March 16, 2015

This week has been pretty good. Once again we don’t have very many investigators to teach so we are trying to find some new people to teach. However, we did have a ton of recent convert lessons this week. I think more than anything, I never talked about them [regarding the people who were baptized last week] because they weren’t really progressing too much until just at the end of last month. They had been taking the missionary discussions for about a year and we had been teaching them basically since I got here. However, we had talked a lot with them about baptism and its blessings and we had finally got them to commit to baptism. More than anything, the rest of the family was ready but they were just waiting on the dad to make the commitment. But no, we are still working with the couple that needs to get married.

As for the tours, I’m not sure this is from the church or if it’s just run by members for members (mainly for missionaries ending or returning), but there is a company of tours here in Peru called Moroni Tours so I’m not sure if you have heard about that.

Well, it was pretty funny, Aaron had told me that he was going to propose to her like a week before they went to Washington and it was so hard not to say anything. But I’m glad that they are engaged now and that I’m going to be home for their wedding. They'll have to visit again when I’m home so I can also get to know her too. So far, I’ve only talked on Skype with her once when I called on Christmas.

I can’t remember the hardest question I’ve been asked in the mission. I remember there were a lot of hard questions that I got when I first started 1, because I didn’t know the language and 2, because my understanding of the gospel was very little. However, now I feel like I can answer most of the questions people have for me unless they start asking about deep doctrine. 

Everything else here has been going good. I got the money you sent by the way, thanks for sending that. Also did you send the package for me yet? Well, that’s all I got for today.  Glad to hear from you guys and to hear that all is going well. I love you all and until next week!

Elder Halverson

March 9, 2015

As for this week, it was pretty sweet. We had our baptism last Saturday; however, I forgot to bring my camera and the elder who has the pictures is not here at the moment so I’ll have to show them to you guys next week. But it was super awesome! We baptized a family of 4 and they seem really happy now because they have been wanting to get baptized for quite a while. As for our other investigators, we are still working with them but nothing new to report yet. However, we did get 2 new investigators from references so we'll see where that goes. Anyway that’s all I really have to report on.

For my p-day, we went to these one ruins which I have no idea what they are called and we basically just took pictures the whole time.

Me and my companion have developed a habit of singing Disney songs in the street but it’s pretty darn fun.  Also, I actually heard that they only took one companionship out of Choquehuanca because I guess it’s finally starting to progress a little so there are at least 2 missionaries there. However, the other little towns where they took out all the Elders will suffer probably until we can get more missionaries to re-open them.

Anyway that’s all for me this week. Just living it up in Cusco! Well I love you all and will talk to you next week.

Elder Halverson

P.S. I need to take the time to upload all my pictures to the Costco thing because I almost lost my camera today on the bus ride back to Cusco which scared me really bad.  Also today we had some fun games of Twister at a member’s house.

Visiting some ruins for p-day today:

 "Titanic" pose

While emailing today

March 2, 2015

Hello everyone.

So the funny thing is about the new zones is that we are actually getting less missionaries right now and so the president is trying to focus a lot of the missionaries in Cusco. So also with that he has closed a lot of sectors in the little towns like Choquehuanca and stuff. Actually, he has closed 2 zones, one being Ayaviri (which was my first zone), and the other being Juli. Anyway, as for this last week, we didn’t have the best of luck finding people but on the bright side we have a baptism planned for a family I have been teaching since basically when I got here so that’s pretty exciting.

As for Cusco, we have had nice weather as long as you like rain and clouds. XD It’s actually funny, a lot of sisters gain weight here in Cusco but as for the Elders, it’s not the same story. I’m trying to eat as much as I can but I just get filled and then burn it off in like an hour. 

