together. He’s a good teacher and we joke around a lot. He is
the oldest in his family and so he’s the first of his siblings to go on a
mission. It’s funny though because he’s usually pretty cold here because his
home is pretty hot. But also because all the other elders here are Latinos, I’m
really teaching all of them English but they are learning really fast. But yea I
think I am improving a lot with my Spanish seeing as how I only speak English
when I’m teaching them or we are with the rest of the zone and I get to talk to
the other Americans there. But speaking of English classes, I also started to
teach English classes at the chapel for everyone. This last week there were
just a bunch of girls that went which was a little awkward but hopefully we can
grow the assistance a little more as we continue to do it and also have some
guys come. XD
As for the other activities of the
ward, they are not exactly the same because of the size of the ward and the
working circumstances of the leaders and schooling circumstances for the youth,
but they still hold activities. It’s not the same kind of activities that we
have like weekly mutual but at least we are doing them. I’ve been in a lot of
other places where rarely the ward holds activities. Also as for our lessons in
Quechua, we don’t really talk in Quechua very much. We don’t really have too
many opportunities to use it and so the missionaries here don’t focus very much
in learning it. We mainly just learn phrases. Normally, if we need to teach
someone in Quechua, we just take someone along who can translate for us.
As for everyone we are teaching
right now, it’s all going great. We had some good lessons with Luz Marina and
her husband Walter and we plan to put a date with them for their marriage. We
are also progressing with her mom who came with her this week to church as well
as her little sister. As far as the Yuca family, the dad comes home this week
and we plan to have his baptismal interview for his baptism next month. We are
also teaching a lot of youth who really want to get baptized but because of their
parents work, it makes it a little more difficult. But all’s good and tranquil
over here. I am a little concerned though. This next week we have changes and I
have a feeling that the president is going to put me somewhere else to finish
my mission which I have seen him do with a lot of other missionaries their last
change. I would really prefer to have my last change here in Espinar though
because I really like this sector.
Hey but I’m glad to hear that
everything is going well back home and that you’re having fun with your new
hobby, and the cat. Who by the way I’m super excited to get to know. But
perhaps dad understands a little better now why I love art so much. I just love
being able to make things with my own hands.
But yea as for your questions
something new I learned about myself this week is my determination. Right now
in the end part of my mission I’m starting to feel a little tired and worn down
yet even though I feel like that we are still working really hard here and that’s
how I hope I will be able to finish off. My testimony has been strengthened
this week a lot in family history. Yesterday we had a multi stake
conference/broadcast for Peru and Bolivia and they talked a lot about temples
and families and stuff. But it made me think of my patriarchal blessing that
says in a part the work for the dead is just as important as the work for the
living and that it will be included in my callings. It just makes me grateful
that in our family we know of our heritage and we have done a lot of work for
our ancestors. In contrast I see and teach a lot of people here who many times don’t
even know their own grandparents. But the funniest thing that has happened this
week wasn’t really anything in particular but we have just been joking around
like crazy in our district. There is an elder here from Lima and he is really
short and so we always make fun of him for that. (I got to do it while I can
because when I get home I won’t be able to do that to anyone). But one time we
were talking about Ratatui (the Disney movie with the cooking mouse. I don’t
know how to spell it) while he was helping cook and we were referring to how
they cook but he thought we were comparing him to the mouse and his size. Plus
he was standing on a stool as he cooked so that made it all the funnier.
But yea that’s all I got for this
week, I love you all very much and I look forward to seeing you here pretty
soon.
Elder Halverson
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