Yesterday we had a training for 3 combined stakes after church with Elder Ueda (I think his name is) and he is also from the 70. It was pretty sweet to hear from him because he is also Peruvian. For most of the part he talked about member retention. It was nice because he was really trying to motivate the members into helping out the missionaries, especially the ward council. But yea other than that I don’t really have much more to report on. I did wash a cat Saturday morning, though, in my breakfast pensionista’s house. Kinda ironic because I think the cat actually likes me more now. Probably because I got out all of its loose hair. But yea it just kinda reminded me of a miniature version of washing Cusco.

Well I hope you all have a great week and I’ll talk to you later. Also sorry I don’t have any pictures for this week.

Elder Halverson

February 23, 2015

Hello,

So first off as far as changes, no one in my sector has a change. However, something interesting that’s happened is that my sector, as well as another sector that’s in Cusco (Santiago), are now part of a new zone called something Inca. Also, there is a sector that was in the Valle Sagrado zone that is also part of my zone, so that should be pretty interesting. Also, for our house, the extra room is what me and my comp use as our study room. Also, because our room is smaller than the other elders’ room, that is also where our closet is. The other 2 elders just have their desks in our living room.

Pretty cool to see the new work out room. Hopefully I can use it too when I get home. It’s basically impossible for me to gain weight here. I’m not taking in enough protein or carbohydrates no matter how much I eat. I weigh right now 53 kilograms which is around 118 pounds or something. I’m not exactly sure. I guess rice and potatoes just don’t do it for me. But I’m trying to buy more snacks to retain my weight.

Anyway, as for our work, it’s been going pretty well. Nothing much has really changed so far. More than anything, like I said before, there is going to be a lot of stuff happening in March with some families getting baptized. But other than that, nothing has really changed. I finally also found a place where I can make a good suit for about 180 soles so I’m gonna try doing that this change (because I never really did it).

Well, sorry I didn’t have much to say for this week so hopefully next week will be a little more exciting. But until then I hope you all have a good week. Love you all.

Elder Halverson

February 16, 2015

Hello!

Well we had a pretty good week. Also first off my comp branches off from Mark Elbert Hamblin. I’m not exactly sure whether or not I’ll get a change. At times I feel like yes and others I feel like no. However this is our last week of the change so we'll be finding out next Monday. As far as our goal of contacting 20 families we knocked it out of the park. We ended this week with 30 contacts. As a zone we had a goal of 280 families contacted in a week and ended with over 310 contacted. Now we just have to follow up with everyone that gave us their number or address. As far as our family history lessons are we have mainly been focusing with members and currently we are working with 2 families. So hopefully we will be able to keep them going on it and doing it.

Ok yea so this is probably gonna sound super nerdy but I’m pretty sure we are talking about the same video game character. So basically Ahri is from a game called League of Legends which one of my friends got me into. There are over 150 characters to use in the game so I asked him if he could recommend one for me. Knowing me he recommended the only Fox character in the game who I now basically use in almost all the matches I play. But yea just something kinda funny about that. (I also use a robot/unicorn/centaur/grim reaper character named Hecarim and a deep sea diver zombie/monster guy named Nautilus.) Ok, sorry, I just wanted to nerd out for a second because I don’t get to do it enough with the people here. Also, Aaron will probably understand that more.

As for the pie we wanted to have a dessert/family night with some members and I wanted to make an apple pie but ended up making chocolate cookies instead because I didn’t have the recipe. Also I noticed when you cook at 12,000 feet you have to change a few things because there isn’t as much air here. But as far as Cusco goes at least it’s a little more modern and so people here have ovens; however, they are basically all gas ovens.

As for everything else, it’s all going good. Nothing really new to report on with my investigators. More than anything, we are just waiting for Josimara and Anthony to get married. Also this week was Carnival here in Peru so we spent a lot of time throwing and getting hit by water balloons and foam so that was pretty fun. I also finally got pictures of my house to show you if the computer I’m using can load them. Well that’s all for me this week. I also want to see the gym when that’s done. But I hope you guys have a good week and I love you all.

Elder Halverson

Chase's apartment in Cusco:

February 9, 2015

Well everything has been well this week for me and my comp. Ok, just something a little crazy that I figured out. Both me and my companion are descendants of Jacob Vernon Hamblin Jr. which means you and his mom are even closer related than we are. Just something that was pretty crazy. He also says that his girlfriend is also a relative of him as well.

Anyway this week everything has been a lot more calm now that we are all moved in and everything so we have just been working hard. As far as Josimara and Anthony are concerned, they really do want to get married and not to just get baptized. The thing is that if I have a change in 2 weeks then I won’t be here for their wedding or baptism... :/ They want to get married in March but still haven’t found a good date though. Anyway they have still been receiving the lessons really well and came to church yesterday so things are still awesome with them. This next week are zone has a goal that every companionship contacts 20 families (complete families) for the week. So hopefully by doing that we can find some more people to teach. Other than that we have also been focusing on family history with our recent converts. It’s easier to do it now because there is a elderly couple who are specifically here to help people with their family history so that’s been pretty fun.

Anyway today for p-day we are having a water fight with the 2 zones of Cusco so that will be pretty crazy. I’m a little worried though because for the first part of the day it’s been a little chilly and cloudy so I hope it will heat up a little later so we don’t just freeze are butts off the whole day. Also as far as mud goes, we may not have rain that in itself is dirty, but every time it rains here (basically every day) it brings a ton of mud down from the mountains and get everything super dirty and muddy. (It also doesn’t help that they make their houses out of mud bricks...) But yea, Cusco kinda reminds me of Peru’s version of Seattle. Just not on the coast and about 12,000 feet higher. (The muddy rain comment was in reference to the muddy rain we received here last week that I told him about.)

(In reference to Kendall's new cat, whose name is Ahri) Here is a funny thing that is just kinda random when I read the name Ahri. Ahri is also the name of one of my favorite characters of a video game that I used to play as back home. 

Other than that everything here is going good. These past few weeks just feel like they keep going faster and faster. But I’m glad you are all doing well and I love you all. Well until next week.

Elder Halverson

February 2, 2015

Well, we are in our new house, finally. And basically that was what we have been doing this whole last week was cleaning the new and old houses and then moving all of our stuff so I’m afraid I don’t have much to report on as for lessons. Also we have not been able to contact William since last Sunday so I’m not sure what’s gonna happen with him. All I can say about that is we have a couple (Josimara and Anthony) who live with the family that owns the first house we wanted to move into that are also progressing really well. We are just trying to get them married so we can put a baptismal date with them. There is also another guy who we visit named Enrique who had an accident a few years back and has trouble talking and can’t walk very well. Anyway he has also been progressing very well and we just have to go 30 minutes early to his house so we can take him in his wheelchair to the church meetings. That’s probably the biggest news for our investigators.

But yea like I said this week has been pretty hectic moving houses. Most of the stuff in our house we had to just carry to the new house so it took us all day to do. But now we got (almost) everything done so we can relax a bit now. I haven’t taken any picture yet of our new house because it’s still a mess but I’ll be sure to get some for the next week. However it has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, kitchen, and a living room so it’s pretty darn roomy for only 4 elders. Also I’m sad to hear that the Seahawks lost right at the end of the game. I heard that it was a pretty exciting game though regardless that we lost. Today for P-day all the Americans are going to play football again like that time we did for Thanksgiving. 

But I’m glad to hear all is well with you guys at home. And as for spiders, they are different here in Peru. Somehow they can just keep growing and can get really big without being a tarantula so I think it’s okay for me to be scared of them. As for the guinea pig I have eaten it a few times but I’m not a big fan of it. It’s too hard to eat and the meats not that good. Also I feel like I’m eating a rat when I eat it. Anyway that’s all I got for this week. And can you also email me your pie crust recipe? I’m gonna see if I can make a pie here. Well I love you guys all and hope your all doing well. Until next week.

Elder Halverson